The Goat

Surly unveiled a long tail bike designed for hauling cargo at Interbike this year. They designed the back of the bike’s frame to accept Xtracycle accessories for people who want to mod their bikes for long tours. The good news is that you can also use it to haul around kegs in the afternoon and then your drunken friends later in the night.

Let the kid who can’t stand yet take your dog for a walk. This ski trailer is made to be towed behind a human, but as shown here you could just hook it up to Rover. Start teaching your dog a course to run when your wife’s pregnant and you might not have to ever take junior for a walk.

Calfee Design’s Bamboo Bike is made with heat treated bamboo tubes and lugs. They use a young bamboo fiber to form the lugs so the frame’s entirely wooden. In this picture the bike has Boss-Hog-style bullhorn handlebars and wooden rims, too. Now you have to worry about flat tires and your bike catching fire. Calfee says their Bamboo Bike is resistant to vibrations on long rides, and they say it’s okay for riders of any size.

Tacx virtual reality puts you on a magnetic-resistance trainer plugged into a computer that adjusts resistance when you climb, descend, and turn through your course. The Dance Revolution of cycling, Tacx lets you choose among a Velodrome with raging fans, an eXtreme mountain bike course, or several stages of famous bike tours—basically places you’d never have a chance of rallying in real life. Ahh, technology comes through with an easy answer for my failings again.

Quality Bike Parts has an odd presence at Interbike. The Minnesota-based company is the largest bike part distributor in the US. They buy parts from every bike accessory company and then mark everything up about 10% and gray market it to bike shops. Shops then only need to deal with one company and can fill their walls with fewer worries, credit applications, and order forms. The weird thing is that the people in the Quality booth are selling the same products from their neighbor’s booth at a 10% markup, but they’re packed with shop buyers from open to close.

Vanilla Bicycles lent their kid’s trike which was made for the Handmade Builders Show to Interbike as a display piece. This handmade wonder has more craftsmanship than any American car—they’re also more profitable and probably more coveted.

I actually felt a little guilty taking a picture of this lonely guy knowing that I would make fun of him later. He looked up when the flash went off so I pretended I was trying to figure out how to use my camera.

I thought the Interbike booth with swimming goggles was the most out of place until I saw this Oreck vacuum cleaner booth located on the edge of the BMX section. I loitered in the aisle for a few minutes and he wasn’t getting any business. The worst part is that his sales manager will probably send him back again next year.

Crumpton’s 7.4lbs complete track bike might be a little on the sickly side of skinny but there’s no denying it’s an amazing bike. They even save weight by making the water bottle cage out of that stiff yellow stuff you use to wrap packages. The seat’s probably not too comfy since it’s just a piece of carbon fiber, and it would probably fold in half under a rider over 120lbs, but you just can’t deny its radness.

Las Vegas, a city beyond excess that indulges in every kind of environmental waste hosts the largest bicycle tradeshow in the US tomorrow. Las Vegas is everything that’s wrong with America packed onto to one street. Energy and water gluttons in the middle of the desert, these dream mongers break the back of America’s spirit with long shot promises that an 11^th hour win will arrive to rescue them from mountains of debt with a free Dodge Viper and suite in the Venetian after a night of penny slots.

Salt Lake City hosts Outdoor Retailer in the mountains where their gear is used; San Diego invites the Surf Trade Show to its beaches; but Interbike comes to Las Vegas for indulgence. I arrived here this evening and settled into my room at Circus Circus which is more of a punch line than a hotel. I’ll be armed at the show with a camera and WiFi for the next three days bringing you the best and worst.

Did I mention I’m staying here a day after the show ends to hangout with friends? Perhaps a little indulgence all around.

The Western Mountaineering Flash Vest might make you look like a sailor that just jumped ship, but this life-jacket-styled insulator is an ideal choice for anywhere you might need some more core warmth. At 3.5 ounces this thing is made from an ultralight shell lined with reflective trim and stuffed with 850 fill goose down. A super light coil zipper keeps the weight down and allows you pack the Flash Vest into your palm.