Viewing 34 posts - 1 through 34 (of 34 total)
  • Is it me – London Bike Show?
  • edoverheels
    Free Member

    Had a good day out today
    Took two sons up to London and met up with other son who is away at University. Took the boat and the cable car, the sun was out,nice lunch, saw the BMX boys on the half pipe and some quick DMR riders on the pump track with Olly Wilkins still being quick with a gammy leg and manualling the rollers and doubling the jumps. Then watched a bit of Arsenal beating Liverpool in a London Pub.
    On the train home realised that I am really not very interested in bikes any more. All shiny new stuff seems the same and they seem to be answering questions I am not asking. Fancy a fatbike and show confirmed this but would be rubbish for what I do and should just hire/borrow one. Was not always like this, remember seeing lots of weird stuff and picking up a carbon fibre Scott hardtail frame and realising it weighed nothing but that was probably six or seven years ago and not a lot seems to have changed since. Now have dropper posts and tubeless. That seems to be about it as far as relevant progress for me goes.
    Scott had a stand and despite sponsoring Brendog had very limited MTB presence.

    But Karma prevails. Having these bad thoughts the trains were all messed up on the way home and when I eventually got to go out with a fantastic moon, my helmet light wasn’t working and then I sliced a tyre and had to walk home.
    Still ride all the time but no longer interested in kit. Same thing happened with cars about ten years ago.
    No good reason for sharing but doesn’t stop other people posting!

    mikey74
    Free Member

    I lost interest in shows, reading magazines and the whole “industry” thing a few years ago: Riding has been much more fun since.

    mikewsmith
    Free Member

    I went to the bike show when it was at the NEC years ago and it was cool, dirt jump stuff going on, the Marzocchi girls were there. Things were just kicking off in the way bikes were going with the middle ground of lightish mid to long travel bikes arriving, met wade simmonds.

    The following year we went to the one in Stonleigh and it was OK, some live 4x with peaty taking some guy out then winning (then we went back to see if he was OK) but less new stuff or interesting stuff.

    Seen some pics and reports of a few but the big international ones look a lot better, the UK one just looks like car showrooms…

    edoverheels
    Free Member

    It wasn’t so much the show, although previously we met Steve Peat and then the Athertons (although these might have been different shows) it was just that I am no longer interested. I have been for twenty years and suddenly it is like a switch. I suscribe to Dirt and Singletrack but find that I am not reading them cover to cover and have been thinking about cancelling. I thought that this might be the internet but on reflection it is more the nature of the industry itself.

    cfinnimore
    Free Member

    Only been riding 4 years but the same thing happened to me very quickly.

    Fell in love with cycling immediately and relentlessly pursued a “job in the trade”.

    The best-worst thing that ever happened to my career was achieving that goal to work in a bike shop/warehouse/workshop.

    NEW STUFF, SELL THIS NEW STUFF NO SELL THIS NEW STUFF NO THIS NEW STUFF.

    I know what I like and I know what works and am loathe to consider myself part of the bandwagon making cycling just like golf.

    MrSmith
    Free Member

    I could have gone with a free ticket but didn’t other, the only reason to go would have been to see a few people I know in the industry but It seemed a waste of a day just to chat for a few minutes.
    Unless you are in the market for a bike and want to look at a lot of manufacturers including some niche brands all in the same place then I can’t see the point in going.
    Plenty of people did though cos it was packed.

    nikk
    Free Member

    It’s too easy (I’m gonna say this out loud – FOR MALES) to get so focused on the equipment for doing an activity, that the activity itself is overshadowed by the gear lust.

    Innovation is great. New stuff is great. If you need it.

    Slavishly coveting the latest new thing just because you like new shiny things is ultimately a hollow pursuit. You jones after something, then the moment it lands on your doormat, it is over and you need another fix.

    Getting over that is a good thing. Personally, I don’t think I am over it yet, in that I always seem to have something coming, but I buy what I need for the most part, I don’t buy stuff just because it is the latest and greatest.

    edoverheels
    Free Member

    You mention niche brands and if there had been lots of niche brands it might have been more interesting. Few really big brands there and not enough niche (but thanks Surly, Niner and Singular) probably just not enough bikes. Seemed mainly to be food and energy gels. Best bit was a load of Niner carbon forks in a row hung up on strings. Someone stumbled and hit a pair and it then sounded like an expensive set of chimes.
    I am probably just old and grumpy.

    JCL
    Free Member

    The way I see it is AM bikes these days can get up anything and can descend like a DH bike from 5-10 years ago. If that hadn’t happened I’d have probably sacked it off. As it stands I reckon it’s a great time to be a mountain biker.

    hora
    Free Member

    Never go to the shows. Same with car shows.

