Lame Interbike?



vio765

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Jan 20, 2005
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I remember last Interbike by having all the cool online sites (pez, velonews, bikeradar, etc) plastering pic after pic of awsome new stuff. I remember being "wowed" by nearly every picture. but this year is totally different! i have only been "wowed" a couple of times and worse yet, where are all the pictures?? this year's interbike seems lame. i sure hope next year will more than make up for this year. is it the economy or what? someone please help explain.
 
Yeah, that really got me down, but then I pinched off the loaf, wiped, got off the toilet, and went on with my life.
 
wow, just asking if anyone else feels the same and this is what i get? thanks for the "i know, it wasnt good" or "it could have been better". so cold. thanks. write what you want in reply.....i wont check it again.
 
vio765 said:
I remember last Interbike by having all the cool online sites (pez, velonews, bikeradar, etc) plastering pic after pic of awsome new stuff. I remember being "wowed" by nearly every picture. but this year is totally different! i have only been "wowed" a couple of times and worse yet, where are all the pictures?? this year's interbike seems lame. i sure hope next year will more than make up for this year. is it the economy or what? someone please help explain.

Not sure but the transplants from the NAHMBS(Norrth American Hand Made Bike Show) in Portland made for some interesting american hand made frames, mostly of steel and titanium(NOT carbon).

The bike industry has been in a rut for a while, trying to figure out how to get more people on bikes. Their answer often is gadgets, too expensive and too complicated. BUT a bike that designed to get you there w/o the weirdness isn't attractive. Car shows don't highlight low end Toyotas either.

Until there are safer places to ride for fun AND transportation, I think the bike biz is going to stay flat. No matter how 'cool' the bike may be, if you cannot safely ride it to where ever, it won't sell. Even places with moderate climates are very unfriendly to cyclists.
 
You think showing C50s is going to get the industry glowing?
I'm with previous poster. The industry needs to change their focus, at least in the USA.
Longterm, they will be a lot better off lobbying for more bike lanes/paths and stiffer drunk driving enforcement.
 
I posted pics of the new EPS. And apparently they cannot keep up with demand.

I said that I was excited. And from everything I read bicycle sales are going extremely well, even (or especially) in the US. So what is the problem?

A bunch of new frames coming out. Campagnolo launching 11 speeds. Shimano marketing its electronic Dura Ace. SRAM making a big push into the road market. Seems like exciting times to me.

What was so exciting about last year?
 
Powerful Pete said:
I posted pics of the new EPS. And apparently they cannot keep up with demand.

I said that I was excited. And from everything I read bicycle sales are going extremely well, even (or especially) in the US. So what is the problem?

A bunch of new frames coming out. Campagnolo launching 11 speeds. Shimano marketing its electronic Dura Ace. SRAM making a big push into the road market. Seems like exciting times to me.

What was so exciting about last year?

What he said. The manufacturers are doing well at what they're supposed to do.....er.....sell bikes and bike parts.

As for all the social change stuff, that doesn't come from the factory floor. It comes from the people. If you want more bike lanes and the like, go out and spread the word. Surely there are groups out there, in most communities, that advocate for such things.
 
9606 said:
You think showing C50s is going to get the industry glowing?
I'm with previous poster. The industry needs to change their focus, at least in the USA.
Longterm, they will be a lot better off lobbying for more bike lanes/paths and stiffer drunk driving enforcement.

Even around here(Boulder County,CO) a place very friendly to cycling is next to Larimer county who has a sheriff who has gone on record to generally bust cyclist's balls at every opportunity. Safe places to ride, safe from cars and the law, is rare. When you have a sheriff who doesn't like the 'lycra clad weenies from Boulder' invading his red neck county, we all lose. This type of pickup truck mentality needs to come to a stop, more lanes and shoulders made so people actually WILL use the bike as transportation. As bad as this yokel is, it is much worse in other places in the country. As long as these twits are re-elected, nothing is going to change, regardless of all the neat whizbangery from the bike industry.
 
I think we are mixing apples and oranges here. Interbike and Eurobike are about presenting newfangled doodads that get bike geeks salivating and [more importantly for the companies at these shows] opening our wallets.

They will not get policy-makers excited about cycling and/or make them invest more in bike lanes and improved safety for cyclists.

No innovations presented at these shows can do that.

And Peter, you answered your point yourself - the locals are electing this yokel as their sheriff/justice of the peace/whatever, and as he is on record lambasting cyclists, chances are the majority agrees with him. The fact that Colnago may launch a new frame or Kona may make a new, improved commuter bike will not change their attitudes.

Attitudes change with time. As an example, I remember how horribly dangerous it was for me to ride when I first visited the US (in 1991 as a college freshman). And remember, this is coming from an Italian, with all the yanks raving about how dangerously we drive. And all I did was ride my De Rosa in garishly bright lycra, keeping as close to the side of the road as possible. I invariably rode alone. There was no one else to ride with then.

I was yelled at, full size pick up trucks swerved at me, beer cans were thrown and hit me, moms with carloads of kids hysterically yelled obscenities just because I existed, and I was actually shot at once. This about 25km outside of Washington DC in a rather nice area of Maryland (McArthur Blvd loop, if I recall correctly).

I returned to ride there a number of years later while in graduate school and was amazed at the civility of the drivers. I also noticed a LOT more riders on the same roads.

I am sure that that same ride is now absolutely wonderful. That is how attitudes change over time...
 
Peter@vecchios said:
Even around here(Boulder County,CO) a place very friendly to cycling is next to Larimer county who has a sheriff who has gone on record to generally bust cyclist's balls at every opportunity. Safe places to ride, safe from cars and the law, is rare. When you have a sheriff who doesn't like the 'lycra clad weenies from Boulder' invading his red neck county, we all lose. This type of pickup truck mentality needs to come to a stop, more lanes and shoulders made so people actually WILL use the bike as transportation. As bad as this yokel is, it is much worse in other places in the country. As long as these twits are re-elected, nothing is going to change, regardless of all the neat whizbangery from the bike industry.

I agree 100%, but that's got nothing to do with industry bike shows. To accomplish the goals you listed you have to:
  • Get more people on bikes so that motorists become accustomed to sharing the roads with bikes.
  • Better educate motorists and extend driver's education much farther than it goes today.
  • Ween people from their automobile addiction/love affair. To do this will require the systemic adoption of alternative transportation modalities: cycling, buses, trains, and etc. It will also require losing the cheap gas jonesing. Let the gas price go up. It is a finite resource, so it should be priced high.
  • Get more people active and in shape. If you can't achieve that, the people won't ride a bike or walk to a bus stop.
Those are just a few things that need to happen, and frankly, those things aren't affected much, if at all, by the cycling industry.

From the perspective of alternative transportation, NAHMBS is just as useless as Interbike and Eurobike. I'd wager that NAHMBS plays to an even smaller market. Vanilla and Sachs bear zero relevance to anything related to bicycle transportation, especially when you consider that there's no way a bike could tow Sach's ego around. I'd also wager that the vast majority of the population, be that cyclists or non-cyclists, are more likely to find interest at Interbike or Eurobike. NAHMBS is a cute art show, a niche event.

Cycling didn't become ingrained in European cultures overnight or over a year or two. It took a very long time. Cycling certainly isn't going to become part of American culture in anything resembling a short time frame.