The second day of Interbike's Dirt Demo is done and, appropriately enough, dusted. We've ridden twelve interesting new bikes, of which first impressions soon. In the meantime, here's a quick gathering of curiosities from around the Demo area...
Elvis is in the building. Or would be, if there was a building rather than a collection of EZ-Ups.
We couldn't resist taking this picture. This guy rode all day, both days - respect.
Funk is a name that hasn't been seen on a bike for a fair few years. The La Ruta titanium FS bike (named after the legendarily tough Costa Rican stage race) offers 3in of travel and a claimed 3.9lb frame weight.
This device from GGG is propelled by pushing down on the paddly bits in the manner of a gym stair-climbing machine. Harder than it looks, probably.
Kiddieback tandems have been around for ages, but this is a kiddiefront one - the adult sits (and, sensibly, steers) from the back, the little'un sits at the front. You can see if they're pedalling or not and they can see where they're going.
Lapierre had this prototype super-short travel bike on show. The unique feature, though, is that it folds up and fits inside that bag behind it. The shock is mounted to a kind of mini dropout with a quick release and the whole back end swings and folds underneath. And the bag folds up to make a backpack, too. Clever.
If you have an urgent need to transport half a dozen water cooler bottles or other similarly unwieldy cargo, Funk's Ecotruk could, possibly, be the answer.
Eddie
