More than a thousand brands descended on Taiwanese shores for the Taipei Cycle Show this week, all with their best technology in tow. The annual show is always a fire againcool and strange technology, but it’s also a chance to get up close with the best bikes in the world, with some more intriguing models.
Yes PinarelloThe record of the winning bikes of the World Championship to some unique designs, here is a gallery of the best bikes that we met at the exhibition.
Olympic bikes and the fastest bike in the world?
Is this Pinarello Bolide the fastest bike in the world? It is the bike that propelled Filippo Ganna to the hour record in 2023, which many consider as the ultimate test of cycling speed.
“Top Ganna” set a record distance of 56.792km on top of the bike, beating the previous record of 55.548km set by his Ineos Grenadiers teammate Dan Bigham.
It’s not the regular Bolide, but a special edition F HR 3D designed especially for Ganna’s record attempt. It is the first UCI-compliant 3D printed aerodynamic bicycle
This Look P24 bike is also at home on the track. It was developed for the 2024 Paris Olympics
Track bikes are not subject to such strict rules, meaning brands can be more adventurous with their designs. As Look has been with these incredibly wide fork legs
Look also used a similar design for the split seat, which is essentially two seat positions instead of one
Ceepo bikes always stand out from the crowd and the Japanese brand has been experimenting with frame designs since its inception in 2003.
That innovative approach resulted in this Shadow triathlon bike, among others, with its lack of a gravity-defying seat tube.
WorldTour-conqueror and new road bike
This Cervélo S5 has been a conquered WorldTour machine in recent seasons, ridden with great success by Visma-Lease a Bike and its riders, including Wout van Aert and Jonas Vingegaard.
The team’s success reached new heights in 2023 when they completed a clean sweep of Grand Tour victories. To celebrate this, Cervélo has created a special color that gives a nod to this achievement, with the yellow, pink and red jerseys of the three Grand Tours all represented.
Colnago’s C68 is not raced at WorldTour level, which is taken care of by the brand’s V4Rs. It’s still a light and high-performance bike and this special edition color is a real eye-catcher.
We’ve put the Trigon AR01 through its paces several times and it’s impressed us every time. He first helped Ollie complete the Tour des Stations Ultimate 1000 – his toughest challenge yet – before teaming up once again for the Taiwan KOM challenge.
Beyond its climbing ability, the bike also has some unique aerodynamic features, such as these dimples that can be found on the head and seat tubes. This is designed to mimic the texture of a golf ball and is called “Vortex Tubing Technology”.
There were also some new bikes on display, including the Giant TCR that stole the show on opening day.
Anyone familiar with the previous TCR will notice that the bike doesn’t look much different. That’s because Giant opted for evolution instead of revolution, although that doesn’t mean it’s the same. According to the Taiwanese brand, it is lighter, stiffer and more aerodynamic than before
Liv’s EnviLiv Advanced was, in our opinion, one of the best looking bikes at the show. It is the bike and color that will be used by the Liv AlUla Jayco Women’s WorldTour team in 2024
Liv is owned by Giant and specializes in women’s specific bikes. This belongs to pro rider Urška Žigart
At Ora, we discovered this gem of Titanium. It is the 25-RA-601
The welds on the head tube are impressively in order. It is now an OEM company, so it produces products for other companies
We are big fans of the marble color on this CKT bike
The overly high stack height did hinder the bike’s aesthetics a bit, though
Fewer brands are specing Campagnolo groupsets, so it was nice to see this De Rosa sporting the Super Record groupset.
So far, so ordinary. Step into the Caracle-Coz from the Japanese company Tech One who produced a folding road bike. The idea is to add extra practicality to the traditional road bike design, and the brand says it can even fit in a suitcase.
The bike is also light, tipping the scales at 7.3kg for a build with Shimano’s Dura-Ace groupset.
Mountain and gravel bikes fit for world champions
After quite a long break, Pinarello has presented its latest range of mountain bikes in 2023, including this Dogma XC.
The new range was part of Pinarello’s renewed off-road focus, sparked by the arrival of Tom Pidcock and Pauline Ferrand-Prévot. The efforts of the Italian brand were rewarded when both drivers won gold medals at the World Championships in Glasgow
Before the last Merida Silex was released at the end of 2023, it had already won a world gravel title in the hands of Matej Mohorič.
It may just be me, but nothing beats the sight of a bike loaded with bikepacking gear – it evokes an immediate sense of adventure. In this case, the bike in question is Fara’s F/Gravel
We’ll end with this bike not being a World Championship winning steed, but we weren’t sure where to put it on this list. It is a Low Rider, in bike type and name, from Namax
Different versions were on display of what should be the most bling-out bike at the Taipei Cycle Show in 2024
To learn more about the Taipei Cycle Show, check out their website, linked here. And for more tech news, features and pro bikes, check out the “Tech” section on the GCN website.
