Negative Space

New 2010 bits and pieces are coming thick and fast:



Superstar have put up some new shots of their Overdrive cassette hub that has a female 3/8 axle system and uses the Q-lite system, which basically means the pawls are mounted in the hub shell and the "teeth" are on the driver. The first photos I saw had it looking a bit agricultural, but the new colours and the matte finish seem to make a big difference. And maybe the shape makes more sense when you see it with the front hub.

If you look at that photo at it's full size and take a look at the stems in the background you'll see that Superstar are also doing what looks like a heavily re-worked version of their Elect stem from 2008. Of course with extra and improved negative space (read: bigger fuckin' holes), plus bigger chamfers all over for 2010 credibility.



Shola also have a seat and post combo out, which looks pretty similar to the Deluxe one, which looks similar the the Gusset one, which looks similar to the KHE one. Can you see the picture that I am subtly painting for you?



And Animal have finalised their entry for the most adjectives required to describe a bmx product with their wedge, stump, pivotal, seat post. Now they just need to do a "lite" version like their pegs and it's in the bag.

This is getting Complexicated

Seat / post combos are the new low top tube.

These CAD drawings of the next version of Eclat's Complex seat/post combo have been floating around.





They're planning to add an internal aluminium sleeve to the post section of the molding.
For you technically ingtrigued people: it looks like they'll mold an extruded aluminium section with some ribbing on it into the PVC molding. To do this the extrusion is first placed in the injection tooling and the plastic gets squirted around it. So it's locked in there and, according to Eclat, you have a "one piece seat and post" - one piece with another piece molded into it.

I guess they were having the same problems as Fly were having with the plastic post getting crushed when the seat post clamp was tightened and they've come up with a similar solution.

In fact all these seat and post combos are starting to look pretty similar - mind you the Eclat one does have a 3 degree or so difference in angle when compared to the KHE Exhibit seat below. And it looks a little more like a mushroom...

More plastic stuff to sit on

When do you sit on your seat. Almost never. So you don't need padding. OK agreed.

Everyone runs their seat at the same angle and the same height. Yes? Yes.

So a seat and post in one, what's the problem? They were around in the old days and now they're back and smelling suspiciously of trendiness.

Fly have been working on theirs for at least a couple of years, but still isn't available. Nothing wrong with that, you'd hope that they'd be testing it, redesigning and testing again. That's pretty much how Fly, IMHO, have so many good and innovative bits.

They say they've been testing polymers for the seat, getting the mix right so it's rigid without being brittle. They also added the aluminium sleeve to the inside of the post to stop the post crushing when you tighten the clamp. I don't have a weight for the seat, but I guess it's light, cause otherwise you'd just have an aluminium post wouldn't you?

KHE banged this one out a year or so ago - plastic seat on a ali post. The whole baseball thing? I don't know. Just... why? And I've had a couple of bad experiences with KHE parts that just seemed like they weren't thought through 100%. But I'm sure this seat is perfect - go on buy it.

When eclat came along with their hundred or so products all at once last year, one of them was their "complex" seat/post combo. Looks ALOT like the KHE seat, especially the underside, and it's also plastic with an aluminium post. Taiwan is a small island you know. Which came first? Who cares.

KHE Loyal Seat / Post Combo: Weight 190g / 6.7oz

Eclat Complex Seat / Post Combo: Weight: 179g / 6.3oz

Or you could just go one of these. Beautiful isn't it? There's even some a fake carbon fibre stickers for that extra bit of race cred. Fuck these things are fast.
Uni Race Seat / Post Combo: 147g / 5.2 oz