Cycle 2003 Show Report
Generally
I don't find cycle shows very interesting these days - a purely personal view,
resulting from age and no great interest in mountain bikes and BMX, and a
definite dislike of noise. However, as the report at the time indicated, I found
last year's Cycle exhibition at Islington, the first, very enjoyable, and well
worth visiting from my own personal viewpoint. Therefore I had no hesitation in
deciding to go again this year - the show ran from 24-28 September 2003. I
managed to get a Trade/Press ticket, which not only saved me the entry charge,
but also meant that I was able to visit on the Thursday, which was probably a
quieter day than subsequent days.
My train journey from Birmingham Snow Hill to Marylebone was uneventful, and
the Chiltern Line is certainly much cheaper than the Virgin route of New Street
to Euston, and it does not take much longer either. The underground journey was
a bit trying, but I still got to Islington not much after 11:00.
On
entering the show, almost the very first bike I saw on the ground floor, right
by the entrance, was the new Specialized folder. There did not seem anything
very remarkable about the design, but it is good to see major manufacturers
starting to take more notice of the folder market.
The
rest of the fairly small ground floor exhibition area was not of a lot of
interest to me, but on ascending the stairs to the next floor, I was immediately
confronted by the new Trek folder - another major manufacturer getting into
folders. There was one basic design, available in three different
configurations, one being hub-geared, and featuring a chain guard. There did not
appear to be anything very revolutionary about the design, the most striking
feature being the remarkably large section of the main frame member.
From
here I meandered around this floor, but for the purposes of this article I'll
follow a more logical route, at least from the point of view of those with an
interest in folders and Moultons. Walking down the rightmost isle brought me to
the Brompton stand. This was their usual modest, functional affair - the product
speaks for itself. The basic bike remains unchanged, although there is a new
handlebar catch, which eliminates the need for the cable tie to give it the
necessary resilience to hold the bars in place when folded. There also seemed to
be some new colours.
Most
important, though (to me!) was the new lightweight carrier - a result (like the
handlebar catch, of introducing CAD. Construction is of alloy and plastic, but
it still feels very strong, and, subjectively, it felt MUCH lighter than the old
carrier. For anyone who may not have realised this, the Brompton bags are
velcroed onto a carrier, and it is this which mounts onto the bracket on the
frame. Although the carrier has been available in its own right, if you have a
normal bag, you can un-velcro the bag from the chassis/frame/carrier and use
other bags, as I have done myself on some photographic holidays. I shall
certainly be buying one of the new carriers, which of course are compatible with
the existing brackets.
Continuing
down this isle to the end of the hall, I reached the Airframe stand - quite an
impressive affair, and with several bikes finished in a variety of attractive
colours - and I had a chance to chat to the designer, Grahame Herbert. It's
quite an attractive product, certainly improved from the original design (partly
due to improved manufacturing).
The
carry bag can be used as a luggage carrier when riding. I had an opportunity to
try an example of the new Airframe during a recent visit to the National Cycle
Collection, although only for a couple of miles. I think it is a design which
you need to try for yourself, and make up your own mind, but give it a
reasonable test - it may feel strange for the first 5 minutes, but you grow more
accustomed to it. Compared to most conventional bikes, and indeed a Brompton, it
feels a rather flexible, though nothing like so much so as a Bickerton, but if
you let it do its own thing, this becomes less noticeable after a few minutes,
though heavy and/or strong riders might not get on with it. I found it a bit
high geared for me on my test, though when I repeated the test circuit later on
an SP I was impressed with how well I had coped with a steep hill on the
Airframe.
Right
next to the Airframe stand was Avon Valley Cyclery of Bath, probably the UK's
largest dealer in folders (though they sell plenty of more conventional bikes
too) - for this event they were under the foldingbikes.uk banner. Here there was
a fantastic range of folders from many manufacturers, including Birdy (some
Capreo geared models, though not a Birdy White), Bike Friday, Dahon, Brompton,
Airnimal, and of course some Moultons.
The
Bridgestone Moulton which they had on display included a very smart leather
(imitation?) rear bag - the first rear bag I have seen on this new (to the UK)
model. AVC have a folder open day on 4th October, and we should get a chance to
see and try more bikes then, or even buy a bike (or, in my case, I hope, one of
the new Brompton lightweight carriers!).
