Bike Hugger@Interbike

I need a trainer

For those of us that have to slug it out in the dark rainy winter sometimes you need an alternative. The trainer that caught my eye was the Tacx Cosmos www.tacx.com. It provides all the information you could possibly want HR, Power, Cadence, % grad and connects to your PC to download your workouts. It is compact and the display is easy to use and it can exceed over 2000 watts. Tacx also makes a virtual reality trainers that let you suffer up Mt Ventoux-display model was or race the Tour of Flanders. These can definitely help the winter work outs pass a little quicker.

is your stem high enough

With the invention of the A headset and the demise of the quill stem so went the adjust ability of stem height until now. With the ATS solution www.nvocomponents.com you have unlimited stem height adjustment with any threadless system. This helps with all the new bikes that have super short head tubes to help shave wt and only give you a small amount of stack ht and allows you not to have that ridiculous MTB stem look on your over priced Italian carbon bike

Bad Ass Wheels

I found the toughest wheel out there and some nostagia at the same time with Tag wheels www.tagwheels.com They are designed for free riders, but would have a great use for the urban rider on bad pavement. They reminded me of my old Z rims from my youth in BMX. But I was soon informed these wheels are bullet prrof and you can't put them in the freezer to make your wheels true again. The wheels come wheel DT Swiss hub that any non-mechanical type can service. This product has a ton of potential in the MTB world, but I would love to see a road version for the wet rides in the Seattle  winter.

Power and more Power

The big thing in training is Power. How many watts can you produce over a length of time is the name of the game. This year for 07' some new companies are taking on SRM and PowerTap. The first is Ibike www.ibikesports.com. The unit uses aerodynamic and barometric pressure to determine ones power output. This is what the aerospace industry uses. It is relatively small unit, with easy to use functions. The things that make this a great unit are, it does not require a special wheel, only costs $400 and is compatible with cycling peaks software. For someone looking for a basic power meter this could very well be it.

Another power meter I found was Microsport www.microsporttech.com. This uses a pressure sensitive plate in the shoe, a receiver that attaches to the back of the shoe and a computer unit. What makes it a cool unit is totally wireless and portable. again no wheel changes, so you can use those new ceramic Zipp wheels. The company did not have a $ as of yet but they thought it would be less than the Power tap system.

It's Australian for weird

From the WTF? department, we have the StreetSurfer:

Maybe it's an Aussie thing, but I don't see the attraction of putting a roller skate on the end of your fork. And how often would you have to replace those skate wheels? If you must have one, here's the link.

Ellsworth/NuVinci's CVT concept bike

So the biggest promise of the whole show may come from the Ellsworth/NuVinci concept bike.

Its NuVinci drive system is the latest shot at what many engineers have called “the Holy Grail” for inventors, a continuously variable transmission. The idea of a CVT is that instead of having distinct gears, a mechanism somehow provides a way for an input and output to change their relationship smoothly to “gear up” and “gear down” smoothly, without jumping from gear to gear.

Here's the page on CVTs from Howstuffworks: It notes that the first CVT patent was granted in 1886, and that US carbuyers have been able to buy CVT autos since 1989, but that most automotive systems use a pulley system, where a belt moves higher or lower in a gap between two cones, changing the effective size of the pully.

The NuVinci system, on the other hand, borrows from planetary drives, enough that its manufacturers call the NuVinci a “CVP” system, or Continuously Variable Planetary. In this design, a series of 3-12 drives function as the “planet” gears in a planetary system with a movable cage altering their relationship to the “sun” gear. The whole thing is bathed in a new fluid from Valvoline called Inveritorc.

Cars generally control their CVTs through onboard control computers, figuring what ratio is best for given engine horsepower and torque. The NuVinci leaves that to the rider, so you will have an adjustable input, probably like a motorcycle throttle, that lets you choose “harder” or “easier” in any interval at any time. Suddenly hit the bottom of a big hill? Twist that grip all the way down. Want to pedal 3 more rpm on the flats? Twist it a little.

Of course, only time will tell whether this mechanism's going to stand up to everday (ab)use.

The Ellsworth is deserving of mention even if it were sporting a Sturmey-Archer 3 speed hub: It's a gorgeous combination of cruiser-bike and motorcycle styling cues, slathered in immaculate Ferrari red, and even includes partial fenders.

Technorati Tags: Interbike, Ellsworth, NuVinci

Surly Xtracycle confirmed!

Byron sends along this photo from the floor of Interbike, which officially starts today. I'm sure we'll have more details when the show is open and the bike isn't locked down, but the long and short of it is: Surly is launching the first production all-in-one Xtracycle.

That means folks who love the idea of an Xtracycle will have one less obstacle to hurdle: No more kit-building. Also, I can't see any reason the StokeMonkey wouldn't work.

Questions for our eyes and ears in Vegas: Is Surly selling this as a frame or a bike? What are they calling it? What's the availability?

I'm crossposting this to both Bike Hugger and our special Interbike coverage site. Most of our Interbike content will be at the Interbike site, so if you dig this, check there.

Standards suck

Having just wrestled with several different handelbar/stem/seatpost configuration to set up a stoker bar on Bettie, our sport-utility bike project, I was lamenting a massive industry with little to no standards. Along comes a new bottom bracket standard. Guitar Ted riffs on the topic and the tip on the BB30 standard site came from a reader.

I don't care what the standard is as long as we have something standardized, but doubtful any other manufactures are going to join Cannondale.