Eurobike 2022: Exciting Products from European Manufacturers - Part 1

The European Bike Project is one of our favorite Instagram accounts and his feed is constantly updated with everything from interesting curios from tiny manufacturers to inside looks at European manufacturing to analyses of the environmental impact of our sport. During Eurobike 2022, he's tracking down the most interesting products from small manufacturers for you.

Actofive Cycles / Cycling Saxony / Qvist.cc hubs


Once again, one of the best looking bikes at the show came from German frame manufacturer Actofive Cycles. The purple anodized CNC machined frame certainly is a show-stopper.

It can be found at the "Cycling Saxony" booth in hall 8. Cycling Saxony is a network of bike brands from the German state Saxony and it's surprising how many high quality bike brands there are in this area.

The bike was kitted out with a lot of interesting products from other German brands, including Oak Components brake levers, Magura brakes, Freeze Components grips, Beast Components carbon handlebars as well as the new Qvist.cc hubs, which we'll take a closer look at in a few days.

The Qvist hubs use a double ratchet mechanism with 64 points of engagement at each side. Only one side is engaged at a time, which means that you get 128 points of engagement in total with all the reliability that a ratchet mechanism offers.

Last but not least, the bike featured some sweet suspension by Formula and Extreme Shox.









Galfer


Galfer had their new Disc Shark at the show. Contrary to other options with the "small hole design", their discs have extra cooling fins and small windows that alternate with the small holes, which should result in better cooling and braking performance according to the Spanish manufacturer.





Cavalerie Bikes / Effigear


We've covered the new Cavalerie Bikes Anakin V2 before, but this frame is just too good not to show it again.

It uses a Effigear 9-speed gearbox, which makes running a belt and designing a high pivot suspension design a doddle. This specific bike is owned by the designer of the Anakin V2, Tom Donnadieu.








One-K Wheels


One-K Wheels is a start-up company from Germany that wants to make sure all their wheelsets remain below the 1 kg mark, hence the name.

To achieve this, they use unique spokes which are made from a special fibre from Japan. They experimented with carbon fibres, but these turned out to be too fragile. Their first wheelsets will be for road bikes, but it's only a matter of time until their technology will become available for mountain bikes as well.

They are still working on the perfect fibre and spoke technology, which is why the spokes don't look perfect yet.







Lavelle carbon wheels


Lavelle is a new company that gained quite a lot of attention for working on a very special city e-bike. However, they are also working on carbon wheels which will be suitable for mountain bikes and e-mountain bikes.

The 5-spoke wheels will be made in Galicia, Spain, and are designed around their own hubs which are also made in-house. The hub uses a roller clutch-style freehub mechanism, which means that it is silent and offers nearly instant engagement. The hubs can be removed from the wheels and use low-friction bearings.

The rear hub can take up to 350 Nm of torque and the 3.5 mm flange makes sure the tires are held in place safely. All rims have an RFID chip that you can scan in order to get some more information about the wheels.

They will soon launch the 27.5" wheels, with the 29" version coming later this year. The weight will be around 1800 g.








3x3 gear hub


3x3 is a new brand by German automotive company HB-Hightech. Their first product is a 9-speed gear hub that is compatible with chains and belt drives. The gear range is 554 % and the weight is around 2 kg. It uses a proprietary disc mount, discs are available in sizes from 160 to 220 mm.

It can handle a torque of up to 250 nm and is lubricated with grease rather than oil. This means that the hub should be literally maintenance-free, as there is no oil that you'd usually have to change in regular intervals.

In 2023, Nicolai Bicycles will offer a flatbar gravel bike with the 3x3 hub. At this stage, the hubs can't be ordered directly at 3x3.








Lilienthal carbon wheels


Lilienthal rims are not only highly customisable, they also use a unique manufacturing process. Instead of laying carbon sheets into the mould by hand, Lilienthal uses an automated process to make their rims. Bands of non-crimp carbon are rolled onto the mould. Rolling the different bands of carbon is a matter of seconds and reduces the risk of human error. The uniform fibre orientation provides a unique look and surface texture. Later, the spoke holes are drilled in-house and the pattern is customized to suit the geometry of the hub.

