Interbike Recap – Dirt Demo
There is not enough free Internet access in big cities. I could get it free at the show, but with limited time getting updates posted was not an option. At the hotel it was $10.00 a day….but I was only there for a few hours sleep each night. Oh well, it was a great show for me. I am just disappointed I could not share any of it until now.
Day One at the Outdoor Demo:
Scott Gibson, creator of the Wingnut Pack, and I set up his newest creation: the Gen 2 Global Solar Tent. The G2 tent’s solar panels power a Swamp Cooler which kept the temps inside a wonderful 15* cooler than the outside E-Load & Scott teamed up to show there respective products. E-load is a sports drink formulated specifically for use in hot conditions…which was convenient. The temps hit 95* with zero humidity…nothing like cool, moist GA air I had left the night before.
Then went for a ride on the new Blue Carbon Cross rig. It was a sweet ride even on the rocky, dessert terrain in Boulder City. Paul Romero of Team Sole sent me off on a nice trail overlooking the demo area, Boulder City and Lake Mead. This was my first ride on a cross bike, but I think there will be more in my future. The skinny tires made negotiating trails very challenging, but the lightness of the bike made up for it.
I’ll have some trail shot soon, but this is the CXC frame:
At the end of the day is was time for beers at the Santa Cruz tent. The original plan was to head to Paul’s place for another beer, but we were sharing a car with Darren from E-Load and he a meeting back in Las Vegas.
Day Two at the Outdoor Demo:
Today I had no responsibilities until breakdown time at 5:00 PM, so spent the first half of the day riding. Scott and I stopped by the BionX booth on our way to our own. BionX makes an electric motor that Scott has been hoping to test in conjunction with the solar technology he is now knee deep in. They gave us a quick overview of the motor and who it works, but I wanted to ride it, so they sent me out on a Specialized Epic equipped with the BionX rear wheel motor and large battery in the front triangle. 
I went to lift this rig to turn it around and was shocked by the heft of this thing. I used to race an Epic back in the day, but with the motor this thing weighed about 50 lbs! This made me very skeptical about it’s ride qualities, but didn’t stop me from testing it. Once out on the road that lead up to the dirt demo area I was shocked at the power. The motor is pedal actuated, so turn the cranks just like, well, riding a bike, but then the motor kicks in to help out and away you go. Here I am on 60 lb mountain bike pedaling at 20 rpms as blow by the roadies laboring up this climb…amazing. I was giddy with delight as I flew effortlessly up the hill. This motor would make commuting in Atlanta a whole lot easier….never mind the fun I could have on the group rides. After a couple of trips up and down the road I returned the bike to it’s owners and listened in on the discussion between Scott and the Bionx rep about the technical applications of a solar charger for BionX motor. It sounded like it would take some modifications and maybe more expensive solar array than it would be worth, but they could be charged off the grid.
Next up was test ride on next year’s race bike, so I grabbed a 19″ Kona King after evading the offer to sniff the reps casted foot. A mechanic set the shock sag for me and sent me on my way……wait mister, I need a laser, a digital level and an hour to get this bike set up right! I was on my own to guess at the the set up. I started by flipping & dropping the stem, then tried to guesstimate the saddle position……they did not have a tape measure handy, which was not too cool. Next year, I’ll bring my own.
