The best of Eurobike 2014: bikes and wheels

Be sure to check out part one in this series, about the helmets and shoes of Eurobike 2014.

In a venue the size of a small town and with thousands of brands displaying their wares it’s a challenge to stand out. You can lay out all your new bikes, components or clothing in the nicest of ways but there’s a ton of other companies doing exactly the same. For a few though they manage the trick of drawing a crowd to their stand by producing prototype items that demand to be seen.

Bikes

At this year’s Eurobike show BMC, Canyon and Lightweight pulled that trick off with outstanding success. Word of each of these brands’ prototypes spread amongst the halls quickly and it become a chore to fight the crowds at their respective stands to get a good look at the prototypes.

BMC had an Impec concept road bike that certainly drew the crowds. Talking with one of the marketing guys at BMC I found out that the bike wasn’t just a show piece though. The whole concept was a practice in seeing what could be possible with future frames. The bike as it was would have been a ridable demo if the driveset was complete — the rest of the items on the bike are all working and in many cases being tested on some of BMC’s other bikes in house.

The Impec concept project was started a little over five months ago. Many of the ideas are there as a test bed to see what they can carry over to future bikes.

Canyon also had a road bike that looked like it was from a 2000AD comic. Canyon feel they are currently at a pinnacle of producing a bike that is both super aerodynamic and lightweight. The next challenge is producing a bike that adapts to riding styles and road surfaces.

The circular pods placed on the fork and downtube have what Canyon claim is a gel-type solution. This is in conjunction with a frame design that involves leaf springs in the front axle and seat stays — a carbon layup that allows flex could act as a suspension unit. A full 15mm of flex would be possible from frame flex.

That though isn’t the ingenious idea for the bike. The gel could work with a CPU sensor from Deutsche Telecom to sense road feel or riding style and adapt the gel’s state to either stiffen the ride or allow the flex to come in to play. So, for instance, if the bike was to hit the cobbles of Paris-Roubaix it would automatically soften the ride up. Once off the cobbles and in sprint mode the frame would become a full-on rigid structure. How long we need to wait to see if this technology is to become even a viable product is yet to be seen.

Thirdly there was Lightweight, known for its super light wheelsets and, more recently, a lovely looking carbon frame. The company had two interesting prototypes on their stand.

First up was the Smart wheel, a wheel that had multiple circuit boards stuck to it, each varying in size. Sitting next to this wheel was the finished item. What first looked like a small, roughly two centimetre square chip was stuck on to a standard lightweight wheel.Underneath the carbon rim lay multiple sensors and wires.

The whole system, when linked to a smartphone app, could tell you a number of parameters about your wheel’s performance. From pressure of the tyre to the heat that the braking surface was generating. This last set of data was displayed on the phone in what looked like a miniature rev counter — the hotter the braking surface became, the closer the needle got to the orange and then the red zone. This could eventually help people who may not be the smartest with braking, especially when descending climbs like you find in the Alps or Dolomites.

Also on the Lightweight stand was what at first glance looked like a very fancy electric bike. This year at Eurobike the whole electric bike scene was a huge draw for many — it’s a trend that is definitely going to be big in the coming years. Large international companies like Bosh, Samsung, Yamaha, and Panasonic have ploughed huge amounts of R&D and money into developing the market and the items that will drive this market.

Lightweight, though, had a bike with a drive system that these multinational companies must wish they had thought of. The bike (obviously a slick looking carbon machine) had the back wheel powered by a magnetic field, much like you’d find on the bullet trains in Japan, albeit on a much smaller scale. As a road cyclist I’d be the first to admit that I’m a snob when it comes to the whole electric bike scene, but this lightweight bike was a highlight of the show for me. It was even more impressive then either the BMC or the Canyon. Lightweight again had thought outside the box.

Elsewhere in the show smaller brands had items that either followed trends that have slowly been gaining speed or been dominated by companies who have had the funds and resources to already have products on the shelves. One such trend was the aero road bike.

