New Mountain Bike Tech at Eurobike 2022: Best Bikes from the show.

18/07/2022 Drive Pilots

After a few days of scouring the vast halls of Messe Frankfurt at Eurobike 2022, we’ve rounded up some of the best new mountain bikes, kit and components here for your viewing pleasure. Prototype features inverted DH forks, Italian-made 4-piston gravity brakes, 3D-printed full suspension eMTB, high-pivot bike with alternative drivetrain, OSPW derailleur cage upgrades, MTB balance bike for small rippers, … Mr. Dangerhome’s latest latest build. A feast for your eyes.

Eurobike 2022 the best new MTB tech

_{The Nicolai Nucleon 16 was the hottest mountain bike at Eurobike 2022}

Okay, so we haven’t seen much in the way of new mountain bikes. Predictably, it was eBikes that were ubiquitous this year, with coverage coming. On the human-powered front, the most impressive bike for us was the all-new Nicolai Nucleon 16, as it was the first production bike to run Lol Bikes’ Supre Drive.

^{LOL BIKES, The latest Shimano 10-51t cassette version of the Supre Drive is a 12-speed.}

Supre Drive separates the two main functions of the rear derailleur, placing the hydraulically dammed chain tensioner on a concentric pivot to the bottom bracket, bolting the basic gear-selection function onto the dropouts. Its use is limited to high-pivot full suspension mountain bikes, and indeed, the Nucleon 16 is a link-driven high single-pivot. The bike can be set up as a full 29er or with a mixed-wheel configuration thanks to a geometry-adjust flip-chip. It has 160-180mm of travel, 64° head angle and 78.3° seat tube angle. More juicy details on this to come.

Hope Gravity Stem Side View 35mm 31.8mm 50mm

More mainstream, we saw Hope Technology’s new Gravity Stem, which is lighter and stiffer than their previous AM/Freeride offering. It also looks great. It comes in 35mm and 50mm lengths, with both 31.8mm and 35mm clamp options.

The Samurai CC and XC fork aim for a 44mm offset

Cornelius Cupfinger was at the Trickstuff booth showing off his latest upside-down creation; Intend Samurai CC and XC forks, the first of which they claim is the world’s lightest 120mm travel fork. Read more about it here.

Dangerhome hunted down an early model of the Samurai CC for its latest Scott HyperSpark build.

Garbaruk crankset prototype

Dangerhome’s bike is home to a beautiful prototype crankset from Garbaruk.

Intend’s Samurai CC fork wasn’t the only upside real estate on display at Eurobike; High-end Italian suspension manufacturer, Extreme Racing Shocks, showed off the NEXT ERA USD dual-crown fork for DH. We were allowed a photo, but now have to wait for the technical details. The same goes for the EXT Area Prototype, which is the first air-sprung shock to be seen from a brand known for their coil-sprung shocks.

Ext Area Air Shock Prototype at Eurobike 2022

The damper architecture of the EXT Area shock looks similar to the Storia coil shock

Staying in Italy, Mondovian brake maker Rycom was showing off its new mineral oil brakes; 2- and 4-piston offerings include DH/enduro and cross-country.

Rycom RG Enduro DH Brake Lever Eurobike 2022

The Rycom RG brake lever is aimed at DH and enduro riding

…it can be paired with their 2- or 4-piston caliper

Scotland’s leading clothing brand for mountain biking, Endura, showed us their chest and back protector, which relies on D3O to dissipate energy during impacts. This completes the collection of defensive tools for DH.

Endura chest back protector torso

Keeping it in Scotland, Intradrive’s gearbox sits pretty on the eBike Motor Orange Face MX Strange prototype. It runs the same mounting points as Shimano’s EP8 drive system, so bolting it to the Stage MX didn’t present too many problems for the Orange. Orange’s product manager, Kelvin Lawton, says there’s no reason why the Intradrive system shouldn’t make it onto one of their production bikes in the future.

_{Intra Drive Gearbox eBike Motor on Orange Phase MX Eurobike 2022}

The Stage MX Strange Prototype had another of Cornelius Cupfinger’s inverted forks and a list of Euro parts including his Hover Air Shock. An early prototype with pinned pedals made in Scotland, Mitas Monarch tires from the Czech Republic and Hope Tech E4 brakes.

Kids Ride Shotgun Dirt Hero Kids MTB 12″ 14″ Wheels

Reduced to a mountain bike for the little rippers out there, Kids Ride Shotgun gave us a preview of the dirt hero balance bike. It gets the right high-volume knobby tires from Vee Tire Co, a removable little standing platform, and a super short lever reach to the rear wheel perfect for teaching little hands about two-finger braking. It can take 12″ or 14″ wheels, so as your child grows, so can the bike. Overall, one of the best thought out kids bikes we’ve seen so far.

Laser demonstrated their Cage Kinetochore, the first of their full-face helmets to receive their proprietary rotational impact protection system. It is ASTM certified and additionally received a 5 star rating from independent helmet testing organization Virginia Tech with a score of 11.76. This is one of the first full face helmets to appear in the Virginia Tech database.

