Excel bike show

[barrycoll]

Just come back from a few hours at Excel, and its more tiring than a country ride...

Had the pleasure of meeting Dave on the Kudos stand, and a charming bloke he is. All of his new kit was there, and I had a few laps of the test track on his new centre drive Ibex.
Very impressive bike, and maybe not in the same league for fit and finish as my KTM, but for the price it must surely be a winner. If I would have waited to test this bike, I just may not have spent the extra dosh for a Bosch drive.
Unpowered it feels very good, with all the extra weight central and low. I don't know what size frame he has as a demo, but fitted me just fine.
The track is dead smooth, but with some quite long straights, and it really surprised me to see that I was doing about 34km/hr, in level 3 (of 5!!).....so I got the feeling that it was an "illegal", for demo purposes, but I was later assured that it is street kosher by Dave. The motor was quiet, and power came on smoothly and very responsively, and I would have been hard pressed to know whether it was Bosch or Unknown. Good hydraulic discs to get you round the end bits too.
So for those folks lusting after a centre drive delivered in a pretty good all round package, then for £1295 ( before haggling...ha-ha) this supplies the goods.
Momentum had a stand, and so did Gocycle, but Dave's were the only 'proper' bikes

The above figure of £1295 was almost a slumming-it embarrassment when looking at all the other stands, as £4-5K was not an exceptional figure in the upmarket unpowered manufacturers, and Piranello seemed to have "from £9,999" on all their bikes.

But my impression was that style was the main thrust of the show, whether it was clothes, Jag Shooting Brake/ BMW transporter, or the bikes them selves.
On the other hand there were lots of freeby food nibbles, that were impossibly morish, and negated the need for DIY sarnies

 

[iain85]

I'm off there tommorow and hope to try the new kudos bikes. Are Haibike and ktm not there? Shame if not

 

[eddieo]

Thanks Barry...bike sounds promising, does it have a throttle? what other e bike brands where there plse....might pop along at weekend if its still on..

 

[103Alex1]

Is there much cheap cycle clothing up there ? Got some top notch gear for 75% off at NEC with haggling.

Is there a Kudos Tornado to test and can you test road bikes too ? So hard for me to get on any round here (none of the shops will let you test ride bikes locally, which when they are asking £2k+ for a half-decent spec road bike is bonkers. Who is going to fork that out on a wing and a prayer unless very very daft).

 

[superDove]

Not ebike related! but I'm helping out on the Bike Radar stand tomorrow 11am-2pm and should be there Sunday all day if any Pedelecs members want to say hello!

James

 

[Kudoscycles]

I was pleasantly surprised how big the tesk track is at the Excel,its all indoors and has some twisty bits-well done to the organisers they have done a good job. Nice to meet Barry and others from the Pedelec site. I think it unlikely we will fit a throttle to the Ibex bike,the electronics make it difficult. There are all of the Kudos bikes available to test including the Arriba,Tornado,Cobra and Ibex(crank drive).
Dave
Kudoscycles

 

[103Alex1]

Must admit it's tempting to come up to London for this and have a bosh about on the Kudos bikes to see how they ride. The thing about those test tracks though is whilst they may be perfect for the time-trial obsessed lycra crew, the bit which really interests me is how bikes (both eBikes and road bikes) climb up long sustained hills or in the case of MTBs, how they ride off road. The only way to know that is to test them out on the road or get them mucky as the case may be. So probably not going to come away any the wiser about the stress-test aspects which matter most.

It's a long way to travel and a lot of money to look at shiny new toys ! Boat show entry might just swing it though ... hard to stay focused on things with wheels when there are shiny new inboards and white leather interiors to fall over lusting after ...

 

[hoppy]

Super disappointing if no throttle on Ibex as previously promised.No chance of me buying one without.Tonaro with throttle works fine.

 

[barrycoll]

there is no cheap clothing, or cheap anything(!) at the show......and the best value entrance ticket seems to be the ticket touts who are very low key, whispering something about £10 tickets, (or maybe dirty magazines)...but the very best value by far was the free protein bars

there is a throttle on the Arriba Hoppy, and it works with the torque sensor rear motor, rather than a basic cadence pedelec.....very nicely equipped bike

yes, very strange that Haibike, and the other upmarket brands are not exhibiting

 

[TobyAnscombe]

I'll be there on sunday, probably with the brood in tow..

Will swing by Dave to say thanks for the ticket and James to say Hi...

Any enterprising person selling winter tyres? could do with some marathon winters with added studs for next weeks commute ;-)

 

[eddieo]

So can anyone please share what e bikes are on show? As exhibitor list reveals not much at all.....

 

[Kudoscycles]

So can anyone please share what e bikes are on show? As exhibitor list reveals not much at all.....

Eddie...
I think the following is a full list,
Gocycle
Momentum
EzRider
AtoB-Bike Republic
Kudos
another MTB style,didn't catch their name.
Dave
Kudoscycles

 

[103Alex1]

there is no cheap clothing, or cheap anything(!) at the show......

A world away from the Birmingham exhibition then ! Snow has killed it for me.... well, that and the arrival of a battery and other kit bits to keep me fiddling away all weekend ! It'll take more than a few free protein bars to cover the £50 train ticket, entry fee, cancelled trains and travel chaos !

Any enterprising person selling winter tyres? could do with some marathon winters with added studs for next weeks commute ;-)

26" or 700C ?

