Number 793

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Interbike Odds and Ends Part 4

 This wood bike has gotten plenty of press coverage. ( for $8,000 it oughtta....)

 Ritte Bikes is a new company based out of L.A.. Despite all the Belgium references, the company is all american with an emphasis on the irreverent. They have some funny stuff at their site Here


They currently have a road model, CX model and a TT bike. They also distribute carbon wheels with the name "Attack".....All imported to their semi-exacting standards. 

Somewhere there is some doggie cam footage of Interbike.

Knog accessories always has one of the most interesting booth spaces. The functionality of their booth as a place of doing business seems to get lower and lower as the brand becomes more and more popular.This year it was a very dimly lit, spot light enhanced, heavy on the drum and bass, fully enclosed cubicle that could barely fit 8 people in it. On dark display inside were scenes decorated with Knog Accessories as props.

Here is a wheel inertia chart that was being thrown around by the boys at Mad Fiber. There are some wheels on this list that we've never even heard of. Now we just need someone to translate it.....

Number 792

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All right, we couldnt resist...... Quote of the day:
"I am going to eat more Spanish beef and see if it improves my climbing."

Number 791

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Instead of the usual AC news that is everywhere today ( and will be no doubt for months ) lets consider saomething a little more light hearted...

Number 790

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Interbike odds and ends Part 3

BMC's Impec and Time's RXR S both look like something out of Transformers.... Gorgeous!

Its always funny to see how Asian frame builders make inevitable mistakes with the their english

Ritchey showed off some stunning new colors. High gloss red and brushed alloy











Jens Voigt was by far the most popular celebrity that took time to mingle with fans.












Our camera went dead by the end of the day, but the inventor of this little wonder was seen showing it off at the Clif Bar happy hour. Part genius, part mad scientist, all Rockstar!

Number 789

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Interbike Odds and Ends Part 2

 This was by far the best looking CX bike of the show. Equipped with the latest from Enve and Campy.

 American Classic will have a couple of new paired spoke wheel designs for 2011.

 This standard issue BH was tipping the scales at just over 11 pounds. All of the parts on the bike were pretty much standard issue high-end stuff. No one-offs here.

This stunning sizing machine was spotted in the corner of the Guru booth.

Number 788

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Interbike odds and ends....

We still have a bunch of stuff from Interbike that will be posted over the week. Be sure to check back as some of it will be "off the beaten path" as they say.

There are some things about Interbike Vegas that hopefully will
not carry over to next year's Anaheim version.


Old timey bags and bikes were all the rage this year.
Olden days and single speeds... That's what's hott these days.


Rotor Components has a new time trial crankset coming
out this year.

Number 787

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INTERBIKE - DAY 4

With the racing behind us, day 4 will promise to be a little more relaxed with plenty of opportunities to enjoy the beer that seems to pop out of every display case around here.

The highlights keep coming:

HED, in responce to feedback from Team Sky, created the "7". Not quite as deep as a TT rim but much wider then a traditional road racing wheel.

Deda's new 35 mm bar and stem combo was by far the most striking of the show.






G-Form is a new company to Interbike and was displaying their aftermarket brake hoods and placeable ( saddle, handlebars ) gel pads that promise to get rid of good deal of vibration and chatter. 

Number 786

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CROSSVEGAS!!!

Katerina Nash won as the Luna Chix outgunned and beat up Mary Mcconneloug.

On the men's side, Jamey Driscoll was the first to attack early out of a 10 man lead group. His lead would get as high as 27 seconds as Tim Johnson played defense behind him. Trebon would be the guy to eventually eat back the gap. Jamey had less then 5 seconds with a kilo to go. He fought hard but was pipped at the line by French Champion Francis Mourey.

Such an exciting race!

Number 785

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Interbike Day 3 ( updated )

Just a quick update. Its crowded again here in Vegas.


Scott's new shoe line-up looks pretty impressive. The top model's will feature removable and adjustable metatarsal pads on the insole.






Chrome bags continued to create a lot of interest at their booth. This year, they packed up a couple of sewing machines and were making custom colored for people willing to part with some shekels.






Speedplay has come out with an off road pedal and cleat system that will retain the features that the road users have come to appreciate. Lightweight with adjustable true cleat float, not just built in slop movement.







Everyone was clamoring for a look at the new Polar\Look pedal based power system. It looks like it will be ready to go early in 2011 for $2200 Retail.







Edge Composites is now Enve due to the name Edge being taken in Europe.







How would you like to hold you most beloved race bike to your car's roof using suction cups? It apparently works very well.

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.

Number 783

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INTERBIKE ! Outdoor Demo Day 1

Welcome to Interbike everyone! The swan song for Las Vegas. Next year ( actually, just 10 months away ) the big show will be in Anaheim California. We will be bringing you some highlights of the next 4 days worth of activities at the close of each day. And there will probably be some B-Side material that will be posted after the week is over.

Ridden

Look's top of the line 695. Look brings some real innovation to their 2011 line-up with the 695. Look's innovative integrated seatpost system is a carry over from last year but the new stem and the new one piece crankarm-to-spindle-to-crankarm deserves a blog post all to themselves.
After giving it good beating on the road, the bike does indeed prove itself to be very stiff. Lighter wheels on the test bike would have been truer to what a real life race set-up would likely be, but even with heavier hoops, the bike was very light. This frame, fork, stem, seatpost, and crankarm combo weighs a good chunk less then a Scott Addict with the same Dura-Ace parts.






Ridden:

Mad Fiber's newest contribution to the wild and wacky world of boutique carbon wheels. These tips the scales at just over 1050 grams. Mad Fiber is a new company and are selling direct to the consumer for right now. They were here at the outdoor portion of Interbike to drum up some good press and hopefully some good word of mouth.
Light? Yep. Stiff? Yes. Slighly unpredictable? Yea, a bit. They like to squirm around if that makes any sense. The sensitivity is no doubt a result of having a super stiff and responsive rim "breathlessly" attached to the rest of the bike. With such a light wheel. You feel the effects of inertia more. All that means though is that these wheels will take some getting used to and after that, there's no problem. If they hold up strength wise, Mad Fiber has a winner here that can drop a nice race bike into the 13 pound range no problem.

Ridden:


The Scott Genius LT ( long travel ).
How do you make 2010's best all mountain bike better? Bump it up to 7 inches of travel front and back. This bike was a joy to ride and it went everywhere. We even took it on the downhill shuttled run for some gravity assisted fun. It handled steep steep descents no problem, dropped 4 footers and climbed like a beefy race bike. The Genius LT with it's on the fly adjustable fork rake setting and a gravity dropper seatpost is truly a do it all.



Some smart looking new carbon cross rig's from Fuji.









Norco has some new models coming out, like this great looking road bike.









It wouldn't be Interbike without some weird stuff.... Here, some very widely set TT bars.









Novatec has always flown under the radar. Here a new set of wheels with oversized, hollow carbon hubs.












Lastly, some ironic humor.... Catching the venerable Lennard Zinn at the Look booth to learn about the 695's new stem system and having it end up 4 guys messing with an initially confusing and intricate system.

And we thought the French lived simply...









More to come tomorrow!