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Our New Bikes, Jeff's Adventure Race, MTB Innovations & Piles of Listener Questions...MTB Podcast 84 [Podcast]

MTBpodcast · Our New Bikes, Jeff's Adventure Race, MTB Innovations & Piles Of Listener Questions...MTB Podcast 84

Overview

On today’s MTB Podcast Jeff, Jared, and Liam start off with discussing some of their recent trail adventures. One of which was Jeff’s 36 hour multi-sport race in Mammoth as well as Liam and Jared’s Big Bear bike park laps. Next up the boys discuss the finer details of their current bike builds which a few were not exactly planned. Last but not least we get into some of our favorite listener questions, including everything from our experience with Mullet bikes to the best MTB innovations of all time, as well as the durability of E-MTB components, BBQ sauce in a Yeti and everything in between. Enjoy!

0:00 Intro

1:25 Recent Rides

7:55 New Employee Bikes

21:09 Listener Questions

MTB Podcast YouTube Channel

Worldwide Cyclery YouTube Channel

Worldwide Cyclery Instagram

MTB Podcast Instagram

MTB Podcast Website

Submit any and all questions to podcast@worlwidecyclery.com

Chasing Epic Mountain Bike Adventures: https://chasingepicmtb.com/

Mountain Bike Buyers Guide - 2020 Edition: https://youtu.be/CmQVJMFLWbY

High Rise MTB Bars? 35/40mm Pros & Cons Explained: https://youtu.be/_lZVpmVJjN0

If you are one strange human that would like to read a transcript of the podcast above, continue reading below!

[Music] ladies and gentlemen welcome to episode 84 of the mtb podcast

presented and hosted by worldwide cyclery i am jeff i'm liam woods and i'm jared erickson

and we are here to talk about all sorts of various mountain bike things um this episode what why'd you give me

that look i'm excited oh he's excited yeah give me oof like something was wrong i'm excited okay jesus we're gonna answer a lot of

questions from you guys we've been posting this on youtube and instagram asking everyone for questions and we got

a ton of cool questions about the bike industry bicycle components bike geometry tons of

stuff and we're going to kind of rapid fire them but also make sure we still go in depth and actually answer some questions

and bring some good mountain bike value to you uh we're gonna talk about some of our recent favorite rides and changes to our bikes and new

bikes that we got did you get a new bike i built a bike yeah okay did you get a new bike i did get a new bike we all

might need to go to counseling for this situation uh in other news we have a currently a

new dj dj pineapple i'm not sure what he's doing he's out driving his mini cooper but our new dj is mr dj meatball who is

ironically vegan squish squishy

[Applause] [Music] favorite recent rides who's got the best

Recent Rides

one um well i think you have a pretty crazy one i do yeah the last podcast i talked

about the fact that i was training for this 36-hour multi-sport adventure race and i did it

and survived was it really 36 hours it took 36 hours oh it was like 30 24 hours and like 42

minutes or something madman yeah it's it's pretty it's kind of confusing because you it's all

it's all points based and then time is used as a tie breaker so you're basically given a map in the

beginning and then you're given three different maps at the different transition areas and then you get uh basically just gps

coordinates you plot them on the map yourself no no electronics are allowed to be used in these adventure races so you have to

navigate with a compass and a physical map which is extremely hard and you have to go get these checkpoints

and the checkpoints there's mandatory ones and then there's extra credit ones the extra credit ones are worth points

so the idea is it's a points race whoever gets the most extra credit checkpoints still finishes within 36 hours and then

technically if you have the same amount of points as another team then they use time as a tiebreaker so that was the way this adventure race was

structured and it int it was total miles um bunch of hiking bunch of trail

running a total of 14 hours on the mountain bike which was awesome it was it was basically started in mammoth ended in

bishop eastern sierras of california for those that don't know a lot of elevation a lot of heat i thought i was going to heat

stroke at one point but the most miserable part to me was the kayaking we had to kayak across this

lake for three and a half miles and like 26 mile per hour winds it was it was hellacious so that was my

most memorable mountain biking ride sort of excursion wow it was a good time i mean i trained

all of us on our team as a four-person team you all do it together you have to start together finish together and stay

together the whole time so yeah it was a it was a good time it was our first time

we were actually in the top three in the race for about the first 10 hours mostly because

that first leg had a bunch of mountain biking and we were all strong mountain bikers and then it came to the nighttime navigation section and we all got lost

in the woods for about four hours and lost a ton of places and went all the way to the back of the pack and got

smoked so we we still did pretty decent we finished mid-pack 30 total teams started and i think 23

teams finished a lot of people dnf because injuries and fatigue really people got heat stroke and yeah it was pretty tough

um but yeah so i think we could have done better if we knew how to use a map and a compass better and we knew how to do that but we just

weren't patient enough with reading the map and understanding the terrain so yeah it was really hard it was all of our for all of us it was our first like big

adventure race so it was cool i don't know i mean i've done plenty of mountain bike races as a kid and a young

adult and this was the first like totally unique different non-mountain bike race but still had 14 hours of mountain biking in it so wow

it was a good time i survived as wild the hardest part was like not sleeping at all right um and then honestly the most

painful part was brushing my teeth after like i've told people that they're just laughing at me but i skipped a nighttime

toothbrush and the morning toothbrush and i was just eating garbage the whole time basically like electrolytes and sugar

and whatever and then like brushing my teeth after it was like so painful because they were all

sensitive and it was it was bad well also when i do big rides i like make a point brushing my teeth

right away because you get so much dust and dirt yeah oh yeah we had all of that sandpaper for your teeth

it's a gross sensation yeah so i actually can totally understand that yeah that was the worst part and other

than my hip flexors exploding because of the miserable kayaking situation and yeah yeah but otherwise it wasn't too

bad it was good fun nice so yeah that was my most recent memorable ride nice what do you got willie um most of

my riding's been pretty uh consistent with the normal stuff but jared and i did make it up to

