With all of the excitement around road disc brakes, you’d almost forget that the majority of road bikes are still running traditional rim brakes. If you find yourself in that majority, FSA is working on a new version of their K-Force rim brake that has been updated to accept all of the new, wider rims. Still using a traditional center mount, the K-Force moves to a completely new construction that’s meant to be more versatile, powerful, and lower profile…
Utilizing a box section construction, the caliper should be lightweight but still rigid enough for powerful braking. The quick release has been relocated to the center of the brake for improved aerodynamics. Currently in production, we’ll have more details on these later.
Speaking of aerodynamic brakes, Vision was showing their new TriMax Aero brake caliper which looks like a great option for any tri bikes where the brakes are exposed. Using extensive CFD testing to validate the aerodynamics of the calipers, Vision also found that the design resulted in one of the stiffest calipers that they had tested. Built with a 40-50mm reach, the brakes will sell for $160 a pair.
Not brand new, but on the newer end of the spectrum is the accompanying TriMax Carbon Si R-Bend aero bar. The main goal of the new design was to increase the range of adjustment in both height and width of the arm pads which has been accomplished with 12 positions in the arm rests with 47mm of width adjustment and 80+mm of stack height adjustment. The arm rests are designed so that as you get wider, the pads rotate inwards to always create a proper angle towards the extensions.
On the subject of aerodynamics, the Vision Metron TT 386 crankset is getting a major overhaul with a wild new full carbon shell. Compared to the original below, the new Metron is meant to be more slippery while still being available in 53/39, 54/42, 55/42, and 58/42t combinations. Details including weight and pricing are still to come.
We’re told this new Metron Stem was developed with newly sponsored Mark Cavendish so we may be seeing this on his race bike sometime soon.
