Every February Quality Bicycle Products (QBP) invites their dealers and media-volken, like Sven & I, up to their Bloomington, Minnesota, headquarters for Social Activities, Seminars and an Expo. It’s an event where ‘historically‘ some of their brands, have launched new product. QBP is the parent company of brands like Salsa, Surly and 45NRTH (among many others). Frostbike isn’t open to the general public, so Sven & I traveled up to MPLS and shot a bunch of video interviews, in addition to taking about a ~billion pictures, so we could share the fattest Frostbike the world has ever seen.
This year’s gathering moved right into the heart of Downtown Minneapolis. All of the social events and seminars took place at the Marriot. That meant that most of us attending the event stayed a short walk from the night-time, social activities after a long day of the seminars, dinners and presentations. Sven and I signed up for our own “Ride the River Bottoms” seminar and put a few miles on 45NRTH’s new Flow & Dunder-beist tubeless tires that made their debut at FB. Next up, on our busy agenda, we grabbed our credentials and went to the Frostbike Media welcome event, where we got to meet all of the Q-Brand managers and our colleagues from bike rumor, bike radar, singletrack and dirt rag (and probably more). Lots of free Summit Ale, led us to a delicious banquet followed by the All-City after party. I left the after party around eleven thirty and was tucked into bed, when Sven knocked on the door and got me up for a nightcap at Cosmos (the Hotel Bar). We closed that bar at two am, after I consumed an alarming volume of booze in the form of tequila. Sven was drinking Surly Furious and speaking Swahili, by the time we found the elevators, just few steps away. I really liked the new downtown location for the host hotel and socials. It really allowed us to embrace Frostbike and Gonzo Journalism with one big, boozy hug.
Gonzo Journalism can be pretty painful, when room service shows up at your door, early the next morning, but Sven and I somehow managed to hit the show floor before noon and found these tid-bits of fatness that will be coming to your world via your local bike shop, this year.
Kurt and 45NRTH’s new tires Flowbeist & Dunderbeist
Andrea Cohen & April Morgan with a Musk Ox
Otis rock’n the new 45NRTH Flowbeist & Dunderbeist
Salsa’s Carbon Bucksaw will be featured in an upcoming video from FB
The Salsa Blackborow all loaded up for bikepacking
Salsa’s new Anything Cage and A/C Dry Bag
Both Salsa and Surly had a huge fleet of Demo Fat to ride
Surly had their new Moonlander Ops on Hand
The new Moonie will feature Surly’s new narrow-wide chainring with an XXI Eleven Speed D/T
Stay tuned for a Sov & Charlie Video Interview that explains everything about teeth.
Lauf introduced a fat version of their fork called the Carbonara. 60mm / 2.35″ of travel in a super lightweight 1050g / 2.31lbs package.
DT Swiss entered the Fat-Bike Wheel Market – 80mm Rims
DT Swiss Fat Hubs!
Woolftooth designed a 24 tooth Chainring for 1 x 11 set-ups.
Early Rider has a Fat Strider to get your toddlers started out on the fat-path!
Yakima’s Two Timer Hitch Rack is all new this year.
Kuat added a new affordable Fat-Rack to their line. we’ll be testing this one in the near future.
Saris also entered the fat-rack fray. We shot a video demo of how this rack works.
Vee Tire had a Studded Snowshoe XL and a White Silicone Bulldozer in their booth. We’ll be testing these soon!
Vittoria entered the 29+ market with the Bomboloni
Orange Seal’s New Subzero Sealant is formulated to work down to -20 F
Onyx Racing Hubs are coming to the QBP Catalog. I’ve been riding a set for a couple of months and I really like mine!
Fat-Bike Products were everywhere at the show, so we tried to focus on what was new to the market. We saw a ton of other tires, bikes and accessories that we’ve shown before, that will also be available at better bicycle dealers in the coming months. Thanks to all of our amigos that said hello and told us how much that you enjoy the site! Frostbike weekend was a blast this year! Now….Let’s Ride!
What ever happened to that 29×3.0 tire Surly was working on? Dirt something or another.