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Eurobike has a new home in Frankfurt for 2022 and contained within four gargantuan halls at the exhibition was the bulk of the bike industry’s latest and greatest products.
Cyclist recently spent some time roaming the rooms to uncover the show’s highlights and hidden gems, and has since been feverishly assembling a range of galleries in which we’ve themed our discoveries.
First up is all the great gravel gear from the show, through which an aggressive theme ran.
While gravel is just as much about adventure and escape, the designs of many of the products on display this year were focussed on helping the rider go fast: several wide but light wheelsets, efficient-looking framesets and fast-rolling tyre treads too.
Reynolds says it recognises gravel is such a nebulous genre so in its two new wheelsets has tried to provide designs that between them cover all the gravel rider’s needs.
The ATR is a 700c wheel geared more toward speed over roads and light gravel. It uses a lightweight, hooked rim with a 23mm internal measurement and 40mm depth that the brand says should work nicely with tyres from 28mm to 45mm.
The ATR comes in three specs, and at its lowest is said to weigh 1,473g. Reynolds’ ‘CR3’ composite construction is said helps keep the rim strong despite the wheelset’s competitive weight.
Revnolds says the G Series wheels are more for those looking to advenutre on rougher surfaces. They are offered in both 700c and 650b guises, and use a hookless rim with a 25mm inner width and 26mm depth.
The rim is said to incorporate Reynolds’ proprietary Impact Dispersing Matric for extra robustness and will pair best with tyres in the 38-52mm range.
The Cerakote OSPW X is the lightest version of the Danish brand’s pulley wheel system.
Cerakote is a polymer-ceramic coating that is reportedly very scratch-resistant, so CeramicSpeed has employed it to increase the durability of the OSPW X system destined to be used off-road in tough conditions.
For now, the Cerakote OSPW X will be a limited edition piece – it’ll be available in 3 colours (bronze, gunmetal and military green) with just 100 available per colour and it’ll cost €749.
It’s a hefty premium on an already expensive product but if the claims make the system even more durable than it is already claimed to be, some riders may see the case to invest.
WTB had an impressive selection of tyres on display and they were shod on some fittingly striking bikes too.
British brand Vielo’s V+1 Race Edition is designed solely for wireless 1× drivetrains – having now provisions for derailleur cables or a front derailleur.
It is a bold bike design in a suitably stand-out colour, but is generally considered to be the first down a technological avenue that others will no doubt follow as both wireless groupsets and 1× drivetrains become more prevalent.
Vielo says the designing the frame around a 1× drivetrain means they can make it significantly stiffer at the bottom bracket, plus having no cable/wire exit or entry ports makes the bike look impressively clean.
The new Pirelli Cinturato Gravel RC tyre is made for aggressive gravel racing, featuring a cross-country mountain biking tread.
The racing version borrows from Pirelli’s Scorpion XC RC tyre and the tubeless-ready Cinturato Gravel RC is an updated version of the Cinturato Gravel M.
Pirelli says the Cinturato Gravel RC is highly puncture resistant for racing on any terrain.
Felt has always built racy bikes and its first foray into carbon gravel frameset design is typical of the brand’s approach.
It uses a bulky front triangle for stiffness and a healthy degree of asymmetry in the longitudinal plane to create tyre clearance of up to 50mm on 700c tyres.
There’s a case to say the brand has taken the asymmetry concept a touch too far – to the exasperation of many cyclists (and their mechanics) the brand has created another bottom bracket standard for the Breed Carbon.
Dubbed T47-77, it is an asymmetrical version of the T47 standard.
‘It doesn’t require special parts, you can still buy normal T47 parts,’ says Brian Wilson, Felt’s VP of product management. ‘In talking to other bottom bracket makers including SRAM, when Felt brought this idea to them they thought the asymmetric idea may catch on.’
It’s the double zipper which really makes this top tube bag stand out, promising to offer easy access to snacks, tools and other essentials, and with its 1.5 litre capacity a fair amount can be chucked in.
This is the Yorkshire brand’s newest top tube bag, and Restrap says it has undergone some hardcore testing by adventure cyclists such as round the world record holder Jenny Graham, so it really should be up for an adventure.
The RX5 shoes are a female-specific version of the hugely popular RX8 gravel shoes Shimano released in 2018.
It uses the same abrasion-resistant upper material, but it is shaped around a female-specific last and uses a brilliant gum-coloured tread on the nylon composite sole. A Boa L6 dial provides the fit adjustment duties, compared to an IP1 dial on the RX8.
Cost is to be confirmed but should represent similarly good value to the RX8s at an even lower price point.
Schwalbe says the G-One RS has 20% less rolling resistance than the G-One R released just before 2021’s event, courtesy of a semi-slick centre tread said to be inspired by the brand’s X-One Speed cyclocross tyre.
The distinctive ‘Boomerang’ knobs of the G-One R are still in evidence on the RS, but have been relegated to the outer edges of the tyre tread to boost traction and cornering grip.
The tyres were released just before this year’s edition of the Unbound gravel race, and couldn’t have received a more successful introduction, for Ivar Slik rode them to glory in the men’s edition of the 200 mile race distance.
Campagolo’s latest wheels are the brand’s first designed to be used on gravel, ideally paired with the Italian’s Ekar gravel groupset.
The design is both wide internally at 25mm, but light weight too, weighing a claimed 1,485g.
Unusually, the rim uses a ‘mini-hook' shape. Campagnolo says it works in principle like a conventional hooked rim, but the hook itself is smaller.
This is said to provide the weight reduction and tyre shaping benefits of hookless rims (tyres sidewalls transition more smoothly in general with hookless rims) with the security and versatile compatible of hooked designs.
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