High Rollin' Weekend

For all you scooter owners/lovers in the vicinity of Las Vegas on weekend of March 19th, join the fun of the 10th Anniversary High Rollers Weekend bash! This promises to be a wild weekend with a scooter build-off and plenty of other ways to show off or get into a little innocent trouble. You might even be one of the lucky folks to go home with a shiny new Kryptonite lock for your scooter, being raffled to support the event.

For more information about

the event check out http://www.highrollersweekend.com/2009/info/index.html

Vegas or Bust!

We've been reading and commenting on a variety of efforts to bust the strangle hold our reliance on petroleum currently has on all our lives. A Berkeley, CA based event is raising this effort to an art form. Check out the Escape from Berkeley race that is ongoing as I write this! http://www.escapefromberkeley.com/

Race participants are only allowed to start the race with one gallon of gasoline and through any means necessary, are expected to be able to power their vehicles in such a way that they reach Las Vegas today. Make sure to go back to the blog to find out who wins.

Where is Everyone?

Seems like the blog's been quiet for about a week. Why? Just about everyone at Kryptonite was at Interbike - the big industry trade show. I was there this year to attend one and speak on another social media panel, as well as do a live Spokesmen show. It was a great time seeing some old friends.

There's so much to see there, but here are just a few of the things that I came across.

All the Spokesmen in one place!

Tim "Masiguy"Jackson, Tim Grahl, Richard "Fritz" Masoner, Carlton Reid, David Bernstein

Karen and Don catch up with Chipps Chippendale

Jelly Belly had a cool motorcycle in their booth. And, free Jelly Bellies.

The pros were there, too. Lance in the Oakley booth.

George Hincapie was at the show, too.

But, the never-ending lines were for Tyler Hamilton newly crowned national champ!

Karen and Gustavo welcomed David Bowman from Outdoor Gear Canada to the booth

Karen was a busy lady. She also talked with Megan Tompkins from Bicycle Retailer

Oh yea, there were bikes, too...like this Masi

And the Felt Bikes

And this way cool bike!

Interbike is also about dear friends. Here are three of mine all in one place!

Russ Denny, Tim Jackson, Christian Klempp

Videos to Start The Week

Hope you all had a great weekend. I'm just getting fired up for the first full week I've had since...what...mid-December? It's gonna be a long one so I thought I'd start off the week with two cool videos. One for the bicycle enthusiast and one for you motorcycle fans.

The first is from New Year's Eve in Las Vegas. If you didn't hear, Australian Robbie Maddison broke the world record for the longest jump on a motorcycle. He went over 322 feet and seriously landed that bike. No wobble, nothing. Did he go celebrate right after? No, he does it again! Both jumps are on the video, it is fantastic to watch.

The second is from our friends at Bicycle Retailer & Industry News this morning. Here's a link to the newest Lance Armstrong commercial. I haven't seen it on television yet, but it's pretty funny. Yes, Lance being funny - I was a little surprised, too. But, it's worth the 35 seconds to watch "the warrior" in action.

East Coast Demo?

Last week, I read on the Bicycle Retailer site that Interbike is contemplating an East Coast Demo. For those outside the industry, Interbike is the bike trade show that is held every fall in Vegas. You've heard me talk about it enough here recently, but for any new readers, I like to clarify. But I digress...

Anyway, I didn't think much about this whole East Coast Demo until read it again today at Bike Europe (trade publication for..duh...Europe). Well, that got me to thinking and we all know that is a bad idea....

They are thinking of doing this demo time so that retailers on the East Coast that maybe can't make it to Interbike (it can be friggin' expensive) can have a chance to see the new bikes. Sounds good for the dealers for sure! They are even talking about having a consumer day. Imagine all the bike nuts that would line up to ride the brand spankin' new bikes that won't even be out until spring. I envision some riding buddies getting up early, making the trip down to Providence and spending a morning riding bikes like little kids on Christmas morning with a new bike. Cool image, huh? It will be a fun, fun, fun day for them. So far, so good...bring it on, right?

