The original version of this article was published on BikeRumor.
A major cycling event in Minneapolis has been canceled in the wake of ongoing protests against ICE. Quality Bicycle Products (QPB), one of the country’s biggest bike distributors, had planned to host an in-house trade show called Frostbike at the end of February.
But because “current enforcement activities make it unsafe for some of our attendees to travel to the Twin Cities, then the event is not safe for all attendees,” QPB president Rich Tauer said in a cancellation notice posted on the QPB site this week.
The event planned to bring together hundreds of retailers, supplier brands, and “thought leaders” to discuss products, network, and give seminars over the 3-day event, according to the website.
Although it canceled the event, QPB also praised the work of local bike shops in organizing a memorial ride for Alex Pretti, who was fatally shot by Department of Homeland Security agents on Jan. 24. The death of Pretti, a nurse and cyclist, inspired the memorial ride, an event that drew thousands of participants and shows the “power of the bicycle,” Tauer said.
Canceling the event is also another blow to the bike industry. It has struggled since the pandemic with declining demand and higher tariffs, and trade shows remain an important part of keeping it alive.
QBP Cancels Frostbike Show
Tauer’s letter is in full below:
As we have been preparing for the return of Frostbike, over the past six weeks we have been monitoring the situation in the Minneapolis metro area related to federal immigration enforcement activity. While we have been hopeful that a significant de-escalation would take place, it does not appear that meaningful change is coming soon. While better days for our community are certainly in our future, the current conditions make it potentially unsafe for some attendees. For that reason, we have made the difficult decision to cancel Frostbike 2026.
In the coming days, the Frostbike events team will be reaching out to exhibitors to provide guidance on logistics related to the cancellation of the event. This decision did not come easy, and it was not the one we wanted to make, but we recognize if the current enforcement activities make it unsafe for some of our attendees to travel to the Twin Cities, then the event is not safe for all attendees.
The theme of Frostbike 2026 is Take the Lane, and we encourage each of you to be proactive and Take the Lane for your business, your community, and yourself. There’s no better example of the power of our industry taking the lane together than last Saturday’s memorial ride honoring Alex Pretti, who was fatally shot in Minneapolis by Department of Homeland Security agents on January 24. Angry Catfish Bicycle Shop, with the help of other businesses and local citizens, hosted the Minneapolis ride and guided other organizers in hosting more than 250 officially scheduled rides across 14 countries and 43 states. In Minneapolis alone, we had over 5,000 riders show up despite the snow and cold weather.
The power of the bicycle and the collective bicycling community knows no bounds. Those boundless possibilities are the reasons we were very much looking forward to convening members of the bicycle industry to connect with each other and learn from one another. Events like Frostbike are important to us because we know that when we can meet face-to-face to share ideas and work through problems, the outcomes are good for the industry and good for our collective businesses. And while we have recently seen some bright spots, there’s still a lot of work for all of us to do, together, to help get more people on bikes and build a healthier, more sustainable industry. That’s why we are working diligently to find alternative ways to share much of the educational content and industry perspectives we had planned for this year’s event and we’re hard at work planning Frostbike 2027.
If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to reach out to your Q representative or Q Customer Service.
Sincerely,
Rich Tauer, Q President
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