- Gravel is a really big thing
here at the Taipei Cycle Show.
I mean, not literally, of course.
Most of it is carpet.
But what I mean is gravel bikes and equipment
for gravel riding, or all-road, or bikepacking,
or adventure cycling.
Whatever you want to call it.
There is loads of great new tech for this emerging genre.
(upbeat music)
- Now here's an interesting conundrum.
Should this bike be on GCN or GMBN?
Well, the manufacturers, APRO,
say it should probably be on GCN
because, although it has full suspension,
and it is effectively a cross-country mountain bike,
they say it's got road bike geometry.
Therefore, it makes it a road bike,
or, in this case, in fact,
a gravel bike. The Gravel 80.
It's got 80 mil of travel, front and back.
It's their own proprietary shocks.
And the reason they manage to keep
road bike geometry on here
is cause they've used the smaller 27.5 inch wheel diameter.
So smaller than our usual 700c wheels,
but the bigger tyres effectively
keep the wheel diameter the same, then.
And so, like I said, it's an interesting conundrum.
Is it a mountain bike? Is it a road bike?
Or is this just the ultimate gravel bike?
You decide.
Also from Topeak, they have their new bikepacking series.
So behind me on the bike here,
you can get a total of 24 1/2 litres of storage.
This bit is the backloader, this the midloader,
the toploader, and then this here, the frontloader.
Now each one has been designed
with a different item in mind that you're gonna carry.
So up front, you might have something bulky
like your sleeping bag or your tent.
Then this, the toploader
has got a built-in waterproof cover that you can pull over.
So they're thinking you probably have
your smart phone in there or something.
And then the back loader here
would be great for carrying items that you can compress.
So maybe like your spare clothes and things.
Cause they've got a built-in
ah, compression sack
with an air-release valve there so you can compress it,
lock the air off,
and suddenly your clothes are half the size.
And this saddlebag here has got a plastic support there,
so that's what gives it its shape.
Isn't it funny how
a large saddle bag might not be that cool,
but an enormous saddlebag suddenly becomes cool again.
I like that.
Lezyne recently released this,
their micro GPS watch,
which they say is a cycling watch.
It has AMP plus bluetooth connectivity,
so you can connect up any kind of sensor that you want.
And it will, of course, through GPS,
give you your speed and so forth,
that then, the cool bit,
is what they're releasing here at the show,
which is their route planning function.
So on the laptop behind me is the Lezyne website,
which will now give you a route planning function,
fully formed.
And then, they also have a new app,
so you will be able to send your routes
from your online account to your phone,
and then your phone communicates via bluetooth
with your watch or your other GPS unit,
and then you can get you route on there,
giving you turn-by-turn instructions.
An emerging trend in the adventure
and gravel bike category
is the ability to swap different size wheels
in the same frame.
Unfortunately though, until now,
has been the preserve of really high-end bikes.
But Ridley are about to change that.
This is their X-Trail behind me,
and it's the new version.
Gonna be available in June this year.
And it brings that interchangeable wheel
down to a much lower price point.
It's got an aluminium frame and a SRAM Apex drivetrain.
And this one here, the Adventure model,
has, as you can see 650b wheels.
And so the rim diameter is much smaller,
but then you fit really fat tyres on it
to actually keep the overall diameter in there
for the handling of the bike.
Very much like a road bike,
but you get genuine off road capability
because you've actually got, effectively,
mountain bike tyres on there.
And the one behind it, still an X-Trail, the yellow one.
But that, as you can see is a bit more of a road version.
It's got a two by drivetrain instead of a one by,
and it's also got 700-C wheels.
See that is gonna be particularly interesting,
but then behind me,
this cyclecross season may just have finished,
but I can still get excited about next year.
This is the X-Night SL.
So they've managed to make it
even lighter than the previous version.
They've stripped out 150 grammes off it.
And I must say I enjoy having conversations with Belgians
about cyclecross geometry.
They say that this one has proper, true
Belgian cyclecross geometry,
and they're not changing and going to
the more new school American style of geometry.
And, fair enough, they say that that is what
Belgian crossriders want.
And it's hard to argue with that
because they are pretty fast.
Now tear your eyes, if you can,
away from that absolute work of art frame next to me,
and instead look at the wheels
because they're shod with
WTB's brand new exposure Exposure 32 tyres.
To put them in some kind of context,
look at the three in front of me.
So last year, WTB launched their new
premium range of road tyres, the Exposures.
So this one, the 30 is obviously a road slick,
but a fat one. It's 30 c wide.
It's got 120 threads per inch, and it weighs 350 grammes.
Then at the same time, they also launched this one here,
which, as you can see, is a much more all road tyre.
It's exposure 34.
And as well as being pretty much slick in the middle,
It's got quite a lot of tread on the outsides.
If you're riding in loose conditions,
i.e. gravel,
and you lean the bike over, then something's gonna grip.
But, predictably perhaps,
this being the bike in the street,
people wanted something in the middle.
And so, this year, brand new, the Exposure 32,
which does indeed plug that gap.
It's not quite as slick as the Roadslick
and not quite as nobbly as the 34,
meaning that you have potentially your Goldilocks road tyre.
Now you might have to use your imagination here
because we're missing quite a lot of bike,
but this could well be the answer to anyone
wanting to carry loads of stuff,
but yet still ride a lightweight and fast road bike,
because this is the tail fin.
and it is effectively a pannier system.
That means that you don't need a specific touring bike.
You don't need any bosses of any kind,
and you could well use your super-light carbon frame.
You may recognise it from a GCN show,
probably over a year ago now,
and we covered it
just as they were launching their Kickstarter campaign,
and here they are, Tailfin,
having just won an award at the Taipei Cycle Show.
And if you don't remember that GCN show,
then the way it works is that you replace your quick release
with Tailfin's heavier duty quick release,
and then that allows the carbon arch here
to mount on the bike.
Then it's braced with this arm here
that goes around your seat tube.
And then you use Tailfin's dedicated paniers.
You can carry up to 18 kilos of weight.
And all-in-all with two paniers
and also the rack there as well,
adds only 1100 grammes to your super lightweight bike.
That is a possible genuine fast touring option.
Now if ever there was a cool way to leave a bike show,
it is like this bike,
which is going to Nepal for 2 1/2 weeks with its owner
bikepacking.
That sounds quite nice, doesn't it?
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