BikeRumor.com

For all you fixed gear riders in smooth areas, rejoice, you now have a skinnier tire to match your skinnier jeans.

Fyxation’s new Session 700×23 size tires are now in stock and available on their website. Get it in green, white, pink, orange and black, and they’re all 120tpi with kevlar protection, pinch-flat-toughened sidewalls and a full wrap around tread. Oh, and they come in whitewalls, too, with either brown or black center tread, or colored sidewalls with black center tread. $49.95 each.

Rotor’s pumping out the goods this fall with some hot new 3D Cranks and Q-Rings, plus several bottom brackets that let you run standard cranks in your BB30 frame or vice versa!

Shown above is the new 3D+ crank, based on the venerable 3D, updated with a 30mm axle. These cranks are fully compatible with BB30, BBright and any conventional  BSA threaded frame. For an ultra rigid crank their weight is impressive: just  470 grams for the compact version and  493 grams for the XC2 version (without BB/chainrings). These cranks are certified to the EN14781 standard, one of the most demanding tests in the market.

Modeled on the crankset above are the new Q-Rings with updated, bolder laser graphics, upgraded pins and revised teeth profiles to improved shifting precision and prevent chain sucks.

Check the rest after the break…

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Serotta has introduced a line of prêt-à-porter semi-custom steel bikes with the hopes of introducing a new generation of folks to their brand.

Without dropping the coin to get the full custom Serotta fit and build experience, their new Colorado Ready Custom program builds up a bike for under $4,000 using one of 18 “ready custom” frame sizes developed from their 38 years of bike making experience.

Shown above is the Colorado with green trim. Check past the break for gray and a closeup of the headtube. Oh, and the full press release…

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Thanks to an anonymous tipster that made the trip across the pond to Eurobike for these sweet photos of Litespeed’s new 2011 C1R aero road bike. Other than the obvious, like a full integrated seatpost, massive headtube and bottom bracket sections and bladed fork, we don’t have a lot of details.

Jump in for closeup photos…

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Bontrager has unveiled a new line of road saddles called Affinity. Following their release of their new mountain bike Evoke InForm saddles at Sea Otter earlier this year, the Affinity line is geared toward the pavement crowd and runs the full range from Race, RL and RXL models. Compared to their original inForm road saddles, the Affinity line is for riders that sit slightly more upright than a super aggressive racing position, which Bontrager says is the largest segment of road riders.

We just received a black RL and white RXL in the post to test out, and they do look very nice, particularly the RXL. Each model is available in different widths with both men and women specific models. The deal with inForm technology is that it not only measures width of the sit bones to help you get the right saddle, but it takes into consideration the tilt of your pelvic bone based on the type of riding the saddle is intended for, too. That, combined with pressure relief zones, claims to make their seats extremely comfortable for long hours in the saddle. Bontrager (ie. Trek) dealers should have fitting mechanisms in their stores to help you get the right size.

Full press release, actual weights for RL and RXL and more photos of every model after the break…

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Preceded by the Old Salem Criterium on Saturday, the 38th Annual Carolina Cup will again take to the 1.6 mile swooping, curving paved path through Country Park in Greensboro, North Carolina. Featuring $5,500 in cash and prizes, plus an all new Single Speed/Fixed category sponsored by Chrome, this year’s race should be quite the spectacle. As always, there are free kid’s races in the middle of the day. Check the site for the mail in entry form to get the lowest price, or register through Active.com. We’ll see you there.

With very few exceptions, it seems as though the best cycling gear is the stuff that basically disappears when riding.  No one wants to have their attention drawn to floppy jersey pockets, poorly padded shorts, slipping glasses, or unstable lids.  At the end of the day, no one wants their gear to get between them and the experience of the ride.  While it is unlikely that Lazer set out to build an invisible helmet, they have come remarkably close with their Genesis model.  Hit ‘more’ to find out if this 5 year-old model is still worth seeking out.

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The Vuelta a Espana Stage race starts tomorrow August 28th, and will conclude on Sunday September 19th, with every stage available live on Universal Sports. Watch as many of the big names like Andy Schleck, Denis Menchov, Tyler Farrar, and Mark Cavendish duke it out in one of the years last big stage races.

Live coverage is available in one of two ways, TV and Online. Coverage will begin each day at 10 am ET, with the exception of the race opening night Time Trial through the streets of Seville on August 28 at 3:30 pm ET.

Have DirecTV but not Universal Sports? Good news there, as DirecTV is making Universal Sports Coverage of the Vuelta a Espana available free of charge to any DirecTV subscriber, just tune to channel 604. Otherwise check with your local cable provider to see if you get Universal Sports, or if it is offered.

Universal Sports will also be hosting the Grand Tour Giveaway, where by predicting the stage winners you could win a trip to 2011 Vuelta, a Giant Defy 1 Road Bike or Authentic Vuelta Red 75th Anniversary Jersey.

Check out the anniversary jersey after the break.

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Will Thor be riding for Garmin next season?

Jean Paul Van Poppel, venerable DS of the Cervélo Test Team, has given a clear indication that the rumors surrounding the Test Team’s demise at the end of the season are true, reports Velonation.

