Riva Bike Festival: Product Highlights Part 2
This is Part 2 of our coverage of the Riva Bike Festival held in Lake Garda, Italy on May 1-4 of 2014. Part 1 of the coverage is available HERE.
Lake Garda is a massive body of water and the northern tip of it plays host to many cyclists of all sizes. The bike culture here during Riva Bike Festival is massive as over 20,000 people attend.
BMC showed up in force to allow folks to try the TF01. Although slow to adopt 29ers, the Germans and other Euros are now all about 29ers and 27.5 bikes. Click here to read what we think of this bike.
BOS suspension is perhaps the best kept secret Europe has over North America. Here is suspension that is highly evolved in Spain and used by top racers like Anne Caroline Chausson. We first saw BOS on our test Orbea Rallon bike. We saw BOS crew at Sea Otter and they are ready to set up shop in North America.
Canyon is a big player in Germany and they are putting the bike world on notice with a good brand that is selling direct to consumer. The deals they’re selling bikes at are unheard of since they don’t have to deal with dealer margins. It seems like YT Industries is following in their footsteps.
Brett Rosenbauer of Niner was present at Riva and they’re enjoying success as Europe has adopted 29ers.
The WFO 9 featured here recently won an Enduro bike shootout held by the highly regarded Bike Magazine of Germany. The RIP 9 RDO is shown below.
The FSA K-Force brake incorporates carbon, Ti and Magnesium to create a 300 gram brake that has all the power and tool-free adjustability modern riders demand. These brakes have a rocker cam to have quick up-take or brake contact and then excellent modulation. It even has details like a different (or stiffer) rear hose than the front to achieve perfect feel matching given the different lengths.
FSA is new to mountain bike disc brakes but these new ones are a serious effort. Hiring Hayes Brakes expert, Joel Smith into the team. The FSA stoppers are light, have a firm contact feel and have excellent modulation.
Europe is big into clothing and that’s where iXS is testing the waters first. Their new We hope to see these on US shores as well.
Magura is here with a revamp of their successful brake line. The MT7, like the MT5 are new brakes that feature a 4-piston caliper for that All Mountain crowd.
All calipers are now cast/forged from one piece of metal for increased strength and decrease in vibration. The value-priced MT2 brake is €79 in Europe including adaptor and rotor. As one moves up the line from the MT2 to the MT8, the leverage ratios are tuned to deliver more power.
Riva Bike Festival: Product Highlights – Part 1 »
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