the bike park last week so that was pretty rad getting a first bike park laps of the

season big bear you went to snow summit yeah big bear in big bear california roughly two hours outside of la or

something like that yeah two hours outside of l.a three hours from us so um yeah we went out weekday

which is like the best i think to go on a weekday no lines we did like 12 laps which is

like 14 000 feet of descending or something like that yeah um pretty heavy day with the boys and

got in some party laps so nice yeah recently just yesterday i asked jared on a group ride our california shop

groupout i was like here what are you doing for training for this big colorado trip we have this month and

he's like well i did 14 000 feet of descending the other day yeah the chairlift

around and they all just kind of stumped and i was like what do you mean you at the bike park you use a chair lift and he's like yeah i'm like okay well

great on the downhill yeah super easy climbing up is what i said yeah yeah super super fast and smooth going up

yeah yeah but yeah was that your most memorable reason yeah that's going to be my most memorable recent

ride for sure it was such a good time ride in the bike park having ridden chairlift in a couple years so amazing i've been driving a lot of sky

park you know um because i spent a lot of time up in the lake arrowhead yeah park for those who don't know sky

park at sands village um fun little bike park no chairlift so you got to pedal up to earn your laps

but yeah trails are pretty short but they're fun it's like we don't have a lot of like fun jumps around you have a season pass

there i do yeah okay so that's lake arrowhead which is also by big bear right a few hours outside of los angeles

and socal yeah so no lift no but they make you pay yeah but they take really good care of

the trails yeah that's what i've heard i've heard the trails are super nice yeah they take really good care like you know they you know work on the drums all the time

and clean it up so that's nice they're really good about trail maintenance but um yeah just it's nice to not have to

worry about hikers on these trucks riding e-bikes there yeah yeah it's pretty popular choice cause then you just e-bike up the

fire road and then charge the downhill line e-bikes at sands village is great for the ride up but the terrain's not quite steep enough

going down right so i feel like if you really want to like get after it on the jump lines

like a cross country bike or a new age cross country bike is almost the best yeah or like a short travel trip i guess yeah like you know

like my sp 150 is a little bit too much but i can also like hook to flat and not have to worry about it so yeah it's nice

yeah that is nice but yeah just like spending time up in the mountains it's really nice yeah that is nice up there very cool all

right new bike stuff liam what'd you get you want me to start uh my main new bike well actually i'll just

New Employee Bikes

start i have a sp-150 and i just threw some new parts on that and threw on some dh casing tires for

the bike park season and riding trail bikes with dh casing tires

is pretty awesome feeling so i did that but my new bike i built up an evil

following which is their 120 mil rear travel bike um 29er but you didn't necessarily build

it up didn't we build that for stock and then you just kind of fell in love well yes buy it yourself isn't that what happened

yeah exactly just to clarify the story here yeah so what i i was getting to that point yeah so i built it up

okay physically you built it up yeah here's the one who built it so um you know six months ago when we were

doing pre-orders for 2021 because everything's kind of screwed up uh evil had this bike on their pre-order

that said evil following sid axis was the whole description

and is pretty expensive so i jotted down one on the pre-order and we moved on six

months later the bike came in and i was peeking in the build kit and i'm like oh sick new evil boba and i peeked in i'm like wait a second and i

started pulling through the build kit more and more and i'm like oh my god this bike's incredibly spec'd for a stock build yeah

super high-end super i have the reverb access on it too it's full axis xx1 with reverb axis it's got sid

ultimate suspension front and rear with a remote lockout it has i9

ultra light 280 carbon wheels so 20 internal i9 hydra hubs carbon rims i have the

system spokes for my niners yeah oh it does it does have a system alloy machine spokes

nvm6 bar and stem and it had level ultimate brakes so that's how it came bone stock with

recon race tires so i looked at that and i put on the scale and actually i chatted jeff like the

second i put on the scale and i'm like dude this thing's 25 pounds five ounces and i replied no it's not the scale was broken

so typically evil followings come a little bit more trail spec to you know

kind of trail wheels mid-range weight mid-range size pike up front

you know code or xt or g2 or xt brakes kind of like a trail build on this 120 mil travel bike like a 130 or 140

fork so when this came in kind of on this like lightweight i don't know i guess down country spec

xc plus bike spec out and it weighed that much i'm like oh wow it's pretty incredible and

then of course i started like getting obsessed with it and you know i thought about it for like a

weekend and then hit up a buddy that wanted to buy my bike and this is yeah and it snowballed into me

selling my bikes and wheels and i bought this bike so what happens when you work in the bike industry you fall in love

with one bike and you start texting a bunch of people do you want to buy my current like it's kind of like you know in a dude's

world the best partner ever you can't really do that in real life so like you live through your bicycles yeah

so yeah it's a good analogy yeah you get over it you buy a new one and you keep keep on going constantly falling in love

with exactly that's a great way to put it you can have multiple bikes you're in love with simultaneously that's where

i'm at currently just keeping your roster stacked exactly yeah boat and bikes we're talking about bikes we're talking about bikes yes um so yeah

i swapped a couple parts out put on some uh minion dhr2

2.3 tires front and rear that's like my favorite little bike combo it's like great weight to weight ratio exo casing

exo casing yeah um put on my saddle of choice

uh cut the bars down bikes 120 from 120 rear yeah 120 front

120 rear and i took off the level ultimate brakes because those were those weren't yeah not very

powerful what'd you put on there i put on code rsc's codes well what about g2 let me

explain there's a part shortage right now triggered i can't i'm i don't have the patience you can't

put codes on a bike that has a sid on the front it doesn't make any sense you've completely ruined everything i can do

whatever i want yeah it's true and there's no g2s anywhere i actually

bought the codes off of the story problems yeah i bought the codes off of a customer all right because there's no codes or

g2s anywhere i'm cooling off cool off still irritated but i'm understanding and actually

