Sea Otter round 2: Aircraft grade aluminum and tiny bike parts

Kit out your junior ripper's bike, or get sendy on Pole's aluminum Machine

Terry McKall April 23, 2018

Sea Otter is finished, vendors packed up and racers recovering. Here’s a quick look at the best of what was on offer at the Laguna Seca raceway, all covered in a fine layer of Californian dust.

The Machine's aluminum CNC machined frame is distinctive, and wonderfully detailed

Pole Bicycle Company's 180mm travel Machine

Pole Bicycle Company – Machine
Finish brand Pole has made a name for pushing the envelope of long/low/slack geometry, but also for its rejection of carbon construction on environmental grounds. Then there is the Machine, Pole’s unique, fully CNC machined aircraft grade aluminum frame, which is definitely unique to the industry.

Stan's Neo hubs now have an extra, inboard bearing for added durability

The new bearing will be in all Neo and Neo Ultimate hubs

New carbon fibre rims from Stan's will be available as complete builds and as rim only. The Arch CB7 is aimed at the trail crowd

While the Crewst CB7 is a light weight cross country rim

Stan’s No Tubes
Looking to make their Neo and Neo Ultimate hubs more resilient, Stan’s has added a third, inboard bearing to its line of mountain bike hubs. The company is saying this resolves any issues the first generation of Neo hubs might have experienced. ON a related note, Stan’s is also in the process of establishing a new warranty system for Canada.

Stan’s was also showing of their new Crest CB7 and Arch CB7 wheels. They’ve lowered the wheel price from their previous carbon offering, the Valour and Bravo wheels. New for Stan’s carbon hoops, the two CB7 rims will be offered on their own, instead of just as complete wheelsets. There’s a wheelset option too, but now you can choose your own wheel build.

SDG Junior Pro Kit covers all the contact points for a child sized bike

SDG's kids pedal is designed for smaller feet

SDG Components
SDG has focused on grips and saddles, primarily. At Sea Otter, SDG was showing off a complete contact-points kit for children’s bikes. The kid offers a more tapered bar, which allows for a grip that fits smaller hands but still offers padding. It also comes with smaller platform pedals, available separately and as part of the kit, designed to fit smaller feet.

Continental Tires redesigned Mountain King

The new Mountain King tread has been developed in collaboration with Adidas

Continental Tires
Continental Tires has been steering a steady path for several years with its tire design. They were showing off a full redo of its mountain bike tires at Sea Otter, including a new Mountain King tire designed in collaboration with Adidas. The two have worked together in the past but the new tread marks the first time Adidas has really waded into the tread design process.

Race Face Atlas bar comes in a wide variety of colours

The bar measures 820mm wide, but can be cut down to your preferred length

Adding to the colour theme, Race Face Next R cranks and chainrings now come in an array of colours

Race Face
Race Face had its new Turbine R dropper post front and center at its Sea Otter booth, which makes the most of the Vancouver companies relationship with Fox to borrow reliable internals from the Transfer dropper post, and add some Race Face design to make it fit in with the full R series line up. Lined up behind the Turbine R was the full, colourful line of Atlas bars. At 820mm wide, the aluminum bars offer all the width any rider could desire, and in colours to match any bike’s paint scheme. Make sure all your aesthetic options are open, Race Face ultralight Next R cranks also come in a rainbow of colour options.