Given the fact that we seem to be heading into a renaissance of Day-Glo colors and color matched anodized parts, consumers seem to be paying more attention than ever to the individual components of their bikes. Those looking for colorfully anodized parts are at the company’s mercy hoping they will eventually offer what they want in the color they like, or can look to the anodization experts like the folks at 321 Components. We spotted Project 321 pushing around an Ibis with some Pink Thomson bits at last year’s SOC, so we wanted to stop by their booth and see what they have been working on since. The answer is more colors, more hubs, and more Lefty compatibility…
One of the first things that you notice about 321’s anodizing, is how consistent it is across the board. Custom anodizing can be very hard to perfectly match colors, and 321 works very hard to keep it almost exact. They also work very hard to actually anodize the parts as illustrated by these Cannondale Hollowgram SISL2 cranks. The process starts with stripping the cranks of their stock finish, then they get polished by hand. From there the cranks are anodized in the color of choice and re-laser etched with the logos. An involved process for sure, and yet the treatment only adds about $100 over the retail price of the cranks from Cannondale with 321 selling them for $1300. Cranks are available in 165, 170, 172.5, and 175mm lengths with compact and standard road rings, or mountain 1x or 2x, and include bearings cups, spindle, bolts, spacers, spider, and chainrings. Colors are offered in black, blue, gold, green, and red, with pink, purple, and orange available for an extra $50.
In addition to anodizing, Project 321 is a full fabrication shop and can produce just about anything – like these new hubs. Their new rear hub uses angular contact bearings and an i9 Torch freehub body and manages to drop 79 grams over their previous hub at 274g. Now XX1 compatible, the rear hub retails for $380 or $405 for specialty colors and is available in just about every rear standard including bolt on.
321 also has a new Lefty Supermax hub that weighs in at 113g. Available in the same colors as the rear hub, the SuperMax hub retails for $139/$164 for standard/specialty colors.
Don’t have a Lefty Supermax because you don’t have a Cannondale? Project 321’s Tapered Fixed Crown Lefty Supermax adapter can fix that. One of the only Lefty Supermax adapters we know of, the $95 steerer assembly will let you run the Supermax which uses a proprietary hub spacing for better spoke tension, on any bike with a tapered head tube.
This cutout shows their Lefty adapter on Niner along with the new Lefty Upper Collar which is available in blue, gold, green, and red.
Project 321 is also continuing to offer custom anodized Stan’s rims along with matching hubs.
