Apologies for not getting our weekly Products: column done on Saturday as usual. After Interbike I was pretty beat along with having to fly back to Minnesota and get all settled back in so I took yesterday off. I know, I’m a slacker… It won’t happen again for a while. I hope.
I do however have this weeks edition of Products: ready for you to check out for you right now. This week we’re going to do a couple more products than usual and look at a few of my personal favorite items that were on display this past week during Interbike. Let’s dig into this…
All right, so let’s kick this off with the S&M and Fit booth. On top of all the new products they have unveiled over the past year from the frames and insanely dialed complete bike line between both brands, one item stood out to me the most. Mike “Hucker” Clark’s signature frame. Mike took the ATF geometry and put his own twist on it. The frame has slightly longer chain stays, a lower bottom bracket height and a taller standover height which makes it more ideal for riding trails but still a good all around frame. You can find features like the gussets on the top and down tube, the bullet chainstays (which look so good), Mike’s signature Shaka logo on the top gusset, mid bottom bracket and the built in seat post clamp. As you can imagine, this frame is designed to be beat to shit so it’s going to last most of you for the rest of your life if you pick one up. The graphics and color options weren’t dialed in, in time for Interbike but Chris Moeller said the frame will be out in October so I’d imagine they’re all dialed in with the frame specs and everything since those are the last two key options. I have a feeling this one will be a real popular frame for S&M.
To check out more from the S&M and Fit booth, hit this link — Interbike 2012: S&M and Fit Bike Co.
To find out more about S&M, check their website — SandMBikes.com
The products at the Fly Bikes booth were some of my personal favorites. David has been cooking up some crazy ideas lately and it looks like it’s all coming out this year. One of the items I personally really liked is their new brake system. Looking at the photo you can see 3 key things. Starting at straddle cable…. or should I say straddle spring? They’ve replaced the straddle cable with a spring that controls the tension of the brakes. Want more tension? Simply stretch the spring outwards. Moving to the arms, since that straddle spring controls the tension you no longer need the traditional springs in the pivot mounts. This allows a little more chain clearance and a flush look. Finally, the brake pads. These don’t use the traditional style either. They’ve taken that angled screw design they use on the removeable mounts on the frame and applied it to the pads. Basically, you slide the pad on at the end of the arm to set it wherever you want it, then the arms allow for a few degrees of tilt so you can get the pads to line up on your rim just perfect. All you do is slide it on, lock your brakes and tighten the screw down. Simple as that.
Overall, it’s rad to see a drastic change to u-brakes even in a time when so many people ride brakeless. I’ve been saying brakes are coming back and I think this might just be proof.
Check out more photos and the other products on display right here — Interbike 2012: Fly Bikes
To find out more about Fly Bikes, visit their website — FlyBikes.com
Profile had a few surprises this year at their booth. Anyone that has been in the game for a while know they are very well respected for their 19mm, 48 spline cranks that come with that very impressive lifetime warranty. They recently decided to expand their line up a little bit to cater to some of the riders out there looking for a little more strength. In the near future, Profile will be introducing their new 22mm cranks. They feature slightly larger arms (think the old DJ cranks) with larger bosses and a 22mm, 48 spline spindle. These cranks only weigh a few ounces to the weight and ultimately are a little stronger than the traditional Profile cranks (How that is possible is beyond me, those cranks are strong as shit).
These samples were literally welded a day or two before the show by Jim the owner so these won’t be out for at least a little while. I don’t recall what the exact options that the cranks will come in as far as right or right side drive, spline drive, sizes or colors but I’d imagine these will come in at least raw, chrome and black and a few of the more common sizes they sell (180mm, 175mm, 170mm for example). I would also assume this means there will be some 22mm spline drive sprockets being made as well. Expect more details in the next few weeks.
You can check out more from the Profile booth right here — Interbike 2012: Profile Racing
To find out more about Profile Racing, visit their website — ProfileRacing.com
I’d imagine by now everyone knows exactly what this gem is. The elusive and highly anticipated Cyclops stem was on display at the Terrible One booth for what I believe is like the 5th year in a row. Now, for anyone who might not know about this project for some odd reason. The Cyclops is a uniquely designed stem that Joe Rich has been working on for years and has constantly ran into issue after issue of getting it made. When the stem was originally designed, finding a machinist here in the U.S to do it left it with a very high price tag, then making adjustments to make sure the stem was flawless took a while, then any machinist that would be willing to do it fell through, then the guy who originally did the Auto CAD drawings of the stem with all the precise measurements left the company and all the designs disappeared too.