a lot of the crew i ride with all ride codes on their xc bikes because we don't really ride them like xc bikes so it's like not really

any heavier than a g2 is it like not really maybe like a couple of quarters

so as it sits now it's basically 27 flat with pedals ready right nice 120 120. beautiful fun bike i'm

really into it i move a couple weeks on it and ridden it a lot and uh i'm digging it so far remote lockout is

kind of needed for the way i ride it um just to get the full efficiency but

that's where we live too yeah you know kind of straight up straight down yeah so like paved stuff like sycamore

and yeah what's your new bike jared well my new bike it's not actually

technically mine but it is because i built it for my girlfriend paige um

but i've been riding it like it's mine uh sorry babe but uh it's really fun she's

probably not gonna listen this far no she does she does um so supportive this is what happens when you build a

bike for your significant other that ends up being more fun than your own bike um it's an sb-100 frame and i think i've

actually committed two of the most punishable mountain bike crimes out there um i've got mismatching

suspension i've got a fox fork on it with their rock shocks slow down i'm gonna throw up

fox 34 gas fork with the rock shocks uh what is it let's

say deluxe select plus i got off pink bike from some guy um this this is what we've been reduced

to we literally work at world wide security all day every day and we buy the staff buys parts from

pink bike because inventory shortages are such an issue but i think even the more punishable

mountain bike crime i've committed is having a mix match drive train with a sram cassette which we talked about on

the last podcast and one of those podcasts a shimano shifter and derailleur flame suit on

yeah but it works amazing i have to say it works really well okay slow down slow down because i came

back i was out visiting our shop in pennsylvania for a little over a week and i uh and i came back into town at

our california store and i'd you know jared was working on his bike and then liam and i were in our little lounge having lunch and

he said something like oh yeah jared did the ceramics ram nanos mix match or whatever

um and and then liam's like oh it doesn't work for a while and then you the other day we were like

sitting there like okay you know messing around with it and you're like jeff's perfect in the stand and i was like that doesn't necessarily matter

now well it's okay that's perfect but was it harder to get perfect than if you'd just done ulcerative hammer all

shimano um yeah maybe well here's the thing i didn't realize i would still never

recommend this shenanigans well did you do what i suggested

i forgot what you suggested what was that shimano chain oh no not yet no but what i did do the

shimano chain makes this combination work better well the fact that it's engineered for the cassette

probably helps actually it's a sram cassette though yeah stream set with ram chain cranks

sram chain ring in the front um but i didn't realize

the sram guy that i am that you can turn the clutch on and off on the derailleur on the shimano area one of the shimano patents that sram

can't access yeah so i turned the clutch on and it seems to work a lot better now

wait so you just had it off because you didn't know you'd yeah what dude weren't you weren't you

in are you for real weren't you in the comparison video yeah no i was not okay all right you you've been

yeah one of the one of the cool things that well there's they they have their pros and cons right so shimano drillers you can turn the clutch

on and off and you can adjust it and the only reason you turn it off ever is so you can take the rear wheel out of

the bike that's why yeah that's it end of story like otherwise like it's on 100 of the time like it's supposed to be 100 of the time you

only ever turn off when you're taking the rear wheel off of the bike okay but it is cool that you can adjust it and shimano has that patent sram doesn't

however saram has the whole cage lock pattern yeah shimano doesn't which makes it infinitely more easy to take the rear

wheel off because you push the cage forward you lock it in place really close right out so yeah so like it's hard to say like one's better than the

other they both essentially do the same thing they're clutch drive trains that keep chain from falling off and you know yeah

but yeah now it works great no complaints i gotta say i like the shifter how i can

shift into like two years at once and two yeah that is set like that's a helpful cool thing shaman shifters have this ram

yeah i mean given that it's not axis is that what you're gonna say yeah it's just now access you can just shift the whole

range yeah whatever you want yeah it's true but yeah for what it is it works pretty well mm-hmm gotta say

sweet yeah yeah but yeah jeff what's your new bike i uh well i've been riding that revel ranger which is 115 mil in the back and

then 120 in the front 29er down country-ish trail bike whatever you want to call it i love that thing but we are doing a

collaboration trip with chasing epic we try to do those twice a year now chasing epic does all-inclusive guided

mountain bike tours all over the country and we're going to crested colorado later this month and that's going to be

an awesome trip but i needed a little bit longer travel bike than the ranger just given the train we're riding so

i purchased a revel rascal oh yeah from one of the staff here he was i was like man i was like

chance's bike looks rad like i need a rascal and i and then i was like hey what are you doing with your rascal he's like oh

i just i just posted on pink bike i'm gonna get an sb 150 because i want a bike park bike and i was like i'll buy it

i bought it and he's like okay and then everyone else was like what you stole his bike like that and i was

like yeah i just don't want that i want that bike like i need that bike so like again you bought a new used bike off an

i couldn't get a employee because anywhere else in the time frame we have them trickling in but yeah it's hard yeah yeah bikes are scarce right now

just in the in the situation the bike industry's in so yeah revel rascal which i wrote a rebel rascal for almost a year

that was in 2000 the whole of 2019 i rode that bike almost whole year and i love that one that was a pretty cool rascal that you

had today okay maybe six months yeah i don't know i took it to new zealand yeah i wrote it in new zealand you got the dash after

that right yep yeah which was also so the rascal i was riding was 130 mil travels in the back 140 in the

front 29 inch wheels this one from chance has a different air spring in the front so it's 150 in the front 130 in the back

um yeah that's right wrote it yesterday i love those bikes they're super fun pretty sweet yeah now

i have my multiple two gravel bikes one in our pennsylvania store one here

flat bar sort of gravelly thingies and then i have my down country bike the revel ranger and then the rebel rascal i should

probably sell something and then i have like three friends asking me to give them my dirt

jumper because i haven't ridden it forever and everyone knows that and it just hangs on the wall here wait where is it is that it's on the wall back there yeah yeah i