    It’d be like going to see a huge football show with everything on shelves/display. How dull.

    myfatherwasawolf
    Free Member

    I’ve lost all interest. Despite being a mountain bike mechanic for too many years and riding 24 years (wtf), this I is how far it’s gone: the other week bought a new cassette for my Stumpjumper, only to discover it was 10 spd not 9! I also told a mate that my Cannondale SuperX had an Ultegra groupset. it has SRAM… Still ride everyday and love it as much as ever, just don’t care about that stuff 🙂

    makecoldplayhistory
    Free Member

    It’s slowed down too much to hold my attention.

    I began mountainbiking with horse shoe calliper brakes, slippery flat plastic pedals, appalling tires, drive chains made of cheese, narrow bars, long stems, poor frame geometry, rigid forks… just terrible bikes.

    It seemed like every month there was a genuinely massive improvement that made riding more enjoyable.

    ‘V’ brakes => parallel pull => hydraulic rim brakes => discs

    Slippery plastic pedals => grippy metal pedals => spds

    elastomer forks => springs => air

    etc

    all a bit of a plateau now which is why 27.5″ is suddenly being pushed by manufacturers. The good, truly innovative stuff’s been done. At least for a while. I occasionally miss those old days when it was a cross between a ride and Royal Marine survival course, dragging a breaking bike behind you. Most of the time, I love the fact that my kit works and I can simply ride*.

    *don’t get me started on how trail centres and Dirt have ruined mountainbiking.

    rOcKeTdOg
    Full Member

    Try the bespoked bicycle show, most people there are the designers & builders of the bikes rather than salaried employees or faceless corporations & their enthusiasm really comes through. I spent 4 hours at the last one & it was the size of a school hall, I think I spent an Hour at the last NEC one & that included queuing

    hora
    Free Member

    I saw a 4grand Norco with 1×11 gearing yesterday. The cassette was HUGE. Literally the size of a plate. Is it that much better than my 08 Patriot? Dirt/mbr will tell me yes. It’ll also save a pro Enduro riding a second over a whole course.

    About as much use as **** in a tcup as every day mountain bikers have to carry lots of spares, nibbles, phone and a stone extra in weight.

    core
    Full Member

    You’re definitely not alone, I had similar thoughts twice yesterday, once while ‘reading’ mbuk, (the girlfriend bought me a couple of bike mags for valentines day – it’s the thought that counts, she doesn’t know it’s bog roll substitute), there was a letter asking about wheel sizes (yaaaawn) and the response was bewildering, just full of marketing terms & total guff, no sign of impartiality at all. Most of the adds were for proper bling, but mostly unnecessary kit, and nearly all of the bikes featured were £2k plus totally rad gnarpoon downhill, all mountain, enduro, trail weapons, riding trail centre blue routes, well, not quite, but you know what it’s like, I just sat there thinking – you don’t need all this shit, at all!

    My second similar experience of the day came whilst shortening brake hoses & trying to get a sticky poploc remote to work, looking at cable routing around the headtube, and thinking wtf
    man?!

    In my future I see only one bike, a steel 29er, with a 1×10 setup/ss, rigid and sus forks to swap, and just do everything simply on that one bike! Those new singular swifts look nice……

    rumbledethumps
    Free Member

    The NEC show was shite.

    whippersnapper
    Free Member

    I had a nice cycle ride across town to get to the show yesterday, that was the best bit for me. I spent most of the time in the show looking for neninja to say ta for the ticket (thanks neninja, never found you, had the wrong stand number in my head). I have been going to these shows since rob warner used to dual slalom outside Earls Court. They are not as exciting anymore but still, I’m a sucker for free stickers.

    slackalice
    Free Member

    OP, things come, things go. In the same way as people come into our lives for a while and then we lose touch. It sounds like the bike show didn’t live up to your expectations or hope, in so far as it hasn’t rekindled your ‘passion’ for the sport. Would you describe yourself as a passionate person?

    Some things and people are not meant to be with us forever. Sounds like you might be searching for a new interest.

    Never been to a bike show, but I’ve been to a couple of Land Rover shows and I guess I would come away feeling the same.
    The image of mountain biking portrayed by the magazines and manufacturers doesn’t have much relevance to the type of riding I do.
    I can’t imagine there being much at a bike show that would interest me.

    edoverheels
    Free Member

    I still love riding and ride most days. Very happy that bikes have improved and enable us to ride more things. It is the industry that no longer interests me and it is probably as stated that they have sorted things and so now improvements are marginal and would make little real difference to me. Hence the 650B revolution to try and tempt people back in I suppose. Something will come along that we have not thought of yet that will become a must have and change things I am sure but with lightweight stiff frames and sorted angles it is difficult to see major improvements.

    rumbledethumps
    Free Member

    I’ve lost interest since the term “Planted” was introduced.

    monkeyboyjc
    Full Member

    I dont think its the bike shows fault – its just taken 20+ years for the mtb industry to settle down.
    The most interesting show in the uk for me is now Bespoked where niche builders can experiment – first cycling show id been to since Bike 1998.

    robnav
    Free Member

    went to the excel show on saturday, what a waste of two hours of my life! seemed to be very few stands of any real interest. total waste of money.

