London Bike Show 2016 – Roundup of Win

There was loads of cool stuff at the London Bike Show  at the ExCeL venue last weekend – far too much to list. But here are just a few of the things that caught our eye:

It’s not particularly Stealthy (apart from the fact that it’s black) – you couldn’t imagine surreptitiously winning any cyclocross races on it – but you’d be hard pressed to find an e-bike that looks more badass than the B52 from Stealth Bikes..x-bionic had some hi-tech baggy shorts (the £124.95 Mountain Bike Pants), which needed to be photographed on the bonnet of…this Lambo which just happened to be parked on their stand. Nice.This is x-bionic’s Dave Hemming, holding the biblically weighty tome ‘turn sweat into energy’ which is actually x-bionic’s catalogue. More info from x-bionic.Honda had this neat little concept adaptation for their Civic Tourer, with sliding room for two bikes (road bikes, here, match, but it wouldn’t take much to make it MTB friendly), tools in some neat rear luggage bits, and even a built-in air compressor. Neat idea, or hopeless? It’s only a 3d-printed concept, but we think it’s pretty cool. More on Hondas here.There was also lots of neat bike-packing gear from Alpkit…

…a Cannondale fat CAAD with a lefty…

...this rather lovely carbon GT Zaskar build comes with the UK’s first Magura wireless dropper post.On a somewhat roadie-related note, Two Days in Yorkshire is a lovely-looking book on Yorkshire’s moment in the spotlight as the opening stages of the 2014 Tour de France.Cy Cotic was looking masterfully proprietorial on Cotic’s stylishly minimal stand…..which is an excuse enough to show a pic of the lovely Rocket 27.5, which Barney rather liked when he rode it. There’s more info on Cotic’s website.
And lastly, for no reason whatsoever, here’s a pic of a rather lovely slightly lowered 1969 VW Beetle…

Barney Marsh

Barney Marsh takes the word ‘career’ literally, veering wildly across the road of his life, as thoroughly in control as a goldfish on the dashboard of a motorhome. He’s been, with varying degrees of success, a scientist, teacher, shop assistant, binman and, for one memorable day, a hospital laundry worker. These days, he’s a dad, husband, guitarist, and writer, also with varying degrees of success. He sometimes takes photographs. Some of them are acceptable. Occasionally he rides bikes to cast the rest of his life into sharp relief. Or just to ride through puddles. Sometimes he writes about them. Bikes, not puddles. He is a writer of rongs, a stealer of souls and a polisher of turds. He isn’t nearly as clever or as funny as he thinks he is.

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