The London Bike Show will be returning for 2013, taking place from 17 to 20 January at ExCeL, London.

At the show, you’ll be able to check out the latest bikes and equipment from a range of mountain bike brands,  get a great deal, witness exclusive and rare bikes on The Cool Wall, listen to a fantastic selection of speakers and more…

We’ve teamed up with the organisers to give you some money off the entry fee.

Just enter the discount code MB12 on the tickets page to get an adult ticket for just £12 instead of £16! (Code expires 31 December 2012.)

If you’ve already got your 2013 diary, we’ve got some dates for you to put in it now! January 17-20 will see London’s Excel play host to the London Bike Show, alongside The Outdoors Show, The Active Travel Show and the Tullet Prebon London Boat Show.

Brands confirmed to attend include Genesis, Ridgeback, Schwalbe, GoPro and more. Once you’ve checked out what the exhibitors have to offer,  take a look at the DMR Pump Track Challenge, where some of the UK’s best riders will race head to head, or get advice from the BikeRadar Training Hub. You can book a session to get a personalised training plan designed here. Use code TRAIN to get your session for £69! Code is valid until 31 December, but book early as there is a limited number of sessions available for this price.

Book your ticket now and save money by entering the discount code WMB12. For more details and to book go to www.thelondonbikeshow.co.uk

The London Bike Show will be returning for 2013, taking place from 17 to 20 January at ExCeL, London.

At the show, you’ll be able to check out the latest bikes and equipment from a range of mountain bike brands,  get a great deal, witness exclusive and rare bikes on The Cool Wall, listen to a fantastic selection of speakers and more…

We’ve teamed up with the organisers to give you some money off the entry fee. Just enter the discount code MB12 on the tickets page to get an adult ticket for just £12 instead of £16! (Code expires 31 December 2012.)

See the UK's best riders go head to head on the DMR Pump Track

Of interest to mountain bikers will be the DMR Pump Track.  It features a packed program of head to head racing, with the best riders in the UK going head to head on two 200m long timber tracks over rollers and berms each day.

There’s also the BikeRadar Training Hub, an exclusive area within the show.

A team of experts from Koolstof Sports Coaching will be on hand to put you through your paces in a series of tests and consultations, designed to enhance your cycling performance and show you exactly where you can improve. Find out exactly what’s involved here.

Have your fitness assessed by cycling experts at the BikeRadar Training Hub

Tickets for the BikeRadar Training Hub are available now (priced at £115 per person), but are extremely limited.

You can book a session on the tickets page of the London Bike Show website. Use the discount code TRAIN to get a  session for just £69 **update – this offer is now sold out**

The Bike Show at Excel in London is a great place to see what’s going on and catch up with some key contacts for us. There’s a lot of buzz right now…

Whyte's 29er carbon race rocket. Will we see an XL? *coughs*

Whyte bikes, the small company designed right here in Blighty by Ian Alexander and the great team at Whyte keep on pushing things forwards. With the 10 year progression of 29er bikes finally starting to flower, they are right on the money with their slightly slacker, faster and damn right light carbon race hard tails. A stunning bit of craft.

I reckon many people could ride these as fast off road as a good rider on a 150mm travel bike. Can’t wait to get on one, although currently only in limited sizes. Any chance of an XL please guys?

There are enough people that would want one, surely..?

Evoc- first prize in the unofficial cool stand competition!

Evoc had the coolest stand at the show- set out like an arrivals lounge at the airport, complete with display and flight numbers. Loads of effort gone in, and damn nice bags to boot. New for 2012 is their light weight body armour range- but more on that soon.

Rose bikes team DH- a nice bit of kit.

German giant Rose bikes seem to be a brand on the move too, refining their already nice DH frame in to a light weight racer with a dialled 64degree head angle. This is the team edition, which will be raced by the new Rose Vaujany team, made up of whiptastic DH racer Nico Vink, 4X and general style monger Joost ‘The Boost’ Wichman and the UK’s own Katy Curd.

Rose Jester Slopestyle. £1279, that is all...

There’s also a rad new Slopestyle bike, with 120mm travel, and a complete build price as seen here at £1279!

Could be just the ticket for mini DH; dirt jumps; 4X or any amount of looning around you might like!

Hard Eddie. Bad to the bone.

Intense Hard Eddie 29er.

I don’t need to say much here that two simple words don’t say on their own:

Bad Ass.

