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Trade show season has kicked off for 2024! The Taipei Cycle Show continues its reputation as being a bit more of an OEM-oriented event, but as in years past, it also served up a healthy smattering of new gear from a wide range of mainstream brands.
Part one of our coverage includes a wide range of tire and tube-related items – from tires to plug kits to fancy inner tubes – a few go-fast goodies, and plenty of confirmation that the current industry trend of one-piece road cockpits and fully hidden cabling isn’t going away any time soon.
Speaking of hidden cabling, though, if your bike is so equipped and you’re planning on packing it into a case for an upcoming vacation, there’s one widget you might want to consider adding to make your life much, much less stressful.
Vision’s redesigned Metron 5D Evo one-piece carbon fiber road cockpit is notably sleeker than the original. In particular, the stem clamp stack height has dropped from 55 to 40 mm.The drops feature an aggressive 80 mm of reach and 125 mm of drop.The tops still feature a forward sweep for more wrist clearance when sprinting. They now vary in girth, though, to improve comfort for riders with larger hands.Note the compound drop shape, which promises a more natural wrist angle.FSA wasn’t the first to incorporate an aero extension directly on to an aluminum bar (Redshift Sports at least was far earlier on the scene), but it’s good to have more options regardless with FSA’s Pro-Wing AGX Alloy.FSA is going after higher-end gravel customers with this K-Force AGX carbon handlebar, which features a shallow 100 mm of drop, 70 mm of reach, and a generous 25° flare. Claimed weight is 320 g for the 42 cm size (measured at the hoods), and there’s enough round cross-section at the stem clamp for optional bolt-on extensions.No cockpit brand worth its salt can apparently go without a one-piece integrated carbon fiber setup for the road these days. The Ritchey Butano Ridge looks like it’d be quite comfy in your hands.The drops on the Ritchey Butano Ridge feature a generous 17.5° of flare. Although it’s being marketed for both road and gravel, it’s only offered in 42 and 44 cm widths (at the hoods!), there are only three stem lengths, and it’s also quite heavy with a claimed weight of 417 g.115 mm of drop and 73 mm of reach for the Ritchey Butano Ridge.Gravel riders looking to drop some weight might take more interest in the Ritchey Superlogic VentureMax bar, as it’s still somewhat rare to find bars with this sort of shape in carbon fiber.The little kink in the drops is designed to fill the pocket in your palm for more comfort and control on rough terrain.Ritchey is offering the Superlogic VentureMax in four widths – 42, 44, 46, and 48 cm, at the hoods – all with 24° of flare. Claimed weight for the 42 cm version is 235 g.Ritchey’s WCS Switch headset is purpose-built for internal routing. This one is designed for bikes using 44 mm-diameter head tubes and external cups, and it looks quite nice.Zeno was on hand in Taipei with its range of quick-release hydraulic couplers. Zeno claims these can be disconnected and reconnected up to five times without having to re-bleed the system.I was already aware of Zeno’s SpeedLink hydraulic connectors, but I didn’t realize there were so many variants available.This portable bleed reservoir is a copy of the concept originally debuted by Neutron Components, but still a good idea nonetheless, and a natural complement to Zeno’s quick-release hydraulic couplers.Enduro Bearings isn’t going for fancy buzzwords, ceramics, or high-tech coatings with its MaxHit range of bottom brackets and headsets. Instead, it’s going back to fundamentals. The latest addition to the range is designed for use with T47-compatible frames. Bonus points for the machined aluminum center sleeve instead of the usual plastic.Instead of pressing a cartridge bearing into a separate cup, the outer bearing race and the cup on Enduro’s MaxHit stuff are incorporated into the same part. This adds a little weight – supposedly about 20 g per set of bottom bracket cups – but the bearing balls can now be as much as twice as big as usual for what Enduro says are big benefits in both durability and friction.Enduro Bearings is continuing to expand its range of bearing-related tools. This kit is purpose-built for suspension pivots and linkages. The compact design is meant to fit in tight spaces, and also features interchangeable handles depending on the job at hand.Enduro’s new quick-nut design slides on to the threaded rod wherever you need it to for faster bearing extraction and removal. Once you’ve got it positioned, just squeeze the two halves together and attach the quick-release handle. One nice detail is it’s fully and symmetrically threaded to exert even force on bearings.Clever Standard is another brand name you probably haven’t heard of, but company founder Tomo Ichikawa is the inventor behind many of the designs other brands have licensed from him.
