Bike Hugger@Interbike

Bike Hugger celebrates "Nat'l Speak Like A Pirate Day"

YO HO! All ye Bike Hugger jim lads and saucy wenches. In honor of our favorite holiday, "National Talk Like A Pirate Day", we'll call ourselves Bike HuggAAAARRRRRR on Sept. 19.  So get out ye eye patches and fill ye guts with grog.  And if you want to find ye "inner pirate" (and official pirate name), go to www.piratequiz.com/. If ye are a scurvy novice on pirate speak, go to for an official pirate language workshop.

signed Iron Prudentilla Flint

The Media Center at Interbike

While as bloggers, we're s'posed to be anti-establishment media; doing our own thing, a bit subversive and podcasting instead of broadcasting, BUT it sure is fun to have access to Interbike's Media Center and hang out with everyone! Interbike just announced that the Media Center is back and bigger than ever

"The 30- x 40-foot Media Center will include a TV studio interview area for media companies or exhibiting manufacturers interested in conducting, recording or broadcasting news about new products, celebrities, panel discussions, advocacy, etc"

And broadcaster Cycling.tv will also help Interbike produce its own daily interview show, Good Morning Interbike.

Back to Vegas

Bike Hugger will blog Interbike again this year -- big, bloggy style -- with me, Andrew, Mark, and Mike. We have no other plan than to just cover the show, focusing on our particular interests, stumbling upon the unique, weird, and odd stuff, and sharing it here.

We'll also race the Industry Cup.

Interbike News

Leading up to the event, Interbike has been cranking out the press releases, inlcuding

• Going Green
• Racing Vegas
• Bikes Belong
• Another record-breaking year

Tell Interbike how much Vegas sucks!

Interbike announced an attendee survey that'll be available later this month and that's perfect to tell them how bad Vegas is. At the least, if they can't change the city, make it more cycling friendly.

A new USA trade show

Following the succesful Interbike, Eurobike announced plans for a USA show, possibly in Portland. Interbike Times responds with a clarifying post. I'm no fan of Vegas and would like to see the show held somewhere else, but Portland certainly isn't a convention town. Seattle is, but a town like Salt Lake makes way more sense.

Bloggers, Podcasters at Interbike

In the Interbike Day Two issue of Bicycle Retailer's dailies, an article about bloggers and podcasters was featured and includes Tim Grahl's Crooked Cog podcasts and Bike Hugger. I was outta Vegas there by Friday, but Sean Hong was nice enough to send me a PDF of the article.

Flickr'ing Interbike

Here's a quick circuit of the Flickrverse, checking out everybody's Interbike pics.

Of course, what everybody's looking for at Interbike is the new stuff, and there were a number of new ideas for bikes on display:

The Moots Snoots is a one-off ultramarathon snow bike (left) -- it's got super-wide tires, racks, and even built-in stove fuel storage (look for the bosses on the fork tubes). Here's everything you need to know from the guy who commissioned the Snoots.

We weren't the only ones who loved Surly's new “Big Dummy,” the Xtracycle-capable long bike. Here's a detail of the latest Surly and here's another.

Somehow I get the feeling that, well, maybe the whole pedal-forward thing is going too far...

Here's ANT's Shimano Alfine contest bike with it's signature sunburst rack.

Mobiky showed their “Genius” (at right), a folding city bike sort of like the Sinclair A-Bike, but with wheels bigger than a roller skate.

PV Glider is a pedal-less “bike” made out of PVC pipe that's intended to help kids learn to ride (more at PVGlider.com). This is an interesting evolution of what many parents do, taking the pedals off a small frame so kids can scoot around, getting their balance down pat before they have to worry about pedaling.

The 3G Stepper is reminiscent of a NordicTrac on wheels. I have a feeling this is a question nobody's really asked.

There were actually two companies with “Coasting” bikes: Trek and Raleigh; here's Raleigh's take on the Shimano freehub system.

Felt's Royal Flush (left) splits the difference between beach bike and cruiser.

BMC brings their carbon fiber frames to cyclocross.

Here are maybe as many Brooks saddles as you'll ever see in one place.

