The Big Show in Taipei
Ever wonder where kickstands come from, or what company REALLY makes your favorite product? Most of the parts on your bike were most likely manufactured in Taiwan, and the root of the manufacturing and everything associated to it comes out of the Taipei Bike Show in Taiwan. Every year, thousands of companies, manufacturers and product managers flock to this show to see what new technology is coming out, and OE suppliers are busy organizing what bikes you're going to be riding next year.Between Eurobike, Interbike and the Taipei show, Taipei is a lot more manufacturing-based. Based on my experience with all three trade shows, both Eurobike and Interbike are much more marketing-based, with mechanics and bicycle enthusiasts coming in to meet their favorite pros and ogle over the bikes that will be released in a few short months. It's common to see almost every pro rider in the world wandering around the shows. Taipei is much more about the business of producing bikes, and you won't catch anyone signing autographs in a booth.
That being said, there is a lot of cool new stuff to see in Taipei. What you see at the other two trade shows are concepts and new bikes that are ready for release. In Taipei, you can see stuff that might not actually hit the market for another year or two. You'll see a concept or new product from a company which catches the attention of product managers, but it may take a while to implement that concept into a design or properly test it with a quick turnaround. Taipei is a glimpse into the future!
I ran into a lot of familiar faces in Taiwan, one of which was Doug Stuart from Corsair Bikes. He was working on some upcoming stuff for Corsair and was kind enough to reveal the new Corsair Crown DH bike. I believe this is the first Crown frame in production, so these may be the first actual photos of the bike. It wasn't totally built up yet, but that didn't stop me from drooling all over it. The attention to detail on this bike is mental.
Doug also had the Konig (slopestyle) and Maelstrom (Freeride) bikes on hand, so I snapped a few pics of those as well. Those two bikes were featured at Interbike this past year, but they have been refined and Doug was showing them in their complete version. I'm not sure what the prices are on any of these bikes, but this is what will show up on the bike shop floors very soon.
RST also came out swinging with some fresh product that turned a lot of heads at the Taipei show. RST has been building their higher end products over the past few years, and this year they revealed the F1RST Platinum which is a 1.45kg (3.1 lbs) XC fork. They also showed a new rear shock, a direct-mount crown for the R-1 downhill fork, and some other revisions to existing product.
All in all, the Taipei show was worth the visit. It was interesting to see the other side of the bike industry and more of the behind-the- scenes product stuff.
-Aaron and the Summer of Shred.
That being said, there is a lot of cool new stuff to see in Taipei. What you see at the other two trade shows are concepts and new bikes that are ready for release. In Taipei, you can see stuff that might not actually hit the market for another year or two. You'll see a concept or new product from a company which catches the attention of product managers, but it may take a while to implement that concept into a design or properly test it with a quick turnaround. Taipei is a glimpse into the future!
I ran into a lot of familiar faces in Taiwan, one of which was Doug Stuart from Corsair Bikes. He was working on some upcoming stuff for Corsair and was kind enough to reveal the new Corsair Crown DH bike. I believe this is the first Crown frame in production, so these may be the first actual photos of the bike. It wasn't totally built up yet, but that didn't stop me from drooling all over it. The attention to detail on this bike is mental.
Doug also had the Konig (slopestyle) and Maelstrom (Freeride) bikes on hand, so I snapped a few pics of those as well. Those two bikes were featured at Interbike this past year, but they have been refined and Doug was showing them in their complete version. I'm not sure what the prices are on any of these bikes, but this is what will show up on the bike shop floors very soon.
RST also came out swinging with some fresh product that turned a lot of heads at the Taipei show. RST has been building their higher end products over the past few years, and this year they revealed the F1RST Platinum which is a 1.45kg (3.1 lbs) XC fork. They also showed a new rear shock, a direct-mount crown for the R-1 downhill fork, and some other revisions to existing product.
SRAM also had some new product on display, particularly the "Boobars" and the next color for the Argyles...purple.
All in all, the Taipei show was worth the visit. It was interesting to see the other side of the bike industry and more of the behind-the- scenes product stuff.
-Aaron and the Summer of Shred.
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every single part on a bike is colored, so why not buy a part in a color that you like?
check out there site to be sure
http://www.corsairbikes.com/
However i love that purple, and its really close to the purple i see other companies using, 3 cheers for colorful bikes!
If you want to follow bad trends just run deity parts, run to long of a fork, and then to worsen it run 3" riser bars no less than 30" wide, then make your cables to damn long and use 8000 cable ties. Perfect!
I want some purple for my bike.