like that dirt truck that's how many times you've walked by you don't even know jeez man i should ride that one day you

should haven't actually like parked i actually have a buyer for it if they want oh yeah but who's gonna buy that for what

it's worth i know a guy we'll talk about raymond raising his hand in the back

i don't know it is nice that's the problem though it's got really nice parts i don't think anyone wants to buy that for even what i paid

for it like wholesale cars i'll talk after all right well i still kind of want it though well then no seller i'm

emotionally attached i don't know oh man you want to buy it you have to think about it you have to write it in order to determine if you really needed it i

wrote it at the skate park about a year and a half ago and i had a great time raymond was there liam was there we have

a sweet brand new bike park that you need to go i know i've never even been yeah yeah i'll make a point

donated money to stop we bike bargain i've never even been there that's well not the right thing for me to be doing

we're gonna have to change that one of these days i'll ride your bike there no no not for

not for rent oh my goodness okay um let's jump into

listener questions we're gonna try to make these podcasts predominantly listener questions because we get a lot of really good questions through

instagram and through youtube and yeah they're just valuable stuff and we sort of hand pick the best

ones and rip through them so are you guys ready and now

a word from our sponsors g'day mates this is jack from down under i've got

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and now back to the show listener questions we got a lot of

Listener Questions

questions we got a lot of good ones we got some really funny ones but we also have mostly valuable mountain bike knowledge related

ones number one question can you sum up the current bike industry situation in less than a minute

yes can you i think so starts now ready go okay so the bike industry exploded in

2020 in popularity amongst all various disciplines and the industry more or less sold out of all the existing

product that it had and it takes a long time to manufacture hard goods so we're in this big

fat inventory lull where we just don't have enough product to supply the current demand in

2021 and that's pretty much it everyone's working really hard to make the stuff

because everyone wants to have inventory because everyone's revenue and therefore mortgage payments depend on having inventory and selling it us included all

the brands included all the factories included so it's just a challenging situation because of an explosion in

consumer demand in spring and summer of 2020 and time perfect and to follow up on

that real quick can i keep going you can follow us uh oh cause it says to follow up yeah follow up please yeah yeah the uh

the nbda national bicycle dealers association they have a great podcast which they also put on their youtube channel

and the vice president of specialized was on it recently and it was an hour-long talk and he pretty much explained in depth all of this so if you

really want to nerd out on what's going on in the bike industry go listen to him he's a super smart dude it's a really good podcast

slash youtube video and our current focus yeah so the follow up with where worldwide cyclers focus is over the

coming years of course we want to continue running an amazing media slash retail bicycle operation

that we've always done but we're also working really hard on kettle mountain which is the apparel brand that we acquired a couple years

ago and trying to make really good cross-functional apparel that works on the mountain bike off the mountain bike

all the above so that's what we're doing and if you're watching this on youtube by the way you might notice that jared

is no longer wearing a shirt that's because it is july 1st and it's really hot in this room

and jared got so sweaty that he took his shirt off yes i did no he's still sweating

next question this one's for jared how much barbecue sauce can i fit in the yeti su 150 c

tube asking for a friend here's the thing this is gonna vary depending on the frame

size so i'm assuming he is uh size large because that's what i am so size large s150 frame

your seat tube i'm gonna assume that you can fit at least two and a half bottles of a standard

sized barbecue sauce bottle in there and uh you know it could be sweet baby rays oh yeah

he's gonna ask is he gonna be sweet baby raisins it could be sweet baby raisins i did not think you're gonna take that question this seriously

honestly two and a half bottles that's my guess and we're gonna have to confirm that at a later date

can i add that i love barbecue sauce it's my favorite sauce let me tell you for all sandwiches

salads sandwiches so if burgers this is a quick side note but if you're

going to pick like carolina style kansas city style what kind of style barbecue sauce are you going for i don't know

like a vinegary or a mustard seed you like barbecue sauce you must know the difference i mean come on now um i kind of like to mix it up smokey's

pretty good sometimes get a little smoky barbecue kansas city style but just the classic sweet baby rays just hits

all right i wish we had a really good barbecue place around here we do where uh meat locker where is that on t

boulevard uh that's that's further than five minutes oh come on man if we if we're inventing all right we'll

go somewhere inventory they have prepared barbecued sandwiches oh yeah i mean yeah oh you just not just

they don't just like sell meat there you know man you come over my house that's a lot of that's a lot of work i'm not cooking it

okay side note on this same topic which is actually pretty entertaining when i was 19 i lived with a couple buddies

and we were all racing mountain bikes the whole summer and it was a really good time probably the highlight of my life and uh one of them peaked early yeah i

peeked early one of them put a pair of grips that i'd bought in the freezer and uh and didn't tell me where they

were and i was all pissed off about it for like a week and then i found him in the freezer and he thought i'd find him earlier anyways i was really

mad at him so i decided to get him back so while i was in the freezer i realized in the fridge was a whole big

can of feta cheese so i went down to the garage and i took the seat post out of his dirt jump bike

and i just poured all the feta cheese and packed it into the sea tube and then put this and put the seat belts back in

no you did it i had just worked on dude you're 19 years old this is the you do to your friends and the

well the the funnier part is never said anything and i was like why how on earth has he not said something

or like got me back i was like i was getting worried so i asked him we called him john but i was like dude what i was like did you ever notice

anything funky about your dirt bike and he's like he's like oh i sold it and i was like i was like what do you

mean he's like oh you know i sold it last week on pink bike some guy pin picked it up and i was like oh

uh okay

that was the end of the story the guy who bought it apparently never contacted him back and said anything about it so i don't know but

anyways i would be furious if i bought her jumper and the seating was filled with feta cheese feta cheese because that's bound to ended up

smelling pretty bad oh my god weeks later that's what i thought would have happened that's why i did this

that's awesome feta is not a mild smell to begin with i mean let's just yeah yeah okay next question

if jeff started an acapella group what would the name be i would call it the lost cartographers

