celebrities on bikes
https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.362651217113309.84668.356675367710894&type=1
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Cavalerie brings belt drive to full-suspension mountain bikes
By Ben Coxworth April 3, 2014
The Cavalerie Anakine enduro bike
Dirty, noisy chains and dirty, fragile rear derailleurs are two features of modern mountain bikes that could certainly stand to be made obsolete. Well, the Cavalerie line of full-suspension MTBs does away with both, replacing them with a Gates Carbon belt drive and an Effigear gearbox. Launched last year in its native France, Cavalerie is about to get a boost in profile, as it commences distribution in North America.
The Cavalerie Falcon downhill bike The Falcon features 200 mm of fork travel and the choice of a 6- or 7-speed gearbox The Effigear gearbox is protected on the bottom by a carbon fiber plate The Effigear's integrated suspension pivots allow it to be used with a belt drive on full-...View all
The Gates belt drive is popping up with increasing frequency on a variety of types of bicycles, as it's much smoother and quieter than a chain, plus it doesn't require lubrication or cleaning. It can't be used with traditional derailleurs, however, which limits its applications to either single-speeds or bikes with non-derailleur gearing systems.
One such system is the Effigear. It's actually been in development since 2004, although it arrived at its present incarnation relatively recently. If it looks at all familiar, it's because it resembles the Pinion gearbox, which is already available on a number of mountain bikes.
Like the Pinion, its advantages over a rear derailleur include the facts that it's sealed against external contamination, it requires very little maintenance, it's much less subject to damage (there's no bendable bit hanging down), gears can be shifted while the bike isn't being pedaled, and it moves weight from the end of the bike to the middle, for better stability and less unsprung weight. That last point is one of the reasons we don't see more sealed hub transmissions on mountain bikes.
Also like the Pinion, however, it's heavier than a derailleur, plus it must be built into the frame – it can't just be added to an existing bike, or swapped with something else.
A look inside the Effigear gearbox
A look inside the Effigear gearbox
One of the differences between the two is the 444-percent 9-speed (maximum) gear ratio on the Effigear, as opposed to 636 percent and 18 speeds on the Pinion. The Effigear, however, can utilize three types of shifters (trigger, sequential twist or traditional twist), as opposed to the Pinion's one. More importantly for the Cavalerie bikes, the Effigear's integrated suspension pivots allow it to be used with a belt drive on full-suspension bikes – the Pinion can only be paired with a belt drive on hardtails, except for a clever exception or two.
As for the bikes themselves, there are three models: the 37.25-lb (16.9-kg) Falcon downhill bike, that features 200 mm of fork travel and the choice of a 6- or 7-speed gearbox; the 36.5-lb (16.6-kg) Squirrel freeride, with 185 mm and nine speeds; and the 31.5-lb (14.3-kg) Anakine enduro, with 160 mm of travel and 650b-sized wheels. Pricing for the Anakine has yet to be announced, but the Falcon and Squirrel are available to American and Canadian buyers now, both for US$5,750. They're available through Philthy Bikes, which is handling North American distribution.
If you want to check them out in person, they'll be making their stateside debut at the Sea Otter Classic festival and expo, from April 10 to 13 in Monterey, California.
... and just for the record, Cavalerie isn't the only manufacturer to have adopted the Effigear gearbox. It's also found on full-suspension bikes made by Germany's Nicolai Bikes, among others.
http://www.nicolai.net/
Sources: Philthy Bikes, Gates Carbon Drive, Cavalerie Bikes
http://www.philthybikes.com/
http://blog.carbondrivesystems.com/?p=6699
http://www.cavalerie-bikes.com/#!home-en/c24p2
http://www.gizmag.com/cavalerie-effigear-belt-drive-mountain-bikes/31492/
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ChocaByte promises 3D chocolate printing for US$99
By Heidi Hoopes April 3, 2014
The $99 ChocaByte promises small 3D-printed chocolates
If you’ve been keeping an eye out for a 3D chocolate printer, you probably know that there’s currently not much on the market. Foodini is in its Kickstarter phase and the ChefBot doesn’t print in chocolate. However, the ChocaByte 3D chocolate printer that debuted at this year's CES has since been offered at a special price of US$99 on a limited run of 500 printers, before heading to mass production in its home country of Australia.
Earlier prototype of the ChocaByte 3D printer, which slightly resembles a food processor
Details on the ChocaByte are currently slim and the company Solid Idea didn’t respond to inquiries. We do know that the chocolate will need to be purchased in cartridges from the company (four for $10) and the machine is supposed to be easy to work with.
The company’s library of chocolate printing templates will start in the “hundreds” and users can upload their own designs. Presumably users wouldn’t need CAD skills to benefit from the ChocaByte, and the company also plans on offering a design application for the printer.
The printed chocolates will be small with a print space of 2 x 2 x 1 in (5 x 5 x 2.5 cm), and print time is expected to be less than 10 minutes.
According to an automated email from Solid Idea, the special introductory price of $99 has already been fulfilled to 500 consumers, presumably with at least some of those consumers never having seen a final printed product. The same email offered the expectation of an official launch date of the last quarter of 2014. Limited-run printers will begin to ship in one to three months, according to the website.
Source: ChocaByte
http://www.solididea.com/
http://www.gizmag.com/chocabyte-promises-3d-chocolate-printing-for-us99/31430/
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