What if they had a bike trade show and nobody came??

[oldpotatoe]

Interbike!! Going on right now..I didn't even know..nobody in the treches around here has even mentioned it..I don't know anybody locally who's goin.

In Reno too..nice little town but not 'Vegas'....

https://cyclingtips.com/tag/interbike/

[fiamme red]

Interesting concept for rollers, wider in the middle and tapering toward the ends: https://cyclingtips.com/2018/09/interbike-2018-day-one-coverage/.

I like the Masi Gran Criterium replica: https://cyclingtips.com/2017/09/interbike-2017-live-tech-coverage-day-three/.

[ptourkin]

I was there kind of by accident after the Silver State 508. It's much smaller. Saw lots of people from San Diego but people from farther out seem not to be coming. Sea Otter and Eurobike have taken away a lot of its importance. The big releases have already happened and been seen.

One upside- Northstar was a much better venue than Bootleg for the outdoor demo, but there seemed to be less demo bikes up there.

[Ken Robb]

If people do go to Reno they can easily make a side trip to Lake Tahoe which is one of the most beautiful places I have ever been.

[bicycletricycle]

Do the big manufacturers still have their own shows?

[Mark McM]

Interesting concept for rollers, wider in the middle and tapering toward the ends: https://cyclingtips.com/2018/09/interbike-2018-day-one-coverage/.

I'm not sure I buy the concept of convex rollers for keeping centered on the rollers. If convex rollers keep the bike centered better than straight rollers, then you'd expect that concave rollers would do the opposite. Several companies have been selling concave rollers for decades (like the Tacx Antares below) claiming that the concave rollers are better at keeping the bike centered. I haven't heard any complaining that the concave rollers keep the bike centered any worse than straight rollers (most claim they are better). Additionally, the majority of roads I ride on are crowned (convex), and if a crowned surface caused a bike to want to steer towards the top of the crown, then my bike would be constantly drifting toward the center of the road - but it doesn't.

https://tacx.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/t1000_antares_4_top_best_price_roller_bike_trainer _gallery.jpg

[rzthomas]

Reno doesn't have the glitz of Vegas, but it's an extraordinarily better venue for an outdoors-oriented event.

[shortwaveradio]

I work in the industry and most people I've talked to (if they're even going) are glad it's not in Vegas this year - The Strip gets stale. As mentioned, the Tahoe area is lovely for riding. QBP had Saddledrive, their dealer's event, there a few years ago and it was great.

[Mark McM]

Interbike!! Going on right now..I didn't even know..nobody in the treches around here has even mentioned it..I don't know anybody locally who's goin.

Yeah, Interbike used the be the big important show that everyone wanted to go to, but I think a number of factors have changed that. Some them are: Many of the big brands now have their own shows (even a big distributor, QBP, has it's own show), and shops can only send their people to so many shows a year; many vendors are starting to dispense with scheduled model year introductions, and new products are released through out the calendar year; with the growth of the internet, you don't have to travel to a single location to "see" new products or place orders for products; etc., etc.

[peanutgallery]

If your store is modeled after an 80s Scwinn shop...Interbike is the place to be. If you stock one of the big brands you get invited to a dealer show that's seperate. After a while you won't even get that invite...even if you sell hundreds of thousands of $ of their stuff and have a demo fleet (I'm talking to you, Specialized)

[redir]

If people do go to Reno they can easily make a side trip to Lake Tahoe which is one of the most beautiful places I have ever been.

I was gonna say the same thing. I'd take Reno over Vegas any day. But then gambling and lavishness doesn't appeal to me... the great outdoors does and there's plenty of it around Reno.

[oldpotatoe]

Do the big manufacturers still have their own shows?

Pretty much..dealer 'camps', meet and greet, demo rides, type stuff. As an example..Cannondale WAS there but Giant, Trek, Specialized were not. Some of these dealer shows get pretty big as many now make their own clothing, accessories, etc...

[foo_fighter]

Shane Miller had the same thoughts and kind of had to eat his words.

I guess it's not the crowned part but the fact that the reduction in radius adds more friction so the largest radius part of the rollers is where the bike would tend to settle.

That said, one of the major benefits of rollers is learning to balance and make small adjustments. If you remove all of the challenge of rollers, with sliding platforms, wheel bumpers, flywheels, crowned rollers, etc. You also remove some of the benefits.

I'm not sure those rollers will sell well in this age of "smart trainers." They should have at least added some resistance. Elite's rollers have smart controllable resistance and many other roller manufacturers are working on it.



I'm not sure I buy the concept of convex rollers for keeping centered on the rollers. If convex rollers keep the bike centered better than straight rollers, then you'd expect that concave rollers would do the opposite. Several companies have been selling concave rollers for decades (like the Tacx Antares below) claiming that the concave rollers are better at keeping the bike centered. I haven't heard any complaining that the concave rollers keep the bike centered any worse than straight rollers (most claim they are better). Additionally, the majority of roads I ride on are crowned (convex), and if a crowned surface caused a bike to want to steer towards the top of the crown, then my bike would be constantly drifting toward the center of the road - but it doesn't.

https://tacx.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/t1000_antares_4_top_best_price_roller_bike_trainer _gallery.jpg

[William]

What happened to cyclists today?!?!?

Why in my day we rode straight drum rollers and we liked it. We had to fight to stay on the drums bouncing off the door frame like a pinball machine! We would be spinning so fast and bouncing around like a tether ball being smacked around by two over grown mean sixth grade girls and that's the way we liked it! Then we would shoot off the rollers and the wheels would be spinning so fast they would burn holes in the shag carpet when we landed. We would have to spend the next hour and a half on our hands and knees with a bottle Elmer's glue and a pair of scissors trying to trim some shag off one innocuous spot and glue it into the burn hole and hide it so our wives or SO's didn't kick our backsides when they got home for burning holes in the new shag carpet! And you know what...WE LIKED IT!!!!:butt:









William

[Mark McM]

I guess it's not the crowned part but the fact that the reduction in radius adds more friction so the largest radius part of the rollers is where the bike would tend to settle.

I still don't buy it. What's missing from the explanation is whether the crowned roller directly acts to drive the bike to the center, or whether it causes the rider to want to steer toward the center. In the case of the former, there would have to be some differential force on the wheels to steer the bike, and as noted, bikes don't naturally drift toward the crown of a road (and concave rollers would keep driving people to the sides of the rollers). For the latter, I've ridden traditional (straight) rollers quite a bit, and have always naturally gravitated to the center of the rollers, and so do most people - no funny shaped rollers required.

I suspect this will be a design that will lauded for a short time, and then fade way and disappear after people find that they can do just as well without it.

[cgolvin]

In Reno too..nice little town but not 'Vegas'...

Apologies for veering slightly OT, but it reminds me of a favorite line:

Reno is so close to hell you can see Sparks.