Can you put a price in saving weight while hiking and camping? If you can then the Sierra Designs new line of ExoFusion fast-and-light tents might not be for you. But if you want superior quality and materials in a two-person backpacking tent, which weighs in at less than two pounds and can be pitched in minutes, then the Sierra Designs ExoFusion Mojo UFO is one to consider.
Made of cuben fiber, and ultra-light, highly durable fabric that is used in sailcloth it is ideal for providing protection from the elements. It also features an external pole set-up that made of carbon fiber and goes up quickly, and when not used to hold up the tent, are light enough that you won’t mind carrying them. Continue reading High-Tech Tech Offers Lightweight but at Price
This week Trek Bicycle launched its new generation of its eight-time Tour de France-winning road bikes, and these include the sure-to-be head turning 7 Series Madone that promises to save riders an enormous 25 watts over the previous generation at 40kph. At 750 grams, the 7 Series Madone frame is the lightest available to consumers, while it also marks the debut of Trek’s U5 Vapor Coat paint scheme, a sub five-gram aesthetic option that uses no decals and minimal paint. Trek’s engineers were also able to remove nearly 200 grams from the frame and fork, without sacrificing any of the balanced ride for which the Madone is famous. With the Madone’s ride-tuned seat mast and reshaped, KVF seat stays, vertical compliance on the new 7 Series is 25% greater than the nearest competitor, with zero loss of lateral stiffness. 
We all know that James Bond often drives an Aston Martin (except for those BMW years), and now the automaker is introducing a “”superbike” that would be worthy of the super spy. The One-77 superberbike will be released in July, but it might take a license to kill to acquire one – or at least a lot of money.
The surf culture knows that protecting the waves is necessary to ensuring that the waves will be there in the future. To this end Kitson Boards has changed the way boards are made. Instead of the usual foam and fiberglass, Kitson’s team is utilizing carbon fiber for boards that will last a lifetime.
With each new bicycle design, Slovakian mechanical engineer Braňo Mereš has looked to utilize a new material. He’s created various on-off bicycle frames in recent years, and has included bikes made of carbon fiber (the cycling industry’s go to material), but also branched out with some innovative materials along the way. He’s riveted strips of titanium together and even used a woven bamboo fiber with an epoxy resin as very interesting take on composites. 
For those who camp alone the traditional method is to utilize a bivy, but we recently heard about the Kilo 1P from Easton Mountain Products. This is a one-person tent that weighs just 1 kilogram – or 2.2 pounds – and provides three-season shelter with just a single, sleek carbon fiber pole. It provides enough space for the equipment and more importantly provides some headspace that is usually missing in a bivy. With about 18 square feet, along with a side area for a pack this is like bringing creature comforts to the great outdoor!
Carbon fiber is a wondrous material, but it has some shortcomings including the fact that it isn’t that easy to recycle. However, last week came word that the U.S. Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory was working on a way to transform used plastic bags into carbon fiber, and this composite could even be fine-tuned, allowing different types of carbon fiber to be created for specific applications. 
Skis, snowboards, poles and boots – these are just a few of the winter sport items that use carbon fiber in their construction. Carbon fiber has been the material of choice for higher end equipment due to its high strength to low weight ratio. Not only is it light weight and strong, but it is the type of material that can make an overall product stronger by adding additional layers in higher stress areas. Wanting to tap into the advantages of this material, Crescent Moon of Boulder, Colorado is in the process of testing their newest and lightest snowshoe, the Kilo.
Hydraulic brakes have long been a staple on mountain bikes for years, but now Magura has introduced the world’s first hydraulic braking system for use on the road. The RT8 TT is a hydraulic rim brake system that can work with lightweight time trial and triathlon bikes. 
There is a downside to the use of composite materials in athletic equipment – while it offers lightweight options and greater performance enhancements, it is hard to recycle it at the end of its useful life. This is true of bicycles as we’ve noted, but it is a problem with skis too, as North Colorado Business Report noted last week.