    DT78
    Free Member

    I really enjoyed it, and it had enough going on for the wife to not be bored (plus there was holiday stuff).

    I really like looking at kit, for me it’s as much part of the hobby. Liked seeing ribble and Planet X in the flesh so to speak.

    I wanted more trade stands selling, I had cash in my wallet for a few unique decent jerseys or bibs at a decent price.but there was very little. I was a little annoyed by all the signs of show special prices but you had to ask, especially when you have a wife in tow who isn’t really interested in bikes you can only spend a few minutes dribbling over each bike before you have to move on.

    I really liked that cheetah cannondale and On one codeine. Also nice to see canyons As well. All the bikes you can’t see down your lbs. Gutted I couldn’t find the 3d printed mountain bikes…there were unique things there….

    I saw lots of people interested in fat bikes. That I really don’t get.

    iamroughrider
    Free Member

    It’s good that many are interested in the kit etc. I prefer just to ride.
    I still prefer 8 spd stuff, but I suppose that’s odd.

    kelvin
    Full Member

    Sorry… but kit is still improving all the time.

    Perhaps the changes are ones that you really only notice when riding, rather than looking at a stand full of bikes in a hanger?

    Take clutch rear mechs for example… big leap forward, but look much the same as they ever did.

    Shows are great for looking at the latest colours.

    cynic-al
    Free Member

    edoverheels – Member
    Still ride all the time but no longer interested in kit.

    Same here, bar stuff that I feel makes a difference to me, no bad thing.

    jamiec360
    Free Member

    Went on Thursday and was a bit underwhelmed but meeting Chris Williams the guy behind Empire (the ti printed frame doing the rounds last week) was a real highlight. His bikes looked fantastic (ti one isn’t for sale) and really clever design switchable between 26″ and 650B with removal of one spacer under headtube and change of shock mount bracket on swingarm. Its that sort of thing I’d like to see more of. I really hope he does well and seemed genuinely interested in getting to know his customers and sorting out demo days, said he wants to be the UK Canyon and I hope he does it.
    Did pick up some unusual and new things Aptes recovery hot chocolate very nice and maybe some effect but maybe placebo and some interesting pads to stop my bike scratching the car on the rear rack when I head up to north Wales next month. Might also get a set of the bone conduction headphones next month too.

    Northwind
    Full Member

    I’ll not be going, but I like this sort of thing so I’d go if it was nearer. I think if you don’t like this sort of thing, you probably shouldn’t go, as you probably won’t like it due to it being this sort of thing. Used to go to the motorbike shows every year and all my mates who don’t like this sort of thing would spend all day being miserable ****s for the 10th year in a row, then go back the next year, only to discover it’s still this sort of thing.

    kudos100
    Free Member

    I went along with a mate as he had got free tickets.

    When I worked in the trade I found this kind of thing more interesting. Now I am a bit jaded by the whole thing.

    Mountain biking has reached a point where bikes are so good, it is really hard to buy a bad bike anymore and everything works pretty well. Companies are desperately trying to come up with new stuff and are reinventing the wheel (pun intended)

    Also, I’ve got to the point where I don’t really want the latest shiny thing all the time as I’m fully aware that I am the limiting factor, not the bike.

    In the last few years there are only a few things I have been impressed with (clutch mechs, thick thin chainrings, decent droppers etc) and a whole load of other crap that hasn’t done much or has been pretty pointless (most of the new ‘standards’ and ‘technologies’)

    As a result, going to a bike show is not as interesting as perhaps it once was.

    At the show the only thing I was really impressed with was the 3d printed bike.

    eshershore
    Free Member

    it happens…the loss in interest

    happened to me a few years back, when I realized getting a new bike didn’t get me excited any more

    currently work in the bike trade, commute 250km a week by road bike, and the last thing I am interested in on my time off..is bikes

    only magazine I buy is film mag ‘Empire’, and I try to avoid bike shops and bike shows like the plague

    still enjoy riding my bike (to work and back) but not the bike scene itself, could care less

    jedi
    Full Member

    jcl, you back in the uk?

    edoverheels
    Free Member

    Agree about clutch mechs by the way and yet to try a thick and thin chain ring.
    Having been out tonight it was filthy and mud all over chain and derailleur and noted not many gearboxes at show or hub gears which I think would be a way forward in the long run and then see the Pinion gearbox on the front of Singletrack.

    CaptainFlashheart
    Free Member

    Always used to enjoy shows when I was in the trade. Now? Just dull, really, apart from catching up with a few old friends from the trade.

Viewing 34 posts - 1 through 34 (of 34 total)

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