In the world of bicycling, the march towards new things and improvements on old ideas continue at an unrelenting pace. By this time of year, months after all the products launches and model year changes by bike brands, visits by reps promoting reasons to buy into their brands, trade shows, info coming from the web reviews, those old fashioned glossy product catalogs and basically all the hype it is now time to make sense of it all. Finally, here at Scott's Cycle and Sports we have had enough time to absorb all the new products, events, and developments coming our way. So here it is our first list of things we are excited about for 2016.
The Orbea Loki
Orbea has been introducing a lot of excellent mountain bike models into the US market in the last couple of years but the one that really caught our eye first is the Loki. It is a 27.5 plus hard tail utilizing the new boost 148 hub spacing, 27.5 x 3inch wide tires and 40mm wide rims. It comes in three different stock builds that logically builds a good, better, best concept with pricing at $1500, $2100 and $3000. The top model Loki 27+H-ltd with a Shimano XT M8000 drive train using a one by eleven set up with 11-42 rear cassette and a 28 tooth front chain ring shows that the guys and gals at Orbea know what works for real world mountain biking. By what we have learned here riding northwest area trails like Umatilla Rim, Devils Gulch, South Fork Walla Walla, Elkhorn Crest, Dutchflat and even hometown trails like Badger Mountain is that running a 28 tooth or 30 tooth is what it takes to get up our steep pitches and still have speed to handle the winding single track. But the real bonus of the Loki is the 27.5 plus size wheels and tires. While fat bikes have their place with four to five inch wide tires for extreme snow and sand, they make you feel kind of funny riding anything other than that. What the 27.5 plus size does with it's three inch wide tires is make those less buff trails and those less than optimum soil conditions fun while giving riders that sense of creativity to go new places. The Loki is about performance and is a fast bike. Using the boost 148 hub spacing you can keep the chain stays shorter while increasing tire clearance. The 40mm wide rim is stiff and extra strong but not crazy huge that just slows you down in most conditions. The Rock Shox Reverb dropper seat post shows that the bike is designed to ride the steepest descents and the 120mm travel Fox suspension fork with 34mm stanchions, kashima coating, FIT 4 three position adjust and 110 boost front hub spacing makes sure the front is in line with the back. Overall this bike is cool and logically built to be one of your best handling most versatile bikes. That versatility also lends itself to being able to run standard 29 inch wheels and tires giving the Loki a Swiss army knife effect that is actually more than an added wine opener.
Vittoria tires with Graphene
Graphene, which has long been theorized by scientists, was isolated in 2004. Since then, the material has had some success in the commercial market. What makes graphene so interesting is it's properties; 100 stronger than steel, extremely thin and having that atomic scale honey comb lattice that works in nature. Graphene can potentially be applied to improve everything from impact resistance to electrical conductivity. The bike world is just waiting for some of these developments in graphene to produce real world improvements. Scott's Cycle and Sports has been impressed with the graphene infused Catlike Maxino helmet worn by champion Colombian rider Nario Quintana and team Movistar in the Tour de France.
It only make sense that a helmet company known for it's honey comb design improve it helmets with graphene that uses that same shape at an atomic level. Helmets are cool and we have loved riding with the new Catlike Maxino it is so light and has so much air flow you don't even know it is on but safety sometimes gives way to performance when measured excitement is giving to new products.
The new Vittoria tire line up with graphene is ground-breaking. In our opinion, one tire that stands out is the new Corsa Speed (open tubeless ready) tire. It blows away any other tubeless ready road tire on the market in terms of weight. In fact, it rivals most if not all light weight clinchers on the market. Now you can have a tubeless road tire with all it's benefits of traction control and suppleness at weights that are comparable to tubular setups if you consider the ability to subtract the tube weight. This makes road tubeless a no-brainer just like tubeless systems in the mountain bike world. To make this even more a win-win, the graphene in the tires makes them extremely puncture resistant. If you really want to be prepared, just a little Orange Seal and these could be your lightest, best handling, most puncture resistant tires. Add it to a road specific lightweight carbon tubeless ready wheelset and you could really have it all.
