Bike Hugger@Interbike

Leonrad Zinn at Hed's booth

Some frame builders stand above the rest. Tall man Leonard Zinn also is a technical editor for VeloNews

Easton full-carbon SL-90 clincher

This very new all-carbon clincher from Easton took an enormous amount of development. It's very hard to make carbon that can not only resist the forces of the tire and tube on the sidewall, but can resist the heat and keep form deforming.   

Bmx mod

These guys seem to be riding bmx bikes heavily modified for street riding. Stem risers and really long seatposts. It's always interesting to see what attendees ride to the show.

Morpheus takes on cycling from Da Bronx

As a native New Yorker, I have a soft spot in my heart for anyone who tries to make a living from the bouroughs, but even before I knew the zip code of Morpheus bikes they had caught my eye. Easily the most impressive looking bike in the New Exhibitor section, Morpheus has an interesting philosophy—they craft complete bike builds without compromise.

While many of the big companies cut corners with parts to hit certain price points, this company specs bikes to be not only completely functional but beautiful as well, opting for a kit that's as pretty to look at as we're betting they are to ride.

Take for example the Oracle World Cup, which comes with a full SRAM X-0 kit, Industry 9 wheelset and a custom built anodized swinger arm connected to a Rock Shox Monarch 2.4 shock. Morpheus specs the hi-mod carbon frame set to their design from the same Taiwanese factories that the big boys use, and they craft and anodize the swinger arms themselves. A complete full-suspension cross country bike weighs around 21 pounds and comes in around $4100. The "bailout" model with an awesome (though not as chi-chi) of a build is under $4000.

We were especially impressed with the little touches—the sparkle coating in the frame matches the color scheme of the bikes and the head-tube badge is made from 6061 aluminum.

We'll throw our legs over some of these bikes soon for test rides of the Oracle, the Cyclops hardtail and the Hermes road bick soon—the guys will be coming up to ride with us,so look forward to a full test.

MoSo Dahon AfterParty Spokecards

It's on like Tron

YAFFGBFAAF

Yet another [redacted] fixed gear bike from an Asian firm. Kupas bikes fixie IS pretty and IS catching attention.

A little Blue

This small Blue would have been the best Christmas present ever. Shimano 105 front and rear, carbon dork and American Classic wheels. Called the 2Four (because of the 24 inch wheels) it comes in at $1185 for flat bars and $1285 as you see here.

Slogan Fail!

90% of the riders in my bike club can't change a tire. I'd rank that amongst the most annoying general maintenance tasks a cyclist faces.

But hey, maybe it really us that hard.

Eye catching glasses

Gin optics is looking for a west coast distributor, and has come up with a rather eye catching way to get some attention.

Jamis Beatnik

The Jamis Beatnik is a basement-price single speed (no flip flop) with a price of $575. The hubs aren't sealed and the pedals are cheap flats, but while I was standing around debating its value a woman walked up to look at it and said to her husband "I could see myself riding that."

Creepiest thing at the show

Aaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh. It's JUST legs. And it pedals. 

Mornin' Let's Build Bikes

Dahons in the background with an S&S coupled, belt-drive Davidson about to be built.

Uploaded by Hugger Industries | more from the Bike Hugger Photostream.

Interesting SE bike

SE is a famous old BMX company going back to the 1970s, but they're big in the fixed gear market now. You see beefier and beefier fixed gear bikes coming out for doing more tricks, but this bike in SE's booth seemed to be half fixed, half bmx and built to take abuse.

Uploaded by mathowie | more from the Bike Hugger Photostream.

Redline's 20" cross racer

There are a ton of juniors and kids in the Pacific Northwest racing cross, and they usually have to ride mountain bikes, but it's nice to see Redline meeting that niche.

Uploaded by mathowie | more from the Bike Hugger Photostream.

Shimano's Di2 tt group

I didn't know until today that the electronic shifting TT group from Shimano lets you run shifters in both positions on TT bars, the outside and in a tuck. For short prologue TT races, I could see these being a huge advantage.

