We’re pleased to have Surly Bikes, one of QBP’s brands, as a Presenting Sponsor of the Fat Bike Summit and Festival.
The Surly Facebook page, The Official Intergalactic Surly Regional HQ, is a busy, informative and irreverent place, as is the Surly blog.
A blog post by ThorHammer earlier this week titled Minnesota River Bottoms caught my eye because the trails there are 40 minutes from my house. Scroll to the bottom of the post to see more of his winter fat biking photos.
Rachel Stevens, a graphic designer at Adventure Cycling Association (one of our many sponsors), created this poster for the Fat Bike Summit & Festival. We think it’s pretty cool.
We’d appreciate it if you’d use the poster to help promote the event by:
A. Printing out the PDF version of the poster and putting it up at your local bike shop.
and/or
B. Using the JPG version of the poster to promote the event on your website, blog, Facebook page, Twitter feed, Pinterest board, etc.
If you get the poster up at local bike shop, take a photo of it and send it to us. If you get the poster up online, send us the link. We’ll promote your promotion.
Update Jan. 06:
Eric Nelson of Wrightwood Cyclery in Wrightwood, CA just alerted us that the poster is now up on his shop’s home page. “Wish I could be there for the summit. Have a great event.” Thanks, Eric!
Update Jan. 07:
Burnsey (Sean Burns) alerted us that he’s blogged the poster on his Single Speed Pirate blog. Thanks, Burnsey!
The Sawtelle Mountain Resort in Island Park, Idaho has been reserved for Summit and Festival participants, however:
You must make make your reservations by phone. If you attempt to make reservations online, it will show that it’s full.
When you call, be sure to mention “Fat Bike Festival” and you’ll receive a 15% discount on hotel rooms (normally $69/night for a single, $89/night for a double) and cabins/condos (normally $189/night, two-night minimum stay).
Single rooms may already be sold out but check! And see our Where to Stay page for other lodging options nearby.
QBP will be sending out a final press release about this next week but here’s the pre-release/draft version of the good news: the registration fee for the Festival will remain at $99.
The December/January 2013 issue of Alaska Magazine features an article by Serine Halverson titled Biking the Fat-Tire Way.
She interviewed Bill Fleming (9:ZERO:7, Fatbikes.com) “… about what it takes to be comfortable and safe behind the handlebars of a fat-tire bike during an Alaska winter.”
The article includes some photos by Alaska-based photographer Dan Bailey who blogged about the article in a post titled Publication: Alaska Magazine Snow Biking Feature Article. His blog post includes screenshots of the print version of the article and the table of contents as they feature his photos. Back in Jan. of 2012, Dan blogged about how he took the photo used for the table of contents in a post titled Snow Biking Action Photography, Alaska, “the setup behind the shot.”
QBP sent out this press release earlier today, announcing the sponsorship (100mm level) of IMBA and Fat-Bike.com:
QBP sent out this press release yesterday, announcing Salsa Cycles‘ sponsorship (Presenting level) for the Fat Bike Summit and Festival. (Salsa is one of QBP’s brands.)
Salsa Cycles brand manager Jason Boucher (AKA Gnat) is quoted in the release. He’ll be attending the Summit.
You can catch up on all Jason’s blog posts here. As you can see from his recent bike trip, he’s not half-bad at photography.
I started adding some sponsor logos to the right sidebar yesterday. And the Sponsors page is now up. We’re thrilled, of course, because this event wouldn’t happen without their support.
Some of the sponsorship levels include the benefit of having sponsor-related info posted here on the blog, to our Twitter feed, and to our Facebook Wall. We’ll be the ones doing the posting and we’ll make an effort to make it interesting.
Online registration for the Festival is now open (courtesy of IMBA). The Early Bird registration fee is $99, good till January 1, 2013. After that, the fee is $125 (online or on-site). The first 50 to register by January 1 get a Park Tool I-Beam Mini Fold Up Hex Wrench / Screwdriver / Star Driver Set (IB-2), engraved with “Fat Bike Festival 2013.”
The Festival registration fee includes:
NOTE: If you’re a member of IMBA, you can save $10 by logging into your account when you see this in the middle of the registration form:
If you would like to create an account on this site, check the box below and enter a user name. If you already have an account, please login before completing this form.
For the Summit:
The day of the Summit (Friday, Jan. 25) is free for invited land managers. Interested others may attend but we’ll ask for a small donation on-site to help cover costs for meals and beverages. (If you’re a land manager or other official that you think should have been invited, please contact us.)
