Highlights from a day at CABDA Midwest

SCHAUMBURG, Ill. (BRAIN) — CABDA's Midwest show opened here Wednesday. Despite a wintery-mix event happening outside the Schaumburg Convention Center, dealers from across the Midwest and exhibitors from around the world showed up for a busy day. 

Floor traffic appeared solid, with some exhibitors predicting that Wednesday will go down as the busiest of the two-day show because Thursday's weather is expected to be worse. A few major exhibitors who haven't been at CABDA in recent editions were here this year, including Park Tool and Chicago's own SRAM. 

Much of the discussion (at least for our editor) revolved around tariffs, CABDA's upcoming West show in Las Vegas, and the usual industry gossip. CABDA is not traditionally a place to launch products so the new gizmos we found were of a trade nature: wheel-building machines, lift-assist workstands, spoke wrenches and the like. Here are a few highlights from Day 1:

Trudi is from the folks who brought us Berd carbon spokes. It's a $6,999 wheel building machine that is something of a hybrid between a robotic wheel truing machine like a Holland (which cost several hundred thousand dollars) and skilled human wheel builders (who are priceless). It can be used to greatly speed up the truing and tensioning of a new wheel or one in for truing. The machine first measures the wheel's roundness, trueness, and dish. A human then measures the tension of each spoke using a modified Wheel Fanatyk tensionometer wired to send the tension measurement directly to the machine's software. Then, the human uses a power driver that is controlled by the software to tighten or loosen nipples precisely, to the fraction of a nipple rotation.

Amazingly, the software can bring a wheel to near perfect with just one wheel rotation's worth of computer-controlled tension adjustments. Trudi's Charlie Spanjers said it can greatly speed up wheel production versus a standard handbuilt wheel and is better suited than a Holland machine for deep carbon rims. The resulting wheel is also straighter and truer than one coming off a Holland machine, he said. Most high-end wheel makers employ humans to touch up wheels that come off Holland machines.

The Trudi on display ran off a laptop computer but the finished product will have an integrated tablet that runs the software. Trudi has been tested in-house for two years and about 10 of Berd's OE partners have been testing the machines as well. More photos at the bottom of the page. (By the way, Trudi works with all kinds of spokes, not just Berd.)

Park Tool showed its new powered (or not powered) workstand for shops or consumer use. It has a handcrank to raise bikes weighing up to 120 pounds, or the crank can be removed to attach a 10mm bit on a cordless drill like the one attached to the arm of Park's Andy Palmer in the gif below. The stand works with standard Park clamps and baseplates and is available with wheels for $899 retail, or about $560 (shop cost) for the stand and metal base. The PRS-30 will be available in the spring. The product is being launched here at CABDA and at this week's iceBike trade event in the U.K.

Blaupunkt has some news on several fronts. The folding e-bike brand, owned by the famous German audio brand, is now available to Pedego store owners. The stores previously carried Pedego e-bikes exclusively but, as we've reported, the manufacturer is now allowing its licensed stores to carry a handful of pre-approved brands to fill niches not served by Pedego. "We fill the folding e-bike niche," said Blaupunkt president Brian Tedesco. 

Blaupunkt bikes now come standard with a wireless speaker that fits in an included bottle cage. "Think of it like getting a Blaupunkt audio system that comes with a folding e-bike," said Tedesco (left). 

The company also announced it has an official NCAA license to label bikes with the logos from hundreds of colleges and universities. The college-branded bikes are being sold in official campus stores and online. Tedesco said the fact that the bikes are UL2849 rated was key to getting the license, as colleges are concerned about students bringing unsafe e-bikes into dorms. Blaupunkt plans to make use of the NCAA's new name, image and likeness (NIL) policy to pay college athlete ambassadors to be seen around campus on the bikes. 

Asked about the impact of the recent extra 10% tariff on Chinese e-bikes, Tedesco noted the company moved production from China to Paraguay, where Blaupunkt has long had an audio factory. The first Paraguay-made e-bikes were shipped to Miami about two weeks ago, he said. Near-shoring from an unsual source.

Monolith is a startup with a variety of innovative tools, including a new version of its spoke wrench, the s.i. "It's designed for old, arthritic hands," said Monolith's Aaron Pieplow, eyeing the editor's paws. "Try it."

The editor, who hasn't wielded a spoke wrench in a serious way in about 30 years, was flattered by Pieplow's assumption of professional competance. He picked up a wrench in his favorite color, identified a nipple on a convenient nearby wheel and turned the tool in a manner calculated to inspire the respect of any professional techs who happened to be strolling by. And, indeed the wrench felt effective in his old, arthritic hands. (Plus: It was orange.)

The new tools are $50 each or $180 for a complete, color-coded set of four. Monolith is also showing its CalipERD rim-measurement tool (for calculating spoke length) and its original spoke wrenches, which are targeted at those with slightly less old and less arthritic hands.

Finally: Howard. The duck. Who toured CABDA in style in a be-stickered bike trailer on Wednesday.

The owner is from Never Ending Cycles in nearby Streamwood, Illinois. We asked, "What's with the duck?" The owner said, "I always wanted one, so I got one."

It's hard to argue with that; we like a good duck as much as the next guy. Watch for a Shop Ducks calendar from BRAIN soon.