First day of the show.  I had a couple of observations as I walked through the hall at the Sands Convention.  Some may seem obvious to you, and I would have thought they would have been more obvious to me - but when staining in the breath of the moment - it kind of slaps you in the face.

The first one: Remember that saying "Sex Sells"?  Well, my question is, what the hell is it selling.  More sex?  It isn't selling the thing that the people in question are asked to show off.  Women walking around in short skirts, or hot pants - hired by a company to show off a product - didn't show off anything but themselves.  Like these two girls pushing around bikes.  

People could care less the brand of the bike, or what booth they could be found.  I like many types of bikes, but didn't think to ask the ladies what the specs were on the frames, or the price point on the complete bike.  Wasted opportunity for the company.

I saw these girls getting a quick education on the products they were pimping out before the show opened up.  

The sales staff showing them what a fork is, and how their adjustable seat post clamp made it easy for a customer to lower their saddle in a mere two seconds.  I am not sure if these girls even could spell the name of the bikes they were trying so hard to get guys to stop to see.

And lastly on my sex rant…  Check out these two.

This is a booth where you could have your picture taken with Bambi, and Boobie in front of a green screen, and have the image superimposed over any landscape.  I stopped and my traveling companion got his picture at the booth with the ladies.  For the life of me, I can tell you what kind of product the booth was trying to market.  A frame?  Wheels?  Tires?  No clue.  I don't even remember the name of the company.  Totally amazing, and a waste of money (the booth and the strippers they hired).

The second observation I noticed - everyone who has a little money can start a frame company.  There were no less than 10 frames that I have never heard of.  Trust me, I REALLY try to keep up on the brands out there - I MEAN REALLY.  There are the usual suspects - Specialized, Colnago, Felt.  Cervelo didn't even put a booth in this years show.  They did a 4 hour "mini" show of their own at a hotel lobby down the strip.  (Some rumors floating around that the Cervelo Test Team is sucking some huge capital, and they wanted to go small this year).  Trek doesn't even bother to show up here as they have their own dealer Trek World weeks before.  

You got money, you know how to type in "CARBON BIKE FRAME" and "CHINA" bada-bing - ay got yourself "Bob's Cycles".  Put up a booth at Interbike, and you have an instant company pushing another carbon bike frame.  And by the way, an extra little bit of cash, and "Bob's Cycles" juste added "Bob's Super Fast Deep Section Carbon Wheels".  Makes me wonder what booth Bob's Cycles will be in next year at this time?  A toll booth on the New Jersey Turnpike?

Another observation - What is the deal with Electronic Assist Bikes?  

Every corner I came upon, another black box on a crappy semi folding itsie bitsie wheeled nothing.  When did we become so lazy that we choose to do an activity because it's AN ACTIVITY, and take the activity out of the activity.  Buy a bike, ride the bike, use the pedals, and enjoy the ride.  Don't tell me how long your D cell battery powered Thunderbolt can go on a charge.

But on a positive note, it is an amazing show.  I started walking down every isle here.  I started at 9:00am, when the show started, and by 5:00pm, I still had about one third of the floor to cover.  The product lines are crazy, the people are crazy, and some of the prices are out of sight.  I have posted some more photos of the show, so please click on the photos tab at the upper left of the screen, and see what I thought was note worthily, or just plain out of the ordinary.

-Scoop