Take A Kid Mountain Biking Day!!

Hey all, short notice I know, but tomorrow is IMBA's national Take A Kid Mountain Biking Day!

I know of two good observances going on this weekend. One is at Wissahickon State Park in Philly where PMBA (Philly Mountain Bike Association) is hosting an event. Fuji will be there with shwag for all the kids. All the details can be found here: www.phillymtb.org

The other event I was made aware of was the one in Winston-Salem NC where Fuji dealer Mock Orange Bikes is helping out. Here is what Jay of Mock Orange had to say:

" This Saturday, October 3 we will observe IMBA's "Take a Kid Mountain Biking Day" at the Children’s Home in Winston-Salem. We will be there from 11 am to 3 pm. Bring yourself, your kid, and your mountain bikes! The land at the Children’s Home is really great and much fun to explore by bike. Also, our good friend Jay Doub will be manning the grill, so come hungry! This is always a great day and we are once again looking forward to it this year! The Children’s Home is located at 1001 Reynolda Road, Winston-Salem, 27104."

We wish the best of luck to everyone attending an event around the country. To find one near you go here: http://www.imba.com/resources/kids/index.html

HAVE FUN!

MASS Finale @ Bear Creek

We wrapped up a very successful Mid-Atlantic Super Series this past weekend (September 13th) with 2 team members on the series podium. Dylan and Andrew Alesio finish 2nd and 3rd in the Elite Open (Pro) class respectively. Congratulations to Dylan and Andrew on a great series!

Congratulations to fellow Fuji rider Hal Batdorf of Danzeisen & Quigley in Cherry Hill, NJ. Hal took the second place finish in the Expert class for the day which clinched him the overall series victory in on of the most highly contest classes. Hal races a 2007 Fuji Team Issue MTB, but hopes to move on up to the SLM for 2010. Hal is pictured below in the blue Fuji t-shirt.

Here are some podium photos from Sunday.

2010 Fuji MTB's on BikeRumor.com

In case you hadn't seen it, our new 2010 Mountain Bikes were just featured on www.bikerumor.com Thank you very much to BikeRumor for the post and the love. www.bikerumor.com is an awesome website with interviews, spy shots and so much more. You should definitely save the site to your favorites right next to our blog.

Here are the direct links:
http://www.bikerumor.com/2009/08/17/2010-fuji-mountain-bikes/
and
http://www.bikerumor.com/2009/08/27/2010-fuji-29er-mountain-bikes/

More 2010 Fuji "Spy Photos"

Ok ok, they are not really spy photos when I work for the company and they grant me permission to blog about the new bikes. What can I say, the weather out here on the east coast has not the best for racing so the results have not been pouring in from team members. September is setting up to be a busy month with Bear Creek, Michaux and 2 more H2H races on the calender. In the mean time, the Fuji Tahoe line up is getting a make over for 2010. All new frames and the much anticipated return of our Tahoe 26" line up to compliment the 29" line that has been doing so well since the launch 2 years ago.

We will start with the 29" line. The frame is redesigned with a "Power Curve" squared tapered down tube, hydroformed Tri Top Tube and oversized seat tube all designed to improve stiffness with out sacrificing weight. Cable mounting is all moved to the top of the Top Tube to improve shifting and cable cleanliness. The Tahoe 29 series continues to be a value line up really lacking an all out pro level race build, but the top of the line Tahoe 29SL is spec'd with full SRAM x-9 and our own new OEM Handlebars, Stem and Seatposts but still manages to tip the scale under 29.5lbs in a 19" frame. The new frames are lighter, but I can tell you that Team Members riding the 09 Tahoe 29 SL have all gotten their bikes under the 25lb mark and anticipate getting close to the 23lb mark with the new frames and SRAM XX group.

Ok, here are the photos:

Tahoe 29 SL

Tahoe 29 Pro

Tahoe 29 Comp

And now, the 26" models.

These bikes share the same frames as their 29" counterparts but don't go as high end since we have all the carbon race hardtails that outshines the 26" Tahoe. I will get to the Carbon hardtails later in the week. Here are the photos of the Tahoe 26ers.

Tahoe Pro

Tahoe Comp

Team Jerseys for Sale!

We have a limited supply of jerseys left from our 09 stock that are available to be purchased. If you are at all interested, email Greg and he can help determine sizing and let you know if we have said size available. gpolitz@advancedsports.com would be the way to go about that.

Details are: Louis Garneau Equipe Jersey (Euro Sizing) with custom design and full zip. Shorts are Men's Power Shorts with Airgel Chamois. These are the most comfortable shorts I have ever worn. We have a VERY LIMITED supply of bibs that will be first come first serve. Price is $200 for a full kit. Bibs alone would retail for $180. Incase you have forgotten what they look like, here is a photo. And a big THANK YOU in advance.

Fuji 2010 Bike Release

We here in the office just wrapped up the 2010 North American sales meetings this past weekend in Philadelphia and oh boy, do we have some sweet bikes coming out. The SLM is only a year old, but Fuji product manager Mark Smith has been asking a lot of question and seeking a lot of feedback. In house employee/team member Chris Dietrich was intergral in the changes that were made and you may have even seen him racing one for the past couple of months. Thank you to Fuji Senior Graphic Designer, Nikia, for allowing me to use her catalog photos rather that the ones I took at the meetings. You all would have been squinting trying to make out the fine details. Ok, enough chatter here are some pics!

