For those of us that regularly pedal for transportation, there’s nothing worse than being trapped someplace without a bike. Traditionally, the worst part of going to Interbike is being stuck at a bike show without a bike. Fortunately, some kind individuals from an assortment of companies allowed us to borrow their Dirt Demo bikes for a few days. All of the bikes we rode were quite interesting, and deserve some face time, so we’ll each be writing a bit about the bikes we rode over the next couple of weeks.  Check out Shannon’s impressions of Pashley’s Roadster Classic and Evan’s thoughts on Raleigh’s Clubman.

I was fortunate enough to draw straws for Masi’s new-for-2009 Soulville 10. Masi first introduced the Soulville, with an 8-speed Nexus Shimano rear hub, at Interbike 2007 as a 2008 model. For 2009, Masi is stepping up the game with a few more versions of this classy commuter including a women’s step through frame, called the Mixte, which is available with a 3-speed or 7-speed internal hub, as well as men’s versions in singlespeed, 3-speed, 7-speed, and 10-speed configurations. Obviously the 2008 Soulville sold well enough to justify these other options.

The Soulville 10 has a pleasing retro look and feel while also maintaining the functionality of fenders, gears, and a comfortable and efficient riding position. My 20” loner steed, which is the largest frame Masi makes, was absolutely perfect for me as a cruising city bike which is perhaps a bit unsettling in that I’m a mere 5’ 7” knuckle-dragger. A 565mm effective top tube on the big bike doesn’t leave many options for the tall folks out there, particularly when paired with a nice swept-back handlebar–with cork grips, no less. Don’t get me wrong, this bike is designed to have a nice upright seating position but if you’re taller than 5’10” make sure you’re not going to be cramped by the bars being low and in your lap.

By now, I’m sure you’re wondering how this hip machine rides. Stable is one of the first words that come to mind.  Even with and inordinately heavy backpack full of camera equipment the Soulville felt very composed. This impression was corroborated by the bike’s geometry; long wheelbase (1088mm), slack head tube angle (70º), average fork offset (45mm). These number come together to create a bike that is stable and predictable while comfortably carving corners in a composed, controlled fashion, all of which are admirable handling traits in a transportation machine. Personally, I like a nice stable, relaxed ride home from a long day at the office.

The Soulville 10 uses SRAM’s 10-speed Doulble Tap Flat Bar shifters to shift through a compact double road crankset and close-ratio road cassette.  It took a few mis-shifts to get the Double Tap groove hammered into my mountain-bike-trigger-shifter oriented brain, but sooner or later things sunk in. Shift action was very crisp and precise, which is to be expected from the SRAM Rival front and rear derailleurs.

I certainly enjoyed my time aboard the Soulville, scooting around and through the hustle and bustle of Vegas. If I was in the market for a classy, mid-level commuter bike, this bike would likely be on my short list. It’s not the cheapest commuter, nor does it deliver the most high-tech performance for its $1,100 retail price, but this bike certainly delivers steely class, comfort, and competence.

For the sake of time, I am posting this entry for long time Dirt Rag friend Evan Perrone. Evan accompanied Dirt Rag to Las Vegas for Interbike to help out at the booth, provide comic relief, and to try to get us arrested. In exchange we fed him peanuts, found him a commuter bike, and let him sleep on the diving board at the DR compound. Here’s what Evan had to say about his Raleigh Clubman. –Shannon.

Raleigh Clubman

I am sure that many people would have let out a sigh of disappointment when they learned that they would be given anything short of a candy-apple red “shark” convertible to cruise the Vegas Strip in. However, I drew a breath of excitement when Brian, at the Raleigh booth, handed me a 2009 Raleigh Clubman on the last day of dirt demo to use as a commuter while in Vegas.

The Clubman is a Reynolds 520 Double Butted chromoly road bike teeming with charm and warmth of the traditional British craftsmanship. It’s a very versatile machine forgoing standard vertical dropouts in favor of semi-horizontal, forward facing dropouts, allowing for a single-speed conversion should the desire arise. The Raleigh continues with traditional accoutrements such as a pump peg, two water bottle mounts, and a steel fork with an investment cast crown and dropouts. The paintjob is a very simple, but appealing graphite with blue undertones and subtle decals. The fabled Raleigh Phoenix badge still adorns the headtube, although the pop-riveted metal one is now a simple sticker.

