2022 Eurobike tech gallery #5: Niner, Northwave, Park Tool, and more

2022 Eurobike tech gallery #5: Niner, Northwave, Park Tool, and more

The 2022 edition of the Eurobike trade show is continuing to reveal its bountiful treasures, nestled among the countless halls and aisles of the massive Messe Frankfurt convention complex. 

We’ve got a whole bunch of bits and bobs to share with you in this gallery, including new bikes from Niner and Cadex, some neat new bottles and related accessories from Elite, a ceramic-coated oversized pulley cage assembly (yes, really) from CeramicSpeed, a whole bunch of new shoes from Northwave, new tools and accessories from Park Tool, and plenty more.

And we’re still not done! Stay tuned for more from this year’s Eurobike show (and check out our complete coverage from the event here). 

Niner’s RKT 9 RDO XC racing flagship just got a refresh, with an all-new carbon fiber frame and updated 100 mm-travel rear suspension design.

CVA is Niner’s version of the popular short-dual-link suspension concept. Travel is limited to 100 mm owing to the bike’s focus on XC racing.

Kudos to Niner for sweating the details like this nifty guide on the seat tube that keeps the rear brake housing from rubbing the paint off the frame.

The rear brake caliper is tucked in well between the stays, but the mounting bolts are still readily accessible for easy installation and adjustment (yes, I checked).

Niner is yet another company that has adopted SRAM’s Universal Derailleur Hanger.

There’s room for a single water bottle inside the main triangle and another one underneath the down tube. Up top are mounts for a feed bag.

Northwave’s new Extreme Pro 3 road shoes sport a clean aesthetic and some interesting tech hidden under the hood.

On the medial side of the Northwave Extreme Pro 3 is a network of non-stretch straps that are designed to support the rider’s arch using minimal bulk.

The carbon fiber plate includes drillings for both three-bolt and four-bolt cleats.

The new Northwave Extreme XC 2 features a dual dial closure (of Northwave’s own design, not Boa’s) and a one-piece upper with TPU reinforcements around the entire perimeter.

The outsole of the Extreme XC 2 shoe is decidedly minimal, and clearly meant more for pedaling, not walking. The tread design and rubber compounds come from Michelin.

I could see myself on the trail with these.

The Rockit Plus’s Vibram outsole features open lugs on the periphery and a smooth area around the cleat pocket.

The Northwave Freeland is meant as more of a casual riding shoe with everyday styling.

The outsole includes a “pedal zone” designed to dig into pedal pins.

Northwave is making inroads on the sustainability front with the new Tailwhip Eco Evo, made with 100% recycled upper materials, 100% recycled laces, and 26% recycled rubber content in the outsole.

The Michelin-sourced rubber promises good grip on flat pedals.

Looking to keep your lubricants and other fluids organized on your tool wall? Park Tool introduced the new JH-2 holder.

Tired of your 3/8″ sockets rolling around inside of your drawer? Park Tool’s new JH-3 should help keep all of that stuff organized.

Park Tool is continuing to expand its catalog of machined aluminum bottom bracket spline tools.

Park Tool’s new DTD-8 and DTD-10 precision Torx drivers are perfect for bleed port screws.

Park Tool has updated its universal brake bleed kit with new bits to accommodate the latest hydraulic disc brakes from Shimano, SRAM, Campagnolo, Hayes, and Trickstuff.

Rolf Prima offers its hub shells in custom Cerakote ceramic finishes.

Worried about nasty stuff growing in your bottle? The Elite Neto is a handy sterilizer station. Just load it up, add some water, and then nuke the whole thing in your microwave. The resultant steam supposedly kills any microscopic bugs that might be hiding out.

Elite’s Fly plastic water bottles are ultralight and flexible, but the thin walls apparently also wear faster than thicker ones. To help fight that, Elite now offers a textured finish that’s claimed to be more durable.

Looking to keep your drinks hot or cold? Elite’s new Nanofly 0-100 double-walled insulated bottle has a special interior coating that works with both cold liquids and hot ones.

Elite’s latest Cannibal XC bottle cage is made using bio-based plastics made from castor oil instead of conventional petroleum.

Stages Cycling already offers left-only power meters for Shimano’s latest Dura-Ace and Ultegra cranksets, but you’ll soon have the option of a dual-sided setup, too. Stages expects these to be available around September.

Stages Cycling recently revamped its range of computers, which still use an incredibly crisp and colorful LCD screen. Pardon the fingerprints.

The thinking behind CeramicSpeed’s aero oversized rear derailleur pulley cage assembly is straightforward enough: by essentially turning the entire thing into a fairing, the company says it helps you go faster (however marginally). But why bother giving a standard setup a full Cerakote ceramic treatment? It supposedly makes the pulleys more resistant to wear.

These pulley wheels supposedly have somewhere around 2,000 km of riding on them, but they still look almost new.

Cadex’s new Tri frameset certainly attracted a lot of attention at this year’s Eurobike show given its incredibly wild design. Perhaps more interesting, however, is imagining what road bikes could be like if freed from the constraints of UCI technical guidelines.

The fork blades are spaced incredibly far apart so they’re in clean air, while the pseudo-dual-crown arrangement imparts excellent front-end stiffness despite the narrow cross-sections. And see how the base bar is actually two separate sections? That makes the bike easier to pack when traveling to an event.

It’s a similar theme out back.

Integrated storage is a big part of the Cadex Tri frameset, with multiple places for food and hydration, all designed to be easily removed for thorough cleaning. And because the interior of the frame is so readily accessed, the frame is supposedly pretty easy to build up, too.

The lower part of the non-driveside fork leg is shaped to direct air smoothly around the front brake caliper.

Cadex already had a four-spoke front wheel in its range, but now there’s a matching rear for when you don’t want to run a full rear disc.

That’s one way to look at it.

Cateye’s new Viz range of rear lights can be mounted in horizontal or vertical orientations.

The stout rubber mounting strap holds tight, and the base is shaped to work with a wide range of seatpost shapes. It’s a particularly solid fit on a flat-backed profile.

Kickstarter darling Lumos’s latest helmet model is the Ultra, which features integrated front and rear lights and the option of automatic brake lights and turn signals. Despite the integrated electronics, it’s reasonably priced at US$120.

Prefer to be a little more conspicuous while commuting at night? The Lumos Ultra has an integrated headlight, but also a massive 7×11 multi-color LED panel on the back that can be set to a wide range of fun animated patterns (or if you want to be boring, it can just be all red).

Restrap is one of the most highly respected makers of bikepacking bags in the UK.

Restrap’s bags have a stellar reputation for durability, but they also look good, too.

USE has a long history in the suspension seatpost world (I used them on my hardtail mountain bike in the 1990s), and of course, there are options for gravel bikes these days, too. The Vybe GR offers 50 mm of travel using a combination of steel coil springs and micro-cellular urethane foam cylinders.

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