For me, my annual trip to the Life Time Sea Otter Classic marks the beginning of the spring cycling season in North America. It's the LifeTime Grand Prix series kick-off and North America's largest cycling industry trade show. Besides the gravel racing, there are road races, a gran fondo, and almost every kind of mountain bike race you'd want to do.
But while Sea Otter has always been an event with lots of bike racing to do, I've always gone for all the bike tech that's on display, and in 2025, there were plenty of things to see at the show. Let's dig in!
These titanium cranks from 5DEV were on display on several bikes at the show. They’re not cheap at $1,200 a set but come in multiple bottom bracket options and lengths from 155 to 175 in 5mm increments. They weigh 446 grams in 170.
These Q-connectors from Zeno allow riders to disconnect and reconnect hydraulic brake lines without tools. They are quite useful on bikes made for travel. I also have to point out the custom anodized Ti bolts—a next-level touch of customization from No 22.
Stinner has been quietly expanding its stock frame offerings, including several frame models, like the Tunnel steel hardtail, which starts at $1,500. For fans of US-made steel bikes, that’s quite the bargain.
The new mechanical SRAM Eagle 90 groupset is a perfect fit for this bike.
Great bikes are made worldwide, but it’s still nice to have more options to buy locally.
A titanium version of the Tunnel (called the Tunnel Podium) starts at $2,700. Apologies for not getting a full bike shot of it. I was too distracted by the gorgeously precise welds on the bottom bracket.
Omnium is a Danish cargo bike brand started by a bike messenger named Jimmi Bargisen. When I met him at Monster Track in New York City, everyone called him "Jumbo." The company had their full lineup on display, but their mini model caught my eye. It is something I wish I could have used for work as a bike messenger.
There is a good chance you haven't heard of L-TWOO, but they are a large bicycle component manufacturer in China that has been slowly making more polished products.
These eRX wireless electronic shifters can be set up to shift 10, 11, or 12 speeds and the entire groupset can be purchased for around $800.
The L-TWOO brakes look nice enough and have a finned pad that presumably helps with heat dissipation.
The wireless flat bar shifter is not currently listed on L-TWOO's website. Presumably, they will have an electronic mountain bike drivetrain coming soon to complement their huge lineup of mechanical options that include everything from 6 to 12 speed.
A completely blinged-out flat-bar carbon Calfe gravel bike? Sure, why not?
The bike was there to show off a new transmission concept from Praxis. The HiT can be configured with 4 to 16 gears and the entire system can be shifted under load.
If you like a lightweight cassette machined from a single piece of steel but don't ride SRAM, Prestacycle has you covered. They make their Uniblock Pro cassettes in 10, 11, and 12-speed for Campagnolo and 11 and 12-speed for Shimano.
I was excited to see the updated Giro Empire II shoe in person. I have been a massive fan of Giro's past laced shoe offerings and am happy to see them get an update. They're not cheap at $375 but are wildly light at sub 200g per shoe (size 43). I have a set of these for review, so stay tuned for more.
There's nothing new to see here, but I love seeing pro bikes sprinkled throughout the booths at the show. This Unibet Tietema Rockets Cannondale Super Six Evo was in the Vision booth.
Allied had their new Able Gravel bike on display. The headline news is the clearance for 2.25-inch mountain bike tires, but there are many cool details about this bike.
Lots and lots of tire clearance.
Allied makes its integrated stem with ease of customization and rider fit in mind. Riders can swap stem lengths without cutting brake hoses, and Allied even makes angled spacers to allow riders to adjust their stem angle if needed.
They also have a new carbon 27.2 round seatpost with a clamp design, allowing individual saddle tilt and fore-aft adjustments. It's very similar to the design Trek is using on the new Madone, and I really appreciated it when reviewing that bike.
There is not much information on these Baumeir wheels or the brand in general. However, according to the person riding them, they have a 24mm ID and are around 1,000 grams. The brand wants to make high-end bikes and components in Canada with as much North American sourcing as possible. Hopefully, more on this soon.
Kinekt makes stems and seatposts with tunable active suspension. Their products are currently aimed at the e-bike market and I'm curious enough to give them a try.
This was a blast from the past. You rarely see a bike still rolling around with a number from the 2018 Red Hook Crit (the last time the race was held in Brooklyn).
The Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale team has raced the Van Rysel RCR-F for quite some time now, but it's nice to see it finally start to slowly become available to consumers. US riders hoping to get one will likely need to wait until later this summer.
Everything about this bike screams aero.
However, my favorite detail was this direct-mount Shimano derailleur hanger with a built-in guide for the Di2 wire.
Besides sponsoring a World Tour team, Van Rysel has also entered a partnership with REI to sell its well priced gravel bikes in stores. This "granite pink" Van Rysel GRVL AF 2 is available now for $1,400.
Ogle Component Design (OCD for short) is just one man, Josh Ogle, and if you want something beautiful, functional, and lightweight made from Titanium, he's your guy.
The entire main triangle of this mountain bike is 3D printed from titanium.
Ministry Cycles made rear triangle and suspension linkage. The titanium bashgaurd is made by Josh.
The rest of the bike is full of beautiful little details and parts from Josh's workshop, like this stem and top cap, which he machines from titanium. Both are currently available for sale here.
These (completely over-the-top) titanium lockrings were the first product out of Josh's workshop that got on my radar, and I wasn't surprised to see them as part of this build.
There were other products from Josh Ogle sprinkled throughout the show. Like this OC/DC RollCage for Shimano 11 and 12-speed derailleurs. Unlike other oversized pulley cages on the market, Josh focused his design on shift performance and chain retention.
When I spotted this set of Ogle Design chainrings, I didn't realize that this was Josh's personal adventure bike.
Maybe this machined titanium XTR clutch cover should have given it away, either way. I'm sorry, but I don't have a full bike photo. The bike was (naturally) a titanium Firefly, which makes perfect sense since Josh makes quite a few parts for them.
Darimo is a Spanish manufacturer of very lightweight carbon fiber stems, handlebars, and seatposts. The machined aluminum stems are a relatively new product that allows Darimo to offer a huge range of lengths (40-130) and angles(-6º, -12º, -17º -25º). A stock stem costs $226, but riders can have Darimo make a custom stem with any length, angle, and clamping diameter for a small upcharge.
Stems are made in either natural aluminum or several finishes of black. This particular stem uses the company's version of a four-bolt stem.
The top bolts are tiny and are designed to snug the top edge of the face plate with no gap; then, the more traditional 4mm bolts at the bottom are used to apply the force that holds the bar in place.
Wolf Tooth is now making internally splined lockrings, and naturally, they come in a variety of fun colors.
Last summer, Wolf Tooth started manufacturing headsets. Now, they've launched a flat pedal.
Olympic-level track racing is about as close to Formula 1 as bikes get. As riders hit increasingly faster speeds on the track, brands develop and create more wild aerodynamic bikes.
The idea here is to shield the rider's legs with wide fork blades and then calm the turbulent air behind the legs with the extra wide seat stays. It's a bike that, on its own, will test slower, but it's claimed to be very fast in combination with a rider.
The entire frame module (including cranks) is priced at $15,000. Riders will then need to budget another thousand dollars or so for their choice of handlebars.
Velocio has designed and manufactured a racing skinsuit for its sponsored athletes. An aero suit is a must for racers at a certain level, but there are currently no plans to offer it to consumers.
TRP had their 1x16 Vistar Powershift electronic groupset on display.
It pairs a 12-speed cassette with a Classified powershift 2-speed hub, which is supposed to create 16 unique gear ratios. Hence the 1x16 name.
The shifters themselves look quite sleek and tidy. The whole system is quite appealing for riders who want to run the Classified hub.
Wahoo had its new Trackr Radar on display. The unique feature of this radar is that it also integrates a brake light function to alert cars behind you when you are slowing down. We haven't tried it or the updated Wahoo Roam and Bolt cycling computers yet. But are expecting review units to be in our hands shortly for testing.
Woom had it's newest Ready kids helmet on display. Unlike most kids helmets from lager brands, this one comes in three sizes (most are offered in two or just a single size), a bunch of colors, has an integrated light, and is priced at $80.
Magnetic buckles like this are a bit of a gimic on adult helmets, but for kids helmets they are amazing at preventing the dreaded chin pinch of a traditional buckle, and the associated melt down that comes with it.
