The end of March saw the 2019 London Bike Show run between Friday the 28th and Sunday the 31st. I popped along on the Friday before the weekend crowds to see the stand out bikes and brands.
The top two brands at the show for me this year were Ribble and Canyon but there were also others that stood out from the crowd. Yes, Ribble! For those that follow this blog, it’s not a brand I’ve given much space to as whilst I think they’ve always done a good job, there have always been other brands that impressed me more. 2019 looks to be changing that.
In case you didn’t know, Ribble was bought by Private Equity firm True Capital at the end of 2015 but the appointment of Andy Smallwood as CEO, formerly of Boardman Bikes in mid 2017 was a further key move in the ramping up of Ribble as a bike brand. The London Bike Show stand demonstrated that in spades with Ribble showing off their new Cycling Plus Bike of the Year winner. In fairness the brand has won awards before but it does look and feel like a different company now.
But the more interesting models to me were the new e-gravel bike from £1899 complete – yes, that’s right – an e-bike for less than £2k.
That’s going to be interesting to a lot of people. There was also an e-hybrid and you can get the Endurance bike in an electric version too…
Much improved branding will also help atract more customers. Learn more about the Ribble Electric bike range here:
https://www.ribblecycles.co.uk/bikes/electric-bikes/
The other terrific effort for me was Canyon. Now Canyon I’d argue, need to nail shows like this as for a consumer direct brand, it’s a key opportunity to get their products in front of customers. Canyon did a great job of this again with the added bonus of 3 World Champions bikes on their stands – Cyclocross, Road and Triathlon world title bikes were on display.
Of course as well as world championship winning bikes, Canyon had other award winning bikes, like their smart looking Grail AL, which has just won best All Road Bike of the year in the Cycling Plus awards
It was also my first chance to the “crazy” Canyon Grail with the bi-plane bars. It’s fascinating to look at in the “flesh” and it probably works really well but I couldn’t imagine owning one.
It was also nice to see the Canyon Endurace in the flesh again too. I think these still look like one of the best Endurance disc road bikes on the market if you want to go fast and far in relative comfort. Or want the speed of a race bike in less aggressive geometry ….
It was also good to see the guys from Bowman Cycles at the show. With the Pilgrims Disc that I very much enjoyed riding and reviewing a little while back
Bowman are experimenting with some potential new colours & this is a welcome development…. Great colours sell bikes!
Bowman also had a special offer running on in stock sizes of their Palace:R frameset in green on green – with £100 off, while stocks last. Find out more here:
https://bowman-cycles.com/products/bowman-palace-r-frameset
Another bike it was good to see in person again was the new Cervelo S3 Disc. With clearances for 28mm tyres, slightly less aggressive geometry and disc brakes but with the aero goodness you’d expect from Cervelo, it promises to be a great aero choice for normal people who want to go fast over poorly maintained British roads
Another bike I always look out for is the Cannondale Synapse – another favourite endurance bike that’s reputedly fast and comfortable over longer distances
It was good to see Pacenti Wheels on display at the show too, another brand with relatively new ownership. As you can see they have a good range of options for road, gravel and MTB riders.
They also had this lovely custom Feather bike on display….
Speaking of lovely handbuilt bikes, tucked away in the terrific Casquette Live section of the show were some Isen Frameworks bikes
As well as some striking Dutch cycle clothing by I-Ris, the brand of former pro-cyclist Iris Slappendel … who was at the show talking about the clothing line
The Casquette Live stage featured a series of great interviews, discussions and display from a range of speakers targeted around women’s cycling. If you’ve not checked out Casquette magazine before, you should, it’s very good
The London Bike Show also saw the “relaunch” of Road Grand Tours now known as RGT, which is more of a simulator than Zwift, with a number of iconic roads virtually re-created. I’ve tried the original briefly and will make sure I try the new version soon. Find out more in your app store or at
https://www.rgtcycling.com/
World Championship winning siblings, Dan, Gee & Rachel Athertons new mountain bike brand had it’s first showing that I’m aware of…. there seemed to be plenty of interest too. Good luck to them.
Another new to me exhibitor was mobile mechanic brand called VonCrank. I know this is a rapidly growing model in other countries (in part driven by the rise of companies like Wiggle etc) and it was interesting to see a repair van, with a very slick workshop on board.
And of course, I loved the e-cargo bike….
If you attended the show, what were your favourites or biggest disappointments? Please let me know in the comments
Thanks for reading!