It’s that time of year again when cycling fanatics or geek’s depending on what your level of fanaticism is (I include myself in the latter), trawls the internet for all the latest gossip on Eurobike.

Eurobike is the industry’s biggest cycle show. All the big names are there showing off their new and shiny goodies, getting us all excited and looking at our bank accounts wondering if it’s possible to live off porridge or any other cheap food for 2 months so that when the new stuff  hits the shops we can afford that new frame or set of wheels.

We’ve got a few guys over in Germany at the moment (lucky bar stewards) wandering round the Disney Land of the cycling world haggling and thrashing out deals with different suppliers all in aid to bring you all out there some trick kit for next year. So get that porridge/rice/pasta stocked up, because from what I’ve heard, there’s some tasty items for 2011.

First up is yet another brand trying to crack the groupset market. Shimano and Campagnolo lead the way with Sram snapping at their heals, last year we saw Microshift deliver an interesting (but not visually stunning) groupset, this year though its the turn of FSA/Vison.

From what I’ve seen, this is just a time trial specific groupset. No road STI/Ergo levers just yet.

They’ve had the brake callipers out for few years and now they have an ingenious new shift unit. The bar end shifter looks like a smaller version of Vision’s time trial brake lever. Instead of the usual clicking up and down of the other big three manufactures, its a squeeze of the lever to shift up and a push of what originally looks like the clamp of the lever to head down the gears. It looks nice and clean and above all it’s aero! The rear and front mech were spotted on the ISD team bikes last year and these are pretty standard, though the rear mech is dripping with carbon.

Next up is the battle of the bike computers and Garmin and Polar will be fighting it out for your hard earned cash. First up is Polar. A few months ago we blogged about a power meter that inserted inside your pedals. Well, it looks like Polar and Look have come up with a version of their own and very smart it is too. Have a look at the video below, that tells you all the infomation we have at the moment. Very smart thinking and this could re-establish Polar as the computer brand to be seen with.

Give your fingers a wipe after you've had that bacon buttie at the cafe stop before using the edge 800

Garmin have the all new and sleak looking Edge 800. As with the edge 705, you get the usual GPS, heart rate and cadence features, but with the new 800, they’ve made the screen that bit bigger and the unit that bit thinner. They have removed a few buttons and added a colour touch screen. The Battery life is around the 15 hour mark and you can download maps to a micro SD card and use it anywhere in the world. I’m sure it’s going to be as robust as the 500 and if your a techie or just love showing off to your mates where you’ve been, then the Edge 800 will be right up your street.

Fancy footwear? Giro and surprisingly saddle brand Fizik have showcased new shoe lines.

We’ve had photos up of the Giro shoes for a day or two on our Facebook page and they’ve caused a bit of a stir. There doesn’t seem to be one person disliking them, which is always a good sign.

Giro have lined up a nice range including road, mountain and women’s shoes.

If you had your eyes pealed during the Tour, you would have spotted a certain Mr Leipheier with a prototype pair of the top end Prolight SLX on his feet. These ones, as the name suggests are wispy light and a size 42 is going to come in at 205g.

Giro's Prolight SLX, super skinny soles

Carbon for these shoes is supplied by Easton and you’ll be shelling out about £280 for the top end Prolight SLX.

Fizik primerly known for its saddles are also entering the shoe market. Three models will be available, 2 for the guys and one for the gals!

With Fizik being an Italian company, these shoes ooze style. Having a cross bread look of retro perforated leather with slick modern styling, they’re a bit different looking from what’s already on the market. Are they going to be the Marmite (that’s Vegemite for you lot in the southern hemisphere) of the cycling shoe world, love em or hate em?

Bit odd looking, but god damn there's some "bling bling" features crammed in to them.

Made using kangaroo leather (sorry Aussies) and other exotic materials, including stretch resistant sail cloth for the straps, zink, memory foam and compressed carbon for the soles and buckles. There’s more technology crammed in the top end shoe than I care to write here.

Oh Yes, they’re custom mouldable too, with heat mouldable material in precise areas. Again, light weight for the top end shoe but not as light as the Giros. The R1 will tip the scale at 274g (size 43).

3T time now and with Cervelo Test Team calling it a day, it looks at the moment that Garmin will be the sole team using 3T components next year. Will we see them using the new META chainset?

For one thing this is a very different looking chainset to what is already on the market.

3T have headed back to the drawing board with this product, it’s a three piece chainset. You have the left and right crank and then the

Gold and red, I'm not too sure Mr 3T!!

spider that is connected to the axle which is carbon. Very fancy and from the information I have, 3T have worked out where the stress is on the cranks and have removed material away from the areas that dont take any stress. Apparently, 3T claim that it saves up to 30% in weight over the best of what’s out there already. Now that’s impressive!

Reynolds have updated their wheel range too. Last year they released the crazy money RZR’s, a super fancy top end wheel and now you can get some of the technology used in the RZR’s in their lower end wheels (not so much lower end as not a lottery winners wheels).

New breaking surface and graphics to start with, then on top of that, there’s the new rims. The rims now have a slight Lip to them along the edge of the cross section. The “swirl Lip generator” as they have named it is supposed to create a small vacuum along the trailing edge of the rim. In layman’s terms, it’s supposed to help you go faster and I’m sure it will. They have wheel Guru Paul Lew designing their wheels now.

Reynolds new wheels on your left and them mean green hope hubs on your right. Tasty, very tasty!!

Keeping on the wheel theme, you may have seen a fancy Hope cassette that Chris posted on our Facebook page and this looks super cool, not just because it’s in green, but that it has the free hub body integrated into it. That should keep things nice and direct in the delivery of power.

Ok people that’s your lot for now, but rest assured though, that once the guys who made it to Eurobike return, I’ll be picking their brains and spending (a lot) of time leafing through all the new 2011 catalogues and bringing you even more news on what’s looking hot for next year.



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