Bike Expo New York 2015

[fuzzalow]

Bike Expo New York | Bike New York

Stopped in to visit the New York Bike Expo. This event is free and is held at Pier 36 at Basketball City on South Street in Lower Manhattan.



As befits the vibe of New York, it was crowded, bustling and drew both a diverse cast of characters. Some who seemed to simply gravitate to events as curiosity seekers, NYC tourists that seem to have dropped by and actual bicyclists attending a bike expo. Many who seemed compelled to attend while driving their cars to the event in only slightly lesser numbers than the the bicyclists that queued up on line outside the venue hall for the bicycle parking area.

It was packed. The crowds would have been more numerous than I have experienced at NAHBS or for that matter, any motorcycle show I had attended at the Javits Center, even adjusting for the much smaller exhibition space for the Bike Expo.

My reporting on this will be destitute as I browsed the aisles with not much concern or interest for the numerous vendors of bike clothing, tour guide pamphlets and energy drink & energy bar concoctions. The three largest vendor displays were commanded by Specialized, REI and oddly and surprisingly enough, Campagnolo North America.



I spoke with one of the Campy Reps who is involved as the traveling roadshow team that brings the good gospel of Tullio to the teeming masses of mostly Shimano heathen. This prestigiously sized display is what had replaced the rather woeful showing of phone booth-sized Campagnolo display I had seen at NAHBS-Charlotte in 2014. Campy had mag-trainer mounted bikes in order to sample their grouppos, one bike of which was Chorus EPS. Very nifty, as one might expect the equal to hydraulic actuation of a full manual gearbox in a modern supercar exotic.



A Campagnolo display bike oddity for their Super Record EPS showing with some kinda goofy saddle for those that like hi-end super parts for their bike but have not yet figured how to ride it without hurting their stones.

New York City feels better and better as a bike town with the passing of time. And well it should. Part of the energy and vitality of this city has much more to do with the realness of its interactions with people who all want to be here and want to be part of this metropolis. All energies and synergies that are antithetical to the isolation and inward indulgences of the rolling living rooms & boudoirs espoused and cultivated by car culture and the auto industry.

BTW, in keeping it "real". On Houston Street this afternoon passed a crowd of star-struck onlookers, all with cameras and smartphone photo shots at the ready. They were all waiting for Kanye West to reemerge from his apartment on Houston & Mercer in SoHo where he apparently was interviewing real estate brokers to earn the right to represent the impending sale of his SoHo apartment. Dunno what the asking price will be other than it will probably be other-worldly. There is the NYC of the real and the NYC of the surreal.

[fiamme red]

I went there today. I was tempted by the Walz caps which were on sale late in the day, and by the Ocaña and Hinault books from Bloomsbury Press. But I ended up not buying anything.

I was impressed by how many booths there were. I was expecting just a handful of companies.

[pdmtong]

Great to see tulio represented properly. That weird seat is weird. Evelyn Stevens rides it fwiw. I'd pass over the gels bars and chews too. Celebrate the ride - yes indeed. But fuzz - don't let me catch you loking at a Tarmac!

[soulspinner]

Thanks Fuzz man.

[fuzzalow]

Originally Posted by fiamme red

I went there today. I was tempted by the Walz caps which were on sale late in the day, and by the Ocaña and Hinault books from Bloomsbury Press. But I ended up not buying anything.

Yeah some of the Walz caps looked interesting but I don't wear cycling caps so it was just another accessory to peruse and pass over. Bloomsbury Press had nice books selling at half off but I didn't indulge either, I am trying not to get into a habit of buying things that I don't really need and cluttering up the apartment.

Me & Mrs. fuzz tried going to Nom Wah afterwards for dim sum but they were closed for a private party. Next time we could see about meeting up over libations at a saloon of your choice - not McSorley's 'cos the ale is atrocious.

Originally Posted by pdmtong

Great to see tulio represented properly. That weird seat is weird. Evelyn Stevens rides it fwiw. I'd pass over the gels bars and chews too. Celebrate the ride - yes indeed. But fuzz - don't let me catch you loking at a Tarmac!

