Frostbike

 Saturday was Frostbike 2012 at QBP in Minneapolis and Magyar, Derek, Ryan, and myself all headed up to drool over all the new bike goodies for 2012 and get free powerbars.  I managed to pull myself out of bed and get over to Dereks at 7 for morning refreshments.  

 We got into Murderappolis threw away the empties and emptied the tank before heading in and meeting up with EC transplant and QBP I.T. man Joe for a bit and heading to scratch and dent.

On the way to scratch and dent Salsa had a S&S coupled fargo and this ridiculous full suspension fat bike on display.  Aside from these prototypes Salsa didn't have anything new on display, but the hype around a full suspension fat bike seemed to be big enough for them to not have to bring much else.  

 After a bit of shopping we started checking out displays.  This is my first Frostbike and I was more than a little excited.  It was everything I could have hoped for.  An entire day of eyecandy and a chance to actually play with the stuff you normally just get to look at on the internet. It's not every day you get to ride a Campagnolo carbon frame with Super Record EPS on it.  

 Or my personal favorite of the day, a Pugsly with Bionx electric assist.  The fastest, most fun fat bike I've ever had the pleasure of riding.

 I'm no journalist, so if you are looking for super detailed coverage of all of the displays and new goodies you are barking up the wrong tree, but suffice it to say their was some very cool stuff a lot of which involved converting everything mechanical to hydraulics...  

And there was some not so cool stuff that lets you pretend you are riding a bike when you are actually just sitting on one in your living room...  

 After a while Magyar and I grabbed some food and headed outside for lunch and some test riding.  We headed back in for round two and checked out the rest of the displays before we were rounded up by Ryan who was ready to hit the road.  We still had beer left so Magyar and I grabbed some cans and hit the single track around QBP with some borrowed Mukluks before heading in one last time to make sure we didnt miss anything and share our libations.

 More beer drinking, more stationary bike riding, and a few high fives later we hit the road.

So that was my Frostbike 2012 experience.  It was an awesome time and by the time I got home I was totally wiped out and hit the sack.  Like I said, I barely scratched the surface of the products shown considering pretty much every major vendor you can think of was there with very cool new stuff.  If you want a little more details check out the QBP Youtube channel for more info or just keep an eye on the new QBP catalog.  Big thanks to Eau Claire's top shop Bike and Sport for bringing me along to this, can't wait for next year.