Friday News And Views

The Cane Creek eeSilk stem utilizes a clever elastomer set up.

Cane Creek Adds eeSilk Stem To Compliment Their Seatpost:

Last week before I went to Emporia I noticed the news on the new Cane Creek eeSilk Stem. It is another elastomeric based spring, minimalist travel stem engineered for vibration reduction, much like the vaunted Redshift Sports ShockStop stem.

Elastomers are tunable via a clever through-bolt design which places the elastomer material into puzzle-like slots and pockets on top and bottom, near to the stem pivot point placement, which is just ahead of the steer tube.

The stem also has a 'Soft/Firm' switch just ahead of the steer tube junction. This lever stiffens up the stem for harder efforts, or when you do not need so much of the vibration eating capabilities. Stems come in three lengths- 80mm, 90mm, and 100mm, and for a limited time, a "Launch Edition" will be offered which will be in polished anodized silver aluminum. Stems all retail for $229.00 and are available on Cane Creek's site. Note: Images shown courtesy of Cane Creek.

The "Launch Edition" will be offered for a limited time only.

Comments: This is probably going to be a pretty decent stem and I expect it to work well. Obviously, I have not ridden one, yet- I hope to get my hands on one to test. That said, I don't expect it to be a whole lot different from an experiential point of view than what I feel from a Redshift stem. 

That lever! I assume it works on a cam which preloads the elastomers, but I don't know that yet. At any rate, this is an intriguing feature of the eeSilk Stem since it could be used to set it up differently than I would set up a Redshift stem. 

For instance, I could go with a slightly too soft of a set up initially. (Assuming Cane Creek offers several elastomers to swap out, as Redshift does) This would then make the lever a way to set the stem for most of my riding, and then when the going got really rough, I could flip that lever for that section, and then back again when I hit smoother gravel or pavement. You cannot do that with a Redshift stem.

Otherwise the Redshift stem is pretty on par with this, and I think it looks better than the eeSilk stem. This Cane Creek offering telegraphs its intentions pretty much on first glance, while that Redshift stem looks like a regular stem unless you get up real close. Furthermore; Redshift offers more options in length than the Cane Creek stem, and Redshift has a rider stem version as well. 

But this is still a good option. I think it will do well in the market, and any suspension stem like this or the Redshift is miles less money, less maintenance, and far lighter than a 40-50mm travel, telescopic suspension fork, or a Lauf fork. Plus you can easily swap it over to another bike.

FNLD GRVL isn't the only gravel game in Finland.

Formula 1 Star Announces Partnership With SBT GRVL To Promote Event In Finland:

Okay.....hold on a minute here. Did anyone ever have an F-1 racing star putting on a gravel road event on their bingo card? No way! Again- I'm just blown away by what is happening in gravel events now days. Just mind-blowing.

Anyway, last week this news blew up all over the net, so I am covering it here now. Valterri Botas, the famed driver in F-1 racing, has announced that he is putting on an event in his home country of Finland in 2023 and has partnered up in this effort with the SBT GRVL folks out in Colorado. 

Bottas was in attendance at SBT GRVL last year and was smitten by the event, its atmosphere, and the format. He has previously put on duathlons in his home country, so he is no stranger to event promotions. Bottas hinted last year at SBT GRVL that he was interested in doing this, thus the connection with that US based event. 

The event will be dubbed FNLD GRVL, of course, and will happen in the Fall in Lahti Finland. This perked up my ears because I've heard that cities' name and gravel mentioned together before. After a short Google search I was reminded that yes- Lahti is home to one of the Nordic Gravel Series events. So, I have no idea whether or not Bottas is aware of that, but we will see if there is a merger of the two events or if they stay separated. Whatever the case may be, that gravel cycling is on an F-1 driver's radar is pretty crazy to me. 

Unbound Gravel Comments: 

Last weekend Unbound Gravel happened again. I paid a bit of attention as several folks I knew were involved. There were a few notable things which I saw that I thought I would comment on.

One: There was an unfortunate fatality the evening before the event on Friday. According to authorities, a 61 year old Colorado man collided with a truck driven by a local man at an intersection on a gravel road West of Emporia. 

I have actually ridden the road the man died on, and it is fairly unremarkable as far as any features that might make an intersection dangerous. It is a puzzling accident, and without any other hard data, I cannot say more. Certainly it was a tragedy and I wish all the comfort and peace for the family and friends of the deceased rider.

