Tech Briefing is a feature for new stuff that we spot every month, but haven't gotten our hands on yet. An eclectic serving of tech, from revolutionary products to traditional novel gear, with some wacky stuff thrown in for good measure.
Evolve Origin LT
Frames from $2900 / Completes from $6000
Evolve are bringing their manufacturing home to Canada. (Learn more.)
Geo Announces Derailleur Guard
$25 USD
A unique way to protect your derailleur... (Learn more.)
Insta360 X3 with 5.7K 360 Capture
$449.99 USD
The X3 has a new 1/2" 48MP sensor and 2.29” touchscreen. (Learn more.)
Dharco Val di Sole Replica Kit
Look as fast as the riders from the Commencal Muc Off Team. (Learn more.)
Look Flat Pedals
$55- 170 USD
Both new TRAIL pedals feature replaceable pins, are available in a variety of colours, and have been designed, manufactured, and assembled in France. (Learn more.)
Yakima Increases StageTwo Weight Rating To 70 lbs Per Bike
Bring your eMTB, and your friends' as well! (Learn more.)
Manitou Limited Edition Mastodon Pro LE
The Mastodon Pro LE fatbike fork will be produced in a one time, 300-unit production run. (Learn more.)
NOBL Wheels Collaboration with Intense Cycles
NOBL and Intense have announced a partnership to create a carbon wheelset program. (Learn more.)
Commencal Meta TR Staff Edition
The Meta TR Staff Edition is a unique build that features the staff in Andorra's favourite frame and components. (Learn more.)
GoPro Hero 11 Black & Mini
$300 - $500 USD
GoPro has launched the eleventh iteration of its Hero action camera and a new smaller Mini offering. (Learn more.)
Melon Optics Collab with Pump for Peace
£20/€20 from every set sold going directly to the charity
Melon has teamed up with Pump for Peace to create a limited edition colour way of the Alleycat riding glasses with £20/€20 from every set sold going directly to the Pump for Peace charity. (Learn more.)
Jb Liautard's 'Climax' - An Art Photography Book
€43
The 70 most beautiful photos from the French photographer are to be found in the art book. (Learn more.)
PNW Components Pebble Tool
$37 USD
This tiny tool has a smooth, rounded shape and contains the basic bits needed for quick repairs. (Learn more.)
The 'TQ-HPR50' Motor that Drives Trek's Fuel EXe
By redesigning and reengineering the patented Harmonic Pin-Ring technology, HQ has created an extremely light drive unit. (Learn more.)
Banshee Enigma
$1099 USD / $1499CAN / €1049 / £949
The bike is built to use either dual 27.5" or mixed wheel sizes. (Learn more.)
Intend 'Green Age' Fork Updates
20.17 €
New seals, shim stacks, crowns, and fenders are on the way from Intend. (Learn more.)
Ibis Ripmo & Ripley UDH Update & New Colors
The Ibis Ripmo and Ripley now feature a UDH rear derailleur. (Learn more.)
REEB Cycles Steel Short Travel Trail Bike
The SST has 120mm of rear travel and a flex stay suspension layout. (Learn more.)
Abus Full Face Helmet - The 'Airdrop'
Abus now has an option for gravity riders. (Learn more.)
BikeStow Stance Bike Stand
£79 GBP
The BikeStow Stance is made for storing bikes in your shed, garage, living room or bedroom. (Learn more.)
Allied Cycle Works Limited Edition BC40
$14,000 USD
This model is an exact replica of Payson McElveen's race bike. (Learn more.)
Commencal Supreme DH XS
Commencal made this 27.5" downhill bike for youth riders and short adults. (Learn more.)
The derailleur protectors from Walmart or Woolco or Target looks more appealing. I can't believe they want to charge someone $25USD to put that garbage on the bike!
It’s almost like the derailleur should be, like, somewhere else? and like, protected from everything! and whoa…maybe in the centre of the bike…? Could be onto something…
@noplacelikeloam: it might be a good mudguard if you're riding in some seriously sloppy conditions, but I wouldn't expect it to protect the derailleur from any kind of impact.
I would rather zip-tie cardboard to my frame than pay $25 for that half-ass, no-protection design. I swear, these "innovation" things keep getting lazier and more expensive.
Pretty soon we're going to see a chainstay protector that's a literal bike-tube marketed for $35, zip-ties not includes.
Do they make a matching dork-disk so I can have that stuff behind my cassette too? That way I can double my odds of broken plastic in the drivetrain - delicious.
