Alligator never disappoints, there’s always something interesting at their booth. This year, it’s the new Cool Series Brake Pads.
They have aluminum carriers with organic pads and up to 37 mini rods sticking out to dissipate heat. They’re available for new and old Shimano, plus Formula and Avid.
Available next month, retail is TBD. They’ll save about 3-4 grams over XT IceTech.
But wait, there’s more…
The new Extreme Carbon Brake Pads infuse carbon into an organic pad material to help reduce heat transmission from the pad into the caliper. Available for Magura, Shimano, Hayes, TRP and Formula. It’s designed for aggressive riding and racing, think DH, not XC.
Their Silver Star Cable Kit takes the typical wound stainless housing and separates the inner liner to create a two piece system (three with the cable). They also took the coating of the putside off the outside of the housing, so it can be painted any color.
The benefit is it’s more Eco friendly bust just replace the liner rather than the entire housing. The one downside is that you could end up with metal running ruining your frame, but they make a solution for that:
The black housing is the new Alligator Superlight Cable kit that uses fiberglass based cable housing reminiscent of Gore’s fiber optic ones. It’s lighter (about 10g/meter) and comes in black and yellow.
Did we save the best for last? Oh yeah:
Their new Welding Machine heats the cable quickly at such heat that it simultaneously cuts the cable and welds the strands together. The result is a very clean cut that doesn’t need a cable end clamp. It only takes a couple seconds per cable, so it can really save a shop some time when you factor in time spent fishing or fixing frayed cables through a frame. It comes with a cleaning kit and safety goggles that you won’t ever wear.
