ID Inhouse magazine 2018 by ISON DISTRIBUTION LIMITED

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InHouse

HALO VORTEX WHEELSET

Halo have just released news of their latest project, the Vortex wheelset. The Halo Vortex was designed to compete in Enduro World Series races worldwide, week after week, with the intent of releasing it to riders everywhere without charging extortionate figures. How did Halo do such a thing? We speak to Halo Sales and Marketing manager Jordan Lunn to find out more.

“After a couple of years of testing we settled on a material that doesn’t prematurely crack under large impacts, is light and recyclable without a huge impact on our planet. 6061 T-10 heat treated Aluminium alloy. For rims, it just makes sense.” - Jordan Lunn (JL), Halo Wheels.

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“T T

Using an asymmetric design Halo equalised spoke tensions and built a package that leaves descents in its wake, whilst cutting down weight where it isn’t needed for energy sapping climbs. To compensate for the differences in wall length and strength of an asymmetric design, the wall thicknesses have been proportioned to balance out impact forces equally. The Vortex offers offset wheel benefits, without compromise. The bead hook of the rim is square and thick, which brushes off impacts and maximises the potential to make it to the end of the day with a fully sealed tubeless tyre. Out of the box ‘Stealth’ finish.

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“Spare spokes are readily available, whether that’s from your local bike shop, or your mates toolbox trackside, should the worst happen.” - JL. Available from the box in a black on black ‘Stealth’ colourway, aftermarket decal kits are also available in a range of colours. Prices start at £410.00 RRP (£222.56 stockist trade) for wheels and £19.99 RRP (£10.00 stockist trade) for decals. Offset design with zero compromise.

The Halo Vortex will be available from April.

More details at halowheels.com “They’ve held up to everything from racing at Tweedlove, shuttle runs in Finale Ligure, the 6 day Trans BC epic, bike park laps in Whistler and EWS competitions in France, America and Canada.” - James Shirley, EWS Racer. Designed around 2.35/2.5” tubeless tyres Halo have managed to eke out every last drop of grip with a generous 33mm internal width. Tyre sidewalls have more support and volumes are greatly increased.

“Say goodbye to snapped pawls. Single tipped pawls just don’t stand up to what wide range cassettes are throwing at them these days. The Supadrive system handles torque like nothing else. It also sounds incredible, like a pack of angry wasps!” - JL. Vortex wheels use J-bend double butted spokes, a note which Halo are proud to mention.

Decals available for the Vortex.

“It took a little bit of getting used to but after a couple days it began to feel normal. In fact, better than normal! The sidewall of the tyre has more support so you can run softer pressures which provides more grip.” - James Shirley, EWS Racer.

“THEY’VE HELD UP TO EVERYTHING !” At the core of Halo’s Vortex wheels are the new and improved, instantaneous 3 degree (120 point) pick up MT Supadrive and MT Front hubs, with sealed bearings and super wide spaced flanges for increased stiffness and durability. Boost or not, Halo have you covered. Halo’s Supadrive system uses a wedge pawl mechanism with 13 micro serrated teeth per pawl to spread torque load from wide range cassettes affectively.

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Hitting turns In the Alps on the new Vortex.

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InHouse

NEW PRODUCTS

1. GUSSET S2 SADDLES

2. ODI F1 GRIPS

4. GENETIC DROVE BAR

3. GUSSET XD 1-ER

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1.Gusset S2 Saddles, DJ / AM / SM - RRP From £29.99 2. ODI F1, Float or Vapor Grips- RRP From £17.99 3. Gusset XD SS Convertion - RRP From £29.99 4. Genetic Drove Bar RRP From £29.99 5. Passport Cage Mover RRP £11.99 6. Genetic STV Stem RRP From £49.99 7. TSG Cadette RRP From £54.99 8. ODI AG2 Grips RRP From £29.99 9. Ribbon Coil - RRP From £899.99 10. Gusset Single File Grips RRP £14.99

5. PASSPORT CAGE MOVER

7. TSG CADETTE

6. GENETIC STV STEM

8. ODI AG2 GRIPS

9. MRP RIBBON COIL

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10. GUSSET SINGLE FILE GRIPS

