Bell’s new Variant helmet packs 24 vents into its 320g shell. We’re not totally convinced by the styling, though.
The new version of Cateye’s Triple Shot LED light system has a remote switch and variable power levels.
BMC
Hopefully we should be seeing more of Swiss brand BMC in the UK soon. All of its full suspension bikes share a short-linkage suspension design. On the Superstroke it delivers 6in of travel. The frame and shock weigh just over 7lb – the full bike comes with Maverick forks and seatpost.
Want something a little lighter? The carbon fibre Team Elite frame weighs a scant 2.45lb.
Chumba Racing doesn’t just do full suspension frames – here’s its very smart-looking XCish hardtail.
Iron Horse’s DW-Link 6Point8 packs a meaty spec but somehow manages to look quite svelte.
Brodie
The Brodie name has been around for many, many years. Currently it’s offering burly frames in both full suspension…
…and sliding-dropout hardtail flavours.
Somewhat beyond the reach (or need) of the home mechanic, but Anvil Bikeworks’s framebuilding jigs are guaranteed to trigger deep longing in anyone with even the mildest tool fetish.
Kuota’s carbon FS frame is mainly notable for the curious “beak” at the front. Oh, and the four-spoke carbon wheels that adorned the show bikes.
Cane Creek
Duros XX wheels are for all-mountain/freeride use. Rim width in mm and spoke count are both 28.
The Tank heavy-duty headset series uses 5/32in balls up top and 1/4in ones at the bottom.
Salsa
Salsa’s new Casseroll frame isn’t a mountain bike, but we rather like it, so here it is. It’s a road bike in the very broadest sense – clearance for 35mm tyres (or 32mm with mudguards), gears or no gears, rack eyes, pump peg… The show bike was built up as a kind of posh riding-to-the-shops bike, but you can run non-Post Office style bars too.
Somewhere at the other end of the technology/fashion scale is the Mamasita, a lightweight Scandium/carbon fibre 29er frame.
Fi’zi:k
The new Arione K:1 saddle features a continuous carbon fibre rail that runs around the periphery of the shell in a loop. The shell is also carbon, with Fi:zi’k’s Technogel providing the padding. The whole lot comes in at 149g.
Meanwhile the Freek freeride saddle has some new colours, including this one clearly inspired by the classic Brooks look (now owned by Fi:zi’k’s parent company Selle Royale).
Santana
Maverick DUC32 fork graces the front of Santana’s mountain tandem. Novel frame design gives the captain plenty of standover height.
Flying with a tandem can be a chore, but Santana’s solution is a frame that breaks down into three sections to allow the whole bike to be packed into a pair of checked-baggage-friendly suitcases – one for the captain, one for the stoker.s
Syncros
White would appear to be, yes, the new black – here’s Syncros’s clinically-hued front hub…
…also available in a wheelset with matching rims. No white spokes, though, thankfully.
White Industries’s new (and very shiny) crankset puts the inner ring bolt holes as near to the teeth as possible for enhanced stiffness. Obviously that means that every ring size has a different bolt circle diameter, so the inner ring mounts to slotted holes in the outer by way of cunningly-wedged bolts.
You don’t see much Yakima stuff in the UK, which is a real pity – it’s got some very smart car racks. This towbar-mounted unit is one of the tidiest we’ve seen, and the retention mechanism is immune to the vagaries of funny-shaped frames. It does roofracks along similar lines, too.
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