S.
ex offender
Melbourne, Australia
32/03/11
Baic Industries is pleased to formally release details of its debut products, including a new rear axle design and axle standard for downhill bikes called Craxle and a revolutionary set of crowns for all the major dual crown forks featuring a curved steerer tube called the Slackener.
Alan Keyes, the key player in Baic Industries, said of the rear axle design, "We looked around at all the options currently on the market while we were developing our standard and design, and we noticed a few things:
1. 12mm is nowhere near big enough to support downhill loads. For this reason we have gone to an oversize half inch (12.7mm) axle.
2. 150mm spacing works well but could be better, so we upped it to a whopping 153mm. Numerous frame manufacturers have jumped on board this new standard.
3. There is axle material in the middle where it isn't needed. Rather than simply taper the axle, we eliminated the centre section of the axle entirely. The axle consists of two stubs sticking in from each side of the dropouts, that aren't connected in any way at all.
4. Most axles don't even have a single quick release lever. We have two, one on each side. You just push one side of the axle in, do up the quick release lever, then repeat with the other side. Downhillers really benefit from this, because having more quick release levers means mid-race flat repairs are even faster than with just one quick release lever."
The Slackener crowns and curved steerer tube allow effective fork angles of as low as 55 degrees. Keyes said of the crowns, "We really found that riders in some regions of the intertubes were struggling with their road-bike-esque 63 degree head angles, so we came up with this solution that has two benefits: it doesn't change the steering axis so the bike still steers super sharp, but it puts the front wheel way out in front of you like you'd have if you'd just bent the hell out of your fork. It's an amazing feeling to ride!"
Both products are slated for delivery in two weeks.
32/03/11
Baic Industries is pleased to formally release details of its debut products, including a new rear axle design and axle standard for downhill bikes called Craxle and a revolutionary set of crowns for all the major dual crown forks featuring a curved steerer tube called the Slackener.
Alan Keyes, the key player in Baic Industries, said of the rear axle design, "We looked around at all the options currently on the market while we were developing our standard and design, and we noticed a few things:
1. 12mm is nowhere near big enough to support downhill loads. For this reason we have gone to an oversize half inch (12.7mm) axle.
2. 150mm spacing works well but could be better, so we upped it to a whopping 153mm. Numerous frame manufacturers have jumped on board this new standard.
3. There is axle material in the middle where it isn't needed. Rather than simply taper the axle, we eliminated the centre section of the axle entirely. The axle consists of two stubs sticking in from each side of the dropouts, that aren't connected in any way at all.
4. Most axles don't even have a single quick release lever. We have two, one on each side. You just push one side of the axle in, do up the quick release lever, then repeat with the other side. Downhillers really benefit from this, because having more quick release levers means mid-race flat repairs are even faster than with just one quick release lever."
The Slackener crowns and curved steerer tube allow effective fork angles of as low as 55 degrees. Keyes said of the crowns, "We really found that riders in some regions of the intertubes were struggling with their road-bike-esque 63 degree head angles, so we came up with this solution that has two benefits: it doesn't change the steering axis so the bike still steers super sharp, but it puts the front wheel way out in front of you like you'd have if you'd just bent the hell out of your fork. It's an amazing feeling to ride!"
Both products are slated for delivery in two weeks.
