- Welcome back to another weekly GMBN Tech Show.
Of course it's Christmas Eve here
so we're pretty excited about all the cool
stuff that's been going on this year.
And this week, I want to have a little bit
of a special show.
We did the bikes show last week,
this week I want to look at all the cool tech
that's been over the year.
I mean, there has been so much cool bike techs.
I had to cut out the things that I really
thought stand out to me
and to us here at GMBN Tech.
Let's have a look at some
of the coolest tech for 2018.
So, first up, I'm gonna put the new Shimano XTR
and in particular, the rear hub with the silence system.
Now Shimano being Shimano, they waited
to see what everyone else were doing
and then they refine it.
They do it the Shimano way afterwards.
So when they brought out their 12 speed system
you knew things were going to be
a little bit different.
Now there's two cassette stars available
but they're both installed in the same way.
And what they decided was that
the previous system one hub,
the amount of splines in there,
so there was 13 splines originally,
there wasn't enough to cope with the load,
the stress that goes through it,
all that torque that you can put through
those bigger sprockets on a 12 speed system.
So it designed a micro-splined system,
so it's a completely dedicated free hub body system
for these new 12 speed hubs.
They've got 23 splines each.
So have a look at this on the screen there.
So this is a brand new piece of hub technology.
They didn't just do the free hub by itself,
they designed and redesigned the whole hub.
They also took into account a lot of things
that riders are doing to bikes,
new crazes, new fashions.
And part of that is the silence system.
Now, in the past, if you said to me,
would you like a silent hub or a noisy hub?
I'd be like, noisy hub, any day of the week.
You'll have that Chris King balls
to let everyone know how much money you spent
on your rear wheel, or do you know what I mean?
It's nice to have a loud, clicky, punchy hub.
They sound great.
But actually now, since trying the Shimano system,
I want the completely silent bike.
I don't want any noise at all.
It's the strangest thing,
when you first ride it, you're thinking,
oh, something's not engaged right.
This is a bit odd.
It just feels faster.
You know how riding at night time feels faster?
It's not, its just, it's got that
same sort of thing going on.
Now the key to the silence system
is the fact that the ratchet is completely
disengaged when you're coasting.
So they're not even contacting each other,
so in theory, they should roll faster
as well as the fact that they don't touch each other.
And when you pedal, they basically
pull into each other and lock in place.
They can't slip.
They can't slip like older pull systems
with less pulls actually can.
These things lock into place,
they do their job as you free wheel,
it sits undone again basically.
It's an amazing system and it's really cool
that Shimano have designed a whole fresh system
with this new micro-spline free hub body.
Now, at present, there's only a few other hubs out there
that are using this system.
DTF have done it, and I think Industry 9
have got something coming.
I'm sure that Chris King is gonna have
something soon as well.
But really, the Shimano hub,
it's made by Shimano, it's gonna be good.
It's gonna be durable
and I think it's one of the coolest bits of tech this year
because not only was their entire group set
really interesting and really cool
but really the hub was the thing that enabled
them to do the 12 speed thing
and bring it to the table.
So, I think yet again, Shimano smashed it.
Awesome.
Next thing on the list, clearly has to be
Sram Black Box Wireless stuff.
Now, we still can't get anything out of Shrams.
Trying to get blood out of a stone
speaking to them about their prototype stuff.
But we do know it will be around
at some point next year.
This stuff looks amazing.
We've seen on Nino's bike a few times
over the year, be lucky enough to have
a little play with it,
but they wouldn't let it be operated,
the battery wasn't there.
So we have no idea actually how it feels.
Very few people have actually ridden this stuff.
It looks really cool and looks it's got
the same technology you've seen
on the Red Road stuff.
Of course you got all this stuff
completely disconnected from the bike.
There's no cables, no nothing.
So, you brake at the rail
and you plug another one on and you go.
I love the idea of that.
And something interesting that someone
pointed out was how quiet this system should be.
You think with all the cables on the inside
you think that you're bike might be silent.
But there's still noise going on
from the cables.
The more things you remove from the bike
the more silent it's gonna get.
Same principal as when I was talking about that
Shimano silence rear hub there,
I think this is another way
of making your bike incredibly silent.
Now I also suspect as well,
knowing what Sram are like,
that the shifter on this,
have a look at this on the screen here.
