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Baltimore Bike Path

We’ll end with Zipp’s negative drag PowerTap equipped Sub 9 disc wheel, because we’ll pick up here with the next installment and look at what Zipp and SRAM have cooked up new for the road. The PowerTap hub only adds 120 grams to any of Zipp’s disc wheels; the Sub 9 tubular equipped with a PowerTap weighs 1120-grams. SRAM announced that it will introduce its own line of wheels at the tradeshows this fall. It will keep Zipp as its high-end road brand, so for fun I’ll take a guess that in six months time, SRAM might have a viable mountain bike wheel? It would surely round out the line nicely.

The French tire maker’s tubeless ready cyclocross tire is finally set to go and being produced.

The tread of the Toro is modeled after the Bulldog.

The Toro is a new higher-volume big treaded 29-inch tire that comes with a Tubeless Ready bead instead of a tubeless casing to keep the weight down.

Hutchinson said it has a 25mm Fusion tubeless tire coming down its development line as well as higher mileage tubeless training tire called the Intensive.

The wheelset has 44mm carbon rims, steel spokes: 18 front, and 20 rear; it weighs 1537 grams. The cost is not yet set but may be close to $4000.

Speaking of tubeless compatible, tire maker Hutchinson has teamed with Corima to offer a Hutchinson branded carbon tubeless road wheelset, called the RT1.

Both wheels feature 29-inch rims that are tubeless compatible.

The XLR relies on the brand’s top-end hub, with loose balls and angular contact races.

And this is the upper tier, the Red Metal 29 XLR; both wheels forgo alloy spokes in favor of steel.

The biggest news in the Fulcrum camp may be the two new 29-inch wheelsets. This is the economical version called the Red Metal SL, which is priced at just $350.

Just in case any of the employees at QBP, the brand’s U.S. distributor, get any ideas.

The rim is tubeless compatible.

The carbon mountain bike clinchers feature Fulcrum’s 20mm axle, aluminum spokes and nipples, but are laced normally, not with the brand’s 2:1 spoke ratio.

Fulcrum’s Red Carbon wheels will be available later this year. Currently, Julian Absalon is waging another season on the wheels.

The rim-brake compatible Red Metal Zero mountain bike rims use a hub with Campy ‘s Record internals, aside from being proven and easily serviceable. Campagnolo’s road ceramic bearing bearings can be dropped right into the mountain wheel.

Fulcrum had a new color option available for its Red Metal Zero mountain bike wheelset. It’s the inverse of the new option for road bikes. The road version keeps red spokes with a black rim, while the mountain version gets a red rim and black spokes. Technically both wheels are unchanged.

SwissStop is sharing space with Edge at Sea Otter, and had a new pad shape to show. The new shape will replace the current Campagnolo-compatible pad and will be available with SwissStop’s three pad compounds. Edge wheels exclusively use the Yellow King carbon compound. A bike’s worth of the carbon pads cost a whopping $64, but they are the best performing in Edge’s testing and our experience.

Edge will offer four mountain bars, in the next 8-10 weeks. They come in two styles, flat or rise, with two clamp options, 25.4mm or 31.8mm. One of the most interesting pieces of feedback from testers is that the bars aren’t as stiff as some of the competition’s offerings. Kevin Nelson, one of Edge’s two carbon engineers, thought it was something he would have to change, but instead the testers embraced the feel. “I guess you learn something everyday,” he said.

This fork has a King headset base plate molded in.

Edge will also have a full range of forks, two road versions, as well as aero and cyclocross models. The ’cross model should be ready for this coming cyclocross season and will be shipping in August.

1.0 Series rims come in two heights, 38mm left, and 68mm right.

Off-road, Edge does two different rims, but instead of using height as the differentiating factor, it uses width. The XC rim is 24mm wide and comes in tubular or clincher configurations. The trail rim is a full 30mm wide and only 40 grams more.

Edge has a complete line of wheels both, road and mountain, forks and handlebars all made of carbon. On the road, Edge offers two rim depths, 38mm and 68mm, in two different models. What the consumer will notice is that one is significantly lighter. The 1.38 rim — Edge’s top of the line 38mm rim — is the lightest, weighing a mere 270 grams.

Jason Schiers and Jim Pfeil are the front men of Edge Composites, a smaller Utah based carbon manufacturer that’s making waves in the bicycle industry. Both have storied bicycle industry carbon manufacturing histories.

An internal view of the rear hub.

The spokes are butted stainless steel and are mated to long 7075-T6 alloy nipples; there are 24 front and rear.

The rear hub has a 25mm center axle section, and rotates on four large bearings.

