Interbike 2011 Outdoor Demo Highlights

For the type of reviews that I focus on, the Outdoor demo is a bit more fun than really specific testing work.  Now there’s of course some testing that I was doing (which you’ll see in some later posts), but by and large I’m really out there to find interesting and different things to take photos of – and enjoy a bit of mountain bike wandering (or road bike as it may be).

So like last year, this will mostly serve more like a slideshow to get you the flavor of the show.  All the in depth review/technical type posts are coming up shortly.  So, let’s get cookin!

We had an early morning track workout to complete, which ended up being in the pouring rain. It’s apparently a trend the last few interval runs.  With the inside lane in about 2-3” of water, it didn’t make hitting the times any easier.  But, since it was a short workout – we were soon done and on our way out to the Outdoor Demo area.  The Outdoor Demo is located about 30-35 minutes away from the Las Vegas Strip, out in Boulder City, NV – pretty close to the Hoover Dam.  The whole setup is essentially plastered against the side of a mountain, within the confines of Bootleg Canyon Park.

One of the first things that might catch your eye is the Bike Patrol.  Not unlike Ski Patrol on the mountains these guys are out there to help keep you safe and pickup the pieces when you endo.  And did we see some spectacular crashes! You know it’s a bad day when you’ve bent your front wheel around like a sesame soba noodle.

On the bright side, if you’re riding a bike as small as these guys are – there’s really only so far to fall before you start eating dirt.  Which is probably a good thing.

Speaking of slightly odd situations – there’s almost always plenty of them at Interbike.  Since I tend to write a bit about technology around these parts – I found the next two situations fairly entertaining.  First we have a gentleman trying very hard to use his iPad like an iPhone.  He kept on switching it back and forth to try and hear the other person in the wind. It wasn’t working well.

Then we have another gentleman that’s either temporarily or permanently mounted his iPad to his handlebars as an impromptu bike computer.  And yes, he’s actually using it in this photo while riding through crowds.

But there are other ways to stand out in the cycling world.  This rather blue bike might be one such way.  At first glance it looks more or less like any other triathlon/TT bike:

But upon closer inspection you realize there’s actually a white tiger painted onto the frame. A rather lifelike one in fact:

Fear not though, you must ensure that you complete the set with the snake-skin trimmed seat offered by the same organization:

Yes, you could actually feel the scales.  I see no situation whereby scales rubbing up against ones junk would be a good thing – male or female.  But maybe that’s just me.

The good news here is that since I had no desire for a white-tiger branded bike, The Girl didn’t really have (as much) leverage to come home with this pink Felt bike:

But there are many good cycling situations at the Outdoor Demo.  For example, the Icicle Tricycle – bringing you mostly unmelted popsicles.

Then we have the massive demo area itself, where just about everyone is letting you go steal their bikes for an hour or five.

Just be glad you’re not this poor guy trying to keep track of them all (those are the attendee badges):

If you do grab a bike – I recommend something that requires the least amount of work.  Say for example this tandem bike with a non-metallic chain:

Or perhaps the e-bike, allowing one to get a 300% return on investment from an effort/output standpoint.  Brilliant!

Looking at other ways to reduce effort – check out this Bontrager aerobag/box setup on the Trek Speed Concept:

And unlike most bentobox type arrangements that have the tendency to flop around – this thing is screwed right into the frame. No messin’ around here!

If you’re looking for deals, Interbike is full of them.  Take for example, this mind bogglingly good deal on Shimano bike shoes.  While my size was out, The Girl most definitely partook:

There were equally good deals on other products, such as those from CrankBrothers and their pedals, which helped to round out The Girl’s mountain biking collection (though she lacks an actual mountain bike – she keeps hoping a pink one will magically fall from the sky, thus far she’s only gotten rained on).

And while I didn’t add any of these super-fancy ear buds to my collection, I will give them credit for rather impressive packaging.

And finally – last but not least – I got to see a whole ton of folks today that swung by and said ‘Hi’.  Including these guys from CycleLife that were present when I did the recent BodPod testing.  Always nice to run into some DC folks.

With that, it was back to the Strip (Vegas) for some more testing…this time out in the dark and with a product you’ve all been asking for: The 4iiii’s Heads Up Display.

Stay tuned, it’s up next!  Plus, I’ve still got two other posts for technology goodness from Tuesday – one with a GPS sports action camera showdown, and another one with a running/cycling audio system that doesn’t block your ears. Good stuff!

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For the latest Interbike coverage, remember I’ll be tweeting nonstop, so you can catch all the latest action there.  And here on the blog you can use this tag to see all the Interbike 2011 posts. Thanks for reading!

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