It's got a quite unique paddle shape
that you can use with your finger or thumb.
And it looks like it could be used
in multiple ways, so, I'm wondering
being the fact this is wireless piece of kit
that there might be some sort of app
and you're gonna be able to tune the way
that this thing works.
Also predict that it might have
something to do with the sensitivity,
like some people might want to
have a bit more pressure on the lever.
Some people might wanna be able to literally
just touch it when they're completely knackered.
I mean at the end of the day,
it's been developed around Nino Schurter.
I mean he was our first people
riding and racing this.
So pretty much what he said, went.
And when you ride like Nino Schurter,
you ride until you're nearly at black out
level of intensity.
So, he needs to be able to change gear
and do exactly how he wants, when he wants.
So, if that enables him to do it, I want it.
I want in.
I think it's amazing.
Bring on the date when it arrives.
Come on Sram, tell us some more info.
Please.
Please, please?
So another really cool thing I saw
this year in fact was at Sea Otter,
was the Cane Creek eeWings in titanium cranks.
Now, well at first, just look at them.
They're titanium cranks, they're absolutely beautiful.
But interestingly, they're 20 to 30 percent
stiffer than the stiffest carbon cranks you can get.
Which as we all know,
carbon cranks are insanely stiff,
so this things are very stiff,
but also, being titanium,
they're gonna have that kind of ride
that titanium has to hopefully dampen out
some of that shock.
But there's a whole bunch of other cool things.
So that titanium axle has a hearth joint on it
and it's kind of like fingers
that lock into place.
Now that is one of the most beautiful
pieces of engineering I've seen on a bike anywhere,
let alone on a part of the bike
that's gonna be hidden away in the frame.
Just look at the shots of this.
I'm just blown away by how beautiful
these cranks are.
I really, really want to try a set of these.
Now, so they say they're 20 to 30 percent
stiffer than high end carbon cranks.
They weigh 400 grams, so it's not exactly,
don't really weigh a lot do they?
Wouldn't be very good as a paper weight.
10 year warranty on them.
That's what you want.
I know that some riders do worry about
riding carbon cranks because they can break.
And most things can break.
But I don't reckon you would break
a set of these cranks.
I think these are just beautiful looking.
I want some.
Like I really want some.
Now one of the next things that really
really interest me, completely took me
by surprise if I'm honest,
was a set of Syncros wheels called the Silverton SL's.
Now these are one piece carbon fiber wheels.
I've never seen anything constructed
like these before.
Now I'm actually gonna throw you to me
at Sea Otter because I think you'll see
I'm genuinely surprised about these wheels.
If you look on screen, you'll see
I'm holding one of these wheels here.
Now because they're one piece design,
they'll never need tensioning
and they will never go out of true.
I think they look incredible.
And someone did actually point out,
"What happens if you break one of the spokes?"
Well they can be replaced.
That's not a problem.
You have to send the wheels back to Syncros,
but they sort that out.
So these things, I mean, one piece
carbon fiber wheel with pressing bearings.
Wow.
That is a really really interesting
piece of tech.
Also from Syncros is are their one piece
bars and stems, like the Hickson for example.
Now there is a few different options out there.
They do the more hardcore ones.
Up to 800 millimeters wide
and 14 to 15 millimeters stem lengths,
they finally look amazing.
The shorter ones, they are a little bit
lower and a little but narrow for me.
That's what came on the Scott Genius.
But now there's an 800, it's like, oh, hold on.
I'd love to have a look at those.
They look really good.
But look at these ones on screen.
Now, these are Nin Shurter's bike.
That's the Nino Special.
Look at the angle of that stem, it's insane!
They're built custom to fit Nino Shurter.
You can buy them as replica bars.
And I think they just look amazing.
They remind me a lot of early Cross Country products.
But these are much more refined.
Super light weight.
Very stiff.
Compliant as well, they take their shock
out of the trail.
I think they look amazing.
Very odd, but very futuristic.
I'm really interested in seeing
both products on Syncros.
Gonna feel one piece approach.
Wonder what else you can make in
a one piece design?
Hmm?
And next up actually is a suspension fork.
So, it's not often a suspension fork
really really jumps out.
There has been a few great products
over the years.
But a DT Swiss 535, like the F535 Fork.
That is sort of a Euro bike.
Wow, what a fork.
