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Eurobike 2006 - Last blast

Before we start going Interbike-crazy, here's a final burst of stuff from Eurobike: Mavic, Orbea, Wilier, Gary Fisher, BMC, Nicolai, Race Face and more


Posted: 19 September 2006
by David Arthur

Mavic

The main change for the Mavic line-up is the new Crossmax SLR. It looks very similar to the Ksyrium ES which is the comapany's top-end road wheelset. Carbon hubs, 24 spokes and 1,520g complete weight. There were some other new wheelsets and changes to its rim range, more details soon...

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Race Face

Race Face had so much new stuff that we didn't manage to snap it all. It's got a new Ride entry level crankset, available in either triple ot double/bash guard. They both get the X-Type outboard bearing design - the triple weighs 970g. The new Atlas stem is from the company's all-mountain range, and joins the existing cranks and bars. The new stem is machined from 6061-T6 aluminium, with a four bolt front clamp, and only available in 31.8mm. At a cheaper price the EvolveAM stem offers the same range of sizes, only in a less upmarket material and finish. The heavy-duty Diabolus DH stem gets an update, with the interlocking U-shaped bar faceplate design meant to eliminate unwanted stress on the handlebar.

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BMC

BMC is better known for their road bikes, but they also have an impressive MTB range. Here's the VPS-System Superstroke. BMC was coming in to the UK with the now-defunct Raw Experience - hopefully someone else will pick up the brand soon.

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Orbea

A crazy carbon susser from a company also better known for its road bikes, but hey, it could work...

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SRAM

We've already seen most of SRAM's new stuff, but we spotted this new crank from the Truvativ, the Noir.

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Rock Shox's homage to their racing success. Some might say Rock Shox have hit the bullseye with their new forks...

Gary Fisher

The HiFi is Fisher's new 110mm full-suss bike. A simple single pivot drives a linkage actuated shock, with carbon seatstays to save weight. Frame weight is just over 5lbs. The biggest news is the geometry changes, now called Genesis2. Fisher wanted the bikes to be more agile in the slower twisty stuff, so they've figured the only way to achieve this without upsetting the already desirable ride was a fork with a greater offset. Most forks are about 39mm but they worked with Manitou to design a fork with a 49mm offset. (What's fork offset? Draw a line down through the headtube and fork, and measure the distance from this line to the axle).

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Assorted mix

Finally, a slew of randomly interesting stuff that was kicking around. New lighter pedals from Ritchey, a range of white and black stems from Syncros, a crazy looking saddle and some interesting carbon discs and chainrings...

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Wilier

Wilier are bringing their great looking decals and paintjobs - which has already made them popular on the road scene - to a range of MTBs. We like.

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Discuss this story

That 'Emu Head' Saddle/seatpost combo at the bottom of the page looks bizarre! and carbon rotor spiders? I'd shit meself!!
Posted: 19/09/2006 12:18

managed to find some info though about the crazy bonkers saddle.

it's made by Selle Italia, and is called the Bill-hook - it's only a concept at the moment so don't go bothering your local shop just yet. The 250g (including seatpost) weight sounds good though, plus a 'linked nose with pivot movement' sounds intriguing.
Posted: 19/09/2006 12:24

mr arthur sir your missing the nicolai and wilier stuff, i managed to stumble across some tasty wilier stuff on there website http://www.wilier.it/files/images/wilier2007/SOLITARIO-XT-3.jpg whilst on there site last night
Posted: 19/09/2006 13:02

Those Mavic wheels are 40gm heavier than Barbara's RCZ on Rigida Xcell with DT 2/1.8 and alloy nipples.
Posted: 19/09/2006 13:08

ah i've forgotten to put the Wilier photos in, doh! give me a couple of mins
Posted: 19/09/2006 13:11

the wilier looks lovely
Posted: 19/09/2006 13:16

Don't click that Wilier link Alan, It's at least as seductive as the Condor.
Posted: 19/09/2006 13:23

see i knew which one you had been looking at, don't suppose you know the price on the wilier?
Posted: 19/09/2006 13:23

The Fisher - what would happen to the ride if you put a normal (39mm offset?) fork on it? Seems a bit limiting by designing the frame geometry to take essentially a one-off fork design, and not exactly future-proof either.

I like the bike but wouldnt want to be tied into one manitou fork.
Posted: 19/09/2006 16:11

Never been bothered about taking chances though the boys at Fisher. 29ers had limited forks available when launched but there's more variety now.

Can't see the G2 thing taking off though. Seems to me that it solves a slight problem you may have for 5% of your riding time by sacrificing the handling characteristics you want and expect for the other 95%. I'm sure it works but the trade off seems too high.

Besides, tight switchbacks just need balls and technique, not a new bike.
Posted: 19/09/2006 16:52

Apparently the only difference between Genesis and Genesis 2 geometry is the fork offset, so if you put an "ordinary" fork on it it just handles like a 2006 Gary Fisher.
Posted: 19/09/2006 16:55

Here's a Eurobike Video on youtube:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GXRJCB_sySc
Posted: 19/09/2006 18:26

no..

i think also the head angle is steeper to reduce the trail..?
i think the idea with G2 is to reduce the trail but keep the wheelbase the same..

you are basically stuck with one (arguably pretty poor) fork choice..

maybe you could run a longer fork and bring the head angle back in line..??

that might work...

if the rest of the geometry was the same you could add the new fork to any bike and get G2 so im sure there is more too it..!!
Posted: 19/09/2006 19:36

I thought sea-urchin was right in that the idea was a steeper head angle with and unchanged wheelbase and increased fork offset to make the relative position of the wheel the same.

I would have thought that 10mm extra fork offset on the same frame would make the handling slower if anything.

Possibly a longer, standard fork would have similar characteristics but wouldn't that throw the BB height, seat angle, bar height out too and move your weight further over the back wheel?

I still think that it causes more issues than it solves and riding twisty stuff at speed is more down to technique than anything else.
Posted: 19/09/2006 20:17

Look used to produce forks with different off-sets for raod bikes to keep trail more or less the same with different head angles. A slacker head angle gives more trail (the distance the wheel contact point is behind where the headset pivot plane meets the ground) unless you increase fork off-set. More trail makes the bike more stable and slower to respond which some, me included, like.
Posted: 19/09/2006 20:28

Why is it 'offset' but off-almost anything else. :(
Posted: 19/09/2006 20:35

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