London Bike Show

My mate Steve had organised some tickets for the London Bike Show held at the Excel centre over the weekend of 19th/20th January, this was a chance to see some ‘real’ cyclists close up and dribble over the expensive bikes on display.

I am no fan of the city and was not looking forward to all the travel.  We took a train from Didcot to Paddington and then the underground to hook up with the Docklands Light Railway. We arrived around 10.30am and proceeded to have a quick look around the stands to see what was about. The Outdoor Show and The Boat Show were also happening, this made things very busy.

Satisfied that we could find our way around most of the stands, we opted for an early lunch of pie and mash, a dish we enjoyed at the Blenheim off road event last year. We first visited Pinarello with their Team Sky bike a tad under £15,000; the formidable engineering and sheer good looks of the bike were amazing. With bank balances unable to cope with this kind of thing, we repeated the look-but-don’t-touch-or-buy scenario at most of the other stands we visited during the day.

Having entered a competition on the Brompton stand (fold-up bike manufacturer) to win a VIP trip around their factory, we made our way to the indoor track for the Brompton race. The Le Mans style start was interesting, competitors ran 50m’s from the start line to their bikes, unfolded them and whizzed around the track for 10 laps. The dress code was a shirt and tie as mandatory to reflect the commuting connection with Brompton. Not to be outdone, Steve and I had a quick ride around on one of the demo Brompton’s; I imagine they take a bit of getting used to.

The highlight of the day for me was the pro teams’ race. The race was 30 minutes in duration and, after getting the measure of the tight, indoor corners on lap one, the riders were pretty much flat out for after that. There was really nothing to the riders but they have huge engines, I would be happy with a 10^th of their stamina.

A great day out, looking forward to next year already!

Further reading…..

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