The Factory Riders website is now open. If you haven’t taken a look at it head over now. It’s growing by the minute. The imagineers at Ray’s have been hard at work developing it for more than a year and the first rollout is running.

I will be riding for GT in 2009. It is an opportunity that will take me farther than any I have had in the past. In addition, my role will change slightly. With GT I will act as more of a company man, doing more promotion, events, and demos. The change comes at a perfect point, giving me more time to develop as a pro level racer. This approach will also help GT remind the racing public that they can still make a super bike.

The situation is puzzling. It has been 5 years since I have seen a GT under a privateer racer and 8 years since anyone I know (Todd) has purchased one. I have had the chance to ride a few over the years and they have always been impressive. In fact, I once owned a full XTR Team LTS, which was the most amazing bike I had ever ridden. I bought the bike second hand from Alex for $600 and raced it many times. No bike before or since has climbed as well and this might seem strange, but none have looked as good.

If you haven’t seen them, this years bikes look hot, something I worry about. They offered me the choice of a carbon Zaskar or Marathon. Each is amazingly well built and stunning to look at. I had to consider the evolution of my riding style in the choice. Over the years, things have changed making the clear choice for me the Marathon. Getting power to the ground has been an issue with my current strategy, so that puts the Zaskar out of the question. I have talked to the engineers at GT and they back up my thoughts making this the clear choice for me.

More to come on this topic…

of the Manitou Minute MRD Absolute

3.2 pounds, 100mm of travel, 32mm stanchions

The following is a review of this fork from my point of view. This is the final review for the first Manitou that I have ridden since swearing never to ride one again about five years ago. I have owned three Manitou forks prior to this one, and all have broken. First, the crown on my EFC cracked on either side of the steer tube. Then, I had two Manitou Mach 5 SX forks break. Number 1 snapped jumping down some stairs and the stanchion tubes on number 2 broke off just below the crown while trail riding.

I could tell immediately upon seeing the new fork that this wasn’t going to be the issue. Manitou is hardly the same company that it used to be. Gone are the soft CNC’d crowns, the plastic preload adjusters, and the squirmy dropouts. First, this fork is built on 32mm stanchions, which sets it apart from the 28mm crowd. It’s an entire order of magnitude stiffer than a 28mm fork.

 Ideally, this thing should work all year without maintenance, have 100+mm of smooth travel, and be light. The reality wasn’t far off the mark.

I have put about four thousand miles on this fork in a mix of XC racing, 24 Hour endurance, trials, and jumping at Ray’s. The bike frame supporting this fork broke twice; all the while, this thing continued unfazed. In fact, it works so well that I never think of it. That’s not something that I can say about others that I’ve ridden. The construction of the fork is incredible.

The tag line of this fork should be “Set it and forget it”. Give the rebound knob at the bottom a couple clicks and you’re done. I’m not a fan of lock outs, platform, or compression dampening but this fork does have a very nice platform system.  It sounds very mechanical when it’s working and seems like it does the trick. I’ve found that I only fiddle with the lockout knob when I’m riding for fun. I doubt anyone switches this thing on in the middle of an endurance race.

It is smoother and stiffer than the 2006 Fox F100 RL, and after four thousand miles, it’s just starting to break-in. It is without question the best fork that Manitou has ever made.