Grammo's cyclocross offering, due later this year, is a nice-looking race machine © Josh Liberles
Interbike is winding down tomorrow and, not surprisingly, we’ve seen an overwhelming quantity of bike stuff – cyclocross and otherwise (check back throughout the weekend and next week for all the news). We ran into New Zealand company Grammo’s first foray into cyclocross at the outdoor Dirt Demo on Tuesday and snapped some quick picks of the head-turning bike. We were also pleased to learn the Serotta is throwing it’s hat into the ring in the cyclocross fork market. And SwissStop has revamped its brake design for aluminum rims.
Grammo
Don’t be fooled about Grammo’s location by the company’s Italian-looking Grammo.it URL on the chainstays – that’s one part homage to a cycling Mecca, and another part Kiwi humor. The four New Zealanders who formed the company thought they could build better bikes than the status quo, and the group consisting of one ex-Olympian, two triathletes and an engineer set out to do just that.
The Tubulari aluminum clinchers will be speced with the complete bikes © Josh Liberles
We got a sneak peak at the company’s eye-catching cyclocross model, which should be available before next season. The frame features full internal cable routing, a tapered steer tube on a full-carbon fork, standard GXP cranks/BB, and comes in nine sizes from a 48 (50cm top tube) to a 64 (58.5cm top tube). The top tube is flattened for shouldering. The smaller two sizes feature a steeper head tube angle and less rake on the fork.
Check out more photos in the gallery at the bottom of the page.
MSRP: $995 frame/fork/Cane Creek headset, $1,495 complete with SRAM Apex and Grammo Tubulari CX 1600g tubular wheels (reviewed in our print Issue).
More Info: Grammo Bikes
Made in Taiwan
Ben Serotta is ready to take on cyclocross forks © Josh Liberles
Serotta Forks
Although Serotta has long offered the company’s own designed forks on its road bikes, ’cross bikes relied on other manufacturers to complete the build. Similar to its road models, the company will offer different options for stiffness for the cyclocross forks – in this case, “medium” or “stiff.” As founder Ben Serotta explained, these are full-on race forks and not meant for touring or casual riding, and they’re accordingly built for performance. Although weights haven’t been finalized, the two different fork stiffnesses won’t have much difference there – the increased rigidity is in the layup of material more than it’s due to any additions.
A cantilever brake version will come first, but a disc brake model likely won’t be far behind. All forks will be available with Serotta’s titanium and mixed material titanium-carbon cyclocross frames as well as for stand-alone purchase. The forks have a carbon steer tube and are available with aluminum or titanium dropouts, straight or tapered, and in a 1″ version as well.
“We’ve been making ’cross bikes since the late 70s,” said Serotta. “And now that we have our own forks, we plan to have more of a presence in the sport.”
MSRP: Ranges from $540 to $720, depending on options
Weights: TBD
More Info: Serotta.com
Made in USA
SwissStop's new dark green GHP IIs, in all its iterations © Josh Liberles
SwissStop’s GHPII Brake Pads for Aluminum Rims
SwissStop’s brand new brake pads are a deeper green than their predecessor, but according to US distributor Steve Marett, the difference is more than cosmetic. The softer rubber used in this generation of pads achieves a seeming contradiction: softer rubber and more durability. Add to that increased rim-friendliness, better overall performance and improved braking in wet conditions, and it sounds like we have a contender for you metal rim fans out there.
Marett claims that the maximum braking power is very high with these pads, but that they can also be used to apply gradual friction and controlled, modulated deceleration without grippiness or a sticky feeling between pad and rim. We’re excited to bring them back to CXM Labs and get them in the hands of Cliff, who recently put a slew of brake pads to the test in Issue 7.
The GHPII is available in an array of configurations, including smooth post cantilever, threaded post cantilever, v-brake and Shimano/SRAM cartridge style pads.
MSRP: varies depending on configuration, but is $29.99 for the Shimano/SRAM slide-ins.
More Info: SwissStop.com
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