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Interbike 2011 Report
Went to Interbike yesterday. Some photos at
http://nordicgroup.us/interbike2011/. Forget about bikes with their low margins, assembly requirements, warranty issues, and longevity. Clearly the future of bicycling is in gels, bars, goos, and powders. These have astronomical margins for the manufacturer and excellent margins for the retailer. As long as Costco doesn't realize this and come out with Kirkland Powder, Kirkland Bars, and Kirkland Goo. At least I didn't have to buy any food from the concession stand. Large number of clueless component and frame manufacturers from Asia had booths. Besides the usual motors, batteries, and controllers for electric bicycles there were a large number of carbon fiber frames from China. Very nice and very cheap, just waiting for some Wal-Mart buyer to decide to move to carbon fiber. A great many of these companies were simply at the wrong show. Interbike's audience is bike shop owners, not bike manufacturers, and no one is interested in off-brand freewheels, brake levers, etc. This was Tern's first show http://www.ternbicycles.com/news/releases/2011/06/tern-bicycles-spreads-its-wings, and their new line of folders is impressive. Tern is run by Josh Hon, formerly of Dahon, who split off and started a new company. His father, David Hon, was over in the Dahon booth. Since I'm into lighting, I was really impressed with the dynamo hub in the Tern commuter model. I don't know who manufacturers it, but it has a mechanical release to disengage the dynamo when you don't need to generate power. Tern had good beer too, with a $5 donation to Bikes Belong you got a strange gel beer mug and unlimited refills of good beer. Magicshine, of DealExtreme fame, had a booth, and they are trying to move into bicycle shops (after almost single-handedly destroying the huge margins in LED lighting). They now have a U.S. stocking distributor. When he asked my associate and I if we'd heard of Magicshine, we said "of course, the bicycle lights from DealExtreme," and he groaned. One famous lighting company was admitting that the price points of high-end LED lighting were collapsing confiding, 'there's not much too this, an 18650 Li-Ion battery pack, a Cree LED module, and a heat-sinking enclosure.' There has got to be a shakeout coming. My associate was thrilled to meet "a Sacchi," I think he is the grandson of the founder of Silca, who was in the booth of their new U.S. rep whose employees were completely clueless about Silca products and how to operate them. How do these manufacturers choose reps? There were some new inventions from Taiwan, sure to be on bicycles in your shops very soon. How about a transmission that allows you to pedal in either direction? They explained that it allows use of different muscles. For those that don't like how helmets look, there were some that look like a normal hat. The usual European companies there with their very expensive utilitarian bikes, including Pashley and Gazelle. Moulton is still in existence and had a limited edition model with their famous 17" wheels. I rode one contraption on the test track that I thought had some potential. It was a powered trailer that pushes you. The motor and battery are in the trailer, but there is room for about two bags of groceries as well. http://www.bicycletimesmag.com/content/interbike-2011-ridekick-power-trailer. A lot of people have built their own electric trailers for transporting various loads like kayaks or canoes, but this is the first commercial product I saw. |
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Interbike 2011 Report
In article ,
SMS wrote: How do these manufacturers choose reps? EtOH capacity. -- Michael Press |
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Interbike 2011 Report
NYT has a Euro car show report as BAU despite eco trouble-as MB has MB
customers and will always have....doesn't make what....I assume the Asians are unloading stock NOW. REPS are incoherent when you got no pull there. |
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