Eurobike has been and gone, and once again it was a huge mish-mash of everything from slinky road bikes to the cycling equivalent of an articulated lorry, with pretty much everything in between covered. You have to do a fair bit of walking (and getting lost) around the gargantuan and confusing Messe Frankfurt to see everything, and we probably didn’t see everything, but here are some road and gravel bike highlights that we did stumble upon…
> Check out our other Eurobike tech round-up here
There were lots of pretty bikes at the show. This special edition Watercolour version of the Factor Ostro VAM that will be raced at the 2025 Tour de France, for example…
But probably the nicest was this Officina Battaglin Cortina gravel bike. “The Cortina frameset is the pure expression of Italian craftsmanship, combined with cutting-edge Formula 1 racing engineering”, Officina Battaglin enthuses.
That formula 1 racing engineering is presumably “making things out of carbon and titanium”, since that’s what we have here. You get Columbus Hyperion titanium tubing, 3D-printed lugs, and high-modulus forged carbon components into the mix.
Tyre clearance is up to 700x50mm and it uses a threaded T47 bottom bracket. It’s entirely made in Italy to your requirements, and Battaglin can paint it in house too if you think raw titanium is a bit dull. Colours other than purple are available, although the purple is pretty nice. That probably ups the €4,500 starting price though.
Most interesting bike at the show, tech-wise? Possibly this RS Gravel concept.
There is a lot going on here. One of the most interesting features of the bike isn’t visible at all: the fork contains a tuned mass damper. A what now? Basically it’s a counterweight that reacts to vibrations, cancelling them out mechanically. It’s a well-known tech used in everything from ships to skyscrapers, and has been around on the MTB circuit for a while.
There are no electronics or anything, and the TMD is tuneable: you can adjust the mass and spring stiffness based on your weight, riding style, and terrain so it’s perfectly set up for you. It adds about 250g to the weight of the bike.
Plenty of other stuff going on here too. Those lugs are 3D-printed from titanium, and they allow full customisation of the fit, with carbon tubes bonded in between. There’s a dynamo with contacts built into the fork, for a no-wires power setup to the bike. There are integrated front and rear lights, and USB charging for your devices is built in. Oh, and the handlebar is pretty mad too, very much giving the Canyon Grizl a run for its money to scoop the ‘craziest cockpit we’ve seen in the last seven days’ award*.
*Not a real award
ACOL is a bike company headed up by Alex Colnago, nephew of Ernesto of the eponymous bike maker. The new limited edition Impero won the Eurobike award for most Italian press release*. Stuff like “A city is made of memories, and a bicycle is how we ride through them.” And “Milan is remembered in colours.” And “It doesn’t shout luxury; it whispers affection.” Maaammaaa miiaaaaa!
A lot of scrolling is required to actually learn anything about the bike, which is a carbon all-rounder road bike with 35mm tyre clearance and a UDH rear hanger. It’s a limited edition and built up with spangly Campagnolo Super Record and posh Bora Ultra wheels.
*Not a real award either
We’ve already covered this BMC Teammachine 01 concept bike over on ebiketips, but it bears repeating here because this is an e-road bike that weighs a scarcely believable 8.5kg.
Plenty of that is down to the new TQ HPR40 Drive System for road and gravel bikes: it’s among the lightest currently available, with the motor weighing just 1,170g. It utilises TQ’s patented Harmonic Pin-Ring Transmission in a more compact unit than the HPR60, offering 40Nm of torque and up to 200W of power.
You don’t get a huge battery in the BMC but the motor system weight is just 2.7kg, so even without power there’s not a lot of extra bulk to haul up the hills.
How many road bikes are “The fastest road bike in the world” these days? Seems like there’s a new one every week or so. This week’s contender is the new Simplon Pride, which looks like it’s been taking the new UCI 8:1 tube profile as a target rather than a limit.
The frame weighs 1,210g, and it’s paired with a new cockpit system that’s got integrated looks and aerodynamics, but in fact is a two-part unit. This means you can select the stack and reach of the stem and the width of the bar in Simplon’s configurator, and tweak them if they’re not right without buying the whole thing again.
As bikes such as Cervelo’s new S5 – currently unreleased but an open secret (and no doubt will be pronounced the world’s fastest when it is officially launched) – move to a one-piece cockpit presumably in the name of extra aero, it’s interesting that Simplon have stuck with the practicality of a two-part bar system, while claiming that this doesn’t impede aerodynamics.
