The Cutaway Special - Interbike 2018
I had never heard of Wiawas before walking by their booth, but this diced up and sanded down carbon BMX frame pulled me in faster than a donut sale at Tim Hortons. They're a Korean brand who is probably better known in the archery world of all places, and that's where they've borrowed some technology to manufacture their Nano Carbon frames.
See that white layer in the cut up carbon downtube? That's called S-Core.
So, what Wiawas are doing is placing a foam core in between the two layers of carbon fiber that make up the tube, and they've got some pretty interesting test result numbers to go along with it as well. According to their own tests, an S-Core tube is 41% stronger in a bending test, 31% stronger in compression, and 45% stronger under distortional loads compared to a ''normal carbon shaft in the same quantity."
Wiawas aren't the first to put foam in the walls of a carbon tube (ten PB points to whoever can remind me who else did it), and while I have no idea if it's as good as they say it is, it sure does sound cool.
So, what Wiawas are doing is placing a foam core in between the two layers of carbon fiber that make up the tube, and they've got some pretty interesting test result numbers to go along with it as well. According to their own tests, an S-Core tube is 41% stronger in a bending test, 31% stronger in compression, and 45% stronger under distortional loads compared to a ''normal carbon shaft in the same quantity."
Wiawas aren't the first to put foam in the walls of a carbon tube (ten PB points to whoever can remind me who else did it), and while I have no idea if it's as good as they say it is, it sure does sound cool.
Wiawas is a Korean brand who's putting a foam core inside the walls of their carbon tubes.
Maybe it was just me, but do you remember when fidget spinners came out and you were like, ''WTF is this useless thing?'' I feel like such a hypocrite for wanting to permanently borrow this freehub demo gadget from the Industry Nine booth... I couldn't stop watching the damn thing. And the sound!
The fidget spinner you're looking at shows how I9's six pawls interact with the 120-point drive-ring to deliver a 3-degree engagement. But I mostly just like watching it spin around.
Push Industries is always busy working on new stuff, but they didn't have anything previously unseen in their booth this year. What they did have, however, were these neat clear tubes to show how their ACS3 coil spring conversion kits work. In the upper tube (the one without a coil in it), you can see the adjustable air-sprung bump stop system that runs down the middle of the coil to the spring seat. This see-through display lets Push adjust the pressure in the bump stop so you can feel with your hands the very noticeable difference it makes.
The $389 USD ACS3 kit will go into the 2015 - 2018 Fox 36, 2014 - 2018 RockShox Pike, or a 2016 - 2018 Lyrik or Yari forks. All of the components are hand assembled and manufactured in Push's Loveland, Colorado, facility.
I already used this photo of Alto's cutaway hub in a previous Interbike article, but I'm going to use it again because cutaway. You're looking into one of their Boost mountain hubs with an XD driver, and while you can't quite see them, there are four pawls and a 48-tooth drive-ring in there, too. An aluminum axle runs through high-end NSK ABEC7 bearings (or you can upgrade for an extra $365), and both end-caps are threaded so you can be bang-on with your bearing preload. Or way off, actually, so don't mess it up.
The US-made rear hub goes for $462 USD, while a front costs $339 USD.
This cut open Kali Shiva full face shows off their Nano Fusion shell, which sounds like it's from a NASA science lab. It isn't, but it is an in-molding process that joins acrylic self-healing foam and carbon nano-tubes with the shell.
In English, that means that Kali used a different density foam, one that they say "dissipates energy more efficiently and in a smaller volume than any other material on the market,'' in places on the shell that are likely to make hit the ground.
Okay, technically this isn't a cutaway or see-through demo, but I could see through the hub shell when I removed it from the hub body. Huh? Yeah, that's what I said when I first saw TwoPointZero's modular Phoenix Hub System. Actually, that's what I said after I learned about it, too. It's an interchangeable hub shell setup that allows a rider to use the same inner hub body (freehub, axle, brake mount) on different wheel builds, just so long as the other wheels have TwoPointZero's hub shells in the middle of them.
A massive aluminum nut holds the inner and outer sections of TwoPointZero's modular hub together.