And then there are the industry companies in New England who will be pretty stoked to do a big event in their backyard. We don't have bikes for you to ride, but they talk about seminars and clinics and networking opportunities all of which we could possibly partake in. Getting to hang out with some dealers for the day is always a good time. And, we'd actually get to ride some bikes, too! We don't get to do that in the desert because it's always time to put up the booth and finalize last minute details before the doors of the trade show open. So, we'd get to be those kids in the candy store, too, for a couple of days.

Still....all good, right? Then I started to wonder about the bike companies. Not Seven Cycles or even IF (this is in their backyard, too). I started to think of Giant and KHS and Haro and Masi -- all located in Cali. They are all pretty drained after spending a week in Vegas - few days in the desert and a few days in the convention. This all on the heels of a pretty event-packed summer, I'd think. They'd have to almost go straight from Vegas to Rhode Island. Are they up for that? I know that the point of all this is to get your bike into the hands of the buyers - the more buyers that see your products, the more chance that they will like the product and buy it. I get that. Guess I just understand the fatigue side of it, too. And, let's not forget the expense. Maybe some of these companies have big, huge marketing budgets (I'm pretty sure a few have gigantic ones compared to ours), but maybe not. Shlepping multiple bikes and gear cross country isn't cheap.

And then I start to think....how many retailers don't go to Vegas from New England and the Mid-Atlantic States (because this would draw people from NY, NJ and PA, at least)? Would it be a lot of overlap? Some, I know, but most? Don't know. Or, would they choose not to go to Vegas next year just because of this opportunity and miss all the other companies that they'd want to see - small companies that can't afford to go to both - or even have the opportunity to be at both. Remember, you don't ride locks.....or bags....or lights....we can go and hang out and ride those shiny bikes, too, but would there be other spaces for us? Not really...ok, we can do a seminar, but would that show all the new products? Don't know - haven't thought that far yet, folks, just spinning thoughts here. And it's not about us, we're right here so we'll represent just fine, thanks...it's smaller companies that don't have those budgets to do Interbike and Providence - even to come and network.

Let's not forget Mother Nature...Oct 16th in New England? You could have that dirty four letter word...snow. No, I'm not a snow person - get over it - hate it. I certainly wouldn't want to be out in it for three days....although I know some people who would love to ride in those conditions.

I'm rambling. But, what do you think? Will New England dealers forego Interbike for Demo Time in Little Rhody? Will the big bike companies want to do both demo areas? Will they have the man/woman power and budgets to do both?

It's still all tentative and Interbike is sending, or has sent surveys, to dealers. We'll all know around Feb. 1st, which is the date to have exhibitor materials and pricing info by then. Interesting....let's hear what you think.

SEMA

by Jody Perewitz



Last week was the SEMA show in Las Vegas. We sent out 2 bikes to be displayed in PPG’s booth. A 1950 Panhead that we just finished and an early 80’s custom that my father built back in the day.

My parents headed out there on Monday and I went on Wednesday. I have been there before but every year I forget just how big the show is. I walked around all day Thursday and maybe only saw ¼ of it! There was so much to see, Rolls Royce Phantom with 26” wheels, Toyota truck bombing through a course outside, 64 Impalas, and of course celebrities.

I got to meet some cool people. Some of them were Goldberg the wrestler, Indy car driver Danica Patrick, and a few others. The show was so crowded that just getting a glance at a celebrity was difficult but I managed to get a few pictures and autographs!

On Friday about two hours before the show was going to end I decided to go for a walk and revisit a cool booth, Lexani Wheels. I found my way over to the wheel building and then decided to take a different route back to the PPG booth. I got so lost and couldn’t find my way back! I was in a building I didn’t even know existed and it seemed to go on forever with vendors! I finally made it back just as they were announcing the SEMA show has now ended.

When I got home I was glad to be there. Even though I was only gone a couple of days there is no place like home. Vegas is nice to visit but I wouldn’t want to live there. And that’s just me because I heard an interesting fact while riding the monorail. Vegas is the home to 6,000 new people each month!!!

Bob Roll's Interbike Experience, 2007

by Bob Roll


As expected, the 2007 Interbike extravaganza lived up to its pre-event hype and was a great event, thoroughly enjoyable to all. For me, step #1 is extracting myself from the airport and arriving at the hotel without incident. Coming from a small town in the mountains to the megalopolous that is Las Vegas is always a shock to the system. The melee at the airport never ceases to amaze me. Las Vegas, for some reason, remains a powerful attraction to zombies from all over the world.

