Core Bike Show 2026

A bit of a different Blog from us, this month!  

Rather than a tech-y topic, we thought we'd give a run through of our first trip to Milton Keynes for Core Bike Show.

We're no "writers" (unless it's tech breakdowns) but we're up for the challenge!

So, here goes.....

 

The Trip Down

We booked to attend Core on the Sunday (it was on Sunday - Tuesday) so, in our infinite wisdom, we thought we'd get the train down from Glasgow on the Saturday afternoon and stay overnight in Milton Keynes.  

We pictured food, drinks and relaxation.... what transpired was Janice stuffing her face with M&S snacks and tanning a Mojito before falling asleep for a fair chunk of the 4 hour journey. So, we guess it was objective achieved!  

 

We arrived in to Milton Keynes just before 8pm, so the main goal was to not get lost in the dark finding the hotel (we had booked the Moxy) and to grab more for Janice to eat.  An insatiable appetite which she insists is because she's an Ultra runner (not because she's greedy).

After checking into the hotel and enjoying our free cocktails, we stood in the cold, around the corner from the hotel and debated (at length) what type of food we were in the mood for.  It ended up coming down to which was closest - The Banana Tree for a curry.  

And here comes the worst part of our trip - the hotel.  All was well until around 1am when the loud, heavy bass dance music started.  It was so loud that no-one could tell which room it was coming from. It was awful and continued until around 5.30am - an hour before we were due to get up.  Exhausted we got ourselves sorted and headed to the Bus Station for the free Shuttle Bus put on by CoreBike to get us all to Whittlebury Hall. 

 

CoreBike Show

The Shuttle Bus got us out to Whittlebury in about 20 mins.  When we arrived, we were greeted by Hope Tech.  What an entrance!  We almost forgot to get our badges scanned at the Registration desk because the displays were unreal. 

 

We won't admit how long it took us to remember that there were other things that we wanted to see, so we registered our passes and made our way to Windwave.

 

Windwave 

Keith was the first Rep on Janice's hit list as she wanted to chat about FSA and BBB bearings.  Well, that was the plan but we ended up in a haze of Colnago and shiny things from Framesandgear - are you sensing a theme?  It was here that we realized that we hadn't given ourselves enough time.

We, finally, managed to stay on track and Keith kindly talked us through the FSA and BBB products - so expect an announcement that we are super excited about very soon!

 

Upgrade Bikes

Right next to Windwave, were Upgrade Bikes so we couldn't not visit our Rep and all round legend Tim to talk all things SKF - and Stykr fuel (did we mention that Janice is a runner?)  We're hoping to put together some kits for DMR pedals, too, so we had a good nosey around the DMR display.  

 

So, given we are a Bearing company, where would you imagine that we go next?  That's right.... to an epic bearing company. Enduro Bearings. Janice was reminded to "Walk not Run".  She didn't walk. She ran. 

 

Enduro Bearings

One thing to note about CoreBike is that it is a maze. So, Janice didn't quite get to Enduro as quickly as she'd have liked - we got lost.  So, we made our way around Ison Distribution, Silverfish (we'll share more on them later) and Haibike first before doubling back to find the Extra UK room.  

And who did we bump into first?  Our Extra rep - Alan.  Alan gave us our first account (for which we'll always be grateful!) and it was only fitting that he gave us THE goody bag of the weekend before taking us to meet Enduro. 

And here we have a very chuffed Janice - in her element talking all things Enduro; tools, Maxhit and bearings.

 

Did you know that the bearing below is the first ever MAX design ever made by Enduro?  This bearing was designed for a forklift truck that was difficult to get bearings for - so Enduro MAX bearings were born to fill the gap.  It doesn't have a cage so that more balls can be held inside the race - making it the first MAX bearing!

 

Topeak

Again, with the being distracted!  What a display.... so many great tools.  So, we'll just spam you with lots of photos.

 

Silverfish

Being one of our Distributors, we couldn't wait to see what Silverfish had to offer!  It did not disappoint! We got to speak to Peaty's, Skratch fuel and had a good look around Easton, Birzman, Race Face and Albek (weird for a bearing company but Janice has an obsession with Hydration Packs and the Albek bags are superb!)

 

CoreBike Lunch

After so much walking and talking, it was time for us to make our way to our pre-booked lunch.  It was mobbed, food was delicious and it was great to chat with other folk in the trade.  

Once we were done, we didn't have a lot of time left before the Shuttle Bus so we made a quick trip to Zyro Fisher and to Ison Distribution (again!) to have a quick look around!

The bus picked us up bang on time and we were on our way back to Milton Keynes to catch the train back home........

 

Thoughts

We really had the best time; it was great to meet our Reps (especially the ones we hadn't met in person) and great to chat with the brands that we stock (cough, Enduro).  Being able to look at products that have been on our radar was, hugely, beneficial too.... and, all being well, we'll have new distributors to announce shortly!

The only thing we would change was only booking for one night in Milton Keynes.  Had we have booked to stay for an extra night, we could have stayed at Core until closing, giving us a chance to visit more rooms and speak to more people.

So, a great time was had and it's, definitely, an event that we'll put on the calendar for next year. Until then we'll leave you with Janice's fuel haul that she is exceptionally excited about.........