Sea Otter: road tech roundup from Monterey, California
Dust, dirt, and Italian road shoes from Sea Otter 2018
Sea Otter may be mostly about the dirt crowd, with rows and rows of booths dedicated to mountain bikes and the rapidly growing gravel bike category. But, in and around the fat tires and baggy shorts, there is still new and interesting road tech to be found. Here is a quick list of notable road bits, and one set of gravel-worthy wheels from Monterey.
DMT RS1 white
DMT RS1 black
DMT RS1 wire 'skeleton'
A single Boa wire wraps around the foot, through the carbon sole
DMT R1
DMT – RS1 and D1 road shoes
Designed with Olympic gold medallist Elia Viviani, the unique RS1 shoe uses a single, continuous Boa wire that wraps around the uppers then through the carbon sole to give a snug fit that applies pressure evenly across the foot, and allows the uppers to conform to the foot. If you’re looking for a more traditional shoe, look to their D1, available in black, white, and this shimmering blue.
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Easton – EC90 Aero 85
Easton recently released their deep dish road disc wheels, the EC90 Aero 85, which roll on the companies durable Vault hubs. Easton takes full advantage of not needing a brake track to spread its graphics from rim to rim on the deep carbon wheels. At 85mm deep, that’s quite a bit of extra design room.
Cipollini – RB1K ‘The One’
Mario Cipollini is one of the few recent pro retirees to wade into the frame game. He’s one of the only recent retirees with the personality and enigmatic presence to make the project feasible, too. Full of Italian flair, and Cipo’s unique style, these bikes are definitely interesting.
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Industry Nine I9.65
Industry Nine I9.45
Industry Nine I9.35
Industry Nine rims are tubeless ready
Industry Nine road and gravel wheels come with in an array of hub colours
Industry Nine
Industry Nine is known for its distinctive and colourful hubs, with super quick engagement, and immediately identifiable buzz. The company has been quickly building a reputation for their carbon hoops, which it has added to the line of high end aluminum wheels. Three different depths of gravel and road disc wheels, all coming tubeless ready. I9 were early to the tubeless cyclocross game, so you know its tubeless road rims will arrive ready to go.
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Bell Helmets – Z20 Squid Bikes
Bell has rolled out a series of collaborations this year, adding some style to its long standing line of helmets. On the mountain bike side, it’s with motocross brand Fasthouse. For the skinny tire crowd, Bell has paired up with Squid Bikes to apply its well known graphic flair to the Z20 helmet.
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