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The Tour Down Under may be the opener to the WorldTour season, but it also represents peak road riding season in Australia. Many flock to Adelaide to watch the racing and participate in organised group rides. Meanwhile the centre of town is turned into a small village dedicated to the event, with a cycling-focussed expo that runs the entirety of the race.
Based across a number of temporary gazebos, the TDU expo is arguably the closest thing Australia has to a cycling tradeshow – yet it’s public facing and many brands are there to sell to the public. A few brands travel around the globe to be there (such as XDS on its debut), while many others are represented by the exclusive Australian distributors of those products.
This gallery looks at a few of the newer (and sometimes previously unseen) products on display.
The biggest tech news in racing for 2025 has been the entry of Chinese manufacturer XDS and its premium X-Lab brand in partnership with Astana. XDS had a small booth in a dimly lit corner of the expo with a number of bikes on display; it was seeking distribution. On display, this X-Lab AD9 Astana team bike is believed to feature the signature of Shimano’s Chairman and CEO, Yozo Shimano.Meanwhile, the booth offered a first look at the team’s X-Lab DB01 time trial bike, a model that appears to borrow a number of design elements from others, including an impressively wide-set fork stance and rear stays.Like the other X-Lab bikes, very little information is available about this bike at this time. Escape‘s Ronan Mc Laughlin has stated that aero saddles are the next big thing in racing. This unannounced Prologo saddle suggests the investment is real.Like the company’s AD9 road bike, the time trial bike features elongated tips at the fork dropout. It’s a feature that aerodynamacist John Pitman confirmed is a small but smart advantage on a recent Geek Warning podcast.The extensions appear to be the Metron TFE Team Edition from team sponsor Vision. As for the external Di2 wires, let’s just hope that’s merely a hurried assembly; either way it’s odd for a show bike.A look at the gaping-wide gap to the rear wheel afforded by the seat stays.Similar is seen up front. Obviously there’s no word yet on any specifics or how it performs. Finally, also on display at the XDS X-Lab booth was the company’s ultra lightweight RT9 road bike, something that looks to be inspired by the Specialized Aethos. The XDS-Astana team has promoted this bike as being something it will race in the mountains.The RT9 has thru-headset cable routing and a very marginally aero-profiled headset assembly. Meanwhile the rest of the frame is mostly a series of round tubes. The finish is kept largely raw. A represenatitve of the company claimed this frame weighs just 560 grams and clears 30 mm tyres. Expect this company to move quickly on the production front, but right now, a website would be good. The PON group, showing Cervelo and Santa Cruz, had a large display in the centre of the expo. Sometimes it’s the simple things that grab my attention, such as this cosmetic-led bartape wrap from mechanic Lachlan Glasspool. The consistent wrap is achieved by marking the shifter placement, removing the shifter (but keeping the band clamp in place), wrapping, and then re-installing the shifter. Can’t say I’d want to do it often, but it does look neat. Meanwhile the ends are held by superglue, rather than tape. This is a trick inspired by Ineos, which the team has applied to its team bikes for many years (I certainly recall it being done as far back as the Team Sky Pinarello F8s).Scope wheels (distributed in Australia by Echelon Sports) were present with a number of its premium carbon wheels. Shown here are the Artech 2 with an ultra-shallow 22 mm rim, 3D-printed hub shells, and carbon spokes. With no weight limit and a hooked clincher/tubeless 23 mm rim width, these wheels are claimed to weigh just 965 grams (yes, for the pair).Another brand distributed by Echelon Sports is Bont Cycling. The Australian-based shoe manufacturer had a number of newer models on display, including the new flagship Vapor SL (standard and wide available). Compared to the regular Vapor, the Vapor SL offers a more secure heel hold, a wrap-over upper, and an updated inner sole (from Cobra9).As pictured from left to right, the Vapor (aka Vapor 23), Vapor Lace, and Vapor SL all feature Bont’s revised carbon sole design that’s far less restrictive than the full bathtub sole design the company is best known for (and what remains in the Vapor S model, not