Once again, the bicycle industry has descended on Las Vegas for Interbike. The show opened today after a partially stormy outdoor demo in Bootleg Canyon (not exactly what you expect in the desert).  I haven’t had the chance to check out much coverage from the show yet, but I did notice that Bike Rumor is already posting quite a bit from Vegas, so I will be definitely be following their coverage the rest of this week.  Cyclelicious, Bike Hugger, UrbanVelo, VeloNews, MTBR.com, Singletrack Mag, and of course the Interbike Times blog are other sites that I will be looking to for coverage of the show (feel free to share any others that I left out in the comments).  I wish that I could be there again in person, but I am off to China for a business trip in a few days, so it just didn’t fit into my schedule this year.

Something that I really hate to miss this year is the first ever ARTCRANK at Interbike.  Click through the teaser photos on Flickr to see a preview of the great bike related posters that are for sale at the show.  In addition to the posters, check out the Trek District ARTCRANK Edition, which is on display at Interbike as well.  Photo via BikeRumor.com.

On the subject of bikes and art, Chrome and Threadless have a t-shirt design contest going on now. You have until October 3^rd to submit a design that is inspired by urban bike culture. One of the shirts will be sold at Threadless and the rest of the chosen designs will be available in Chrome stores and online. Check out the website for information about how to enter and to see the prizes for the top three winners.

Another design competition that you can enter is Paper to Paint by Shhh! Bikes. The contest, inspired by a similar Neil Pryde Bikes frame graphics competition, is open until October 18^th.  The winner will receive a “Miss Miles frameset painted in their design + Shhh! Prize Pack. Total value over $1200 AUD.” By the way, Shhh! Bikes was started by the designers at I Ate Your Cake, Check out some of the other bike related projects on their website as well.

You may remember Ben Wilson’s ARTIKAR, or one of his many similar projects.  His latest pedal powered creation is a mini-velo that caught my attention in a Core77 post.  The 20 inch wheeled ‘Pocket Rocket 2’ is collaboration between Wilson and  gold leaf specialist Melliard’s. Though the gold leaf accents look like lugs, they hand applied over fillet brazed joints. The bike is currently on display at the Victoria and Albert Museum’s ‘Power of Making’ exhibition along with over 100 other “exquisitely crafted objects.”

Also, on the Core77 blog is a comparison of two different wooden bike designs.  The second bike mentioned, the Greencycle-Eco by Paulus Maringka, is a flat-pack long tail bike made of pre-fab bamboo panels. It’s just a concept at this point, but an interesting idea.

I briefly mentioned the ‘Tour de Fashion’ free bike share program that is set up this week for NY Fashion Week attendees. Each of the 30 bikes from Bowery Lane Bicycles was customized by a well- know NY fashion designer. Check out a few good shots of the bikes at For the Love of Bikes.  Also, check out Cyclelicious for more.

Sticking with the fashion theme, the Hövding airbag received a lot of attention (including a brief mention here) when it first appeared last year. Now, the helmet replacement scarf (or whatever you call it) has won a top INDEX prize with a cash prize of 100,000 Euros . I have to admit…I didn’t see that coming.

Finally, I want to point you to Vélo Graphique –“the finest collection of bicycle design and photography.”  Great collection of images…and nice site too. I’ll definitely be adding it to my links.