Eurobike Tech Randoms Including a budget 1 x 13 drivetrain!

From knock-off Fox forks and budget 13-speed drivetrains, to the latest long travel linkage forks, here are our top tech randoms of Eurobike.

Lone Bikes Parabellum

The Lone Bikes team were back at Eurobike 2019 with their clever full suspension bike that can take various wheel sizes and even be built up mullet style.

We first came across Lone last year, and we have been promised one of their first production bikes for review. What makes this French frame so interesting is an eccentric BB/main pivot that can be turned to raise or lower the BB height.

This means that the same frame can be built on 27.5in wheels or 29in wheels without affecting geometry, and we’re told that it rides very well as a mullet bike too.

Our test bike won’t have the same finish as the one pictured here, and probably won’t have the gold bolt as they were for customers who ordered them early, but the rest of the Lone tech will be the same. We can’t wait to ride it!

S-Ride Budget 13-Speed Drivetrain

Remember S-Ride? The company we met at Eurobike in 2018 with the super cheap 12-speed drivetrain? Well, they were back this year with 1 more gear! Yes, the Chinese have cracked the 13-speed drivetrain code and are offering 1 x 13 transmissions for less than the cost of an Eagle cassette.

S-Ride showed us the 1 x 13-speed groupset in action on a motorized demo rig. Shifting appeared to be slower than the current generation 1 x 12 systems, but it was accurate and didn’t miss a beat no matter how hard I tried to knock the chain off.

S-Ride has gone for an 11 – 52 cassette with closer ratios and smaller jumps. The cassette is made in 2 halves, half machined alloy, and the other steel, and it felt surprisingly lightweight.

On top of that extra 1 gear, the S-Ride drivetrain comes in a range of shiny colours too.

Knock-off Fox Forks!

We came across not 1 but 2 booths filled with knock-off Fox forks. The image above shows a whole assortment of suspension forks with Fox styling and fake Kashima, but what was interesting is that some of the features were actually very impressive.

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Features such as a carbon crown, carbon steerer and even step cast lowers! Pretty interesting, but how strong will they be and what will the performance of the suspension be like? Do we have any takers?

A suspension dropper post

I’m of the age that I remember all the ‘solutions’ brands came out with to try and convert hardtails and give them the benefits of rear suspension. One of the most common was the suspension seatpost.

Suspension seatposts remain popular today, but with the advent of the dropper riders have had to choose one post or the other. Well, until Eurobike 2019 that is!

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This cable operated droppers gives you all the benefits of every other dropper on the market with the added comfort of a suspension system to smooth out the trial. The linkage looks a little like the original Thud Buster post, but it uses a sprint rather than an elastomer.

We can’t imagine these are going to replace full suspension bikes anytime soon, but its a neat solution for those looking for it./

New Lighter Fox 36 with lockout

Fox had a new 36 on display at Eurobike, it wasn’t the Step-Cast model that we expected to see but it did have a Step-Cast damper inside. This new hybrid 36 uses the current 36mm externals but with a lightweight Step-Cast damper to reduce the overall weight. The mod also adds lockout to the burly 36 too.

Fox is also now offering custom decals for its forks so you can get that true ‘Factory’ look at home.

White Industries micro spline hub and new alloy rims.

U.S brand, White Industries are one of the few brands to make its own Shimano Micro Spline freehub, that navigates around Shimano’s licensing and patents.

The team from White Ind. also had a couple of their own alloy rims on display at Eurobike too. These’s aren’t your typical catalog rims that have been stickered up though, White Industries have actually bought in all the tooling needed to make these rims in house.

They’re intended for gravel bikes, but there’s nothing stopping you using them on your XC bike too. The hookless design features a slightly thicker wall diameter to fend of rim dings, and they feature a very lovely machined logo.

Trust Performance Shout Linkage Fork

It might look like the Trust Message fork that we reviewed earlier in the year, but this is the all-new Trust Shout. A 178mm travel linkage fork that works with both 27.5in and 29in wheels.

Although visibly similar to the original Message, the long-travel Shout has a new damper that has a bypass valve 20% into its travel, this basically means that your rebound and compression setting don’t have any effect on the fork until they hit over 20% of travel.

What does this mean on the trail? We’re unsure, but we’d love to pop one on the front of our bikes and take it for a spin one of these days.

Danny MacAskill’s new old Santa Cruz

Danny MacAskill was at Eurobike with the rest of the Drop and Roll team, and Danny was on a new / old Santa Cruz trials bike. The frame looks similar to the custom carbon bike Santa Cruz put together for Danny last year, but it has a faux rust finish on it.

The 20incher also has a pair of one-off Santa Cruz Reserve carbon wheels, and the bike is built-up with components from Magura, Continental and Crank Brothers.

And if you thought that’s all we the Eurobike coverage we have for you then you should think again, as we have more news, stories, and articles coming your way soon. Watch this space!

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