 

[indalo]

So can anyone please share what e bikes are on show? As exhibitor list reveals not much at all.....

Glad you asked Eddie! I trawled through the website last evening and in the absence of many of the bikes I'm interested in plus the cost of travel and tickets, I've decided to give it a miss.

Credit to Dave Elderfield for taking advantage of such a big venue at this time of year and I hope he's rewarded handsomely in the shape of orders for his 2013 range. I couldn't find too much to fault in the spec of his previous offerings except perhaps for some of the styles and the weight. Those issues seem to have been addressed this year and the prices are still keen so fair play to him.

Only a hands-on ride on electric bikes serves to inform opinion properly but I'll speculate, (fool that I am) and suggest that the new models offer 90% of the ability of high-end machines for about 50% of the cost. I'll be interested to see some owner feedback in due course.

Indalo

 

[TobyAnscombe]

A world away from the Birmingham exhibition then ! Snow has killed it for me.... well, that and the arrival of a battery and other kit bits to keep me fiddling away all weekend ! It'll take more than a few free protein bars to cover the £50 train ticket, entry fee, cancelled trains and travel chaos !

26" or 700C ?

700Cx40 - just ordered some to arrive Monday; can't do another week without the bike....

 

[Kudoscycles]

Try to give an honest assessment of the show. The weather locally is ok,very little snow and most transport including the DLR is fully operating.
The show is lacking numbers of ebike suppliers which is a shame-the BEBA lot seems to have made the decision not to exhibit.
I must say that Kudos is having a brilliant show. I have 2 guys working constantly adjacent to the test track and we have 9 bikes available to test,the Ibex crank drive is very popular to test and compare with the Arriba torque sensor bike.
For me the great advantage of this show is that it is combined with the Boat show and Travel show,so people who have never considered an ebike before and certainly never had an opportunity to test an ebike are taking advantage of asking basic questions on the stand and trying an ebike for the first time-pedelec virgins!!!!
The guys on the Gocycle stand next to me seem pleased with their attendance.
I looked at this show 2 years ago and was quite dissappointed,it has improved a lot since that date.
However,if your prime motive of attending a cycle show is to try as many ebikes as possible you may be better at coming to our Redbridge event in April.
Dave
Kudoscycles

 

[iain85]

I attended yesterday with my brother in law who is a keen roadie and enjoyed the show. It was a shame that a lot of the larger manufacturers were not present but all in all a good show.
We both tried all of the electric bikes on show and really enjoyed the crank drive kudos bike and the go cycle. Unfortunately a lot of the manufacturers were quite strict with the 15mph rule while a few were quite open to let their bikes 'breath'. Eg go cycle which was the fastest bike by far on 'Swiss' mode. They claimed 28mph.
Whilst the test track was a fair size naturally it was completely flat so no impression of how the bikes handled hills.
Have to say Dave from Kudos seemed a thoroughly nice chap and sorry we didn't get back to report about the crank drive bike test ride went but when we went back you wasn't around. Suffice to say we thought it was very good and smooth.
All in all a decent show but no bargains to be had s far as I could see.

 

[TobyAnscombe]

So, today started with a nice walk through epping forest with the kids and then off to the show.. car parking was a bit of a mare but to be expected...

Boat show - stuck my head round the door and scurried back quickly due to cost

Adventure show - been a couple of years as we (before kids) used to do some pretty interesting holidays and trips; what was avant garde 10 years ago is now mainstream but I guess that is to be expected.

Bike show - Wandered by Kudos stand first to say thanks to Dave; had a quick chat about 'stuff' and will probably come over to Redbridge when he runs his next event. Then swung by the Bike Radar stand to try to see James (apparently there was only one!) but every time we tried he seemed to have people with him. I had the monster pushchair thats actually the kids bike trailer...

Show was nice to wander around. Madison had the biggest 'retail' store and Rachel managed to pick up some new gloves and overshoes for 40% off so she was happy.. The track looked busy - The Go-Cycles seemed to be rather quite nice and if I lived nearer to town I would give it some thought. Kudos (Dave) had some nice looking bikes and although I didn't get a chance to try the Ibex for the money it looks like a great bike and seemed to be going down well whenever I saw it on the track.

Lots of comments on the Chariot trailer; when we compared it to the Burleys that were on one of the stands it was chalk and cheese - I have no idea how you woud get two kids into the Burley....

By about 2pm the kids were playing up so a quick wander back around and then off homeward; decent day out and the wallet didn't have to come out too often, which is a bonus ;-)

 

[Martin@e-bikeshop]

I'm off there tommorow and hope to try the new kudos bikes. Are Haibike and ktm not there? Shame if not

Ian..

Haibike weren't there because they haven't even reached the country yet, the first chance to view them will be with me at Dave's event in redbridge early march..

Martin

 

[Kudoscycles]

Ian..

Haibike weren't there because they haven't even reached the country yet, the first chance to view them will be with me at Dave's event in redbridge early march..

Martin

Martin,April 7,Sunday afternoon for the Redbridge event.
The suppliers list is now full.
GoCycles
EZ Riders
Momentum
Green Zebra Cycles
Petersfield Cycles (Haibike)
BH Emotion Bikes
Powerpedals (Tonaro)
Woosh
Kudos
Cyclezee
Plus Sustrans,Cyclecharge,Electric Bike mag,BikeBiz.
Dave
Kudoscycles