oh that's good do you like it it's got an adventure right there mysterious is acapella two words that's definitely

spelled wrong is it i think well no i don't know ah capella weren't you a third grade spelling bee champion jared yeah

well run her up but his mom called him chances if

acapella is spelled a space c-a-p-e-l-o-o capella um but here's the thing the lost

cartographers you'd be pretty bad at your job if you're lost that's the point see see he knows what a cartographer is cartographer someone who

uh creates maps that's why there's the irony it's cool it's i love it it's a great yeah there's

probably like three women on the planet that would be like oh my god that's a cool name i think there's probably at least four

okay that's optimistic thank you you're welcome all right mountain bike related questions

yeah we go off topic what product revolutionized the mountain bike community the most

liam what is your answer i'm gonna go with probably the dropper post i think okay

i think is a whole are you talking about like the entirety of mountain bike history

really i guess yeah i mean that's not specified you can you can say that or not yeah i'm gonna say yeah let's go with the

entirety of mountain bike history okay the problem is we've not been along that for a long time i've worked on

i've worked on bikes from you know 1980 and up so dropper post final answer i almost want

to take it back hmm i'm going to say oh man that's a pretty that's a really

good one but i think tubeless tires and tubeless interfacing on wheels

okay and tires that's fair yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah i sum that up as like properly engineered tubeless tires not

like forget the whole patch of maybe four years where tubeless tires kind of sucked because they weren't specifically tubeless and then rims

weren't yeah that was a little awkward i think i think once it all got a great

interface and tire rim combo became really good you could ride a bike with a rigid post

but if you had like hard tires that didn't conform and you know flex well it just well people

do forget i mean maybe they don't forget but i sometimes forget that prior to dropper posts you just had a quick release seatbelt

clamp you remember that you just got to the top of your climb and you lowered the seat for sure the seat down yeah

yeah or you just rode with it up your butt like some people still do yeah i mean i recently i raised xc for years and i

was like why do i need to drop her post this yeah i don't know i don't need to like see you guys yeah yeah and then now i can't write that one but i always wrote a tubeless

tires and low pressure and without that probably wouldn't have had the same experience so

true that's that's my answer jared that's a good answer i am at a tie here between suspension

and disc brakes yeah just disc brakes in general disc

brakes i think from rim brakes i think disc brakes was in my mind but suspension's so broad they had

suspension in 1990 yeah but it was not very good well i'm talking about like

useless from like the beginning of mountain bikes right like full rigid like rim brake bike you know versus

suspension and disc brakes is it the golden arrow suspension is pike onwards

yeah when the rock stocks pike was introduced that's when the next benchmark was created suspension that's

where i'm at i'm a tie for suspension on mountain bikes and disc brakes on mountain bikes gotcha sorry to take like all your

answers but what do you think jeff you know it's a tough question because i don't know if there's been

one specific major revolution because it's been like most things where it's been a lot of iterations

for decades and i think that we're i'm just trying to even

remember i mean we weren't around like there was 26 inch wheels and then there was 29 and 27.5 which made a

pretty huge difference in traction and everything so but i think mountain bikes maybe

originally had tinier wheels or super skinny tires oh that's still an iteration though well

then like the rim technology just wasn't there you know tired rim technology was i'm gonna i'm

gonna go with dropper post the reason being because like all these other iterations made the

bike work better absolutely just like the dropper post did but the dropper post to me was

revolutionary because it it dramatically changed your ride it wasn't just like oh my bike shifts better oh my bike's more squishy or

my brakes work better it was like oh i don't have to stop four times a ride and lower my dropper

post or i can just ride this bike way faster and have a better experience on it going

downhill so i'm gonna go with like the dropper post i have another one that just came into my head and i'm gonna throw another

ring and i'm gonna say one by drive for one by drive trains because oh yeah the death of the trailer that was the hell

of a revolution jesus sucked even a two by just dropping chains all day it's like the worst thing

that ruins your ride like yo got great flow right now i love this trail oh cool i just dropped my chain

awesome yeah you're right front trailers were so bad they're terrible well this leads right into the next question which

is what do you think the next mountain biking innovation will be and when do you think it will come

[Music] pretty optimized right now what do you think the next innovation will be liam

i what the next innovation i would like to see um

personally i would really like to see a major drivetrain company make

a really well-performing gearbox that doesn't weigh that's what i was going to say

that's what i would like to see um it would it would fix why bikes keep getting wider right we

had 142 now we have 148 which is boost spacing and i'm talking about rear hub

now we have super boost or i like to say stupid boost it's just wider and we can't mix matched

wheels and it makes me frustrated um all that would be like so easily

solved if we took 12 speeds off the rear hub moved them in the middle of the frame

weight would be lower and then we could basically run a single speed out back widen out the spoke flange it's like the

last significant change that could be made yeah yeah and i still don't think it's like major but after riding a xerod that

actually has a gearbox and i was like wow it actually does just it behave the bike behaves better it

performs better in the way you ride it because the weight is centered correctly the weight centered the height of the

whole thing growth problem changes like all these issues yeah but there are its own inherent issues

too right for sure well that's why we're saying like a properly performing i think gearboxes now they work pretty

good but they don't work amazing right you know i mean if they worked amazing every bike brand would be trying to play

on their bike instead of a given that sram has such great performing wireless shifting

make a wireless shifting gearbox yeah with electronic shifting instead of

manual yeah um when the gearbox the weights in the middle of the bike i think

that to me is probably the next innovation nice if it could happen okay yeah yep i would that's exactly

what i would say i would like to see that because i think almost everything else is so perfected maybe like tires still suck

you know to some extent people still get flat tires i mean that's kind of annoying it has an hour and a half late to work today

yeah because of flat tire yeah so like there could be some nice innovations and tires that might actually solve flat tires forever that would be cool

but i don't know i would i don't have enough problems with tires that i'm bothered but i i just think bikes would work way better if the drive

