Cielo, Chris King’s cycling brand, introduced two new performance oriented versions of existing bikes: The Cyclocross Racer and two variations of the Sportif road bike.
Above, the Cyclocross Racer takes their ordinary ‘cross bike, which really could double as a touring/dirt road bike, and turns it into a racing machine. It’s still in the development stage, so final geometry, sizing and pricing won’t be finalized until this spring, but first impressions are very good.
Check it out, along with the new 650B mountain bike and Sportif hop ups and more, after the jump…
The InSet headset gives the ‘cross racer a very slick front end, capped off by the sweet new Moots stem with attached top cover:
Technically, the open-ended top caps are available for any stem manufacturer to use to create a similar stem, but Moots put them together for display at Chris King/Cielo’s booth. All cable routing runs on the top of the top tube for easy shouldering and minimal mud contact.
Here’s hoping they offer up this paint scheme as a stock option when this bike becomes available.
The Sportif Racer steps up from their standard Sportif road bike and shortens the chainstays, lowers the headtube height and generally makes clearances a little tighter. It also gets new stainless steel vertical dropouts (as opposed to the horizontal ones found on their original bikes) for more performance oriented usage. As shown, this bike is about 17.6lbs (7.95kg).
The tighter clearances mean standard (short) reach road brakes are used and fenders are out.
The Sportif Racer Limited gets the same tweaks as the one above it but uses Columbus’ XCR stainless steel tubing.
While their road bikes have had a massive range of sizes for both men and women, the Cielo 29er was limited to S-XXL, leaving really short people outta the mix. No longer. To make their mountain bike down in the XXS and XS sizes, they went with 650B wheels and kept the same good looks as their 29er frame. Scratch that: It actually looks a bit better because it gets S-bend seat stays – necessary to provide ample tire clearance on the smaller frame, but better looking we think.
These stainless steel Chris King headsets are extremely limited and part of the Builder’s Edition collection. They’re polished stainless steel and really expensive. The Builder’s Edition are a set of headsets that are designed with the show’s exhibitors in mind, and the one we saw the most of was the Vertigo Cycles’ collaboration: The 44. It gives small builders the ability to run a tapered fork using a straight tube with a 44mm internal diameter (ID) by putting the bottom cup on the outside of the tube and using an inset upper cup. It’s a simple solution that a LOT of builders were using.
Just for fun, Chris King’s bike. Stainless steel tubes with exposed, heat treated sections that look bronze.
