Judges present 64 products with the Eurobike Award

Anyone coming to trade-show hall A7 on Lake Constance over the past week could be forgiven for thinking that Eurobike had started early this year. On 12 and 13 August, exactly 500 product innovations from the bike industry, ranging from inner tubes to downhill bikes, were kept under wraps there with tight security. This pre- show event was held specifically for six judges to decide which products were to receive the Eurobike Award 2015.

If you leave a designer, three journalists from the trade press, a successful mountain biker and a bike dealer from Milan together with a whole host of innovations for the coming year, it won’t take long before they start (in some cases hotly) debating the new products’ designs, technology, functions and their degree of innovativeness. The judges of the Eurobike Award took their time in selecting this year’s prize winners, casting a critical eye over the submissions.
Another tricky factor was that at 500 products there had never been as many innovations applying for a Eurobike Award as this year. This record number of entries has again underpinned the Eurobike Award’s position as the most important accolade in the bike industry.

Only products that perform exceptionally well, in terms of their level of innovativeness, functionality, design or sustainability are candidates for a Eurobike Award. “The renewed increase in the submissions received doesn’t just prove the vast importance of the Eurobike Award in the bike world, but also indicates that the bike industry’s entering another era. The development and design of bikes, accessories and components have become demanding tasks for engineers and designers, particularly due to the rise in the popularity of the e-bike for the industry. The prestigious winners of the Eurobike Award 2015 demonstrate how superbly these challenges are being met”, comments Eurobike project manager, Dirk Heidrich, following the judges’ decisions.

The Eurobike judges also heaped praise on the contributors. “I was very impressed by the design of several products”, said mountain-bike professional Karen Eller afterwards. Her colleague on the judges’ panel, Daniel Fikuart, editor of the industry magazine Aktiv Radfahren, adds: “I’m amazed by all the new developments. Many of the contributors are striving to build the bike of the future”. Other judges included designer Nils Holger Moormann, bike journalists Rodrick de Munnik (New Sokol Media, Amsterdam) and Jens Klötzer (Tour magazine) as well as Matia Bonato from the Italian, family-run company “Biciclette Rossignoli”.

The judges whittled the number of submissions down to 64 products that they selected for a Eurobike Award. These included 12 products that aren’t just especially well made, but also redefine the state of the art on the bike market. The Eurobike Gold Award is reserved for these types of products. It enjoys special prestige as the highest accolade in the industry on the bike market worldwide. This year, one company will also be able to look forward to a Eurobike Green Award. This prize pays tribute to special products and ideas that take sustainability and environmental protection on the bike market to a new level.

Anyone wanting to know which products have won a Eurobike Award this year will have to wait until Eurobike 2015 opens its doors on 26 August. Then all award swinners will again be displayed in a special showcase in Foyer West on 29 August until the end of the show. As usual, the Gold and Green Awards will be presented on the stage in Foyer Ost at 6 p.m. on the evening of the first day of the show.

On the days devoted exclusively to industry professionals, the international bike show Eurobike will be open from Wednesday 26 August to Friday, 28 August from 8.30 a.m. to 6.30 p.m. and on Saturday, 29 August when it’s open to the general public from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. For further information, please visit www.eurobike-show.com.