Tech Gallery: What’s new out there at Interbike?

We're constantly asked at tradeshows like Interbike, "What's new out there?" by reps chained to their booths. As our former tech editor-turned-PR man Nick Legan said last week, it's amazing how little you see when you stick to a single booth for the brand you're representing. Here is a collection of eye-catchers we couldn't stop talking about last week.

It's the little things that make a bike. These tubeless valves from American Classic are designed to prevent sealant from getting congested and at $14 a pair, they'll brighten up any wheelset. Photo: Logan VonBokel | VeloNews.com

The Hincapie Pacific rain vest is waterproof and breathable. Hincapie insists that its material will not yellow or wear out as traditional plastic rain capes tend to. Photo: Logan VonBokel | VeloNews.com

Thule introduced the Sprint and the Circuit bike trays. The Sprint (left), tightens onto the fork tabs by twisting the nose cone, which works like a gas cap or and clicks once you've tightened to the pre-set torque. The rear wheel clasp telescopes to accommodate long wheelbases or your car's hatchback. Photo: Logan VonBokel | VeloNews.com

Park Tool is celebrating its 50th anniversary with some special edition tools. This polished three way even has gold-plated bits. Photo: Logan VonBokel | VeloNews.com

Shimano is bringing the CX-75 road disc brakes to market just in time for ’cross season. They're lighter than most other options and should be available this month. Photo: Logan VonBokel | VeloNews.com

Accelerometers in the Ice Dot can tell when you've crashed and send a text message to your emergency contacts that includes your GPS coordinates, viewable as a location on their smartphones' maps. You can set the impact force required to set the unit off with your phone. The Dot itself is $200 and an annual subscription is only $10. Photo: Caley Fretz | VeloNews.com

American Classic has a nice wide range of road tubeless wheels for 2013, but what really intrigues us are those two little hooks on the rim bed of each rim. The Bead Barbs, as they have been dubbed, apparently allow you to run regular road tires tubeless, according to American Classic. The company also raises the rim bed a bit for a tighter fit. Without having tested it ourselves we can't confirm the system's safety, but we'll look to do so soon. Photo: Caley Fretz | VeloNews.com

The 2013 Cervélo line looks flat-out awesome. The S5 in particular takes a solid step up from last year and€” somehow Cervelo has hidden the ugly-as-sin head tube, reversing the "begging dog" look and making the aero frame look as fast as it rides. The R3 and P5 are lookers this year as well. Photo: Caley Fretz | VeloNews.com

Giro made a concerted effort to graphically tie all of its women's apparel and gear together for 2013, including women's-specific helmets, shoes, caps, gloves, socks and more. The designs range from girly to nearly unisex, so should have wide appeal. Photo: Caley Fretz | VeloNews.com

The StageOne power meter adds only 20 grams to a regular left crankarm and can be had for as little as $700 with a Shimano 105 crankarm. The price goes up with more expensive cranks. Accuracy will be slightly lower than a spider-based power meter, but repeatability should be spot on (which is far more important) and at less than half the price, the new Stages meter could be a game changer. Photo: Caley Fretz | VeloNews.com

The SpeedSleev SeatSleev holds all the requisite repair essentials securely and, more importantly, up away from your monster thighs with no velcro strap around the seatpost to rip holes in your shorts. Photo: Caley Fretz | VeloNews.com

File this one under "things you never thought could be remotely interesting, but are." Blackburn's new Sideroller bottle cage is a side-entry cage that is adjustable for left- or right-handed entry via the same screws that mount the cage to your bike (note the slots in the curved bit). Great news for people with tiny frames and indecisive ambidexterity. Photo: Caley Fretz | VeloNews.com

FSA's 1720-gram K-Wing carbon-alloy clincher wheelset features bladed spokes and adjustable CNC machined hubs, with a 42mm rim height and 21mm width, and retails for $1050. Photo: Neal Rogers | VeloNews.com

Bianchi's Vertigo is the Italian brand's price-point carbon road bike. The $2000 red/black version comes with Shimano 105; the Celeste/black version comes with a Campagnolo Veloce groupset and retails for $2400. Photo: Neal Rogers | VeloNews.com

