Fat Bike Winter Summit & Festival

Final report: Fat Bike Summit and Festival 2013

Griff Wigley — Wed, 20 Feb 2013 15:33:13 +0000

The 2013 Fat Bike Summit and Festival Final Report (11-page PDF) is now available.

The state of the fat bike industry and fat bike access: Presentations to land managers at the Summit

Griff Wigley — Sat, 09 Feb 2013 13:27:05 +0000

At Friday’s Summit for land managers (agenda), Gary Sjoquist, Director of Advocacy for QBP presented on the State of Fat Bike Access. And Joe Meiser, Product Design Manager for QBP presented on the State of the Fat Bike Industry.

Here are their Powerpoint presentations and below them, some photos from the morning sessions and the afternoon fat bike demo rides with land managers.

Summit and Festival photos by Bob Allen and Estela Villasenor

Griff Wigley — Fri, 08 Feb 2013 19:31:31 +0000

Bob Allen and Estela Villasenor of Bob Allen Images took these photos of the Summit on Friday and the Festival on Saturday:

Race photos by Caren Ware

Griff Wigley — Fri, 08 Feb 2013 17:48:14 +0000

Caren Ware and her Prime Time Timing Company (ITz ABOUT TIME) provided the timing services for the Fat Bike Winter Summit races.

She also graciously sent us 17 of her photos from that day.

Thanks, Caren!

Post-Summit report by bloggers Scott Fitzgerald and Dave Chenault

Griff Wigley — Thu, 31 Jan 2013 00:07:34 +0000

Event co-host Scott ‘Fitzy’ Fitzgerald has a post (with 8 photos) on his Fitzgerald’s Bicycles blog titled Fat Bike Summit 2013 – It’s a wrap!

Wow. Over the years, I’ve been involved with countless events at every level from sponsor to organizer but this year’s Fat Bike Summit and Festival was the most comprehensive event we have been at the head of. After months of conference calls, spreadsheets, emails, and brainstorm sessions, I finally found myself in the van driving up to Island Park Thursday night. At that point, my hope was that everything was simply on cruise control. (continued)

And blogger Dave Chenault has a post (with 6 photos) about the Summit on his Bedrock & Paradox blog:

I was on the fence about hauling down to the summit until Casey made me an offer I couldn’t refuse: a free ride and good companionship. I left town after work on Wednesday and did what has become all too rare lately, made a relaxed multi-hour drive away…

The whole weekend was very well organized, but the rapid-fire presentations Friday morning were the best. I’ll just say that in the world of mental health conference presentees don’t stick to their time slots very well, so this was a pleasant contrast.

Fatbike access, at least over snow, is a curious creature. Once the snow piles up fatbike are truncated to well-packed surfaces, which under all but extraordinary conditions means snowmachine trails or trails groomed for skate skiing. Fat bikes are thus beholden to potentially hostile user groups, until more places gain a critical mass of bikers and start bike-specific grooming programs. There seems to be three primary concerns here, each given over to a certain user group. Land and ski area managers worry about safety, snowmachiners worry about cost sharing (their registration often pays for the grooming), and skiers worry about fatbikes rutting up their trails. The summit organizers had compelling answers to all of these. (continued)

Results: Fat Bike Winter Summit & Festival 2013 races

Griff Wigley — Tue, 29 Jan 2013 14:19:19 +0000

Here is the PDF of the Fat Bike Winter Summit & Festival 2013 race results. Heavy snow on Friday night required the Rippin’ 60K race to be run as an Expert class on the Chillin’ 25K course.

Many thanks to Caren Ware and her Prime Time Timing Company (ITz ABOUT TIME) for providing the timing services.

Photos: Saturday Festival

Griff Wigley — Sun, 27 Jan 2013 03:34:12 +0000

Tim Young,Executive Director of Wyoming Pathways, sent these photos of today’s Festival, including the racer meeting, clinic, raffle, awards, dinner, and of course, beer drinking. Heavy snow overnight required the Rippin’ 60K race to be run as an Expert class on the Chillin’ 25K course.”

Tim wrote this about those bottom three photos above:

Anna Laxague, IMBA Northwest Regional Director on her first Fat Bike ride with Gary Sjoquist and I. Someday we may look back on this as a pivotal moment in Fat Biking…or at least look back on a good bike ride

Photos: Friday Summit

Griff Wigley — Sat, 26 Jan 2013 11:48:35 +0000

Tim Young,Executive Director of Wyoming Pathways, sent these photos of yesterday’s Summit.

Ice storm causing travel problems in N. Utah but all is fine at the Summit in Island Park, ID

Griff Wigley — Fri, 25 Jan 2013 17:25:06 +0000

You may have seen the news: Freezing rain across N. Utah wreaks havoc on roads, sidewalks. The storm is making it difficult for some to get here. Example:

The crew from 9:ZERO:7 contacted us this morning with the bad news: they can’t get here from there (Ogden, UT). The good news: the raffle for the aluminum lightweight fat bike frame is still going to happen.

More good news: the Salsa, Surly, and 45Nrth demos are up, as you can see from the photo.

Team Fat Bike Summit fattens up

Griff Wigley — Fri, 25 Jan 2013 03:39:48 +0000

Scott Fitzgerald, owner of Fitzgerald’s Bicycles, sent me this photo he took tonight of the on-site Fat Bike Summit team but he provided no details other than ‘planning.’ I’d argue that ‘fattening’ would be a better description.

L to R: Tim Young, Executive Director, Wyoming Pathways; Jason Boucher, General Manager, Salsa Cycles; Seth Nesselhuf, A.C.E Director, QBP; unidentified person; Jason Gaikowski, Director of Sales and Marketing, QBP; Joe Meiser, Product Design Manager, QBP; Tracy Petervary and Jay Petervary, nationally-recognized fat bike experts; Gary Sjoquist, Advocacy Director, QBP.