I just got back to VeloNews's almost fully re-carpeted headquartersafter a bit of time over in Europe covering the 2003 Eurobike trade show.My first time to the show, I was impressed by the superb organization (those crafty Germans!) of the event.

Promoters had the foresight to place similar categories of product ineach of the halls (for example, clothing was mostly in one hall, whileItalian manufacturers were mostly placed in another). This organization made the show easier to digest for us ever-complaining journalists as well as the attending professionaland citizen crowds. Look for complete show coverage in your next issue of VeloNews (Issue #17), but in the meantime here are a few more tidbits of info from the show.

One of the most exciting trends unveiled at Eurobike was the introductionof the useable full carbon clincher road wheelsets. I say “useable” becausewe’ve seen all-carbon clincher designs before, but none that were safe enoughto ride at high pressure and over rough terrain. Previously, carbon clinchershad weight and air pressure restrictions making them downright scary to ride, let alonedescend a 1/2-hour mountain pass on.

AsLennard mentioned last week, Campagnolo announced that it will nowmake its high-end Hyperon wheelset available in a all-carbon clincher version.Thanks to a potentially major improvement on existing carbon technology Campy was able to overcome the extreme difficulty of producing a lightweight carbon clincher rim that can handle the massive pressure of a fully inflated tire, the heat of prolonged braking (sometimes over 300 degrees F) and the impact resistance of a hard hit. Because of that, Campagnolo gets my award for most impressive carbon products so far for 2004 with these wheels and new Record carbon crank.

But Campagnolo wasn’t the only company showing off an all-carbonclincher. FIR was also caught showing its all-carbon, carbon clincher wheelset(complete with carbon spokes and hubs), while FSA was rumored to have a set of carbon clincher wheels ready for the October 12th Interbike show.

Once relegated to those racers who competed on tubular tires, this newbreed of all-carbon clinchers promises to provide near-1000 gram wheelsetsto those who prefer the convenience of clincher tires. It looks as though the carbon craze has now wrapped its fibrous tentacles around each and every conceivable bicycle component. Well, almost. We’ve now seen carbon chainrings and a carbon cassette but still await the corresponding carbon chain.

Meanwhile, here are a few non-carbon treats from the show.

Casco's new TT helmet (as modeled by VeloNews' own Nick Ramey)

Casco showed off its latest non-mass-start-legal TT helmet (meaningyou’ll have to sneak it into the States) complete with faux carbon graphicsand integrated eye shields. You can’t go more Euro' than this look. Our news editor, Charles Pelkey, tells me the German trackies were all over these things at world's in Stuttgart last month.

While relatively small here in the States, Felt Cycles is a huge playerin the European market with a full range of bicycles at seemingly everyprice point.

It's interesting to note that many European manufacturers are stillputting significant R&D time into hardtail technology. Take this Felt aluminum/carbon hardtail as an example. A completely custom rear end had to be engineered and constructed to provide the right amount of lateral stiffness and vertical compliance for racers who still crave this ultimate weight savings of a hardtail. Beautiful, this wasn’t the only highly advanced hardtail shown at Eurobike (Giant debuted its carbon-backed XTC 1, as well), but this one was easily the most eye-catching.

Carbon for 'cross? Yep-you betcha'

Speaking of beautiful, my favorite bike of the show was this (yes, it’scarbon) Ridley full-carbon cyclo-cross bike. Complete with carbon fork(okay, it has an aluminum steerer) the hyper-expensive (around $2800 forframe and fork) ‘cross bike is completely over-priced and technologicallyunnecessary for the rough-and-tumble world of 'cross. But for it’ssheer sexiness, I, for one, fell in love. Alas, such is romance….

While Nokon cable have been out for a while, it was interesting to seehow a bit of clever cable routing could provide a very clean (and light)set-up for Shimano STI levers.

One final note was the continuing saga of interesting legal wranglings between SRAM and Shimano. In what Shimano defended as a, “business decision in the defense of our R&D investments” the Japanese manufacturer succeeded in slapping a temporary injunction against SRAM preventing it from showing or even discussing its new line of X.7 and X.9 trigger shifters.

Shimano stopped SRAM cold in its trigger-shifting tracks in Germany

While SRAM had first shown the trigger shifters at April’s Sea Otter Classic, Shimano waited until two days before the Eurobike trade show to enforce the injunction, leaving SRAM no time to defend its claims before the tradeshow (the injunction only relates to the German marketplace, but might have relevance to the worldwide market if a ruling is made against SRAM). This left SRAM hog-tied at the show by forcing the company’s newest product to remain under wraps. Catalogs had to be amended and all product had to be removed from the show (unless already spec’ed on other manufacturer’s bicycles). An official judgment should be handed down later this month regarding the question of whether SRAM trigger design infringes on Shimano’s German RapidFire Plus patents.

Stay tuned for the next exciting episode of “As the lawyer turns,” right here on VeloNews.com.