News

The Sola 69’er runs a 26-inch wheel in the rear and a 29-inch hoop up front.

Slovakia's Peter Velis (center) and Australia's Wesley Sulzberger (left) sprint

Regardless of wheel size, you can count on Seven frames for clean welds and sharp CNC work.

A carbon mountain bike with Chorus road pedals. As we said — show bikes.

Product manager Steven Fairchild incorporated a Tektro brake inside the rear of the sculpted fork, a design he said reduces drag by 10 percent compared to an aero fork with the brake on the front.

Built for Mike Broderick, this one features an FRM crank, Shimano XTR and SRAM X.O parts and a rigid carbon fork.

The crash...

Introduced two years ago as a concept bike, the Diamas is now available in Seven’s custom size program. The $4995 frameset is Seven’s first all-carbon custom bike.

Slipstream-Chipotle’s new ride, the Felt F1.

Internal cable routing makes for clean lines.

Seven doesn’t just built custom bikes for its customers. Product manager Matt O’Keefe built this internally geared commuter for his 18-mile trek to work.

... the tumble...

The top and down tubes of the Diamas wrap completely around the head tube for a firm connection — and a striking look.

Sock Guy spells it out for you.

Tucking a brake inside a fork presents adjustment issues…

He made this rack with scrap titanium, and added Full Wood fenders from River City Bicycles’ Dave Guettler.

... the win.

The top of the Fuentes sock.

That Fairchild solved neatly.

Even the hub-driven light gets some custom love with internal wire routing.

Armstrong stayed in the mix all day.

Obey

Kestrel’s bold designs will now be supported by the strength of Fuji’s distribution and logistics network.

For 2008, Sidi’s high-end mountain shoes have full-carbon soles. The SRS replaceable tread system extends the life of the shoes.

Thorburn suffered a mechanical and finished a minute off the pace.

As in, Shepard Fairey’s experimental “Obey” art project that spread like wildfire

Kestrel’s bold designs will now be supported by the strength of Fuji’s distribution and logistics network.

What do you mean you’re hesitant to buy white mountain shoes?

Neben goes for it

Dear Readers,

Welcome to this week's edition of The Prologue, a regular summary of the news from the world of competitive cycling by your friends at VeloNews.com.

As you know the world's championships are now underway in Stuttgart, Germany, and as of Thursday, the time trial events are done and attention now turns to this weekend's road races. Be sure to check in on Sunday for Live Updates from the elite men's event on VeloNews.com

Metal is used for the attachment points; the pedal threads and non-drive pinch clamp is alloy while the bottom bracket spindle is steel.

Alex Burgess, team manager of Team Velo Bella in his Vegas best.

Abbott likes the course

Easton focused special attention to the bearings in the bottom bracket to cut down on seal drag. The outside of the high quality stainless steel bearing has a fairly standard seal but the inside has just a low contact dust cover.

Lew’s new limited-edition special wheels with specific layups for specific rider weights and characteristics come with this red superlight Tune freehub and cost $15,000/set. The rear weighs just 427g!

Lewis hopes the race boils down to a small group

FSA’s new K-Force carbon wheelset uses a new bladder molding process for the 50mm rim that allows for a highly refined finish right out of the mold. The set will feature carbon hubs, Sapim spokes and ceramic bearings for $1700 and should weigh 1340g

The 307-gram mate to the above limited-edition Tune-equipped rear wheel. This pair weighs in at an amazing 734 grams!

Hincapie has been speaking with Stapleton for some time now. The two are seen here, chatting during February's Tour of California

The titanium artisans at Moots have a new design for their new Cinch 27.2mm seatpost (31.6 and 30.9 sized posts are in the works); its clamp has been redesigned for easier installation and adjustment

Lew isn’t the only one making sub-400 gram wheels. Topolino’s Rafe Schlanger’s new project front wheel weighs a mere 363 grams. It uses a Reynolds carbon rim and has a different method of attaching the spokes at the rim than other Topolino wheels.

A familiar face showed up in the Industry Crit. Mario's still Super, eh?

Ritchey has a new 3/2.5 titanium Breakaway folding mountain bike.

American Classic’s Mag 300 wheelset features a 280-gram magnesium clincher rim. The magnesium clincher wheelset weighs 1165 grams and absorbs high-frequency vibration, thus soaking up road buzz and granting more comfort and less fatigue to the rider.

Bright lights big city

Jeanson says her father and her coach both encouraged her to take EPO.

The frame breaks down easily via this dual seatpost clamp...

Velocity’s new rim decorations are actually stickers.

