Philly Bike Expo – Prestacycle, Princeton CarbonWorks, Wolf Tooth, Silca, UNDRBUDR

If you missed our first article on our Philly Bike Expo coverage, you can find it here. Next, we have a new portable inflator from Prestacycle, updates to wheels from Princeton CarbonWorks, gold bling and pumps from Wolf Tooth, Silca’s waxing system and chips, and a rundown of UNDRBUDR.

Prestacycle

Prestacycle has been on my radar for a few years now. Not everyone has a compressor at home, but I happen to have a small, portable compressor from Ryobi that has been my go to for setting tubeless tires. The Prestaflator Pro has been on my wish list since I picked up the compressor, but they offer a wide range of handy ratchet sets for small bits, torque tools, tire and plugs, and even some cassettes. The new Prestaflator Go was the highlight of the show.

The Prestaflator Go is a battery powered inflation tool that is small enough to take with you on your ride or stash into your bag for trips. Made from premium aluminum, it uses a brushless motor with a lithium polymer battery, offering up to 3 times more power than other batteries at the same weight. The entire unit weighs in at about 150g, which is lighter than most CO2 kits with two cartridges or a small pump. It can inflate about seven gravel tires, four road tires, or four MTB tires on a single charge, and uses a USB-C cable to recharge in just over an hour. To use it, turn it on, set the pressure between 4-120psi/0.3-8.2BAR, rotate the valve to the 12 o’clock position to keep sealant out, push it on, and let it run. It uses Prestacycle’s head technology, which means there are no levers to lock or heads to screw down, just push it on, and pull it off. When it reaches your set pressure, it will automatically stop, so you can do other things while it is pumping up your tire. The Prestaflator Go is available now for $119. We’ll be getting a package from Prestacycle in the near future, so watch for reviews.

www.prestacycle.com

Princeton CarbonWorks

We had a chance to connect with Princeton CarbonWorks back in 2018 when the first Wake6560 was released. Almost seven years on, and the brand has greatly expanded their product line from a single wheel to wheels for road, gravel, TT/Tri, and track, and was used to take many medals at the Paris Olympics with Team GB and the Dutch Federation.

For road going wheels, Princeton has a new Evolution shape that has been slowly been updated across the entire lineup. The original shape rolled up and down 5mm, hitting its highpoint at the spoke, and the low point in between. The new Evolution shape keeps that 5mm change in depth, but now has spokes alternating between the the low point and the high point of the rim shape. The new rim shapes also are wider both internally and externally than the previous design. For gravel, they have the Grit 4540 Evolution and the Dual 5550 Evolution. Both feature 24mm internal widths, hooked rims, and hole-less beds for easy tubeless setup. For road, the Dual crosses over, but there is also the Peak 4550 Evolution, Wake 6560 Evolution, and the Mach 7580 Evolution, all running between 21-22mm internal, and continue with the hooked rims and hole-less beds. All are available in multiple color and hub options.

Something interesting we touched on with Harrison Macris, President and Cofounder of Princeton CarbonWorks, was the track wheels. Heading into 2022, Team Ineos contacted PCW on track wheels for the hour record attempts with Dan Bigham and Filippo Ganna. Macris set out to design a set of discs for the velodrome. It was a bit of a challenge as it was something completely new for them. As we all know, Dan Bigham and Filippo Gana both put in blisteringly fast times, setting back to back records using the wheels. Those wheel designs have then gone on to find success on the road and track, including multiple medals in Paris.

We’re looking to get a set of wheels in for review later this spring.

www.princetoncarbon.com

Wolf Tooth

For Wolf Tooth, it was an addition to their colorshop and also some updates to their EnCase pumps and tools.

Wolf Tooth’s Color Shop is the brand’s offering of a range of components in various anodized colors. This includes headsets, spacers, seat post clamps, bolts, and pedals. Gold has been in the range for a while, but pedals were missing from the offering. The Large Waveform is the first to be added, and others will be added in the future, which is limited by the popularity of the pedals. They are so popular, they are trying to catch up in production as they are often selling out, and they need pedal bodies to send to be anodized. The Ripsaw will be one of the next options added.

The other highlight is the EnCase Pump System. The pumps are avilable in 30cc, 40cc, and 85cc. The EnCase tools fit in a compartment inside the pump, allowing you to carry more while still offering a surprisingly powerful pump. The 85cc will hold the multitool and the chain/tire plugger tool. The 40cc fits the multitool or the tire plugger, and the 30cc fits the tire plugger. The pumps can be mounted directly to the frame, or offset at the bottle cage, and keep out water and debris with weatherproof seals, keeping everything inside dry and the pump working smoothly. We’ll see more coming soon on the tools side from Wolf Tooth.

www.wolftoothcomponents.com

Silca

I was really interested in meeting with Silca to talk about their Secret Waxing System. I’ve been waxing for a number of years and have been extremely happy with it. It’s cleaner and feels like my drivetrain runs smoother, quieter, and faster, comparted to just about any other lube I’ve tried. While I haven’t tried their product line, that should be changing soon.

The Secret Chain Blend starts with the base blend itself. It uses lab-grade paraffin with a high concentration of 3 specific sizes of nano-scale Tungsten disulfide. This helps to fill in all the microscopic imperfections of the surface of your chain to keep it lubed and running smoothly. Silca claims repeated used of their wax will actually make your chain faster over time. Along with the base blend, Silca also offers the SpeedChip and EnduranceChip. These additives help to tune the wax to further increase efficiency with the SpeedChip, or extend the life of each waxing by up to 2.5x. The really cool thing for tinkerers, you can mix and match the chips, but there are limits to how many you can add. You can even top it off with their Super Secret drip lube or the Synergetic for nasty conditions. We’ll have a more in-depth article coming on all of this in the near future.

There is also the Waxing System. For most of us, we grab an old crockpot (I have three at the moment) and use it to melt and wax your chain. Silca offers a sweet set up that includes a pot to melt the wax and a stand to hold your chain as it dries. The pot is controlled digitally to let you fine tune your temperatures much more closely than most crockpots out there. Again, we’ll cover this, the Chain Strip, and Silca’s tire sealant in upcoming articles.

www.silca.cc

UNDRBUDR

I had a chance to stop in and say hi to Rich at UNDRBUDR. I’ve had my eye on their products to check out, as they take a much more natural approach to their products than many others on the market. Having my own business that focuses on natural and organic ingredients, it caught my attention.

UNDRBUDR uses all natural, nature inspired ingredients. For their chamois cream, instead of using petroleum biproducts as skin lube, they use natural oils and butters that last all day. It’s a different approach, as most brands focus on creating a lubricant, while UNDRBUDR uses their natural ingredients to nourish and protect the skin.

After the success of their chamois cream, they launched their muscle recover and activation products. Rich uses arnica and comfrey, time tested herbs that are great for pain and inflammation, before adding in essential oils for specific activities. Cheyanne and black pepper are used for activating the muscles before rides, helping to bring circulation and waking up the muscles. The recovery blends have specific ingredients to focus on recovery after hard efforts.

UNDRBUDR is also big on supporting community. They support men’s and women’s teams and athletes, including our friends at Automatic-ABUS, along with many events, races, and fundos all over the country. You’ll often catch Rich racing himself, which is hard to miss with his tall frame and curly hair.

We’ll have some samples coming for some big events we have in April, May, and June, so watch for more on the products and full reviews coming soon.

www.undrbudr.com