the best of the best at Sea Otter Classic
The 2023 Sea Otter Classic in Monterey, CA was a big success for lots of cycling industry brands and lovers of all things bike related. And with the absence of Interbike and a Eurobike-like event, the Sea Otter Classic is the best event for bike brands to connect with retailers, dealers, racers, and cycling fans!
What started in 1991 as Laguna Seca Challenge with 350 athletes and 150 spectators has grown to a well-attended industry + public-facing event with over 70,000 visitors and 900+ cycling industry brands! The four-day festival showcased some of the world’s best cycling brands, thrilling races, and non-profit organizations doing great things for all cyclists.
And, one of the best parts about the Sea Otter Classic? You can camp onsite, and we were lucky enough to get a spot in the A Campground this year!
the best in Show at Sea Otter Classic are the Trails
The Sea Otter Classic is held at the WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca, a 2.2-mile race course typically reserved for auto and moto racing. However, the draw at the Sea Otter Classic is not the racetrack and its famous ‘corkscrew’, which is exhilarating in itself. Instead, it’s the trails that surround the course in Ford Ord, an old military base.
Fort Ord National Monument offers 86 miles of trails that include flowy singletrack, punchy climbs, and fire roads interconnecting it all to make it an excellent destination for mountain biking and gravel riding!
And since the trails at Sea Otter Classic are our ultimate Best in Show, we thought you might want to know who maintains them. It’s a combination of the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) and volunteers from local non-profit organizations such as the Monterey Off-Road Cycling Association (MORCA).
The costs associated with trail maintenance are primarily covered by government funding, donations from community members, and organizations that support trail advocacy, like our friends at the California Mountain Biking Coalition!
the racing at Sea Otter Classic
Besides the trails, and all the meet and greets with cycling brands, the Sea Otter Classic is also the best event for bringing together riders of all disciplines. With a mix of professional and amateur racers, the event features everything from road racing to gravel, eMTB, and downhill!
The Sea Otter Classic featured too many races and categories to list, including the Sea Otter Fuego XL, which is a qualifier for the Leadville 100MTB. And if you’re wondering, Sofia Gomez Villafane and Keegan Swenson took the wins there and then they both went on to win the Whiskey Off-Road this past weekend!
2023 Sea Otter Classic Best in Show
The 2023 Sea Otter Classic is the best place for brands to showcase their latest products and innovations. And not just cycling brands. Besides e-bikes, which we saw more of this year than all other bicycles at the show put together, you’ll find everything from the tried and tested to the super weird but might kinda work!
It’s also one of the reasons Sea Otter tops our list each year for the Best Tradeshows to Attend to Grow Your Outdoor Brand. And if you haven’t read that piece yet, bookmark it for later!
For this recap of Sea Otter though, we’re not just showing you some of the bikes and cycling gear we loved, but also a few things you may not have read about in the industry pubs! In no particular order, here’s our Top 10 Favorites from the Sea Otter Classic:
10. Aleck: Punks wireless headphones
We stopped by the Smith Optics booth and got a peek at the German tech company Aleck’s latest new near-ear audio wireless comms system, Punks! These neat little devices attach right to your helmet strap so they sit outside of your ear, allowing you to still hear the surrounding ambient noises.
Long having surpassed their Kickstarter goal, you can get in on the Aleck Punks’ Kickstarter $99 deal before they launch for $150 at retail!
9. WE ARE CAMP: Mountain Bike camps
We had the chance to meet Bobby Meeks of We Are Camp, an organization that’s been hosting skate, ski, snowboard and mountain bike camps at Mt. Hood since 1989! Here are just two of their upcoming programs in the Pacific Northwest:
- Milepost35 Mountain Bike Camp: the ultimate all-inclusive 7-day summer camp experience located on Mt. Hood, Oregon.
- Wy’East Mountain Academy: a world-class non-profit outdoor-oriented, action sports academy designed to develop driven and talented students in the classroom as well as in the outdoors.
8. OruCase: telescoping corrugated Bike Box
Isaac Howe and Colin Jaskiewicz are continuing to create at Orucase, a San Diego, based company that brought us the Airport Ninja, the world’s most compact bike travel case. It’s stealthy, lightweight and helps you avoid those nasty airline bike fees!
Some of their latest products include the B2 and a Telescoping Corrugated Bike Box, launching Summer 2023! If you’ve ever shipped a bike you’ll know not all carboard boxes are created equal. Orucase let’s you extend your possibilities with their telescoping boxes. With two different length options, you can extend it for a bigger bike. Or if you want to save money on shipping, you can collapse it!
7. PrestaCycle: Prestadapter + PRESTARATCHET
We love gear that makes life easier. And Prestacycle had two great new pieces we loved!!
With tubeless tires being the rage for several years in both gravel and mountain biking, we’ve all experienced a flat that seems impossible to fix. So at Sea Otter, we saw a lot of new tech that can help you when you get a flat.
The patented Prestadapter is a small but mighty new invention from Dave at Presta! The Prestadapter Tubeless allows you to unscrew your Presta cores from the tubeless or tube valve when the core is removable, and then threads onto the exterior of Presta valves so that it can attach to a Presta valve with the core removed allowing you to connect with a tubeless filler and/or inflate with a Schrader inflator.
