I’m at the Sea Otter Classic 2022 where I see an incredible sea of vendors at the festival.

Sea Otter began as and remains primarily a mecca of mountain biking activities and gear, but for 2022 I see what might be a decent presence of companies showing bikes suited for utility use. I plan to look at bikes from Bluejay Bikes (they have one with a sidecar this year and it’s so gorgeous), UBCO (a New Zealand company that makes electric bikes for use on the farm), Benno “Etility” Bikes, Magnum Urban Electric Bikes (with step through models!), Bombtrack Urban Bikes, and more.

I was unable to attend the Sea Otter bike advocacy summit that took place during the first half of this week, but I heard some interesting things about it. Spoke Safety presented their vision for connectivity so that vulnerable road users can participate in V2V collision avoidance networks now under development. They’ll demo their tech in which bike riders will mix it up with an Audi e-tron on a test track. I’ll interview the CEO of Spoke Safety this Friday, and I have my own thoughts regarding the application of Internet-of-Things technology to improve cycling safety, but I’ll save that for its own post.

Besides purely utilitarian riding, I still quite enjoy recreational road riding so watch for my quick thoughts gravel and road bicycles in this space and on my Twitter. While I’ll likely mention the overwhelming presence of e-bikes at Sea Otter, I won’t dig too in-depth beyond a “whee, this is really fun.” For the nuts and bolts and practicalities of e-bike riding and ownership, I invited you to visit the brand new eBike Chick Blog.

If you want to attend, you can buy a one-day pass for $25 either online or at the venue, but note that lines for pass sales can be very long. If you plan to demo bikes, you need to sign the waiver electronically. Parking is $50 per day. There’s no transit to Laguna Seca. You can expect a challenging bike ride up the hill from either Highway 68 on A Road, or up Boundary Road from General Jim Moore Boulevard, but once you arrive you’ll find a large valet bike parking area.