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Throughout the rest of this week we'll be writing a paragraph or two on the latest tri-specific news from Taipei, where products and prototypes are unveiled that won't hit the bike shop floor until '03 or '04.

Twenty years ago the best bikes were made of materials from European steel tube makers Reynolds and Columbus. Nowadays Easton has been the R&D leader the field of aluminum and carbon frame materials and Columbus is making up for lost time. Columbus has just unveiled its XLR8R (sounds like "accelerator") tubeset, which is a 7000-series tube using magnesium/zirconium as the alloying agents. Several experts in the bike tubing field tell us that this appears very close to Easton's scandium tubeset, at which XLR8R is clearly aimed.

These Columbus tubes appear to be made in Taiwan, as opposed to its 6000-series tubes, which are made in Milano. Word is that the Columbus' 7000-series product (much of which is made in Taiwan) is actually more popular among Euro frame builders than the Italian-made 6000-series stuff, because many of the Euro builders don't have the heat-treating capabilities needed for 6000-series manufacture.

Columbus' carbon seat stays, rear triangles, and forks are likewise made in the Orient, and its parts have reportedly been seen on the floors of prominent Asian factories such as Martek, Gigantex and Topkey.

Deda also has a new scandium-like 7000-series tubeset as well, and the trend is to move toward more and more exotic versions of this aluminum alloy. Later in the week Slowtwitch.com will publish photos of some of the new frameset sub-assemblies made of carbon. Whereas last year's Interbike showed carbon seatstays, last week exhibitors in Taipei showed entire carbon rear triangles to be mated with aluminum mainframes, not unlike the carbon swing-arms made for rear-suspension aluminum MTB bikes a decade ago.

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One might make this general statement: According to just about every exhibitor at the show, "road" is white-hot. The themes of the show seem to be: road race returns; Taiwanese manufacturers are becoming more brand-oriented, which is to say that they don't want to act only as suppliers and factories, but as their OWN brands; and that exotic materials are showing up to a greater and greater degree.

Speaking of brands, there is a new one that will impact triathlon, and it is called Oval. This brand is the brainchild of Morgan Nicol, who was the European head of Ritchey. Nicol and Ritchie parted not on the best of terms.

Nicol is reportedly partnered in some way with a former Ritchey Taiwanese agent, and stems, seatposts, perhaps wheels, and other Ritchey-like items may start to show up on bikes in place of Ritchey products, depending on how well Nicol does.

Where this gets interesting is that Nicol also works with Hed in Europe, and Hed, Nicol, and John Cobb are together leveraging their resources and abilities to make some tri-specific stuff, most notably handlebars and aero forks (in addition to the wheels Hed already makes). It is no secret that Hed has a new carbon bar and that this will be the bar used by the U.S. Postal team during time trials. But Nicol also showed a lesser-priced aluminum bar that is very interesting in that it is reminiscent of Vision Tech in its armrest design; looks like a Syntace Blackbird in the base bar; and incorporates Profile Design's adjustable extension technique used in its Aerolite bar. While the aluminum version is very interesting and ought to do well depending on its price point, the carbon bar looks simply outstanding. Photos will show up on Slowtwitch.com within the week. The Cobb/Hed partnership also yields a new aero fork, which we're trying to get pictures of.

On the subject of O.E. spec, Ritchey has depended on Taiwanese rim maker Alex for the production of many of its rims for its original equipment wheels. But now Alex is making its own wheels, and they reportedly look very nice. We also heard rumors that these Alex wheels (another funky spoke pattern design) have gained O.E. spec with Specialized, Bianchi and Felt for next year. In talking with Ritchey folks about any sort of Oval/Alex squeeze, we are assured that Ritchey continues to prosper and grow, and will raise eyebrows with the breadth and depth of O.E. spec on bikes at Interbike this Fall. Furthermore, Ritchey is itself coming out with a tri bar, the details of which we are not privy, except that adjustability is its theme.

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Most of what happens at the Taipei show is geared toward "original equipment" spec and manufacture. In other words, this isn't a consumer show, neither is it a dealer show like Interbike. This is a show manufacturers go to. This is where Tektro says to Specialized, "Put our brake calipers on your bikes." Or A-Pro or Kinesis might say to Bianchi or QR, "Let us build certain of your frames for you."

The trend for the past several years has been for manufacturers to shy away from paying a brand premium for frame materials and components. Instead of paying a higher price for Easton 7000-series tubes manufacturers might choose tubing from no-name tubing mills with rows of draw benches. Instead of spec'ing Time or Look carbon forks bike makers might gravitate to one of Taiwan's many carbon farms that will make anything from a jet engine exhaust part to a carbon fiber tennis racket to a bicycle fork. This year, as reported yesterday in the TriBzi Reader, the trend is for these Taiwanese factories to create their own brands, and Titec, Tektro, Topeak, Kinesis, Race Face, FSA, and a host of others are partly- or solely-owned Taiwan firms.

Why is this? Because Taiwan is today what Japan was twenty years ago. Taiwan is very, very good at making bikes and bike parts. But it's now become too expensive to make these items there. Much of the manufacture has gone to mainland China, and in another decade much of what you ride will be made in Vietnam, Malaysia and India. In the meantime Taiwan is seeking to replicate the Shimano experiment, which is to leverage its capacity to engineer and create new products, and to sell them at a premium based on their own marketing acumen. Therefore, a rim maker like Alex decides to no longer simply take the short margin making rims for American brands, it seeks to become its own brand and sell its finished goods with its own name and at a premium.

Another such company is Tektro, and in order to gain a market position in triathlon it has made a brake lever much like the Dia Compe #188. It's about time. Profile Design has also jumped into that arena with its own #188 knock-off, and it's done so with considerable elegance. It's made a lever that is mechanically similar to the #188 but much more stylish, and priced inbetween the #188 and a premium-priced lever like Syntace's Space Control. None of these levers, however, has a spring return, and it would be nice if one of them did.

Profile Design has also made a very user-friendly set of products for O.E. tri bike makers, in that it has a base bar (pursuit bar) that is 26.0mm throughout its length, only tapering to 25.4mm at the very end, where the brake lever inserts. This means that a user can move his clip-ons away from the stem if so desired. This company also showed its extension-adjustable Aerolite clip-ons with its F-18 armrests attached. Look for this base and aero bar combination to show up on quite a few tri bikes for 2003.

There is a move in general toward oversized bars, and this is not specific to the tri market, but to road bikes as well. In this case "oversized" means 31.8mm, aka inch-and-a-quarter. What this means is that the diameter of your handlebar as it passes through your stem will grow by an extra quarter of an inch. Obviously the stem hole will grow wider as well. But the handlebar will then taper down to 25.4mm in most cases. This oversized bar/stem phenomena was all over Taipei, and look for it to be one of the talked about themes at Interbike in the Fall.