A $25K Colnago C68 Rossa, Rapha and Factor Collaborates on Bikes, New Coros Watch, and More | This Week in Bike Tech

Coffee pastes, the prettiest Chris King colorway yet, and Rondo Bikes declares bankruptcy.

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(Photo: Colnago)

From limited-edition collabs to fresh anodized finishes, this week’s bike tech news spans racing heritage, rider culture, and a few surprising new releases.

BBB Cycling teamed up with Team Amani for a special UltraRibbon handlebar tape inspired by the East African savannah. Rapha celebrates 10 years of the RCC with a David Carson-designed collection — and a custom Factor MONZA road bike. Over in Portland, Chris King adds Matte Jade to its color lineup, complete with a matching West Coast IPA.

Meanwhile, Colnago drops a C68 Rossa to mark La Vuelta’s Italian start, Coros enters the adventure watch game with the Nomad, and NoNormal thinks coffee belongs on every ride — even in paste form.

In no particular order, here’s what’s new, This Week in Bike Tech.

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Colnago C68 Rossa celebrates La Vuelta a España starting in Italy

When I think about Colnago, it’s the C series that I dream about. The V series is more visible right now as the bikes leading the charge under UAE, although perhaps there’s a Y series now also, but it’s the C series that carries the passion of Italian cycling. The bikes are built in Italy and while not exactly lugged carbon anymore they are still put together using tubes and joints with a ride feel that’s special.

Now there’s a new Colnago C68 Road built as “a tribute to Spain and Torino.” The build, called the C68 Rossa, is limited to 90 units and each one carries a special red livery that Colnago claims “draws inspiration from a shared symbol that connects the Italian town and the Iberian nation: the bull.” It’s also a continuation of a series that includes the Gioiello for the 2023 Giro d’Italia and the Fleur-de-Lys for the 2024 Tour de France Grand Départ in Florence.

Aside from the unique Candy Red and hand applied silver leaf visual elements there are details worth noting all over the bike. The Prologo saddle and handlebar tape feature a rhombus design “inspired by the floor of the Galleria Grande in the Reggia di Venaria.” The bottle cage is a transparent, circular, 3D printed piece “inspired by the iconic La Vuelta trophy.” The bottom of the fork has a Colnago x La Vuelta logo and the unique number of the bike it’s on. Even the mechanical details are considered with details like Carbon-Ti chain rings.

If you want to add one of these to your collection, the first production bike will be auctioned by Sotheby’s in December and the rest will carry a suggested retail price of $25,000

Visit the Colnago website for more information. – Josh Ross

Factor Celebrates 10 Years of Collaboration with Rapha with a new Monza road bike paint scheme

Rapha is marking the 10th anniversary of the Rapha Cycling Club (RCC) with a limited-edition collection created in collaboration with pioneering American graphic designer David Carson. Launching on 26 August, the range includes exclusive apparel, accessories, and a co-branded Factor Monza road bike.

Carson’s bold, experimental design ethos is a natural fit for the RCC, a global community that now runs more than 4,000 rides a year from 22 Clubhouses worldwide. The collaboration also reflects Factor’s philosophy of pushing boundaries in bike design, with founder Rob Gitelis calling the project a “rolling piece of art.”

Alongside the main collection, 10 super-limited chrome RCC + Carson Factor MONZA bikes will be given away to members via a competition open until 2 September. The release reinforces Rapha’s tradition of blending performance cycling with creativity and design-led collaborations.

While you can’t immediately buy this new paint scheme, you can rent one from a Rapha Cycling Club near you. Find more at rapha.cc to find your closest dealer. -Alvin Holbrook

Poland-based parent company of Rondo Bikes files for bankruptcy

The parent company of Rondo bikes – the company perhaps best known for its gravel bikes that look like they were designed in an NES has filed for bankruptcy. The filing was confirmed on August 18, 2025, and follows a turbulent stretch for the company, reporting that the last few years were filled with financial strain due to supplier issues, client bankruptcies, and other setbacks

7Anna, the parent company behind Rondo as well as NS Bikes, Octane One, and Creme Cycles, said in its official statement that it will continue to produce, service, and sell bikes while looking to secure the brand’s future in the meantime. -AH

Team Amani has new bar tape celebrating Kenya

BBB Cycling has launched a limited-edition Team Amani UltraRibbon handlebar tape, created in collaboration with the East African gravel racing team. The partnership builds on BBB’s support of Team Amani since 2022, a squad founded in Kenya with the mission of promoting inclusivity in cycling and opening opportunities for African riders on the global stage.