1/10/2018 5:06:09 PM

InHouse

IDENTITI AKA & JEKYLL We’re all pretty excited here at Ison by the release of the new and updated Identiti AKA and Dr Jekyll bikes, and rightly so, they’ve been a long time coming. Our In house brand has been on a roll recently with the new Mettle full suspension platform and 2018 will see it develop its range further. With a history deeply embedded in the UK dirt jump scene, the Dr Jekyll is Identiti’s most established model name, the original bike that was

conceived in 1998 and it only seemed fitting that it returned to celebrate the brands 20th birthday in 2018. Still rocking 26’’ wheels and firmly drawing a line in the sand that #26aintdead, the Dr Jekyll is built solely for the dirt jumps or 4x track and we love its blatant arrogance about that. It’s a bike designed to have fun on, hit the trails, and look good doing it. Deep inside we all ride bikes to have fun and the Dr Jekyll is going to put a

lot of smiles on people’s faces when it arrives.

‘I started riding my bike on jumps and looked at Identiti as the top dogs. I couldn’t let that dry up in the brand when I came to the helm of Identiti, the brand deserves this bike, a bike unashamedly awesome. It doesn’t beat around the bush and won’t disappoint.’ – Pat Campbell-Jenner, Brand Manager Not content with just recreating a legend, Identiti has also set about complete redevelopment of the AKA trail hardtail. The first generation AKA arrived in 2011, developed from the original Mr Hyde platform and it spearheaded a market looking for hardtails without cross country geometry or long stems and since then things have really changed. As you can see in the pictures here, it’s borrowed some features from today’s enduro bikes like long reach and a slack 64.5° static head angle to give confident 66° angle at sag. Based around a 140mm fork, a conscious decision from Identiti

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to make the balance the bike and keep the rider in control.

‘We took a long time deliberating the geometry on the AKA. Trail hardtails have come a long way and we wanted to make a bike that you could jump on and feel right at home. Hardtail geometry is very dynamic and steepens towards bottom out, so we started with relatively slack static geometry that gives you awesome ‘on-trail’ geometry at sag’. With boost rear axle spacing and ample tyre clearance up to 2.6’’ as well as a party trick to be announced later, the AKA is as modern as they come for fitment standards.

‘We tried to implement as many functional options as we could from the start. Boost axle spacing is a must today to be relevant, zero stack headset, and even threaded bottom brackets - because they work’. The new AKA and Dr Jekyll both share some common features, like the latest version of Identiti’s Adjustable Dropout System (known as ADS) which allows the simple use of single speed or chain stay adjustment with a hidden tensioner to keep the chain taught. According to Identiti

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this feature caused some heated discussions;

‘The drop outs add cost to the overall package – they’re CNC alloy after all. Sometimes we have to make compromises on design to hit other goals, but this is one we didn’t feel we could negate on flagship product’.

for £499.99 and come in 2 colours. The AKA is available in three sizes and the Dr Jekyll one.

www.identitibikes.com #whatsyouridentiti

Simple things like external cable routing with bolt on guides and triple bottle mounts inside the front triangle (the Dr Jekyll doesn’t have water bottle mounts, don’t be silly) all add to the endless builds you can achieve and add further to the details on these new models. Available in 2018 with complete builds to be confirmed. The frames will retail

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InHouse

GRAVEL JOY

WORDS AND PICTURES / MARKUS STITZ My feelings about gravel bikes were mixed. Although I am proud that my picture decorates one of the walls at the Radius Brewery in Emporia, the start of the famous Dirty Kanza, mother of all gravel races, I never warmed up to the idea of owning another bike. Drop bars and off-road, this combination only offered limited attraction to me. For me the days of drop bars were gone, and while I sometimes wished for a bit more speed on my Ogre, so far I thought there was simply not enough to make a gravel bike stand out from my trusted rigid mountain bike round the world companion. I knew that I was wrong shortly afterwards. I worked on a project for Glasgow City Council and it was the first time I seriously thought about the idea of skinnier tires and drop bars again. The interesting thing is that my thinking had nothing to do with bikes, but somehow a rigid mountain bike wasn’t really what I would have expected in pictures advertising city cycling routes. For some reason it felt wrong. Fast forward three months. I am about to put the finishing touches on my most recent bikepacking trail. I am yet to decide about a name. I have fallen in love with gravel bikes. But why? The reason is quite simple. It’s called Surly Straggler. It’s not just about the bike, it is also about what I am able to do with