TPU tubes were litterally everywhere at Sea Otter this year. I quickly stoped counting how many new offerings I saw.
Fox was showing a prototype inverted enduro fork that would appear to replace the current version 38.
Despite having the new fork in full view on the show, no one at Fox wanted to give any details about it.
Viair is an air compressor company, and they were at Sea Otter showing off their new Recon Mini portable air compressor. Which seems to be a product category that's very popular right now. But what caught my eye in their tent was this sophisticated-looking fill station that looked a bit of a one-off product for now, as it's not currently listed anywhere on Viair's website.
Topeak had their new E-Booster Digital pump out for people to try.
Some folks will recognize the Lee Cougan brand, which has been making a comeback lately. They had their Innova Super Gravel bike on display. The model seriously blurs the line between gravel and mountain bikes. It wouldn't be hard to argue that suspension-corrected geometry for a 100mm fork, clearance for 2.40-inch tires, and 30 mm of travel in the rear certainly sound very mountain bike like, or maybe it's just Super Gravel now.
The Super Gravel is easily ahead of even where the most forward-thinking brands are with their current gravel bike offerings.
Now for something a bit different. This is Torbjørn Andre Røed's Trek Checkmate. He raced it to an 11th-place finish in the opening gravel round of the LifeTime Grand Prix and there are quite a few differences between how a pro gravel bike is set up and what most riders typically do.
Example numbers one and two: road pedals and aero bottle cages.
Next up is tire selection. Torbjørn clearly wants to run as large and as fast of a tire as he possibly can and has opted to use a 2.1 Thunder Burt (54 mm) up front and a 2.0 Terra Hardpack (50 mm) in the rear. The official tire clearance for the Trek Checkmate is 45 mm, as measured.
If you're paying for your bikes, stick to the manufacturer-specified max tire size limits. This kind of paint and likely frame damage is no joke and would certainly not be covered by a warranty.
After a long development cycle, Orucase finally had its full-size bike travel case on display. The case accommodates road and gravel bikes with integrated cockpits and provides possibly the best protection possible from a soft case.
The frame is mounted inside a collapsible roll-cage structure and a clever strut protects the cockpit from side impacts. When the case is not in use, everything can be collapsed down and the case becomes roughly a quarter of its expanded size. It's an impressive design and I'm looking forward to testing it out on my next trip with the bike.
Stromm Cycles Raktt aero road bike takes full advantage of the UCI's relaxed frame regulations that allow a tube to be eight times as long as it is wide (8:1). The previous rule limited shapes to a 3:1 ratio.
The relaxed regulations allow Stromm to make one of the narrowest front ends I have ever seen. No idea how it rides, but I'd love to try it out.
Cadex was showing off its newly released Amp saddle with a 3D-printed top. I'm a big fan of the original Amp saddle shape and have no reason to doubt that this new version is just as comfy.
Cybrei is primarily known for making cranks, chainrings, and bottom brackets. But they had a set of very lightweight carbon tools on display in their booth. No word on availability, but based on holding them in my hand, these would save a lot of weight in a traveling mechanics toolbox.
Here is what Cybrei is primarily known for. These carbon cranks can be purchased in lengths from 155 up to 175 mm in 2.5 mm increments. Multiple axle and chainring options are available and retail for a crankset with chainrings and a power meter is $990.
Route Werks had a new, bigger version of their handlebar bag on display. Dubbed simply the BIG Handlebar Bag, the new bag is nearly double the volume of the original version and can mount up to five accessories.
Hunt was giving sneak peeks at an unreleased set of wheels called the Aerodynamicist SL.
The wheels feature front and rear-specific rims with 44 and 46 mm depths. Weight is said to be 1250 g for the carbon spoke version and 1375 g for a set with steel spokes. Pricing hasn't been set yet, but I've already got these in for testing, so stay tuned for more!
Test Editor Dan Chabanov got his start in cycling as a New York City bike messenger but quickly found his way into road and cyclocross racing, competing in professional cyclocross races from 2009 to 2019 and winning a Master’s National Championship title in 2018. Prior to joining Bicycling in 2021, Dan worked as part of the race organization for the Red Hook Crit, as a coach with EnduranceWERX, as well as a freelance writer and photographer.
