The London Bike Show opened its doors yesterday and we've been there getting the lowdown on some of the exciting new bikes and kit on display, as well as running our own Training Hub. We've already brought you a mountain bike round-up and today Cycling Plus's Warren Rossiter brings you his road bike highlights...
Dedacciai Super Cross
The Italians have got behind the movement towards disc brakes for cyclo-cross with their latest top-end carbon fibre 'cross bike. The all-new Super Cross is based around a 1,050g frameset that uses Deda’s AWP (Anti Wrinkle Process) carbon. The material is laid up in a mould and compressed so that no imperfections or creases can compromise the integrity of the carbon-resin bond. This frame is matched to a dedicated disc-only fork that weighs 420g.
The potential for a super-light 'cross rig is plain to see when this combo tips the scales at under 1.5kg. The head tube is tapered (1-1/8 x 1-1/2in), with the bottom bracket shell designed for a 92mm press-fit unit. All cable routing is internal but the frame has external routing for hydraulic hoses, making it future-proof. The frame and fork combo is available now for £1,599.99, from www.chickencycles.co.uk.
Neil Pryde Bayamo
We gave you the lowdown on the new Bayamo time trial bike from Neil Pryde in our coverage from Interbike and now you can see the development prototype of this great looking machine at the London Bike Show. It's scheduled to make its racing debut at the Tour of California with UnitedHealthcare, who’ll also be racing in this year’s Tour of Britain.
Trek Project One
Trek are present at the London Bike Show to showcase their Project One customisation programme. The wall of colour swatches to fine-tune your bike's finish is hugely impressive. We had a soft spot for the Madone 6.9 SSL Leopard-Trek Spartacus finish – yours for ‘just’ £6,105.
Zullo bikes
London's Mosquito Bikes can always be relied on to provide something a little different, and always quite beautiful. Their stand at the London Bike Show is no exception. Zullo bikes are the brainchild of ex-racer Tiziano Zullo, who's been creating beautifully crafted steel machines in Italy since the Seventies. Legendary climber Robert Millar rode a Zullo in his TVM days and we were hugely taken with the Vergine. Made from Columbus XCR stainless steel and custom painted, this is a frame that we’d sell our mothers to own.
Vincero Design bottle cage
Vincero Design have reinvented the lightweight bottle cage. The ‘cage’ is actually a 16g diamond-shaped composite housing for a metal button, which attaches to your frame via the normal bosses. The dedicated bottle features a female cutout of the mount containing a high-powered magnet. The bottle slots into place and the magnet holds it with more than enough force to keep it there.
The bottle has a soft feel and is plenty ‘squeezable’, and the hydration-pack-like silicone mouthpiece makes drinking a cinch. What we like best about the Vincero design, though, is the price. The mount and a 20oz (591ml) bottle retail for just £33.99 – that’s cheaper than most brands' lightweight carbon cages.
The bottle is also available in a larger 24oz (710ml) size for an extra pound. We'll have a sample soon for an exclusive test, as it's set to launch by the end of the month. The Vincero bottle and cage will be available exclusively through Ison Distribution in the UK.
Bianchi Oltre gets EPS
Bianchi’s brilliant Oltre is amongst the very first bikes to be available with Campagnolo’s new EPS electronic transmissions. The matt black finished Oltre complete with full Record EPS will hit stores in February priced at £8,000. There'll also be a model with the rarefied Super Record EPS group for £1,100 more.
Rose Xenon
The great thing about shows is being able to see in the flesh the bikes you might want to buy, and that’s especially true of brands that operate on the internet only. For us, the highlight of the online-only bikes at the London show was this fantastic value Rose Xenon CRS.
With a sub-kilo carbon frameset, full Campagnolo Chorus carbon 11-speed group, quality carbon finishing kit, Prologo saddle, custom Schwalbe tyres and colour coded Mavic Cosmic wheels, it has an all-up claimed weight of just 7.4kg (16.3lb, 57cm size). At a frankly unbelievable £2,454, this could be one of the bargains of 2012.
London Bike Show ticket offer
The London Bike Show runs until Sunday, 15 January. It's held alongside the Boat Show, the Action Travel Show and the Outdoors Show, with a single ticket granting entry to all four. You can buy discounted tickets by entering the code 'radar' at checkout. Entry with the code costs £15 compared to an on-the-door price of £20. While you're there, why not check out the BikeRadar Training Hub?
