Looking Back At I-Bike: The Vegas Era

A view of Vegas from Circus-Circus 2009

The end of an era is happening this week in the cycling industry. It probably will not affect you, and it certainly doesn't matter to most riders, but Interbike is finally leaving Las Vegas, Nevada after this week's show.

I was blessed to have attended nine Interbike shows in Las Vegas and one in Anaheim, California during my stints as a shop rat and media/blogger/wonk. I went there more times than I wanted to, but many of you out there have never been to a cycling industry trade show, so you may think that I am/was the luckiest guy in the world. Or.......you may have pity on me, or you may think I am less than worthy of consideration. (In which case, I doubt that you read this blog) Anyway......

I figured that on the occasion of the last show in Las Vegas for Interbike that I would recount my memories of going there in a way that might bring a bit of the experience to you out there. This will be a series that will last the entire week, so either plan on a different story to appear every day till Saturday about Interbike or just plan on not looking here till this coming Saturday!

I'm going to break it down in to five parts which will reflect each day's experience. This is the intro post, but it is also going to serve as the "Getting There" episode. So, here is a bit of remembrances about getting to Interbike from my perspective........

My first trip to Vegas was the first Vegas Interbike in 1996. It was Schwinn's 100th anniversary, and they had a parade of 100 Elvis impersonators led by Father Guido Sarducci. It was pretty crazy. But first, I had to get there. It was only my second ever trip involving air travel, and I wasn't digging it. This comes from my reminisces about the trip which I wrote down here several years ago. 

"Grand Canyon.....Lake Mead.......30,000 plus feet......Las Vegas!  We're going down real soon real fast!! And just as that thought crossed my mind, the plane nose dived and went careening towards McCarren International Airfield. Yikes! The whole plane suddenly shuddered with a great vibration. I saw out the window that the pilot had applied the air brakes to break his free fall. I about came unglued! And it happened twice more before the pilot slammed the landing gear so hard onto McCarren's runway that I thought the wheels would surely break off. You know, the sheer terror of that flight put me off from flying for several years afterwards". 

The hustle and bustle of The Strip

 My love of air travel didn't get a whole lot better over the years. In fact, I hate it. It was the single worst thing I experienced every year when coming or going to Interbike. To this day, I rue the thought of ever flying anywhere again. But that has nothing to do with Interbike, in particular. I say that just to point out that every year I knew I had to go to Vegas, a dread was on me until the trip was over.

Vegas itself, and more specifically, The Strip, was another dread of mine. "Soul sucking" is what I can best put down as the reason why. It just felt slimy and bad. Again- just me, but it was another downer for me. I didn't need more depressing circumstances, especially in 2009-2011. That era was absolutely awful in regard to "Twenty Nine Inches" and what we had to go through to keep that site going. But anyway, this is why I was not excited to go to Vegas with the exception of the first two years with TNI.

Air travel..... It was crazy post 9-11. The first Vegas trip was nothing, as far as the getting there. (Well, other than the exciting descent and hard landing!) But post 9-11 the security at McCarren was so brazenly bad tempered and mean it was down right despicable. I once saw an airline attendant berating foreigners because they couldn't understand the self check in procedure at the kiosk in front of baggage check in. They were South Americans that didn't speak English. It was just another example of the dehumanizing effects of Vegas and getting there. There was a lot more than that I could tell you....

In the latter years I always looked forward to seeing Grannygear at the airport. He would drive over from the LA area where he lived and meet me there. We had some issues with finding his car in the car garage a couple of times! But usually it went smoothly and we would get checked in, maybe grab a quick bite to eat, and hit the hay to get ready for the big Outdoor Demo ride on Monday.

Next: The Furnace