Today was the first day of Interbike in sunny, oh so sunny, holy crud it's sunny Las Vegas. It was a bad day to be a bald man who forgot to bring a hat.

It was also a bad day for recumbents at the Outdoor Demo. We originally looked forward to seeing RANS, Hase, and J&B Importers (Sun) at the demo, but in the end, only J&B had a presence. Having spent a few hours there, I can understand why. The outdoor demo is all about mountain bikes, what with the MTB trail, the ubiquitous dirt and gravel bed, and almost no good place to actually ride a recumbent.

Still, I have to think that Hase's Kettwiesels could have done well in that environment.

But there were diamonds in the literal rough. First up was NuVinci with their variable hubs. Not much new to learn there, but they did have their cross-section cut hub on display and were showing off a DF with a NuVinci hub and a Gates carbon drive.

Next was the KidzTandem bike. I've followed this company for a while as part of my research for BikeAble. I've always been interested in them as a solution for kids unable to bike on their own due to mild balance or other slight physical issues. It was great to meet the owner, take a tandem out for a ride, and learn all about their semi-recumbent conversion kit. Unfortunately, the kit wasn't available today, so all I could do was take photos of where it mounts. KidzTandem said they'll have the conversion kit on hand tomorrow. The normal KidzTandem bike goes for $1950. The recumbent conversion adds another $1000.

Around the bend was Day 6 and owner Kelly Hutson. We stopped in mostly because we have a Day 6 electric conversion coming up and wanted to take some notes, but also because we've all really enjoyed the Day 6 we got in the shop per a customer request. We're thinking of stocking them.

We found J&B Importers among a sea of dusty DFs (to be fair, everything was dusty) with the only recumbents at the demo. They had an E-1, Tomahawk, Tour Easy LE, and USX on hand. The E-1 was sporting Sun's new recumbent comfort seat, which even they admitted might lack the ventilation necessary for the 100 degree heat of the Nevada desert.

Nothing too exciting up to that point. But then we stopped by the Rotor booth to follow up on the discontinuation of their Rotor crank triple. Yes, it's off the market. The last full production run failed to sell, so they've seen the writing on the wall and pulled the triple. But wait, what's that? The person with whom we were speaking turns out to be Phillip Lucas, a former designer for Optima responsible for the Cougar. We got out of him some opinions on Optima vs. Challenge, why he left Optima, and what the future holds for Rotor cranks and recumbents. According to Phillip, a lighter "super" Rotor crank is on the way. I managed to snag a bit of video of Phillip, though I apologize for the sounds - noisy crowds plus strong winds equals a workout for in-camera mics.

And that rounds up day 1 of Interbike for RBR! We'll be heading back out tomorrow to follow up more with Day 6. After that, it's indoors to the Sands Expo and the big show. Here's a sneak peek of things as they were being set up today.