Quality Bicycle Products hosted their annual Frostbike this past weekend. Bob and I cruised up in the VW wagon and listened to recorded cassette tapes of the old radio show "loveline" with Dr. Drew and Adam Corolla. We laughed our asses off and enjoyed taking our time on the drive up. We stopped in Madison to scope out some new shops and took backroads up to Faribault to visit Milltown Cycles and Mr. Ben Witt. Ben's shop was cool and we saw the guys from NCC there as they had ridden that morning. Always good seeing new and old friends during this trip and this was just the start. We then went to the hotel for the VIP happy hour and I met up with my friends Phil from Salvagetti in Denver, Jason from Salsa/QBP, and a new friend Adam. Its always great seeing my friend Phil. What a passionate and intellegent guy...I feel smarter for being around him and always enjoy catching up with that dude. Bobo and I got more drinks and the laughter and bike talk continued. I love our industry...we can drink and socialize while still brainstorming and enhancing our knowledge of cycling and the cycling industry. The rest of the show was great... All City had a killer party at someone's penthouse downtown, followed by the cutters ball the following evening hosted by handsome cycles. I got to see my buddy Brian who works for knog and hooked me up with some lights to test out....and test I will. Knog makes some killer stuff. I love this show...not only to see the new stuff....but to make new friends and relationships that help us all develop in the cycling industry. It is not an easy place to be in right now. The industry is bombarded with internet sales and the local bike shop struggles to entertain an existence while being clubbed down by customers who are too lazy to come support a local business and would rather buy products from a faceless entity for $5 less. Sorry for the Rant I think small business is what supports this country and to see it struggle is terrible....anyhow, back to the weekend. It was great! haha. We saw the new campy 80th anniversary groupo and talked to many new vendors. I felt like this was one of the best frostbikes....not like how I used to think of it, with how much I brought home physically....but with what I had learned and brought home mentally. I talked to almost every single booth and brought home an idea or catalog home from each and every one. I enjoyed shooting the shit with other bike shops and seeing what was working for them and what wasnt. I asked other shops what the trends were and had some questions about what we were trying to achieve in our shop. Everyone was more than happy to help and give their opinion and I really enjoy how laid back most of us are in the industry. Great weekend, good times, good people, and QBP always does a kick ass job!
Ohh yea Salsa had some killer new bikes....
- JB
