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Havent been for years , last time pre Internet , so with that in mind is it worth a trip from Somerset , nothing in mind buying wise just to have a nose really .
it was better last year than previous years but honestly that wasn't hard to achieve. i spent maybe 1.5 hours and saw everything. I got a free ticket though and a lift there. if you factor in the fuel from Somerset, entry fee and frankly extortionate parking charges I'd say no it's not worth it.
oh and good job you're not buying as there's very little retail stuff to be had. there are demo bikes though
I took two of my kids last year and all three of us loved it. I plan on returning this year.
Same as RocketDog: last year was pretty unspectacular.
I demo’d a couple of Canyons but thought that overall the demo selection was limited. The retail options were poor - some of the few retail stalls were like a bike jumble. I spent a couple of hours there.
Only went because I was in the market for a new ride. Some good brands: Whyte, Rocky, Transition, Orange, Identiti, Rose, Canyon, but hardly any of the really big boys I can recall (no Giant, Spesh etc..)
I haven't been to one since Future Publishing (MBUK) ran it at the NEC about 15 years ago.
I went last year on the Thursday, I enjoyed it, got to fondle some nice bikes.
Loads of free stickers too.
As others have said. If you can get there for free and get in for free then yes.... otherwise no.
You could see as much walking around bike shops in London.
I say the same each year when this question is asked. It's OK, the retail part is pretty limited though you can pick up the odd bit, there's some nice kit to look at and the dirt jumps are worth a watch. Every year I say I won't go back and every year I do...I've just bought this years ticket.
I do live 30 mins on the train from the NEC and have a rail card for work anyway, I'm not sure I'd go if it was tough or expensive to get there.
It's worth it to catch up with people you only ever see once or twice a year at events like that! Although that depends of course on how many industry people you know and want to catch up with. If the answer is "none" then it loses a lot of it's appeal, it just becomes a very large bike shop but where you can only buy about 5% of what's on display...
I got a cheap return ticket, it's only just over an hour on the train.