Industry leaders talk advocacy

“I’m much more passionate about growing the market than grabbing more market share,” says SRAM founder F.K. Day in the Spokesmen audio podcast recorded at Eurobike. I recorded this interview while riding along with bike trade folks on the Leaders’ Ride organised by the European Cyclists’ Federation.

I also dangled my microphone over the handlebars of moving bikes ridden by Tony Grimaldi, CEO of Cycleurope (he was pedalling a $10,000 Bianchi Specialissima, see below); Tim Blumenthal of America’s People For Bikes, and Manfred Neun, president of the European Cyclists’ Federation – the three are pictured above, and while interviewing and photographing them I only crashed once. 

In the Messe halls I interviewed MTB pioner Joe Breeze, who talked about his Breezer line of bikes as well as the Marin Museum of Bicycling in Fairfax, California. “I thought I was going to be a starving artist all my life,” said Breeze, “but it took a turn for the interesting.”

I also talked to Assaf Biderman, an urban planning academic and co-founder and CEO of Superpedestrian, the developers of the media-friendly Copenhagen Wheel. 

If you want to save some watts listen to the interview with Alex Trimnell of Muc-Off who talks tribology, Team Sky and lubrication. Bert Cellis of Belgium explained the background to the Flanders Bike Valley.

And Dave Atkinson from Road.cc pops up to wonder why so many members of the bike trade are willing to endure Eurobike’s notorious traffic jams when, instead, they could ride bikes on bike paths to the show.

The Eurobike Special is show number 122 of the US-based Spokesmen podcast.