The frame geometry airs on the side of traditional road, as my 57cm frame had a 57cm sloping toptube. Versatility is assured with manipulated seat and chainstays, fork crown, and long-reach brakes. This bicycle has room for a wider tire, dare I say perhaps a 32mm or even a 35mm. The Clubman comes equipped with a Shimano Tiagra nine speed drivetrain, including shifters, derailleurs, and a compact external bearing crankset. An Avenir wing handlebar offered a comfortable spin on a traditional drop bar. The Vittoria tires and the Freedom rims were a nice touch as well. Perhaps the icing on the cake would be the factory equipped Brooks Swift Saddle, replete with hand hammered copper rivets with chamfered edges. I hope most owners of the Clubman will give the Brooks its needed break-in time, as the saddle is very firm at first, but a thorough break-in will pay off with a very comfortable saddle. As a longtime Brooks user, I assure the aforementioned to you.

Upon proper set up, I took the English Gentleman for a spin. The commute from the Dirt Rag compound to the Sands Convention Center is roughly a 3-mile grid of hot, black, tarmac, which, at times is not entirely smooth. The Raleigh was a joy; fast, supple, and surprisingly stiff in the bottom bracket with all the compliance expected in a steel frame. Smooth acceleration and satisfactory breaking could be expected from the Raleigh at every request. The taller headtube gave the Raleigh a slower handling feel then many road bikes I have sampled, although given the expected usage and the ability to change the bicycle’s platform, I felt this to be a smart choice. The Raleigh’s compact gearing was an excellent decision, allowing enough go-power to hang with your roadie friends and enough low end to climb everything.  A little light duty touring would be welcomed by this platform, although true touring riders should seek out the more appropriate Sojourn model.

Looking back at this week filled with bright lights, bicycles, slot machines, and yellow shooting glasses, I am very happy to have been able to employ the use of the Clubman on the Vegas strip. It got me everywhere I needed to go  and places I wanted to go, with speed, efficiency, and comfort. Do I have any complaints about the bicycle? Perhaps only one, and it pertains to any bike I have ridden that employees the use of a quick release lever on anything but a vertical dropout. A large bump can cause the wheel to misalign itself, which happened a few times. That being said, The Raleigh Clubman is an excellent bicycle for anyone looking for a classic and classy ride for the asphalt, rail-trail, or anything in-between.  —Evan Perrone.

All Hail the King!

Bright lights, thousands of people, fake conditioned air and flashy paint. The week long show of Interbike is enough to drive any sane man crazy and I’ve been walking the thin, florescent line since the plane landed on Sunday. Fortunately the Dirt Rag crew stays in a house off the strip and we begin and end every day with a ruckus filled ride full of laughter aboard our loaned commuter bicycles. I can’t express my thanks enough to the bike companies that generously provide our transportation that gives us all some needed exercise and a break. Thank You!

This year my legs have been pumping the pedals in complete British flair. Pashley Bicycles of England, primarily owner Loring Kohrt, loaned me a King among the court, or as Pashley describes it, a whale among the minnows. The Roadster Classic in Buckingham Black has more class than the bloody Queen. This beauty is an incredibly fun, handcrafted work of two-wheeled art with a riding position that screams “What’s for tea, mate?” Or at least it had me screaming in a full sprint to catch up with a truck of kind industry folks offering a can of Tecate from the passenger window.

The Roadster is a tall, slender, and solidly built machine that rolls over street irregularities and curbs while retaining the manners of a gentleman. With 28” wheels, a lugged and brazed steel frame, Brooks saddle, and Sturmey Archer brake/3-speed hub that has plenty of pedaling room for speed before it spins out. Racing down the Vegas strip and riding away from the city lights to the Vegas Cross Race was an 22-mile treat, especially on the downhill return.

A swept back, chrome plated handlebar and upright riding position offers nothing resembling aero dynamics, but style points are plentiful. Tuck down, be foolish and just enjoy the mood. Pull up to the light with music in your head and a swagger in your pedal stroke. It’s all good. Wear what you want too, because there are wrap around fenders, a full chaincase, and coatguards to keep your long coat from becoming tangled in the spokes.

The Roadster is an attention getter, not a crumpet, so enjoy it. The old school ding-dong bell is instant humor when rung while weaving through pedestrians on the strip or to give credit to the ladies out on a stroll. At Kona’s annual party the Roadster was parked poolside, kickstand-style, and a horn player in the Mariachi band took the liberty of including the bell in the band’s song. Everyone loves it and I had a great time piloting it through Las Vegas.

