Tech

Hidden right in the middle of Brighton, up a maze of stairs behind an easily ignored door a small yet impeccably-dressed cycle clothing empire is growing. Morvélo is the lovechild of Oli Pepper and Dave Marcar, both graphic designers by trade who a couple of years back were looking for a way to combine their artistic sensibilities with their shared passion for bicycles.

Fixed bikes were well to the fore at last week's Core Bike show with a really interesting selection of machines reflecting how diverse the one geared bit of the road cycling world is becoming. We've already showcased the track classicism of the fixed version of Colnago's Master X Light and featured the new line of Traitor bikes here and here, so let's take a look at what was on offer from Cinelli, All City, Light Blue and Identiti.

Cycle sport's top teams are already battling it out in the first ProTour race of the season so let's take a look at what they will be riding this year. The 2010 season sees two big new teams on the block in the shape of RadioShack and Team Sky and the usual merry go round of riders and changes to sponsors and equipment suppliers.

During quiet moments I often find myself hatching cycling challenges; they provide me with tangible reasons to get out on my bike and train, especially during the cold winter months. “Something to aim at”, as Tom Simpson would say. Some challenges, however, seem to appear out of left-field and, no matter how ridiculous, plug away at my subconscious until I do something about them.

At the end of September Jo Burt and I headed out to Milan to check out Italy's top bike show. In the first installment of our adventures we looked at what the likes of De Rosa Casati and Montante had to offer.  Now it's time for another trawl through the sublime and the ridiculous (which being Italian could easily pass for sublime too) as we look at the bikes being displayed by some less well known brands and from an ultra-bling one and we've included one of our Milan videos too - more of those in our video section. 

Most of us will have heard of Bianchi Colnago, De Rosa and Pinarello Italy's successful international bike brands, but there are other great Italian bike companies with a long history too, Casati, Guerciotti, Carraro, Bottecchia and Basso may be not so familiar but they've been around a long time too … and new ones like Guerra, Montante, and NoBrain that you won't really see outside of Italy. To find out what they are up to you need to go to Milan.

Well, that's the end of bicycle exhibitions for the year. The Cycle show in Earls court was a good show although I am still not that sure what its exact purpose is? It isn't quite a trade show for brands to show case new kit and it definitely isn't a place where you can purchase the latest bit of bike jewellery.

Not even ten minutes in the door and already I’m show-blind.

Deutschland Über Halles

A walk through Shimano, completely oblivious to the Eddy Merckx stand on my left that I would only discover three days later - as they were packing up, and blitzkrieg blinged by the triumvirate onslaught of the Bianchi, DeRosa and Campagnolo stands with a sneaky south-paw kidney-punch by Cervelo to the side and my brain rolls over and surrenders.

One of the more welcome distractions for bike journalists during the second rest day of the 2007 Tour De France was a press conference by none other than the Lion of Flanders himself, Johann Museeuw.

But the Leeuw wasn't here just to add his support for protégé Tom Boonen's bid for the points competition or speculate whether or not Rasmussen could hold the yellow jersey all the way to Paris.

Hub gears are big in the world of commuter bikes these days with everything from three to 14 speeds available. The benefits to the rider are straightforward: the chainline is simple and fixed, which means longer chain life and the ability to enclose the chain for even lower maintenance; and the gear mechanism itself is protected from the elements too, meaning there's less tinkering to be done there as well.