After getting a nice healthy amount of sleep last night it was time for day two of Interbike.  I got up around 7:30, showered and headed towards Mc Donalds again for a belly full of Mc Griddle and Sausage Egg and Cheese Mc Muffins.   I’m not entirely sure how much longer I’ll be able to eat Mc D’s for breakfast but I certainly can’t wait to get home and hit up some Counter Café for some real food.

It seems that there are less people here today than there were yesterday.  I feel like I’m still walking around in a fog but I may have over done it yesterday trying to see everything on my list on the first day.  I was lucky enough to enter in a drawing at the SRAM booth and got to pedal on both the new Hamerschmit and the XX drive trains.  Just as the rep was talking about the super quick and smooth shifting I managed to have the chain drop… oops.

After leaving the SRAM booth I headed over to BTI to check out the new Commencal bikes.  They had a really sweet all carbon 5.5” travel trail bike built up to just under 26 pounds.  The new Meta 55 can either come the way it was displayed or in aluminum.  Speaking with their rep, it was pretty interesting that they were offering a new way to purchase a Commencal.  Sometime in November they are to be launching a new website, BTI Total Choice,  that would allow you to pick a frame and the components all online and have the “build” sent to Hammerhead for them to order.  The demo they had allowed you to zoom in on the pictures of parts to get detailed resolution on what you wanted.  I thought it was a pretty neat concept for those of use who can’t always make it up to the shop.

New Meta 55 carbon:

Meta 6:

I had heard a rumor that Lenzsport had built a new downhill 29er.  With 7” of rear travel I knew I had to check this thing out.  What I found shocking was the fact that I could actually stand over this bike.  White Brothers has stepped up their game in the 29er fork area with offerings from 80mm on up to 180mm.  It looks like their overlaping bushing setup in their forks allow for a much less flex in the fork and everything 120mm up has the 20mm thru axle.  On the 650b front they had some forks ranging from 80-120mm.

Lenz PBJ 7” travel 29er:

My boys only barely touch:

I stopped by the WTB Tires booth for some side by side comparison photos of the new 2.5” Dissent next to the current 2.55” Wierwolf LT… I’ll take a Dissent please.

And for the 650b folk:

For Iian and the other endurance junkies, over at the Light and Motion booth, I got to speak with Rebecca Rush, 2 time World 24 hour champion.  We spoke about what kind of nutrition they used, what kind of training they did, even what kind of chamois care was utilized to win.  Since I’m also in the market for another set of lights for the dark season I asked what they used.  It seemed like the hot setup was the Seca 700 on the handlebars with a Stella 200L on the helmet.  The beam pattern they showed looked pretty nice but it would probably be better in the outdoors instead of the demo box.  One of the things that I really liked was that the electronics are all in the headlamp and all the batteries from the 200 up to the 900 were interchangeable.  I think Cody has some at the shop now as a demo, I might have to stop by and try them.  The Seca was probably above my price point but the Stellas seemed comparable to my MiNewt X2s.

Seca 700 up towards the top and the Stella 200L at the bottom:

The battery packs:

Rebecca Rush:

It’s pretty close to lunch and I’m getting hungry so I should probably go raid the Clif Bar booth again for some grub.  I’ll be posting another update later on tonight this time with something a little more fun than watching Rob doing this:

Well it’s about 10:45pm now and I’ve finally made it back to the hotel room.  After a hectic day on the showroom floor, Justin, Rob, Darren, and I headed over to Outback Steakhouse for some dinner.  Justin was gracious enough to buy a round of beers at the ghetto casino downstairs but we ended up having to chug them since Outback wouldn’t allow us to enter with open beers.  We had a decent dinner even though some of us (Rob) may have over paid for their steaks.  I was just happy to have something other than fast food.  Wandering around after dinner failed to yield anything interesting to do so some either cashed out, hit the slots, or went back to blog about their day.

What a day it’s been!  So much to take in.  Things started to slow down for me after lunch but I was still able to get some pics of some great stuff.  So without further adieu heres some more eye candy.

The new Knolly Podium (just pictures for now, I’ll try to head back tomorrow):

Same bike just in black:

The new Maxxis Ardent 29×2.4 tire with redesigned tread pattern:

Awesome looking new 29er carbon hardtail from Ellsworth, the Enlightenment:

It was a really sweet looking ride, I didn’t get a chance to talk to the rep about it but hopefully Cody can chime in with more details.

Also from Ellsworth, the redesigned Evolve:

For Travis and the rest of the bikepacking nuts, I found this fully loaded Salsa Fargo that was recently used to complete the Great Divide Race this year:

It was really cool to be able to talk with the owner at length about what worked and what didn’t work on his ride and some of the things/conditions he ran into.  The frame bags were made by Epic Designs and looked pretty stout, something I’ll have to check into when I get home.

Here we have the awkward silence inducing bike from Cove (Someone walked up and asked: “Where’s the G-Spot”):

There was quite a bit of buzz around this bike while I was standing there.  It’s got 6” of rear travel and a double wishbone rear suspension similar to the VPP bikes but with a linear wheel path.  I think this one was built right at 30lbs.

I had originally wondered over to the Lezyne booth to look for a new pump for my bikes that wasn’t as bulk as my Topeak Mountain Morph and ended up checking out their new Svelt pack.  Similar in size to the Camelbak MULE and about the same price point, it had some very nice and well thought out orginizational compartments and its own bladder:

That’s it for tonight check in tomorrow for more pictures and with that here’s a pic of a tiger eating my head:

I’m finally getting a chance to eat actual food instead of FRS, Powerbars, Camelbak Elixer, and whatever other sustinance is available for sample.  Sergio said it best: “I feel like I’m in a race, eating all this stuff and having my stomach hurt”.

That being said there is some really cool stuff here, it is hard to stay on target with my ADD kicking in and lots and LOTS of shiny new stuff to look at and fondle.

So what have I seen thats been cool?  Well lets start with the new Tracer 29 from Intense:

Adjustable rear travel from 4.75-5.5″, ICG tabs, VPP2 rear suspension M, L, XXL and due out sometime in March according to the rep.  This thing looked really sweet and is supposed to handle very similar to a 26″ trail bike with the short wheelbase and steep head angle (71 deg.)

Moving on to the Titus booth I had the opportunity to check out their their new Rockstar 29er.  This thing was pretty sweet looking with hydroformed tubes in both Aluminum AND Titanium:

They also had their new Carbon X:

And their new El Guapo:

6 inches of trave, ICG tabs and the rear chainstays are actually a single piece of advanced thermal formed aluminum making super solid.

From there I made my way over to the BMC booth to oggle at some of their new road bikes since I’m interested in picking up one for myself in the near future.  First up was the unaffordable (to me) SLR Team Machine:

This thing was built all out with the new Shimano Di2 electronic drivetrain and all sorts of other goodies.  The entire thing was carbon fiber (of course) and had some details that made for an incredibly stiff bike that was also complacent enough to be comfortable on the long rides.  It used the new BB30 bottom bracket and designed the head tube to taper from 1 1/8 at the top to 1 1/4 at the bottom to increase the stiffness up front.

The other bike that was interesting was their aluminum bike with carbon seatstays, the SL01:

This bike is for the more budget minded folks like me who still want something unique and incredibly well built.

I managed to check out some new stuff from Ellsworth and Cove as well but lunchtime is over and there’s still lots more to see.  Look for pictures of them in an upcoming post.