The Cycle Show at the Earls Court exhibition centre in London, which opens to the public tomorrow, is the UK's biggest annual showcase for all things bike, and a good pointer for growing trends. Here are a few things I've learned from wandering around the stalls this morning:
• The new hire bike – coming soon to 400 docking stations around London from next year – is, as you can well imagine, a solidly-built beast. Seemingly built from iron bridge girders, you wouldn't want to carry it up a hill. But – albeit on a flat course in the middle of an exhibition centre – it's surprisingly fun to ride, with three smooth gears and a nice feel. Here's a man from the BBC trying it out yesterday.
• Folding bikes are increasingly big business. They're everywhere at the Bike Show, with ever more Heath Robinson-style folding mechanisms. I tried out one from a Slovenian company called Big Fish, who are new to the UK market. Their sales pitch is that their bike doesn't have a hinged frame, which makes it more stable and responsive. It felt OK to me, but then I'm a folding bike novice.
• The industry's also getting excited about electrically-assisted bikes – they're everywhere. As battery technology improves they're getting lighter and quicker, though they're still generally on the pricey side. Don't be surprised the next time you're climbing a hill and a beaming grandmother whirrs past at 20mph.
• Retro-style single-gear and fixed-gear bikes are spreading from their traditional home among the graphic designers of east London. More or less every brand is bringing out a shiny chrome fixie with an old-school narrow steel frame, tapeless road bars and a single, tiny front brake lever. I'm ambivalent towards them but still found the Bianchi ones very pretty. There are even spin-offs – one exhibitor, Quoc Pham, is making office-style shoes designed especially to fit into the toe-clips beloved of single speeders.
Those are my thoughts - please add your own observations below if you make it to west London over the next three days.
