It's day 5 at the Taipei Cycle Show. There's been a ton of interesting stuff at the show this year, and I've saved some of the best for last. Also some of the strangest. The team is wrapping up some stories before we record a final podcast and then go find some go-karts (yes, again.). If anyone would like to sponsor a go kart Field Test, hit me up—ideally presented by Chia Te Taipei Pineapple Cakes.
Reso's Saddle Angle AdjusterThis saddle angle adjuster does what it says on the tin. You can easily tip your nose down while climbing, flatten it out over mixed terrain, and tilt it back for big descents. The semi-closed structure is said to keep it well lubricated and prevent debris ingress. No weight was available, but it's said to be fairly light and user serviceable with standard tools.
The product won an
iF design and innovation award here at the show, but there's no escaping that it's very
Aenomaly Switchgrade-esque. That said, there are definitely some differences between the two products, including a much more prominent lever on the Reso, and what appears to be a different mechanism.
The company behind the product is called
Reso International, and they do work with several MTB brands, including Reverse Components. I wouldn't be surprised if this ended up being a Reverse product, I just hope the Aenomaly folks are getting a fair deal.
L-TWOO's DrivetrainsWhy am I showing you curly bar stuff? Because Chinese drivetrain brand
L-Twoo's new road group is said to have an MTB counterpart coming later this year. The brand was founded by some ex-SRAM folks in the Guangzhou area.
Their eRX Hydraulic Semi-Wireless Groupset has a lot of people talking on the road side. If I'm honest, the stuff felt pretty cheap in hand with some pretty serious lag. That said, I'd be very keen to try an MTB version on a bike.
Weiting's New SFE (Separate Floating Engagement) Ratchet SystemWeiting Technology Co has a very cool new hub concept. The SFE ratchet system allows for the driveside bearings to sit further outboard, apparently allowing hubs to be lighter and stronger. The mechanic in me cringes at the thought of servicing 23098432082 little spring-driven floating ratchet elements, but it's an incredibly cool system. I put up a little video of how it works on
Instagram.
If you watch closely you can see that each floating pawl pops out at a different time for a higher degree of engagement. I could imagine other ratchet options that would align more directly for less instant, but more positive/strong engagement.
There's no website or word on who will be using this technology, or whether Weiting will set up its own brand. You can
read the patent here if you want to go deeper. We did hear through the grapevine about Alex Rims describing a similar product, so possibly they're in talks to use it. Pure speculation on my end though. Regardless, it's very cool and I hope we have the opportunity to learn more about this tech when it's ready.
Maxxis x Seawastex recycling programMaxxis wasn't showing any flashy new models at the show (I'd guess Sea Otter), but they were very proud of getting their Seawastex program underway.
Basically they take some of the 640K tonnes of fishing nets that are discarded or lost at sea, which have huge impacts on wildlife, and turn it into tires. They depolymerize discarded fishing nets into nylon pellets, and use those pellets to produce high tensile recycled nylon yard, which Maxxis then uses to make tire casings.
It sounds like this program will be rolled out through the year on select models in their hybrid/commuter lineup. Maxxis says that as they're improving the processes they're confident we could see this process in higher end MTB tires someday as well.
DMR's New ODub Signature BarsDMR had their
recently released Olly Wilkins ODUB Signature bars on display.
Details:
• 7075 heat treated spiral butted aluminium
• 31.8mm clamp
• 780mm width
• 20mm/35mm/50mm rise options
• 5° upsweep
• 8° backsweep
• 31.8Ø and 35Ø clamp options
• weights 31.8Ø - 20mm 335g / 35mm 340g / 50mm 345g
• weights 35Ø - 20mm 325g / 35mm 330g / 50mm 335g
DMR were also showing off a new gold colourway in their Rhythm alloy dirt jump frame. Is gold the colour of the year this year? Should we try to do a full Goldfinger bike custom build?