Now I have been riding set of these forks
just to see how I feel in different trail situations.
And I'm super impressed, to be honest.
But have a look at these ones,
the original ones that I looked at, at Euro Bike.
And I think the thing that drew me
to them instantly, was the fact that
there weren't any external dials or anything.
Everything is stealth on that fork.
So there's various different models available.
Some with remotes and some
with actual lock-outs and dials on the forks themselves.
But they have covers on them.
They're completely concealed and covered up.
And they look so clean.
And when you go to look at another fork,
it looks clunky.
Which is quite surprising.
And unlike the traditional forks
which had a reverse arch,
they've got an arch on the front.
It has an integrated mud guard design
as you'll see on some other forks.
In fact, Syncros make them.
Used to have that on the Scott.
The one that had the Hickson bar on.
But, wow.
What a fork.
And in on the inside the fork, a whole bunch
of different stuff going on in there as well.
So instead of having the speed sensitive damping set up
it has a position sensitive damping set up.
So effectively, there is no damping
for the first tiny portion of travel.
Which means they're incredibly supple over small bumps.
So supple, in fact, that they feel too soft
until you get used to them
as you start hitting impacts that
damping kicks in and does it's job.
I've not spent enough time and I'm back to back
against other stuff to actually really
directly compare them, but I think
it's an amazing and a really different
product to see.
Now something else that's actually particularly
interesting about them, is all these concealing
caps on there to hide all the stuff.
The Allan key for those is concealed
in the actual fork axle itself.
So you can take the quick release
lever off the quick release axle there,
and that has an Allan key in the end
and you can use that to remove the caps.
So, it's there the whole time.
You can do trail side adjustments
if you need to.
But pretty much, once you set 'em,
you're good to go.
I think that's really cool.
Really cool products from DT Swiss.
Now there's always a lot of cool
dropper posts popping up on the market.
And the one that really stood out to me in 2018,
it had to be the One Up Components' one.
Now this has a few cool features on it,
in fact you can adjust travel tool three.
Now, this was demonstrated to me
at Sea Otter and, well, look at me doing it.
This is how easy it is to do it.
You can see literally take that collar up,
take that shim out.
Put it down to the height I want
and Bob's your uncle!
Change the drop in the post, it's that easy.
So, they're very little, 170.
170 mil drop that is, adjustable down to 120.
150, which is adjustable down to 100.
And it's got the lowest effective stack height
of any drop post out there.
So, you can have more dropper drop
for amount of exposed seat post than any other post.
You can custom tune the post by lowering
the travel and extended length of the post
by as much as 50 mil in any increments you like.
The drop tuning can be done on the bike
tool free as I was just demonstrating there.
And without even removing the saddle
or touching the shock pump.
How's that for a cool bit of kit?
Really nice to see the fact that
the dropper post market is still expanding.
You're getting more things for your money.
You're getting more reliable products out there.
It's really good.
So yeah, I think that's a really cool post.
Everyone knows I love a lefty.
I've even got one here that's retired from service.
I just longingly look at.
Not really.
But anyway, so there's the Lefty Ocho.
So this single crown, single leg
suspension fork from Cannondale.
Wow, what a masterpiece of bike design.
Completely redesigned from the ground up.
Of course the traditional ones had eight rows,
four rows of 88 needle bearings on there.
The new one has three rows, it's more like
a triangle sort of layout on the inside there.
And needle bearings running up and down
on those surfaces.
The way the bearings are constructed,
it's different, they're more like they're in packs.
Everything about this fork has been
improved and redesigned.
And I say it's the stiffest, lightest,
highest performance Cross Country fork on the market.
And without even riding one, I don't think
I agree, this thing is incredible looking.
But their not going to be making this
in long travel options.
This is a cross country race fork.
Designed for light riders in demanding conditions.
It's ultra stiff, there'll be no binding
when you're going for travel compressing,
which is a problem with lightweight
cross country twin leg forks.
As they bind slightly as the legs flex,
it actually, you get problems with them
compressing and doing their job.
It doesn't happen on all forks of course,
but there is that issue.
They're lefty, they can't actually bind
because of the way the fork is designed
with those three rows of needle bearings.
It's gonna work just as well
when you're halfway at compression,
going through a turn and half sideways,
it doesn't matter, the fork, it's gonna perform the same.
Now in the past, they've had issues
with the damper.
