Jul
5
Just thought I’d highlight a great comment to one of our Interbike Memories posts from Jim Langley. As his personal website states, Jim is a “Bicycle Aficionado”. Jim is probably most well known for his 10 years as the Technical Editor of Bicycling Magazine and currently works for SmartEtailing. I remember learning alot about bike maintenance from his regular column and Tech Q&A features. I still have the folder at home by my work bench with tech articles of his that I pulled out for future reference when I was getting started in the sport. Thanks, Jim!
Like everybody else, I have lots of fun Interbike memories, too. Here are a few in no particular order that people might enjoy: –I recall Giro founder/inventor Jim Gentes telling me that on the drive down to Anaheim he was actually spray painting one of the important show-sample helmets in the back of his car. I found and find that image pretty funny and a great example of how hard everyone works to make the show a success. –GT & RockShox threw quite a party one year. It was held in a huge industrial building and the place was absolutely packed with people. Suddenly, the guys from RockShox opened a roll-up garage door on one side of the building and idled slowly in on a classic flat-bed truck piled high with one-off RockShox beer in boxes, which they started handing to the crowd. But, they couldn’t drive too far into the crowd so they started throwing the beers and people were catching these 20-ounce beers flying through the air. –Allenax’s lever-drive bicycle booth s howing up year after year after year. –All the wonderful and amazing Robert Egger of Specialized concept bikes. –The incredible Tour de Sewer group rides we used to have at the Anaheim show in the mornings; sometimes over 100 riders strong and some of the top pros, riding a double paceline with Swiss-like precision on the winding bike path toward Huntington Beach. –Bruce Gordon’s SOPWMTOS awards were/are always a kick. –Discovering the secret “kitchen” in the Italian pavilion and sitting down for a plate of delectable pasta. –Taking a wide berth around the Taiwan pavilion to avoid the cigarette smoke billowing out from above their hidden smoking chamber. –Test riding the latest and greatest at the Outdoor Demo and elsewhere. –Getting by by eating the Hershey’s Kisses Bike’alog gives away every year in that huge glass bowl and munching the free Clif Bars and PowerBars.. and sipping the free java. –Discovering back at the hotel on the last night that we had so much pro duct literature, we had to get boxes to ship the stuff back to the office. –Getting to discuss the products with all the ingenious product managers, too numerous to mention, who don’t mind explaining in detail how their stuff is designed and why. –Listening to Ernesto Colnago introduce his 50th Anniversary line-up. –Watching the mechanics trying to win Park Tool’s Fastest Mechanic contest. –And, finally, experiencing Interbike first as a bike shop grunt, then as a bike shop manager, a journalist, an editor, and now as an exhibitor. I could go on, but suffice to say that I’m sure this year’s show will be full of fun memories, too!
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