Eurobike: Maverick, Blackburn, Van Nicholas, Chris King
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Eurobike: Maverick, Blackburn, Van Nicholas, Chris King

September 14, 2010

Yep, still more stuff from Eurobike. This time we’re looking at a crazy Blackburn tool, the expiration of a certain patent, a tarty track bike, a carbon suspension fork and some titanium vans. Van Nicholas bikes, that is…

The Toolmanator 3 is a comprehensive multi-tool from Blackburn. Comprehensive in that it has all the Allen keys you might need, plus a chain tool. And what's that on the end? It's a mini-mini-shock pump. Obviously for emergencies only, but screw the tiny pump on to your saggy rear shock and it'll give you enough pressure to carry on riding. Clever stuff.
Hot on the successful heels of the Flea lights, Blackburn has a pair of new Click lights. They'll be £12.99 each or £20 a pair. They mount to nearly anything and you just press the lamp in to turn it on and off.

The insides of a King hub are always good for an engineering perve. This is King's 12mm thru-axle rear hub.
Hmm, now what's all this about? As of a couple of weeks' time, the patent on Cane Creek's Aheadset runs out, which means that other headset manufacturers will be able to make them without a licence. *Update!* Chris King has always been a licensee of the original patent, but it didn't reckon that the system was right at the time, so came out with its own alternative. Now the time is right for the Griplock, so reckons King. King is now offering this tapered 'Griplock (tm) Conversion Kit' as a retro-fit for existing headsets which add the functionality of the Aheadset system to the legendary King bearings. About time.

King is probably the only headset manufacturer to offer headsets to fit every 'standard' now. They still even make 1in ones! Then there's everything up to 1.5in, via 44mm and other tapered oddnesses.
Cielo bikes (pronounced a little like 'cello') are steel hardtails made in the Chris King factory. King has recently hired Jay Sycip and there is a range of mountain and road bikes. They'll be the usual King quality (and price bracket) and we'll hopefully see a couple in the UK soon.
Hmm... Integrated headset cap, bar/stem combo? It can only be one of a few bespoke US frame builders.
Integral seatpost
We assume that's how many people are on the waiting list.
Probably not coming to a velodrome near you.
X-Fusion will be offering uppy-downy posts in 30.9, 31.6 and the rarely seen 27.2 size too! Weight is 510g
If ever there was a fork that cried out to have a carbon version, it was the Maverick DUC fork.
Maverick DUC 36 in carbon. More of this at Interbike.
Van Nicholas quietly beavers away, selling only titanium frames and has a large underground following. Here's its Tuareg frame - an all-mountain frame.
This is why the new 44mm headset standard was introduced: so that titanium frames can have tapered steerer forks without looking too odd.
If you're going to run a Rohloff, you might as well put a Gates belt on too. The rear roller thing is a stipulation by Gates to stop the belt jumping off.
The Zion Rohloff is one of Van Nicholas' most popular models.

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And for big-wheel fans, here's the Zion 29er.
Here's a close up of the Valkyr prototype 120mm full suspension bike. That link is machined from solid billet titanium.

The Valkyr prototype. Complete bike weight should be 11.2kg

Chipps Chippendale

Singletrackworld's Editor At Large

With 23 years as Editor of Singletrack World Magazine, Chipps is the longest-running mountain bike magazine editor in the world. He started in the bike trade in 1990 and became a full time mountain bike journalist at the start of 1994. Over the last 30 years as a bike writer and photographer, he has seen mountain bike culture flourish, strengthen and diversify and bike technology go from rigid steel frames to fully suspended carbon fibre (and sometimes back to rigid steel as well.)

More posts from Chipps

8 thoughts on “Eurobike: Maverick, Blackburn, Van Nicholas, Chris King”

  5. Cielo – mmmmmmm
    Speedvagen – mmmmmmm

    I can’t work out if that’s Maverick trying to look like they’re still developing stuff and failing, or a taster of new stuff to come. I guess Interbike will have the answer.

  8. Gates roller? is this a new demand for offroad use only?
    Haven’t noticed it on any other bikes…

    Pretty please can we see pics of the new Speedvagen ‘cross bike!

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