Friday, Oct. 11, 2002 | 9:18 a.m.
Susan Snyder's column appears Fridays Sundays and Tuesdays. Reach her at [email protected] or (702) 259-4082.
In true Las Vegas fashion, a trade show that brought more than 20,000 people to town this past week started with a body in the desert.
Actually, the body of a man found about 20 miles northeast of town last Saturday didn't have anything to do with the annual Interbike expo. But the grisly discovery was made by a bicyclist who was helping officiate at the Nevada Senior Games bicycle race.
The Las Vegas Valley Bicycle Club member found the body shortly after examining the opposite side of the road and joking he hadn't "found any snakes or bodies," a race official recalled late Saturday afternoon.
Careful what you look for.
Word of his macabre find spread at Interbike's Outdoor Demo in Blue Diamond later Saturday. The event, which opens the annual four-day trade show, allowed bicycle retailers from 4,137 stores to ride new models they may want to sell.
The rest of the convention provided an international showcase for manufacturers and dealers of anything remotely connected with the bicycling industry.
It's a huge show and closed to the general public. Admission badges are harder to come by than a sensible lap-dance ordinance, and forced local cycling enthusiasts to use their creativity.
One couple applied at a temporary job agency, asking to work this show in particular. Another guy changed a woman's badge into one for "Jose." (He's German.)
The big draw, aside from all the cool free stuff, was a chance to get autographs or lay eyes on such celebrities as Greg Lemond, three-time Tour de France champion and former Nevadan, or Lance Armstrong and his U.S. Postal Service racing team, which won the Tour in July for a record fourth straight year.
Penn Jillette, of Penn & Teller, was in Blue Diamond scoping out a new bike. The Las Vegas illusionist is discarding his reclining, recumbent two-wheeler for a recumbent three-wheeler. (Technically a three-wheeler is a tricycle. Penn is about 6-foot-6. You wanna tease him for pedaling a trike, go ahead.)
"He's a big feller isn't he?" said Paul Simms, a salesman for Greenspeed, the Australian manufacturer of the trike Penn bought.
Yes, but not big enough to prevent Interbike frontman Chris Denny from asking him for ID at Blue Diamond.
"I said, 'What's your name sir?' before I realized," Denny said. "Then I asked him, 'You going to make this whole thing disappear?' "
Would have been an amazing feat, even for Penn. The Blue Diamond event attracts about 5,000 people and generates enough money to keep the town's swimming pool open all summer.
Penn settled on a tandem trike(built for two). Greenspeed loaned him one to use until his custom-built one is finished and painted.
"It's going to be the same pink as all three of my cars. Stripper pink," Jillette said.
He switched to a trike because his current two-wheeler is "just faster than death," and he feels uneasy going that fast after being off the bike due to several weeks of traveling.
"On a trike, it's a little harder to die," he said.
He plans to invite his local cycling cronies to ride with him on his tandem, including Las Vegas comedy juggler Michael Goudeau.
"I will be promiscuous in my riding partners," Penn said.
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