As we enter the standard January drought conditions here in the Southwest, it is finally time to get out on the trails again. We have to enjoy the brisk temperatures and warm sun as we prepare our legs for next month’s 24 Hours in the Old Pueblo.  This has allowed us to spend a little time on the trail/road/snow in our fancy new US-made socks and arm warmers from Swiftwick. Jump past the break to see how things are shaping up.

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Given that SRAM already officially acknowledged forthcoming hydraulic brakes when they unveiled the new 2012 Red group, we thought we might see some leaked images. We just didn’t think we’d see them quite this early!

Did you miss them? Yep, we had some nice glossies up. They’re probably floating around a forum somewhere now, but at SRAM’s request, they’ve been pulled. Call us lackeys or whatever, but occasionally we have to make concessions to avoid biting the hands that feed us all the goodies we post here. Sometimes the leaks are forgiven, other times they need to be plugged. Rest assured, we don’t take these decisions lightly and try to balance the relationships with getting the news out first.

In the images were both the hydraulic rim and disc brakes. The rim brake appearance is much closer to traditional road calipers than Magura’s new RT8TT center pull design. The key visual difference is the flip flop of the push/pull parts to the opposite side of a cable-actuated brake. Looks like a large quick release lever will make wheel changes easy, and a simple push piston to actuate the brake arms. Overall, it’s a pretty slick looking package.

The disc brakes are full hydro. We didn’t see any mention of a mechanical counterpart, but wouldn’t rule it out as a future Force level option. Hoods are slightly taller than the new mechs, but with the same new ErgoGrip surface texture. As they’ve told us already, 160mm and 140mm rotors will be on tap. If everything stays on track, look for a full launch in a couple months and availability in summer.

In all honesty, I didn’t expect to like Lezyne’s Super Drive.  As a commuter who regularly starts and finishes his morning commute in the dark, I’ve been spoiled by trail-ready 900+ Lumen lighting systems and the vision -and visibility- that they guarantee.  Coming from substantially more powerful lighting systems, I wasn’t sure what a 450 Lumen light with a mere 90 minute runtime could offer- especially at $110.  After about eight weeks of near-daily use, I now know- and have taken quite the shine to the little light.  Click through to find out more…

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In an effort to have a bit of fun, and showcase how durable a light weight carbon bike / build can really be, Fairwheel Bikes put together this fun video. It showcases two Neil Pryde frames. The first is built of with Shimano Di2 and Dura-Ace carbon wheels, while the second showcases a full Enve cockpit along with their new Smart 6.7 wheelset.

Watch riders Rick Roth and Tony Roth take these high end road bikes on a nice trials ride, as well as hit a few dirt jumps.

That’s not all we have though. Greg Minnaar, downhill rider, was set up with a cyclocross bike decked out in all the nice bits Enve Composites makes. The video after jump showcases a bit of that bike, and him riding it on some very nice single track. Plus, it’s a nice interview with Greg.

Click through to kill another 5 minutes and 10 seconds.

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Previously only available as a complete bike built with expensive, high-end groups and wheels, Cannondale’s top of the line road bike will now be offered as a frameset.

The full tech breakdown on the 2012 Cannondale SuperSix EVO bikes is in this post, and we weighed a few of them here. Here’s the quick refresher: The 695g frame, which they claim is the lightest production road bike frame available, uses such tricks as one-piece rear triangles with co-molded dropouts and continuous fibers to maintain strength and durability. It even incorporates their Speed SAVE stays to help with rear traction by offering a hint of compliance. The head and main tubes are slimmer to give it a thinner frontal profile against the wind. Lastly, weight’s not the only claim to fame. C’dale also says this frame has the highest stiffness to weight ratio of any bike tested.

The frameset comes with a Speed SAVE BallisTec fork (same material as the frame) and SRAM PFBB30 bottom bracket and headset installed. U.S. MSRP TBD. Check the original launch video for this bike after the break…

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• American Classic is sponsoring their first Pro Tour team, putting lightweight hoops under Cofidis riders for 2012. They even have an early season win under their belts thanks to Rain Taramae at GP Marseillaise.
• Bespoked Bristol, the UK Handmade Bicycle Show 2012, will be held this year on March 23-25th. Over 70 independent bicycle builders from the UK, Italy, France, USA and Germany will be present for you to drool over their handmade wares. Click here for more info.
• Mark your calendars for the March 10th Autodrop Doubleshot to be held in Moore’s Springs north of Hanging Rock State Park in North Carolina. The combination 12 mile single track/ 13 mile road race will raise money for the Moore’s Springs trail system and campground.
• GT Bicycles adds Kyle Strait, freerider extraordinaire, and Kenny Baley, multi-time Trials World Champion, to their Wingmen team.
• Ike Tseng, founder of Merida, passed away January 30 at the ripe old age of 81. According to the brand’s statement, he served as a multi-term chairman of Taiwan Bicycle Exporters’ Association which helped turn the country into the powerhouse bike manufacturer they are today, and invented welding robots that guaranteed quality mass production way early in the game. Full story here.
• OnYerBikeSeat has introduced brand able rain covers (pic after the break) for your bicycle saddle. They also protect against dive-bombing pigeons and presumably baking hot sun. Eventually, maybe, we’ll run out of places to advertise.
• Wanna know what your riding buddies are really thinking? Well, at least the riding buddies that a) subscribe to Bicycling Magazine and b) took the time to fill in their reader survey? Download the Reader’s Choice results as a PDF right over here.
• The 2013-2014 USA Cycling Gravity National Championships have found at home at Angel Fire, NM. Exact dates are still rolling around. Official PR below.

