Core Bike Show is the first major trade show of the year in the UK and BikeRadar was on hand to prowl this year’s warren-like network of halls and booths, picking out only the most delectable of road cycling goodies to share with you, dear readers.
With hundreds of brands to work our way through, these five products from NS Bikes, Cinelli, Kinesis, All City and Eecycleworks were our favourites to make the cut.
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NS Bikes RAG 2017 gravel bike
NS Bikes is best known for its extensive line of mountain bikes and components, but in recent years it has branched out into bikes designed for the ‘pavement’, first introducing its singlespeed city bike, the Analog, and now this hardcore gravel bike the RAG .
The RAG (short for road and gravel plus) is one of the longer gravel bikes we’ve seen to date — the 71.5-degree head and 73-degree seat angles are comparable to other bikes on the market, but the 420mm chainstays, which result in a 1,026mm wheelbase in a size large, are notably long.
While these long chainstays matched with the slack angles will likely make for a very stable ride, it also means that the bike can accommodate 650b wheels with tyres up to 2.2” in width, if you plan on taking the RAG onto some truly rowdy terrain.
The bike is supplied with 700x40c Panaracer Gravel King SK tyres that have delightful mocha coloured sidewalls. The tyres are mounted up to NS branded 21mm wide Alex Draw 2.1P rims, which are laced to NS’ signature iridescent anodized Rotary hubs.
The RAG is outfitted with a full, 1x11 SRAM Apex groupset. NS has specced the bike with what it calls a ‘real’ 11-42t cassette, which when matched with the 42t chainring will give an adverse gradient friendly 1:1 gear.
The bike is available for pre-order now and comes in at £1,649.99 ($1,579.99, AU$2,499.99).
Cinelli Vigorelli New Italo track frameset
The jazzy paint job of this Cinelli Vigorelli New Italo frameset was undoubtedly one of the most eye catching at the show. This new frameset takes its cues from the successful aluminum Vigorelli HSL, reproducing its aggressive, track-ready lines in steel Columbus Thron tubing.
UK distributor for the brand, Chicken Cycle Kit, had this classy build on show and it featured a full Cinelli Dinamo cockpit, Miche Pistard drivetrain and a really rather fancy Miche Supertype Pista SPX5 wheelset.
This build is definitely destined for the track though — with no brake track and a roughly £2,500 price-tag, you’re very unlikely to see these tubular wheels outside of the velodrome.
The Vigorelli frameset is however drilled for brakes, so if you fancy building up the most edgiest, most hippest commuter in the land, this is a great place to start.
Complete builds start at £1,099.99 with framesets coming in at £759.99 (US and Australian pricing TBC) and are available for pre-order now.
Kinesis Tripster ATR V2 gravel bike
Cinelli was not the only brand showing off the potential of its framesets, with British brand Kinesis displaying its Tripster ATR frameset. The frameset was built up as a gravel munching, horizon chasing, titanium dreamboat.
While it’s a rather dated term, the ‘monster-cross’ moniker seems the most apt for this build with beefy 2.0” Vee tyres giving the bike a mean looking profile. While the clearances are quite tight around the seatstays in this configuration, we reckon there’s enough room there for all but the muddiest of rides.
The frameset itself features a full accoutrement of adventure-riding braze-ons with full mudguard bosses, rear rack mounts and, rather uniquely for a modern bike, a chain-hanger on the inside edge of the driveside chainstay.
The frameset is available for £1,849.99 / $2,330.99 / AU$3,089.49.
All-City Mr Pink 2017 road bike
The Mr Pink is a longstanding model in the All City line up and as has become tradition for the brand, the latest generation of the bike features a paint job inspired by the bikes of legendary racer Eddy Mercx.
Dubbed Faux-tarola — after the top-end bike from the Mercx brand in the late eighties, which featured the team Motorola livery — we love the look of this colourful frameset.
For 2017, the Mr Pink loses its lugged fork of previous generations in favour of a carbon one produced to All City’s specifications by sister brand, Whiskey Parts Co. This 1⅛” straight steerer fork will also be available separately should you fancy upgrading an older frameset.
The keen eyed that followed the launch of the new Mr Pink last week will note that the Shimano 105 build shown here is different from those in the US — Mr Pinks sold across the pond will be specced with a SRAM Rival 22 groupset, Zipp finishing kit and different wheels.
A complete Mr Pink is available for pre-order now and is priced at £1,899.99 ($2,199.00), with the frameset coming in at £999.99 ($999.99). Australian prices TBC.
Eecycleworks Dual Mount caliper road brakes
Eecycleworks’ production, distribution and product marketing was taken over by Cane Creek in August of last year, with distribution in the UK now handled by Extra.
We had a chance to fondle the boutique brand’s direct mount brakes and we can verify that they weigh about as much as a ghost — or in more conventional terms, a frankly ridiculous 78g per brake.
The brakes are fully compatible with Shimano’s Direct Mount standard and if you’re looking to drop some weight from your bike they will save approximately 145g over a Dura-Ace 9000 brake.
The brakes are available to order now for £289.99 / $315 / AU$435.
