Thanks for your patience- let's get to the good stuff now!
As a race nerd, I still seriously geek-out on cool stuff like these wheels. I never did find out who the actual manufacturer is, but several brands had their labels on them. They were pretty cool and light though.
There are many very talented frame makers in Taiwan. This particular one struck me for its very fluid lines and nice structural features- check out the beefy dropout area and the ridge by the seat collar area. The frame had a lot of great and complex shapes.
Biomega continues to make some of the coolest bikes I've seen. I just love their simple designs and creative touches. This bike just made me smile when I saw it.
One of my favorite trends developing right now is painted/ colored bars, stems and seatposts. Sure the finishes may scratch over time, but when you are creating a really beautiful bike and can add some awesome colored accents... parts like this are a great thing to have available. Keep your eyes open for a few well-known companies to be doing this... trust me on this one.
It's no secret that I'm a big SRAM fan. I still love my Shimano and Campagnolo parts too- in fact I just finished building a new steel sample frame with my Dura Ace parts (pictures later) and rode it tonight. But I've been one of the folks who claimed that SRAM's entry into the road market would be a good thing for all of us. Well, the venerable Rival group is getting nice updates like a black finish to match the Force and Red groups and is also getting a new carbon fiber brake lever. What was already a good looking group for the money is now a drop-dead-sexy group for the money. (Don't worry though... the folks from Japan are not going quietly into the night... not at all... but I can't say anything yet.)
One of the biggest product highlights of the show was these guys; Grammo.
I'm a true racing geek and love cool looking race gear, but these wheels were simply off the charts!
Thing is, they spun incredibly smoothly and felt very nice in the hands. The large carbon bladded spokes were very cool with two steel threaded spokes that went in to the rim and used regular spoke nipples.
These babies were just simply stunning- they really did a great job on the cosmetics.
I pretty much fell in love with them and fondled them each time I walked by the booth. They were starting to get a little concerned.
I'd love to say I talked my way in to a set of the wheels to test and report on for you, my faithful and wonderful readers... but I failed to even get any words out of my mouth because I could hardly breath from the hyperventilating.
So those are the product highlights that I'm allowed to tell you about... (nudge, nudge, wink, wink...). Next up will be some of the people who make going to the Taipei show such a good time.
So until the next time- good night!
Tim
3 comments:
lots of really cool stuff, Tim.
happy belated b-day and thanks for sharing.
eric
very cool wheels, i really like the first aero TT set, i only wonder if it is all show or all tech? it seems to me in my humble nerdy design opinion that most of these 'off brands are purely good looks and sometimes accidentally fair performance numbers. zipp / HED have put in 20+ years of passionate wind cheating research to create their wheels. it would be great if an unknown would shake up the design of wheels and create a forward thinking winner. but... zipps and HEDs own research points to limited spokes as the most aero and even zipp counters HEDs winning trispoke with too much fluid [air] disturbance at the fork, whenever one of the massive tri spokes passes the forks. in other words the air that occupied the void [no spoke] has to be displaced when the spoke does occupy the space at the fork [usually pushing it in all directions, including forward, which is not good for generating a clean wattage efficient air flow]. aero wheels are all about form following function. the only smart thing to do is to give me a set and i will put them in the wind tunnel and let you know how they work. great work masigeek, next time i will give you a primer on good modern architecture.
NOW GO RIDE.
Masiboy be stone cold pimpin' once again. Mmm tasty!
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