- I'm here at the Taipei bike show,
which is Asia's largest cycling trade show.
I'm on the hunt for the hottest new cycling tech.
So, let's go find it.
(jazz music)
A cool new piece of tech here that's actually won an award
at the Tai Pei show.
So this is the zero drag silent hub from Foss Worldwide.
And, well I think I'm gonna show you what it does.
So I'm gonna turn the pedal here.
Nothing especially remarkable about that.
But when I stop turning the pedal
and let it free wheel, it's silent.
There is no free wheel ratchet sound.
It has a special kind of free hub design
where the ratchet is able to disengage
and then go into silent mode, as you can see here.
And because you don't have the added friction
of that ratchet still engaged as you would
in a traditional free hub mechanism,
there's much less friction.
And so that's why you can see this wheel
is just continuing to spin and maintain its inertia
because it's now just running on the bearings.
And there's no drag there.
So that is, well it's just continuing to spin.
I mean, you could stand here all day.
I mean go make a brew, come back and this would still be,
still be spinning.
For display purposes,
this rig doesn't have a full cassette on.
But you could fit a full cassette on there still.
But it's really interesting to think
that we'd be riding along with silent free hubs.
I mean you wouldn't be able to hear
if someone was behind you.
And they were sat on your wheel just coasting.
They'd be silent, stealth mode.
(jazz music)
Another really exciting product here
at the Tai Pei Bike Show
are these Digirit carbon chain rings.
Now everyone loves a carbon chain ring.
They're quite possibly one of the most bling things
you could put on your bike.
But in the past carbon chain rings have been,
kind of form over function.
And there is a tendency for them to be a little bit brittle,
flexible, and for the teeth to splinter.
But Digirit recon they've solved that problem
with a brand new manufacturing process
that really is quite innovative.
So using a heat compression mold technique,
they actually have the chain ring
as a single carbon piece,
and the teeth are compression molded there.
And then cut out and machined.
But there's no structural weakness in the teeth
as you would get on a traditional carbon chain ring.
But the interesting thing here
is that they're not saying that this
is a super super light chain ring,
which is what you might expect from a carbon chain ring,
in actual fact, the main advantage
of this kind of chain ring
is its lateral stiffness.
And as a result, Digirit recon that these are really popular
with track riders where there's huge amounts
of torque and huge forces involved.
Because I mean, well, I'll have to pick it up and show you.
(jazz music)
One of the hottest new bikes at Tai Pei is this,
the Look 795 Blade RS aero bike.
Now, this is Look's latest aero bike.
And it's got some really cool features.
So Look has aimed to make this more versatile
and more comfortable than existing aero bikes.
And one of the key areas it's done that
is with the seat post.
So Look's previous aero bikes tended to have
an integrated seat post that you had to cut to length.
And then you had a few little spacers on top
to fine tune your saddle height.
But this offered quite a few limitations
if you wanted to travel your bike,
you couldn't take your seat pin out.
Or if you wanted to sell your bike,
you know, it limits you there as well.
So, they've done away with that
and they've got a traditional seat post
that slides inside the frame.
They've also lengthened the effective
seat post length as well,
which improves compliance and deflection
of that seat post to make it more comfortable.
But my favorite thing about the seat post
is that the top of it here is actually adjustable.
And this means that you can alter before and after
position of the saddle relative to the bottom bracket.
Why is this important?
Well it means that you can replicate a TT bike
geometry on the road bike.
So what you could do is stick some tri bars on the front,
or you could get Vision's new cockpit
and stick that on the front,
flip the seat post so the saddle is more
over the bottom bracket and then you've effectively
converted your road bike into a time trial bike.
Which you could convert it back into a road bike
when you don't want it as a time trial bike.
It's like two in one which is great.
(jazz music)
Like any cyclist, I love a good pair of sunglasses.
But these new glasses from TriEye,
they're not any old glasses, oh no.
They've got a clever feature built in.
So you may have noticed this little black bit here.
And that is actually a rear view mirror.
So I can see what's behind me over my left hand shoulder.
How clever is that.
It's one of those things where people think,
how has no one thought of this before.
So the idea is it's like having a rear view mirror on a car
or a motorbike and just makes it a little bit safer.
Rather than having to always look over your shoulder.
You can carry on looking forwards.
And if you're in a part of the world,
such as the UK, where we drive on the right,
do we drive on the right in the UK,
well we drive on the other side (laughing),
and you can actually get the mirror on the other side
of the glasses as well.
So, interesting.
And they're available in well white or black.
But I think that's a really neat and simple idea.
And also as an added bonus,
if you're a secret agent,
these glasses are excellent for spotting
if people are tailing you.
(jazz music)
I think there's a guy over there tailing me.
(jazz music)
Us road cyclists often get accused
of liking carbon fiber everything.
Well, we do.
And this is the coolest carbon fiber thing I've seen today.
