Never before have we seen this number of people excited about the many new drool-inducing bikes, products, and accessories. The fall bicycle trade shows in North America, including ExpoCycle and Interbike, were very busy. ExpoCycle saw a 20% increase in exhibitors, while Interbike recorded its best attendance year ever. Media hounds that we are, we spent every moment scouring the booths for the hottest, newest, and coolest highlights, coming soon to a bicycle shop near you.

Bikes
Specialized made the biggest news with the proper introduction of its new Epic line of XC suspension bikes, with inertia-valve technology that automatically locks out the rear shock on smooth terrain and activates it on rough terrain. Its new S-Works road bike is available in 11 compact sizes and has been completely redesigned. Beneath it, a cromoly road bike returns to the Specialized Allez line. Specialized also expanded its offerings of women's-specific bikes and accessories, including an Epic model, several shoes, gloves, saddles, and even tires! Several new Specialized carbon components also caught our eye, including a fork and seatpost with elastomer inserts that improve vibration damping.

Rocky Mountain adds the ETS-X 30 to the ETS-X line, joining the 70 and 50 models-same frames with different components on each. The Slayer and the Edge have undergone a complete redesign for 2003 and feature a new linkage, new bearings, and a new triangle. The popular Switch now boasts six inches of travel and has the new onepointfive head tube and Manitou Sherman fork. And lastly from Rocky, the RM7 is now available in a Wade Simons Signature version, alongside the standard freeride version.

Norco's hottest new addition for 2003 is the Team Race X-Country, a less-than-26-pound dual-suspension model. Shore rats will appreciate the new monocoque frames and thicker eight-millimetre head tubes featured on the Team North Shore, VPS Team Race, VPS A-line, and VPS Fluid (now split into three models), all with seven to eight inches of adjustable rear travel. The VPS now features race-specific geometry to improve control at high speeds, while the North Shore geometry is honed for technical manoeuvrability.

For roadies, Argon-18's new Platinum line is 135 grams lighter than 2002 models, and has its new HDS (Horizontal Dual System) concept that combines comfort and stiffness.

Several new road frames join the Devinci line for 2003, including the top-end Imola with Columbus Muscle stays and fork; the aluminum-carbon Apogee, Millenium, and Santiago; and the competitively priced Podium and Apex. Devinci's other big news is its new instrumented bike arrangement, a computerized system. It is equipped with enough sensors to register 35,000 points of data per second in real-time measurements that can determine the precise calculations of the forces affecting handlebars, saddle, pedals, hubs, brakes, wheel speed, angular position of pedals and cranks, along with frame forces and travel speed of the suspension. This new system should allow Devinci to design frames that optimize strength-to-weight ratios.

Cervelo was showing off its new carbon components, including an aero carbon post for the Soloist and its new Wolf carbon fork with optimized aerodynamics. A full carbon frame is also in the works with a 1,100g target weight, and Cervelo's Dual is a new affordable time trial  model. The Super Prodigy replaces both the Prodigy and Renaissance, blending features of both for a lightweight steel frame at a reasonable price.

For 2003, Louis Garneau is going full out on bikes, with road, track, and mountain bikes at all levels. On the road, Garneau offers the LG5 with its aluminum frame 7005, the LG6 with its carbon frame, and the LG7 with its titanium frame 3AL/2.5V. Two new track bikes include the Montréal, the Montréal '78, and four new mountain bikes ranging in price from between $399 and $999. The mountain bikes are the steel-framed Eddy and the three aluminum frames of the Le Roc, Le Zone, and the REV.

Giant's new composite TCR racing frameset with fork is less than three pounds, and the TCR Elite performance bike now includes composite stays. Giant's mountain bike line is highlighted by two new lightweight, long-travel VT (Variable Travel) dualies. These do-it-all bikes integrate the new Manitou Swinger rear air shock into their four-bar linkage design and they boast 5 to 5.75 inches of travel.

Marin unveiled its new Quad suspension design after two years of development, achieving a supple single-pivot rear-wheel-axle path in the first 40mm of travel and a four-bar linkage path from 41mm to 100mm. Marin is one of several companies showing a renewed interest in steel road bikes, with steel used exclusively throughout its 700c offerings that include two Campy-equipped models welded in Italy.

Santana, always famous for its tandems, was showing off the new dishless Shimano tandem wheelset that it helped to develop, touted as being stronger than 40-spoke traditional wheels!

Components
The biggest component news was the close look we were able to take at the new 2003 Shimano XTR, with its elegant design and impeccable jewel-like finish. Lighter, yes, but it's also full of great-yet-subtle new features. These include shifter cable adjusters that are both protected and easy to reach while riding; disc hubs that are only 10g and 30g heavier for front and rear, respectively; three XTR cassette sizes; and XTR disc-brake kits that are available with XT rotors for those who want to use standard six-bolt disc hubs. Shimano also introduced its Lance Armstrong-endorsed 7750 Dura-Ace pedals and similarly redesigned Ultegra pedals, marking the beginning of the end for SPD-R.

Amid its integration with RockShox, SRAM's offerings for 2003 include two new high-end hollow-pin, nine-speed chains, one for the road and one for mountain. Along with these lightweight chains, SRAM is introducing a new nine-speed road cassette. It has also made improvements to the 9.0, 7.0, and 5.0 rear derailleurs by integrating stronger alloy knuckles for enhanced performance.

