As someone who has to attend many shows each year I wasn't ready for the intensity of Eurobike. There are literally bikes crossing from all directions,there must be contact but I must say I never saw a crash,the Germans are fast but good riders.
Bosch are going for world domination with their crank drive motor,every other stand had a Bosch powered e-bike-I rode a Cannondale Bosch-Alfine 8 'up the hill' it was an impressive hill climber but had the annoying habit of the power switching on/off immediately the 25kmh limit was bridged,not progressive at all...nice build quality but Euro 2799.00!
Another stand claimed big things for their programming and crank sensor,no name mentioned,I must say I couldn't tell any difference from a Kudos speed sensor bike and if anything my King bike was a better hill climber,I tried explaining that maybe it was unfair because his bike was 28" and the King was 26",he lost patience with me at that point that his wonderful invention I failed to grasp.
Quite frankly these big German companies just don't see the point of spending time with an English customer,their attitude is our volumes just don't justify any effort. The exception was KTM,I thought their MACINA BOLD 26 to be the nearest thing to value for money I could find.... they had a new ladies e-shopper but at close to Euro 3000 to go down to Tescos?
I sat in a market square in Konstanz,every other car was a brand new Merc or BMW and all their bikes were also brand new and e-bikes were everywhere.
Some of the Asian suppliers seemed to have been infected by the German price points and those that didn't comply seemed to be pushed out to the Zepellin hall,which was remote enough not to be an easy visit.
Eurobike is so big that ten days would be a more realistic time span to absorb all that was on offer.Electric bikes seem to have gone from fringe to mainstream business.
One interesting point made to me by a sales guy was the reason why the sales price had to be so high was to allow for a trade in of an old bike,which really had no value but paid for the deposit on the new bicycle,effectively the customer is getting his own money back but as long as he keeps buying a new bike every 3 years that is lost in the transaction,that would support my viewing of new bikes everywhere-what happens to the trade in bikes,you never see a rusty old bike.
For a holiday the area around Friedrichshafen is beautiful,the lake is stunning,not a road pothole in site,cycle lanes through wonderful countryside and in that German way everything works,but with the traffic a bike gets around quicker than a car.
An interesting new product was the seven speed auto transmission from TranzX,they were working on combining that with a crank drive motor to create a fully integrated system-I felt the danger was that the system would be too perfect and the character of cycling would be lost in the technology.
Will all this come to the UK? Are we prepared to pay for it?
Dave
KudosCycles
Bosch are going for world domination with their crank drive motor,every other stand had a Bosch powered e-bike-I rode a Cannondale Bosch-Alfine 8 'up the hill' it was an impressive hill climber but had the annoying habit of the power switching on/off immediately the 25kmh limit was bridged,not progressive at all...nice build quality but Euro 2799.00!
Another stand claimed big things for their programming and crank sensor,no name mentioned,I must say I couldn't tell any difference from a Kudos speed sensor bike and if anything my King bike was a better hill climber,I tried explaining that maybe it was unfair because his bike was 28" and the King was 26",he lost patience with me at that point that his wonderful invention I failed to grasp.
Quite frankly these big German companies just don't see the point of spending time with an English customer,their attitude is our volumes just don't justify any effort. The exception was KTM,I thought their MACINA BOLD 26 to be the nearest thing to value for money I could find.... they had a new ladies e-shopper but at close to Euro 3000 to go down to Tescos?
I sat in a market square in Konstanz,every other car was a brand new Merc or BMW and all their bikes were also brand new and e-bikes were everywhere.
Some of the Asian suppliers seemed to have been infected by the German price points and those that didn't comply seemed to be pushed out to the Zepellin hall,which was remote enough not to be an easy visit.
Eurobike is so big that ten days would be a more realistic time span to absorb all that was on offer.Electric bikes seem to have gone from fringe to mainstream business.
One interesting point made to me by a sales guy was the reason why the sales price had to be so high was to allow for a trade in of an old bike,which really had no value but paid for the deposit on the new bicycle,effectively the customer is getting his own money back but as long as he keeps buying a new bike every 3 years that is lost in the transaction,that would support my viewing of new bikes everywhere-what happens to the trade in bikes,you never see a rusty old bike.
For a holiday the area around Friedrichshafen is beautiful,the lake is stunning,not a road pothole in site,cycle lanes through wonderful countryside and in that German way everything works,but with the traffic a bike gets around quicker than a car.
An interesting new product was the seven speed auto transmission from TranzX,they were working on combining that with a crank drive motor to create a fully integrated system-I felt the danger was that the system would be too perfect and the character of cycling would be lost in the technology.
Will all this come to the UK? Are we prepared to pay for it?
Dave
KudosCycles
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