- So we're here at the Novo Mesto round
of the World Cup, and it's the third round
of the XC World Cup
and we're here in the
pits to check out some
of the very best XC tech.
Let's go and have a look.
(light music)
So we're here at Novo Mesto,
and we're actually a bit early.
So as you can see there's not an awful lot
going on in the background,
so we're just snooping around the pits
to see what XC tech we can find,
and especially those guys here.
I just want to show you something.
I'm a bit envious of this tool kit
I've spotted down the back here.
This is major league tool envy.
Have a look at that.
Ooh.
So something that's pretty
cool here to see at Novo Mesto
is the fact that the
tubeless ready sealant
from Specialized is
now actually available.
This is the stuff that we
saw in the prototype stage
at the first round of the World Cup
at Stellenbosch in South Africa.
Now all the team riders
have been using this stuff
on all of their bikes, and
one of the aims of this
is it's totally non-toxic
and it doesn't congeal
like other tubeless
sealants do on the market.
So, one of the things that's
especially useful about this
is it is especially
good in hot conditions.
We know that already because
of the testing they did in Africa.
It's designed to not congeal, not dry up,
and generally just last
better on the tire.
And it completely seals
the inside of the tire,
much like the latex-style sealants do.
It definitely is aiming to last longer.
And there's also a
whole new range of tires
from Specialized, starting
at the lightest XC tire
they have, which is just 511 grams there
for the 2.1 in the Renegade,
and they go all the way
through up to a ground control,
which is a sort of a heavy
duty tire that's better
for roots, rocks and when
conditions are a bit more adverse.
The tire I want to talk to you about
is actually the Fast Trak.
So, this is a tire that
has existed in a range
for some time, but its actually got
some new improvements on there.
Now the rubber is a gripped rubber,
which we know is very
good in all conditions.
It's very good on wet rock,
It's good on wet roots,
but it's also quite good
in dry, and rolls fast too.
They've actually kept the
carcass the same size,
but the actual tread
itself, the shoulders,
are a little bit wider-spaced
than on the previous tires,
so its got a bit more support there.
And also the knobbles themselves
are a little bit further apart,
which does mean it's
gonna clear mud better.
So, improvements from
Specialized on the tire front.
It's available in 2.1 and 2.3,
and interestingly, its
available in 26 inch,
27.5, and 29 inch wheels there,
so there's something for everyone.
I've just stumbled across
the Cannondale stand
with, of course, that new
Lefty Ocho Single-Crown fork.
But instead of me waffling on about it,
I'm gonna take you on to someone
who's even more enthusiastic than me.
This is Lefty Larry,
let's go meet the man.
Okay, so we're in the Cannondale pits
here at Novo Mesto with Lefty Larry,
and we're gonna take a
look at this brand new
Single-Crown Lefty Ocho.
Now, I'm gonna leave it
to you to take us through
the best features of this
fork from the top down.
'Cause it's a pretty special fork.
- Okay, first all, I'm really excited
I'm here to present it
because Lefty Ocho development
of three years is probably
our masterpiece so far.
I've been with Lefty since day one,
but I'll take you down from the top, okay.
So, a little bit of a
comparison to the old system,
we went to a single-crown
versus double-crown,
it's stiffness tuned,
so it's stiff enough,
stiff in the competition,
but just the right amount
of stiff, let's say it this way.
Tapered head tube: one I made a half inch,
external compression adjustment,
cable actuated lockout.
You go down.
It's industry... I want
to say benchmark cable
brake line routing, with a guide guard
going down to a travel,
sag and travel indication
plus full travel with
the indicator O-ring.
Then we got a, what we
call a stop lock system
to remove the caliper,
very easy, self-centering
caliper system.
And then we got a very beautiful 23 click,
fully functional rebound,
which allows riders
from 40 kilos to 145 kilos
to get the perfect setup.
Besides that we have a side car valve,
which makes access a lot
easier, plus there's no chance
of contaminating your
rotor with any lubrication,
and a lot easier to mount the pump
and inflate your front wheel.
- I know in particular,
this is one of your favorite
parts of the fork.
Just tell us a bit more
about this cable routing,
because this is one of
the cleanest I've seen.
- What's key with the cable routing
between the brake caliper
and the guide guard,
the brake line should be fixed so it can't
touch the inner leg or the outer leg
or the spokes, of course.
So, we clamp the brake line right here,
and that's fixed and stays.
