Crank Brothers 2016 Product at Eurobike

Crank Brothers at Eurobike

Crank Brothers were at Eurobike with a whole host of new products on display, and it looks like the guys have been really busy behind closed doors working on the new range. The company has put a real focus on making maintenance free long lasting products, after a few years with some issues there is a new shift towards not letting anything out of the factory door until it has been tested to the absolute limits and the company is 110% happy with it. Expect long warranties, low maintenance and rock solid products from Crank Brothers for 2016.

The Highline Dropper Post

The flagship of the new range has to be the new seat post, the Kronolog looked fantastic, but didn’t quite deliver in terms of reliability and as such the team took it off the market a couple of years ago. Rather than rushing a replacement out they have spent years refining the new Highline Dropper Post. The goal was to make the most reliable post on the planet, easy to install with the simplest maintenance procedure. After taking a good look at the post and the internals at the show it certainly seems like on paper the new Highline is set to deliver.

The post utilises a single hydraulic cartridge that bolts in and out, it can be swapped in minutes by anyone and is easy to access and remove. The cartridge itself has been tested up to 40,000 cycles, the leading market post failed in testing after 25, and Crank Brothers are so confident in this product they are offering a 3 year warranty! The whole set up weighs just 580 grams and uses a Jagwire UltraSlick cable actuator that is totally sealed to increase longevity. igus LL Glide bushings and keys stop the post from moving around and there is just a very slight amount of play that is hardly noticeable. You can set the post infinitely in it’s travel and it locks both up and down. At the moment a 400mm 125mm travel post is available but a 150mm travel one is coming. Another neat feature is the really low 50mm stack height.

The world’s most ergonomic remote

The lever is party to plenty of forward thinking too, Crank Brothers have succeeded in creating the first 360 degree lever that can be uses left and right, on top and underneath and has infinite placement too to ensure you get it just where you want it. A ball joint is used to achieve this and it’s a very simple, yet clever bit of engineering.

The new Mallet E, 50 grams lighter than the DH with some neat upgrades too…

Close up of the new Mallet E with the swappable traction pads to tune your grip and chamfered corners to glide off rock strikes…

We mentioned the igus Glide bushings just now and that is important as we move on to the rest of the range. All the pedals have upgraded internals featuring the new igus bushings, Enduro bearings, a double lip internal seal and an extra external seal. Crank Brothers wanted to create pedals that will last well beyond their life expectancy, they ran these on a test jig for an eternity whilst spraying a salt mist over them to check the integrity of the system and found hardly any ingress at all, a big improvement over their previous system which was good, but no where near as reliable as the new sealing and seating process.

The ever popular EggBeater’s have new internals as well as titanium axle options…

In addition to new internals there are also some new pedals in the line up, the Mallet E shaves about 50grams off the previous Mallet DH pedal, there is a chamfered edge to glide off rock strikes and there are polyurethane traction pads in two sizes that slide on and off with a tyre lever so you can tune the grip level. Another new pedal is the Double Shot, which is flat one side and clipless the other, perfect for people who are learning to ride clipless or for riders who like to have a choice on the trails. Of course the Stamp was on show too, this flat pedal is light with a narrow profile and huge platform, but comes in two sizes so you can match your pedal to your shoe size… Clever stuff!