Interbike 2012: Broken Bones...

Alright then, lets start looking at the bikes, those are the big draw after all. To kick it off, I am going to start with Broken Bones. Why? Because Victor Riquelme knew who the hell I was. For those of you who do not know, the Wonderful Pistachios Cycling Team, with whom Mr. Riquelme races, competed on Broken Bones bikes this season. I did a few posts featuring the team, as well as one on Victor following a crash he had last year, at the old Claremont Cyclist blog.

Broken Bones uses what they call a Stressed Skin Monocoque construction (SSM) in their Fracture frames. According to their website this method provides exceptional stiffness while maintaining light weight. After a season of racing on the bikes, Victor said that his bike was an especially effective criterium racer, stiff, quick, and responsive, yet at the same time, was not lacking when the flat oval became a more vertically burdensome circuit. The bike's graphics are visually in keeping with the brand name - distinctive and unique without becoming an over-the-top distraction. The bikes that the team raced on this year were built with Hawk wheel sets, whose booth I stopped at just before making my way to broken bones; quality, lightweight stuff there. 

If you have been around the bicycle industry for a while, you know that new manufacturers come and go. There is so much involved with making a successful run of things in this business, besides putting out a quality product. Overhead and financial ills can derail you before you break out of the gate, and successful marketing is a must. I can't speak on their finances, but Broken Bones would seem to have the other two areas covered. Broken Bones is a young company, so don't go to their website and expect to see a huge selection of different models but, as just a frame, or as a complete build, I imagine they will be seen more often in the future.

So, it is the middle of Happy Hour at Interbike now, time to get off this machine and find out who is pumping out the brew today. More to come...