Eurobike
You'll know, because we closed the website down, (if that is you check back on a regular basis) that we toddled off to Eurobike a couple of weeks ago. If you have been to the London Bike show then you can be safe in the knowledge that it isn't like that really at all, apart from the fact that the same people are there but in a bit of a different capacity. It was our first time there and we had a couple of meetings lined up to complement the time spent wandering around looking at things!
Eurobike lies in the German town of Friedrichshafen, a town that appears to be built around their exhibition center with a variety of budget hotels and even its own airport. One would suspect that after Eurobike packs up the European caravan convention or something moves in pretty quickly. Vast exhibition halls surround a big open area in the middle that you can imagine must also play host to boats or planes or tanks or whatever else in the other weeks of the year. This weekend there are all manner of ebike buzzing around, a set of dirt jumps in the middle of the arena and all manner of German sausage and beer outlets. Our new favourite, Currywurst. Sausage in curry sauce. WHO KNEW?
A picture of Currywurst that we didn't take.
So if you have been to the, say, London Bike Show, you'll know that this take place in one massive hall, well this thing has about ten of them and its focus is on trade. If you are looking to buy a bike you are looking in the wrong place. If you want to buy 1000 of them then lets talk. It really is a maze. From the people that make the tubes, weave the carbon, make the lights or make the batteries for the ever increasing amount of ebikes that are now so frequent on the continent. We were there to meet the lovely people that make up all the facets of our business, from fabric to zips to seatpads and highly brilliant it was to. As all of these come from our Italian suppliers Eurobike provided a central place to meet them all and talk though where we are going and how we are going to get there and more importantly what we were going to use to do so! A lot of this is really a bit dull for the blog I'm afraid. We could talk to you about fabric content, maybe not all day long, but for a decent part of it and we could talk to you about the seat pads we use for ages too, but after not too long we know you'll switch off a bit! But please know that we do care and we do put a lot of work into it. In between eating curried sausage.
So we did take a few photos of shiny things and here they are! (or at least some of them)
This Bugatti got a lot of press. We didn't see a price tag to be fair but saw reports that is was up for 65-75k Euro. Which is a lot of Euro.
Colnago dont just make pretty carbon things they still manufacture using all the same lugs and steel tubing. One day... One day...
This is the race bike of Nino Schurter. The double Olympic gold medalist won EVERY round of the XC world cup and last weekend the World Champs in Cairns as well. This is the bike he rode to victory the previous weekend at Val Di Sole atthe final round of the World Cup.
There was nothing not to like at the ENVE stand. Wheelsets to adorn every machine and multiple lines of custom graphics.
Want to arrive at Sainsburys in style? They might need to build you a bigger bike rack!
Ben Swifts race bike from the 2017 TdF. See they make them in carbon too! But you knew that.
Another Scott. This time that of Simon Yates! Check out that slammed stem!
Maybe next year we'll do it this way! This guy rode a very long way to be here!
So that was our Eurobike wrap up, sorry it ddn't have any exclusives but be sure we are pushing forward all the time! In the next few weeks we will be doing a few longer blog posts about the London Etape, our first CX race (which should have been last weekend but we're still awaiting a couple of crucial bike parts!) and hopefully a special AUDAX!