Cycling is a world of contrasts. Shiny components peddled by smooth-talking salesmen are then taken into the mountains to be ground down by rain and rocks. Today’s rough prototypes are ridden extensively in secret to help make tomorrow’s smooth-looking, mass-market gears and gadgets. Racers ride the latest carbon-reinforced minimalist shifters so that you and I can have something better to ride five years and three groupsets down the line. Companies go out of their way to keep next year’s products under wraps for fear of damaging this year’s sales, yet next year will go overboard in their efforts to make sure that everybody hears about the new stuff.
The new factory sure does look the business.