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EuroBike gives a peek at 2006... and beyond
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Eurobike, the bicycle industry’s annual trade show in Friedrichshafen, Germany, opened its doors Thursday for the 14th consecutive year. Although many companies these days are electing to display their new wares earlier in the summer in a race to be the first to capture dealer interest and begin filling their order books, Eurobike is still the first collective look we get at what’s in store for the new year.
Unfortunately, 2005 did not treat the European bicycle industry so well. While few companies are willing to disclose hard numbers, the general indication is that bicycle sales have been flat or have fallen throughout Europe. The number of companies offering bikes and components, however, hasn’t changed much in the past two years, so sales competition has resulted in thinner margins as manufacturers have cut prices to attract customers.
The brightest spot in cycling’s retail picture is the United States, where American, European and Asian companies alike report steady, profitable business. As the good news about American sales has spread, the push to design bikes and parts for the U.S. market has increased. From what we’ve seen so far in Friedrichshafen, that means more cool stuff is coming our way.
The opening day of a trade show is always a little disorganized, and the ever-enthusiastic crowds at Eurobike can make navigating the halls a bit challenging. Today we managed to get a look at Sram’s new road components, some new carbon cranksets from Stronglight and Time, Litespeed’s revised and updated 770-gram Ghisallo frameset, and a few naked BMCs. In the days to come, we’ll hit the Italian pavilion, take a look at the very active and sometimes weird German mountain bike scene, and generally try to give you a taste of the unique flavor of Eurobike.
BMC
Switzerland’s most iconoclastic bike company, supplier to Floyd Landis and his Phonak teammates, put a host of unpainted frames on display, the better to show off their unusual details. 
The BMC Team Machine, the more conventional of the company’s two high-end road frames, uses carbon tubes bonded to aluminum lugs. In this case, the lugs are the attention getters, as each one, for each frame, is carved from a solid block of aluminum, one by one.
The Pro Machine, meanwhile, is made from Easton’s CNT nanotube-reinforced unidirectional carbon fiber, and boasts what have to be the thickest and tallest chainstays in the world, the better to brace the massive bottom bracket area. The toptube and downtube shapes are also interesting, widening at the head tube and bottom bracket for better rigidity.
The BMC Superstroke mountain frame, with its virtual pivot point, has adjustable rear travel from 130 to 150 mm, an integrated seatpost clamp, and a crazy mix of forged, pressed and tubular aluminum parts in its rear end.
Catlike
Catlike helmets are coming to the USA next year for the first time. Supplier to Euskaltel-Euskadi, the company’s lids are notable for the astonishing number and size of their perforations. There is seemingly more air than helmet in these things.
Hutchinson
This venerable French company has two new cross-country tires coming in January, the Barracuda and the Piranha. The Barracuda has high center knobs for stony, loose soil, while the Piranha, with weights as low as 450 grams for a 2.0-inch size, has low center knobs for low rolling resistance and high cornering knobs for traction. Both will come as wide as 2.3 inches.
Hutchinson is also the supplier to the Discovery Channel team, of course, and is celebrating Mr. Armstrong’s seventh victory with a team series tire made with the company’s GMP silica rubber for traction.
Litespeed
Litespeed unveiled its newly revised Ghisallo titanium frame, which, with a number 
of weight-saving tricks, now crosses the scales at a reported 770 grams in a 56-centimeter size. The Ghisallo also now features an elegantly crafted replaceable dropout, too (left).
The Tennessee-based company hasn’t ignored its other bikes, though. The Vortex, for example, has acquired some new tube shapes, the most visible of which converge at the bottom bracket for added lateral rigidity.
Look
Look’s most interesting product was unfortunately missing when we dropped by. Its handlers seemed a bit worried about its whereabouts, so we’re hoping it will turn up soon for its VN photo-op. The object in question is the new CC2 crankset, a carbon wonder that is reported to weigh a mere 490 grams, complete with titanium bottom bracket. For the moment, feast your eyes on the revised 486 frameset, the 496 TT bike ridden by the Crédit Agricole team, the new Keo Sprint pedal, and the HSD stem, all of which were solidly affixed to their moorings and looked likely to remain in place for the duration of the show.
Pearl Izumi
Pearl Izumi has mixed two of cycling’s favorite materials in its new Ti Beam shoe. The ventilated carbon fiber sole is reinforced with a titanium plate, for a claimed weight of 300 grams per pair. The mesh upper includes one Velcro-closure strap and one micro-adjust strap.
Shimano
Shimano has introduced a triple-chainring version of the Dura-Ace crankset. Crank lengths come in a commendably wide range of 165 to 180 millimeters, while the ring combination is 52/40/30. There are new STI shifters, front derailleur and rear derailleur too, of course, to round out the package.
Sram
Sram has announced its intentions to deliver a complete road group in 2007 and put its working prototypes on display behind a protective plexiglass barrier. The parts were hard to photograph, but it was even harder to extract any concrete information from the assorted Srammies on guard. We have no idea, for example, how the shifters work. There is a shift lever behind the brake lever, but no second trigger in sight, yet the brake lever does not appear to swivel sideways to act as a shifter. The lever bodies are surprisingly compact, but all we could learn about the innards is that they are, according to a Sram engineer who works in the company’s Colorado Springs
development lab, “amazingly simple. There are very few moving parts, and I think when the details are released, other companies are going to kick themselves and ask why they didn’t think of that.”
In the same protected area, Sram also showed a new four-piston Avid caliper right), reported to be coming sometime next year for freeride bikes.
Stronglight
Stronglight also has a new carbon crankset, the Pulsion Activ Link. With an integrated titanium axle, the system weighs 610 grams. The 7075 T6 aluminum chainrings are treated with ceramic and Teflon for durability and quick shifts. The crank uses internal bearings and thus boasts a standard Q factor.
Time
Joining Look and Stronglight in the French carbon crankset parade is Time, with its ASX Titan (right). With an integrated titanium spindle and 7075 T6 aluminum rings, the crank is said to weigh 590 grams complete. The system uses an ISIS spline for the left crankarm.
Time also showed its new RXR TT frame, as used by the Quick Step and Bouygues Télécom teams. The striking sculpturing of the tube shapes is reported to improve aerodynamic efficiency by a whopping 25 percent, as compared to a standard road frame. No wonder Michael Rogers gets down the road so fast.
