After Thursday evening's snow squall, (and Friday's requisite Snow Day) it was time to ride the Kona Explosif 29'er down to the Minneapolis Bicycle, Travel, & Fitness Expo. Wading thru the throngs of people anticipating for the Greg LeMond vs. The Lunatic cage match was quite exhausting, however, I did manage to check out Bob Brown's new
Route 29 Project. Cool stuff, as usual from Lugmaster Brown.
This is Bob's personal bike. He added the S&S couplers just for the show. Bitchin' fork crown, classic appearance. I want one.
This is the single-bolt sliding dropout of Bob Brown's design, featured on the Route 29 bikes. He assured me that the overall clamping surface is sufficient, and just as strong as more common two-bolt designs.
Over at the Penn Cycle/Trek booth, while the handlebar moustache crowd stood in line to have their picture taken with LeMond, I studied the Travis Brown-designed production 69'er. Their take on the sliding dropout is a beefy number with built-in tensioner. The overall bike design is all swaged and formed aluminum. Looks like a fun trail bike.