Discuss and add.
http://www.slowtwitch.com/Opinion/The_Best_and_Worst_of_Interbike_4610.html
Still wish I coulda gone.
I like the Speedplay aero pedal but think it makes more sense for TTs than tris, the one-sided pedal could be a PITA to get in, pretty much any fumbling and you probably kissed your time savings away.
Agree it must be frustrating to find booth staff staring at their smartphones rather than engaging with visitors, I mean really? The union loading costs sound extortionary, I mean this is the bike industry, not medical equipment or something.
The union loading costs sound extortionary, I mean this is the bike industry, not medical equipment or something.
That’s been an issue at least one Ironman event.
Product reps who don’t know their own product??? Surprise surprise… ha
I like the Speedplay aero pedal but think it makes more sense for TTs than tris, the one-sided pedal could be a PITA to get in, pretty much any fumbling and you probably kissed your time savings away./quote]
Hopefully it’s weighted in some way that it’ll consistently hang a certain way, otherwise it’ll be a 50/50 shot whether or not you can get into your pedal. Or maybe you could just always clip in/out with your right foot forward…
That asleep Asian guy must know LV like no other… when I went by his booth, he was a asleep and wearing sunglasses.
In triathlon you should have your shoes clipped in already. 
I like the Speedplay aero pedal but think it makes more sense for TTs than tris, the one-sided pedal could be a PITA to get in, pretty much any fumbling and you probably kissed your time savings away.
Agreed, however, I have been at WTC races where AGers are not allowed to have their shoes clipped in before bike mounting.
“In triathlon you should have your shoes clipped in already” IF you are one of the 15% of triathletes that has the requisite skills to do this and actually save time rather than fumbling around, or coming to a complete stop, or falling over, or making someone else fall over.
Fixed your post for you!
GU was having a rocking time in their booth at the strike of 5! Their custom label beer pong table was the coolest non-bike thing I saw at the show!
I like the Speedplay aero pedal but think it makes more sense for TTs than tris, the one-sided pedal could be a PITA to get in, pretty much any fumbling and you probably kissed your time savings away.
Aren’t the majority of popular road pedals also already one sided?
And for your later comment I honestly don’t know why people have so much trouble with the flying mount and shoes on the bike already. It took me all of three or so attempts before my first tri ever to do it and I’ve done it at every one it was allowed at since, never a problem. It is no different then running and jumping on with your shoes with the added advantage that your pedals are always exactly where you expect them to be.
I was not at Interbike and SS tri last year, so when I showed up early Thursday morning, I was actually surprised it wasn’t on the Mandaley Bay property with Interbike right there. There are definitely some things they need to do to improve upon the super sprint. The racing though and the athletes there have much improved. I think they had 5 or 6 Olympians racing between the men and women.
Having a bike show in Vegas. Why put it somewhere that isn’t bike friendly and with such a mismatch of general lifestyles (chain smoking and sedentary indoor activities versus exercising to the point of being disfunctional)? Salt Lake or Denver would have much better locations for the outdoor expo, like Park City.
This was my first time to go and had a complete blast. Other than some of the big names not being there it was really a mind blowing place for a cycling fan. A few highlights for me personally are below.
Best:
There was a pretty cool app in the LAB that had really really smooth training video for the Kicker. It is based out of Australia.
http://fulgaz.com/
New PowerMeters (Low Price Points)
DC Rainmaker talked about most of the new power meters on his site, but a lot of apply yourself type of things. I’m not as excited about the PMs, but I am about them pushing the overall prices down.
Trainer Road iOS
Meeting FLO (Talking about their two new plans. We may help with one)
Meeting Slowman
Private WKO4 Demo from Hunter Allen
**Worst: **
Big Ironman Announcement … Gatorade
E-bike Craze on mountain bikes and fat bikes…
Very twitchy Fuji Road Bike
Via Cyclingnews.
I was in town for the week, mostly to race CXVegas and ride the mobile social.
Did a very quick run thru Interbike o Friday public day.
FLO was there? Dang, would have liked to see that booth.
Didn’t need to, nor did I, see Slowman. Seen him many times, though it’s been many years.
Way too many electric bikes.
Lots of Fat Bikes, such a small niche.
Met Fixitsticks guys, bought some.
Impressed by Kali for MTB helmet with integrated light/camera mount - about time!
Talked to Fly6. Will be buying one of those. Maybe a front cam as well?
Talked to a 4iiii engineer. As long as it’s not vaporware, I might buy 2-3 in the next year.
