Taipei Cycle Show: the good, the bad and the ugly

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.

The good…

Yasujiro

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.

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

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.