Gary Sjoquist and Jay Petervary made a visit to the snowy Island Park, ID area this week, and among other things, firmed up the arrangements with Kathy Oakey, owner of Sawtelle Mountain Resort. All the Summit and Festival activities will be based there so if you want to be close to the action, make your reservations now.
We strongly urge you to make your reservations by phone. Be sure to mention “Fat Bike Festival” and you’ll receive a 15% discount on hotel rooms (normally $69/night for a single, $89/night for a double) and cabins/condos (normally $189/night, two-night minimum stay).
I’ve updated the Where to Stay page with this info. That page also has links to other websites to help you find a place to stay.
I attended the 2nd annual Winter Bike Expo (“the world headquarters of winter riding fanatics”) last weekend here in Minnesota. While the event had offerings for bike commuters, the bulk of the action was aimed at mountain biking in winter, using fat bikes especially.
QBP’s brands Surly and Salsa each had a big presence at the event, and when I stopped by the Salsa booth, I met Joe Meiser, QBP’s Product Design Manager who, just a few days earlier, had sent me all his photos from the 1st Annual Fat Bike Summit for posting here on the Fat Bike Summit site.
Several of Joe’s Summit photos are featured in the new Salsa catalog on the Beargrease fat bike page, along with these words of his in the sidebar:
Fatjoring
Four more inches of fresh snow had fallen overnight in Horseshoe Canyon on the edge of the Big Hole Mountains, west of Driggs. The trails were soft on top and freshly groomed below. Where the groomed trails had set up it was slow but easy going, giving us time to enjoy the quiet of the early morning.
Tracey roped Rippin’ up and seemed to pull away effortlessly. I was worried about my skill riding snow until I realized the dog was doing some of the work. What do you call that? On skis, it is skijoring so I guess it’s bikejoring then? Or maybe fatjoring? – Joe Meiser
The ‘Tracey’ that Joe mentions is Tracey Petervary who, along with her husband Jay Petervary, are nationally recognized winter endurance cyclists who will be on hand throughout the Summit and Festival, conducting clinics, presenting a slideshow, and running the races, among a myriad of other duties. Rippin’ is one of their two dogs, for which the Festival races are named. Later this winter, Jay and Tracey may very well be riding their fat bikes again across Alaska with the goal of making a documentary. See the details at 64point5.com.
Jay Petervary is also featured in the Salsa catalog on the Fargo page. He set a world record in the self-supported Tour Divide race earlier this year: 2,745 miles in 15 days, 16 hours and 14 minutes.
We’ve got five levels of sponsorships available and four of those levels have a limited number of slots. So now’s the time to download or view the PDF of the Fat Bike Summit and Festival 2013 sponsorship levels and contact Scott or Gary to confirm your participation as a sponsor.
Jay Petervary and his dogs Rippin’ and Chillin’
Jay Petervary and his two pups, Chillin’ and Rippin,’ have laid out the courses for the two Fat Bike Summit and Festival races on Saturday, Jan. 26.
The Races page is now up with some descriptive detail and links to the course maps on Garmen Connect.
Got questions? Attach a comment here and Jay will respond.
Joe Meiser, Product Design Manager at QBP (Quality Bicycle Products), attended last year’s Summit and took a bunch of photos that he’s given us to use on the site. See his album on the Photo album 2012 page.
I took several of Joe’s photos, plus a couple from Tim Young, Executive Director of Wyoming Pathways in Wilson, WY, and made some photo banners that display randomly at the top of the site. Thanks, gents!
Some of the money donated by QBP for the 1st Fat Annual Bike Summit (see our History page for more on that) was used to hire Jake Hawkes at Gravnetic to produce a Fat Bike video. It’s now done, with help from Dave Byers, Andy Williams, Ray Spencer, Jay Petervary, and Scott Fitzgerald:
See four other videos on our Fat Biking in Winter video page.
Scott Fitzgerald (Fitzgerald’s Bicycles) and his whole fam damily flew into the Twin Cities on Saturday, on their way to points south. We used the occasion for a little face-to-face Fat Bike Summit & Festival planning since both Gary Sqoquist (QBP) and I live in this wonderful but currently dreary and snowless state, home of many fine local beers including Summit.
