We Need to Talk About Trade Shows
The joys of not being sold something
The last good cycling trade show I went to was the Berliner Fahrradschau in 2017. The Fahrradschau had always been waaay better than anything in the UK - it exhibited an entire spectrum of cycles, from kids bikes to cargo trikes. It had a demo track where people could try out all sorts of bikes, and it had small indie businesses exhibiting as well as the big brands. They invited LBK’s Women and Gender-variant night to not only attend but help put on some events. Disappointingly even that show had its drawbacks (podium girls, and a sexual harassment incident dim my memory of it). But by then UK events had become too same shit different show for my taste and I basically stopped going on behalf of LBK, let alone for my own pleasure.
Last year we ended up going to one trade show, Madison’s Ice Bike, which is aimed at B2B only. The enticing factor here was that THE Calvin Jones was attending on behalf of Park Tool and I got to shake hands with the man himself. Calvin is head educator at Park Tool and creates great videos (albeit ones that are mostly aimed at professional mechanics.) He was so nice! He even had a hydraulic brake demo kit that used clear hose filled with glitter to show how it flowed. It was an unconventional guest that brought me out of my show-less shell, and bike shows could learn a thing or two about this.
Sadly there was no Calvin this year, but I had questions about the new Shimano CUES system (their new family “Create Unique ExperienceS” that will be replacing Claris 8sp / Sora 9sp /Tiagra 10sp - currently only available in flat bar with drop bar on the way) with a goal of being more long-lasting. I figured that would be of great interest to LBK’s readers: bike parts that last longer? Sign me up!
But when I got there, the guys at the Shimano stand were listless and seemed bored by my questions. So much so that they kept directing me towards the Shimano website, which is just marketing gibberish. I wanted to hear it in-person, from people I could ask questions of as they bubbled up. Instead they kept directing me to the Shimano website. I felt like I was in a Kafka play about the cycling industry and gave up. (See what I did there 😅)
Over the past decade I made a consistent effort to NOT sell something at the shows we exhibited at; instead we gave free education: easy bike quizzes with prizes, free wheel lacing lessons, and free saddle fits were our usual offering at the London cycle shows. (Casquette magazine did a good job of offering content that wasn’t only race focused - remember Casquette? 😭) But the rest of the show was heavy on the MAMIL, promising everything this year would be faster, higher, stronger than last year.
In some ways I don’t blame sellers peddling their wares to keep their businesses alive. Middle aged men in Lycra are our bread & butter after all. But there comes a time when you have to reflect on your work and ask “is this all there is? Is this the best we can do with our G.R.O.S.S. (Get Rid of Slimy girlS) club?
What ever happened to advancing cycling for all?
Recently both Path Less Pedalled and Bike Shop Girl have released videos calling out the cycling industry’s lack of interest in expanding their markets and using marketing ploys to keep the G.R.O.S.S. club going. I really appreciate their take on things, and it made me feel less alone in feeling so left out of the industry.
Which brings me to the real reason I’m talking about trade shows that cater to rich white people:
The London DSEI Arms Fair
This is a death fair. End of.
Every 2 years, the Defence & Security Equipment International Fair hosts peddlers of violence, death, and destruction at the ExCEL Centre.
The wars in Ukraine, Palestine, Lebanon, Yemen, Sudan…these are all testing facilities for merchants of death. Forever wars are good for pensions - maybe check if you’re investing in death?
Our tax dollars fund warfare - there is a specific department called the UK Defence & Security Exports whose sole purpose is to sell weapons.
We have the technology and resources to end world hunger and homelessness. Instead we invest in “arms” and “defence” out of fear of the other and an insatiable desire for control. Never mind the root of many if not most problems is poverty. But god forbid we give people a safe place to live and eat. That wouldn’t be “fair”.
You know what isn’t fair? The fact that war and terror is a distraction from innovation, art, growth, music, dance, joy, inspiration. I keep thinking how blessed I am that I can even write this here newsletter, and it’s NOT because there’s an imperial army overseas. (But with everything that’s going on it’s getting harder, and I feel cracked in two most days.)
This quote often haunts me:
“I am, somehow, less interested in the weight and convolutions of Einstein’s brain than in the near certainty that people of equal talent have lived and died in cotton fields and sweatshops.”
― Stephen Jay Gould, The Panda's Thumb: More Reflections in Natural History
We have lost so many great minds to the man-made conditions of poverty, famine, war, and oppression. All in the name of white supremacy. There have been artists, physicists, inventors, dancers, mathematicians, poets, working in fields and factories, coal mines and call centres, all kept from resources that would help them bring about great innovation to mankind. All because man is not kind.
Anyway, please sign this letter to Sadiq Khan to stop the DSEI Arms Fair from returning.
Ride on,
Jenni x
p.s. Still teaching classes, and still doing saddle fits!
I leave you with a preview of a future class in the works…
Great write up.