This week, Schwalbe introduces their most important new mountain bike tire tech ever! Plus two new road bikes, a unique steering damper, new protective bits from Giro and Trek, Tom Ritchey starts making welding again, and more! Here’s the best new stuff this week:
- Schwalbe radial casings
- Colnago C68 rim brake
- Cervelo Caledonia
- Pademelon steering damper
- Giro knee pads
- Trek WaveCel helmets
- Gore Ultimate bibshorts
- Ritchey Bullmoose bars
- BioLite power bank
Schwalbe adds Radial Casings for better, faster, smoother tires
Most bike tire casings are laid in the mold at 45º angles. The new Schwalbe Radial series puts the fibers at a more obtuse angle, which lets the casing deform much easier and quicker, yielding a 30% larger contact patch at ~22psi, and it maintains a 15% larger patch even 29psi.
That means massive increases in traction without having to drop tire pressure so low that you risk pinch flats. It also means tires can be made lighter and more supple because they don’t need overbuilt sidewalls since you can run “normal” pressures and still have an incredibly supple tire.
Whereas radial car tires have casing fibers running 90º from the direction of travel, those require a steel belt to keep everything stable. Schwalbe’s “radial” casings maintain enough fiber angle to keep the tire stable and supported during cornering and off-camber sections, just like a normal tire, but the exact angle is their trade secret.
It launches on the new Albert, Shredda (front & rear), and Magic Mary tires. Otherwise, tire construction is the same, but Schwalbe says these will have slightly more rolling resistance because they’re grabbing the ground so much more effectively, which is maybe why they’re only using them on gravity/enduro tires for now. (video explainer here)
Colnago C68 brings back rim brakes
I never knew that Colnago’s naming scheme is based on the years since they were founded in 1954. The current C68 chassis debuted in 2022, 68 years after the company started.
Now, two years later, they’ve added a rim brake option with the new C68 Rim Brake road bike. It keeps the same basic carbon frame, but adds two-bolt mounts for dual-pivot rim brake calipers and external cable ports on the top tube for the rear brake. It’s available in one color and one build for £6,300.
Cervelo Caledonia-5 is a race bike, but comfy
The Cervelo Caledonia-5 endurance road bike is designed for “big, stupid rides” that are also fast. It gets updated with dropped seatstays, adding more vertical compliance for comfort, but also more torsional stiffness for tighter handling.
The downtube is a bit stiffer, too, and adds a small internal storage port with their included tool bag to hold a tube, mini tool, and CO2. It clears 36mm tires, fits fenders, and comes in five builds from $6,000 to $12,000, plus frameset. The RED AXS build includes the new Hammerhead Karoo.
Pademelon steering damper
Former Rockshox engineer Jeremiah Boobar has launched the Pademelon Steering Damper, a unique take on mountain bike steering control. It lets you adjust how much damping is applied, but it only affects the first 35º of steering (from center, 70º total spread). After that the damping disappears so you can steer quickly and easily on slower, tighter sections.
It also returns to center freely, with no resistance, so that it’s back where you need it to be. The goal is to keep off-camber, irregular bumps from knocking you off your line, and it works just as well uphill as down, so you can climb straighter with a more relaxed upper body, too. MSRP is $537, with single- and dual-crown fork versions.
Giro Loam Knee & Elbow pads
Adding to their helmets, gloves, and shoes, the new Giro Loam knee and elbow sleeves stack 8mm of custom-formulated D3O Trident XTI padding over a stretch woven compression sleeve with a very breathable stretch mesh back panel.
The pad is covered with a highly abrasion-resistant material, protecting it from scuffs and tears. An Evo Grip Cuff keeps them in place, and they’re made with at least 50% recycled content. MSRP is $90-$120, available in men’s & women’s. There’s also a new Lobo knee pad with removable, thicker 11mm D3O pad with suede cover.
Trek WaveCel MTB helmets get lighter & breezier
As an alternative to EPS foam and Koroyd, Trek’s WaveCel MTB helmets are updated with larger spaces between the ribbons, allowing more air flow, and is about 15% lighter. They also pack some sick features, like BOA fit system, Fidlock magnetic buckle, adjustable visors with sunglass dock, and their Blendr snap-on light/camera mounts.