Pretty much every bike company now has an aero road bike, with rear brakes tucked away under the bottom bracket or even integrated into the frame. Aero is now the new lightweight.

Jens Voigts last steed was on display along with many other probikes scattered amongst the booths of Eurobike.

The road disc craze has only just begun. A huge number of disc-ready bikes were on display (and many of them weren’t that ugly). Wheel manufactures of course have to keep up with this new development, and most of the major brands had wheels ready for the market.

Mavic have two road wheels ready, a disc version of both the Ksyrium and Aksium are ready. Ritchey, American Classic, Reynolds and Shimano also have several wheels ready to accept discs. One noticeable brand that seemed to have omitted a disc-ready wheel was Fulcrum. They do have a new version of the popular alloy Racing Zero though, and a new flagship Racing Zero Carbon was also on show. Both Fulcrum racing 5 and 7 get a wider rim profile too.

More bright colours on the z75 Disc. UHC Advanced Carbon, Shimano 105 and Felt’s own RSL3 Disc wheels. Some of the Felt’s bikes for 2015 are really competitively priced too.

Caam Corse is an Italian frame company that I’d not come across before but that caught my eye, not due to their “Italian” paint schemes but due to the carbon they were using. The frame builders exclusively use a carbon composite that is derived from F1.

The material is a honeycomb kevlar structure sandwiched between two carbon layers. The claims are enhanced torsional rigidity both longitudinally and laterally. Also on the stand they had a road bike with a single-sided fork, made of this material.

This year a few brands were displaying wooden bikes. As a material for racing on I’m still not sold but as a piece of craftsmanship you couldn’t fault the guys from Basque company Axalko. I’ve seen a few wooden bikes now but the Bat2 made of ash was gorgeous. It’s a small co-operative of four guys that originally started as a hobby. We are hoping to get a closer look at their workshop and bikes at a later date so stay tuned for that.

To be continued …

Controltech had one of the ugliest stems on display. But that’s just a personal opinion.

Controltech had one of the ugliest stems on desplay. But thats just a personal opinion.

On the Fabric stand stood a very lovely looking Cannondale CAAD 10 with a custom paint job.

PsiSquared

That Corum is sexy, just short of being sexy in a Scarlett Johansson or Eva Green way. Please test one.
http://subcontinentalcyclist.wordpress.com/ Ankush Agarwal

So many great bikes. I liked the Orbea and Look latest road bikes. The paint job on Orbea is brilliant.
Anon

That Parlee is going to my LBS apparently. I love that paintjob.

What’s up with the Gios? I’ve always liked the, but that one has a *lot* of seat post showing and/or a very short top tube.
- Sean
  
  Yeah those are very nice bikes, is your LBS bikeNOW? They sell those and are without doubt the best bike shop in Melbourne. :-)
Notso Swift

Nice Rack
Notso Swift

It is good to See Campagnolo’s Delta brake back, nothing new with the Honeycomb, same problems as before, cost to benefit.
I think the variations with wood mean that apart from a display the only real option is bamboo like Calfee’s or using organic products like the Museeuw Flax.
Looks like BMC have gone righty and also the brake on the right?
pedr09

Dave, a typo in “It was even more impressive then either the BMC or the Canyon.”
Jim

