Yes, it’s true. Circulus is coming to Interbike!

Circulus at Interbike 2011

As soon as I heard about Circulus last year, I picked up the phone and called Dan at Portland Design Works. It’s not trivial shipping a velodrome 1,000 miles so it took a bit to iron out the logistics. But we knew we’d get it done. As PDW co-owner, Dan Powell, just wrote, “Circulus is going on a little road trip.”

Along with co-sponsors Paved magazine, All-City Cycles and Yakima, we’re super excited to have Circulus at the annual industry gathering this year. What do we have planned? We’ll have open riding sessions available at various times throughout each day of the show. You’ll be able to grab an All-City bike from the pit and hit the track.

We’ll also have a couple of featured events – one each on the first and second days of the show. On Wednesday we’ve got the PDW/Paved Pro-Am Classic at The Circulus. Described as “Quite possibly the first annual celebrity micro-velodrome pursuit world championships, featuring stars and others.” More details about the event (and about those stars we mentioned) are still to come.

Yakima’s got the reigns for the Thursday night festivities, and I hear that it might involve some form of bike roulette… Stay tuned for more on this as it develops.

And while the events are nominally competitive, we’re shooting to focus more on the fun than on hard-core racing. Look for MC’s Chris DiStefano and Stevil Kinevil to keep the feats of strength in check.

This last Saturday, PDW hosted a little get together up at their place featuring Circulus. Hers’a little write up by BikePortland.org.

And finally, here’s a little sneak peak at Circulus in action:

PDW Circulus Promo 1 from James Wilson on Vimeo.

Where will you find Circulus at Interbike? It’ll be on the street level of the show (this year’s show is on two floors of the Sands Expo, remember?). Walk through the Urban Lounge near registration, through the new Pub beer garden and you’ll run into it.

But first, you’ve got to register for the show. You have registered already, right? www.interbike.com/register for those in the business of bikes.

Just caught this early this morning while reading the news online while eating a bowl of cereal. It’s a video from the Wall Street Journal on casual cycling apparel that they posted last week on their site. It’s a concept we know well: you don’t need to dress like a pro in Lycra and spandex just to ride your bike. In fact, the assumption that they will have to get kitted up like Lance actually turns people off to riding. We’re definitely bullish on the category, and have been featuring it in our annual urban fashion show at Interbike, returning for the fourth year in 2011. There are some great new bike-specific yet casual looking styles and brands out there to appeal to both the recreational and commuting cyclist that needs to look just as appropriately dressed off the bike as when on it.

WSJ journalist, passionate cyclist and frequent Interbike attendee, Reed Albergotti, steps in to comment from a cyclist’s perspective with the two other more mainstream journalists.

Cycling apparel brands: submit your pieces to be considered for this year’s Interbike City Style Fashion Show, produced in partnership with Momentum Magazine, by downloading a submission form here.