Chipps with Everything: 2023 Eurobike Highlights

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Chipps brings you a curated tour of the eye-catching highlights of this pivotal European trade show.

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For over 20 years Singletrack has been a source of information, news and entertainment for millions of mountain bike enthusiasts and as an important focal point for an amazing community of like minded riders from around the world. But it has also been a provider of jobs and income for dozens of families of our team as well as a source of revenue for hundreds of freelance contributors.

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Chipps Chippendale

Singletrackworld's Editor At Large

With 23 years as Editor of Singletrack World Magazine, Chipps is the longest-running mountain bike magazine editor in the world. He started in the bike trade in 1990 and became a full time mountain bike journalist at the start of 1994. Over the last 30 years as a bike writer and photographer, he has seen mountain bike culture flourish, strengthen and diversify and bike technology go from rigid steel frames to fully suspended carbon fibre (and sometimes back to rigid steel as well.)

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Viewing 11 posts - 1 through 11 (of 11 total)
  • Chipps with Everything: 2023 Eurobike Highlights
  • matt_outandabout
    Full Member

    Me likey the kona in pink glitters…

    Posted 9 months ago
    nickc
    Full Member

    I heard of one UK company with over 200,000 bike helmets on its shelves.

    Ouch, that’s some-one’s job losing nightmare.

    Posted 9 months ago
    benpinnick
    Full Member

    Im surprised you didnt mention the 9,102,468 e-SUV bikes that were on show….

    Posted 9 months ago
    dovebiker
    Full Member

    No mention of the Cannondale mini-bike either 😉

    Posted 9 months ago
    b33k34
    Full Member

    Thanks for that insight into the industry – theres a lot of doom and gloom about (with the right wing press leaping on it as they love anything that suggests cycling is crap/doomed/etc).

    UDH I’m really dubious about. I’m pretty sure that not all UDH is actually universal – so the ‘direct mount’ mechs that are on the horizon won’t work with all the bikes that have a UDH now.

    More than that though it seems that what SRAM have designed a super cheap universal replaceable hanger that you’re unlikely to ever need to replace as rather than bending or breaking they just transfer all the load to your bike and risk breaking that instead.

    On our trip to Spain in May and I wrote off an XT 12s mech on day 1 and another on day 2 and damaged the frame, but my UDH was just fine…

    First time I knew I’m pretty sure I know exactly where I put the bike between two rocks. UDH rotates round and takes some carbon off the top of the seatstay, mech completely destroyed (both jockeys mashed, cage broken and bent, rear linkage on mech snapped in two) and into wheel bending a few spokes for good measure.

    Replaced mech, replaced UDH (which looked completely straight anyway) and half way through the next day, I was being super careful – I *think* maybe a rock came up off the front wheel – and again UDH rotates into frame, and a brand new XT mech snaps at the upper link that attaches to the UDH.

    I’d be really reluctant to buy another bike with UDH on – rather than bending a hanger and protecting the bike (and maybe even saving the mech) it seems you destroy bike and mech but dont’ have to replace a £15 hanger.

    Seems I’m not the only one thinking this (external link)

    Posted 9 months ago
    benpinnick
    Full Member

    UDH rotates round and takes some carbon off the top of the seatstay

    Sounds like the manufacturer didn’t add the rotation stop it should have.

    I’m pretty sure that not all UDH is actually universal – so the ‘direct mount’ mechs that are on the horizon won’t work with all the bikes that have a UDH now.

    This is possibly true as there was an update to the UDH spec but _most_ bikes built to the older spec will work with the newer one. You’d kind of have to had deliberately gone out of your way to make it not work, but it was possible. It’s also worth noting that UDH is a spec, if your bike co wants to make a breakaway one, or one that bends easier, they could. As the MeatEngines writer says ‘The current UDH, as used on many bikes, is as good as any FIXED replaceable derailleur hanging in the history of mountain bikes’ which I think is fair.

    Posted 9 months ago
    kelvin
    Full Member

    This is possibly true as there was an update to the UDH spec

    “An” update, or many updates? UDH compatibility doesn’t necessarily mean Transmission compatibility.

    And if you don’t want to fit Transmission, other systems arguably do the job better (if you consider part of the job is being sacrificial and cheaply replaceable).

    Posted 9 months ago
    benpinnick
    Full Member

    “An” update, or many updates? UDH compatibility doesn’t necessarily mean Transmission compatibility.

    There’s pre revision K and post revision K IIRC. Don’t quote me on the revision, but if you’re post revision K compliant it will work, if you’re pre-revision K compliant it may work. Ultimately you just need to ask whoever you’re buying the bike from if it will or won’t.

    Posted 9 months ago
    b33k34
    Full Member

    Sounds like the manufacturer didn’t add the rotation stop it should have.

    What are you going to make the rotation stop out of? You’ve got to put a piece of carbon there, or affix a metal part, that’s going to have enough strength to stop a UDH rotating (with a fair bit of leverage from the mech).

    I’ve broken loads of mechs over the years, but this was two in two days, and both ended up in the spokes as well. I’ve not done two like that in 20 years of riding.

    I can’t help thinking that fundamentally a mech hanger that rotates backwards is a bad idea.

    Posted 9 months ago
    benpinnick
    Full Member

    What are you going to make the rotation stop out of?

    Ours use a threaded insert with a steel screw. Ive tested it, it works.

    Posted 9 months ago
    Gunz
    Free Member

    Is that Orange Switch really £1200 for an aluminium hardtail frame only?

    Posted 9 months ago
Viewing 11 posts - 1 through 11 (of 11 total)

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