Pinkbike Awards: Component of the Year Nominees
Component of the Year Nominees
While a lot of how a bike rides depends on its frame design, the other half of the equation is the components hung on it. Without one or the other, you aren't going anywhere, and the components picked can help a good frame ride great or a great frame ride poorly.
Selecting a few standouts from the huge field of contenders is tricky, and involves plenty of lively debate and discussion. This year, there were four components that stood out from the rest.
Hayes, Maxxis, and Cane Creek, and Shimano all have new products that are exciting and bring something new to the market in 2018. Which one stands out the most?
Why it's nominated
Hayes was one of the first when it comes to mountain bike disc brakes. Back in the day, they were one of the best options, but it didn't take long before other brands came to market and quickly pushed them aside. Hayes put up a fight in the years that followed, but they had a hard time competing against the likes of Shimano, SRAM, and others who simply had a better product. For the Dominion A4, Hayes went back to the drawing board. Rather than simply building on and taking lessons from the past, they designed a new brake system from the ground up that delivers on all fronts.
The goal in development, according to Hayes, was to develop a best-in-class brake, free from past assumptions. The only timetable in development was to get it right the first time - something they had to do considering their history and other options on the market. The Dominion A4 is completely redesigned and offers a high level of performance. It has an excellent lever feel, plenty of power, and wonderful modulation. There is a unique crosshair pad alignment feature that helps center the caliper over the rotor and fine-tune the alignment between the two.
By disregarding conventions and starting from the ground up, Hayes has made a brake that is not only competitive with the other top brakes currently available but innovative as well.
From the review:
 | The Dominion brake is a winner in every sense, and it had to be if Hayes was going to get another chance at redemption. Throwing out convention and starting from scratch must have been a tough choice for a brake maker that has been in the game longer than anyone else, but it proved to be the right decision. If you are in search of a good brake, start with this one. |
Why it's nominated
Maxxis have long been one of the most popular choices when it comes to mountain bike tires, especially on the World Cup DH circuit. The Minion DHF / DHR II and the High Roller II are absolute classics, and have amassed an impressive number of victories between them. The Assegai is the latest tire from Maxxis. Designed by Greg Minnaar, the tire takes design cues from both the Minion and the High Roller and incorporates them into one aggressive tire.
Combining two popular tread patterns doesn't necessarily guarantee success, but in this case Maxxis got it right, and the Assegai was seen on racers bikes on both the World Cup DH and EWS circuits. In its inaugural season it was only available with a thick DH casing, but expect this aggressive tire to become even more popular once a lighter, more pedal friendly version hits the market.
From the First Ride:
| Somehow Maxxis have managed to pull out the best traits of their most popular tires to create something entirely different, yet very familiar at the same time. My initial impressions are all positive – this is an aggressive, grippy, and incredibly predictable tire. |
Why it's nominated
Cane Creek, the Western North Carolina based component manufacturer makes a variety of products including headsets, cyclocross brakes, seat posts, and suspension. Now, we can add titanium cranksets to the list. The uber-light, mega-fancy titanium eeWings crankset is built to take a beating.
The cranks are designed for trail and enduro riding and feature titanium everything, other than the preload assembly. The arms of the cranks are made from Grade 9 Ti-3Al-2.5V titanium, and the rest of the cranks are Grade 5 Ti-6Al-4V titanium. There is a hirth joint that joins the two ends of the shaft and can withstand high torque loads. The cranks weigh 400-grams - competitive with a high end set of carbon cranks - and come with a 10-year warranty. Where a carbon crank may crack or suffer a failure from repeated impacts, the eeWings are made to get hit time and time again.
The eeWings are both lightweight and durable, and a surefire way to stand out amidst the sea of carbon. Sure, that hefty price tag is going to be a deterrent for many, but they're built to last for years and years to come.
From the First Ride:
| If you ask me, the brushed titanium arms look refreshing and simple compared to carbon, almost like a throw-back, while the subdued laser etching should still look sharp down the road. |
Why it's nominated:
Shimano finally joined the 12-speed party with their new XTR drivetrain, which relies on a new freehub body design and has a 10-51 tooth cassette. If you're going to be a little late you might as well offer a bit more range than everyone else, right? There's more to the top-of-the-line gruppo than an extra tooth out back, though; Shimano reworked their derailleur design and the cassette's shift ramps in order to make it possible to shift at any time during a ride, even when you're putting the power down on a steep climb.
The biggest story may be how the new XTR drivetrain transfers power to the wheel by way of Shimano's Scylence freehub system. Two driver plates inside the hub fully disengage while coasting, which means that there's no buzzing or clicking to be heard; it's completely silent, as the name suggests. It's a big innovation for Shimano and puts it in a competitive place for a high-end 1x12 drivetrain that you won't hear coming.
It's the attention to detail that sets the new XTR apart, a level of refinement that earned it the nomination for Component of the Year.