drain and all the weight was like tucked in one more little one i can add but i'm going to let you answer first

jared i'm going to say that i don't think the next major innovation is going to be for the end user but

for the manufacturing side because i think that there are ways we can be more

sustainable and uh efficient with manufacturing especially with like carbon

um yeah that's true yeah the whole industry now is not very green in the sense of piles of

carbon frames that are thrown away and stuff like that yeah i think that's where the like next major innovation at least should

happen i don't know if that was the ask like the question asker's intent uh for that question but i think that would

be like the most useful innovation for the industry um yeah was it uh was it richard cunningham the pink bike guy who

did the extensive research and article on carbon versus aluminum frames in terms of a environmental perspective

and you want to say kind enough being a wash it was a tie it was kind of a tie because there was there was massive

issues with both and like if you read that whole thing you kind of left it with like well either one really sucks and

there's good yeah so i mean manufacturing in general is i mean you're kind of stuck between a rock and a hard place yeah ambition and

like you know producing something that people want so yep yeah that's right cool nice i like it it

just changed changed up the answer there yeah uh how does geometry affect

riding feel tall and steep versus long and slack

so basically we're going that's like a really hard question because it kind of depends on who's asking it you know if you're already pretty

knowledgeable about the differences between bike geos and why they're like that then

you probably know the answer but i guess if you're not you know and you don't understand i guess if you're if you're novice

enough to ask that question you probably don't realize like why do xc bikes have steeper head angles and

you know whatever versus downhill bikes like i don't totally grasp that yet but i mean geometry on a bike is

engineered for what the bike's intended use cases for yeah so if you're riding it predominantly pedaling it or climbing it

up hills then the geometry is going to be tailored towards that if you're riding it predominantly really fast down steep hills then the

geometry will be tailored to that yeah yeah i think this is i will say though now because

it's tall and steep versus long and slack i would say the main difference between a 20 20 20

21 current xc bike to a current you know super enduro bike so

i'm going to say like in the 120 or under rear travel range to a 117 up

rear travel range no the broad ends the broad end of the spectrum

the main difference they're all basically bb heights very similar they're the same pretty much length in

reach and front centers the main difference is head tube angle yeah that is one of the further

and then and then because of head team head tube angle slacker you then get more wheelbase so you get

more stability but like if you look at i mean my current evil following has a like a 480

reach on a large it's like over what xl's were three years ago

four years ago they've grown so bikes have grown you know so like that kind of takes a lot of this question out and it's just like why do

you get a slacker head tube and that's pretty much the main difference why do you stock your head too versus deeper one

and as for the terrain and type of riding you're doing basically what would you say this long and slack

is gonna give the bike more stability versus this tall and steep bike on chunky steep whatever type terrain not

necessarily because it's less stability if you're climbing it yeah so it's more more stability for its intended use case

right correct and you know therefore there's a give and take the better it works down all the worse it's going to work uphill right yeah

right yeah well there you go yeah bike geo is tough there's well two videos i want to quickly plug for whoever asked that

question we did a mountain bike buyers guide where i kind of went over like all the various different types of mountain

bikes that might be useful and there's another video that we talked about high-rise bars so why are

high-rise mountain bike bars gaining popularity and in that video we had a number of uh kind of just like

images and explanation on like why xc bikes are so low on the front end and then why downhill bikes are maybe higher

that's just helpful to like understand geometry and how bikes are and components are engineered differently given the use case that

they're made for all right what's the next question willie what do you think about mullet

bikes are they really the future on paper looks quite good and by mullet bikes they're meaning

bikes with that have two different wheel sizes so the current trend in about the last year so is running a

29er front wheel with a 27.5 rear wheel the concept's not new there's

been a ton of mixed match wheels throughout remember 69ers

69ers yeah 29 front wheel 26. jerry fisher i believe did that i think that was a gary fisher model

um i remember the old like specialized p street had a 26 front with a 20 yeah yeah yeah

like a jump style bike dirt jump style and some free ride bikes back in the day so it's not new but what made it gain popularity is

uci so uh basically the racing body for downtown union cyclist international

yeah i didn't know what stand for because whatever cares um they changed the ruling that's for some

reason it said bikes had to have the same size wheels well they changed that took it out and said run with it and do whatever you

want so then bunch people a bunch of top people top races started running

27.5 rear wheels for with two nine fronts um so yeah what do you guys think

i think this kind of goes back to what you're saying jeff is the use case like you're obviously not going to do this on a

you know xc or down country bike but maybe for a trail or enduro or downhill bike you know

yeah i i just think it's one of those things that it's negligible yeah so i mean i think you might notice

it and like it um and there's just just like anything there's pros and cons right so like the whole it might

maybe it corners a little snappier and feels good when you're like flowing on a downhill with a smaller

27.5 rear wheel and 29 front but it's obviously not going to climb as good it's not going to have the same

contact patch um when you're climbing and roll over things as much as a 29 inch would be so yeah yeah exactly so there's

just like pros and cons to it so like is it better it's kind of one of those things that's just like saying well is this

length change day better than the other it's not necessarily it depends on what you how you want it to behave and how you prefer it to behave

so it gets it gets a little preferential i think which to me makes it like yeah which to me makes it not like

revolutionary or the future it just makes it like yet another thing you can do just like you can run flat bars or high-rise bars depending on

your preference yeah yeah yeah i think sorry i've two two takes on it or two points on this i

think your height and leg you know inseam does matter

it seems like on the world cup scene people kind of 5 10 ish and under are

starting to really get along with it and running it gets the rear wheel out of the way their weight's a little bit lower

um they can probably corner and maneuver the bike side to side a little bit better 510 and up seems to just be running a

full two-nine setup and not changing it so that i think that might have something to do with it

especially on like downhill racing yeah um the other thing is i actually built up

a revel rail as a mullet and i want to try it out um that bike is designed for 275

designed for 27.5 i put a 29 inch front wheel and to compensate for the front end rise

