Cycle show

leevil knievil

Its the cycle show this weekend, just wondering wether it is worth a visit has anybody been to one, just had a look at the site for it there does not look to be a lot of big named brands there, will there be a lot of 2012 bikes on show, it looks ok been to a few other exhibitions down there some good some not so good.

d3matt

I'm going on Friday for the first time. The cycle store tempted me. Just hope there's almost everything there. Hope to choose a jacket, winter gloves and a larger backsack.

xand_xand

ditto - going saturday been looking forward to this one.
MTB village - could get expensive!

Jedi

i'll be there thursday and friday . hope it's better than earls court

leevil knievil

Looks like i might be having a trip down then, its probably worth the day out after 26 days straight at work.

d3matt

I see the NEC is charging £8 for parking. There shouldn't be a charge for this if you're also paying an entry fee into the show.

cooldad

As it's really a big shop there shouldn't be any charge at all.

paulbox

cooldad wrote:

As it's really a big shop there shouldn't be any charge at all.

+1

How much is entrance?

Is there money to be saved inside or do they tend to charge regular prices?

d3matt

Ticket prices.

You can also save another £2.50 by entering promo code CSH.
They also charge £1 booking fee for online advance tickets.
So I'm paying £11 for the ticket, £1 booking fee, £8 parking, probably at least £15 on a sandwich and drinks throughout the day. And that's before I brought anything.

cooldad

Generally regular prices, plus normal rip off prices for mediocre food and drink.
You can stand in a long queue and try out a bike though.

TiBoy

I went to last years one in London, looks like this years is the same format, the retail bit was quite small last year, possibly 10-15 stands, there were not many bargains. Non of the stands outside the retail area were allowed to sell at the show. You may be disappointed if you have a pass from the other half to abuse the credit card this weekend.

d3matt

Any good bike shops near the NEC or down the M42/M6 south towards Oxford?

bails87

I'm going, mainly because I want to try a CX bike. It'll be good to see the demo MTB track too, I'll be able to ride there from home, it's not going to be a Scottish trail centre, but better than anything else round here, and probably with less dogsh*t too!

The way I see it, £12 for a ticket is cheaper than wasting £900 on a bike I won't like so the demo is worth it. I might have to look at buses or trains though, as £8 for a days parking is a pain.

CycloRos

I'll be there on Sunday, never been before so not sure what to expect. I'm hoping to demo a few with a view to buying a new xc / marathon bike.

d3matt

Went to the show today. Was disappointed with the lack of mtb kit there. The shopping zone is was a disgrace really - a couple of interesting products in there, but that was all.
About 25% of the stands were electric bikes. Also lots of stand and storage manufacturers, which I did find interesting as I was looking for a way of tidying the shed. If you are into road bikes, then there was quite a bit to see, but still not much in the way of accessories.
I wanted to look at jackets and backsacks and there weren't any.
In fact afterwards we drove into Birmingham and went to Evans Cycles, which was quite a small store. But still, we say more in there than we did at the show!

Jedi

mtb bike brands were absent. bmx demos-comp saves the show imo

*AL*

d3matt wrote:

You can also save another £2.50 by entering promo code CSH.
They also charge £1 booking fee for online advance tickets.
So I'm paying £11 for the ticket, £1 booking fee, £8 parking, probably at least £15 on a sandwich and drinks throughout the day. And that's before I brought anything.

That's pretty reasonable.

Shewhomustbeobeyed and our daughter are off to the Horse Of The Year Show at the NEC next weekend,
it's £59.50 for an adult and £49.00 for concessions, for just one day....

leevil knievil

Deffinatley not going to go now looks like a waste of dough, will just go to LBS get some new cleats and some AM 41's look at all the shiny stuff, then probably end up shopping with the trouble and strife in Manchester, the nec was good when it was all exhibition stuff when they started selling there it went down hill.

RamMan13

It was crap .....

