Tech Roundup: Casati from RaceScene, mechanic training with Rouleur's editor, Bike Trumps, Lezyne and more…

This Friday's Tech Roundup headline bike porn is from RaceScene in Barnsley who are very excited about a new frame arrived from Italian race specialists Casati.

The Demone is made from top level T800 Super High Modulus carbon fibre with 'HR 46 Nanotechnology' and along with classic Italian geometry - or what has become 'classic' geometry now that sloping top tubes are di rigore - the 920 gram frame features an oversize BB30 base, 1⅛ to 1½" steerer on the 340 gram monocoque fork and stunning good looks.

The price is £1,995 for the frame and forks which considering the heritage name and spec compared to other top-notch brands under the magic kilo weight, seems almost like good value.

Details: racescene.co.uk

Book now: Rouleur Road Bike Maintenance Evening

This coming Monday 5th December Guy Andrews, editor of roadie magazine Rouleur and technical writer Rohan Dubash are taking over the Look Mum No Hands workshop and café in London for a gastro bike fettling evening.

Themed 'The Seven Deadly Sins' their hands-on talk will cover bike adjustment and alignment, creaks and squeaks, chain hygiene, punctures and bike fit for beginners to intermediate cyclists aiming to feel confident out on the road and tackling their first home preventative maintenance.

The ticket price of £60 includes two beers or soft drinks, top-notch pie and salad, cake, and a goodie bag courtesy of Park Tools, Finish Line lubricants, DT Swiss and Continental tyres that you know, being Rouleur, will be stylish. 

Rouleur Road Bike Maintenance Evening
Look Mum No Hands!
49, Old Street
London
EC1V 9HX

7.30pm Monday December 5

Details: rouleur.cc

New Ride winter clothing line now on sale

Ride is a new British-designed-Italian-made clothing brand aiming, they say, at "practicality, visibility and all-weather comfort with innovative ideas like zipped-waterproof smartphone pockets, IQ Seen reflective areas, Aquazero water repellent treatment and ergonomically shaped pocket access."

Prices of the first five items on their site, focussing for now on winter, seem pretty keen considering the neat touches like the 'feature' reflective panels; we have some on the way to us now for review. Looks like those warm tights will be just in time.

• Ride Long Sleeve Roubaix Jersey £49.99
• Ride Aquazero Pro Bib Tights £54.99
• Ride Roubaix Bib-Tights with Insert £34.99
• Ride Aquazero Pro Arm Warmers £19.99
• Ride Aquazero Pro Skull Cap £8.99

Details: RideBosh.com

Ideal for Boxing Day: Bike Trumps Game

According to Rough Ride Guide the creators, "Bike Trumps is a fun, informative and nostalgic game of cards, featuring 36 bikes from various disciplines through the years; from the Boneshaker to the Chopper to the Specialized Mclaren Venge. A great little stocking filler for any cyclist, young or old. Introductory price of just £4.49 and Buy 2 Get 1 Free." Can't say fairer than that.

Details: roughrideguide.co.uk

Ceradure ceramic coating gets colourful

We mentioned in our Eurobike coverage the Dutch folks at Ceradure who treat machined aluminium with a ceramic finish that renders it tough and slippery; ideal, in fact, for their first product, a one-piece 10-speed cassette weighing 85 grams including its lockring. Those they were showing in Friedrichshafen were a rather uninspiring grey; ideal to match your purposeful Dura-Ace but what, someone at Ceradure has obviously been thinking, if you have those lovely coloured hubs from the likes of Hope and Chris King?

According to Ceradure's new UK distributor Veroli, colours other than this livid and very road.cc on-trend green are possible and indeed coming. A £315 price will dampen your ardour somewhat but, hey, dreaming of this sort is what it's all about at this time of year.

Details: veroli.co.uk     ceradure.com
 

Reflective Scottish wool hat from Lost Values plus ties!

Quite how they've bred Scottish sheep to produce reflective wool is a mystery but the clever designers at Lost Values have certainly managed it and their first two products under the LFLECT sub-brand are a helmet cover that doubles up as a hat and a choice of coloured ties for office or party-bound bike commuters. They are about as perfect a mix of frivolity and practicality as we've seen with the British made hat-cum-helmet cover selling for £38.99 and the ties £24.99. That's a Christmas-list no-brainer.

Details: lostvalues.com

 

More ties, these made from patched inner tubes

If a reflective Scottish wool tie isn't your thing, how about one made from recycled inner tubes from the excellent Dutch website Eerlijk Waar!? Meaning "Honestly!" according to Google, we certainly cannot see how £20.20 is going to break their principle.

Details: eerlijkwaar.net

Well wicked: Amoebaparts Scud stem

The Amoebaparts brand is a new one on us; perhaps not surprising as the Taiwanese company behind it has distribution seemingly in every country except the UK. Surely this has to rectified?

Details: amoebaparts.com

On video from Canada: new Arkel Cam-Lock self-locking attachment

Another brand without any meaningful UK distribution but which has trickled in over the years is the excellent Canadian bag and pannier maker Arkel. We reviewed their Tail Rider seat post mounting bag just over a year ago and found it better than fine. As the little video below shows, they've just launched a revised version of their 'automatic' pannier hook system which looks interesting. Converting the Canadian $400 price into roughly £300 inc VAT for a pair of their top-level Grand Tour Panniers may explain the resistance but the endorsements from happy customers on their website suggests it could be worth a private import.  

Details: arkel.ca

Rothera Classic Houndstooth Winter Hat

Gary Rothera from Philadelphia, USA just makes hats for every occasion as long as it's for cycling. Plenty of the classic cotton style both lined and unlined in fabrics we love especially featuring dinosaurs. What we really like, though, is this Classic Houndstooth Winter Hat with brown Polartec fleece lining and drop-down ear covers for $43; that's £33 including our VAT.

Details: rotheracycling.com

New helmet bracket for Lezyne lights

A new £16.99 helmet mount bracket for all three Lezyne light models is about to hit the shops. So far, we've reviewed the top Super Drive model which came out pretty well but it looks like it will be smaller Mini Drive and Power Drive models that will ideally suit helmet mounting the best.

Cyclists' Christmas card from SpotMe features reflective badge

The wacky SpotMe website features numerous British-made permutations on the theme of reflective badges, some on embroidered fabric, others printed in colours to co-ordinate with your outfits. This £4.90 - or £12 for three - hand-drawn Christmas card features a silver reflective badge built into the deal. What could be nicer and more useful for a cyclist? 

Details: spotme.cc

And finally, Retroshift brings Ye Olde gears almost up to date

This week's innovation from Portland, Oregon is the almost-there startup Retroshift who are planning to offer adapted Dia-Compe road brake levers so that 'traditional' down-tube shifters can be mounted on the front of the levers for a rudimentary brifter experience. Claimed advantages compared to STI, Ergopower and DoubleTap are lower cost and 'mud-proof' shifting for cyclo-cross. As our VecchioJo points out, there have been attempts before to get shifting up onto the tops of the 'bars if not the brake levers themselves, most notably with the now defunct SunTour Command Shifters but there are Paul's and Kelly's permutations on the theme still on the market. Meanwhile, check out the little video below. 

Details: retroshift.com