I had an absolute blast at the Sea Otter Classic this year! I don’t think it’s possible to spend the week at Sea Otter and not have a good time! It’s over a week later and I still haven’t finished sifting through all of the information that I collected at the event and writing reviews of all of the products that I tested, so there is no way that I could recap the entire event in just one blog post. Instead, I’d just like to post a collection of photos of cool products that I saw along with a few of my general impressions from the event.

View of the expo. Photo Credit: brightroom, seaotterclassic.com

Interesting MTB Products

Here are a few products that I thought were just plain awesome:

Dirty Dog DH Stem

All photos with no other credit listed were taken by yours truly.

Dirty Dog is known for creating incredibly unique brake rotor designs. This new stem named the “Reaper” is designed to be unlike any other stem on the market. Due to its short length and heavy weight, this is definitely not intended for the XC crowd… but I would love to mount one of these on my DH rig!

Purely Custom Bash Guard

This bash guard by Purely Custom is a truly innovative design. They have worked long and hard to integrate the rubber edge into the metal guard, and to identify the perfect balance between tackiness and durability in the compound. The result is a bash guard that is very environmentally friendly and doesn’t leave unseemly marks on rocks and other trail obstacles. In addition, it works like a third tire to provide extra traction and stability as you go over an obstacle. Instead of hitting a rock and sliding down it, this guard sticks and allows you to pedal right through!

Fox Suspension

I always enjoy ogling the new suspension, and Fox’s new line looks as gorgeous as ever!

Wooden Bicycles

Photo Credit: Arleigh Jenkins.

Photo Credit: Arleigh Jenkins.

I found out after returning from Sea Otter that I missed one of the coolest booths at the whole show: Renovo’s wooden bicycles. Since I didn’t personally get to see these 2-wheeled wooden works of art, be sure to read Arleigh Jenkins’ post about them at BikeShopGirl.com.

More Beautiful Bikes

One of the bikes I got a chance to test ride was the Diamondback Sortie. Oh how I envy joetutt and his new frame!

I also did my first-ever legitimate mountain bike singlespeed ride… and it was on a steel-framed Spot hardtail with a belt drive! I loved the simplicity of this bike and I’ll probably be writing a more detailed post about it sometime soon…

I would love to have the chance to test out a Niner Carbon Air 9. Maybe someday…

Of course, I’ve got to give a shout-out to my bros at Airborne bikes for the stellar rigs that they are introducing this spring. I got to put in some serious time on both the Goblin 29er and the Wingman DJ bike and I can’t believe the incredible value that Airborne is providing in these two bikes! I’ve already written a short review of the Wingman, and will soon be drafting an initial impressions review of the Goblin, along with a more detailed review after I’ve been able to ride it for a few months. Be sure to check out some GoPro footage of the Wingman on the pumptrack further down this post.

Nutritionals

It seemed that around every corner, there was another booth for some type of granola bar, organic energy drink, or some other type of food. Well one thing is clear: mountain bikers like to eat, and they (generally) like to eat healthy!

I was in heaven while sampling all of these various flavors of peanut butter. I got the chance to sample everything from a raisin-laden peanut butter to dark chocolate and p.b. I’m seriously a peanut butter fanatic, and basically every single flavor that I sampled was the best I have ever had! This all-natural peanut butter perfection will cost you though: MSRP is $5-6 per bottle. ilovepeanutbutter.com

FRS was giving away delicious, natural energy drinks all weekend. Check out this blog post for more details on FRS.

In addition to the couple of products mentioned here, I saw booths for Hammer Nutrition, Luna Bar, Larabar, Nuun, a few different coffee sellers, Dannon yogurt, and of course Clif had a massive tent, as usual. More than once I passed on buying lunch and opted instead to just stroll the fair and eat samples!

MTB Racing

Traditionally, racing is what the Sea Otter Classic is renowned for, so naturally there were tons of races and practice runs going on every minute of the day.

