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By Hand is the Way: Cane Creek Components Factory Visit

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By Hand is the Way: Cane Creek Components Factory Visit

Just south of Asheville, NC, in the town of Fletcher, is the Cane Creek Cycling Components headquarters. Backed up to the Blue Ridge Mountains, it’s here that they assemble all of their suspension forks, shocks, and brakes by hand and continue to carry the torch of design innovation lit by their predecessor, Dia-Compe USA. Photographer Steve West is back from a factory tour and shares about the Cane Creek process below.

Spring Ahead: Why Cane Creek’s New Smaller IL Shocks Are a Big Deal

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Spring Ahead: Why Cane Creek’s New Smaller IL Shocks Are a Big Deal

About a month ago, we were fixin’ to publish a long-term review of the Coil IL shock Travis Engel has been running, problem-free, since 2021. But that model is six years old, and we got a whiff of something new on the horizon. And today, we finally get to look and whiff, because Cane Creek just dropped news of the updated Coil IL and Air IL. We’ll break down what’s new, what’s not, and why it matters.

Soften the Ride: A Review of the Mosaic x TPC GT-2 45 with Cane Creek eeSilk Components

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Soften the Ride: A Review of the Mosaic x TPC GT-2 45 with Cane Creek eeSilk Components

When the summer months roll through Santa Fe, my drop bar bikes tend to get hung on the wall in favor of my flat bar mountain and touring bikes. The main reason is that our “gravel” in town is exposed, hot, and windy. Rather than battle the elements on gravel roads, we escape from town into tree cover and savor our luscious singletrack. 

So when we released The Radavist edition Mosaic bikes, both in the GT-2X and GT-2 45 models, I had my friends at The Pro’s Closet hold onto a size 58cm GT-2 45 mechanical bike for me to ride this winter. In the interim, I did my best to “soften the ride” by incorporating Cane Creek‘s popular eeSilk components.

Well, I’ve spent some time riding the bike, both in Santa Fe and down in Southern Arizona, and am ready to spew my thoughts in a fully-detailed review, so let’s get to it!

Josh Reviews His Mash-Up Sklar Sweet Spot: The Sweet Jammer

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Josh Reviews His Mash-Up Sklar Sweet Spot: The Sweet Jammer

The Sweet Spot from Bozeman, MT-based Sklar Bikes is a steel hardtail mountain bike designed to be a venerable quiver-killer. Built around 150mm of front suspension, with clearance for up to 29 x 2.8 tires, its geometry embraces builder Adam Sklar’s mantra of “fast is fun, but fun is fun-er.” Sweet Spots were Adam’s first foray into offering a small batch frame design and sizing, which he hopes will make his bikes more accessible and faster to produce.

I picked up a Sweet Spot of my own earlier this spring after many years of searching for the perfect hardtail. Due to a few requests I had to make it even sweeter, it turned into a custom project that retained the established Sweet Spot geometry and material selection. Below, let’s take a closer look at my build in addition to a brief interview with Adam about these bikes and his design/build process!

The 2021 Pisgah Project Bike Raffle Supports The Pisgah Conservancy

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The 2021 Pisgah Project Bike Raffle Supports The Pisgah Conservancy

In 2021, parts and bikes are hard to come by and that’s why fundraising and conservation projects like this are all the more relevant these days. A handful of bike companies, Cane Creek Cycling Components, Industry Nine, Thomson Bike Products, Continental Tires, fizik, and Crank Brothers, came together to put on a fundraiser for The Pisgah Conservancy. Read on below for how you can win the 2021 Pisgah Project Bike Raffle…

Cane Creek’s New eeSilk+ Offers 35mm of Damping

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Cane Creek’s New eeSilk+ Offers 35mm of Damping

This morning Cane Creek announced its new, longer travel eeSilk+ suspension seat posts. Available in carbon or allow, these posts make great enhancements to gravel or mixed surface bikes by reducing the chatter transmitted from the surface to the rider and can be tuned to rider weight through a simple elastomer change. #5 elastomer comes pre-installed, other weight elastomers sold separately. They come in 27.2 and 31.6 mm options, fitting most gravel or mixed surface bikes and carry a max rider weight of 250lbs.

See all the details at Cane Creek.

eeBrakes Announce El Tornado Limited Edition Colorway

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eeBrakes Announce El Tornado Limited Edition Colorway

Look, I know rim brakes aren’t exactly in vogue anymore but if you happen to have a rim brake road bike and are looking to upgrade your brakes, then the eeBrakes are a prime candidate. The latest limited edition eeBrakes were just announced today in El Tornado blue and black. These brakes are available in direct mount and standard mount, come with carbon and standard brake pads and are shipping in July. See all the details at Cane Creek.

Cane Creek’s eeSilk Suspension Post Gets a Revamp

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Cane Creek’s eeSilk Suspension Post Gets a Revamp

eeSilk aluminum left, eeSilk carbon right

Cane Creek just announced some updates to the eeSilk 20mm travel seat post. There is now a 27.2mm and 31.6mm diameter post in both aluminum ($199 375mm length) and carbon ($299 350mm length). These new eeSilk posts have an 8mm offset, come with new 300 series stainless steel axles, and have a 250lb rider weight limit.

Weight
-eeSilk – 27.2mm – 345g; 31.6mm- 350g
-eeSilk Carbon – 27.2mm – 295g; 31.6mm – 305g

Materials/construction
-eeSilk – Aluminum Shaft, 300 series stainless steel axles, stainless steel hardware
-eeSilk Carbon – Carbon shaft, 300 series stainless steel axles, titanium hardware

See more at Cane Creek.

Curtis Inglis’ Titanium Retrotec with ENVE Foundation AG25 Gravel Wheels

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Curtis Inglis’ Titanium Retrotec with ENVE Foundation AG25 Gravel Wheels

I don’t know about you all but personally, I miss seeing off-the-wall crazy custom bikes at the various tradeshows. With the pandemic canceling the 2020 and most likely 2021 dates for various open houses and NAHBS, I’ve just accepted the fact that those balleur bicycle gallery shoots will have to wait. That said, when projects like this fall into my lap, I’m more than excited to take some extra time documenting them.

ENVE launched their Foundation Gravel wheels last week and in a perfect world, a press-camp was supposed to happen in Arizona to test out those wheels. ENVE planned on pinging various builders to fabricate the chassis for their full gravel lineup. One of those builders was Retrotec and Curtis went overboard for the event, building a handful of titanium frames alongside Oscar Camarena of Simple Bike Company. When the press camp wasn’t happening, Curtis decided he’d send this bike out for me to document. He needed photos for his website and I won’t say no to content like this…

Cane Creek: Small Batch 2020 IPA Brown Anodizing Helm and Hellbender

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Cane Creek: Small Batch 2020 IPA Brown Anodizing Helm and Hellbender

As part of this year’s Small Batch special edition project, Cane Creek announced their “IPA” collection, inspired by the pale ales that the breweries around Asheville, NC makes in house. Cane Creek took their products and coated them in a deep, rich brown anodizing, including their Hellbender bottom brackets, headsets and Helm MKii. Head to Cane Creek to see more and your local dealer to order but you better act fast, these will sell out quickly!

eeBrakes Goes Cyan and Magenta

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eeBrakes Goes Cyan and Magenta

Cyan and magenta are two of the three primary colors and every color can be made from a combination of those three hues. As such, they are very flashy when displayed on their own and that’s what Cane Creek is banking on with the latest rendition of the eeBrakes. Got a rim brake bike you want some added bling on? Look no further… see more at Cane Creek.