Catch up on all of our Project 1.2 posts here!

With out Project 1.2 singlespeed, we set out to take a look at the world of reasonably priced carbon fiber.  While the benefits of lighter and/or stronger components with improved vibration damping are clear, do those benefits erode as the magic plastic works its way from the ultra-high end to the plain old high end of the price spectrum?

Over the past few years, the mountain bike market has seen an explosion of carbon rim’d wheelsets- and with them a doubling or even tripling of prices at the high end.  Sitting comfortably between the $2,500 wunderwheel and $900 high-end aluminum wheelset, Specialized’s Roval wheel brand has had moderate success with solid and surprisingly light wheels like the $1,650 Control Trail SL.  But they knew that, in order to gain widespread acceptance, they would need to do better.

Enter the $1,200 Control Carbon 29 wheelset.  Built using a freehub borrowed from DT Swiss’ bombproof 350 model and DT Revolution spokes, it’s hard to argue with the Rovals’ foundation.  But the real news is the rim itself.  Realizing that tubeless and tubeless-ready beads were plenty strong to hold tires in place without a bead hook, they decided to go without.  Genius move- or recipe for disaster?  Hit the jump to find out how they’ve fared.

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Three years ago, when Fuji set out to replace their much loved D6 tri bike they knew it had to be fast, but more importantly it had to fit. In Fuji’s 114 year history, the making of the Norcom Straight marks their most ambitious project yet. Fuji doesn’t just look at the Norcom Straight as their latest and greatest Tri bike, but on a larger scale as the current pinnacle of their design and engineering efforts.

With a billing like that, the Norcom Straight has a lot to live up to. Read on to see if it delivers.

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As if the juxtaposition of thick bamboo tubes connected by glossy carbon fiber wasn’t enough, last year Boo Bicycles introduced a carbon “exogrid” style overwrap for their bamboo tubes. Builder Nick Frey also went with a full carbon seat tube/seat mast design on some bikes, giving one bike in particular a very modern look and feel despite being made of a very old, natural material. Now, he’s mixing the panda food with metals…

Bikerumor: What materials do you build with? Which is your favorite and why? 

Nick: We normally use exclusively bamboo and carbon, and Boo has built a brand around the highest performance bamboo bikes in the world. But we are going out and experimenting at NAHBS this year…we will be showing new bamboo-Ti and bamboo-Al bikes. The bamboo-Ti bike will be called Glissando, and will have a gorgeous split-bamboo top tube that flows seamlessly into the seat stays. It will be a high-design commuter bike, fit for display in a top design studio. The bamboo-Al bike will be called Aluboo, and will be priced at under $1000 for an entry-level fixie! We hope to bring the quality ride and handmade craftsmanship of Boo to a new audience.

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Catch up on all of our Project 1.2 posts here!

For many of us, there’s no denying carbon fiber’s sex appeal.  Be it the associations with cutting edge, high-end bikes and components (and race cars and fighter jets), the ways in which it can be crafted into seemingly endless combinations of weight, stiffness, vibration damping, and durability, or the way in which is frees designers from the formal constraints of metal construction, the stuff is pretty darn cool.  But carbon fiber components, wheels, and frames have long been out of financial reach for many riders- destined to remain objects of desire, unsullied by contact with everyday riding.

With their 29er Lurcher, rough and tumble 456, ‘cross Dirty Disco, and racy Whippet carbon fiber frames, British brand On-One (which is in the same family as Planet X and more recently Titus) have set out to bring the material to a much broader audience.  Between consumer-direct sales, canny purchasing, and lean margins, each of these frames has an MSRP under US$800 (the Dirty Disco adds a carbon fork for US$900).  It should be noted that, on their website at the time of this writing, not one of these frames is priced at MSRP.  Some are significantly lower.

The Lurcher is On-One’s all-around carbon fiber 29er frame.  At $800, the MSRP is half to one third that of bigger brands’ offerings- and provided inspiration for our Project 1.2 singlespeed‘s “Reasonably-Priced Carbon” theme.  Interchangeable $25 “Swapouts” make for easy geared or singlespeed configuration and the frame is bang up-to-date with a tapered head tube, press-fit bottom bracket, direct-mount front derailleur, and a 31.6mm seatpost.  Advertised at 1,550g, it’s not the lightest frame on the market- but then lightest and least expensive would be a scary combination.  After six months with the Lurcher, is On-One’s latest a price point killer- or a horrific mailorder pigdog?  Hit the jump to find out…

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Catch up on all of our Project 1.2 posts here!