Surly's “Fixxer” is a body to replace your Shimano freehub, converting the wheel to fixed-gear.

One of our favorite bikes, year after year, is Bianchi's Milano, a cool and practical way to get around town.

Finally, I found a number of pictures of cycling royalty: new US champion George Hincapie, former world champion Mario Cipollini, 2006 Tour prologue and final stage winner Thor Hushovd, greatest rider of bicycles ever Eddy Merckx, and Italian master framebuilder Ernesto Colnago.

Finally, there was at least one celebrity frame: Robbie McEwen's Ridley.

Leaving Las Vegas

By now everyone should be back at the office, home, shop, or studio recovering from Vegas and Interbike ("No point in mentioning the bats"). I'm already following up with the contacts I made and glad I flew in with Mike, blogged, got out and didn't exceed my maximum of 36 hours in Vegas.

At the expense of all the other booths, I focused on the utility of the industry and observed the trend towards integrated solutions to transportation problems. Today another post about fixies from Mark V is up at Bike Hugger and a post about small builder innovations From Marcus. More from the Interbike o' sphere

• Interbike 2006 was a very big success, by my terms
• Interbike 2006 People
• Interbike 2006 Wrap-up
• Interbike tasty
• RideFetish Galleries
• Interbike: The Two Faces of Vegas
• Interbike’s Last Day: Elvis Has Left The Building

Add Bike Hugger to the chorus of voices calling for Interbike to be somewhere else. For me, just somewhere else were smoking is banned in public places so we can all breathe easier.

It's Australian for weird

From the WTF? department, we have the StreetSurfer:

Maybe it's an Aussie thing, but I don't see the attraction of putting a roller skate on the end of your fork. And how often would you have to replace those skate wheels? If you must have one, here's the link.

Ellsworth/NuVinci's CVT concept bike

So the biggest promise of the whole show may come from the Ellsworth/NuVinci concept bike.

Its NuVinci drive system is the latest shot at what many engineers have called “the Holy Grail” for inventors, a continuously variable transmission. The idea of a CVT is that instead of having distinct gears, a mechanism somehow provides a way for an input and output to change their relationship smoothly to “gear up” and “gear down” smoothly, without jumping from gear to gear.

Here's the page on CVTs from Howstuffworks: It notes that the first CVT patent was granted in 1886, and that US carbuyers have been able to buy CVT autos since 1989, but that most automotive systems use a pulley system, where a belt moves higher or lower in a gap between two cones, changing the effective size of the pully.

The NuVinci system, on the other hand, borrows from planetary drives, enough that its manufacturers call the NuVinci a “CVP” system, or Continuously Variable Planetary. In this design, a series of 3-12 drives function as the “planet” gears in a planetary system with a movable cage altering their relationship to the “sun” gear. The whole thing is bathed in a new fluid from Valvoline called Inveritorc.

Cars generally control their CVTs through onboard control computers, figuring what ratio is best for given engine horsepower and torque. The NuVinci leaves that to the rider, so you will have an adjustable input, probably like a motorcycle throttle, that lets you choose “harder” or “easier” in any interval at any time. Suddenly hit the bottom of a big hill? Twist that grip all the way down. Want to pedal 3 more rpm on the flats? Twist it a little.

Of course, only time will tell whether this mechanism's going to stand up to everday (ab)use.

The Ellsworth is deserving of mention even if it were sporting a Sturmey-Archer 3 speed hub: It's a gorgeous combination of cruiser-bike and motorcycle styling cues, slathered in immaculate Ferrari red, and even includes partial fenders.

Technorati Tags: Interbike, Ellsworth, NuVinci

Your Daily Hugga

I was interviewed by Bicycle Retailer and Industry News for their Interbike Dailies and, well, I hope it was good! I'm back in Seattle, so I haven't seen the issue, but asked Mark V to grab me a copy. In the interview I mentioned a deal I've got on TypePad. If you didn't get a postard or meet me at Interbike, let me know and I'll send it to you in email.

