Interbike may have ended for the rest of the bicycle industry three weeks ago, but for us here at VeloNews, the annual trade show wasn’t over until Tuesday, when we wrapped up 13 pages of coverage.

We visited nearly a hundred companies at this year’s show, and it was very difficult to decide what to include in the magazine. Still, somehow, we managed. Even so, we had to trim a few items right at the very end, and so we’re telling you about them here. Don’t think of these reports from me, Lennard Zinn and Chris Milliman as “leftovers,” but rather as “first looks.”

Gore Bike Wear
It was 92 degrees outside Interbike, but some companies were thinking about colder weather. After 20 years of selling like crazy in Europe, Gore Bike Wear is trying to make an impression on the North American market.

While Gore Fabrics has supplied material to other brands for years, Gore Bike’s line of clothes has a look all its own. With a healthy dose of the company’s proprietary Gore-Tex and Windstopper fabrics, Gore Bike offers a full line of standard cycling clothing, from baggy mountain-bike shorts to jerseys and jackets.

The company’s cold-weather offerings made the biggest impression. The Windstopper-fronted Tool jacket has the right combination of wind resistance and breathability, and Gore says Windstopper also works well in the rain. For really cold temperatures, Gore’s Windstopper bib tight provides the maximum protection every serious cold-weather rider covets.

HED
HED introduced a 250-gram carbon clip-on aero’ bar with flip-up armrests. It is available in a low-pad configuration for road bars and a high-pad setup for aero’ bars on time trial bikes.

The carbon extension tubes are available straight, curved, or with an S-bend for the modern Armstrong/Ullrich hand position. They are adjustable for length with a split pinch-bolt arrangement on the receiver tube.

Hed’s AeroLab VO4 frame is already close to being sold out for 2005; he’s making 100 with a retail price of $1600

KHS
KHS is shaking up its image as a price-point bike with its plan to distribute the frames of legendary Italian builder Stefano Scapin in the U.S. The flagship of the Scapin line is the Dyesys, which combines Columbus’s new Niobium steel top tube, down tube and curved seat stays with carbon chain stays and seat tube.

Under its own brand, KHS’s 30th-anniversary Ultegra 10-speed-equipped aluminum/carbon road bike has the Chinese characters for “dragon” and “horse” on its top tube and “KHS 30th” in yellow on its black Shimano wheels.

Orbea
The Orbea Aletta is a $2800 Dura-Ace-equipped aero’ bike for the budget conscious, while the Mitis Dama is a women’s road bike under $2000 with Ultegra.

Columbus
Columbus is betting that steel frames will make a comeback. The reasoning goes something like this: As aluminum and carbon bikes take over the market, small high-end builders cannot compete with the high-volume manufacturers. So to distinguish themselves from all of that sameness, they will resort to steel to set themselves apart.

To meet this anticipated demand, Columbus has stepped up with a new steel alloy, dubbed Niobium, for the element of that name included in its crystal structure. Incidentally, Niobium (periodic table symbol Nb) was discovered in the U.S. in 1801 and was originally named “Columbium.”

The Spirit Niobium tubeset is extremely light, having very thin walls and allowing construction of 1.3-kilogram steel frames. After welding, the material is said to retain all of its strength and a high elongation ratio.

eBay
It’s no secret that eBay has become one of the hottest spots on the Internet to buy and sell used bikes and bike gear. But eBay’s formal involvement in selling high-end re-conditioned racing bikes has flown below the radar since it started working with tradeinbikes.com and preownedbikes.com two years ago.

In 2003, the American Bicycle Group - makers of Litespeed, Quintana Roo, Merlin, and Tomac bikes - started tradeinbikes.com and preownedbikes.com as a means to move new bikes through local retailers by offering standardized trade-ins for used models. And what happens to all those bikes that are traded in? They get re-furbished by ABG and posted on eBay, with its 114 million users as potential buyers.

One of the unintended side benefits of the program has been the creation of a virtual blue book on the tradeinbike.com site. With over 29 bike brands from the past eight model years represented on the site, owners of nearly any racing bike can find out how much their bike is worth on the open market.

Parlee
Bob Parlee has gotten the weight of his carbon frames down to 820 grams and has also created new molds so he can deliver previously unattainable angles on his custom frames.

Ritchey
In response to the high demand for its Break-Away line of performance folding bikes, Ritchey announced it will produce a limited number (300) of titanium Break-Aways. At a price to be determined, the folding titanium frame employs Tom Ritchey’s patented compression coupling to fold into its own 9-by-26-by-29-inch carrying case. Perfect for on-the-road performance training or racing.

Scott
Also interesting to note at the Scott booth was what wasn’t on display to the public. For the European market, Scott has had great success with its full suspension bikes that use the company’s Genius suspension system. Unfortunately for Scott, this design apparently infringes on Specialized’s Four-bar linkage patents here in the United States, so Scott couldn’t show or sell the bikes in its line that have the design.

Scott Montgomery explained that the company “was working toward some type of resolution on the Specialized patents on Four-bar.” Specialized is unlikely to license its cherished Four-bar patents to this new U.S. competitor, but it’s possible Montgomery might attempt to challenge the patent, which if successful would allow the company to import the promising Genius line.

Even more significant is that if Montgomery cracks the patent, the action could open the floodgates for other U.S. manufacturers to build Four-bar bikes without the consent of Specialized.