We’ve spent the last few days trawling the aisles at Interbike and I think we saw most of the stuff of interest, although with 1000 exhibitors it’s easy to miss things. There was the usual mix of established manufacturers, interesting new companies and total no-hopers so here is some of the best stuff we found.

First off was the demo day in the desert of Boulder Canyon, about 30 miles from Las Vegas. It was pretty huge, probably at least a hundred companies and you could try out bikes from pretty much any of them. We made a beeline for the Commencal stand to try out the Mini DH and piled onto the open truck which serves as an uplift, sounds good but a combination of badly set-up bikes and super-slippy desert dust (there is more grip on a wet day in Wharncliffe) meant that first impressions weren’t good.

We also had a go on the Cannondale Rush and Taurine which were altogether better set up and so much more enjoyable, and the Specialized Pitch and S-Works Enduro - which were a lot of fun. Mini reviews to come soon.

Some shonky photos from a dangerous midnight liaison, not as dangerous as the night club where I got a nose bleed and 2 black eyes. For those not in the know (as I wasn’t) a bike derby is where you ride round and knock people off until someone’s left riding. Sounds OK in concept but on concrete with lots of drunk single speeders even the local yoof just watched from the sidelines while this years bike porn was discarded to make way for the latest sparkley thing next year.

We spent a couple of days watching the 4X and DH (no not the XC, how hypocritical) and seem to have less idea of what went on than most people that weren’t there - but we can tell you what line everyone took over a certain section, having spent the DH wandering around the middle of the course.
It was a day for crashes and breakages all round with lots of scuffed riders coming down, a few flats, chains off and someone had their butt hanging out of a skin suit. Steve Peat apparently managed to have his saddle snap on the gondola on the way up. A couple of people managed to crash in front of us.

1.Here’s David Vazquez Lopez making for the dirt.
2. Neil Donoghue surfing the mud.
3. Dan Atherton going for a no footer.