After introducing the EPS electronic shifting group late last year, Campagnolo has quickly added compatible TT/Triathlon bar end shifters and brake levers. The new items add push button shifting in aerodynamic packages and bring along a pair of new aero carbon cranksets, too.

Above, the shifter brake levers put the buttons on top and inside edges of a control box with a full carbon lever blade. Wiring and brake cable run through the center of the expansion wedge to keep everything cleanly run inside bullhorn bars and out of the wind. The brake levers have a quick release function to open the brakes for easier wheel changes. Weight is 109g for the pair.

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See all of our Project 24.2 reviews here!

If you could only have one wheelset, what would it look like?  Every rider is different, but for me, it would sport sturdy rims wide enough to handle true 2.3in tires, have a proven freehub, be compatible with several hub standards, freakishly light, and not too expensive.  Something that would be up to day-to-day aggressive trail use, big weekends with the boys in Sedona or Moab, and maybe light enough for the odd 24-hour race.  It would be tubeless and require as little maintenance as possible.  That’s a lot to ask of a wheelset- but when it arrived last September, Roval’s Control Trail SL wheelset looked last fall to be every one of those things.  Eight months later, has it lived up to its early promise?  Hit the jump to find out…

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If you recall from their recent 2013 product updates, Fox is taking a more integrated approach to front and rear suspension and has revised their damping characteristics to provide tunes optimized for climbing, “trail” and descending. The old 1-2-3 Pro Pedal settings are replaced across the range with CTD settings instead, with some models getting some additional adjustment within the Trail setting.

Look a little further back in time and you may recall their iRD (intelligent Ride Dynamics) intro at Interbike last fall with the electronic shock/fork set up app and pump. iRD is Fox’s categorization for electronic products “employing non-traditional solutions to help customers improve their ride experience.”

The first big product under iRD to hit production will be the Float iCD (intelligent Climb Descend) electronic remote switch. This is pretty much exactly what we speculated it would be after seeing it on Kabush’s Sea Otter winning Scott Spark 29er: it’s an electronic switch to toggle between Climb and Descend modes on the fork and, on full sussers, the shock.

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Following our Factory Tour of Parlee, which included a bike fit at Fit Werx, I was set up with a Z5 road bike for review.

Parlee’s Z5 line, which includes this standard model and an SL/SLi option that has full ti hardware, and lighter tubes and fork, is their top of the line “stock” offering. The frames are available in 12 sizes, ranging from XS, S, M, ML, L to XL in both standard and tall configurations. This lets Parlee offer their trademark ride and construction at a lower price point than full custom while being able to fit the vast majority of riders. The full construction method and details are covered in the Factory Tour post, but the short of it is this: The layup schedule and details for the Z5 are all based on Bob Parlee’s decade-plus experience in building custom bikes, and they say it rides very much like the custom ones. And it’s lighter because it’s monocoque construction rather than lugged like their custom bikes.

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ENVE Composites is considered one of (if not the) premier carbon fiber tube and component manufacturers, and we were given a chance to peek behind the curtain at their operation. Well, most of it anyway. There are a few things we couldn’t photograph or mention, but for the most part they opened their doors wide and gave us surprising amount of access.

Based in Ogden, Utah, ENVE produces carbon fiber tubes and frame parts for a very high percentage of US custom frame builders. Brands like Crumpton, Parlee, Independent Fabrication, Calfee and many, many more rely on ENVE’s carbon expertise to make their bikes. And, of course, there’s the lustworthy matte black component line we’re all familiar with.

Follow us along through a shop tour and see how they do it…

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Campagnolo has just made it a bit easier on cyclists losing sleep over whether to go with a compact or standard crankset.

Their new 52/36 EVO chainring options will be available only for their 11-speed  groups: Super Record, Record Chorus and the carbon Athena in all four lengths (165, 170, 172.5 and 175).  It’s an option for their 2013 groups, and they’re EPS compatible. Claimed weights for the cranksets with the new rings are 663g for Athena Carbon, 690g for Chorus, 650g less for Record, and 607g for Super Record.

They use Campy’s proprietary compact 110BCD, and the rings are called mid-compact and are retrofittable to any of these four Campy compact cranksets. Since 2011, Campy has stiffened up their chainrings in anticipation of their EPS group. Jerry Ott, Campy’s US Customer Service Manager, says the EPS front derailleur puts out 70% more force than their mechanical ones, so everything had to be made stiffer. Despite the gap, they says they’re designed to shift just as smoothly as the rest.

Still need more gearing? Shift through the break…

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Ready to geek out on some nutrition science?

OSMO Nutrition is a new sports nutrition company based on the research of Dr. Stacy Sims, an exercise physiologist and sport nutritionist at Stanford University from 2007-2012 with an impressive resume of consulting Lance Armstrong and other top athletes over the years. She’s also a Cat 1 roadie and elite XTerra triathlete.

The name Osmo is a play on Osmolality, the measure of how many solutes (solids) are in a solution. The key with sports drinks is to have the osmalality lower than that of your blood in order to be absorbed quickly. Otherwise, you’re stomach has to work to dilute it.

Sims says most sports drinks are designed to be a fuel source and pack in lots and lots of calories. By packing all that in, it increases the osmolality too high, which hurts absorption. This causes water to be pulled to the digestive system to dilute it, which means it’s being pulled away from your muscles.

Her guideline for athletes is “food in your pocket, hydration in your bottle. If you’re relying on fuel from your liquids, you’re not optimizing your hydration.”

