New Arrivals – November 18, 2005 By John Stevenson & James Huang Got Tech? Send press releases, news, and tech questions to the Cyclingnews tech-heads. Welcome to New Arrivals, a section showcasing the latest equipment that's landed on the Cyclingnews tech desk. Look out for reviews over the next few months when we've clocked up some saddle time with this stuff. Lupine’s Edison 5 Photo ©: James Huang Lupine Edison 5 The end of Daylight Savings Time has left many of us in pitch black darkness before we even leave work for the day. The Lupine Edison 5 lets you take back some of your saddle time with a cutting-edge HID lamp. Lupine claims that the Edison pumps out 900 lumen, the equivalent of a 65W halogen bulb. The lamp head uses durable aluminum construction and mates to the tiny Li-ion battery pack with durable waterproof connectors. Twenty-four hour solo racers take note: the whole system weighs just 450g yet still reportedly runs for three hours on the high setting. MSRP: US$750.00 (yes, really) More info: www.lupine.de Cranks Brothers adds more titanium Photo ©: James Huang Crank Brothers Candy 4ti The Candy 4ti both adds to and removes titanium from last year’s Candy Ti. The wings and sleeve are now titanium, and the spring and kickplates are both ti-nitrided. More importantly, Crank Brothers has shortened the spindles of the 4ti by almost 4mm each. The new cleats also now incorporate lateral adjustment and combine with the shorter spindles to provide a Q-factor that is nearly road crank-narrow. Oh, did I mention they’re light, too? Our complete set is just 238g including cleats and hardware. MSRP: US$350.00 More info: www.crankbrothers.com Continental GP 4000 Photo ©: James Huang Continental Grand Prix 4000 The new Grand Prix 4000 is the first road racing tire to incorporate a Vectran breaker belt that is supposed to be lighter and more flexible than nylon, yet more cut-resistant than Kevlar. A new Activated Silica Compound reduces rolling resistance relative to last year’s GP3000 yet is allegedly lasts longer while maintaining the same level of grip. Actual weight for a single 700x23c clincher is just 200g. MSRP: US$59.95 More info: www.conti-online.com The new Mavic Ksyrium ES Photo ©: James Huang Mavic Ksyrium ES clincher wheels Mavic builds on the success of its groundbreaking Ksyrium wheelset and introduces a special ES edition to commemorate the introduction of their then-revolutionary Helium wheelset. The new Ksyrium Edition Spéciale uses a relatively shallow 22mm deep front rim for lighter weight and a deeper 25mm rear rim for increased rigidity. All-new hubs feature a carbon fiber center section up front and completely redesigned spoke flanges front and rear. Our test set of clinchers weigh 1580g for the pair including 83g titanium skewers. MSRP: US$1100 More info: www.mavic.com Shimano's unromantically named FC-R700 crank Photo ©: John Stevenson Shimano FC-R700 compact crank In one of the quietest product introductions ever, Shimano slipped a compact crank into its line-up of road components for 2006. Dubbed the FC-R700 it's not part of any specific component group, though Shimano says it's the same quality as its Ultegra parts. Like almost ever other compact crank out there the FC-R700 uses 110m pitch circle diameter chainrings, a size that was extremely common in touring and mountain bikes back in the 80s and 90s, and was resurrected when the first compact cranks started appearing a few years ago. (In fact you could say it never really went away; a couple of manufacturers, including Ritchey, have used 110mm pitch for their road cranks for years.) Shimano claims that the FC-R700 differs from other compact cranks in that the chainring teeth and pick-up gates are designed so that it will work well with a standard Shimano road bike front derailleur. Other makers of compact cranks are introducing compact-specific front derailleurs. Our 175mm samples weigh 885g including the Shimano 105-level SM-FC5600 bottom bracket bearings. MSRP: Not yet finalisedbut likely to be US$250 - US$275 More info: www.shimano.com Zipp SL bar Photo ©: John Stevenson Zipp SL handlebar Last year's Zipp B2 handlebar was fairly light, at 235g for a 46cm bar, but far from the lightest available. Is claim to fame was the unusual shape of its drop section that allowed you to tailor the reach to your levers by tweaking their position on the bar. For 2006 Zipp has taken the shape of the B2 and removed a large chunk of the weight. Our 44cm sample of the new SL bar weighs just 170g. It's the lightest road bike handlebar we've seen, and within a gram or two of the lightest we've ever heard of. However, Zipp says that the SL is plenty strong despite its feathery weight. The bar "has surpassed the most stringent test standards in the world, including the DIN+ standard at EFBe laboratories in Germany. Not only that, the ZIPP SL Handlebar also surpassed an additional test with 50N added to all the loads," says Zipp's Bill Vance. MSRP: $350 More info: www.zipp.com Erik Zabel in Hell on Wheels Photo ©: Aztec International Hell on Wheels comes to the US Hell on Wheels, the German documentary that follows riders from the Telekom team through their rather disastrous 2003 Tour de France is now available on DVD in the USA. This excellent film goes inside the Telekom team as sprinter Erik Zabel realises he can no longer beat Robbie McEwen, GC hope Andreas Kloeden breaks his coccyx, Rolf Aldag wears the mountains jersey for a day and Alexandre Vinokourov makes the final podium in Paris. It's a journey of pain, sweat and camaraderie with lots of memorable scenes. We gave it a big thumbs up in our review earlier this year. Hell on Wheels has been available in the Asia-Pacific area for a while, through the Cyclingnews shop, among other sources, but US readers can now obtain it on DVD through cycling e-tailer World Cycling Productions or via independent film specialist First Run Features. MSRP: US$29.95 More info: www.worldcycling.com or www.firstrunfeatures.com