It’s been exactly one week since I got back from Sea Otter Classic and I am already yearning for more like a hooked gearhead back from CES.
We’ve featured a few pieces of gear in a previous post, and here is more about all the other things I saw. Some gear, but mostly photographs that wouldn’t make it into a story otherwise. I guess you can call it my visual journal.
As in year’s past I started day one in the Wolf Hill parking lot where most attendees parked their cars. Yeah sure, media parking is a lot closer but I absolutely love the vibe at Wolf Hill, like this guy attaching his race number for the 3rd annual eBike race.With the first day of Sea Otter being on a Thursday, it was more chill and the valet bike parking was pretty light. Speaking of chill, it was windy and cold and everyone just wanted to pack up, ditch happy hour and go home at 4pm.If you have never been to Laguna Seca and are planning to visit, bring comfy shoes as your main mode of transportation will be via walking. Lots of walking. It took me 15 minutes to walk from the expo to the XC-Pro race, but it was well worth it to be able to see how smooth and fast these guys are.I shot mostly road races during my limited time last year, so I decided to shoot some XC. The expo area from afar.Cool dog, cool bike, picture time it is!Still one heck of a bike after all these years. In case you were wondering what was happening at the Salsa booth…The biggest takeaway after visiting the Rodeo Labs booth: I love their little details like this embossed spork on its fork. No bike festival is complete without a trials show.Hailed from South Africa, Ryder Innovation’s Nutcracker is a mini tool that combines a valve core remover, a valve core holder, a wrench for the stem nut, and a disc brake pad spreader in one compact package. A must have for those running tubeless.With its linkage fork, Structure Cycleworks had perhaps one of the wildest looking bikes at the show. Having said that, I would love to give this 150mm front and rear enduro dualie a try. A large vent on the sole of the new fi’Zi:k Transiro Infinito R3 triathlon kicksErik Zabel, yes the Erik Zabel, second from right, hanging out with a bunch of guys from ABUS. Sure, Yeti showed off a souped-up SB130 dubbed the SB 130 Lunch Ride here, but all I really cared about was this yeti. Manual machines sort of went viral last year… so let’s bring one to Sea Otter. It sure was a popular, not to mention, fun place to just watch. Found that lost mannequin.
