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IceBike 2007
8th March 2007 - James
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I'm sure you all know of Core Bike, InterBike, EuroBike.. etcetera. Well new to the board is IceBike, the new Madison trade show, there may not be the big announcements but its a great opportunity to get all their products together in one place as well as many different bike shops, manufacturers and a handful of press!
There were a few things which caught our eye at the show, so without further ado..
First thing that caught my eye was the new Atherton Commencal Supreme DH bike, in fetching white baby blue and zebra print! The zebra is something to do with Animals 20th anniversary.
Also for Commencal is a new Meta 6, with a much different swingarm, similar to the Meta 5.5 pictured below but with the swingarm is a single piece, almost Orange-esque.
The Athertons have it made, brilliant bikes, racing all over the world and a pimp van, what more could you want?
A big buzzword for 2007 is XTR, what will it be like? Can it beat X.0 down? Well, its got the looks to do it. And its across the range, brakes, crank sets, shifters and discs all get the XTR treatment.
It even gets a devilish image.
The new Shimano DXR BMX crankset looks very solid and unbreakable, a personal favourite of ours is the Hone crankset, but it seems the range is expanding fast.
Giro have a decent range of colours for 07, this baby blue certainly catches the eye, i'm not into fashion but there certainly seems to be a theme going along here?
A sneaky 08 fact, Giro will be releasing this design on ALL their helmets! (No, not really...damn!)
Did you ever wonder how your helmet came to be? I certainly didn't know that within all the foam, there was carbon fibre and plastic reinforcement to ensure your bonce stays in one piece? This is a mould of the helmet during the design stage.
DT Swiss pump out some of the nicest hubs and rims going, from their factory they produce the whole lot, what's the key to a perfect rim? A round rim, funnily enough - apparently some of the other manufacturers fail to do this?
Thor have come out with a quite a nice range of jerseys, which are quite pleasing to the eye and also have good attention to detail.
Formula Brakes have a very understated image, this echoes the design of the parts themselves, very sleek and minimalistic which fit in very well around an X.9 mech. Good design has gone into making the cockpit as stress free as possible.
Manitou has had some problems recently, but for 2008 the products step up to another level. We can't say anything yet, but the future is looking bright! Having said that, there is a strong line of products out now, and they all passed the car park squidge test.
The hydration pack market is seemingly taken over by the likes of Camelbak, but HydraPak is a relatively new and very exciting product, it has a water bladder which you can turn inside out, to make cleaning much easier, the hose can be easily disconnected, the packs have very innovative solutions to common problems, and the construction seems solid. Obviously until I put one to the test we cant really say anything about how it fares, but it looks very promising.
If you're into clipping in, Shimano have come up with a new concept for fitting your slippers precisely. Basically they heat the shoe up, suck all the air out once you've got it on your foot, which then moulds it exactly, more comfort which makes it easier to get the power down. I wonder if Five.Ten are taking notes?...
Last but not least, Park Tool had their own workshop with wrenching competitions and walls covered in expensive tools, just like a little bike related Aladdin's Cave!
Lubrication, anyone?
If this has tingled your purse strings go take a look at Ultimate Pursuits to find out more and for a shop near you..
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