In retrospect, perhaps that saddle comment was unkind of me even if it was a comment directed at a display bike. I am the one that always talks about setups in service of the ride.

Me, looking at a Tarmac!? Well never say never but in this case, never! Never a Spesh will I. The only thing I looked at in the Spesh booth was not to bump into anything as I was walking past it.

[C50]

I just wanted to add a bit of information on the saddle since it is getting some attention. It is the ISM Attack saddle which yes does appear different but since the patented ISM design first came out has been used to win every major triathlon including the Ironan World Championships in Hawaii and gold in the London Olympics. The Attack saddle is also the saddle Freddie Rodgriguez was riding when he won the U.S. Pro Road Race Championship in 2013 and now his entire Jelly Belly Cyling team along with Optum p/b Kelly Benefits and the Champion System-Stans No Tubes teams are riding ISM saddles as well. In fact just a few weeks ago at Redlands, Phil Gaimon was first overall and Gavin Mannion was second overall riding ISM saddles while Jelly Belly took the overall team prize and on stage 3 ISM riders swept the podium.

We are very proud of our accomplishments in triathlon and now having the road racing and the greater cycling world quickly becoming aware of the health, comfort as well as performance benefits of ISM saddles the "strangeness" of this design is lessening. I understand that it looks different because people are not familiar with it but once you learn how the bone structure of the body was the the inspiration for the design to allow the weight of the rider to be completely supported by the ischial tuberosity and more importantly the bones of the pubic rami while completely eliminating any compression of soft tissue thus no impingement of the pudendal nerve and allowing 100% blood flow in the pudendal artery you will understand the advantages. The most important thing to know is that you cannot position the ISM saddle the same way you would a traditional saddle. To keep your position exactly the same on the bike but to have optimal interaction between the body and the saddle the overall seat height must be lowered approximately 5mm and the front of the saddle will be positioned 5-7cm further back. This will not change your position but account for the fact that the bone structure is supported on the top plane of the saddle and does not sink into the saddle as well as the fact that the "nose" of the saddle has been removed.

Dave S.
ISM Saddles

[victoryfactory]

Interesting. I guess with all the "weird" saddles that have come and gone
there is always a possibility that someone will get it right.
It could be a great advancement but we'd all ignore it until the pros use it.
Thanks for posting, Dave

[pdmtong]

Originally Posted by C50

I just wanted to add a bit of information on the saddle since it is getting some attention. It is the ISM Attack saddle which yes does appear different but since the patented ISM design first came out has been used to win every major triathlon including the Ironan World Championships in Hawaii and gold in the London Olympics. The Attack saddle is also the saddle Freddie Rodgriguez was riding when he won the U.S. Pro Road Race Championship in 2013 and now his entire Jelly Belly Cyling team along with Optum p/b Kelly Benefits and the Champion System-Stans No Tubes teams are riding ISM saddles as well. In fact just a few weeks ago at Redlands, Phil Gaimon was first overall and Gavin Mannion was second overall riding ISM saddles while Jelly Belly took the overall team prize and on stage 3 ISM riders swept the podium.

We are very proud of our accomplishments in triathlon and now having the road racing and the greater cycling world quickly becoming aware of the health, comfort as well as performance benefits of ISM saddles the "strangeness" of this design is lessening. I understand that it looks different because people are not familiar with it but once you learn how the bone structure of the body was the the inspiration for the design to allow the weight of the rider to be completely supported by the ischial tuberosity and more importantly the bones of the pubic rami while completely eliminating any compression of soft tissue thus no impingement of the pudendal nerve and allowing 100% blood flow in the pudendal artery you will understand the advantages. The most important thing to know is that you cannot position the ISM saddle the same way you would a traditional saddle. To keep your position exactly the same on the bike but to have optimal interaction between the body and the saddle the overall seat height must be lowered approximately 5mm and the front of the saddle will be positioned 5-7cm further back. This will not change your position but account for the fact that the bone structure is supported on the top plane of the saddle and does not sink into the saddle as well as the fact that the "nose" of the saddle has been removed.

