As Eurobike 2015 began to wind down, we sent photographer Fraser Britton out for one final lap to document the drool-worthy (and occasionally cringe inducing) bikes he found on his journey. What follows is the result of that mission.
Rocky Mountain Altitude 790 MSL Rally Edition
KTM Lycan
KTM Scarp
GT Force X Expert
Cannondale Habit women's edition
Original SE PK Ripper replica
Canyon Spectral 9 CF LTD
Who needs a down tube? Apparently not the Cronus Warrior.
That toptube must be a mistake. How is a designer and concept artist both going to look at that and say "Yep, I think we nailed it. Let's start production."
2015 spicy was pretty nice www.pinkbike.com/photo/11161101 and the 2016 zesty still looks ace but... this one looks like a melted mondaker crossed with quasimodo
I think they want to be sure that it is different from the zesty and perhaps an intentional resemblance with the old froggy due to the fact that the new Spicy is supposed to be more capable than the previous one with that increased rear travel. Just my 2c. Does anyone know if it will still feature a pressfit bottom bracket? Will it have the possibility to install a front derailleur?
naah, the Spicy looks more like an agressvie and independent trail cleaver. Actually imo it has one of the sickest lines out there. Orange is d ugle bike!
Seriously, that Nicolai looks like it was put together by the local 60 year old blacksmith that did fences and garage doors his entire life. I'm not saying they dont ride great, I've never riden one so I have no valid reason to think otherwise, but Nicolai seriously needs to do something about the aesthetic design of their bikes.
I aprecciate it sooo much.
I'm only sorry for this Kashima that would be a bit unsmooth after few rides. They should thinka about some built-in fender to protec the damper from everything, that flies from rear wheel towards the shock. Same goes to NS Fuzz.
I don't know, Id be stoked if iron horse came back swinging even if they're using astro's infrastructure. If you spec and pay for a good frame, then these asian factories will make you a good frame - the last 10 yrs of bike manufacturing have proved that.
The first DH bike I ever spent decent time on was my mate's IH Sunday and it was sweet.
The name was bought by Dorel (who operate the brands Cannondale, Schwinn, GT, Mongoose, Caloi, IronHorse, SUGOI, Pacific, Dyno, RoadMaster, PowerLite, Fabric, and InSTEP) in the late noughties.... at the moment the bikes (www.ironhorsebikes.com)have about as much connection to a Sunday as the Sushi lunch I ate the day before yesterday. I am sure though they didn't buy the brand to continue making catalogue HTs for ever.... Did any of the PB team talk to anyone on the stand?
Remember guys that it's a hardtail so it'll get steeper when you get on it. That said it still looks slacker than Lars Ulrich playing Battery blind drunk.
In general a hardtail will need to be slacker than a full suss to acheive similar steering traits. When loaded they don't have the sag at the back to compensate for the geo changes that happen when the fork sags
edit. kanioni got there first and was actually funny rather than nerdy
SERIOUSLY??? That colour is U.G.L.Y. The designers were sitting around a table and the project head says,"Alright people, what colour should we make this hot new Altitude? Let's pick something sexy, powerful, cutting edge." The boss's son sitting in the corner grooming his desperately-trying-to-look-rugged hipster beard pipes up,"I know! EGGPLANT!" Everybody's heads drop as they fire off a few resumes...
Well, here are a few other classics we don't need a nod to: bell bottom pants, over sprayed 80's hair, and the AMC Pacer. Well, maaaaybe not the Pacer...
OK I know I'm not the only Banshee fanboy out here that's disappointed they received nearly a spit of coverage from PB. From what I have read and seen from other sources the product changes aren't huge, and they don't need to be. They make awesome alloy bikes for riders. I am however losing my frickin' mind over the newly revised 650b legend, really wanted to see those geo numbers.... So, PB its better late than never I'll be here waiting.
Kinda hard to compete with all the new carbon bikes coming out, different colors and stickers and minor geo changes just don't cut it unfortunately...
