E-Thirteen serves DH crowd with new hub/cassette combo
gears, many downhill racers have gone back to the ’80s by adopting 7-speed cassettes, which offer a tight gear range that racers can move across with a minimum of shifts. The narrower cassettes also can cre- ate a stronger wheel. E-Thirteen (Booths 350 and
W
hile bikes for other disci- plines keep getting more
E-Thirteen is offering its 7-speed downhill cassette in one size: 9-21T.
352), which sponsors DH star Aaron Gwin, is optimizing that with a new proprietary hub and 9-21T cassette combination, which Gwin will be racing this year. The LG1R Carbon wheel has a special cassette with the freehub pawls
attached to the inside of its largest cog, which is aluminum. The design eliminates wasted space between the cog and the spokes on other designs, allowing the right flange to be moved over to create a more symmetrical spoking pattern for strength. The rest of the cogs are steel. E-Thirteen said it plans to offer just the one cassette size option,
which racers say is adequate. They can adjust the chainring size if necessary for varying course profiles. (Of course, Gwin is famous for winning a World Cup downhill with no chain at all, but most racers prefer to have one.) The LG1R Carbon rear wheel will be sold for about $1,100 retail
including the cassette, available in late April. Besides the new wheel and cassette, look for E-Thirteen’s new tire
line at Sea Otter. The tires feature graphics that mate with E-Thirteen rim graphics for a pro look. The company has been teasing the tires publicly since last fall.
WTB ‘road plus’ wheels, tire ready for off-road adventure
I
f you want to ride a higher volume tire when you
head off road than your current road bike allows, or want to explore the whole dirt road riding scene, make your way over to WTB (Booths 109 and 111), where the brand is showing its “road plus” wheelsets. Road plus is built
around a tire named Horizon that is a 650b size and 47 millimeters wide, and is tubeless ready. When mounted on an appropriate 650b rim it has the same outside tire diameter as a 700c by 30-millimeter road tire. The concept is similar to WTB’s 27.5- plus tires that fit a 3-inch-wide 27.5 tire into the same diameter as a 29er. “Our Horizon 650b tire creates the same overall height as a 700c by
WTB’s Horizon tire is 650b size by 47 millimeters wide, resulting in an outside tire diameter equal to 700c by 30 millimeters.
30 millimeter tire, therefore allowing them to fit in many 700c frames, but the 650b tire is able to be much wider,” said Clayton Wangbichler of WTB. “We hope it encourages riders to take their road bikes beyond
where the pavement ends. High-volume tires drown out road noise, gravel vibrations and dirt imperfections,” he added. Many road bikes already accommodate this size, and WTB is creat-
ing a constantly growing compatibility list of which bikes will swallow the Horizon without issue. If you are curious whether your road bike will handle Horizon 650b fatties, ask at the WTB booth. WTB noted that many upcoming randonneuring bicycles are built
specifically for the tire size.
APRIL 14-17, 2016
42
SEAOTTERCLASSIC.COM
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44