Frostbike visit on Feb 19-20th, 2010

Dave Gray's Pugsley

Handspun wheelbuilding area at QBP.

Shock treatment workbench. They service your dead shock here. Great work!

an Honor to have my picture taken with Dave Gray

Every winter we looke foward to our annual pilgramage to Frostbike,which takes place in the international headquarters of Quality Bicycle Parts also known as QBP. We loaded up the Honda Element and took off on Friday the 19th. We made record time thanks to a rocking tailwind and Tobie's excellent drafting skills. We fueled up at the gas station with coke and other nasty foods. All the dieting was out the window at this point. We arrived and cruised around St. Paul and went for some food. We later soaked our frozen bodies in some hot water and had a couple of drinks before bed. Saturday was the grand day where we went to the expo. I had a million questions in my head and made a mad dash to get some stuff out of the way. I met up with the awesome guys at Salsa and got a chance to also talk for a long while with Guitar Ted. I also very much enjoyed my conversation with Dave Gray from Surly Bikes, the main guru behind the Surly Pugsley. His personal rig was there fresh from having raced the gruelling Arrowhead 135. Dave is the coolest guy on earth. I stared at his bike and realized how intricate some of his tinkering was. It was a great pleasure to be able to talk to somebody like him.
At the Salsa booth we were able to see all the new Salsa stuff that will be coming out soon. It is so exciting to see where the bike industry is going. Riding is going to be such a blast! I also visited Portland Design Works, talked at length about lights, racks, and pumps. Had a mini-seminar on all things Edge Composites and was thoroughly impressed. This coming from a guy that doesn't have a great opinion on Carbon Fibers. Also met with Thule racks, Knog,Challenge tires, Continental, Brooks,All City,Maxxis, WTB, Selle San Marco, Deda and many more.
All the QBP employees are so nice and will help and answer all questions. I was so impressed. We had the rare treat to hang out with the guys from Surly. I hefty glass of whiskey refreshed the dry throat and it was cool to chill for a while.
We hit the great pizzeria called Luce and dined on some great food. More drinks at the hotel, and that about was the end. I did purchase a Salsa Cycles Big Mama full suspension 29er complete bike. I will write about it soon. I am now concentrating on my T.I. Bikes and want to stop riding other bikes for the time being. Also Cane creek was awesome in giving us a 110 headset along with the info packet that we received in their seminar. Tons of brochures were also collected.
Surly, Salsa Cycles and Civia make great products and if anyone has questions make sure to give us a call since we know their stuff in depth.


Check out the flickr set from Frostbike

best,


ari



Here is the Flicky link to the Frostbike images

http://www.flickr.com/photos/20897064@N02/sets/72157623432337771/