It’s been a week — a week! — since Josh Lipton and I got home from the annual North-American bike trade show known as Interbike with a wheelbarrow full of business cards, hundreds of photographs, and a bit of swag too.
Think of this as not just another Interbike photo dump, but a foreshadowing of future posts, reviews, and topics we will be covering here on Commute by Bike.
A full gallery of photos is below, but here are some highlights:
I met Arleigh Jenkins — for about 30 seconds. Long enough to get this photo.
Arleigh (a.k.a. Bike Shop Girl) was my predecessor, writing and editing Commute by Bike. Before my eyes had recovered from the photo flash, she disappeared to continue her own coverage of Interbike.
Remember this?
I was looking for women’s cycling products that weren’t just superficially plastered with flowers. I was looking for some perspective on how the cycling industry regards women, and how it ought to. I’m seeking my own special XY spin on a topic with which I am unqualified to comment, yet I intend to anyway.
And somehow I ended up at Basil, the epicenter of Interbike flowericiousness.
More of my Basil photos here, here, and here.
Awhile back I ranted about the conspiracy to make us all like bright green products. Remember? Nobody paid much attention to that post, but I’m not dropping it!
I was talking to the guy from SST, which was allowing people to vote for and against the new colors for their line of BMX cables. I told him that the popularity of bright green was a direct result of mass mind control.
SST guy backed carefully away from me, like I was some street-corner 9/11 truther waving pamphlets in his face. I wasn’t even on a street corner, and I’d left my pamphlets back at the hotel.
The next guy to vote after me — I swear this is true — said, “Show me the brightest green you’ve got.”
More photos of “Inception Green” from Interbike here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, and everywhere.
Josh, being a veteran of more than 10 of these trade shows, wasn’t particularly impressed with any of the new offerings — until we got to the Xtracycle booth.
And because Josh is my boss, I totally agree!
Xtracycle has come out with a bunch of new improvements and innovations, including a SideCar that gives you a third wheel and a cargo platform, but folds up and out of the way when not in use.
More Xtracycle photos here, here, and here.
And now the full photo dump:
Click on any of these thumbnails to see a larger image, and more commentary.