Welcome to the results of this month’s rummaging around the World Wide Web’s bike shop, we’ve got shiny things, spinny things and, err stemmy things!
Yoshimura Cycling
First up we have Yoshimura, who fulfil all the above three esses. They are a US company who (like many of the companies featured in my rummagings) are firstly a moto brand (who make titanium exhausts), and have seen the light and all that is good about MTBing, and decided to make a few things for us. Though, not cards to go in spokes to replicate exhaust noises, I lament.
First we’ll cover the spinny things (shiny is kind of a given here) which are these, the Chilao pedals, named after a trail they rode a lot while developing them. We’re going to assume there’s a bunch of ruts on that trail, as Yoshimura have designed these with a low Q-factor and so that your feet will sit inboard and close to your cranks, so that you don’t keep catching those pesky edges.
They’re CNC’d in Chino, California, from 6061-T6 Aluminium. It takes 47 minutes to CNC a pedal! The spindles are made from a steel alloy rather than CroMo, which Yoshimura says is to make them extra strong, and use an IGS bushing and two Japanese bearings. The pedals weigh a respectable 375 grams in the larger of two sizes (large is 110 x 107mm, small is 100 x 95mm and saves 35g). They also have a fairly concave shape in both planes, to the point that the front side pins are angled slightly rearwards, to really grip the soles of your feet. Or shred your shins, should the worst happen. Those pins can come in red though should you want to hide the blood, along with blue, black, gold and purple.
The pins are designed to shear off rather than bend – so they don’t get stuck or ruin the thread on the pedal body – and they’re floaty light (which Hannah can confirm, as she fondled them at Sea Otter). They do make service kits, but they swear you won’t need them and reckon those bushings and bearings are totally sealed in.
Prices are $199 for the large and $189 for the small (plus taxes/duty).
On now to stemmy things, and this is the interesting ‘why has no one else done this’ product in the range, the ENDH stem. It’s an Enduro/DH stem for 35mm bars that comes in 37, 42 and 47mm lengths. So far, so normal, but where things get interesting is revealed in the below pic.
The stem is in 2 separate sections, one (very low, 23.5mm, stack) section that clamps to the steerer in a conventional fashion, then a second that uses the direct mount standard from dual crown forks to bolt to that. This means that one can swap between stem lengths (sold separately) or even use another brand direct mount stem, as the direct mount standard is pretty well universal amongst the dual crown fraternity, to get to a desired position. That super low stack height may also be a blessing to those who have been a little over zealous in trimming steerer tubes down, as this stem is a little cheaper than a regular stem plus a replacement steerer tube and fitting. That’s cheapER mind, as it still comes to $199 (plus taxes) for the steerer clamp and one bar clamp.
Check out www.yoshimuracycling.com for more info.
Rurok Industries
Over to the Philippines now, and Rurok Industries who has actually been around since 2010, but has now got things together to start shipping bikes internationally.
Firstly is their 6061 aluminium trail hardtail, The Kanlaon, which features the ‘Play and Slay’ dropout system, allowing riders to go for a more playful, responsive ride (Play mode) with a 77 degree STA and 66 degree HA (static) or stable, monster truck through everything ride (Slay mode), with a degree slacker HA and STA, 200 mm lower BB and 20mm longer chainstay. This also means riders can run full 29” wheel setups, full 27.5 or mixed wheel size with up to 27.5×3 or 29×2.8 tyres in the rear.
As you can see it has all mod cons, an ISCG05 mount, internal routing and, crucially, a shiny raw finish (Yellow painted versions also available) Pricing is $650 (plus shipping and taxes) for the frame only
They also have a big hitting Enduro/Park bike, the Halcon, which packs between 160 and 175mm rear travel, dependant on shock stroke, via their Optilink rear suspension which is a dual short link design. Geometry is a modern, if not super progressive, 64 degree HA, 78 degree STA, but it does also have the play and slay dropouts allowing for tinkering to suit. Pricing for this is $1800 USD plus shipping and taxes.
Check out www.rurokindustries.com for further info
HXR Components
Over to France now, and HXR components. HXR is a manufacturer of a few different products, including stems, bars, chainrings and the like, but we are going to focus on their easy shift crank arms and spider, which moves the freewheel mechanism to the BB, allowing gear changes as long as the bike is moving. Very spinny.
The spider is 94mm BCD, so takes rings down to 28 teeth, and the cranks are a 30mm axle, so standard BB’s will work fine. Something to bear in mind is that you will need to lockout the rear hub for this to work, HXR do make a fixed 148×12 or 142×12 hub, but will also sell you locking kits for your existing hub, if upgrading. (Failing that, you can just ziptie your cassette to your spokes…). All this does carry a weight penalty though, with the total crank and freewheel setup weighing in at 784 grams, and is priced at €449.00. For more information check out www.hxr-components.com.
And Finally…
Back to Blighty now, for a last bit of shiny for this month and it’s Titan Precision Components of the Surrey hills, who’ve just produced and started testing their first product, a headlock and topcap, doing away with a source of much swearing in my bike building experience, the star fangled nut. Give them a follow on Instagram, @titan_components, see how they get on.
That’s all for this month, peace out.