Photo Credit.

Jerry Hazard of the Airborne Flight Crew tearing it up during his DH race run!

Manualing through the rollers during practice for the speed and style competition.

Photo Credit: Arleigh Jenkins

Photo Credit: Arleigh Jenkins

Dual Slalom race.

Riding

Rider: Tony Caruso. Photo: Greg Heil.

While there are races going on all the time during the event, many riders (such as myself) choose to ride at a more leisurely pace and explore the massive 80+ mile network of trails at Fort Ord.

The pumptrack was also a very popular feature this year. The footage below was taken on Thursday, the industry-only day, so I basically had the place all to myself. But once Saturday hit, the track was teeming with literally dozens of people all day long.

Pumptrack footage taken aboard the Airborne Wingman.

The big air bag was a big hit as well.

Conclusion

So maybe I did try to recap the entire event in just one article.  This has definitely been a mega-post, but it is just a small sampling of all the action that takes place at Sea Otter every year!

What are you doing next April?

The Sea Otter Classic is returning to Monterey, California this weekend for its 21st year in a row and it looks to be bigger and badder than ever! I was able to attend last year courtesy of Airborne Bicycles, and this year I’m excited to return.

On the outside possibility that you haven’t heard of it, Sea Otter is simply one of the biggest (if not the biggest) bike fair/expo/race/events of the year covering all disciplines of riding. Last year there were almost 60,000 people present over the course of the weekend. While this event is technically cross-discipline, Sea Otter has a very distinct mountain bike bent to it.

The scope of this event is so huge that there is no way you could ever hope to experience it all in one day. In fact, even if you are there for all 4 days of the event, it is still physically impossible to take everything in!

Mayhem at Sea Otter: There are people and bikes everywhere!

Here’s a hypothetical dilemma: let’s say you show up and buy a one day pass to Sea Otter. Which  should you choose to do: watch or participate in one of the many races, tour the 400 booths at the fair and ogle the newest gear and pick up free samples and stickers, test ride brand-new mountain bikes that might not even be on the market yet, watch one of those crazy trials riders do a show, eat delicious food, play on one of the pump tracks, or go for a ride and explore the incredible singletrack of Fort Ord?

Personally, I recommend a large dose of all of the above. The problem is, there is no way you can do all that in one single day… and it would be tough to do even over the course of the entire event!

New for This Year

Ladies Day

On Sunday the 17th Sea Otter will feature a day set aside for events and rides geared specifically toward female riders. On tap for Sunday are “women-specific clinics, [a] demo ride, panel discussion, and product displays, plus a wine and chocolate reception.”

Side note: Now, I’d think most dedicated mountain biking ladies would appreciate this nod in their direction from a male-dominated sport, and I don’t think any guys would be opposed to it, either. Think about the possible benefits for the male gender as a whole: more female-specific events will probably lead to more female mountain bikers, which for all the singles out there is definitely a good thing! Well, the National Coalition of Men disagree, and have threatened the Classic with a lawsuit claiming that these events geared toward women were in fact discriminating against men. C’mon, really? Someone didn’t have enough coffee this morning…

Sea Otter Celebrates Bike Shops

Sea Otter is making an effort to promote local bike shops and dealers by allowing them free access to all 4 days of the event, as well as “dealers-only demo rides, along with dealer clinics, seminars, and daily receptions.”

New Events

Several new events have been added to the roster this year:

Handcycling has been added to Sea Otter’s athlete competitions, in the Road Circuit races.  Also up for 2011:  Speed and Style, which legendary freeriding course designer Jeff Lenosky calls “a combination of a head-to-head race and a freestyle jump contest.”  And Camp of Champions is bringing its Big Air Bag to Sea Otter!  With top pros as coaches, mountain bikers can learn on the Big Air Bag how to make those jumps like a pro.

Downhill Course

Construction is currently underway on a brand new course for the DH race. This update will hopefully silence many of the naysayers who have spoken out against the ease of the course in past years.

