An Unwinding From the Booth

It’s an eye-opener working the Dirt Rag booth at Interbike and having conversations with fans of the mag, or those that just want to express their ideas. Now that we have Bicycle Times too, the array of subjects to discuss and the diversity of people stopping by is pretty mind-blowing to say the least and somewhat overwhelming. In any case it’s great to be surrounded by people that share the same love for cycling as we all do.

On Thursday, six o’clock ticked away, signaling the close of the show for the day. Bikes were retrieved from the bike check and before the dust in the convention center settled, everyone was looking for a way to relax and keep the live atmosphere going into the night.

Dirt Rag’s night began innocently enough. Some of the staff rode back to the house we rented for the week and the rest of us rolled on. A several-mile ride along the backstreets of the strip brought us to the festivities hosted by Kona Bicycles. (Thanks for the food and Dogfish Head, Kona!) Such a great time there, awesome people and a steel drum band kept the good vibe going. That is until the band took a break and offered to explain music theory of the steel drum. A bunch of bikers gathered around, learned something new and took the opportunity to give it a try.

Yep! That’s Maurice working his way around the notes.

There were so many industry activities going on across Vegas that it was nearly impossible to attend each one, so our group split into two. Those going with Maurice, Robert from Two Fish and later Eric, cycled to the Gold Sprints held at the Italian Club. The rest of us, Matt, Andy, our web guy Jeff Lockwood, and myself rode over to the Crits in the parking lot of Mandalay Bay to check out the scene. We were quickly approached by a woman riding a Buddy Bike and encouraged to go for a spin. Setting his beer down, Matt jumped on first and probably scared the life out of his passenger as he veered last-second from the path of bystanders. Unlike other tandems, the rider in the back controls the steering while the front passenger holds onto an immobile handlebar. There’s more to this bike’s story and the life behind it so check out Buddy Bike’s website.

Next on the list was the Hard Rock Café, for no other reason than we didn’t want to ride home yet. Our fulfillment guy Andrew met us there and other friends were quickly found hanging out there too. Decent music, OK-priced drinks and time to kill turned into a lot of laughing, unwinding, and just straight out sillyness as we pushed the limits and tired Andy’s patience. Followed up with a good ride home and multiple bags of snacks destroyed and I could breathe a little easier knowing we enjoyably represented the magazines and closed out the day under a wave of fun.