Tomorrow the door will open and hundreds of thousands of people will quite literally pour through the doors to see what is new in the handmade bicycle world. Richmond is a pretty strange place. Very run down at the moment, and when we asked Chris Distefano, who is originally from Richmond, what happened to here the only thing he could say is "America happened to Richmond." So, take that for what you will.
The day started out as any day at a convention might. With loads to be unpacked and a few large crates placed throughout the hall. I would say that it is a real challenge to stand out in way of display. The real reason, because it takes a lot of effort to put together a booth, to make it something different than just another booth with a few bikes in it. Which is why I added "overall booth design" to the Embro Awards. Oh, wait did I forget to tell you about this?
Hopefully no one takes this as an attack (because I know that things can get sensitive around here) because it is really just my attempt to get some content for the next issue. There are awards that are given out at the show, but after I had so much fun at the end of the year with the Embro Awards I thought that it might be a good idea to carry it over this way.So, there are two way to participate with this.
1) Show up at the show and fill out on of these cards. Do a little voting and then hand it back in to see who gets the award.
2) If you cannot be at the show. Take a look at the card above. I would send you one, but that might take a little too long. Then, as you are perusing the interwebs and all the photos that will be coming out in the next couple days, send me an email with your choices (jeremyddunn@gmail.com). That way your vote will still be counted. Fair enough?
I am going to do some little photos and profiles of the winners and I am also going to photograph some of the cards, so hopefully we get something interesting back from this. Or we might get kicked out of the show forever and ever again. But, I really hope not.
Also, if you are going to stop by the booth you can also pick up one of these little beauties. Put this guy together to highlight the racing team. On the front is a photo by Chris Milliman that is the inside front cover of Volume5. The back has a great Museeuw quote that Molly and I uncovered at the Flanders museum last year.
Alright, enough about that, actually I think we might be coming back to that a little more throughout the weekend. But I actually got a few sneak peeks for you from the show. I do not really know where to start, so I will just kind of go for it here.
There are some pretty cool things that I am psyched about. And maybe even a few things that I am confused about as well. Things like, where did those shifters come from (they are in the Igleheart Booth) and why do I not do more things with a cordless drill? But the thing that confused me the most this evening was when Nate from Signal Cycles put a spoon in his nose. That was weird.
