Eurobike, ‘the world’s leading bicycle trade show’, starts in Friedrichshafen, Germany, from 26-29 August 2015. As the show organisers point out, anyone looking at the latest road bike innovations, will quickly see that ‘the words racing bikes and conservatism should no longer be used in the same sentence.’
The Eurobike team goes on to note that the road bike industry has always been innovative and creative. However, until recently new product developments were primarily concerned with saving weight without compromising on rigidity. The bike road bike industry has now reached a point where it’s hard to see further significant weight gains being made.
Road bikes that weigh around, or even under 6kg without any sacrifices on stiffness or functionality are no longer a rarity. For example, at Eurobike Taiwanese manufacturer Merida is presenting its latest model, the Scultura 9000 LTD. The bike, which will be available as a series model (and is also the future Lampre-Merida pro team bike) weighs just 4.6kg.
These developments have led to the absurd situation where professional cyclists have to add additional lead weights to their bikes to meet the UCI minimum weight regulation for competition road bikes – the 6.8kg rule.
Hitting the bottom of the weight saving scale now means that there is more room for new and different types of road bike innovations.
“2016 is going to be a particularly exciting year for the road bike industry,” commented cycling journalist Jens Klötzer, technology expert at Tour road bike magazine.
“Innovation frequency has increased significantly in the road bike segment. It started a few years ago with the introduction of electronic gear shifting systems, which made big waves in the road bike scene. This was followed by a large number of innovations. We’re talking major developments here.”
Disc a go-go!
2016 should see more new technological innovations than we have witnessed for many years. The most obvious development is disc brakes, which many market observers feel could supersede standard rim brakes in a few years.
One reason for this is the advance in lightweight road bike design. Now that many pro riders, and road cycling enthusiasts in general, are opting for carbon rims, caliper brakes are arguably reaching their limit. Wet conditions in particular cause problems due to the smooth surface of carbon rims – and thus reliable braking performance with carbon rim brakes can be challenging.
Whereas disc brakes, on the other hand, perform well in the wet. In addition road bikes with disc brakes are no longer much heavier than comparable models with rim brakes. For example, Focus Bikes recently picked up a Eurobike Award for its 2016 Izalco Max Disc. The north German bicycle manufacturer’s race bike weighs in at the UCI’s 6.8kg minimum weight, despite its disc brakes and without over-exaggerated tuning.
Larger volume tyres
The Eurobike team add that 28mm is not necessarily going to be the new standard for road bikes. The coming year will continue to see most models with (already slightly wider) 25-mm tyres. However, larger-volume tyres are steadily gaining traction and many future road bike frames and forks will have clearance for 28-mm tyres. Why? ‘Because road cyclists are no longer opposed to comfort.’
It is argued that the difference in rolling resistance between skinny and wide road bike tyres is hardly worth mentioning, and yet wider tyres are significantly more comfortable. Especially because the new wider top-of-the range tubeless road tyres allow these benefits to achieve their full potential.
Fans of wider tyres, will also appreciate innovations for 2016 in the new road bike segment known as gravel bikes. The trend arrived from the US, where many cyclists are racing on gravel tracks as a traffic-free alternative to riding on highways. At first sight, these bikes look like standard road bikes. A closer look reveals many details carried over from mountain bikes.
“Completely new road bike categories are emerging, which no one had even thought of until recently,” added Tour magazine’s Jens Klötzer.