Photo taken from the Sea Otter Classic Facebook page.

Coverage

Many of the standard media outlets and some other large mountain bike websites will undoubtedly cover all of the happenings at Sea Otter this year in much greater detail than I ever could. Regardless, even though I may only be portraying a small slice of the entire event, I’m going to take a crack at it! Last year, I published a number of posts during my time at Sea Otter. I had just started blogging seriously a few months before, so this year I come to the game with much more experience, and a little bit more of a plan.

Obviously there is a small chance that this might not happen, but I am currently envisioning literally dozens of short blog posts this year. I plan on covering everything I possibly can including sweet gear, bike reviews, interesting vendors, unique activities, the trails, my experiences, everything Airborne, and possibly some racing action! I just hope I don’t get food poisoning again…

If you choose to follow my blog posts, you can be sure that you’ll get a unique perspective of all the goings on at Sea Otter! I’ll be publishing a recap post here on Singletracks in the aftermath of the event, but if you want a live stream of posts and tweets during the next week, be sure to stay tuned to my personal MTB blog: GregRidesTrails.com!

Your Turn

Are you attending Sea Otter 2011? Drop me a comment… we should meet up for a ride.

Can’t make it out this year? What sort of blog posts from the event are you most interested in seeing?

Three interesting items from around the MTB world this week:

The Unnamed Epic coming to hills of Wisconsin

photo by akutny.

Chicagoans are bummed the Olympics won’t be coming in 2016, especially after all the hard work that went into the bid. Organizers proposed an MTB venue in Blue Mounds, WI which got a lot of people excited to ride so race promoters are taking advantage with the “Unnamed Epic” race. The event will start in Mineral Springs, WI and will travel 75 miles over singletrack, snowmobile trails, and roads to end at Blue Mound State Park, the highest point in Wisconsin. Total climb: more than 5,280 feet. The race will be capped at a total of about 800 riders so get your entry in now to guarantee a spot!

Register Your Mountain Bike Online – For Free

I’m not sure how new this concept is but MyBikeNumber.com is a site where you can register your bike serial numbers in case of theft. You can even print out a unique QR barcode to stick to your bike to identify it with a mobile phone scanner.

The whole idea is cool but until people start using the site to check on used bikes they’re thinking of buying there won’t be many recoveries. But we see the potential for something much bigger – perhaps like a “CarFax” for bikes. If shops start scanning bike #s everytime they work on a rig this could become mega-useful. Instead of just checking to see if a bike is hot you could also see if it’s had any major frame damage or if Lance Armstrong actually rode it in the TDF like the guy who sold it to you said. Then again, some may see this as a little too “big brother” so who knows…

Trips for Kids Collecting and Selling Used Bikes at Sea Otter

One of Trips for Kids’ main fundraising activities is operating a bike “thrift store” in San Rafael, CA and they’re bringing to concept to Sea Otter again this year. Many of the bikes and parts are donated from the bike industry so we’re not talking rusted out Huffy frames or moldy cycling shoes from the 80s. Definitely seems like a cool concept and we wish there were more places to buy reliable used mountain bikes without having to resort to Craigslist or eBay. One to start up in your area?

If you’re bummed about being shut out from Interbike every year, the folks at Western Spirit in Moab have just the thing for you: Outerbike. From September 30 through October 3 this year, regular Joes can saddle up and demo the latest mountain bikes from big manufacturers like Kona, Trek, Santa Cruz, and Yeti (just to name a few). Perhaps best of all, the event takes place in a true mountain bike mecca, Moab, UT.

Putting on a large scale consumer event like this is an ambitious project but it’s one we’d like to see succeed. Interbike has experimented with opening Outdoor Demo East to consumers and the Sea Otter Classic in California has become the de facto consumer mountain bike show over the years but Outerbike just may have some legs of its own. Who’s in for 2010?