FIRST Components

You'll definitely have heard of some of these—but not ALL of them!

Stranger perhaps than Colnago's new Y1Rs that has set the interwebs alight with fevered discussions? Here's one of the many balanced assessments in the MTB reddit thread—lots of interesting feedback: "Going to be difficult to make very cheap due to not being able to use a cheap ridged spindle all the way through the crank. Would have to engineer a double bend spindle thing and that would be difficult to make plastic strong enough. I wouldn't be surprised if a design like this never falls below $60."

DAHON unveils its first-ever 700C aluminum frame fork road bike, Vélodon, incorporating the revolutionary “D-VELO” Speed Technology. Based on a simple theoretical premise that posits the positive correlation between stiffness of the bike frame and riding speed, D-VELO ensures optimal stiffness of bike frames, preventing energy loss as often experienced with bikes that have soft tails. D-VELO has been shown to enable riders to achieve higher speed with the same pedaling power, allowing them to expend less effort while maintaining the same speed.

"Despite the carbon doodads and long-travel suspension, on modern mountain geometry you are more likely to experience muscle and joint pain, get thrown over the bars, and wash out in turns. Too many of you accept those things as “part of the sport” and “how you pay your dues.” That is absolutely ridiculous . . ." The journey ending with The Pink Mistress. https://lnkd.in/gTKFGYCv

9T Labs is working on ways to combine additive manufacturing and injection and compression molding to speed up the production of serial structural composite parts.

"The biggest revolution in mountain bikes has been the e-bike and we’re only getting started" they write. "Data passports" get the briefest mention while being perhaps the thorniest element in the mix given the complexities around user data ownership and control.

Gerard Vroomen (Cervelo, now Open) on gravel bikes and a good deal more. Well worth a listen along with a lot of great comments by savvy listeners.

“Is it the bicycle companies that are making the fastest bikes, or is it the third-party specialists that look at how the big companies are screwing the front ends up and filling those gaps?”

The Show Daily coverage of Taichung Bike Week. Day 1 https://lnkd.in/grdBC-aN and Day 2 https://lnkd.in/gCDbKdbp

“For the first ten years, we were one bad month away from not being able to pay the bills,” said Grant Petersen, the bicycle designer, writer, and founder of Rivendell Bicycle Works. Here's a (very) deep dive into what it took to create and maintain an modern classic iconic bike brand.