"Four other Oysters followed them, And yet another four; And thick and fast they came at last, And more, and more, and more-- All hopping through the frothy waves, And scrambling to the shore."

The bike builder is coming along swimmingly. Hence the Walrus and the Carpenter quote. From here on out, our webgnarlogist is in overdrive. Today the Heckler, tomorrow, the world!

That probably calls for some more Salad Fingers video, given how popular the first serving was:

Meanwhile, the BC Bike Race is going down up in Canada, and our favorite black sheep/tile guy/soon to be massage therapist/potential realtor/Bend resident/husband of April Lawyer/former World Cup racer, Chris Sheppard, is having a good early go with it. Racing with his homeslice of choice, Seamus McGrath, the duo are two days in to the seven day race, and sitting pretty in the leaders jerseys. In between sessions of ripping peoples legs off, Shep has texted in after each stage. Day One went like this:

“Rolled off the front 20 min in – fricking gnarly single trak short stage – shamoe guided me down rooty death”

And Day Two was:

“One of the finest days of singletraking in my life – rode away from the field with Kona boys – finishd with them n 2nd same time – have leadrs jersey”

Suffice to say, Shep is probably having more fun than us right now. Shep’s the hair farmer in the left of this photo:

"If we rode for Trek, they'd probably make me get a haircut. Thank God I get to rail this sweet singletrack on a Santa Cruz!"

Since we’re relying on poached images from the internets to show off any of the goings on up north, we have to catch as catch can. However, trolling through the news feeds from the race, it’s interesting to note the abundance of images out there of the Kona boys, and the Trek folk, and how there isn’t really anything to be found of our boy Shep. Not a single one of him ripping trail on his sweet Blur XC. Seems odd, to be leading a race, but to also be relatively invisible. Ah well. Keep putting it to them, Shep! We love you even when you’re invisible.

One final note. We are now into the last two days of the Win Rob’s Bike contest. Roskopp is getting squirrely, and claiming he’s gonna ride his XC in the race instead of an LT. Which would really suck. But, in the interest of fairness, would probably disqualify him and give whoever the lucky name pulled out of the hat is a free bike. Whatever, it’s his company. If he wants to just give it away, we can’t really stop him. But seriously, what’s stopping you? Awesome new carbon Blur LT up for grabs. Sweet singletrack by the ton. Duty now for the future!

Fresh off the boat, specifications subject to change without notice, don't expect to buy one until around Interbike, say hello to the Tallboy.

There are probably hundreds of good reasons to maintain some degree of secrecy during the development of a bike. In the past, we’ve always cleaved pretty tight to the “keep it secret until fully baked” line, and have had mixed degrees of success with that approach. The problem is, that when you develop your own prototypes in-house, and ride test the things right out your door, and have to ride through urban neighborhoods to hit well known trails where people recognize you from the barbecue last weekend while undertaking said testing, well, it is not that easy to keep secrets.

Especially since mountain bikers are generally over-curious to the point of obsessive about new pieces of geekware, and tend as a group to be toting technology in the forms of cell phone cams and/or mini video recorders. Which they then go straight home and upload onto mtbr.com. Ahhh, technology.

Anyway, we decided when we began the lead up to the final development for this new 29″ bike (yes, we really are going to call it the Tallboy. Here’s hoping some people have a sense of humor) that we’d play with a slightly more open hand. But even still, we were leery of showing off the aluminum prototype mules we were riding around because for the most part our prototype mules are butt ugly. They exist to get the suspension characteristics right and the geometry where we want it and that’s about it. Usually, they are fabricated out of whatever tubes or hacked up old frames we have lying around. The upside to such drab and awkward prototypes is that people usually don’t pay them much mind because they just look like dull grey beaters. The downside, aside from the heinous real world expense of each frame, is that people who know to look for prototypes can spot them a mile away. Which then means we have to cobb up fake Cannondale or Specialized decals to throw people off the scent.

Anyway, by this spring, after many many months of riding other bikes, comparing them, fabricating our own mules, revising them, comparing them to each other, revising again, the mules were about where we wanted them. They rode nicely, handled well, and the suspension behavior was right where most of us wanted it to be. Cockpit sizing and ergonomics were dialed, and it was time to begin the next phase, which would ultimately lead to something we could take pictures of.

That said, we’re still a long way from final production, and there could be many small tweaks between now and then. So, don’t be too hasty in the rush to judgement. Still, for the most part, the following photos are going to be pretty damn close to what hits the showrooms in the fall:

100mm VPP travel (apologies to the peeps who already read this when it said 105mm. It was late, I had been drinking, and you'll have to trust us when we say that 5mm isn't going to make or break the suspension performance here), carbon fiber, target weight "very light", missing the super-sano little stainless steel chainstay protector plate, some graphic tweaks still to come, this is the very first sample frame. Showed up here friday mid-day.

Tallboy, like the can.

Top tube, top view. Tapered head tube - 1 1/8" inset upper headset bearing, 1.5" lower. Whole lotta swoop going on in that top tube...

Finally, all built up. Still missing that sweet little steel plate behind the chainrings. Pedals added just to make certain readers grind their teeth with frustration over misplaced aesthetics. Remember, this is just a photo.

Just for the sake of perspective, here's a special gritty cell phone quality pic (all these images brought to you by the mack daddy photographic precision of an iphone wielded by someone who'd had three cups of coffee that morning) of the last rev mule standing next to the shiny new kid. Note how we've left it behind the new bike to shroud the true fugliness...

And there she be. Things to note:
Carbon fiber frame
Next generation VPP suspension (with grease fittings and angular contact bearings and carbon fiber upper link and aluminum axles and all that good stuff)
Should be really light
And really stiff
Probably available in orange
And maybe another color too

Since it’s the weekend and I don’t have the geo charts on the laptop I’m typing on, and since I’ve go to go move house now, all the juicy numbers will have to wait.

In parting, and speaking of new, we leave you with the disturbing evidence that Mark Weir, everyone’s favorite multi-discipline hard man, and his long suffering better half Suzy successfully spawned last Tuesday. Meet Gus. Congratulations to all three. Here’s looking forward to a life of big climbs, smack talk, skinsuit wearing, and tobacco chewing. Since Male pattern baldness comes from the mother’s genetics, here’s hoping Gus’ll be spared that:

There has been much discussion regarding the prominence of Gus's scrotum since his world debut. Might be a bit early to jump to conclusions in that regard. However, the fact that he has hair on his head is reason for celebration...