Inbox: Assessing the pre-Otter gear tsunami

Sea Otter returns to Laguna Seca this week and brands are frantically heaving out new gear trying to get ahead of the river rodent frenzy. The last 10 days brought major releases, or several major releases, from all corners of the mountain bike world. From new dampers (and gold forks) from Fox to revived legacy forks from RockShox, novel carbon-steel chainrings, new bikes from Rocky Mountain, Norco and Liv.

Here’s a breakdown of the most interesting bits that launched ahead of Sea Otter and what we make of the wave of releases as a whole.

Rocky Mountain Altitude C70

Liv Intrigue X

Knolly Fugitive

Norco Range VLT

Bikes

The trend towards complexity to chase performance in mountain bike design continues. Rocky Mountain takes its Altitude from ovesized trail bike to dedicated enduro rig with the resurrection of its LC2R suspension. Liv gives the Intrigue X a significant boost in adjustability. Norco brings high-pivot to eMTB with the Sight VLT and Range VLT. Knolly has always pushed its Fourby4 suspension and, while the world tries to catche up to the Burnaby, B.C. brand, they continue to refine with the latest version of its Fugitive trail bike. 

RockShox reverse-arch 32 with the new Grip SL damper

Marzocchi Super Z

RockShox revives the Psylo name and improves the Domane and Rudy

Suspension 

Behind the bling of limited edition gold colour ways, there is a big boost in performance for riders that don’t want to fork out a mountain of cash for electronic or top-end analog suspension. While Fox upgrades its damper to the Grip X, it added new features to the Performance Elite-series destined Grip __, too. The XC crowd also gets a boost with the reverse-arch 32 TC and its Grip SL damper. At the other end, Marzocchi is reliving the glory days of freeride with the Super Z, a 190mm-travel single crown, cough, monster. Long live freeride! RockShox, after introducing a next-level Flight Attendant (with next level prices), added a trio of new and updated forks that ditch the electronics, and price, of FA for more traditional design. 

Race Face is making partially carbon fibre chainrings for mountain bikes

Fox updates and lengthens the Transfer dropper post

Race Face adds bars in all the materials, all the rise and lengths and two very different price points

Gear

Long travel droppers go (more) mainstream, with Fox updating the Transfer dropper post to include a 240mm option. And there’s further acceptance of the 34.9mm post diameter standard. Which is good to see with longer-travel posts (and for tall people in general). 

New high-end, with Race Face creating an Era chainring mixing carbon fibre, steel and aluminum (to balance weight and durability) along with carbon fibre bars for its Era line. If it works, it’ll be an interesting application that other brands have struggled to make work off-road. RF’s direct-mount style chainrings help. 

But, with the bougie era bars came new Turbine bars. Like suspension, brands are refreshing their more affordable parts after what has, for some, been a period of stagnation. RF started with this with the Turbine wheels, which are standout alloy rims. The bars add to that. 

Akta hails from B.C.'s Sunshine Coast

Along with apparel, they have a very good looking set of Knee pads

YT is also getting into protection with the Trail Knee

Mesh back with a broad calf band for support

Apparel 

Canadian up-start brand Akta released its second collection. The Sunshine Coast brand seems to reflect many of the rider’s style that come from the region, quietly confident, understated but good enough challenge the best. If you want to support a local brand, check out the new year’s line. 

YT is also expanding further from bikes into apparel, following Specialized, Trek, Giant and other big brands. The Trail knee pads are actually an interesting piece, offering minimalist protection. While the gloves will not fit well for everyone, the look fine. 

Connecting the dots?

First, it’s easier than ever to spend a boatload of money on mountain bikes. Despite navigating a downturn in the industry and near-constant clearance sales, brands are still happy to pour R&D into new, higher-end goods for people to buy.

Second, value is returning to the mid-range. Some of the formerly top-end tech is starting to make its way down to more reasonably priced goods. From improved Performance Elite shocks to RockShox new and updated shock lines, y ou can expect to get more value out of less expensive bikes. It is great to see some balance returning to development, not just a push for an ever more extreme top end. There are more cases where spending a sane amount of cash will get you a really great trail experience.