While previous Global Fat Bike Summits began with a push from QBP, and were limited to Q brands as sponsors, Advocacy King, Gary Sjoquist, this year invited any manufacturer who has a stake in the fat-bike market to the table and that led to Borealis, Trek, Specialized, Rocky Mountain, Felt and more as well as QBP brands Surly, 45NRTH and Salsa to come to Snow King in Jackson, WY and talk fat-bikes with the land managers who can help us gain access to new areas and gave them a place to gather and show off their fat-bike wares. Having the big guys at the table lends another level of legitimacy to the fat-bike movement and brings resources only large companies have to bear.
Surly’s Trevor Clayton lays some knowledge on The Emcee!
At its core the Global Fat Bike Summit Expo that was held at the base of Snow King Mountain is all about the demo bikes, this time for any one who wanted to give them a try.
The Short Track Test Loop was a good introduction to how a bike rides on groomed trail that had a short, punchy climb and then a downhill with a berm at the bottom.
Longer ride options led up Cache Creek and onto some of the 12+ miles of groomed trails. Snow King uses both snow machines and human powered grooming to provide a mix of wider trails and singletrack build expressly for fat-bikes.
James Bleakley from Black Sheep and Chris came over from Fort Collins to sample the local trails!
The Short Track Race was a crowd favorite with locals and industry folks cheering side by side with Exop attendees. Cary Smith (#60 in the orange helmet) took 1st. BTW, Cary is a Marathon Single Speed National Champion! The Hub custom built Cary’s 22b Borealis Echo w/ HED BD’s and Dillinger 5s.
Paul Talbot (41) leads Jeff Eggleston during the Expert Race on the Short Track Fat-bike Race Course. The short laps meant there was plenty of action for the fans!
The Raffle was a BIG one with prizes donated by Hub Bicycle, Raceface given away to ticket holders at 4 separate times, once during the Expo, once right before the Oub Crawl and twice more during the Pub Crawl. Big prizes included a RockShox Bluto, a RaceFace Next SL Crank, RaceFace Next Carbon Bars and a ton more! Proceeds benefited the Mountain Bike the Tetons IMBA Chapter.
Hub Bicycles sponsored the after-expo Pub Crawl with stops at Snake River Brewing, The Million Dollar Cowboy Bar and The Local. More about the beer tomorrow!
Too bad the nimrods from the Aspen area see fatty’s as they saw snowboards in the 90’s. the most narrow minded narcistic lot in the region…
We still have the snowmobile trail system that is hundreds of miles of fat bike bliss.