As hoped for, my Frostbike post yesterday generated a number of comments, but it also stirred up some resentment. So let me clarify a bit.
Frostbike is QBP’s event and they can do with it what ever they want. For the most part I have no problem with that at all.
Manufacturers are always looking for ways to make positive connections with consumers and that is why I mentioned the idea of a consumer day. A manufacturer can have the greatest product in the world but is at the mercy of the dealer to keep this product in stock at their store and make the sale when the consumer shows up. Being able to promote products directly to consumers is of value to manufacturers because they can then drive consumer demand into the dealers and increase sales.
However, as long as QBP keeps Frostbike as an ‘in house’ event, I do not think that having a consumer day is appropriate. The only way a consumer day would work is if Frostbike ever grew to the point where QBP needed to consider moving it off site. At that point it may be worth while for QBP to consider working something out with the Minneapolis Bicycle Travel and Fitness Expo. Attending Frostbike is no problem for me as I live 15 minutes from QBP. However, for vendors traveling in from other states it is a big expense considering the shipment of displays, airfare and hotels. I would think that if QBP vendors had the ability to maximize this expenditure by making contacts with both dealers and consumers they would more than likely jump at the opportunity. But this scenario is probably some years away from consideration. Consumer shows have their own inherent problems so there would have to be quite a bit of discussion and consideration before a decision like this would ever be made.
In the mean time, from some of the discussions that I have had with QBP staff, dealer guests at Frostbike continue to be a problem. Now, when I use the term guest I am not talking about legitimate employees of the store. I am referring to those individuals who are not employed in the bicycle industry yet are invited to attend Frostbike by a dealer. To some extent QBP brings this problem on themselves by even allowing dealers to invite guests to the event. QBP can go a certain distance to help solve this problem by removing the category of ‘guest’ from the Frostbike registration form.
Non-dealer attendees of Frostbike will continue to occur however. It is very important for those non-dealers, non-managers and non-buyers who attend Frostbike to keep in mind that it is not a “bike show’, it’s a dealer event. Even more so than Interbike, Frostbike is specifically a QBP dealer event. QBP pays nearly the entire expense of Frostbike including employee overtime, utility expense for running a building at almost full tilt on what would otherwise be a quite weekend, and a massive amount of food and beverages. QBP spends a lot of money to promote this event for the purpose of connecting dealers and manufacturers and improving the relationship between dealers and QBP.
Exhibitors are going to be nice and take time for anyone who happens to come by their booth during a show. But keep in mind that if you are not a dealer, and you tie an exhibitor up in conversation during a busy show, you are actively preventing the goals of the Frostbike event from being met. It’s noticed by QBP and it is not appreciated.
So, in closing, if you happen to find yourself at Frostbike next year and you are not a dealer try and think about ways to minimize your impact on the event. Keep moving around the exhibit hall, don’t tie up vendors in conversation, don’t eat or drink anything, remember that you are not supposed to be there – act like it.
If you are reading this and feel like I am addressing you specifically then I probably am. It’s not necessary to make any convoluted explanation in the comments section as to why you think you should be exempt because you are not. Just keep this in mind if you find yourself at Frostbike in 2008.
Leipheimer was caught in the accident and came through the finish line in the second group over one minute down from the winning group. Chief commissarie of the Tour of California Fabrizio Darnellio initiated discussions on changing the UCI regulation from three to ten kilometres to go, ultimately giving Leipheimer the leader’s jersey. “Due to the size of the crash and the large number of riders that went down in the crash, our panel of commissaries made a decision to award all the riders with the time of the winner,” Jim Birrell, race director said. “I think it was a fair decision and the right decision.”
I have read some complaints on the internets about this situation but there is a little known UCI rule that comes into play when this kind of thing happens.
The rule states that:
• If the race is taking place in the USA… • and if an American is the race leader… • and the stage is finishing in the home town of the American race leader… • and the credibility of the race from the previous year is in question… • and there is a crash involving the American in the lead of the race at any time…
then the American gets to stay on as race leader by any means necessary, end of discussion.
People would be calling in to [state committee] headquarters every week, absolutely enraged, threatening to leave the party because of some comments (John) McCain made. The guy has no core, his only principle is winning the presidency. He likes to call his campaign the ’straight talk express.’ Well, down here we call it the ‘forked tongue express.
This just shows that McCain is mentally unstable and out of control and vindictive. If he is determined to go through that much trouble to attack a (Republican) district committee chairman, what does that say about his ability to handle real political problems?
And these comments come from a fellow Arizona Republican party member.
Remember what I said about watching them blow up. My only real concern is that we are so far out from the conventions that both Straight Clucker McCain and Saint Rudy are going to blow up and blow away too soon which will open the field for a GOP candidate with a real shot. However, if we are still in Iraq by November of 2008 I really think that the GOP does not stand a chance in hell.