i lowered the fork down and travel i ran a lower rise bar than i normally do

and i slam the stem all the way down to basically get the same height that you would if there's a 20 cent five bucks like bar to the ground

yeah so i wrote it around i had it for like i don't know

not a whole long time maybe six weeks long enough to get a feel for and ride it i actually was able to

take it up like santa cruz and took it on some shuttle days as well as just my local terrain in

santa cruz it was pretty awesome it was super fun but santa cruz riding if you're not familiar

is pretty much steep it's got some tight corners it's got like loamy kind of soil so your tires can dig into

it so tire patch isn't as like necessary as super dry socal

and there's also berms there then i was in socal so that helps burns out yeah traction while cornering

have a burner yeah so soak out super rocky kind of straight trails we don't have a whole

lot of tight switchbacks here i just personally felt that the rear wheel rear wheel got hung up more

than if i was on a full 29er and i also do quite a bit of climbing on all my bikes

so definitely didn't feel quite as efficient on the climbing side of things so

i just chose to uh buddy one in the frame and i just bought new 29s frame and ran it like that so

yeah i don't think oh i think like jeff said it's a it's a preference and it might work good

for some people especially on the more gravity focused writing yeah totally makes sense so yeah it's

one another one of those things you have to tell people yeah try it yourself see what you think yeah and it's like how do i do that yeah

it's not not an easy one to test and see what you think about it find a buddy with a 27.5 inch bike and steal his radio

if you already have a 29er right yeah if you have a 29er and hope that his uh hub has the same spacing

a few factors that go into this but let us know how it works out yeah exactly exactly all right next question

how do non-emtb components work on emtbs in terms of durability

so to clarify that um a whole there used to just not be such thing as emtb

specific anything and then all of these various mountain bike brands started making emtb specific

components and even apparel which is what i know dude tell me about it well now

it's like a running joke and the bike industry is like emtb specific this and it's like people make fun of it because

brands are just like eating it up yeah um so so anyways and there is but all these brands came

out with emtb specific components some of which made a lot of sense right so like sram's emtb drivetrain has less gears to

it uh the way they engineered like the shifting ramps and blah blah blah made for more torque like that actually makes

a lot of sense why they did that um then there's brands that have like emtb grips and saddles

and shoes and it's like okay that might you might just be trying to like put a cmtb logo on it so you can sell some you know but

some made sense some doesn't and the modern day like electronic mountain bike nowadays

typically has a mishmash of like some things that are emtb specific and some things that are not

some of which is totally fine so which is not uh i don't know i mean this is this is confusing i think

drive trains make a lot of sense because like e-mountain bikes e-bikes put a lot more pressure on drivetrains for sure i think

wheels and stuff like that matters but i mean things like grips bars saddles like that's dropper

pose it's all exactly the same there's no there's no difference so yeah i think drive trains and wheels and

tires i think michelin makes it easy expect tire now and basically it kind of just has a

harder rubber and more of a dh casing to it yeah because the bike has more weight too the bike has more weight

and because you're kind of ripping more uh miles and terrain on an e-bike a

harder compound rubber on your tire will last longer and then wheels yeah durability on

wheels so but he's asking how do non-emtb components work on emtbs

uh they're gonna pretty much work the same drive chains you might chew up chainsmore

i mean like some things like you know like code rsc like that's just gonna work fine right i mean

you don't need an emtb code rsc like well i guess trp has like a dhr

i don't know evo i guess which i mean you're gonna need more powerful brakes the faster and the heavier the bike is

pretty much uh non-emtb components just use downhill components and you'll be fine yeah to some extent yeah that makes

sense yeah right yeah i think i think the thing to be cautious of is that you know like i mentioned some emtb specific components actually

like saram's drivetrain like that makes a lot of sense to be made just for an emtb and it's more durable and it's

purpose-built for the changes an emtp puts on a drivetrain other things are just brands making a

cash grab and trying to slap an emtp logo on it and sell it to novice empty beers so just watch out for that like forks

and stuff is that what you're saying well i don't know man jerry's out on that because like there's still more

weight to that bike but then it's yeah beefy fork like yeah fox 40 from a

downhill bike probably just fine you know or like the fox 38 probably just fine or whatever it does have a

couple different tunes they do they have three levels of forks technically they are standard

and e-tuned and e-optimized the people we know at fox about this

situation so i will say from a real uh world experience a buddy of mine bought

a e-bike with a fox uh e-tuned 38 on it which is like just the damper

right just the damper because they don't make it e-optimized because it's already like beefy enough right so just the e-tune damper and he's

like dude this fork's amazing i've never gotten along with fox before like maybe i should try the new 30 on my

other bike and so he bought a standard 38 and he's like it can't get feel the same i can't get to feel the same like what

are we what's the difference i'm like well that's e-tune this isn't so there might be something to the damper i don't know what it is

oh yeah but does that mean that it is is better for an e-bike or just better for his preferences on any bike you're saying

that's different yeah yeah sure so yeah there's just put a sticker on it they actually change something exactly

we're talking fox that's a reputable brand yeah i'm clarifying some things you know like suspension yeah there is there's an

e-version that is different yeah yeah yeah so makes sense let's

keep talking about fox there we go yeah next question next question explain why fox made the

float x and will they phase out the dpx2 so we're talking rear shocks here

um when you guys answer that go well fox made the float x uh well because

they improved on the dpx too i mean it's a little more adjustable and a little more

like progressive and i don't know they just improve suspension you can constantly improve was this explained

and our fairly recent fox 2022 suspension video that you did jared uh i

believe it uh didn't exactly go over like why they made the float x i explained like the differences between

the floatex and dpx2 um but we can go back in time a few

years too they already had a float x in the line then they updated that and made the dpx2

right so just to like clarify it's a new shock i think they changed the name now

they went you know changed from dpx2 naming convention back to the float x

and like you said it's got new features some different adjustable stuff on it and will they phase out the

