Sunday, September 28

Interbike 08: a non-techy recap


Let me be clear, I'm not totally bike fluent. I enjoy riding most any kind of bike but do not have a mechanic's appreciation of their inner workings.

The truth is, I enjoy an outsiders love.

Last week, I was fortunate to tag along for interbike, an annual event that takes place in the least bike-friendly city in the galaxy, Las Vegas. Below is a recap of what I saw:


the goods:

1. Chris King goes brown. Everyone else can continue their King bottom bracket discussion but brown (the 10th color) will be adding some flair to the bikes in your hood soon.

2. Commuters all over the place. I liked the Civia with bamboo racks.

3. Baggage: Chrome bags have held hipster appeal for some time but they seemed to catch fire with the show crowd. Everyone was rocking the buckle. Honorable mention: Rickshaw has a cool zero waste bag and a saweet beerdalero strap.

the peeps

1. There was another show going on in the bike storage area. It was interesting to see how the crowd spend their dollars and pimp their personal rides. From the ganders I took there was many a fixie in the keep, we're talking 50% or more (thanks to Rich at Interbike for suggesting a look-see).

2. What's up with the mustachioed? Was there a subtle HammerSchmidt guerilla campaign going on? There were a lot of stashes circulating and most appeared un-ironic.

3. Shimano's $100 shoe sale (was $350). A constant line and hundreds of blue boxes spotted in the crowd.

the events

1. Cross Vegas was WOW! Trebon controlled the race but Kabush's flyer with 4 laps to go kept things interesting as well as the chase group that included Johnson, Page, Wells and Craig. Loved that the suspense kept rolling till the finish.

2. Dirt Demo at Bootleg Canyon: cool breezes and good rides on a hot day. Spot SS belt drive 29er, dahon foldables and FS bikes with more travel than my Maverick offers. Favorite ride of the day was the YETI 575.

3. Social Media Panel Thursday: Nielsen stats, bike hugger and swobo-itude. Really good stuff.

4. Urban Legend. Bikes, Art, Fashion. Say no more. It was short and sweet on Thursday evening. Thanks to the Momentum folks for a job well done.

1 comment:

Nguyen Duong said...

loved the recap. will have to be on the look out next time at my IBD. ;) I used to work on the Giant Bicycle ad biz years ago. nice to see some familiar bike brands on this post. am not much of a bike mechanic, but i do enjoy the shiny new stuff that comes out every year.