Big news from Avid is the cable disc brake; sales of which are going so well, production of its full hydraulic brother. Practically all the bike speccers at the major manufacturers have been blown away by the cable brake performance despite initial wariness after the Formula / Dia Tech prototypes of previous years which performed far better than production versions ever did causing manufacturers a endless complaints. We’ve only had a few fair-weather trundles with the brake ourselves but bite and modulation appear excellent, with a really handy thumb adjusted caliper alignment. Trouble is every delivery is sold out before it leaves the factory so get your name on the list (RAW marketing 0131 4676467) el pronto.

We’ve been told to expect no more magnesium on the conventional braking scene after the notoriously volatile material repeatedly burst into flames during manufacture taking a factory and several of its workers with it more than once – as UK importers RAW put it “people died to make those brakes”. In its lightweight place come titanium bolt and bobbins kits for standard brakes- which will also be available aftermarket for those wanting to upgrade Magnesium brakes for truly featherweight, but guilt-laden performance.

Also getting the chop are the super expensive Arch Supreme brakes which get replaced by a cartridge bearing, ‘Arch’ free set up. The standard Arch Rival brakes will come in only one version rather than the current 40 & 50 versions.

Avid’s Shorty 15 cantilevers that are designed to run with road bike levers are also galloping out of the factory after Shimano discontinued their XT cantilevers, leaving the Avids as the only decent performance option for cyclo-cross and touring bikes. Next year’s ‘Shorty’ range will include a top spec. version with titanium kit, the current model and a slightly cheaper version, leaving the canti family as the only section in their range that’ll be expanding. Retrotastic!