The Anchor Stack tubeless plug kit is molded from reclaimed fishing nets in a some-assembly-required style that’ll be familiar to many fans of RC cars and planes.Clever Standard’s “anchor” tubeless plug tips are designed to work with standard bacon strips, offering some of the functionality of Dynaplug plugs in a more affordable format. The tips can be used with Clever Standard’s own plug pin or any multi-tool with a 2 mm bit.Ceramicspeed has redesigned its road range of oversize pulley cages with a new material and new cage plate design. They’re much, much stiffer than the original one, which will presumably aid in shifting performance and overall durability.Ceramicspeed will sell the new OSPW cages with standard machined aluminum or the ADR pulley wheels shown here. See that subtle rifling pattern on the inner rim of the pulley? That supposedly helps actively purge debris as the pulley spins. They also use a mix of aluminum and fiber-reinforced construction for better durability than aluminum alone.Look has finally come out with its own range of power meter pedals, offered in both the road-going KeO and the more off-road-oriented X-Track version.Whereas Look’s standard X-Track pedals are made with a composite body, the power meter version is made with aluminum ones. Both single-sided and dual-sided power measurement is available depending on your needs – and budget.It wasn’t long ago that TPU inner tubes were little more than a novelty offered by just one or two brands. That’s definitely no longer the case, as seemingly every tire brand at the Taipei Cycle Show has a branded range of their own. What I found particularly appealing about the ones displayed by Innova were the conventional metal valve stems, which I’d guess should be far more durable than the plastic ones often found on TPU inner tubes.Panaracer was one of the earliest tire brands to embrace the gravel segment, and after a decade with the original GravelKing tread design, it was finally time for an update. This new X1 tread is supposedly much faster rolling, yet also offers better cornering grip. As a nice bonus, it’s less likely to spit out little rocks as it rolls along, too.
Panaracer has also updated its selection of sizes for the GravelKing range, from 30-50 mm (in even 5 mm increments), with specific offerings varying depending on model.And don’t worry; if you’re still a fan of the original GravelKing tread design, it’ll stay in the lineup for the foreseeable future.Prologo is getting into the 3D-printed saddle game with the new Nago Pas 3D MSS. Although made in an entirely different manner, this features the familiar Nago Pas shape and Prologo’s usual multi-density and zonal padding concept.
Claimed weight is 149 g, and retail price is US$420/€420.The new Prologo Nago Pas 3D MSS is obviously the fanciest-looking model in the company catalog. But does it actually offer any real-world performance benefits over existing models that are not only lighter, but less expensive?
Seems there’s only one way to find out.Remember that Clever Standard plug kit I showed you earlier? WTB is licensing the design for its new Rocket Plug Kit. Whereas the Clever Standard one is plastic, this one is all aluminum. Up to four tips can be preloaded with bacon strips and stored inside the barrel.WTB has a collection of TPU tubes of its own called NanoAir, and the usual claimed benefits as compared to butyl: lower weight, more compact packed size, lower rolling resistance, and improved puncture protection. Retail price is US$33-35 each.WTB’s new Max-Flow valve stems feature a larger internal bore for increased air flow as compared to typical tubeless stems. I’m curious what that means for durability, though.ND Tuned is a brand better known currently for its replacement steerer tubes and stanchions, but it’s now coming out with its own range of rear shocks and suspension forks.Yeah, I’m digging the gold, too.ND Tuned’s new suspension forks revisit an old idea. Whereas the upper and lower bushings on most suspension forks are both pressed into the lower legs and have fixed spacing, the lower bushings on the new ND Tuned forks move with the stanchion, thus widening bushing spacing as the fork moves through its travel for less chance of binding on especially big hits. It’s a concept that dates back at least to Manitou forks from the late 1980s/early 1990s.I lost count of how many brands displayed some sort of oversized pulley wheel setups at the Taipei Cycle Show. Lots and lots and lots and lots of options.After a very, very long run, DT Swiss’ Star Ratchet patent has finally run out. Not surprisingly, just about every hub maker at the Taipei Cycle Show had a version of its own to offer.
