Seems a full house trumps the Mouse — Interbike has reconsidered its decision to shift the show from Las Vegas to Anaheim for 2011.
I couldn’t care less, as I haven’t been to Sin City in four years and was not anticipating an invitation to Interbike Disneyland. The last time I was there, back in 1997, I was pretty much describing Anaheim the way I would Vegas, and BRAIN’s publisher has long since grown weary of the word “sucks” when it appears under my byline.
So, yeah — good news, guys! Come September 2011 you can look forward to another week’s worth of watered whisky, secondhand smoke and steel-toed kicks to the nuts from the Sands unions. The people have spoken. And as usual, the voice was coming from below the belt and well behind the buckle.
Mad Blog Media 
I read about this on Ms. Moon’s post earlier. Her comment was pretty accurate: “Fuck that shit. Interbike back in Vegas in September. I hate vegas.”
My sentiments exactly.
What about Cross Vegas? I thought I heard that the promoters were angling for a February race in 2012. Seems that they wanted to keep the race, change the dates to more cross friendly temps and lure the Big Boys over for some post-Worlds action. I never understood the appeal of a cross race in 90 degree temps….
How did this happen? Was there a single soul on the floor at Interbike who didn’t want a move out of Vegas, to…what the fuck difference does it make, where ever, as long as it’s not here? Is LAX a harder destination to move product/show stand/people to the show site than the Sands? From the press release: “We believe the new direction will best serve the current needs of the marketplace.” WTF? What does that mean?
I don’t purport to know who the real power brokers are in the bike industry, so you folks, tell me: who pulled the strings on this deal? Did the Sands need this show back to fill coffers for a falling gaming industry (which I can’t even hardly believe)? Did the Trek/Cannondale/Specialized consortium HAVE to have this date, and this location, to feel good about biz in 2011?
Not to sound completely uninformed, but why does Interbike have to be on or near the West Coast? If both Anaheim and Vegas suck, why not try a geographic neutral, like Kansas City, or Chicago, or Dallas? Each of those locations is kind of equidistant to the rest of the U.S. Get in. Get business done. Get out. I’ll bet it wouldn’t cost as much.
Maybe Interbike is like the World’s Fair. We don’t really need it anymore. We’re 24/7 with the intertubes and Skype and email and smartphones.
I would say that the reason it’s a no go in Anaheim is because of the date they were proposing (early August) and the fact that the Anaheim Convention Center area is pretty much overrun by it’s neighbor across the street: Walt’s Disney thing. Vegas/Sands probably bitched and moaned that the decision was taken out of their hands and they NEED it back. Much like the unions/drayage companies NEED to be paid for their work when said “work” could be loosely defined as “standing around smoking and looking lazy.”
Jeff, not sure if you remember but back when Interbike was in Anaheim in the 90s they had shows in New Jersey of all places! I know a few years ago (2000?) they did an Outerbike thing in Jersey and near Trek. Obviously those went over like Led Zeppelins. The reason it is in Vegas is simple: easy and cheap to get to, 100,000 hotel rooms at various prices, and it is relatively cheap. None of the other options (Denver, SLC, Chitown, Big D, KC, St. Louis, Lincoln, Topeka, Billings, etc.) match all three criteria. It sure beats having it in Long Beach or Reno. Although Reno is an hour and a half away, I don’t see the point. It’s like Vegas but even LESS exciting.
Perhaps “Fat Tony” in ‘Vegas made Interbike an offer it couldn’t refuse? The early August date they chose for the Analheim venue made it unlikely that I would attend but I can’t say having it in Walt Disney’s backyard was a great improvement over Lost Wages anyway. I enjoyed thinking I wouldn’t have to endure the “charms” of LV for awhile as I departed this year – but I’ll likely be back in 2011.
Many dealers I spoke with at this year’s show said early August was a terrible time for them to leave their stores to look at next year’s products. A lot of them would prefer to have the show once the season’s well and truly over but since nowdays everything’s made in Asia the importers need more time to get the shit made so the pressure’s on to move things forward.
The bike biz was dealt a huge blow when they started the entire “model year” BS (like the car biz) rather than introducing new models and parts when things were actually IMPROVED or REFINED rather than just offering new paint schemes or minor spec changes like nowadays. Two basically identical bicycles end up with huge differences in price/value simply because one is “this year’s” and the other is “last year’s”. Sadly, the “Big Bike Inc.” companies are trying to drive the independent dealer out of biz or into their arms as a dealer only for their brand — again like the car industry.
The customer is the loser, as in most cases.
My guess is that the Anaheim announcement was just a ploy to try and get a better deal in Vegas. The Aug. date just didn’t make any sense.
James: I forgot about the Jersey thing. Wasn’t that driven by a large Campagnolo distribution center? I know Campy came through Jersey from Itlee at the time, and Campy was the shit since Shimano wasn’t quite on the map. Once Shimano became King Cash, the whole Interbike thing went west, yes?
