BikeBiz Bicycle and cycling retail news
Windwave
Proving particularly popular on the Friday of show when the audience seemed to have been made up largely of touring and road race enthusiasts, the Colnago stand had something for everyone.
According to marketing man at Windwave Dan Jones, the cyclocross World Cup is this year’s best seller, but it was the Art Deco hand painted designs turning heads, as well as another collaboration with Ferrari to produce the CF8, of which there will be just 200 available worldwide. A few will make it to the UK and will retail for £12,000 with an EPS 11-speed build kit. “Essentially it’s a C59, but with a significant nod to the long-standing relationship with Ferrari,” said Jones.
To celebrate the 30th anniversary of the Colnago Master, Windwave will carry an anniversary edition with one-inch straight bladed steel fork and a frame carrying some very subtle and tidy Colnago detailing on the lugs. Look out for the handmade £2,199 frame and fork kit on Windwave’s website.
Upgrade
Never short of attention-grabbing goods, Upgrade has plenty of fans, as does Kinesis, for which the distributor displayed the new Crosslight Evo5 – a pure cyclocross UD carbon frame and monocoque forked bike designed for the rigours of British riding. Carrying no mounts, this is a racing machine and designed for little else with the fork weighing just 478 grams and the downtube oversized for efficient power transfer, while the stays provide ample mud clearance and judder-free braking.
Elsewhere on the stand, Cycloc’s inventor Andrew Lang debuted a number of new takes on his wall mounted bike racks, notably the new Endo at £44.99.
Designed to hold the bike vertically, the two part holder folds flat against the wall when not in use and offers rubber protection for the rim and for the wall where the rear tyre meets a surface. To complement the new rack, The Loop at £14.99, made in the same shades of black, green, orange and white as featured elsewhere, is designed to hold accessories such as keys and multitools – ideal for the workshop mechanic with a habit of losing small tools and keys.
X-fusion showed the latest version of its popular Hilo dropper post, the SL Hilo, which is an air sprung, cable operated post weighing in at around 480 and available in 27.2, 30.9 and 31.6mm. The handlebar mounted ‘rocker switch’ is activated when it is pushed in any direction.
Velocite
Let’s start with the most eye-catching part of a generally head-turning stand full of top-end product – a Velocite brand rigid carbon fork prototype, with disc mounts. Due in 2013, distribution representative Mark Almond told BikeBiz: “Like all other Velocite product, the fork has been heavily tested, refined and then tested again to ensure it’s perfect when it hits the market.”
Velocite were also keen to show off both the Flux 26 and 29er builds, as well as the road going Selene – an alloy framed build, which we were told “drew the frame builders among the crowd for its build quality. Quite simply this has been designed to be the world’s best aluminium road bike,” said Almond.
Action Cameras
Action Cameras touts itself as Europe’s leading action sports online retailer for video equipment, making this stand particularly good for spotting some product perhaps not previously known to the cycle trade.
A good example is JVCs Adixxion camera, which on the face of it, looks much like its competitors. It is however, what’s inside that counts, and this £299 packs in a new era of sports camera technology. Connectable to iPhones or iPads via WiFi and a downloadable app, this 1080p wide angle can transmit its footage to a larger screen instantaneously, for on the track replays.
What’s more, it’ll take a five megapixel still shot and is supplied with mounts for handlebars or helmets. This is also claiming to be the first helmet camera with image stabilisation and while a wide angle will eliminate obvious shakes, this addition means that footage should be amongst the smoothest action sports first hand footage you’ll see.
Also spotted on the stand was Ion’s Action camera, available to the bike trade via iontheaction.co.uk and retailing in various strengths of model from £199 to £400. This one’s waterproof down to ten metres.
Hope
Plenty to discuss on the Hope stand and the Barnoldswick manufacturer was out in force to meet its customers.
Finally we’ll see the long-awaited pedal hit the market toward the end of this year at a retail of £120 and weight of 390 grams. Having been through around 20 sample stages, you know that this t6 aluminium platform is going to last, housing one Norglide bush and three cartridge bearings.
The V4 downhill brake debuted at Cycle Show, replacing the long serving V2 caliper and bringing about an increased caliper stiffness and increased pad contact and heat dissipation properties.
For the customer mixing and matching to the very tiniest detail, Hope has some anodized jockey wheels in its popular colourways. These carry low contact seals to reduce drag and Labyrinth-style spacers to protect the bearings.
Plenty happening on the complete wheel front too, with a 29er MTB wheelset added carrying either Stans Flow or Mavic 719 rims. On the road side, Hope has added a no tubes Alpha version of its Mavic open Pro wheelset. There will also be a new 30mm carbon tubular and full carbon clincher wheelset arriving to replace the existing 50mm deep section wheels.
The cranks and rear cassette spotted in prototype form previously are yet to receive production dates, though are still in the works, we’re told.