This is a carbon fiber brake rotor, right.
And it weighs just 42 grams.
Now to put that into context,
a Dura Ace rotor that's also 160 millimeters
weighs 119 grams.
So, well that's about a third.
Which is absolutely incredible.
And being carbon the makers also claim
that it has another advantage over an alloy rotor,
which is that it doesn't deform as easily.
So you're not gonna warp this as easily
as you would with an alloy rotor.
Which is an interesting proposition indeed.
But how have they achieved this?
Well the construction is made up of
heat compressed layers.
But they've actually impregnated graphing powder
into the resin and in doing so
they recon that this helps with heat dissipation
over a standard carbon fiber,
which is well quite interesting.
But also there is a Kevlar layer that's on there as well.
Which acts as a wear indicator.
So when the Kevlar layer becomes visible
and you've worn your brake down,
then some small fluff starts to appear on the rotor
and that is a sign that the rotor is worn out
and you need to replace it.
So this is a fresh rotor that's unworn.
And then I've got a test sample here
of one that's been worn down
and you can see the Kevlar layer there.
I'd be really intrigued to try these out
and see how they compare to an alloy rotor.
But part of me wants them to be really good
because how awesome would my bike look with these on them?
I'm over at the Topeak stand.
Now Topeak are masters when it comes
to multifunctional gadgets.
And I love gadgets.
And they haven't disappointed me
because they've got this.
Which is called the TubiBooster.
And it's a new cylinder that they've developed
which is designed to help inflate tubeless tires.
So the way it works is you get any regular track pump
and you pressurize this cylinder by connecting it up.
And then you take the cylinder off
and you can inflate a tire.
So I'm gonna do that now and show you it in action.
(jazz music)
I've now got the charged cylinder in my hand.
With 140 psi banged in here.
So let's inflate and hopefully seat this tubeless tire
with a big blast.
Let's do it.
(jazz music)
I was, well, I was expecting like a huge bang.
Quite relieved that didn't happen.
But that was incredibly quick and easy
how that just seated and inflated that tire.
And yeah, it's just on.
Yeah, really smooth.
But, it doesn't end there.
As I said multifunctional gadgets right.
So if I just release the rest of the air
out of here I'm now gonna take the nozzle
off the top of the cylinder.
(jazz music)
So I've detached the cylinder.
And the idea is that when you go out on a ride
you leave the cylinder at home.
But, you can take the nozzle with you
because it doubles as a CO2 inflator,
which is a really neat and clever idea.
So I put my CO2 cartridge in there.
And the neat thing here is it's got
the same nozzle on it as the MicroBooster CO2 inflator
that Topeak makes which I love
because you can control the flow of the air as it comes out.
So look at this.
I'm a, my thumb's freezing like the Terminator.
(laughing)
Like the T1000.
Yeah, how cool's that?
This way.
Lloyd is always hogging the camera.
I love a bling pair of carbon wheels.
And over at the Vision stand they haven't disappointed.
They've got their new 2019 wheels.
Plus, this rather interesting disk wheel.
Although there's not too much information on that yet.
I think it might be a prototype.
But the whole Metron range has been revamped for 2019,
which is really cool.
So they've got new rim shapes.
Completely new rims.
Gone are the brake track that was found on the,
the one from last time.
And these are now disk specific rims.
There's a new shape and they've gone wider as well
which is great because it helps the tire sit wider
and is in line with the trend for wider tires.
Also, all the new wheels are gonna be tubeless ready,
which is awesome, and they're available for Shimano
Campi free hubs.
And either six bolt or center lock disk brakes.
Oh my god mate that is absolutely beautiful.
I'm lost for words.
Excuse me.
This is, oh wow, look at that.
Unbelieve, wow.
This absolute stunner is the Rhinoceros,
which is the top of the range model
from luxury Italian brand Pedemonte.
Now the first thing, and most important thing
you need to know about this absolute weapon
is that it costs $40000.
Yeah, that's right.
$40000.
Now it's got actual gold leaf on this
completely custom paint job,
but the frame itself is also completely custom
and limited edition.
So depending on the size you need,
that's the size that it will be made to.
But it's also got loads of amazing luxury components,
including a fully integrated aero handlebar
with an absolutely beautiful leather cover on it.
Which is well straight out of the interior
of any super car.
Pedemonte actually have expertise in this area.
They actually make carbon fiber components
such as wings and spoilers for cars such as Ferrari.
There's a lot to talk about on this bike,
so stay tuned for another video,
where I'll go into more detail on all the fancy bits
on this absolutely beautiful machine.
I hope you've enjoyed our look at the hottest
new tech here at the Tai Pei bike show.
And stay tuned because we are gonna be putting out more,
because there's so much here to see.
And if you've enjoyed this video,
please give it a thumbs up.
And if you'd like to see more tech
then why not tech out the tech show.
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