FROM RAPHA: Officially opening on May 5th and running until the end of July, the Rapha Cycle Club will be a place where cyclists can celebrate the glory and suffering of road racing. Featuring extraordinary coffee from Four Barrel Coffee and fine foods from Tell Tale Preserve Company, all of the great races of the summer will be shown live — the Giro d’Italia, the Amgen Tour of California, and the Tour de France. With indoor bicycle parking, a central table and a global cycling library, the Rapha Cycle Club is the perfect place to start or finish a ride. A full schedule of events, including a pre-ATOC ride with Rapha-FOCUS rider, Jeremy Powers, and weekly screenings of our favorite cycling films, will be made available right here.

When I first saw the P-Town wheelset I was a bit confused.  On one hand, they look sweet, and would be a nice weight-saving addition to my single speed ride.  On the other hand, it’s a low spoke count wheel with a hefty price tag attached to it.  Would it hold up on daily commutes?  Is it worth the price?

The nice folks over at Rolf Prima were kind enough to lend me a pair so I could find out the answers to those questions.  I spent the last two months riding these wheels and after the jump you can find my thoughts, as well as specs and pricing.

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• Illinois has adopted a new Share the Road license plate design to help spread the message. We particularly like the educational tagline at the bottom! More from an Illinois attorney here.
• To make up for possible delays in shipping during the next few weeks due to forthcoming public holidays in the UK,  Rapha is offering free overseas shipping now thru May 3rd. Just type in ARDENNES at checkout.
• PlusSizeBMX is launching a monthly LIVE webcast that covers Park, Street and Dirt Riding on all wheel sizes. Episode 1 airs on Sunday May 1st at 10:30am (mst) Featuring a Trail Life report from Trail Pirate, an Interview with SupercrossBMX pro Matt Cordova, an excusive edit from Joe’s Bike Shop and more.
• Phil Keoghan, host of The Amazing Race, is extending his movie screening tour to 10 more cities (listed after the break). The film shows his adventure riding across the U.S. to raise money for MS, and proceeds from tickets and movie purchases go directly to the MS Society.

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Find all of our Project 24 reviews here!

Why on earth would Crank Brothers decide to make a grip alongside their other components?  After all, there are already hundreds of grips on the market, and most long-time riders have found something that works well for them.  Because they’re pretty awesome grips, that’s why.

Until now, I had never found a clamp-on grip that I liked.  Because I prefer a slimmer grip and the clamp-ons that I’d tried in the past gave up too much comfort in the name of security, I was actually dreading long days training and 24-hour racing on the Cobalts.  Hit ‘more‘ to find out how the Cobalts earned a special place in my heart hand…

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Photo submitted by Marcello Giraldi, “Spider on Marcello´s Troy Lee Designs Selle Italia. Paraná, Piraquara, Brazil. 16 April 2011.”

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

This weekend at Pietermaritzburg’s World Cup DH Podium, Trek World Racing athletes stood atop both the male and female podiums, after a great ride by both Aaron Gwin, and Tracy Moseley.

But perhaps more impressive than TWR athletes winning both races, is the fact that Gwin’s win marks the first time an American DH rider has stood atop a WC podium since 1999! After winning the US National DH Championship in both 09, and 2010, everyone with interest in the American DH scene had high hope for the relative newcomer to the DH scene.

Previously aboard a Yeti 303 when he won both National Championships, Aaron recently was picked up by Trek to race aboard the Session 88, which to little surprise, Aaron is also extremely talented on.

What does the rest of the World Cup Season hold? At this point, it is anyone’s guess.

Check out the full Press Release from TWR, after the break!

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Photos by Joshua Murdock of Max Schulze in Salida, CO. Check out the pic after the break of Max competing in his first trials competition.

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Photo submitted by Chad Lowers, “taking a break after the 25 mile climb towards Mt. Mitchell near
Asheville, NC. Only 10 more miles to the summit!”

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

We missed a photo opp with these at Sea Otter, but they are part of the new products launched alongside the new X0 silver group and revised chainring options. Basically, this first generation of Truvativ-MRP collaboration is a DH-style X0 chain guide. It uses the skidplate design with upper and lower chain guides with a lightweight machined aluminum backplate. 32-36T and 36-40T options via an adjuatable lower pulley. This new version is basically a rebadged MRP G2SL for now, but they said they’re working on more projects. ISCG, ISCG05 and BB mount. Price TBD, available in May. Spec list after the break…

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PRESS RELEASE: Trek Bicycle has instituted a full-scale carbon recycling program at its Waterloo, WI-based US manufacturing facility and is now recycling all scrap carbon fiber; the material primarily used in its domestic production. The material that Trek introduced to the cycling world and has pioneered the usage of since 1992 is revered for its strength and weight properties but has long been believed nearly impossible to recycle.

Through a partnership with Materials Innovation Technologies (MIT LLC) and its wholly owned subsidiary MIT-RCF, a South Carolina carbon reclamation facility that is revolutionizing carbon recycling processes, Trek completed a three month trial period to determine the viability of adopting the step as an official part of the manufacturing process. “Throughout the trial period we worked with Trek to show them how beneficial carbon recycling can be to their overall business practices.” Said MIT’s President and CEO, Jim Stike.  “Working with a world leader like Trek to help them become the first bicycle company to begin recycling carbon fiber is very exciting for us.”

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We posted some initial info on the revised Santa Cruz Blur XC already, but now we’ve got the full run down of changes and non-changes and the reasons why.

Visually, the tapered headtube is the first thing you’ll notice. They also have two new paint jobs, white/black/gold shown above and red/black/silver shown after the break. With the larger headtube, they were able to increase the size of the top- and downtubes as well, and they flared out the bottom of the seat tube. The result, they claim, is a much stiffer, stronger frame…which is actually saying a lot considering a) the original carbon Blur XC is a pretty stiff, strong frame and b) they managed to drop a little weight, too.

The weight savings comes from an updated carbon layup and molding process, likely similar to what they used in the new Blur TRc. Frame weight with shock is a “hair over four pounds,” which is darn competitive. So, what didn’t change and why? Click ‘more’ to see…

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