2010 Island Lake Bike Demo Day

Today was the 2010 Island Lake Bike Demo Day out at Michigan’s Island Lake Recreation Area. At this event a number of local shops and bicycle companies showed up with all manner of bikes to try out on a ~2 mile segment of relatively flat single track. Despite the on/off rain and mid-40s weather it ended up being a rather nice day as I was finally able to try out a number of different bikes and components that I’ve been curious about.

Specifically, I tried five bikes today; all 29ers:

· Mike Flack / Trail’s Edge‘s Pivot Mach 429 (Formula brakes, SRAM twist shifters)
· Marty’s Orange Vassago Jabberwocky (32:18 29er steel single speed, White Brothers Magic Fork)
· Niner S.I.R. 9 in A&W Rootbeer Brown (32:18 aluminum fully rigid single speed, Hope hubs)
· All Carbon Fiber Cannondale Flash (Lefty fork)
· Specialized S-Works Stumpjumper Carbon HT 29er (SRAM XX 2×10 drivetrain, Specialized Phenom saddle)

Out of all of these, the only bike I didn’t care for was the Specialized S-Works. Being a super-light race bike I think it was just a bit too stiff for me. Having a not-quite-right drivetrain didn’t help matters either as shifting wasn’t great in half the cassette but I imagine that’s just something that happens on demo bikes, especially towards the end of a demo day, which is when I tried it out.

I liked all of the other bikes that I tried. Each would have needed some minor adjusting to be something that I’d be able to ride frequently, but that’s just part and parcel of any new bike. I would have liked to try some road bikes, but the wet roads, cold weather, and on/off spray kept me away from it. It also would have been nice to try out a cyclocross bike, but there were very few of them present and I just didn’t really get around to it. After all of this I’m thinking that I might like to get a 29er single speed. However, that’ll have to wait for a bit, as I just recently picked up a new bike and I can’t actually justify one. Thankfully I may be able to borrow one from time to time.

This was also a nice day for hanging out with people, both those that I regularly see and others with whom I haven’t crossed paths in a while. I also happened to meet a few new people (including the frequent-replier-to-these-posts Ali B. and some other folks from the MMBA forum, including someone from whom I bought some tires and pedals.

Anyway, here’s two more photos from today:

· Erik on the Pivot Mach 429 as we headed down the pavement to the demo single track section.
· All of the Trail’s Edge demo bikes, tent, and work stand area fit in the back of Mike’s van. He packs very well.