The Bike Place Show – Pt1

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Just over the road (well, Formula1 race track) from Core Bike is another show: The Bike Place and it was well worth a quick visit while we were down at Core (more of that later this week). With heavyweights like Jungle, CSG, Orange and Evolution exhibiting, there was always going to be some good stuff to see.

There seemed to be about five exhibition rooms this size, hidden in Silverstone’s Wing Building.
These Early Rider bikes had a great following, coming in at about the price of a carbon handlebar.
bmx2
One for the pub ride – full carbon BMX anyone?
There’s even a belt-drive version for a little under £300
Charlie the Bikemonger marvels at what might be Boardman’s Lotus bike in 3D plywood

 

Chipps has a wonky head, so don’t worry that this Troy Lee A1 doesn’t line up.

EIS Grips.

Beloved of the racing fraternity for comfort, weight and all round grip (if it’s not muddy anyway) ESI grips have always been a slightly chamfered sausage of silicon. There’s now been extra work (can you lathe down silicon?) in making the grips slightly more ergonomic. Behold! The Fit XC grips.

Green is standard. Black shows the ergonomic taper off (better than it does in the packet)

 

Yours for under £20 a pair.

Evolution Imports also showed off these full titanium one-by rings – for SRAM’s bolt-on spider cranks and for regular four-bolt MTB cranks. They should wear well and be pretty light, though at a bit of an enthusiast’s cost.

Actually, you probably can’t afford them, but perhaps it’s time to start saving.

The fine folk at NRG4 were at The Bike Place showing off, among other things, the new Kali Maya which is a freeride helmet (if that doesn’t sound too enduro for you) offering deep coverage, with a long visor and clip on accessories that’ll take a GoPro, helmet mounted light or whatever in the box.

The Kali Maya helmet will be out very soon. Priced around £80
Random and unannounced Cielo disc bike that’ll make 17% of you go ‘Fwoaar!’

Hiplok’s staff were on duty, showing off the brand’s new Sold Secure Gold lock that still fits comfortably around your waist for pub trips and bike messenger work days alike. It also showed its mini-locks that clip handily into a belt or back pocket for similar trips to town.

Also comes with a version with a deployable cable for locking accessories.

Charge Bikes Cooker Maxi

OK, so we’ve just reviewed a £3000+ carbon fat bike. Obviously, you don’t need to spend that to get some ridiculously fat, grippy ‘look at me’ traction on the trail. The Charge Cooker Maxi 1 – takes the original Maxi and gives it an alloy frame and an all-up price of £849. Which is nearly ‘I’ve had a bottle of wine at home on a Friday night’ impulse-purchase money. And you’ll use it far more than a home gym, new snowboard or home cinema projector that you’d buy with the same cash…

Cooker Maxi 1. Say no to home gyms.

GT Bicycles Fury DH

GT was proudly showing off Gee Atherton’s World Champion GT Fury bike. Looking reassuringly similar to the stock bike just above it, it only added some signature Pro components and some unbadged (Stan’s?) wheels (alloy nipples on the front, brass on the rear) and that was about it really… Buy a GT Fury, though, and you really won’t have any excuses left at all, eh?

Your excuses are now worthless. This bike is possibly priceless.

 

‘Oh, this old thing?’ – Gee goes out for Sunday brunch in his kit again.
Chipps Chippendale

Singletrackworld's Editor At Large

With 23 years as Editor of Singletrack World Magazine, Chipps is the longest-running mountain bike magazine editor in the world. He started in the bike trade in 1990 and became a full time mountain bike journalist at the start of 1994. Over the last 30 years as a bike writer and photographer, he has seen mountain bike culture flourish, strengthen and diversify and bike technology go from rigid steel frames to fully suspended carbon fibre (and sometimes back to rigid steel as well.)

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