Bike show at ExCell

Don't go

why?

Refuse to listen...... I'm off

The best thing about it was seeing Danny McAskill do some tricks. But the Bike Show was small and definitely just an add-on the outdoors and boat shows. Nowhere near as good as the Earls Court one.

The Outdoors Shows was a lot more interesting to me than the bike show!

The boat show was interesting too... totally obscene and decadent, but interesting.

It was sorry. I think Easton's ski pole division had a larger stand than Shimano, and Shimano didn't even have their new 2011 product on display or their entire product range.

It was basically Madison brands plus a few indie companies and shops who probably felt a bit pissed off in a chamber of ramblers*. Was in and out in 30 minutes and had a free ticket anyhoo.

*"Hey it's not all walking" "Yes it bloody is."

Earl's Court Cycle Show's future is uncertain and ExCeL's Bike Show is just starting out, I predict the two bike expos to swap over in size next year, but we shall see.

I had a good day, but as others have said it bike show was a tiny part of a bigger affair. The Skoda "cycling" stand was pretty depressing (and huge), meh.

Yes, we couldnt quite grasp why Skoda had associated themselves with a cycling event either. Very odd.

That venue would be good to have a polo tourney in, but LHBPA would need to do something like what they had today with the jumpers - someone on a mic for an expo game, explaining to duh general publick whats going on, how to play, and so forth.

Jono did you go at 10am?

Yep, we'll have a little recap tomorrow night. We already had a mic and sound system planned for this year, would've just needed someone to man it (Ray).

I know what you mean. The guys at Respro gave me a new HUMP backpack cover when I mentioned the reflective strips had fallen off mine - so I came away quite happy.

There is no Cycle Show at Earls Court next year it had moved to the NEC in Brum the ExCell show is the only one London will get now.

Skoda sponsor the Rapha and Raleigh teams and Tour of Britain.

Oh and if my memory serves Skoda have been used as the Tour de France caravan sponsor/car supplier for a good few years now.

They used to sponsor Félicia Ballanger, who subsequently drove a Skoda Felicia.

Come to think of it they've been the major sponsor on Le Tour for a while as the leaders jerseys always have Skoda branding.

They're sponsors of Euskadi Euskatel team too.

Thanks for the info on Skoda. But they still gave a large part of the space over to them to drive a car over the bumpy track, did you see that? That would have been great to have as a polo space. Fair enough though, you have to give the sponsors their prime real estate at events like that.

What is the deal with Earls Court?
I know the cycle show is up in the B'ham NEC in 2011, but I thought that was just a one off...
Why would it not be on there at all any more? Because its being redeveloped?

Yep EC is being flattened and it's to be th UK Cycle Show so I believe that the organisers wanted it to be more accessible to the whole country rather than being based in the most expensive part of it.

There are people that live outside of London? How unfortunate...

Not people, per se..

...EC is being flattened...

Jesus, I had no idea.

Yep they're just gonna sit Hippy on it and it'll be gone in a flash.

Get James "a bit wound up" and they'll be fine.

For those that did go, did anyone ride there? The cycle parking (at least on the Sunday) seemed to consist of a bunch of those temporary fence things normally used for marking out queue lines and such at big events. I think the idea was you lock your bike to one and hope it's still there when you come back! Compare that to the manned, ticketed and enclosed cycle park at the Earl's Court version. If I remember right, they even had a police presence at all times (possibly only to sell you a security tag subscription thing though).