So now we have present day… Joe has been working with Ken from Zodiac Engineering to essentially take a prototype and reverse engineer the stem taking an existing prototype sample and breaking down every single measurement involved in CNC machining the stem from a block of metal. Which after quite a bit of time they’ve managed to do that along with creating the stem with a reasonable price tag. What you see here is potentially the final prototype they will be doing. Unless they can find some flaw that I highly doubt they will find.
If this is truely the final sample, the stem will be going into production here in the next few weeks and could be available just in time for the holidays. All things some of you older guys who have been waiting on this for a while have heard, but knowing the work Ken does, I believe it. Keep those fingers crossed.
You can check out more from Terrible One’s booth by hitting this link — Interbike 2012: Terrible One
To find out more about Terrible One, visit their website — TerribleOne.com
Next up we have a little sneak peek at what The Shadow Conspiracy have in the works. The 3rd version of the beloved Interlock chain; Interlock Supreme. So what exactly is different on this one versus the previous? Pretty much everything. This version of the chain goes through a process that actually takes 3 separate forging processes on the plates to create much stronger links beyond other half-links and even the existing Interlock chain. The beefed up plates along with some stronger pins have a higher tensile strength.
The only downside to this? Well, first off just to have the chain made is very expensive… which then turns into a very expensive retail price. So finding a method to create the chain for a lower price is key. The second issue, they haven’t created a machine to put these chains together yet. I heard it took the people making the chain a whole day to put together 4 chains. Yeah, so mass production is the other key to this project that needs to be figured out. Pretty crazy.
This chain is still in the very early prototype stages so we probably won’t be seeing this for at least another year and will probably see a few changes before we’re even able to get one on our bikes.
This is just a taste at all the new products they have cooking, so check it all out right here — Interbike 2012: The Shadow Conspiracy
To find out more about The Shadow Conspiracy, check their website — TheShadowConspiracy.com
Up next we have the new Mutant Bikes cassette hub. Anyone who has been paying attention to Mutant should have noticed they like to do things a little different than just putting their name on a product out of the Taiwan production catalog. Nuno has really put a lot of thought into this one. The hub features a unique female axle design that stands out to me. The hub uses a sliding female axle which is cool for two reasons. One, the axle actually fits into the drop outs which takes the stress off the axle bolt which increases the strength in comparison to a solid male axle. Also with a sliding female axle, you are able to finger tighten one side and then use your socket to torque the wheel down which makes centering the wheel easier. The hub will also be available with a sliding male axle as well.
The flanges also allow the spokes to sit in which helps prevent them from breaking from grinding.
They’ve got this hub available in right and left side drive as well as a front 3/8th’s version. These will both be available in just a few weeks here in the U.S through QBP.
Overall, this hub has a real clean design and has features that I think really serve a purpose. Definitely impressed with this one.
To see more photos from what Mutant Bikes had on display, hit this link — Interbike 2012: Mutant Bikes
To find out more about Mutant Bikes, check out their website — MutantBikes.com
It looks like chains were on a few peoples minds this year. When Jim Bauer asked if I wanted a sneak peek of the new Odyssey Key Chain I was a little confused until I realized he was talking about an actual chain called the Key Chain. This chain features a couple unique things that I’ll just copy and paste because it explains it all perfectly…
“1. Oversize Hollow Pins. Traditional chain pins are 3mm in diameter, ours are 5mm. This not only makes them stronger but gives a bigger contact with the plates and so makes them harder to push or bend out. Additionally the pins are riveted in place.
2. Thicker but lower profile side plates. With an extra narrow waist to each plate they are harder to catch on things. But at 1.4mm thick they are substantially thicker than the plates on any other chain and 50% harder to bend than the thickest existing 1.2mm chain plates.
