Formula One tech and MTB, OneUp Components hubs, Rondo's RUUT and the Starling Mini-Murmur

A recap of this week's tech stories.

Liam Mercer

Jun 29 2024

With Eurobike 2024 kicking off just next week, tech releases have been ramping up. This week, Starling launched its downcountry bike, Fox unveiled open-face specific goggles and Rondo brought a space-age frame to its Ruut gravel bike. Did you miss out on this week's top tech releases? Here's your best place to catch up.

Rondo brought a new frame to the Ruut

Rondo's Ruut has received a frame with cues borrowed from the aggro MYLC released a couple of years ago. The brand says that with this new model, it's chased comfort through shock absorption.

As before, the bike benefits from a geometry-adjusting flip-chip at the fork allowing for the tailoring of the head tube angle and fork offset to the rider's needs and the bike gets a complete modernisation, as it now features headset-routed internal cable routing and a Universal Derailleur Hanger mount.

If you want to know more about Rondo's sci-fi RUUT, here's the story - Rondo takes two giant leaps forward with the Gen 2 Ruut.

Fox looks poised to set trends with trail-specific MTB goggles

Fox is no stranger to bringing oddball products to the market and having them become popular options. The Dropframe is a perfect example and now the brand believes that its trail-specific goggles, the Purevue will go the same way.

While certainly controversial, goggles bring big benefits to trail riding, providing greater security and protection but of course, even the best goggles are pretty bulky. The Purevue looks to address the downsides of most of the goggles on the market and carve its own space by providing the benefits combined with glasses-like airflow and more coverage.

We'll be getting a goggle for testing so keep your eyes peeled for a review incoming but for now, check out the news - Fox unveils open-face-helmet-specific Purevue goggles.

Starling Cycles went down-country with the Mini-Murmur

Based in Bristol, Starling Cycles is a brand that's made its name delivering beautifully crafted, hand-made steel frames and the Murmur is its long-serving trail bike. Last year, the brand took that Murmur platform and gave it more travel and a longer chainstay, resulting in the enduro-focussed Mega-Murmur. This week, the brand went the opposite direction, taking the Murmur and awarding it with less travel to create a down-country bike – the Mini-Murmur.

Available as a frame, frame and shock or a super-blingy Hope-laden full build, the Mini-Murmur is poised to please those who love big distance riding, as well as pushing their abilities by under-biking themselves through challenging terrain. We managed to get some time on the bike ahead of launch so be sure to check out the Starling Cycles Mini-Murmur first ride review.

But for more details head over to story - Starling's Murmur goes downcountry with the Mini-Murmur.

OneUp Components moved into the wheel game with its new hubs

Squamish-based brand OneUp Components is renowned for its EDC tool, superb carbon handlebar among a host of other MTB components and it has now moved towards wheels with its new hubs. The brand has pushed the design, too, claiming that they're lighter than I9's Hydra and even Hope's Pro5 hubs while costing £315 per pair.

Inspired by DT Swiss's 350 hub, the OneUp hub benefits from a 44T ratchet. The brand has chosen to avoid loads of engagement in the interest of durability stating that super-fast engagement doesn't provide enough of an improvement in ride performance to go, making the hub complicated.

OneUp Components unveils super light and affordable hubs.

Rimpact thinks F1 tech can benefit mountain biking

Tuned Mass Dampers are incredibly common in industry with notable uses being in the Burj Khalifa, employed to keep it from toppling and in NASA's rockets. They're interesting bits of equipment that counteract vibrations so effectively and are why Fernando Alonso's 2005 and 2006 championship-winning Renault F1 cars were so fast.

In a nutshell, they helped keep Alonso's car stable and glued to the track when attacking raised curbs at the apex of corners. That way of thinking is exactly why Rimpact thinks Tuned Mass Dampers have a place in mountain biking, so we caught up with Matt Shearn, the man behind the brand, to learn more.

Find out more at - Can F1 technology benefit mountain biking?

Garmin unveiled its new Edge 1050 GPS unit

Garmin acknowledges that a good, bright and clear screen is imperative for a bike computer and that's what the new Edge 1050 is about. With a hi-res screen, this new computer is said to boost visibility but also gets fresh features that address durability.

When on the bike, pressing buttons and general computer fiddling can be rather tricky, so the brand has made the new computer's buttons from metal, so they should be more than capable of putting up with the odd whack. There are also new community features and active safety tech.

A lot is going on here so click over to the story for the full low-down - Garmin has just launched a brighter and better Edge 1050 cycling computer.

Sonder updates the Cortex, its budget friendly trail bike

The Cortex is Sonder's budget friendly trail bike that we praised for its excellent value within its previous iteration. Two years on and the brand has brought updates to the bike, including a revamped geometry to make it more capable on the trail with 5mm more suspension travel at the rear wheel.

But importantly, the bike still packs value as the frame can be picked up for £1,600 with a full-bling SRAM XO T-Type build costing £4,200.

For more, here's the story - Sonder's Cortex gets more suspension travel and a trail friendly geometry.

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Liam Mercer

Since beginning his mountain biking career while working as a resort photographer in Greece in 2014, Liam became a freelance contributor at off.road.cc in 2019. From there, he’s climbed the journalism job ladder from staff writer to deputy technical editor, now finding his place as technical editor.

Partial to the odd enduro race, heart rate-raising efforts on slim-tyred cross-country bikes, hell-for-leather e-MTB blasts or even casual gravel jaunts, there’s not a corner of off-road cycling where Liam fears to tread. With more than 40 bike reviews under his belt and hundreds more on MTB, e-MTB and gravel parts and accessories, Liam’s expertise continues to be cemented and respected by the industry.