One of the younger brands at the festival, Eskar brought their Elkat to the festival. The 150mm-travel carbon frame utilizes Dave Weagle’s Orion dual-link suspension design and a “steep & slack” geometry that’s supposed to provide efficient pedaling and climbing. Photo: Brittany Jones
With cooler temps and a fair bit of cloud cover, the final day of the Sedona Mountain Bike Festival seemed a little less frenetic and even more laid back than previous days. The expo still had plenty of goodies to oggle, and some of the newest mountain bikes hitting the market in 2020 were available for test rides. Here’s what we saw under the Sedona sun.
Juliana and Santa Cruz were in high demand all weekend, and—like most brands—they were emphasizing 29ers, like this Juliana Maverick. Photo: Brittany Jones
The guys over at the Ibis booth were excited to show off their newest version of the Ripmo. With feedback from their EWS riders, they gave the Ripmo a 1-degree slacker front end and a more progressive suspension that works with a coil. This is an Ibis employee’s personal bike, which accounts for the ti crank arms. Photo: Brittany Jones
While it’s not a new bike, Commencal’s Meta 29 sure looks hot, with the tan sidewalls and matching hits of tan on the blue frame. Photo: Brittany Jones
One of the younger brands at the festival, Eskar brought their Elkat to the festival. The 150mm-travel carbon frame utilizes Dave Weagle’s Orion dual-link suspension design and a “steep & slack” geometry that’s supposed to provide efficient pedaling and climbing. Photo: Brittany Jones
The Transition Ripcord was another 24-inch bike available for kids to demo and was getting plenty of love. Photo: Brittany Jones
Hardtails were few and far between this weekend, but Diamondback’s Sync’r Carbon could hold its own, on the technical Sedona trails with 27.5+ tires, a 140mm Fox 34, and 66-degree head angle. Photo: Brittany Jones
Everywhere we looked this weekend, we saw Pivots. The Phoenix-based company was definitely on its home turf, and while they brought a large fleet of bikes, we think there were also a lot of Pivot owners in attendance. We just barely snuck in a photo of this X-Small Mach 5.5 between riders checking it out. Photo: Brittany Jones
Specialized also had a large footprint, and the only bikes consistently in the tent were the Levos, their e-MTBs (the land managers of the Sedona trails do not permit e-bikes). Photo: Brittany Jones
Cushcore liners insert inside the tire to help prevent pinch flats and increase traction and stability while cornering. Photo: Brittany Jones
Because so many attendees brought their own bikes along to the festival, Cush Core had a steady stream of customers all weekend.
Photo: Brittany Jones