Dave S.
ISM Saddles

Dave - your post is very much appreciated by me. I knew the saddle was popular with the tri crowd, but until I saw Evie line up with it a year or two ago at the local CX series I didn't think much about it. No issues so far with arione cx, happy after 100/10,000. Thats probably the biggest hurdle - convincing happy folks there might be something better. I'll certainly keep this in the back of my mind as a potential option if and when the time comes.

[beeatnik]

Originally Posted by C50

I just wanted to add a bit of information on the saddle since it is getting some attention. It is the ISM Attack saddle which yes does appear different but since the patented ISM design first came out has been used to win every major triathlon including the Ironan World Championships in Hawaii and gold in the London Olympics. The Attack saddle is also the saddle Freddie Rodgriguez was riding when he won the U.S. Pro Road Race Championship in 2013 and now his entire Jelly Belly Cyling team along with Optum p/b Kelly Benefits and the Champion System-Stans No Tubes teams are riding ISM saddles as well. In fact just a few weeks ago at Redlands, Phil Gaimon was first overall and Gavin Mannion was second overall riding ISM saddles while Jelly Belly took the overall team prize and on stage 3 ISM riders swept the podium.

We are very proud of our accomplishments in triathlon and now having the road racing and the greater cycling world quickly becoming aware of the health, comfort as well as performance benefits of ISM saddles the "strangeness" of this design is lessening. I understand that it looks different because people are not familiar with it but once you learn how the bone structure of the body was the the inspiration for the design to allow the weight of the rider to be completely supported by the ischial tuberosity and more importantly the bones of the pubic rami while completely eliminating any compression of soft tissue thus no impingement of the pudendal nerve and allowing 100% blood flow in the pudendal artery you will understand the advantages. The most important thing to know is that you cannot position the ISM saddle the same way you would a traditional saddle. To keep your position exactly the same on the bike but to have optimal interaction between the body and the saddle the overall seat height must be lowered approximately 5mm and the front of the saddle will be positioned 5-7cm further back. This will not change your position but account for the fact that the bone structure is supported on the top plane of the saddle and does not sink into the saddle as well as the fact that the "nose" of the saddle has been removed.

Dave S.
ISM Saddles

Dave S., I like your style.

A quick question and an observation. Two guys on my team use the ISM Attack, one on a road bike the other on his TT bike. The road bike rider just replaced his Attack with a Specialized saddle (a wider one, can't recall the model) because he wasn't entirely comfortable on the Attack and partially due to feeling inadequate on a Tri saddle (he got tired of being mocked with negative/misinformed comments). The other cat has been having issues with saddle sores. Wonder if you have any suggestions for either. PM or here is fine. Thanks in advance.

[fuzzalow]

Interesting contribution C50. It is a good and often brave thing to attempt in the marketplace to innovate boldly and in contrast to the orthodox appearance of what saddles look like.

The idea that the ISM saddle must be pushed back by 5-7cm makes perfect sense to me as IMO almost every rider is riding too short along the top of the bike and that distorts the pelvis positioning and torso geometry on a standard saddle. 5-7cm is a great distance so I trust you've made the ISM saddle rails long enough to cope - it'll be hard to get that much setback from seattube angle and post.

All good and all done in service of the ride.

[Gordito]

I'd like to try such saddle.
When rotating the pelvis, not necesarily on the nose of the saddle I notice the huge compression on the soft tissue... i.e. perineal area and I happen to be slightly seated off-center (for example, I'll be sitting more on my right seatbone than the left one) on the saddle possibly to relieve the pressure.

I have yet to figure if this way of sitting is indeed to relieve the pressure or because my pelvis isn't symetric or if I have leg length discrepancy. Would require a visit with specialist though.

