For me, the best bit about going to something like Interbike or Sea Otter isn’t the shiny products; they show up well enough in a Powerpoint Presentation, or in the post, but it’s the people behind the brands that makes Interbike so appealing. There are the engineers to quiz about products, company owners, component vendors from around the world, pro racers looking for sponsors, people between jobs touting their wares (people rarely leave the bike industry…) and a bunch of us journos floating around.
Anyway, you probably won’t have heard of anyone here, but in case you have – now you know what they look like.
Chipps
‘Stevil Knevil’ of All Hail the Black Market- artist, blogger, writer and rider.The devilishly handsome Steve Delacruz. Shoe designer for Fi’zi:k after stints with Crank Bros, FiveTen, Oakley and GT.Clay Porter (left) and Steve Peat. Both are working on an interesting new project.Eric Parsons from Revelate bags (formerly Epic Designs, but Specialized owns ‘Epic’ apparently). He lives in Alaska and, when he’s not riding across it, he makes bombproof bike-touring and epic-racing bags.Jeff Thrasher , plus sponsorThat’s Bob South from No Boundaries bike shop in Boyne City, Michigan. Pop in if you’re passing. Who knows who the other geezer is.That’ll be Voodoo John. From Voodoo. With protective glasses on.Tyler from bike blog BikeRumour. We said those Syncros bars were wide…Elayna from Fox Racing Shox. Special autograph from Joe Parkin, editor of BIKE magazine.Looks like Michael from Orange bikes. But surely he’s far too cheery for that.‘Sov’ – Eric Sovereign from Surly. He’s normally this loud.The ever be-suited Jeff and Brad from UrbanVeloPardon? What did you say?Chris Matthews from Specialized gives us his best Kung Fu squintThat’s Troy. He basically invented Fruita, Colorado as a riding destination. In the background is Jan-Willem van Schaik from Bike Europe, the trade website. And they’re all at the Knolly booth because of the free whisky tasting.That’s Paul from MRPNoel from Knolly. Now you know where the name came from.Joe Graney from Santa Cruz in rare cheerful mode.Ray from Trek. He works at Trek in a self-contained group that does nothing but build race bikes for Trek sponsored athletes. It’s not a quiet job – last year they built 770 – 200 of which were just for the Radio Shack team.Top photographer Ian Hylands with his new Canon S95 camera. Small is in.That’ll be Mike Ferrentino, columnist for Singletrack (and BIKE) but whose day job is with Santa Cruz and, occasionally, Swobo.Scott Turner from Santa Cruz. No relation to David.Andrew Kempe from Shimano and Simon Stewart, the ever-charming Irish guide for Western Spirit.Adrian Montgomery works with Scott Montgomery at Scott Bikes. No relation there either.Darcy Turenne, NORCO rider and all-round lovely girl.Seth from CamelbakTop racer Adam Craig. Still smiling as it was the day before his prototype race bike was stolen from the Fox booth.Eddy MerckxStan from Stan’s NoTubes. The man can talk…Sean from SoulcraftPhotographer Dan Barham, roasting in the desert.Andy Corson of Surly Bikes with some well-needed refreshment.8am Wednesday. Fuelled and ready for the show.Jessica, Singletrack’s roving apparel show reporter, about to interview Varun (rhymes with ‘maroon’) of Bruce Gordon Cycles.
With 23 years as Editor of Singletrack World Magazine, Chipps is the longest-running mountain bike magazine editor in the world. He started in the bike trade in 1990 and became a full time mountain bike journalist at the start of 1994. Over the last 30 years as a bike writer and photographer, he has seen mountain bike culture flourish, strengthen and diversify and bike technology go from rigid steel frames to fully suspended carbon fibre (and sometimes back to rigid steel as well.)
Hats off to Steve Delacruz – grand job on those new Fizik shoes. Nice to see someone approach things from a different angle and experiment with materials.
Steve Delacruz: old shoe designer FiveTen. Is this who we blame for the absolutely gopping old FiveTen shoes then? Because really, they have to be the ugliest shoes in the world.
I think Steve was only there when they were doing the black low and high tops. Is that OK?
And Jessica is holding an egg timer – for our egg-timer video interviews – to be revealed soon
Seth from Camelbak looks a cheery soul. Is he a serial killer on the side?
Hmmm… Chipps is Simon Calders doppleganger….
weirdos
Hmm, some mystery censoring of the first image. Wossat all about then?
bike people look nice
Nice angle on the show Chipps. Like it a lot.
andrew kempe: *still* the most debonair man in the bike industry.
Wow, when did Jeff Thrasher leave the New York Dolls?
A chance to say that I enjoyed the Darcey Turenne interview last year, fwliw!
But mostly that I’d like Jeff thrashers hair.
Seth is straight ouot of central casting for psyco weirdo of the week. Luckily I don’t owe him any money.
Presumably the Trek mechanic is their best man on the planet?
Good piece overall.
More Darcy please
Hats off to Steve Delacruz – grand job on those new Fizik shoes. Nice to see someone approach things from a different angle and experiment with materials.
Steve Delacruz: old shoe designer FiveTen. Is this who we blame for the absolutely gopping old FiveTen shoes then? Because really, they have to be the ugliest shoes in the world.
Jessica in the last pic seems to be holding a sperm sample.
Is that why they are called Spot?
Did Jeff do that thing with his shoulders?
/shudder/
I think Steve was only there when they were doing the black low and high tops. Is that OK?
And Jessica is holding an egg timer – for our egg-timer video interviews – to be revealed soon