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it. The nature of gravel riding, fast and adventurous at the same time. When I handed in the proposal for a bikepacking route in Argyll, I hadn’t caught the gravel bug. Yet. In the proposal all pictures showed fat tire bikes. When I got the ok to go ahead, things were different. While I put the finishing touches on the routes in Glasgow I understood how versatile a gravel bike is. It is a bike for pretty much all kinds of riding. Fast road sections were no longer boring, gravel paths were wicked fun, but I was surprised how well the bike handled even gnarly singletrack sections. The Knard tires offered remarkably good grip on all surfaces, in wet and dry conditions alike, and the Halo Devaura wheels swallowed everything with grace and stayed true no matter how tricky the terrain was. In short, the Surly Straggler was the best bike I had ridden in a long time, and now I needed a route to play with it properly. Working on the proposed bikepacking route with the Argyll and the Isles Tourism Co-Operative was the chance to develop a route suited for the bike I learned to love. Stage one of the route development was to ask riders about their bikepacking habits and preferences. With 576 responses I was positively surprised about the outcome, and with 26 countries the spread of

opinions was remarkable. After having so much fun on the Straggler in the recent weeks I was deep down hoping that people are looking for a bikepacking route suitable for gravel bikes. Exactly that was the case. With the first survey responses flying in, I started to look at the vast area that Argyll covers, and it very quickly became apparent that it was the perfect region in Scotland to design a route for gravel bikes. Fast forward another month. The Wild About Argyll Trail is finished. 407 miles through one of the most diverse regions I have been to, Scotland’s Adventure Coast. If you got the right legs the route features just one hike a bike section, and a beautiful one at that. Puck’s Glen isn’t great to ride gravel bikes, but the stunning gorge was too good to leave out. Even when I pushed my bike through there at night I was mesmerised by the beauty. Before riding the Straggler I wouldn’t have thought that bikepacking on a gravel bike can be so much fun. Thankfully, I was proven wrong.

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InHouse

MICHAEL BONNEY EXPERT VIEW

in retail prices. Another impact will be that we will be responsible for our own safety standards, fortunately the EU adopted the ISO (International Standards Association) rules so, barring government lunacy, bikes manufactured to that will be safe and legal to sell. One only has to look at the industry trade websites to see how many brands are altering their distribution strategies, but ‘I believe that As we move into 2018 undoubtedly there are some challenges for the bike industry to face both with Brexit and the changing channels of bike and component distribution. I don’t think it’s possible to predict what will happen with Brexit, almost every day there is another change and no one knows whether we will get the deal the government is chasing. Market’s don’t like volatility and as we’ve already seen foreign exchange markets react quickly. If a Brexit deal doesn’t happen then we could see further reductions in the value of the £ against both the euro and US dollar which would necessitate increases

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there is still a place for both distributor and dealer’

provided that we both add value to the customer experience. You will have already seen the emphasis that Ison are putting on demo bikes with Identiti, I believe that this is a key factor in bike purchasing decisions and more importantly a reason to visit a dealer and chat about buying a bike. Inevitably some changes will happen as we all adapt to a changing market place but with Identiti we are committed to keeping our dealers involved in whatever changes need to be made. Having a dealer network for backup/service/warranty is something that differentiates us from the consumer direct brands and one that gives customers confidence

knowing that help is on hand locally should they need it. I’m probably repeating some of Lloyd’s words but after working with him for almost 3 years we share similar views on many things. I know that we will continue to watch distribution channel changes and work proactively with the Identiti/Ison dealer network to find innovative solutions to enable both dealer and distributor to cope. Ison will increase their focus on in house brands which they can retain control of. ’The Identiti product

line will evolve and expand’

into new areas that the team involved are enthusiastic about. For me it is an exciting project to work on, the potential and will exists to try and meet these challenges and find solutions. Hopefully you can see that Ison are planning for a future working with the dealer network so please come to the Ison rooms at Core to find out more or just to get more detail on the comments I’ve made here.

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InH ous e

“There’s a surefooted robustness to the feel of the Mettle. The stiffness of the chassis gives an urgency to split second changes of direction” - MBUK 2017.

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InHouse

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