At Interbike this year, James from US distributors Ibex Sports was showing the British company’s full range of updated lights.  Adding about 7% to previous models’ output by better managing the LED emitters’ thermal conditions, all of Exposure’s redesigned lights have also added higher-quality gold-plated connectors and rubber caps to prevent the charger pushing muck into them.  After 2 years on a Diablo, we have a review in the wings but will be updating it once the new model arrives- be sure to stay tuned!

In the meantime, check out this little dongle that allows any of Exposure’s lights to give your USB-charged electronics a boost.  The Boost Cable will enable phone calls from a dead cell phone or give a flat GPS a bit more life- though the light’s run time will suffer.  Seeing as I carry the aforementioned Diablo just in case on all of my big backcountry rides, this sub-$25 seems like a sensible addition to the big bag…

www.exposurelights.com

ibexsports.com

Photo from one of our readers. If you think you know what this is, post your answer in ‘comments’ – the answer will be posted there on Tuesday!

To send in your own Mystery Pic to be considered for the Monday feature, click here and attach your photo with all pertinent information.

This summer, what seems like forever ago now, Orbea invited us to their headquarters in Mallabia, Spain, to see the operation and witness the launch of their next generation Occam. During the tour, we spotted what we thought was a new carbon Rallon, but in fact, it was the Occam…we just wouldn’t know that until the next day, and by then we were asked to keep mum. Until now.

The 2012 Occam is a complete overhaul of the model, taking the Advanced Dynamics suspension design introduced with the Rallon (intro, review) and putting it into a more trail/enduro oriented bike. Truth be told, this is an entirely different animal. Where the Rallon is short and punchy, the new Occam is stretched out and, well, we’ll get to the ride in a bit. First things first, let’s look at the bike…

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Photo submitted by Bernat, “Queen stage of a week Tour in Girona – Spain. Famous climb for Pro’s on their trainings in the area.”

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

…oh, and two brakes for the front wheel.

Yep, I’m thinking Gatorbrake takes the cake for the most over-the-top component I saw at Eurobike. While the man at the booth (as best I could tell) said the carbon rotors are both durable and for sale, they’re not shown on their website’s store. They do have some nice looking metal rotors there, though, which aren’t too expensive in Euros.

Let off the brakes and roll past the break for more insanity…

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Photo submitted by Dalibor Ban, “Singletrack leading to the valley of river Hladnik. Unusually good and warm weather for this part of the year in Julian Alps.”

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

You may recall the startup Firefly brand founded by ex-Independent Fabrications folks. Their European importer (or at least a great shop that sells their wares), Crema Cycles, had a custom cyclocross bike with trick ENVE stem displayed in their booth.

Right behind it was their own brand steel disc brake ‘cross racer, and in front were some sweet custom jerseys from Biciclista. All that, and more, right through here…

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Hydrapak had quite a few things to show off in their booth this year, including these new insulated water bottles. While an insulated bottle is nothing new, a bottle with actual PrimaLoft insulation is. Utilizing a full double wall construction with the PrimaLoft sandwiched in the middle, the bottle remains very flexible but still with excellent insulative properties.

Check out more on the insulate bottles, new bladders, and a few new bags after the break!

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Kona Bicycle Company is local for me – Ferndale/ Bellingham, WA – and I have always wondered about their “tribe”. Their recent product launch was my chance to see what they’re all about, what products they had on tap and what technology they are expecting for the future.

Kona is a grass-roots, hard-core rider driven company with an emphasis on pleasing a rider who wants a long lasting, durable yet sleekly designed steed. The company’s new ‘non-slogan’-slogan is “The year of the long sweet ride” and from the look and feel of things they are on the right track.

Kona is making a big push to utilize carbon fiber but doing so with caution. They want to take things slowly to ensure high quality and fewer problems due to rushing to jump onto a band-wagon and then dealing with consequential returns and warranty issues… Not a bad idea!

One 29” frame in particular has made a big entrance into the carbon fiber world; the King Kahuna Hard Tail 29’er, that Kona insider Steven Noble calls “the fastest mountain bike we have ever made,” more on it in a moment. Another carbon fiber frame that we will all see in the cyclocross scene this year is the Major Jake (pictured above), but we’ve posted on that quite a bit already.

Design additions for 2012 include Scandium 6069 in ten bicycle models and Race Light Aluminum 7005 in others. 142×12 rear axles also made a broad appearance and zero stack tapered steer tubes are en vogue, both showing up on most bikes.

With the number of 2012 big wheel bikes (12 for 2012) rolling out it, Kona is showing where its all mountain riding future is headed. I’ll focus on a few of the products that seemed to gather the most attention. As an aside, I am not a “bike geek” in that I am not all about the weight and the specific dimensions and specs of any bike (We’ve posted weights and specs on most of these here and here). I am however someone that tests the products abilities in real world application. In other words, I ride the hell out of a bike and tell you what I think of it! All of the measuring and discussion is great to a point but at some point you just gotta get out there and rip it. Practical application, in my humble opinion, is the name of the game.

The first application would be the 2012 Satori…

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Seeing as how the original Stinger Waffle is still one of my all time favorite ride foods, I was excited to check out some of the new flavors Honey Stinger has goin on. New to the line up for the the organic energy chews are the pink lemonade flavor above, along with a caffeinated Limeade flavor as well. Of course the strawberry Stinger Waffle is relatively new as well. For one of my first rides back at home fresh from Interbike, I decided to grab the pink Lemonade chews and a Strawberry waffle before I set out for a short road ride.

Seeing as how I’m not a big fan of pink Lemonade the drink, I wasn’t so sure how I would react to the chews. Jump past the break to find out!

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Focus Bikes has joined the growing ranks of major bicycle brands offering a stock disc brake cyclocross bike with their new Mares Cross AX Disc.

The bike has an alloy frame and stocky carbon fork with mechanical Tektro discs. It’s built up with color matched components and a mid-level drivetrain spec of Shimano 105 and FSA Gossamer cranks. Perhaps the best part is that it’s MSRP is just $1,750 with an estimated street price of $1,600.

They’ve also got the new Cayo Evo, a heavily updated version of the Cayo road bike that’s a glimpse at the future for that model and the all-new Raven carbon 29er hardtail…

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We got an early look at the 2012 Cannondale Scalpel in its prototype form at Sea Otter, and then we weighed the production carbon models and showed off the specs for those and their alloy underlings.

Now, we’ve got a glimpse of the Scalpel 29r Ultimate. Will it be a production offering? Maybe. Probably not as spec’d here…but it gives you an idea of just how freakin’ BA this thing can get. The matte black frame on ENVE rims and black carbon cockpit are completely stealth and really accentuate the frame’s curves much better than the painted models do.

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