Ride Boulder Co

Post-Interbike Thoughts Part 1

Posted on 01. Oct, 2009 by Jennifer in Uncategorized

I know I should have probably written down some thoughts about Interbike sooner but I was a little overwhelmed and it has taken me some time to sort through all my ideas.

About Las Vegas - well that place is an equal-opportunity descent into hell. The number of people, the amount of cigarette smoke, the overwhelming noise and lights is almost enough to distract you from most anything.  The only places that were reasonably quiet were the elevators, the wonderful Bouchon restaurant and my tawdry hotel room. I had never been to Vegas before and I think I was pretty much gob-smacked for the first few hours I was there. The restaurants, where I ate, were fantastic.

About the convention – what an amazing breadth of products and bikes and clothing and people.  I didn’t expect the number of advocacy groups present; I thought that was great. There was a great range of urban and commuter bikes and accessories: the Brompton, the gorgeous Pashley Cycles, the incomparable Brooks, Electra’s fine line of commuter bikes like the Ticino were the types of items you just wanted to wander by again and again.

I spent some time with the folks from Bicycle Planet and Bikes Belong, listening and trying to learn where I might fit in or be able to contribute. I met some great people and will definitely be back next year.

But as you can tell from my main picture, I was not drawn to the faster, lighter carbon-whatever speed machines, which are beautiful but I don’t belong on or near one.  Nor was I too impressed with the bicycle babes but I guess they have their place, although I am not sure what brand they were promoting.

I thought Knog had the most exciting brand presence and Detours had a super collection of bags.  I need to go back through all the business cards and catalogues I collected b/c I am not mentioning some great items I saw.