Outdoor Demo 2008: Chris King cogs.
King also rounds out its selection of un-ramped single-speed cogs with 21-, 22-, and 23-tooth models.
King also rounds out its selection of un-ramped single-speed cogs with 21-, 22-, and 23-tooth models.
The front derailleur on Pivot’s FFD system stays in place through half of the travel. When the swingarm comes within 3mm of hitting the end of the derailleur cage, the pin attached to the chainstay hits the black tab, causing the FFD mount to pivot forward, keeping the front derailleur from hitting the swingarm and in a good working range of angles with the chain.
Pivot’s Floating Front Derailleur system on the 6-inch-travel Firebird frame allows the front derailleur to pivot with the swingarm, so it will still hold the chain on and shift properly. The chainstay can then come in straight and directly without fear of it hitting the front derailleur, rather than doglegging down below, adding flex and deepening the chances for nasty chain suck.
King added the 10th color to its palette — brown. The new color also ushers in the use of its Sotto Voce branding. The softer logos were first debuted during February’s Handmade Bike Show in Portland, Oregon.
King will offer two 15QR hubs for 2009, the one on the left has a standard ISO disc hubshell and the right uses the brand’s 20mm hubshell.
The BB has a trio of tools that allow for proper installation and service. The installation tool was pictured alongside the bottom bracket in the previous photo and the grease injection tool is demonstrated here.
Chris King was proudly showing its fully serviceable external bearing bottom bracket. If the brand’s headsets offer any indication, this is going to be one sturdy unit. The BB’s are compatible with Shimano’s HollowTech 2 road and mountain crank specs.
The Masi Soulville 10 is retro with a new style. It has a compact double crank and a 10-speed cogset. The shifter is a SRAM 10-speed DoubleTap lever for flat handlebars. The Soulville has slide-on full-cork grips, cool, flat fenders, and sparkly red paint.
After pushing in the pin from the non-drive side and breaking off the pilot pin, you turn the chain around and flip the gate of the tool down. On the flip-down gate is another pin that supports the assembly pin from the back side against which you tighten the chain tool until it mashes out (peens) the head of the assembly pin to lock it in place.
Campagnolo’s 11-speed chain tool has the same wire loop as the 10-speed version that you insert into the tool to hold the chain in position when you are using the tool. You leave the unique lifting gate open when you cut the chain, as well as when you do the initial chain installation.
Campagnolo’s hollow 11-speed break-off type connecting pin requires Campagnolo’s special 11-speed chain tool to install it through the “virgin” link on the end of the chain. Push the pin outward from the non-drive side so that if the end with the break-off pilot protrudes toward smaller cogs, where it won’t hang up, rather than toward bigger ones.
Even though we focused much of our attention on the electric parts, it's worth noting that the bike was equipped with a prototype tubeless version of the 7850-C24 carbon clinchers.
The shifters in the first photo represent the newest version. We were allowed to ride an older version, like the ones used in the ProTour last year.
The slickest item in the group is the auto-trim function of the front derailleur. The computer knows to trim the front derailleur when the rear is at either extreme end of the cassette.
The first thing people might ask of Shimano’s Electric Di2 drivetrain is: What’s the weight penalty? There isn’t much. The group is roughly 60-grams lighter than the 7800 Dura-Ace group and only 60-grams heavier than the new 7900 group.