There’s so much to see at Eurobike, the world’s biggest cycle trade show, held Friedrichshafen, Germany that it takes something special to catch your eye. Ritchey’s new p-29er did just that.

Ritchey p-29er

This frame was actually fillet brazed by Mr Tom Ritchey, but you can expect production frames to be TIG welded by less legendary bods. We’re loving the retro-inspired red/white/blue fade paint job, curved downtube and Tange Slider dropouts that allow for easy swapping between geared and singlespeed setups.

A Ritchey Logic II tubeset is triple butted and the weight is a claimed 2.1kg (for a size large). The 29er-specific geometry is designed around a 100mm fork.

A new 1in headtube is flared at both ends to accept bearings that drop directly in. Ritchey say this is lighter, about 80g, than a conventional 1-1/8” headtube but beside the weight saving is the extra strength the design delivers.

Can’t decide whether to go singlespeed or geared on your new P-29er frame. With this very neatly machined sliding dropouts, swapping between the two setups is a doddle.

Charge Cooker Ti 29er

Charge showed its final production-ready Charge Cooker Ti 29er. There’s a few changes evident since we saw the prototype back in May at the Dalby World Cup, including the fat tapered head tube.

The frame is built with a collection of double butted Tange Infinity titanium tubes, neatly welded together with lovely little dropouts, a reinforcing gusset at the downtube/headtube junction and cables routed underneath the top tube.

It’s been designed with a100mm fork in mind. The frame will cost £1599.

Canyon goes big with AL 29 hardtail – a carbon version is on the way

As Eurobike this year was about every manufacturer rushing to add at list one 29er to its range, Canyon followed suit. This is the aluminium Grand Canyon AL 29, the first of two models that will be available in October. There’s a carbon fibre version on the way but its launch is looking likely to be early next year.

German firm Canyon have built up a good reputation in the UK over the past few years. They save money by only selling bikes online direct to the customer, who get to pocket the substantial savings. And from chatting to the Canyon guys as we were showed the latest bikes, it’s clear that they take the development and manufacturing very seriously, with a large team of engineers at their offices in Koblenz.