While the benefits of wheels that are lighter and stronger than their aluminum peers are clear, carbon fiber wheels come with a price premium that can be awfully hard to justify.  With a number of perfectly good excellent wheels available in the $600-900 range, dropping 3-4 times for something a bit lighter and stronger is often out of the question.  A large part of the cost for which carbon fiber rims are known comes from their manufacturing complexity. Unlike aluminum rims, which are extruded as a continuous section and then welded or pinned into a hoop- a largely automated process- carbon fiber rims are much more process- and labor- intensive.

Rather than simply accept the high cost of manufacturing carbon fiber rims, the engineers at Specialized’s wheel brand Roval decided to question the function of each and every part of the rim. Realizing that tubeless tires’ snug beads no longer rely on rim bead hooks to stay in place, the company decided to do away with them altogether. With them, the bead hooks took away complex tooling and/or secondary machining processes- and a good deal of expense. How much? Enough that the DT-hub’d Control Carbon 29 wheelset retails for $1,200- the cost of 1 1/2 high-end carbon fiber rims (without hubs or spokes). Revolutionary breakthrough or evolutionary dead-end? Hit the jump to find out!

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Catch up on all of our Project 1.2 posts here!

While it’s been in the works for some time (and we leaked early photos on our Facebook page), our Project 1.2 single speed is now complete.  Hardly a plastic wallflower, the Lurcher has been getting lots of dirty time.  But before diving into the reviews, an introduction.

When the opportunity to pick up one of On-One’s Lurcher 29er frames presented itself, we jumped.  Earlier On-One Inbred and Scandal frames handled brilliantly- and the Lurcher looked set to bring the brand’s high performance, high value ethos to life in carbon fiber.  In fact, it’s the democratization of the magic plastic that’s become the theme of this year’s build. Bike shop and online brands are bringing carbon fiber to ever-lower price points as production capacity has grown and the ins and outs of working with the material are sussed.  Light weight, stiffness and vibration damping for all?  Or at some point does it just become carbon fiber for carbon fiber’s sake?

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Though little known on these shores, Dutch company Vredestein has been producing both bicycle and automobile tires for over 100 years. The Black Panther XTREME is one of the company’s newer designs- a thoroughly modern trail tire designed for “heavy conditions.” Having had good experience with the 29er version as a racy front XC tire, I jumped at the chance to get the 26in version into some rougher and more varied terrain.

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We first spotted the new Intense Hard Eddie 29er carbon fiber hardtail mountain bike at Eurobike. At the show, one of the very first frames was on display with few details and a projected launch date of March 2012, making it fashionably late.

Built using the same carbon fiber technology as their Carbine SL, the Hard Eddie is designed by Jeff Steber and engineered by SEED Engineering. And, like the Carbine SL, it gets swappable QR and 142×12 rear axle dropouts, but this one adds a singlespeed option, too. Claimed frame weight is a hair over 1,000g, and Intense offers a paint-matched carbon rigid fork that they say lets you build a complete bike right at 18lbs.

Pics and details right this way… READ MORE ->

Wide, sturdy, and light. When American Classic offered up their MTB 29 Tubeless Singlespeed wheelset as a comparison with my self-built DT/Stans wheelset, I was torn. As a former semi-professional wheelbuilder who takes pride in selecting components and building up a wheel well suited to my riding, I almost didn’t want to know if American Classic could do a better job. That said, having chosen the company’s hubs for single speed use in the past and been impressed by their tubeless MTB 26 Tubeless and All Mountain wheelsets, I had the sneaking suspicion that they could…

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There are few things that can impact the feel and performance of your bike more than wheels. Drop rotating weight and you’ll feel faster climbing and reaction times will seem to drop. Make them stiffer and control climbs a few notches. Add all that together, and well, you’re looking at a potentially game changing upgrade.

Enter the new 29er AM wheel-set from American Classic. For lack of better terminology to sound intelligent, they’re SWEET!

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