Consequently, getting from the airport to the room is one of the most substantial challenges of Interbike. Thanks to Donna Tocci my journeys have been smooth and without incident. The place of habitation is the Venetian Hotel and Casino. The casino part is what makes it more difficult than it needs to be. Although at the Venetian, at least, you can check in without wading through an ocean of slot machines. Not the case, however, when you navigate to your room. Everybody has to pass through the casino in an effort, I presume, to pry peoples’ hard earned cash out of their wallet. For religious reasons I do not gamble and consequently my trips to Vegas have been much more enjoyable. The room, as always, was fantastic.

The first order of business at the trade show was to serve coffee to the thirsty masses at the Kryptonite booth. Then, it was time to be the judge at a video contest sponsored by Shimano and presided over by such luminaries as Phil Liggett, Kozo Shimano and, of course, Donna Tocci.

From there I had a signing at the Hi-Torque booth and after that was a reunion with my teammates from my racing days on 7-Eleven at the Tourneau Watch store sponsored by Bicycling Magazine. All of which was a fundraiser for the Davis Phinney Foundation. What a fantastic honor and great pleasure to be reunited with some real legends of American cycling. On the panel was Tom Schuler, Chris Carmichael, Alex Stieda, Ron Kiefel and, of course, Davis Phinney. The assembled throng were regaled with the tales of our efforts in Europe. A lovely time was had by all. Thereafter was, just like the old days, a team dinner where much wine was drank at Spago.

Day 1 was supposed to include the annual Sinclair extravaganza, where I have imbibed dramatically in years past. But this year I was too exhausted to attend - so much for Day 1!

Day 2 began early again at the Kryptonite booth with coffee for an even larger assemblage of attendees. Repositioning myself at the front of the booth rather than the storage unit in the middle inexplicably seemed to draw more people. The rest of the day included, but was not limited to, a speaking engagement at the Wounded Warrior Project press conference and a book signing at Velonews.

Directly after the book signing was six hours of live TV courtesy of the World Criterium Championships held at the Mandalay Bay parking lot. The professional men’s race was an exciting and very competitive high stakes, great race. It was a real pleasure to commentate on.

The women’s race was won by Laura Van Gilder but it was the Industry Cup race that provided the most crashes and thrills. Such luminaries participated as Steve Bauer and Mario Cipollini. The rest of the field was made up of supposed employees of the cycling industry, which is a pretty broad requirement. There were so many crashes it was difficult to know the beginning and the end of field. Also, the variety in fitness levels made the pack impossible to differentiate from the stragglers. Add oil on the streets and two days, at least, of heavy drinking and you have a recipe for hilarity.

I am sure the next day at the show there were many employees nursing their wounds. Six hours of live television is not easy but having a crash to commentate on about every half a minute makes the time fly. Generally, my job is as a commentator on cycling events and it was nice to be able to apply my trade at the bike show. However, being able to meet the people at the Kryptonite booth is the main attraction for me going and remains an event that I look forward to throughout the racing season.

I’m looking forward to next year’s races and have enjoyed a fantastic relationship with Kryptonite and look forward to all of our promotions in the future. So, everybody go out and buy some locks!

The trip home was uneventful, which is my favorite kind of trip. My liver has shrunk back down to normal size and I’m looking forward to ’08.

Hiking, Climbing and Camping My Way to Interbike

by Eric Anastasia, Eastern Regional Manager

This was the fourth year that I boarded a plane in route to Las Vegas for Interbike (international bike tradeshow). The conventional way of traveling to Interbike for me is to board the plane at Boston’s Logan Airport and disembark in “Sin City” Las Vegas, Nevada.

This year was different. I did leave from Boston but I landed in Denver, Colorado, then traveled out to Vail to link up with a good friend of mine. He had planned a little journey for us; well over a thousand driving miles, 2 State Parks, 5 National Parks and countless miles of hiking all in 4 days. One of the days we hiked over 11 miles in under 6 hours, a little less then half of those miles where done in a river. The remainder was a 1400’ vertical hike with steep zig-zags though the mountain. (Zion N.P.)

