The new Carbon-Ti X-CarboRing chainrings are their latest upgrade for road bike cranksets, using a solid carbon body with 3K gloss finish bonded to a hard alloy tooth section. They’re available in several versions, including a 5-bolt 110bcd and 130bcd, as well as asymmetric four-bolt patterns for Shimano cranks ranging from 6800 to 8000 to 9100 and everything in between those model years.
That includes the SRM Origin 9000 carbon crankset, which uses Look’s modular pedal insert system to adjust effective arm length.
The benefit is that they’re very stiff, which generally enhances shifting performance and overall efficiency. And they’re light. The 53-tooth Shimano 9000 version weighs in at a claimed 90g, and the 34t is just 28g. Of course, that combo will run you about $400.
The big ring’s carbon surface is machined to create shift ramps, and gets titanium pins to further improve shift performance and chain pickup. The rings are available in 50/52/53 and 34/36/39 in most bolt patterns. They also offer them for their X-CarboCam versions in 50/52 tooth counts.
If their titanium MonoSync rotors are a little out of your reach, then the new AL7075-T6 X-Direct chainrings should give you all the same benefits at a lower price. They’re available for SRAM and Race Face Cinch direct-mount cranks as well as a 104BCD to work with older models or power meter spiders.
They’re available in 30/32/34/36 tooth counts in these round models and Carbon-Ti’s unique X-DirectCam profile that uses a modified oval shape with harder shaping that ends up almost squaring off some sides. Their extensive tooth shaping and profiling is supposed to help them run silently, keep the chain in place and help shed mud quickly. Works with 11 and 12 speed chains.
Carbon fiber brake rotors are great for motorsports, where you can keep them warm. But on a bike, no one’s figured out the magic combination of a full carbon rotor and proper braking performance. So, Carbon-Ti has the next best thing: A carbon fiber spider with a floating steel rotor.
The CarbonSteel 2 rotors are available in 140 (65g), 160 (78g) and 180 (94g) sizes, with an optional titanium bolt kit upgrade (7.8g per 6 bolts) available. Actually, we saw these a couple years ago, but thought they were worth showing again.
