We travelled down to London for the Rouleur Live show in November 2023. We saw so much positivity in the bike bike industry, but not from where you might expect. There are still passionate people, intent on delivering superb quality. This video shows you some highlights from SWI, Canyon, Argon18, Cinelli, Ribble, DT Swiss, Argonaught, 3T and loads more.
@RouleurCycling
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You might like the cateye water bottle cage. Been using them for decades. Bottles don’t bounce out!
Also, the electric bike shop as you saw in London is definitely the future. Human Density definitely a factor!
Just know, those batteries store a ton of power. Thermal runaway is real, but very rare. More than that, real current in those battery assemblies.
If you come to london I am Coming
I find bike-delivery to be so horrible and annoying and on e-bikes it's even more dangerous than it was on normal bikes…
This is full circle. Back in the day we got a frame, either built or second hand, then built up and improved upon. The complete bike market was for low end. Keep up the good work, it's nice to have a channel not based on Chinese free goods and the ignoring of evil oppression because that's all they can get to review. Price is no excuse for supporting them, infact there are no excuses. Hats off to the likes of Basso etc. for keeping it at home.
Look weren’t there because their bikes were stuck in customs. There’s problems getting spare parts for Look bikes. The transaction costs are high (the customer pays that at the end of the day). Hilarious. Another Brexit bonus. Good old Boris 😂😂😂😂
About the backyard e-bike mechanics, I took on the job to replace a freehub on a rear hub motor, it took a handmade 'castle' tool with welds for reinforcement, liquid C02 to freeze the hub and borrow a mechanics rattle gun to crack it loose because a normal sized rattle gun wasn't enough, yep… end result I fixed it and the bike is still enjoyed years later.
This trend towards integration will stay because cables are ugly, who's going to go back to cables? People won't buy an ugly bike.
Integration does ad complexity though, which means more work for bike workshops… Like mine… mustn't grumble.
I mean Gerard Vroomen is owner and designer at 3T… such much about their quality 😂😂😂
Paul like the enthusiasm and agree there are certain segments where cycling is expanding (e-bikes, one example). Thankfully there will always be outliers who support build from frame up (assuming the component manufacturers don’t force everything electronic and disc) but based on what the wider industry has imposed on customers in recent years how do you think that’s going to be delivered to the mass market, where entry and volume sales sit ? You mention more integration and more choice ………seems mutually juxtaposed to me even before the word ‘price’ is mentioned. 🤔. Also believe you’ve rightly highlighted the issue of irreparable entry level e-bikes. A return to simplicity and cost effective cycling to benefit customers…………well lets hope so 🤞
Willoughby be stocking the Aston Martin bikes
the crystal paint at 11:04 will date the bikes like splash paint on the 90s mountain bikes
nice. not been to rouler before but feel liked i missed out this year. thanks for the coverage on the new frame detail bits and bobs. im defintiely more interested in the mechanical integration and new ideas rather than paint jobs. love seeing the smaller niche brands SWI doing sensible things and challenging the norm.
I’m a mobile bike mechanic based in South Manchester and Stockport. I get three or four enquiries a week from food delivery riders. The enquiries are generally requests from carrying out a conversion right to supplying and fitting replacement batteries and even linking several batteries together. I turn every one of these jobs down. I do not want any bike I ever work on to set fire to a block of flats. They are of poor quality and if something were to happen that hurt somebody or worse, I’d fully expect a knock on the door. In fact, my PL insurance excludes them and Surron’s.
I agree without hesitation. But my insurance aside I have no confidence these conversions are safe to begin with and looked after properly. But yes, I lament the lost revenue. That said, they are so enormously prolific it’s only a matter of time. Coroners court is a really lonely place.
While i understand the lack of service options out there for e bikes, many of those said e bikes that arent mainstream brands tend to be things we wont or cant work on. As you said, a lot of them are just hacked and bodged together and for a bike shop looking at it from a liability standpoint, we cant do that. In our eyes, if we touch it and it never works again, and they try to come after us, thats a big issue that we will never probably be able to come back from. And the bikes with throttles? Dont start with us on those. Most e bike related crash incidents are on those and we refuse to touch those. They are dangerous.
Argonaut is a brand out of my hometown, Portland Oregon. USA. They are very passionate. Very much like 51 bikes in how they operate with the customer, but they definitely have thier own boutique style about them.
Good to see improvements in stem construction.
I'm hoping that the more niche and bespoke bike makers get a chance to push through the mainstream brands. There are some very innovative and stylish frame builders out there to. choose from.
Average prices have quadrupled in the last 10 years……meanwhile average speeds have gone up by ….emm….arrgh.?.🎉
Most of those e bikes are illegal.
Super expensive but you (mostly) can't choose the colour of your bike. Always seemed weird to me. I think Orbea let you do so, so it's possible to make it happen, but most don't allow it.
To the point, informed, opinionated, educational. Bravo!
Does anybody sell a high-end bike without an integrated cockpit? It's not a trend I'm a fan of. Expensive, inflexible, and a challenge to replace years later if/when damaged
The backyard shed repair place you described was sounding like somerhing in Delhi 😂
Some couriers use high powered mid drives (BBSHD – over 250watts) and 250 watt + hubs, anything over 250watts is illegal in the UK. Hers some ideas.
1. Contact the delivery companies and become an official battery charging station, i imagine they will charge you a licence fee for this. Buy some high quality fast chargers and set up a service that also provides tea / coffee / snacks, this will act as an another revenue stream.
2. Become a BBS02 (the BBS02ET is used in cargo bike and tandems) / TSDZ2 mid drive fitter and a rear hub fitter (you can buy 48v mid drives and hub motors),. Most frames need modified to probably fit a rear hub motor as ebike axles are 12mm or 14mm high, you also have to include the height of the anti rotation washer tab plus 1mm, the top of the anti rotation tab should sit below the top of the dropout. Grin Technologies (based in America) do an all axle motor that will fit quick axle and thru axle frames without any modification but it is over 250watts. Might be worth having a conversation with them to see if they can make a 250watt version.
3. Become an agent for another company that replaces the battery cells in ebike batteries. they are some very good ones and some very bad ones.
4. Set up your own delivery company.
I hope this provides some ideas and how much do you charge for bike fitting.
Paul, having watched a couple of other Rouleur videos, it was fascinating to get your take on things like brake integration, etc.
The future will be regulations and more money grabs. Ebike riders will bring it upon us all with their reckless riding. 30mph+ on a steel cargo bike on a trail right next to walking children and pets. And the tech is just short life products and fades that aren't repairable. I thought the world wanted sustainability?