The Yasujiro Cameo Professional from Tange was easily our favourite steel bike of the show, perhaps even our favourite bike overall - Warren Rossiter / Immediate Media
The attention to detail throughout the Cameo is truly stunning - Warren Rossiter/Immediate media
The highly ornate yet elegant lug work really sets the Cameo apart from the crowd - Warren Rossiter/Immediate media
Even the bottom bracket shell gets plenty of classic finishing touches - Warren Rossiter/Immediate media
We like the look of this cool bike stand-cum-track pump combo - Warren Rossiter/Immediate media
Control Tech's Affilado saddle/post combo looks suitably mad - Warren Rossiter/Immediate media
The saddle section is held in place by three titanium bolts - Warren Rossiter/Immediate media
Crazy looks are matched by crazy low weight (258g complete) - Warren Rossiter/Immediate media
We're big fans of Giant's new TCR, so couldn't resist getting a snap of this great looking acid-yellow finished model - Warren Rossiter/Immediate media
Axman's 650b gravel bike follows in the footsteps of Cannondale's Slate and Open's UP - Warren Rossiter/Immediate media
The Axman KOM One of 30 is a lightweight special edition - Warren Rossiter/Immediate media
One of 30 refers to the number of bikes that will be available - Warren Rossiter/Immediate media
The bike celebrates Taiwan's brutal KOM challenge event - Warren Rossiter/Immediate media
Eventually we found our way out into sunlight - Warren Rossiter/Immediate media
Praxis has a new lower-priced road chainset called the Alba, featuring 2D forged arms - Warren Rossiter/Immediate media
The Alba comes in wider-than-normal chainring sizes. They've been able to go smaller by machining into the step between the chainrings so the chain won't foul, even on rings sizes down to 32t - Warren Rossiter/Immediate media
The Praxis guide looks particularly neatly fitted - Warren Rossiter/Immediate media
The new Praxis rings can be switched between 4 and 5 arm cranksets - Warren Rossiter/Immediate media
The first carbon crank from Praxis is the new Lyft - Warren Rossiter/Immediate media
It features a 3 bolt splined direct mount system so it can be easily switched between single ring and double duties - Warren Rossiter/Immediate media
Lezyne's new Floor Drive charger will be welcome news for tubeless tyre users - Warren Rossiter/Immediate media
The analogue gauge on the charger is the same unit as found on the standard Floor Drive range - Warren Rossiter/Immediate media
… as is the wide footprint cast base - Warren Rossiter/Immediate media
A simple Wire lever handles switching between pumping, charging, and filling a tubeless tyre - Warren Rossiter/Immediate media
The massive diameter second chamber holds enough pressure to inflate and seat a tubeless tyre instantly - Warren Rossiter/Immediate media
Lezyne's MFD XL is the carryable pump that plus-size tyre users have been waiting for - Warren Rossiter/Immediate media
Like Lezyne's other micro floor drives, the XL has a foldout foot for stabilty - Warren Rossiter/Immediate media
The diameter of the barrel is huge for a portable pump - Warren Rossiter/Immediate media
The T-shaped handle makes the MFD XL halfway between a track pump and a pocket pump - Warren Rossiter/Immediate media
VEE's Rail gravel tyres have a bit of the old school mountain bike tread about them, only much shallower - Warren Rossiter/Immediate media
The XCX offers wider-spaced but much taller knobbles - Warren Rossiter/Immediate media
… making the 700c XCX a much more mud-friendly offering - Warren Rossiter/Immediate media
TRP's latest 860 series aero brakes are somewhat reminiscent of the Bontrager units found on the new Madone - Warren Rossiter/Immediate media
The reworked proprtions of the 850-series brakes they claim solve compatiblity issues on some chainstay brake mount framesets - Warren Rossiter/Immediate media
TRP's highly regarded Spyre now gets a flat mount version - Warren Rossiter/Immediate media
Which looks much more minimal than the standard model - Warren Rossiter/Immediate media
The same goes for the new flat mount cable-operated hydraulic HY-Rd brake (the older standard mount unit is in the background) - Warren Rossiter/Immediate media
