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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Ted Ciamillo is an interesting guy. He’s built a business around incredibly lightweight road bike brakes, has been teasing a radical (and radically light) carbon-fiber-and-alloy crankset and dreams of pedaling a one-man submersible across the Atlantic Ocean solo.

Fortunately, on our way home from visiting LH Thomson, he opened his doors to us and showed us how he makes the feathery parts. And his sub. We also took the opportunity to talk about the new Gravitas crankset in great detail, as well as see parts for them being machined and assembled.

Before we show you around, Ted let us know he’s updated the Zero G and Gravitas brakes to -wait for it- make them lighter!

As of mid January, the brakes get a new Delrin cable housing insert to replace the barrel adjuster (both versions shown above). Ciamillo’s brakes are designed to use various pad carrier heights with spherical spacer washers to accommodate different rim widths. Before, you could take up the slack using the barrel, but that would pull through as much as 40% of the brakes’ movement, which means you wouldn’t have the intended power at the end of the stroke, nor use the cam’s leverage as designed.

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Factory Tours are some of our favorite things to do. Not only do we always learn something new, but witnessing how things are actually made generally bestows upon us a new appreciation for the parts, bikes and gear we all ride.

LH Thomson’s machine shop was no exception. In fact, the stem CNC machines are simply mind blowing. Alongside work for the aerospace industry, some of our favorite seatposts and stems are being designed, made, tested, packed and shipped. While some of the tippety-toppest secret stuff was hidden in advance of a foreign industry group’s visit on the same day (the NSA actually called them and told them to hide anything confidential!), we still managed a few sneak peeks at some killer bike stuff coming down the pipeline. Some of it we covered in the recap of their forthcoming dropper post, the rest is here, along with a close look at how blocks of aluminum are turned into some of the most durable parts on the market.

Here’s how they got started and how it’s all made…

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Fi’zi:k is teasing new handlebars and stems, showing parts on AG2R-La Mondiale team bikes.

The handlebars and stems are being tested in a variety of shapes and sizes during the 2013 race season with a consumer launch planned for the fall. The Italian brand has had saddles for almost two decades and launched seatposts and shoes in the last few years. Add in their wide assortment of bar tape and the new bars and stems could have you touching Fi’zi:k components at all points of contact.

UPDATED! More pics and full PR added below…

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One of our buddies at Industry Nine inadvertently leaked this image of new graphics, which just so happen to be on some new looking rims.

It’s obvious they’re aimed at Trail riders, and we’re guessing the tubeless rim is new because its rounded profile looks nothing like the All Mountain or Enduro wheelsets they currently offer. In fact, it looks similar to the new road tubeless rims, which were designed in house.

We’re also guessing they’re going to be wide because, well, that’s the trend these days. And light. Note the 24-2/1 numbers. Zoom in and you’re looking at 24 spokes and possibly a 2:1 spoke ratio from driveside to non-drive. Last guess: They’ll be a 29er option, which would fill in the gap between their XC and Enduro 29er wheels currently available. We don’t think they’re carbon, though that’d be nice, because there’s no Reynolds logo on them, and given the recent-ness of that partnership announcement, we’d guess there’d still be a good bit of Reynolds branding if they were composite.

There’s a lot of guesswork here because I9 is keeping mum on this project, but expect some fresh offerings to kick off the New Year. Stay tuned.

• The inventor of the modern “safety bicycle”, JK Starley, gets a birthday card from all cyclists placed on his grave as a thanks for making the world a better place. The billions of bicycles made since the 1890s owe their design to Starley’s original Rover Safety Bicycle. Full PR and more images after the break.
• For the past 6 months we’ve posted teasers to the inspiring documentary ‘Unstoppables’. The producers of the movie are now on their final push to finish the movie and need your help to see it through.
• Ram Bikes’ UK dealers are having an end of the year demo sale.
• If only those Mayan’s knew what sort of discounts they would be generating for us folks in the future…Swiftwick is offering 12% off their TWELVE compression socks with coupon code “HighWater12″ until December 21st.
• Ride The Divide and Reveal The Path want to continue inspiring you to seek adventure and are now offering 30% off their products with code “Holiday30″ at checkout.
• Industry Nine, Asheville Bicycle Racing Club and Liberty Bicycles in Asheville, NC, are having a “Celebrate CX” party this Saturday from 5-8pm with refreshments, discounts, and a raffle supporting Trips For Kids of WNC.
• Bianchi and Hotel Alexander – a four star hotel located in Italy near the Adriatic Sea – have joined efforts to promote sustainable cycling tourism in Italy by offering Bianchi Sempre bikes in their cycling tour packages. Bianchi plans to expand this program with more high-quality hotels throughout Italy.

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The new Shimano Dura-Ace 9000 component group has finally arrived in the Bikerumor office, and here are all the parts fresh outta the box and on the scale.

Shimano had announced all the tech specs and performance claims earlier this year, but there’s nothing like getting your hands on it to see all the little details a press release can’t convey. First impressions are very good – the boxes all have top quality, glossy finishes, as you’d expect from a group with a suggested retail around $3,100 (components plus pedals, not wheels). Inside the boxes, the gloss gray and black finish is even better, giving the group a stealthy overtone with enough shine to let everyone know you’re rockin’ the best.

Click on through for a complete overview and actual weights for all parts…

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We first spotted BoomBotix at Interbike last year and were impressed with the volume and clarity their little Boom Bots could pump out while mounted to a handlebar.

Now, they’re turning an eye toward more aggressive athletes. You know, like mountain bikers (and snow boarders, skaters, etc.) with the Rex. The Rex is a ruggedized, hexagonal speaker with two 36mm drivers in front of an oblong subwoofer. That combo should give you high volume with respectable bass considering the size. And, with high level waterproofing and wireless operation, you should be able to bring da noiz just about anywhere.

We want one bad. Seems lots of people do, since they blew through the funding goal on Kickstarter by a mile. Why? Click past for all the specs and you’ll be setting aside some of that Christmas cash, too…

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A lot of us have built our own bikes, but what if they sky was the limit? Imagine you had access to every swanky part on the market and were planning to build a halo bike of your own. A while ago, we received a note from Jason over at FairWheel Bikes who had done just that. As purveyors of the exceptionally light, and pricey, Jason had a world of exotic parts within his grasp and it shows in the final build. The result? A 17.59 pound, geared New Ultimate Big Warp 29er with a Lefty. Yikes.

As luck would have it, I happened to be the only writer available who could fit the wonder bike, so Jason packed up his freshly built personal bike that he hadn’t even ridden yet, and sent it off to the Mid West for some Bikerumor Testing. I wish I could say I have quite a bit of experience with bikes of this caliber, but as Jason himself pointed out, typically project bikes such as this are fairly inaccessible except to the owners of course. However, since Jason had built the Big Warp for himself he offered it up for us to get a taste of what a boutique build is like.

Curious how you build a sub 18 pound 29er that is daily driver compatible? Check it out after the break.

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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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