A Resounding Thud

When Bike Radar is posting this kind of stuff on social media regarding Interbike, you know it had to be good!

I really tried to find something interesting to talk about regarding the Interbike goings on in Vegas last week. I tried to find something cool to show, some news of a future product that will be awesome, or some shred of anything trendy. Unfortunately, but not unexpectedly, nothing of the sort happened at Interbike this past week.

Even the ubiquitous, oft regurgitated "Bike Rumor" press release posts were few and far between. You just know it was a super-awesome Interbike. Especially when "Bike Radar", the typically good source for news on a bike trade show these days, only had a few sundry posts on some ho-hum components and a small gallery on e-bikes. Stuff usually relegated to the posts we used to call "Weird Stuff From Interbike", or similar.

Why wouldn't the last Interbike in Vegas be something other than a resounding thud? I wrote this post last Sunday to show what I feel are the reasons why that is. We don't need a "show" in a fixed place because the "show" goes on all year on social media and it has usurped the "excitement of the new" and it has replaced the person-to-person relationships which were the mainstays of bicycle trade shows before the smart phone/social media era. Why go somewhere that is unsavory, makes you spend a lot of money to get there and back, and doesn't cater to the cycling lifestyle beyond its walls?

 It all can be done on-line nowadays. Companies can have the spotlight anytime they want. They can launch something whenever they are ready via their own dealer events and consumer demos. They pump up demand via their own social media planned marketing schemes using "athletes", adventurers, and canned stories. You live vicariously through them. This influences and makes one want to emulate their rigs and accessories. Then you go online and buy the stuff way below MSRP. Trade shows? Pfffft!

Who needs 'em?