Spin Cycling Festival 2016 preview: a taste of what to expect at the urban bike show

The Spin urban cycling festival, now in its fourth year, returns to London at the Truman Brewery on 20-22 May. And for the first time, the London show is joined by a second show at Manchester on 6-8 May, taking place at Victoria Warehouse next to Old Trafford.

The festivals will feature more than 200 exhibitors, from bikes and accessories to film premieres, coffee and street food to bike art. There will also be an outdoor test track as well as a children's bike park, and even an e-bike circuit. Organisers are expecting the events to attract 30,000 visitors. 

Here’s a preview of what you can expect to see at the shows.

After three years of development, this JIVR | Bike will launch at Spin London. It’s an electric folding bike with no chain with a 30km range and the motor provides pedal assistance up to 25kph. It weighs in at 15kg and looks to fold easily and compactly in a process that apparently takes just 10 seconds. There’s a companion smartphone app, as well, so you can see how far you’ve ridden and how many calories you’ve burned.

Hill and Ellis London will be showcasing its new range of leather bags designed specifically for the Brompton C-Frame, as well as other bags aimed at commuting cyclists that want to combine practicality with style. The bags are handmade in Hackney, East London, and the Brompton bags costs £215 and feature an integrated leather shoulder strap and a waterproof cover. 

Download Cycles, fresh from the recent Bespoked show, will be exhibiting at Spin London with a range of bikes, including the pictured fat bike. Just the job for flattening potholes and chucking down some steps on the way home.

Based in Islington, North London, Meame is a new clothing brand that aims to combine British style with the latest fabric technology and features to create cycle clothing that combines functionality with great looks. 

Chris Keller-Jackson will be showing a selection of his photos taken over the last 12 months in a gallery at Spin Manchester and feature photos from the iconic Manchester Velodrome, home of Team GB. 

As Bold As is a brand new clothing company targeted at women cyclists that will be showing its products in public for the very first time at Manchester. It’s clothing that is intended to look good, and perform, on the bike and not look out of place when you arrive at your destination. Lots of technical features including weatherproof fabrics and reflective details and all combined with “street styling” to quote the company.

PedalShed upcycles Danish furniture textiles into stylish saddle covers. They have a waterproof lining, so you don’t get a wet bottom, and come in two sizes to fit different saddles, even including the Santander hire bike.

Love professional road cycle racing? Then you’ll be interested in Pro Cycling Trumps, a Top Trumps card game featuring most top pro racers. The company will be at the London and Manchester shows where it will launch a new ‘Climbs Edition’ with 54 illustrated images of legendary cycling climbs.

Juicy Electric Bikes will be at both shows with its brand new Poco compact e-bike. The bike is designed for shorter cyclists with a 17in frame and 24in wheels and features a rack, integrated lights, chainguard and disc brakes. 

Cambridge-based Quella specialises in fixed wheel and single speed urban bikes, will be at both shows with its brand new models, the Nero and One Evo. It hasn’t provided any photos of what the new bikes look like, except to tease us with the above image. 

Deliveroo is getting a lot of press at the moment and has expanded rapidly to over 35 towns and cities across the UK. It’s a food takeaway delivery service and is intended to offer a competitive pay for the cyclists that sign up. 

Metal and carbon fibre might be the most common materials for building a bicycle, but did you know wood can also be used to make a bicycle? Copenhagen-based Coh&Co will take its range of handmade wood and carbon bicycles to the London show. The bikes are made from laminate wood and carbon fibre making a stiff and lightweight frame.

How are your bike maintenance skills? London Bike Kitchen is taking to Spin London with a choice of classes and drop-in sessions for anyone that wants to learn the fundamentals of bicycle maintenance, including wheel lacing lessons and more.

The Mike Burros designed Windcheetah tricycle has been in production for the last 30 years, manufactured in the UK. At Spin Manchester, the company will exhibit its latest model, the FRO (For Race Only). It’s a lighter version making use of some very light materials like magnesium, titanium and carbon composite to produce a trike weighing just 10kg (22lb). 

Quirk Cycles garnered a lot of attention at the recent Bespoked show, and in case you missed the bike everyone was talking about, you’ll be able to see it at Spin London as well. As well as the bike, the company will be launching the East London Fixed Team Crit Frame as well. The East London Fixed team will be leading a social ride during the show and there’ll be some track competitions afterwards. 

More handmade cycling bags from London, this time, it’s the Nip Out bag from Vel-Oh. It’s essentially a musette in size and purpose, but made from waxed leather and designed to be a bit more robust and stylish as a bag for carrying just your essentials on a ride or commute.

The Kepler Disc pictured above is the latest creation from London-based Brother Cycles. The bike is designed with disc brakes and space for wide tyres and intended to be an all-purpose adventure bike, able to tackle any sort of road or trail. Complete bikes will come with SRAM Apex WiFli gearing and Hayes CX Expert mechanical disc brakes. 

Hartley Cycles, a regular at Spin, will be showing a range of bespoke steel bikes and though it hasn’t been confirmed, we hope the lovely 953 gravel disc bike, first debuted at the Design Museum last year, will be on display. 

A slice of Italian titanium exotica will be heading to the show courtesy of Nevi, a brand that formed in 1992 and makes some of the finest titanium frames we’ve ever clapped eyes on. The company recently showed this disc-equipped road bike at the Bespoked show, and it’s likely it’ll be spinning heads again at Spin.

Brompton Cycles will be making the trip up to the Manchester show to display its new Nickel Edition, Stardust Black paint finish and an entire new Brompton Luggage range. The company will also be having a fun little “fastest fold competition” competition. Time to get practising. 

Lola Bicycles hail from Singapore and the company specialises in hand-built single speed steel bicycles, such as the Lola Mezzo and Tutti models. They both share the same frame, made from Columbus Spirit tubing with an integrated rear light, but the former offers a sleek black finish while the later goes for a retro appearance with leather saddle and bar tape.

road.cc readers can access £9 tickets (normally £13) with the code ROAD at thecyclingfestival.com website.