The graphic design wizards at QBP created a Fat Bike Summit logo for us this week. Click the thumbnail below to see a larger version. I put it in the right sidebar for now and flipped the theme of the website over to the dark side, matching some of the colors from the logo here and there.
Got a suggestion for improving the site design and features? I’m eager for feedback. Attach a comment to this blog post or use the Contact Us page.
Our collaborators, Jay Petervary and Scott Fitzgerald of Fitzgerald’s Bicycles were the guests tonight on Mountain Bike Radio’s Guitar Ted Show, hosted by Ben Welnak and Guitar Ted.
The topic: all things related to the 2nd Annual Fat Bike Winter Summit & Festival, of course.
You can listen to the entire show via the audio player on the episode’s webpage on blogtalkradio, download an MP3 of the episode, subscribe to the free podcast via iTunes, or listen to it on your iPhone, iPad, or Android device via a Stitcher app.
See more about Ben and Ted on the Faces of Mountain Bike Radio page.
Our colleague, Andy Williams at Grand Targhee Resort, alerted us that the Methow Valley Sport Trails Association (MVSTA) in Winthrop, WA has a new snowbike page on their website announcing that they’re opening up some of their trails to fat bikes this winter:
While the Methow Valley has many passionate fat bike riders, this is the first year MVSTA has piloted a few trails to fat bikes. This will be a pilot program with selected trails open at selected times depending on snow conditions. The ski trail conditions will still remain as our top priority… These locations will be assessed on a day by day, snow conditions, user compatibility basis.
This is a significant development because 1) MVSTA is the nation’s largest cross-country ski area; and 2) of the variety of land owners that make up the MVSTA trail system. From their mission/history page:
Some 52% of the trail system is on U.S. Forest Service (USFS) lands with another 0.02% on U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service (USFWS) lands. Of the remaining lands, 2.1% is on Washington State Department of Natural Resources (DNR) land, and another 1.7% is on Washington State Department of Fish & Wildlife (WDFW) lands with 20-year permits (MVSTA 2005). The remainder runs over a complex of private lands on which MVSTA has entered into long-term agreements with landowners.
And with the recent early season snow, the MVST staff went on a winter fat biking outing this week. See their Facebook album of 9 photos:
We launched the Fat Bike Summit & Festival Twitter feed a few weeks ago and last week, got the Fat Bike Summit & Festival Facebook page up. So now you can visit/like/follow/subscribe to either or both. Anytime that we update this blog, we’ll update Twitter and Facebook with links to the permalink of the blog post.
And of course, we also have an RSS feed if you prefer to keep track of our blog posts with a news reader. And see the email signup form on the lower right sidebar if you prefer to follow this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.
Full steam ahead. We’re sending out this media release today and starting to do a little online promo.
You’ll notice two changes (both in the release and on the website) since my last blog post (which I’ve now edited):
Here’s the full text of the press release (links added) in case you prefer it over the PDF:
I’ve put up a new Location page with some details on the event headquarters for the 2013 Fat Bike Summit and Festival: the Sawtelle Mountain Resort in Island Park, Idaho.
There’s a new Schedule page up with some detail. Friday January 25th is the day for the Summit, devoted to the issues. Saturday and Sunday are Festival days with fat bike group rides, an industry expo, demos, races, and of course, a party on Saturday night.
Over the weeks to come, we’ll be adding more details for all three days, so be sure to subscribe to this blog to get the updates. You can subscribe now via email or RSS (see the right sidebar). I’ll soon put up a Twitter feed and Facebook page and we’ll post updates to both of those, too.
The first Fat Bike Summit (January 2012) gathered land-use planners, rangers, and representatives from the bike industry to discuss fat bikes, and assess their potential impact on public lands and local economy. Educating attendees about the importance of planning for fat bike use on public lands was a key focus of the Summit.
For 2013, we’re adding a festival and making a weekend of it. The 2nd Annual Fat Bike Summit and Festival is scheduled for January 25-27, 2013 in Island Park, Idaho in the heart of the Greater Yellowstone Region. It will be the premiere fat bike gathering in the western U.S. for both land managers and fat bike enthusiasts.
Fitzgerald’s Bicycles, a local bike shop with a long history of sharing, promoting and selling fat bikes, is co-hosting the event along with Quality Bicycle Products (QBP), an industry leader in fat bikes.
Details forthcoming, but for now, reserve the dates: January 25-27th, 2013, in Island Park, Idaho.
Watch for posts from our new Fat Bike Summit blog Real Soon Now.
