Bike Place 2015: Bottecchia, Cielo, Edge, GT, Sarto, Solo, Veltec, Roux and more

We've just returned from Bike Place 2015, held at the Silverstone motor racing circuit, and which is the first of many bike shows we'll be attending this year to bring you news of the latest bikes, parts and accessories from the bike world. Here are some highlights from the show then, including new bikes from Italian brand Bottecchia and Sarto, a disc-equipped frame from Edge, a new line of Solo clothing and much more. 

Bottecchia isn’t the most familiar bicycle brand in the UK, but with several new, and very nice looking bikes, for 2015 and a good distributor supporting them, we expect them to become a more familiar sight this year.

Of the new models, this new Emme3 Gara is the flagship bike. It’s handmade in Italy from 3K and Toray M55J carbon fibre with a Press Fit 86 bottom bracket and a tapered head tube. It's a properly stunning bike up close and in the flesh, with many very nice design details.

Aerodynamics are increasingly influencing even regular road bikes these days, no longer is it just aero bikes getting the wind tunnel treatment. Bottecchia has designed the area between the fork crown and down tube to smooth airflow, which the company claims results in it being 10% more aerodynamic than the previous Emme2 frame. The rear brake calliper has also vanished from the seatstays, taking up position on the chainstays.

Frame weight is a claimed 895g for a size medium, with a 360g carbon fibre fork. All cables are naturally routed internally and the dropouts are CNC-machined from aluminium. Full build prices start from £4,399 with a Shimano Ultegra build, and you can spend your way right up to £9,999 if you go with the Campagnolo Super Record EPS model.

If you want an aero road bike, Bottecchia has your needs catered for with the new T1 Tourmalet. It’s clearly an out-and-out aero bike, with aero shaped tube profiles and fork blades, an integrated seat clamp and aero seatpost.

It has a compact rear triangle too, to keep the seat stays out of the airflow they join the seat tube well below the top tube. It's something we're seeing on many aero road bikes and clearly appears to be favourable for decreasing drag.

The front brake might be in the regular position on front of the fork, but the rear brake has been dispatched to below the chainstays. That's something we're seeing on a lot of aero road bikes.

Several builds are available. Prices start from £2,699 for a Shimano Ultegra bike, rising to £8,499 for Campagnolo Super Record EPS.

The 8avio Evo is another new bike, and is the company’s most affordable carbon fibre offering. You can get it with an Ultegra groupset for £1,699, and the range tops out at £3,199 if you go for a Campagnolo Athena groupset.

It clearly looks more of an all-rounder than the T1 Tourmalet, and has a full carbon fibre frame weighing a claimed 860g (that’s for a size medium) with a 390g carbon fork slotting into the tapered head tube. There’s also a Press Fit 86 bottom bracket and internal cable routings, all the sort of details you’d expect of a modern carbon race bike.

www.bottecchia.co.uk

Veltec Wheels is a German company and its range of carbon fibre and aluminium wheels are now available in the UK. The carbon fibre clincher market has exploded in recent years with ever more choice and the prices tumbling.

Veltec has priced its carbon clincher wheels at £999. Very competitive. It is offering a choice of rim depths - 30, 45, 55 and 80mm -  and while the rims are made from open moulds, the wheels are assembled by hand in Germany. Quoted weight for the Speed 6.0 FCC pictured, with 55mm depth rims,  is 1,580g.

www.cookecomponents.co.uk

Solo, a New Zealand clothing brand known for its range of retro inspired jerseys, has been busy developing a new line of performance clothing. The brand is expanding is dealer network, you can find your nearest here www.solocc.com/distributors

The new look is a bit of a departure from previous Solo clothing, a bit more understated and with a very keen eye on technical details. The new gilet and jacket aren't quite production-ready yet, they've got a few changes planned before they're made available sometime in August. We were impressed with what we saw though.

The gilet is made from a 4-way stretch fabric which is weatherproof, and is expected to cost £130. The new jacket will be £150, and uses a new smart fabric that Solo told us apparently reacts to the rider temperature and conditions, becoming more breathable when you're working hard or it's warm, and becomes less breathable when the temperature drops or you're not working up much heat. Sounds interesting, we certainly look forward to trying it out. There are lots of reflective details on both tops too.

www.solocc.com

As well as jackets and gilets, they've got some new gloves in development too. They're an early spring/late autumn sort of glove, a lightweight fabric providing enough insulation to beat the chill, with a long cuff and padded palm. Again, like the tops, there is some good reflective detailing.

Roux... This is the Foray 17 from British bike brand Roux. The company offers a range of attractively priced road, touring, city and cyclocross bikes. This here is a flat-barred road bike with a £699.99 price tag, featuring a 7005 aluminium frame, carbon fibre fork, Shimano Altus M370 27-speed drivetrain and Tektro T390 hydraulic disc brakes.

http://rouxbikes.co.uk

It's a smart looking bike for the money. There's loads of space for wide tyres in the frame and fork, there are mudguard mounts, and you could fit a rear rack too, ideal for loading up some panniers for transporting luggage across town. 

Edge is a Taiwanese company that makes just about everything, from frames to wheels, handlebars, stems and much more. This is the Airy, a frame designed for disc brakes with a claimed weight of 1,100g.

The frame features a BB30 bottom bracket and while the mechanical gear cables are routed internally, the brake cables are externally routed, held in place with small clips.

It's been built up here for the show with a selection of Edge components, including the wheels, and Juin Tech disc brakes. More on those later.

www.edge-designs.com.tw

We've seen the Cielo Road Race (front) and Cielo Road Race Disc (back) before, but they are such nice looking bikes we can't help but include them in this roundup article. Cielo has been created by the same people who produce Chris King headsets and hubs, and the same attention to detail that goes into its headsets is clearly also going into these bikes. 

Both essentially use similar frames but you can choose which brake system you prefer. This Road Racer Disc has a custom-drawn steel frame with a 44mm head tube and Press Fit 30 bottom bracket. 

Cielo offers a slew of frame colours to choose from. This frame features Di2-specific internal routing which makes for an extremely clean looking frame. All frames are fitted with Enve carbon fibre forks and Chris King headsets, naturally. The Road Racer and Road Racer Disc framesets cost £2,399 each.

They're available from www.evolutionimports.co.uk

Sarto has updated its Lampo aero road frame this year. The seat tube features a Kamm Tail profile (tear drop with a chopped tail) with the seatclamp hidden away inside the top tube, and an area seatpost.

The seatstays have also been reworked to improve the aerodynamic efficiency. The frame uses the increasingly popular direct mount brakes, and they've kept the calipers in the conventional positions, on front of the fork and at the seatstays.

www.impactct.co.uk

The GT Grade was launched last summer (we know because we were at the worldwide launch) and should be readily available very soon.

The whole gravel/adventure category is gaining momentum and away from the gravel hype, they actually look ideally suited to UK cyclists for applications like commuting, Audax and general larking about.

The Grade is offered in aluminium and carbon fibre and a full range of build options, all with disc brakes, will be available. Prices will start from just £650. We've been nagging GT's UK distributor CSG for a test bike, and we're told we should have one coming our way very soon.  Can't wait. 

www.gtbicycles.com

More highlights from Bike Place 2015 soon...