Long-time bicycle chain brand KMC has just introduced their new React cassettes in 10-speed and 11-speed versions. First spotted at Eurobike 2023, they’re designed for wide-range 1x and 2x applications, with tooth counts good for road, gravel, and mountain bikes.

At just $65, they’re affordable replacement, option for your trainer, or way to try a different tooth count on the cheap. Perfect for upgrading your kids’ bikes, too. And from the looks of it, you won’t be giving up shift quality to save some coin.

The cogs have dual shifting ramps called Flow Control, smoothing upshift and downshifts. These ramped tooth profiles & thicknesses use varied shapes to guide the chain from cog to cog.

Both KMC REACT versions have two gear range options:

• 10-speed: 11-36T, 11-42T
• 11-speed: 11-42T, 11-50T

They’re optimized for KMC chains, but are compatible with other 10- and 11-speed chains. They fit Shimano HG freehub bodies. Fitting it to a bike built around a smaller cassette? They recommend adding the Wolf Tooth Components Goatlink to increase your derailleur’s capacity for larger cogs.

KMCchain.us

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The new Trek Marlin+ takes their all-purpose alloy hardtail and gives it the Bosch Active Line upgrade. The e-bike variant has all the same features as the analog original, giving you a wide range of use options, from trail to town.

Featuring 2.6″ tires, a 120mm suspension fork, and size-specific wheel selections, the Marlin+ scoots all of that along with a 50Nm mid-mount motor.

It’s a Class 1 e-bike, assisting up to 20mph or 25km/h, depending on market. A bolt-on cover on the non-drive side makes motor service easy, and a protective plate under it makes cable routing simple.

That’s paired with a 400Wh CompactTube battery, augmented with an optional 250Wh PowerMore range extender. Expect 2-4 hours of run time on a full charge, and about 50% more than that with the external battery pack. It uses the slim Bosch Purion display/remote for simple mode switches and easy visuals for power, speed, etc. Switch to Auto mode for automatic assist changes based on terrain, cadence, and your output.

Size medium frames and up get 29″ wheels, small & XS get 27.5″ wheels. All frame sizes get rack and fender mounts, letting you set it up for backroad touring and urban commuting. Or shed the cargo and shred the trail.

Trek Marlin+ Specs & Pricing

Two builds are available, both on the affordable end of Trek’s e-bike lineup.

Marlin+ 8
Shimano Deore 12-speed drivetrain, dropper seatpost, Shimano 4 piston hydraulic disc brakes, 120mm RockShox Recon Silver Air fork, Tubeless Ready wheels and Bontrager Gunnison Pro XR 29×2.6” tires. MSRP $3,499. Also available in gray/silver.

Marlin+ 6
Shimano wide range CUES drivetrain, Shimano Linkglide cassette, Tektro hydraulic brakes with 203mm rotors, 120mm SR Suntour XCM 34 fork, Bontrager Montrose 29”x2.4” tires. MSRP $2,699. Also available in black.

Available now globally in most markets. Prefer the standard version? The analog Trek Marlin got a refresh in 2023.

TrekBikes.com

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If you’re adding a mechanical dropper seatpost on your gravel bike and need a lever to actuate it, WTC has a new option. The new Wolf Tooth ReMote Drop Bar Lever lets you pull cable from any hand position. And it’s compatible with any standard drop bar and most mechanical dropper seatposts.

It mounts inside the bar, out of the way of your brake lever and front shifter (if you’re riding a 2x drivetrain). The design clamps around the drops, and the closure sits away from the lever to keep the thumb and finger paddles closer to the bar.

The lever rotates on two 11mm Enduro cartridge bearings, not bushings. This makes it super smooth, and super solid, with no flex when pushing or pulling.

The cable attaches with a bolt on the bottom of the pivot, and the end tucks in behind the front wing. All parts are available separately, too, sticking with their Right to Repair philosophy.

Weight is 37g, excluding cable and housing. They recommend adding an inline barrel adjuster, it doesn’t have on built in like their mountain bike ReMote dropper levers. MSRP $64.95, black only.

WolfToothComponents.com

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The new Focus VAM² introduces an entirely new suspension design to their e-bike lineup. A new motor and full carbon frame save weight and give them new kinematics to play with for a poppy short travel platform.

Their current touring-oriented Thron² model uses a VPP design, and the JAM² and SAM² use an alloy Horst Link design. The VAM² SL switches to a carbon fiber rear triangle with no rear pivot and flex seatstays. This combo brings the claimed frame weight as low as 2,172g (4.79lbs) for the top spec, and a complete bike weight under 36 pounds!

Frame details & tech

A smaller battery and Fazua’s tiny Ride 60 motor combine with the sleek rear end for a bike that looks very much like an analog bike.

The 430Wh battery should give you plenty of juice, but you can add their 210Wh range extender and plug it in while riding to extend play time.

An integrated mud flap keeps gunk from wedging between the chainstay yoke and BB shell, and frame protection wrap protects the carbon and finish, too.