TwoPointZero says that their hub "eliminates the need for multiple cassettes," so if a rider had a wheelset that they use for racing and another that they use for training or just to beat on, you can change from one to the other without needing to move your cassette or rotor over to a different hub... But you do need to use the supplied giant-sized socket to undo a massive aluminum nut that holds the two pieces together. The inside face of the outer section is shaped to lock into the outer wall of the inner hub body, thereby keeping the two from ever going in different directions. I bet you'd want some nice grease on those faces, too.
They're close to releasing a mountain bike version that will be compatible with all of the freehubs, frame dimensions, and axle sizes, and you'll be able to get it in Centerlock and 6-bolt flavors. The MSRP is still TBD, but it's probably safe to assume that it'll be close to the road hub's $750 USD asking price. That includes two outer hub shells, one inner hub, the aluminum nut that holds the two pieces together, and the largest socket ever used on a bicycle component.
Here are the whirly bits inside of a Pinion gearbox that was out on display at the Outdoor Demo. While they said that no one had lost a finger yet, I wouldn't be surprised if it happened before the end of the day.
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Perhaps the rotor will slide off/on centre lock style held in place by the big nut
Takes me 30 sec
Maybe if they reduced the price of this by 60-70% it might make sense. Maybe.
I got dt240 too. Could not possibly dislike them more.
First of all mine are centerlock which really limits what brake you can run and you need tools on trail you don't usually carry in case something comes loose or gets bent, then for some reason the bearings do not last in them no matter what quality i put in. Original or Enduro ceramic, doesn't matter after a few month they all feel exactly the same as the freehub... never had that with kings or I9... i would even trade them for some generic shimano's if it wasn't for rebuilding my rims on different hubs...
Where they are really missing the boat is the fact that it will support any hub standard that comes out without replacing the wheels. Many of us have seen it go from QR>135>142>148>157x26>275>29 That is 15 possible combinations currently. For me personally I have had expensive setups on every standard so if there had been an option like this with King or I9 I would have saved thousands of dollars in wheel swaps.
asking the real questions
Are we sure about this? A 500W pedaling output is pretty high but a low end 10A alternator on a small engine puts out at least 1200W. And that's just running off the accessory belt at idle. A quick search brought up some physics class quizzes showing average pedal torque around 20Nm. Toyota's 1.6L Corolla engine puts out about 160Nm. Think about accelerating a bike to 15mph on a flat vs pushing a car vs flooring the gas. By my calculations I'll be receiving about 8 downvotes for too much math...
Imagine a 170 lb rider starting on a steep hill. Assume they stand on one pedal with ~90% of their bodyweight. So force on the pedal is 153 lbs. Crank arm length is 175 mm = 6.9 in = .575 ft.) , so torque at the crank is 153*.575= ~88 ft lbs. Assume a 32t chainring and 50t rear cog which gives a gear ratio of (1.5625), the torque seen at the rear hub is 88*1.5625 = 137.5 ft lbs. That is comprable to a small car.
Anyone who has ever been kicked back while trying to start a motorcycle knows this.
Mechanic: "just get the new bontrager rapid drive hub. No fancy spokes either."
And in impact testing?
looks like to me that they did tube & lug construction and they decided to use foam core tubes instead. Theres probably some weight savings here but i think this kind of stuff is not better than an integrated monocoque
www.rockwestcomposites.com/materials-tools/core-materials/rohacellr-foam-core
Not the best analogy but compress the cardboard centre of a toilet roll between your palms and its allot stronger than if you just poke the side with the tip of your finger.
@ka-brap: As @dbox123 already said it's not exactly the same thing. I assume when they tested the compression it was at very low speeds, while the "impact" that I referred to is at much higher speeds.
Or was he just seeing double?
If you'll watch closely, there are 60 teeth in the drive ring and two sets of 3 prawls. Each set of 3 prawls is out of phase with the other so the engagement effectively doubles to 120.
And is there any news yet on Pinion doing a rapidfire style shifter?
@icarlson112: I put tape on the outside of the bar, haven't heard of putting it on the inside.