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The mystery and the majesty; welcome to Sedona

The mystery and the majesty; welcome to Sedona. Click to zoom

New wheels, a new RockShox Pike, Avid brakes and Truvativ bars; just a few of the fresh goods on show to us in Arizona. Check out the video and pics for a flavour of what went down, while the June issue has the full low-down on all the new products.

Shredding Sedona’s singletrack with SRAM is a lovely bit of alliteration.

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SRAM laid on the full works treatment for us. The World Cup pit complete with mechanics and spares acted as hub for our rides. A p-i-m-p Trail House with eye watering views of the desert hosted all the product presentations. A fleet of swanky demo bikes was outfitted with the new SRAM parts. “Would sir like a Yeti SB66C, a Santa Cruz Tallboy LTC or a Devinci Dixon Carbon?” Jeremiah Boobar from RockShox explains the new Charger damper with its expanding rubber bladder system while jetlagged journos scribble notes.

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Sedona’s trail system infiltrates the desert around town. Punchy, technical climbs and equally stacatto descents mean that even short rides take their toll. A lack of oxygen and the dry heat were a shock to the system coming from the snow of London. Not that any of that mattered to ex-World Cup downhill Pro Duncan Riffle and Specialized enduro racer Curtis Keene.

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Santa Cruz’ Tallboy LTC equipped with the new Roam 60 wheels and RockShox Pike fork proved to be a fantastic companion on the Sedona singletrack. It also kept us out of the prickly pears… Western Spirit provided the guiding and delicious lunches. Check them out if you’re planning a trip to the States. The Pike puked it’s guts up on the last day. OK, so it was stripped down to show us tunability and home servicing potential of the Charger damper. From L to R: the new Maxle. Rebound shim stack. Compression shim stack. The red plastic ‘Bottomless Tokens’ tune the air volume and therefore the spring curve. Air spring shaft with bladder above. Cutaway damper. Charger damper assembly with bladder at top. Talking sh!t by the fire is somehow better in the desert.