You can pair the Fazua system with your cycling computer to display cadence and power (as in, your power output in watts). It also pairs with their own app so you can customize the motor’s output per setting.

The Focus VAM² SL gets 125mm rear wheel travel with a stout main pivot and thick chainstays and yoke to keep it torsionally stiff. Up front are 130mm forks, but it’s compatible with 140mm forks, too.

The seatstays are flattened, allowing them to flex as the suspension compresses. These types of pivot-free rear ends typically provide a snappier feel.

The battery display is flat on the top tube, but the power button is integrated into the mode dial on the handlebar.

All cables run through the headset, entering a port under the stem. Split spacers keep it easy to adjust stack height. The top two models (9.9 & 9.0) get Focus’s new 290g one-piece bar stem.

An integrated chain keeper and removable motor cover (which doubles as impact protection) come standard.

Geometry & pricing

An adjustable head angle lets you tune it for the trails at hand. Swapping to a 140mm fork will slacken the head angle by 0.5º.

Complete bikes top out at €10,999 for the top VAM2 SL 9.0 model with a claimed weight of just 16.2kg (35.75lb). The 9.9 (€8,699, 17.5kg) and 9.8 (€6,899, 18.4kg) sit below that. (UPDATED: The weight for the top model was originally written as 31.75lbs, which has been corrected)

The 8.9 (€5,799) model uses a lower level carbon for a 2,545g (5.61lb) frame weight and 19.1kg complete bike weight. Full specs for all models on their website.

Ride.Focus.Bike

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The second generation ARC8 Extra enduro mountain bike introduces a unique sliding linkage, giving it a highly controlled leverage ratio with a very linear coil spring. It also gets the usual geometry refinements, but its the suspension that has us staring.

To understand why their slider is useful, it’ helps to understand where they were coming from with the Extra V1. They say with a traditional linkage system, you have a rocker arm rotating around a pivot as it pushes the shock into compression.

The longer the travel, the more extreme the link’s rotation has to be. Which makes it difficult to achieve a “falling rate” leverage ratio, which means the suspension needs less force to move it deeper into its travel. A falling rate design is useful with air springs because they require progressively more effort to compress as they’re, well, compressed.

Confusing terminology aside, basically a falling rate leverage ratio pushes harder on the shock as it goes deeper into its travel. Which makes it challenging to design a good linkage system on a long-travel bike when you want to use an air-sprung shock.

And it won’t work at all if you wanted to use a coil shock, which compresses in a perfectly linear fashion, since a falling-rate design would blow through that travel faster and faster as it gets deeper and deeper into its travel. But people like coil springs, so ARC8 needed a design that would create progression when paired with a linear coil shock.

And that design is the Extra V2’s Dual Pivot Slider Suspension System, which is adjustable to also work with air shocks.

Basically, the slider acts like an infinitely long rocker arm, which wouldn’t lose its leverage over the shock as it rotates…it just pushes straight forward inline with the shock. The design is somewhat modular…change the shock stroke and you change the travel and the progression. A grease port makes it easy to service without disassembly.

There’s also a flip chip that lets you offset the main pivot to adjust anti-squat, ranging from 102% to 140% at 30% or 35% sag when switching between 27.5″ and 29er rear wheels. This accentuates the more playful nature of a mixed-wheel build, or increases pedaling efficiency in 29er race mode.

They offer three builds, two with the coil shock and MX wheel setup, set at 170mm travel front and rear. The other uses an air shock, 29er wheels, and has 160mm travel. But, you can run it in either travel with either suspension type if you want, these are just the stock build offerings.

Overall, the bike is a bit longer and lower, and now come with size-specific chainstays. The reach is slightly longer, but stack is much higher to keep you looking forward and help you lift the front wheel off the ground. Seat angle is 2º steeper at 78º, which helps center you on the bike and provide a more powerful pedaling position.

They also set the bottom bracket 8mm lower to take advantage of more riders running shorter cranks (and, thus, they recommend running shorter cranks!).

There’s an internal downtube storage box with a sealed cover holding bottle cage mounts. Two pockets are included to hold a tube, tire levers, and mini pump (and keep them from rattling about).

Other features include:

• BSA threaded bottom bracket
• 4-piston post-mount brake mounts for 203mm rotors
• Standard Boost rear axle spacing
• UDH derailleur mount
• 31.6mm seatpost diameter
• 2.5″ max tire size recommended (2.6″ depending on tire)

The new design has a straighter seat tube, too, so you can run longer travel dropper seatposts.

In a refreshing backpedal, they moved away from the prior model’s integrated cable routing through the headset. Now, cables run into the headtube through traditional ports, and the opening for the storage box makes them easy to route through the frame and BB, too.

It comes with an adjustable chainguide, plus thick rubber protection on the chainstay and downtube. It may look slim and light (frame weight is just 1,545g raw), but it’s rated for use on the toughest courses and bike parks. Total frame weight painted with all hardware and a Fox Float X Factory rear shock is 2,550g.

