Friday News And Views

Not A Fat Bike! (GASP!)

Squeezing In A Few Before The Show: I happened to get out and ride a few times this week on something other than a fat-bike. This one pictured here is a new test rig for Twenty Nine Inches.

I've needed every ride I could get in too. This week is almost as stressful as a Trans Iowa week. There are Eurobike posts to edit and publish along with making all my connections to get things in order for Interbike next week.

I'll squeeze out the other side of this, and it'll be late September already. Crazy! Seems like I just got done riding the GTDRI the other day. Now the leaves will be falling as I get things dialed back to "normal" around here. If that could ever happen!

At any rate, the rides have been good, the weather....perfect.....and the bikes, pretty awesome too. The newest one is this full suspension Diamondback Sortie 29. I also got in a nice little errand run on the old Karate Monkey.

If I have as much fun riding bikes this year at the Outdoor Demo as I've had already this week, it would be an awesome, successful Interbike. I sure hope it goes that way. 

Special VIP parking

So, Which Do You Prefer?

I got asked in the comments from yesterday's post what I preferred: Fat-bikes or carbon wonder bikes?

Hey, as long as it has two wheels, fits me reasonably well, and there is somewhere to go, I'm good!

Sure, there are things I prefer to ride, and I have been fortunately blessed to have a few sitting around to grab when the fancy hits me. But really, there is a freedom in having one bike  which I think is pretty cool. Either way, the bottom line is that I just like to ride a bicycle anytime I can.

So, yeah......I'm pretty dang excited about these fat-bikes. No doubt about that. The possibilities are boundless, and of course, winter time is now not a barrier that it once was. In fact, I'm excited for it to come this year! (Ducking for cover now!)

But that said, there are so many cool bikes, why limit yourself to one type or kind? (If you can afford to have them, that is.) I mean, I really like my cargo bike, for instance. It has opened up a whole new avenue of bicycling use for me. Now you could claim all the "green" and "health" bennies ya want to, but really.....c'mon now!  You ride these things as an excuse to ride more. Riding bicycles is fun! (Remember when you started as a kid?) Fun I say. The rest is gravy.

I prefer......bicycles!

So....About that show thing: I think we'll find an eclectic mix of stuff at Interbike this year. The U.S. 29"er market is much different than the European deal. We saw last week how there were waves upon waves of new 29"ers from brands that you've never heard of till now. It is the year of intros for the Europeans, and they likely won't see anything like this again.

The U.S. 29"er market grew much more slowly. Now it has matured, and besides the fact that carbon fiber hard tails will be seen all over, there isn't a whole lot of "wow" to be had. Yeti and Ibis not withstanding, I don't expect to get my socks knocked off by anything, but.......ya never know!

I'll be posting sporadically from now till next weekend, so please bear with me as I travel to and from the bright lighted city of Los Wages, Nevada! Until my return, ya'all have a great time riding your bicycles and checking in on all the show madness. (But really, just try to ride more!)