Love my Spitfire V2!
Here you go The seat angle change for my rune is everything I'd like to have, too bad that requires new frame Keith please ^^ @shutter2ride since banshee is not big and it is pretty much only Keith working on bikes, don't fix it if it ain't broken...
I'm totally with you. I just finished building my Nomad but maybe would have held off to get a carbon Warden. Not going to lie though, I couldn't be more happy with the Nomad mk3.
Lol.. With that head angle, presumably you mean riding up the bike park? A truly laughable bicycle amongst so many awesome rigs. I hope their designers are suitably embarrassed.
Make sure you slam in some aircraft wire between the bb and headset. Maybe throw a spring in there too just for good looks. Life sucks without a down tube.
The Cronus warrior looks exactly like the folding bikes I saw in alibaba, or aliexpress and even ebay. They sold for $150- $200. frame only. The only thing that made the warrior stand out is the bright green paint and the lack of v brake tabs which the ones I saw in alibaba or aliexpress have.
@jozhua130 You are right. The Cronus Warrior is pretty much the same as those bikes. And from the picture above, it seems to be foldable as well. Also in Alibaba, or Taobao, there are many this kind of folding bikes with "HUMMER", "Land Rover", or "BMW" on them, and god they are selling well in China. Moreover, many owners of those bikes believe their bikes are genuinely from those car brands. lol
Damn right! That Snabb is HOT \m/ (the Fuzz also). NS makes amazing frames but they lack on the component front - they're still struggling to achieve that golden ratio between the finishing kit and the price (they're expensive for what they offer in my opinion). Once they get there though these will be in the list of the hottest bikes available.
What a shame transition increased their prices whereas their (good looking) bikes were close to perfection : +400$ for the top build (alloy) patrol model (and no XT brakes and drivetrain ...)
+300$ for the tr500 top build and the "low builds" tr500 do not feature anymore a boxxer WC
Now I have to pray, and hope my bike is going to live one more year
I love Rocky Mountain's flashback to good times. I had the original purple and lime green Pipeline Wade and Richie rode in Kranked 3. That bike was way ahead of its time! Hey Rocky Mountain, any chance you can hook me up with the new Altitude Rally Edition, just for sentimental reasons?
GT should be more creative with their names,if you say "GT Force X Expert" it sounds like ex expert which means it would be an older version or not as good as the latest model.
i like the Kross, green yeti, and the GT. Too bad probably never see a Kross over here. Or anything besides Trek, Specialized, and Giant. I bet that green yeti paint comes off quick at the front chain ring and chainstay intersection. I still think that Devinci Hendrix looks like the most fun bike though. ive got my eye on that , or a Capra.
The Yeti SB6C internal cables look nice, but did the BOOST rear end make the chainstays shorter?
The carbon Warden is the first KNOLLY that looks good to me.
The Altitude looks sweet, but not 9 grand sweet...
The Carbon Patrol and the NS Snabb look CLEAN! But it's hard to want to put that much money into a bike design Specialized stopped making 5 years ago. They stopped for a reason...
It appears that carbon fibre and new tube shaping tech is allowing some engineers to make some bad looking bikes, bad as in "that looks bad", not "bad ass"...
Orange are moving their production to china for 2016. The delay has been in putting the nets up to stop the workers jumping to their deaths from the company dormitories. Analysts modelling shows this will knock twenty quid off the price.
Orange bikes,aren't awesome bikes.as somebody once quoted"yesterday's design with tomorrow's prices"Far too expensive,build options are a joke for what you pay,for a basic orange,no dropper,entry level componants,you can get a carbon Capra for example,and various other bikes loaded with top stuff,that will climb and descend far better due to the "modern suspension designs
Best looking bikes in this group for sure.
Seeing the name iron horse on anything makes me reminisce, sad that they are walmart quality now.
I do wish ktm would seriously invest their time into mtn bikes . They could add so much progression to the sport like they did with moto. While I'm dreaming about that I could pretend that Honda would make another appearance into mtn bikes as well.