The Prestadapter also doubles as a Presta to Schrader adapter so you can get your inflation at a gas station!
7b. PrestaCycle: prestaratchet
If you haven’t added the Prestaratchet III Multi-tool to your collection, this is the best all-in-one bike tool we’ve ever seen!! And it deserved it’s own spot on our list as it’s got almost everything you’ll need for your bike maintenance in one little compact kit:
- A reversible ratchet with Quick-Disc™ thumb wheel
- Lots of hex bits included, or just carry what you need!
- A tire lever that helps you with both removal and install- those tubeless tires are tough!
- Presta Valve Core tool
- Quick-link Chain breaker
- T-Handle Tubeless Tire plugger w/10 Bacons included
- And its only 25 grams and 3.9 inches!
We always love visiting with Dave because, one, he’s a fellow New Yorker, and two he always has something new to show us!
6. KT: Pro-Oxygen tape
KT Tape, a leading manufacturer of kinesiology tape, recently rebranded to KT and was showing off its new look at Sea Otter Classic!
KT did a refresh with a new logo, packaging, and gave us a demo of how to best apply their KT Pro, a breathable synthetic fabric that increases blood flow and reduces muscle soreness. The tape is designed to provide support and relief for common cycling injuries, such as knee pain, shin splints, and IT band syndrome.
Also new at the show was KT Pro Oxygen. Their top-selling Pro Tape, now infused with Celliant technology to increase cellular oxygenation. And as I was dealing with shoulder and neck pain, probably from a week of camping and not working at a proper desk, they showed us how to tape up my neck and back for better relief!
5. Velo Saddle: Angel Revo
We met Ken at Velo Saddle, a company focused on innovative, eco-friendly or future-friendly as they like to call it bike saddles. They showcased their Angel Revo, which just won the 2023 Taipei Design & Innovation Award in the parts and components category.
This new high-performance saddle is designed to provide maximum comfort and support, yet built with more sustainable, non-petroleum products. Instead of using the typical plastics, Velo Saddles is using plant-based fibers, coffee beans, and other eco-friendly options!
4. Happier Camper: HC1
From Outdoor Retailer to the Belgian Waffle Ride, we’ve seen recreational vehicles slowly make their way onto show floors and festival expos. The Sea Otter Classic was no different, and it makes sense as the venue is surrounded by happy campers that also happen to be cyclists!
So when we walked through the Bulls Bikes booth, we were not surprised to see the coolest little vintage trailer set up in the corner. Diego at Happier Camper gave us a quick tour of the HC1, an ultra-light travel trailer- we’re talking 1,100 pounds! The interior comes with lots thoughtful features, and their Adaptiv modular platform can be arranged is a variety of different ways depending if you are sleeping, hauling bikes, cooking up a feast, or just getting work done at camp!
3. Giant/Liv Bicycles: Intrigue X Advanced E+ Elite
One of the things I find so hard with e-MTBs is the weight. Weighing in at often 50-55 pounds it’s almost too much bike for me. That, and I can’t even lift it onto the car!
So when we saw both the Giant and Liv Cycling’s E+ line, we were excited. At the top of the line for women is the Intrigue X Advanced E+ Elite, coming in at just 41 pounds. Yes, it sounds heavy compared to your high-end non-motorized mountain bike. But compared to other eMTBs we demoed, its lightweight, responsive, and so fun to ride!
2. Pearl Izumi: women’s pro bib shorts
As a female cyclist that loves long rides into the middle of nowhere (yes, you can find that even in San Diego County, with a population of 3.3 million people,) I often need a pee break. Several of ’em on a 4-5 hour ride! And most often this means removing several layers behind a barely-concealing, non-leafy tree. So while we love the SheFly concept in pants, we haven’t quite seen it working well in mainstream cycling apparel.
Then at Sea Otter, we tested the Pearl Izumi Women’s Pro Bib Shorts, which were voted Best Overal Drop-Tail Bib by VeloNews. And Best Cycling Bib Short by Women’s Health. The wide-cut, crisscrossed straps and super stretchy fabric made it possible to drop-tail on the trail! Never before have I had this option, so of course I couldn’t stop smiling. Even the family of turkeys crossing the trail in Ford Ord couldn’t distract me from my new found discovery!
1. Best Custom Bar Bike at the Sea Otter Classic
When we headed over to watch Dual Slalom on Saturday evening, we had run out of beers. But luckily, I met Mike from Auburn, CA and his incredible Margarita Bar Cart! Not something for sale at the show, and he wasn’t breaking the rules by selling margs, although he did gift one to me. But this was just the best custom build we’d seen so far.
It was also a good reminder of how although there are hundreds of cycling brands out there, sometimes the best bikes are the ones you’ve built up yourself!
Sea Otter Classic Best of Wrap Up
Hope you enjoyed our Best of Sea Otter Classic! There are so many more people and brands we wanted to include, but you can check out our Sea Otter posts on Instagram, and we’ll save more features for another blog. And for more on events like this and why you should attend, check out these blogs:
- Top 5 Reasons to Attend Adventure Sports Events and Festivals
- The Best Tradeshows in the Outdoor Industry
To learn more about what we do on the regular, follow Top Rope Media’s adventures on Instagram, Facebook or Twitter.
Until next time, get out there and ride your bike!
– Meredith McConvill, Top Rope Media
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