It’s almost time for Interbike, but we’re still wading through thousands of Eurobike shots, so here’s the next selection of stuff that made us sit up and pay attention. Enjoy!
Thule
Thule had a buzzing stand – possibly due to hiring the services of the world’s third best barista to supply caffeine shots to all – but also there was a load to see. The biggest news is the new Roundtrip case range. The travel case melds two things that Thule does well: racks and roofboxes in a new way. There are two cases, the Pro and Elite; the Pro is a soft sided case and the Elite is a hard plastic case – both actually cost the same, so you make your own choice.
The heart of the system is a fork and BB-mounted click-rail. This clips into the base of the cases, giving a sturdy base for your bike. The wheels live in their own bags and everything should be as protected as possible. When you get to your destination, three aluminium supports slide out of the bag and become a workstand for those pre-holiday tuneups. The Roundtrip will be €599 for either the hard or soft case. Expect them to appear in the spring.
Thule also showed a new road-specific fork-mount rack called the Spirit. Not only is it super-aero, to match your bike, but it will torque-out when it gets to the right tension, to prevent you over-cranking it and damaging your carbon dropouts.
Thule’s Pack ‘n’ Pedal range continues to grow, with a huge amount of bike-mountable clips and straps to keep every gadget secure.
The other news from Thule is that it has now taken over the Chariot child-carrier range. So, if it was Chariot, it’s now Thule. There’s a huge range of carriers, from tandem jogging-buggies to ski-mounted ones.
And now for something different. The KCNC brand is still keeping the ’90s modding trend alive with a huge range of lightened and coloured aftermarket bits and pieces.
Polish Planetary
A Polish due were showing off a prototype three-speed crank-based gear system. It’s currently built into a cheap, steel crank, but there are plans to have a more polished (excuse the pun) aluminium version soon. The system uses a planetary gear system, like SRAM’s Hammerschmidt, but it takes up much less space and should be far cheaper to make, so they expect to get it specced on cheaper trekking and town bikes.
Magic Milk
Magic Milk comes from OKO, a UK company that is the only NATO-certified supplier of tyre sealant. The company has been going since 1977 and produces a selection of tyre sealants: Puncture-Free which will seal up to 4mm holes and X-Treme, which will seal up to 7mm(!). It now has Magic Milk, which uses a synthetic latex which should last 6-12 months without drying out. We’ll try to get some in soon to give it a try.
Comments (4)
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I suspect the Polish duo (due?) were hoping their demo version would look a bit slicker by the time the show opened. Nice idea though.
The Thule child carrier looks good – any pictures of how it clamps to your roof bars?
That pannier rack with the plastic basket is just what I have been looking for – do you know the product number / model name?
Google efneo and have a look at their vids.. proper garden shed engineering but seems to work really well. They do seem low budget (the show bike confirms that!) but lokks promising!