For those who don’t know what I have been writing about over the past few days, Quality Bicycle Products is a wholesale parts and accessories distribution company located in the Twin Cities. Each year QBP hosts an open house event where their vendors display products and dealers can come visit with QBP employees, check out the facility and see new products for the new season.
It seemed to me that the event was success for Quality Bicycle Products again this year. I don’t know if the overall number of dealers in attendance was up or down, but I do know that traffic appeared to be steady both Saturday and Sunday and this at least gave the appearance of being busy, if not actually being so.
Years ago the Chicago Area Bicycle Dealers Association (CABDA) put on an annual industry show in Rosemount Illinois. They closed the show in 2001 due to lack of participation by dealers and suppliers. Correspondingly, over the past three or four years, the size and scope of the QBP open house event (now called Frostbike) has grown so dramatically that it almost serves as an effective replacement for the CABDA show.
There are two “problems” as I see it with the QBP Frostbike event:
• The event only hosts those vendors who sell their products via the QBP distribution channel. This means that any component or bike/frame manufacturer that does not have their products distributed by QBP is not invited to attend the Frostbike event.
• The Frostbike event is only open to bicycle dealers and their guests.
The first issue is a fact of life. The event is organized and promoted by QBP and they have no real interest in promoting brands that they do not sell. Bike manufacturers have their needs serviced by the Interbike show in Las Vegas each fall and a February show is far too late in the buying season to make any significant connection with dealers anyway. Component manufacturers who do not have their products distributed by QBP are simply out of luck in regards to the Frostbike event as well as the sales that QBP provides by being the largest bicycle parts and accessories distributor in the United States. The component manufacturer either has a reason not to use QBP (for example Icon products that are distributed exclusively by Trek), or the components are not in high enough demand to be considered by QBP for distribution.
The second issue is not so much a problem as much as it is an opportunity. I think a consumer day at both Interbike and Frostbike would be tremendously successful. It would be very easy to have a consumer day on the final day of Interbike as pure distribution companies, who have no real benefit to consumer contact, could simply close up their booth for the day and leave the final day of the show to the manufacturers.
A consumer day at Frostbike would be more problematic. There is the obvious problem of having consumers come into contact with wholesale pricing information. But to some extent this is already happening with dealers having the ability to invite part time “employees” or guests to the Frostbike show. Dealers seem unwilling to crack down on “unauthorized” guests attending the event. Gearing one of the two days of Frostbike to consumers would allow both QBP and exhibitors to more effectively control who has access to sensitive information for that day.
The bigger issue is, does QBP have the room to host a consumer show? QBP is not a convention center and they do not have endless square footage of space that they can devote to a show. I can easily see the space that QBP has used for the past two years being over run with consumers to the point of creating a fire hazard. So, while a consumer show would be great success and a valuable opportunity for vendors to connect directly with consumers, I don’t see this happening anytime soon. Unless, that is, QBP considers moving their event off site.
Moving Frostbike off site is an idea worth considering. The fact is that QBP no longer provides tours of their warehouse facility and dealers are no longer able to place orders for pick up the same day. There seems to be very little benefit provided by having the event take place on site. As a matter of fact, it would seem to me that it might be worth considering moving the Frostbike event off site for no other reason than to increase the on going security of the facility itself. If I owned a building with millions of dollars worth of inventory located inside of it I would want to keep its location as anonymous as possible. Maybe QBP and the Minneapolis Bicycle Travel and Fitness Expo should get together and work something out.
Sean Hannity tells me that Europe has been “over run” by jihadists.
While I was over in France I think I saw something like 2 Arabs in total. Either they don’t hang out where I was, which can’t be true if the term “over run” is indeed correct, or Hannity is full of crap as usual.
I just got confirmation that 18,000 lbs of my family’s CO2 (69 fill-ups) will be neutralized thanks to TerraPass. Less than $100 covered our guestimated annual driving in 2 fairly efficient cars.
According to TerraPass’ “Around Towner” and “Cross Towner” pricing structures, neutralization is $.10 / gallon.
I don’t know much about carbon credits, but I did not know they were so cheap. I think that I am going to sign up Auto le Smithers for this program.
Garrick asks:
Why isn’t carbon neutralization built-in to the Gas Tax?
It should be, and I think it will be in the near future. The more awareness people have regarding the issue of carbon emission the more they will be willing to pay a small price for very little behavior change on their part.
This is a personal web site and does not represent the views or policies of my employer. If you come across an item that you happen to find offensive then you have not been reading long enough because there are lots of things that are offensive on this site. Sorry…
