The C59 Disc uses internal housing except for the front brake. Even the rear hydraulic line runs internally.
I had a chance to talk with a bunch of our vendors at Sea Otter and got to look at new stuff we’ll be bringing in as it becomes available. There was a lot to see, and the pleasant weather on Friday made it all the more enjoyable. Some of the highlights were the new Shimano Saint group, Formula’s Disc brake equipped Colnago, and the new BMC GF01 road bike.
Shimano’s new Saint group looks ready to firmly plant itself at the top of the gravity segment group wars. Now 10 speed, the groupset is refined and borrows much of the best technology from Shimano’s XTR trail group. Now a 1×10 speed group exclusively, Shimano paid special attention to the shifter and rear derailleur. The rear derailleur is radically redesigned with a massively wide link that should make shifting much snappier. It uses Shimano’s Shadow+ mechanism which limits forward derailleur cage motion, virtually eliminating chain slap. The New shifter mechanism rides on bearings and uses Shimano’s multi-release lever as on XTR. The levers are also longer to account for the extra effort required to shift with a short cage Shadow+ derailleur, thereby retaining Shimano’s trademark light-action shifting.
I was disappointed to not see the new Saint rotors in person, which will have cooling fins! The calipers look to be more powerful than ever and use new Saint and Zee specific pads with their own set of cooling fins. The Dual Diameter Quad Piston system remains and the pistons are now made of ceramic material to keep heat away from the fluid in the caliper and line.
Some great looking Saint pedals are due to replace the long running DX. A wider and thinner platform makes them all the more desirable.
Formula’s Disc Brake Colnago has been spotted before, but seeing it in person allowed me to get some nice close-ups for you. Colnago and Formula tag-teamed to make a road bike that could actually handle the power and heat of hydraulic disc brakes. Consequently the fork and rear triangle are totally redesigned from a standard C59 and Formula designed their own hoods and levers to give the system the same feel as a traditional road bike. Formula uses it’s R1 master cylinder in the new hoods and essentially took the Di2 shifter internals and planted them in the their own levers. The calipers are Formula R1s also. I can’t help but think what this will do for carbon clinchers without the need for a fancy brake surface.
BMC might be a little late to the comfort road bike party, but given the high quality of their race oriented bikes, it is a welcome addition. The GF01, though designed to provide more comfort than BMC’s other models, separates itself from the competition by being a truly “rough road” race machine. The GF01’s stiffness at the head tube and BB junction are on par with BMC’s Team Machine, yet the taller head tube and Angle Compliance tube shapes lend it more comfort for long rides and rough roads. That high level of stiffness is what helped it to a podium spot on the ultimate long distance rough “road” race, Paris Roubaix.
Cycle through the gallery to see pictures of these hot new products as well as some other nice looking bits we’ll be getting in soon.
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- e*13 uses a stepped single pulley to guide the chain
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- The Colnago C59 Disc
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- Formula uses R1 calipers and 2-piece rotors on the C59 Disc
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- The Formula Di2 Shift/Levers are still very much in the prototype stage
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- The rear brake is tucked neatly on the inside of the stays
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- Positioning the caliper in front of the seat stay ensures that it comes in contact with lots of wind
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- The C59 Disc uses internal housing except for the fromt brake. Even the rear hydraulic line runs internally.
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- The pawl system on the e*13 hubs is fast and secure.
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- e*13 TRS+ wheels are nearly as light as carbon options thanks to their Scandium rims, but have the durability you expect from aluminum.
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- The Zee Brake levers resemble SLX in many ways
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- Zee brakes get the same radiator pads as Saint
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- Shimano Zee Crankset
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- The Saint Shadow+ Rear Derailleur gets much more than a face lift for 2012.
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- The Saint crank is lighter than the previous version. The prototype chainguide unfortunately won’t be available any time soon.
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- The Shimano Saint platform pedals have a wider and thinner body than the DX.
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- The new Saint pedal body is more concave than the DX. They look like they’ll be lighter also.
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- The Saint brake levers share most of their technology with the XTR Trail.
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- The Saint calipers use a dual diameter, ceramic, quad piston design. Wider radiator finned pads to fit are a welcome addition.
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- Just how much machining takes place on a Dyna-Sys chain? The red area’s show it.
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- Fox is bringing 34 forks to the 26″ wheel size with 160mm of travel.
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- Fox’s CTD damper is sure to cause a stir. Fox says it simplifies damper adjustments, some might think they dumbed it down. You decide.
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- I really hope Specialized offers this paint job on production models.
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- This is the tricycle we all dreamed of having when we were 5.
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- The new Avid X0 Trail calipers look sleek.
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- The X0 Trail lever looks much closer to it’s Elixir 9 cousin.
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- 2 color options will be available for the Avid X0 Trail Brakes
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- The GF01 is a race bike in Grand Fondo clothing
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- The GF01 can be purcahased Di2 ready.
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- All those angles work together to dampen the road feal to the rider
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- BMC uses their Angle Compliance technology to absorb road variations.
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- The GF01 BB area is absolutely massive
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- The GF01’s Fork also uses BMC’s Angle Compliance
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- The GF01 uses a Shimano BB86 design to maximize frame stiffness at the bottom bracket.
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- BMC ensures front end stiffness with a massive head tube and down tube.
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- Finally an alloy BBRight adapter for Shimano cranks.
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- This adapter will allow a GXP crank to fit BB30 and PF30 bottom brackets
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- Increase in small bump compliance anyone? Needless to say, we are super excited about swapping out our DU bushings with these Enduro Needle Bearing Reducers.
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- With travel ranges from 100mm to 150mm, 27.2 options, proprietary hydaulic internals, a sleek hose attachment, and a small remote that can double as your ODI lock, we can’t think of a reason not to like the KS LEV Dropper Post. We hope to have these in May.
