Bootlegits been a long and dusty day out here at Bootleg Canyon, 30 minutes or so outside of the sprawling city of Las Vegas. As you know this is where the Outdoor demo takes place each year, a chance for buyers, journalists and shop staff to swing their legs over next year’s hot thing. As has become something of a tradition with Mountain Cycle, we were rushed off our feet all day. While we don’t have the biggest presence here, Nor we one of the biggest brands (in terms of sales volume) there is always a queue of people waiting to try our bikes…
As expected, this year’s hottest bikes for us were the Battery and Shockwave, though we were also pleased to be getting some really positive reviews of the Fury. In many ways the Fury is the perfect bike for out here, there are some seriously challenging routes in and out of the valley. The Fury just eats those up, the only sad thing (for us as riders) was that we just didn’t get enough time to go and ride! The highlight of the day, was a guy who had been riding a Heckler for the last few years. He could not believe how much fun the Fury was, and he certainly couldn’t believe us when we told him the retail price… Eurobike…3..2..1… and its GO for the 2008 Bicycle Industry Silly Season, every year it’s the same; two of the biggest and most important trade shows take place in the same month. Carnage ensues! As normal, we finished building up the demo bikes just hours before we were due to leave… Some things never change! What is different for us this year is that we’ll all be staying in a super cool motorhome on site. Eurobike is renowned for it’s traffic jams, one year I spent almost 3 hours one morning trying to get onto the site and park the a van.
Also as normal, Mountain Cycle (being the hardy guys that we are) have our usual outdoor spot at the show. We prefer it to being stuck inside, not just because we get to watch all of the 4X and dirt jumping, I’m almost stood on the banking at turn one from where this photo was taken. Another advantage is that the beer tent is only a few moments away, and while walking there you go past colleagues at (what I personally believe) to be some of the coolest mountain bike companies out there. Other than Mountain Cycle of course! It just gives the whole area are really cool vibe, to be parked next to other brands like us, and not some weird German electric hybrid city bike company… |
