Newmen Components is a relatively new company, but brings years of experience to create premium, lightweight carbon fiber parts that pass all safety testing. The designs are their own, with some parts using TEI and TexTreme fibers to reduce weight while improving strength and stiffness. What caught our eye were these limited edition colored carbon rims, seatposts and handlebars that’ll debut in Spring 2017…
The items use actual colored fibers developed with TEI using their INTENLIGHT Carbon Prepreg that are a normal structural layer, so there’s no weight gain from paint or tinted glass fibers to achieve the look.
66sick not only saves your seat from boredom with some great designs, they also save the planet by letting their packaging double as rear fenders. The saddles on the right show the new packaging, which should make its way to more of the line.
Alligator may be an Asian brand, but their Turbo Cooling Disc Brake Pads were designed in Italy then engineered and machined in Germany. The lightweight alloy back plate uses aviation inspired turbine fins to hold 25-30% less heat than regular pads and come in about 40% lighter. Sure, we’re talking a few grams, but it adds up (am I right?). They’re designed for high performance riding, available for SRAM/Avid, Shimano, Formula and Magura brakes.
SASO, by Mekkem Parts, isn’t typically seen in the high end marketplace (they tend to work behind the scenes as an OEM manufacturer), but they make a huge variety of suspension forks for all types of bikes. Some use carbon fiber lowers, but what caught our eye here were the inverted suspension forks’ minimal offset at the dropout, moving it to the crown instead. The dropouts are almost directly under the fork leg, much more so than popular forks. The benefit to this design is that it reduces non-linear stresses on the sliders, letting everything move with less friction. We saw a prototype from a more well known brand using zero offset at the dropout, but they said the aesthetics weren’t as marketable. Personally, we’d rather have better performance with looks that take a little getting used to…
Also interesting was their take on the offset seatpost design.
CKC’s Rice Bran Pedals use the otherwise wasted agricultural product to make pedals. Typically, the husk is discarded or used for fertilizer after harvesting and processing, but now it can be made into pedals, grips and other bicycle accessories. It won the Eurobike Green award and accolades from Taipei Cycle & iF.
Promax brakes are typically seen on lower level bikes as a cost-saving OEM spec choice, and now they’re offering flat mount versions to keep up with the times. The brand was given new life under Toby Henderson and just signed over global aftermarket distribution rights to QBP, giving them a lot of reach into shops.
How do you make urban tires look sexy? Give them racing stripes and stick ’em on a futuristic stealth-fighter looking carbon bike, that’s how. Sadly, these aren’t on Chaoyang’s website yet, so they may have just been proof of concept to show what they’re capable of.
Arisun’s Gravel Plus tires were shown in three versions. From left to right, the Dual Action 700×33, the Gravel Plus 40 and the Gravel Plus 38. The thinner one looks like a mean dry conditions ‘cross tire and gets a dual compound rubber with minimal Nylon Defense puncture protection. The larger ones are aimed more at the gravel crowd with standard and tubeless ready casings. They also get dual compound rubber, plus 120tpi casings with Reinforced Sidewall Defense+ as an option.
