Tradeshow Mania

You must give it to the industry insiders, as they earn their pay during the marathon know as Tradeshow Season. Shows and Europe and now Interbike have been going on for some time, and it is all stuffy-recycled air halls, noise and lots of talking. From the comfort of my office in beautiful Gunnison, I have somewhat followed the shows via sites like Velonews, Cyclingnews and mtbr.com. Here is a sampling of what has caught my eye:

Starting abroad, Reynolds not only has a new look, but some sick new products. How about a set of carbon mtb wheels, clincher or tubular, your choice. Wisely using DT Swiss products throough out, paired up w/ reynolds extensive experience in building carbon rims, these are undoubtly the best on on the market! Having ridden the Reynolds Stratus CX wheels, I can attest to the quality and ride feel of their products. Reynolds also has a lighter road fork, 'cross fork and very nice bars to round out their component selection.



You may or may not have heard of Focus before, they are a long standing smaller bike company out of Germany founded by ex-Weltmeister (cross & mtb) Mike Kluge back in his mtb hey-days. Now they offer some great products to include this sweet carbon cyclo-cross rig, especially made for Kluge's main squeeze and World Champion, Hanka Kupferknagel. Hanka herself was a threat at one time in mtbing, threatening the throne of Juli Furtado back in the day, more recently has found herself ontop of the Querfeldein world - that is 'cross to you & I.



Back here in the states, 'cross is also king, check out this sweet cross bike from my caffien addicted friend Jason Groves over at ElCamino Fab.



Here is a 'cross fau-pa, Willer wnet to all lengths on whats to be a very sweet all carbon cyclo-cross bike, but check out where they put the rearbrake cable stop - right where your shoulder would be -OUCH! I had a Dean thast had the same problemn, and I am here to say, that is a major F@#$% - up. No matter how sweet the bike is, it is ruined by a simple oversight like that.



Phil Wood always has show stoppers, his sweet single speeds, the hand polished ti-lugged/ carbon track bike, and list goes on... Check this out, outboard bearings. Wow. I have two BB and two sets of hubs from PW in play right now, and the lifespan on the bearings and quality of craftmanship is all of that. It will be interesting to find out what cranksets these can be matched up with...Hmmmm.



There are still a couple of days of Interbike, and I am sure more delictables will surface. Mtbr.com is posting stuff everyday, and have a ton os sweet single speed items up already. Start writing your wish list, and remember, Christmas isn't that far off....