The Angry Owner Interbike 2008 Blog
Its not that exciting…but if you are drinking, you may be entertained.
So, for the first time ever, the shop/office is closed for a full week. Yippie, this means Kim and I leave Sunday for Fabulous Las Vegas. Super Duper…..sleep in, finish packing…visit the shop one last time and one the road for 6 hrs. We arrive at the Hard Rock Hotel and its ‘Rehab Sunday’, a Cancun type frat party. REALLY wasted people are all around the hard rock. The front desk person can’t find me. It turns out that my first name in the system is Dr. Jon…not Jon. Jesus Fucking Christ. So, Kim and I have to log on to hotel.com in our car outside with drunk 20 something-ers falling down all around us…Finally we get checked in. We get hassled by the German shepherd police about bikes in the building. ‘We’re fucking staying here boss!” and with that our good man let us pass.
Monday…
Up early. One of the best things about the Hard Rock is that they have Mr. Luckys 24/7…an excellent place for a real breakfast. On to the sands. Kim and I brought our bikes (me and the Surly Travelers Check, and Kim with the On One Inbred steel). Register..and….Oh my - Troy Rarick from Over the Edge Sports spots me. Lack a day. We get signed in for the dirt demo and drive ourselves out there.
I love the dirt demo. You get to hang out with your friends I don’t bike shop. I did like the Turners with the new DW link. But, when you are the owner, you focus on the lines you carry, and then expand the sphere a little.
Here are the boys…
And it was warm. Not too bad, but Kim was excited for the Rocky Mountain booth, our man Derek and Thane…..and some beer and shade.
So after dirt demo, I got a little shitty. I’m sure the Knolly and Surly folks were cool with it. Chris King made us a little beef brisket. It was great. Then, home to bed.
Tuesday…
Dear Friends….I have always wanted to do the ‘hangover ride’. This year I did it. Got myself up super early….Mr. Luckys of course, and out to Bootleg Canyon for the 8am start…on my Surly Travelers Check. It was great. Here is a pic from lake mead.
Thanks to Surly for the Good Morning Guinness. And I met a super cool fella, Thor, who rode with me up from lake Mead. Fun. After rolling a couple of demos…back to the hotel. Kim and I actually had a lunch meeting with a business man whom I really respect….I’d tell you all more but he’s a local and I respect privacy. Then, it was off to the Hard Rock Pool…which was great.
Wednesday…the first day of the show.
Up early, Mr. Luckys, and off to the show. Since I actually work in my own shop, I attend the tech seminars and Kim attends the National Bike Dealers Assoc seminars on how to kick ass. We had a good one that day. Then, meeting with our reps, buying shit, getting sales pitches, etc. Knolly had whiskey tasting….I met Troy from Vernal (High Altitude Sports). What an awesome guy. I’d heard so much about him, but never met the cat. I’m going to Vernal before the snow flies. Then, shit like this starts up…
Well, There is a bunch of fashion show shit, a cyclocross race where Lance got spanked and such…but Kim and I headed back to the Hard Rock, had dinner at the Pink Taco (excellent Mexican food) and hit the sack. Party on Wayne.
Thursday…
Up early, Mr. Luckys, more meetings and tech seminars. More meetings with our reps. Nice time. This time we had a not so great seminar about how to become Wall Mart. I’ll pass.
There are fancy athletes at the show. There are free T Shirts and swag. I don’t give a rats ass. To be honest, I only care about what my customers would like and what would keep the shop profitable. Amen.
And vendors start breaking out the beers at about 4pm. This is cool…so I saw my former employers, Dwight and Vickie from the shop I used to work at (for 8 years) in Ann Arbor.
So very very nice to run into them at the show. Awesome people and great to hear how their children were. Fun to see Maurice from Dirt Rag as well. He is a sexy man.
Well, didn’t make it to the NWD 9 movie the night before….didn’t make it to the crit. Dinner at my favorite place in Las Vegas…the Cantina at the Tuscany….and then Tim and Enoch want to rage it at the Hard Rock. Okay..I’m game a little. We stayed out until midnight, but then I turned into a pumpkin.
Friday…
Up early, MR. Luckys and off to the best seminar of the week. Man, it was great. Good byes to Sov, Moots, Knolly, Torelli, QBP, BTI….all the players. Lots of hard work from the vendors, lots of great stuff to include in our shop and a super fun business to be in.
Oh yeah, thursday there was a post show alley cat race…
So, after a lunch in the casino, a 6 hr drive back to Park City. Took all weekend to really get back to normal. And now, this week is truly a catch up week. Show specials and such. Emails to send.
Hope you enjoyed the blog. I’ll do a Bo’s Cross race one tomorrow or Fri.
