Transplanted from California less than a year ago (there, it's official, everyone in Colorado can now hate me) the guys here at the office say the winter has been unusually mild. My early morning frozen water bottles and icy trails might disagree, but hey, at least we're out there and not relegated to the trainer (like I was told I would be before moving out here). Weather aside, the racing/product seasons are right around the corner and we're gearing-up for some pretty hectic travel schedules.

For racing coverage, Jason's off to Malaysia, Charles is heading over 'cross worlds in Italy, and Neal and Kip are shooting over to California for a few interviews/team camps. On the product side of things, I'm heading down to Arizona to check out what Manitou has got in the works for 2004--that's right 2004.

I'm guessing we'll see some further development of its OnePointFive Standard fork line, but more importantly, we'll see a much-revamped cross-country racing fork line. Last/this year's Skareb line was a partial success, but seemed to play a technological second-fiddle to Manitou's showcase 1.5-inch freeride line-up. Whether this turns out to be true or not, it's certainly interesting to see the tides of competition change so radically with FoxShox now playing such a dominant role in the suspension fork business. Whereas RockShox was king of the dirt a mere five years ago, it's the now-focused Manitou and up-and-coming FoxShox which lead the developmental charge. With the moving/laying-off of much of RockShox's already-transplanted Colorado Springs staff to SRAM's headquarters in Chicago, in addition to shifting 100 percent of its production to Asia (including the once handmade Boxxer), one has to wonder what the future might hold for RockShox?

And speaking of shifting gears, now that you've had a bit of time playing around with the shiny new XTR group Santa brought you for the holidays, I'm curious to hear some feedback from the street--er, the trail. I've got my own opinions about the much heralded Japanese group, but what do you think? Is it the best thing since the clipless pedal, or is it a spendy plot by Shimano to simply make change for the sake of change? Send me your feedback at ajuskaitis@7dogs.com and I'll post a few responses in next week’s installment.

Oh, and here are a few more reports from Italy:

Elite (www.elite-it.com)
Number of Employees: 28
What they produced in 2002: 50,000 trainers
What's New: Elite's Patao carbon water bottle cage utilizes the company's new smaller 66mm sizing to weigh-in a scant 19 grams. The catch? It will costa portly $100.

I Did Not Know That:
1. Elite headquarters are housed in the most unique building we visited in Italy--a huge 500 year-old quicklime factory. Completely refurbished, the twin kilns produced much of the quicklime (used to produce concrete) used in the construction of the region's many houses, churches and factories. Rocks from the adjacent river were scooped-up, loaded into the kilns and super-heated down to eventually turn into the base (high pH) powder.
2. Speaking of smaller diameter bottles, like 'em or not, Elite claims they are 11 percent more aerodynamic over traditional 74mm bottles.
3. Its best selling cage? None other than the classic Ciussi cage.
4. Elite's ElastoGel roller found on its trainers produces 50 percent less noise than a traditional alloy roller (as found on other trainers).

Wilier (www.wilier.it)
Number of Employees: 22
What they produced in 2002: 12,000 frames, 5,000 complete bikes
What's New: Wilier's beautiful new Izoard uses a Scandium front triangle (with a unique carbon wrap) with full carbon rear triangle.

I Did Not Know That:
1. Didn't really know much about the Wilier brand, but was extremely impressed with the fit, function and finish of these all-handmade bicycles.
2. First established in 1908, the Wilier brand isn't some fly-by-night overseas operation.
3. Wilier is the largest purchaser of Campagnolo components in Italy.
4. Customers can select any component mix they want when ordering a Wilier. Sticker selection is also available.
5. Every frame is hand built in Europe (Six builders throughout Germany, France and Italy).
6. Every complete bike is built-up by hand in Wilier's headquarters located in the Veneto (Northeastern region of Italy).

Campagnolo (www.campagnolo.com)
Number of Employees: 400
What they produced in 2002: Second largest component manufacturer in the world
What's New: Campagnolo is on-track to produce its controversial Electronic Record grouppo in 2005 (although not 100 percent certain). Look for a semi-automatic motorized front and rear derailleur to be actuated by standard-looking ErgoPower shifters. An ErgoBrain computer monitors the system and relays information back to the rider. In the far future, the system might be completely automatic, determining the optimum cadence for the rider and adjusting gearing to suit without input from the rider.

I Did Not Know That:
1. Every single chain plate is stamped from flat stock, then assembled in a painstakingly slow process.
2. Campagnolo uses particularly interesting mix of old-world versus new-school production methods. State-of-the-art CNC machines intricately etch away chainrings, while a single worker, operating an antiquated press, pushes a square die through each alloy crankarm to produce the square bottom bracket taper--time consuming to say the least (In contrast, Shimano utilizes almost 100 percent robotic operation--with raw stock going in one end of the building and hours [days] later coming out the other end of the factory polished, packaged and ready to ship).

A lot of the important work is still done by hand.

Take a look at the backside of your Campagnolo cranks. Do you see a small indented dot right above the pedal hole? If so, you've got a pair of cranks that were re-routed through the polishing process because of a slight defect found as the arm passed through the first-run inspection process. If the defect can't be polished out after the second attempt, the cranks are discarded.