I have a definite love hate relationship with Las Vegas and Interbike. First of all I pretty much think that Vegas is the worst place on earth, but I also kind of love it. As soon as you begin herding off the plane with all the obese and moo-ing midwestern tourists you know you are in a bad place. Waiting 45 minutes in line to check in at the hotel while people are chain smoking around you, and then buying a bottle of water for $8 is no way to start a visit to a new city. On the other hand though, the people watching is amazing!! Every time I start to get bummed or on some decay of civilization high-horse I see some old lady laughing her ass off at a slot machine, or some newly-wed couple having a lovey-dovey moment waiting for the elevator. I don’t know… suffice to say Vegas is not my place but I understand that people from all over the world save their money to go to sin-city on vacation and have a great time. If they’re happy then screw it… I’ll be happy for them.
Well… blah blah blah… Vegas… its worth the experience.
I also got to see about a million and half friends who I never get to see enough of. That was very good. Spending a little time in the BMX section is like a highschool reunion or something. You can’t turn around without running into someone you haven’t seen in 10 years. Good times even if it can be a little overwhelming and I think at one point my mouth went numb from talking too much.
Got to show the Fairdale road bike prototypes at the Full Factory booth and that was pretty cool (eventually you bike shops will be able to buy the bikes from them). The Fairdale bikes are so new and we are still working things out so it may have been a tad premature. We still don’t know what they will cost or when they will be available (spring?). Working hard on the other models now and hoping to get them in to test soon. The response to the bikes was awesome though. I really appreciate all the great feedback we received.
Every year I promise myself I will walk around Interbike with a camera and find the most outrageous and kooky stuff because I really think some of it is amazingly comical. But, like every year I never get around to it and forgot my camera. Found a few little gems though.
This is a Cinderella shapped shoe that clamps on to your handlebars to hold your barbie doll. Pretty sweet. I’m a huge fan of the grammar though… I find a lot of comedy in bad translations.
You really need to read the description to understand this product, but apparently this is big in the brooklyn BMX scene. I haven’t seen Edwin Delarosa in a while, I have to assume he is riding this around and loving the “bouncing ability”
I’m a big fan of Knog’s lights and also their general weirdness. I don’t know how they can sell stuff to uptight bikes shops with this kind of advertising, but I love that they do.
Of course they are advertising cable locks. By the way, I think maybe we should start a collection to get them off that 1995 freestyle bike and on to something a little more modern.
My little press release about the bikes coming out got spread around a lot with pretty positive response. The one from Ride BMX above really made me laugh though. Somehow Fat Toonie managed to spell my name wrong 4 times (and two different ways) and also to spell Fairdale wrong. I’ve only been writing and contributing to Ride BMX for 18 years! Ha ha… considering though that Phat Toni put up a post about road bikes on a BMX website I am nothing but grateful.
