lightest

Kona are celebrating thei 25th?year of bike building, and the Hei Hei Supreme certainly looks like a gift for those after a super-light race or trail speedster.?

For only a little more than last year’s Supreme,?this big-wheeler flagship now has a?full carbon frame, hopped-up Easton wheels, SRAM X0 kit (an upgrade from X9) and Race Face finishing kit. It’s a tempting deal on paper – but how does it perform out there in the hills??

Ride & handling: Speed at expense of stiffness

The Canadian company were one of?the first manufacturers to team a super-light frame with a trail-sized cockpit and high-control fork in their game-changing late-’90s Kula hardtail.?

Initial impressions promise a similar blisteringly fast but bewitchingly fun performance from the Hei Hei: with the suspension locked in Climb mode (or given a stable pedalling platform in Trail mode) its incredible lightness of being means it leaps out of the blocks as?well as most 26in-wheeled racers that we’ve ridden.?

The smooth-rolling wheels mean it sustains acceleration much better on rough climbs than small wheels can, and the steep seat angle puts you in a great position for attacking steep trails without looping out. This also means steady-power traction is good, despite the barely there tread of the Maxxis Ikon tyres.?

Big bars, low weight and a relatively tall front still make it easy to pop the front wheel up over bigger obstacles when you need to.?The butch bars also give a useful sense of security, while your forward-balanced weight means the front?tyre naturally hangs in longer than?the back when things get slippery.?

Roll all these characteristics down the trail and if you’re cruising with smoothly?spun gears, it’s a deft and efficiently?easy techy-trail dispatcher or rough fire road flyer.

Things become slightly less convincing if you start trying to push?the pace, or point the bike in a dramatically different direction to your current one. The low frame weight seems to come at the expense of stiffness, and those Easton wheels?are pretty twangy.?

The twist between the front and rear of the bike is made?more obvious by the big bars, which properly snake the Hei Hei about?if you’re giving it some out of the?saddle or trying to shove it into tight singletrack corners.?

If you stomp a big gear round while heaving the bars you knot it up even more, and it’s got a distinctly soft feel through the pedals – even when locked out. Peak power delivery isn’t helped by suspension that, unless you choke it down with the CTD lever, naturally bounces in time with your pedal strokes.?

That in turn makes it more likely to stumble and spit traction on loose or rocky ground, and makes steady spinning attrition rather than sudden sprinting attacks the best climbing tactic for the Hei Hei Supreme.?

Frame & equipment: Incredibly light and with upgraded spec

If it’s all about rolling up to the start line on the lightest machine, you won’t find many equals to the Kona tickling the stripy tape before the gun goes off. Even our large (19in) sample only weighed a hair over 25lb at 11.36kg, which makes it lighter than the Specialized Carbon Epic and the Giant Anthem Composite in the same price range – only the Lapierre XR 729 and Cube AMS 100 Super HPC SL 29 outgun it on grams from the bikes that we’ve tested recently.

The big tapered head leads into a smooth headbox with internal gear cabling, before tapering away in?geometric section maintubes, which expand again to meet the big asymmetric seat tube and press-fit bottom bracket.

The bottom corner is also reinforced?with twin shock mount webs, while?a deep kink in the toptube keeps standover clearance reasonable. There?are bolt holes for dropper post guides?if you want to make your Hei Hei?more hardcore.?

Kona have also shortened the back?end in comparison to last year’s alloy bike, bringing its measurements in line with most of its competitors. But despite Kona’s claims they haven’t left much space between the tyre, the seatstay bridge and the front mech, so running more rugged treads than the semi-slicks fitted as standard involves going for a smaller-volume tyre instead.?

The deep but narrow chainstays mean there’s reasonable room alongside the tyre, with a metal plate on the lower corner of the chainstay stopping the chain chewing chunks out of the carbon if it jams.?

