Crankworx 15: Custom paint, 12-speed conversions, and a classic Boxxer

While Crankworx is more about riding than debuting new products, companies were still displaying interesting gear in an effort to stand out from the crowd of booths in Whistler Village. From custom paint to classic Boxxers, here’s some of the standouts from the booths at the 15th annual Crankworx Whistler festival.

Brun Atkinson’s custom “Snake Bike” Norco Range 29

Not the standard paint job on a Norco Range 29, sorry.

The eye-catching paint work is incredibly detailed

Baumann has carried the snake theme through to the tiniest details of Atkinson's Range 29

Including all the curves of the suspension linkage

There's even custom decals for the bikes Fox 36

Norco’s Crankworx booth had Bryn Atkinson’s custom painted “Snake Bike” Range 29 on prominent display. The intricately painted Range, designed to look like the red-bellied black snake’s found in Atkinson’s eastern Australia home, had a constant crowd admiring the striking bike. Atkinson, who now lives in Bellingham, Washington had the bike painted by Tony Baumann, who specializes in custom paint work for bikes and also lives in the small West Coast town. It took over 80 hours of work to create the Snake Bike, including detailing each individual scale.

Rockshox looks back at Boxxer through the decades

1997 Boxxer Blackbox

2002 Boxxer Blackbox

2008 Boxxer Blackbox

Rockshox latest Boxxer World Cup

Not just hanging on the wall, RockShox had the newest generation of Boxxer mounted up to Norco's Aurum HSP, the same model Sam Blenkinsop would ride to a King of Crankworx crown on Sunday

RockShox had already released the updated Boxxer earlier this year, so instead of displaying something new the suspension company had four generations of its World Cup winning downhill fork on display. The iconic fork has been on the international race scene for decades now, with the oldest fork on display dating way back to 1997.

Giant displays DVO Suspension equipped 2019 bikes

Crankworx is decidedly gravity fueled, so Giant's Glory DH bike was front and center.

The flagship DH rig gets DVO's Onyx downhill fork

Giant's enduro bike, the Reign gets the full DVO treatment as well, including a coil shock.

DVO Jade coil shock

At the top of Giant's XC Race line, the Anthem 0 opts for Fox Live Valve automatic suspension lockout system

Giant had it’s full line of top-end 2019 bikes on display at Crankworx Whistler. The company recently announced it’s partnership with DVO Suspension as part of the launch for its completely re-designed Trance Advance Pro 29, and earlier this year for it’s Giant Factory Off-Road Team, but the boutique suspension company’s parts will be on the top level Giant’s across the board. The only exception is the XC-race oriented Anthem 29, which gets Fox’s new Live Valve system.

e*thirteen’s 12-speed thinks outside the box

e*thirteen's TRS Plus 12-speed 9-46 cassette can be mounted to a standard 11-speed hub

The company sells conversion kit to turn your existing SRAM 11-speed shifter and derailleur into a 12-speed system.

While SRAM and Shimano are the giants of the drivetrain market, there’s several smaller companies carving out a space in the market. One is e*thirteen, which offers it’s 12-speed cassette on its own, or as part of a conversion kit. The kit, which e*thirteen says is simple enough for mechanically confident riders to assemble at home, uses your existing 11-speed SRAM shifters and derailleurs and turns them into a 12-speed system using a surprisingly small number of parts. There’s even a host of instructional video’s on the companies website to guide you through the process. Why not just buy Eagle? e*thirteen says its 12-speed conversion is lighter, cheaper, and has a wider range than SRAM’s system.

Marzocchi returns

Marzocchi had two forkx on display. The Bomber Z1 and Bomber 58

Anyone who ever hucked to flat will remember the original Z1

The fork returns with simple adajustments, like an infinitey adjustable GRIP damper from parent company, Fox

Anyone who remembers the original Boxxer also likely harbours fond memories of the early Marzocchi forks. With a reputation for smooth suspension that was also bombproof, the suspension company carved out a prominent place in the growing late-90’s freeride scene. While Marzocchi disappeared for a while, it is now back on the scene, under the Fox banner. Two forks are being offered: the Bomber Z1 and Bomber 58. Both are designed to be easy for riders to set up, and tough enough to survive plenty of time in the bike park.

Race Face’s annual Crankworx giveaway

Having already released its new Next R36 wheelset last week, Race Face was focusing on keeping the crowd happy. Dressed in a version of the Canadian-themed jersey its Rocky Mountain / Race Face team riders wore in the weekends Enduro World Series event, the Race Face group was throwing a huge amount of free soft goods from the roof top patio of their display booth.