Number 784

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INTERBIKE - Outdoor Demo Day 2


Day 2 at Interbike was a windy, crowded and hot. There was probably double the attendance from Monday and it was hit or miss to get bikes in a timely fashion. The hot desert winds, like a constant scorning from Las Vegas in the distance, put dust everywhere, made going without fluid's for more then 5 minutes impossible, and rendered any intelligent road bike demo'ing laughable.

But it was still pretty fun.....


Ridden

The Santa Cruz Butcher. Santa Cruz is sure to have another fan favorite with this one. Great all mountain action, decent going uphill, even better going down.






Ridden

The new Norco Range... A newly designed all mountain rig. It rode well. Bombed downhill just as well as the Santa Cruz Butcher. Went uphill a bit better and was impressive on the scales at approx 30 pounds.




Ridden

A Specialized Roubaix with Zipp's new Firecrest 404's and 808's.
Perhaps the highlight of the day, Zipp continues to push the bar higher for all other wheel builders with the new full carbon clincher Firecrest wheel shape. To look at them they are counter-intuitively wide from tire to spoke. At first glance, the thick shape looks slow in comparison to other V-shaped rims profiles. Zipp says the design is more aero in real world conditions, and because Zipp says it, we believe it. Honestly though, if Zipp said tying balloons every 3rd spoke would gain you 15 watts at 28 mph, people would be matching them to their handlebar tape.

The new Firecrest wheels rode stiff, light and seemed to do ok in the 40 mph desert crosswinds. With gusts that high, its hard to say how much better these really were in the wind. But, what can be definitely said that these clinchers rode more like tubulars. I had a chance to ride the same bike with 808's, then 404's and then the Mad Fiber wheels. Gotta love interbike... In case you are wondering, the wheel I liked the best was the 808. But that will be saved for a posting another day.



Xpedo showed off a new platform pedal designed for all-mountain, downhill and dirt jumping bikes. These had a couple of nice features, one being the black elastomer spacers between each platform. These are replaceable with spacers that have different tensions, giving your foot the ability to compress the pedal slightly, which in turn as the pedal pushes back, provides an extra amount of grip to your shoe. Why didnt they think of it sooner?



The line to get a Specialized is always very long.









One of the perks of going to Interbike that people on the outside seldom get to hear about.....










Ridden

An Ellsworth Truth equipped with all of the best parts from Magura. Ellsworth makes very desirable bikes and this one proved true to its breeding. And with Magura's brakes and front suspension, it stopped and bombed very well.



This belt driven Carbon Drive with 32 inch tires got a lot of looks, but was not allowed out to be ridden.






Booth activity is always a good, albeit an unpolished, metric of a brand's successfulness... Case in point, the Haro booth... There was never a line here.




Yep, it was windy.










This dude from Yeti ( haha, get it ) was the hit of the party. Although with the pogo stilts he was on, he didnt move around much on the desert gravel.








Tomorrow, we trade the sunblasted sand for the Air Conditioned world of the Sands Center.