Eurobike Round-Up: Celebrating All Things Cycling and Riding for Sheer Fun
From groundbreaking tech on and off the trail, to the latest launches and collaborations, as always Eurobike provided a comprehensive & captivating glimpse into the future of cycling & urban mobility. It was also a timely reminder of why we all love this industry. With the dust finally settling after quite literally, a whirlwind few days in Frankfurt for the team at Eurobike, Ollie recaps on some of his standout highlights.
Going for Gold
Shimano takes home Eurobike Gold for Auto & Free Shift – the tech you didn’t know you needed until you ride it. As a key tech story to communicate under our revamped & relaunched Explore New Grounds campaign last year, we love it when a client like Shimano receives such high honours. High fives.
Lazer Gets Dirty
We helped Lazer introduce the world to KinetiCore in 2022. This year, the brand is focused heavily on taking their proprietary integrated rotational impact protection safety tech off-road.
The Cerro is a great looking all-rounder, equally at home on the roads or trails. And the Cage, another great looking lid. It also happens to be the only 5 star Virginia Tech rated helmet on the market.
The whole Lazer booth was anything but dirty and looking very fresh with a whole new industrial design aesthetic.
32mm & Above
Bikes with 32mm+ tyres dominated. The road bike side of the market was largely upheld by apparel, components & training tech brands.
Don’t worry though roadies, there were still plenty of top rider dream type machines in and amongst all the utilitarian commuter and burly off-road stuff.
My inner 80’s vibes loving side was immediately drawn to this ride from Cipollini. Just look at that purple, blue & pink combo…
Big Things. Small Bikes.
It’s already been a big year for team Brompton. Their one millionth bike recently left the factory and the new product launches keep on coming.
Enjoyed seeing Brompton embrace the more adventurous side of riding with this Bear Grylls collab edition.
I’ve inadvertently ended up off-road-ish on a Brompton, thanks to a surprise segment of cobbles in Seven Dials, and have to say, it’s surprisingly capable!
Plus, who doesn’t love matte green over a pair of tan walls?
Ride Out & Burger Night
We finally made it happen! For years we’ve wanted to gather a crew, escape the halls and head out for a post-show spin.
This year saw the inaugural Ride Out & Burger Night, all made possible thanks to a little help from our friends at Brompton, Strava, Sweet Protection, BrewDog & Red Bull. We can’t wait to do it all again next year.
Big Kids Toys
An oldie, but goldie. Seen a few brands do similar over the years but still loved this entrance hall piece from Ruff Cycles.
Brands take note, this is how you grab attention if you’re on the hunt for new distribution partners.
Work Smarter. Not Harder
The conversation around AI in marketing wasn’t just happening in Cannes last week.
O’NEAL have been hard at work not only implementing existing AI programmes into daily workstreams, but also creating their own solutions tailored to their own content creation needs.
As a brand with many SKU’s, they’ve automated the typical ChatGPT style prompt and built a platform that when plugged into spreadsheet data, creates individual product descriptions tailored to the intended specific target audience.
Product managers then review, edit, translate, optimise and push live on a D2C site with a few clicks. Next level stuff.
Going Full Circle
Kudos to both Schwalbe (nice rebrand by the way) and Selle Royal for their closed loop design programmes and sustainability initiatives.
Both brands really stood out this year for going above and beyond by not just talking about sustainability, but also clearly demonstrating their intent, progress made to date and actions already in place.
Positive Outlook
In unpredictable times, people often look to sport and passion led hobbies like riding for perspective, clarity, comfort and much needed headspace.
Despite the many challenges facing both the bike world and wider sports market, it was clear there’s still plenty to be positive about, whilst also celebrating the milestones.
Looking around at all the great emerging cycle tech, innovations and development in urban mobility, there’s much to be excited about. But first we must weather this storm of uncertainty that’s been brewing for the last 18 months.
Riders may not be ready to buy from you right now, but it’s important that you’re front of mind when they are.
The Fun Factor
Behind all the trends, marketing, shiny bikes, data, and innovation on show, after many meetings and conversations, it’s clear that the cycle industry is built on, driven and motivated by having fun.
When you’re so heavily involved in the industry on the daily, and if you’re lucky enough to call cycling ‘work’, it’s sometimes easy to forget that riding is above all else, bloody good fun.
Cycling is our common ground and our collective love for riding as an industry has seemingly never been as strong and I gotta admit, I love to see it.
