For three days I walk, tired and weary at the Interbike Trade Show in Las Vegas. Like slowly circling a drain I covered the show floor at Mandalay Bay, until I spotted this Blue Axino SL.
It’s Tip-Top Taiwan with an A-Team spec and build. And, if a bike buyer doesn’t want/care about disc or thru axles, it’s arguably the best their money can buy from an earnest company who’s just trying to sell bikes. Instead of a lifestyle, taste-making brand, or trying to define their version of riding road bikes on dirt with plus sizes tires, Blue offers this.
The Axino SL represents the previous, glorious zenith of a carbon road bike. Could’ve been a contender on a Pro Tour team too with its DA, carbon wheel spec; or, at the very least, a privateers crit bike.
When asked, what I told Blue was, “Go direct, slot in where Redline used to be before the Dutch plundered and squandered it.” Offer enthusiasts a value line of bikes before Canyons gets here with mail order, and what Bulls does now.
And, sure, marketing totem it. When words on a frame are all you got to market with, fill every v-shaped tube with them.
At $5K , the Blue represents a value not in terms of “500 hours in a wind tunnel” or a “Team endorsed,” but really what Taiwan factories do best.
They make really great bikes that even a jaded journalist appreciates.
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