The chunky, square, one-piece seatstays pivot on small clevis mounts above the dropouts, so the wheel follows Kona’s classic (and simple) low-pivot arc. The alloy linkage’s position has been reworked to slightly change the?shock characteristics.?

As we mentioned, you’re getting a serious mechanical upgrade on this year’s bike. The SRAM X0 kit includes a few ‘hidden’ down specs – alloy brake levers and lower-grade chain and cassette – but it’s still a very light way?to make a bike start and stop.?

The EA90XC wheels are some of the lightest alloy 29ers around, while the Maxxis Ikon tyres are our favourite wagon?wheel race rubber. The 720mm-wide Turbine bars offer proper trail feel as well, while the Fox Climb Trail Descend fork and shock certainly aren’t short on control either.

With its spacious cockpit, comfortably compliant ride and super-low weight,?the Hei Hei is undoubtedly a very efficient high mileage cruiser. Compared to last year’s bike it’s better value too, and much nearer its competitors in component terms.?

Unfortunately that same compliance and smooth suspension count against accuracy and power application when you start stomping?on the pedals and shoving it hard through corners.?

This article was originally published in What Mountain Bike magazine, available on Apple Newsstand and Zinio.

At their factory in Biel, Switzerland, DT Swiss have just launched an array of 2013 mountain bike products, along with tyre partners Schwalbe. Headlining the action were the new Spline hubs and 650B tyres.

With such a large range of wheels, DT Swiss have tried to simplify their naming protocols by categorising each range.

First comes application range, with the quality being shown by number of characters – one letter for the most basic, and three letters for the very best, such as Cross Country – XRC, XR, X; Mountain – XM, M; Enduro – EXC, EX, E; Freeride – FX/FR.

Next is Main Feature, which for MTB designates weight in grams, such as 950, 1150, 1450 and so on.

Then comes the Family, denoting hub design – Dicut, Tricon, Spline or Classic. Finally we’ve got Sub Features, such as T? (tubular), C (clincher, unless there’s no tubular version available), TL (tubeless), H (hybrid) and 29 (29er). Simple.

DT Swiss pride themselves on being the only manufacturer worldwide to make every wheel component themselves. They now have production sites in the USA, Taiwan, Poland and France, with all design and testing done in Biel. Eight women hand-build the wheels in Poland because they’ve been proved to be more precise than men.

The big wheel announcement came in the form of new Spline hubs, with the name derived from Straight Pull Line. DT Swiss have made straight-pull hubs for more than 10 years, with Bontrager-badged hubs helping Lance Armstrong to seven Tour de France wins. They’re now using their own name, though.

The M1700 Spline 650B rear wheel with Thru Axle

The mountain bike versions have already been used by pro riders at World Cup events this year. They’re the basis for three cross-country wheelsets in 26in or 29in, and one mountain wheelset in 26in or 650B.

The Spline M1700 is the only 650B tubular wheelset on the market, and a specific fork, wheels and rims will be on sale for 2013 in Europe at least. For now it’s only available in the weighty Mountain version, but lighter models will follow. The lightest cross-country 650B wheels are exclusive to the Scott-Swisspower team until after the Olympics, and at the moment the necessary tyres are only custom-made specials. That’s likely to change too, though.

At a claimed 1555g, the Spline XR1450 29 is one of the lightest aluminium 29er wheelsets on the market. As with most DT Swiss wheels, it will be available with a quick-release or thru-axle. The company believe that quick-releases are already dead on 29ers and will soon go the same route on 26in wheels, as even cross-country riders accept the 50g or so penalty for the extra security and stiffness a 15mm thru-axle offers.

Triple Connection Tricon wheels are now fully user serviceable, with all tools and spare parts available. The rim inserts for the straight double-threaded spokes keep the rim bed lighter and airtight for tubeless tyres. The Torx nipples give the spoke tool more grip, enabling the higher spoke tension necessary. Also, all mid- to high-end rims will have new, baked-on decals for 2013. These should prove tougher and be impossible to scratch or peel off.

