Viva Las Vegas

Can I just say I found it quite funny that, in the first segment of the first day of Interbike videos on RIDE, the first product introduced was a fixed gear complete? Apparently Subrosa will be joining Volume and FBM in the fixed gear market. Which is all well and good, 'cause company owners gotta eat, and one would presume the margins are better on big-wheeled bikes. That said, the first product shown? Come on.



What else did we learn from the first-day videos? (Hopefully I'll get photos of some of this stuff for tomorrow—at which point I'll be happy to discuss it all further):

• Fit is making plastic pedals.
• They're also giving Dakota Roche a signature frame (which makes...six signature frames? Seven including the Lurch?)
  
• Sunday will be offering a cruiser frame and fork. (They're not alone—WTP and Subrosa already had cruisers in their respective lines, and Macneil will be offering a rather lovely complete 26" looptail cruiser straight out of 1981.)
  
• Sunday has also added a trails frame, which will be waveless and feature "normal" 5mm dropouts. If it's lighter, I guarantee people will be riding it as a street frame.
  
• Aside from the fixed gear, Subrosa will be offering a Kryptonite-esque chain lock. Oh yeah, they'll also be making some BMX bikes and stuff.
• The 2-Hip Anniversary Pork is just plain crazy (and Ron uses all-caps more than I do, damn). I'm not quite sure who's going to buy it.
• Although I guess retro is in, as Subrosa is doing that bashguard bike as well as a mag-wheeled 20", Haro is offering an update of the original '82 Freestyler, and Sunday's Second Wave colors are based on bikes from Haro's '87 line.

Lots of colors now, too. Almost too many. In fact, it reminds me of the days immediately before the dark days, when damn near every mailorder part listing was followed by the cryptic notation "R-B-Y-BK-W-O-L-GR-GY-BB." (That specific string was for Tuff Wheels in July 1987, by the way.)

Anyways, there will be much more tomorrow. I'm not sure whether I'd be way more on top of things if I was there or not. Maybe the exact opposite.

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I'm kind of hoping someone spots a worse complete than this, but at the same time I'm not sure whether I could handle it. Meet the Bully Impulse:


I mean, seriously, why even bother? Other than the tiny gearing and the small dropouts, this thing looks like a time traveller from 1998. It's even got the chainstay dimple for a 44-tooth sprocket (and what looks like a 65-degree headtube). I almost wish I had a kid so I could not buy him this.

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