Iain “Ace” Woodley from HTN blogged up some extra bonus material from the CoreBike Show. You might have seen some bits already but Ace has found some other bits and bobs too.

Where to begin,  I could spend two days there taking snaps,  there is just too much shiny stuff to wade through in one day,  then a few days sorting photos,  trying to remember what the heck is the picture about,  did I even talk to a rep about the stuff etc etc,  so the Core is trade only not open to the general public,  but they do let us press types in for a mooch about.  

The thing is it’s so busy it’s not always possible to talk to who you want to or get a photo,  you just keep walking round until you grab someone free from filling an order book.   I think i can say that the bike industry is in healthy condition right now with lots of development work going on for future gear.    To those that stopped selling and had a chat with me,  thank you very much,  you learn more in a 10 minute chat than flicking through a sales brochure at home.

Its held in a posh golf club that backs onto silver stone race track,  i had distractions in the bar as it’s a shrine to Formula 1 racing and is covered with bits and photos,  the other distraction was the Spa side of the club,  kept getting random groups of ladies in towel robes wandering around lost with a glass of champers,  i of course did not take any photos of said females as i didnt want to get thrown out or be sued,  on a random drinking note (maybe i should stay next year)  John Fleck of Surly and Charlie of www.charliethebikemonger.co.uk  where thrown out of the bar at 5am,  at 10am John looked fine,  cant say the same for Charlie when i bumped into him.

Staying with www.surlybikes.com  strangely with all the weather we have had,  they have had a massive spike in sales on the Pugsley adventure bike,  3.7″ tyres and 65mm rims,  ok it’s not downhilly but i have a fetish for odd things and this is the first time i have seen one,  just the thing for deep snow/mud/beach.

www.sealskinz.com have had a big overhaul in the product range,  i took an instant liking to there new line up of armoured, waterproof, thermal gloves,  the socks have been updated (mine are about 5 years old and almost worn out now) just the thing for riding a pug in the snow,  or if you raced at Triscombe,  keeping warm in between hitting trees.

www.dmrbikes.co.uk  the production Bolt,  how good are they !  well Duncan Ferris bagged 2nd overall at the Triscombe race,  1second slower  than a old Turner DHR but 1second faster than a top end Morewood,  quite capable of some DH action.

I expect to see some Omens being raced DH this year,  nicer tubeset and tweeked over the old sidekick.

www.hopetech.com  the cranks then.  Hope are sort of used to me as we all do the Fort William DH enduro (hope sponsor it as well)  so i got Simon in a quite moment.  The cranks are an ongoing project with no release date,  an exercise in “wonder how hard that can be”  so they may never see production.  The plan was to use them at last years DH enduro,  but as it’s a spare time project they didnt have a set ready,  i will be taking a close look at the team hope bikes this year to see if they crop up (as orange and hope where testing things last year). 

Chain guide by Hope,  hope hoop,  hope cassette, hope brake,  and hope chainset and chainring,  one stop shop ?  wouldnt take much to add a bottom guide roller on there for some DH,  the top type guide was plenty stiff enough.

Ibis mojo HD,  really really nice,  i cant afford one but would mind trying one out,  if i could only have one bike to do everything from trail riding to DH and everything else,  i would still get a bike out of skip for going down town on,  dont fancy locking one of those up outside tesco…in London..

New to the UK,  i also had breakfast in here,  loads of energy foods on show,  keeps you going while taking photos,  really nice as well,  had a good gossip with there ex roadie racer,  he had me in stitches about antics in the peleton,  i now know how to go for a dump at 30mph,  wont share anymore than that, ask me at race,  top blokes at www.chocolatedistrubution.com roadies yes,  but with a killer sense of humour.

Back to Ibis for more carbon fibre,  the tranny means transportable,  the back end unbolts for stuffing in a case to take on holiday,  or for getting chain tension on singlespeed,  tough and light,  www.2pure.co.uk bring these in along with crank bros, lizard skins, clif.

www.lhthomson.com something different from thomson,  there anodizer asked for some posts to play with,  this is what they came up with,  i thought at first glance it was by water transfer dipping,  nope…hand anodized,  multiple dips and hand masked to get the effect,  very labour heavy process but stunning results.  The stars and stripes has already been commissioned by the USA cycling team,  and a Union Jack team only issue is on its way for UK riders.  As yet this is not viable for general sale due to the hand dipping of a single post at a time,  not 500 posts being done in black in a big vat,  thomson reckon on some limited edition show pieces,  maybe an annual one off pattern.  For now there is no way to mass produce the effect, stands out from the bright single colours everyone else has.

So we have an international film maker,  and Triathelete, a free rider and a bmxing mag editor and some bloke from up north called chips,  one of these faces was also at Triscombe racing as well 🙂  it’s surprising who you walk into as you wander round lost in the corridors,  not only trade but top flight riders from all branches of biking,  i spent a lot of time chatting with people i wont meet again until next year,  had some interesting chats through the day.  The Core show is an interesting place to vist (if you can get in)

www.sunnbicycle.com or the uk importer www.i-ride.co.uk  Sunn Modular with changeable dropouts.

And the Sunn Tzar,  from what i can work out,  maybe the same frame ?  but one built more for xc and the Tzar with a 150mm fork and Hammerschmidt for more exciting trips around a proper mountain and not a trail centre.  Some good looking bikes from Sunn,  and thanks to the man from Sunn who lobbed me a Zipvit bag full of energy bars,  honestly the amount of random samples on energy bars was immense,  race food for the next few races sorted out then.  I didnt get the chance to look at or take any photos of the sussers,  well i was there for hardtailnation after all.

Again from i-ride,  Token bike bling kits,  the cnc jocky wheels are Tirmac ceramic bearings jobs,  the whole kit is £66 the jockey wheels alone are £55 and yes i have put the price because i am a tart and i did go and look it up,  the bulk of sales bumf we pick up dosent have prices on.  I am on the look out for some jockey wheels to regear my hardtail, they also do green,red,gold kits as well.  Token are more on the Xc roadie side of things but i was surprised at how much gear they make for mountain bikes and  just havent seen or heard much about them.  This is the main reason for getting to the show,  you find stuff you never knew was out there,  www.tokenproducts.com

Chub Hubs,  cant make my mind up on these,  first time i have seen them in the flesh.

And mounted up on the Formula brakes display.  www.silverfish-uk.com for more details on Chub and Formula.

Now thats a tool kit,  makes my old fishing tackle box filled with odd tools and random bits very bad.  If you took that to a race you would all of a sudden find you have lots of “new” friends.  Pedros can be found on www.2pure.couk

Crank Brothers have a cheaper choice in there wheel range,  the new Iodine 2 all mountain wheelset 1850grams for the pair £499 the other sets are still £699.

The range of stems and bars is growing from crankbros.

For more info there go to 2pure .

Think that covers a bit more of the show,  not so downhilly but i belive Mike and Ed where there on monday,  i missed some stuff,  and some things werent there i wanted to see,  but a hectic day out,  and i seemed to spend most of the time chatting to people in corridors.

Ace