Laser Cage Kineticor EPS blocks inside full face helmet

Also beneath it are tall blocks of EPS that can be seen next to the green comfort liner; These form the kinetochore system and can be crushed upon impact at any angle, helping to dissipate energy from the rider’s head.

kamemo 3d printed concept ebike mtb proprietary upside down fork shock black forest germany

A new manufacturer from Germany’s Black Forest was showing off their 3D-printed concept eMTB. Kamemo secured the investment on the promise of producing the entire eBike entirely in Europe, but mostly in Germany. It includes suspension, wheels, drive train and frame.

_{3D-printed concept bike to debut at Eurobike 2022 with suspension fork shock}

They are still working on finding a partner for the production of the carbon frame, but are well underway in developing their own proprietary suspension components that will adorn their own brand bike when ready, but will be offered to others as an OEM product. Bike brands. Cameo has great ambitions around their suspension products and is looking to compete with the likes of Fox and RockShox in the future.

RockShox is showcasing Casey Brown’s Trek Fuel EXe built with the latest RockShox Super Deluxe Ultimate shock and Lyric Ultimate fork. Both models are available for customization on Trek’s Project One app.

Yes, there’s a 50 Nm torque motor inside and a 360 Wh battery in that downtube.

Intend Samurai CC World’s Lightest 120mm Fork – Eurobike

The RockShox SID Ultimate no longer boasts the world’s lightest 120mm fork; That now goes to Cornelius Cupfinger’s Intend Samurai CC, which weighs in at 1,385g – around 150g lighter than the aforementioned. Of course, it wouldn’t really be an intended fork if it didn’t rock the inverted design commonly found on motorbikes. The lack of arches helps minimize what could happen, but Cornelius has a few other tricks up his sleeve.

The Intend Samurai CC is one of two new 120mm forks and features 35mm stanchions from Intend. The CC, which stands for Cross Country, runs a carbon steerer tube, carbon cable guides, and gets some unseen internal drilling of parts to further reduce weight, while the heavier Samurai XC runs the usual aluminum steerer and aluminum cable guides, and forgoes the extra internal machining. Nevertheless, it still comes in at a claimed 1,495g on the lightest SID Ultimate.

The Intend Samurai CC is so lightweight that Dangerhome has sourced a prototype for its latest build; 9.19 kg Scott RC HyperSpark.

Addressing the Samurai 120mm forks

How did Intend Samurai make the CC and XC forks lighter? Largely because the fork has very minimal dropouts with almost zero offset, thus less material. So, how can Cornelius reduce weight in the dropouts without a consequent reduction in overall fork stiffness? A side view of the fork gives some clues.

Looking at the dropouts alone, it appears that the fork has near-zero offset, but this is not the case. The fork’s profile reveals an angled bridge design that places the fork at a slacker head angle than the headtube. Here this angle introduces a 44 mm offset and allows the objective to reduce the size and weight of the dropouts, saving around 50 grams.

A secondary advantage of the design is that, due to zero offset dropouts, friction on the bushings is reduced.

Importantly, the Intend Samurai does not change the actual head angle of the bike. The front wheel axle should still be the same distance in front of the head tube. The only consideration there is axle-to-crown height; Here it is 531mm, the same as the RockShox SID.

Samurai’s angled crown molding helps keep weight down

… like carbon cable guides (aluminum here, but the production fork gets carbon).

Samurai forks run a flat mount for the brake caliper, designed to work directly with the 180mm rotor. A tighter gap means the lower caliper bolt cannot be tightened in the conventional manner. You’ll see a hole with the bolt head moving through it – that allows you to use a 2.5mm allen key to tighten the bolt from the side.

Intend’s Samurai CC and XC 120mm travel forks are designed to run a RockShox Race Day damper, which comes stock inside the SID Ultimate fork. They retail at $269 USD, so you have to remember to factor that into the price of the fork when making your purchasing decisions, which brings me to…

Price and Availability

Intend Samurai XC and CC forks retail at 1,649 € and 1,949 € respectively. There is a gravel version too! However, it did not attend the event. That’s the Intended Samurai GR with 50mm of travel; Its weight is said to be 1,440 grams. The GR version for Gravel retails at €1,649.

Purpose-bc.com

CeramicSpeed OSPW Cerakote Limited Edition for MTB 12-Speed Sram Shimano Derailleurs, CeramicSpeed is showing their limited edition

Cerakote-finished OSPW for SRAM and Shimano 12-speed derailleurs. There are only 100 of each color. Cerakote finish increases the durability of pulley wheels by 10-15% over a normal anodized finish.

Italian carbon frame manufacturer, Sybro, is showing their entire range, including the No7 downhill ebike with a gearbox motor.

This latest iteration of the No7 gets an aluminum swingarm brace to improve rear stiffness

flat pedal mtb

Austrian pedal manufacturer, Tatze, is showing off their latest flat pedal offering due in 2023. The contact pedal has an aluminum body, steel axle and 10 pins that stand at different heights to deliver 1.5mm concavity.

Unparallel Sports, known for its climbing shoes, is showcasing its latest offering of flat and clipless shoes for mountain biking. The Roost Flat Pedal Shoe has an interesting tread pattern made of a rubber that is quite soft and deforms easily.