The River

The Summit

I could go on and on about the incredible sights we saw but I will give it to you simple.

Arched National Park

Capitol Reef National Park

Goblin Valley State Park

Bryce Canyon National Park

Zion National Park

And finally, Red Rocks

This was by far the best Interbike I ever experienced. We already started talking about next year's trip and the route we are going to take.

Interbike Wrap-Up - Inside Our Booth in Photos

Ok, so here's the last batch of photos from Interbike. As I mentioned, I'd try to do a little different spin on Interbike at times - life from inside a booth. Here are some more things I saw from inside our booth....

Karen and Craig take a short break to smile for the camera before getting back to talking with customers. Our booth was jammed pretty much from the get-go right up until Friday afternoon when it was very sloooowww...so slow all around that I heard booths coming down by 4ish (the show is open until 6pm).

Simon and Lisa from Colin Lewis Cycles in the UK were greeted by our in-transition European/South American Sales Manager, Gustavo. They won a trip to Interbike through a Kryptonite contest held this past winter. It was great having them with us. Last I heard they were headed for some sight seeing and shopping....hope they had fun on the rest of their trip.

Bob Roll chats with and signs a poster for one of our customers. Bob joined us in the morning both Wednesday and Thursday and was, as usual, a crowd favorite!

Craig and Eric serve up some coffee to the folks that stopped by to see Bob. They did a great job! Sandy, too, but I learned during this show that Sandy is about as comfortable in front of the camera as I am.

Chris and Cyndie from Cool Breeze Cyclery stopped by to say 'hello' to Bob. It was so much fun meeting them in person!

Eric Hawkins, owner of Park Tool, also stopped by to greet Bobke. The Park Tool booth is right near ours at Interbike, which is great because we've known those guys forever and they are always fun to hang out with.


Through the power of the internet and the telephone, I've "known" Mark Alker from Singletrack Magazine for years. We are even Facebook friends and connect on MySpace. However, since I think he is never allowed out of the office for some reason, I've never met him in person....until Interbike! It was great meeting him in person. From what I can gather, Mark's first trip to Vegas was a full experience....he needed the coffee we were serving, big time!

Century Cycles in Ohio won "An Evening with Bob Roll" during our Interbike contest a few years ago. Scott, the owner, came by to say a quick hello and drop his card in to win a ride with Bob this year.

Craig checks out a funky bike that made its way to the booth.

One of our favorite visitors to the booth every year is Marilyn Price from Trips for Kids. She was telling Karen here about all the new chapters she's opening. Bravo!!

Tim Grahl stopped by for a bit at the show and showed us that he's all in tune with our new Justice League padlocks. By the way, he was telling me some amazing things about the growth of his Commute By Bike site. Check it out!

Our friend Eric from Pedro's stopped by on Friday at just the right time. We asked him to pick the winners for our 'Win a Ride with Bob' contest and he did a great job. And the winners are....

Nevrik and Hrach from Velo Pasadena are the grand prize winners! Bob's going to be visiting their shop the first week of November. We are very happy they won since they are such great customers.

Christian (MN), Kevin/Squid (NY) and Billy (CA) are way loyal Kryptonite customers. Each has been a bike messenger for more years than they'd probably want me to tell you about and have become friends over the years. Ok, I just met Billy, but he was hanging with Kevin so it's all good. I know they don't go anywhere with their bikes without a Kryptonite lock. Congrats to Kevin on opening is own messenger company recently.

Lucky gal, version 2. The best part of any job, for me, has always been the people I meet along the way. I've been truly lucky in this job to meet some wonderful folks. Some I am fortunate enough to see more than once a year, some I only see at Interbike and some only come to the show every other year or so. This was a special year...the gang's just about all here (John seemed to be missing during this photo, but he was there, too).

And that's Interbike for another year. I think that Bob may have his own wrap-up later this week, but his will be very different from any of ours and I'm sure it will include a mention of the 7-Eleven team reunion. Stay tuned for that.

Now, on to the fall...

Interbike - Outside Our Booth

After a heck of a week with a cold, I am finally able to breathe. If you couldn't guess, breathing is not over-rated. I credit the semi-fast turn around to my new found gem - Puffs w/Vicks. I had never seen them before and after a little investigating found out they are new. If you get a cold....go directly to the store and get some. Now...I wonder if they make things for coughs....

