Chris King Announces Limited Purple Anodized Component Run- by Guitar Ted
Anodized mountain bike components in various colors have been around since the dawn of the modern mountain bike. (Anyone remember Ukai rims? 
) But the height of the anodized craze was probably the mid-90′s when you could get components from a wide range of manufacturers in a myriad of colors. Probably the most memorable of those 90′s hues was “ultra-violet purple”.
Like all things fashion oriented, anodized components went the way of grunge music and a time of “black anodized only” “dark ages” descended upon the mountain biking populace. Well, that is unless you rode with Chris King Precision Components. They have famously kept waving their magic anodizing wand over head sets, hubs, and now bottom brackets for all those “dark years”. Now Chris King is bringing back a much asked for hue- Purple.
Get purple for a limited time only
Booking Orders: November 1st – December 10th 2012- Order Delivery: January through February 2013
The following components will be available in a “moody” dark purple anodization for a limited run time only as outlined above. Contact your local bike shop for ordering. Orders must be placed by December 10th, 2012.
HEADSETS
- No Threadsets 1” & 1-1/8” Bold and Sotto Voce
- InSet 2, InSet 3, InSet 7
- 1” GripNut in Bold
- Headset Spacer Kits 1-1/8
BOTTOM BRACKETS
- Road and Mountain in both SRAM and Shimano*
TAMPER
- 58mm
HUBS
R45
- 28H Front and Rear. Available in both Shimano/SRAM or Campagnolo*
Classic
- 32H Low Flange Front and Rear
ISO
- 32H Front QR, QR15, and 20mm Thru Axle
- 32H Rear 135mm, 142mm or Single Speed
BMX
- 36H Front and Rear High Flange
Note: Information and images used in this post provided for by Chris King.
ZOMG, time to seriously geek out over expensive ano’d CNC’d fashion accessories for my bike!
Great. Now I have to build a bike around purple. (read sarcastic)
Go Chris! Having some trouble matching the moody purple, perhaps some contrasting Tune spin stix and some dark blue rims…
Hmmm… Degraded sulfuric acid fumes and aluminum hydroxide sludge, a small price to pay to be stylish.
@Derwood: Ever read the tech paper on the Chris King site concerning the anodizing process?
@GT: Well, no. I’d be interested in what they’re doing though. I just scanned their site and could not find said tech sheet. Do you have a link?
@Derwood: It is impressive, but there are limitations to what they, (or anyone else), is capable of doing to protect the environment. See here: http://chrisking.com/pucks/page2
Thanks for the link GT. As stated before, and confimed by CK’s website, anodizing is a nasty process. The byproducts of all those pretty parts are salts(neutralized sulfuric acid vapor) and sediment(AL/OH3 sludge), which get hauled off and disposed as hazardous material. They(and everybody else) would love to be able to anodize in a more enviornmentally friendly manner, but right now that manner doesn’t exist in a cost effective way. I’m not judging, just saying…
@Derwood: You are welcome.
And……this just points up that it is not a “Chris King only” issue, but an issue that is cycling industry wide, (since almost all aluminum components are anodized), and is only the tip of the iceberg when it comes to other manufacturing processes that go into the making of bicycles, and the maintaining of them.
However; the silver lining here is that Chris King, (and other cycling companies), are striving to minimize the impact on the environment, and also, let’s not forget: Cycling itself is a great way to lessen the impact we have on the environment over the use of fossil fuel burning modes of transportation, and is an activity that enhances our health.
I think you will agree that your original comment looked like an indictment of Chris King the company, but in reality I think you might also agree that the issues involved are very complex and affect the industry, and all of us, as a whole.
I still have a mint condition, mid-90s vintage, 1″ King headset in that aforementioned “ultra-violet purple,” if anyone is interested…