At A Loss for Words

My brain is mush from getting everything ready for the "big show" next week. My 'word hole' feels broken so I'll I'm going to take you through a visual journey. First I'll finish up my Eurobike post with the last of my pictures, follow that with a 'one is the loneliest' number ride, and finish with some cross sweetness.

{The show was at a Zeppelin hanger after all}

{Main entrance and great people watching spot}

{Viva bikes caught my attention}


{Look...no carbon anywhere!}

{I found Nemo hanging out at the show as well}

{Brooks had a Pegoretti}

{Definitely interested in trying the belt drive}

{Final parting words of wisdom from Europe}

This past weekend I escaped my cell phone, city, and general craziness for a couple days before I pour myself on a plane this weekend for Sin City. I decided a trip to Orcas Island was what I needed, and as always I wanted to ride a bike. However, my companion doesn't ride that often so I figured a Companion would be perfect for some short rides while there. Unfortunately, I needed a way to get it home before the weekend...and it's 18 miles to my house...

{What's wrong with this picture?}

{One is the loneliest number}

{I could've sworn she was there a minute ago...}

Before we left for the islands I had to stop and put down one of these...

Smarty Pants does it again with their Bacon-tini. It's a lot better than it looks.

Last nite was the last bike in movie nite at my house for the summer. And in a surprise move my buddy Nat showed up with a Birthday (that's what I told myself) slash Cross season present. Now tell me...if you can find a better looking vest than this...

To go along with this....

I'd like to see it! Doom has truly outdone himself with that vest...again.

Speaking of the big red R Raleigh...this weekend is StarCrossed and next week is CrossVegas. If ya'll find yourselves in the neighborhood...swing on by. The only thing I'm counting on in Vegas is being Disqualified for violation of UCI rule 12.1.040:50 which "prohibits Unauthorized Refreshments in a Cyclocross race". Wish me luck.

I really failed at posting from Eurobike (obviously) I'll try better in Vegas with no promises.

EuroTrip Day II

If the movies have taught me anything, it's that Europe is a wacky place filled with strange people and customs. These things that are different from what we do every day lead to hijinx, hilarity, and occasional nudity.



Put some bikes in that movie and you would've had EuroBike. Well...it was lacking human robots...otherwise it was just like it!

Day 2 was long. Up early. Eating my Bacon way faster than anyone should eat Bacon. Slurping my coffee way faster than any one should slurp coffee. And then we walked. Walked. And Walked some more. The venue was absolutely enormous, and quite daunting. I really didn't know how we were going to be able to see everything that we did. I won't put up everything that we saw, just a few mentionables.

Ghost was carbon crazy and had it on everything...including the shock mounts on their mountain bikes.

This guy seemed to think that a 31.6 diameter seat post just wasn't big enough. So he made his own size all together. I didn't find out what it was...but I'm thinking a 40.0 will do the trick.

When white is looked at like last years color...start looking forward to the classics of NEON. Just wait for it people...neon is going to be the newest Black!

I just couldn't stop wondering what the stroke rate is for this thing.

On the slopes you can often hear people skiing say "if it was easy, they'd call it snowboarding". It looks like the folks at Head have this is the same mentality when they made this bike.

While you're riding in the back of a truck on your 4th shuttle run of the day...you can just start reading your headtube and handlebars to keep you up to date on the news.

I don't know what the point is of the 'extras', but it looked cool.

Europeans have been a little apprehensive in embracing the 29inch bike. But the guys over at 29inches should be psyched that this trend is starting to get noticed over there.

There seems to be some similar thinking going on here. If this is the direction of the commuter, I'm pretty stoked.

When you go into a shop this year and realize that prices have gone up (due to many reasons) rest assured that they are paying WAAAAAAY more for a similar product in Europe. This bike would retail for over $1200 in Greenbacks.

I started counting the teeth on this chainring but ran out of fingers real fast.

A couple of show Fixies

I was intrigued by the brake placement and couldn't help but shake my head when I saw a BMX crank on a Fixie.

And people wonder why I don't have any kids.


Exhausted we tried to meet up with our Raleigh UK family for some drinks and Schnitzel but our GPS unit was broken (meaning we took a wrong turn and ended up in Austria...I think).

Rather, we found a lovely little place to eat. Best part...my EuroTripp'n partners remembered it was my birthday and made sure I got exactly what I wanted.

The following day would be our last day there...and we found exactly what we were looking for.

European Vacation Day 1

The only thing missing was Chevy Chase, a bell and Big Ben.

The carbon has settled. All the white bicycles have been packed up. The schnitzel stands and beer gardens have moved on to the next festival. The 2008 Eurobike is now just a blurry 28 hours of flight-time-memory, but what an amazing show it was.

In the last few years I've hit some smaller bike expos, the Taipei trade show, the Handmade Show in Portland, various InterBikes...this was my first ever Eurobike and I still can't believe what a show they put on. The Europeans take their bicycles very serious and this show exemplified it perfectly. All the grand displays, the carbon, the celebrities, the carbon, the side shows, the carbon, the food, and we found some carbon.

The flight times are such that we left at the crack of dawn on a Wednesday and arrived at the crack of dawn on a Thursday. Early enough for us to get cleaned up and head straight to the show. While we were all a little bleary eyed from the flight a quick shot of gas station espresso, some cured meats, pastries and we were ready to hit the show. Here's a couple quick pictures from the first day...

{who knew Pederson made a tandem!?}

{Rohloff hubs were on EVERYTHING!}

{I don't even know what this means...but it's provocative!}

{Built in stops and racks}

{this bike look a little overbuilt and overdesigned for a bike with a 'closet' in the middle}

{It became VERY evident that you could put too much white on a bike}

{How do Europeans stay so thin when they eat like this all the time?!}

Our first day was pretty short as we were all stumbling around trying to stay awake. We headed out for a little bit of grub and as much shut eye as we could muster...

I'll put up some more pictures from Day 2 tomorrow. The show got a little weird with over-done graphics, psycho kids, our first fixie sightings, and the European version of the 29er.

Stay tuned.