Dario's Day 2 Randoms - Taiwan Cycle Show 2024
You've seen the first level, now it's time to go deeper. The sea of booths at the Taipei Cycle Show seems to turn over and reveal something new nearly every lap, so I've been plodding through again and again to find more juicy bits and pieces. Here are today's.
Spank Spike 369 Rim
This new rim from Spank features a hollow flange, meant to increase stiffness and impact resistance. The larger flat section atop that hollow channel should help with snake bites as well, as we've seen with other rims featuring a similar design.
It sounds like we'll be seeing these rims become available sometime this coming summer, and word on the street is our man H. Quinney will be putting them to the test during his daily repeats in the bike park.
Compelling.
Heating/cooling jacket from Top Action is functional and a little terrifying.
These puppies get as cold as 1°C.
And allegedly do not pose a threat to long hair.
Riderever Attack XR
These 4-piston mineral oil brakes from Riderever look and feel pretty robust, with features we're used to seeing on higher-end brakes. A hinged clamp, reach adjust, legitimate bleed options, and a typical pad shape mean these could be easy to own, if you can get your hands on a set. Their webstore appears to be down, but the price is supposedly quite competitive.
Unnecessarily high seatpost of the day award.
Cool.
36" e-gravel joint at DirtySixer.
Even the pedals are ready for big feet.
Speed shades occupy about 30% of the booths here.
KS Inverted Fork
We've seen this before, and there isn't much new, but it's intriguing regardless.
KS says they've been iterating on the internals.
Looks pretty good.
I squished it, and agree that it doesn't seem quite ready yet.
All the hub options.
SunTour is ABS ready.
That's what they called me in high school.
Looks committing.
I believe.
Brother.
why have you forsaken me
I feel cold
so cold
please stop
Anyway, here are some beautiful orchids.
The all-black Maven Silvers (??) look great in person.
Paging Brian Park.
Kellys Swag
No, I'm not describing someone's drip, that's the name of the bike.
One of the more well-sorted seeming mountain bikes at the show.
Excellent dropper insertion and an interesting linkage layout.
Plus a solid build kit to boot.
Some lovely 3D-printed titanium bits.
Huddled for warmth (and print efficiency.)
Smooth.
Ti bits.
A real picture of me, chilling, calm, placid, in my lane, not overwhelmed by an ocean of bike parts.
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EDIT: here it is www.xfusionshox.com/products_detail/76.htm in all its glory, 20mm axle even !
On dirtbikes the they can overbuild it and bicycles it all comes down to weight.
i have an rockshox rs1, its light yes, but if you brake while only steering a little, the flex is crazy.
So now it is used as a toilet roll holder where flex is not an issue.
Look at the history of motorcycle forks, very rarely we’re there bridges between the lowers, although you raise the center of gravity of the fork with an USD fork, you loose a lot of weight from the lowers, and since the unsprung mass in a motorcycle is considerable, that weight savings makes up for a slightly heavier system overall. Look at the axle clamps, hub and axle on a motorcycle USD fork and you’ll see where the rigidity was regained. Plus every motorcycle brand has somewhat proprietary hub and axle standards, sort of what Rock Shox tried with their torque cap front hubs. No one wants proprietary stuff on bikes (me included) if every fork needed it’s own hub (I’m looking at you lefty!) the Pink Bike community would loose their collective mine.
Having tested a fair few forks in my time and listened to loads of the latest marketing BS its always best for every rider to find what works for them and go with that.
I remember when Bos Idylle Rare were amazing, the best fork you could get so I bought a set to try... didnt take much testing to figure out that for me they were terrible.
Everyone knows the best test of a fork is to ride into your nearest kerb as hard as you dare and see how they perform then do an endo after (its actually a decent starting point test). Pressing on the bars is old school.
I don't know how to install tires without that channel? Just f*ck with so many tire levers.
So that Blackpool Tower sized stem stack is on a very appropriately named bike.
And BTW: Pleeeeaaaaase Spank - bring back coloured rims! True rims of colour. Damn.
....Sun double wide