Demo day today. Island Lake Recreation Area outside of Detroit this time. This one was a big'un, and the whole East side demo crew was present: my pal Troy from Cannondale (who you may remember was part of the Costa Rica trip over New Year's), Ken our demo guy, Louis from GT, the Giant guy, and the Specialized guy. The local Jamis rep had his little trailer there, and there was a Scott Sprinter van present as well.
The weather was GREAT! For about an hour. Then the sky suddenly got very dark, and the rain began. It didn't really let up, and soon the bikes started coming back covered in cack. Troy had hooked up his hose to the back of the bathroom building, so I started washing dirty bikes as they came off the trail/road. This would prove to be a good move later.
At one point, we made a group decision to stop sending bikes out. Reports from the riders were that some parts of the trail were starting to pool water. The bikes were only going to get dirtier, the trails were going to get more rutted, and the inexperienced riders were going to face more risk of injury. The rain would let up, then start again. The packing up process began, with Troy leading the way. No surprise there. It doesn't take much for Troy to decide to call it a day.
Everyone else started to catch on to the hose. I had a couple of bikes left to wash, which was good because the last time I went behind the building, there was a rack of bikes and about 5 guys waiting around to wash bikes. Score one for planning ahead!
People were still trickling in wanting to try bikes. It's never easy to tell people no. I sent a couple of road bikes around, which I had to wash again, of course. I started to dry the bikes the best I could, and put on some chain lube to prevent rusting. The worst part of days like this is putting everything in the trailer while it's wet.
The sun reappeared around 4pm. The demo was scheduled to go until 5. Troy had his massive 43 foot trailer completely packed and closed up before anyone, and probably by around 3pm. Evan, the Giant guy, was close behind. I took my time and closed the door around 4:30. I stood around and chatted with Troy and Louis for a while before heading out. I had a 3 hour drive down to my cousin's house in Columbus.
No hotels for almost a week.
1 comment:
and most importantly... looks like F to the Zee got to hang out in his favourite room?
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