Licensed brand name bikes are pretty big throughout Asia - Warren Rossiter/Immediate media
Pink tyres are bad enough, but somehow it multiplies exponentially when applied to bigger rubber - Warren Rossiter/Immediate media
Branding again, and this is a weird one: full size low-to-mid range road bike, Sora drivetrain, deep section wheels, Hello Kitty-branded everything - Warren Rossiter/Immediate media
We kinda like Figo's e-fatty with its retro roadster look, ride this and pretend you're Steve McQueen in the Great Escape - Warren Rossiter/Immediate media
Jones is one of those brands that's quite happy to forge its own path, making bikes they want to make. This 3.25" wide tyre-equipped 29'er looks like a bike packer's dream machine - Warren Rossiter/Immediate media
The Jones Plus has more braze-ons than gears - Warren Rossiter/Immediate media
The long standing Jones fork still looks just as iconic when adapted for plus-sized tyres - Warren Rossiter/Immediate media
Expedo's long vaunted power-pedal, which they assure us will be ready to ship this spring. With ANT and Bluetooth connectivity, left/right data, cadence, a simple set-up process and claimed /- 2% accuracy, running off rechargeable or AA batteries, and 385g a pair - these could be a decent rival to PowerTap, Look and Garmin in the power pedal game - Warren Rossiter/Immediate media
Six-inch wheels mean only being barely above the ground, so Pacific has a trike version of its Carryall micro-folder that's just what you're looking for - Warren Rossiter/Immediate media
Coast Cycles Ruckus, Gates belt driven, disc brakes, all wrapped up on a bike that looks like a high school metalwork project. Bizarrely we kinda like it - Warren Rossiter/Immediate media
Another name from the past back from oblivion, the long forgotten US marque Columbia has a decent selection of retro inspired roadsters - Warren Rossiter/Immediate media
Of which this Sky Bluebeach cruiser number is our pick of the pack - Warren Rossiter/Immediate media
Taiwan's Southern Cross is relatively unknown outside of its home nation, though if they keep making bikes as good looking as this that may well change - Warren Rossiter/Immediate media
Lowrider offer a massive range of impractical bikes for every age - Warren Rossiter/Immediate media
And if you really must have more bling than a footballers wife at a hip hop party then Lowrider can sort you out there too - Warren Rossiter/Immediate media
Quite often in Taipei you'll find little gems hidden away in the more manufacturing and supply biased stands. Like this frameset from Hertzen called the Bernard Achilles, beautiful chromework, great paint finish, immpecable lugs - Warren Rossiter/Immediate media
…and this wonderful bit of design for design's sake - Warren Rossiter/Immediate media
Even the stem matched to the Achilles frame is beautifully finished - Warren Rossiter/Immediate media
This Arcadia street-fighter fattie features the latest trend for leaving welds unpainted and simply clearcoating the frame for that chop-shop look. - Warren Rossiter/Immediate media
Electric-driven lowrider with a twist throttle and pegs instead of pedals - Warren Rossiter/Immediate media
It's not gonna be cheap to replace that rear tyre - Warren Rossiter/Immediate media
Remember monkey bikes from the seventies? Relive that 'fun' with a modern e-bike version - Warren Rossiter/Immediate media
Wheels that combine a pretty distressing pallete with the promise of legendary tri-spoke flexibilty, makes you wonder who'd choose to fit thoseÉ - Warren Rossiter/Immediate media
… oh well, these guys would - Warren Rossiter/Immediate media
Our time at Asia's biggest bike show is over for another year, so to wrap up our coverage we give you a gallery of the good, the bad and the ugly from the 2016 Taipei International Cycle Show.
Yasujiro is named after Yasujiro Tange, who started the famed steel tubing manufacturer Tange company back in 1920. The firm went on to make some of the most iconic steel road, mountain bikes and BMXs of the 70's, 80's and 90’s.
The new Yasujiro line mixes everything from lightweight brazed race machines, classic lugged road bikes, tourers, city bikes, fixies and even a disc-equipped gravel machine.