Clarifying that DT Swiss never bought Pace, only their fork business, the first fork debuted was the Carbon Hollow Arch XRC 100. You can trace its DNA back to a Pace design. Sporting new wiper seals and damping oil and lube developed with Swiss company Panolin, which can be mixed to tune the fork, it was also displayed in 650B configuration. DT’s remote lockout lever now has rubber and plastic inserts, to be kinder to carbon bars. And at 6mm wide it can fit anywhere on your bar without compromising the other controls. It’s only 11g and the lightest on the market, if you’re a weight weenie.

Following on from the M212 Mountain rear shock comes the X313 Cross shock. At 198g for the three-mode unit it’s impressively light. But blowing it out of the water is the X313 Carbon Cross shock, with a carbon-fibre shell and internals bringing it in at 150g. Both shocks use the same remote lever as the Twin Shot fork. Pricing for the X313 will be competitive, at about €300. The carbon will retail for more, although no prices are available yet.

Schwalbe restake their claim in the 650B market

A 650b Schwalbe Hans Dampf

Danny Hart’s World Championship-winning tyre supplier have also recoded their product designations. For 2013, Active (A) Line tyres will all offer at least 50tpi and Kevlar guards. Performance (P) Line MTB tyres will all have dual rubber compounds. Evolution (E) Line rubber will continue to offer the highest grade materials and latest technology. Tyre walls will show square icon boxes for each feature, with the tyre line letter first and the diameter shown in bold characters elsewhere.

Almost all of the products in Schwalbe’s MTB range will be available in 29in. The brand’s own rolling resistance tests, conducted over different terrains and obstacles, showed the 29ers to roll 5-6 percent faster. They also topped the table for feelings of safety, ride experience and security for the 50 riders involved, compared to 26in wheels.

Schwalbe offered 650B tyres four years ago and removed them from the catalogue last year, after limited uptake. They’re now back and available in Racing Ralph, Rocket Ron, Nobby Nic, Hans Dampf and Rapid Rob patterns and several widths.

The Rocket Ron has undergone some changes, with tougher shoulder blocks to limit tyre squirm and a reconfigured centre block that’s claimed to reduce rolling resistance by about 15 percent. Each tread block has a siped surface to increase grip, and a new sidewall finish improves sealing to make it tubeless-ready.

The Hans Dampf enduro tyre has evolved, with a Super Gravity (SG) version now on offer that claims to be as strong as a downhill tyre but as light as a freeride. It has a Snake Skin sidewall to resist cuts. Already ridden in prototype form in the World Cup downhills this season, we were assured that its weight will be 995g. Compared to a 1200-1300g downhill tyre with six carcass layers, the SG tyre has fewer layers. The sidewall stiffness fits between that of downhill and enduro tyres but with a more flexible tread than downhill rubber would usually offer.

A new rubber compound also sits between those used for downhill and cross-country to offer the proposed performance. The reinforced Kevlar bead and Snake Skin protection should help resilience, and in tubeless configuration could save about 800g over a downhill tyre and tube setup.? That just happens to be where it can make the most difference.

This wheelset from Lancashire alloy-turners Hope Technology blends new-age wheel technology with old-fashioned, high-quality tradition. Key to this lightweight 1,423g wheelset are Hope’s own Pro 3 hubs with their unique tri-arm rotor design.?

The hubs are among the lightest you’ll find, but on the downside it means you’re stuck using Hope’s own, admittedly effective and durable, Pro-3-specific discs. The hubs use Hope’s four-pawl ratchet, 24-tooth engagement cassette body, which is both fast to pick up and loud.?

Hope spec the Pro 3 with 24 Sapim spokes and brass nipples, on Stan’s ZTR Crest tubeless rims. Our test wheels have had a rough life, living outside 24/7 and being asked to deal with harsher riding than maybe they should, but they’ve needed only the most minor spoke adjustment.

This article was originally published in What Mountain Bike magazine, available on Apple Newsstand and Zinio.

