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If you’ve kept a close eye on this site recently, you’ll have noticed that I attended Sea Otter Europe, a three-day expo extravaganza held in lovely, lovely Girona, Spain.
So far, I’ve covered the penultimate UCI Gravel World Cup event, a race that seemed to be where not just the gravel brigade hung out but the cooler kids of the pro road peloton. If that’s not up your street, I also covered gravel tech from the show, a huge round-up of all that was delightful, eye-popping, and tasty. This time around, I wanted to delve into the Spanish scene specifically.
Unica may not be a brand we’ve seen outside of Spain, but the sure have a neat line up. One to keep an eye on.
I’m sure you’ll know Spain is one of the heartlands of cycling. Yep, Belgium is where the drunken, mad fans of the sport come out to soak up any two-wheeled events with relish; France is the traditional heartland, and Italy is the classic finger-pinching, exuberantly passionate country. However, Spain seems to be a thriving country when it comes to the bike industry. It seems to be the country with the largest number of independent large and mid-size bike brands. With a gaggle of smaller players nipping at the heels of the larger brands. It seems Health or the Sea Otter Show would have you believe that. And it’s this scene that I wanted to showcase in this video.
BH, along with sponsoring the Burgos-BH road team look like it has a few handy riders on its gravel roster too.
Off the top of my head, the traditional European countries seem to be on the waning with national bike brands being overshadowed by international players. I live in France and see very few Lappiers, Looks, or Gittans. Sure, there’s that French behemoth Decathlon, but that’s somthing unto itself — a brand that the nation buys into for every sport. I’d go as far as it’s a national institution. It’s gigantic in every sporting sector. But there’s really no major pure bike brand that I’ll see in large quantities.
As for Belgium, yeah, there’s Ridley, which seems to be going strong, and it has a few small brands that you’ll see on club runs. But wandering around Belgium’s national bike show in January this year, it didn’t seem to have as varied brands as Spain. As for Italy, it seems strong in the middle-sized brands, much like Spain. But the once-big Italian brands aren’t quite Italian; a Dubai conglomerate now owns Colnago, and Pinarello is owned by a billionaire. Bianchi, which has invested in moving some production back to Italy, looks like it’s trying but isn’t as strong as it was back in the ’90s; Wilier seems to be a standout, going from strength to strength. Can we put that down to Cav riding them to victory?! Either way, it’s all very much road-oriented.
Vitoria, oddily enough based of Vitoria. The brand had a new road bike on show. And it looked just as swish as any of the major players offerings.
So here we are in Girona, at Sea Otter Europe, and I couldn’t help but notice the Spanish brands and the variety of bikes they offered. I live on the border of the Basque region, and when popping over on a tapas ride, Spanish and Basque bikes outnumber the international major players. They certainly look after their own. With so much on offer, I thought it would be interesting to take a bit of a dive into the Spanish scene that I saw at Sea Otter Europe.
As always, I hope you enjoy the video.
Gallery: Spanish bike brands at Sea Otter Europe
It’s not just bike brands hailing from Spain, but lightweight wheels and parts too. Stay tuned for a vid that includes these.
MMR is also a Basque brand. and seem to be getting some great traction, and even more so after multiple Vuelta stage wins under the Kern Pharma team this year.
The Spanish Massi, not the US Masi.
BH had a huge range of bikes on display. The brand is larger than most would give it credit for.
And without the crazy paint scheme.
The chainstays on the BH gravel bikes are certainly unique.
Is it a caterpillar on the top tube, or is it a worm?
More of that mad BH custom build.
Can we call Aurum a Spanish brand? Or is it Italian? With Basso and Contador as founders, I think we can call it 50 percent Spanish.
Angel is part of the small Sislent wheel brand and makes super light frames.
Source link : https://velo.outsideonline.com/road/road-gear/video-spanish-cycling-is-flourishing-at-sea-otter-europe/
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Publish date : 2024-10-02 06:00:00
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