The highly ornate yet elegant lug work really sets the cameo apart from the crowd:
The bike that really stood out for us though was the stunning Cameo Pro. It's constructed with Tange’s Ultimate ultralight steel tubeset and features some of the most highly-worked, ornate lugs and details we’ve seen in a long time. Available as either a frameset or in this incredible Campagnolo Super Record and Bora Ultra complete bike. Easily our favourite steel bike of the whole show.
Lezyne
Two of the accessories we liked most in Taipei were new pumps from Lezyne, the Floor Drive Charger and the MFD XL. The FD Charger is Lezyne’s answer to Bontrager’s charge pump and similar offerings from the likes of Topeak.
A simple wire lever handles switching between pumping, charging, and filling a tubeless tyre:
It takes the standard floor drive as its basis, adds a huge chamber underneath the standard pressure gauge, and uses a wire handle flip lever to switch between standard floor pump and store for that all-important pressurised air for seating tubeless tyres.
The construction is typically Lezyne robust, and simple too. With a projected price of $125 (UK TBC) it also looks like it’ll be one of the most competitively priced charger pumps available too.
Lezyne's mfd xl is the carryable pump that plus-size tyre users have been waiting for:
The MFD XL (that’s Micro Floor Drive XL) is Lezyne's answer to plus-size tyre repairs on the go. Your standard packable pump just can’t give enough to cope with the extra volume. The huge-barreled XL can however, and at $59 it could become a firm favourite with fat bike fans everywhere.
Praxis
For this year, Praxis has expanded its road line to include a new lower-priced crankset to sit alongside the highly respected (and Cycling Plus grouptest-winning) Zayante M30. The new Alba M30 is 2D-forged rather than hollow-forged like the Zayante, but it does retain the light-yet-super-stiff M30 axle.
Praxis has a new lower-priced road chainset called the alba, featuring 2d forged arms:
Pricing is as yet unconfirmed but Praxis may have a serious rival to 105 and Ultegra with the Alba crankset. The cranks will be available in 165, 170, 172.5 and 175mm lengths and a big range of chain ring sizes: a choice of 52/36, 50/34, 46/36t for CX, single ring options in 40 and 42t, and a rather interesting 48/32t option aimed at the latest generation of gravel bikes.
Also on the road side are updated chainrings that are now cross-compatible between both 4- and 5-arm spiders. They’ve worked on the shift ramp positioning and also made the chain pin removable, and offer two positions depending on the type of crankset you're fitting them too.
On the off-road side, they have a very neat, very minimal and highly adjustable ISG05 compatible chain keeper, and the promise of a range of fittings to come.
The first carbon crank from praxis is the new lyft:
The bigger news off-road however is Praxis’ first ever carbon fibre crank. The understated and classy looking Lyft uses the 3-bolt spline direct mount fitting so it can be easily switched between single and double ring setups and there are offset chainring options to make the Lyft Boost 148mm compatible too. For the Lyft, they’ve stayed with their M30 thru axle system, and instead of a traditional wavy washer have introduced a highly adjustable preload threaded ring.
… the bad and the ugly
… oh well, these guys would:
So what did we spot that's bad or ugly? Take a look at our gallery above and decide for yourself, then let us know your thoughts in the comments below.
Warren is our senior technical editor for road and gravel. With 27 years of experience, he’s been testing bikes since before BikeRadar and the internet existed!
With an encyclopedic knowledge of bikes and what some would consider an excessive bike collection, Warren has been the mastermind behind our road Bike of the Year tests for over a decade. He has penned more than 2,750 bike tests.
His words have been published in Cycling Plus, Bikeradar, Mountain Biking UK, What Mountain Bike, Urban Cyclist, Procycling, Cycling News, Total Bike, Total Mountain Bike, T3 and a whole host of other publications. You’ll also find Warren as a regular on the BikeRadar Podcast and our YouTube channel.
He’s covered all the 21st-century innovations in cycling and ridden in Europe, Asia, Australasia, America and Africa. He’s been a judge for the Eurobike awards and judged handmade bikes at Bespoked.
Height: 6’2”/188cm
Bike size:58cm/L/XL
This website is owned and published by Our Media Ltd. www.ourmedia.co.uk
