The legs on the tapered fork are stout! © Josh Liberles
Spanish company BH Bikes (Beistegui Hermanos, which means Beistegui brothers) has been around for 100 years, but only recently has become a known brand in the US. The American branch opened in 2007, and in that time we’ve seen three cyclocross iterations – an aluminum offering, the Carbon Cross and now the 2011 RX1, which has raised the bar while continuing to reduce weight.
BH isn’t a latecomer to the cyclocross “fad” – in fact, the Spanish product manager is a pro ’cross racer in Europe, according to Brien Gonzales of the BH USA, so it’s a discipline near to the company’s heart. The RX1 features a tapered headtube and fork mated to super-beefy fork legs; a BB30 bottom bracket; and internal cable routing through the top tube to keep it away from the ’cross courses’ muck. Because of routing, a pulley on the downtube U-turns the cable to link up with the front derailleur.
Reynolds Assaults with Vittoria XG Pros are available as an upgrade © Josh Liberles
Complete bikes built with SRAM Rival and the stock Aksium wheels weigh 18.3lbs; with the Reynolds Assault wheels, available as an upgrade, the complete Rival bike is an impressive 17.2lbs.
Other build bits include Cane Creek SCX5 brakes, FSA aluminum BB30 crank and the FSA SLK carbon seatpost. The standard build has Kenda Small Block 8 tires, the upgrade with Reynolds wheels runs Vittoria XG Pros.
The bikes are just coming in now – if you’re in the Chicagoland area, look for some of the first framesets in the US to be under the Flatlandia Cycling team.
MSRP: The carbon RX1 is available as a frameset with headset and 31.6 FSA SLK carbon setapost for $2150 or as a complete bike with a Rival build for $2999. More info soon at BHBikes.com. Available in Black/white/red or Black/white/green color schemes. Made in Asia.
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