KMC's Linkglide-compatible eGlide chainKMC has launched a Shimano Linkglide compatible chain option called eGlide. It's 9/10/11 speed compatible, with claimed high torsion resistence and tensile strength. It's got a ton of features like "Triple X Durability" and "Dynamic Chamfer Angles Design" and "Shield Tech Riveting," but KMC knows how to make a chain and it's good to see more options for Shimano's new system.
It's also nice to see Shimano having apparently opened up compatibility for Linkglide, and I imagine we'll see these both as mid-level OE spec and as a cheaper aftermarket option in shops that don't have the same access to Shimano stuff.
More RandomsHave you ever struggled to decide between buying an aero road bike, a triathlon bike, an 180mm enduro bike, a cargo bike, and a high speed commuter? Well if you have $20K, the RYUGER EIDOLON BR-RTS means you don't have to.
The Japan-based brainchild of Australia's Brent Richards is a very unique take on the "superbike". He wouldn't tell me what this thing's top speed was, and despite it being pretty ridiculous all around, I'd be lying if I didn't want to take it for a spin.
Ryuger also make carbon wheels that apparently test very well, and use sacrificial foam filling in their layup process.
That's it from me in Taipei this year. I want to give a huge thanks to TAITRA for having us, and especially to Ting for her help throughout the show. We're going to record one more podcast and get a few final stories out before hitting the plane home. Thanks for following along, looking forward to coming back next year!
99 Comments
www.disraeligears.co.uk/site/ltwoo_derailleurs.html
I used to love the race photo epics, but they're very difficult to enjoy when because of toolbars I can't properly fit a picture on my screen.
I used the original post for a few months until I replaced it with a Transfer. It wasn't that good. Mostly because it WASN'T 150mm, they claimed the amount the back of the saddle tilted as a part of the travel. It was really something like 115mm of travel with the nose of the saddle going up about 35mm to balance out the back of the saddle going down 35mm.
"ISO 9001 sets out the criteria for a quality management system..."
www.iso.org/iso-9001-quality-management.html (accessed 25.03.2023, 07:35 UTC+1)
9001 is only about your company's processes and ability to produce quality with your organisation, it says nothing at all directly about the quality of the actual products you make or plan to make
Source: I audit ISO 9001 for my company
I describe ISO like "best practices code" to meet some quality levels in your company.
you went from reasdy to praise Maxxis for what seems to being a positive step, to not doing so because some stranger on the internet believes that ISO9001 is a scam?
What on earth did you think ISO9001 meant, its just a set of criteria for managing systems.
Its just a general set of guidelines for companies to utilize as best practices. So companies from around the world can be close to being on the same page.
It allows a company to choose partners, assuming some sense of compatibility between them.
(╯°□°)╯︵ ┻━┻
Maxxis is taking *trash from the sea* & re-using it! In tires worth buying for our townies. *Who cares* how the marketing copy reads! Put away your rhetorical torches and vote for this commendable effort with your dollars - full stop.
ISO14000 is companies being on the same page, for example, chemical reference testing and basing your results based on the said references (patron in spanish but cba to look for the translation) is being on the same page, a good practices book that you can pull out of your arse is not
Now to your "but at least they are doing something good argument" yes that is commendable, but what procedures are they following? Do you know if they're de-polimerizing tires with a method that has little to no impact? Are they using enzymes? Or are they simply dumping tonnes of chemicals into the water but hey look bois they are taking trash from the sea!
Unless we get a whole flowchart of the products used and how the by-products affect the ecosystem or how do their factories safely dispose of them this means nothing at all. If they are doing it for the enviroment they will release it, if they are pulling a marketing gimmick they will just throw sparkles in the air and dumbf*cks with zero idea will buy it
This is a good thing.
its closer than dealing with companies that dont have those set of guidelines in place.
Its not going to be perfect, but getting closer, based on a set of guidelines sure helps.
I work in construction, and the variances between dealing with two companies, that make similar money, similar size, structure, etc. can vary wildly. Having companies per-qualify by having management structures in place, sure helps weed out potential problems
Btw. It's insane how big fishing nets can be, kilometers long. They do massive damage when dragged at the bottom of the sea and also afterwards abandoned as ghost nets.