In-house machining is their edge they say. Plus they seem intense about innovation and creativity. So instead of cramming right before Interbike, Intense has been creating bike after bike for the past few months.

Their responding to the market and using mtbr.com in the best possible way. They participate in the forums, communicate with their users and research exactly what the market needs.

Intense 5.5 29er - 5 inches of travel with the Manitou Minute 120 fork

Intense 5.5 FR -ith added FRO features, such as the VPP Machined Box link, Machined Shock Link Bolts, Integrated Headset and lighter weight Easton EA-6X tubeset, this bike still has 5.5 inches of travel and weighs in at a scant 6lbs!

Met with Herb and Vivian of Versus Cycles at their booth at Otter this year. They have a brand new DJ/Street hardtail frame called the “Jab”.

And they know how to market it, too! Here are shots of the bike, and Grace. Grace road the bike around Sea Otter, showing it off to those who were interested.

Enjoy the photos. New bike looks Hot, Herb! And Grace ain’t bad either.

Features of the Versus Jab:

1. Optimized Dirt Jump Geometry

2. Reynolds 753 Cro-Mo Tubing with hydroformed top tube

3. Short Chainstay, adjustable down to 15.25 inches

4. Stiff chainstay yoke

5. Cam adjusted, tool-less horizontal dropouts

6. Low rear end

7. Internal headset

8. Removable Gyrotabs

9. Integrated seat post clamp

10. Comes in 3 colors : Blood Red, Pearl White, Blue

11. Rear Derailleur compatible

12. ISCG-O5 compatible.

 

Bonus photos:

 

George Stephenson III surprised everyone at Sea Otter with his impressive and surprising sock choice. He had, by far, the fastest socks on the downhill course. Cedric Gracia, who crashed in the pro dual slalom finals, was heard after the ill-fated run, cursing his socks. And SRAM is rumored to have new Black Box socks that weren't quite ready for Sea Otter. They should start showing up on top racers in events later this year. Michael Foley, the Sock Guy, told Mtbr that sock choice is an often overlooked race detail that can make or break the best. Michael said, "No one thinks about socks, but they provide part of the all-important connection to the pedals. A fast sock can deliver the fractions of a second it takes to win a race." Fast socks - you read it here first!

Who says Sea Otter is all about mud and racing? Wherever these guys go it's a party. Cameron Zinc and a lovely, young admirer. When you can throw down like Cedric does, you can't waste precious arm energy hoisting brews. You have an assitant do it for you.

Most of the time I spend at Sea Otter is working - taking pictures, hiking to photo locations, or on the computer in the media center. But I always make sure to reserve some time for at least a short ride. It breaks up the event for me and allows me to relax a little and enjoy Laguna Seca. And it is a beautiful venue. There’s a huge variety of terrain and although most of the riding is fire road, there is some excellent singletrack, as you can see here.

I took a ride on Friday evening with Steve, from Bionicon and Alan, the Bike magazine Web site manager,. It was crystal clear and the light was wonderful for photos. When they started to drop me, I pulled out the camera and told them we needed to go back for photos (ancient photographer’s trick :D). Then I made them go back and forth on a few of the especially delicious sections of singletrack.

Both of these photos were taken with a Canon PowerShot A640 compact digital camera. I shot them using the camera’s basic auto exposure settings, with some adjustment in Photoshop. If you want to learn some tricks for taking better pictures with your digital camera, read my Digital Camera Tips and Techniques article. There’s a whole page of specific action photo techniques with mountain bike photo samples. Anyone can learn the basic rules and take pictures like these

Luna team member, Georgia Gould, at the beginning of the pro women’s XC race, which she won by over four minutes.

Below, Kiara Bisaro and Katerina Nash battle it out on the second lap. They would finish in second and third place, respectively, in these same positions.

More pro women’s XC race photos (click to enlarge):

Following the success of the RIP 9 i s the Jet 9 with 3 inches of travel. 3 inches on a 29er is really like 4 inches… or something like that. So they made this bike that is faster, more flickable and more appropriate for racing.

The frame itself weighs 5.5 lbs. It uses the same type of ’stable platform’ design that the Rip 9 uses. Travel should be very usable and this should be a great climbing , epic ride type of bike.

Availabilty is end of summer and price is around $1595

Jeremiah Bishop pulls the front of the pack up to the top of the first big climb, at the start of the first of two 20-mile laps. Looking like they’re out for a Sunday ride (they are), Geoff Kabush, leads on the second lap and took the win in the pro men’s XC race, beating Jean Christophe Peraud of the Orbea team by only one-tenth of a second.

More pro men’s cross country photos. Click the thumbnails to see larger photos:

     

     

Bionicon makes all mountain bikes with unique, patented suspension system that allows for 5 degrees of on-the-fly geometry adjustment. There’s nothing else like it. Pictured above is the 6 and 6 Bionicon Edison. I’ve been riding a Bionicon Golden Willow for about 6 months now and absolutely love it.

Read my Bionicon Golden Willow Review >>

Below, Paul Ferguson, the boss at Bionicon USA, services the Double-Agent six-inch dual crown air fork on the Golden Willow I’ve been abusing.

Ok, as the manager of Roadbikereview.com I noticed last year there was a tornado of activity surrounding a new member named ‘Roubaixgirl’. It started when someone posted a photo from Florida of a Cat 3 racer named Liz. There was a Myspace page involved and some Belgians and so on and so forth.

Anyway, ‘Roubaixgirl’ started posting in the Podium Girls forum of roadbikereview and all hell broke loose. She seemed like she could ride, she could mix it up with the boys, she was smart, warm friendly, walks on water, etc. etc.

So my hawt sistah, Shannon from Tifosi brought Liz to the mtbr.com booth and that’s as far as I can remember.

I won’t say anymore since I’m a married spud. But she seems like the real deal. I’ll call her the Angelina Jolie of cycling. She’s got all kinds of poetry tattoed on her body. But with current FCC laws, we can only show you some of them.

 

This season she will be racing for Vanderkitten. Road and cross bikes she says. Then she will go off to Belgium.