Simon514

Whole thing sucked.

ricardo_smooth

RamMan13 wrote:

It was crap .....

amen to that...... massive let down

poppit

Think it was more aimed at the road cycling trade folk than the MTB public, only spent 2 hours there.

slimboyjim

I was disappointed. Other than a showing by Devinchi and Pivot very little mtb brands. No Yeti, Trek, Intense, Giant, or Santa Cruz for example (bar one bike here and there on an O'Neal stall, etc.). There seemed to be very little enthusiasm for mtb... I kind of thought I'd be one of many bike nerds oggling the latest stuff, but other than a couple of exceptions it didn't happen. Loads of exciting stuff was tucked away and no-one had a clue - Hopes' new cassette being a shining example. It's cool, but nobody there had a clue about it...
I'd been on the lookout to potentially size up a new Evoc backpack, and find out a bit about neck braces (I scared myself last crash!) but nothing on either front. No Altura or Endura either... TLD was there but only showing 2 outfits so useless to see how the shorts fit me. I expected my conscience to be strained all day turning down bargain after bargain but there was nothing to tempt - I was quite shocked really...
The mtb test track was ok considering the area they had to work with (flat) and it was ok. It kind of said it all that everyone seemed to be going straight to the DiVinchi Wilson DH bike though. As much as I've always wanted to try a proper DH bike, I decided it wasn't the right place to do so...
Never went on road track as no bikes tempted me to bother with the queue.
On a plus note I was impressed by DiVinchi and Pivot providing bikes for the test track and I ate loads of free energy bar samples (Zipvit is the best imho). The mach 5.7 carbon frame is amazing too. Bmx was very impressive, although the commentator repeatedly shouting "make some noise - this is bmx, not cricket" did get a bit tiresome.
I'm not sure I'll bother next year...

bails87

It was a bit of a let down wasn't it. I expected a load of trade stands with people standing aorund trying to get you to sign up to emails and stuff, and I was happy just wandering around looking at bling, so that side of it was fine. But the demo stuff was pretty poor. The forks on one of the Felt FSs were knackered. 10mm of soft travel, then solid. The choice of bikes was bad too: the Whyte van that brought the bikes to a demo ride I went on a few weeks back had more bikes to test than the entire show!

The road 'test track' was actually about 100 yards around the delivery area/car park at the back of the hall. Still, had fun messing about on the electric shoper bikes, and I also now know for sure that fixies are a stupid idea and they will eventually kill the hipsters who ride them!

Still, a decent few hours of wandering around. Didn't get anything or fall in love with any shiny new stuff though.

ashleymp777

Why would the big manufatures go there when they can go to the big European and American shows and get far more covereage.

bails87

ashleymp777 wrote:

Why would the big manufatures go there when they can go to the big European and American shows and get far more covereage.

They do demo rides at inidividual LBSs where they can probably expect 20 people at most to turn up. Why not go to a prearranged show with thousands of potential customers. The demo rides are important, selling a bike goes beyond just getting your name mentioned in MBUK.

CycloRos

A lot of the big mtb names were noticeable by there absence but the show was a fairly nice balance between mtb/road and bmx.

The mtb test track was pretty decent considering its the NEC but the range of test bikes was very limited (felts, pivots, dawes and that was about it!), but did manage to sling a leg over one of these - http://www.rawbamboobikes.co.uk/. I just couldn't help but smile whilst riding it but in terms of ride feel it was most like a dull aluminium frame so I won't be buying one.

On the plus side I was made more aware of a couple of british companies I'd never really heard of. Had a nice chat with the chaps from Thorn and Pipedream respectively, shame there wasn't a Pipedream Sirius to test ride but the Thorn Nomad was a proper wolf in sheeps clothing. Very nice ride and the best of the demo bikes. Also Enigma Ti bikes were tasty.

bails87

Oooo, did anyone see the Kovert girl........
:oops: