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Interbike 2011 - Day One   Bookmark and Share
images by Nick Salazar   •   Sep 14, 2011   •   hits 83,459

The Signature Series is Shimano's way to pay tribute to some of its dominant athletes. Mark Cavendish has his own bar and stem, and Craig Alexander now has these brand new extensions.
 
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Day One on the Interbike floor wasn't a big day of surprises - I stuck to some of the larger booths, to see the progression of product among some of the bigger names. The niche stuff will probably come tomorrow, with a wrap-up on Friday. For now, this gallery is more about depth - expanded product lines, greater clarity of explanation on some new products, and branding updates. Stay tuned for the next two days of coverage; see you back here tomorrow.


Pro-Form had their much-advertised Tour de France trainer, which has a motorized incline that can simulate gradients going uphill and downhill.

The head unit has controls for incline and resistance, and a menu to monitor various fitness metrics. Here, you can also activate various pre-programmed rides which will simulate the ride profile of some well-known routes from the Tour de France.

Satellite shifters on the bars are a nice touch.

What's very slick about the Pro-Form trainer is its integration with Google Maps. You can tell it you want to ride the Alpe d'Huez, and not only will it automatically control the gradient while you're riding along, it will also show you precisely where on the map you would be at that point.

NeilPryde bikes had this interesting, unnamed, unfinished prototype on the floor.

The NeilPryde has a bayonet style fork with a gap for a behind-the-fork brake.

The legs of the fork are based on a truncated airfoil concept that has taken the tri world by storm.

The stem cluster is pretty interesting.

The sweeping lines of the bike are interesting, but I wonder how the bike fares in the wind tunnel.

Dash was on site, with their tri saddles in hand. The white one closer to camera looks sweet, and as usual, the construction is beautiful.

The Tri.7 Twins. Seriously, I can't get enough of Dash's awesome handiwork.

Retul is announcing a brand new fit bike, called the Move, which allows on-the-fly adjustment while the athlete is pedaling. The Retul guys put a Dash saddle on their fit bike for this demo.

Retul fitter Ivan O'Gorman showing off the Move fit bike.

One great feature of the bike is how easily it can be measured - because all the frame member sizes are known, a custom ruler easily shows you the stack and reach numbers on the bike.

Same goes for stack - the Retul Move is super easy to measure, although the bike can also be Zinned to capture its measurements digitally.

Shimano had this cutaway Alfine hub encased in lucite. Pretty snazzy.

Shimano is serious about its shoe line, which has over a dozen entries now.

The Signature Series is Shimano's way to pay tribute to some of its dominant athletes. Mark Cavendish has his own bar and stem, and Craig Alexander now has these brand new extensions.

Crowie's Signature Series extensions are much like Felt's F-Bend, or Hed's Lazy-S. It's a good shape.

The Lapierre Aerostorm is one of the wildest frames to come out recently.

I'll just say it - this is the ugliest seatpost cluster in recent memory. I'm not exactly sure what the purpose of making it so weird is.

The Lapierre Aerostorm uses a chainstay-mounted brake, much like Felt's older bikes, or the Scott Plasma 3.

The integrated stem on the Lapierre Aerostorm is another wild-looking bit, but helps hide the bar in line with the top tube.

One interesting feature on the Lapierre is its frontal dropout adjustability, to help you tuck the front wheel close to the frame.

If it's blue, you know it's a Parktool. I like this bouquet of wrenches.

Xpedo is making a big dent into the US tri market. This is their Trust 8, a LOOK-compatible pedal that's both lighter and cheaper than the big brands.

Xpedo also makes its pedals in a nylon-injected version, for a very economical pedal with lots of function.

Pearl Izumi's Tri Fly IV has a fantastic color scheme, if I do say so myself.

Cateye's booth had this crazy antique-store vibe going, which was unique on the floor.

Looks like 3T's Meta crank is finally getting close to production - and the nude carbon look is fantastic.

With so little material sticking out in the wind, perhaps the 3T Meta improves aerodynamics as well.

Safety lights aren't high on too many triathletes' shopping lists, but they look pretty sweet when they're spinning.

There were several big-name triathletes on the floor. Michellie Jones was touring the ISM booth.

BMC had this useful cutaway version of their TM01 front end to demonstrate how the thing is put together - of course, the production version won't have that giant bolt sticking out of the side.

The TM01's front brake hooks on via dual posts - this kind of mounting provides strength, eliminated centering problem, and keeps everything nice and aero.

Carbonsports had this beautiful version of their Lightweight wheel with ghost black graphics and a BMC logo. It was tough to photograph, but gorgeous to look at in person.

The TM02 features some of the aerodynamic benefits of the TM01 at a lower price point, but without the integrated front end.

Michael Raelert was at the BMC booth for a tech presentation and to give autographs.

Ben Edwards of Peloton Magazine was on the floor admiring the BMC rigs.

This stealthy Impec is right up my alley. Nude carbon, dark colors. Slam dunk.

LOOK had some pretty snazzy colors on their road framesets.

The 596 also had a couple snazzy colorways on the floor.

This slick in-line stem, is a nice addition on LOOK's mountain bikes - they should put this into the tri lineup.

The Bell Javelin is basically a stepped-down version of the Selector from sister company Giro. This version has the same visor up front, but also two large vents for better airflow.

The Javelin looks to have a similar fit to the Selector with its smaller fairing in place - but this one is fixed, no swapping out like the Giro version.

The underside is open, unlike the closed Selector, and features a traditional ratcheting closure, not the leaf-spring Rockloc TT from the Selector.

Specialized had Macca's winning ride from Kona 2010, just as it was when he raced it. You can see how simple his setup was here - one BTA bottle, two saltstick tubes, and there was another standard cage on the frame. Simple and effective.

Macca's rig was so clean, and didn't disrupt the superlative aerodynamics of the Shiv.

Macca got his own custom Zipp decals and graphics.

The 2012 Shiv TT eliminates the nosecone, flattens the handholds, and uses a centerpull brake up front. In all, still a fantastic machine.

The Shiv TT does very simply what other bikes fail to do even with very complex setups: it hides the front brake in front of the head tube, where the wind effectively doesn't see it. Even the cable is invisible, since it comes straight down the center of the head tube.

The Delta Leonardo is a really simple way to rack your bike on a wall to save some space.

These POC helmets look like they're made of foam. Or candy. But they're not.

GoPro had a significant presence at Interbike, showing off lots of product and video from it.

The GoPro's system is beautiful in its simplicity. There's one main product: the HD Hero. And you can mount it on a helmet ...

... or a handlebar ...

... or the hood of a car (this is actually the 3D version of the camera). I'm intrigued by these products, and I'm planning on doing a thorough review in the near future.

PowerBreathe makes these little devices to help train your lung strength. They claim that Chrissie Wellington, the Brownlee brothers, and Tim DeBoom have all noticed substantial gains using the product.

PowerBreathe took me through their product, showing me how strong (really, how weak) my breathing is.

Little products like these blinking bike lights are all part of the Interbike experience.





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