Eurobike 2009 preview

Eurobike 2009 is upon us. Over the last few weeks you'll probably have noticed a trickle turning into a torrent for 'First look' and 'Sneak peak' stories here on road.cc, these days that's how the bike world prepares for Eurobike, the world's biggest and best bike.

Eurobike is huge, imagine the NEC, but nicer, filled with bikes and bits – not one or two halls, all of 'em and I still don't think that's as big as Eurobike… this is a show where the overspill space is a zeppelin hangar, every year they add another new hall, or two. It's so big that you need a bike to get from one end to the other and it is the only place in the world were middle aged men are allowed to zoom around the place on micro-scooters. as many It's almost impossible to see it all in the four days you've got to do so. Oh, and there's a demo day too before the show proper starts where lucky hacks get to try the new bikes – we'll be there today… can't wait.

On display will be all the latest, bikes, components and accessories from the world's biggest bike brands and the medium sized ones, and yes, a large chunk of the smaller ones too. Stick that lot together and trends quickly become apparent: the year after Giant launched the first TCR Advanced the place was a forest of integrated seat posts, another year it was all orange – especially on the bikes destined for the German market. So what can we expect this year? Here's our pre-show list of what we reckon will be hot.

• Lots more electric bikes
• More fixed and singlespeed – with some attempts to move the form forwards
• More steel with a fair smatter of Reynolds 953
• Trendy utility bikes along the lines of the Kona Ute, bikes for everyday cycling and lugging stuff around in style – trans – 101 ways to stick a basket on a bike.
• More commuters – some top end stuff, but also lots of bikes aimed to capitalise on the cycle to works schemes being run in various countries
• More commuter clothing for on and off the bike
• Plain colours – red and black I reckon
• Aggressive pricing – Boardman proved you can produce a very decent carbon bike for under £1500 retail

My guess is that we're going to see lots of retro or retro with a modern twist – everyone is going to have some steel in their range, the twist may well be a bit more Reynolds 953 – it may be a bit of suspension, maybe built in lights or chargers, the Giant Accent on display here last year has a prototype had the former, (Cannondale have been there for a few years now) and Dahon are launching the IOS folder here, which we previewed a few weeks back, with the latter – I don't expect them to be alone. There will be a lot of steel – in fact in some ranges it will be the only metal bike on offer, and much of it isn't going to be that light either

It's been coming for a while now. Remarkably this will be only the fourth show since Fixie inc infiltrated the show and grabbed themselves a big slice of media attention by simply leaving a bike decked out with car scratcher bars in the entrance foyer to the show. The next year they were back with a stand, and last year they had the stand and a Eurobike award for their belt driven stainless steel prototype – now in their range as the 2010 Peace Maker.

I started writing this on the train heading out of Bath on Monday morning – I'm posting it from Eurobike itsellf – the show hasn't officially started yet, and already we've seen some tasty bikes.
We'll be posting soon so keep it locked on road.cc.

To get you in the mood here's a gallery of shots from last year's show.