Interbike 2004

Las Vegas, USA, October 4-8, 2004

Vegas hits the road

If the theme of last year's Interbike was 'carbon, carbon everywhere' that trend continued and diversified at the 2004 show, with carbon development going off in all sorts of directions.

The Scott C1 show bike
Photo ©: Jon Devich

The most prominent direction is toward lower weight, of course. Everyone wants to be able to claim sub-900g for their lightest frame, and then hang a bunch of component exotica on it to build an insanely light bike. Scott USA and Speedplay's Richard Bryne were two top contenders in this game, with bikes coming in at just under 9 pounds, and 9.5 pounds respectively. That's rather under the UCI's 6.8kg (14.96lb) weight limit, and well under the 12-13lb that's been the mark of many previous show specials, an indication that it's not just frames where weight is being saved, but the carbon influence is knocking it out of just about every other component too.

But it's not just about super-light super-exotica. Carbon bikes got substantially cheaper this year too. Complete bikes are available with full-carbon frames from about US$2000. That's still hardly chump change, but it's a far cry from the price you paid for an all-carbon bike just a few years ago.

Smooth lines continue
Photo ©: Jon Devich

One of the beauties of carbon fiber is that it allows a frame designer almost complete latitude to place material anywhere he likes to fine-tune the ride and trade off stiffness against weight. As a result we're starting to see bikes that are designed not just to be light but to be, say, extra-stiff for bigger, stronger riders, or to be a bit more flexible for long-distance riding. And check out Pinarello's latest trime trial rig for an exercise in using carbon shaping to smooth the air flow over a frame.

Ernesto Colnago
Photo ©: Jon Devich

A big debate in the road bike industry is whether to source frames in the far east or to stick with US or European manufacturing in the company's own factories. On the one hand, Taiwan's bike factories have proven extremely good at making frames over the last couple of decades and don't seem to be having any trouble making high-quality carbon frames at extremely competitive prices. It does seem to help if you have a QA guy on hand to monitor the process, though.

On the other hand, companies such as Colnago are determinedly sticking with European manufacturing. Colnago's is an interesting case, as the Italian builder sources its carbon fiber from another Italian company ATR, which also supplies Porsche, Ferrari and the aerospace industry. If Colnago were to move manufacturing away from Italy it would be much harder to get a direct line to ATR's latest materials. Given that this year it's ATR carbon development that has allowed Colnago to shave off 200g from the weight of the the C50, that's an advantage Colnago is understandably reluctant to give up.

Holland's titanium head tube with carbon top and down tubes.
Photo ©: Jon Devich

Super-mixtures

If carbon fiber is technically a composite - comprising a resin matrix holding the actual carbon fibers together - what does that make bikes that mix carbon with metals? Composite-composites? Whatever you want to call them, they were widespread again at Interbike this year. Richard Bryne's bike mentioned above was one example, with a frame built by Bill Holland that used titanium joints and carbon fiber tubes, a construction technique also adopted by Javelin for its new Gattinara model. It's not a technique that will ever be cheap, given the cost of welding the lugs together and then adding the carbon tubes between then, but it sure looks great.

Less radically, aluminium frames with carbon seat- and chainstays were everywhere. We mention it only to point out that this is a construction technique that's gone from cutting edge to run-of-the-mill in an incredibly short time, an indication of the speed of development in road bikes recently.

One of Eddy Merckx'
Photo ©: Jon Devich

Anyone who needed to be reminded where it all started - at least as far as modern road bikes go - only had to wander over to the Eddy Merckx booth where one of Merckx' Molteni orange race bikes from the early seventies was rubbing chainstays with the slimmed-down Greatest Cyclist Ever's latest carbon offerings. Remember skinny steel tubes, external gear cables, down tube shifters and toeclips? If you starting riding in the last decade, probably not, but that old stuff didn't seem to slow the Incomparable down any. It was certainly a dramatic contrast to compare that bike with Merckx' 25th anniversary Carbon AXM in tasteful black and silver.

Overall, Interbike showed a road bike scene in rude health, with a huge diversity of bikes and something for everyone.

Photos

Fuji laid in extra carbon Photo ©: Jon Devich	I’m almost old enough Photo ©: Jon Devich	Louis Garneau’s new road offering. Photo ©: Jon Devich
A closer look at the bottom bracket Photo ©: Jon Devich	Carbon was laid in Photo ©: Jon Devich	Javelin’s new Gattinara Photo ©: Jon Devich
Beautiful finish work Photo ©: Jon Devich	Strategically bent carbon stays Photo ©: Jon Devich	Javelin Brunello Photo ©: Jon Devich
Clean lines Photo ©: Jon Devich	Time’s full carbon steerer Photo ©: Jon Devich	The Time VXS Photo ©: Jon Devich
Very clean lines Photo ©: Jon Devich	Carbon wishbone stays Photo ©: Jon Devich	Carbon lugs Photo ©: Jon Devich
Paolo Bettini’s race winning Time team bike. Photo ©: Jon Devich	For all you tandem riders out there Photo ©: Jon Devich	Mr. Derosa himself Photo ©: Jon Devich
Sculpted aero carbon tubes Photo ©: Jon Devich	Another view Photo ©: Jon Devich	Extra carbon was added Photo ©: Jon Devich
The bottom bracket of the Derosa King Photo ©: Jon Devich	Birdseye view Photo ©: Jon Devich	Mr. Colnago Photo ©: Jon Devich
Signature “B-stays” Photo ©: Jon Devich	Beautiful paintwork Photo ©: Jon Devich	Full carbon lugs Photo ©: Jon Devich
The Scott C1 show bike Photo ©: Jon Devich	Minimalist aluminum dropouts Photo ©: Jon Devich	Lots of carbon Photo ©: Jon Devich
An integrated headset Photo ©: Jon Devich	Fuji enters the carbon arena Photo ©: Jon Devich	The swizzle stick full carbon Opus fork Photo ©: Jon Devich
This year's Opera Leonardo Photo ©: Jon Devich	The aluminum/carbon stem of the Opera Leonardo Photo ©: Jon Devich	Another advocate of wishbone seat stays Photo ©: Jon Devich
A new TT bike from Pinarello Photo ©: Jon Devich	Carbon weave Photo ©: Jon Devich	Maximum aerodynamics Photo ©: Jon Devich
Aerodynamic concerns continue Photo ©: Jon Devich	The chainstay of the Pinarello TT bike. Photo ©: Jon Devich	Smooth lines continue Photo ©: Jon Devich
Eddy Merckx Photo ©: Jon Devich	Special stays Photo ©: Jon Devich	An integrated headset and special carbon layering to keep the head tube strong and light. Photo ©: Jon Devich
Eddy brought Photo ©: Jon Devich	Signs of the times. Photo ©: Jon Devich	Shaped carbon stays Photo ©: Jon Devich
Fuji uses a wider carbon weave Photo ©: Jon Devich	Richard Bryne of Speedplay pedals fame displays his new toy. Photo ©: Jon Devich	A close-up view Photo ©: Jon Devich
Frame builder Parlee showed off its new Z1SL frame Photo ©: Jon Devich	Parlee also introduced the Z1T Photo ©: Jon Devich	Parlee also uses a wishbone seat stay Photo ©: Jon Devich
Detail work of a Parlee lug. Photo ©: Jon Devich	Very clean minimalist dropouts Photo ©: Jon Devich