The anodized 6061-T6-aluminum wheel uses a unique spoke attachment process to allow tubeless tire compatibility without a rim strip or other sealing mechanism. The internal width of the rim is 19mm.

Crankbrothers is taking reservations for its new Cobalt XC wheelset. Early production weights are 688 grams for the front and 852 grams for the rear. The U.S. built wheels will retail for $1000.

The Suzuki 24 Hour National Point Series kicks off its 2008 race season at the picturesque Vail Lake Resort outside of Temecula, California. The Suzuki 24 Hours of Vail Lake, the first stop on the six-race nationwide team relay and solo mountain biking circuit, will run around the clock from noon on Saturday, April 26 until the following afternoon on Sunday, April 27.

Win a Giant Team Edition bike or a signed jersey – online sweepstake starts Monday San Luis Obispo, CA, 18 April 2008 – Team High Road, Right to Play and Giant Bicycles are pleased to announce the chance to win a team edition Giant Bicycle and a signed Team High Road jersey.

Of rubber, cinders and platform shoes...

Wrubleski. Get used to spelling the name.

The Wheel & Sprocket Pro Development Team has been invited by the organizers of the 2008 Nature Valley Grand Prix to bring a men's Midwest regional development team to this year's race. Wheel & Sprocket Pro Development was selected because of its mission to provide developing racers the opportunity to compete at the highest level of the sport.

The Liquigas Team was officially presented on 9th January 2008: up until now that was the first and only time that Daniele Bennati had donned the green-blue strip. More than three months have passed since that day, but the sprinter from Arrezzo will finally get the chance to make his first appearance for his new the team on 20th April during the Giro d’Oro. "I’m curious and excited about this debut. My season is only just starting now and I want to make my mark," Bennati said.

Nazi artillery greeted me on my ride into Houffalize this morning. A German Panther tank sits near the center of the Belgian town that this Sunday hosts the opening round of the UCI mountain-bike World Cup. And to be honest, the sight of enemy armor didn’t faze me, not even while clad in lycra. In the few days I’ve spent in the Ardennes region — which this week hosts the mountain bike World Cup, Fleche-Wallonne and Liege-Bastogne-Liege — I’ve grown accustomed to seeing guns, bombs, tanks and other military relics from the second World War.

A Swiss investment group, along with some of the company's managers, is buying Pedro's USA back from Swix Sport USA, the ski company that has owned Pedro's for the last decade. Sport adventures International S.A., based in Lausanne, Switzerland, teamed with managers to buy the company. Long-time Pedro's executive Chris Zigmont will become the company's new CEO.

Speaking of 15mm hubs, even Giant Bicycles, not a traditionally known hub maker had a prototype on hand for the new standard. More will details of just how far the 15mm thru-axle standard reaches will become available in the next few days.

Shimano had a 15mm thru-axle hub on a Fox fork on display, and so did Marzocchi. The Italian suspension manufacturer was showing the new 44 model with its QR15 system.

Fi’zi:k also showed new stick on grippers for its saddles, they are a hit with the gravity crowd and come in packs of three.

Fi’zi:k’s has a new mountain bike saddle called the Tundra, and it’s already winning races under Geoff Kabush’s butt. It’s based off of the design of the Arione and will be available, to start, in two versions, one with K:ium rails and a black cover and another in white with braided carbon rails. Both will be under 200-grams.

The derailleur’s cage is shorter, so that it can be run very close to the cranks outer bashguard. Its short length also gives more tire clearance, and will work especially well for 29-inch wheeled bikes.

Shimano had sharp looking samples of its new SLX group on hand. Here are the wide ratio double crank and double-ring specific front derailleur.

The carbon 29er sports a special fork from RockShox. The decals say Reba Race, but SRAM representatives were keeping their mouths shut, as they have a planned product unveiling scheduled for Friday at noon.

Subaru-Gary Fisher rider Jeremy Horgan-Kobelski isn’t at Sea Otter, instead he’s chasing and Olympic selection, but his new team issue Superfly 29er was at the event.

McGrath says that the 28mm wide ZTR Flow rims give the tire a larger profile than other manufacturers’ 32mm rims because of their unique lack of a bead hook. The rims are lighter too; they’re said to save well over a pound when compared to their competition.

With Maxxis Team manager, Gary Wolff, in Belgium with the cross-country team, mechanic, Adam McGrath was holding down the fort for the gravity racers on the domestic front.

In addition to the Mach 4, Cocalis had a prototype version of the BH Connect on hand. The two-off version of the frame is fitted with a BB30 bottom bracket shell.

The 429 uses much of the same technology as the Mach 4 and 5, including the DW-Link suspension system, direct mount front derailleur and Shimano’s press-in bottom bracket system.