Going to go against the grain here, but I am a Hunt employee who doesn’t like camping. There, I said it.
I’m not of the same rugged cloth of our fabled (and former) Josh Ibbett, or either of the Marchment brothers who kicked things off a couple of years ago. They all love it. The cold, the damp, I’m not sure what the appeal is – but they dig it and they dig it big. Luckily, during our visit to Eurobike this year I had company in the ‘hating camping’…. errr… camp. Luisa, our new senior engineer, spent most of her time either moaning about having to sleep in a tent whilst visiting a trade show, or listening to me doing the same. My idea of touring just means stopping at a different hotel each night. A TCR contender, I am not.
I honestly wish I could bring you some top-quality tech reporting, like our friends of the various media outlets so well-practised in the ‘right time, right place’ thing. Those guys are good at bringing you the tech news as soon as anybody in the world sees it. Unfortunately, this isn’t going to be that kinda article, for a few reasons. Firstly, the four of us were in meetings almost exclusively from 9-6 each day we were there (except for the Friday when we left at 1, and were merely in meetings from 9-1). Oh, plus a trip to a wind tunnel until 8pm one evening, more on that over the next few months. Secondly, the journalists mentioned above would beat us to everything even if we had loads of time on our hands, so there wouldn’t be much point in trying anyway. A lot of my friends were messaging me asking about the latest hot tech floating around, but I honestly couldn’t tell them anything that wasn’t already online. Finally, it's now Thursday, so the chances of me showing you anything new are slim-to-none.
So, instead this is going to be a quick one. The primary (achieved) aim was for me to vent about the sleeping in a tent thing. Beyond that, I thought it would be nice to show you all some of the pictures I took whilst roaming around (usually on the way to the next meeting). Most of the stuff that took my eye was high-end road stuff, but I tried to capture some of the bikes/things that your regular media outlet wouldn't notice! Not forgetting the occasional ‘Alligator’ (this won our internal award for Most Eurobike Bike of Eurobike).
Enjoy!
Ollie Gray
Hunt Service & Dispatch Manager
Schwalbe's new product presentation on the Wednesday was great. Hosted at a hotel overlooking Lake Constance, we were treated to new tech, tasty food, and free beer!
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SON Dynamo came up with a pretty nifty prototype for easier plugging/unplugging of your lights/chargers! We like this a lot...
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Amazing 3D painting on this Yasujiro. For those unaware, Yasujiro Tange was the individual responsible for bringing you Tange tubing! These were impressively light for lugged steel bikes...
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E-Folding-Fat-Bike.... Obviously...
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The most Eurobike bike of Eurobike 2017!
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Daniel Teklehaimanot's Cervelo S5. We do love a good pro race bike here...
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Clarky was exhibiting his new crit bike. Coming to a Goodwood near you...
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On the way home we went on the Rodelbahn. If you don't know what it is, Google it. Amazing. Tom thinks he may have cracked a rib when we went 2-up for maximum speedz...
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Whilst waiting at 2.30am for our (twice) delayed Eurotunnel train, we spotted this almost-fully repented bus. I found it funny at the time...
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