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Edited by John Stevenson
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Reinventing the (chain)wheel
Stopping gets Spooky
Titec in the drops
Oakley into bike wear
Fox' next Forx
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From Spain comes this unusual crank system, with a cam device built into the right hand arm so that the cranks can move relative to each other as you pedal. The idea is to get the pedal more quickly over the 'top dead center' spot where the pedal is in line with your leg's motion and you therefore can't apply any power.
Manufacturer ROTOR (with the final R reversed, but try doing that in HTML) claims the design "eliminates the dead spots, avoiding the interruption of power delivery, and reducing muscular fatigue." ROTOR claims it "makes pedals independent, so that cranks are no longer fixed at 180 degrees, but the angle between them varies during a cycle, obtaining a more efficient motion in biomechanical terms."
The boldest claim, though is: "By increasing power, ROTOR obtains and average advantage of about 3 minutes in every hour of pedaling. ROTOR lowers heartbeat rate by 5% and decreases lactic acid production by 15% at a given level of power output, getting a general improvement of all physiological parameters."
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To back up its claims ROTOR has a couple of papers available on its site, from Professor Francesco Conconi and Professor Dr. Alfredo Córdova. However, the Conconi paper is little more than a preliminary note to say that his lab had tried it with four riders and only one had been able to get used to it. He did show performance improvements that could be measured in the lab, though, as did the riders tested with the ROTOR by Prof Córdova, so maybe there's something in it for riders who can get used to it.
However, what ROTOR doesn't have is evidence from actual racers on actual roads, and that's what it'll take to convince a sceptical world. Previous systems with similar intent, like Powercam and Biopace, were also backed by impressive papers, but floundered in the waters of Making an Actual Difference on the road.
More information: ROTOR's website
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The Netherlands is the latest hotbed of nifty small-scale bike component creativity. We mentioned Empella's cyclo-cross brakes a couple of weeks ago but they're not the only Dutch maker of cantis: Rabobank riders Richard Groenendaal and Sven Nijs are using Spooky's brakes, according to the manufacturer.
To old farts like me and people with long memories these brakes look a lot like the Mafac cantilevers of the 60s and 70s. Mafacs were sought-after brakes in the 'cross world long after the company vanished because they were light and simple. That's almost certainly why Spooky, Empella and others are scoring hits with cross riders too.
More information: Spooky's website
Titec is aiming its Malone bar straight at crossers, and from the looks of the sample that's just landed here we can see why. Reminiscent of the old Cinelli 64 bend, the Malone has a shallow drop with short forward throw. Between tops and drops the transition is a very tight radius, so there's lots of space across the tops, particularly in our 46cm (centre-to-centre) sample. First impressions are of lots of scope to pull up the front end for obstacles and a drop position that's shallow enough to be the main place your hands rest, giving the control and brake access that's essential off-road. More in a full review in the new year.
More information: Titec's website
Two-wheeled things have always figured pretty large in the Oakley universe. Students of ancient history will remember that the company's early products were goggles and grips for motorbikes and from there it branched into cycling eyewear with the classic Eyeshields as seen in most pictures of Greg LeMond from the mid-eighties.
In the last few years, though, you'd be forgiven for thinking that golf, cricket and cyberpunk-inspired street gear were more important to Oakley than cycling. It's therefore good to see the Big O coming back at us with a range of cycling clothing that's due to hit the stores in the first quarter of 2002.
The range -- or at least the samples that just arrived in the office -- consists of Lycra shorts and three varieties of jersey: sleevless, short-sleeved and long-sleeved. For spring and autumn (and milder winters) there's a windproof vest to go over the top.
The shorts and jerseys carry 'made in Italy' tags and there's a scorpion logo on the chamois of the plain black six-panel shorts, so there's a big clue as to who Oakley is contracting to handle the manufacturing. Good call.
Word is that the Sunrace/Santa Cruz team will be riding Fox Racing Shox forks for 2002. That demands an extremely obvious question: *What* exactly will the team's riders be using? One the one hand, there's Sunrace/Santa Cruz's roster: 1999 and 2000 Australian national DH champs Joel Panozzo and John Waddell and three other quite useful gravity riders, Jordie Lunn, Aaron Peters and Henry O'Donnell. On the other hands, there's Fox's downhill fork range, which currently consists of exactly no models. Zero, nada.
You don't have to be a genius (which is a good job because by Friday afternoon I'm certainly not one) to conclude that Fox has a downhill fork in development. When the current line of forks appeared, Fox made clear its intention to service "every part of the fork market". In combination with the riders the company is choosing to sponsor, that makes a long-travel fork a cert for next year.
At the cross-country end of the scale, Fox is also rumoured to be supplying forks to the Yeti team in 2002. First reports of production Fox forks are that they're extraordinarily smooth and controlled, but they were never intended to be light. We suspect Yeti's Paul Rowney will want something a bit less on the gram count than Fox' current offering. No response yet to an email to Fox asking exactly what they're up to...
This is the last tech update for 2001, so a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year from the tech desk, and may you find under the tree all the shiny new toys, er, essential cycling equipment that you want.
