
Check out this reverse-steering bike action from
Cannondale at Demo Days. Turn left, it goes right. Turn right, it goes left. This was retro-fitted onto a 'DayDodger', another cruiser-style bike new for this year. So is the lefty fork still on the left...or the right? What will those crazy cats at Cannondale come up with next, a
motocross bike? Yeah right.
There hasn't been many postings of Colnago's plans for 2007. Those visiting Milano, Italy wouldn't be able to find much in the way of new bikes, aside from the tweaked Extreme C bike, the Extreme Power. Turns out, we were looking in the wrong place. Try Taiwan. Yes, the Italian bicycle manufacurer has decided to outsource their building of a new line of affordable carbon fiber bikes, designed in-house, the CLX line. From the horses mouth:
"My new CLX is a high performance yet affordable carbon fiber bicycle. We have designed the CLX here in Cambiago in our ColnagoLab, then brought the manufacturing to Taiwan to bring the price down to a more affordable level. For years, our customers have been asking us for a more affordable carbon fiber bicycle but we didn't want to make anything cheap and unreliable. We have done a lot of testing and now we know the CLX deserves the name Colnago."
This is a first for the pure Italian company. Affordable, sure. But would you really buy a Colnago made in Taiwan?
Read more:
Colnago 2007 (cyclingnews.com)

MBA has the latest pictures of the production versions of
Giant's full suspension carbon bikes, the Anthem Advanced and Trance Advanced. The Anthem is a Maestro 3.5" travel 24 pound XC bike with a miriad of tube shapes. Rounding out the kit will be 2007 Shimano XTR TRIGGER shifters (read: not dual shifters), Fox 32F-X fork, and Mavic CrossMax SLR wheels. I can hear the bolts loosening off of weight weenie NRS owners' bikes now.

For those longing for a lightweight alternative to the Fox fork,
check this out. No, sadly it's not a production or even a prototype. From the translation, it's a one-off replica of an F80 fork using ultra-exotic carbon. The crown and fork assemblies where cast and molded to produce this 1350g 'faux' fork.
Read more in german
here.

So it turns out that starting a new job that requires your attention for 80 hours a week doesn't leave much time to surf and blog about the latest and greatest bicycle componentry and technology. I feel bad - real bad - for letting this site go by the wayside. I guess after the whole
Landis scandal and everything else
going wrong in the world today, talking about cool bicycle shat didn't seem substantial anymore. Balancing work, family, and hobbies gets hard nowadays but it has to happen to stay sane - so
I can stay sane! I promise I'm working on a few new posts and even a new look for the site. Surfing 9rules.com gets the creative juices cookin'. There's a ton of new eye candy coming out for the 2007 season and beyond that's sure to get people talking. I'm officially wiping clean the cobwebs around here and starting anew. This site will not be abandoned!

After an astonishing 10 minute breakaway in Stage 10, the first mountain stage of this year's tour,
Cyril Dessel takes the yellow jersey. He rides atop his
btwin racing FC700 all carbon bike. More famous for thier production of city and touring bikes, btwin is a brand under
Decathlon. The FC700 is quite visually unique in the hard-edged tube shapes most noticeably in the bottom bracket area and the semi-integrated seatpost. Dessel rides his FC700 with full Campagnolo Record components. The fork is made in conjunction with
TIME. A 55cm frame weighs 1.07kg, claimed. Btwin has a nice flash site,
fc700.com showcasing their peleton offering.

Serguei Gonchar cleans the competition to take the yellow after Stage 7's TT race. Aboard his
Giant Composite bike, complete with integrated seatpost, air-slicing headtube, and slick aero tubing, Gonchar finished a full minute ahead of the next fastest cyclist, Floyd Landis (who switched bikes after a handlebar problem on his
BMC Timemachine.)
Read more at
MagentaReign.comUpdate: Check out
Colnago's TT bike. Looks like a re-branded Giant.

Photo from
Graham Watson

For 2007,
Mavic is giving the consumer more options with new wheelsets for every type of rider out there. As we speculated
before, the new CrossMax SLR's are the top of the line XC specific wheelset in both V and disc brake versions. For the V-brakes, the SLR's have caRRRRRbon fiber hubs and aluminum and titanium parts to reduce this race wheelset down to a weight of 1410g claimed. The disc wheelset will retain the alloy hubs and more spokes with a weight of 1520g claimed. Look for the red spoke. Mavic keeps the CrossMax SL line as a slightly heavier and whiter XC wheelset (with a yellow spoke). The CrossMax ST version (pictured above) is rated as a long distance mountain wheel. The subtle laser-etched logos and black color give this 1660g disc wheelset a stealthy look. Rounding out the CrossMax line is the CrossMax SX, a freeride, heavyduty disc only wheelset. If those aren't enough choices for you, below the CrossMax are the Crosslands, Crossrides, and Crosstrails each with V or disc brake versions.
Can't wait to see the new
carbon paired-spoke road racing wheels,
Rouesartisanales.com eluded to previously.
Read more at
singletrackworld.com.
I'm going to sit back and enjoy the tour while it's on (as you should too!), so my Bicycle Tech feelers won't be reaching out as far as they normally would. But I don't like the thought of not contributing to this blog at all, so I'm starting a little segment called Yellow Tech where I'll highlight the bike ridden by the yellow jersey. If you subscribe to BT and are one that will TIVO/DVR the day's race, you might want to wait until after you've watched the race to read the blog. You've been warned!
Of course if something elsewhere in the bicycle tech world worth mentioning pops up, I'll let you know.
Thanks for reading. LMW

Looks like those boys and gals in the ACG team at
Trek have something cooking in the oven and it smells like carbon. The Trek newsletter, Exit 180, has a mystery photo of a tubeset for a new bike. No details are given other than it will be lighter and more efficient than its predesessor and that a built up bike will be shown in next month's newsletter. Looks definitely like a revamped Fuel bike, probably using a new mix of carbon formula seen it's road counterparts. Possibly even a new suspension design that will be more "efficient".