Pace Cycles has been busy - the Yorkshire-based company has launched four new frames and a bottom bracket at the Cycle show. We've already shown you the fillet brazed 104, here are the others...
The 204 is a 100mm travel Scandium frame using DT Swiss's new M210 shock. While it's clearly built with low weight in mind, the geometry is intended to make it fun on the trails as well as fast around the race course - it'll take up to a 130mm fork. The frame uses Pace's Freefloater short link/floating shock suspension design, with a new one-piece lower link that incorporates a grease port. You also get an adjustable wheelbase thanks to the sliding dropouts. The 204 will be £1,395.
Pace also has a new aluminium hardtail, the 325-5. It's built from a custom-butted 7005 tubeset, has sliding dropouts and ISCG tabs for a chain guide or HammerSchmidt gearbox crank. Up front the 325-5 will handle forks between 130 and 150mm travel. It'll cost £575.
If you thought a retro-flavoured steel hardtail was slightly out of character for Pace, the 42:16 urban fixie thing will probably make your brain melt. It's quite pretty, though, with a minimalist one-piece bar and stem and smooth fillet brazed lines. At the moment it's a frame-only deal, although there'll possibly be complete bikes in the future.
As well as the frames, Pace has brought out its own outboard-bearing bottom bracket. The Pace BB features additional rubber seals between the bearings and crankarms, while any goop that does get in can be purged by means of a grease injection tool. Pull the cranks out, stick the tool in the end of the BB, pump grease in until it spooges out clean, repeat on the other side, put cranks back. The tool has a seal inboard of the bearing so all the grease is forced through the bearing and out of the seal rather than just filling up the BB shell. When the bearings do pack up, the whole thing is rebuildable. It'll be available in three colours.
Keep up to date at www.pacecycles.com.