Several smaller companies were also taking an increasingly bigger bite of the component market, including TruVativ with its two complete road lines of cranks, bb's, bars, and stems, alongside its beautifully redesigned mountain cranks for cross-country, freeride, and downhill. TruVativ also introduced a new ultra-low-profile MTB flat pedal and new XC stems and bars. Blackspire was showing off its sweet new two-ring chain device dubbed the DewLie, as well as its Badger, a burly freeride/downhill crank.

Suspension
Possibly the hottest suspension item of the show was from Maverick, which introduced a new feature-rich dual-crown fork that is less than four pounds with its one-piece-welded upper stanchion and lower crown assembly, interrupted steer tube, and upside-down design with 4/6-inch adjustable air-sprung, air-damped travel.

According to some, however, the hottest suspension item came from Fox Forx: its new F80X 80mm fork features TerraLogic, an inertia valve similar to that found on the new Specialized Epic. It locks out automatically on smooth terrain and activates instantly once bumps are encountered. Fox also showed off its TALAS adjustable-travel air forks and rear shocks and new AVA Air Volume Adjust rear shock with adjustable progression.

For RockShox, now a part of SRAM, 2003 is all about visuals, with adjustable-travel U-Turn-equipped forks that now feature graphics on their stanchions to provide visual confirmation of the selected travel settings. The Boxxer has been expanded to three models to meet new low- and top-end price points. The SID models have been redesigned with a stiffer, lighter one-piece casting for '03, and a new handlebar-mounted remote compression lockout lever, used by Roland Green, is also available to retrofit forks with Pure Dampening systems. The lever comes stock on top-end SID and Psylo models.

Marzocchi was showcasing a six-inch-travel single-crown Z1 with a standard 1-1/8-inch steer tube in the face of the emerging onepointfive system used by Manitou on its new six-inch-travel Sherman single-crown fork. All Marzocchi forks except Marathon models now feature 32mm stanchions and redesigned DU bushings that require less break-in time.

Manitou has expanded its rear-shock offerings following its recent licensing deal of 5th Element technology from Progressive Suspension, with coil and air models, as well as its “Q” line of basic rear air shocks. The Sherman Freeride forks and redesigned Skareb XC forks both feature the Reverse Arch technology made famous by its Black forks, which also return for 2003.

P & A
We liked the many new hard goods; so many that we can't fit them all here. Fizik was showing off its new Aliante, now available with Carbon or Ti rails, and we got a close look at Nokon cable systems, with their continuous Teflon sheath in lightweight compressionless alloy housing links.

Paris displayed Continental's new 2003 tires, including the Grand Prix Attack with its fast, excellent-handling tread and the Grand Prix Force that is designed to be a rear tire with increased traction. The new VaporPro includes a wet-grip compound that holds to slick surfaces. For 2003, Conti is also offering an in-line skate wheel program.

The complete line of Vredestein tires, with leading-edge technologies such as TriComp, Curve Control, PRS (Puncture Resistance System), and DMC (Dual-Matrix Coupling), are now being distributed in Canada by Veltec Sports Inc., which exhibited at ExpoCycle for the first time. Veltec is also the North American distributor for CicloSports cyclometers, heart rate monitors, and altimeters. Hot for 2003 is the HAC 4 cyclometer, which combines a cyclometer, heart rate monitor, and altimeter. Ride data can be downloaded into a computer and graphically displayed.

ITM was one of many showing off recent advances in carbon road bars and carbon stems, with its elegant, light Unika carbon road bar and Uniko carbon stem. Its Millenium bar and stem are also now carbon. Even Ritchey is deep into carbon, with a 160g carbon road bar, carbon post, and four models of carbon forks. Park had several new additions to the toolbox, including two new floor pumps (one nice home model, one burly shop model), an affordable spoke tensionmeter, a shop-quality crown-race remover, forged-steel tire levers, and a folding Torx set.

Louis Garneau also had a great collection of new accessories, including two new helmets: the BMX-specific Samourai and the well-vented Aki. Garneau's new Rev sunglasses include three sets of interchangeable lenses and a prescription adaptor. Its extremely breathable Ergo Air line of apparel accessories now includes shoes and three new glove designs named the Matrix, Rex, and DH-oriented Freddy.

Clothing
F3, new Canadian distributors of Pearl Izumi (PI), had a striking silver booth at ExpoCycle showing PI's new 2003 technical innovations, such as SFT (seamless fusion technology) and EKG, a sophisticated knitting process that combines varying textures without seams. PI's new El Moro glove and the men's and women's Gel Lite Full and Gel Lite gloves also use SFT technology. Pearl introduced cycling shoes last season, and expands with two new models: the SLR triathlon road shoe and Groove recreational off-road shoe.

Oakley has expanded its apparel line to include five models of men's baggy shorts with liners, one pair of riding overshorts, and two women's-specific shorts, all with a definite “board short” styling, zip pockets, and zip vents. Castelli's newest achievement is its Yfuso short, with a fused-in rather than stitched-in chamois for less chance of seam irritation and a better fit with new formed Prosecco lycra panels.

The Excel Stretch Viper jacket is Sugoi's Holy Grail of cycling jackets and a hot item for 2003. It features a lightweight stretch woven fabric with silicone-coated fibres that provide incredible water repellency and breathability. The Viper is part of Sugoi's new RS line of performance “Euro-” cut garments.

Paris Glove introduced its Auclair Heavy Breather glove, with its breathable membrane between the mesh outer layer, and Bad Biker shortie-cut finger glove, an inexpensive but high-quality glove constructed of pliable deerskin.

And lastly, amid RLX's great line of riding apparel, women should take a close look at the Arc Halter, which features a built-in shelf bra and breezy backless design that combine comfort and style.