For years, the Park Tool PRS-3 has been the repair stand/clamp combo of choice for bike shops and serious at-home grease monkeys alike, but Foes is angling to change all that with its new Power Clamp stand. What sets the Power Clamp apart from any stand you’ve used before is the pneumatically driven, self adjusting clamp. The idea is that you simply lift the bike up with both hands, tap the foot pedal, and voila!, your bike is securely clamped in place. Tap the pedal again for a similarly dramatic release. The stand also is available with an optional race base, with a place for a CO2 canister to drive the mechanism in place of the otherwise-necessary compressor.

Sure, this stand seems to be simplifying a process which is not particularly challenging to begin with. And sure, this goal is achieved through adding much complexity to an otherwise simple and reliable part, and will cost you a pretty penny ($995 USD worth of those pennies, to be exact). But despite these drawbacks, the Power Clamp is undeniably the coolest work stand out there, and for that reason alone it deserves a spot in your dream garage.

If you’ve been involved in the mountain bike scene for very long, you are probably aware that at any given time the industry is rife with technical standards vying for a spot on your next bike. ISCG chainguide tabs, OnePointFive steer tubes, UST rims and tires, post mount brakes, and ISIS bottom brackets are only the tip of the ‘international standard’ iceberg. With this tiresome history of oh-so-dull technical standards in mind, it is easy to dismiss the new BB30 standard as one more acronym for the pile. However, you’d be doing yourself a pretty big disservice in the process, because BB30 is one standard that is starting to show some real potential.

BB30 refers to an oversized bottom bracket shell which replaces a conventional bottom bracket with bearings pressed directly into the frame, spinning a 30mm spindle. This setup allows frame designers to simultaneously achieve two key goals: lower weight and increased stiffness. The lower weight comes from the elimination of the traditional bearing cups, as well as the lighter weight of an aluminum spindle. A weight savings of up to 120g can be had from this change alone. The increase in stiffness is achieved by this oversized spindle, as well as the increased size of the bottom bracket shell.

The concept underpinning BB30 is hardly new. Cannondale has been the driving force behind the technology and first introduced it under the Si moniker in 2000. More recently Specialized has been offering its own BB30 cranks on a few of its S-Works models. But this year’s Sea Otter seems to have marked a real turning point for BB30, and a snowball effect has clearly begun. SRAM and FSA have jumped into the ring, as well as Jamis, Kona, and Titus. FSA alone introduced seven new crank options which use the BB30 standard.

Despite a slow start, then, the future is looking bright for both BB30 and mountain bikers. Lighter weight and more stiffness are always welcome on a new bike, and BB30 offers a simple way to achieve both. Expect to see it offered on plenty of new bikes in the near future.

The Truvativ Stylo is the sort of workhorse product that turns up as OEM-spec on a huge number of bikes, but its middle-of-the-road price, performance, and style have kept the Stylooff of most people’s “must have” lists. No longer happy with this wallflower status, Truvativ has given the Stylo a thorough reworking, and the result is a crankset that you may actually want to buy.

The most significant upgrade to the Stylo is the introduction of Truvativ’s Open Core Technology (OCT). OCT, first introduced to the mountain bike world on the Holzfeller OCT cranks, describes Truvativ’s method of hollowing out the crank arms, which results in less weight and more stiffness. The Sylo OCT uses this technology to shed 80 grams from the outgoing Stylo.

The new Stylo still spins on the same GXP bottom brackets, and for those of you jumping on the ceramic bearing bandwagon, a ceramic GXP option is available. The new Stylo is to be offered in three flavours: the XC and trailbike Stylo OCT 3.3 has three rings and weighs 820 grams, the Stylo OCT 2.2AM loses the big ring and gains a bashguard, while tipping the scales at 805 grams, and the Stylo OCT 1.1G, which is the singlespeeder’s choice with a single 32t ring, and a scant 780 gram weight (including BB). All versions are available in 170 and 175 mm lengths, and the 1.1G gives singlespeeders some extra leverage with a 180 mm option.

The crank pictured above seems to have been done up as a Sea Otter special, and the look of the production Stylo is decidedly less ’80s (for better or for worse). Colour options include either mirror-finished black, or blingin’ “super aluminum.” For more details check out the PDF of the press release here.

The weight of cross-country race bikes seems to be steadily creeping lower, with hardtails routinely checking in under 20 lbs, and full-squish race bikes in the very low 20 lb range. However, this piece of work from Sebastian Roth, found at light-bikes.de (I’d recommend you brush up on your German before following the link), takes the light weight mountain bike to a whole new level. Built around a Scott Scale frame, virtually every component has been tuned to some degree, and the end result is a bike (barely) tipping the scales at 13.52 lbs. Yes, this is a mountain bike, with disc brakes and a real suspension fork, which weighs less than the UCI minimum weight requirement for road bikes.

