Timbuk2 had a wide assortment of new bags, including unique new pannier bags and some waterproof, reflective packs and messengers.

Shown above are the new Tandem Pannier (gray, top) and the Shift Pannier (orange, bottom) bags.

The Tandem Pannier simply lays over your rack and attaches at the bottom with elastic hooks. To remove, unhook and lift and magnets pull the two halves together to make it look like a single bag (pic after the break). A shoulder strap is available, too. The set retails for $130 and has 12L capacity on each side. They’re made of fabric backed tarpaulin, so it’s super strong and waterproof. Available February.

Redesigned Shift panniers now sit lower and wider so they’re not top heavy, and they look more like standard messenger bags but they keep the same overall volume. They’re $100 each side and attach with standard pannier hooks.

Bag the rest after the break…

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Cycling loves its legends, and Eddy Merckx as cemented himself in the history books as one of the greats. Since his retirement from racing, Merckx has overseen the production and recent introduction of a new line of EMX road bikes bearing his name, and the company has done quite well, gaining popularity and recently signing its first ProTour team with Quick-Step.

The company paid homage to its namesake at Interbike this year with a custom painted, top of the line EMX-7 highlighting all of The Cannibal’s major career wins. Check out full pictures of the Merckx tribute bike after the break.

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Disclaimer: I know that you are probably at work and that you will likely be tempted to just watch this video without the sound on but DON’T DO IT! The narrator’s commentary makes up at least half of this video’s awesomeness. (I have a tool in my laboratory that measures such things.) You will miss amazing moments, like when the narrator describes one man as a referee for high-class football clubs and says this about him:

“And he goes out training for referee, he runs backwards down the road…he’s been run over twice.”

You also might pick up that, although the title of this video claims that it is from 1950, at two points during the short film the narrator contradicts that claim. At around 4:40 in he observes:

“That must be the first of the mountain bikes, early sixties.”

What he’s looking at is a road bike with straight bars, really the first of the hybrids. But these guys are doing so much running and falling down; it really doesn’t matter what type of bike they’re riding (some riders are even running single speeds)…especially during the swimming leg of this proto-cross race. There are a couple serious water crossings in the video, you see dudes just CHUCKING their bikes across the river, nearly hitting other riders in the process.

The narrator doesn’t hold back either, no filter on this guy. As a rider of above-average carriage rolls by, the narrator snarks:

“Track man, time trialist, he might be riding this to lose a bit-ah weight.”

This video is what the term “classic” is truly reserved for.

Spotted by Gary Fisher whilst roaming whatever show he’s currently at. Digging around a bit, it looks like this is the ladies version of the City Pearl electric bike, which has a 250 front hub motor and a Li-ion battery pack on the rear that doubles as a luggage rack. No word on whether this is made by Bianchi like some other Ducati bicycles we’ve seen.

Traditional Italian cycle company Montante have taken a step away from their traditional production (the brand name means ‘upright’ in Italian), and pulled an absolute stunner out of the bag.

The Montante for Maserati 8CTF celebrates the 70th anniversary of Wilbur Shaw’s famous win at the Indy 500, the second year running for the legendary car.

The bicycle features classic Maserati wine-coloured paintwork, and the Maserati trident engraved on each hub. It has a selectable fixed/freewheel rear hub, and a rather badass disk brake on the front

Aside from that, every detail screams BESPOKE LOVELINESS – pantographing, paintwork, leather and more – but mere mortals such as us will probably never get near one. Only 200 – the number of laps that make up the Indy 500 – are being made.

The bike was unveiled at the Paris Motor show this month. Click below for more pics.

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Photo submitted by Tim S. of the Chicago skyline at twilight along the lakeshore path.

To see more Pics of the Day, click here, and to submit your own photo to be shown to the world, go here.

Thick. And fast. There are no other words to describe it. Two exhibitions – one of cycling photos, the other of cycling-inspired paintings – come to Clerkenwell next week.

First off is James Straffon’s first solo show, at the Frameless Gallery on Clerkenwell Green. We featured him before, when he was exhibiting at the Paul Smith shop conveniently(?!) located in Terminal 5 departure lounge at London’s Heathrow Airport. So for those of you not international jet-setting, this will be a good chance to catch his images inspired by classic road racing. The exhibition runs from 1 until 7 November.

Geoff Waugh, meanwhile, is exhibiting his photos at Look Mum No Hands bike cafe on Old Street, from 5 November. Entitled Selectism, he will be showing, among other things, photos of the UCI MTB World cup. He’s renowned for his craft, a five-time award winner at the Sport Photographer of the Year Awards, so come check him out any time during the month.

