This years show was pretty awesome with a wide scattering of bike and bike parts from big name brands down to much lesser unknown brands, and those without brands.
Although my primary focus is bikes, what I was aiming at with this show is to see just how well local companies manage to represent themselves to a worldwide audience. Not just to see what the big guys like Merida, Giant and Dahon are doing, but smaller guys who have carved out good niches for themselves.
Here’s the lowdown.
Amoeba Bikes
Amoeba make a whole host of bike stuff including handlebars, stems, bar ends, frames and other bits and pieces.
Amoeba are an example of a parts company that have really poured their efforts into their brand. I recognize this brand from years ago and even here at the show, the use of the manufacturing company’s name only appeared in some small places.
This emphasis on brand has, I think, given them a decent and permanent spot on the parts choice list of many riders.
This is their road bike model.
Bear’s Bikes
Bear’s Bikes is a local company making single speed bikes. These guys were sharing a portion of a booth with another company, but Bear’s were getting the vast majority of the attention.
Their stand was really well done. In a tiny space they managed to pack in just the right amount of bikes. They also have videos on the go of them and their buddies riding these bikes and doing all kinds of tricks and stuff. And the two guys manning the stand had intimate knowledge of their products, how they work and what they are good for.
This is a shining example of what can be done with a few contacts, enthusiasm and hard work. I’m not sure how well these bikes are selling, but they are riding on the wave of fixies and single speeds that seem to be doing the rounds at the moment. The main guy is also involved with Giant in some way, I can’t quite remember how.
They also have a bunch of videos on the Bear’s Bikes YouTube channel. Here’s my favorite one of the main dude doing some stuff that I would assume would break the bike.
Dodsun Bikes
The Dodson shown above features a Shimano Nexus hub and some pretty good looking, but probably extremely non-functional fenders. The more interesting bike was the one below.
The bike shown above is their classic road bike frame. This was mated to what the sales guy called the Campagnolo ’59 commerative groupset, made in the likeness of their 1959 groupset.
It had a really retro feel to it, especially with those downtube shifters.
Pictured above is a flat handlebar road bike from Dodson.
Favor Bikes
Favor Bikes are a local frame and fork manufacturer, the bike pictured above is based around their Spun single speed frameset.
HydraKnight
HydraKnight make bags, hydration kits and panniers. Although I don’t use a drinking bladder much anymore I used to use them all the time.
One of the primary things I like about local stuff is the price. I know the Camelbak was always a big investment of money, so I ended up using it for way longer than it was intended to be. My current Camelbak is over 10 years old.
The bladders are very solid and they incorporate some interesting designs. There is a bladder with two compartments inside so you can store an energy drink in one and water in the other, or any combination you can think of. The tubes from the two compartments are fed to a switch that selects which bladder to get liquid from, then goes to the section of pipe with the drinking thingy on the end.
The other cool thing was a range of very waterproof bags for commuting and touring. They come in different sizes and also include a handlebar bag that’s also waterproof.
Nankon Bikes
This long tailed cargo bike from Nankon was one of the highlights for me.
I have had my eyes on this style of bike for a long time now. With two kids it’s a bit of a mission to do any riding with them and I don’t have a bike setup quite right to take them both at the moment. Also the pricing on these is pretty expensive, with the well-known Surley Big Dummy cargo bike going for over US$2,495 as a full bike. This one would appear to be in a better price range and it’s made with aluminum rather than chromoly.
I’m hoping to get to try this one out sometime after I get in contact with them again.
The cyclocross offering from Nankon.
Girly Single Speed
This was propped up against a wall, I have no idea what company makes it but it looks pretty flash. The mix of the red aerospoke on the front, deep section white rim on the rear and gold cranks and handlebars are really stylish.
Free Parable
“Smart Low-Tech” is the moto of the folks at Free Parable. Based in Kaohsiung they design stuff for bikes.
Pictured above is the T1, which is a suitcase/trailer. When the wheels are folded up they are just like the little wheels on a normal suitcase. When they’re folded down they are read to act as a trailer that easily clips to an attachment on the quick release.
They also have what I’d like to call an inverted waterbottle holder. Instead of putting the bottle into a cage, you put an attachment onto the bottle itself, that attachment then clips to the parts on the bike. This allows any standard bottle to be clipped onto the bike.
Lastly was the Monkii, which is a folding tool carrier.
Polar
Sorry, couldn’t help myself.
Of course no show in Taiwan is complete without the scantily clad girls. Unlike Computex though, they were few and far between, and most of them were for slightly less heard of local or Chinese brands (it’s a local thing).
The lady above was a bit surprising as she was modelling for Polar, but it looks like all their stuff is made here. Polar are best known for their range of hear rate monitors.
Lian Hang New Product
These two were dressed just like the computex ladies, those shiny, plastic skirts and tops. Okay, okay these are my only pics of girls.
A Great Show Overall
After seven hours at the show I still only managed to get a good look at and talk to about 20% of the exhibitors, another 15% were just quick looks without talking to anyone.
Next time I hope to get more time to check everything out better. I was really impressed with the whole layout of the show and was amazed at how great it is go on a trade day as opposed to the weekend where it’s just a madhouse.