Vision's latest deep-dish all carbon tubular wheelset, the Metreon 81, weighs in at 1,590 grams (before quick release skewers) and comes with six sealed ceramic cartridge bearings mounted on a 17mm hub axle. Minimum tire requirement of 23mm. Retail price is $2200. Photo: Neal Rogers | VeloNews.com

Green Guru makes all manner of bags and pouches out of recycled inner tubes. Better, yet, its Interbike sewing machine runs off of a car battery recharged by pedaling a bicycle on a trainer. Photo: Lennard Zinn | VeloNews.com

For true adventures far from external power sources, you can have a third Di2 battery integrated into the seatpost, something Calfee has been doing for some time. That’s the charger port on the front. The company offers numerous options for charge ports, auxiliary battery placements and adaptors to power electronic accessories like Garmins and cell phones. Photo: Lennard Zinn | VeloNews.com

Two Di2 batteries and integrated wiring: Calfee’s stem/bar has a battery in either end of the handlebar. Twist the right-hand carbon end plug clockwise, and the right battery runs the system. Twist it one click counterclockwise to turn the system off, and twist it one more click counterclockwise to switch to powering the system from the left battery. The Garmin mount is not only integrated into the stem/bar, but so is its wiring, so it charges off of the Di2 batteries in the ends of the bar. This particular model has standard wiring coming out externally from the stem before disappearing into the frame through a grommet and an external Di2 interface, but “super clean” routing through the steerer tube directly into the top tube is also available. Pricing is TBD on all of the Calfee stem/bars with integrated electronics. Photo: Lennard Zinn | VeloNews.com

This Calfee carbon bar/stem has a Campagnolo EPS Power Unit (battery and circuit board “brain” of the EPS system) and EPS interface unit built into it. There are ports in the side of the stem for the EPS shutoff magnet and underneath for the charger plug. Indicator lights on both the Campagnolo EPS Power Unit’s and EPS interface shine right through the carbon. This stem is built onto an ENVE stem, whose center section has been chopped out and replaced by the EPS electronic parts, and then Calfee builds a new, flaring-out stem shaft around them. It saves 20 grams off of a standard EPS Power Unit with an ENVE cockpit. This unit features Calfee’s “super clean” routing of the EPS wires through the steering tube directly into the top tube. Photo: Lennard Zinn | VeloNews.com

The Body Float suspension seatpost by Cirrus Cycles has two coil springs and features straight vertical travel with no damping — just isolation from bumps. It claims to increase traction while “levitating the rider over the ground” without taking away ground feel the way damped posts do. A quick test on bumpy rollers on the show floor proved promising. Photo: Lennard Zinn | VeloNews.com

Scott Peterson is molding warm orthotic material to my foot, which is supported on CycleSoles’ soft platform. My left knee is held fixed in proper alignment above my foot by the white, V-shaped prongs that slide up and down on the black steel rod visible in front of my left hand. Notice how the rod (and hence my knee) is aligned with the vertical red line of laser light established by the laser on the tripod in the foreground. Retail price at certified bike shops and fit studios for a pair of these is $200. Photo: Lennard Zinn | VeloNews.com

With two Tecno 3 twist closures, the Sidi Drako Carbon SRS competition mountain bike shoe loses 100 grams/pair off of the weight of the Dragon carbon-soled model that was the top of the line until now. And that is without losing many features others omit in order to make superlight shoes, like an adjustable heel cup that snugs up with a screwdriver to fit perfectly around the Achilles tendon, built-in toe protectors, replaceable sole lugs, and a replaceable cleat plate to protect against damage from the pedal wire loops or clips. The Drako’s Tecno 3 twist closures can be micro-adjusted when tightened too tightly by alternately pressing the little tabs on each side to step the tension on the draw cords back one click of the dial at a time. The braided synthetic cord that it pulls is more supple than the monofilament line of earlier Sidi twist closures. Photo: Lennard Zinn | VeloNews.com