Sometimes a chance encounter can wildly reshape someone’s life, and the series of events that led Ashley King to frame building, and later founding Significant Other Bikes, is a wild one. So we sat down with Ashley to hear her story and get her take on frame building, running a business, and a whole lot more. We also discuss the importance of bringing in outside perspectives and folks with diverse backgrounds — and how that plays into the Significant Other name.

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TOPICS & TIMES:

Ashley’s discovery of the magic of bikes (1:37)

Building hydroponic systems & learning fabrication (4:14)

Ashley’s time as a bike messenger in NYC & what brought it to an end (5:04)

Fixed gear bikes (15:11)

Making the leap to frame building (18:01)

United Bicycle Institute’s frame building class (25:18)

COVID & small builders (30:34)

Founding Significant Other (35:46)

The MADE show (41:15)

Ashley’s intro to mountain biking (45:12)

Significant Other’s frame offerings (47:59)

The custom frame process (53:58)

The Significant Other name (55:31)

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Mountain biking when it’s cold and rainy out might not sound very appealing, but our Pacific Northwest-based bike reviewers have a lot of experience on that front — and having a good time doing it. So we sat down to chat about how to make the most of the less appealing part of the riding season, from layering strategies to glove selection, tire choices and bike setup, and more.

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TOPICS & TIMES:

How to deal with humidity (3:08)

Shoe selection & tradeoffs (8:39)

Glove strategies (14:25)

Jackets & layering (18:54)

Bike setup (34:16)

Brake pads (36:47)

Tire selection (39:51)

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Bike news slowed down a bit in November, allowing Mike and Simon to get into some fun topics, like the history of multitools, and Mike’s fifty-year-old truck project/money pit. But there was still plenty of bike industry conversation, too, thanks to the seemingly limitless discounts that continue to disrupt the retail landscape. They also discuss the not-so-fun topic of bike theft and offer some insight on how to protect your bikes and recover them if they are stolen, and a whole lot more.

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TOPICS & TIMES:

Mike’s Fifty-Year-Old Truck Project (0:50)

The Bike Industry's Global Discounts Continue (6:43)

Deepest Discounts We’ve Ever Seen (8:51)

How Can The Bike Industry Reset (13:37)

De Minimis Reform (23:08)

Bike theft (28:04)

The History of Multitools (43:12)

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Simon Stewart and David Golay are back for their first joint Reviewer Reports episode in a while, to talk about a whole bunch of what they’ve been testing lately. There’s a lot to cover, from three very different Trail bikes to a couple of lightweight eMTBs, the ultra-adjustable Geometron G1, two very different takes on electronically-controlled suspension, and more.

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TOPICS & TIMES:

Nicolai G1 (2:19)

Rocky Mountain Instinct Powerplay SL (13:23)

Canyon Spectral:ONFly (23:42)

K.I.S chat (27:38)

Kona Process 153 (34:49)

Spot Mayhem 140 (39:43)

Forbidden Druid V2 (46:59)

Fox Live Valve Neo vs. RockShox Flight Attendant (58:17)

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Getting more people on bikes, and building better bike infrastructure to facilitate it, is something of a chicken-and-egg problem. People need to feel safe to get out in the first place; getting municipalities to take the issue seriously often takes a demonstrated need for better infrastructure.

PeopleForBikes is doing a lot to advocate for bike riders of all stripes — from casual commuters to dedicated mountain bikers, urban delivery riders to weekend roadies, and everyone in between. So we sat down with their CEO, Jenn Dice, to hear all about what PeopleForBikes does, and why it’s important; chat about what you can do to advocate for better bike infrastructure in your community; how the proliferation of eBikes has changed the landscape; and much more.

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TOPICS & TIMES:

PeopleForBikes & their mission (1:21)

Infrastructure & policy to facilitate bike access (4:04)

City Ratings (7:35)

The Great Bike Infrastructure Map & community engagement (13:21)

E-Bikes and their infrastructure needs (14:45)

E-Bike classifications & regulations (17:59)

MTBs & trail access (29:57)

Managing shared use trails (31:04)

The LA Olympics & car-free goals (36:12)

Tariffs & the bike industry (41:58)

Getting involved with PeopleForBikes (45:21)

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Matthew Fairbrother’s wild effort to bikepack through the entire 2022 EWS season was an incredible accomplishment, and he’s just kept stacking up bonkers feats of endurance on a mountain bike in the years since. So we once again sat down with Matthew to talk about what he’s been up to of late, including winning the NZ Rally despite forgoing all the assisted transfers; kayaking one of them with minimal experience in a kayak; more animal encounters (check out our earlier episode with Matthew for a real all-timer there); how he manages to switch between race mode and getting in the right mindset to just grind out massive miles and elevation; and a whole lot more.

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Matthew’s 2022 EWS Tour (Ep.139)

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TOPICS & TIMES:

Taking on the NZ Rally (2:23)

Transferring by… kayak? (12:35)

Animal encounters (15:56)

Toggling between a focused race mindset and gutting out massive miles and elevation between stages (20:14)

Winning the NZ Rally despite forgoing all the assisted transfers (17:49)

The North Shore Triple Triple Crown (22:50)

The Triple Triple Crown ride (29:28)

Matthew’s bike setup (30:11)

Ranking the difficulty of Matthew’s exploits (38:10)

Food & planning (39:19)

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October is always an exciting month because of Red Bull Rampage, but this year was extra special due to the historic first women’s competition. Dylan and Simon recap this truly amazing event in the Utah desert and offer their take on some of the results. They also cover the usual industry news — some good, some bad — some exciting new products, and a whole lot more. 

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TOPICS & TIMES:

Dylan’s Grand Canyon Trip (1:10)

Red Bull Rampage Women’s Competition (4:29)

Brendog Robbed Again? (14:33)

Number Five for Brandon Semunuk & A $500 Bike Cleans Brendog’s Line (17:43)

The Green River Classic (25:31)

The Pro’s Closet is Back (32:01)

Dylan’s Costco Master Plan (51:59)

Simon’s Latest Crash (57:01)

New Rocky Mountain Light-Assist eMTB (1:00:59)

Other New Products (1:04:44)

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Red Bull Rampage finally included a women’s category this year, with Casey Brown doing a whole lot to spearhead it, and the event was spectacular. If you haven’t watched it yet, well, you should. Casey’s run starts at 29:25, but do yourself a favor and watch the whole thing.

We sat down with Casey to hear how it felt to finally have the door opened to women; talk about what goes into getting yourself to Rampage as an athlete, and everything it takes to actually be there and put a run together; the process of scouting, building, and testing her line; the competition day and what all went down; how to make the event even better next year; and what’s next for women’s freeride beyond Rampage.

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TOPICS & TIMES:

Learning that the women’s event was finally on (2:07)

Casey’s training & prep, and the logistics that go into competing (6:48)

The new venue & building a line (7:46)

Scouting a line & coordinating with other riders (14:28)

The format of the women’s event (18:28)

Casey’s line (20:21)

The crux (25:45)

Potential changes for next year(31:55)

The next frontier in women’s freeride (36:57)

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Ethan Eggert is hard at work refining his Arid Cycles Spade Enduro bike, which has gone through three different suspension layouts, numerous geometry and kinematic tweaks, and one catastrophically broken frame — and he’s just 19 years old. We sat down with Ethan to get the whole story — including his plans to eventually offer bikes for sale — and it’s a good one.

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TOPICS & TIMES:

Ethan’s background & the inspiration behind Arid (1:30)

The Spade V1 & learning how to design a frame (7:02)

Geometry, suspension kinematics, & radical experimentation (13:37)

The Spade V2 & refining the recipe (21:53)

Frame failure (24:46)

The Spade V3 (28:56)

Commercialization & next steps (37:27)

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A lot of mountain bike hip packs are pretty cheaply made, and/or lightly tweaked versions of basic casual designs. High Above does things differently, from focusing on MTB-specific designs to making all their packs in the US from top-quality materials. So we went down to High Above HQ to chat about all of it, get the rundown on some upcoming High Above products — including some non-hip-pack models — and see how they go about designing, testing, and making their bags and other gear.

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TOPICS & TIMES:

Introducing Kyle and Spencer (1:46)

High Above’s history (2:36)

Kyle and Spencer taking the reigns & their backgrounds (4:23)

The pros and cons of US manufacturing (10:26)

Designing, testing, and refining packs (15:49)

High Above’s current product lineup (23:13)

Upcoming High Above products (35:48)

Potential future offerings (39:29)

High Above’s mission and company ethos (43:02)

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