Then we have a see tube,
which supports the breakline
all the way up and there's
another shoe up here
that guides the breakline,
motocross style.
Plus, it will not touch the
chassis or the frame in any way.
So, super clean, super sexy.
Plus the part is very structural.
It's made of carbon
fiber, so it's also light.
- Okay, so while we've
got it here as well,
let's have a look at
the unique break mounts,
because in the past, previous lefty forks,
you had to kinda fiddle with the caliper
to get the caliper off in
order to get the wheel off.
- Keep in mind, if you get a flat,
you don't have to remove the wheel,
you can just pull the tire off.
It's single sided.
But if you have to transport,
if you have a wheel change,
you do have to remove the caliper,
so what we've done here,
we've taken what we
called a stop lock system.
It's basically a brake
mount that you just need
a five mil Allen key, and you rotate,
you push the pin, the stoplock button
and you rotate 180 degrees,
and the whole system
with the caliper comes off.
As you can see, these conical
studs mean its self centering.
So, when I put it back on,
I don't have to fiddle,
it just goes straight in,
put your Allen key back on
and you turn 180 degrees
until the pin clicks.
- Amazing, and obviously one
of the biggest points of this
is it's a single crown fork,
with prior forks, with the lefty design,
and twin crown system, and once it worked,
well there were also issues
with different bikes and
all sorts of other limitations.
So, this is just a hundred mil XC fork.
- Maybe that needs to be said.
Lefty ocho is a non-compromised
100 mil cross country fork.
So, any questions: can I
get more travel out of it?
Not intended and not possible
because any excess material
for more travel would be more weight,
and you would need to
beef up the structure
to allow to do that
so, no compromise, 100
mil cross country only.
- So, there you go. So Larry
has taken us through that
brand new single crown lefty ocho,
which is certainly one
of the lightest XC 100 mil
forks available, at the moment.
Unfortunately, unless
you're buying a cannondale,
you won't be able to have
this on your bike until 2019.
So, either get saving, or get a cannodale.
So, just here at the
cross stand at the moment
just checking out some
very cool new XC tech,
which you're going to see very soon.
But I just wanted to draw
your attention to the tire
that Yolanda Neff used in the Abstad race,
because a lot of people
have been asking about it.
So, although it sounds
like it was a mud tire,
this is it here
and actually it's deceptive
there's not that much tread on it
It has certainly got
more raised tread profile
than the sort of fast rolling ties
which are the sort of De
Reggae in cross country racing.
We can see why this tire
works so well for her.
Of course, you can't
doubt her skill on a bike.
It's, at the end of the day,
what made her take that race.
Course, there's the mitus hyperion tire
But the thing that's
important about this is
the compound on it.
So this is a sirix light
compound and you might think
that it's a really soft compound,
but its actually not that soft
and of course since we
know for mud riding,
the tire needs to hold its
shape and cut in a lot more
so having a harder compound is actually
to the benefit there.
And you can see that is
exactly what did the trick.
As you might have noticed.
I'm sat right here behind the brand new
cross full suspension bike
so this is the first from these guys
and this is know as the earth,
this one is a prototype,
so there are changes coming
before the production, one
which will be available
in autumn this year
now this is a size small
this particular one
belongs to Mira Sholska,
and up front here is running
a 68.5 degree head angle,
which is actually quite extreme
for the cross country bikes.
Some of the other bikes
we've been lookin' at
are nearer to the 70 degree mark.
So it just shows that where
cross country is likely to go
in the next few years.
Of course, you might have noticed as well
there's a big drop post
on here, 125 mil drop,
it's quite a lot more than a lot
of the other riders are choosing to run.
So yet again, it's another
hint about what cross country
is gonna be doing.
So, the frame: full carbon.
It's got a single pivot.
This is their new efficient
single pivot system.
Out back it doesn't have a pivot.
It relies in the natural
flex of the carbon.
It's a very neat system.
And we have seen other brands,
also not using pivots out back
and it works really really well.
There's even a carbon rocket link on there
and on this particular
bike, it's actually a
prototye DT shock with slightly
different cable routes,
so what you're gonna
see in a production one.
On this one it's a bit of a
strange loop that comes round to
the top for the lockout operation there
but on production it's just gonna come
neatly up from the bottom.
So that is gonna be a
different unit on there.
Of course this is one of
the team racing bikes.
It's running the full Shimano XTR setup,
although this one does
actually have an XT setup,
its got a slightly wider
range of gearing on there
DT swiss fork up front
the carbon XRC wheels,
for those 25 mil rims
and of course, this one has meter tires,
so a lot of people are
certainly talking about now
since Yolanda's win last week.
