I have wanted to introduce new materials to the bicycle industry for some time. While ceramic bearings are now becoming more and more prevalent, these are a relatively standardised parts and have been used for over 30 years in the aviation / aerospace industry. I believe vertebrae components are pioneering in a way because [to my knowledge] they are the first ceramic part that have been specifically designed, created and mass-produced for bicycles.

While I believe the nokon brakes work better than traditional cables, I felt there was room for improvement again… and they had a severe corrosion problem in the beginning. Also, using nokon gear cables tends to make the rear derailleur perform sporadically unless the cables are super clean and well lubricated, and it was always finicky to adjust.

Brakes are a unique bike component, as they’re the only part designed to make you stop not go. Bikes are disadvantaged for a start because of the high centre of gravity, so we need all the braking we can get.

My first priority was to reduce the braking force required and thus combat hand fatigue. With the utilisation of our cartilage-pad technology, brake modulation is simultaneously improved too!

People who live in flat areas may not appreciate this product much, but I am certain that people who live in mountainous zones / territory will. The brake lines excel in any place with significant, extended descending. Here on the volcanic island of Tenerife (this is incidentally where they are assembled), it is common to encounter grades of 20% or more and long descents of 20 - 40km. You can actually feel your brakes losing power towards the bottom of serious descents with a traditional brake setup, because the pads start to overheat, requiring even more hand force…

This entry was posted on Wednesday, November 26th, 2008 at 8:30 am and is filed under News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.