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A Eurobike Gallery – Parlee, Bont, K-Edge, American Classic, and more
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Without a doubt, the cycling industry brings its “A” game to Eurobike in Freidrichshafen, Germany, each year.
While the week-long Interbike show represents the American trade show scene, Eurobike elevates the entire game with larger booths, larger halls, and larger crowds that have no problem filling vast aisles. It's a bonanza for bike tech hounds sniffing out new and exotic stuff.
and as you poke around you discover new stuff from all over: crazy European stuff that might never be seen in a U.S. shop, bikes from American companies that are only sold in Europe. And sometimes, it seems, you have to go all the way to Europe to see new items from U.S. companies, a few weeks before they are shown to U.S. dealers at the Interbike show.
Here's a look at some of the interesting tidbits we discovered on the third day of the show:
Parlee
The carbon craftsmen from Massachusetts have created a new model based on the success of their best selling Z4. The new Z5, like the Z4, is available in stock sizes and geometries as an off-the-shelf frameset. The original models in the Parlee line remain, with semi- to fully-customizable geometries and tube lengths.
Marketing manager Tom Rodi describes the Z5 as an evolutionary step for Parlee. Whereas the Z4 was Parlee’s first step in stock sizing at a sub-1000 gram weight, the Z5 takes it to a new level, with frames hovering around the 800-gram mark. The Z5 costs an extra $900 or so ($3900 compared to about $3000 for a Z4).
“We wanted to see how light we could go and yet maintain ride quality,” said Rodi. More expensive (but lighter) revisions to tube overlap and construction help shave the grams, but he emphasized that ride quality is always the number one objective with Parlee frames.
The Z5 uses a tapered 1 1/8th-inch to 1 1/4th inch headset (with a fork from Edge), a BB30 bottom bracket, molded-in carbon cable stops, and carbon dropouts. A cool sizing element extends the fit range of the Z5: for each size, a taller head tube option is available. The rest of the geometry remains unchanged, but the head tube extends about an inch over the standard size.
Bont Cycling
Bont Cycling might be a new name to American ears, but the company has been cobbling sport-specific kicks in Australia for years now. The founders hail from Holland, but emigrated to Australia and began producing speed skating boots in 1975. Bont began producing cycling shoes in 2003, and reached ProTour status this year, as Michael Rogers pedaled them around France this past July.
The shoes are handmade and feature monocoque carbon soles with extensive wrapping of the sole material up the heel and around the toe.
We’re hoping to see them in the U.S. soon, and might even wrangle a pair for review — stay tuned.
K-Edge
Olympic gold medalist Kristin Armstrong’s K-Edge venture looks to be proving successful, as she and her partners at AceCo Precision Manufacturing in Boise, Idaho, have invented some clever new chain retention devices.
I’ve never had a problem with dropping a chain, but according to my colleague Jay Prasuhn from Triathlete magazine, who installed a K-Edge chain catcher on his wife’s bike out of sheer necessity, the problem is far more common than I realized.
Good thing then that K-Edge is out with expanded anodized colors, a mountain bike small-ring chain catcher, and also some cyclocross goodies in the works. They’ve also gone international, landing in European shops through Shocker distributors.
American Classic
Bouncing back to a smaller American company that does well in Europe, Bill Shook and American Classic are on scene in Germany, showing an entire wheel range plus a new 420 Aero wheel. The new wheel is an update of a previous 420 model, and it gains stiffness from wider spacing between hub flanges and equal spoke tension on the drive and non-drive sides.
Normally, the dish (offset) in rear wheels causes non-drive spoke tension to be lower than drive side tension, which usually causes the wheel to be weaker and less stiff laterally. But by grouping spokes in sets of three, pairing two drive side spokes pulling in opposition to one non-drive, Shook was able to equalize the spoke tension and strengthen his wheels.
There’s a ton of stuff on display here in Germany — check out the photo gallery for more, and stay tuned to VeloNews.com and Singletrack.com in the coming days.
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