Eurobike 2010 Report: Day three

• Friday, 3 September 2010
• Nick Rearden
• 2 Comments

De Rosa, Eurobike 2010

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Over the past few days we've been bringing you photos and news of 2011 bikes and products from the Eurobike show in Friedrichshafen, Germany; here's our final instalment...

The predominant colour scheme trend of Eurobike 2010 was black-on-black with 101 permutations of glossiness and texture. If the De Rosa stand was an indication, though, next year's trend will be 50s drag-racer metal flake fades.

An important new product was Polar/Look's pedal and power meter combination - we see a new market sector developing here as the system is bound to be less expensive than current crank-based power output meters.

Make sure you see next Thursday's Cycling Weekly for a major Eurobike feature.

Time have a new road racing model called RXRS Ulteam with a BB30 bottom bracket. An important and welcome step towards some sort of new-wave bb standard becoming established.

Specialized Director of Design Robert Egger showed he's not in the least bitter about the whole Fabian Cancellara 'motorised doping' fun show by presenting front and centre his own motorised project bike. Unlike half the bikes at Eurobike, it didn't feature an electric motor, either.

On public show for the first time, Bianchi had the new Oltre model in various colour options including black on black. Needless to say, we loved the traditional Celeste combo not least because it shows off the new 2011 Ergopower levers with matching hoods.

Microshift caused a few 'ooh errs' with their new Bona 10-speed gear set which is designed to compete with the performance of Shimano 105 but at a much lower price. UK importers Upgrade are said to favour the altogether less titterlicious name Xona.

We suspect that users of Cinelli's Ram carbon handlebar and stem combo have a following Bentley to feed back speed and distance measurements. However, in case Parker needs a day off, the revised Ram 2 bar has a cute little optional computer mount.

Look and Polar jointly launched the Keo Power pedals and P5 sensors to feed rider watt outputs to a new diamond-shaped Polar handlebar monitor. This suggests a major step forward for racers on amateur budgets to be able to monitor their own power performance as well as the established heart rate, speed and distance data.

Brompton are now one of only two volume manufacturers actually making bikes from scratch in the UK and they seemed to have a healthy following among the Eurobike crowd. According to their Andrew Finkill, they've had a busy year doubling the capacity of their West London factory so that they can reliably deliver within five weeks as well. They showed a prototype airline box so that Brompton owners can both fly with their bikes safely and avoid surcharges as well as a smart click-on front bag made from recycled firefighters' hoses, car seat belts and parachute nylon.

Storck have built a huge reputation in their home country of Germany and might well be spreading further into the world if this 600 gram prototype is anything to go by. The €7,500 price tag seems almost a bargain next to a Cervelo California and includes fork, headset, as well as ingenious integrated brakes of their own design.

Guerciotti is a good old Italian name that is appearing again in the UK thanks to Planet X. They, too, showed a unidirectional-carbon, black on black new frame model called Eclipse. It weighs 870 grams and is available as a custom option for €3,100 thanks to its hand laid construction. This Vega bike features a less expensive monocoque frame and a much more inspiring colour scheme considering we now have the Milan show to look forward to.

Related links
Eurobike 2010 Report: Day two Thursday
Eurobike 2010 Report: Day one Wednesday
Eurobike 2010 Preview