News for 2024

ROTOR Athlete Remy Metailler has been riding ROTOR cranks for nigh onto 6 years now. Find out why in his latest Bike Check, summarized here for our hot take.

MADE in the Shade

ROTOR made the annual pilgrimage to Portland to take part in the MADE Bike show, where bike nerds go to get stoked. Nothing scalable, nothing mass produced, the MADE show is the core show for handbuilt bikes & the people who love them. Check out our pics & hot takes here!

Team Vorarlberg Finds Their Rhythm

Rotor sponsored professional racing squad Team Vorarlberg traveled to Holland for the semi-Classic race Ronde van de Achterhoek this August. Although the team is used to racing in the high mountains of Europe, the flat terrain of Holland with its wind and small roads makes this an even bigger challenge. Notably, there were 19 gravel sectors giving this race a true Classics feel to it. With such a crazy course, the team had to do some recon for the next day's adventure.

There is something to say about the diversity of racing different terrain- on one hand, mountains and KOM’s take a certain mindset of constant high watts and thresholds. Racing the chaotic classics parcours requires multiple efforts from covering attacks, accelerating out of turns, and constant foot on the gas racing requires a completely different type of rider. Team Vorarlberg accepted the challenge and came home with experience and takeaways for their next day at The Classics.

Team Vorarlberg rides the Rotor 2INpower SL Road power meters to gauge their efforts in races and training taking their performance to new heights. Learn more about the family of Rotor 2INpower SL here.

2024 Volta a Portugal- The Best Race You Have Never Heard Of

Rotor sponsored Pro road squad Team Vorarlberg is currently in Portugal competing in the Volta a Portugal, a 10 stage event, including a prologue, that is the longest UCI race on the calendar outside the 3 Grand Tours. Read below the race report from the team during the first half of the race up to the rest day, in the teams own words:

Who would have thought to start the second stage from Santarem to the capital of Lisbon over 164 kilometers in yellow. After Colin Stüssi's heroic victory on Thursday, the starting position was not entirely new, but being in yellow so early was. That means: “There's a lot of work on the road.”

AND yes - it was a day of work, especially at the beginning, until a small group was able to break away, and from KM 50 before Lisbon. The gusty wind replaced the altitude meters. At KM 30, the top three set off in a sprint. Vorarlberg's own Colin Stüssi is the first to secure three seconds. Team Vorarlberg continued to take responsibility right into the final.

Pirmin Benz, Felix Stehli and Lukas Meiler do the main work in the fight for Lisbon and put their noses to the grindstone!

The longed-for rest day was used to recover, but also to do some preparatory work for week two of the tour. There are still 12,000 (39k feet!) meters of climbing and 900 kilometers (559 miles) of racing ahead. And, above all, the decision about the Tour.

Tuesday’s stage, July 30, from Penedono to Braganca over 177 kilometers and 3300 (over 10k feet!) meters of altitude began like most of the stages. With attacks right from the start, the riders’ computers showed a speed of over 50kmph. One of the killer climbs, the 12 kilometer climb in the middle of the stage. And here the attacks of the top ten in the GC. The stage developed into a real speed chase!

TOP TEAM WORK AGAIN TODAY - a hard day's work comes to an end!

The entire team once again took on responsibility today, riding in second position in the peloton, keeping an eye on the race until the finale and avoiding all attacks. There they let the breakaway leading group go. The winner was American Hugo JR Scala (Project Echelon). Vorarlberg team leader Colin Stüssi finished 18th today, safely with the same time as the top ten riders and defended second place in the overall standings. After a total of nearly 21 hours of racing, young Vorarlberg rider Jannis Peter is still a strong 19th in the 85th Tour of Portugal.

And chapeau to Vorarlberg team riders Lukas Meiler, Alexander Konychev, Felix Stehli, Pirmin Benz and also to Lukas Rüegg, who fought their way through the heat today.

Stage 6: Uphill for breakfast

On Wednesday, the sixth stage leads from Braganca 170 kilometers to Boticas. From the first kilometer onwards, 500 meters (1500 feet!) of elevation gain and a further five mountain classifications spread over almost 2700 meters of elevation gain await.

Kate Boyle and Adventure Riding

Kait Boyle Strives to Empower

Rotor athlete Kait Boyle is constantly on the move in the biggest way. Always looking towards new, bold, and ultra-endurance mountain bike adventures. Cait has set course records in 24-hour races and self-supported multi-day bikepacking races, even winning a 24-hour World Championship title in 2018. Kait took on the challenge of riding from Teton Valley, ID to Emporia, KS and racing the Unbound XL (300 miles!). All these experiences have led Kait to become a vocal advocate for mtb trails and wild landscape access through her non-profit Bikepacking Roots. Athletes like Kait rely on components that combine lightweight performance and durability. The Rotor family of mtb cranks offer just those aspects using the highest quality materials and cutting edge technology such as

Anne Haug sets new record at IM Lanzarote

Why Dual-Sided Power matters

Well, for those of us who want to go full data-nerd, it allows us to see real time info on how efficient we are being in each pedal stroke.

This may not be how you spend every ride, but access to this information allows us to get the most out of our efforts. The quick screengrab below of the proprietary INpower app (yes, the 2INpower SL works with your head unit, but this is additional data you can pull on your phone or laptop, perfect for your rainy day trainer sessions,) shows the point of maximum power in the pedal stroke (the green line on the "peanut",) the dead spot in the pedal stroke (the waistline on the peanut,) and of course balance left & right, in addition to the normal bits of info, such as power, cadence, duration, etc.

We believe that knowledge is power (so to speak!) and our ability to change outcomes is directly related to our access to information, so we have the highest rate of read in the industry (you can read our TED talk on it here, JK about the TED part,) so YOU can have the best rides of your life & achieve your best results.

Shop 2INpower SL goodness here!

Drop In With The Rotor R-Hawk

Rotor athlete Sasha Yakoleff showing off and airing out at Trailside Flow Park in Park City, Utah. Always looking for unique riding aspects, Sasha chooses the Rotor R-Hawk all-mountain/enduro crank for its lightweight design and rigidity, made for the modern all-mountain rider. Built on the principle of a modular design that offers adaptability to configure for nearly all MTB frame and rider needs- crank arms, spindle, and chainrings can be built to accommodate rider demands and needs. With a choice of seven colors of rubber bumpers to express your own flair- black, blue, green, yellow, red, pink and orange. Learn more about the R-Hawk all-mountain cranks here.

Also, be sure to check out the featherweight KAPIC family of xc cranks that are available in both carbon and CNC’d aluminum. Designed around the idea of modularity for a true custom crank build with the option of our MTB INspider power meter. Now available option to fit Shimano MTB cranks- XTR, XT, and SLX models. Learn more about the MTB family of Power Meters here.

2024 Giro d'Italia Time Trial Showdown

Are you Unbound-Ready?

Who here likes to suffer? We're guessing more than we'd be thinking, but who doesn't like to look back on a day in the saddle & know they left it all on the course? Check out what one of our athletes had to say about getting ready for your big day.

The Road Less Traveled: Vegan Cyclist

Some athletes just capture the spirit of what we want to do on the bike, or at least, what we think we'd want to do from the comfort of our group rides & familiar terrain. Tyler Pearce, aka the Vegan Cyclist is always having a grand adventure & lives to tell the tale.