I read the user reviews on other Klim gloves which seemed to indicate their sizing ran a little small. I normally wear a medium in just about everything, but one thing I hate is when gloves are too small, and when you curve your hands around the throttle or hand grips, they pull on the ends of your fingers. That will really make your digits go numb. Best to have a little extra room, but not too much. I ordered the size Large in the PowerXross, and they are spot on. My advice, go a size up from what you normally wear.

Top shelf materials and construction. I love just about anything made from Schoeller Keprotec material. These also feature Clarino palms and a full Gore-Tex liner, so they are supposed to be waterproof (guaranteed). We’ll see. Perhaps I have found the perfect cold weather moto glove?

photo from Motorcycle Superstore's website.

1. KLIM Rally Jacket and Pants (Size small jacket. Size 32 pants).
2. Spot II Satellite GPS Messenger and 1-year subscription. Just in case.
3. Scotts Steering Stabilizer for the BMW F800 GS.
4. Renazco Custom Saddle. Without the 15 month wait.
5. Set of Xenon(HID) + Fog lights for the BMW F800GS from Touratech.

I believe, Santa, I believe.

Chris' new rig, all shined up and ready to go.

Before leaving the dealership, we had an enlightening chat with Mike about the current state of affairs. Now I won’t get into the politics here, for fear of dropping a pin on the spectrum of left to right for myself or the others involved. Let’s just say we were marveling at the craziness of how changing media influences our so-called modern society to be so quickly polarized and ill-informed. The old “I read it on the internet so it must be true argument.” The three moto scholars dropped some big names: Thomas L. Friedman, the late Senator Daniel Patrick Moynahan. Then, Tom Paine was invoked, something like:

“When men yield up the privilege of thinking, the last shadow of liberty quits the horizon.”

Or perhaps it was this:

“Reason obeys itself; and ignorance submits to whatever is dictated to it.”

Or perhaps it was more relevant to motorcycling:

“Lead, follow, or get out of the way.”

Not the sort of discussion you expect in a motorcycle shop, but I suppose you should always be open to the possibility of surprise and delight, otherwise life can get pretty dull, pretty quick.

Mike and Chris, talking shop, politics, religion, football, just kidding.

I rode the bike back to Park City for Chris because he hasn’t put much time in on a moto for a few years and he was not so sure about having his first ride in Utah be in afternoon traffic on I-15. The bike rode like a charm, and Chris followed me all the way up the hill, until I parked in his driveway 3 houses down. I took one last parting shot of Chris sitting on the new bike, before walking back to the IAATB home office.

New Chris. New Bike. Park City's newest F800 rider has arrived.

2. The Lion of Flanders lion symbol is all played out, folks. I’ll admit, I thought it was cool. It’s totally medieval. But for the most part, none of us are Belgian, as much as we want to be associated with toughness, cobbles, and trappiste ales. Ridley can own it because they actually are a Belgian bike company. Ritte is trying really hard, and their bikes look good, but I’m not sure I can think of anything less Belgian than a bike company based in Santa Monica. There were dozens of other cases of misplaced fire breathing lions icons gratuitously peppered on various head badges, banners, logos, etc. Time to find a new coat of arms folks. This one is already taken.

3. When you bump into Eddy Merckx and he is stuffing a sandwich in his cheeks, he’s just a regular guy, just like you and me. Bullshit. He is still Eddy Merckx. And even though I didn’t have my mouth full of panini, when I awkwardly stepped in front of him as he was trying to retreat into the inner bowels of the Merckx booth, I was tongue-tied because I was in the presence of greatness.

4. Alessandro Petacchi doesn’t look as big  in real life, and yet he is still larger than life. Ale Jet looks lean and thin, more liking a climbing all-arounder than a dominant sprinter. It was cool to see him casually hanging around the Willier booth. All smiles, just hanging around.

5. Cavendish this. Cavendish that. Everything was all about Mark Cavendish. There were more Cav impressions spread throughout the show than any other cyclist, methinks. It was cool to see one of his sprinting missiles in the PRO booth. A Scott Addict with his new signature PRO stem and bars. Very impressive.

6. Long live the show special. Chrome messenger bags, Chrome shoes, Look Keo or Quartz pedals for $40 a pair. There were ample opportunities to whip out your credit card and bring a little piece of Interbike home with you.

7. A lot of people were happy to say this was the last year of Interbike in Vegas, but the sad thing is what will happen to Cross Vegas? Seriously one of the coolest cyclocross races I have seen. Will there now be a Cross Anaheim event? Tons of spectators, huge international field, UCI status. How long will that take to build up in Anaheim?

8. Can’t figure out why Edge Composites changed their name to Enve. Their new logo just looks like jibberish. Branding fail, big time.

9. Skipping lunch and just doing the buffet lines at Power Bar, Hammer, Clif Bar, etc will only get you so far.

10. Shimano DI2 is still hot. It’s now over a year old in the eyes of the public, and yet there was as much buzz this year, almost as if it were a new product. Maybe people were waiting to see how it worked after a year in the marketplace, but it seems the industry is embracing it bigtime. The winner of Cross Vegas, Francis Mourey, was riding a DI2-equipped LaPierre. Sick.

I really like bikes. It never gets old. Any one of these topics could surely be mined a little deeper as a separate post. Hopefully when I get a little time, I’ll dive a little deeper. More photos coming later.