A complex sport's beautiful simplicity

Eurobike 2016 is a wrap. From what we've seen, this was a year of refinement and normalization rather than a year of "that's just crazy enough to work!" new stuff. For cycling to work best, in our view, there needs to be a cutting edge, but the cutting edge should be just that - the edge. For the huge majority of people, what gives the best ownership experience will come from evolution and not revolution (and 12 demerits to me for using one of history's worst cliches - sorry).

This is perhaps why we like cross so much. I mean, yeah, disc brakes are disruptive, but they also work better for the average racer who doesn't have mechanics tuning a fleet of 8 bikes and 47 sets of wheels. And tubeless is evolving quickly in cross, but again that marches toward a real world benefit - the ability to use more tires while owning fewer wheels, with less installation hassle than tubulars. And tubulars are still available and work the best (yes, tubulars are the best use experience, but come with an ownership hassle) so it's not that anything has been sacrificed in order to make way for tubeless. 

No front shifting, no tubes, and a more in-shape Dave

In anything, cross sees more addition by subtraction than addition by addition. Many people, me happily included, are down to one chainring. Didn't need a new crank or anything to do it, just a chainring that needed replacing anyway. The front derailleur now sits in the parts box, and the cable for it is long gone. 

A cross race is short, and you want to maximize your experience with it. A bit like riding in general for most people; you don't get enough time to do it, so you'd like to optimize the time you have. My road bikes (yes I have two - one disc, one rim brake - this is necessary to do my job) have achieved "this works perfectly so why would I change a thing?" We aspire to being the wheel part of an equivalent situation for each of our customers. Sometimes the real jewel is the new thing that offers something great, but more often the prizes are the tried and true things that work perfectly. Maybe not the lightest, or deepest, or widest, or anythingest, but often as not the best.

What achieves that best for you will depend, of course, on you. We're here to help you sort through finding that, and then to execute it as well as it can be done.