Eurobike 2012: RaceFace and Rocky Mountain

Yup, it’s that time of year again. The week long bacchanalian glut of of new products, technology, weissbeer and hammered pork that is Eurobike has returned to Friedrichshafen in Germany.

Chipps, Jon and Matt are pounding the aisles to find all the new and exciting things while avoiding the dreaded pork leg, people in very short denim shorts with fantastic ideas for a new touring hub and the other perils of trade shows.

Keep checking back for more news as and when it happens, feel free give us a shout in the comments if there are any brands/things you’d specifically like us to check out for you. We’re working on finding the electric XTR that we’re sure is hidden around here and uncovering the next next wheel size standard but that may take some time…

RaceFace

As we stumbled through the first (of many) halls, we came across the gentlemen of Silverfish on the new Race Face stand, so we got Pete to give us a quick tour of the highlights.

The new Race Face Knee Guards are designed to offer a spot of protection without the bulk and restriction of conventional knee pads. Think of them as well-padded knee warmers. Made from a stretchy, perforated lycra style sleeve with a tough covered knee section, they should be just the thing to prevent the inordinate amount of pain you get from knocking a cold knee against stem or top tube. They also come in an elbow version.

The Next Wide Flat bars are still designed as a full on XC bar, but now come in a slightly more beefy 720mm width. They still weigh in at a rather light 175g thanks to the carbon fibre construction and they come in many lovely colours. If you need a bit of height, the 725mm wide Next 3/4 may be more up your street.

If all that’s a bit skimpy, the carbon fibre SixC bars are available in a full fat 785mm with a 19mm rise. This year they also some in some colours that’ll match your Yeti – also brought into the Uk by Silverfish – brilliantly.

The Atlas all mountain range now has an I-beam saddle and post added to it. The post will come in 30.9 and 31.6mm only, but there is a carbon fibre option too. The saddle weighs in at 156g – not bad at all for a reasonable well padded perch.

Rocky Mountain Slayer SS

Our new favourite bike that we’d never really use is the Rocky Mountain Slayer SS. It’s a short travel, jumpy version of their all mountain machine that we absolutely loved when we tested it last year. The back end is super short to give rapid handling, though it comes at the expense of a front mech. Head angle is a steep 69° with the 100mm forks and there’s a super low BB. The shifter is mounted to the downtube to let you do lots of bar-spinny tricks – or not.