Looking Back At I-Bike: The Furnace

Tim Grahl, then owner of TNI, with a desert tortoise at Bootleg Canyon.

Editor's Note: This is Part 2 of a series on Interbike experiences. Interbike is happening this week for the last time in Las Vegas, Nevada. 

 When I went to Interbike the best part of the whole week, (other than leaving Las Vegas at the end), was riding bicycles at Bootleg Canyon. That was the venue for the Outdoor Demo. It was primarily mountain bike oriented, but no one seemed to mind.

In the early years of my Vegas Era, Bootleg Canyon during Outdoor Demo was far, far busier than it was toward the end of my time at Interbike. That said, Monday was a slow day, in relative terms, for the demo. It seemed that a lot of folks used Monday as a travel day and didn't get out to Bootleg Canyon at all, or showed up well into the afternoon hours. So, we being the news hounds that we were, got the heck out there ASAP and rode as many bikes on Monday as we possibly could get our hands on.

But first you had to get on 'The Bus" to Bootleg Canyon. Standing in that line was something that brought meaning to "hurry up and wait". I recall one year that someone noted that we had media credentials and we were whisked out of the long line of folks waiting to sign waivers and were put at the front of the line. Whoa! I felt odd and embarrassed that we were made to be special right in front of the dealers and shop rats waiting patiently for such a long time. But, it wasn't of my doing, so......

In later years the check in was more discreet for the media folk and we ran out to Bootleg Canyon in Grannygear's rig on our own. Free to do whatever we wanted, instead of riding a bus, we ended up finding a really cool place that became a ritual of sorts for our Bootleg Canyon trips.

Great Buns Bakery: I spent a lot of time staring at the pastries there!

Grannygear got the hankering for some of this swamp water stuff that is in the health aisles of some grocery stores. We went down Tropicana Boulevard looking for a grocery store as it was on the way to the road out of town through Henderson and then to Bootleg Canyon. We found his swamp water and then, I cannot recall how, we found Great Buns Bakery.

This place is the single most redeeming factor I can think of for Las Vegas' existence. If you ever go to Vegas, go there! Grannygear and I were never ever let down by the goodness found on the shelves there. In fact, it was so good we had to share it with others. We would buy a flat of random pastries and take them to the boys out at the Salsa Cycles demo tent.

Anyway, getting to Bootleg Canyon was not tough, but usually it was crazy hot. And windy to boot. That in combination would wilt the average Mid-Westerner. Well, it even roasted Grannygear, who was somewhat used to dry and hot. Bootleg Canyon was a tough, rocky, gritty place to ride anyway. Add in the hot weather and well....... It was nuts.

Sometimes folks stuck doing the demo would have special goings on after Monday's opening round. One such vendor was Chris King. One year they had Chris King himself, the Chris King, barbecuing beef for anyone that stuck around after the Monday demo. We decided to stay, and this was one of the years we rode the bus, to check it out. We had no idea if we'd get back to our hotel room or not, but the prospects of a free barbecued beef brisket meal outweighed being stranded. As we stood in the long line we wondered how late the last bus left the demo area.

Chris King himself tending the grill in the blazing hot Sun over Bootleg Canyon.

We got some crazy tasty brisket and we still made it back to the motel on a bus. That was a pretty memorable evening. There were other times when Grannygear and I would eat at a fast food restaurant in Bootleg Canyon and we almost never left the demo without a trip to the local DQ for a chocolate malt.

I don't recall doing anything spectacular in the early years of my time out there after the Demo. Usually, it was high tail it back to the time share we rented, or the one year we rented a house, and then bang out as many words and images as we could.  Grahl. the original owner/creator of TNI,  was all about flooding the web with as many images as we could. It wasn't unheard of for us to upload 500 images or more in our Interbike Gallery. So, no fun, no partying, just lots and lots of uploading and writing of text.

Of course, riding the bicycles was the highlight. I got to ride so many great sleds and see more that were so cool. I really could not pick out a single bike, but if I had to pick one that most influenced me, it would be the Salsa Cycles Fargo I got to ride at the demo in 2008. But there were several other super rad bikes I got to ride. Mike Curiak's personal rig is one. It was just like being the kid in the candy store, like you would think it would be. So many bikes, so little time!

Next: The Bikes And The People