The Pro Bikes of EUROBIKE

Some of the most interesting things to look at while at Eurobike have been the Pro bikes. And even with those, the ones that have been polished up for show are ok, but the ones that have been taken from the riders hands, and bolted to a display rack are the most interesting. Here are a few we spotted that had come from the World Cup XCO Circuit.

Fresh from Windham, This Spark 700 even has a set of Nino’s favourite DT-Swiss Tubulars on it. He’s got custom Dugast tubs that are 50mm wide, with a rainbow stripe and his name on them. Given the waiting list for Dugast tubs, you can know understand that he’s kind of a Big Deal. A tubular tyre allows for a far more supple casing than even the highest quality tubeless setup. Think 320tpi instead of 120. Gluing is an art form, especially compared to a road or even CX tub, as there is more height in the tyre to leverage away from the rim, and a greater contact patch. That said, the file tread pattern Schurter used wouldn’t grip a whole lot. But how important is that when you spend so much time in the air?

Wide Ritchey handlebars with the offset bulge used to add drop, and a negative stem slammed right down on the bearing keep his weight right on the front wheel. It’s a very aggressive position, and part of the reason why Schurter never played well with 29er bikes.

Schurter runs a 38t ring on his SRAM XX1 groupset, but the frame shows that the group either isn’t free from chain suck, or his bike and cranks aren’t free from flex.

Different to the Spark of Schurter for more than wheelsize alone, the Scalpel used by Fumic uses the Cannondale Lefty and a SRAM XX1 groupset. There are no tubulars for Fumic, but he has had access to the Schwalbe Thunder Burt in 2.25” width before it was released to the masses. He ran a Racing Ralph up front.

Cannondale have some of the best cranks around, and Fumic uses the SISL 2 with an XX1 spider.

The stem is awesome or ugly, but either way it is a Leonardi Racing item, allowing a lower position than the stock Cannondale SI units. A few racers in Australia run this, including Canberra’s James Downing.

Absalon gets a lot of attention, and rightly so. His BMC Team Elite hard tail is remarkably understated, and very clean, in comparison to the other two bikes. It does run 1×11, but using the new Shimano XTR Di2. The chainring looks to be finalised and in production, but Absalon was running a guide, as dropped chains are slow.

He’s also got the head unit mounted neatly beside his stem. You can program different shift patterns with XTR Di2, but we have no way of knowing the preference of the World Cup winner. The wheels on this BMC look very clean, which suggests Absalon isn’t using the XTR Carbon wrapped clinchers for racing. Just for show.

Tomorrow, we’ll go over some of the bikes from the Enduro World Series.