Drove by the convention center on Thurs, could not figure out where the Super Sprint Tri was. Mighta spectated if I coulda Poor job on that by all involved.
Watched crit Thurs night until a drunk walked on course and got Tboned by a pro woman. Ended racing for the night. Not sure why.
Rode back to hotel and saw an alleycat racer run a red light and Tbone a cab.
That is crazy racing right there.
Overall, fun times in Vegas. Wish I had more time at Interbike.
Vegas was actually cooler than my SoCal home. 100+ when I got back.
Did not go but I like the idea of the Fly6 rear light/camera.
Having a bike show in Vegas. Why put it somewhere that isn’t bike friendly and with such a mismatch of general lifestyles (chain smoking and sedentary indoor activities versus exercising to the point of being disfunctional)? Salt Lake or Denver would have much better locations for the outdoor expo, like Park City.
Because that is where the industry has consistently voted to go for the show. Cheap airfare, cheap hotels, endless entertainment, a chance to “get away”.
Every time the idea of another location gets floated (or tried, see Anaheim), the numbers speak for themselves.
What most enthusiasts forget is that the vast majority of the bike industry is comprised of $300-$500 mountain bikes that never go off road. Many dealers no longer ride (if they ever did) and are just business men now, not enthusiasts.
Not saying it is good or bad, just what it is.
I like the Speedplay aero pedal but think it makes more sense for TTs than tris, the one-sided pedal could be a PITA to get in, pretty much any fumbling and you probably kissed your time savings away.
Aren’t the majority of popular road pedals also already one sided?
And for your later comment I honestly don’t know why people have so much trouble with the flying mount and shoes on the bike already. It took me all of three or so attempts before my first tri ever to do it and I’ve done it at every one it was allowed at since, never a problem. It is no different then running and jumping on with your shoes with the added advantage that your pedals are always exactly where you expect them to be.
One sided pedals are weighted in a way that they always hang the same way. Speedplays are symmetrical, which is fine when they are double sided. I don’t know if the cover is enough to weight the pedal so the clip in side is always up but it doesn’t look like it.
A week ago I watched a regional half iron race and you’d be surprised at the error rate among those that had their shoes already clipped in at the start, and that tried to get out of their shoes before stopping at T2. At the start of the bike I saw one of the top women come to a complete stop because she couldn’t get into her shoes. I watched all the top competitors come into T2, probably a third of the top competitors struggled with getting out of their shoes on the uphill.
What most enthusiasts forget is that the vast majority of the bike industry is comprised of $300-$500 mountain bikes that never go off road. Many dealers no longer ride (if they ever did) and are just business men now, not enthusiasts.
Not saying it is good or bad, just what it is.
This.
I work for a 3 store chain of bike stores, this year so far I think that we have sold maybe 8 road bikes above the $1500 mark, that is between three stores. In the same time period we sold 92 of these at one location.
http://i60.tinypic.com/2e4bwp2.jpg
Am I happier selling a nice road/tri/mtb bike? yes. Will it keep my paychecks coming? no. The bread and butter of the industry is not the stuff we ride, it is the $400-$650 hybrids and entry level Mountain bikes that keep most shops running.
Interbike is a bicycle trade show, most of the bicycle business is not about the high end stuff and all the major players have events for their dealers so they can see and touch the high end stuff, these all happen before Interbike. We send folks to Specialized, Giant, Salsa and other dealer events in the month or two before interbike, if we feel we need to see some new accessories we send folk to Interbike. Heck even the manufacturer of the above pictured bike had their own event this year (Electra Bicycles) they sent me to that one in Chicago, but that was mostly because they were bought out by Trek this year and the owner had some specific questions about how that changed our relationship since we are not a Trek dealer.
Point is, we on ST always bitch about “not enough Tri stuff, where are the big players” etc etc, forgetting we are a very small part of a very big market. You want something to bitch about, try being a touring cyclist, we get no love what so ever at anything, but most of us buy a bike and ride it for 15 years anyway.
Oh and I keep seeing references to Fatbikes being a small niche market, we will sell more fatties this year than road bikes, and at a higher price point. I sold 3 in the last week at $2100 a piece, our average road bike sale is about $1100. Don’t know about the rest of the country but in Michigan Fatbikes are huge. Only thing holding down our fatbike sales atm is availability of the bikes. Specialized put up their first run of the new front suspension Fatboy Pro last week, they are almost all gone already, last I looked they had 2 size smalls left nationwide.