I have a feeling the ceramic speed guys and gals are going to be quaking in their tiny boots after seeing this value for money aerogain for the rear mech.
@Snowytrail: I'm pretty sure this would be classified as a fairing which is already banned by the UCI
ARTICLE 1.3.024 "Protective screens, fuselages, fairings or any other device that is added or blended into the structure, and that is destined or have the effect of reducing resistance to air penetration, are prohibited. Aerodynamic assemblies and protuberances on the head tube or elsewhere are prohibited"
Lol. I just sold my '22 Impreza and am selling 3 bikes.
Just bought a $4500 dollar bike, and a $1500 2000 Outback. I'm so much happier. No car payment, nicer bike than car. Less bikes to maintain and keep running.
@blcpdx: In most of the rest of the world, it's by the liter, which is foreign speak for "quart" Funny thing is, they pay almost as much per-liter as we do per gallon.
Agree. I don't know how we have normalized such high prices for bicycles. Having owned street motorcycles, the last one being a 2021 Ducati Monster at $12K, I am no stranger to throwing money into my hobbies. In terms of bragging rights, fun, thrills, heck even practicality, there is no way that a $12k pedal bike even compares.
What bothers me is that the lower end of "useable" performance has gone up quite a bit. IMO, that would start around $3.5k for a full suspension trail bike. Thinking back to when I bought my first motorcycle in 2004, that would be roughly the same as spending $2200--you can be on the exclusive end of any bicycle catalog for that kind of money.
That derailleur guard looks like something out of Mountain Bike Action magazine from '94. Did someone have some cheap plastic, time and a desire to make useless crap?
Here's the most recent update from her go fund me: 10/11/22 Alicia was very talkative today! She showed some of her strong will and conciencias nature. Staying awake for a few hours throughout the day she was able to have some good conversations. We are always happy to see these improvements!
@deaf-shredder: surely working for outside they have medical insurance as part of their contract? If not, why not? It’s not like you can’t be a rider and get a journalist role at Pinkbike. Are outside just too tight fisted to support their staff? They haven’t run an article, but that would look bad, like they were asking us to pay. So they haven’t even done that but thankfully her friend has…
@thingswelike: She has health insurance, so this is just free money for them. Must be nice to have the entire deductible paid off and get $35k+ to pocket! That'll buy you two Santa Cruz bikes. lol
@nickfranko: Insurance runs out eventually and it’s nice when someone has had a positive impact on folks and they get together to help out when it’s going to be needed. Also, Santa Cruz is/was one of the biggest donors and I’m pretty sure healing up is Alicia’s prime concern. Can’t ride a new Santa Cruz that well if your noggin is not on track. My guess is she’d trade back to a used bike and no TBI if she could.
@nickfranko: If you think that a TBI is a good investment please give yourself one rather than giving my eyes cancer from reading this idiotic comment.
They've hired the paint department from Intense. (I say this sadly as someone who owns three Intense bikes and wonder WTF they are thinking when coming up with colour schemes and paint patterns.)
Just fyi- melon optics have the worst hydrophobic qualities of any lens I’ve ever tried.. if you get any sweat on the lens you might as well chuck them in the woods.
I use Melon Optics for everything and the hydrophobic properties of my Zeiss lens is brilliant. They only fog up if it’s really cold and I stop for a couple of minutes
Anyone who is genuinely interested in protecting their derailleur should watch the short video. It is laser cut from expensive plastic (polyethylene) and protects the derailleur without interfering with the function. It is strong, lightweight and super-easy to install.
It is a great product that really works - that is why we decided to manufacture and patent it.
Just changed over to an Inta360 x3. Worlds better than the GoPro for capturing riding footage. Software is great for making sweet edits very easily. After using it, dicking around with GoPros to capture the right angle seems totally archaic.
No more disappointment of thinking you nailed the GoPro angle, only to view the footage and see your chest mount angle was too low when you're off the back of the bike and you only captured gratuitous headset and handlebar porn on the run you were stoked to show your buddies...
It's amazing how hard Manitiou tries to limit their sales. After all these years, they still haven't figured out that people want the crown in front of the fork. I've heard nothing but good things about their new stuff, but I still don't want to look like an idiot to 99% of non-cyclist that don't know that Manitou and backwards crowns are a thing.
@nateb: Yeah.. The crown behind the fork looks weird to me too though, so there's that. I know they claim it's a stronger way to build a fork, but it just looks wrong.