If you think, on a regular set of suspension forks,
you have an air or a coil spring in one leg.
And you have your compression of rebound
damper in the other leg.
On the lefty, it's all in one leg.
It's a very complicated design to master
and make work.
In the past it's felt like there wasn't
something quite right with the fork.
They were really good,
but there was just something holding them back.
And it certainly feels, from the ones that I've felt now,
that the fork feels, like it feels amazing.
It feels really supple.
Nice and progressive.
It's a modern fork and has all these
insane high tech features.
Whether you love it or hate it, that is one
of the coolest pieces of tech for 2018.
Now I mentioned them last week on the show,
the Rev grips.
I checked them out at Sea Otter.
Shock absorbing grips.
They came and found me, they saw us filming
and they were like,
"Guys, you need to check these grips out".
I looked at them, at first I was like,
"Who wants a pair of shock absorbing grips?"
I felt them, I was like, oh, hold on.
These are really cool.
I've tried them since then.
I gotta say, these things are really really cool.
What a great idea.
So you have collars to go into the grips.
You have inserts in those collars
and then you have a system of shims
that can tune the amount
that those collars allow the grip
to move around your handle bar.
Now only talking two or three millimeters at most.
It's barely anything at all.
But it's enough to really take the sting
out of trails.
If you're the sort of rider
that suffers with arm pump, hand pump,
any of that sort of stuff,
and sort of discomfort when you're out riding,
you may be long endurance style riding events.
Then you might want to consider having
a look at these grips.
It's a really cool piece of tech.
I would have never thought I'd be putting
something comparing handle bar grips on a show
that's about tech and bikes.
First time it's happened, I tell you what,
they are flipping amazing.
It's a really really cool product.
They're not cheap, but you can buy each
of the components individually.
When you wear the grip out,
you can buy just the grip section
and retain your collars and the rubber inserts
and the shims and the end plugs, all that stuff.
But they're really really nice quality.
It has various options,
there's different rubber durometers,
there's different grip thicknesses.
There's all sorts of different colors
out there for color coding to your bikes.
You name it, they've got it.
But as far as handle bar grips goes, that's pretty tech.
And finally, Tyler from STG Saddles,
he came and found me at Sea Otter
and he was like bursting to show me something.
Although I couldn't really touch it
properly at the time, because what he showed me
was a 3D printed version.
But it was the Grom pack.
So we're talking a set of handlebars,
handlebar grips, pedals and a saddle
but dedicated for kids.
The handlebars are a narrower diameter
to have smaller diameter grips on that.
Especially for little hands.
They've been purposely designed for kids.
The pedals are smaller, they're thinner,
they're small in profile.
They look incredible.
And again, the same with the saddle.
And they come in a whole range
of amazing colors.
I know if I was a kid riding bikes,
that would be like the coolest Christmas present.
The coolest thing to just get.
I think it's just an amazing little set up.
And it's so cool to see now that bike manufactures get it.
They get it.
There's enough people out there with
mountain bikes that have got kids
that want their kids to get into mountain bikes as well.
So you can treat them to the nice cool stuff.
I just think that's really cool.
I can definitely feel,
with STG doing stuff like this,
there is going to be a whole bunch of other brands
really pushing kids stuff.
So I reckon we might have to do
a kid show special on some of
the cool tech and bikes
that are available for kids and little rippers.
So there we go, it's been a hectic year
of tech as far as GMBN tech goes.
But that was certainly some of the coolest tech we've seen.
We've been out traveling around the world
to different bike shows, World Cup races
and things like that.
Of course it's not the only other tech.
There is loads of tech that we saw over the years.
But that's the stuff that's had the biggest
impression on us.
What did you like best?
What was the thing out of our list of tech
that really sort of got it for you?
Let us know in those comments below.
And let us know if you disagree
with any of that as well.
If there is any other tech that you think
we might have forgotten to add in there.
Or any other tech that you might
have preferred to see in there.
Call it out guys.
There we go.
There's another weekly GMBN Tech Show in the bag.
Hopefully you enjoyed the show
and all the cool stuff on there.
Let us know what you think in the comments,
if you got any suggestions for cool stuff
you'd love to see us make,
also let us know in the comments,
or if you're a bit shy, you don't want to
add in on the comments, drop us an email.
We love getting your emails, hellotech@gmbn.com
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