This brings up an important, and very overlooked point. The gravel roads around Emporia are now rife with cyclists three days out from the event and more than a few "tune-up" rides are occurring now then ever before.  One has to wonder how this affects the areas citizens, who are not used to this, and what, if anything, should Life Time be doing to aid in keeping the chaos limited. I mean, this is happening out there because of their event. How long will it be before we see more trouble and how long will locals be willing to put up with riders riding two and three abreast with no indications of deferring to traffic on narrow gravel roads? (Something I witnessed with my adventure with Erik)  I think the onus here is on all parties involved, and the wild growth of this event, without consideration for how side effects are possibly engendering negative outcomes, is something that needs to be addressed.

Two: The weather played a factor in the event, but it was one of the fastest 200's ever. What gives? Well, less heat, that's one thing. It wasn't very warm and the Sun was shrouded for most of the event. Crashes and mechanicals were common due to the mud and rough roads. Given the unusually cooler,  favorable weather, (minus the mud and rain, of course),  it makes sense to me. Get out there on a typically hot, windy day of 200 miles of Flint Hills gravel and you'd see a different result. Also- see my next point for why this event was faster.

Three: Pit stops and support. Originally the event in Emporia was completely self-supported by the rider. Then as numbers of riders grew, a support system at checkpoints was allowed. Only in the designated area could a rider get support, and outside that it was forbidden. But now? 

Checking social media it was easy to find road side rider assistance happening and full-on rider pit stops, ala cyclo cross or 24hr racing, were commonplace for front runners at checkpoints. Riders were pretty much availing themselves of full-on mini-tune-ups, having folks put food in their jersey pockets for them, and hustling them in and out of checkpoints within minutes. This is not my opinion. You can see this on social media.

That wasn't how it was done originally, so you really cannot compare times from, say anything pre-2019 to this. (Maybe Pre-2017?) Anyway, the nature of how the race is executed up front now days is full-on supported, and is 1000% different than how this event was conceived to be in the beginning. 

That's a wrap for this week. Have a safe and fun weekend!

Friday News And Views

The Cane Creek eeSilk stem utilizes a clever elastomer set up.

Cane Creek Adds eeSilk Stem To Compliment Their Seatpost:

Last week before I went to Emporia I noticed the news on the new Cane Creek eeSilk Stem. It is another elastomeric based spring, minimalist travel stem engineered for vibration reduction, much like the vaunted Redshift Sports ShockStop stem.

Elastomers are tunable via a clever through-bolt design which places the elastomer material into puzzle-like slots and pockets on top and bottom, near to the stem pivot point placement, which is just ahead of the steer tube.

The stem also has a 'Soft/Firm' switch just ahead of the steer tube junction. This lever stiffens up the stem for harder efforts, or when you do not need so much of the vibration eating capabilities. Stems come in three lengths- 80mm, 90mm, and 100mm, and for a limited time, a "Launch Edition" will be offered which will be in polished anodized silver aluminum. Stems all retail for $229.00 and are available on Cane Creek's site. Note: Images shown courtesy of Cane Creek.

The "Launch Edition" will be offered for a limited time only.

Comments: This is probably going to be a pretty decent stem and I expect it to work well. Obviously, I have not ridden one, yet- I hope to get my hands on one to test. That said, I don't expect it to be a whole lot different from an experiential point of view than what I feel from a Redshift stem. 

That lever! I assume it works on a cam which preloads the elastomers, but I don't know that yet. At any rate, this is an intriguing feature of the eeSilk Stem since it could be used to set it up differently than I would set up a Redshift stem. 

For instance, I could go with a slightly too soft of a set up initially. (Assuming Cane Creek offers several elastomers to swap out, as Redshift does) This would then make the lever a way to set the stem for most of my riding, and then when the going got really rough, I could flip that lever for that section, and then back again when I hit smoother gravel or pavement. You cannot do that with a Redshift stem.

Otherwise the Redshift stem is pretty on par with this, and I think it looks better than the eeSilk stem. This Cane Creek offering telegraphs its intentions pretty much on first glance, while that Redshift stem looks like a regular stem unless you get up real close. Furthermore; Redshift offers more options in length than the Cane Creek stem, and Redshift has a rider stem version as well. 

But this is still a good option. I think it will do well in the market, and any suspension stem like this or the Redshift is miles less money, less maintenance, and far lighter than a 40-50mm travel, telescopic suspension fork, or a Lauf fork. Plus you can easily swap it over to another bike.

FNLD GRVL isn't the only gravel game in Finland.

