Day 2 Randoms: Bike Festival Riva 2024

The European Bike Project is one of our favorite Instagram accounts because the feed is constantly updated with everything from tiny manufacturers to inside looks at European manufacturing. During Riva Bike Festival 2024, Alex is tracking down the most interesting products for you.



Alutech


There’s probably no other person on this planet who’s been at Riva Bike Festival more often than Jürgen from Alutech Cycles. He was there when the Festival was all about the latest 26” bikes in the 90s, he was there when droppers became a thing fifteen years ago and of course he’s here during the 30th anniversary edition of the festival. In fact, he says that he hasn't missed a single Festival.

Jürgen started to weld frames at bike shows years ago and it’s magic to witness him stacking those dimes. Apart from some wheel building, it's most likely the only true manufacturing you’ll ever see at a bike show.

The red E-Armageddon with its 57.5° head angle was one of the wildest bikes of this show and Jürgen would love to see it tested against the Grim Donut - what do you think? Let us know in the comments!




Alutech shared their booth with Anyrace Suspension. They not only service forks, shocks and dropper posts, but they also offer highly customized suspension tuning. You can either send in your fork or shock or buy new (and tuned) ones directly from them. Their "golden ride" tuning involves their own shim stacks, new valves, fresh oil and some more secret ingredients. According to Anyrace, you should be able to ride your freshly tuned suspension "out of the box" without making any further adjustments and get really good results.






EXT


We first saw the new EXT Storia V4 and Vaia DH fork during Sea Otter a few weeks ago. In Riva, the EXT team told us that apart from having some new internals, the Storia V4 will also be much quieter because they did away with the loose disc on the shaft. The internals should also be quieter, and the external adjusters now accept 4 and 5 mm allen keys rather than a 4 mm allen key and a 12 mm spanner.




DHsign


DHsign is a small company from Italy that mostly focused on smaller parts such as their unique “Hippo” stem or their Fix Shox bushing system until now. Those times are over, as they’re now working on their own enduro frame.

The 170 / 170 mm travel “Enormeus” frame is all about adjustability, so it’s no surprise that the 64° head angle is just a starting point and can be modified as desired. The central area around the bottom bracket and shock mount are “a concentration of innovations and customizations” (DHsign press release). The central area lets you adjust the head angle, bb drop, leverage ratio and swingarm travel. Usually the frame will have 160 to 175 mm rear travel, but with a different link it can be anything between 140 and 200 mm.

"The length is important" Giacomo says, and that's why he chose to go for a long reach and long chainstays. They are planning to offer different dropouts with +2, +4 and +6 cm to make meaningful changes to the frame and not "tiny steps like all the others". The DHsign team says that the long reach and chainstays, paired with the pretty standard 64° head angle means that riders will feel at home right away. The seat tube area is made from carbon and they will offer several options so riders can change the seat angle.












DT Swiss


DT Swiss released their new 240 DEG hubs just a few weeks ago, so we stopped at their booth to have a look at them.

While the classic DT Swiss hubs provide between 18 and 54 points of engagement, the new DEG hubs take it up to 90. To achieve this higher number, DT made the ratchet rings considerably bigger, so they also had to re-design the hub shell. Therefore the new system can't be retrofitted into older hubs. However, the bigger ratchets also mean that you can now remove the driveside bearing without having to remove the threaded drive ring, which is a big plus.

Details:
- 28 or 32 spoke count
- Aluminum hub shell
- 4° engagement
- 6-bolt rotor mount
- 90 tooth steel ratchets
- Freehub: XD or Microspline
- 15x110mm / 12x148mm spacing
- Weight: 270g (rear), 140g (front)







Fraezen


If I had to give an award for the best product presentation, I would probably vote for Fraezen (fräsen = machining). Simple idea, perfect execution and really good looking. More important than the self-made wooden displays are the products, and they look good too.

What started last year with a small range (derailleur cage, stem and chainring) is now developing into a larger company. Fraezen brought their prototype pedals and cranks to Riva and it will be interesting to see what else they'll come up with.

Robert started Fraezen to make sturdy derailleur cages, as he and his friends often destroyed the original ones. He's also working on a Transmission compatible version and he says that the pulley placement, pulley size and angles will be very similar to the original, but thanks to the machined unipiece construction it will be much sturdier.

The new "Fussraste" (footrest) pedals have a concave 105 x 110 mm pedal body. Fraezen makes the pins in-house, you can either order a "long" set (7 + 5 mm) or a "short" set (5 + 4 mm). The steel axles are also made in-house.







Gamux


Dominic from Gamux admitted that he was a little bit nervous last weekend, as he was in Riva while their DH team was in Fort William and their carbon bikes were at a race in Switzerland. At the same time, this gives you an idea of how far this small(ish) Swiss company has come: designing a CNC machined DH frame that is raced at World Cups is a big feat, but they also made some really nice DC and all-mountain carbon frames along the way and made it look easy.

What you can see here is the very lastest version of the Sego frame, which has an updated rear triangle. It's available for preorder now. A frame kit (including Pinion C1.6i Smarthift gearbox) will cost you 6700 Swiss Francs, full bikes start at 10450 Swiss Francs.

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eMTB Reviews and Tech Randoms Bike Festival Riva 2024