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The Chris Davidson diary
Chris Davidson is a former mechanic for Bontrager Racing Service, now in the service of Shimano Multi-Service.
Chris' diary entries will show you what life is like inside the pits and an insight into the mind of a mechanic.
Interbike 2004 - Las Vegas, USA, October 4-8, 2004
The dust, wind and lights of Las Vegas
Howdy Cyclingnews.com readers,
I just returned from Las Vegas and the 2004 Interbike industry trade show. Vegas has become a real feature destination for the show since it moved here from SoCal almost 6 years ago. Vegas provides a much anticipated trip for most shops guys and industry types, the general atmosphere in Vegas makes most people do/want to do things that they would normally do. Like order more 2005 product than they would otherwise do; or so the manufactures hope. No lack of silliness happening in Vegas.
The Outdoor Demo
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For the first two days of the show were we situated on a dirt field outside Boulder City near Bootleg Canyon. This location was about a 30 minute drive from the Strip. This location had plenty of dirt, dust and large rocks. And apparently enough drops to get some people in trouble; I saw a couple of bloody bikes coming back in. For these first two days I was working for Trek bicycles turning out customers on new 2005 Trek mountain bikes. Trek had rented two tents with enough room to house nearly 160 Trek, Gary Fisher, Klein and LeMond bicycles. I was working in Trek side tuning bikes, setting shock pressures and sending people out into the desert. Lots of Trek brand celebrities were present to interact with customers; Andrew Shandro, Nat Ross, Ryder Hesjedal and Gray Fisher himself were hanging around and riding with customers. Ryder brought his Canadian landscape Olympic paint Fisher hardtail for display in the tent.
I saw a number of media-types in both official capacity and also in full riding gear. I fitted up a Fuel EX9 for Leonard Zinn of Velonews, polished up bikes for Jon Devich, and changed a tube for Shandro. Zapata 'Zap' Espinoza, Trek's brand manager.
SRAM/RockShox had the promotion that everyone was talking about at the dirt demo. They had rather attractive women in bright red wigs applying RockShox tattoos to test riders which translated into entries into a prize drawing. I have seen plenty photos of happy show goers with the red headed SRAM girls on various websites.
Day two's arrival at the dirt demo proved to be interesting as overnight there had been some pretty strong winds. Driving into the venue, there were more than a few pop-up tents representing manufactures twisted up and blown off to half a mile from there previous position.
The Indoor Demo
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Day three in Vegas started with a walk thru the Venetian to the Expo hall. The mass of people waiting to get into the show at 9:00am was huge, nothing like the feeling of getting to the good stuff first. People were anxious to get started. Plenty of heavy hitters were lined up by the major sponsors to greet the masses. Lines quickly formed to get autographs from the likes of Damiano Cunego, Magnus Backstedt, Tyler Hamilton, Bobby Julich and Bob Roll (sporting some wicked chops).
As I am not a credentialed media member, I could not bring a camera into the show, however there are no lack of 'cycle part porn' photos on this site and others. Carbon was everywhere, including some places that it doesn't really do a good job. As a working man, I was interested in the new wheel truing stand I saw in the Pedros info, and some other more obscure tool stuff.
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Debuting the first night at the show was the new Jamie Paolinetti film 'Pro'. I did not get over to the screening, but word is that it is a cinematic advance on Jamie's first documentary, 'The Hard Road'. I remember seeing JP walking around the hotel in Philly this year with a cameraman, I wonder if I made it into any shots? Look for it soon.
I made a point of catching up with Mike Engleman [T-Mobile director] for lunch; we spoke about the changing environment for the domestic women's scene. It looks like in 2005 the post Olympic prospects for elite women will be a little leaner than last year. Move details will emerge in the news soon, but the bottom line is that money and roster spots will be scarce. This is not a good thing for the current crop of US women that are itching for a shot at the women's World cup.
Overall
Vegas is an icon, the bike industry is iconoclastic. A perfect match. I don't see the trade show moving away from Vegas anytime soon. And that is probably best. Next up for me is the 24 hours of Moab; I heard that there are going to be 4500 riders for this event. Wow. Good for us in Shimanoland, we have a couple of all-star reinforcements helping us for this event. The first is MTB legend and Shimano Skunk Works development rider, Joe Murray. Those who know their NORBA history know Joe is one of the pioneers. Second up to help out is USA Cycling's Alan Sedowski; he has been chasing the American U-23 boys around the planet all year and could use some time standing still.
So until Moab, thanks for reading,
CD