Welcome back to my rummaging through the back room of the bike shop we call the Internet, there’s no real theme this month, just some cool shiny stuff, starting with…
Runteli Bikes
With the a literal translation of “Ravaged”, and being forged from steel in the frozen north of northern Finland (go much further north and you’ll start going south), you would expect these to be rugged and equipped for the snow. And of course you’d be right, they are, but what if you also want a long, low, slack enduro sled(ge)?
Enter the Mörri which, language fans, translates literally as ‘Grump’.
But this seems anything but miserable, more of a rowdy hooligan. With the 4130 Cro-mo frame, 64 degree head angle, 460mm reach and chainstays giving a 1270mm wheelbase for a ‘medium’, it certainly ticks the long and slack boxes for any bike, let alone a fat bike! Specification is workhorse but functional, with a Manitou Mastodon EXT 140mm fork up front, Deore 12 speed gears, Sunringle Mulefoot wheels in either 26” (with 5” tyres) or 27.5” (with 4.5” tyres) flavour, all from around £2,500, ex duty/VAT, at current exchange rates. Could Sno-ro catch on?
Well, if it doesn’t, Runteli can fall back on a more, if not totally, conventional machine – the Karu (Rugged, if you were wondering).
If you thought the Mörri was long, this grows anther 40mm in the reach department to 500mm, again, for a medium, drops 2 degrees off the head angle, down to 62 degrees, and added another postcode to the wheelbase, at a whopping 1320mm. For. A. Medium. Spec is similar to the Mörri: Manitou Mezzer Expert 160mm fork, Deore 12speed gears, 29” Sunringle rims and, from the look of the picture, plenty of headset spacers. All this from around £2,250 ex duty/VAT at current rates.
One last thing before we leave the northern north, is the interesting “paint”. Runteli can use the same metal bluing finish popular with gunsmiths and other metal decorators, which is then clearcoated, looking like the below, or then can offer a raw, or powder coated paint, at extra cost.
For more information head to @runtelibike on Instagram or www.runtelibike.com.
Sturdy Cycles
Back to (relatively) warm blighty now, for a brand a lot of STWers may well already have heard of. Tom makes simply stunning 3D printed titanium road (Fiadh) and gravel (Cilla) bikes, that you can drool over whilst dreaming of a lottery win at www.sturdycycles.co.uk. While you are there, you will also see the Tara hardtail, a XC oriented 29er hardtail that gets the same love and custom, 3D printed Ti, geometry as the other models, available from £4,500.
What you may not have heard, is that he has now branched out into the components game, offering parts that were previously only available as part of one of the aforementioned wonder machines custom builds.
First up are cranks, 3D printed Ti – natch, available in pretty well any length you can imagine, standard sizes are 150-175mm, but there is a custom size option should you need something outside of the ordinary. They can be finished in a raw state, custom anodised or if you ask very nicely, mirror finish. They run a pretty standard 30mm machined Ti axle, and all the hardware is also titanium. Total weight for the arms, axle and hardware is 485g for the MTB version, as it has a little more material than the 450g road version, due to the less predictable use case us MTBers present. Right that’s enough words, just look at them.
Like those chainrings? Also Ti, though machined this time, available in the machined or custom anodised finish above. MTB versions are 30-36t, 11 and 12 speed compatible, but only in boost spacing, and give a much better lifespan than aluminium offerings, according to Sturdy. Which is a good thing as, and there’s no real easy way to say this, they are £300 each. Now you are back up off the floor, welcome back, the cranks are £1,440. So these are very much a heart rather than head purchase, and even then someone would have to really want these. Are they worth it? Objectively probably not, but what art is ever worth its asking price?
If you like the idea of British 3D printed Ti on your bike though, but don’t want to spend a whole new bike’s worth on a crank and ring, Sturdy offer some bar end plugs, almost like posh cufflinks, for £75.
If you still have some drool left, head over to @sturdycycles on Instagram to be relieved of it…
Aenomaly Constructs
Most of you will remember what a game changer the dropper post was, after initially wondering what the point of one was, right? Seat post height was first adjusted by loosening a bolt making the change and sticking with it until it became unbearable, or just compromised for a whole ride, then the first droppers came along, where you adjusted the height with a lever under the seat, sometimes on the fly, others whilst your mates undid with seat clamps… then everything became integrated with remotes, even wireless ones.
I strongly suspect Aenomaly is at the mid point in that cycle with their Switchgrade saddle angle adjuster. Seat angle is set and forget right? Or is it just whatever the bearable compromise is as it’s a faff to adjust every time you get to a climb or descent? Now, you can adjust the angle with an underseat lever.
The system allows you to drop the nose of your saddle by 10 degrees, raising the rear by about 10mm and adding a degree or so to you effective seat tube angle, giving a much better saddle position on steeper climbs. It works the other way too, dropping the rear by 12 degrees, giving effectively more drop on your dropper.
It’s made from 7075 T6 and 6061 T6 Alu in Vancouver, works with loads of different droppers (there’s a compatibility list on aenomalyconstructs.com) and is shipping now, costing £195 delivered to the UK.
Will we start to see this tech integrated more fully into future droppers? Specialized already tried with the Command Post Blacklite, but that only dropped the rear, could this be what they are missing? Head to @aenomalyconstructs for more info!
And Finally…
£1,440 cranksets are one thing, but what if that’s just not expensive enough for you? What if you need a power meter too? Your prayers have been answered by Infocrank!
Here’s the blurb.
- 3D printed in Ti6Al4V titanium.
- Precision machined and instrumented.
- World-beating strength in a lightweight package.
- Performance data with an error of less than 1%.
- No recalibration and no regular re-zeroing required.
- Dual-sided power meter measuring right and left leg individually.
- Measures cadence to 1/1000th of a second and torque from directly within the crank arm 256 times per second.
- Waterproof and weatherproof with absolutely no data drift.
- Available for road in 110BCD & 130BCD and track in 144BCD.
- Track Crank BB is ISIS.
- Road Crank BB is 24mm.
- Lengths can be specified to any measurement.
- The InfoCrank 3D Ti works identically to other InfoCrank power meters and connects via ANT+ to all common head units.
Cool. Here’s a pic…
And here’s the price. It’s Four thousand, seven hundred and forty pounds.
That’s £4,740.
Until next time rummagers, peace out.