Fox has paired up with Specialized once again to create a new "Auto Sag" feature.  Simply over inflate the shock, sit on the bike and release the air valve and it'll set the pressure just right for your weight.  Genius.

Features:

• Infinite travel adjustment from 180mm to 225mm (new patent)
• Infinite Bottom bracket adjustment from 13.5 to 14.5 (new patent)
• Infinite wheelbase/chainstay adjustments from CS 16.7 to 17.6 inch (new patent)
• Low friction Uni Axes suspension system with ultra stiff mono arm (new patent)
• Estimated weight with Fox DHX 5.0 Air is said to be around 9 pounds

For 2012, the top end Demo 8 gets a CCDB out back, but wheres the carbon?

Pretty sure Specialized is giving kids LSD and letting them pick their new colors.  This one looks like Ronald McDonalds spaceship, that or Sam Hill has really gone off the deep end and wanted a bike to match his TLD kits.

Also, it appears as though the legendary Big Hit is no more.  Now replaced with the new "Status".  You think people are taking social networking a little too seriously?

While I have seen this many times with Fox DHX Air's and RP23's, I have never seen it with a Rock Shox air shock, let alone in person but on Saturday, opening day of Sunrise Park Resort here in AZ, this is what AZFR Mike-E got to deal with before he even hit the lift.  He pulled his Demo 8 out of his truck, sat on the bike and "pop", instant 100% sag.  Here's to hoping that Rock Shox takes care of it and it isn't a sign of a larger problem with the Vivid Air.

We first noticed these installed on the new Mountain Cycles bikes at Sea Otter earlier this spring and were wondering what was up with the massive BB spindle, now there are some answers.

"First things first... THIS IS NOT A NEW BB STANDARD...but rather a BB system that fits into Press Fit 30 and BB30 frames, Praxis has a new bottom bracket and crank system that feature a 35mm spindle."

Be sure to pick up this months Decline Magazine which features Gnar Gnar Tours own Late Drop Bob looking svelte for the new Kali Protectives ad.  The photo was taken by Justin Miller back in January while in Phoenix shooting Josh Bender as well as Dante and Jackie Harmony for Kali Protectives.  Apparently you don't need no stinkin pros when you got the great pumpkin.  Nice work Bob!

Photo Credit: Pasch's iPhone

The big hype all over the internet over the past week has been the DiamondBack DH prototype that propelled rider Kyle Thomas to victory in the 2011 Double Down Hoe Down a few weeks back. Everyone is comparing it to Transitions TR450, although the linkage is a completely different setup and actually a lot more similar to the now dead Soul Cycles DH proto bike. (See Below).  What is amazing is the comparison to Massi's new DH bike and the TR450.  Both Massi and Transition are manufactured by Astro Engineering in Taiwan and by the looks of it, Astro has sold out the TR450's design to the open market.  Is this a case of Transition not designing the bike in the first place, or even worse a case of Astro duplicating it and offering it up to other customers?  Either way, it's just another in the long list of sorted stories about making bikes in the orient.

The now dead Soul Cycles DH proto.

Supercross BMX, BMX frame manufacturer for the past 20 years will be showing their first attempt at a DH bike, the Thumper, at Sea Otter. Featuring 8.25" of travel, 64 degree 1.5" headtube and a 13.5" BB it looks promising, although we can't get over this nagging suspicion that it looks really really similar to another design currently on the market...

This one definitely falls under the "WTF?" category.  Apparently taking a cue from Cove Bikes playbook, new German based Leak Cycles has released the first images of their "Butt Plug Evo 1.0" DH rig.  It appears to be some variation of VPP but there isn't a whole lot of information about them yet although it appears that they are designing and building them in house in Stuttgart-Rotenberg, Germany.  I will say that I whole heartedly support the naming convention though and think that because it is a German bike, it makes it work all the more.

You can check out Leak Cycles on Facebook for more information (In German)

Never settling for "It's good enough", Rock Shox has introduced it's first major update to the widely popular Reverb adjustable seat post with the introduction of the Reverb XX World Cup.  SRAM's Tyler Moreland stated "Look Ma! No Cables!" when showing off the new major feature of the new Reverb XX World Cup, which is a build in inclinometer which automatically detects the pitch of the bike whether going up or down hill and in turn raises or lowers the seat based on the angle of the bike.

"Through rider provided feedback, we came to the conclusion that while riders want their saddle at the optimal height at all times, doing so by relying on the rider to set the height via the current remote lever felt cumbersome to most." Moreland said.  "We decided the best way to achieve the perfect saddle height at all times was to let the post do it for you."

The Reverb XX World Cup features state of the art technology which incorporates an inclinometer which monitors the fore and aft pitch of the bike and automatically adjusts the post 20mm up or down for every 5 degree's of incline or decline on the fly so that there is no thought from the riders perspective to whether or not the saddle is at the optimal height for any terrain.

The added feature reportedly only adds 100 grams to the total post weight but minus the current lever and cable, the total weight only goes from 515g to 597g.  Retail pricing has not yet been announced but is expected to be in the $549-$599 range.

Keep your eyes on RockShox.com for more updates.