Moving
more toward the centre of this floor, there were a number of other exhibits of
interest to folders. Dahon were on the Fisher stand - a deal which should
increase availability of their range in the UK. I had a chance to talk to Mark
Bickerton of Dahon distributor in the UK, Cyclemotion. Dahon must be easily the
biggest folder company in the world, not just in volume, but also in range of
product - there is just about no sector in which they are not represented,
including folding large-wheeled mountain bikes and road bikes. Nor can they any
longer be dismissed as a volume manufacturer of fairly basic equipment - the
specifications and quality of many of their bikes are now excellent. They even
have a folding electric design - see picture.
Very
close to the Dahon stand was the stand of a new company, Bliss Bikes, who had a
number of electric bikes on show, including this folder. I don't really feel
qualified to comment on electric bikes, so I leave it to A to B to comment on
this and the other electric machines (David Henshaw of A to B was helping out on
the Brompton stand while I was at the exhibition).
The
demise of the UK company Sturmey-Archer caused much distress to many, and it has
taken a while before the company which eventually took over the name and started
manufacture in Taiwan was able to get established. They are certainly back on
the scene now, and on their stand they were showing three main ranges - a
3-speed, 5-speed and, most interestingly, an 8-speed. All are available in
various forms. I'm sure it is the 8-speed which readers will be most interested
in, so I'll provide a few key pieces of information now (perhaps a full spec
later). It has an over locknut dimension of 131mm (130mm for the roller brake
version), and overall gear range of 305%, with ratios of 100%, 128%, 145%, 163%,
186%, 210%, 238% and 305%. The very even spacing of the middle gears, with a
bigger jump to the top and bottom seems to me very good in principle, though the
large jump at the ends is a bit bigger than I would have like ideally - say 25%
maximum is more acceptable to me (thinking particularly of the jump from gear 7
to 8). Weight is 1.75Kg for the version with drum brake, and 1.45Kg for the
version intended for a roller brake. 36 and 28 hole version will be available.
Sprocket teeth are quoted as 23 and 25 - this may seem high, but bear in mind
that this unit has direct drive in its lowest gear. Units have apparently
recently been supplied to a number of cycle manufacturers for evaluation - ac
couple of companies were named, but I think it inappropriate to mention them at
this time. It will obviously be a while before cycle manufacturers complete
evaluation and development of bikes to use this gear, so it is likely to be some
months before we see any new products using this gear - unless SP gets hold of
one of course!
Moving
up onto the top floor, I found Airnimal on a stand with some recumbents. Apart
from the now familiar Chameleon, they had the unusual fully suspended small
wheeler, apparently designed for off-road use (judging by the magnitude of the
suspension front and rear, and the width of the knobbly tyres) which is shown
here. I'd have like to talk to Richard Loke about it, but every time I went to
the stand he seemed to be occupied, so we will have to wait for more
information.
Nearby was the new zero chainless folder - along with the rest of the Zero
range, which are all chainless. There was a sectioned rear bevel gear, but
unfortunately the photographic equipment I had with me failed to render an
acceptable picture. My Minolta 7Hi generally did a passable job, but I apologise
that the pictures aren't better - I didn't feel like lugging a larger, heavier,
but better-performing system around with me. This was particularly troublesome
for the exhibits on the top floor, where the lighting was not as good as it was
nearer ground level. The idea of eliminating the chain is certainly attractive
for a folder or commuting bike, but previous attempts to introduce such
solutions have not succeeded, as the cost and inefficiency compared with a
simple chain drive has been a problem. The Zero felt a bit heavy when lifted,
but I did not have a chance to ride it, so we must wait until someone does a
proper test to see how well it works.
The other folding product which might interest readers, and which was on this
floor, was an example of a kick scooter with very large front wheel and smaller
back wheel. Non-folding versions of this were shown last year, and one of the
non-folders apparently successfully completed the PBP in August this year! The
folding version was a prototype, but was reasonably compact when folded - it is
seen here partly and fully folded with designer Jason Iftakhar (sorry - the
light was particularly poor for photography here).
In this report I have concentrated on the main stands of interest to myself,
and to others of a folding inclination. There were lots of other stands which I
am sure will be of interest to most of you, and it's worth commenting that a lot
of other stand had known folders (Brompton, Birdy, and even a Frog) on them.
Cycle 2003 was well worth visiting from my point of view - I hope that there
will be another show in 2004.
Perhaps
the weirdest design (not a folder!) at the show!
Copyright (C)2003 Ferrets Anonymous
Last updated: 29 September 2003
URL: http://www.foldsoc.co.uk/cycle2003.html