After so many people were shot Sunday night from the Mandalay Bay hotel, where Interbike was located, down into the music venue on Giles Avenue, which I rode past every day to and from the show, it seems pretty irrelevant to be writing about the bike stuff I saw there. On the other hand, at a juncture like this, we must all seek out things that bring joy to us and the world. Bicycles certainly can do that.
K-Edge has been machining cool little gadgets to improve the quality of the ride for some time now. The “Mercedes door click” feel and sound of a K-Edge Garmin mount does make my world a bit brighter. The polymer insert housed in the machined aluminum mount that the computer clicks into is tough as well as precise in its dimensions. K-Edge claims it can withstand the rigors of Paris-Roubaix or a World Cup downhill without releasing its grip on the bike computer, but it is also designed to break in the event of a crash, thus saving the mounting tabs on the Garmin so it can be snapped in again when you replace the polymer insert.
The adjustable Garmin stem mount secures the Garmin above the stem and is particularly ideal for mountain bikes and cyclocross bikes that might crash into the dirt regularly. It acts like a headset spacer and mounts around the steering tube, under the top cap. It is hinged to adjust the angle of the computer screen to your liking.
K-Edge’s PROvibe computer mount is also hinged and specifically fits non-round PRO aero carbon Vibe handlebars.
Like K-Edge, Wolf Tooth also precision-machines little parts to optimize bike performance. Its Sustain gadget allows the owner of a RockShox Reverb dropper to activate the seatpost mechanism mechanically, with a cable, rather than through the stock hydraulic activation system. You simply remove the hydraulic hose from the bottom of the seatpost and screw in K-Edge’s little Sustain cable-activated unit (it is the cable housing that pushes on it and activates the seatpost, not the cable pulling). Sustain comes in A or B type, depending on the seatpost generation. You then clamp a Wolf Tooth remote lever to the handlebar, install a shift cable and housing, and, voilá, cable activation of the dropper mechanism. While RockShox has recently replaced the linear hydraulic pushbutton remote with a remote lever activating the hydraulic master cylinder, the Wolf Tooth Sustain will retrofit onto either generation of Reverb.
The Wolf Cage offsets the upper jockey wheel, allowing use of larger cassettes to get more gear range, yet without complicating the installation by requiring replacement of the entire jockey-wheel cage. Replacing the entire cage with a longer one would require disassembling the rear derailleur’s lower spring knuckle assembly, whereas installing the Wolf Cage requires only unscrewing and screwing back in the jockey-wheel bolts, replacing the upper jockey wheel with the offset Wolf Tooth one, and replacing the inner cage plate with the Wolf Tooth plate that fits the offset jockey wheel.
Prestacycle’s new miniature torque wrench is actually a beam-type torque wrench, rather than one that clicks when the set torque is reached. You push on the little round knob on the end as you tighten the bolt, and the needle moves across the face of the gauge as torque increases. Stop pushing when you hit the torque you want.
The latest miniature Prestaflator has a digital gauge, and you just push the entire handle up to engage the Presta valve, rather than having a hose with a chuck on the end sticking out of the Prestaflator.
Arsenal Cycling’s flashing taillights and headlights all automatically get in sync with each other. This increases rider safety by taking advantage of evolutionary adaptations of our eyes to figure out when separate things are part of a larger object and how far away that object is.
When lights all flash in sync, our mind automatically and instantly recognizes them as all being attached to the same object. This is the reason radio towers and other tall things sticking up in the air have red, synchronized flashing lights on them, so that airplane pilots can recognize the tower as a single object, rather than perhaps mistaking one of the lights as being far off in the distance relative to another one. And once the mind connects them, it then instantly calculates, based on the spacing between the lights, whether the object is coming closer or is moving farther away. So when you have multiple blinking Arsenal lights on your bike and your body, a driver automatically registers that it is a single cyclist and can tell how fast he or she is approaching the cyclist.
Key to internal routing of the Di2 wires inside of a PRO Di2 pre-drilled mountain-bike handlebar, is the scooped lip on the PRO Koryak Di2 stem. The lip provides space for the wires to come from the XT or XTR Di2 digital display into the front and get around to the hole in the back side of the bar. The wires from the battery and the derailleurs already come in through the stem shaft into the big hole in the back of the bar, and the wires to the shifters pop out of holes right near them.
Wilier Triestina had a chef in its booth luring onlookers in for a tasty nibble and lingering a bit to gawk at its bicycles. He offered his own homemade olive breadsticks wrapped in prosciutto.
A Ferrari-branded red carbon bicycle used to be the exclusive domain of Colnago. But now Bianchi has obtained that exclusivity, and the Scuderia Ferrari SF01is supposedly the beginning of a larger cooperation between the two Italian companies. Although the SF01 appears to be a Bianchi Specialissima with a cool paint job, Ferrari rearing-horse head logo and a claimed weight of 780g in size 55cm, Bianchi says it goes far beyond rebadging Bianchi bicycles. There is a planned cooperation on an aero triathlon bike, and the ultimate goal is together to engineer and produce Bianchi/Ferrari commuter bikes and e-bikes as well.
Lazer’s Air Slide covers on its new Bullet helmet allow you to choose between air flow and aerodynamics. With the honeycomb cover on, slide it forward, and it closes the air vents. Slide it back and it opens the air vents. And for no front or back ventilation and smooth airflow over the helmet, pop on the solid Air Slide cover.
Campagnolo now no longer requires a longer cage to deal with a 32T largest cog. The single Centaur rear derailleur with a mid-length cage will cover all options.
Yep, that’s a Campagnolo Centaur 11-32 11-speed cassette, and the Centaur crank has an integrated pedal washer to reduce damage to the crank face when tightening down the pedal.
The Tubolito seamless thermoplastic inner tube only weighs 83 grams for a 29 X 2.35” tube, about 1/3 the weight of a butyl tube. It is claimed to have double the puncture resistance of a butyl tube.
The DT Swiss ERC 1100 DiCut disc-brake road wheel is an “endurance” wheel with low aerodynamic drag. DT Swiss defines endurance as, “to pursue a goal, no matter what might happen on the way.” ERC 1100 DiCuts are optimized for a wide tire (28mm), and the rim design is optimized for low aero drag with that size tire. The rim width also allows the tire casing to work properly, thus granting the lower rolling resistance and greater comfort that a 28mm tire can offer over a 23mm or 25mm tire.
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