Where to start... Well, I guess I should start out with the positives and then make my way to the sad truth. There were three booths that I actually enjoyed and was glad to see; True North Cycles, Pinarello and Parlee. True North had a nice set up with a few of their clients bikes and a frame all tacked up and ready for action in their Anvil jig, I also must have counted 57 S&S couplers between the bikes in the booth, very sweet indeed. Moving on I stopped by the Pinarello booth and spoke with the rep for a while about which spring bike race to do; Hell of the North or Tour of Bronte. And then there was Parlee... I love those bikes and creating something anywhere close to those bikes is a definite end goal, it's just a shame that they are rep'd by a bunch of knobs. So from a bike standpoint there was some great eye candy and that's pretty much where it ends. I wasn't there to buy a bike or to get a good "deal" as I'm pretty fucking spoiled over at Via Ciclante so all the sales and hype was pretty much lost on me, leaving me in a position to see the show for what it really was, an excuse for shops to loose money and further the mentality of haggling at bike shops. There was however beer in the food court so I guess it wasn't a total loss. I don't think that I'll ever go back and pay admission again but after walking through the True North booth a total of 5 times I can see the benefit of going as a builder to gain some local exposure, but is local exposure really what we need. Given that I was there with biased eyes I was watching the type of people that were at the show and although there were a few exceptions most of the people that I saw wouldn't appreciate a custom steel bike and would move on to the cheapest and lightest piece of shit that they could find. Clearly Mikey and I need to sit down and have a beer with the True North guys to find out how things went. So, that was that. The day started out with a ride to Port Credit for a coffee run and ended with a beer at the show. I think that I enjoyed my
monday much more.
True North Couplers:
Beer:
ya, that's all i got
