Sometimes, you go visit a stand at a trade show hoping to see something new for mountain bikers, and you get slightly awkward or surprised looks from people at a company that mainly targets commuters or other kinds of rider, and dabbles in MTB stuff on the side. These were the companies I found that all reacted a bit like that at Eurobike. It seemed like a sensible way to group them at the time…
While not massive on the MTB components scene, VP Components have made a few recent ventures into MTB pedals. Here’s what they had on show at Eurobike.
The lengthily named “VP-DH2ti (Harrier Altitude)” have CNC machined titanium axles and weigh 295g per pair.For the rider on a smaller budget, the VP-538 is a nylon BMX pedal weighing in at 290g a pairIf you want to do XC racing and really don’t like SPDs, the Hank might suit you. It’s a small platform at just 86x60mm, they’re injection molded in a material named Hipac Carbon, and a pair weighs just 90g despite the cromo axles.
Progrip seemed slightly surprised that a UK mountain bike magazine dropped by to see them. Expecting an answer like “five” or “fifteen”, I too was surprised when I asked how long the company had been going, and they said “ninety years”. They originally made grips out of buffalo horns on a lathe, but times have moved on and now they’re using dual compound rubber in suitably fluorescent colours for enduro.
They do do some locking grips, but their specialty seems to be flanged and non-locking grips for MTB, BMX and motocross. Available in the UK via Mito.
Grip tree displaying various dual compound grips.These were their newest MTB grips. Unlike other companies launching grips, there were no wedges, tapers, other innovations or even lock rings in evidence.
Supernova were one of a raft of companies showing high end lighting systems at Eurobike, but as of now don’t have any production models suitable for mountain biking. They are planning to do battery powered versions of some of their range in the near future though.
Dynamo tech has come on quite a lot in the past few years. Here they were showing theirs with a USB charging stem.They had a range of dynamo lights and e-bike lights aimed at commuters and roadies, but when asked about MTB lights…… simply said there would be battery powered versions at some point. The M99, pictured, is a likely candidate.
David started mountain biking in the 90’s, by which he means “Ineptly jumping a Saracen Kili Racer off anything available in a nearby industrial estate”. After growing up and living in some extremely flat places, David moved to Yorkshire specifically for the mountain biking. This felt like a horrible mistake at first, because the hills are so steep, but you get used to them pretty quickly.
Previously, David trifled with road and BMX, but mountain bikes always won. He’s most at peace battering down a rough trail, quietly fixing everything that does to a bike, or trying to figure out if that one click of compression damping has made things marginally better or worse. The inept jumping continues to this day.
