I promised a pedal for you. If you've been going to this show for a long enough time, you know that the best stuff is in the 10'X10' booths, where they stick the new exhibitors. Yes, it's also where the cranks can be found, and I don't mean the 175mm cranks. One person's crank idea is another person's trend of the future. You never know.
Back to this pedal. It looks like somebody just threaded an axle into the crank. There are a few ridges machined into a sleeve, and a spring on each side of the sleeve, but it's all very low profile and unless you look closely it'll appear just a pedal axle.
The cleat is round, about the size of a silver dollar. It's low profile and easy to walk on. It looks exceedingly easy to manufacture. It's got float, and even spring-loaded side-to-side movement available, that is, you can change, slightly, your Q-factor as you ride. I don't know how that would be, and until I test ride it I'll not be able to determine just how much of an impact this pedal might make on the market. But I think it' might be the "next" Speedplay, and as I kept going back day after day I recognized more industry big whigs poring over this pedal.
The same little company, which is called M2 Racer, makes a product reminiscent of the old Seat Shifter. It's very light, and fits between the seat post and the saddle. A quick-release, like that which tightens your wheel into your dropouts, allows you to loosen and move the saddle on the fly, thus changing your seat angle.
These fellows aren't triathletes, and in fact have no experience with the bike industry. The front-man explained to me that I shouldn't think ill of him, but that there really is something to the notion of sliding forward and achieving a "power position."
"Yes," I said, "I'm on board with you and that forward saddle idea of yours."
"No, I think you're putting me on. Okay, it's understandable. But really, don't knock it until you've tried it."
"In all seriousness," I countered, "This forward position might be worth checking out. I'll get back to you."
Still on the "new products" aisle I saw the Never Reach, interesting not just because of the product, but because of the owner. In fourteen years of attending this show I don't think I've ever seen a woman who's invented, marketed and exhibited a product, all by herself. Linda Litton from Sausalito is the CEO of NRZ, Inc., and hats off to her for playing the game. Her product is a newer rendition of the old Bikestream, but also similar to the front-mounted water bottles which are refillable on the fly. A bit valve—Camelbak style—gets you your water via a tube that comes up from the reservoir in back.
Tektro showed a brake lever that is a more elegant example of the Dia Compe #188 idea. It is priced almost identically to the #188, which is about $25 MSRP, and that effectively spells the demise of the #188 (once product managers and retailers figure this out), unless Dia Compe spruces up its old design.
Only in Vegas. Bike lubricant maker White Lightning had a dwarf Elvis in its booth. I caught him taking a break, and a smoke, outside the hall. I immediately thought of the Enterprise Rent-a-Car commercials, where the marketing department sits around a table brainstorming. "Let's put aromatherapy candles in all our cars!" one of them says. I tried to envision the round table meeting at White Lightning where someone says, "I've got it! Let's have a dwarf Elvis in our booth!" Of course, it's possible this is so high-camp I just don't get it.
More tomorrow.