Formula 1 Star Announces Partnership With SBT GRVL To Promote Event In Finland:

Okay.....hold on a minute here. Did anyone ever have an F-1 racing star putting on a gravel road event on their bingo card? No way! Again- I'm just blown away by what is happening in gravel events now days. Just mind-blowing.

Anyway, last week this news blew up all over the net, so I am covering it here now. Valterri Botas, the famed driver in F-1 racing, has announced that he is putting on an event in his home country of Finland in 2023 and has partnered up in this effort with the SBT GRVL folks out in Colorado. 

Bottas was in attendance at SBT GRVL last year and was smitten by the event, its atmosphere, and the format. He has previously put on duathlons in his home country, so he is no stranger to event promotions. Bottas hinted last year at SBT GRVL that he was interested in doing this, thus the connection with that US based event. 

The event will be dubbed FNLD GRVL, of course, and will happen in the Fall in Lahti Finland. This perked up my ears because I've heard that cities' name and gravel mentioned together before. After a short Google search I was reminded that yes- Lahti is home to one of the Nordic Gravel Series events. So, I have no idea whether or not Bottas is aware of that, but we will see if there is a merger of the two events or if they stay separated. Whatever the case may be, that gravel cycling is on an F-1 driver's radar is pretty crazy to me. 

Unbound Gravel Comments: 

Last weekend Unbound Gravel happened again. I paid a bit of attention as several folks I knew were involved. There were a few notable things which I saw that I thought I would comment on.

One: There was an unfortunate fatality the evening before the event on Friday. According to authorities, a 61 year old Colorado man collided with a truck driven by a local man at an intersection on a gravel road West of Emporia. 

I have actually ridden the road the man died on, and it is fairly unremarkable as far as any features that might make an intersection dangerous. It is a puzzling accident, and without any other hard data, I cannot say more. Certainly it was a tragedy and I wish all the comfort and peace for the family and friends of the deceased rider.

This brings up an important, and very overlooked point. The gravel roads around Emporia are now rife with cyclists three days out from the event and more than a few "tune-up" rides are occurring now then ever before.  One has to wonder how this affects the areas citizens, who are not used to this, and what, if anything, should Life Time be doing to aid in keeping the chaos limited. I mean, this is happening out there because of their event. How long will it be before we see more trouble and how long will locals be willing to put up with riders riding two and three abreast with no indications of deferring to traffic on narrow gravel roads? (Something I witnessed with my adventure with Erik)  I think the onus here is on all parties involved, and the wild growth of this event, without consideration for how side effects are possibly engendering negative outcomes, is something that needs to be addressed.

Two: The weather played a factor in the event, but it was one of the fastest 200's ever. What gives? Well, less heat, that's one thing. It wasn't very warm and the Sun was shrouded for most of the event. Crashes and mechanicals were common due to the mud and rough roads. Given the unusually cooler,  favorable weather, (minus the mud and rain, of course),  it makes sense to me. Get out there on a typically hot, windy day of 200 miles of Flint Hills gravel and you'd see a different result. Also- see my next point for why this event was faster.

Three: Pit stops and support. Originally the event in Emporia was completely self-supported by the rider. Then as numbers of riders grew, a support system at checkpoints was allowed. Only in the designated area could a rider get support, and outside that it was forbidden. But now? 

Checking social media it was easy to find road side rider assistance happening and full-on rider pit stops, ala cyclo cross or 24hr racing, were commonplace for front runners at checkpoints. Riders were pretty much availing themselves of full-on mini-tune-ups, having folks put food in their jersey pockets for them, and hustling them in and out of checkpoints within minutes. This is not my opinion. You can see this on social media.

That wasn't how it was done originally, so you really cannot compare times from, say anything pre-2019 to this. (Maybe Pre-2017?) Anyway, the nature of how the race is executed up front now days is full-on supported, and is 1000% different than how this event was conceived to be in the beginning. 

That's a wrap for this week. Have a safe and fun weekend!

Friday News And Views

Early event = High possibility of messy face!

CIRREM Re-ups For '19:

The Iowa classic, CIRREM, has announced its 2019 event date and registration time. If you are curious, and you want in, you'd better be on the ball with registration as this event fills up quickly.

This is a tricky event. It can be nice, (for February), or it can be a total crap-fest. I did the event once when the course had three inches of fresh snow on it and it was something like 20-ish degrees. It was cooooold! I remember that much, at any rate!