In case coloured Pirope spokes and custom decals are not custom enough for you, Lilienthal now also offers full custom rim designs in collaboration with renowned designer JMD Designs.





Motorex / Foes Racing No. 001


Swiss company Motorex had one of the most interesting bikes at their booth. It's the first serial production frame ever made by US company Foes Racing. It's signed by Brent Foes and sports original components from back in the days. The bike is owned by Stefan from Cycleworks.ch, who has an impressive collection of retro bikes that we'll cover in an in-depth article later this year.

Motorex had three new products at the show: The Bike Protect Dirt Shield is a bike spray that makes sure mud doesn't stick to your frame, which is not only interesting for racers. Apart from a new chainlube they are also launching a new Anti-Seize which is mainly made for aluminum parts.







Pinion


The Pinion community has been waiting for this release for a long time: Pinion gearboxes can now be actuated with the TE1 trigger shifter. However, for the time being, this technology will only be available for e-bikes. A regular bike would need some kind of small motor in the gearbox to change the gears. Riders around the globe are waiting for such a version of the Pinion gear box, however the twist shifters are better than many people believe. The Smart Shift gear boxes are not the same as the regular Pinion gearboxes and are marked with an "i", such as C1.12i.

Pinion also had their unique "one of a kind" artwork on display, which is basically a carefully disassembled P1.18 gearbox on a carrier plate. They are auctioning this artwork in order to raise money for the local non-profit organisation "Bike Bridge Stuttgart". The auction ends on Sunday evening, the last day of the show.






Aska Bike Speed Pedelec


Aska Bike is a company from Belgium that sells a very fast (45 km/h) and sturdy ebike. It has a Formula 120 mm fork and an Öhlins shock in the rear will generate 90 mm of travel. The frame uses a single pivot suspension design.

Interestingly, the frame does not use the usual round tubes, but metal sheets. The Aska team says that tubes provide a great stiffness to weight ratio, but don't make too much sense when you cut them open to insert a big battery. So they looked at different ways to manufacture a frame and came up with this unique technique. Aska Bikes use a lot of parts that are made in Europe, including the Neodrives rear hub motor.





Kamemo GmbH R1 Tionon shock


Kamemo is a new company from the Black Forest area in Southern Germany. At Eurobike 2022, they launched their R1 shock, which has several unique features.

As you can see, the shock doesn't have a piggyback. However, it has a very large shaft and a big oil volume. The pressures in the oil chamber are said to be very low, which should reduce wear and ensure consistent performance.

The shock has an external shim box which allows you to change the shim stack without opening the shock. Thanks to the mounting points, the R1 can be used as a trunnion-style shock or metric shock. Changing from one mounting standard to the other is just a matter of installing the specific eyelets.

Currently, the shock is only available for OEM customers. The 165 mm shock is available now, other lengths will follow.






Ceramicspeed


Danish manufacturer Ceramicspeed had their new 12-speed OSPW derailleur cages at the show. They will also be available in different Cerakote finishes: bronze, olive and gun metal. At the moment, each colour will be limited to 100 pieces.

Ceramicspeed spent quite a lot of time experimenting with Cerakote coatings and they found that it improves the longevity of their pulley wheels by up to 15-20% compared to their anodized pulley wheels.

They also say that Cerakote is a great way to coat their carbon cages and aluminum pulley wheels, as the result will look identical on both materials.





Rubena Tyres


Czech tire manufacturer Rubena Tyres (formerly known as Mitas) made their first bicycle tire back in 1928. Today, they make several products, including ice hockey pucks and air springs for trains. However, bicycle tyres remain a very important product for Rubena.

They are currently working on new, long lasting compounds to make sure that riders can get as many miles as possible with each tire.

Rubena had a big range of tires on display, including everything from road and city tires to DH options.

Their most aggressive options are the 2.45" and 2.6" Monarch tires. As the other tires pictured, they get the Textra sidewall protection. The Highlander is also on the aggressive side of the spectrum and besides the Monarch it's the only tire in the Rubena range with DH SupraMax dual compound that has softer side knobs and firmer center knobs. It's followed by the more versatile Scylla. Most tires are available in 2.45" and 2.6" versions.

Posted In:
Reviews and Tech eMTB First Looks Eurobike 2022