Dash Cycles - a preview

"You should see the pile of rejected saddles we have," Weston tells me. "If they're even a few grams over our claimed weight, we trash them." That one sentence, right there, says just about everything you need to know about Dash. These guys aren't just obsessed with carbon fiber - they're obsessed with quality products.

You might remember Dash from when we showcased their early hub prototypes at Interbike last year on a particularly light bike. We recently caught up with Weston Snyder, one of the co-founders of the company. Like so much tech in the bike industry, Weston himself came from a background in motor sports. "In the beginning," he tells me, "Dash was making a lot of products for motorcycles and other motor sports. But we've now switched completely to cycling."

We don't have a lot to show off from this first meeting - we only got brief peek at some of the Dash product lineup. But everything Weston brought to show off was completely drool-worthy. He opened up with a pair of saddles from the more extreme end of the Dash collection. The saddles were the m.4 (the road saddle), and the p.3 (the stubby-looking one). These two saddles - COMBINED - weigh just 84 grams. Yeah, for both of them. The m.4 is 47g, and the little p.3 is just 37g. They're barely there. Yet they're solid, and feature some very impressive construction. The saddles have just the right amount of give in the shell to provide some suspension.

Even more impressive is the fact that these saddles are laid up and formed in ONE piece. That is, the shell and rails are all laid up at the same time. It's not one piece glued to another piece. It helps gives the saddles strength, and although these saddles are rated for only lighter riders (75kg limit), Dash makes some slightly beefier models (we're talking beefier by 5-10 grams), that are rated for 100kg riders.

The stubby little p.3 looks like it might be very well-suited for a tri bike - it has a good spot for your sit bones, and then drops off quickly to get out of the way of your tender parts.

Hubs & More

Dash is currently developing a much broader line of products. They're out to carbon-ify everything on your bike that they can. And they're starting with the hubs. We saw the prototypes last year, and as promised, Dash is now making these for consumers. They're sick light, and stunningly beautiful. Currently they're only available as built wheels direct from Dash, but Dash does offer a wide variety of rim and spoke options. Go have a look at dashcycles.com.

We're hoping to review some Dash product in the near future, so stay tuned.