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See all of our Project 24.2 posts here!

After a number of years essentially ‘winging it’ when it came to training for 24 Hours in the Old Pueblo, it hadn’t really occurred to me to engage a coach.  Much like bike fit, if -like me- you’ve been riding and even racing for over 20 years, you just kind of know how to train, right?

A trick question, obviously.  When my race partner Alex suggested talking to Tom Jones at JBV Coaching, I was intrigued- and a bit worried.  After all, I ride because cycling is fun.  And training -actually training- didn’t sound like much fun at all.  Our first meeting with Tom put most of my fears to rest- in addition to an impressive resume as a coach, racer, physicist, and mechanic, Tom is also a nice guy. While we won’t give away any of his trade secrets, go beyond the fold to find out what we’ve learned so far…

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Frames like this make me feel special because I don’t want to race them.  I don’t want to do time trials or sprints.  Instead, I just want to ride them. Cyclo Bicycles is a company based in Spain that manufactures classic-looking custom frames, taking a step away from the all-carbon, weight-conscious mentality of bicycling.  Cyclo’s mission statement reflects their approach to cycling – they write that they simply want to make the rider smile.  In regards to that, everything about these frames are made-to-order so it would be hard to frown.  The Asphalt road and the Toxto Mountain Bike hard tail are featured here.  Both frames can be bought as complete bikes as well.

The Asphalt can be constructed from various Columbus and Dedacciai tubes, or stainless steel if you’re wallet’s up for it. For stainless, options include KVA, Reynolds, Columbus and Kaisei.  Then they’ll paint the frame to personal specifications.  Standard colors are listed on their website, but they offer to paint it anywhere on the spectrum.  Cyclo also offers a choice of weld construction:  TIG, Fillet-Brazed, or Lugged.

More pictures and details after the break…

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We got the first look at 3T’s Integra stem as a prototype at Eurobike, and now they’ve made it official. Sort of. It should be making its first real world appearance at the Giro d’Italia in May, according to our sources.

The Integra integrates a CycleOps computer into a removable nose cone that attaches to the front of the stem, giving your bike a much more elegant and aero appearance than strapping something to the handlebar. And there’s no weight penalty for looking good. The full carbon stem and weighs in at just 135g and works just as well if you’re not using the computer module. Surprisingly, 3T says you can even use it on cyclocross and mountain bikes.

What we didn’t hear at Eurobike was their plans to do a Di2 integrated version. Not sure how useful shift buttons would be on the stem, but for those wanting to run third party hydraulic brake levers, it’s at least an option. More intriguing is the possibility of a renewed Flightdeck computer integrated into it (No, Shimano, we haven’t given up hope). Pricing still isn’t set, but you can check the full PR after the break..

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See all of our Project 24.2 posts here!

For the most part, it’s hard to get too excited about stems.  If they do their job well (and most do), they’re essentially unnoticeable.  Of course, if they don’t they’re ugly, flexy, or (if they do their job especially poorly) fail catastrophically.  That said, when we posted early word of Ritchey’s new C260 line of stems this fall, people got pretty excited.

Owing to its 260 degree clamp and gently curved 3-bolt steerer clamp, Ritchey’s WCS C260 stem tests 3-4x stronger in its aluminum form than any previous Ritchey stem- while being 30% stiffer than the preceding 4Axis design.  Throw a unidirectional carbon wrap over the same basic design and weight goes up by ~15g (to an actual 110g in our 90mm size) and stiffness by an additional 16%.  Oh, and it’s prettier, too.  After a couple of months on my Project 1.1 single speed and Project 24.2 race bike, has the C260 lived up to its light/strong/sexy billing?  Hit the jump to find out…

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First things first, it’s being called the new 2012 SRAM Red, not 2013. Second, it’s simply the new Red, there are no new group names. We hear there was some internal debate on renaming it to ease confusion for OEM customers and distributors given that there is Red Black, Red LTD Tour Yellow, etc., but turns out, no. And the rumored hydraulic disc brakes? Yes, they’re coming. Officially. Just not until Fall. Now that we’ve got that cleared up, let’s dive into details.

The overriding goal with the group’s redesign was to make it more aerodynamic, lighter weight and resolve some of the niggling issues that kept forum trolls busy. Issues like excessive noise from the cassette, weak front shifting on TT bikes, particularly with the first generation original Red front derailleur, and the lack of proper front derailleur trim.

All three could merit design changes on their own, but the new group tackled all major complaints head on. Then they looked where seemingly no one else was looking: aerodynamics. While Shimano and Campy were busy rolling out new electronic groups and apparently working on adding cogs, SRAM was quietly toiling away to make the lightest component group even lighter. Their stated goal was to refine the parts down to the bare minimum, removing any “glitz, smoke and mirrors” to make the best performing, most comfortable system on the market.

Here’s how they did it…

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While out on a pre-launch ride in Majorca, Spain, SRAM snapped a few photos and uploaded them to their Facebook page. They clearly show a revised hood shape with a more pronounced, sharply vertical knob at the front. The lip on the bottom of the brake lever looks a bit more curved, too. They also not-so-clearly showed the brake calipers…

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