Interbike Day 1
Posted on 22. Sep, 2009 by Josh in Personal
You might be surprised to learn that this was my first year visiting the Outdoor Demo at Interbike. As Patrick Brady and others have noted, the nature of Interbike is changing as large and medium-size brands pull up stakes. For me at least, this made it even more important to check out the Demo this year in order to see the likes of Trek, Felt, Specialized, Cannondale, etc. I found that it was kind of like Sea Otter, but without the 15-year-olds.
The original intent of the Demo was to give exhibitors a place where they could let people actually ride their bikes, instead of just talking about them on the show floor. That’s changing somewhat as companies eschew the floor show in favor of the Demo. But for me, it was a chance to do something I haven’t done in many, many years. Go mountain biking. Here’s my ride, a 2010 Specialized S-Works Stumpjumper FSR. (Note: Specialized is a Kadisco client.)
Although I’m a road guy 4eva, mountain biking was, in fact, my first entry into post-childhood bicycling. I had a Yokota when I was maybe 13 and then a steel Scott hardtail in the days before they left the US market. That was a great bike, even if the Unishock fork was a bit sketchy. Anyways, it’s been almost 10 years since I rode mountain bikes with any sort of consistency and at least 3 years since my last off-road ride whatsoever – which is a shame, because mountain biking rules (at least for the first 20 minutes) and so does this bike (although I have no relevant basis for comparison).
Other Day 1 Notes
Bikes using the Gates Belt Drive system were EVERYWHERE.
Thanks to my old friend Wendy Booher for the rides to and from Bootleg Canyon.
It looks a lot less impressive during the day from the air.
Great information! Thanks for the post.