But still, I guess my point is that Interbike is pretty much a dinosaur due to modern communications/marketing/the killing off of smaller distributors and retailers (the car-ification of the industry that Larry T accurately stated).
The handmade bike show still makes since to me if the handmakers can afford to get there.
Gents, I don’t remember an Interbike Jersey — but there was an Interbike Philly for several years, back when CABDA was still with us. I never attended either, sticking strictly to the Anaheim and Vegas editions. And don’t forget the late, unlamented BIO show. These days we have the Interbike Providence thing going on, but I haven’t paid much attention and don’t know if it’s getting any traction.
Philly was OK for the east coast, I went once or twice during the time I worked at a shop in Mass while putting the smart half of our duo through grad school. One thing that can’t be replaced about Interbike is the PEOPLE…the only reason I go. I get less and less interested in the bikes and parts each year but meeting our Italian (and other) friends there is wonderful. We (so far) just don’t have the time to go around and visit Campagnolo in Vicenza, Santini in Lallio, etc. each year while we’re in Italy — it’s SO much easier for them all to come to ‘Vegas where I can see them (and their new stuff)all in one (awful) place. My complaint for this past year’s edition was times are tough for the Italian contingent — they didn’t do their wonderful catered lunch this year. In past years it was great to stand in line for pranzo whipped up the folks from Valentino’s in the Venetian, sometimes you’d be behind Eddy Merckx and in front of Felice Gimondi or Valentino Campagnolo! The only thing missing was vino — and I’d usually smuggle in a bottle or two plus some cups so guests at whatever booth I was loitering in at the time (Torelli for years, recently Albabici) could complement their pranzo with some real Italian wine. THAT I missed greatly! So get out there and buy lots of Italian stuff so they can afford to bring it back next year!!!!
In addition to the idiocy of a new model every year, the planned obsolescence of parts is also a screwing to customers. Most of us cannot afford to toss a perfectly good 9 speed Zippety-Do-Dah brand, Ultra-Blast-9 gruppo simply to put on an extra lone cog on the new, otherwise unimproved Ultra-Blast-10 gruppo. Gimme a break. And now we see that Campy has made the ultimate blunder–marketing a new carbon crank that cannot be removed because the crank extractor is not available in the States. Check out Lennard Zinn’s discussion in Velonews. Did the folks in Vincenze start smoking the same dope they are toking on Wall Street?
I’m biased of course but I think Zinn’s got some sort of hard-on for Campagnolo these days. The new Power-Torque left side crank arm needs to be yanked off the splined spindle to remove it once you unscrew the retaining bolt. At Campagnolo’s technical seminar at Interbike they showed a Cyclus-brand puller for this purpose. I’ll bet by the time these cranksets get in the hands of shops and/or consumers AND someone needs to yank one off, there will be a tool available to take care of it. Campagnolo LOVES special tools and I’ve got all the chain tools to prove it! And unlike their competition, the guys in Vicenza still make replacement parts available so your stuff isn’t made obsolete — we’ve got three bikes currently running with ancient 8-speed Ergopower components on ’em. Cogsets are still available and I had Campagnolo NA in SoCal rebuild two old 9-speed Ergopower lever sets for me last year — they and the rest of the now ancient 9-speed stuff continues to work on a few of our personal bikes as well as our original rental fleet in Italy, put into service in 2005. 9-speed was well on its way out by then but I knew Campagnolo would continue to make spare parts as long as there is demand. That’s been their policy pretty much since Tullio was driving around Italy hawking his stuff from a truck.
FTC disclaimer–Campagnolo is an official supplier to CycleItalia.
I’m not totally down on Campy, Larry. Their durability and feel is legendary.
My Six-Thirteen is still running on a 1996 left (front) brifter that is better than new, and the right side brifter, bought in 2003 is getting long in the tooth but still functions fine albeit the upshift lever is getting a little loose. I recently picked up a set of the “new” carbon fiber Chorus-10 shifters/brake levers from Excel and plan to install them and overhaul the old aluminum ones over the winter as a spare set, or to put on the old Cannonball when my ancient Dura-Ace parts go south for the winter.
I’ll be attending the Park Tool Tech Summit in Chicago in January and will ask Campagnolo’s tech wizard Dan Large about the puller situation in-person at that time if it’s not been resolved by then. In addition to the stuff from Vicenza I’ll get some much needed hands-on with Shimano and SRAM stuff too as well as Mavic, FSA and Park Tool.
Honestly when the Otter is showcasing “next year’s models” in April, what is the point of a shindig in Vegas or Anaheim?
When I worked in a shop, we got more traction from sales reps than the actual show. And by the time I made it to Vegas it was all “old news” anyway. I know August is a bad month, but so is September if all the “new sheit” has been filtering in for five months! It is soon going to be a 12 month season whereby items are released in the Southern Hemisphere in the Spring (i.e. right now) and then updates and ‘new releases’ will be released at the Otter (aka the Northern Hemisphere spring).
Mark my words…I can see it now.