Wade et al, can you ask the Secret Pro what the peleton is thinking of disk brakes in their potential future? With all the disk bikes coming out, the hype from manufacturers along with the doomsdayism from some criticising them on safety grounds (sharp edges in crashes, disparities in power in the peleton being an abomination) has me interested in what the PRO riders actually think, outside of their sponsorship tow-the-line obligations.
To me, the argument that you can brake later and harder is somehow dangerous for other riders doesn’t stack up. If you are in a dangerous situation on rim brakes, and you run into a disk braked rider, it means you were going too fast for the conditions anyway as you should have braked earlier in order to take into account the characteristics of your own bike and its less powerful brakes. You outbraked yourself. A disk braked rider will still be under the same limitations of tyre surface and available traction, so they will either be the same speed through corners in good conditions, or faster into the corner than you could be on rim brakes so they will actually get away from you, or will be able to pull up harder behind you if they have to. Also, in a full on all stop situation, you can lock up rim brakes in good conditions just as easily. I’m guessing the main issue is with riding in rain where the disks will come into their own. And again, the rim brake riders should be riding more conservatively anyway to take into account their situation and their own responsibility. The traction available is the same for everyone, so again if you run into a disked rider who is at the PRO limit through a wet corner, you were likely to outstrip the available traction and either run wide or slide it out if you were on your own at that speed. So I don’t see the problem?
It’s just the sharp edges I see as a potential problem, but I don’t know how often accidents happen with mtb’s and disks, and I don’t know how often road crashes involve your appendages going near the disk brake areas of the bike, and I don’t know if this causes consternation for the PRO riders. I have a feeling the accidents are rare, but do happen (I am sure some have got stories), but so do all kinds of accidents like fork breakages, rims and tyres exploding etc, seemingly also as rare..
Thanks!
- campirecord
  
  How would a pro who puts 25k a year on a sponsor bike without disc brakes would know…
- Nitro
  
  Good call… I’m wondering if this is one of those situations where uncertainty is actually holding people back from buying new bikes. I’m probably 12 months away from seeking a new steed, but already I’m thinking of delaying the decision until the direction on disc brakes is clear…
  - mattb
    
    Same here, and coupled with a sense that the UCI will shortly lower the 6.8 rule I think we are about to see a serious shift in what manufacturers focus on
    delaying my next purchase 12-24 months to see how it unfolds
- http://www.cyclingTipsBlog.com cyclingTips
  
  I interviewed the UCI about disc brakes last year: http://cyclingtips.com.au/2013/10/disc-brakes-and-road-bikes-what-does-the-future-hold/
  
  “With 2016 being an Olympic year (Rio) and therefore no modification in the regulation this year, it is unlikely that the disc brakes are allowed in road races until 2017”, the UCI said.
  
  Regarding what the pros say, from the conversations I’ve had it’s as much of a split decision as us regular Joes. From what I know however, not a lot of them have actually ridden a bike disc brakes.
  
  I’ve ridden the Specialized Roubaix disc and really liked it. However, it becomes a logistical nightmare in the pro peloton with wheel changes, neutral spares, no standardisation with disc sizes, etc.
  
  Many industry people I’ve spoken with say that for now, disc brakes will basically create a new category of bike (one for Gran Fondos, adventure bikes, etc).
  
  Hope that helps!
  - Jim
    
    Yeah, clearly for hubbards like myself the disk brake provides a lot of advantages, and CX, gravel, GF and adventure as you say. I really dig the jack-of-all trades bikes coming out. They ain’t purty like a race bike, they ain’t going to do any speciality well, but they can do a bit of everything, which is a real boon for the more moola challenged of us…
    I think the only issue with neutral service is agreeing to a standard axle spacing. It would be easy enough for neutral service to carry wheels with a disk AND a rim braking surface on the same unit.
    The only issue would be rotor clearance (running disks in a frame not designed for clearances), rotor size (may sound stupid, but could stipulate everyone run brake calipers that can clear 160mm rotors, even if chose 140mm) and axle method. I’m not sure whether the race teams would go with through axles, even with the fast release axles coming available, simply from the same neutral service standpoint.
    Anyway, just brain farting on the internet really, thanks for the great work… and apologies for my block text without paragraphs in my OP, dunno what happened there..
CapeHorn

Hmm…
That purple CAAD10 is very nice :D
Pity I could never buy it, the wife would get shitty with me that I got the purple bike (that would have no ability to fit her on it)
Cori

Looks like someone’s hanged themselves next to that Cinelli fixie!
Frank

The Caam Corse single strut has a small but very relevant innovation: the brale’s disc has a protecting cover. Don’t know the cooling implications, but it seems to be a simple solution to the cut and burn worries.

The best of Eurobike 2014: bikes and wheels

by Dave Everett - September 2, 2014

Bikes