3. Unique Master and Half links with threaded pins. Break and re-join the chain with just a 3mm hex key. Half link plates are less narrowed at the bends to increase stiffness and minimise stretch. By eliminating the use of a chain breaker to re-join the chain we can ensure factory tightness on all the pins.
4. Low overall weight. By using material as efficiently as possible we have strengthened every component of the chain and kept the weight the same as our Bluebird chain.
5. Low stretch. By using a standard alternating plate pattern and limiting to a single beefed up half link chain stretch is minimised, which in turn maximises sprocket and driver lifespan.” – Jim Bauer
Overall, this is a great concept and I am definitely interested in getting one of these chains on my bike to see how well it works. It seems like they hit all the key factors in creating a strong chain along with a unique way of installing the chain that I honestly never even considered. I mean, how many of you honestly thought it would be cool to use an allen key instead of a chain breaker? You can see more photos of the chain by hitting this Sneak Peek.
This was just one of a bunch of new products that Odyssey had on display. Check out all of the goods right here — Interbike 2012: Odyssey
To find out more about Odyssey, check out their website — OdysseyBMX.com
Ah, one of two of the highly anticipated freecoasters being shown at Interbike. Karl Poynter’s signature EZRA freecoaster that has been in the works for something like 6 years if I remember right. Now, I’ll be honest and say I hardly have any knowledge of exactly how freecoasters work compared to Bunky at Free-Coaster.com does, so I’ll just avoid making a fool out of myself with ridiculous guesses of what these internals might look like. EZRA didn’t open up the hub for me to get a look at either. What I do know is this hub has a very slim design in comparison to the Federal and KHE freecoasters and it’s definitely quite a bit lighter too. I have a feeling the internals are similar to a cassette hub, but I honestly don’t know. What I do know is that they’ve got something like 100 in production right now and they will be out very soon. Why only 100? Because they want to ensure that there aren’t any production errors. They are confident in the design but they want to make sure these are being produced flawless. So you know when it’s out they are going to work real good.
To see more photos from the Eastern and EZRA booth, hit this link — Interbike 2012: Eastern and EZRA
To find out more about Eastern, visit their website — EasternBikes.com
To find out more about EZRA, visit their website — EZRABMX.com
A similar photo to this one popped up a few weeks back during Eurobike. The new Eclat Blind freecoaster. They’ve got their patents all dialed in on this one so that’s why they were able to show a sample cut open giving you a good idea of how the internals work. Once again, I’m no freecoaster expert so I’d be full of hot air if I could explain what’s going on right there, so I advise you hit the Free-Coaster.com post about the hub. He breaks down how the internals work a little better. This hub is in production now and should be out real soon. From what I’ve heard, Shane Weston has been beating the shit out of this hub with no problems so that’s a real good sign. It’s definitely cool to see the different approaches to freecoasters for this year so I will be assuming we will be seeing more people going backwards in the near future.
This is just one of a bunch of new products that Wethepeople and Eclat had on display, check out more here — Interbike 2012: Wethepeople and Eclat
To find out more about Wethepeople, visit their website — Wethepeople.de
To find out more about Eclat, visit their website — EclatBMX.com
All right, let’s wrap this up with something a little more fun and less high tech. Subrosa had a handful of new products on display, but one that stood out is their new grenade bike lock. If you are looking for a light weight lock to keep your bike from rolling off with some stranger while you are in 7-11 loading up on beef jerky and slushies this is for you. The cable for the lock is by no means going to fight off a some beastly chain cutters but this will do a real good job of keeping the honest people honest. It’s small (fits in your hand like a real grenade…) and lightweight so it’s not a pain to carry around. I am not sure exactly when this will be out, but I’d imagine in just a few weeks.
You can check out all the other new products that Subrosa had on display right here — Interbike 2012: Subrosa
To find out more about Subrosa, check out their website — SubrosaBrand.com.
All right, so that wraps up this special edition of Products:. I hope you are digging what I picked out as some of my personal favorites from Interbike. If you want to see what else was on display during the show, here’s a recap with links to all the different booths and brands. Check back next Sunday for our regularly scheduled Products: column. Until then, hit up the front page for all the latest Originals or hit up the Daily Section for all the latest videos, news, products and more.
Want more Products:? Check out past editions below.
