Cycle Show 2010

whos the guy in green t-shirt?

That is the supreme Eggpie. A truly wonderful man.

USE who make Exposure Lights, were showing off a new rear light - the Flare. Its £40, but really puts out a huge red flare of light. Even in the bright open spaces of the Cycle Show, a red beam could still be projected onto the ground, from a height of about 4-5 feet. Very impressive. The snap-on fitting looks strong, but I'd still add tape to it as when its wet and being bounced around, I wouldn't want my £40 ending up in some other lucky basket's hands.

1 Attachment

USE who make Exposure Lights, were showing off a new rear light - the Flare. Its £40, but really puts out a huge red flare of light. Even in the bright open spaces of the Cycle Show, a red beam could still be projected onto the ground, from a height of about 4-5 feet. Very impressive. The snap-on fitting looks strong, but I'd still add tape to it as when its wet and being bounced around, I wouldn't want my £40 ending up in some other lucky basket's hands.

I almost bought them! But then I really don't use lights anywhere so didn't ;)

USE are going to send me one to try out. When (or if) I get it I'll give it a whirl and review it. With a lot of the stuff people have said they'll send me I'll probably give them away on the forum through small competitions or prizes for things as I have way too much bike stuff in my flat already.

Timelapse!

YouTube - bicycleimages photo mosaic

Oops. Roxy repost....

So how was the interest in Belk and Levrier? Were they priced up on the stand? Were there any other bag makers showing their wares at the show?

Though I wasn't at the show long, I did try to have a good look around. BigFishBikes are a new folding bike company. I didn't really get their product though. It seems heavier than some others, and doesn't seem to offer anything very different to what is already available.

The Kemper - Pedersen stand was gorgeous. I could hardly leave it.

Schwalbe had a new tyre - the Durano Skid. Something I think that needs to suffer under MaxCrowe.
Specifically designed with lots of extra rubber depth. For that reason, it is very puncture resistant, but thats not its design remit.

Their standard Durano now comes in new colours, including brown and also green.

Bernds offer a steel-framed folding bike. No fg/ss, but it is very customisable. I liked this version from their website.

So how was the interest in Belk and Levrier? Were they priced up on the stand? Were there any other bag makers showing their wares at the show?

Good interest.

Anyone interested in Belk were given a card and walked through the features. Focus was given to Belk for anyone who even suggested that they preferred backpacks.

The Levrier went down very well as it's light when empty and is a really nice simple bag at a good price. The only feedback that kept coming back about the Levrier was that the compression straps were also the main closing straps and this means that over-sized loads are hard to secure. So I'm going to feed that back.

Couldn't see other bag manufacturers beyond Brooks and Carradice. The Brooks stall was weird, the Carradice was the same as every year.

I think both Belk and Levrier will have gotten a few orders out of the show, some people came specifically to look at those bags because they were on the fence. They left convinced.

great pic there sumo, Reppin' the save HH Velo spokey, who's brilliant idea was that ;)

Awesome news.
Dan is doing things his own way, which i respect. He's not the only bag maker using combined compression and flap straps either...I have my own opinions on why I wouldn't do it, but it wouldn't do for us all to do things the same way.
The more bags a company makes, the more ideas you get, so no doubt he'll be fine tuning several aspects of the bags over the course of time.

As far as i know, Belk are the only UK company currently making handmade backpacks, at least hard-wearing ones anyway, at the moment, so great to see them getting good exposure too.

All in all it sounds like a positive outcome for the UK handmade bag business.
Today London...tomorrow the world!
:]

AMAZING time lapse vid of the wall creation. VERY innovative and eye catching!

Thanks man - that's good to know.

I have been doing the compression/closing thing to keep it simple - very much a design choice, as my first bags had several separate compression straps and I found i was faffing around doing them up/undoing them.

I really take it on-board though about oversize loads - I think I will look to add some strap extenders with the bags to take care of that (can be stashed away and only need to be added when you do have an oversize load)

Interesting to see that people think its not too heavy - that's always been a concern of mine, that you end up carrying a lot of weight just in the bag itself (a standard Greyhound weighs around 1.7kg btw) and its not something that other manufacturers seem to list in their specs, which is a shame. Having said that neither do I, although I am planning on adding weights and also offering lighter weight fabrics (although hopefully not any less durable)

Belk definitely shifted a fair few business cards that I saw, The Levrier looked good, and having used it to shift a metric tonne of spoke cards while packing down last night it would be good to have an x-strap for really heavy loads, but other than that I liked the design.

haha - had I known it was going to be used for that I would have added one :)
I am pleased to hear it found some use.

Hopefully 2O11 will be a good year for the UK handmade bag business. ;]

They pass through a loop on the bottom of the bag - so no need for the secondary clips :)

edit - that was in answer to whether you needed secondary clips to use the compression straps..

They pass through a loop on the bottom of the bag - so no need for the secondary clips :)

I know, but then they can only attach to the flap right?

yes - but they still hold the bag compressed under only the velcro- or are we talking cross purposes?

My point was...it means you can't compress the base of the bag without attaching the clips to the flap right?
A lot of people i know prefer to rely on just the velcro to hold the flap closed. :]

Or are you relying on the loops to pull against the clips?

Thats what I thought - you can compress the base of the bag without attaching the clips to the flap due to the loops that catch the buckles towards the front of the base of the bag.

edit - yeah you got it.

Bag Geeks >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

Thats what I thought - you can compress the base of the bag without attaching the clips to the flap due to the loops that catch the buckles towards the front of the base of the bag.

edit - yeah you got it.

Hmm...I'm gonna keep my opinions to myself on this one i think. :]

As i said...wouldn't do for us all to do things the same way. ;]

I went yesterday and loved the stand but was pretty disapointed with the rest of the show.

I really wanted to see BMC (expecially their new 2011 frames). It was quite fun to see some of the creations that don't make it into the normal bike retailers (some for good reason).