I managed to finish and it was a great time. So, if you like your gravel events grassroots style with not much for frills, then this could be your event. Well, if you are an adventurous type and don't mind sloppy conditions, or freezing cold, or even ice! I think one or two years they have had some pretty slick roads. You just never know that time of year. If we start getting an early taste of Spring it could be gloriously awesome. If Winter hangs on it could be a slick, chilly affair, but either way folks love this event and I can highly recommend it.

I did CIRREM when their event website was a blogspot page. Now they are all fancy with a "dot-com". Here it is.

From the T.I.v5 course in 2009

Furniture On Course Trend:

Salsa Cycles started this. Even if they didn't, I am blaming them. They brought out a chaise lounge for 2018 and drug it around to several gravel events, asking riders to sit down and have their portrait taken. Okay......good fun and all. But enough is enough.

Now it seems that every gravel promoter is trying to come up with their own version. Picture frames, found trash on the road, statues, or whatever are employed as a kind of "selfie imaging spot"where cheesy images of riders are taken and posted to social media for "the fun of it". I'm not a big fan of promoting social media during event time because, well, there is already enough of that to go around already. It's getting out of hand, in my opinion. At some point, it may tip to being a detriment to events. For instance, I see drone footage of riders during events now. It makes me wonder, why should I go ride your event if you have live drone camera footage? I can be "virtually there" and never have to leave the couch. Speaking of couches.......

Come tell me a story though, and tell me your experiences about an event, and well.....I may just want to get off my couch and go see for myself. Maybe promoters are being led to give too much away with social media. That's my thoughts on the matter.

Look, I get it. I like fun, and in reality, I don't mind a bit of shtick when it comes to promoting events. So, yeah, I am just poking fun here. Don't take this too seriously, but I think that y'all can come up with something more original and better. In fact, I think making a socializing attempt for everyone pre or post event is a much better event enhancement. Let the course be the course and the experiences don't have to be manufactured. But pre or post event? Yes. Get the tribe together and yuck it up all ya want to.

Just my two cents......

Cane Creek eeSilk suspension post

Like A Thudbuster

Cane Creek has their own version of a suspension seat post now for gravel travel called "eeSilk". If it looks vaguely familiar, it should. Cane Creek sells the Thudbuster suspension seat posts, which the eeSilk is a variation of.

Like the Thuddys, the eeSilk has an elastomeric damping material sandwiched between two pivoting links which are connected at the seat post base and head/clamp. While Cane Creek claims a "vertical" path for travel, it clearly cannot move completely in a vertical plane due to its design. It only features 20mm of travel, so it isn't going to really do much other than absorb high frequency chatter. Of course, gravel is perfectly suited to that, so it makes sense that way.

I've used the Thudbuster ST, a 76mm travel post, and thought it worked fine. The only nit I have ever had with this sort of design is that eventually the pivots develop slop and you will start out by hearing a rattle when you are off the bike. If it is allowed to get worse you can feel it while riding. Cane Creek does offer rebuild kits to remedy this. Now I cannot say if the eeSilk post would be prone to doing that, but since the design is so similar, it wouldn't come as a surprise to me if that pivot wear would become an issue with this new design as well at some point.

Still, it is another choice which may make sense for many gravel riders. I expect that it will be of high quality, just like my Thudbusters were, and it should be a great solution for rough gravel roads where you only need to have the buzz taken out.

It's going to be a chilly....but dry....weekend. Get out and ride!

Friday News And Views

Early event = High possibility of messy face!

CIRREM Re-ups For '19:

The Iowa classic, CIRREM, has announced its 2019 event date and registration time. If you are curious, and you want in, you'd better be on the ball with registration as this event fills up quickly.

This is a tricky event. It can be nice, (for February), or it can be a total crap-fest. I did the event once when the course had three inches of fresh snow on it and it was something like 20-ish degrees. It was cooooold! I remember that much, at any rate!

I managed to finish and it was a great time. So, if you like your gravel events grassroots style with not much for frills, then this could be your event. Well, if you are an adventurous type and don't mind sloppy conditions, or freezing cold, or even ice! I think one or two years they have had some pretty slick roads. You just never know that time of year. If we start getting an early taste of Spring it could be gloriously awesome. If Winter hangs on it could be a slick, chilly affair, but either way folks love this event and I can highly recommend it.

I did CIRREM when their event website was a blogspot page. Now they are all fancy with a "dot-com". Here it is.

From the T.I.v5 course in 2009

Furniture On Course Trend:

Salsa Cycles started this. Even if they didn't, I am blaming them. They brought out a chaise lounge for 2018 and drug it around to several gravel events, asking riders to sit down and have their portrait taken. Okay......good fun and all. But enough is enough.