ARC8bicycles.com

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Never one to miss a beat on new groups, the Kogel Kolossos GRX gives you an oversized pulley cage option for Shimano’s latest 12-speed GRX gravel group.

It uses a similar alloy cage construction as their others, but Kogel says this is their stiffest cage design yet. Inside are a 14-tooth upper pulley and 18-tooth lower, both rolling on ceramic bearings with low-drag road seals. Switch to their ‘cross seals for wet riding conditions.

The overall length of the Kolossos is within a few mm of the stock cage, so ground clearance remains similar, but you may need to add a bit of chain length, depending on your setup. Stock Shimano GRX RX820 derailleur pulleys both have 13 teeth, so the Kolossos GRX kit will require more chain wrap.

It comes in gold, red, and black. MSRP $475, available now.

Kogel.cc

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KS hasn’t kept their new GTC gravel suspension fork a secret. It was on display in prototype form at Sea Otter in 2021, which looked completely different.

Then they showed it in near final form at Taipei Cycle Show in March 2023, along with a wireless dropper and inverted MTB fork concept. Now, finally, it’s official and available.

The KS GTC gravel fork has alloy dropouts bonded into carbon fiber legs and brake arch on the lowers, with an AL6066-T6 forged alloy crown and steerer. That combo gives it a reasonably low weight of 1,385g (claimed).

Travel is fixed at 40mm with an air spring and 30mm stanchions. Tire clearance is rated for 700x50mm, letting you fit the biggest rubber in there. It’s compatible with 160-180mm brake rotors, flat-mount rotors only.

Adjustments include external low-speed compression with a lockout lever on top, and a rebound adjuster on the bottom.

The KS GTC fork is rated for e-gravel bike use, too, and comes with a stealth thru-axle with a hidden, slide-out lever. Here’s a quick recap of the specs:

• AL6066-T6 crown, steerer & dropouts
• High Modulus carbon lowers and brake arch
• 30mm stanchions
• 40mm travel
• 46mm offset
• Axle to Crown is 435mm
• 700×50 tire clearance
• Tapered steerer
• External compression & rebound dials w/ locket

All this, and the MSRP is only $599. For the US, it’s available through dealers or direct from Bikefy.us.

KSsuspension.com

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In November 2022, Colnago unveiled a limited run of custom painted C68 road bikes painted by Motoki Yoshio, a Japanese artist living in Italy. Behind the scenes, though, they had a secret one-off version, too…

When Colnago is planning a limited edition bike, of which they do plenty, they try out different paint schemes directly on frames to see how they look in real life. With this one, they tried both gloss and matte finishes for Yoshio’s multi-hued design.

The gloss version won the vote, so the matte version was gifted to a higher up at Colnago. Now, still unridden, it has been built up with Campagnolo Super Record Wireless with Bora Ultra wheels bedazzled with gold sparkle decals. And it’s up for auction at Sotheby’s. Have a look, then get ready to place your bid…

The complete bike is a size 51. It comes with the one-piece Colnago CC.01 handlebar-and-stem, fully integrated routing, Selle Italia SLR Super Flow Carbon saddle, and Pirelli P-Zero Race tires. It comes with their blockchain-enabled proof of ownership, and like a rare NFT, it’s a true 1-of-1. This bike is the only one in existence with a matte version of this paint scheme.

It’s a sealed auction with an anticipated closing price between $25,000 and $30,000. The auction closes this Friday, January 26th, full details and link to place your bid at Sotheby’s.

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The latest limited edition colorway for Cane Creek is a Saran Texture finish in deep shades of green and bronze, colorshifting depending on light and angle. It comes on Helm MKII forks and eeWings titanium cranks. The painting process means each one is unique, and they’re available separately or together.

The Helm MKII Aurora comes in 29er only, with 44mm offset and your choice of air or coil springs. It comes set at 160mm travel, but is easily user-adjustable from 100-160mm for air, and 130-160mm for coil. Claimed weights are 2,080g for air, 2,340g for coil. MSRP $1,099, available while supplies last.

The eeWings Aurora come in 165mm and 170mm lengths for MTB and in 170mm and 172.5mm lengths for All-Road. They come with custom-cut clear vinyl to protect the finish, but it’s still paint (not anodized), so it will wear and chip over time. MSRP is $1,199, weights from 396g (all-road) and 400g (MTB).

CaneCreek.com

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Got a Wolf Tooth Components Remote Pro dropper lever but wish it were more colorful? Or been holding out because black ain’t your thing? Well, now they’ve got you covered.

The Remote Pro can now be had in one of nine colors – purple, silver (raw), espresso, blue, gold, olive, orange, red, and… black. It comes attached to a clamp for standard handlebars (22.2mm I.D.), with a universal design that works with most any brand dropper seatpost.

It spins on a cam, pulling more cable at first to get things going quickly, and the whole thing is highly adjustable with lots of different direct-mount compatibility with lots of different brake brands.

Already got the Remote Pro? Just add the lever blade for $19.95, it bolts on in under a minute.

WolfToothComponents.com

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