Memories of NAHBS 09: REO SpeedVegan

One of the more interesting aspects of NAHBS was being across from Vanilla.  Not only did the bikes show amazing attention to detail, but the subtle aspects of the booth did as well, including bike stands make from what looked like stained concrete which held a post a pedal could clip into and adorned with a small tuft of fake turf.  When you're trying to decipher a stand, you know something is going on.  It's a booth that prompted Carl Strong to comment in a seminar that he looked at their booth and thought to himself, "Man, I suck," which was hysterical.

On the not so subtle side, they had SpeedVagan brass-knuckles.  I think at least three of us separately tried to get a pair at some point, only to reassemble and realize we'd all politely been turned away.  

After chatting a few times with Molly, who worked the booth like a champ despite feeling under the weather, we found ourselves referring to the Vanilla gang as the 'SpeedVegans' and genuinely enjoying small breaks in the crowd when we could step across the aisle and chat or laugh about the fact our hat fixtures kept dropping off of our Snappy Cap grid wall.

Of course, there were the bikes.  There are plenty of sites containing photos of the gorgeous bikes Sacha had on hand, so click and drool.  There was one bike in particular that I almost made my own at the show and, frankly, if we hadn't been pretty busy ourselves, I might have been commuting on it today.  

Bike or no bike, I'd still love to have a pair of those brass knuckles.