I did a shake down lap on trails close to the expo area….the retailers were out droves today. I stopped to make about 10 adjustments before I settled for something that felt close to the right fit and headed out for the more remote trails. Truck loads of downhillers passed by as I wound up the gravel road away from the expo area. Then I turned off on a singletrack along with a group of 8 or so others. They crept along and I did my best to be patient, but they finally stopped to regroup and took the opportunity to cruise on. Now on my own I picked my way up the loose, dry, rocky path only stopping to allow the downhillers to pass in the opposite direction. This trail dumped me out into a gap with many options. I looked around, saw a bright yellow Wingnut Hyper 2.5 and decided that was the way to go. The pack was attached to gentleman heading skyward on the gravel road that lead to the radio towers and hopefully some crazy singletrack above. We exchanged pleasantries and labored up the hill. As we did we caught a local shop owner named Richard who offer to guide us on the Boy Scout trail, which he promised would be an excellent descent…can’t argue with the locals. We crested the ridge and were treated with an excellent view of Lake Mead and the surrounding mountains and canyons. No time for gazing though, I had glorious singletrack in front of me! I dropped in behind Richard and another local he met at the top. Richard delivers on his promise, the descent was great. Very steep at the top with loose rocks, tight switchbacks and not an ounce of top soil to be seen for miles. I did my best to stick with the two locals, but I think they had done this route more than once. The trail leveled out a little as curved back around the ridge, turning into the roller coaster like side hill route before finally spitting us back out at the gap with many options. From here I headed out on my own again on a very technical loop that headed down the backside of the ridge facing LV. The views were amazing, but there was little time to look around while rolling. The off camber side hill routes where treacherous. I ran into Thanita from Dirt Rag and Rachel from IMBA who were thoroughly enjoying themselves. I snapped a couple of pictures and then rolled on. The trail wound around for a few miles before bringing me back to ….you guessed it…the gap with many options. As I contemplated my next adventure, I saw Mark Hendershot descending into the gap. He was ready to make for the expo area, which was fine by me…the sun exposure was cooking me. I dropped into a sweet descent which wrapped around the ridge parallel to the gravel access road. We bobbed and weaved our way along. Mark dabbed and took the opportunity pass…letting him know that I had waited 6 weeks for that chance. I found quickly found my rhythm and just flowed with the trail. Soon we came upon a ride who had slid out in a hard left. I asked if he was OK and look in his eyes screamed “that was way too close”….as I rounded the corner I understood. The trail clung to the side of hill that dropped 30 ft away with some very ugly rocks to break your landing if you were so unfortunate to take that turn too quickly. The downed ride was back up, but let us pass as shook off his seemingly near death experience. Mark & I continued as the canyon opened up to reveal the network of trails below. It looked as if they were covered in colorful ants from up there. The trail was just getting challenging when I heard the sound of fun being let out of my rear tire. Of course I, like everyone else out riding today, was not carrying any tools, air or tubes. We turned back for a short cut we had just passed that lead back to the gravel road. I hiked down then rode the flat back to the expo. The really nice part about demo’ing bikes is that I just dropped that one off to the Kona boys and that was that.
The King was a great ride and is at up on the top of the list of race bikes for next year, though I may opt for the shorter travel Hei Hei Supreme instead (which I could not get ahold of because they were so popular at the demo). The 4 inch 4 bar linkage in the rear and 100mm up front made for a comfy ride with no noticible pedal bob, so I could climb with ease and descend without fear. The handling was sharp and predicable, just the way i like it. Kona has upgraded the Nokian tires to Maxxis which a huge plus and the frail Cane Creek headset has been replaced with an FSA model.
I spent the rest of the afternoon either relaxing in the comfort of the G2 Solar Tent or wandering around looking at new bikes and talking with all kinds of folks: Mike Palmeri from Cartecay Bikes, Robin & Walt from SORBA, the Santa Cruz group, Paul Romero & Karen Lundgren from Team SOLE, Marla Streb, Chris Pic from Blue, the Northwave rep who had some sweet shoes, Daniel, Scott & Jason from Slingshot Bicycles, & Chewy from Kona….and a whole random assortment of retails from all over the world.
At the end of the day we broke down the G2 Solar Tent, packed it up and headed for the nearest shipping center. Shipping took longer than it should have, but Scott & I finally made it back to the Stratosphere around nine, had some dinner and wine then called it a night….the real show begins tomorrow.
Updates from the the indoor epoc at Interbike to Come…..and big news on the sponsor front!
Eddie O