Pashley offers an incredible amount of stylish bikes that are also purposefully built. Handmade in England, British-attitude, and funk without the flash… It’s an awesome feeling rolling aboard the Roadster. Thanks again to Loring and the rest of the Pashley folks for the sweet loaner.

–Shannon Mominee

This was an intense day: seeking out the good stuff, gathering information and photos, a little TV talk-show action, a little fashion-show action, party at the Kona house, riding down the Strip once again. We don’t have a lot of energy at this point (and frankly, I’m the only one still awake – hey, wazzupwiddat?!?), so we’ll keep this short and sweet.

Galleries: Check out our photos from today, and if anything caught your eye from yesterday, but you’d like to know more, look again – more explanations and comments are appearing all the time.

Blogs: Eric wrote up three test rides from his time at the Outdoor Demo: the Scott Genius, Niner JET 9 and the new Rocky Mountain Altitude. Shannon wrote up an adventure with Izip electric bikes. More blogs are still being perfected. (Hey, get up, you lazy buncha so-and-sos!)

We’re in the homestretch now, but there are yet vast stretches of show floor terrain that remain unexplored. Tequila tonight, tomorrow we ride! (Um, and yeah, walk a bunch.)

The heat of the desert might have fried my Irish skin, but my big straw hat kept my brain cool enough to hopefully come away form Outdoor demo with some semi-coherent thoughts about what I rode. I started Outdoor Demo with three full-suspension bikes, the Scott Genius, Niner JET 9 and the new Rocky Mountain Altitude. Each bike went up a fire road climb  and descended on somewhat technical trail with a good mix of buff single track, bermed and off camber corners and rocks big and small.

First up Monday morning was the Scott Genius Carbon 20. Things have come a long way when you can say lightweight and six inch travel about the same bike, particularly one packing a lot of gee-whiz technology.

The fork and rear shock both sport adjustable travel, the proprietary Equalizer shock with 150-100mm and lock out settings and the Fox Talas 15mm QR fork with 120-130-150 mm settings.

Climbing up the hill in 100mm traction mode worked well, enough suspension to keep the rear wheel from spinning in the loose stuff, but not so much that it was wallowing around when my spin got sloppy.

At the top of the hill a quick push at the remote opened up the second chamber in the rear shock to allow full travel. The shock length does not change with travel adjustment, so geometry isn’t affected my the travel setting of the rear shock. I like that.

Overall the bike descended in a controlled predictable manner. Not super slack, not nervous and twitchy, just confidence building stability. The tires seemed a little thin and not meaty for such a capable bike, but I didn’t have any problems piloting it around and over the rocks and small drops on the way down the hill. That long travel fork saved me at one point when my unfamiliarity with the terrain and confidence in the bike lead to a very front heavy landing. I expected a trip over the bars, but the Genius shook it off and held its line. Splendid way to start the day.

I walked  to the Niner both hoping to score a ride on the 6.5″ WFO, but I was told it was not available for test rides, although I did get quite a informative rundown on the big travel bike from Niner’s Chris Sugai. Pictures and more info at a later date. After eyeballing the redesigned RIP 9 I decided a ride on the JET 9 was in order and  I was promptly set up for a test ride by no other than newly crowned National Ultra Endurance Series single speed champion and Niner team rider John “Fuzzy” Myline.

The Niner made quick work of the climb up the hill, with little bob and great traction. There was a platform option on the shock, but I left it switched off and never felt the need to turn it on. I should have more to say about the linkage and suspension action while climbing, but really it works so well I didn’t really think about it, I just rode the bike up the hill.

Descending was a little weird until I dropped about 5 psi from the front tire and the unsettled feeling went away. After that, much like climbing, the bike did as I asked with no fuss. It was easy to stay centered on the bike and pilot it around, no need for dramatic weight shifts, big lean angles on excessive steering input. I could very much see myself pedaling one of these at the Wilderness 101 or Shenandoah 100 next year.

 My next stop was the Rocky Mountain booth, where I was thinking about throwing a leg over a Slayer SXC but instead ended up on the new Altitude.