Some top tubes made me cry... What happened here?? Thanks to canyon, transition and bergamont fot keeping it nice & clean.. if i could buy one of this bikes would be the NS!!
The Kross looks interesting, never heard of it. The KTM & Bergamont, NS Bikes, all these bikes I've never seen on trail, not any version. So cool to see the PK Ripper, I've only seen it in chrome.
NS don't have much of a presence in the US, KTM stayed out of the US market because they were using Horst & would have been infringing the patents, & Bergamot doesn't appear to have any US market aspirations at all. you can't get Canyon or Rose here either, & the Niccolai importer for NA is tiny, & just started bringing stuff in in the last year.
And also, how awesome is the stem length on that iron horse? SWEET! Clearly they know what they are doing. (especially since Astro lengthened the top tube on these frames from the last version...)
orange bikes looks always the same no matter the year XDD it would be great to see a new model a bit more changed than a monopivot like kona did going a bit far from faux bar in the Process model..
Some of those fantastic bikes up there have their front triangles broken by terrible human feat called "trying to hard" or "mental masturbation", in political correction sensitive college circles known as "overengineering"
The NS has the cleanest lines; the bh looks like its stuck in warpdrive (looks fast!); and sams bike looks great along w/new la Pierre revitalized frames.
Oh yeah...they are sooooooo beautiful. Mighty machines most of us can only dream about. Yeah give it 9 months and you can get them 30% off when 2017 models will be out.
Slackers. Work harder; faster. Seriously though, the coverage is excellent. The only way you could up your coverage would be to live stream the event. Eurobike is such an incredible and ridiculous window into Black Forest wizardry and atrocious eurofashion.
It's the 2016 version of the Astro produced dual link frame KHS has been using for their 7500/7200 bikes. the KHS team riders have been running these all season. Catalog bike, but not a bad one...
I can't decide decide between the OTT Yeti, Polygon or Spicy takes the most foul looking bike of the show award.
I think the Yeti might take it though, the others are born of the shape of the frame, the Yeti is just a. Ole collection of hideous coloured parts on an awful 80's paint scheme.
Disgusting.
but...
this one looks like a melted mondaker crossed with quasimodo
Does anyone know if it will still feature a pressfit bottom bracket? Will it have the possibility to install a front derailleur?
That is not swingARM. That is swingLEG!
Cronus + Orange's swingLEG + Lefty = and you get a SQUARE WHEELSET for FREE!
Don't forget about a LIFETIME WARRANTY!
don't make me laugh while im drinking! i mean, WHAT? square wheelset?! have my props!
Who's to say they haven't got it right?
The designers were sitting around a table and the project head says,"Alright people, what colour should we make this hot new Altitude? Let's pick something sexy, powerful, cutting edge."
The boss's son sitting in the corner grooming his desperately-trying-to-look-rugged hipster beard pipes up,"I know! EGGPLANT!"
Everybody's heads drop as they fire off a few resumes...
So, PB its better late than never I'll be here waiting.
+400$ for the top build (alloy) patrol model (and no XT brakes and drivetrain ...)
+300$ for the tr500 top build
and the "low builds" tr500 do not feature anymore a boxxer WC
Now I have to pray, and hope my bike is going to live one more year
The carbon Warden is the first KNOLLY that looks good to me.
The Altitude looks sweet, but not 9 grand sweet...
The Carbon Patrol and the NS Snabb look CLEAN! But it's hard to want to put that much money into a bike design Specialized stopped making 5 years ago. They stopped for a reason...
KTM Glycan?
also lapierre going from having some of the sweetest looking bikes a couple of years ago to this hunchbacked minger
Highly recommended.
Good to see them looking at NS but lack of Banshee is crazy!
cronus warrior? I'd get this instead loll
and maybe the yeti's...:-)
-wait for it-
Looks like a recession.
& that SB6 is sick!
Disclosure: I wrote there several times.