After a solid winter of snow, skiing and playing I am ready for a small sampling of spring followed up by a healthy course of summer. My recent trip to NAHBS in Austin only furthered my hunger for a warmer climate change, as I basked in the warm sun while soaking in mid-70's temps. It was a feast for the eyes and soul what all of the frame builders there were dishing out. Anyone who believes that handmade bikes are lagging in technical advances need not look further than what was on display in Austin. A broad swath of builders were showing off all sorts of ideas: integrated headsets, internal routing (even disc brake routing), disc brake cross bikes, mixing of materials and advancement of materials - it was all there. No doubt why some of the bigger companies like Mavic, Easton, Enve had booths there and why I saw reps from many other big names roaming the show as well.
Part of my mission was to introduce 3T to the world of frame building and to show off some products I have been helping them with. We were showing builders the new disc-cross fork and the new Ergoterra cross specific bar, talked about the new 29er fork along with many other of 3T's vast offerings.
Back home I was quickly getting ready for the following weekend in Berlin, our first show of the season and the first stop on the STXC series. The show was a big success, lots of visitors, interest in Crema & IF. We showed off some new wears we did with Biciclista, soon available in our online shop.
The short track was very well received as we had a very cool and funky indoor/ outdoor track in Berlin. Riders started in the show halls rode outdoors through some whoops, some dirt ups and downs, then back inside for a trip down some stairs, through the halls around an indoor pump track to complete the lap. SofaKing (aka Arne Thoma) rocked the field fresh off winning the CCC Dresden Cross Cup to take the win with Stefan Geiss (Nicolai) and Stijn (Stijn Cycles) in tow.
We served up some of our great espresso all weekend over conversations of the coming year. Everyone is definitely ready for more, I say serve it up!
No comments:
Post a Comment