New at Targetraining

It's that time of the year again. Everyone is searching the web for information about cool new products that they saw in pictures from Interbike. Going into 2010, Tri & Cycle has a few new additions to the showroom floor. Here is a list of additions:

SRM - Up until the eighties, no adequate method had been found to measure performance on a bike in training or racing, you still had to rely on lab testing instead. This meant that athletes were forced to go back and forth between their real performance - cycling on the road or cross country - and the ergometer in the lab. With lab testing, they still couldn't tell how their performance had changed over a period of a few hours, either in a race or in training. Lab testing was an intermittent check-up, at best, but couldn't tell athletes anything about how they were performing day-to-day. And the most important performance - during competition - couldn't be tested. Today the SRM Training System has become standard equipment for the world's leading professionals in cycling and triathlon such as Lance Armstrong, Greg Lemond, Mario Cippolini, Paolo Bettini, Erik Zabel, Nicole Cooke, Kristin Armstrong, Amber Neben, Sabine Spitz, Mark Cavendish, Bert Grabsch, Normann Stadler and many others, for national teams, sport universities, coaches and all recreational athletes who take training seriously. For years now they have being using the SRM Training System as a reliable and indispensable training instrument in cycling, and now professional athletes from other sports, such as NHL hockey players, cross-country skiers and Formula One drivers have started using them as well.

FALKE - Being active, staying fit - finding oneself. Today taking part in sports activities is about much more than physical exertion. Fun and pleasure and the inner harmony which excercise can bring are much bigger factors. THE FALKE ERGONOMIC SPORT SYSTEM takes this type of attitude fully into account. Based on ergonomic principles, the functionable and fashionable base, layering pieces, and legwear collections support natural movement and meet the personal needs of sportspeople and their clothing requirements. Premium materials and innovative processing technology combined with trend-setting colors and design, create well balancedhighly functional products.

3T - In 2007, 3T embarked on a major program of investment in advanced design and engineering. Since then, we have renewed our entire product range with components that exceed pro racers' every demand. Our goal: to provide you with the ultimate performance. To achieve top engineering quality, we built the Intelligent Production Lifecycle, the bike industry’s most advanced design platform. We hired our technical director from the Ferrari F1 team, and continue to recruit designers from among the world’s most talented engineers. Designed by world-class engineers, styled in the glamorous tradition of Italian cycling, and proven by the pros, the components in 3T’s 2010 portfolio are the strongest, lightest, and best-performing you can buy.

BLUESEVENTY - Since 1993, we’ve designed, tested, refined and crafted wetsuits and swimskins that transcend the confines of what is possible. In the process, we’ve carried world-class athletes to victory and instilled confidence in beginners. We swim. We compete. We obsess – poring over details that others have and will continue to miss; revolutionary details that equate to comfort, freedom from restriction and competitive advantage. We make products that empower swimmers to achieve their personal bests.
We are swimming.
We are blueseventy.

HED WHEELS - All aerodynamic wheels on the market today are constructed from carbon fiber, aluminum alloy or a combination of the two. Carbon fiber is made by carbonizing acrylic fiber at high temperature. These fibers are then woven into cloth, which is relatively easy to work with and allows tremendous design freedom. Trying to duplicate our wheel shapes in aluminum and maintain light weights would be impossible. We don't even try. Carbon can be molded into whatever shape or structure best suits the design, and each layer's strength and weight can be specified to tune in perfect ride and strength characteristics. Try doing that with any other material. Carbon fiber's strength to weight ratio and large variety of fabric strengths and weaves allow us to make wheels that are not only light and rigid, but also strong and durable. Steve began what was to become his vocation in humble fashion, working on an aero wheel in his garage at home. This quickly led to an interest in all things aerodynamic. Detailed study of the subject followed, eventually focusing on aerodynamic principles in relation to bicycle wheels. By this time, the initial interest had developed into an obsession. Many more home grown wheels followed, and then Steve paid the first of dozens of visits to a wind tunnel. His ideas began to take shape. Over the next few years, the business grew, and more expertise was introduced in the form of carbon fiber and resin specialists. Now, 20 years later, HED cycling products designs and manufactures 16 different models of composite wheels, exported worldwide and used in events from the Tour de France to the Hawaii Ironman to the pretigious North Oaks triathlon championship. Every single wheel is still handmade. Minnesota sure is a long way from Mesopotamia, but some things never change.

Please email me at matt@targetraining.com or call the shop if you have any questions about any of our great products.