This bike was completely under my radar for new 2009 products but it looks to be another great entry into the 5-5 1/2″ travel trail bike marketplace. Both carbon and aluminum frames will be available at multiple price points. Two design points stood out for me: a chainstay pivot 1cm above the rear axle and a 76º (yep seventy six degrees) seat tube angle.

The seat tube angle seemed way to steep for me to be happy with it, but I was surprised that once I was on and pedaling up the hill the over the pedals position didn’t bother me. The seat tube angle is designed to keep the rider’s weight a bit more over the front of the bike while climbing and it worked wheel keeping the front ended planed with less rider input than some other longish travel bikes I’ve ridden. The platform switch was needed to tame a bit of bob, but it still left the suspension active enough to keep the rear wheel from spinning in the loose stuff.

Pointed down the hill the Altitude took less time to adjust to the handling than any other 26″ bike I’ve ridden in quite a while. My brain now mentally defaults to 29″ wheels and usually needs a few rides to get used to a new 26″ wheeled ride, but the Rocky was right there from the start. Handling was on the quick end of stable, great for riding all day with comfort and control. On my list to look into for a test in the upcoming year, for sure.

Time to get back out on the convention floor so I’ll save the other bikes for another post.

It’s out of the sun’s intense rays and into the dark (and sometimes dank) caverns of the Sands Convention Center for the next phase of the Interbike adventure.

We walked the halls and took a lot of photos of interesting stuff, we met old friends we haven’t seen since – well, last year’s show, and we did a little Interbike TV show taping (look for that to appear here soon). But it was two experiences after business hours were over that left the biggest impression on this reporter, at least right now, at this late hour.

First, at 6pm, when they started turning the lights off on our annual wine & cheese party at our booth, we headed downstairs to the induction ceremony for the Mountain Bike Hall of Fame. Our own Philip Keyes, Access Editor, was being inducted this year. Earlier in the day he was all keyed up (sorry, blame that one on Amanda) and it was great to see him being honored. It happens to be the twentieth anniversary of NEMBA, the advocacy group he heads, and his co-advocates thought that nominating Philip would be a fitting tribute. Yes, indeed it was.

Among the other inductees was John Finley Scott, the personable Ph.D. who was cobbling together mountain bikes twenty years before anyone else. Billy Savage, the filmmaker behind the awesome movie Klunkerz, had made a short tribute film about Mr. Scott that was shown to close the ceremonies, and it was a fascinating and poignant introduction to the man (as his HOF induction comes posthumously).

Next it was time to make a quick change out of dress-up clothes and back into everyday superhero riding-around garb for the trip to the CrossVegas races on our mini-test bikes (no, they’re not all folders with 12″-16″ wheels, it’s the test that’s small). There was no way we were missing this, and it lived up to expectations – this race was one of the best sporting events I’ve ever attended (and I was there for Superbowl XL). The way the course was laid out, it looked like a snake in a bowl, winding back and forth and across and around the shallow valley that contained it. At any moment we could see at least six different stretches of the race laid out one after the other, from our perch right up against the tape all the way back to where the riders were black specks against the fluorescent-lit grass. In the middle of it all, the pit area was a seething mass of beer-fueled fans yelling for their favorites to run up the mid-course stairs faster.

As we rode up, Richard Fries was calling the final race, the Men’s Elite. I’d heard a rumor in the women’s bathroom back at the show that some guy named Lance was going to show up. Chalked it up to clever marketing (of which there was plenty in the bathrooms), but lo and behold, one of the names being called was Armstrong’s. Not near the front though. Kona tallcrosser Ryan “Treefarm” Trebon made it 2-for-2 on CrossVegas with his win, Giant’s Adam Craig was right up in there (which was kind of amazing as we didn’t hear his name much at all, he came out of nowhere), and the venerable Thomas Frishknecht of Scott-Swisspower, in his official retirement race, came in fifth. Sorry, I didn’t catch the other two names in the top five.

It was a grand spectacle though, big and exciting enough to draw in a couple walking their dogs down the street. Robert from TwoFish gave them an explanation of the race, complete with helpful motorcycle noises to indicate the riders’ efforts in motoring up the short hills, and by the end, half of the couple was yelling along with the rest of us.

This is just my version of one small part of the immense whirlwind that is Interbike. Go over to our Galleries to see lots and lots of photos, check out the Blog postings, and come back for our Interbike TV talk show videos (the show so huge it only airs three times per year).