We arrived at the smallish venue and had a look around. At a normal walking pace you could cover the show in about an hour. At "Holyshitlookatthis!" pace it was gonna take slightly longer...
Back at the luxe Clarion Motor Inn the Island Room bar was gearing up for a show by the MutherFluxers; a 4 piece band made up of original buildaz Ross Shafer (Salsa), Paul Sadoff (Rock Lobster), Brian Baylis (Masi, etc.) and David Garouette of DKG. They tore through cover after cover, nailing Hendrix and rocking the mostly bike industry crowd out of their Crocs. I got hit on by a local San Jose cougar, which was flattering. But I'd rather turn the other direction and chat with Chris King or Craig Calfee. Sorry hon.
MutherFluxers: David, Ross, Brian, Paul
Curtis Inglis of RetroTec/Inglis, gettin' his crunk on (I didn't have the heart to tell him he had a squirrel on his chin).
Team Willits
Fortunately my hotel room was about 20 paces from the bar, and then 20 paces back to the hotel restaurant the next morning. Most of the industry folk were staying there too so breakfast included dining with most of bike's finest. I fantasized that I could stand up, clink my knife on my glass and declare "Excuse me - can I have your attention....I need to build a bicycle from scratch and I need some help. You in the corner - Chris King, you're in for hubs and a headset? Cool. Yo, FSA guy - carbon cranks? Sweet. Bruce Gordon; put the bacon down and build me some custom racks. Wes Williams; some bent ti would be nice." And so on...
meanwhile back at the show...
Sasha White of Vanilla Cycles poseurs with his new SpeedVagen cyclocross bike. A forthcoming run of 30 frames is in the works to be cranked out before 'cross season '07 is upon us. Snatch one up and you can heckle the suckers waiting 4 years for their Vanilla.
Whitney Moyer of Austin, TX is building some crazy-clean frames for a youngster.
Nice detail work by Engin Cycles in Philly.
Disc-roadie by Peacock Groove.
...as you can imagine there were lots of cool bikes to stroke lovingly and want to take home to momma. Landshark, Willits, Pereira, Rock Lobster, Sachs, Sycip...the list goes on. Alas Aosty and I came back to L.A. brochure-rich and new frame poor, with 5 hours worth of "if you could only pick one bike..." conversation on the drive home. Check back from time to time to see if anything materializes.... :)
