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TECH NEWS

Berlin Bike Show: 5 innovative parts and accessory designs

Unconventional ideas for better biking from Rockwell, Hope, Primarius, Moto and Gokiso

The weekend’s Berlin Bike Show – Berliner Fahrradschau – was full of interesting products and original ways of doing things, and here are a few that stood out.

 

• Rockwell helmets

Rockwell helmets, designed mainly for urban use, look different from any others we’ve ever seen thanks to a lattice-like appearance of the shell, and they’re very unusual inside too.

Rockwell Helmet.jpg

The shell is made from an elastic ABS (acrylonitrile-butadiene-styrene, if you want the full name), while the inlay features comfort cushions on the side that touches your head. These use Vaco12 technology that incorporates what are effectively mini bean bags. They’re little sacks filled with small round beads. The idea is that they wrap around your head for a better fit than you get with a standard helmet.

Rockwell Helmet - segmented sections.jpg

The gaps between the little sacks are designed to act as air channels. We’ve not used one of the helmets but Rockwell says that they’ve done tests with the German Sport University Cologne and in 30°C heat the inside temp of the lid only went up by 2°C. 

They do, of course, conform to European safety standards (EN 1078) for cycling.

Each helmet comes with an lockable bag that you can attach to your bike to protect it from dirt, water and theft.

Berliner Fahrradschau 2016 innovation  - 2.jpg

You can buy either a stock helmet (from €139.95) or choose the hardshell, inlay and strap combo you’d like from a variety of colours. Rockwell is working on a visor (an eye shield rather than a peak) that clips to the front of the helmet too.

www.rockwell-headgear.com

 

• Gokiso Super Climber hub

The Gokiso Super Climber hub from Japan has been around for a while but the design has been updated and we’ve not covered it here on road.cc before. We saw it lurking on a bike from Passoni. 

As you can see, it’s an unusual looking design, but what’s going on here from a technical point of view? 

Berliner Fahrradschau 2016 innovation  - 14.jpg

The hub bodies are made from titanium alloy (6Al-4V), the front one coming with 16 fins – Gokiso calls them fingers – at either end connecting the flange to the central cylinder. The fingers are attached to the main body of the hub only at one end. Check out the cross sectional view and you’ll get the idea. 

Berliner Fahrradschau 2016 innovation  - 16.jpg

The idea is that when the hub receives external stresses the fingers deform to absorb the force. In other words, the axle is suspended.

The rear hub body is partially thin to function as an elastic structure. 

“The super climber model has the elastic body suspension structure on the perimeter of the hub body to absorb the impact load from a road surface,” says Gokiso. “Moreover, since the elastic body structure floats flanges from body shell, the external input from the rim and spokes do not reach a bearing directly.”

Berliner Fahrradschau 2016 innovation  - 15.jpg

The design isn’t intended to cushion the ride, it’s intended to keep the axle perfectly straight under any force so the bearings can operate with the minimum of friction.

The hubs run on ceramic bearings and the freehub is a four pawl/92 notch system 

www.gokiso.jp

 

• Primarius mudguards & lights

As well as some very lovely steel bikes, Dutch frame builder Primarius was showing a nifty integrated mudguard system and an integrated light system. 

Mudguards first. The VEC/001 mudguard is an elegant aluminium and steel affair. The guard itself is aluminium which Primarius make themselves on their own rolling machine, while its stays are steel.

Primarius VEC:001 rear mudguard.jpg

The clever bit is how it fits to the bike. The guard attaches to the frame via  magnets in the brake bridge and on top of the guard. The mudguard's stays don’t attach directly to the frame at all. Instead, they slide neatly through the quick release skewer, also made by Primarius. 

Primarius VEC:001 rear mudguard skewer.jpg

The idea is that you can swap out the entire wheel and mudguard in one go to turn your weekday commuter into a more sporty weekend bike. The system was best displayed at the show on the Elian. 

Elian.jpg

VEC/001 Fender sets are available in a choice of width, either 28mm road or 42mm touring. Claimed weights are 69g front and 114g rear for the road version, and 115g front and 190g rear for the touring version. You will need to buy them with the VEC/002 skewer set too.

Primarius' VEC/004 light system was equally neat. The lights themselves are made from a combo of 6081 T6 aluminium and steel. You can either have them as a 6V 3W dynamo set up or powered by a 5V battery. 

Elian head tube detail and integrated front light.jpg

Primarius is marketing its new line of components under a specially created sub-brand Veloccomponents.cc and are hoping to sell them to other custom builders looking for a neat integrated solution for their custom frames.

Primarius VEC:004 rear light.jpg

www.primarius.nl

 

• Moto pedals

Berliner Fahrradschau 2016 innovation  - 5.jpg

Moto platform pedals, designed for urban use, are interesting in that they do away with pins and complicated shaping and use griptape pads to keep your feet in place. We particularly like the road.cc-esque chequers pattern. 

