Day two of the 2012 Interbike Dirt Demo is over and it was a warm, but not too hot, day filled with demo rides, energy drinks and plenty of products to study up close. The show moves indoors tomorrow and the air conditioning will be nice, but we were bummed pulling out of Bootleg Canyon with the sun sinking into the desert. Mountain bikes are best when inspected in the dirt.
Osmo to save the day. While temps were not as bad as yesterday, it was very easy to become dehydrated (especially if you were pedaling big fat tires). Osmo aid stations were life savers.
Fox made sure that riders heading out had their suspension set properly. These riders will take the tricks learned from the Fox pros and bring them back to their shops to help you.
The shuttle trucks were filled with more trailbikes than downhill bikes. It was a bit of a surprise, but riders short on time made the most of it by getting to the top fast.
We joined the KHS/Free Agent teams (mountain, road and BMX) for lunch. This group include an Olympic Gold Medal winner (BMXer Maris Strombergs, second from left), a World Champion (Melissa "Doctor" Buhl, in the white top of course) and tons of national and regional champs. Very impressive.
The Liquid Image Ego sport cam is smaller, lighter and about half the price of a GoPro, and comes with live Wi-Fi. They are sending us one to test. The company is also releasing a line of goggles.
This project from Calfee for Africa relief gets support from Nuvinci in the form of their internal transmission hub. The bike is planned to be made in Africa and the coolest feature is the bike floats, making river crossings a possibility. No, you can't pedal it on water. You'd need to float it.
The Fox guys get to cruise around in Ford Raptors. Tough job.
Tired of chain lube all over the garage floor? Invest in Left Field Design"s No-Drip Chain Luber. Literally. The company is looking for funding at indiegogo.com to get the product into production. This is the first time we've seen a product presented like this to mountain bikers. We'll watch to see the support they receive.
There were a ton of electric-powered bikes (it is so weird to see a downhill bike going up the trail at 18 miles per hour). The RideKick takes a different approach. The battery and motor powers the wheels of a trailer that can be attached to any bike. Who knows? Use the
RideKick to get to the trail head and then go for a ride?
The SKS Aircon pumps is awesome because old folks (you know, people over 35 years old) don't have to put their glasses on to read the air gauge. SKS makes tough pumps that we have had great luck with.
The new Giro Rumble shoe looks good enough to wear all the time. It was surprisingly lightweight (sorry, we didn't have a scale) and the sole and toe guard look grippy and tough. We want a pair.
The demo bikes looked pretty good after two days of non-stop abuse.
Can I keep it? Please?
No Dirt Demo is complete without an Elvis sighting. Tomorrow the show moves indoor.