MY TWO CENTS
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Since 1988, Sampson products have been used to win Olympic medals, World Championships, and so many national titles in the USA, Canada and in Europe that I honestly lost count. Even though the precision and production techniques of pedals and components can be more complex as you have a lot of variables in the equation, some journalists are amazed at my pluck to enter the group market. Actually, all I did was add a shifter and a derailleur to what we already were producing, it was just without the shifters nobody paid much attention to how big our component line had become. Though we are no longer making the components in the USA, you can be sure I am working closely to make sure the components we are making are giving you top performance and value. And, yes, due to our small size, I sometimes have to give away a little bit of technology to our manufacturing partners , and others get this benefit, but this won’t be the case for much longer. The new products are performing very well, winning races and making riders happy all over the USA. As more sales take place, I fully expect to see more jump on board, but I have to be realistic given our marketing budget right now.
Our newest components, the SL products, are pretty fun. The new brakes are not only very pretty, they are super-light at just 240 g. /pair. While light, they offer cold-forged strength, dual-pivot power, and all the ease of use features you want. As a matter of fact, we are not even using titanium posts or hardware to provide top strength. Plus, it leaves the door open for an even few grams lighter version should I see a need down the road! I have also just added the new Swisstop black pads for alloy wheels with either model of the Stratics brakes. The Swissstop pads offer great feel, and we still include the Sampson composite pads with the brakes too. In addition to great performance, this also gives the consumer about $70 worth of high performance brake pads! Personally, I run the composite pads on my alloy rims as I really like the way they modulate. I can lock them up if I need to, which is fortunately a rare event---but for coming down a mountain they just seem to take off just enough speed to really let me keep from over-braking and keeping my speed high. The problem we were having with our older pads was they are a bit on the hard side which gives them great wear but interacts poorly with some soft alloy rims such as Campy/Fulcrum wheels which use a machined sidewall. The new Swisstop pads were selected after consulting Swisstop, as they are the least abrasive of their alloy pad compounds. While I am on the subject of our new parts, the new Stratics SL crank set is amazingly light at just 645 g. with the BB—lighter than the new Easton, DA or Super Record- and it should be fully available around the end of March! Plus, our new BB is amazingly smooth and fast rolling, but standard steel cartridge bearings are used. Sampson has made thousands of BB’s since 1992, and I simply can’t jump on board with the ceramic bearing craze. The issue is that the ceramics are wicked fast in a fully sealed clean environment- but they are fragile-- get a little grit in there and you have to clean it immediately-or you will be buying new ones! So, for cycling, it just doesn’t make much economic sense. I looked at ceramics in depth in the 1990’s and while they have improved along with everything else, I still don’t think there is enough upside to them for even the top level amateur rider to make them a worthwhile investment. Though they are a huge marketing buzzword, I suggest you read the instructions regarding re-packing your bb with a Sram Red before purchase-- Even in Colorado where we don’t get much rain, this would be a pain. With the standard sealed bearings of the Statics derailleur and the new fast rolling bearings of the SL bb, I think we probably have less friction than the ceramics offer already, but I don’t have hard data yet to back this up, but one spin with your fingers and you will be pretty impressed! Speaking of light and fast, we took the new SL components and put them into the new Diablo SL and it comes out at 13 pounds and change- Since the new SL package is in the same weight range of Red , Record, and DA it is a great deal. Of course, you can get any group with our bikes, which remains a rarity anymore. I The Diablo SL is all the power and smoothness of the Diablo S, but it uses the new lighter components and your choice of some very light wheels to make you fly up mountains! Unlike a lot of uber-light bikes though the SL keeps all the rider-friendly features of the standard S—alloy drop-outs, replaceable alloy derailleur hanger, the big, laterally stiff Sampson fork with alloy tips-and our SAS for amazing smoothness—and it is also an amazingly good descending bike too! By putting on our new SL components, or Red or DA or Record—along with some great wheels, you have a bike that is way under UCI limits, so if you use pedals in the 225 g. a set range your bike ends up at 14 pounds give or take. And with our sale package this month, I figured that most of the riders who would be interested in this bike already have at least one set of Shimano compatible training wheels, which is all you need to turn this uber-climber into your daily commuter-so we package in a set of top race wheels—Easton, Zipp, Hed, Fulcrum. There is also a great special on the Stratics tt bars this month too so you can ride your best ever time in your tris or tt’s! Plus, the Stratics are UCI legal now! Just 740 g. the Stratics give you amazing adjustability for a perfect fit—which is still the key to going fast! The Taipei show is this month, which is always fun as I get to see old friends from around the world. This year is filled with lots of new projects that with a little luck, you will see them introduced at Interbike too! Cheers- Eric |