The Blaze (top left, $249) has removable ear guards and deep 3/4 coverage to work from trail to enduro, and adds a magnetic breakaway visor. The new Rally (bottom left, $159) has deeper rear coverage than before with a half-shell design, and the entry-level Quantum (top right, $125) has more XC-like coverage and uses standard buckles and dials, but keeps the adjustable visor.
FYI: WaveCel both compresses and bends, absorbing impacts from any direction and better deflecting off-angle & rotational forces from your head. All three have 5-Star ratings from Virginia Tech.
Gore Ultimate bibshorts
The new Gore Ultimate Bibshorts get a 3D-printed three-layer pad and more compressive-but-comfortable material for all-day comfort. Compression and breathability zones are woven in rather than stitched, reducing seams to a bare minimum, and the material is lightweight and dries quickly.
It gets their excellent “engineered straps” that are seamless and wide, eliminating any pressure points. It also has their breathable cup layer in the front to, um, smooth things out.
Ritchey returns to welding original Bullmoose handlebars
In the early days, Tom Ritchey made every mountain bike as a complete system (ahead of his time, no?) with a Bullmoose handlebar and bi-plane fork. But as mountain biking exploded, he couldn’t keep up and started spec’ing 3rd party forks and bars with his frames. Legend has it, there are a few hundred such “incomplete” bikes out there.
Now, he’s relit his welding torch and is personally making the bars and forks again, but only for owners of Ritchey bikes. If you’ve been trying desperately to build an original bike back to its heyday glory, hit them up at the MADE Show (or their website) to order.
BioLite Charge 100 Max is a bikepacking-sized power bank
If you’re without a dynamo but need to recharge lights, cameras, phones, and GPS computers in the wild, the new BioLite Charge 100 Max is a surprisingly compact 25,000mAh battery pack. It’ll quickly recharge multiple devices with 120W combined output, and top off your phone with 15W MagSafe cordless charging on top.
And if you need it for work, it’ll pump out 100W from a single USB-C port to charge even the biggest laptops. When you find an outlet, it’ll fully recharge in just 90 minutes. Weight is just 580g, it measures just 5.4″ x 4.4″ x 1.4″, and it’s TSA carry-on compliant. MSRP $150.
Small Bites
- New Rudy Project Nyad has lenses for sea level to high altitude
- Saris MHS 2-bike hitch rack now supports 100lbs per bike
- Rockshox Trailhead App updates make it far more useful
- Old Man Mountain Pizza Rack now carries bevvies, too
- Cane Creek eeWings All-Road cranks now have 165mm arms
- Camera Corner film documents the birth of mountain biking
- Escape Adventures now leads luxury RV-based cycling tours
- Above Category to host a boutique framebuilder show on 8/31
- Wolf Tooth’s 104BCD 1x chainrings now come in more sizes
- Helinox’s new chair Ball Feet are brilliant
Hot Deals
- Wild Rye’s Birthday sale has everything 30-70% off sitewide
- Wolf Tooth’s Scratch & Dent Sale has massive savings
- Save 15-25% off Shimano road bits at BTD thru 8/15
- Get up to 70% off outlet gear at REI thru 8/12
Parting Thoughts
Someone asked me this week how big our team is here at The Lunch Ride.
I chuckled and said it’s just me.
Most week’s recaps take anywhere from 4 to 6 hours to prep. Some are a little longer.
As soon as finish, I get to work rewriting everything to work as a video script, then turning a LOT of photos and clips into a video version of these weekly recaps, too.
All in, it’s about 8-12 hours of extra work for a 5-10 minute video.
That’s about two days every week for something I don’t really make money on.
So, I have two favors to ask:
ONE: If you like these recaps, please take 2 seconds and click here to subscribe to my YouTube channel? Even if you only read the written version, more YouTube subs lets me monetize that channel and support this work.
TWO: If you’re a brand, especially one that I routinely cover, please sponsor a few weeks this year. I don’t have an ad sales department, and I don’t use networks or Adsense, so please reach out. Hit reply, message me here, or forward this to your marketing person.
Thanks!
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