I'm off to Eurobike in a couple of hours. Eurobike is a huge bike show in Friedrichshafen, Germany on Lake Constance. It's a part of Europe I've never visited, where Germany, Switzerland, and Austria meet. In fact my hotel is in a tiny alpine village in Austria about 45km from the show.
The show itself cosists of 13 halls and over 930 exhibitors. I'm looking forward to chatting with some of the lesser know European manufacturers, espesially those involved with city and commuter bikes.
I'm a bit of a fanatic about traveling light and am only taking my little Nokia 800, so I'll be able to read e-mails, but the touchscreen keyboard is too small to reply to the 50 or so e-mails I get everyday. I mention this partly because the Nokia 800/810 are super mini-computers to use on bike tours if you absolutely must stay connected. It also works as an e-book reader, stores all the maps I need, and the 810 has a built in GPS.
So what specific products I should be on the lookout for?
02 September, 2008
Eurobike
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31 comments:
I would love to see if if there are any chain guards that would fit on a bicycle with double chainrings
Dear Chris:
Racks, pedals, baskets, panniers, seatposts, seat post collars, bbs, cranks, shift levers, hubs, rims, tires, tubing, saddles, handlebars, brake levers, brakes and the occasional odd lot of "we bought these in the 60's/70's/80's and they've been taking up space in the warehouse since then." You know, the usual.
Robert in San Diego
I'm interested in 'New Look' bags, as seen at http://www.newlookbikebags.nl/. Their website indicates they will be at eurobike...
How about SRAM hub dynamos? or the elusive new Shimano DH80?
anything carbon.
Please keep an eye out for elegant, functional platform pedals!
Thanks,
nv
* O-locks, preferably that don't require drilling to install.
* easy-to-install, classic-looking chainguards
* cargo boxes for lockable storage on the rear rack of commuter bikes.
Thanks!
you asked! have a look at these new, brilliantly functional, good looking products/bikes:
A2-107_Supernova E3 front light
A2-301_Fixie Inc.'s beautiful lugged road bikes
A2-308_VSF Fahrradmanufaktur and
A2-310_Patria represent the traditional steel allweather, practical bikes that germany is famous for.
A2-403_Schmidts Edelux front light
A5-205_Busch & Mueller Lumotec IQ Cyo, (and of course the B&M Lumotec Retro, not new)
FO-1_SRAM Torpedo rear hub: classically styled, lets you switch between fixed and free with a screwdriver.
A5-214_Exustar's leather Stelvio SPD shoe.
A5-314_Pletscher's elegant ESGE Optima kickstand in silver (not new), & the new Balancematic.
don't know where they are, but Simpel.ch's Optimist w/ Gates belt drive/hubgear/polished chainguard is perhaps what the french constructeurs would be making today if their innovations of the 30s/40s/50s continued unabated . . . which is a topic in itself . . .
buzzwords for the next decade: hub gears and belt drive! neither are incompatible with a classic look.
wish i could join you!
ditto on the double chainring chain guard
Hi Chris,
I've been concerned lately that the things I purchase are Fair Trade products. I don't generally worry about Europe, Japan, or even Taiwan. But I worry about things from other places. Can you also ask producers about workers being paid enough money that they can live on. Even if this means us paying a little more. Thanks!
@dorina: very good point. all the companies I mentioned above sell products made in Europe (by happy Europeans one hopes!) except Fixie (frames made overseas) & Exustar (a Taiwanese company I believe). Chris has sourced a few US products, and that's a Good Thing.
leather touring cycling shoes. with laces.
How about a nicely styled steel disc only front fork for commute/touring bikes?
I would be most interested to hear more about the new Rohloff hubgear, rumored to be available in 2009. Rohloff is at A2-312
Also, any nice, lightweight silver 700C rims?
Shoes are a good idea. Something that looks like not much, if you know what I mean: comfortable and mult-functional, but not flashy, super-tech, or spiderman. No need for cleats. Like the Avocet touring shoes, are those still around somewhere?
Really only two things that I'd like to see and are not currently offered:
1) Nicely polished, not too expensive (under $250 w/ rings) 94bcd crank. 110 is good but being able to run a 30 or 32 ring would be better.
2) Touring shoes. Something similar to the old Avocet, Gaerne or Carnan models though ideally with an ability to run SPD
More saddle options can't hurt - not everyone fits a Brooks and I'd love to see something along the lines of the old Turbo. Heck, wouldn't mind seeing a modern version of the plastic Unicanitor saddle!
How about 7/8/9/10 speed cassettes? Shimano makes a 14x25 but what I'd love to see is a 14x28.
A nice, affordable dynamo powered LED headlight would be good.
What NOT to bother with:
110 cranksets
Cantilever brakes
pedals (what does MKS not offer??)
Find us some sweet new 650B tires and rims! Maybe Michelin, Continental, and whoever else is making tires in Europe these days. Talk Mavic into making a 650B Open Pro.
chainguards like the one you see on this danish bike:
/www.velorbis.com
Is there such a thing as a "classic" looking computer? (speedometer, odometer, trip odo) I haven't seen one that really goes well with lugged frames.
fish flavor energy bars
C,
Cinelli is reissuing the Unicanitor saddle...word on the street says that they'll be released to the public in October (got the word from King Kog in NYC).
bacon flavored energy bars.....
Nicely polished square taper 110bcd crankset with l o w q - f a c t o r.
Like the old ritchey logic pro.
Q < 145
fair-trade products only made in china. Rod shifting front derailleurs. A way to fix that big sucking sound coming from all the classic parts getting vacuumed up by japanese collectors for outrageous sums.
"Cinelli is reissuing the Unicanitor saddle...word on the street says that they'll be released to the public in October (got the word from King Kog in NYC)."
Believe it when I see it! I've been hearing that rumor for the better part of 10 years!
"Cinelli is reissuing the Unicanitor saddle...word on the street says that they'll be released to the public in October (got the word from King Kog in NYC)."
Believe it when I see it! I've been hearing that rumor for the better part of 10 years!
This might have more credence now given the popularity of fixed gear/retro road bikes. All they would have to do to insure its success would be to call it "editione pista". In fact, they would probably have a good market for a re-issue of their forged stems and mod 64,65,66 bars. They could do a whole "retro line" with the old crest logo. Nitto has pretty much cornered that market right now.
the classic cinelli stems have been up on their site for many months--so yes, they have retro reissues already.
@ anonyme 05/09/08 21:21
sugino still makes that 110BC 'ritchey' crankset, along with quite a few other very nice 110bc square taper cranks. their website doesn't show any of it, but search for the german store called 'radplan-delta'- this store specializes in 110bc cranks among other things, for good reasons. i'm sure chris could get them too.
Shoes, shoes, shoes! And the bacon-flavored energy bars sound good too...
Ikuo at Grand Bois has Japanese made touring shoes for sale. Not cheap though!
http://tinyurl.com/5wxlkj
Touring shoes are not in the works. Sorry. One has to draw the line somewhere and for us it's apparel and shoes. That would be one too many big projects.
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