Some n-ice kit
You may think that Ice Bike is a funny name for a trade show in the Milton Keynes football stadium in February, but it’s now in its tenth year so it must be doing something right (and you should just be glad we weren’t at the neighbouring Ice Tackle show!).
Ice Bike is the annual show for Madison, the distributor that supplies Shimano, Gamut, Genesis and more, as well as producing some of its own stuff.
This year is the tenth anniversary of the show and exhibitors took the opportunity to show off some tasty kit. There were new helmets from Madison, Saracen’s first ever ebike, new protection products from Bliss and lots more.
Ice Bike is open free to the public on Saturday and Sunday and will include a visit from Manon Carpenter. If you haven’t been to a trade show before and you’re in area it could be worth a trip to oggle at some nice kit (and bag yourself a few freebies), although you can probably do the whole thing in about an hour. Here’s our highlights of what to look out for:
Saracen Juiced
Saracen has brought out its first ebike. This is the Juiced and although it is only suitable for light off-road use (basically canal paths) it does show that they are interested in the ebike market. It uses Shimano’s Steps battery and motor and is specced with an XT groupset.
If there is enough interest you can expect a full suspension ebike to be in the pipeline.
Madison Zenith helmet
Ice Bike was Madison’s opportunity to reveal its first ever helmet range. This is the Zenith helmet aimed at trail riders. It weighs 308 grams for a medium and will cost £79.99
Madison Trail Helmet
The Zenith is accompanied by the Trail, which is a lighter helmet for less aggressive use. It weights 256 grams and costs £44.99.
This is the first time Madison has dipped its toes into the helmet market so you can expect an enduro-style helmet to be developed in the near future
Madison Alpine Jersey
Madison has also made some subtle changes to its clothing line. This is one of the new Alpine jerseys that comes in a distinctive colour way and has a redesigned neck (£33).
Madison Flux Superlight
Finally from Madison is the Flux Superlight shell that weighs just 88 grams. It has a liner made from coffee beans and packs into its own sack (£64.99)
DT Swiss XMC 1200
In 2016 Madison will be stocking full DT Swiss wheelsets for the first time.
Our pick was the XMC 1200 carbon wheelset. Despite being an all-mountain wheelset, it actually only weighs 70 grams more than the XC versions (1340 vs 1410 grams).
DT Swiss has even been approached by British Cycling who want to use this wheelset on its Olympic cross country bikes. Price for a full wheelset will be £1,775.
DT Swiss OPM O.D.L 100 Race
DT Swiss is also upping its suspension game for 2016.
Its carbon forks are used by cross country World Champion Nino Schurter who they reckon puts in more testing hours than anyone else in the mountain biking world. Apparently he used the same fork from March until Septmeber (including racing) without it being serviced once!
We’d recommend you stick to short travel forks from DT Swiss for the moment, however there are plans for it to release an oversized, enduro-style fork in the future that’s been three years in the making.
This DT Swiss OPM O.D.L 1100 Race comes in at £749.99
Bliss trail knee pad
This is a production sample of Bliss’ new trail kneepad.
The protective insert has been 3-D printed after Bliss scanned over 500 legs to find the ‘perfect’ knee. Expect it to surface later in the year.
Bliss Team kneepad
Bliss has also spent the past twelve months developing its gravity pads with the Madison Saracen team.
The Team uses the same technology as the trail ARG pad but with more durability.
Bliss Team protection
Bliss has also created corresponding body armour, elbow pads and padded shorts
Gamut podium pedal
It’s been teased for a while but the Gamut Podium pedal is now ready for riding. A claimed weight of 298 grams and a price of £109.99 makes it very competitive.
Gamut lightweight chainrings
Gamut has also brought out a range of XT 8000 and XTR 9000 compatible chainrings. They start as low as 38 grams for a 30T ring and claim to offer significantly more durability than the competition. They will cost £49.99
Continental Der Baron Projekt
Continental will be replacing its Der Baron tyre with the Der Baron Projekt. This is designed in conjunction with Dan Atherton and is intended for enduro use. Expect a Der Kaiser Projekt downhill tyre to appear soon too. The Der Baron costs £60 per tyre.
Shimano Tharsis bar and stem
Shimano didn’t have anything new to show but we liked this cut away Tharsis bar and stem combination that is designed to hide Di2 cables
Lazer Revolution helmet
We’ve covered the Lazer Revolution helmet before but it made its UK debut at Ice Bike. The helmet is the first ever to have a detachable chin bar that still passes the correct safety standards (subject to testing next week). It also has cusomisable ear pads for those that want them.
The helmet costs £100 (£120 with MIPS) and the chin bar will be sold separately with price tbc