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TECH NEWS

Show-stopping bike porn from... Focus, Felt, Scott, Storck, Salsa, Ghost, Van Nicholas and LOOK

A whole bunch of shiny new bikes from the world's biggest bikeshow

It's day five of our Eurobike and we've seen literally hundreds of shiny new bikes in that time. Here's some highlihgts from Focus, Felt, Scott, Storck, Salsa and Look, who each launched a new bike for next year.

Focus

Focus showed their new Izalco Team SL, which we their latest and lightest ever road frame at a scant 930g. While on the surface it looks identical to the 2012, underneath the paint the carbon layup is completely new.

There's four bikes in the range, with a £3699 SRAM RED model that looks like decent value to us. There's another SRAM RED bike with Zipp wheels but don't expect much change from £6500. Both of those frames have internal cable routing for the gear and brake cables.

Focus will offer two electronic bikes, either Shimano Dura-Ace Di2 and Campagolo Record EPS. Instead of using the same frame and plugging the redundant cable entry holes left vacant by the electronic wiring, Focus produce a frame without them for a cleaner looking finish. 

The Izalco Pro continues for 2013 with an updated carbon fork that is lighter and stiffer.

The Cayo Evo (they've dropped the Cayo) was their first frame to dip under the magic kilo marker with a weight of 960g, when it was released last year. Danilo di Luca (Acqua & Sapone) has been riding this frame (his choice they tell us) rather than the previous Izalco, and he even won a race on it earlier this year. Race-proven, then.

Focus had this Planet Carbon disc-equipped road bike with massive tyres and a carbon frame on their stand. It tickles a few boxes for us, we reckon it could be an absolute blast on the daily commuter. It's based on the Mares CX with a carbon frame and disc brakes, but loses the drop bars in favour of commuter-friendly flat bars. There's talk of a model with drop bars next year, depending on how this one is recieved. It's part of a whole range of sleek commuter bikes including several with hub gears and one with a belt drive.

The Focus Mares CX 1.0 Rapha team edition bike. This photo does not do it justice, not at all. It looks lovely in the flesh. It's not a limited bike either, though at £3,999 with a full SRAM RED groupset you need to be pretty serious about cyclo-cross. They've already sold a dozen already.

Felt Z2

Felt have updated the Z2 for 2013. It's a much smoother and sleeker looking frame with a revised carbon layup to make it stiffer laterally while still retaining the comfort it provides over the racer F series.

Salsa Warbird

Finally clapped our eyes on the Warbird for the very first time didn't we. Well, to be honest, we made a beeline for the Salsa stand on the first day. Looks even better in real life, not that it looked all that shabby in the press pictures we were sent recently. We don't know anything about the gravel road races it's been designed for that are so popular in the US, but we want one. Oh yes...

Scott

I talked about aero bikes in our preview video and there were indeed plenty on display. Scott's Foil goes unchanged into next year, and still looks fast.

Storck

The Storck stand is always worth a good few minutes of your time if you like crazy light bikes. They're not only into weight, but integration too. Not a new bike, the Fascenario F0.6 is a good example of the increasing trend towards concealing the brake caliper inside the frame, or tucked away below the bottom bracket. Stork have placed the rear brake inside the seat stays with a very clean and seamless look. The same integration is applied to the front brake too, which blend seamlessly into the carbon fork.

Merida

Merida have one of the biggest stands here and also one of the lightest bikes on display. The Scultura Evo SL is brand new for 2013. It has a frame weight of just 844g and is their most advanced road model they’ve ever made: they use flax fibres in the construction.

Ghost

Germand brand Ghost celebrate 20 years of designing bikes with the Race Lector.

LOOK

LOOK had the new 675 proudly on display. It's innovative looks are due to the integrated stem that creates a smooth aerodynamic front profile.

Look call it the Direct Drive Concept and is comprises a short tapered head tube with a stem that allows plenty of height and reach adjustment, without having to resort to buying new stems or juggling spacers about. I had a ride on the bike at the demo day earlier this week and I'll let you know what I thought of it in my first ride article soon.

Van Nicholas

It's easy to be blinded by carbon here at Eurobike, there is a lot of it about. But paving a seemingly lonely path is Van Nicholas with an entire range of titanium bikes. This updated-for-2013 Astraeus caught the eye. We tested it a couple of years back, but its been given a bit of an refresh. Most noticeably with the unique head tube with its flattened sides.

David worked on the road.cc tech team from 2012-2020. Previously he was editor of Bikemagic.com and before that staff writer at RCUK. He's a seasoned cyclist of all disciplines, from road to mountain biking, touring to cyclo-cross, he only wishes he had time to ride them all. He's mildly competitive, though he'll never admit it, and is a frequent road racer but is too lazy to do really well. He currently resides in the Cotswolds, and you can now find him over on his own YouTube channel David Arthur - Just Ride Bikes

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8 comments

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stealth | 11 years ago
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I love the Salsa Warbird, is it a steel frame? Think my next bike is gonna have to be a Cross bike...

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chris75018 | 11 years ago
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Never thought I'd say this about a Look bike, but that 675 is ugly...

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Pifko | 11 years ago
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It's not a CX bike

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Raleigh | 11 years ago
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Why do you need deep wheels for cyclox?

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Lungsofa74yearold | 11 years ago
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The concealed brake calipers on the Storck are very silly - makes a reasonably simple job needlessly difficult. Fortunately, I'm way too poor to afford one!

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Gkam84 | 11 years ago
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Can you give us some information about Look's MASSIVE stem

Its the second time i've seen pictures of something that bike. Not the one on the 675. But on the union jack and Time have the same idea here

http://road.cc/sites/default/files/imagecache/lightbox-large/images/Euro...

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Pierre | 11 years ago
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Speaking of titanium, are SPiN exhibiting there this year?

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notfastenough | 11 years ago
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Dear Santa,
Can I have a Scott Foil and a Van Nic please, oh and a Look just so I can, well, look at that weird head/top tube/stem arrangement.

Cheers! Have a mince pie.

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