The Taipei Cycle Show is huge. This year, the annual trade show held in Taiwan boasts 950 exhibitors, across 3,500 booths. Suffice to say, during my first visit to the event, I did not make it every stand.
Whilst all the of big names you would expect were there to show their wares - SRAM, Vittoria, Pinarello and Topeak among them - it was products from the less established brands which really caught my eye: innovative, unexpected, amusing, or otherwise.
1. TSB cycles
I saw all sorts of lovely titanium goodness from TSB Cycles, an OEM (original equipment) manufacturer which supplies brands such as Planet X in the UK. They had everything in Ti, from handlebars to cranksets, seatposts to leaver blades.
One frameset had adjustable rear dropouts, useful for clean single-speed or fixed gear builds. And, it has to be said, the neatest titanium front fork I’ve seen (sorry, Ora Engineering, who I came to later, great work on your 6/4 titanium framesets, but the welding on your forks wasn’t quite as neat).
2. Pan Taiwan Enterprise Co. LTD
Claiming to produce the smallest bike bells in the world, the Pan Taiwan Enterprise Co. LTD’s Swappable Bike Bell (that string of words already being twice the size, even on my tiny screen) were a really neat bit of kit.
They’re essentially a combination of a bike bell with a tiny bulldog clip. They snap in place very quickly and easily, and - as far as I could tell just standing and holding the display bars - in quite an ergonomic way as well. No fiddling with tiny screws and bar clamps - looked great to me. Very interested to see what the durability is like.
They also stock a range of top caps and multi tools - all personalisable, and with scope for some quite intricate designs. The multitools can be created to your spec as well, with different keys and in whatever order you like.
3. Ora Engineering
More titanium goodies over at Ora Engineering, as well as some funky carbon wheels. Ora are another OEM brand, meaning they produce kit directly to a range of marques, so you can’t buy online or in-store yourself. However, you may well benefit from their internally routing stems, headsets and spacers, should they be specced on a model you buy in the future.
You can see the system in action on their display bike - made out of 6/4 Titanium, which is harder to work with than the more common 3/2.5 alloy that most Ti bikes are made from. The brand has also been dabbling in 3D printing, with a headtube that extends to the down and top tube. When built into a frameset the welds are invisible - Specialized with its Allez Sprint could take note…
4. L’Twoo
I finally got a chance to get hands on with L’Twoo’s electronic/hydraulic groupset. It’s quite similar to Shimano’s Di2 groupsets in several respects - from the way that the shift buttons are oriented to the semi-wireless design with one battery powering both derailleurs.
The shifts feel solid and fast. Not as quick as it’s possible to get Shimano’s Di2 shifts to be, but then I didn’t have a chance to play around in that much depth with L’Twoo’s gruppo and try adjusting the shifting speed. Again, it would be interesting to see what the durability actually stacks up to.
I wasn’t able to try out the brakes, but the calipers looked notably more basic than Shimano’s. When asked if L’Twoo had any patent concerns regarding its closeness to Shimano's offerings, representatives said the brand had a team of engineers and lawyers to ensure that they were not infringing on anyone else’s designs.
5. MicroShift
The Taiwanese component manufacturer launched this new groupset back at the end of last summer, but this is my first time actually seeing it in person.
The new shifters look and feel like a much better design. First, the cables now route out the rear of the shifters, rather than sticking out the sides - a major improvement for riding with a handlebar bag. Plus, the shifting levers are all on the outer side, which again leaves a bit more space for that obtrusive bar bag.
The groupset is only mechanical, which personally I don’t mind. In fact, for workhorse everyday riding I actually do prefer mechanical disc brakes - you can set the pad spacing from the disc rotor much more accurately, and with quality brake housing and pads the performance is actually really good. The pivot of the brake lever has been positioned much higher (very similar to GRX Di2), which should improve the braking feel.
It is only 10-speed and the two cassette options are 11-38t for 2x and 11-48t for 1x. Unusally, the crankset is available in a 46/29t option, giving a slightly lower bottom gear than Shimano. The groupset is cheaper than Shimano, but not by a huge amount - especially not if you compare it to mechanical braking 11-speed 105 (which is heavily reduced) and buy some TRP calipers separately.
The major benefit of this groupset will be felt in the price point of new, complete bikes. I was told there’s a lot of launches coming later this year which the MicroShift Sword groupset will be specced on - hopefully that’ll serve to bring the price down of gravel bikes a little bit. You can find out more at microshift.com
6. First Bicycle Components
Ever wanted to make a 5mm adjustment to your stem length and run into the difficulty of finding one in anything other than 10mm steps? It's something CW writer Tyler Boucher wished for, here.
Well, before you take to your local bike shop with a measuring tape, on the hunt for a stem at the far end of its manufacturing tolerances, you might want to check out this bit of kit from First Bicycle Components.
Sure, it’s not as slick as just getting a stem that’s actually the right length, and it will have an effect on the geometry of your bike (for better or worse) - but it will give you that 5mm adjustment if you really need it. Again, this is an OEM manufacturer, so you’ll probably find this kit under a different name.
7. Kalloy Uno
I thought that this was quite fun - an aluminum one piece handlebar/stem. It comes with no precise aero claims, although presumably not having the faceplate and bolts of a two-piece setup will save you something.
It does look neat, though, and may well be very competitive in price.
8. Ridea
Ever thought about getting carbon monocoque wheels for your folding bike? Of course you have. Good news is that Ridea has your back - with ceramic bearings too. Lovely.
9. Hung Ta Instrument
You probably don’t need a fatigue testing rig for bike frames - but it was pretty neat seeing one in action!
10. Nanoo and Pangolin
Several folding bikes caught my eye, but these stood out as being particularly neat designs: the Nanoo folding up particularly small and slim - although with wheels that certainly weren’t specced with cobbles in mind. At the other end of the scale, there’s the Pangolin, which itself folds up impressively small considering its wheels.
11. Rockbros
And lastly we have Rockbros - most prominent on Amazon rather than traditional cycling retailers, we’ve been pretty impressed by the value and relative performance of the kit we’ve tested, such as their photochromic sunglasses.
The bikepacking kit with (not Boa) twist dials looked pretty neat - a little similar in form to Evoc’s bikepacking bags we’ve tested previously. The bells, battery powered pumps and some rather fetching flat pedals were a few other highlights from the range.