Now it seems that every gravel promoter is trying to come up with their own version. Picture frames, found trash on the road, statues, or whatever are employed as a kind of "selfie imaging spot"where cheesy images of riders are taken and posted to social media for "the fun of it". I'm not a big fan of promoting social media during event time because, well, there is already enough of that to go around already. It's getting out of hand, in my opinion. At some point, it may tip to being a detriment to events. For instance, I see drone footage of riders during events now. It makes me wonder, why should I go ride your event if you have live drone camera footage? I can be "virtually there" and never have to leave the couch. Speaking of couches.......

Come tell me a story though, and tell me your experiences about an event, and well.....I may just want to get off my couch and go see for myself. Maybe promoters are being led to give too much away with social media. That's my thoughts on the matter.

Look, I get it. I like fun, and in reality, I don't mind a bit of shtick when it comes to promoting events. So, yeah, I am just poking fun here. Don't take this too seriously, but I think that y'all can come up with something more original and better. In fact, I think making a socializing attempt for everyone pre or post event is a much better event enhancement. Let the course be the course and the experiences don't have to be manufactured. But pre or post event? Yes. Get the tribe together and yuck it up all ya want to.

Just my two cents......

Cane Creek eeSilk suspension post

Like A Thudbuster

Cane Creek has their own version of a suspension seat post now for gravel travel called "eeSilk". If it looks vaguely familiar, it should. Cane Creek sells the Thudbuster suspension seat posts, which the eeSilk is a variation of.

Like the Thuddys, the eeSilk has an elastomeric damping material sandwiched between two pivoting links which are connected at the seat post base and head/clamp. While Cane Creek claims a "vertical" path for travel, it clearly cannot move completely in a vertical plane due to its design. It only features 20mm of travel, so it isn't going to really do much other than absorb high frequency chatter. Of course, gravel is perfectly suited to that, so it makes sense that way.

I've used the Thudbuster ST, a 76mm travel post, and thought it worked fine. The only nit I have ever had with this sort of design is that eventually the pivots develop slop and you will start out by hearing a rattle when you are off the bike. If it is allowed to get worse you can feel it while riding. Cane Creek does offer rebuild kits to remedy this. Now I cannot say if the eeSilk post would be prone to doing that, but since the design is so similar, it wouldn't come as a surprise to me if that pivot wear would become an issue with this new design as well at some point.

Still, it is another choice which may make sense for many gravel riders. I expect that it will be of high quality, just like my Thudbusters were, and it should be a great solution for rough gravel roads where you only need to have the buzz taken out.

It's going to be a chilly....but dry....weekend. Get out and ride!

Old Idea Reborn: Cane Creek Cranks

The original Sweet Wings crank set in CroMoly

I saw an image on Twitter and I had to do a double take. Wait a minute! I checked the calendar. Yep! It is 2018 alright! I thought I was swept back to 1996 for a minute there. I look at the image on Twitter again...... Nope! It's 1996 again! 

Ah! The 1990's and mountain biking. You could hardly keep up with all the "new" tech that was burbling up out of garages, failed military contract company's materials technology, and whatever color anodization was in vogue at the moment. It was a seemingly ever flowing stream of "the new".

Of course, we didn't have Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, or the internet, (at least schlubs like us didn't), back in the 1990's. We had monthly periodicals. You might remember them as "magazines". Ya know........print media? Yeah, and it refreshed at a rate of once a month. It was really something else. We had a lot of time to do other stuff back then. Not like today where you are checking social media every half a second when you aren't answering push notifications between surfing the innergoogles and trying to eat lunch. Or something..........

Anyway, the Sweet Wings cranks were something that was the answer to a lot of our brainstorming about cranks and bottom brackets back in the old Advantage Cyclery days. My old boss, Tom, actually pretty much conceptually figured out two piece crank sets and outboard bearing bottom brackets one day while we were musing on the deficiencies of square taper crank/bottom bracket designs of the day. I never forgot that conversation, especially when Sweet Wings came about. They were the two piece design done right, not like Bullseye cranks, and they were light. At least for that time they were. A titanium version was teased back then, but I am not sure they saw the light of day before Sweet Wings kind of passed from the scene.

Cane Creek's eeWing Cranks in Titanium

Apparently, in the years that have since passed since those halcyon days of yore, Cane Creek picked up a brake design from a guy with a company called "Edwards Emnginerring". The brake was some CNC'ed masterpiece dubbed the "eeBrake". ("ee" for Edwards Engineering) Apparently this is the design source for the Sweet Wings crank idea, and so now we see in 2018 what you could call a modernized version of Sweet Wings dubbed "eeWing Cranks" by Cane Creek.

