Inside the raceway it was evident that there was a lot of activity going on at the Otter. Cars, bikes, people, and vendor booths were everywhere! The event was a lot bigger than I had anticipated, and almost overwhelming at first.

Once I got setup at camp it was time to get registered. Since I'm planning on possibly racing a lot this year I went ahead and sprung for the NORBA license. Luckily the line was very short and the whole process took nearly no time. ...I was really itching to get around to all the vendor booths!

The first interesting booth for me was Ibis'. Since I've got both a Ti Mojo and a Bow-Ti Ibis has a special place in my heart. They're always innovating... and have craftsmanship as fine as any in the world of titanium bikes IMHO.

These first several pictures are of their new Single Malt singlespeed bike. It's an interesting design in that they introduced the use of an eccentric bottom bracket in order to solve the dilema of tensioning the chain on singlespeeds.

Eccentricity... Yes, with this design horizontal dropouts are not needed.

...Which allows the use of disc brakes.

The latest brainchild from Ibis is this little diddy, known as the Ripley. It's an aluminum softtail frame which seems to defy our normal understanding of what can and can't be done with aluminum.

...And this is the inspiration behind the Ripley - Ibis' own titanium Silk-Ti softtail. This is possibly the coolest softtail on the market today, if I don't say so myself. Hopefully this will someday find its way to my stable. ;-)

I got really hungry and headed to the food area, where I ran across this interesting singlespeed. The paintjob is a doozey, but check out the boingy seat! Is that about 80mm of travel or what?!

Here's a very nice singlespeed setup from Kelly. I would have liked to taken this for a test ride.

Ok, funky-bike time. I'm not sure what the strategy was with this Merlin Newsboy, but I'm not sure I get it. Gears AND skinny tires... dang - that bike could have so much potential if properly built as a singlespeed.

Sycip had a uniquely-decked out singlespeed on display.

Check out the nifty built-in tensioning adjustment screws on the dropouts.

On raceday, this is what it looked like as people began staging.

Here I am at the starting area after having ran into Ed Morales, who's also from the SoCal area.

This is a shot of the beginner/sport singlespeed group as we were getting ready to line up at the start. I think there were around 80 total riders in this category.

...And we're off! The race itself was an interesting learning experience, and I'll have to write it up on a separate article rather than trying to cram it in here.

...And here's the finish. Woohoo! My time was an hour and 39 minutes to secure a solid 42nd place! :-O. I had a lot of fun, but the roughness of the course was harsh on my joints, especially my wrists.

At the finish line I felt like I was just getting warmed up, and was actually thinking that maybe I should have went for the two-lap race. Such errant thoughts were probably due to brain-damage that I sustained from doing the 52 mile Vision Quest race the week prior. Heheh...

Anyways, fortunately DAS found me hanging with Ed and Tony at the finish so we were able to click off a quick group picture. Check out his new Phil Wood... pretty spiffy, eh?

I got to take a quick spin on the Phil and thought it was a really nice ride. ...So many bikes, so little room left in the house. :-)

Well, that's about the short of it. The Sea Otter Classic is definitely a must-attend if you want to go to the most happening bike event of the year. With any luck, we'll all be there together for next year.