The Path Bike Shop headed out to Interbike last week (Sunday through Friday) and managed to keep a skeleton crew in Tustin to keep the shop open (kudos to those who stayed in town). A little birdie gave me the scoop on the Path’s trip so here’s my summary of what that little birdie told me.
There have been enough writeups and spy photos so this recap will focus on the shop experience and maybe some insight to a couple of new products.
Sam Hill was at the show and asked to take a couple pics with some local celebs…
The shop rolled into the accommodations late Sunday night. Someone managed to find a place across the street from the Rio called the “Cay Club,” yeah, yeah, yeah, the mind reels with sarcastic comments. It was actually a killer place to stay. The units were condos with washers & dryers, full kitchens, leather furniture, flat panel TV’s in every room, and very clean.
Monday morning the dirt demo opened up and the setup was much better than in years past. The parking lot wasn’t 10-miles from the vendors! This year, with so much focus on DH racing, even Cid managed to get out on an Ironhorse Sunday (no changes from last year’s geometry) and showcase his DH skills. Sara abandoned her Nomad and tried a plethora of DH bikes as well: Turner DHR (radically revamped frame design), Ironhorse Sunday, and Specialized Demo 8 (7?).
Teague, Dave, Tani, and others tried out several DH / Freeride bikes as well: Rocky Mountain Flatline, Intense Socom (Leigh Donovan’s personal race bike), Specialized Demo 7, and Knolly Delirium-T.
Mondo was actually spotted on a mountain bike...
Some pics from the shuttle experience on the DH bikes
Monday afternoon and Tuesday morning were trail rides (Cid spent more time on Monday trying out many different trail bikes). The Leviathan Milk Money (Singlespeed 29er full suspension bike w/ concentric BB similar to the Kona “A”) was a hit with both him and Brian Blair. Blair also tried out the Behomoth (6-inch travel 29er w/ prototype WTB tires). Other bikes that were tried out were the new Specialized Stumpy, Niner RIP9, Lenz Leviathan, Knolly Endorphin, AND perhaps one of the cooler things at the dirt demo, the Pivot Mach-5.
Here are some pics from the trail rides (Cid is sportin’ some Muscle Milk on the Milk Money)
Pivot Cycles was started by the founder of Titus bikes and licenses the DW-Link. According to Pivot, the uninterrupted seat-tube prohibits Weagle’s true and full vision for the DW suspension from being fully implemented. Pivot’s interrupted seat-tube allows the lower pivot to be moved a couple of inches forward therefore creating a slightly more rearward initial wheel path (supposedly, this is part of Weagle’s true vision). A couple of other cool things about the Pivot bikes is a 92 mm wide BB that allows the external BB bearings to be pressed directly into the frame and a bolt on front derailleur, these things supposedly provide crisper shifting and a stiffer BB assembly. What does it all mean? According to everyone who test rode these bikes, they ride great, track super well, and pedal like a hardtail. There are two bikes in the lineup: Mach-4 and Mach-5. The Mach-5 has 5.4 inches of travel and a medium supposedly weighs in at around 6 pounds with a 68-degree head angle. The upper linkage is carbon fiber, the machined parts are made here in the US and the welding done overseas. Looks like these bikes could be MKIII / Stumpy / Epiphany killers.
Some other cool stuff: King is rolling out the 1.5-inch headsets in October (that’s what they said). This looks to add to the momentum of the 1.5-inch revival, with King supporting it, that’s another reputable company supporting the 1.5 standard, Intense is updating the M3 to the M6 (64.5 HA, 13.75BB, lower weight…sounds like a VPP attempt at the Sunday), Manipoo is reviving the Dorado, and Seven is trying out the integrated headset on their carbon road bikes.
But this one gets the BEST IN SHOW award…
