Friday, August 31, 2007

Rock Shox launches new SID!


Rock Shox launches new SID

After winning eight consecutive world championships and cranking out over half a million SID forks over its ten-year run, Rock Shox decided it was about time to put the kids to bed and wake up to a brighter morning. The new SID is (almost) here, and Rock Shox looks to have benefited from the lessons it has learned over the past few years.

Naturally, light weight was a key metric in the redesign, but engineers were not willing to sacrifice chassis rigidity goals or overall suspension performance in the process. As a result, the target 1450g weight for the production 2008 SID World Cup remains about the same as the existing model. Some may lament the lack of improvement in that area, but there certainly won't be any complaints about Rock Shox's claim that the new SID will boast overall stiffness on par with the current Reba World Cup.As we all expected, the new SID wears 32mm-diameter aluminum upper tubes matched to cast magnesium lower legs that sport Lyrik/Totem-like styling cues. In comparison to the similarly proportioned Reba, SID's stanchions are substantially shorter to minimize excess material. This allowed for correspondingly shorter damper and air spring shafts along with reduced oil volume, all of which shed grams. The shorter stanchion length also yields a hollow section at the bottom of each lower leg. This isn't all that important in and of itself, but it does allow for a more compact and rigid set of post mount disc tabs.

There is no carbon fiber steerer tube or crown, but with the newly optimized chassis, Rock Shox was apparently able to minimize the weight without resorting to more expensive (and somewhat more delicate) composite construction. Carbon fiber does make an appearance in the lower legs, however. The lower legs are wrapped in select areas to reinforce the structure, namely at the base of the arch and around the lower bushings to create a carbon fiber version of the reference Power Bulge.

SRAM will continue to use its proven spring and damper technology, but the usual plastic Motion Control spring tube is replaced with a lighter titanium version. The new compression assembly also uses a nearly identical low-speed compression circuit as on current Motion Control dampers, but now also includes a separate shimmed high-speed circuit for a more refined ride.

Both crown-mounted and remote lockout levers will be offered as with other Motion Control forks, but the new SID World Cup will exclusively offer a carbon fiber crown-mounted dial or a cleaner 'Nip/Tuck' remote cable spool design that neatly hides the end of the cable from view.Did we get to ride it? Sadly, no, but production forks will ship around February 2008.





Exclusive to SID is a new carbon fiber crown-mounted lockout dial.






2008 Eurobike updates!

Here are some info and pictures from various outlets of new stuff at this year's Eurobike Expo in Germany.

2008 Shimano Dura Ace carbon fiber crankset.


















708g

DT Swiss

Several manufacturers have focused on clincher carbon wheels this year. DT Swiss is among them. A new rim made in their factory in switzerland. It weights around 300g. The complete wheelset is 1250g for 1300 euros including the Ti skewers ( price to be checked). The hubs are the 190 Ceramic.




Zipp



Zipp 255: the rim replaces the 250, it is the one we presented in yesterday´s article. It is 32mm deep, it is dimpled, it features a new technology to increase the upper tube bed impact resistance of 32%. The weight is the same as the old 250. The dimples make it behave as a 50mm deep standard V shaped rim.



- Zipp 1080: the rim is 108mm deep!!! Perfect for time trial or triathlon.

Zipp new crankset.



- The new time trial wheel: it looks like a 808 rim bonded to a carbon structure. Zipp claims it has a negative drag! It´s something like it pushes you: you can earn 5 Watts at 350W. If you remember, we already shown this wheel about a year ago...

- Some new TT stuffs like bar extenders, shifters...

Cervelo

The RS:


Michelin

The Michelin Pro 3 is 200g, it is 27% more adhesive than the Pro 2 while cornering. It features a vectran puncture layer.



Shimano

Some pictures of Shimano wheels. Nothing new but close pictures are always interesting.

Info and pictures via www.rouesartisanales.com

2008 SRAM Red pricing info...

SRAM RED pricing info

Suggested retail of $2142


Pricing

Here's what Red will cost you when it becomes available this fall: The whole group price, paired with SRAM's PC-1090R 10-speed chain, which Red shares with Force, will cost $2142. Here's the breakdown.

Shifters: $555 280-grams
Front Derailleur $108 58-grams (braze on only)
Rear Derailleur$311 153-grams
Brake Set$297 265-grams
Crankset $370 750-grams (with bottom bracket)
Bottom Bracket $195
Cassette$230 155-grams (11-23)
Chain $76 255-grams

1928g

Campagnolo RECORD: $1749
1985g
(Highest I could find. Availabe for $1549 in the US.)

So SRAM RED comes in at a claimed weight of 1928g roughly 357g lighter than RECORD but at a price of $393-593 more!

Sure street prices will come down around mid 2008, but from what I hear, SRAM is sticking to thier guns when it comes to enforcing pricing. So we will see in time.

I hope they fixed their brake and RD issues from FORCE at this pricing...

Like like the shifters, but I hate the Truvative cranks!

The cassette look like the most interesting part of the group.



Also thier $76 chain is a JOKE!

I am a huge SRAM fan on the MTB side so....

There are also RED Flat-Bar 10spd 3x9 shifters coming based on the X.0 Trigger design. Can you say 10sp MTB???