Ryan Trebon and Barry Wick have a new weapon in their race kits. While shooting the latest and greatest at the Crankworx festival in Whistler, Cyclocross Magazine contributor Joe Sales was able to catch a glimpse of the new all-carbon Kona Major Jake. The new photos provide a closer look at the updated ride that we profiled earlier this summer.
by Jamie Mack
In the world of ’cross bikes, 17 pounds is a respectable weight that many manufacturers claim for their average size frames. With a new ’cross frame revealed during the Sea Otter festival earlier this year, Kona has met that benchmark with the bikes built for two of the tallest riders in ’cross, Ryan Trebon and Barry Wicks. Typically found on custom 62+cm frames, the Twin Towers of Kona ride some of the biggest, and perhaps heaviest, frames in the Elite field. But their new 2011 Kona Jakes are taking things to a lower level, in weight anyway, and giving the Kona duo a leg up on the competition. Cyclocross Magazine was able to check in with Barry Wicks and get the inside story on the new rides.
Kona was given a simple mission by their star riders – make a bike that was lighter, stiffer and faster than one of the most respected frames on the circuit. And don’t dare sacrifice the ride quality and durability that the scandium Major Jakes have shown over the past few years. And do it all in a 63cm frame. Nothing like a little pressure from the daunting pair of Elite ’cross riders to bring sweat to the brow of a few engineers and builders.
Read the rest of the review and see the photos HERE
Find out all about the bike HERE
We’ve been working the design team hard here at Kona. Testing, drawing, refining, inventing, creating, coming up with entirely new models, while ensuring existing models are the best they can possibly be. In this series of 2011 Sneak Peeks, we get up close and personal with our product team on the why’s, how’s and wow’s of a few highlight bikes that will be hitting stores in a few months from now. In this installment, we catch up with Team Kona Cyclocross rider, Barry Wicks, offering up the first official, break-it-to-the-world look at our entirely new carbon fiber CX race bike, the 2011 Major Jake.
This is Kona’s first carbon cyclocross race bike, what are the notable benefits?
From a racer’s perspective, the carbon allows us to have a bike that is both lighter and stiffer than the traditional Scandium frame, and has a better ride quality. The Scandium bikes were awesome, they felt very snappy and forgiving, but this new Carbon cross bike takes it to the next level. I am getting to know the bike more and more with every ride I do on it, and it continues to impress me. The steering is more precise, due in part to the over size steer tube, there is absolutely no fork chatter under hard braking. The bike accelerates really well out of tight corners which is very important for cross. The New oversize BB area increases the stiffness to the point where I can just mash on the gas as soon as I get the bike pointed in the right direction and it just goes off like a rocket. All these stiffness increases may have had a negative impact on the ride quality, but that it he beauty of Carbon Fiber, it is as stiff as you want all day long, but just hovers over the lumpy grass and bumps like a pillowy cloud, leaving the rider comfortable and less fatigued and ready to dominate.
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The following was a from Barry from two weekends ago:
Today marked my first foray into the world of off road triathlon at the Xterra Del Valle outside Livermore California. The idea of doing an Xterra began forming in my head during the cold winter months in Chicago as I ran and swam my way into some form of fitness while the blizzards raged outside. I have limited experiance in triathlons, competing in a few road sprint triathlons in high school, and also a decsent swimming background as I was the district champion in the 200 meter freestyle race my senior year. Even with this I had no idea of what to really expect going into this event. Dusty had dialed in my Hei Hei 29 during Seaotter so I pulled it out of the quiver and headed for California. Doing a race solo without support reminded me of the early days of my mtb career but nostalgia aside I definatly appreciate having someone around at events to help out.
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A prototype of the 2011 full carbon Major Jake was unveiled at Sea Otter this past weekend. See a full report on Bike Rumor
Barry Wicks and longtime girlfriend got engaged today. They’re one of the coolest couples I know, and I still can’t decide which one is funnier. Sarah has always been part of the Kona family. Awesome work on making it “official,” guys!
Click on the image to read the review (pdf)
All photos by Joe Sales
Having suffered from an unusually large amount of snow in January our national championships were postponed until this weekend. In some ways it was a good thing as it was more about holding a peak from worlds rather than racing in the middle of a hard training block. I also had the penultimate round of the Gazet Van Antwerp in Lille, Belgium the day before.
Not wanting to miss out on either race as both are important in different ways I just handed the itinerary to my logistics manager, who is also my mechanic, 2nd soigneur and husband, who sorted it all out. Just one of the many reasons I married him.
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Kona shooter Joe Sales recently put together a beautiful and emotive collection of cyclocross photos for the Kona photo vault. They’re so nice we couldn’t keep them under wraps. Here’s a selection of some downhome, get-it-dirty shots from recent west coast cyclocross action.
To see the gallery click “read more”
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Next in Kona’s series of pro bike talks, Nanaimo, BC resident and Kona cyclocross Factory Team rider Wendy Simms gives us the lowdown on her race-ready ride of choice, the Major Jake. Listen as Wendy explains why Kona’s line of super dialed Scandium and aluminum cyclocross bikes are her do-everything rides of choice: from getting around the downtown bike paths to winning Canadian National Championships (and she would know, she’s won four). Check out Wendy’s spankin’ ride here.
http://cog.konaworld.com/video/WendyBT2.flv
Should I run the 32c or 34c today? File tread? Semi knob? Mud tire? Sticky rubber or normal? Maybe Dual Compound? Why do i have so many choices? I wish I could just strap on a thin layer of rubber to my perfect casing, go pedal as hard as I want, and the tire could magically morph into the perfect combination of grip and speed that I need to power to victory. That is a bunch of wishful thinking. But how much difference does my tire choice really make? Tire talk consumes a inordinate amount of conversational time when one engages verbally with an off road bicycle racer. If you based your entire perception of this species on said conversations, you would be lead to assume that the entire outcome of a race is decided by how thoroughly one adjusts tire pressures, clips knobs just so and changes heart at least 4 times in the 5 minutes before the start of the race.
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Defending champion, Ryan Trebon puts in a gutsy silver medal performance in front of an impressive hometown crowd.
Bend, Oregon played the exuberant host for this years USA Cyclocross Nationals, with huge, boisterous crowds as is par for the course when it comes to CX in OR. After four days of serious racing shenanigans, final mens elite race race was one for the books.
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Following on from her win in Italy on Tuesday, Kona FSA rider Helen Wyman rode to victory in Wetzikon, Switzerland today. With temperatures around –2 degrees, it was never going to be an easy day for any of the riders.
In the traditional setting in Wetzikon, which has staged many World Cup races, the snow began to fall as the riders started the early morning race. Two laps of the running track started affairs before the riders headed off-road and the first grassy climb of the day. Wyman took the initiative on this first incline, and it was Chainel that followed first. Behind them a gap quickly formed to the Swiss duo of Leumann and Achermann who were set to battle with each other for the duration of the race.
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Ryan Trebon and Barry Wick have a new weapon in their race kits. While shooting the latest and greatest at the Crankworx festival in Whistler, Cyclocross Magazine contributor Joe Sales was able to catch a glimpse of the new all-carbon Kona Major Jake. The new photos provide a closer look at the updated ride that we profiled earlier this summer.