Stunning fork up front. I feel hot and bothered looking at this- I want!

And check out the fork- a fine stealthy contender to the Niner Air Carbon fork. But instead of the XC pedigree, you have the Intense stamp of mayhem- this is the whippet bike that hard core riders don’t realise they need…

Man and machine.

Martyn Ashton made a great video in which he flipped a road bike, did a little bit of trials and a bunch of other unthinkable stuff. So he’s gone to town and has built up a custom Cannondale Cyclocross bike, complete with a Hope trials rear hub with ultra fast pick up, and a few other extras. You may have seen him back flip it in one of the shows, but really you need to see him manual the thing round- it’s a piss take!
Got to take my hat off and give the man a little bow though- he’s one of the hardest working men in mountain biking and works flat out to promote mountain biking to audiences that might not be aware of it.

Martyn Ashton- still tearing it up after all the years. He deserves an award.

Mart is nearly 40, and he is still king of the castle.

You rock mate, keep doing it.

Rutger Hauer just out of shot.

The Excel centre at night, for some reason reminded me of the film Bladerunner. Or maybe the sight of a Ferrari Enzo and a Sunseeker boat worth 15million had made me go light headed.

This boat is bigger than my flat.

I wonder how much the contents of this hall was worth?

The boat show is something else, and one of the only places you can go- as a vaguely affluent person- and feel like a complete and utter tramp.

Paddle boarding out of shot. They were too fast.

Paddle boarding is hard core- you should have seen the size of the dudes racing in the pool. They all looked like Dolph Lundgren.

Mr Crud-  Pete Tomkins-  and his son Jamie are really in to paddle boarding as part of their active lifestyle. And you should see the condition Pete is in- he’s a gnarly old dude now and reminds me of a happy version of Taylor from that Sci-fi show Terra Nova…

There was a large following for the Bike Polo at the show. These guys look familiar- kind of like most the inhabitents of Hoxton but with kneepads and hockey helmets.

Got to say, I saw some pretty hard-core crashes and slamming action going on. It looks tricky and actually really good fun. But still makes me think of this… (Rob S over at Continental Tyres, this is for you…)

Finally, here’s a few random shots of recent stuff going on here at MBUK towers.

Doddy's Ibis HD 160, before being attacked with Muc-Off

And after...

Specialized Camber Comp Carbon 29er. So fast it's a joke.

The MBUK photo studio, yesterday.

A bike, yesterday.

Over and out…

The London Bike Show is a great place to see all the latest bikes and gear

With a huge range of exhibitors showing off their best bikes and kit for 2012 and beyond, the London Bike Show’s a great place to see the latest must-have gear.

Those confirmed to take part so far include: 2Pure (CrankBrothers, Ibis), ATB Sales (Marin, Whyte, Wilier), Endura, Extra UK (Intense, Easton, Fizik), Hope, Madison (Shimano, Cervelo, Genesis, Saracen, Ridgeback), Polaris, Rose, Surf Sales (Transition, Dakine) and Upgrade (DMR, Kinesis, Lezyne).

There are also plenty of live events to watch, from Europe’s number one mountain bike freestyle team to a bike polo tournament.

We have 10 pairs of tickets to give away to lucky MBUK readers!

To win a pair just answer this simple question:
Where is the London Bike Show being held?
A ExCel
B Hampton Court Palace
C Earls Court

There are two ways to enter

1. Head to www.futurecomps.co.uk/MBKLBS , answer the question and enter your details
2. Text MBKLBS followed by your answer (A. B or C) to 87474 (texts charged at your standard network rate)

The competition is open now. The closing date is midnight 3 January 2012. There will be 10 winners, each winning a pair of tickets. If you are a winner, you can pick which day you’d like to attend, and will need to pick tickets up at the box office on the day. The prize does not include transportation or any other costs. The winner will be notified by email or telephone. Full terms and conditions can be viewed here.

The show will be taking on 12 to 15 January at the Excel Centre in London. There will be tons of new bikes and kit on display and available to buy, with some of the best brands in the business represented, and you’ll be able to see the Animal Bike Tour in action!

Tickets for the show are normally £16 (advance, or £20 on the door) for adults, but you lucky MBUK/BikeRadar readers can get them for £14.

Click here to take advantage of this offer (the word ‘radar’ should show in the ‘discount code’ box). It expires on 25 December.