Another Frostbike, come and gone.
We’ve made the journey five times now and we’re never disappointed. This year we enjoyed a nice mix of product, people, and savvy. Bike conferences are only as much as you make them. You can go and drool over the goods, glad hand the vendors, awkwardly pilfer energy bars and stickers (c’mon, we’re grown men), and come away feeling like you wasted a weekend. We tend to use those expos as times to put faces to names and spend time with people that can teach us something we don’t know. I learn more from fellow dealers than I do from the seminars (and some of the seminars are great – see also Brett Fleming).
We spent some good time with our Colorado Contingent. iScott from Salvagetti’s and Jason from Pedal Pushers made my trip a great success, personally and professionally. It it weren’t for them, we would never have been able to figure out how to get from point A to point B and discover our B-A levels; that is unless, we just asked someone else or looked at a map or just stopped drinking. Regardless, they have fancy fones and that makes people like them. I kept trying to act like I was cool, too. People just looked at me with disdain and told me to get my camera out of my ear and stop caressing my mp3 player. moving on…
Eric tries to limber up after a long night on the pond
As always it was good to see the Surly fellows. We saw more of them than ever, really. We met all sorts of them. The “Trevor Treatment” was especially nice on Saturday night. He tore us away from our ninja stars to show us dark places with no people in them. It was really quite incredible. We learned the stupifying truth behind Salsa Flip-Offs and we’ll never buy anything else ever again. They’re assembled right here in the USA by whoever gets caught not working.
Salsa skewers are nuts
I really failed to take pictures this year. Mostly because of my ongoing coux with the iphone I don’t own. Even though I don’t have visual proof, we met with some other great people and saw some other great stuff.
Salsa Cycles is off and rolling with their new identity: Adventure by Bike. We’re excited to be partners with them. Their direction if quite congruent with ours. Their new racks are smart and have a solid place in the market. Expect more in the store.
Bravo to Continental, Chub hubs, Cane Creek, and Pacific Outdoor Equipement. New Time Iclic and AllRoad pedals will be available at NCC this year, too, along with eyewear from Optice Nerve, new Cateye computers, and new products from Portland Design Works.
We were impressed with all of these guys – they had the right people in their booths with good product knowledge and effective people skills. We were surprised by some other booths with great brand recognition totally fail at those aforementioned qualities, but we won’t name names (we will, however, name nick:names: Bullsnake).
Thank you, QBP, for a good time and a bunch of free goods. You’ve bought our love and patronage for another year.
t
