Interbike 2002

Las Vegas, USA, October 5 - 8, 2002

Interbike part 4 - Day two, The celebration continues...

Reported by Rob Karman in Las Vegas

Photo: © Rob Karman

Autograph seekers were having a great time today with many riders putting down ink. US Postal members Roberto Heras and Floyd Landis were signing team posters at the Trek booth along with DS Johan Bruyneel, while over at the US distributor for Colnago, a few members from the Colnago-equipped Navigators Squad were signing autographs in their booth. In attendance were Burke Swindlehurst, Olympic Champion Marty Nothstein, and Russian Sprinter Vassili Davidenko. MTB fans had the opportunity to meet Luna Chix Team members Alison Dunlap and Marla Streb at the Clif Bar booth as well. Also, later in the day Colnago were able to report the Colnago-Ferrari CF3 - which had gone missing in transit while being shipped from the US Grand Prix in Indianapolis to Las Vegas - had been located, much to the relief of all concerned.

Defeet has some new shorts the company says will revolutionize the category. The DeFeet-engineered Greg LeMond Signature shorts use "InteGR8" technology which incorporates DeFeet's Air-E-Ator concept into the short's pad. This eliminates the need for a layer of Lycra covering the pad as well as giving a better airflow through the shorts. It should cool things down a bit.

Photo: © Rob Karman

Specialized had a pair of Super Mario's Bikes on display along with an S-Works road bike tipping the scale at a mere 16.4 lb, though most of the attention at the Big S booth was focused on their new Epic suspension design already reported on Cyclingnews.

The Epic must be the most popular bike at Interbike this year. And some reports say that the suspension action has to be the best thing to happen to XC mountain bikes since suspension forks.

Photo: © Rob Karman

Time was showing their new Z pedal and Z Control, full platform versions of the popular ATAC MTB pedal line. In development for quite a few years, the pedals have finally seen the light of day. Marrying the mud clearing abilities of the ATAC with the support of a platform pedal, the Z's are bound to be a big hit with the downhillers, especially on muddy courses.

Photo: © Rob Karman

Hayes has a new lightweight lever aimed at Cross Country riders who are reluctant to use hydraulic disks because of the weight penalty. It features a Carbon lever with a magnesium body. With the weight of disc brakes dropping every year, the only thing that should be stopping mountain bikers from switching to discs is what to do with all those old wheels.

Mavic has brought the machining from the popular Ksyrium SL wheels to the MTB line with the new CrossMaxSL, a svelte silver pair of hoops available in disc and caliper brake versions.

Photo: © Rob Karman

Also new from the French wheel giant are the Speed City wheels, 700c disc wheels aimed at mountain bike riders who want to be able to ride their disc-equipped bikes on the road. This is particularly useful for racers and other frequent travellers, but also has implications for the cyclo-cross set with a number of 'cross frames now being offered with disc brake tabs including K2's, Giant's and Airborne's.

Photo: © Rob Karman

Speaking of Airborne, we spied a road frame at their booth built from a new Reynolds tubeset of double butted seamless 6/4 Titanium. And they said it couldn't be done...

Can we expect Ti tubing to go the way of aluminium, with larger diameter tubing, thinner walls and custom butting? Only time will tell.

Spinergy has a new wheel out featuring a blended weave or carbon and Titanium. It features traditional style spokes and is expected to retail at $999.

Photos

Images by Rob Karman/www.roadbikephotos.com

• Want a road brake under 100g? How about 80g?
• Another look at the 80g road brake. Called the Cat Claws, and made by cat-usa.com
• Burke Swindlehurst, Olympic Champion Marty Nothstein, and Russian Sprinter Vassili Davidenko
• Cipo's bikes. Very animal
• Hayes magnesium and carbon lever
• Roberto Heras checks out his handy work
• Kona's Dr Dew. Commutery-goodness
• For the old singlespeeders among us, full suspension
• Mavic CrossMax SL wheelset
• A closeup of the Mavic CrossMax SL
• The Speedcity 700c disc wheels from Mavic
• The hubs on the Speedcitys
• Beautiful workmanship on the Merlin Cielo
• The headtube on the Cielo
• The titanium meets the carbon in a beautiful manner
• Even the dropouts have style
• Merlin's Solis, new for 2003
• Double butted Ti tubing, the future in framemaking?
• Roberto Heras, Floyd Landis and the boss, Johan Bruyneel
• The rear of the Specialized Epic
• Specialized S-Works roadie
• Spinergy's carbon and Titanium wheelset
• Time's Zpedal, ATAC performance on a platform
• Titec Carbon riser bars
• A carbon MTB stem from Titec
• More carbon from Titec
• Titec's RIP stem, all alloy
• The Tomac 6 Shooter, for the big drops
• Tomac's new Revolver, lightweight XC rocket
• And the Revolver comes in at 22.55lbs
• The carbon stays on the Yeti AS-R

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