Many other bloggers are blogging away at Interbike and there's a meetup tonight.  Recent posts from the interbike o ' sphere include

• Interbike Porn Teaser
  
• The Interbike Buffet
• 110 Interbike news stories online
• Interbike: Day Two
• EXTRA! EXTRA! Read All About It!

Emma and Mark

Mark V is on assignment for Bike Hugger@interbike and just sent in this photo.

Mark is covering all-things fixed for us and I just posted his first report about a freakin' bamboo fixie.

Sycip Alfine

Arguably the best in show, it's that or the Ellsworth, is the Sycip Alfine. Note the clean lines, attention to detail, powdercoat finish, and focus on an urban, utility bike. As I posted earlier, a theme at Interbike is bikes as fun transportation solutions. I wish I had more time to talk Jay as I was really impressed.

The Sycip bike also represented the struggle the industry has had in the USA with urban, city bikes. I heard that at Eurobike every manufacture had an Alfine bike and at Interbike there were just a handful.

At Bike Hugger, we're doing our part to see more bikes like this.

Interbike Photostream

Just uploaded a bunch of new photos to our Interbike photo gallery, including Ellsworth NuVinci bike, Sycip Alfine, and more.

Masiguy hits the big time

NYTimes.com | Blogging the Hand That Feeds You

Congratulations to Tim Jackson of Masi, also known as masiguy, featured in the New York Times today, in a story about business blogging. Maybe my favorite thing about the story is the awesome fisheye riding photo that kicks off the story.

Certainly, getting the company mentioned in The Paper of Record goes a long way to demonstrate the value of blogging your business. Bike Hugger Brother Byron, of course, has a dog in this hunt: He literally wrote a book on business blogging, and he's also serving as an unofficial Interbike ambassador for SixApart, offering a free month and a lifetime 10 percent discount for exhibitors interested in blogging with TypePad.

Coasting @ Interbike

I keep coming back to the Coasting booth (that and Ellsworth) and sitting here with me is Coasting Girl. Shimano is noticeably excited about the Coasting concept and group.

So Coasting Girl, what do you think?

Well many things. Coasting is just what millions of Americans have been thirsty for. . .

Also pictured in the gallery photos are Devin and Anthony. Anthony works for Ideo, who worked with Shimano on the human factors - people who are riding bikes, in the target demographic, just want to ride and not worry about shifting and all of the other overhead. Summing up coasting in a sentence, it's not about the bike, it's the experience. Devin told me that Shimano is also spending lots of time on the retail experience. Creating an area in IBD stores for Coasting.

Here's an earlier post about coasting, where I was wrong on it just being a drivetrain and instead it's an intergrated solution and a concept. Nuvinci also asserted that the industry needs to stop marketing to its fan base and instead grow the market by positioning bikes as solutions to transportation problems.

Shirt Exchange Party at Interbike

Last night we were guests at party for a US speciality retailer and their Asian manufacturer. It was a great example of international trade, pleasantries, deep respect, and a really fun party. The party was about building relationships and one of the ways they bond with each other is to exchange shirts with their counterparts: big guy, small guy, president, buyer, fashion shirt, bike shop shirt, men, women, all share shirts with each other (and drinks with cheers). With each shirt exchange, they congratulate each other on a successful year and to more business.

I'd heard that doing business in Asian is all about the personal relationships and know I know why. Thanks again to our hosts.

Whoa, wow, cool Floyd Cycles

We interrupted Floyd Cycles while they were assembling their booth to say, "whoa, wow, cool!" Simon and Tamara love bikes and you can tell from the love that went into that bike. Today the show opens and I'll try to talk to them more.

Surly Xtracycle confirmed!

Byron sends along this photo from the floor of Interbike, which officially starts today. I'm sure we'll have more details when the show is open and the bike isn't locked down, but the long and short of it is: Surly is launching the first production all-in-one Xtracycle.

That means folks who love the idea of an Xtracycle will have one less obstacle to hurdle: No more kit-building. Also, I can't see any reason the StokeMonkey wouldn't work.

Questions for our eyes and ears in Vegas: Is Surly selling this as a frame or a bike? What are they calling it? What's the availability?

