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Part 7 - Slick shifting & gram-counting
In his final installment from the first of the big autumn trade shows, James Huang looks at an impressive hydraulically-operated derailleur system and a some staggeringly - maybe even scarily - light components from the German bike industry's serious weight fanatic department.
German outfit 5 Red introduces fully hydraulic shifter and derailleur set
The idea has been tried before, but upstart company 5 Red has introduced what is easily the most over the top, yet completely refined, hydraulic shifter and derailleur setup yet offered. Yup, that's right, I said hydraulic, as in no conventional cables or housing. Instead, tiny master cylinders in the shifter actuate slave cylinders in the derailleurs for a fully weatherproof system that won't stretch, corrode, or fray.
Company founder and designer Christophe Muthers has clearly spared no expense here as the entire hand-machined set will run about 1500 Euros. That is an astronomical figure for sure, but the attention to detail makes the figure sound a little more reasonable. Both front and rear derailleurs use a parallelogram-style cage that incorporates sealed bearings in every pivot for a nearly frictionless motion that should stay slop-free far longer than bushing-equipped pivots. The rear pulley cage also rotates on bearings and the triangulated design is super rigid.
Interesting, there are no return springs in the system. Rather, hydraulic pressure is used to move each derailleur in either direction. As such, shift effort is impressively light, and shifts were performed with perfect accuracy on 5 Red's test rig. Shifts are actuated with a single thumb lever per side, mounted beneath the bar, each of which has a pivoting rocker style 'paddle'. Simply push the top of the paddle to make shifts in one direction, or the bottom of the paddle for the other.
The system is remarkably flexible, too. Swapping the diminutive hydraulic lines from top to bottom, or left to right, allows the user to customize the shifter actuation style to their liking. Want Low Normal? Sure. High Normal? Ok. Want to shift the rear derailleur with the left hand shifter? As the adjustable detents are built into the slave cylinder in the rear derailleur itself, you can have it that way, too.
Remarkably, the complete set is said to weigh just 495g including both shifters, derailleurs, hydraulic line, and fluid. Muthers hopes to have "maybe" five sets completed over the next two months, and hopes he can ramp up production to as many as ten in that same period. Production was scheduled to start immediately after Eurobike, and Muthers says the first five sets are already spoken for. Better get in line now, eh?
German lightweights
One of the pervasive themes of this year's Eurobike show was the plethora of absolutely incredibly lightweight components on display from the usual suspects: AX Lightness, Schmolke, Lightweight, Carbon Ti, as well as a few others.
How light is light? How about a 68g carbon fiber stem? Or a pair of carbon road caliper brakes that weigh under 100g? If you're of the off-road set, perhaps a 62g titanium and carbon fiber disc brake rotor is more to your liking. For the FR/DH crowd, that same rotor is available in a 185mm diameter and you can also get a carbon fiber "DH-specific" crankset (with carbon fiber spindle, no less) with a single-ring-plus-chainguide setup!
Ok, that's enough blabbing from me. Feast your eyes, or roll them as you see fit. Regardless, I'm sure the weight weenie crowd will have a field day with this one. That'll do it from us at Eurobike, but come back for our coverage of the upcoming EICMA show in Milan, Italy. Ciao!
Photography
For a thumbnail gallery of these images, click here
Images by James Huang/Cyclingnews
- Red 5 uses a unique small slant parallelogram for the front derailleur.
- Check out the triangulation on Red 5's pulley cage. Good luck bending that one… and my condolences if you do.
- Who needs cables? Not Red 5 as its hydraulic shifter and derailleur sets forego stainless steel for hydraulic fluid.
- There is a ton of machine work involved in this Red 5 shifter. The entire setup was impressively refined and felt fantastic.
- Push on the upper part of the paddle to shift in one direction, and the lower part of the paddle to go the other way. Easy and simple.
- The new lightweight king of stems? AX Lightness's 68g threadless stem clearly will require some kid gloves during installation.
- You don't make a 68g stem with an excess of material, and there is definitely none here. If this clamp were any more minimal, it'd be nonexistent.
- 124g of carbon fiber goodness. Word has it that they even work, too! Yum.
- BTP is one of the weight weenie kings with items like these milled out carbon fiber pulley wheels and carbon fiber brake lever clamps.
- BTP's Ergo hood isn't any lighter than usual, but it IS red.
- CarbonTi mates a titanium brake track to a carbon fiber center spider. Light? You bet. Is 62g light enough for you?
- CarbonTi's carbon fiber seat collar weighs as little as 9g.
- CarbonTi's rotor is fully floating, so the brake track is free to move about laterally about a millimeter or so.
- Ultra-lightweight bikes are all about the details, like CarbonTi's minimal skewers and assortment of alloy and titanium hardware.
- It doesn't get much more minimal than a small chunk of aluminum glued to a carbon fiber leg.
- German A's Kilo Force suspension fork weighs exactly that. The linkage fork is XC-specific with 80mm of travel and an air-sprung and oil-damped shock.
- The Force Kilo's linkage features anti-dive geometry.
- Lightweight uses a new foam core that doesn't absorb epoxy. This makes each rim a whopping 30g lighter and also 14% stiffer.
- Not bad for a REAR wheel, eh?
- Lightweight's Obermayer wheel has been a staple in the equipment diets of TdF riders for years with its ethereal weight and surprisingly stiff and responsive ride.
- Schmolke's aero bar clamp hardware is minimal-looking but seems to clamp well. And it's red!
- Schmolke uses an assortment of carbon fiber, titanium, and aluminum for a grand total of as little of 175g.
- 68g for a seatpost? Is that right? If you were to combine AX Lightness' stem and this point, the combination would weigh less than 150g.
- A carbon fiber spindle on a DH bike? THM Carbones seems quite confident it'll work. Any takers?
- I'm not sure any DH riders would actually use this, but it certainly looks cool!
- THM Carbone's Clavicula fitted with CarbonTi chainrings. Holy bling.
- The Clavicula spider is deeply shaped for rigidity.
- Not light at all but incredibly cool. I want one.
- How about this for accuracy?
- If the wooden rear shock actually compressed, the rear end of this bike would actually move.
- Still not light. But still really cool. And I still want one.
- This wooden stem was on display in Tune's booth and probably weighs as much as all of the stems Tune ships in a year.
