In the vast halls of the Sands Convention Center, home to Interbike, carbon fiber has long usurped every other form of building material for frames. That’s why the Fondriest FS2's Columbus Spirit tubes with chrome junctions caught my eye—it was a pleasant flash from the past. Even within Fondriest’s 2012 line of frames with massive carbon tubes and shaping only the Italians can get away with, the Italian-made SF2 looked stunning—proving that elegance is timeless.
The SF2 frame comes with the fork and seatpost-deciding how to build the rest of it is up to you. It comes in seven sizes and is one of the few frames these days that can be ordered with custom geometry.
The SRAM booth is easily the busiest booth at Interbike due to all the popular brands under the SRAM umbrella: Rock Shox, Quarq, Truvativ, Zipp, and of course SRAM’s own component line. I had to wait until the last day of the show and sneak in early in order to get some undisturbed time to peruse the latest from Indiana based Zipp. What was new? Well, the Zipp Firecrest wheel family (the 404 and 808) gets a new addition, the 303. The 45mm-deep wheel is the shallowest of the three Firecrest options, and comes in at just under 1500 grams for the clincher (150 grams less than the 404 carbon/alloy co-molded clincher) and 1171 grams for the tubular. Firecrest rims utilize a 5mm wider rim width than what Zipp uses for their non-Firecrest wheels. The increased rim width advantages include: better cross wind handling, a bigger contact patch between tire and road, as well as a stronger wheel. I can’t wait to get our own pair to review.
In the past, companies would come to Interbike to show off their product lines, pre-production and sometimes even prototype parts for the first time. Times have changed-in the past few years we hardly ever see anything for the first time at the show. Most major brands have their own product launches months before Interbike. The Specialized Global Launch and Trek World, for example; in addition to Cannondale and Scott showing their lines at Dealer Camp in Deer Valley Utah, we kind of know what we’re going to see. But thanks to smaller brands, Interbike is still the place to get exposure for new ideas and creations. Such is the case for Northern California based Praxis Works. Praxis has been making a name for themselves with their high quality forged chainrings, but are looking for more than just increasing aftermarket chainring market share. Adding cranks to their repertoire is something they’ve been working on for a while. We were shown a pair of aluminum cranks with hollow arms at the Sea Otter Classic back in April; but what Praxis’s Adam Haverstock brought out of a lock box hidden behind their booth was quite different. The “top-secret” Turn crank is all carbon—including the 35mm diameter spindle. That’s right 35mm, 5mm larger than BB30’s spindle diameter. Differing from Shimano, SRAM, and FSA, the massive hollow carbon non-drive arm is the one attached to the spindle, and although I wasn’t allowed to photograph the drive-side arm, I can tell you it does exist. Adam Haverstock claims the Turn’s weight and stiffness will be un-paralled. Sounds great, but what’s it compatible with? Adam explains, “Even with the 5mm larger diameter spindle, our bottom bracket will work with both BB30 and PressFit30 style frames. Once the existing bearings are removed from the frame, our bottom bracket will fit directly into the shell.” Look for the Turn to hit the market early next year.
 Not forgetting about what they started with, Praxis was also showing off a one-piece, double chainring. Praxis claims that stiffness is lost from slight movements between the chainrings and bolts, so they’ve designed notches where the chainring and Turn crank interface to reduce energy wasting movement. The rings will come in an abundance of tooth options, including the popular 36/52 combo.
BMC has a full line of what they call “Mountainroad”. The Mountainroad bikes are some of the most stylish and trick urban bikes I’ve seen. The single-speed masschallenge 01 is the premier model in the three-bike line and uses a triple-butted alloy frame, including BMC’s trademark extra-tube, spanning from the toptube to seat tube. The frame gets an assortment of road and mountain bike components to complete the build, which includes: hydraulic disc brakes, Easton’s EC90 seatpost, stem, and flat handlebar, along with EA90 29er wheels.
A Gates belt drive gives the masschallenge a smooth and simple drivetrain, but a single speed setup isn’t for everyone. That’s why BMC is offering the urbanchallenge (one model below the masschallenge) with optional: 11-, 8-, or 3-speed internal Shimano hubs with the Gates belt drive.
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