2015 Sea Otter tech roundup – Part 1
Originally posted on April 22, 2015 at 17:14 pmPolygon
A new entry to the U.S. market, Polygon expands its line up with a few more bikes.
The Syncline 9 is a 27.5 hardtail race bike. The full carbon frame, XTR wheels and Di2 drivetrain and Fox Factory 32 fork make this a top-level racer right out of the box. $4,200 direct to consumer price.
The Collosus N9 XTR is a new high end build Polygon’s carbon enduro frame. A Fox Factory 36, E13 wheels and a Reverb dropper should make this a killer ride at $6,000.
Finally a new cyclocross race bike rounds out this high end trio of race bikes. The Bend CX has an Ultegra Di2 drivetrain, carbon cockpit and a even tubular wheels and tires. $3,500.
American Classic
American Classic is well known for quickly adapting to changing standards. New Centerlock hubs will be available for Boost and standard axles, as well as the new road thru-axles coming down the pike.
This new hubs is for the proprietary RockShox RS1 Maxle Ultimate standard with oversize axle and axle ends.
And finally a selection of the new fat bike hubs for yet that other set of new standards.
Spot Brand
We happened to run into Andrew Lumpkin, Spot Brands CEO. He was wandering about with this prototype. Dubbed the Living Link, it looks much like a mini-link design with the lower rear pivot replaced by a titanium flex plate.
We got to watch a pretty cool video the showed the flex plate swing through the travel, relaxed at the start of the stroke, bending a tiny bit, and returning to relaxed at the end of the stroke.
Obviously the claim is this new system will pedal well, while soaking up the bumps, and with a smart guy like Wayne Lumpkin (who founded Avid before selling it to SRAM) behind the design we are pretty intrigued.
Expect this to be a ready for sale around this time in 2016, with at least two travel lengths to choose from. Between this and Speedgoat’s new design, it’s good to see suspension design be pushed further.
EVOC
Evoc wasn’t really showing off anything new, but the big news is ready availability of all packs and bike cases, something that was an issue in the U.S. until recently.
This is the Trail Builder pack, which is for trail building (duh). Tool lash points, chainsaw sleeve, nail pouch, etc, this pack looked sturdy and ready to years of action.
The new Pro bike travel case may be the most well-thought out travel case on the market. With separate pockets for each wheel, fork and bottom bracket mounts and pad and strap system to protect and secure the frame and handlebars, the Evoc bag will keep the world travel’s bike safe and secure. All this for a $590, an investment that could pay for itself the first time your bike falls off a conveyor belt on the way to your next vacation.
This is a line up of the many shapes, sizes, and colors of Evoc hydration packs. There should be something for just about anyone, from Enduro racers in need of a built in CE back protector, to groms looking for my first hydration pack.
Keep reading
Move on to Part 2 of our coverage from Sea Otter 2015.