Sea Otter Classic 2019, April 11-14, Monterey California

spinningmagnets

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This is a mountain bike festival, just an hours drive south of San Francisco, and near the ocean. Previously, I had not been too interested, but last year turned out to be surprisingly "ebike friendly", due to the major bike brands finally jumping on-board the electric bandwagon.

The Reno Interbike in 2018 highlighted that...even though several large off-road bicycle companies had been hold-outs for the "purists", they had eventually decided that they didn't want to be left out. All of these things add up to this years Sea Otter being big on ebikes.

http://www.seaotterclassic.com/

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Anyone who does go to Monterey, I highly recommend taking the time to spend two hours at the Aquarium (it was featured in "Star Trek IV" with the two whales...)

https://www.montereybayaquarium.org/

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Ron, they had the first (AFAIK) eMTB race in the US a couple of years ago, and have been in the forefront with ebikes, albeit mostly OEM which may not excite this readership much. Now that Interbike is finis' for the near future, this year should be a banner year. The best thing for my wife and me is our favorite place to ride MTB's is in San Luis Obispo a couple of hours south where we spend a day or two on the way.
 
That's new. Bummer.
I raced my own drive system a few years ago, that was fully within the rules: class 1, 20mph, 500W (350W actually).
I assume that Bosch and the bike industry doesn't like the idea of conversions. Makes sense. They are making bank on the false notion that you need to buy a whole new ebike rather than convert an old one.
 
It is a beautiful area. I was in the area for my uncles birthday in the fall. My wife and I passed on the $49 fee each, to enter the aquarium. We have a smaller aquarium near us in Mystic, CT. The next town to the south is Carmel, which is full of high end galleries and boutiques and great restaurants, is a great visit also.


I don’t like that corporate regulation crap controlling who races what. I do forget the industry relies on people buying bikes, or ebikes that require marketing.
 

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For those who plan on Flying to California then Renting a Car to drive to Sea Otter,

Note , it is at least an hour from San Jose to Monterey , during the middle of the day M-F longer during afternoon rush hour which starts at 2:30 - 3:00 in the Afternoon heading South .
and
If you fly into San Francisco it will take from 1 hour to 2.5 hours to get from S.F. just to San Jose, then add 1 + hours to Monterey from San Jose.

It would be better to Fly into San Jose.
 
Even better if you drive up from Tustin (about six hours south), stop at Los Altos and ride in Montana De Oro (my favorite MTB area), go to the Thursday night farmer's market in San Luis Obisbo (they close about six square blocks of the downtown area for it) , then go to SO on Friday (the best day since the crowds haven't descended yet).
 
Looks like SO doesn't generate much interest here, probably since all the e-activity (AFAICT) is OEM (with the exception of Hi-Power, not beloved here either, and M1 Sportechnik). Well, there's enough other bike activity to make a fun day for my wife and me. Two weeks to go.
 
What a waste of an event, to shut out DIY and/or other interesting innovations.

Where are the innovators doing interesting stuff? where's their event?
 
neptronix said:
What a waste of an event, to shut out DIY and/or other interesting innovations.

Where are the innovators doing interesting stuff? where's their event?

https://endless-sphere.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=25&t=98354
 
AFAICT there's only one DIY company displaying, the oft-hated Hi Power, and they're moving into completes. If there's that little interest from the DIY community, why have a race? Also, the way it's set up all the racers are on fairly equal bikes, so their skill is paramount as it should be IMO (of course there will be cheating, but to a more minimal degree).
 
neptronix said:
What a waste of an event, to shut out DIY and/or other interesting innovations.

Where are the innovators doing interesting stuff? where's their event?

I'm building something special for this one
 
Pretty tame SOC. HPC was present with their (IMO) overpriced products, Cake had an exceptionally nice moped for way too much money and M1 Sportechnik had 45 mph carbon jewelry, but still too expensive at $8,000 - $10,000. Nothing exciting at the OEM's, but the new Fazua modular system at <7 pounds might gain traction with road, gravel and some cross country riders.
 
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