I like the rearwards facing arch. Makes much more sense to me than having the arch in front. My forks have both (Magura) but if I were to buy a fork now, I'd choose Manitou for their structure though I'd be tempted to go for Formula just for their adjustability. I'll talk to those 99% later.
@vinay: For me it makes much more sense to have the arch in front of the stanchions, in case you hit something. I'd rather scratch the fork arch than my stanchions.
@Glory831Guy: Interesting. Other than a couple of dual arch forks from Magura, I've only had forks from RockShox and Marzocchi. All of them had front facing arches even though I felt like the Marzocchi ones of that era had a relatively flat arch in the middle and not so much in front of the stanchions. The RS fork I actually used (the other one was OEM and immediately replaced) had a front facing arch that caught a lot of dirt and deposited it right on the dust wipers. Somehow I've got a feeling that the front tire is firing more debris at the stanchions than what is coming from the front, but maybe you've got a different experience. A fender might help there of course but then still I feel a slim and smooth front arch or no front arch at all will be easier on the stanchions and dust wipers. Either way, we can argue until the cows come home but we can see all varieties (front facing, rear facing or both) do just fine. I actually prefer dual arches as because of their relative distance they can be slim and smooth (therefore catching the least debris) but if I were to choose a single arch I'd keep the rear facing one. Magura unfortunately left the suspension market as they couldn't keep up with the changing axle standards (as the investments for castings are huge and they couldn't afford to change them every other year) but I wonder what will happen once their patent expires. They introduced a dual arch Thor fork back in 2004 so if a patent expires in 20 years I can imagine a couple of brands will consider the concept.
@Glory831Guy: The arch would block so few of the things that could scratch your stanchions that its position is really inconsequential. You just think it’s “weird” and “wrong” and have assigned such hubris to your opinion that you think it will limit their sales.
I’ve owned a Manitou fork, and quite liked the look, and also found by a small margin that large chunks of debris flung from the rear of the tire are blocked by said arch. I’d prefer generally less of stuff that wears seals than hoping my fork magically blocks some catastrophic large branch that falls in my path.
@Glory831Guy: It’s inconsequential for the reason you’re stating…blocking stanchion damage. You’re literally the only dissenter on the “it looks weird/wrong” front. They’ve sold enough forks so I’m pretty sure you’re off base with how wrong it is. It’s ok if you don’t like it, just don’t try to sell not liking it to others with just your opinion.
@Glory831Guy: Never said you were the only one. But clearly you’re a sufficient minority because they are still a viable company with enough sales despite some people not liking the look of them. As I said, I don’t mind or care that you don’t like the aesthetics, I just find your reasoning off base. And I’m pretty sure you can’t guarantee anything about who sells what either way.
Pretty soon we're going to see a chainstay protector that's a literal bike-tube marketed for $35, zip-ties not includes.
No need to hang with the cool kids …
I have no shame…
ARTICLE 1.3.024
"Protective screens, fuselages, fairings or any other device that is added or blended into the structure, and that is destined or have the effect of reducing resistance to air penetration, are prohibited. Aerodynamic assemblies and protuberances on the head tube or elsewhere are prohibited"
Just bought a $4500 dollar bike, and a $1500 2000 Outback. I'm so much happier. No car payment, nicer bike than car. Less bikes to maintain and keep running.
Sometimes simplifying life feels f*cking amazing
What bothers me is that the lower end of "useable" performance has gone up quite a bit. IMO, that would start around $3.5k for a full suspension trail bike. Thinking back to when I bought my first motorcycle in 2004, that would be roughly the same as spending $2200--you can be on the exclusive end of any bicycle catalog for that kind of money.
10/11/22
Alicia was very talkative today! She showed some of her strong will and conciencias nature. Staying awake for a few hours throughout the day she was able to have some good conversations. We are always happy to see these improvements!
www.gofundme.com/f/alicia-and-her-family-with-medical-costs
Thanks for trying to take a dump on the parade.
Who says that things aren't improving all the time?
“If it’s too loud you’re too old”
Put me out to pasture. None of this makes sense.
It is a great product that really works - that is why we decided to manufacture and patent it.
"GEO"
I’ve owned a Manitou fork, and quite liked the look, and also found by a small margin that large chunks of debris flung from the rear of the tire are blocked by said arch. I’d prefer generally less of stuff that wears seals than hoping my fork magically blocks some catastrophic large branch that falls in my path.