At their factory in Biel, Switzerland, DT Swiss have just launched an array of 2013 mountain bike products, along with tyre partners Schwalbe. Headlining the action were the new Spline hubs and 650B tyres.

With such a large range of wheels, DT Swiss have tried to simplify their naming protocols by categorising each range.

First comes application range, with the quality being shown by number of characters – one letter for the most basic, and three letters for the very best, such as Cross Country – XRC, XR, X; Mountain – XM, M; Enduro – EXC, EX, E; Freeride – FX/FR.

Next is Main Feature, which for MTB designates weight in grams, such as 950, 1150, 1450 and so on.

Then comes the Family, denoting hub design – Dicut, Tricon, Spline or Classic. Finally we’ve got Sub Features, such as T? (tubular), C (clincher, unless there’s no tubular version available), TL (tubeless), H (hybrid) and 29 (29er). Simple.

DT Swiss pride themselves on being the only manufacturer worldwide to make every wheel component themselves. They now have production sites in the USA, Taiwan, Poland and France, with all design and testing done in Biel. Eight women hand-build the wheels in Poland because they’ve been proved to be more precise than men.

The big wheel announcement came in the form of new Spline hubs, with the name derived from Straight Pull Line. DT Swiss have made straight-pull hubs for more than 10 years, with Bontrager-badged hubs helping Lance Armstrong to seven Tour de France wins. They’re now using their own name, though.

The M1700 Spline 650B rear wheel with Thru Axle

The mountain bike versions have already been used by pro riders at World Cup events this year. They’re the basis for three cross-country wheelsets in 26in or 29in, and one mountain wheelset in 26in or 650B.

The Spline M1700 is the only 650B tubular wheelset on the market, and a specific fork, wheels and rims will be on sale for 2013 in Europe at least. For now it’s only available in the weighty Mountain version, but lighter models will follow. The lightest cross-country 650B wheels are exclusive to the Scott-Swisspower team until after the Olympics, and at the moment the necessary tyres are only custom-made specials. That’s likely to change too, though.

At a claimed 1555g, the Spline XR1450 29 is one of the lightest aluminium 29er wheelsets on the market. As with most DT Swiss wheels, it will be available with a quick-release or thru-axle. The company believe that quick-releases are already dead on 29ers and will soon go the same route on 26in wheels, as even cross-country riders accept the 50g or so penalty for the extra security and stiffness a 15mm thru-axle offers.

Triple Connection Tricon wheels are now fully user serviceable, with all tools and spare parts available. The rim inserts for the straight double-threaded spokes keep the rim bed lighter and airtight for tubeless tyres. The Torx nipples give the spoke tool more grip, enabling the higher spoke tension necessary. Also, all mid- to high-end rims will have new, baked-on decals for 2013. These should prove tougher and be impossible to scratch or peel off.

Clarifying that DT Swiss never bought Pace, only their fork business, the first fork debuted was the Carbon Hollow Arch XRC 100. You can trace its DNA back to a Pace design. Sporting new wiper seals and damping oil and lube developed with Swiss company Panolin, which can be mixed to tune the fork, it was also displayed in 650B configuration. DT’s remote lockout lever now has rubber and plastic inserts, to be kinder to carbon bars. And at 6mm wide it can fit anywhere on your bar without compromising the other controls. It’s only 11g and the lightest on the market, if you’re a weight weenie.

Following on from the M212 Mountain rear shock comes the X313 Cross shock. At 198g for the three-mode unit it’s impressively light. But blowing it out of the water is the X313 Carbon Cross shock, with a carbon-fibre shell and internals bringing it in at 150g. Both shocks use the same remote lever as the Twin Shot fork. Pricing for the X313 will be competitive, at about €300. The carbon will retail for more, although no prices are available yet.