Uploaded by mathowie | more from the Bike Hugger Photostream.

Tom Boonen's Paris-Roubaix winning bike

Lots of famous pro-winning bikes on the floor (pretty much every winning bike from the Tour de France is on display) but I liked that almost no one noticed Boonen's Roubaix bike above the Specialized booth.

Uploaded by mathowie | more from the Bike Hugger Photostream.

New Light+Motion

New Light+Motion
Originally uploaded by davidjschloss

The Light & Motion SECA 900 is a 900 lumen LED system that's got a either a 9-cell or 6-cell Lithium Ion pack (depending on which model you buy) with an amazingly bright output. The crazy-shaped housing gives both a focused spot and a wide skirt for coverage, but it's designed to not throw light up into the trees where it doesn't do a lot of good. The Ultra model will run for 3.5 hours on high, while the Race will run for 2.5 and the Ultra gets a full 14 hours on low power. The housing is made with aluminum and sports vents to help keep the LEDs cool, and it will auto-dim if airflow is reduced (when you're stopped) to keep the lights from burning out. Light&Motion has moved completely to LED for their lights, which are vastly more efficient.

Look carbon pedals remove the spring

The new Look Keo Blade Carbon Ti pedals are super-slick, dropping the coil spring and instead using a blade of carbon fiber. Aside from looks, this gives the pedal a completely linear spring rate instead of a progressive spring as with every other pedal on the market. (With a coiled spring, even if the tension is set at 12 nm for release, they'll still release just somewhere around that level, while the Blade Carbons are the same rate every release.) There are two tension settings, 12nm or 16nm and the pedal has a 17% wider platform than other Keo pedals, with the same cleat. These should drop in late fall. 

Charging iPhone with Bike

Rode for about 30 minutes and charged the phone while we ate dinner

A Stop at Wynn

Alley cat crowd grows

Can you say alley cat?

Take one part MASH SF, one part Interbike and you get a more interesting race than the cross course going on behind us. Ending at the Rapha party, this cat is getting ready to roll.

SRAM Single Speed Levers

SRAM levers
Originally uploaded by andrew_f_martin

Yes...I will have them...They even have a web page!

Bobke!

Bob Roll
Originally uploaded by andrew_f_martin

Roll hanging in the GU booth.

Huh?

Jogging
Originally uploaded by andrew_f_martin

Running in a bubble of some sort. I think they were selling energy food? Anyone?

MetriGear Power Meter

MetrigGear
Originally uploaded by andrew_f_martin

Following up on Matt's post - here's a close-up of the internals of the internals of the MetriGear Power Meter. The booth was busy all afternoon showing off their solution - the latest entry into the training with power game. Confirmed: Speedplay only (for now).

Lance

DSC_0123
Originally uploaded by andrew_f_martin

In case you forgot about this guy...he's still everywhere.

GORE Ride-On Cables

GORE Ride-On Cables
Originally uploaded by andrew_f_martin

From the "cool display" department - GORE showed off their completely sealed shifting system. The feel is great even with tight cable bends. They submerged half the cable in the fish tank (to simulate Seattle Winters) and it worked flawlessly. Probably a worthwhile investment for the rain bike.

Schwalbe Ultremo R.1

Ultremo R.1
Originally uploaded by andrew_f_martin

Schwalbe hit some bumps with the Ultremo this past year running into some re-call issues (which I've heard they handled very well). They have corrected their issues and come back with the Ultremo R.1 for '10. I really like the ride of the Ultremo tire and will be getting these for my race bike for next season. More coming from Schwalbe in a later post (hint: SWEET looking crit/rain tire!).

Ritchey Comp White

Ritchey Comp White
Originally uploaded by andrew_f_martin

I'll admit it - I'm a sucker for Ritchey stuff. I have it on pretty much all my bikes. They now have brought the white finish to the Comp level (which is perfectly useful gear for even the most demanding riders). I want!