This booth is typical of Taiwanese vendors. This booth is important becasue this is the guy REALLY making your bike. These are the guys who are there to exhibit to the brands we all know and love. “Brand A” bicycles’ product manager goes to a booth like this and asks “Can you make this?” Then this fella says, “Yup, we can make 3,000 of them for $30 a piece painted with your decals- how’s that?”
So, when you are walking through the big fancy booths with the free espresso, booby girls, athletes signing sutographs and bright lights with huge photos of impressive cycling scenes what you are really seeing is what this guy made:
Whether you are fighting a war, selling airliners or designing bike “competitive intelligence” is a critical area of determining the landscape of the market. This company provides “competitive intelligence” to its list of clients- a closely guarded secret.
These guys are the “spooks”, the spies of the bicycle industry. They infiltrate other booths, other companies, use personnel assets and information science to determine what other companies are doing, patent information, etc. I found this booth very interesting.
Tom, does the Ibike show now ‘officially’ allow non-media visitors to take photos? I know this is practically impossible to enforce and everybody still seems to do it, but does the show now say it is officially OK? Last year, they were still saying, ‘no photos’.
The tri suit is by Hed and is made for them by “Mocani” or Morconi" of Spain.
It is remarkable. It is super light weight, easily 1/2 the weight of a normal suit. The fit is mega-tight. It is super low drag in the water, like the Olympic swimsuits designed to be more hydrodynamic. Durability is improved significantly over those according to Hed.
I will be racing in Laguna Phuket, Thailand in one of these suits. It is a non-wetsuit swim, so I need all the help I can get.
-More info as it become available. No photos at this moment.
i have to admit my jealousy here regarding Interbike and all the cool stuff. Not so much because I wasn’t there to see it(i’ve got the forum, cyclingnews, velonews et al for that). No, it’s because I’m Canadian and probably won’t see it for a very long time. Tom, your Golden Vapour award takes on a whole new meaning up here. We just started dealing with QBP this season and it astounds me the number of products that never see the light of day up here. It sucks being a bike retailer in a country that doesn’t sell as many bikes as the state of California can in one year. Supplier, product manager and distributors just don’t us seriously up here. We used to go to Interbike, but it became pointless, as well over half the stuff down there is either unavailable to us, or so hard to get as to make it non-consumer friendly for warranty and after market service. Even canadian companies that make it big(won’t mention any names, but you can figure it out) are willing to let their canadian retailers hang in favour of the ever alluring mighty american dollar. So enjoy what you have, and don’t take it for granted.
Lastly, thanks to all that were there for posting and reviewing, almost felt like I was there at times.
oh, one more thing for TomD. We’re thinking of carrying Felt for next year. Noticed you had some good things to say. I’d appreciate a PM with some more in depth retailer insight into them as a company and as a bike. Thanks.
I’ve got Hed’s brochure with a handout for the trisuit. The company is Mosconi, and the suit is unremarkable in appearance. Black with a white Hed logo on the right breast and an “M” (Mosconi logo) on the left, with white trim. very tasteful. Legs appear failry long, a few inches above the knee and sleeveless (of course).
