First off I want to give a big shout out to my friends and sponsors at State Bike Co. for hooking me up with the trip. Seriously, thanks guys, I had a blast and I’m extremely appreciative of everything you did for me.

Let it be known that when you’re sitting in a vehicle for 5 hours, a Patton Oswald CD is a fan-freakin-tastic item to have on hand. That chubby white boy funny. When we got to the strip we didn’t even bother checking in to our hotel first, we just went straight to the convention. I think the first booth we hit up was Leader and I ended up spending a lot of my convention time over there. It was a real treat getting to see San Diego’s finest PHX transplants Terrence and Nick throughout the trip. Fun fact about Terrance: he’s a b-boy at heart. In between the clubs breakdance battles on Thursday night his drunk ass got in the middle of the circle and fucking broke it down. White boy’s got a 6-step for days. I’m also glad to see that Nick’s stoked about his job and sponsorship with Leader. To quote him “Dude, I’m from the desert and now all of a sudden I can just ride to the beach? What”?! 

The first couple of products that come to mind from the expo were from Ritte and Look. Ritte’s track and TT bikes were on fucking point and Look, well, it’s Look. Give me one of your TT bikes! The Chrome booth block party was insane. Buzzwords: DJ, custom bags made on spot, 24k gold accessories, $50 Chrome shoes?, happy hour beers. I’ve also gotta give big props to the guys at Fyxation who hooked me up with some free tires after mine resulted in 4 (yes, FOUR) popped tubes before I even rode on them. Ya’ll are life savers!As far as soft-good design goes, I think Mission Workshop easily had the dopest set up going on. Real grass laid down and beer in the hidden oil drum? You classy mu’fuggas. The bicycle manufacturer design award most definitely goes to Livery Design Gruppe. They have got such a great grasp on balancing form and functionality with everything they produce. Seriously, click that link and b your l’s all over your keyboards. Leader also had all of their new accessories for show as well as a carbon road frameset and a polo frameset. Word? You go boys. And of course the Cinelli booth was nothing but eye candy. I’m just gonna refer you to Prolly’s wrap-up if you want to get your Cinelli bike porn on.

I know that I tend to post a lot of beautiful bike pictures on here but I honestly had a better time meeting people and networking instead of ogling the goods. Seriously, I was borderline concerned with how many people I recognized just from following fixed gear blogs on a regular basis. The great part about it was that everyone I met was completely chill, we all just wanted to bullshit about bikes, party, and have a great time. I got a chance to hang out and ride with Hern for a bit and please believe that he’s a very kind, down to earth dude. It doesn’t matter where you’re from, all fixed gear riders have the same issues with riding in the streets, races, and that dismissive roadie mentality. 

The most random/drunk moment probably happened on the last night when two of the State guys and I were walking to our elevator at 6am. This guy walks past us and I think “He looks like Corey Martinez” (keep in mind I kept yelling the celebrity names at whatever stranger I thought they looked like) so I just said “Yo, Corey”. Homie turns around and HOLY SHIT IT IS COREY MARTINEZ. Now I don’t follow bmx culture that closely but back in my bunny hopping days I bought Props 12 which features Corey a group of riders who happend to ride in AZ for a good portion of the movie. I don’t know, I guess I kinda geeked out for a second because I was drunk and I idolized those guys back in middle school. The guy was super nice, he chatted for a second, introduced to himself to everyone, and didn’t even get weirded out when I admitted to having a middle school crush on him. 8th grade Bryan has such an envy boner right now.

Last but not least I’ve gotta give props to MASH and Hern for putting on some great races. By our second day there I was actually feeling good enough to race (fuck you, strep throat!). Sadly I knew that I my body wasn’t in the best shape and that I could only do one race so I did the Mash drag race. Basically we started at the “Welcome to Vegas” sign and they had us race 8 1/2 miles up the strip straight to the Pawn Stars location and back. Remember, this was an unsanctioned street race so there was no such thing as stopping for us, every red light was blown through. Literally, I had to stop a good six lanes of traffic by myself at one point so that the group behind me couldn’t catch up. FUNNEEREST RACE EVER. After that I helped volunteered for Hern’s King of Vegas alleycat by signing manifest back at the “Vegas” sign. Needless to say I got a lot of strange looks from drunk tourist as I stood there in bibs and a kit. No drunk Australian women, I am not a marathon runner.

The theme for today “rest” (hopefully) and I couldn’t be any happier about it. Vegas, it was blast but you’ve got a 48 hour expiration date before I hate you.

P.S. Portland Design Work’s “Ciculus” minidrome was a blast and a half to ride. INTERBIKE BITCHES!.