New Product Highlights From The Bike Place Trade Show 2014
The UK trade show season has kicked off and here are some of the best new products that we spotted at 'The Bike Place'...
The Bike Place is a small trade show started in 2010 by a group of UK bicycle industry distributors. The show is run by distributors for the benefit of their customers (ie dealers) and journalists, in a rep-style open plan showroom. Building on the success of the first four editions, The Bike Place took up home in 2014 in the pit lane building at Silverstone Race Circuit in Northamptonshire.
Kicking off on 26th January, the 2014 edition ran over three days with more than 30 distributors in attendance, including Ultra Sport, VeloBrands, R53 Sport, Haven Distribution and Burgtec, as well as Just Riding Along, newly-appointed distributors of Industry Nine, makers of eye-catching custom wheelsets built around 120-point engagement hubs.
As well as Industry Nine, other leading mountain bike brands on display included Cannondale, Chris King Precision Components, Devinci, GT, Mongoose, Pyga Industries (the new company from former Morewood boss Patrick Morewood), Niner, Orange, Rocky Mountain, Santa Cruz, Schwalbe and Wildoo.
Some of the new bikes on show at the event included Pyga’s eye-catching ONETEN 29 frame, Niner’s 150 mm travel WFO 9, Orange’s 322 downhill frame, a Cielo mountain bike, and a 650b version of Morewood’s Makulu, plus two different versions of Devinci’s Troy, the frame on which Stevie Smith won the Air DH at Crankworx last year. Other new kit included Schwalbe’s gravity enduro-focused Magic Mary tyre, and the world’s only flat pack, fully portable bike track system from Shoretrax.