The Taipei Bike Show is one of the most important industry events in the calendar.
There is loads of cool stuff here. And as you can see, I now work for GMBN so I get
to show you all of the most amazing lightweight cross-country gear out there.
And there's some other stuff, too, like a dropper post and...Anyway,
let's start with tires. There's loads of new stuff.
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- This bike looks a little on the large side. It is. It's a 36er.
You don't see many of them around. I've got no idea how it would ride.
I think I might flip the stem.
Hope is showing two new cassettes.
Now, we've got the wide-ranging cassette, which is machine, into two
pieces, so the larger four cogs made out of aluminum and then the smaller seven
cogs are made out of steel, 10 to 44 teeth and it is super light, 284 grams for the
cassette, so that's pretty punchy.
You've also got a downhill-specific cassette, so that's seven-speed and that's
a 10 to 24. KS is showing their wireless dropper post. Now, it's still at the
prototype stage yet, so they say they've got the functionality where they want it,
but it's the asthetics that they're going to be working on next, so ultimately,
this wireless box at the back won't be there and then also the switch will look
very different as well. But as I say, functionally, they've got it where they
want it. It uses the normal KS internals, so a mixture of air and oil,
and then you also get your micro-adjusts still as well because all the wireless
electric stuff does is literally flip a switch.
- The switch that would normally be activated by a cable. Now, no word yet on
when this is actually going to hit the market, but by the look of it,
they're quite a long way down the line.
So we've come to Crank Brothers to check out their stamp pedals. Now, they were
actually announced back in August, but they're shipping now, so we thought we
really needed to take a closer look.
The first thing that you'll see is the fact that they come in two different
sizes, the idea being, of course, that people's feet are different sizes.
So the smaller one is 100 millimeters across, and that's optimized for shoe
sizes between, apparently, 38 and 42. Then the larger one
is 110 mill across and that is for shoe sizes above 43.
Now, the other thing you'll notice as well, is just how narrow that pedal is.
So it's only 12 millimeters, giving you great clearance, and then also lowering
you over the bike still further. And then, if you look closer still, there's 1.5
millimeters of concavity there as well, so that's going to be a really nice, secure
grip on your foot.
There's a couple of really interesting new things over at FSA.
Now, I'm stood here by their revised crank sets for 2017 and they've gone
into what they're calling a modular system, so in theory, the same crank set
can run any format of chain rings, so one, two, or three. And also,
you can use the same cranks for boost and standard. So you simply swap out that
spacer, the chain rings bolts straight onto the cranks, you swap that spacer to
go from a boost chain line to a standard chain line. In theory,
that would mean your Q factor's a little bit wider, but that may or may not be of
interest to you. Also, the other interesting thing they've got is their
new 1-by chain rings. Now, they're making them out of steel. FSA rightly
pointed out that a 1-by chain ring gets quite a lot more wear than a 2-by
setup, so they're making them out of steel so in theory that is going to last a
lot longer. No word on chain wear but here we go. And then the other thing
they've got is a new dropper post. This is their gravity one. They have also got a
cross-country one where it's a little bit lighter. Really nice, cable-actuated,
100 mill of travel or 125 mill of travel.
For those of you riding 27-plus, or in fact just looking into it,
you'll be pleased to see, no doubt, that a lot of the big-time manufacturers are
increasing the range they offer in that size. So Maxxis here will now offer the
Recon, the High Roller, and the Minion in a 27-plus size.
We're over at Praxis Works and we've spotted a new crank set. It's called
the Lift. It's actually a carbon chain set even though it doesn't look like it.
They've had to paint up what was their prototype crank set in order to bring it
here and launch it at the show. Now, It's compatible with Praxis Works
bottom brackets. Now, you'll be familiar with them because they may well have
answered your prayers if you suffer from a creaky press fit.
So basically it'll fit any kind of bottom bracket standard. Now weight is supposedly
about the same as XX1 so super duper light and it would be compatible with boost and
standards and any ring configuration you want to throw at it. It's a pretty
versatile crank set.
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It's not new but it is very recent. This is SRAM's NX1 drive train, so it brings
1-by group sets right down to lower price points. All the features there that
you'd expect, you've still got a narrow-wide chain ring, monster range on
the cassette, and also no chain slap.
Sticking with SRAM a minute,
we've also had a good look at their new- level brakes. So these are designed for
cross-country. They took loads of the tech that was in their Guide series and then
condensed it all, made it a little bit lighter. So they've gone from a four-
piston to a two-piston brake. Their Ultimate, that's the lightest one in the
range, is about 318 grams for a complete front brake.
So that's about 60 to 80 grams lighter than the equivalent Guide brake.
One of the really nice things about them is that the range goes from super cheap
right up through to high-end as well, so they're actually accessible to everyone.
This is Topeak's Joe Blow Booster and it's their solution to the problem of seating
tubeless tires. So you turn your normal track pump with a flick of a switch into
charge mode. Then, when you pump, the air is stored in this cylinder here,
right up to 160 psi. Then, with a flick of that switch again, the air is released
at the volume of an air compressor straight back out.
For many people, the announcement that Aaron Gwin was going to use TRP
brakes this year might have been the first they actually heard of this company,
but it's long-established, and in fact the model Aaron's using, the Quadiem, isn't
exactly new either. It's been around for a year. But I thought I'd take you through
it anyway, just in case. So, as the name suggests, it's a four-piston design, two
different sized pistons, actually, a 14-mill and a 16-mill, meaning that they
actually actuate at different times so that improves the modulation.
Otherwise, as you might expect, there's a reach adjust on the lever and a carbon
blade. And we can probably imagine that they're going to be going really quite
fast this year. Now if you think you need to brush up on your braking performance,
then if you click just up there, we've got a great video on how to brake like a
pro. Or if it's more tech that you're after, click just down there and you get
straight through to the GMBN tech playlist. Otherwise, make sure that you
subscribe to the channel. Do so just there.