Schwalbe restake their claim in the 650B market

A 650b Schwalbe Hans Dampf

Danny Hart’s World Championship-winning tyre supplier have also recoded their product designations. For 2013, Active (A) Line tyres will all offer at least 50tpi and Kevlar guards. Performance (P) Line MTB tyres will all have dual rubber compounds. Evolution (E) Line rubber will continue to offer the highest grade materials and latest technology. Tyre walls will show square icon boxes for each feature, with the tyre line letter first and the diameter shown in bold characters elsewhere.

Almost all of the products in Schwalbe’s MTB range will be available in 29in. The brand’s own rolling resistance tests, conducted over different terrains and obstacles, showed the 29ers to roll 5-6 percent faster. They also topped the table for feelings of safety, ride experience and security for the 50 riders involved, compared to 26in wheels.

Schwalbe offered 650B tyres four years ago and removed them from the catalogue last year, after limited uptake. They’re now back and available in Racing Ralph, Rocket Ron, Nobby Nic, Hans Dampf and Rapid Rob patterns and several widths.

The Rocket Ron has undergone some changes, with tougher shoulder blocks to limit tyre squirm and a reconfigured centre block that’s claimed to reduce rolling resistance by about 15 percent. Each tread block has a siped surface to increase grip, and a new sidewall finish improves sealing to make it tubeless-ready.

The Hans Dampf enduro tyre has evolved, with a Super Gravity (SG) version now on offer that claims to be as strong as a downhill tyre but as light as a freeride. It has a Snake Skin sidewall to resist cuts. Already ridden in prototype form in the World Cup downhills this season, we were assured that its weight will be 995g. Compared to a 1200-1300g downhill tyre with six carcass layers, the SG tyre has fewer layers. The sidewall stiffness fits between that of downhill and enduro tyres but with a more flexible tread than downhill rubber would usually offer.

A new rubber compound also sits between those used for downhill and cross-country to offer the proposed performance //??//. The reinforced Kevlar bead and Snake Skin protection should help resilience, and in tubeless configuration could save about 800g over a downhill tyre and tube setup.? That just happens to be where it can make the most difference.

We wouldn’t have pegged Cervélo co-founder Gerard Vroomen as a mountain biker, and we were amused to learn Andy Kessler (ex-BMC and ex-Cervélo sales manager) was a downhill racer back in the day. However, what’s really interesting is how this formidable bike industry duo have partnered on a new brand called Open, which launched at this year’s Sea Otter Classic with a 29in-wheeled race bike, the O-1.0.

Open claim the O-1.0 to be the lightest 29in hardtail frame available, with a weight of just 900g for the large sized frame with all of its accompanying hardware. We weighed the medium US$6,500/€5,800 production bike at 19.44lb/8.82kg, with SRAM X0, 3T and Magura components but upgraded ENVE wheels instead of the stock DT Swiss Spline 1600s.

There’s also a limited production, no holds barred top-end build that includes ENVE wheels and Acros hydraulic shifting. That tips the scale at 19lb even (8.62kg) in the large size, but will leave your bank account â€“ yes, it’s past the point of lightening just your wallet â€“ a whopping $12,000 (€11,000) lighter. This project isn’t for the price sensitive. The frame alone will run $2,700 (€2,500).

While the weight is among the lightest out there, co-founder Gerard Vroomen says it’s not the be-all and end-all, and that the integrity of the frame was their main concern. â€œThe first targets are always stiffness and strength,” he told BikeRadar. “Whatever rolls out in weight is how it comes out.”

Open co-founder Gerard Vroomen and ex sales manager Andy Kessler        

Open are quite, well, open to ideas

Vroomen started the project a year ago â€“ with former Cervélo partner Phil White’s blessing â€“ in collaboration with Kessler. “It’s a good combination,” he said. “I can concentrate on the design, engineering and communications, and Andy’s really good at the sales and distribution side. So we decided we’d try to do this, and keep it small because the both of us have done things bigger than this, and while it’s fun, it’s also a lot of pressure. We wanted to do something that’s as small as possible â€“ just the two of us fits that bill.”

