Our amigos at QBP hold a show out west near their Ogden, Utah distribution center called SaddleDrive every summer. This is a show for bike dealers and is not open to the public, so we made the trip out here to share all of the new hardwear with our faithful readers. The show is held at Snowbasin Resort, up in the mountains above Ogden. Here’s what our roving reporter, saw today along with some news from the front lines of what we have come to know as the company that is now one of the big three bicycle companies in the US – QBP.
Salsa’s fat-bikes have had a make-over this year and look like they have found a really good stylist along with a few design tweaks that should get consumers excited. Above – Blackborow in a nice shade of green and a Bluto.
Beargrease is back in a flaskback to Klein Fades from 1991 that should fly off of dealer floors. (again with Bluto)
Mukluks get new color schemes and levels this year. The household appliance graphics from last year are gone and replaced with something that looks like it belongs on a bike (not a Maytag)
One major change is that the Mukluk gets updated to the Blackborow geometry this year. Short chainstays and adventure geometry for the win!
Salsa introduced a B+ dually based on their Horsetheif called….wait for it….Pony Rustler? Q needs to work on some of these names. Especially 45NRTH- Dunderbeist? 45NRTH was absent at Saddledrive. (maybe they only work in the winter?)
The Purple Haze Bear Gristle was my personal favorite new color palette in the Salsa line.
New Brands! QBP has a couple of new brands, like Rever. This is the world premier of the Rever Mountain Disc Brake. It’s a mechanical disc that has a mechanism, where both pads move (like the TRP’s). Pad adjustment and replacement is super simple and easy.
Sram had this Beargrease in their booth, set up with Scraper B+ Rims and some prototype Dirt Wizard B+ tires that totally looked like rolling gnarliness!
27.5+ Dirt Wizards – you should all start asking when they’ll be available.
SRAM / Rockshox also had their brand new ‘Yari’ Plus Bike compatible forks on display. (another questionable product name)
The Surly Big Top – ala choy
Another of QBP’s new house brands is Teravail. My guess is that it won’t be long till you see Teravail Tires enter the Plus and Fat-Bike Tire Market. (not really a guess).
That’s it for today….time to get some sleep and take another look tomorrow. Maybe I’ll find 45NRTH hiding in the walk in freezer or a drop bar 29+ bike.
Any reason that Salsa is showing Sun Ringle rims on many of their bikes pictured above instead of Surly’s?
Here’s the answer that we received when we asked Salsa your question – “Spec’ing any bike is a matter of choosing features, price, and availability. All those things matter, some more than others at times, but in the end the goal is to create a bike with the right features and quality level, at the price we are aiming for. That is true not just with regard to the rims, but to any component selected for use on any of our bike models.”
Shoulda been Pony Gristle.
Saw an old boy rocking the campground on a 90’s Klein with the fade paint job a few weekends ago. It was sweet.
Awesome!! We are going back to the roots of it all…
Fat tires are what all is about!
Thank you for sharing, Gomez. Right on!