[C50]

Thanks for the replies and questions. I will try and touch on a few things but if anybody wants more specific information or something specific to their situation feel free to private message me. With regards to the idea that people are comfortable with the saddle they are using, my view is that riding in comfort whatever form works for you is good so keep doing it!! I don't want to bore anyone with the history of bike saddles but hopefully this makes sense. John Brooks patented a leather sprung saddle in 1882 for these new crazy things called bicycles. He saw a need to improve upon what was essentially a wooden board that was being used at the time and since his family was in the leather goods industry including making horse saddles he had the idea that he could improve on what was being done at the time. Now a bike seat has to do two things at the same time that are at opposite ends of the performance spectrum. It has to support the weight of the rider but also allow complete freedom of movement of the body so the rider can lean forward to reach the handlebars but also allow the legs to move through the pedal stroke. A horse saddle supports weight very well but is terrible for pedaling so Brooks carved out the saddle and modified the shape to allow the legs freedom of movement but for the weight of the rider to be supported at the same time. Brilliant step forward and 130+ years later his saddles still hold an iconic position in our world as well as the same basic shape of a wide at the back tapering to a narrow nose design being the overwhelming industry standard although we are trying to change that. I mentioned before that the bone structure of the body was the inspiration for an ISM saddle and the design was created to allow the body to work the way it was designed to work by keeping weight on bone structure while putting zero pressure on the soft tissue of the perineum. With this background I like to use the analogy of smartphones of today versus what people used to use. A long time ago you picked up a phone that was connected by phone lines to an operator who connected you and this was a huge advancement in communication. Today most of us carry a phone that not only can you talk to someone anywhere in the world without being connected plus send email, text and even video chat. Now both ways are still valid but one is more powerful and allows more information to be transported faster, easier and most would say better. Back to saddles, a traditional saddle allows you to ride a bike but the ISM message is that you can ride a bike with better health, more comfort and improve performance with a better (ISM) saddle than was available before.

ISM never started out to be a triathlon saddle company. It just so happened that the first group of athletes to instantly adopt and find success with ISM were female triathletes so we became know as a women's saddle. Then male triathletes started riding our saddles so we became a triathlon saddle. The original performance saddle, the Racing and now Racing II model) incorporated a small back piece that comes down which is a great place to put a logo for visibility in pictures but it also happens to make a great "hook" triathletes first started using to rack there bikes on transition racks thus another reason we were a triathlon saddle. The "hook" really came out of current UCI regulations. UCI regulations state that saddles must be a minimum of 240mm and a maximum of 300mm. Because the arm structure is what is actually underneath the rider there is a significant amount of saddle that sticks out behind the rider so while the supportive part of the Performance Short family like the original Racing saddle is at the front the length had to be extended to meet the UCI minimum of 240mm. With the extra space at the back it gives us room to extend the seat rails which are significantly longer on all our saddles to allow the positioning required to correctly place the saddle without changing your current bike fit. This extra space just gave us a chance to do something extra for visibility and as it turns out triathletes used it for function.

Now with our results in the road racing world and yes ISM saddles have been ridden in the famous race around France but we do not have official relationships with those athletes so we do not name names out of respect for official team sponsorship and individual contracts. In fact with a little googling you can come up with a picture from last year's Tour of Flanders of an ISM saddle on a bike before the start. Since we didn't have anything to do with that situation and it has been published on a very well known news site I don't feel bad about bringing it up. The increase in visibility in the road world also brings "legitimacy" on the Saturday morning group ride as everyone is at the coffee shop after the ride checking out bikes and asking why you are riding a "triathlon" saddle on your road bike. You can just respond by saying you want to be just like the most comfortable pros who are producing more power while maintaining optimal health.

There was a question about saddle sores and while there are many variables involved generally if someone is experiencing that with an ISM saddle it is an issue with saddle placement and most likely it has not been positioned in a manner to account for the difference in how the body interacts with the saddle compared to a traditional saddle.

I could write a lot more and I hope I haven't already but I will try and answer questions as they come up.