Interbike 2014: Three From the Floor Day One

Amidst the thousand yard stares and shuffling, aimless gaits of Interbike attendees a few bits and pieces always stand out and here are three from day one. Ritchey’s new carbon breakaway, Scapin’s take on carbon and a SportCrafters trainer that only looks like a normal trainer.

peloton

Scapin Ivor
We’ve always been fans of Scapin carbon and wondered why they didn’t have the broader appeal of some other Italian bikes. They have the heritage, the pedigree and plenty of beautiful platforms. With the new Ivor Scapin is offering a semi-custom option in a very user-friendly package. Through its North American distributor, Stage Race, each rider’s Scapin will be hand made in one of two different geometry options – a more upright and relaxed ‘GT’ geometry or a lower and more aggressive ‘Race’ option with 27mm and 25mm tire clearance respectively. Riders can also choose colors, cable routing options and if they want to pony up an extra $500 they can get essentially fully custom geometry. Scapin delivers the frame in six to eight weeks for $5000. You get your name on it to. Stage Race calls the program ‘The Workshop’. Works for us.
stage-race.com

Ritchey BreakAway Carbon
Ritchey’s Breakway design is the cleanest, simplest solution to getting a full size bike in standard luggage. But until now it has been limited to steel and titanium bikes. With carbon Ritchey has subtly adjusted the design with alloy sleeves in the connection points and thanks to the nature of the Breakaway design it limits the amount of delicate carbon fibers that need to be cut to dissect a bike. With a SRAM Red 22 build the bike is no slouch on the scale either – 15.61lbs. The performance penalty to riding this travel bike is essentially zero.
ritcheylogic.com

SportCrafters HardDrive Trainer Prototype
This may look like your every day trainer, but thanks to a simple two-stage design and some clever thinking with the magnetic resistance it performs unlike any other. It requires only ten pounds of pressure on the wheel to eliminate tire slippage and radically reduce tire wear – say goodbye to your trainer tire. The position of the magnets can be easily adjusted to change the level of inertia you feel, not just resistance, to simulate everything from a steep climb with zero inertia to rolling with a strong tail wind. SportCrafters was only showing a prototype at Interbike, look for a finished product in time for next winter.
sportcrafters.com