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Eurobike show
Germany, August 31-September 4, 2005
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Part 2 - Trek, Giant, Carbon-Ti - and a shovel
Trek 2006 - Session and SSLx cover the spectrum
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Trek's Session Ten came out of the seven inch travel Session freeride bike that Trek's Zapata Espinoza calls "the ultimate big drop bike. Designed with input from Trek sponsored freerider Andrew Shandro, Session Ten is intended for the biggest gap jumps and the roughest trails. Shandro declares Session Ten "The Real Deal" in big drop bikes. The Low-Center Rockerlink maintains a low center of gravity for improved handling, with an all new monocoque frame platform with "CrankCase" design to house the main pivot and 83mm wide bottom bracket.
Handmade in Waterloo, Wisconsin.Trek's Session Ten is a "super efficient" freeride bike according to Espinoza, and features a Manitou SPV suspension package with double crown Travis fork, 150mm rear axle spacing for improved torsional rigidity, replaceable dropouts, pivotless rear triangle to maintain stiffness and durability, anodized frame with monocoque top tube and oversized 1.5 inch headtube for stiffness and front-end rigidity.
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Right at the other end of the bike spectrum, Trek's Madone SSLx is one of the must-have road bikes for 2006. Not only is it the bike that Lance Armstrong rode to his seventh-straight Tour de France win, Madone SSLx is an incredibly advanced road bike that has set the standard for lightness and rigidity in high end road bikes. Trek evolved the Madone SSL with its OCLV 55 carbon fibre frame and by adding OCLV boron for increased stiffness and an exclusive SL hardware kit. The SSLx was the two wheel weapon Armstrong rode from start to finish in this year's Tour.
Why boron? Trek's Espinoza explained, "Boron is very strong under compressive loads, so when the layers of OCLV carbon fiber are laid up, a layer of boron is sandwiched between layers, like adding rebar in concrete. So by strategically adding OCLV boron in compressive load areas, we can use less carbon and make a stronger and lighter frame and/or component."
Handmade in Waterloo, Wisconsin, the Madone SSLx is the lightest and stiffest production frame Trek has ever made. The frame weighs 975 grams and is 15 percent stiffer than a standard Madone. A unique one piece top tube / headtube construction optimizes downhill stability while the A-Stay seatstay design tightens the rear end to maximize rear end stiffness and stability for a controlled, smooth ride.
Another key element of the Madone SSLx are the one piece dropouts, which out-perform two piece dropouts in stiffness by almost 50 percent so the shifting is sharp and accurate, even under load.
Giant on track
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Giant Europe's sport marketing manager Tom Davies told Cyclingnews at the Eurobike show that with the Beijing Olympics just three years away, track racing would be a focus for Giant. On display at Giant's stand was a sleek new prototype TCR Advanced tTrack bike that is derived from Giant's TCR road frame. Currently being used by World Sprint Champ Rene' Wolff's RSV Turbine Erfurt squad, Giant is hoping all their development work will pay off and Wolff will be using the TCR Advanced Track in international competition.
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Front and center in Giant's stand was Jan Ullrich's TCR Advanced Team road bike, built with METAComposite fibres that are drawn into special tube shapes that provides stiffness and light weight. In fact, Giant claims that the frame weighs in at 925 grams including the integrated seatpost. Giant has also introduced a new road frame platform called SCR (Sport Comfort Road) that offers a more upright position but still has Giant's Compact Road Design geometry.
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Carbon-Ti creates high-tech marvels
Germanys' Carbon-Ti is a new company that was formed as a collaboration between three small firms to produce lightweight bicycle components. Becker-Carbon, Antarctica, and LLS have combined resources and know-how to make products like carbon fibre/titanium disc brake rotors, titanium chainrings and cassette, carbon fibre/titanium chainrings, a 47-gram carbon fiber saddle with a 75kg rider weight limit and a 99-gram brake set made from carbon fiber, Ti and 7075 aluminium.
Tschugg Shaper
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You might think that the Tschugg Shaper Shovel would be found at a hardware show, but the shovel was specially developed by German MTB pro Guido Tschugg for building and maintaining dirt trails.
The Tschugg Shaper Shovel has a powder coated finish and is made of four separate, detachable elements; a three-piece aluminium handle and a steel shovel head. The sharp shovel edge enables fine shaping of dirt trails, while the shaper has a straight cut and offers an optimal shape angle. It fits in a backpack too and weighs 2.3kg.
Tschugg is not believed to be working on a matching rain gauge.
Photography
For a thumbnail gallery of these images, click here
Images by Tim Maloney/Cyclingnews.com
- Trek's beefy Session Ten is the company's most promising entry yet into the huge 'freeride' mountain bike arena
- A single pivot and massive swingarm keeps the Session Ten rigid.
- Trek Madone SSLx - developed for Lance Armstrong and ridden to victory in the 2005 Tour, Trek's lightest and stiffest frame ever will be available to the rest of us in 2006.
- The T-Mobile TCR Advanced - as ridden by Jan Ullrich and the top German squad.
- Giant TCR Advanced Track - you know track racing's profile is on the up when a company like Giant decides to get involved. Keeping the bike weight over 6.8kg might get tricky though...
- The TCR Track's rear triangle is clearly derived from Giant's road bike, with the characteristic dimple behind the seat tube.
- Giant TCR Advanced falls into the '60kph-standing-still' department.
- Giant SCR has Giant's light weight carbon construction in a more upright geometry that also looks to have a bit more clearance for the fatter tyres preferred by recreational riders.
- Carbon-Ti mixes materials combining carbon fiber and titanium for some seriously lightweight widgetry that should be a big hit in among weight weenies
- Guido Tschugg and his shovel - no more Eric Olthwaite jokes please, Tschugg's Shaper Shovel should be invaluable to trail building and maintenance crews.
