 Sep 15th, 09. Bike Fixation's David Johnson made the trip from NZ to Germany for Eurobike and kindly sent RoadCycling.co.nz this review on what was on offer .
Disclosure - BikeFixation is the New Zealand distributor for Litespeed and Quintana Roo bikes.
Eurobike 2009 (c)Messe Friedrichshafen GmbH
Eurobike report - David Johnson
Eurobike 2010 offered me the chance to check out the latest and greatest that the cycling world has to offer.
Preceding Interbike by three weeks, Eurobike is traditionally the first official chance distributors and retailers have to physically inspect new products and make decisions about what they will sell in the coming year.
Two things struck me about Eurobike this year. There was a huge range of product available, much of it unseen on these shores - and likely to remain that way due to the small size of the market in NZ.
The lasting impression, however, was of just how few products had a genuine design change or innovative technical story to tell, with the vast majority simply rolling out last year's products with new graphics or a small twist on prior offerings.
Over 400 entries were received this year for the Eurobike Design Awards, with 77 awards being made across 19 categories. Only eight of these entries received a Gold Award, emphasizing just how good some of the new designs were.
Only three bikes secured Gold - The Quintana Roo CD.01 TT frameset, the Focus Raven Extreme MTB and the Giant Accend 1 city bike.
 Litespeed Archon
Another new design worthy of mention is the Litespeed Archon carbon range. Long famous for their superb titanium offerings, American Bicycle Group (ABG) also have several years experience building carbon bikes for the triathlon market under the Quintana Roo brand.
In making the decision to launch a range of carbon road bikes, they are breaking from tradition and know the new bikes need to be something special.
Talking with ABG's CEO about the development process revealed that as part of the two year design process, their designers, executives and sales people bought in the best carbon bikes they could find (including top-of-the-range offerings from Specialized, Scott, Storck, Cervelo and Trek) and spent several weeks riding them in order to identify the best characteristics in their competitors products.
They then provided designer Brad Devaney with a brief requiring him to combine all these desirable elements into a single frame design. If only all manufacturers went to the same lengths when creating a new design! Watch out for the Archon carbon range in NZ from November. (Read more details on the Archon carbon...)
New designs
A number of other new designs are worthy of honourable mention. Xentis showed off the futuristic Aero Action X one-piece aero bar, which looked stunning and also felt very natural in terms of positioning.
Shimano displayed the new Di2 TT shifters, which allow shifting both from the aero bar ends and from a button mounted on the inside of the brake grip.
Camelbak introduced an aero drink system which involves the bladder fitting inside a custom shirt (or base layer) - this system has been developed and used in the pro ranks over the last season or so.
Rotor have a very cool looking new crankset, including the obligatory yellow ‘Carlos Sastre' version - although maybe a little late in terms of timing.
Top bikes
There is always a selection of bikes at shows like this that make you stop in your tracks.
Amongst the standouts were a beautifully painted Colnago EPS, Mark Cavendish's custom painted Scott (including the six sets of ‘wings' acquired during this year's TdF), some uber-cool SS offerings from Fixie Inc (who, as further proof of their good taste, just happen to be the German distributor for NZ's Solo clothing range), and assorted beautiful retro steel offerings including the Bianchi Dolomiti and De Rosa Neo Primato.
Some not so flash paint jobs
The Italians led the "oh no, oh please no..." awards for dodgy paintjobs. Two particular horrors were the new Pinarello Dogma that looked like Tinkerbell had spilled fairy dust along the length of it (silver glitter belongs on Christmas crackers guys) and the De Rosa King 3, in a truly putrid purple and red combination that would deter even the most avid De Rosa fan.
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My TT and road products of the show? Xentis Aero Action TT bars and the Litespeed Archon C1 for me, thanks!
David Johnson
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