Interbike day 1: A few of LZ's favorite things

Sci-Con's new soft-sided bike travel bag with hard base and wheels is designed specifically to fit 29er mountain bikes with huge side pockets for the wagon wheels and a padded sleeve for the handlebars. The front and rear dropouts clamp to an internal frame that includes mounting options for through axles and quick-release axles. Photo: Lennard Zinn | Singletrack.com

Yes, that's a 29er in there! You no longer are compelled to leave your favorite ride at home when flying. Photo: Lennard Zinn | Singletrack.com

History lesson. A 1980 Ritchey 650b and a 2012 Ritchey P-650b constitute 650b 101 class. Photo: Lennard Zinn | Singletrack.com

The Ritchey P-650b steel hardtail has an integrated lower headset bearing, Ritchey carbon rigid fork (Ritchey also has a 29er version of this fork), Shield tires and Vantage 2 alloy rims. Photo: Lennard Zinn | Singletrack.com

Ritchey's new Trail cockpit has the stiffest stem in the Ritchey line, featuring 220 degrees of wrap around the bar held with Torx bolts screwing into the stem cap. The Trail 2X handlebar is 720mm long and features plus or minus 5mm of rise. Photo: Lennard Zinn | Singletrack.com

The Ritchey Trail seatpost has a new, lighter weight two-bolt saddle clamp. Photo: Lennard Zinn | Singletrack.com

Syntace's FlatForce stem achieves the drop with a short stem that many smaller 29er riders seek. Photo: Lennard Zinn | Singletrack.com

Superfat and Superlight? A full ENVE carbon cockpit on a 9:ZERO:7 with 186mm rear end spacing helps make it featherweight despite all of that rubber. Photo: Lennard Zinn | Singletrack.com

The Syntace Vector series of 7075 aluminum and carbon wide handlebars now has three new carbon additions to better fit smaller riders wanting more drop on their 29er or 650b bike, namely the Vector Carbon High5, Low5 and Low 10, offering +5mm, -5mm, and -10mm of rise (or of drop), all with 740mm of length. Photo: Lennard Zinn | Singletrack.com

If your townie bike has a Nexus internal-gear hub, HBBC's SUICID3 shift lever will fit on it. If PBR's not your choice, any beer-tap handle will screw right onto it. Photo: Lennard Zinn | Singletrack.com

Remember when downhillers wouldn't come near carbon fiber? Now the only parts of any size on Steve Peat's Santa Cruz Syndicate DH race bike that are not carbon are his fork and crank; his carbon SC frame and ENVE rims and cockpit are all clearly tough enough for the big Brit. Photo: Lennard Zinn | Singletrack.com