By Mazzman - February 5, 2010 - 17:37
By Vernon Felton
Sometime ago, I took possession of Kona’s cross-country, full-suspension 29er, the Hei Hei 2-9. Since then, I’ve ridden the bike through every season and in every possible condition. For 2010, the evolution of this model gets a bit more interesting, but we’ll tackle that later in this review. For now, a long-term review of the existing bike is in order.
Beyond the occasional 3- or 4-month stint aboard a test bike, I haven’t spent too much time riding 29ers. But there are some constantly rolling, root-strewn, low-lying trails in my neck of the woods and on these trails many longer-travel bikes tend to wallow about annoyingly. Pat White, product manager at Kona, suggested the Hei Hei 2-9 as a solution.
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Tags: 29er, Bellingham, bike review, Cycling, Hei Hei, Kona, Kona Hei Hei 2-9, mountain bike, mountain bikes, Mountain biking, Pat White, Vernon Felton, Washington
By LaBabarbarian - February 5, 2010 - 15:24

Cane Creek is making the convoluted world of headset standards a lot less overwhelming. The company recently announced the debut of their new online Headset Fit Finder—headsetfitfinder.com. The site is designed to simplify the process of finding the correct headset size combinations for a particular bike. With over twenty different tapered and conversion headset configurations out there, compounded by the confusion of integrated vs. semi-integrated standards, the Headset Fit Finder should prove useful for even the average gearhead.
To use the fit finder, simply enter a bike’s make, model and year. The database will either show the bike’s headset options immediately, or bring the user through the steps to find a fit for your particular frame/fork configuration.
Trek, Specialized, KHS, Niner, LaPierre and Salsa have already contributed years of headset data to the database, and on average over one-hundred bikes are added each day.
Tags: 1 1/8, 1.5, Cane Creek, fit finder, Headset, headsetfitfinder, integrated, KHS, Lapierre, niner, Salsa, semi-integrated, specialized, tapered, trek
By thelowlyintern - February 4, 2010 - 14:40
By Lydia Tanner
The first annual Santa Cruz Mountain Bike Festival, to be held on February 27 28, will showcase some of the sport’s top female riders with events including the California premiere of Awesome Land: Women of Dirt—the much-anticipated new film featuring riders such as Lisa Myklak, Emily Johnston, Tammy Donahugh and Kathy Pruitt.
Mountain Bikers of Santa Cruz (MBOSC) will hold the event in conjunction with sponsors including Fox Racing Shox, Black Market Racing, Gamut USA, Lights and Motion, Barry Swenson Builder, and Trailhead Cyclery, as well as a number of local bike shops including Bike Station Aptos and The Bicycle Trip.
The festival will also include an open group ride through the Soquel Demonstration Forest and a Demo Day at Bike Station Aptos on February 27, followed by a Jump Jam on February 28 with the pro riders featured in the film. Watching these girls will undoubtedly take your manly ego down a notch—and they’re just the beginning.
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Tags: awesome land: women of dirt, Emily Johnston, Kathy Pruitt, Lisa Myklak, Lydia Tanner, MBOSC, Santa Cruz, Santa Cruz Mountain bike festival, tammy donahugh, womens riders
By LaBabarbarian - February 2, 2010 - 14:54

Rider: Ryan Berrecloth
Ryan Berrecloth Gets Spanked
Ryan Berrecloth has re-signed with Spank Bikes on an expanded sponsorship package. This year Berrecloth will be sporting the Tweet Tweet Dirtjump frame, Spank’s 2010 EVO line of rims, including Spike EVO 35AL DH Rims, Tweet Tweet EVO 30AL DJ Rims, and Subrosa EVO All Mountain Rims, as well as rocking the complete line of Spank saddles, including the Subrosa, Tweet Tweet, and Starblast. Berrecloth is also sponsored by Knolly bikes, which provides the rider with full-suspension frames.
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Tags: Bike Race, bontranger, dean racing development, DH, DRD, Dylan Dean, lezyne, Ryan Berrecloth, spank, spank bikes, tomac, trek, XC
By LaBabarbarian - February 1, 2010 - 15:22
Source: Rasoulution

Rider: Amir Kabbani, Photo: Ale Di Lullo
More than 2,000 spectators made their way up the ski slopes in Leogang, Austria, to watch the world’s best riders shred massive snow features. January 29 marked the fifth annual White Style winter slopestyle competition. The entire course was made of snow and designed by Kona Clump team rider Grant “Chopper” Fielder.
When all was said and done, Sam Pilgrim walked away with the title, earning him 1,800 euros. “I will spend all the money for sweets, for real,” Pilgrim joked. “Crashing on snow is not that funny, because it’s much harder than you might think. It took me a bit to cope with it when I competed the first time at the White Style, but man, it was fun this year and Chopper did a really great job, big respect,” he added.
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Tags: Bike, cam mccaul, Darren Berrecloth, Jamie Goldman, sam Pilgrim, Sam Reynolds, slope, slopestyle, snow, snow bike, style