Kali’s Maraka and Phenom are very, very hard helmets to make, eating up 45 minutes to make two, thanks to multiple density foams, carbon fiber inserts and other technologies.

The upcoming Loka road bike helmet takes a lot of their technologies, but uses a slightly different construction method that simplifies the mold plate assembly process to bring a similar look to a $99 road helmet. It keeps the the important safety bits like cone head dual density construction and bumper foam on the inside. And target weight is just 250g.

If your riding is more gravity oriented, Kali’s got an impressively light and small DOT-approved DH full face helmet on the drawing board, too…

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BR&IN is reporting that Lake Rudd Capital Partners has completed an agreement to purchase Blue Competition Cycles from its founders, Michael and Jay Skop.

Word is LRCP will provide financial backing to improve infrastructure and management team, and fuel expansion beyond its claimed 30% annual growth over the past three years.

The company said its business has expanded in the U.S. and Europe by an average of 30 percent a year for the past three years. The agreement transfers ownership of Blue to LRCP, but they will retain most of the current employees.

LRCP is a private equity firm that invests in privately held and family owned businesses and is based in Providence, RI. Blue is based in Norcross, GA, and makes road and triathlon bikes. We covered their latest models at PressCamp earlier this year.

Paul Lew at the Hawaii Ironman World Championships in 2011

I had the good fortune of sitting next to Paul Lew on the long flight home from Eurobike, and he’s a very interesting man.

An expert in aerodynamics, his story follows along the American Dream pretty well: Find the intersection of your passion and a need, in this case his own needs, and make it happen. From his own brands to consulting for others, and building carbon fiber UAVs for the military along the way, it’s a story best told in his own words. Buckle up and get ready to fly…

BIKERUMOR: Who are you and what are you doing here?

LEW: I’m the director of technolgy and innovation for Reynolds Cycling.

BIKERUMOR: What was your first job or experience in the cycling industry? How did you “break” in?

LEW: In 1986, I started racing triathlon, and in ’89 after I got my second degree I decided that I wanted to do something in the bike industry. I didn’t know what I wanted to do or how to go about it, so I designed a bike wheel. I met a man who was also interested in getting into the industry who had recently sold a company, so he had money to invest. We started a company in Indianapolis, IN, where I grew up, and started designing and manufacturing a spokeless, hubless front wheel for track cycling called the Black Hole…

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Zach floats the Tracer 27.5 off one of the drops on Aspen Slalom in Park City, UT.

At DealerCamp, Zach and Tyler had a chance to ride Intense’s new Tracer 27.5 (650B). Tyler also got a long ride in on the Carbine 27.5, the modified version of their carbon trail bike with the mid sized wheels.

Quick refresher: The Tracer 27.5 is a ground up redesign specifically made for the 650B wheel size, and the Carbine 27.5 uses new dropouts to position the rear wheel such that the slightly larger wheel fits into the 26″ frame. They move the axle location up and back slightly to keep the geometry the same as the 26″ bike.

With Intense bikes sold primarily as framesets, the demo bikes were built up to accommodate the more aggressive of Park City, Utah’s trails…including Aspen Slalom, Fire Swamp and Devo.

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Alongside the 2013 road and cyclocross bikes introduced at PressCamp, GT dug out some classic model names for the dirt. Names like Zaskar, Xizang and Karakoram all come back to life or get modern refreshes.

The Xizang (shy-zang) titanium hardtail comes back, but with 29″ wheels. It gets a shaped tapered headtube, hydroformed chainstays and shaped downtube. That shaping makes it laterally stiff, according to GT’s marketing manager Chris Hopwood.

Frameset is in stock now  and retails for $2,000. Available in M, L and XL. If you live in Asia, you can still get the 26″ size, elsewhere, not so much…

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Picture c. Richard Cunningham - Pinkbike

Not too long ago, when Shimano introduced the new SLX group, the big story was the inclusion of an SLX level Shadow Plus rear derailleur. Oddly, also included in the press release as a simple byline in a sea of text was the fact that there would also be a Shadow Plus derailleur at XT lever, though any photos were conspicuously absent. To our knowledge, the XT version of the Shawdow Plus was a bit of a ghost until now.

Recently, when Pinkbike got the run down of GT’s 2013 bike line up at this year’s press camp, RC snapped a photo of the 2013 Carbon Zaskar 29, which happened to be equipped with what certainly looks like a production version of the XT Shadow Plus. By appearances alone, it appears to be what we all expected, a standard XT derailleur with the addition of Shimano’s excellent one way clutch system to keep the chain quiet, and in control.

With the addition of the new Saint and Zee groups, that means that there are now 5(!) different levels of Shadow Plus – Saint, Zee, XTR, XT, and SLX. Will we see a Shadow Plus Deore level derailleur in the future? Who knows. What we do know is that the Shadow Plus system works. Now with so many options, it should be easier for riders to get one on their bike to see for themselves.

Hiding in plain sight at Niner’s PressCamp booth were these 6/4 titanium Cogalicious singlespeed cogs. Shown here in 17t and 23t, they’ll likely be offered in a full range of sizes.

They’re bearing their RDO (Race Day Optimized) logo, and they’re feeling pretty light. Other than the obvious, Niner’s folks aren’t sayings nothing other than that they’re prototypes. Full pic after the break…

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We got a teaser of these new wheels at Sea Otter, along with a carbon rimmed wheelset that’s conspicuoisly absent from their PressCamp display. The new Black Flag Pro SL and Charger Pro SL will come in 26″ and 29er and are lighter and stiffer/stronger than the standard Pro and Expert versions.

The current Black Flags have 24mm wide and Chargers are 28mm. Both use the same 6000-series alloy.

The new Black Flag Pro SL wheels will be 23mm wide and Charger Pro SL rims are 27mm wide. Both are made of a new proprietary blend of 6000 series alloy that’s stronger. That lets them use less material without sacrificing strength, so they’re lighter.

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First look at the new Kali Maraka helmet shows some gaping vents at the front.

Kali Protectives is known for their gravity and more aggressive riding helmets and protective gear. Come June, they’ll take the wraps off  an entirely new road bike and XC mountain bike helmet collection.

Dubbed Phenom and Maraka, the helmets will use “revolutionary technologies such as Composite Fusion Plus (dual density EPS foams built in cone shapes between layers), as well as the unveiled Supervent construction for advanced structural support.”

Kali’s reps will unveil them to us press geeks in two weeks at PressCamp, but they’ll make their out-in-the-sun debut next week as Kali co-founder Mike Wilson use them in his solo Race Across America campaign starting June 13.

“Seeing this helmet and all its technologies become a reality has been a real dream of mine,” said Wilson via a press release. “Since the first time we sat down and seriously talked about Road, I dreamed of these kind of advancements in road helmets. Having the honor of racing the Phenom in the 2012 RAAM is more than a dream. We race 2993.5 miles and have only one piece of protective equipment: our helmet.”

While Hutchinson wasn’t showing anything brand new at Sea Otter, they did mention that two of their treads -Cobra and Cougar- were being developed in 650B / 27.5 sizes for mid-2012 release. Following up with them after the show, we learned that they’ll be offering two or three additional existing treads in that size and possibly a new semi-slick XC racing pattern in a narrow 2.1 or 2.2 size. They’ve exhibited at PressCamp in June in the past, so perhaps they’ll be showing new stuff then.