Sims actually doesn’t recommend gels at all, a theory shared with another former Armstrong support member, Dr. Allen Lim. She says for every one gel, you should probably consume 8-12 ounces of water, but even then it’s a concentrated source in the stomach that requires time to mix with the water before it can digest. It also causes heat storage because most gels are comprised of fructose or maltodextrin, which require an extra step for digestion. This extra step produces heat, which is just added to the heat already being produced by your muscles. This decreases the time to fatigue.

Food’s a little different, surprisingly. She recommends simple carbs like white bread or new potatoes with some salt or peanut butter on them. Nothing that’s going to spike the blood sugar too much or cause stomach distress.

OK, with all that in mind, just what sort of drinks did they develop?

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Crank Brothers’ Kronolog dropper seatpost arrived a few days in advance of the official introduction back in March, so we’ve had a couple months of riding on it. We’ve also dismantled it, weighed it and given it a good once over.

The basics:  It’s a mechanically controlled air spring post that’s infinitely adjustable. A big deal is made of preset positions by Fox and Specialized with their posts, but if you like being able to set it where you want it, the Kronolog obliges with a simple push of the lever. Rather than slotted channels to prevent rotational play, Crank Brothers flattened the sides of the telescoping section and shaped the internal seals and guides accordingly. The result is a (thus far) smooth operating post with as close to zero play as we imagine possible. Other nice features are a secondary air chamber that damps the return speed, slowing it down as it nears top out and keeping your special bits safe. When you pull up on the saddle, it won’t raise the seat because the jam plates lock the post into position in both directions. Lastly, the lever is very easily mounted under or over the bar and on either side.

Fit and finish on the post and remote are top notch, as with most Crank Brothers products we’ve seen. And while the Kronolog solves some of its predecessor’s problems and addresses common complaints with dropper posts in general, there are a few concerns worth mentioning. Drop in for the full review…

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While a few cracked ribs sidelined me from the reportedly great riding out in Sedona, AZ, for the launch of the new Santa Cruz Tallboy LT 29er, we were able to get one in for some local testing a week or so later. Santa Cruz’s mountain bikes tend to work well for us, the kind of bikes we can hop on and immediately feel right at home. The new Tallboy LT is no different.

We took it up to Carven’s Cove in VA for a little rocky, rough descending (and leg melting climbs!) and flogged it around our local tight, twisty and rooty singletrack here in Greensboro, NC. Between the two locations, we got in quite a few miles on some gnarly terrain to test the travel…of which the Tallboy LT has plenty, particularly for a 29er. And it used it with surprising grace and agility.

More surprising, though, is how well the bike handled itself on our flat, very XC trails. It absolutely hammers!

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We had the Specialized Crux Comp Disc Apex for six months spread amongst three riders. While I had the bike, I put in 2-5 rides per week ranging from short tabata interval workouts to indoor trainer riding to 5 hour endurance gravel road rides.  As a disclaimer, I work at a Specialized Dealer and built up and began racing on a standard Crux frame in late September – the Crux disc was a welcome change particularly when it came to riding in inclement conditions out at the park and when I managed to squeeze in a few gravel road epics.  Other than the obvious (braking), the frame is basically the same as my personal bike. To be fair, my comments here focus on the technical aspects, the other two reviewers provide more subjective comments.

Keep reading to for my thoughts, good and bad, about the bike along with comments from two of Bikerumor’s other testers that do not work at a Big S dealer…

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When I first rode the new SRAM Grip Shift, it was on a test bike from Giant and mated to their new Type 2 X0 rear derailleur.

This combination didn’t provide the ideal opportunity to form an opinion. Yes, it worked great. And Giant’s Anthem 29er is a great bike and the derailleur seemed to work as promised. But, it wasn’t my bike with my handlebar and cockpit set up, and the Type 2 rear derailleur adds some resistance to the downshift (easier). In other words, it was a nice start, but putting it on my own bike lets the real test begin. And it’s begun.

First things first: Performance. I have the X0 model Grip Shift. The rest of my set up is XX with Magura MT8 brakes. The lockout is the X-Loc for a SID 29er fork. Grip Shift fans, which I count myself among, won’t be disappointed. Mated up to the XX rear derailleur, it’s quick, light and simple to shift. I suspect the action would be similar on any non-Type 2 rear derailleur. Normal first rides cable stretch aside, it’s shifted flawlessly. The action is lighter than the old-school models. Basically, if it proves durable over the long term, it should please fans and delight newbies.

However, there are a few things worth considering before making the horizontal upgrade from triggers to twisties. They surprised me once installed on my own bike, and depending on your set up, may make you rethink a few things.. The photo above shows my normal hand position with the outside of my palm at the edge of the grip…

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Bianchi’s Oltre road bike is their top of the line Grand Tour racing road bike, and our test model is spec’d out with the new Campagnolo EPS electronic group. It’s a no-expense-spared racer, complete with logo color matched FSA carbon stem and handlebar, Campy Eurus 2-Way Fit wheels and Fizik saddle that comes in at a whopping $12,900 MSRP. Frameset only (EPS/Di2 version) is $4,999.

The frame is a mix of carbon fiber and Bianchi’s X-Tex, Nano-Tube, WMP, and UTSS technologies. In order, those are carbon strips are woven between carbon layers to increase strength and stiffness (X-Tex), carbon nanotubes are added to the resin to improve fracture resistance (Nano-Tube), Wrinkleless Molding Process (WMP) keeps the insides of the tubes smooth to reduce or eliminate stress risers, and Ultra Thin Seat Stays (UTSS) to improve road compliance. All of that is molded into very shapely, thin road bike with quite a few aero features.

Is it worth the price? It might be a bit early to tell, but scroll down to see the frame details, weights and first impressions…

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