AWL is a French carbon fiber rim manufacturer that’s been building carbon aerospace components for years before turning some attention to cycling in 2008.
Not only do they design their own rims (which are fairly unique as you’ll see after the break), but they manufacture their own tooling and molds…and the molds are carbon fiber, too! Their manufacturing process yields perfectly smooth interior walls and leaves nothing other than the carbon and resin in the finished product on the road wheels thanks to a removable inflatable bladder. The mountain bike wheels, which are new and available in 26″ and 29er, add Kevlar into the construction for additional durability.
We also photo’d a collection of interesting component ideas from Reverse and probably the hottest women’s skin suit ever from Maloja…
They only do tubular wheels, which keeps them niche to be sure, but they look great. Built up with DT Swiss 180 Carbone hubs and Aerolite spokes, the 29er wheelsets come in at just 1200g per pair. They come with DT’s titanium RWS skewers and wheel bags, too. Rim depth is 36mm and width is 26mm. Retail is €2,690.
The 26″ rims are 26mm deep and wide, come in at 1150g and €2,490.
AWL’s road wheels are also built on DT Swiss hubs and spokes with various hub options. The lightest use the DT 180 Carbones and come in at 1080g. What’s unique is the sidewall shaping near the tire. There’s not much on their website about the aero benefits of it, but superficially it creates a more angular take on the fat Zipp Firecrest profile.
REVERSE COMPONENTS
Reverse Components‘ new Twister headsets use two-part upper and lower cups that accommodate either straight 1-1/8″, tapered or straight 1.5″ steerer tubes. Each part is ordered separately, so you simply pick the size you need for the application, with the bottom adjusted by selection of the proper crown race. They’re available in AHead and semi-integrated styles.
Their Legend Evo cranksets use flippable inserts at the pedal threads to change the effective crank arm length between 165 and 170mm. Weight for the crank arm, bottom bracket and 38T ring is 755g.
They have a new 38mm rise option for their bars, adding to the 20mm original. Both are available in UD and 3K weave finishes. They’re only for 31.8 OS clamp diameters and weigh in at a respectable 176g!
At right, an impressive array of anodized color options for their alloy bars.
Their Style Lite seatposts have some new ano color/paint two-tone options. Weight from 263g.
MALOJA
Maloja makes some nice stuff. This one is incredible.
And the print comes in some less tight offerings for the less secure.
