Simple Bikes have been bangin’ out some updates about their new products on the site lately. The entire range of frames have been looked over and revamped from the ground up. The existing models retain the same proven geometry, but they have been dialled in and tweaked to suit the demands of 2011 with tapered tubing, integrated gussets and a built in pivotal post for the Enigma.
Also, two new models have been introduced — the Riga and the Lombric.
The Riga is Eduards Zunda’s signature frame and the Lombric is designed as per Jeremy Muller’s preference. The both feature a new style dropout where the chainstay and seatstay endcaps are an integrated part of the dropout.
Have a look at some photos:
The Eject hub and stem have also undergone a bit of an update. The hub is now slimmer and lighter and one of the endcones have been integrated with the axle. The stem got the ’rounding off’ treatment and have been styled to match the style of the System frontloader.
This has been in the works for some time and the samples just arrived. It’s the top loading version of the previously shown Bones front loading stem from Tempered Bikes. Again, I’m very impressed with the finish of the product. Can’t wait to see these hit the store shelves and online shops later on!
I’ve been posting a bit about Tempered Bikes upcoming products, the Bones stem and the Anchor Down sprocket. I just saw some new shots of the two fine products on a nice blue bike on the Tempered site. This looks so sweet!
Jamie over at Proper Bikes posted this on their blog earlier this month. Reading through it, I have to say that I found it very accurate and to the point. That’s why I decided it is worth spreading the message some more. This was posted as some do’s and don’ts for their stems hat are about to hit the market, but seeing that 100% of stems have bolts and threads in some form, this goes for all stems.
Make sure there is steerer tube under both of the rear allen bolts. If you cut your steerer too short then don’t crank the top allen bolt up as hard as you can and wonder why your new stem doesn’t like it.
Tighten the bolts evenly. That’s right, you need to clamp the bolts (the four front ones and the two rear) with a similar amount of torque. Don’t try to achieve this by cranking one allen bolt after the other as hard as you can.
Don’t use a 6ft extension bar to tighten the allen bolts. A 10cm long allen key will supply enough torque to keep your stem tight.
Don’t spray your stem (or bars) and wonder why either slips.
If your stem starts to distort in any way you are doing something wrong. Do not continue to tighten your stem at this point.
Once your stem is plenty tight enough to grip your bars and steerer tube (whilst a hippopotamus performs a footjam whip or gaps to flat from numerous storeys) there is no need to put in a few extra cranks ‘for good luck’.
Here are a couple of spy shots of a stem that Tempered Bikes will have out soon. The design is all by Tempered, but I’ve helped them with the solid models and the manufacturing drawings for these two samples. By the look of it they’ve turned out really good. Now they just have to make it from the factory to Brisbane and then testing will be under way.
And here’s a quick edit from a couple of Tempereds team riders, Jerry Vandervalk and Nick Kajewski.
Did a pretty cool thing with a photo and a 3D rendering of the latest stem sample. Didn’t get the angle and projection exactly right, but it’s pretty close.
A couple of days ago I received a nice little package of things to be tested. It’s the new “Symmetric stem” and the yet to be named cassette hub from Simple Bikes.
The stem is short (49mm reach) and works about the same as the previous frontload stem, the “System”. It’s got an internal wedge/piston that transfers clamping force from the four front bolts via the handlebars to the streerer tube of the forks. It’s called symmetric because it is the same either way you run it.
The cassette hub is based around the same internals as the Proper hub and has been modified to utilize an internally threaded female axle with 10mm studs. The axle has been custom made to use push-on endcones for easy assembly/disassembly. The hubshell has got big radiuses, no sharp corners and minimal flanges with a staggered spoke hole pattern for lacing all spokes on the inside of the flange, aka “superlace”.
This is not the final shape of the hub shell and some things may probably change before production.