dpx2 yes for metric sizing no for imperial sizing correct at least for now

right like at least that way as far as we know you know they might do uh metric size float

or excuse me uh imperial size floatex in the future but we don't know yet so yeah it's just a

new shock got some new features new tuning they're able to put some new technology in it

and that's why they made it and they just changed the name instead of calling it the 2022 dpx2

they just changed it back to the floatx name same application super plush bro super plush naming

conventions in the mountain bike industry we could have a whole podcast just complaining about that from every brand

every brand we could yeah we were just recently talking about

how like it makes sense like fox's fork lineup makes a lot of sense 32-34 and once you realize that

those numbers correlate to the stanchion diameter and blah blah blah like it's like oh okay this all this whole like fork line that

makes sense 40 for downhill 32 for cross country and then someone's like yeah but what about the rear shocks and it's like oh

yep nope that's completely confusing in every possible way and then the rock shocks fork lineup and their rear shock line i

was just like random names and like none of it makes any sense super deluxe i mean those are two of the same

word the super deluxe yeah super deluxe ultimate that's like three of the same words

yeah i know mount mike industry naming conventions i i am utterly perplexed by all the time e13

i'm calling you out too yours are confusing lg one plus en

r t trs s r plus t r s plus four plus what yeah it's confusing okay we're we're

going into the whole podcast ranting that's awesome we can just go brand by brandon we go right into that podcast

right now yeah i'll be ready for another hour and a half super clear to me you guys you guys are just not educating yourself

yeah you just memorized it your whole life yeah uh okay last question last question one bike on

the market right now to ride for the next three years oh for all of your riding

wow that's right that's like one pair of shoes for all of your steps for the next three

years a good idea have any of us owned a bike for um

three years and ridden it not like a bike like i love the bike i'm never selling it a

current bike you're riding mountain bike even a road bike used it at least once every one to two months for three years

straight right it's been a little while but yes i have i bought a santa cruz nomad in about 2015.

um when that new nomad came out gen 3 i think it was mi3 and then i wrote it pretty much until i

started working here until i got my first employee bike and that was a little over three years

impressive man thanks but yeah it's not in the bike industry okay so i guess i'll just go into my

answer i'd probably go for a trail bike probably like a sp-130 lunch ride or maybe a rascal

and then i would probably okay yeah given i'd probably want to have two different sets of wheels cross-country oh now you're really

screwing this one bike dude one bike okay fine yeah i like two different things like tires

please nope one bike one bike and the tires this is this is horrendous do i have to keep the

same tires for three years i've never like i go in caves and crevices and i don't feel

i don't ever feel claustrophobic but i feel claustrophobic because of this question of limiting my bike options

i mean i agree with you i'm i'm the worst i'm emotionally and mentally claustrophobic and i've never felt like

i'm in a close case of emotion i am in a glass of yeah that's right well jeff what's your

pick oh i i would pick the rebel rascal man i mean i think i think just

type of bike i would pick a 130 millimeter rear travel 29 inch wheeled bike i think that

that is still so capable on you like you can ride that down some gnarly downhill and you can still ride that on

cross-country trails and not be like irritated about it like it won't be too heavy it's like this perfect

middle ground where it just works for nearly everything so it's just like the

ideal middle ground bike that 130 mil travel 29er so that's what i would pick and i would pick a rebel rascal

which i did ride for a long time in in 2019 i mean obviously preferably i would have

like over four bikes for all various different reasons but um yeah that's the type of bike i'd

pick and which one what do you got liam i am yeah i'm pretty much the same yeah yeah 130 ish trail bike

tuna 29s wheels front rear although i am decently impressed with this evil

following and i feel like i could just throw 130 pike on it and run it for like 95 percent of my stuff right now mm-hmm

but what about this like colorado crested butte trip we got it i'd rather still want to ride that yeah over at 130. yeah

but i'm still going to go with my original pick of a 130 trail bike probably yeah

it would be really hard to pick between a rebel rascal and a yeti sp-130 i think if i had to pick

one for everything i'd probably lean yeti sp-130 a little longer a little slacker so

yeah yeah i would actually leave the 150 fork on it just really standard build yeah i said

lunch ride i just tried that in my own mind for for all around riding because it would climb better um i could do

everything 150 travel up fronts a lot man i mean like rarely do i ride stuff or like i need more travel

it's like you know so it's unanimous 130 mil 29er yep yeah and yeah i just think the

wheelbase and the geo of the 130 would be better if i went to a bike park

in and road shuttle laps yeah but yeah depends on how can you do that exactly

no the rascal's up second right there yeah right there i always advise people to buy a bike

that is purpose-built and designed for the terrain you personally ride the most often yeah so

if you're riding xc trails 85 of the time buy an xc bike you know if if you're

it just depends like just buy for whatever you want 80 20 most often yeah yeah that's what i always say that's 80

of your riding but most like that's why i think like a you know 130 mil travel 29er works for what most mountain bikers do

and obviously it's the to my opinion and all apparently all of ours it's the most versatile true in terms of

like you can still ride xc trails and be happy you can still take it to the bike park and be happy versatility is key versatility is key

well that's a good quote to end on that's it that's all any last words jared thank you for listening and we love you

keep calm and carry on keep calm and carry on and uh take a look at the mtb podcast youtube channel

if you want to digest your videos there or podcast there or if you want to see me shirtless exactly that's why that's what i was getting to

uh halfway through the podcast chair took her shirt off because he was so sweaty it was so hot and you can only see that on the youtube

channel too hard to handle too hot to handle all right well thank you for listening we really appreciate it see you next

[Music] time

July 08, 2021

MTB Podcast › Video ›

Our New Bikes, Jeff's Adventure Race, MTB Innovations & Piles of Listener Questions...MTB Podcast 84 [Podcast]

Overview

If you are one strange human that would like to read a transcript of the podcast above, continue reading below!

July 08, 2021

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