Coming out strong this year with a bunch of new gear is RaceFace. When I first swung by the RaceFace booth at Interbike to chat with Rob, all the products weren’t on display yet–unfortunately a bunch of gear got held up in customs. No customs agents, you cannot have the samples.
Well, the biggest deal for me was the new Next SL crankset–probably one of the sexiest spinners I’ve seen. These cranks are just naked carbon with a cool new flange system that easily allows retailers or individuals to change from a single ring, dual ring, or three ring setup without special tools or a lot of hassle. And get this: a 175mm crank arm length with a single ring setup (28T) weighs only 425g. The bottom bracket weighs another 85 for a combined weight of … carry the one, subtract two … 510g ( a Sram XX1 comes in at 650g). That is a fair amount of weight savings there–almost a quarter pound off the total weight of your bike.
The fun doesn’t stop there. Raceface has pedals! Yes, finally! I cannot tell you how long I have been waiting for pedals from Raceface. And not only one pedal, but two. So you can go big and grab a set of Atlas pedals machined from 6061-T6 aluminum or you can get get the otherwise more affordable Affect pedal. Same material, just not as machined and trimmed down. Both pedals use 10 pins per side.
Check out the pic above, ehh (that’s Canadian for you). That in fact is Raceface’s 35mm direct mount Atlas Stem and bar. The DM 35 stem is available in black only, comes in a 50mm reach only, and is height adjustable with Raceface’s own 5mm spacers. The DM is a two piece design that uses only a single clamp bolt per side. That keeps the stem down to a nice 120g. The Atlas 35 bar comes in rises of 10mm, 20mm, and 35mm.
With a wide variety of bar colors you’re ready to go. NEXT SL bars in 35mm are also available. These are super light and are offered in several choices of rise as well. These come in 760mm bar widths and only weigh 180g.
Unfortunately my shots of the wheels didn’t turn out but I had to show the wheel here. Above and below are shots of the new wheel from Raceface. Made from 6061 alloy these tubeless compatible 28-hole rims use brass nipples and straight pull spokes. The rim measures: height – 19.5mm, outer diameter – 25mm, inner diameter – 21mm, and is equipped with a 3-cam pawl cassette body. The hub features custom sealed cartridge bearings (F+R) and come spaced at 15x100mm (front) and 12x142mm (rear).
INCLUDED: Rim strip, end caps for QR 5mm (F+R), plus end caps for 10x135mm and 12×135 rear spacing. With a tubeless conversion kit (sold separately), these may just be something that your XC or trail bike will love.
RaceFace is really extending their approach to high quality and lightweight components this year and we can’t wait to see where they go next.
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Sep 21, 2018
Sep 27, 2013
Sep 27, 2013