In the past few months, Vroomen and Kessler have spent considerable time traveling. “We did retailer meetings in Hong Kong, Switzerland, and we’ve gotten all of our retailers together to test ride, give us feedback not only on the product but as to how they’d like to see us set up the company that works for them as well,” said Vroomen. “Last week was the first test ride with consumers but with the bike still disguised, and now we’re showing the bike in its final form.”

The bike’s design was born in May 2011. Molds were cut by August and Open had the first prototype at Eurobike last year. Then over the course of the next six or so months it went through more than 10 layup iterations before it met ride quality, weight and strength goals. “You can do a lot of work on the computer, but in the end you have to build it, test it and see how it works,” said Vroomen. 

Open carry out their own testing and the O-1.0 has also passed German company EFBe’s mountain bike testing protocol/process. “We’re the lightest frame they’ve ever had pass their tests,” said Vroomen. “That’s a real large size frame with real paint and real hardware hanging on it.”

The Open O-1.0’s tapered front end

The bike: O-1.0

“If you want to make a hardtail stiff and strong and light then you’re not going to end up with a crazy shape where half the tubes are missing or something,” said Vroomen. “You’re locked into a design principle.” As a result, the O-1.0 uses a traditional dual triangle layout but with plenty of attention paid to tube shapes and carbon layup.

The down tube capitalizes on the tapered head tube and the BBRight 84mm bottom bracket shell â€“ which also accepts Shimano Hollowtech 2 and SRAM GXP cranks via adaptors â€“ to be as large as possible. It also sports flattened sides, as does the top tube; Open run hard-to-work-with ultra high modulus fibers down these flattened channels to further stiffen the chassis torsionally. “It doesn’t like to go around bends, so you want to use it very strategically,” said Vroomen of the material. “But also, around the head tube and everything we’d rather have tougher grades of carbon.”

The seat tube is as narrow as possible so that it flexes to provide a degree of comfort (Vroomen says it flexes twice as much as the seat tube on the next lightest frame available) and a similar philosophy is applied to the design of the seatstays. The rear brake caliper is tucked into the dropout on the chainstay; this both allows the seatstay to flex and gives the brake better support. The chainstays are large, capitalizing on the size of the bottom bracket shell, and also asymmetric.

Attention has been paid to the details, too. Cable routing is fully internal, and compatible with standard cables, electric wires and even Acros’s hydraulic lines. The front derailleur is fit via SRAM S-3/Shimano E-type direct mount, and Open provide a neat window in the seat tube to check minimum insertion of the seatpost. 

The flat channels along the top tube

Geometry wise, the O-1.0 has a fairly steep 71.5°-72.5° head tube angle range, middle-of-the-road 440mm chainstays and a modest 57mm bottom bracket drop. “A lot of 29ers have slack head tubes to create what people think is stable geometry, but it doesn’t really work that way,” said Vroomen. “You have a flopping front wheel and it’s tough to go around corners. So our head tube is quite steep, which makes it very agile. It turns just as easily as a 26in bike but still at the descents it’s nice and stable, which comes from the overall stiffness of the frame.”

The O-1.0 is available in four sizes. Reach increases by 20mm per size and Open recommend a maximum increase of 10mm in stem length (stock stems are 80mm or 90mm) before stepping up to the next size. Head tubes range from 90mm to 135mm, stepping up by 15mm per size. Vroomen says the four frames cover the full range of sizes available from other brands.

A quick spin on the O-1.0

We took a medium sized Open out for a quick spin that amounted to four laps of the Sea Otter short track course, which is a reasonable real-world testing ground for a 19lb carbon hardtail. The bike struck us as plenty stiff, while also offering a nice balance between that efficient feel and doing a good job of muting both high frequency and high amplitude impacts.

