Titus

An eye-catching array of bikes packed the periphery of the Titus stand, with the all-new orange-anodised FTM being the most distinctive. The FTM is Titus’s flagship trail bike, with 135mm of rear travel. Weight is cut at the rear by the combination of hydroformed aluminium chainstay assembly, one-piece carbon fibre seatstays and a moulded carbon rocker. The bike pictured has a 6000-series aluminium main triangle, but for those with deeped wallets titanium and Exogrid ti/carbon composite options are also available.

As well as a veritable flotilla of Racer-X short-travel sussers (we rode the new Racer-X Carbon at Outdoor Demo, more of that soon), Titus also has a range of hardtails (including an intriguing steel/carbon Exogrid frame) plus longer-travel FS bikes. Show here are the aluminium and titanium incarnations of the 155mm travel all-mountain El Guapo. 1.5in headsets and ISCG mounts may be considered statements of intent.

Park

Park always has a selection of new things for the tool geeks, and we place ourselves firmly in that category. New for 2009 are Park-branded digital calipers and scales in trademark blue, bringing that totally colour-coordinated workshop a step closer. We were also drawn to the PP-1 precision caliper prizing tool, which looks like a much better bet than our usual screwdriver/tyre lever combinatin. Park also has a new pair of click-style torque wrenches.

Salsa

Salsa doesn’t have a particularly high profile in the UK, but it’s got a very healthy range of bikes on offer. For 2009 there’s an all-new full suspension platform that will come in 5in travel, 26in wheel and 4in travel, 29in wheel flavours. The back end is pivotless, relying on a hint of flex in the flattened seatstays to accommodate the different radii of the arcs through which each end must rotate.

That’s a fairly mainstream sort of bike, but Salsa is big on niches. The cat puke-coloured device covered in luggage is the Fargo, a fat-tyred tourer that’s clearly responsible for a world shortage of threaded bosses. The Selma is a Scandium-framed, EBB-equipped, singlespeed 29er race bike, while the Chili Con Crosso is a no-holds-barred cyclocross racer.