The new Giro Empire lace-up road bike shoes were introduced at Eurobike and were developed with input from Taylor Phinney. The two production colors include the Deep Silver shown here and a glossy black, were shown next to a series of design studies and prototypes that were simply awesome.

The laces are a carry over from Phinney’s UCI World Cup Gold Medal winning days on the track. The Empires get borrow the super stiff sole from Giro’s top end SLX model, making their intended use time trials and other short, hard and fast efforts. But, like Phinney, I’ve been using them for long, regular rides (no races, yet) and they’re proving to be quite the all ’rounder.

Read on for actual weights, close up pics and details…

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Cannondale’s Lefty Super Max 29er “fork” debuted at Eurobike aboard the new Trigger 29er trail bike, and now it’s making its way to dealers.

Quick refresher: It’s the longest Lefty fork they’ve made, and it’s for 29ers. The inside tech is fully updated, same as all 2013 Lefty forks and should be far more reliable than some older models. Forces from the extra travel are handled by a straight 1.5″ headtube, and stanchions’ outside diameters are increased to 36mm (lower) and 42mm (upper). The positioning of the leg is also revised to allow for a shorter stem and tighter trail measurement for quicker handling.

Our friends at Fresh Bikes got this one in and snapped a few pics. On their scale, they’re saying it comes in at 4.03lbs (1830g) with the lower leg shield attached. That’s about 20g less than Cannondale speculated at the tradeshow, which makes us happy…

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Moto Bicycles from Germany had these on display at Eurobike, and they looked sweet, but I was rushing past to hit meetings and didn’t have time to get details then. Now we do.

Called the Urban Pedal, it’s a metal spindle in a composite base with real wood surround and grip tape cover. The idea is to make something beautiful for commuter bikes that’s also very functional and comfortable. The large platform provides plenty of surface area, and a very low stack height keeps your feet where they should be. The grip tape cover should last about six months with regular use, and replacements are available in several patterns and colors. Or, hit up your local skate shop and customize them.

Hiding inside the good looks is a very trick adjustable length spindle. Pics, video and more below…

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Back in October, Wheels Manufacturing announced their BB Multi Adapter Kit, then it got pulled back to the drawing board.

Now, finally, it’s available on their website and shipping. WM’s Dave Whittingham says they lengthened the sleeve of the adapters so they’d have better contact with the bottom bracket bearings even when used with spacers between adapter and frame.

The kit has everything you’d need to fit Shimano or SRAM GXP cranksets into BB30 and PFBB30 frames using the bearings already in your frame or bottom bracket. The kit also includes a massive variety of spacers for both systems, enough adapters to do four Shimano bikes and four SRAM bikes, plus extra wave washers and a removal tool.

Retail is $200. Full list of ingredients below…

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Chris King announced their first ceramic bearing option in August 2011 with the R45 road hubs. As of December 1, they’re now offering ceramic bearings on all of their ISO mountain bike hubs.

The Santa Cruz Syndicate team has been race testing them on the World Cup DH Circuit (they get all the best toys, don’t they?). Benefits are that they’re lighter, stronger and rounder than steel balls. They produce their own ceramic bearings in house and even suggest running them with minimal silicone grease for “ultimate race day performance.” That said, there’s no appreciable weight savings, just smoothness improvements, and look for about a $80 upcharge.

Unrelated but interesting, the PressFit bottom brackets they announced at Eurobike are still on schedule for Spring 2013 release. They are still finalizing the design and testing them to ensure they’ll hold up to expectations, but they’re close. What we do know now is they’ll use their angular contact bearings and grease purge system, which lets you adjust the bearing tension like their outboard threaded bottom bracket and flush the old grease out without removing it from the frame. So, you’re wearing them in and adjusting to take up play rather than wearing them out. We’re as anxious as you are to try them!

Braided carbon fiber tubes aren’t completely new, BMC’s doing it with their Impec, but they’re still rare. Rarer still is seeing it done to maximum effect using silicone mandrels to shape the finished tubes like design student Jacob Haim’s RaceBRAID road bike shown here.

Developed as a graduate project with the help of Munich Composites, the bike’s main tubes are woven around silicone mandrels to provide shape. The benefit to such construction methods is that it minimizes wasted materials and man hours spent on layup. The material layup and density in each section of each tube can be precisely controlled, then resin is injected and it’s cured. The inside of the tube looks as good as the outside, and minimal finishing work is necessary.

For his thesis project, Haim used a lugged construction, which allowed him to use the same tubes for all frame sizes from 50 to 60 cm while still allowing it to be customized to the riders. That’s part of the reason the seatstays meet the seat tube so low on this bike.

Click through for more pics and details…

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Interbike is working up plans for consumer access. At the moment, details are short, but it’s being called a “consumer access initiative” that’ll likely have some component of dealer invitations to gain entry. So, sounds like it won’t be a free-for-all last day open house like at Eurobike where everything that needs to make it back to the office is either bolted down or simply put behind a glass case. More as we get it.

After releasing two sweet new electronic training devices in the last couple months, we caught up with the folks at Wahoo Fitness to get a bit more info. Mike Stashak, VP of Marketing & Sales, and Molly Andruszkiewicz, Wahoo’s marketing director, gave us the run down on their technology.

They launched the Kickr trainer at Eurobike and the Rflkt cycling computer at Interbike. The trainer uses a heavyweight (12.75lb) flywheel for lifelike road feel with electromagnetic resistance added for adjustability. The computer mirrors the data captured by their iPhone app and lets you control some settings and external-to-the-app things like music while your phone’s safely tucked away in your jersey or pack.

Click on through to see how it all works…

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Most of American Classic’s 2013 goods are in their warehouse with fresh graphics, and 650B wheels are in stock for Race, Terrain and All-Mountain wheels.

XX1 freehub bodies (photo above provided by AC, taken by Dirt Rag) will be available in February. Part of the delay in more brands having this upgrade ready was that SRAM originally only brought in DT Swiss as a wheel partner. Just before Eurobike, they opened it up to all brands, so the others are playing a bit of catch up.

For Lefty fans, the 29er wheels with Lefty hubs are now available in Race and standard mountain bike tubeless sets.

For road and cyclocross, the disc brake alloy tubulars wheels and TCX tubeless clincher disc brake wheels are in stock, and both are good for either discipline. The new alloy tubular rims will be laced to standard hubs, too, but they’re not expected to hit their warehouse until mid-December.

Also in is the 11-speed Shimano freehub bodies. They recommend that you get your shop to re-dish your wheels appropriately if you’re doing a retrofit, or you can order a new set of wheels with it preinstalled that’s ready to go out of the box. If you’re retrofitting, you’ll simply swap in the 11-speed freehub body. If you’re ordering one of the new 11-speed ready wheelsets, you’ll simply need a spacer to take up the extra 1.85mm width.

For full coverage on these items, check our Eurobike post here.

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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