Berliner Fahrradschau 2016 innovation  - 3.jpg

There are two different styles of pedal. The 300g Urban Pedal (€155) is wood based while the Reflex pedal (€55) is plastic. 

Berliner Fahrradschau 2016 innovation  - 4.jpg

Both pedals are large, the platforms measuring 9.2cm x 7.6cm, and they’re thin, measuring just 15mm from one side to the other, so stack heights are very low.

The reflective elements of the Reflex pedal come in various different colours.

Berliner Fahrradschau 2016 innovation  - 6.jpg

The grip tape can be replaced easily when it wears out, new pads costing from €7.50.

www.motobicycles.com

 

• Hope/SRAM brake setup

Hope exhibited a Mason Resolution at the Berlin show equipped with its own X2 cross country mountain bike disc brake callipers operated by SRAM HydroR levers.

Berliner Fahrradschau 2016 innovation  - 12.jpg

This bike uses a 1x system. In other words, it has a single chainring (so there’s no front derailleur) and a wide-ranging cassette.

You can’t buy Hope callipers and SRAM levers as a complete system, but you can buy the parts separately.

Berliner Fahrradschau 2016 innovation  - 8.jpg

The wheels on this bike use Hope’s new 25mm-deep aluminium rim. It’s disc specific with no brake track and will be available soon, as will a carbon version.

Berliner Fahrradschau 2016 innovation  - 13.jpg

Even more interesting is that Hope has revealed it is working on road-specific disc brakes that will probably see the light of day in 2017. They’re likely to be four pot, and Hope says that it might do a version that uses mineral oil brake fluid for use with Shimano systems and a SRAM-friendly DOT version, or it might come up with a design that’s adaptable to both. 

Berliner Fahrradschau 2016 innovation  - 9.jpg

That’s all to be decided, but we can tell you for sure that Hope is working on it, so watch this space for more details over coming months.

www.hopetech.com

 

Mat has been in cycling media since 1996, on titles including BikeRadar, Total Bike, Total Mountain Bike, What Mountain Bike and Mountain Biking UK, and he has been editor of 220 Triathlon and Cycling Plus. Mat has been road.cc technical editor for over a decade, testing bikes, fettling the latest kit, and trying out the most up-to-the-minute clothing. We send him off around the world to get all the news from launches and shows too. He has won his category in Ironman UK 70.3 and finished on the podium in both marathons he has run. Mat is a Cambridge graduate who did a post-grad in magazine journalism, and he is a winner of the Cycling Media Award for Specialist Online Writer. Now over 50, he's riding road and gravel bikes most days for fun and fitness rather than training for competitions.

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6 comments

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urbane | 8 years ago
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Those huge gaps in the Rockwell helmet at least have what appears to be fabric in the shell gaps which will at least keep out insects *, however such huge gaps in the shell may increase vulnerability for smaller profile hard stuff which may be hit during a crash, including bicycle and car parts.

* too many helmet vents lack even insect barrier mesh, or better still metal grill to block smaller profile hard stuff.

 

The Gokiso Super Climber hubs look interesting, but I do wonder about lower shock strength, cumulative metal fatigue and distortion over time in them.

 

The Primarius stuff looks iffy.  The mudguards look like they will offer too little wrap around of the tire, so will likely channel loads of side spray, and WTF, the front light has loads of unarmoured wire coming out of the top of the fork clamp, just waiting to be crushed, abradded or snagged!

 

The adhesive of the grip tape on the Moto pedals will be rendered useless by debris, oil and liquid which gets between tape and the pedal, and dirty or wet shoe soles may not even grip it at all!  Pins and other coarse protrusions have the advantage that they cut through debris, oil and liquid, and strongly engage with the grip on the bottom of shoes.

Avatar
Accessibility f... | 8 years ago
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Good looking products there, I particularly like the mudguards.  *bookmarks*

Avatar
rjfrussell | 8 years ago
1 like

The moto pedals in that particular incarnation look a bit hipster wankerish (esp the wooden ones)-  but is the concept of using grip tape not genius?

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ofathens replied to rjfrussell | 8 years ago
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rjfrussell wrote:

The moto pedals in that particular incarnation look a bit hipster wankerish (esp the wooden ones)-  but is the concept of using grip tape not genius?

Clever design, but how do you fit cages/straps on them? They seem to show straps in the video at some point.

Avatar
bikeandy61 | 8 years ago
1 like

No info on the Mason being fitted with Hope's crank? Admittedly this is a single ring setup but are they now offering "road" size rings? What about BB compatibility?

Avatar
andyspaceman replied to bikeandy61 | 8 years ago
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bikeandy61 wrote:

No info on the Mason being fitted with Hope's crank? Admittedly this is a single ring setup but are they now offering "road" size rings? What about BB compatibility?

That is interesting. If it's their stock XC crank with the chainring mounted in the inboard position (where the granny ring would usually sit) then that's a 45mm chainline, 1mm closer in than a standard Shimano road double outer ring. So not perfect, but workable.

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