It’s not all bikepacking these days: you can still get a proper touring bike, at least on the continent. You have to put up with a utilitarian name made out of letters and numbers though: the catchy GXQ-600 from German maker VSF Fahrradmanufaktur.
VSF will sell you anything up to a full expedition bike, complete with an 18-speed Pinion gearbox and a belt drive and every braze-on yet discovered. The GXQ-600 is more your classic steel tourer, albeit with a carbon fork. No-one really makes a good-quality triple-chainring setup these days so the drivetrain is Shimano’s GRX600, and you get a full dynamo lighting rig.
Velo de Ville’s G400 is listed as a gravel bike, but this build is aimed more at commuting to the office through the winter. An alloy frameset this time, it uses Shimano’s GRX600 groupset. The Velo de Ville configurator goes into some depth; you can swap out the rack for a beefier one, or even switch to flat bars. You might have to get it delivered to your friends somewhere on the European mainland, though, and ride it home… thanks Brexit.
The Pinion gearbox is making inroads in mountain biking, trekking and urban cycling. The Schindelhauer Arthur Ultimate probably spans the latter couple of categories: it’s a drop-bar e-road bike that uses the Pinion Ci-Line 9-speed gearbox and pairs it with a Mahle X20 motor system with a 250Wh motor tucked into the down tube.
Shifting is handled by a Pinion Smartshift system controlled by TRP electronic levers. Lighting is integrated into the bike too: the rear light is in the seatpost, and Schindelhauer’s LightSkin H1 handlebar tucks a light into the bar which shines out through a cutout in the face of the stem.
Wilier had this special build of the lightweight Verticale SLR on its stand with a paint job we’ll describe as, erm, ostentatious. There was a tablet by the bike showing Wilier’s custom configurator, but you’d surely have to press a lot of buttons to get here…
Aside from that, the Verticale is an interesting bike. Wilier says it’s the lightest bike it has ever made, and the total for the frame, fork, seatpost and handlebar is just 1,623g.
The new integrated V-Bar is worthy of note: just 310g for the whole thing (presumably in the smallest size) with a drop shape that follows the curve of the lever to reduce frontal area, and Wilier claims a 5.7% reduction in rider drag at 50km/h from an improved position on the bike thanks to the new bar. Builds start at €9,900 (€13,000 for Dura Ace), but your gold leaf is going to add a bit to that.
It’s pretty likely that Velduro isn’t a name you’ve heard of. The company combines a New-Zealand-based design team and Chinese manufacturing and at the moment, there are just two bikes: a gravel bike and an enduro mountain bike. We’ll stick with drop bars: the Velduro Phantom is one of only a very few gravel bikes to use the DJI Avinox motor platform; the Paprika 53 Model 25 GT was the only other one we saw. Not heard of that one either, right?
Anyway, the Velduro is built around a carbon fibre monocoque frame that weighs just 1.2kg, and the 14.9kg full build utilises a SRAM GX Eagle AXS drivetrain, carbon finishing components and WTB wheels. A 600Wh internal battery should be enough for all-day range on the trails.
The Trump juggernaut might have rolled back on its “Made in the USA!” claim for the Trump Phone, but things do get made in the States, not least the Enve Custom Road. There are two frame types available – road and all-road – and you can specify everything from geometry to paintjob to build components, and the ride is tuned as well as the fit to make it perfect for your weight and riding style.
Every frameset and complete bike is delivered in a custom ENVE x Scicon Aerocomport 3.0 TSA travel case too. Unsurprisingly the cost for this personal service is pretty salty: Frames start at $8,000 and a full Dura Ace bike is the best part of fifteen grand.
Finally, this. Not a real concept sadly (fortunately?) but a bit of eye candy for the Fingerprint Cycling stand, because 3D-printed saddles are nice and all, but not really that eye-grabbing.
Which bike is your fave? Let us know in the comments as always.
2 thoughts on “Another brand stakes its claim for “the fastest bike in the world”, and more crazy cockpits: cutting-edge new tech from Europe’s biggest bike show”
Thoroughly enjoyed the tongue
Thoroughly enjoyed the tongue -in-cheek descriptions AND the content. Cheers.
As a bike fitter, I’d just
As a bike fitter, I’d just like to applaud the bike indrustry for making “integrated cockpits” so that if you have the audacity to not be lucky enough for the thing to fit you out the box (for your £8K or whatever) you have to spend about another 10% of the cost of the thing to rectify the problem. Next, £10K one-legged chairs supplied with custom knee, head and elbow padding for another £3k without which all warranties are void. God loves a trier.