From the first ride:
| I purposely shifted poorly, waiting until I was in the middle of a climb to shift the cassette into an easier gear. The result? Quick, smooth, and precise shifting every single time, and it never felt like I was doing any damage to the drivetrain. |
All of these components offers a solution or advancement in technology. Which are you most impressed by?
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Shifting. I think X01 is slightly lighter in action, and I prefer the ergonomics of the X01 lever. Both work well though, no complaints on the shift, just the position of the paddles seems a bit odd having come from X01.
Mech. Seems very well made, and very shiny
iSpec EV - An improvement on the previous iSpecs with in theory more movement, but it seems like they added the extra angle and L/R adjustments at the end of the range where you don't need it, but its still possible to get a nice set up.
Overall I think its a nice alternative to X01/XX1 and much cheaper. The shifting is similar to XT in 11 speed, with that hesitant start to the lever movement, but its solid enough and functions well on the trail.
I'll be interested to hear back from a few other guys I know who have made the change recently to see if the views are all mixed!
Who’s seen the Hayes brakes in the wild for that matter?
These “of the year” Pinkbike posts are the worst “of the year” jumbled together crap filler articles with grey linkages of subjects and poor execution, or products that aren’t out. Like Fox Live last year. Still haven’t seen it in the wild yet even a year later. Cmon Pinkbike, let this go the way of Interbike.
Which DT Swiss hub, please? Can you provide model/year? I have a 240s from around 2015-2016, are those retrofitable with a Scylence freehub?
Thanks!
on this argument??? how dare you guys enjoy innovation!!!
Or perhaps we should be looking at the one up dropper?
ta
www.pinkbike.com/photo/16662971
Pizza is round AND flat!
If you want to beta test Shimanos product for them, that is your choice, as most on this site, we will wait 'til it proves itself in the real world, then we can make an educated choice on how to spend our hard earned money so we don't have to bitch about manufacturers not properly testing their products in the real world.
We are awaiting your results.
@MikeLevy I thought was gonna have a review.
Also really want to ride the new XTR. Shimano takes good products (V Brakes, clutch freehubs, 12 spd) and makes them awesome.
Signed,
A Shimano fanboi
2nd brakes: Shimano
3rd brakes: Scram
4th brakes: Hope
5th brakes: HAYES DOMINION A4, they reinvented brakes once...now twice. The Dominions have revolutionized my view on what it means to actually have brakes that work the first time and every time there after. The bleed was easier than Shimano and out performed anything else I've tried. C'mon people pull your heads outta your sticky pistons...
There are numerous other brakes, cranks, tires & at least one other drivetrain who is working flawlessly. Has anyone who actually rides their f*cking bike manage to go more then three-four months without dropper problems?
I could afford
Would be stiffer
Would be more impact and scrape resistant than ti
2 points I'd like to rant about below: no sprag clutch; cup-and-cone bearings.
If the two design goals of this new freehub were: "silent" & "low engagement interval"... how and why did Shimano land on the complicated behemoth that is 'scylence' design vs a traditional Sprag clutch?
The sprag is simple as hell to manufacture, completely silent in operation, and has infinite engagement points.
IP might be the only thing that would stop shimano from implementing a sprag... but I can't imagine that Onyx (Racing Products) has broad enough patent claims that would prevent Shimano from implementing their own flavor of sprag? Right?
//ok I took a quick pass at the Onyx patent. Note: I have near 0 experience in interpretation and design strategy here.
Anyway, reading over the claims by Onyx (Onyx's parent company...) I see a huge amount of detail in the construction and layout of the entire hub assembly (including sprag).
Any PB users able to comment on this heavily detailed patent strategy and the ability of the sum of those details/claims to hold up in the face of a 'copy cat' alternate design that specifically deviates from one or many of the listed claims?
patents.google.com/patent/US9102197B2/en
From a simple perspective I see the sprag clutch patent as expired, so it must be Onyx's exact bicycle hub sprag implementation claims OR nothing related to IP at all, preventing Shimano from using this (better!) tech. Womp.
Further: What is the justification for Cup and Cone bearings on XTR? To me, cartridge = less futzing + more riding.
Yes, the pre-load of cup-n-cone is nice in concept, but I've found in practice that enough axle tension can still add (compression) load through the 'static' jamnuts of the cup-n-cone system. Because of that, We must monitor axle tension (tightening torque) in either system, so why not do it in the more consistent (non-adjustable) system of cartridge bearings?
Is the argument that the range of acceptable torque applied to an axle is wider for that of cup-n-cone? I guess I can buy that argument; however, that alone isn't enough to justify their use over cartridge bearings.
TLDR
XTR doesn't deserve a spot here due to two critical 'misses' in the design even through the continued optimization and perfection of other details of their shifting systems...(imo)
/end rant.
^^ props. Way to be classy. (That wasn't sarcasm)
(There is a pinch of sarcasm in there)
there are many better braking system in the market, infect all are better the Hayes, even SRAM is a bit better.