Interbike 2014 roundup

I just came back from Interbike 2014 last week in Las Vegas.  I'm going to break up my observations into three sections: Brompton, Tannus Tires and overall observations.

Brompton

The big news this year is the addition of new colors, which will replace some of the current colors.  Admittedly, these new colors look just slightly different from the colors they will replace.

Lime green, which I think replaces yellow or maybe Apple green

Lagoon Blue, replacing Arctic Blue

Berry Crush, replacing Claret

Lagoon blue main frame with orange extremities

Cherry Blossom, replacing hot pink

Vanilla main frame, replacing desert sand.  The extremities are  Turkish  green.

The MetroGnome crew admiring the new colors

 Damn, I thought I had a picture of Tempest blue, which will be replacing Cobalt blue.  Oh well, there's a good one here.  I hope I got all the new and replaced colors correct... if not, let me know in the comments.

Also, there will be an option to have black handlebars (except for the P-type), seat post, and cranks on select color schemes.  I think the current selected color schemes are lime, white, lagoon blue, and berry crush (although these are subject to change).

Lime green with blacked out extremities

Tannus Tires

I was able to ride a prototype formulation of Tannus tire polymer (tentatively dubbed Aither 2.0) on a Brompton, and I must say I was very impressed.  Although there is still a touch of dead feeling to it, it feels much closer to a tubed tire, and there is much less rolling resistance.  The tire will be designed  specifically to fit a Brompton and is about 90% developed, targeting final release in early 2015.  The new tire will be available in black, and perhaps only black (which would be fine by me).

Tannus Tires with their current generation of tires.

Overall Observations

There was a big push to electric bicycles this year.  There were at least a dozen that were available for demo rides outside, and a few more inside on display.  They were all fun to ride, from the top of the line Stromer ST2 to the more frugal folding e-Joe Epik.  I was particularly impressed with e-Joes... they got all the basics right (throttle controlled and/or pedal assisted), costs under $1350 for the base model, and were a hoot to ride.  I can really see how these electric bikes could get a lot more of the casual riders and potential commuters out on the road.  I'm looking forward to getting my ShareRoller soon.

Electric e-Joe

Yeah, it doesn't fold like a Brompton...but it's still fun to ride!

I also noticed more folders this year.  However, they were mostly cheap copies of Dahon / Tern models.  Dahon had a model with a Rohloff hub as well as a 30th anniversary edition which looked very nice (and should be at over $5000 each).  Tern had some minor updates, one of which was adding a custom BionX kit.  I had a go on this one also and it was fun.

New colors due for Brompton in 2015

It appears that Brompton will be producing some new colors for the 2015 model year.  I haven't seen them in person yet, but Portapedal has some pictures up here.  They really don't look to drastically different from the colors they will replace, but it's a nice change to have nonetheless.

I'll be at Interbike next week and hopefully will be able to see these new colors in person.

Tannus Aither Tires

Back at Interbike, Todd was frantically searching for the Tannus stand. I had no idea who they were or what they did. When were found them, I discovered that they make solid tires.  Todd had read up on some Brompton riders who have had them installed and had varying levels of satisfaction with them. Some had loved them and others not so much. But the allure of having tires that were always ready to go and not worrying about flats had us dying to find out for ourselves (here's another review).

The Tannus tires for Brompton (the model is called the “Nymph” and is 16” x 1.25”) comes in two different hardnesses.  The softer one is supposed to be equal to about 110 psi and the harder one was about 140 psi.  I don't think this is accurate as they feel a little softer. Todd got a set of white soft tires and I opted for the yellow hard tires for the ODB (they come in a array of colors).

A word of caution here: these tires are a pain in the ass to install yourself without the specialized tools.   By specialized, I don’t mean bike tools, I mean Tannus tools. If you have the option, I recommend having a pro do the install.   Todd’s going to get a couple of how to videos up soon.

After taking off the old tires, one needs to insert these little tabs all the way around that lock the Tannus tires onto the rim.

Now comes the hard part…putting the tire on the rim.  The Brompton sized tires, a lot of practice is needed before you can install them by yourself.  The first few installs Todd and I had to stretch the tires on together.

After the tires are on the rim, the tabs need to be pushed in underneath the edge of the rim to lock it in place.  The tabs are pushed in with this tool:

There is also another tool that makes this job much easier... it looks like a modified set of channel-locks.

First ride impressions:  the feel very damped and muted, especially before they are broken in (Tannus states that the tires break-in at about 100 miles).  It does feel like it takes more effort to go the same distance or speed as a conventional tire.  I’m going to try to put together some testing to get some quantitative results.

Interbike 2013

Sorry it's been so long, I've just seem to have gotten super busy lately.  In an attempt to try to catch up, I'm just going to crank them out quick and dirty style.

I was lucky enough to go to Interbike in late September which was held at the Mandalay Bay convention center in Las Vegas.  Got to catch up a little with the US Brompton reps, and also met some other characters from Brompton HQ (including Will Butler-Adams).

A couple of cool things that Brompton came out with were different colored saddles and grips, as well as a London Map flap for the S-Bag.

Here is a video (not mine) of the Brompton booth: