have any of you seen anything new and shiny in the shops thats worth us all taking a look at ? Any sexy frames, forks wheels or anything to look forward to ?
Yes, I have: The new Visiontech FSA aerobars and aluminum, airfoil shaped base bars. These are an absolute home run. They are beautifully made, simple, elegant, lightweight and inexpensive compared to other aerobars. The base bars and aluminum clip-on aerobar sell for less than $200 together. There is a very, very nice brake lever available for them too.
We went through living hell to get as many of these as we could and we now have about 30 sets in stock. They are excellent.
Since they became available we have stopped ordering Syntace. Syntace was sold to Magura and we tried getting them on the phone for three days and only got voice mail. Oops. It cost them $4000+ in aerobar business.
Note to vendors: Answer your phone 24/7.
Do their new aerobars have a fixed stem? Or can you use your old stem with their new bars?
Sounds attractive, but I’d only get a pair if it the fit were right. A little harder to do with those one piece units.
That is the attractive part. They did this simply and basically: There is a seperate bullhonr base bar with an airfoil shaped section and a seperate bolt-on aerobar available in different lengths such as 250mm and 270mm. The base bar is sold in 40cm and 42cm width. You can use any 26.0 clamp diameter, front plate mounting style road stem.
Simple, attractive, well designed, strong, lightweight and inexpensive.
If I were Syntace, Profile and the other I’d be shitting a cinder block sideways right now.
Sounds great! If you have any pictures of the new aerobar, please do share. 
Glad to hear such positive things about the new VisionTech gear - I chose the aero base bar and carbon clip-ons for my wife’s race bike. I received the base bar and it is sweet - nice aero profile, super light, internal cable routing and a good feel. I’m waiting patiently for the carbon aero bars as they’re the last component needed to finish the project. Naturally, they’re backordered but from the reviews I’ve heard, they’ll be worth the wait.
On a side note…I mentioned it here before, but I got a peek at the latest incarnation of the Litespeed Ultimate frame at the Chicago Bike show…they’ve made the downtube deeper and more narrow, and tweaked the carbon fiber seat stays a bit - it’s flat-out sexy. Also got to see some of the latest bikes from Orbea - their TT frame is very slick and easy on the eyes and several of the new road frames are definitely lust-worthy.
It’s just not a very good year for much new from what I have seen. The velonews buyer’s guide this year is basically the same as last year with a new cover on it if that tells you anything.
More mongrel frames of mixed materials, carbon on more bits, and different paint jobs and that’s about it. Perhaps it’s a sign of age but nothing I can get excited about.
Something new I have seen (not necessarily performance enhancing) are silicone or rubber cable “bumbers” - sleeves of the material that slide over cable housings - to keep the cable housing from abrading/marring the finish on the frame where the cables might come in contact - for bikes with a fancy paint job or a high dollar carbon finish!
Fancy cable housings that use high tech braided/stranded aluminum over teflon liners and have a translucent housing to show off the braded cable (more of an OEM than aftermarket item)!
Carbon Fiber “race only” chain rings for time trial/triathlons
My TT bike has Cinelli Angel integrated aerobars and I have been considering switching to the Profile Design Carbon X bars so this is not necessarily new, but if someone came up with some manner of adaptermount that allowed the use of VisionTech armrests/pads on Profile Design’s Carbon X aerobars - I would be all over that.
Michael