You can go read all the amazing hoopla about them here. They really are not a whole lot different than they were over 20 years ago. Same basic concept with some tweaks on the finer details. The big thing is the interface of the two parts of the crank arms. Instead of the splined interface of yore, Cane Creek has gone with a Hirth Joint, which is similar to how Campy road cranks are joined. Of course, the new eeCrank is made from Titanium, fully realizing Edwards Engineering's intentions for the design way back when.

So, why? 400 grams and a thousand bucks? Well..........yeah. You can spin this a thousand ways to Sunday and the fact is that these are insanely expensive crank arms. Cool? High tech? Yes. Better than high end carbon cranks? Probably. At least you shouldn't pull pedal spindle inserts out of these, like I've seen with a certain carbon crank a time or three. And 400 grams is pretty dang light, so......

Anyway, what is old is new again, only better. You could say that about a lot of current bicycle technologies. I just find the eeCrank intriguing as I did over 20 years ago when I saw its ancestor, the Sweet Wing crank. It's a really great idea, but it is just too danged expensive. So, in a way, that hasn't changed in the years since I was a younger shop rat than I am today!

Old Idea Reborn: Cane Creek Cranks

The original Sweet Wings crank set in CroMoly

I saw an image on Twitter and I had to do a double take. Wait a minute! I checked the calendar. Yep! It is 2018 alright! I thought I was swept back to 1996 for a minute there. I look at the image on Twitter again...... Nope! It's 1996 again! 

Ah! The 1990's and mountain biking. You could hardly keep up with all the "new" tech that was burbling up out of garages, failed military contract company's materials technology, and whatever color anodization was in vogue at the moment. It was a seemingly ever flowing stream of "the new".

Of course, we didn't have Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, or the internet, (at least schlubs like us didn't), back in the 1990's. We had monthly periodicals. You might remember them as "magazines". Ya know........print media? Yeah, and it refreshed at a rate of once a month. It was really something else. We had a lot of time to do other stuff back then. Not like today where you are checking social media every half a second when you aren't answering push notifications between surfing the innergoogles and trying to eat lunch. Or something..........

Anyway, the Sweet Wings cranks were something that was the answer to a lot of our brainstorming about cranks and bottom brackets back in the old Advantage Cyclery days. My old boss, Tom, actually pretty much conceptually figured out two piece crank sets and outboard bearing bottom brackets one day while we were musing on the deficiencies of square taper crank/bottom bracket designs of the day. I never forgot that conversation, especially when Sweet Wings came about. They were the two piece design done right, not like Bullseye cranks, and they were light. At least for that time they were. A titanium version was teased back then, but I am not sure they saw the light of day before Sweet Wings kind of passed from the scene.

Cane Creek's eeWing Cranks in Titanium

Apparently, in the years that have since passed since those halcyon days of yore, Cane Creek picked up a brake design from a guy with a company called "Edwards Emnginerring". The brake was some CNC'ed masterpiece dubbed the "eeBrake". ("ee" for Edwards Engineering) Apparently this is the design source for the Sweet Wings crank idea, and so now we see in 2018 what you could call a modernized version of Sweet Wings dubbed "eeWing Cranks" by Cane Creek.

You can go read all the amazing hoopla about them here. They really are not a whole lot different than they were over 20 years ago. Same basic concept with some tweaks on the finer details. The big thing is the interface of the two parts of the crank arms. Instead of the splined interface of yore, Cane Creek has gone with a Hirth Joint, which is similar to how Campy road cranks are joined. Of course, the new eeCrank is made from Titanium, fully realizing Edwards Engineering's intentions for the design way back when.

So, why? 400 grams and a thousand bucks? Well..........yeah. You can spin this a thousand ways to Sunday and the fact is that these are insanely expensive crank arms. Cool? High tech? Yes. Better than high end carbon cranks? Probably. At least you shouldn't pull pedal spindle inserts out of these, like I've seen with a certain carbon crank a time or three. And 400 grams is pretty dang light, so......

Anyway, what is old is new again, only better. You could say that about a lot of current bicycle technologies. I just find the eeCrank intriguing as I did over 20 years ago when I saw its ancestor, the Sweet Wing crank. It's a really great idea, but it is just too danged expensive. So, in a way, that hasn't changed in the years since I was a younger shop rat than I am today!