Narrow bars go mainstream, new Vittoria tyres, and more affordable carbon wheels: Six tech snippets from iceBike

Tradeshow season is getting underway for the biking {industry}. Whereas behemoths like Eurobike are inclined to dominate the headlines, there are tech nuggets to be noticed at smaller occasions too. This yr we took a visit to iceBike, a primarily industry-facing present placed on in each Manchester and London by Madison, doubtless the largest UK distributor within the {industry}. It takes care of a slew of manufacturers, from giants like Shimano and Vittoria to smaller outfits that specialize in re-waterproofing for clothes, or protecting ceramic coatings for bike frames. 

After wandering the Lee Valley Olympic Velodrome in London for the day, adopted by some thematic cocktails, listed below are the six most eye-catching issues, both as standalone merchandise or as one thing indicative of wider {industry} tendencies.

Slim bars go mainstream 

Tremendous slim bars are nothing new, however presently, they have a tendency to exist on the fringes. Even in top-level racing they aren’t broadly adopted. I’ve tried out the 22cm Lambda X-Wing bars and truly discovered them to be surprisingly high-quality for basic driving, in addition to offering a noticeable pace improve. 

Now although, Profile Racing has delivered to market a 33cm set of drops within the type of the Canta Race bar. That is to my thoughts the primary set of hyper-narrow drops from a comparatively mainstream model. The Canta Race is accessible in 33cm, 36cm, 39cm, and 42cm for £429.99. Not like the Lambda bars I examined final yr, the Canta Race contains a better ahead sweep of the tops, to keep away from one’s wrists fouling on them throughout sprinting. 

Regardless of the extraordinarily slim stance (those you see listed below are the 36cm choice) and the inward facet of the hoods, the Canta Race is UCI-legal. Profile Racing doesn’t sponsor any WorldTour groups as but, however given the impact that frontal space has on aerodynamic effectivity, it wouldn’t be a shock to see groups – maybe restricted to breakaway specialist riders –  adopting bars like this within the close to future. 

New gravel bars from Professional 

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Shimano subsidiary element model, Professional, had a sequence of recent bars on present at its stand. Some have been beneath embargo and as such we can’t present you them, however what we can provide you a peek of is the brand new Uncover Aero gravel bar and the brand new PLT Carbon Ergo bar. The previous is from the model’s gravel line and contains a bar-hood transition particularly designed to mesh with Shimano GRX shifters, and has exterior cable routing by way of an underside channel relatively than totally inside routing to assist keep away from too many complications when enjoying round with setups. 

The latter is a carbon bar with ergonomics in thoughts, with a delicate 4º flare, gentle again sweep and down sweep on the tops, and is available in as slim as 36cm to cater to smaller riders, or these seeking to get extra aero. Once more, slim bars have gotten more and more widespread. 

Kryptonite lock that can resist 10 grinder discs 

Bike thieves have turn out to be ever extra resourceful, and more and more brazen, particularly with the proliferation of high-value e-bikes. Beforehand locks had to withstand prying, choosing, and the occasional hacksaw, however now that battery-powered angle grinders have turn out to be the norm locks have needed to step up their sport. 

Kryptonite is without doubt one of the greatest names in one of the best bike locks sphere and has delivered to market a brand new lock, the New York Lock Diamond, which is claimed to have the ability to destroy ten angle grinder discs earlier than it may be opened, 5 on either side of the shackle because of it having a double deadbolt system. 

It achieves this by wrapping the metal core in a diamond coating, which itself is then wrapped in one other metal coating earlier than a TPE outer covers the whole thing to guard your paint. It’s a chunky lock and weighs over 2kg, in addition to coming in at £269.99, however if you happen to’re locking up an e-bike with a worth within the 1000’s perhaps this isn’t a lot within the grand scheme of issues. 

New tyres from Vittoria 

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Early in 2024, we noticed Wout van Aert utilizing an unreleased 29c huge Vittoria Corsa Professional, and on the Vittoria stand it was confirmed this can be a tyre that was coming to market, primarily to account for the transfer to wider (25mm) inside rim widths. With a 28c the sq. bead of the Corsa Professional didn’t essentially mesh effectively with rim sidewalls, whereas a 30c or wider wasn’t aerodynamically optimum; what the professionals need, the professionals get it appears.

Except for fashions that sit inside our information to one of the best highway bike tyres, we additionally noticed a model new Vittoria Rubino, now provided in a tanwall choice. And a have a look at a brand new line of eco-rubber gravel tyres which characteristic a pure brown tread constituted of recycled rice husks. And a singular development involving a cotton internal casing and a nylon outer to supply elevated sidewall safety while aiming to take care of that supple trip really feel that cotton provides. 

Pockets pleasant DT Swiss wheels 

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DT Swiss wheels characteristic on a number of the bikes on the very high degree of highway racing and are among the many greatest highway bike wheels in the marketplace. A brand new wheelset choice from the model is aiming to supply top-flight aerodynamic efficiency at a barely extra wallet-friendly value by marrying the top-level ARC1600 rim with a lower-tier 350 Spline hubset, with a price ticket set at £1,399.99 for the pair. For now, these are restricted to a handful of pairs per vendor, however a wheelset that gives top-tier aero efficiency at this value for under a reasonable weight penalty is definitely compelling.  

The struggles of bigger bike computer systems 

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The most effective bike computer systems have gotten ever bigger, and now with the likes of the Garmin Edge 1050 and the Wahoo Elemnt Ace, the present crop of mounts have gotten too small to suit them. Aftermarket mount model, Ok-Edge, has created a nifty workaround to not less than make life simpler for Edge 1050 customers. A little bit insert swaps out for the usual pc insert, and permits the pc to be mounted a brief distance additional ahead, in addition to a little bit larger up. This creates sufficient clearance to permit the pc to mount with out touching the bars or the mount, which I used to be advised is sufficient to trigger components to fail by way of the transmission of high-frequency vibrations. 

There isn’t presently a workaround for the large Wahoo Elemnt Ace, and the weighty combo of such a big bike pc at the side of ever-larger bike lights slung beneath is outwardly fairly the problem for the staff.