Vitus Vitesse VR

Vitus – the high-end tubing supplier and later premium framebuilder – was a marque born and bred on the cols and cobbles of France. Its lightweight steel was used by Peugeot, Motobécane and Gîtane in the ’70s, and the company branched out into making its own frames, including pioneering aluminum and carbon-fibre models.

The Vitus 979 is a true classic of cyclosport history, at the front of the first wave of aluminum frames in the pro peleton, most notably under Sean Kelly who rode a 979-framed bike in several Tours de France. The Carbone, meanwhile, was introduced in 1982 and was a lugged seven-tube composite frame.
Then, the name disappeared.

Now, the brand has resurfaced, and is offering both mountain and road bikes, ranging from entry-level to elite-ready bikes.

The new top-end road model is named the Vitesse VR, and is a 3K-weave monocoque carbon frame equipped with Ultegra throughout (including wheels), plus a Controltech cockpit. The manufacturer claims a weight of 7.83kg in its 56cm incarnation, and it is sold for £2,199 / $3,083.

The Optimum III cross-country bike, meanwhile, is made from high-modulus carbon and equipped with a SRAM and Truvativ XX drivetrain, Truvativ carbon bar and WTB Laser Disc cross-country rims. It retails for £2,999 / $4,218.

There is also a bargain-basement urban singlespeed commuter; Chain Reaction Cycles is Vitus’s exclusive worldwide stockist.

Yes, these guys are making a leap into the unknown in many ways, but my experience would suggest that a company with such a long history of materials excellence should not be underestimated.

Click below for a picture of the Optimum III, as well as some classic frames from the company’s heyday.

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Please ignore the typo, everything is being done as quickly as possible due to time constraints.

One of the things I have always loved about the bike industry is how close knit the community really is. Most of the time this represents happy times with great bonds between friends and a killer sense of camaraderie. Unfortunately there are also dark times where one of our own faces incredible hardships, but it’s great to know that the community is there for us.

Now it’s our turn to give back to one of the most passionate guys I’ve met in the industry, Nick Moore who is the the designer/team manager for Demon Dirt. Apparently, Nick was just diagnosed with a degenerative eye disease which is causing nick to slowly go blind. His left eye is already almost completely blind, and emergency surgery is about the only chance for keeping his right eye functioning. As anyone who rides can imagine, this will have a major impact on not only his riding, but his life from here on out.

So here’s what we can do to help: for starters Demon Dirt is selling a special I ride for Nick’s Eyes version of the Brig jersey which can be found here. Also be sure to check out the article over at Pinkbike that has the details on an auction which the proceeds will directly benefit Nick, and will indclude items from the Camp of Champions, Banshee Bikes, VP Components, Candy Components, and One Ghost Industries.

Check out the touching video from Nick after the break!

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Spooky lube

Fresh on the shelves – or should it be kept in the fridge? – is this ‘Bloody Synthetic Lube’ from Japan’s Bored products. Unfortunately, you’ll need more than a basic level of Japanese to work out the exact specs, but looks- and design-wise, it’s spot on – and topical for the time of year!
Peeped on the 14Bikeco blog.

While most riders in the world of street trialsin’ sit on their hands and accept the fact that Danny MacAskill is making them all look like clowns, at least one rider, Dominik Raab of Austria, is willing to play George Foreman to MacAskill’s Muhammad Ali or maybe Jan Ullrich to MacAskill’s Lance Armstrong. Whatever the lame analogy, the kid is SICK. And what’s more, the production quality of this video is killer, the cameraman isn’t just looking at the crazy moves of the rider; he’s got an eye for general aesthetics and cinematography. It’s really a pleasure to watch on all levels.

To see some earlier Dominik Raab vids, click more…

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Spank’s new Spike pedal brings some innovation to the flat pedal game. Besides being fairly light (sub-400g per pair), they have a massive 85 square cm surface.  The real claim to fame is the chamfered edge that gives them a ridiculously shalled 4mm effective stack height equivalent when cornering, and it doubles as skid plate.

They’ll come in four colors (gray isn’t shown) and have 16 replaceable pins per pedal. Another cool feature, which wasn’t finalized on these prototypes, is the sloping edge near the threads at the crank’s edge. It’s ramped to let your foot slid directly onto the pedal from the crank arm, and they’re refining the shape to strike the right balance between being able to fit the oversized (hollow!) axle in and allowing your foot to use the crank arm as a guide down to the pedal.

The body of the pedal is a one-piece forged unit, and it rolls on Igus industrial bushings and full complement sealed bearings with oil seals on either end of the axle.

More pics, plus some highlights from the rest of their line, after the break…

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