But, I digress.....although I spent a lot of time in our booth at Interbike I did get out a couple of times to visit some friends and see some of the sights. Got to the Thule booth to say 'hey' to Karl and Tripp, met a very nice lady at the Larabar booth (if you haven't tried them do it today...they are just too, too good and good for you), got to the Masi/Haro booth a couple of times (how could I not), met new friends at the Shimano booth (as you can see) and found these interesting items along the way.....



Yes, you see a bus in that photo. A real bus that the folks at Clif Bar drive around the country. It was a cool thing to see. I guess they were also doing smoothies or shakes during the show, too, but I got there too late for that (note to self for next year....go on day 1).


A guy rode by our booth on this one of the days of the show but I didn't get the camera out in time. The next day I found it hanging out in this booth. This is just FUN!



Then I found our friend Chris at the Earth, Wind and Rider booth. Check out this wool polo shirt. Chris took a trip around the country this summer and hung out at some messenger events and found that they are playing street polo now. These shirts are just sweeeet....there are 6 total with different colors and numbers that are distinctive to the cities they represent. The numbers are...get this...the area codes (brilliant!) and the colors have something to do with the city...Boston's red because of the Red Sox (ha)...New York is yellow for the taxi cabs, or in my mind for the New York Lock...Oakland is silver to match the Raiders and so forth. Way cool.

My last stop before I packed up and left the show was to visit a long-time friend of mine, Dave Murphy, over at the Sugoi booth. He showed me some absolutely kickin' new items for 2008. He's been with the company for about a year and a half now and I can see his touch pretty much everywhere. There was just too much goodness to take photos of everything, but check out this women's jersey.....it has a cupcake design on it and in the pocket??? The recipe to make cupcakes. How fun is that?! Look for it next spring.

That's it for now...one more Interbike post from me to come...after all, we did have some great things happen IN our booth, too.....

Happy Weekend all!

Interbike Day 1

Day 1 of the Interbike show opened with a flourish. I don't think I took a deep breath until about noon - or maybe later.

Highlights:
- seeing good friends! Some I only see once a year, some I haven't seen in a few years and others that I have never met in person until yesterday. I know trade shows are a lot of work, but this truly is the best part. And, if you have more than 2 minutes to catch up with some of these folks, it's truly a great day. Thanks to those friends who found more than a few minutes to catch up.

- having Bob Roll in the booth, of course. Bob is always fun and brings in a great crowd.

- judging the YouTube contest at the Shimano booth. I was in some pretty cool company. Wow!

- actually doing a Spokesmen podcast in the same room with the rest of the crew! I may have sounded like a complete dork, but it was great to be in the same room with David, Carlton, Tim and Tim.

- seeing dragons - yes, dragons...

- attending the 7-Eleven team reunion. What a historic occasion. As John Eustice said, this is really the team that started it all...7-Eleven to Motorola to US Postal to Discovery....and what stories they have of the 'old days'. The pre-event announcement mentioned "Celebrating the Fast Times & Raucous Racing of American Cycling's Original Supergroup". After hearing some of the stories, I have to think it was quite a wild ride (no pun intended).

***The 7-Eleven reunion was a fundraiser for the Davis Phinney Foundation. All donations to the foundation to October will be matched by Bicycling Magazine. You can donate here, just leave the box for the "Victory Lap" checked and Bicycling will match. Bravo, Bicycling!

Ok, got to run to the second day....here are a few photos...




Kryptonite booth (side view)



Oh, look at the front view of our booth...it's the new Masi Soulville ...yes, it's as cool as you think it is....and it looks good on our flamed out parking meter (yes, it's a Dave Perewitz original).



Bob Roll telling stories to some cycling fans at the Kryptonite booth.




I'm a lucky gal....this was the group judging the YouTube contest. (l-r) Dave (Shimano), David (Fredcast/The Spokesmen), Tim Grahl (Crooked Cog), little ole me (!), Bob Roll (y'all know him...), Master of Ceremonies Carlton (BikeBiz), Mr. Kozo Shimano (our gracious host) and Phil Liggett (y'all know him, too).


I wasn't kidding about the dragons....