The Cheerwine leadout train took Van Gilder to the line

The head of France’s Anti-Doping Agency said Friday that Danish rider Michael Rasmussen submitted a sample that showed signs of the presence of Erythropoietin at this year’s Tour de France. AFLD President Pierre Bordry cautioned, however, that the sample does not qualify as a positive, because the substance in question is a new version of the drug EPO that is much closer to human erythropoietin than the established version of the drug, Epogen. "Traces of Dynepo, a biosimilar EPO, were found in Rasmussen's urine," AFLD President Pierre Bordry told the Reuters news service on Friday.

...and this downtube coupling.

Delta 7’s Arantix frame uses carbon fibers arranged in an “Isotruss.” Delta 7 claims that it is lighter, stiffer, stronger, and more resistant to impact than traditional layered carbon frame constructions because the open structure isolates damage.

In 2018, long after global warming, plague and warfare had scoured the rest of humanity from the Earth, Steve Tilford wins the inaugural Tour of America, which began in 2008

We were somewhere round Barstow on the edge of the desert when the drugs began to take hold. — Hunter S. Thompson, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas Okay, it’s 2008 and the inaugural Tour of America has just limped into Chimayo, New Mexico. Everyone has abandoned except for Steve Tilford and a couple of deranged Belgians who just cleaned out the Saints & Sinners liquor store in nearby Española after they tried to order waffles for dinner at El Paragua but got something that looked like rolled-up pancakes full of beans smothered in napalm. Junkies have stolen the wheels off the remaining team

The Breakaway case has also been refined. There is no longer a plastic relief for the rear wheel’s cassette and the zipper has been moved to keep it out of the way.

The Delta 7 Arantix’s down tube. All of these fibers are strung and tied by hand, resulting in a 300-hour frame construction time and hence a $7,000 frame price tag. Lizard Skin makes light, 1mm-thin stretch covers for using this bike in mud.

Reynolds is filling a gap for 2008, admitting that it has not catered to the triathlon and time-trial segments and it’s built some new products to fix that very issue. The new Reynolds DV66 in both tubular and clincher provides noteworthy performance

Lake manufactured this custom color in its CX400 heat moldable shoe for the Jelly Belly team.

Eric Sampson’s new Stratics complete road group includes a carbon crank and svelte front derailleur in addition to these parts. The whole group is quite light; Sampson’s Show Time group has aluminum parts rather than carbon and is far less expensive.

Reynolds says that it tests to have the second lowest drag coefficient of all the wheels it has tested. The tubular set weighs 1350 grams and costs $2000; the clincher set weighs 1630 grams and costs $2350.

The CX330 has its Boa closure on its heel so that when tightened it locks a rider’s foot into the heel cup.

Shimano’s new Dura-Ace carbon crank retails for $1300 and weighs 709 grams complete. It is 10 percent stiffer than a current Dura-Ace crank and has the new XTR-style adjuster against the left bearing cup to preload the bearings.

Element is Reynolds’ new carbon disc wheel built with an aerospace quality foam core. The carbon layers come from the hub and wrap up and over each side of the rim so there is ample overlap, making stronger, more durable wheels. 1100 grams and $1300

The 330 will have standard three bolt and direct mount Speedplay cleat attachment options in 2008. It costs $280.

Bettini has been cleared to defend his title on Sunday

Reynolds molds in a valve stem cavity during the construction instead of cutting a whole out after the wheel is finished.

Interbike - The industry gives back

Evans has one last shot at glory this Sunday

Reynolds’ Black Ops wheels. They weigh just 980 grams per set, and the wheel show to us had 247 g scribbled on it. I’m guessing it’s the weight of the 46mm carbon rim. A price isn’t set, but the wheels should be ready by January 2008.

Interbike - The industry gives back

Hincapie and his teammate-to-be for 2008, Hammond

The TT model has a narrower spacing on the front hub to reduce its frontal area by 50-percent. The wheelsets weigh roughly 1370 grams each. The narrower front TT hub concept is also available in the aluminum rimmed EA90TT wheelset.

World Bicycle Relief has given away over 25,000 bicycles similar to these in areas ravaged by the tsunami of 2005 and to health care workers in Zambia doing outreach to people’s homes fighting HIV/AIDS.

The supporting cast includes Julich and Farrar

The EC90SLX is a 24.9mm tall carbon tubular. Because of the smaller rim this set weighs in at 1170 grams. It was Astana’s front wheel of choice for most of the 2007 season.

A typical wooden bike used for hauling goods in Rwanda.

Bettini and Freire are among the favorites

Easton debuted a new crank after two years of development work on it. The EC90 crank has a hollow carbon spider and arms. A 175mm crank with its chainrings and bottom bracket weighs a mere 663 grams, and is only set to cost $600.

A typical wooden bike used for hauling goods in Rwanda.

Abbott, Armstrong and Neben