The Radavist

Saddle Drive Is The Best … Time For All
Photos and words by Jarrod Bunk

Saddle Drive is a dealers only event in which QBP invites bicycle retailers from all over the country to take part in what is usually two days of seminars, stoke, and shredding, yes there’s a whole bunch of product in there too, unfortunately, I can’t share much as most of it is under embargo. This year some forthcoming thunderstorms (PSYCH) condensed the shred/expo time to just one day. The morning before the demo, QBP held a women’s only ride and 97% of the attendees traversed some of the best forest-service roads near Seven Springs, PA .   Even with the condensed timetable, I was able to take some familiar bikes down some familiar terrain and even venture further off route.

Thanks to a little Google Earth logistics we were able to take some singletrack over the road to visit some cutty spots at the top, ALWAYS TAKE THE SINGLETRACK!  There were some rad new products including Ketl’s revamped women’s line, Teravail’s answer to the industry that the world needs more gumwalls!  (Twenty-nine X 2.6″  Kennebec PLEASE) and some revamped Whisky Rims just to name a few.  It was All City’s Tenth Anniversary and let me tell you that 10TH Anniversary Mr. Pink is wild in person! Finishing out the demo day I was able to shoot some of Salsa’s new line of bikes which will be featured here once the embargo is lifted, thanks to Lindsey Beltchenko, Salsa’s Marketing Manager. I wanted to cram every bit of time we could into the day and we dipped to a natural rock slide just outside of the resort and visited a cafe that had Kyle stoked the whole way back.  We made it back in time for All City’s 10TH Anniversary Party, here’s to 100 more, as a bonus check out Jeff’s rad Gorilla Monsoon.  Thanks to everyone at QBP who makes this event a success, and everyone who made this event a blast!  This was definitely a Saddle Drive to remember.

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Saddle Drive Is Still the Best!
Words by John Watson, photos by John Watson and Jarrod Bunk

Saddle Drive! It’s part party, part bike demo and part tradeshow, in that order. Or at least that’s how we’ve covered it in years past. This year, however, QBP did things a bit different, opting to put many, if not most of the bicycles and products they “launched” under strict embargo. The bad news is, you won’t see any bike portraits in this gallery, but the good news is, you’ll see my two favorite bikes in the future, once the embargo is lifted.

Editor’s note: Jarrod recently attended Saddle Drive, Quality Bicycle Product’s outdoor showcase for their forthcoming products. This included components, accessories and complete bicycles from brands like Salsa, Surly and All City. Jarrod spent two days there, photographing new components on day one and on day two, complete bikes. Here’s day one.

Saddle Drive is the Best
Words and photos by Jarrod Bunk

Saddle Drive is an event that is very similar to Frostbike, however the premise is a bit different Saddle Drive allows QBP dealers and media some time on 2017 Products. The tradeshow aspect is a bit toned down, to allow for maximum time on saddle. Following the All City party the night of arrival, day one started off slow. I was able to ride the new Karate Monkey from Surly, The Salsa Cycles Woodsmoke, new Mukluk, and the All City Spacehorse disc to name a few. Spending most all of day one riding bikes in high alpine was, well, one of the best experiences of my life, and being on some stellar bikes made it that much sweeter. Thanks to Kyle and Bobby for taking me to the top at Pluto and shredding back down.

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Follow Jarrod on Instagram.