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Interbike: Celeb's; bikes; retro' Ti?
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The doors of the Sands Convention Center in Las Vegas opened up Tuesday morning to the usual swarm of retailers looking for stock, manufacturers looking for customers and bike racers looking for contracts. (We won’t mention the usual gang looking for swag.)
Two steps into the hall, many were surprised to spot Tyler Hamilton already cruising the aisles, greeting sponsors, working the crowd and signing autographs. The American Olympic gold medalist decided that even after his positive blood test at the Vuelta a España that he would be attending the trade show.
"People say you're crazy to go to Interbike, but I did nothing wrong. If some people don't want to talk to me, well, that's their decision. I'm continuing with my life now," Hamilton told VeloNews’s Andrew Hood last week. "Life goes on. I'm not hiding. I'm not afraid. I know what I did and didn't do. I'm very angry but I have to continue with my life."
There, too, were other top riders making their obligatory rounds doing signings and appearances at their respective sponsors’ booths: Bobby Julich at Camelbak and Cervelo; Paris-Roubaix winner Magnus Backstedt at Bianchi; And Axel Merckx… well he was there with dad.
Julich recently signed up for two more years with Bjarne Riis's CSC squad, saying that his move to the team last year has reinvigorated his career, a point underscored by the Olympic bronze medal he brought along for show-and-tell.
But famous (and potentially infamous) cycling celebs aside, the big buzz at Interbike is always product.
Bobby’s new bike
Like Julich, his bike sponsor, Cervelo, has extended it’s sponsorship of the Danish CSC team to 2006. The relationship, say company founders Gerard Vroomen and Phil White, is at least partially responsible for an 80 percent increase in business over the past 12 months.
The two rolled out their newest time trial rig, the P3 Carbon, a bike already slated to be used by CSC next season. While its design is obviously based on its aluminum big brother, Vroomen noted that some of the new bike’s advantages “are features you can only accomplish in carbon.”
White and Vroomen pointed to the faired seat tube, whose shape can be more carefully controlled when produced in carbon.
“It’s more of a brogressive curve,” said Vroomen. “In aluminum, it’s almost as simple as bike rim, but it’s much more elegant and more aerodynamic in this version.”
Vroomen notes that the design offers several advantages over other top-end TT bike.
“When we took on the original P3 project, we looked at what was out there and noticed that most shared similar problems,” he said. “Most feature bulky head tubes, offer tubes that are poor airfoils and even simple problems like poor cable routing.”
“We solved a lot of those in the original P3 and now, in carbon, we can further refine the design and take it another step up,” Vroomen added.
Now that everything is carbon, does titanium qualify as retro?
While an array of manufacturers has been touting the wonders of carbon this and carbon that, some remain committed to the lightweight elegance of titanium.
Bruce Gordon said he’s finally tired of making elaborate “show bikes” for the trade show and decided this year to make a bike that he wanted.
“You put a lot of time and effort into those things and then you never end up selling them, anyway,” said Gordon. “This time I figured I’d bring a bike that I will end up riding myself… and it’s my town bike I use the most.”
One thing Gordon noticed about his old town bike is that despite the Gordon racks it sports, he always found himself “looking for bags or panniers to put on.”
So this time, he built himself a custom set of (gulp) titanium bike baskets for his newest ride.
Not for sale, Gordon simply asked “what kinda car do you drive?” when pushed for a price if he were to produce the lightweight utilitarian accessories. The titanium wires in the mesh are individually attached.
“I have somewhere around 500 individual 1mm holes drilled into the frame,” he said. Each wire end was then welded from the outside and ground down and polished off.
Less labor intensive and a touch more affordable is Gordon’s titanium Silca-style frame pump.
“Hey, it’s twice the weight and at least 10 times the price, but it looks good on a titanium bike,” said Gordon. “Plus with this heft, if you hit a dog with this pump, the dog will die.”
Rumors abounded Tuesday of a possible resurrection of Gordon’s old SOPWAMTOS awards, a ceremony in which he and his co-self-appointed-dictator-for-life of the Society of People Who Actually Make Their Own Shit, Mark Norstad, handed out the “Golden Toidy” awards at earlier editions of the trade show.
“I like the idea and if someone else wants to do the work, I’m all for it,” he said, before ducking into a brief meeting with Patrick O’Grady.
Fashion conscious
Speaking of resurrections, industry insiders were taken aback by the return of Schwinn’s old corporate shill, Greg Bagny. Bagny, now freelancing for Yakima, pimped up his client’s booth like a used car lot, all designed to hype the company’s self-lowering bike rack that drops roof-mounted gear down to a manageable height.
“We’ve brought bike racks to a new low,” the Bagny inspired logo screams from signs around the booth.
In keeping with that theme, Bagny and crew had to dress the part.