The website takes up Biciclismo.com’s Spanish-language reporting, which quoted Van Poppel as saying “I cannot deny that it is true. The future will change. For me, it is a question of how [it will happen]. I hope that we don’t stop completely, but at this moment I can say nothing meaningful about it.”

Carlos Sastre had already confirmed his move to the Geox team next season, but the indications are that Cervélo had not tried to offer him - or any of the other riders whose contracts were up - a renegotiated deal for 2011. Biciclismo is reporting that Thor Hushovd, Hienrich Haussler, Roger Hammond and Andreas Klier will move to Garmin-Transitions next year, and that Cervélo will also supply bikes to the team, which is part-owned by David Millar.

Cervélo have scheduled a pre-Vuelta press conference for Saturday morning, where the situation will presumably become clearer. If the news is true, it will see the end of a fascinating experiment, so well documented in their Beyond the Peloton videos - and the close to another chapter in the stuttering history of manufacturer-sponsored teams. The Test Team undoubtedly enhanced the reputation of the innovative bike manufacturer, but it appears the costs of maintaining a UCI ProTour team were simply too high.

The women’s team will stay as a stand-alone entity, it is reported.

So far this week, you’ve seen the details on all of Felt’s Road and Mountain lines, and we’re rounding out this series with their Cyclocross, TRI/TT and Track lines. Of course, don’t forget that Felt also offers a great line of beach cruisers, cafe bikes and BMX bikes, so head over to their website to check those out as well. See the details on the race-ready F15X, pictured above, and the rest of today’s lines after the jump.

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This website, BunchRideFinder.com.au, claims to help you find a group ride in your area. You can choose a road ride, mountainbike ride, or track session on the menu bar and then select which country you are interested in riding. There is also a world map selection that lets you see rides pinpointed allover the world. The only problem with this site is the lack of group rides to choose from. It’s a nicely designed site, pleasant on the eyes and pretty easy to navigate. If you’re interested in putting your group ride on this site, you can click on the ‘add a ride’ button at the top of the screen and submit your regular group ride. Who knows, it could become a sort of “exchange program” for cyclists to find a group ride while away from home.

Yesterday, we showed you Felt’s F and AR Series road bikes, and today we’ll be continuing with the full Z and ZW Series road bikes. Borrowing much manufacturing technology from their pure-bred racing F-Series siblings, the Z offer a taller headtube, for a less aggressive riding position. At only a superlight tube’s weight away from 15 pounds, the Z2 pictured above comes with Shimano Di2 and RS80 wheels for $6,499 (for those keeping track, the Di2 kit alone costs close to $3,000). Check out the rest of the Z bikes, plus the women’s specific ZW bikes, after the jump. For all the mountain bikers, we’ll have their full MTB line tomorrow!

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Kestrel sent us a few photos of their new-for-2011 RT1000 road bike, which will be offered in three trim levels: Dura-Ace, Ultegra and 105.

The RT1000 frameset uses their 800K Carbon, a proprietary new blend of High-Modulus carbon fibers to provide “the lightest, best riding frame possible while maximizing the handling response.”

Kestrel’s Steven Harad says “It allows us to custom tune the ride quality of the frame to be ultra stiff in the head tube, and bottom bracket area while allowing us to keep the ride quality extremely comfortable. Like our other Kestrel frames, we use a modular monocoque design that follows our Frameset Component Integration. This means the fork, seat post and rear stays are designed specific per size to ensure that each one of our sizes rides exactly like the other size. It’s important that the 62cm rides as well as our 48cm in ride quality. Our rear stays and fork are designed to absorb maximum road shock to keep the rider from feeling fatigued on a long ride and our sloping top tube and larger head tube provide the perfect combination for a more comfortable ride.”

The RT1000 Dura-Ace model is shown above, check out the Ultegra model after the break…

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Last month, we showed you an overview of Felt’s 2011 lines, focusing on the new additions and big changes. Felt’s lines really shine all the way thru, and you find some impressively spec’ed bikes at a great value, which benefit from all that technology you see in the models above them. Over the next couple of days, we’ll be showing you the detailed lines, complete with photos, specs and MSRPs. Check out the F and AR Series bikes after the jump, and stay tuned all week for details on the other lines.

The sub-14 pound F1, shown above, is the flagship race bike being ridden by Garmin Transitions. Spec’ed with full Shimano Di2 with Mavic Cosmic Carbone Ultimate wheels, it retails for $12,499. A Team version will be available with specs from the team’s sponsors, with a TBA price.

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What has a 100 year warranty, the best crash replacement program in the biz, and comes from the land down under? That would be a Teschner frame, newly available to the US. Teschner started buisness in Byron Bay, Australia in 1990 and has quickly become a recognizable name in performance and design when it comes to high performance road bikes.

Peter Teschner has been hard at work with his company for some time, and while Teschner bikes are huge in Australia, they are just starting to gain a foothold elsewhere. This may be due to the fact that Peter takes so much pride in his product that he offers what seems to be the best crash replacement policy in the industry. Crash your bike bad enough to ruin it before 3 years after the original purchase, and you get a replacement frame and fork for only 50% of the total cost. Did I mention that racing doesn’t void the policy?

The frames look great and have some pretty solid numbers to back them up.

Check out all the models after the break.

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