Eurobike2008
So it is another year -my third actually- where we pack up and head off to the largest bike show in the world. Interbike in comparison is about half the size of what Eurobike is due to the large number of European brands that don't show in the USA. Brands such as Ghost, LaPierre, and Univega are massive over here in Germany but you'd be hard pressed to see someone on the trail in North America with that name on their bike.

The flight from Vancouver was pretty uneventful except for the Ukrainian lady who chatted my ear off about Romainian gypsies fortelling her future in broken English.
Nine hours later on my KLM flight I arrive in Amsterdam [which i like calling 'Hamsterland' cause it rhymes] to wait for my connection to Frankfurt. Honestly I expected more from a KLM flight... the food was terrible and I wasn't going to choke down that thing they called pasta; I managed to get something in the airport before the next flight out on the smaller city hopper - a Fokker which is very similar in size to a Boeing 737.

14 hours later I arrive in Frankfurt. The time change and lack of sleep is starting to kick in because its nearly impossible for me to sleep on a plane sitting in those cramped seats with little room to move or stretch out. The first symptom of jetlag is that out-of-body experience where you seem to be in another world while you run around the airport, collect your baggage, and try to find a transfer to your hotel.

North of Frankfurt is where the taxi is headed. We arrive 40 minutes later in Idstein, pronounced Idschtine, which is this cool old world town [I'll get some pictures later] to look for a hotel to stay at. I've been awake for more then 24 hours and have only the energy for a quick pint of German beer before crashing. It was only a week earlier I was in Taiwan and just managed to adjust my clock back to Vancouver time and now I'm screwing it up again.

Its tuesday morning and I've left the hotel to meet up with our German distributor Shock Therapy for the drive down to Friedrichschafen, it's just north of Vienna in Austria and the place where the Eurobike show will be taking place.
I'm greeted by some familiar faces I haven't seen for a year and a few new ones. After some short pleasantries its back to work loading the last of the gear.
Its about a 4 to 5 hour drive as I pass in and out of consciousness in the backseat of a Ford minivan whizzing down the autobahn. I'm awaken on occassion as Hans, owner of Shock Therapy and driver, lays on the horn and yells some profanity in German at some driver that's failed to adhere to the speed limit and gets in his way. The speed limit on the autobahn [freeway] is go as fast as you can, and if you can't keep up don't dare go in the fast lanes or you'll get an earfull. We're doing over 150Kph but are still passed by BMWs, Mercedes, and Volkswagen going over 170kph. Contrary to popular belief there are speed limits on the autobahn and you can only "open it up" in certain areas.

We arrive in Friedrichschafen, drop our bags off at the Burgerstuble Gasthouse, which is the name of the hotel we'll be staying at, and head to the Friedrichschafen Messe to unload and setup some of the tradeshow booth.

Its now 9pm back at the hotel. We gather around a dinner of snitzel, spetzle, and that oh so tasty German beer, before I call it a day and hit the sack.

Keith arrives tomorrow and I'm sure he'll add somethings to the blog.

Its still one more day of setup before the show starts but I plan to do some scoping of the show as setups going on.

...

I had planned on writting everyday but everywhere I stayed it was impossible to get an internet connection... I'm kinda pissed about that.

I'm writing from the Frankfurt aiport and the show is over. It was really awesome to see all my friends again and I need to come back to Europe before next year as I had way too much fun this trip.
The show itself was awesome with lots of eye candy however me and Keith were mostly slammed with questions, so we had to spend 99% of our time working the booth.
I was stoked to see the interest in all the bikes and 2 German mags left with the Wildcard and Rune which was a bit unexpected but a pleasant surprise.
Keith spent some of his time trying to court Ryan Leech over to Banshee - the Norco booth was right across from us - so that was funny to see... but I think they were mostly talking bike stuff.

I did manage to corner Keith long enough to get some vid footage of him going through the bikes, so as soon as I get home I'll get the vids up here on the blog. There's stuff he's designed into them that I didn't even know about; which he'll explain in the videos.

The party the last night was great again except I did manage to get punched in the face and kicked in the nutz by who knows who in the mosh pit, but you need to expect that if you want to get your "rock-on"

Big thanks go out to all the riders who came by to see us. To Steve... [official banshee party dude] don't ever change man!!
Special thanks to Hans, the lovely Marina, Frank, Peter, the beautiful Ellen, and Jovolin who gets to build up the Scythe and run it through its paces. The trip was tons of fun because of you guys - me and Keith can't wait to come back again.

I'm off to Montreal for another show ... look forward to seeing you if you 're coming to the BTAC show. We will be doing the dirt demo so if you want to rip on the 08 stuff come on by!!