I'm crossposting this to both Bike Hugger and our special Interbike coverage site. Most of our Interbike content will be at the Interbike site, so if you dig this, check there.

Surly's big secret

So, over at the surlyblog, the fine folks at Surly Bikes are doing a little tease on two new projects they've got coming.

Putting 2 and 2 together, I noticed the other day (before their domain was apparently hijacked) that the Xtracycle guys mentioned that they would be in the Surly booth.

Xtracycle sells Surly's Karate Monkey with a Free Radical as part of a kit, but that's not something Surly would be this excited about. My prediction is that Surly is about to introduce a bike dozens of us must have thought about: an all-in-one Xtracycle.

The FreeRadical is a cool hack, but at its heart it's just that: a hack. There are a lot of advantages to building a long bike from scratch: uninterrupted stays should be stronger than a bolted interface, for instance, and you can match your componentry to the bike's new role right from the start.

A few smart people have already undertaken the longbike-from-scratch challenge. Xtracycle has talked about it, Curtis Inglis built a custom frame, Todd at Cleverchimp has the beautiful Xtravois, and Fraser Cycles has built a couple of long-wheelbase city bikes.

Xtracycle's presence means that, unlike Fraser's bikes, the Surly will be compatible with Xtracycles accessories, which I'm hoping includes the Stokemonkey.

This is just my hypothesis. If I'm right, Byron will be all over this tomorrow.

Meanwhile back in Seattle

Marcus builds up his fixie and just sent this photo.. Anticipating my comment, he said, 'll lose the red tape at some point. It was all I had, and the original idea was red lugs, but the proved harder than I had expected.

Nice.

Compare/contrast

Coincidentally, the 9th annual Viper car club meeting is in Vegas at the same time and same casino as Interbike. Car culture meets bike culture and Mike quipped, "we should trade rigs for a while!"

This must be the place

We arrived. Walking through the Venetian on the way to get badged. Saw lots of fellow cyclists that looked just like this: backpack, helmet attached, shorts, etc.

Last time Vegas

The last time I was in Vegas, in 04, I wrote,

You don't know a town 'till you ride through it. Vegas was a miserable ride of strip malls, side streets, heavy traffic, horrible tasting water and urban decay until we got out of the city and into Red Rock Canyon.

The riding in Vegas, outside of the city, was great and the largest ever dirt demo is going on ride now in Bootleg Canyon. Mike and I will miss that, we're flying in this morning, but have got plenty more to blog about.

Limar Girl

I'm new to Interbike, but have quickly learned that it's a must to get a photo taken with the Limar Girl like this one from last year.

The crew in Vegas

From Elliott Bay Bicycles, Mark is on a mission to photograph single-speeds, Eamon will check the mechanics, and Bill will look for other custom frame builders. From Bike Hugger, I'm covering urban bikes and just heard that Xtracycle will be there in the Surly booth. Mike's plan is to meet the Limar girl (and cover fitness).

Starting Tuesday, we'll all be at Interbike in Vegas.

Unique Italian styling

Spotted at Eurobike and hopefully at Interbike is the Bianchi/Ducati Panigale street bike with Shimano Alfine.

Coasting along

Foregoing Interbike for it's own show, Trek invited dealers and media (no bloggers!) to the Monona Terrace Community and Convention Center. Cyclingnews got a golden ticket to the event and reported with photos.

From the report, I've got another item on my list to check out. It's Shimano's Coasting drivetrain. Last month BikePortland posted some early photos and announced that Portland had been chosen as a pilot city to test the new drivetrain. (Seattle was possibly not chosen cause of all the hills?)

If Shimano and bike builders succeed with Coasting, that'll create a whole new bunch o' bike huggers.

Pez Previews Interbike

Pez Cycling previews Interbike with a look at Emma the Limar girl, custom shoes, and more.

Welcome Mike Rogers

Mike Rogers is joining me at Interbike and will post on health, fitness, and the bike racing perspective. Frank wasn't able to make Interbike this year and will be missed.

Mike and I will arrive on Tuesday the 26th. My posts will cover the culture, commuters, and goods from the 10 x 10 booths.