Yes, if you look closely that is a SRAM XX groupo with Reynolds Carbon wheels! Changes to the frame include an integrated seat mast and extra clearance for the rear tire. We held a lot of internal discussion regarding the integrated seat mast. We had heard all the complaints about cutting a carbon frame such as: What do I do I cut it to low? What do I do if I want to sell my frame to somebody taller than me? We fixed all those problems with one solution! If the mast is cut to short the solution is to just cut it shorter. All you have to do is cut the mast down to about 1 1/2" above the top tube, cut a slit in the back of the seat tube, put a 34.9 seat post clamp on and insert a 31.6 seat post and you are back on the bike. We received a 19" version of this bike to have as a sample for the meetings and take to interbike. Fully assembled with an uncut seat mast this bike weighed in at 19.03 lbs!!!!!! More than 1.5lbs lighter than the team race bikes! If you are asking what kind of price point we are coming in at right around $8,000 with the XX (oh and by the way SRAM dudes have officially said that it is pronounced X-X, not Double X, so say right!). Good news to those of you who can only afford to spend around $6000 we will have a X-0 build one the same exact frame. Frame sets will also be available and of course, pricing is round about and has yet to be finalized.

Our other fancy new frame is a dual suspension carbon race machine. The D.S.R. (Dual Suspension Race) is a 4" travel carbon dualie that has endurance racing written all over it. Still borrowing a slightly changed version of the 4 bar linkage design by Specialized this frame is incredibly stiff and light. The frame features a tapered head tube with a 1.5" bottom bearing and the standard 1 1/8" top bearing. We have yet to see a ride able sample yet so I do not have an exact weight, but the sample is sub 24lbs with full XTR and the same Reynolds wheels as the SLM LTD. Just like the SLM, we will have 2 build packages. One with the XTR/Reynolds and the 2.0 with XT/SLX and Mavic Wheels. Keep an eye out on fujibikes.com for more detailed tech/spec info as well as official MSRPs. Another highlight of the DSR 1.0 is Fuji's first interaction with Fox Suspension products. Now don't get me wrong, team members LOVE their RockShox forks and baring the unforeseeable change, we will continue to support RockShox next year as well. Nevertheless, the addition of Fox as a vendor for Fuji, really shows that we are committed to building our brand of mountain bikes as well as the sport mountain biking in general. Ok, I will shut up now and hook up the photos. Enjoy!

I will post some more stuff once I have more free time, but these bikes are so hot that the phones have been ringing off the hook here in the office today and that probably won't change any time soon. Keep checking back or keep an eye on www.twitter.com/fujimtb for all the latest and greatest!

King of Spring MTB Race @ Spring Mountain

This past weekend was the King of Spring event at Spring Mountain. And oh man was it an event to remember. Spring Mountain has a long history of wet mountain bike races and the new August race date did not change this. Saturday was an absolute beautiful day for the pre-ride and demo event. We gave out 2 demo bikes from 10am-2pm, but once people started showing up for the pre-ride we had a nice little line for and ended up giving out 10 demos. All 12 people came back with the same comment of, "I didn't know Fuji made such bad ass mountain bikes".

Fuji rider Jimmy along with Topher and Mike of Bikesport, put on a trials show that recruited a nice little crowd in the campground just before dark after the Bikesport guys did a pre-ride after work. Around 4:00 am the rain came and there was a lot of it. It pour for about 3 1/2 hours straight before slowing down to a drizzle. The beginner was race was pushed back from 8:30 to 9:30 because we kept hearing there were people trying to make it to the race but having trouble with flooded road ways and traffic.

Beginners went off with about 20 people on the line. We had a ghost rider, James Pinto of Bikesport, because he forgot his Bikesport jersey and it was an non series race and a non sanctioned race we felt it would hurt any one. James was sandbagging the race because he had to be at work at noon, but none the less got us our first podium of the day finishing 2nd in the Beginner Junior class. Our second podium of the day was a third place finish in the Beginner Senior 1 Men for Ron Dorsey of the Fuji Warehouse Team also known as the "B-Team" or "Good Game Racing". Ron raced Bear Creek last year, but got a little off course and didn't finish so he was happy to notch his first finish and his first podium.

Jimmy Hessler started the Sport race about an hour late after with about 20 other racers after about another 45 minutes of down pour drenched the course again and cause the Perk Creek to overflow it's banks and swallow the campsite in a matter of 30 minutes. Once the race got going the weather started to clear and as the course began to dry it became "peanut butter" as many racers described. Jimmy was one of the many riders who ran across the line because of a technical problem in the last section of single track. At "press time" for this post we were not 100% sure where Jimmy finished, but we are confident he was around 5th or 6th. Congrats to our friends Jeff and Pete @ Bikesport who finished 1st and 2nd in their home race.

Expert/Pro class went off at about 2:30 pm. We had 3 guys on the line for this start, Dylan and Andrew Alesio (Pro) and Chris Dietrich (Expert). Dylan and Andrew were off the front from the start as they didn't want to get stuck in the pack on the first turn. Dylan had a great race in which he lead the whole time, extending his lead with each lap. Dylan came across the line in around 1 hour 4 minutes to take the win in the Pro class. Andrew flatted 3 times and finished around 6th. Dylan was crowned King of Spring!

Chris road to a very solid 2nd place finish despite a flat on the ever important 3rd lap. Chris was very pleased with this race and thought it was a great way to warm up for Mt. Snow next weekend.

The last race we were well represented in was the kid's race. BMX Legend, Brett Downs, brought his sons out to Spring Mountain to participate in the kid's race. Sadly because of the weather no other competition showed up for them, so needless to say they finished 1st and 2nd. Congrats to Hank and Jack! I am personally proud of them since I retired undefeated in the Spring Mountain Kid's race back in the 90's.

All in all it was a great weekend. We had 4 podiums (6 if you count the kids) and a lot of fun. Thank you to the Bergey family for letting us be involved and putting together a great weekend. Hope to see you all there next year, just don't camp to close to the creek!