pictured). A fact I didn’t previously know about Bont, all of its shoe sizes progress by exactly 5 mm in length through the size range. Schwalbe (presented by distributor BikeBox) was displaying its all new and greatly ink-reduced packaging. Selle SMP (distributed by Dawson Sports Group) have a brand new racing saddle that retains the company’s signature open design. The new Evo20C and Evo30C introduces a shorter length and a more minimalist design for performance-type riding. Prices start from US$300.Praxis is another company distributed by Dawson Sports Group. The company’s new full-carbon Doon road crankset was on display. Praxis’ chainrings are compatible with all the common drivetrains, crank lengths start from 165 mm, and there are numerous options for fitting aftermarket power meter spiders. Arguably Australia’s biggest distributor in terms of brand count, FE Sports occupied a large corner of the indoor (and air conditioned) expo. The company had many of its wheel options on display, including low-weight options from Tune.And equally feathery options from Lightweight. As far as expensive wheels go, Lightweight remains the most expensive.FE Sports also distributes Pirelli tyres. The company’s new P-Zero Race in an ultra-wide 40 mm width was on display. These wide tubeless-ready tyres feature the same construction as the narrower versions.Guee is one of those brands that often sneaks under the radar, but its range of bartapes is extensive and I’ve had good experiences with the versions I’ve tried. The FE Sports section of the expo felt somewhat endless. including the likes of Campagnolo, 100%, Classified, Galfer, K-Edge, Power2Max, Favero, and even hand tool company Wera.Met was present (via distributor Advance Traders) on the main thoroughfare with a wide range of helmets, including many of the top-tier models. Pictured is the Trenta 3K Carbon, the same helmet used by the UAE team. On display were a number of helmets signed by Tadej Pogačar to remind of his especially dominant 2024 season.Back inside, Enve had a large display via distributor Groupe Sportif. Sitting at the front was this limited edition Melee.Enve produced just 50 of these “Red Ltd” Melee bikes. There’s a whole lot of depth to that special edition paint which Enve describes as being a “dark red marble that fades to black with silver flake.”Just one of these made it into Australia, soon headed to a retailer in Sydney. Another look at that paint. Beneath the deep sits an off-the-shelf Melee road frame. Oakley had plenty on display, but no sign of that recently spotted aero road helmet. Shown here is the rather new Oakley RSLV, a mostly cycling-specific design made with larger-headed riders in mind.It’s designed to offer a wider range of view compared to most other closed-frame designs. It’s shown here with Oakley’s cycling-specific Prizm Road lens. New Zealand brand Chapter2 was present in one of the outside-facing gazebos. The company, which specialises in selling framesets rather than complete bikes, had a number of its models on display, including its newest Rira performance road model.The Rira offers a race-leaning geometry in a package that blurs a little outside of where many other pure race bikes now sit. It fits a 27.2 mm round seat post and customers can select the stem/handlebar dimensions at purchase. Tyre clearance is limited to 32 mm.A UDH features out back, an increasingly common feature on the latest road bike releases.Chapter2 is never boring with its finishes. This is the second option in the new Rira. Such intricate paint adds to the frame’s weight, which sits at a claimed 945 g (medium size).There was plenty more to the show, but lucky last from me is this Baum Orbis X which made an apperance in the “Maker” event that ran toward the end of the show. Baum was joined by a small number of other Aussie names, including the Woods Bicycle Co. and Curve.Baum Cycles only does custom bikes, and in this case, the customer wanted a titanium gravel bike inspired by a particular Supermarine Spitfire plane.And that’s exactly what the small team at Baum produced through its in-house paint shop.Baum also machines its own head tubes in-house, while the integrated cabling is handled by components from Enve and Chris King.This particular bike was built around SRAM’s Red XPLR 1×13-speed gravel groupset. Baum’s UDH dropout is used to make this possible.Meanwhile a 3D-printed titanium chainstay yoke is present to improve tyre and chainring clearance. Baum has an international reputation for having some of the cleanest welds and details. This Orbis X doesn’t disappoint.
