London Bike Show Saturday picks: Ana Nichoola, John Boultbee & Chickens Frame Emporium

Max Leonard was impressed by the old and young, the established and the just starting out down at the London Bike Show going on this weekend at the Excel Centre in London's Docklands. 

UK clothing brand Ana Nichoola is looking better and better with every collection. Their small but perfectly formed booth showcased the best of the winter collection, and new season pieces such as the performance-oriented Star jersey and the Café jersey dress, which, as its name implies, is from the more casual Café range.

John Boultbee is Brooks' clothing brand

Brooks's stand was really impressive; the company is managing both to diversify and refine its products. The new 'John Boultbee' clothing range (not named Brooks, to avoid issues with Brooks Brothers, the US clothing brand) is lovely, full of thoughtful details. The men's and women's casual jackets are made from Ventile cotton, a British-made, thoroughly old-school piece of technology used by the RAF in the Second World War that manages to be hard-working, good-looking and, thanks to its weave, pretty waterproof. Chatting to Road.cc, the company rep said clothing and accessories would be the focus of its new products, with lighter-weight jackets coming in for spring/summer. Also on display was a nice bike basket, with an ingeniously fastening handle, to avoid rattling and rubbing while riding.

New framebuilder Chickens Frame Emporium

Chickens Frame Emporium is a new, Brighton-based bike brand, based around the skills of framebuilder John Aston. A former builder for Enigma, he's now established his own workshop and builds some very nice looking steel frames. It's early days yet, but on display were a couple of mountain-bike frames showing some great attention to detail, and a lovely women's mixte road frame. The clean lines of the twin top tubes (note to self: what do you call that tube on a mixte?), was married to some thoughtful touches, such as the soon-to-be owner's initials incorporated into the metalwork.