The UltraRibbon tape takes inspiration from the wildlife and landscapes of the African savannah, blending cultural heritage with performance. Built from 2.5mm polyurethane with an anti-slip surface, the tape promises durability, shock absorption, and grip in all conditions. Team Amani’s Shawn Rath described the tape as “a symbol of where we come from and what we represent,” while BBB’s Elcke de Weme called it a tribute to the team’s culture and racing style.

The tape is available now for €26.95 through select retailers and BBB’s online store. See more at bbbcycling.com. -AH

Chris King Matte Jade colorway

Chris King has expanded its in-line color range with the launch of Matte Jade, a fresh anodized finish inspired by the elegance of its namesake stone. Available immediately, the new color will be offered across nearly all Chris King components, including hubs, headsets (excluding GripNut), bottom brackets, wheels, seatpost collars, and lockrings, with precise color matching across the lineup.

The Portland-based brand will showcase Matte Jade at the upcoming velo.outsideonline.com/tag/made-bike-show/, where builders such as Moots, Seven, and Mosaic will debut custom bikes featuring the new finish. To mark the occasion, Chris King has again partnered with Oregon’s Block 15 Brewing to produce a limited-edition Jade Buzzworks IPA, a West Coast-style beer available at the show and through regional distribution this fall.

Matte jade joins a range of existing hubs, headsets, seat post collars, and lockrings, meaning pricing remains the same as any other Chris King colorway. See more at chrisking.com. -AH

Coros Nomad is a smartwatch made for adventure

In the world of smart watches there’s a few tiers. Products like the Google Pixel Watch or the Apple Watch provide some sports tracking capabilities and can be quite powerful but focus as much on everyday features as sports. If you want a bit more then there’s a wide range of options from Garmin, Polar, Suunto, and velo.outsideonline.com/tag/coros. There’s also another category though. Adventure watches.

Watches in this category are bulkier, stronger, typically have more battery life. They are also often more expensive. Now Coros has a new entry called the Coros Nomad and it follows a familiar playbook.

Like other Coros products the Nomad offers exceptional battery life, claimed at up to 50 hours in All-Systems GPS mode and up to 22 days in standard use, as well as reasonable, $349, pricing. Also along for the ride you’ll find a 1.3″ Always-On MIP display that Coros claims has better color and contrast than previous offerings.

For the Coros Nomad the brand is also bringing a novel new feature to the table. Like other watches in this category there is a built in mic and it can be used for recording voice notes. Where it gets really interesting is that you can then take those notes and combine them with photos and video in the Adventure journal in the Coros app. The concept is that you save your adventures as a scrapbook but you can also share them with others.

For more information and purchase visit the Coros website. – JR

NoNormal Coffee Paste comes in a tube for outdoor fans

Sticking with the adventure theme, this one is a little out there. We get all kinds of emails about all kinds of products here at Velo but this one gets a spot here because it would have meant I had coffee on a recent adventure and that’s a good thing.

The concept is pretty simple. It’s instant coffee but instead of dried and ground powder its fair trade Arabica beans as a highly concentrated coffee paste. There’s either sweetened or unsweetened versions with 30 cups in the black and 20 cups in the sweetened. Squeeze a bit out of the recycled aluminum tube into water and mix it up. If you are bikepacking, or perhaps riding a road bike long distances with no bags as I recently did, then this lets you carry coffee when you might otherwise have to go without.

Right now this is only preorder with delivery at the end of September but the pricing is $19.90 for black or $16.90 for sweet. There’s also discounts available for bulk purchases and you can find out more details on the NoNormal website. -JR