Cycle Show 2011

I think it's fair to say that the prospect of a move to the NEC in Birmingham scared of some exhibitors, but I have to say that the number of people attending the show was nothing short of staggering.

We worked our fingers to the bone to get everything ready in time. It doesn't get any easier, ever, it just gets  less panic-enducing with experience.

The positivity from members of the public and from inside the trade and press was almost overwhelming. A touching moment when Monty came to visit the stand on the Friday and was a bit emotional at seeing everything. People travelled the length and bredth of the country to get there -some specifically to see the Condor bikes.

Amongst other things, this is what they saw:

Super Acciaio.

 

To quote the American fella on the stand next door, "I'm super excited abut this". It's been 2yrs in development is officially badass. People make race bikes, people make steel bikes. Some people make pseudo race bikes from steel but none has a 1.5" tapered head tube, a monsterous bi-oval down tube, custom rolled top tube and a press-fit BB30 bottom bracket.

It's stiff, and it's bombproof and it's going to retail for £1199. In a market saturated by carbon, this is just the thing for a racer such as myself who might only ever spend this racing "career" doing Tuesday night chippers. It is aimed squarely at the racers. It's a bike which is only going to get better with age -the more scrapes and dings the better! That said, I did a 75mile open road race on it, and the build pictured is 17lbs on the nose so I'm sure we'll see a few winging their way off the L'Etape next summer.

More on bikeradar and roadcc

Terra-X Disc Proto.

There were 2 of these at the show, mine with cable-operated Tiagra discs and a second on the USE stand with the same finishing kit and wheels but with the prototype USE cable to hydraulic converter, running into the new jewel-like XTR 985 calipers.

The system is and in-line affair which then wraps under the bartape, unlike the Heath Robinson style linkage systems which we've seen up til now.

The frameset will not retail as a disc-specific set up. The demand just isn't there for disc-specific just yet. For now, it'll be disc and canti compatible. Pic from road.cc