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Whew, day two of the 2024 Sea Otter Classic is in the books and it served up a massive pile of interesting new bikes and gear – far more than I could reasonably share in a single post.
Included in today’s gallery are new gravel and mountain bike tires from Vittoria, Dugast, and Maxxis, clever tubeless products from Stan’s NoTubes, a whole bunch of components from Praxis, an intriguing two-in-one titanium drop-bar bike from Thesis, and some sweet-looking soft goods from Orucase.
Fingers crossed, I’ll get enough sleep tonight that my eyes will once again be able to focus again tomorrow as day three still awaits. Feast your own eyes on this round of tech goodness in the meantime, and rest assured there’s still an awful lot more to come.
Praxis has a new flagship carbon fiber road crankset called the Doon. A pair of 172.5 mm-long arms with the integrated spindle supposedly tips the scales at just 342 g, or 570 g with 50/34T chainrings.
Praxis will offer it in lengths from 165 to 175 mm. Retail price is US$315 without rings or US$450 in a 2x configuration.Whereas most carbon fiber cranksets feature a wholly separate aluminum spindle with arms that bolt on to a splined interface at either end, the Doon features a co-molded setup on the non-driveside. The spindle starts out as sort of an L-shaped forging that extends through the base of the arm for improved reliability and lower weight.The separate 2x chainring spider features a deep cross-section for stiffness. Praxis is offering the 2x Doon with 48/32, 50/34, or 52/36T chainrings.At this level, it’s always nice to see an aluminum bearing preload collar instead of a plastic one.The SRAM-standard three-bolt chainring interface allows for 2x or 1x setups.Fans of the long-discontinued Gamut Podium flat pedals can now celebrate as Praxis has resurrected the much-loved design (with the blessing of the original Gamut crew, no less). The large platform features a forged and machined body, up to 12 stainless steel pins per side, and a low-profile concave shape. Retail price is a respectable US$115.Praxis is using a custom Igus bushing on the inboard side to eliminate any sort of annoying bulge by the crankarm, while three Enduro cartridge bearings spread out the load at the other end. Praxis plans to offer all of the parts individually, as well as complete rebuild kits.Praxis has also unveiled a new mountain bike stem called Turn, which will be offered in an array of colors and in both 31.8 and 35 mm bar diameters.As is usually the case for Praxis, the new Turn stem starts out as an aluminum forging before being machined down. It’ll be offered in 32, 40, or 50 mm lengths with claimed weights from 130-160 g. Retail price is a very reasonable US$55.Praxis has got a new side-access composite bottle cage now, too. Note the integrated chain link storage at the base.Wondering what’s up with the funky tread color? Vittoria’s new Terreno Pro gravel tire features an all-new tread compound that’s made of almost entirely natural materials. Between the new tread and casing, Vittoria says the new Terreno Pro is “92% renewable and recycled”.The tread compound is made mostly of natural rubber, rice husks, and soybean oil. Despite being complete devoid of carbon black or graphene, Vittoria says it’s still extremely durable and is nearly as good in terms of rolling resistance. Combined with the new recycled nylon and organic (?!) cotton casing, though, Vittoria says the new tire has 10% less rolling resistance overall than the previous construction.
I’m definitely very eager to try this one out.Vittoria will soon move to a numerical naming scheme for its gravel tires, using a 0-100 scale. The new T60 (left), for example, is designed for fairly chunky terrain, while the T50 (right) is optimized for smoother ground. Vittoria hopes this makes it easier for customers to choose the appropriate tire for a given set of conditions.Vittoria has expanded its family of closed-cell foam tire liners with a new gravel variant. This one will replace the old one, which was arguably too small for modern tire preferences.The new gravel Air-Liner uses the company’s newer Y-shaped profile, which is intended to provide better casing support, a more progressive feel if/when you bottom out the tire, and a bit of extra security given how the base of the insert wedges itself in between the tire beads.
Claimed weight is just 45 g per wheel, and the closed-cell construction supposedly won’t absorb any sealant, either.Vittoria showed off a new super-fast-rolling XC tire called the Peyote, designed to go head-to-head with the Maxxis Aspen.The knobs on the new Vittoria Peyote get progressively taller as you move out to the shoulder tread, while the tight V-shaped blocks down the middle are designed for very low rolling resistance. Meanwhile, the various sipes and slits are intended to provide lots of biting edges and directional support.Vittoria also unveiled a new “Race” tire construction for its top-end XC tires. Quite unintuitively, it uses a stiffer 60 TPI nylon casing but a more flexible tread cap that together are designed to flex in a more uniform manner across the entire tire carcass for a more predictable feel, lower rolling resistance, and improved grip over the previous versions.Dugast was purchased by Vittoria in 2021, and production has finally been moved to Thailand. New from the brand is a range of tubeless-ready cyclocross clinchers, complete with the ultra-supple cotton casings that made the brand famous and the same familiar tread patterns.Dugast is still offering ‘cross tubulars, of course, only now supposedly with tread cap edges that are evenly cut and won’t deviate from center when they’re glued up.Maxxis showed off its new ultra-fast-rolling Aspen ST. As the name suggests, it’s purpose-built for modern short-track events where speed is everything.The super-mininalist center tread won’t work for everyone, of course, and not surprisingly, it’ll work better for most as a rear tire than up front.So called “Team Spec” Maxxis tires are built with supple 170 TPI nylon casings, fast-rolling MaxxSpeed rubber compounds, and EXO casing protection.Digit Bikes has followed up on its original Datum mixed-wheel model with a more conventional trail bike with dual 29″ wheels. The new Ring features 128 mm of travel out back matched with a 140 mm fork, still using the company’s innovative Analog rear suspension design.
As of right now, each bike is built by Digit designer and founder Tim Lane, with complete bikes supposedly coming in at around 12-12.5 kg (26.3-27.7 lb).Digit says its Analog suspension design provides “predictable kinematics, improved reliability, chassis rigidity, light weight, and dual water bottle and long dropper capacity.” Although there’s only one physical linkage down by the bottom bracket, the slider up top is said to behave like an “infinitely long” upper link, but with fewer parts and lower weight as compared to a second physical linkage. It’s an intriguing design that I’m dying to try.Currently, the lower link rotates concentrically around the bottom bracket spindle.The rear shock is a proprietary setup that resides inside the top tube. Despite appearances, it’s supposedly quite easy to service.The air valve and rebound adjuster are accessible throughout cutouts in the top tube.This is basically the entirety of Digit’s Analog rear suspension system, rear shock included. Mechanically speaking, it reminds me a lot of Maverick’s old Monolink design.Digit is offering the new Ring with the customer’s choice of solid Cerakote ceramic coatings, with the Manitou Mattoc Pro fork finished to match.Stan’s NoTubes showed off a new sealant-optimized, high-flow tubeless valve stem called EXO-Core. The all-metal construction is designed to offer superb airflow to quickly seat tubeless tires, along with valve section that removes without tools so you can easily inject sealant through smooth, large-diameter inner bore.
Retail price is US$50 with projected availability around late May, and lots of anodized colors will be offered.As cleverly as the new NoTubes EXO-Core tubeless valves seem to be designed, I’m arguably more excited about the new Injector sealant syringe.
A one-way valve in the head lets you pour sealant into the top of the open body without it leaking out the end, while a little channel molded into the opening of the body (sorry, it’s a bit hard to see) allows you to insert the plunger without immediately charging the system and squirting sealant everywhere.
It’s also very reasonably priced at US$15.Maybe my favorite part of the new NoTubes Injector? This plug, which seals things up so you don’t have to rinse the whole thing with water every time you use it to keep it from clogging. And the molded-in slot means you can hang it on your tool wall, too. Very clever.Thesis’s Project N1 titanium prototype is intended to be true quiver-killer. Don’t pay too much attention to the mismatched tires; they’re just meant to visually demonstrate the extremes of the compatible tire sizes in the two frame geometry settings.The sliding rear dropouts adjust the geometry to suit both road-sized and larger gravel-sized tires, simultaneously altering the head and seat tube angles, the chainstay length, and bottom bracket drop.Up front, the Thesis N1 features an oversized head tube, partially external cable routing, and proprietary nothing.This isn’t the fork Thesis will use in production (it’s the same Speeder Adventure fork that was on the Framework gravel bike I recently reviewed). Instead, the company plans to use a custom carbon fork with flippable dropouts that are oriented such that you can switch between a road wheelset with a 160 mm rotor and a gravel wheelset with a 180 mm one without having to touch the brake caliper.The machined titanium semi-yoke boosts tire and chainring clearance. Thesis says the Project N1 frame will accept tires up to 36 mm-wide when configured in the road setup and 51 mm-wide ones in the gravel one.The anodized matte/glossy finish looked classy in the California sun.Orucase made its name with bicycle travel bags, but its collection of on-bike bags are worth a closer look, too. The magnetic zipper on the top tube bag is still one of my favorite features.Orucase cut its teeth on bicycle travel bags that flew under the radar of airlines to help cyclists avoid excess baggage fees. Nowadays, though, the company is focused more on making it easier for people to fly with their bikes, period.
One of its latest products is an ingeniously simple protector to prevent disc rotor damage while in transit. The plastic cover is impressively stout, and fixes in place with a metal rod and threaded end caps. The smaller version is sized for 140-160 mm rotors, while the larger one is sized for rotors up to 205 mm in diameter.Orucase’s Janus duffel is chock-full of careful thought. It’s offered in 40 L and 55 L sizes, both with a ton of compartments.The end compartments are sized to fit a typical road-type helmet, while the large center compartment can be customized with different divider bags to help keep things organized.The divider bags can be anchored to the side of the bag for a customizable layout.The end compartments have zippered vents for wet and/or stinky gear, while removable backpack straps make for handy transport.
