Core Bike 2013 – Part 1
Core Bike Show is one of our favourites. Invite only for the industry we get the chance to speak with distributors, designer and manufacturers about all the latest gadgetry for the coming year and have a closer look first hand at the products.
Our first stop was at the Silverfish room to check out some products we are pretty excited about. To start with, it’s the Evil Undead downhill bike, a full carbon downhill frame with some nice attention to detail.
Available now this frame retails at £2499 with a fox Kashima shock and features flip chip geometry, adjustable headtube angle and two sets of graphics. It’s as full loaded as a downhill frame can be, follow this link for more details on the spec.
Following the latest carbon bike porn, forks were next on the cards. Silverfish have recently announced that they will be distributing the new suspension brand, DVO. We caught up with the designers who have an immense knowledge base in suspension to find out a few facts on these new forks.
The product we are looking at is a 90% finished prototype, so there are a few bits that don’t look quite as clean as they will for production. The DVO Emerald fork runs on an open bath to help focus on the longevity of the fork, these should go on for ages without needing a service. That said, DVO have designed this fork on being easy to service in your garage without having to have extensive knowledge
on forks.
The fork is filled with interested engineering innovations. Notice there are no pinch bolts, instead DVO use a conical sleeve to tighten the crowns to the stantions. This part is still in testing though, pinch bolts will be seen on the mk1 production fork for now.
This fork looks very different to other on the market down to it guards. The fork is upside down (USD) with fork guards that are joined together to increase stiffness and reduce flex which can be a big downfall amongst most USD forks. This is named the Carbon Torsion Arch (CTA) and also incorporates a mud guard. The dropouts are also super wide to gain even more stiffness through he axle, in all we end up with the plushness and bump sensitivity you get from a USD fork with the stiffness of a standard fork, the best of both worlds.
Air sprung with high and low speed compression and rebound, 6.7lbs (3000gs), 1 1/8th or tapered and with the options of 26”, 650b and 29” ( 29” still in development) this is a fork that should be performing at the top of its game.
Expect to see the forks available in April, pricing will be up there around Boxxer World Cup money and a shock called the Jade will follow about 2 months after. A single crown is also in development.
Listen to music when you ride? Being able to hear what is going on around you as well as your music is pretty high up the list when riding, be it MTB or on your commute. Aftershokz produce a set of headphones aimed at making sport safer. Rather than sticking plugs in your ears these phones power music via bone conduction technology allowing you to still hear other sounds. We will let you know how we get on with them soon.
We recently had a first look at the Dfender guard by POWA. We have been blown away at just how good this guard is so far in testing. The guard now also features a bracket you can take off without tools and some sleeker looking graphics.
The Cane Creak Double Barrel shock is without a doubt one of the best out there, but with so many adjustments you might feel you need a degree in it just to set it up. Cane Creak have acknowledged this and now supply very easy set-up advice and tunes for different bikes on their website, making it all easy. There is also a neat little tuning field guide book helping you set it up away from home without having to remember how many clicks and turns you need to do.
Check back soon on Ride.io for loads more new product info from the Core Bike Show.