While the weight is pretty incredible, and there is no doubt that Roth’s craftsmanship is top-notch, the notion of really pushing this bike—even if only on terrain typically found on an XC course—is more than a little unsettling. Visions of carbon-fiber splinters are dancing through my head.

If you’re brave enough, you can check out the full spec list here.

Avid has released a new set of brakes at Sea Otter, called the Elixir. Bucking the trend of products designed for a particular niche of the mountain bike world, the Elixir is meant to meet the needs of riders from weight-conscious XC riders to power-hungry DHers. This certainly seems like a challenging set of design criteria, but Avid seems to have pulled it off.

On the weight front, the Elixir boasts a super-slim master cylinder, neatly incorporated into the lever body. Hiding inside this master cylinder is the element of the Elixir that Avid is most proud of: the ‘taperbore’ cylinder. The taperbore cylinder replaces the near-universal system of using a timing port to close off the brakes when actuated, by using an o-ring which is pressed into a tapered bore. The details are boring (read: beyond my understanding), but the result is an improvement in modulation and lever feel, particularly under hard braking.

The Elixir also uses Avid’s new G3 rotor, which uses a new profile to save 10 grams of rotating weight over previous rotors, with the additional benefit of less chatter while braking.

Overall, the Elixir weighs 20 grams less than the already trim Juicy 7, and a carbon lever option will shave a further 10 grams (while also lightening your wallet).

Lest you should think that all of this weight savings will relegate the Elixir to XC race-only duty, Avid has also managed to wrangle more power out of the Elixir, and total braking power is said to fall in between the Juicy line and the four piston Code. Part of this power increase is thanks to the fancy taperbore technology, and the rest is the result of bigger pistons and pads compared to the Juicy.

Avid has also paid particular attention to heat management in order to maintain power even under heavy braking. A new grooved piston helps to dissipate heat, and the top-loading pad design also helps to cool things down while making pad changes easier. The end result is a brake which should be powerful enough for downhill race duty, and both Steve Peat and Sam Hill are going to be riding Elixirs on their race rigs.

Overall then, it seems that Avid has done an impressive job of meeting the demands of a pretty broad range of riders, but what has us excited is the potential of these brakes on an all-mountain bike. Having the braking power of a nice DH brake, while saving weight and improving modulation should be a win-win-win for trail riders.

If you’re interested, check out the video of the intial release at Sea Otter.

Dirt

Since 2004, however, the freeride scene has changed pretty dramatically. The fixation on monster drops has shifted in favour of flow, technical lines, and style, but there’s a little part in every gravity rider that just loves to see a Bender-esque cliff drop. We can’t wait to see what happens when the old-school hucking and the new-school flavour come together in Utah this October.

The first impression from these shots is that the new Moment is a stunner. The sloping top tube and clean lines are a nice break from some of the Moment’s overtly macho competitors. The new Moment is, not surprisingly, sticking to Ellsworth’s ICT suspension design, and we expect travel from the DHX shock to remain around the 6″ range of the previous Moment.

As is the norm for Ellsworth, there are some nice design touches to remind you that this isn’t a mass-produced bike. The “Ellsworth” logo stamped into the crossover at the top of the seatstays, as well as the gorgeous carbon support between the upper links, provide great examples of the bike’s hand built character.

The bike in the pictures reportedly tips the scales at just 28.8 lbs, which is outstanding for a burly trailbike like the Moment. However, judging from the parts hanging off of that frame, getting to that trim figure won’t be cheap. There’s no official word on price or availability yet, but we’ll keep you posted as soon as we find out.

Both of the builds are centered around the new 8″ travel frame, which Trek has applied their latest trickery to. The key feature is that the Session 88 gets treated to the ABP (Active Braking Pivot), which has already been seen on Trek’s Remedy. The ABP is a pivot which is concentric to the rear axle, which helps to uncouple braking forces from the suspension. The technology has been proven to be effective at increasing rear-end traction under braking on the Remedy, and the benefits should be even more noticeable on the longer travel Session 88.

The Session 88 is also using Trek’s Full Floater technique of mounting the shock to an extension of the chainstay instead of to the main frame. This, combined with a custom valved Fox DHX shock, are said to contribute to improved small-bump sensitivity.

Up front, the Session 88 is jumping on the tapered head tube bandwagon, with an oversized 1.5″ bottom diameter steer tube slimming down to a conventional 1 1/8″ up top. This setup is supposed to give all the stiffness of a 1.5″ headtube, while trimming some weight and leaving you free to choose from a broader selection of stems.

Spec levels are top-notch on both the FR and DH versions. Price levels haven’t been officially announced, but expect a retail price of around six grand.

Check out the post at NSMB for plenty of live shots of the Session 88.