While the ride quality felt on par with any other top carbon hardtail, the O-1.0 exhibited a decent amount of oversteer due to its steep head angle – we won’t go so far as saying it’s twitchy, but it’s definitely quick. The mid-length chainstays did seem to offer some stability to the package, but also kept the front wheel planted when we were trying to wheelie or manual the bike. The O-1.0 doesn’t handle poorly by any means, it just feels very different to the slacker 29ers being built by many of Open’s competitors.

We rode the stock parts group â€“ SRAM X0, Magura MT6 brakes, 3T cockpit â€“ with some ENVE upgrades

MONTEREY, CA (BRAIN) Friday April 20 2012 4:51 AM MT— Norco is debuting its new performance road bike line, Tactic, at this week’s Sea Otter expo.

MONTEREY, CA (BRAIN)—Open, the new mountain bike brand designed by Cervélo co-founder Gerard Vroomen and former BMC CEO Andy Kessler, debuted today at the Sea Otter Classic in Monterey, California.

Formula’s already super-light, high control R1 brake gets the full factory Racing treatment for the ultimate in pimp appeal but at an equally outrageous cost.

Compared to the standard R1, the Racing adds a carbon lever with inset reach adjuster rather than a tool-free thumbwheel, plus a vibrant black and yellow Kevlar-reinforced braided hose to save a few grams. At 334g for the full 180mm kit it’s 20g lighter than the lightest SRAM competition and a full 50g lighter than Shimano XTR.

The impressive thing is that apart from adjustability you’re losing no performance compared to the standard R1. The carbon lever feels solid, it’s well shaped and there’s no obvious wobble. Power was enough to stop the dyno and easily enough to pull a one fingered stoppie on the trail, and modulation is excellent, with a soft, rich finger feel.

Tight pad clearance makes accurate set up crucial though, and lightweight bolts demand TLC. Given the high cost of bog-standard extras we’d be tempted just to buy the 170g/£269 brake and add suitably super-light aftermarket rotors and bolt kits.

This article was originally published in What Mountain Bike magazine.

Ashima’s radical semi-composite PCB (Pan Cake Brake) is super-light for any money, but actual braking performance and feel means it’s worth waiting for its imminent replacement.

At 328g for a full 180mm front setup, the PCB is one of the lightest hydraulic brakes on the market, despite costing less than half the price of most super-light options. This is partly due to a composite master cylinder and the unique pistonless calliper design but Ashima’s super-light cutaway Airotor, alloy rotor bolts and a really light cutaway mount adaptor also help a lot.

Unfortunately there’s a lot of wobble in the lever blade from new, and the square body and fixed underside hose exit make it really hard to sync with shifter pods. The alloy rotor bolts need utmost care not to round out, too. 

Ashima’s “unique” squeezy lever feel and serious lack of modulation also failed to find any fans among our testers and it’s well below par on power even before torque drops as temperature rises. The good news is that there’s a totally new brake in the pipeline which will hopefully fulfill the potential of a promising idea.

This article was originally published in What Mountain Bike magazine.

These discs from Italian firm Braking have as much technology behind them as style. They’re semi-floating, which means three of the six arms ‘float’ on dowels, while the other three are rigid. 

While the concept of ‘semi-floating’ may seem bizarre, it’s sound engineering. One-piece discs can distort under uneven heat loads, as the edges expand more than the cooler centres. Motorcycle makers solved this with separate central carriers and dowels, and mountain bikes have picked this up.

In practice, the S3 rotors don’t rattle and the chance of warping is reduced. Wavy edges and slotted faces clear the pads of gloop well, and response is crisp. They’re not the lightest – the 185mm version is 163g – but they’re strong, work well and look pretty spectacular.

Braking cover the bases with 160/180/200mm and 165/185/203mm sizes, though if smaller discs suit your riding you’re unlikely to have heat problems. 180/185mm rotors cost £42/US$58.50, 200/203mm £47/$65.50 each. They come with six-bolt fittings but Center Lock adaptors are available for £12 each.

This article was originally published in What Mountain Bike magazine.