(muted crowd noise)
- Ah.
Morning.
(grunts)
Tell you what, I should really have brought a sleeping bag.
Clearly an amateur at this bike-packing malarkey.
Right, day two at the Taipei Cycle Show.
Need to find some breakfast and then,
we're gonna go look for some more
awesome tech.
(techno music)
Just stopped by at our friends at Kask,
'cause I wanted to check out their new glasses.
Now strictly speaking these are not Kask, they are Koo,
which is their new sister brand, but,
well, partial to these.
We saw them a while ago, actually,
but they first hit the shelves in December.
Hopefully I can carry these off and do them justice.
Made in Italy, Zeiss lenses, but
Kask really know what cyclists want and that
is the ability to match your glasses
with your helmet.
See?
Over the straps, naturally.
SpeedX have caused quite a stir on the market
since they launched a short time ago,
in part, because the bikes are so keenly priced,
but then also,
because their admirable determinations
about their own smart tech.
Now this one next to me here is the Unicorn,
which is still very much in a prototype stage.
It's got their famous head unit,
but then they're also developing this,
which is their new, own powermeter.
Now, as I said, it's a prototype,
hence the rotor cranks and the FSA chain rings,
but the important bit, the guts of this, are all their own.
Details are a little bit sketchy,
but perhaps, given that it's a SpeedX,
the important thing is that this whole bike,
with Ultegra Di2, and powermeter,
is just $3,400 they think,
and it's gonna start shipping in early May,
and then there will be two above this,
including one with SRAM RED eTap HRD.
(techno music)
If e-bikes leave you a little bit confused
as to whether or not they are road bikes
or, indeed, motorbikes, then this one
is gonna blur that boundary even more.
It's CoastCycles.
Now they've got a whole load of bikes in their range,
but I`ve gravitated toward this one because,
they tell me, if you used it on the road,
it would be highly illegal.
It`s got a thousand watt motor on there,
and unlike most pedal-assist bikes,
you actually don't need to pedal at all if you don't wish.
You could just sit there, pull the throttle,
and you've got a thousand watts at your disposal.
That is cool.
Hey, tech geeks!
Come over here.
This is really good, right?
We're at the Jagwire stand.
So they're the kind of cable and housing specialists.
And this is really good.
There's quite a lot of weight in your gear cables,
and so Jagwire have managed to strip out
50% of that weight,
making it potentially one of the most
cost-effective weight savings out there.
So for weight weenies, listen up right?
So this is a standard gear cable outer.
Loads of steel in there.
And so what they've done is effectively
removed most of that steel and instead of having it
in like longitudinal waves,
they've actually kind of braided it,
but then sort of incorporated it
into the actual polymer liner,
meaning that it wouldn't be strong enough for brakes
but for gear cables it's perfect.
And you could save, potentially, 50g for 40 Euros.
So yeah, weight weenies, told you that was good.
But then, it gets better.
So this is the inner that goes in there,
and instead of having a coating on there
that Jagwire says wears off after a while,
they might have a point,
they've actually polished the liner,
so it doesn't need a coating on it,
it is just really slippery.
I don't know what it feels like on a bike,
but that feels very slippery.
Mid-show ride, courtesy of Swift.
We`ve just stopped by at Santini`s booth.
Check this out, released actually in time for the show here,
is, of course, Giro d`Italia leader`s jersey for this year.
And given that it`s the Hundredth edition
of the Giro this is a very celebratory
and special jersey.
Quite clean looking, I think you`ll agree,
but, for such a special anniversary,
you`ve got gold accents.
That`s cool.
Diavelo have long been industry pioneers of e-bikes,
in fact, they`ve been around for 10 years.
This though, is a brand new model,
it`s called the Virtuale,
and as you can see, definitely a road bike.
Down that downtube there is the motor and the battery,
it kicks out 250 watts, but it`s limited to that,
and it will give you 400 watt hours.
So, at 250 watts that`s, what, a shade under two hours.
Best thing about that though, is it weighs just 14 kilos,
so that`s less than 30 pounds.
For an electric bike, that`s pretty good.
But, can I just say, my favourite is down here.
So they`ve got a collaboration with Pininfarina,
who are the automotive design house,
and this is their brand new one,
the Evoluzione, and that,
if you were going to commute on an e-bike,
you`d be hard pushed to top that.
That is very cool.
I`ve just stopped by at the Ergon booth.
Now you might be more familiar with the brand
if you come from a Mountain Bike background,
they do loads of saddles, grips and,
brilliantly for me and Lloydy,
they still make bar ends.
But these caught my eye from a road perspective.
So they`re their brand new insoles,
and this, this is really what drew me in.
More performance, yes please,
more comfort, yep,
and increased power transfer.
Sounds like a bonus.
And they way they`ve done it is
by putting this quite stiff insole in your shoe,
and it builds up the outer edge of your forefoot,
drops your big toe, and then it supports your ankle.
And apparently, that is what is going to
give you those three things.
So that was interesting.
Is this the longest chain in the world?
We stopped by at Profile Design,
'cause we heard they had something new,
and here it is.
Sure enough, it's the Aeria Ultimate Cockpit.
Now clearly, unmistakably, a time trial
and triathlon specific bar and stem.
The stem is new for the Aeria range,
you can see there,
that is a seriously aero looking stem,
but it's not a one piece, which is great,
so you still get that adjustability.
And adjustability is by all accounts
the key to this set up.
So even, in fact,
this is quite a lot of torsion going on here,
you can see that the actual extensions
can be adjusted on the base bar.
Now that is a pretty novel thing there.
So you can have your extensions flipped up,
and your base bar still at its most aerodynamic position.
Well, I tell you what,
I am definitely not staying in a tent again tonight.
I've go a hotel, and I've also got my transport.
This is a STRiDA folding bike,
with a belt drive in fact.
Now, the first thing you need to do right now
is subscribe to GCN, if you haven't already.
It's very simple.
To do it, just click on the globe.
And then, if you're after more videos,
well yesterday's video from here
at the Taipei Cycle Show is just one click away,
and it's just there.
Or, check out the GCN show this week.
Matt and Dan take you through
what is hot in the world of cycling,
it's just down there.