Eurobike ’14: Overview

Eurobike 2014 –  Overview: by c_g

And the next Eurobike show, the 23rd of its kind already, held in Germany’s Friedrichshafen is over – with plenty of records to prove its status as the leading show of the biking industry:

•  Over 46,000 professional visitors from 111 different countries
•  More than 21,000 bike enthusiasts during public day
•  And nearly 2,000 journalists from 46 nations

One of the big changes over past shows was that the well beloved Demoday which formerly had been held some 60 km away, this time was moved directly to the proximity of the trade show. This move turned out to be well accepted by attending companies as the number of companies showing their products raised to a new record high of 147, which is a boost of over 40 % over past years.

With these numbers and the change in location I was of course very interested to see how it would turn out and despite a devastating weather forecast, I had high spirits when the show opened its doors. And as it turned out grooming the isles for news and products was more than worth the effort …

… but the most beloved aspect of Demoday for us – the actual riding of bikes and getting a good first impression from natural trails – had been reduced to a constantly overloaded, about 500 ft long flow trail (see image) with very little altitude change or to simply riding on the wide gravel roads in the vicinity – nothing compared to the past 🙁 .

Ibis Ripley

So despite my best efforts and various runs on the flow trail and the adjacent pump track the actual ride impression of the one (and only bike) I took out this day – the IBIS Ripley had been so slim, that to us Demoday has become pretty much irrelevant. But speaking of the Ripley … it will have another chance on a real TNI-review anytime soon. Nonetheless we were able to gather news and products during Eurobike (the exclusive first look of the AMERICAN CLASSIC RS-2 compatible front hub and the fat bikes hub we posted recently, being one of them).

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As one of the trendiest bike topics these days we have fat bikes and pretty much every manufacturers seemed to feel obliged to show at least one iteration of such a beast for 2015.

The Canyon “Dude” fat bike

Alutech “Fat Fanes” FS fatty

Two of the most innovative concept of them were the CANYON Dude carbon fat bike (presented by CANYON’s Michael Staab) and the ALUTECH Fat Fanes one of the (currently) few fat bike full suspension designs currently existing.

Our tester Oli has a very soft spot for fat bikes and he has searched the trade show floors for news regarding this topic … with a report coming your way soon.

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In terms of wheel news there was not a whole lot we saw, that has not been shown before.

Looks reminiscent of the past, definitely not the same as the past!

– One of the few highlights certainly has been the AC Biturbo „Project One“ 29er wheels, which at a mere 1072g (in 650b even less than one kg!) by the German Carbon wizards of BIKE AHEAD, a company we expect to hear more from in the future.

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Of course there had been several news regarding 29″er bikes but to be fair – most of them had been evolving from existing designs or were evolutionary steps, rather than major news.

Rocky Mountain 999 BC Edition

One of the bikes I found particularly interesting has been the ROCKY MOUNTAIN Instinct 990 B.C Edition, featuring a extraordinarily aggressive spec for what we had come to think of in the Instinct platform … I like it!!

Besides the RMB news we will also be presenting you new bikes by YETI, TRANSITION, SILVERBACK, IBIS, CUBE and potentially other in the coming weeks.

BOS Dizzy fork

In the suspension department many news had been out before. One exiting fork we came across was the French interpretation of a 29″er XC-fork – the BOS Dizzy which we hope to review sometimes in the coming months.

The Schwalbe Procore System

One of the most exciting and innovative news of the show likely has been the dual air chamber system by SCHWALBE called PROCORE, which we looked at in detail and will be telling you more about soon.

But there were also several products in the clothing and accessory field that stuck out as really cool – from left to right a very small assortment of what we saw:

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• The BELL Super2R – a super versatile and cool looking Enduro helmet with a detachable chin guard,

• A new protector backpack by ERGON called BE2, which has a special arrangement with the heavy water reservoir at filling the lower compartment and all other equipment fitting into the upper section – both separated by a gap to best stow away a helmet and allow for great freedom of movement.

• And then there were the very low key looking but veritably performance-oriented GIRO Alpineduro shoes a sweet mixture of the Terraduro enduro shoes (currently on review by c_g with the verdict coming soon) and the top-end Empire shoe.

As you can tell it will be worth checking in regularly … stay tuned.

RIDE ON,
c_g