Dynamix by name

Italian Massimo De Bertolis just rode his Full Dynamix Team Carbon to victory in the World Marathon Championships in Germany. Sure, the name is goofy, but Giovanni Battaglin's mountain bikes are serious race machines with Olympic, World and Italian championships to their credit.

Brooks saddlebags return

Selle Royale's Brooks Saddle division is the oldest continuously operated firm in the bicycle business and for 2005, the UK saddle maker has re-launched its classic line of saddle mounted holdall bags. Back in the day, these bags were made in no-nonsense PVC, but the Italian connection at Selle Royale has upgraded the once humble Millbrook & Glenbrook seat sacks with a choice of Black Vinyl, Black Leather and Tan Aged Leather.

Battaglin carbons up

Giovanni Battaglin has built bikes that have won the Tour, Giro and World Championship in the same year, so the Marostica, Italy based Battaglin usually comes up with something interesting come showtime. For 2005, Battaglin's alta gamma is headed up by this carbon fibre RS1 Carbon, with integrated headtube and plenty of FSA's carbon parts, including the K-Force Mega Exo crankset, Shimano Dura Ace 10 speed transmission and Selle Italia saddle.

Limar goes for 33 vents

Limar's Emma, the star of their new ad campaign, shows off the new Limar 950 model to Cyclingnews. The 950 that keeps close to the features that have made Limar popular worldwide. The in-mold construction 950 model has 33 vents for maximum ventilation, Pro System2 retention system and comes in two sizes (M&L) and four colorways. Limar says its helmets also conform to all global safety standards.

More carbon from Orbea

Spanish firm ORBEA has created a new model for 2005 that has evolved from their top of the line Orca carbon fibre frame. ONIX is a monocoque model, with sculpted tube shapes that are more rounded than the Orca and offer a different ride quality, according to Orbea's marketing manager Joseba Arrizaga. Shown here with Shimano's Ultegra 10, the reported 8.375kg weight of Onix will make this one of 2005's most intereresting and affordable new bikes.

Zeus makes its return

Plenty of new Orbea's Zeus components grace the Orbea Onix, featuring this unique Zeus Zarpa full carbon fibre stem. Back in the day, Zeus was known for Campagnolo clone components, but is being reborn in carbon.

Rotwild, the German Cycling Device

This particular device is the RCC 0.3 model, with an Aluminum 7046 frame with ChannelXC shaped tubes, mated to a Active Linkage System carbon fibre asymmetric swingarm / seatstay rear end. For damping, the RCC 0.3 device uses a DT Swiss SSD rear shock with 100mm. of travel. This disc-brake only frame reportedly weighs in at 2.38kg incl. rear shock and seat clamp and MSRP is 2090 euros.

CR1 technology goes off road

ScottUSA's mountain bike version of their CR1 LTD road frameset is called Scale, a light, responsive carbon fibre hardtail frame that MTB champ Thomas Frischknecht helped design for the Athens Olympics mountain bike course. Scale has a special one-piece aluminum dropouts that are bonded to the one-piece seat and chainstay, as well as a massive oversize bottom bracket for exceptional stiffness.

Scott pushes down the gram count

ScottUSA will intro their bike line for the US next month at Interbike in Las Vegas, but we spied some of their new 2005 "Carbon for Racing" models at Eurobike. Scott's new CR1 LTD frameset tips the scales at a reported 880 grams for a 54cm frame without fork.

Votec rides free

German mountain bike builder Votec prides itself on German engineering and makes all of their bikes in a state of the art production facility in Bretten. Pictured is the V8 model, a freerider with a Multilink-System rear suspension with 150mm of travel. Votec's own GS6 front fork uses Marzocchi oil damping internals and has 165mm of travel.

Olympic Koga

Dutch bike manufacturer Koga sponsors their national track squad with Australian designed and built BT track bikes, currently the state of the art in speed machines for the oval ring. Here is Teenie Van Moorsel's Athens Olympic rig.

Centaur gets carbonized too

Is there anything not touched by carbon fiber this year? Campagnolo has provided an upgrade to its popular mid-range Centaur group, shown here in the Century finish. Now Centaur has added carbon fibre cranks in both standard and compact configurations and check out that new Century carbon fibre water bottle cage.

Carbon Eurus

Built with Campagnolo's proprietary G3 spoking design that is claimed to provide better power transmission and more lateral stiffness, Campagnolo's new for 2005 Eurus Carbon wheels are the top of the line in their medium profile range. Upgraded via the addition of carbon fibre hubs from Bora model, Campagnolo reports that the Eurus Carbon wheels weigh in at 1520gr. / pair, a weight savings of 40gr over the regular Eurus wheels.

Compact and bijou

Campagnolo officially introduced its new Compact CT drivetrain at Eurobike. The Vicenza, Italy component maker has created carbon fibre crank arms that unite its Multidirectional and Unidirectional Carbon Fibre technologies.

Unlike most other compact chainsets created on the 110 BCD platform, Campagnolo's CT is not compatible with other systems (see our tech news back in April for more on this). As always, Campagnolo looks for an integrated drivetrain system, so the Compact CT crankset uses a new front derailleur that has a greater degree of curvature to match the smaller chainrings and that is claimed to therefore shift better than conventional front derailleurs on compact systems.

Neutron's carbon hubs

Another new wheel offering from Campagnolo for 2005 is the low-profile Neutron Carbon wheels, built with carbon fibre hubs that feature a titanium freehub body and new aluminium rims that have been machined for further weight savings. Campagnolo reports that the Neutron Carbon wheels weigh 1500 grams/pair, saving 45 grams/pair over Campagnolo's Neutron wheels.