25Seven

Interbike September 2009: A Brief Tour of Las Vegas

Here’s an eight photo tour of Interbike without one single bike image.

I’m experimenting by posting the photos from Flickr.  Each image is an individual post.  Not a very slick system but it’ll work for today.  I just wanted to get these images up so I could get back to Seven Cycles specific posts.

Anyway, for those that missed the underside—and backside—of the Interbike and Vegas experience, enjoy.

All Aboard

All Aboard
Originally uploaded by Tautological Hinterland

Stationary Transformation: All aboard the transformation train. Las Vegas: Not quite the transformation for which one might hope.

Consume

Consume
Originally uploaded by Tautological Hinterland

Consume Your Costume: This kind of imagery gets you ready for the Vegas experience. Purchase and consume; even if it’s not edible.

Trumped - By Bankruptcy

Trumped - By Bankruptcy
Originally uploaded by Tautological Hinterland

Ghost of Trump: Arriving at one of the Vegasesque icons: The bankrupted Trump International. 

I love how someone went through the trouble of removing all the letters but didn’t bother going any farther. Funny part is, the hotel is still in business—I know because that’s where I stayed.

The Stripped

The Stripped
Originally uploaded by Tautological Hinterland

Stripped: Stepping out of the hotel, this is the scene—not 50-feet off the strip. The Stalled Out Strip. So much construction in slow motion.  It all looked shut down or on permanent hold.  At least they’re working on obscuring the mountains.

This is art

This is art
Originally uploaded by Tautological Hinterland

Pink Elephants: Enjoy the artistic beauty found everywhere in Vegas. I also saw many white elephants but they weren’t paintings on walls. I think it’d be great to be an artist in Vegas. No matter how bad the ‘art’, it’ll still look good next to every other object around.

Change Mantra

Change Mantra
Originally uploaded by Tautological Hinterland

I'm trying: With all the ladies wearing “CHANGE” vests, you’d think that self reflective patrons might take that request to heart and change their lives. Oh well. I guess I misinterpreted the statement; I thought it was a suggestion but it turns out it’s a prediction—about what you’ll have left in a few hours.

Like being at the beach

Like being at the beach
Originally uploaded by Tautological Hinterland

Parking Lot Palm Trees. They look unhappy to be in Las Vegas. It’s like being at the beach—without the sand, water, or smiling faces. And, the palms stand watch over all the exhausted, broke, broken, and drunken losers; I think the palms start feeling the same way.

Double Vision

Double vision
Originally uploaded by Tautological Hinterland

Reallucinate: When it’s finally time to go home, everything looks like this: blurred, doubled, confused depth of field. It’s all a reallucination but it still feels good because at least I’m heading home.

Seat Post Fatigue Testing

Recently we’ve been doing a lot fatigue testing; many times it goes on 24-hours a day—and even on weekends.  This happens when we’re in heavy R&D product cycles.  In order to get through our backlog of testing we often run Tessie—our in-house designed fatigue testing machine—overnight.  We run through the night because, on average, it takes about a week to do one industry standard DIN test cycle—if we’re constraining the testing time to a standard work day.  That’d be about 50 tests a year.  This isn’t nearly enough.  We have slated over 200 tests for this fall and winter.  And, we use the fatigue tester for other work, too—proprietary, for now.  So 24-hours, and weekends, it is.

 

I think our fatigue testing system is pretty cool:  our testing machine, our methodology, and the intensity with which we do testing.  For example, currently we have a team of three engineers, plus me, that are working on testing projects.  Each person brings a unique and valuable critical thinking element to the work.  And each person manages separate testing projects.  This enables us to apply what we learn from each test cycle in a very effective and diverse way; we’re able to improve overall results and the process itself very quickly.