February Was Frostbike Time

 In celebration of the twentieth year of this blog, I have a few tales to tell. This post is one of them. This series will occur off and on throughout this anniversary year, I hope to illuminate some behind-the-scenes stories and highlights from the blog during this time. Enjoy!

February was always the month for several years that I went to the Frostbike event in Bloomington, Minnesota. Frostbike was the dealer-only show put on by Quality Bicycle Products, one of the, if not the, largest bicycle parts distributors in North America. Originally this event was called an "Open House" where the idea was that QBP would invite dealers to come up and see their operation, explore opportunities to do business with QBP, and basically get a bit of wine-and-dine, schmoozing to woo the dealers over to the QBP way. 

Attendees were invited to explore the facility where you could see the latest in warehousing technology. QBP offered a lunch as well during this open house. Later on vendors started appearing on the floor showing off their latest wares. This expanded in time until Frostbike became a de-facto trade show replete with more various brands distributed by QBP. Many were showing off their latest product introductions, and with the addition of the QBP brands like Salsa Cycles and Surly Bikes showing new stuff, it was a show not to be missed.  

Later on there were dealer education and mechanic seminars offered. Then QBP shifted all the Salsa and Surly product intros to Summertime with their "Saddledrive" event, which took some of the steam away from Frostbike. Finally, the seminar/education part pushed out the trade show part until Frostbike was essentially a conference and then it petered out. This ending was hastened by the management that clamped down on the partying and extra-event offerings some of their brands were doing which were more social get-togethers and really did not enhance the company's bottom line. However; they were attractions to dealers to show up to the event.

Mike Moyer of the former business in Northfield, Minnesota, Mike's Bikes, holding my old Gryphon Mk1 frame.

I probably started going to Frostbike in 2003, for sure by 2005. Somewhere in there, and it was always because I was a shop rat at the shop I used to wrench for in Cedar Falls, Iowa. Back then I was still pretty much a nobody. But then Trans Iowa, this blog, and the whole 29"er thing swept me into a different part of my life. 

Frostbike became something quite a bit different for me. I became friends with Ben Witt, who at the time was the owner of Milltown Cycles, a shop in Faribault, Minnesota. Through Ben I was invited to visit Mike's Bikes in Northfield, the shop where Ben cut his teeth in the business under the watchful eye of Mike Moyer, who just happened to have been a life-long cyclist and bicycle mechanic. 

Greek pizza and beers at Mike's circa 2010.

Mike had a lot of surprises up his sleeve. The uninformed person would have taken Mike for an ordinary shop owner with a super laid-back attitude running a shop that was an eclectic mess. And I mean that with all the love I can give behind that description. There really was no other way to describe Mike's Bikes. 

The sharp-eyed cyclist with a mountain biking background might have soon started picking out some oddities about the shop. Old vintage pieces could be spied in corners, up on racks in unassuming places, and if you were allowed to get into the back room, your mind would have been blown away. 

See, Mike was an OG of the Marin klunker group. He was right there, in the thick of it all, during the birthing of what we now know as the modern mountain bike. He knew all the principals involved and had even laced up wheels for many of them. But Mike wasn't about those tales and he never really was one to trot out stories or drop names. I loved that about Mike. He was as real as it got. 

Some promotional shot at Frostbike for the Fargo. I think that is me!

I adored and cherished every moment I spent with Ben Witt, Marty Larsen, some of the old employees of Mikes, Stuart, Mike's son, and Mike Moyer at Mike's Bikes. Those were some of my very favorite and most fun experiences in life and in cycling. I reported on Frostbike, and Mike's Bikes, every time I went there, here on this blog.  I wish that I could have brought all of you there to Mike's at least once. I don't know if any of that ever came through in my postings, but I truly felt that way and still do. We lost Mike last year in May. I have to say, this time of year will never be the same for me again, but I thank Mike Moyer for all that he did, because without him, my life would have been much less rich. 

Having a chat with Ben Witt, then of Salsa Cycles. Image courtesy of M Larson.

Then there was the whole "media" thing and my attendance at Frostbike. I never went to Frostbike as a media dude, as I always tried to use my shop mechanic credentials instead. More stealthy and subtle under that guise! 

It was hard though, and adding in my status as the director of Trans Iowa, it usually meant I would walk into Frostbike and get stuck at the Salsa Cycles booth for hours. Then there were a few times I was able to get into places I shouldn't have been with the help of some QBP folks I won't name here. 

I was able to get into the cubicle farm on several occasions, a place I wasn't supposed to be in. Ironically Frostbike used to be an "open house" gig, but that ceased to be the case after awhile! On one occasion I snuck into a super-select group of high-end dealers which QBP was having a separate party for upstairs and where the plebians were not allowed. That was fun! 

I couldn't divulge all the details then, and I still probably shouldn't, so a lot of Frostbike did not get reported here, but I told the stories I could tell. Oh, yeah, and images. I've got tons that haven't ever been seen here. 

Frostbike was a thing on the blog for a solid ten years. My last trip was in 2015, and what a way to cap things off! That was the year I walked all the way from downtown Minneapolis to the 494 Interstate loop South of town in the snow with just a hoodie on. It was something like 17 degrees and I had on tennis shoes as well. Four hours and 12.2 miles that adventure was! Anyway, you can read about THAT here. 

I got a finger poked into my chest the next day by someone dear to me that once worked at QBP who was rather upset I didn't call for a ride. But that's the sort of shenanigans I used to get into there, and well, it is probably just as well those days are gone. I never got into any real trouble, despite some numbskull antics like getting a car impounded or nearly crashing in a blizzard getting to Frostbike, but I am sure my luck was about all used up. 

To have had the opportunities I had then are amazing to me and to have met all the people I got to meet was even more amazing. It is a part of my life in the cycling world that almost doesn't seem real, but it did all actually happen. 

Thank you to all involved in those times. 

This post is dedicated to Mike Moyer (Image by Marty Larson)