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Interbike 2005 Demo Days with photos
The Interbike trade show is the bike industry’s last hurrah before it officially releases the product that this site has been documenting for the past few months. I took a pass on this year’s show because I had other commitments and, to be frank, didn’t feel up to the trip.
That being said, many other industry insiders and observers made the trek down to Vegas and I’ll be using this section to send you in the direction of their websites. Check back frequently for the next week or so for all of the Interbike mayhem.
Interbike Day 1 - Dirt Demo 2005
The first day at Interbike is devoted to getting participants out on the bikes that will be on display during the rest of the trade show. Typically, members of the media get time on bikes they’ve drooled over for the previous few months and this year is no exception. Here they come:
NSMB.com: NSMB took a smart approach to the demo day, choosing bikes that are well suited to their area of expertise (freeride, light freeride, trail, downhill). Bikes on display at the NSMB.com website include the Yeti 303, the Santa Cruz Nomad, the Rocky Mountain Slayer, the Scott Ransom, the Turner RFX (ex 6 Pack), and the Surly Pugsley.
BikeMagic: UK-based BikeMagic previews six new rides in their Dirt Demo writeup. There are some closeup shots of the Turner Five Spot (with the non-Horst link suspension platform), the Giant Anthem cross country bike, the Kona King Supreme, Mountain Cycle San Andreas DNA downhill rig, the Maverick ML7/5, and, yet again, the Surly Pugsley (featuring 4″ tires).
Pinkbike.com: Pinkbike opted to take big bikes out for their test runs down the trails. The crew focused on bikes like the Specialized Demo 8 Pro, the Cove Peeler and Shocker, the Santa Cruz VP-Free and Nomad, the Cannondale Prophet, the Kona Stinky Primo, the Yeti 303, and more.
Interbike Day 2 - Dirt Demo 2005 continued
Like the first official day of Interbike, the second day is again devoted to bike demos. And like the first official day, there are another batch of test ride stories posted on various websites.
Go Clipless: One of the first mountain biking weblogs to post material from Interbike online, Go Clipless took a smart approach to their go-round at the Demo Days. Instead of jumping on the bikes from the larger companies, the guys plowed headlong into unfamiliar (for them) territory: the 29ers. Among the 29″ bikes that they tested out were the Ventana El Capitan, the Niner One 9, and a couple of others that will be posted online when they get up to speed.
BikeMagic.com: As they were on day one, BikeMagic was at it again on Tuesday for day two. The real coup for the BikeMagic crew was to be one of the first batch of journalists to spend some trail time on the Scott Ransom. Other bikes demo’d by BikeMagic during day two included the Specialized Epic Marathon, the Cannondale Rush, and the venerable Slingshot. You read correctly, the Slingshot is still in the building.
Pinkbike.com: Pinkbike followed up their Day One demos with more of the same — big bikes best suited to freeride and downhill. On Day Two, the Pinkbike riders saddled up on bikes from Norco, Intense, Voodoo, Cove, Giant, Iron Horse, and Mongoose.
Update (30 September 2005): One last item of note to post before I move on. Dave Tolnai has what’s probably the most refreshing take on the Dirt Demo over at NSMB.com. It’s well worth the read, if only because the author isn’t immediately sold on the necessity of, well, the entire idea of the show.
1. Posted by Interbike 2005 with photos » The Biking Hub | 2:20 pm, 8 December 2005
[…] Yesterday was the first official day for the exhibitors at Interbike 2005. Following two solid Demo Days, manufacturers and journalists alike moved indoors to talk shop, grab as many photos as possible, and engage in other forms of activity made famous by the city of sin. […]