Interbike 2006 Tech Report

October 2, 2006 | Filed Under Bicycling 

Words and Photos: Steve Z

Every fall the US bicycle industry trade show comes to Las Vegas. I was there shooting photos of things that caught my eye, and now is your chance to reap the benefits! So here you go, take a tour, but be warned; these pictures might cause you to experience deep, dark, illicit sensations of lust. I have arranged my photos into six different catagories. Go to each photo gallery and click on the pictures, there are photo titles and descriptions contained within.

Gallery 1: Ellsworth
Ok so I am a sometimes employee of Ellsworth Bicycles. Thus this company has its own little section. There are a lot of pictures of Ellsworth’s new bicycle, The Ride. I’m pretty proud of it. Other bikes that I’ve worked on are the new Scandium/carbon hardtails and road bikes.

Gallery 2: MTB

There is such an amazing amount of stuff at the show; it can be overwhelming at times. It is also tough to decide what to take pictures of. So mostly I took pictures of things that are interesting to me. I have a lot of 29ers in here. I haven’t really ridden one myself, but many of my friends do. Intellectually, I am not sold, but as an industry professional, I feel obligated to test them out for myself. So I’m going to try one out next year. Thus, much 29er stuff for you to see. I also like carbon fibers bits, sexy shapes, and really high end stuff. So don’t expect to see too many pictures of price point bikes.

Gallery 3: Road

I really don’t ride too much road these days. There are hundreds of good looking carbon road bikes at the show, and I won’t ever buy any of them. Nor will I ever buy any of the sexy $2000 wheelsets. So I just picked a few things that were really flashy. I did talk to Magnus Bäckstedt at the PowerCranks booth. I was telling him that I too am a Powercranker, but that I don’t ride them much because I mostly ride mountain. He then pretty much told me that I am a wuss! Getting called out by a Paris-Roubaix winner pretty much made my trip. It was all in good fun.

Gallery 4: Cyclocross

It’s ‘cross season, and I’m really wanting a new cross bike. I really want to try a carbon one, but alas, blogging isn’t paying the bills like you might expect. I am threatening to do a race or two this year in the ol’ Masters catagory, since I’m now officially over the hill. We’ll see if it really happens, or if I’ll just keep finding excuses and shooting photos instead.

Gallery 5: Cruisers

There really wasn’t a whole lot of excitement in the cruiser catagory this year. It seems that this segment of the market has peaked. Most of the big players had revised paint jobs and themes, but the frames were largely unchanged. Although I’m completely biased, the Ellsworth Ride was by far the best looking new cruiser out there, although its weight, performance, and price really put it into a catagory of its own. It isn’t exactly a ‘cruiser’. I predict the next big push is going to be in the townie/city bike catagory. This catagory has been tarnished with lameness for years, but it appears as though that is turning around a bit. Electra has a new line of Amsterdam cruisers that I didn’t take any pics of because they tend to get jumpy.

Gallery 6: Misc

Here is where everything else wild and wacky resides.

Whew! Well I got this first big story online. Its feels good, I feel at least a half a pound lighter. I have more pictures of people, Vegas scenery (buildings), Vegas scenery (booth babes), and bad food, but we’ll see if get them posted. Up next on the blog queue are photos from the Boulder cyclocross race that took place this past Saturday. Stay Tuned!

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