Have a look at that, that's a
first and it's very very cool.
Okay, so we're checking out the XC tech,
here at Novo Mesto and of course
looking at none other than
Nino Shertus' race bike which has some
very special parts on it, including this,
I'm actually not allowed
to touch the shifter
and I can tell you
I really want to have a little
feel to see what its like
of course its their new
eagle etap wireless shifter,
it's controlling, completely wireless
12 speed derailleur at
the back of the bike
and what I can see here is it
takes a CR 2032 battery there
and it sort of attaches
to the bars using the
regular sort of mounting
but interestingly its got a multi-use sort
of lever it looks like you can
operate this with your
finger and your thumb,
simultaneously to shift both up and down.
So very cool lookin' bit
of kit and we will be able
to get our hands on one of these soon.
But at the moment I'm gonna
have to just obey the mechanic
and not touch it.
And even I really really want to touch it.
Now this is the latest version of that
SRAM etap eagle wireless
derailleur we've seen.
The earlier one we saw was
bearing a black box markers on it
but this looks far more like
a production offering to me.
See the battery unit that
plugs into the back there.
Of course it uses SRAM's
proprietary wireless system
but that is all that we
really know about it,
until it is officially launched.
But get a load of that.
It's certainly looking a
lot more sleek in all black.
I've found personally, it looked
a little bit bulky perhaps
before in the twin color.
But actually, in black it
looks really really good.
So I'm just checking out
the brand new XTR trail
transmission here.
So that's the 1.12 system.
Check out how pricey this KSET is.
So this KSET uses a specific rear hub.
You can't use this on
any existing Shimano hub.
It's a microspline system.
We've got some images of that
but obviously you can't
see that right here,
but check how silent this is.
Virtually makes no sound at all.
Some people like the sound
of respective rear hub
but a lot of racers have been complaining,
that it's actually quite
distracting in certain situations.
Up front you can see that there's a
one way specific system now.
But cross country guys get their option
of having a two way
crank on the front there.
But they don't get the option
of this monstrous 10.51 KSET.
So there's also 10.45, so you
can choose between the two,
if you're riding one way.
If you're riding two way
you have to run that 10.45.
Why did they go for 10.51?
Basically just to get the
smoothest possible transition
between all that gearing.
And from my point of view,
I think this looks absolutely stunning.
And look at the rear derailleur as well.
There's two options of those.
One to cater for the two way system,
and one of course for the one way.
So as I've previously mentioned
there are two versions
of the breaks available.
The race and the trail.
Of course, they've got
that same finish on them,
stunning finish you only get on the
XC racing transmission there.
The difference being the trail versions
of course are four pot breaks
and they've got four pistons in them
for that increased braking power
that is needed by endurance
and all mountain riders.
The race breaks are a lot more
slender looking than these.
Just have two pistons, which it seems
to be plenty from one cross
country riding and racing.
So the Brelley of a design is
actually improved now as well
and as you can see
there's two contact points
on the actual handlebar.
So as well as being able to
lose weight off the lever,
that actually make it stiffer
and far more sturdy on the handlebars,
as it's supported in those twin positions.
And as I've said before
the On Spec mountain now
is fully adjustable so you
can get those shifters exactly
where you want them.
So as you can see here we have the
XCR race break caliber here,
it's far more slender
than that trail option.
Of course, the trail
option is still quite sleek
as far as break calibers go
but look how minimalist
the race one is there.
And of course that's a tiny
little 1.14 mil road to there.
Very popular with the XC
crowd, it still makes the most
of that ICE tech technology.
The hub design, again, caters specifically
for that 12 speed KSET.
In this case, this one is the 45 one here,
rather than the 51 that we've
just seen on the Enduro bike.
So there we go.
That is some of the coolest
XC tech we've found around,
through here, in Novo Mesto.
Let us know in the comments below,
what your favorite race tech are.
We'll fire up a bit of
a conversation about it.
For a couple more great
Jam-bient tech videos click down
here in the bottom for trails I've made.
This is the sort of stuff
that happens when you don't pay attention
to what's going on with your bike
and you're just gonna ride
and then something goes wrong.
Something there for everyone, I think.
And click down here if you want
to see a really cool pro bike.
It's a cannondale sco-our-pool
custom painted for XC racer.
And of course, as always,
click on that round globe to subscribe.
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