Seeing is believing watch this video featuring Vittoria Graphene infused tires showcasing all the mind blowing possiblities of graphene including speed control and puncture resistance
Leyzne GPS
Global positioning and cycling has been out for quite a while. The huge popularity of Strava in the cycling community has made mapping your rides analyzing them and sharing with social platforms a norm for any cyclist from pro to beginner. The difference is the improvements on the unit Leyzne has done for a mountain biker who deal with durability and crash resistance. Untill now companies have made putting a GPS unit on the front of their handle bars a little risky and when it came right down to it just not cool. Just like how Lezyne didn't change how bicycle pumps work they just changed how precision and durable we thought they could be. Leyzne has done the same for cycling GPS, especially for mountain bikers. It is no longer dorky to have GPS on your mountain bike out on the trails. The main selling point is as usually with a Lezyne product is precision/durability. Leyzne GPS units built with leyzne trademark machined aluminum bodies also have a few other features that just make sense like 22 hours of battery life and the ability to triangulate satellite information accurately with improved built in antennas and information delivered smoothly with proprietary algorithms.
The units have been tested and proven by some of the most demanding cyclist in the world like world famous mountain biker Danny MacAskill. We were lucky to be able to demo these units this winter and they proved their toughness with local rider Angelo Cuilla taking it through the paces even crashing so hard that his handlebars and Leyzne GPS were buried in dirt. The Lezyne GPS came out unscathed only his bike and body came out bruised and damaged.
The Orbea Loki
Orbea has been introducing a lot of excellent mountain bike models into the US market in the last couple of years but the one that really caught our eye first is the Loki. It is a 27.5 plus hard tail utilizing the new boost 148 hub spacing, 27.5 x 3inch wide tires and 40mm wide rims. It comes in three different stock builds that logically builds a good, better, best concept with pricing at $1500, $2100 and $3000. The top model Loki 27+H-ltd with a Shimano XT M8000 drive train using a one by eleven set up with 11-42 rear cassette and a 28 tooth front chain ring shows that the guys and gals at Orbea know what works for real world mountain biking. By what we have learned here riding northwest area trails like Umatilla Rim, Devils Gulch, South Fork Walla Walla, Elkhorn Crest, Dutchflat and even hometown trails like Badger Mountain is that running a 28 tooth or 30 tooth is what it takes to get up our steep pitches and still have speed to handle the winding single track. But the real bonus of the Loki is the 27.5 plus size wheels and tires. While fat bikes have their place with four to five inch wide tires for extreme snow and sand, they make you feel kind of funny riding anything other than that. What the 27.5 plus size does with it's three inch wide tires is make those less buff trails and those less than optimum soil conditions fun while giving riders that sense of creativity to go new places. The Loki is about performance and is a fast bike. Using the boost 148 hub spacing you can keep the chain stays shorter while increasing tire clearance. The 40mm wide rim is stiff and extra strong but not crazy huge that just slows you down in most conditions. The Rock Shox Reverb dropper seat post shows that the bike is designed to ride the steepest descents and the 120mm travel Fox suspension fork with 34mm stanchions, kashima coating, FIT 4 three position adjust and 110 boost front hub spacing makes sure the front is in line with the back. Overall this bike is cool and logically built to be one of your best handling most versatile bikes. That versatility also lends itself to being able to run standard 29 inch wheels and tires giving the Loki a Swiss army knife effect that is actually more than an added wine opener.
Vittoria tires with Graphene
Graphene, which has long been theorized by scientists, was isolated in 2004. Since then, the material has had some success in the commercial market. What makes graphene so interesting is it's properties; 100 stronger than steel, extremely thin and having that atomic scale honey comb lattice that works in nature. Graphene can potentially be applied to improve everything from impact resistance to electrical conductivity. The bike world is just waiting for some of these developments in graphene to produce real world improvements. Scott's Cycle and Sports has been impressed with the graphene infused Catlike Maxino helmet worn by champion Colombian rider Nario Quintana and team Movistar in the Tour de France.
Seeing is believing watch this video featuring Vittoria Graphene infused tires showcasing all the mind blowing possiblities of graphene including speed control and puncture resistance
Leyzne GPS
The units have been tested and proven by some of the most demanding cyclist in the world like world famous mountain biker Danny MacAskill. We were lucky to be able to demo these units this winter and they proved their toughness with local rider Angelo Cuilla taking it through the paces even crashing so hard that his handlebars and Leyzne GPS were buried in dirt. The Lezyne GPS came out unscathed only his bike and body came out bruised and damaged.
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