Interbike Report

I just got back from Interbike and though you might be interested in a bit of news.

I had a long meeting with Akira Yoshikawa, President of Nitto. We discussed racks and their design as well as some of the Nitto products we may import directly. Nitto is interested in making versions of their racks for our bikes and may even make new racks to our designs. This is very exciting as their production capacity and quality is very high.

Two Taiwanese firms are also interested in making products for us.

I also met with Toshiyuki Ogino, President of MKS , the pedal manufacturer. He will allow us to import pedals directly from Japan and, hopefully, bypass all the delay encountered in dealing with distributors. Among the pedals we're interested in is a top-of-the line track pedal called the Custom Neuvo that is being made with an extra-wide cage for big American feet. The quality looks to be as good as any pedal ever made. We may also bring in the MM-Cube, my favorite SPD type pedal which has been difficult to get for a couple of years. MKS alloy toe clips with leather covers pre-installed are another product we hope to stock. We'll also have the MKS mini clips which are fantastic for city bikes and hard to find.

I received the prototype fenders that Honjo is making for us. They are extra long and have the holes for the fork crown and stays pre-drilled to make mounting easier. I'll mount them on a bike later this week and post photos. If everything fits perfectly we'll give Honjo the go-ahead and have them ready to sell in about 10 weeks.

Richard Schwinn, President of Waterford Cycles, was at the show with a stunning polished Reynolds 953 frame. We spoke about the possibility of Waterford making our production frames. There is some doubt about whether they have the capacity to make the number of frames we want. Their cost is also higher than we would like, but the quality of Waterford's frames is impressive.