Privateer has been working on the second-generation versions of their 141 and 161 bikes for three years now, and Dan Hicks, the engineer behind the project, has a ton to share about the thought process behind the updates and bike design in general — and does a great job of explaining all of it. So we sat down with Dan for a very deep dive into the new bikes, and he shared a ton of thoughts that are going to be interesting to anyone who cares about mountain bike design — whether or not you’re in the market for a Privateer.

TOPICS & TIMES:

Dan’s background & role at Privateer (2:12)

The goals of the 141 and 161 V2 (2:55)

The E161 (6:02)

Sizing bikes & proportionality (10:13)

Geometry adjustability (25:34)

Suspension kinematics & shock tuning (29:16)

Sag & suspension setup (37:12)

Pedaling performance (44:16)

Pedal kickback vs. chain feedback (46:19)

Wheel sizes (56:26)

Cable routing (1:01:12)

Bottom-out bumpers & shock progression (1:19:46)

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When it was announced that Red Bull Formation wasn’t happening in 2023, there was a lot of hopeful speculation that, in its place, there would be women competing at Rampage for the first time. But that didn’t happen either, so we sat down with three of the top freeriders in the world — Casey Brown, Vaea Verbeeck, and Hannah Bergemann — to get their thoughts on how we got here, why they want a women’s category at Rampage (and what they’re doing to make it happen), why representation at the top tiers of the sport is important, and a whole lot more.

TOPICS & TIMES:

Vaea Verbeeck: (1:31)

How we got here (1:55)

Postponing Formation (4:32)

Formation as a stepping stone to Rampage (7:30)

How to get to a women’s category at Rampage (12:05)

Hannah Bergemann: (19:49)

Working behind the scenes to organize the riders (20:10)

Advancing the state of women’s freeride (21:57)

Structuring a women’s category at Rampage (23:43)

The growth of women’s freeride (26:14)

How to move forward (28:31)

Formation alongside Rampage (30:07)

The response to women at Rampage (34:26)

Casey Brown: (36:12)

Casey’s interest in Rampage (36:24)

Why hasn’t a women’s category happened yet? (38:33)

Organizing a women’s category at Rampage (41:00)

Why is a women’s category important? (42:59)

Growing women’s freeride (45:23)

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Simon Stewart, Dylan Wood, and David Golay sat down to talk about a bunch of the bikes they’ve been testing lately, from the short-travel Cannondale Habit to the very not short-travel Canfield One.2 Super Enduro; some eMTBs including the new Santa Cruz Heckler SL; a head-to-head comparison of high-pivot Enduro bikes from companies very large and very small; and a whole bunch more.

TOPICS & TIMES:

Cannondale Habit (1:40)

REEB Steezl (6:24)

Santa Cruz Heckler SL (11:39)

Devinci E-Troy (17:52)

Propain Tyee (21:44)

Canfield One.2 Super Enduro (29:00)

Contra MC & Trek Slash (34:57)

Irish World Cup DH Results (43:40)

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Happy Hour

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High-pivot bikes are having a moment. Mullet bikes and steel full-suspension frames are too. And while gearbox mountain bikes haven’t achieved widespread popularity (yet?) they’ve got their ardent supporters. The Archibald Cycles AC1 brings all those elements together in a Canadian-made Trail / Enduro / Park bike, and the end result looks pretty interesting. So we sat down with Archibald founder and designer of the AC1, Alex Troughton to hear all about the bike, his goals for it, when it might reach production, and a whole lot more.

TOPICS & TIMES:

The origins of Archibald Cycles (2:21)

The AC1 (4:30)

Frame design & material selection (12:37)

Alex’s fabrication background (18:09)

Geometry & adjustability (22:10)

Gearboxes (25:43)

Belt vs. chain drive (30:36)

Moving to production (34:34)

The Archibald name? (39:57)

Pricing (41:44)

Potential other models (43:18)

Tailored sizing (45:37)

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Happy Hour

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It’s rare for a small but well-established custom bike builder to make the leap to overseas-built production bikes, but Adam Sklar has done just that. While it might be easy to romanticize the idea of a custom hand-built bike made by a single builder, Adam speaks very openly about the ways running that version of Sklar had ceased to feel like the way he wanted to bring bikes into the world; the challenges (and high points) of building custom bikes; coming up with a production lineup after years of making such varied custom offerings; and a whole lot more.

TOPICS & TIMES:

Adam’s founding of Sklar (3:07)

Turning Sklar to a business from a hobby (5:22)

The custom era (6:34)

Surviving as a custom builder (7:58)

The custom bike-building process (9:33)

Evolution of Sklar’s custom business (19:22)

Adam’s North American Handmade Bike Show winning bike (21:28)

Material selection (22:33)

Working with titanium (25:26)

Moving to production bikes (28:06)

Sklar’s stock offerings (31:35)

Overseas production (34:40)

Lessons learned in production (39:18)

Dangle Supply (41:10)

RELATED LINKS:

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This Week’s Gear Giveaway

Blister Mountain Bike Buyer’s Guide

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We recently launched Gear Therapy over on our GEAR:30 podcast and now we’re bringing it over to Bikes & Big Ideas, too. For our first session, we chatted with Blister Member Andy Majewski about his bike quiver and the ways it’s evolved; how he might better dial in his current bikes to suit his needs; what bike would make the most sense to add to his quiver; why he needs the Philadelphia Eagles to go back to the Super Bowl for that to happen (it’ll make sense, we promise); and more discussion of a lot of bike gear and its tradeoffs.

TOPICS & TIMES:

Meet the Patient: Andy Majewski (1:43)

Andy’s Bike Quiver (5:12)

Suspension Performance & Anti-Rise (8:44)

Suspension Setup (12:55)

Wheel Selection & Tradeoffs (21:09)

eMTBs & Andy’s Specialized Levo (28:52)

Quiver Expansion & the Philadelphia Eagles (42:51)

RELATED LINKS:

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Blister Labs

This Week’s Gear Giveaway

Blister Mountain Bike Buyer’s Guide

OUR OTHER PODCASTS

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GEAR:30

Blister Podcast

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Happy Hour

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Trek’s new sixth-generation Slash has changed a lot from the prior-generation bike — including a high-pivot suspension layout, some big updates to the geometry and suspension kinematics, and a default mixed-wheel size setup — and we sat down with Matt Yerke, the lead engineer on the new Slash, to learn all about it. Matt walked us through the design goals for the Slash; their early experiments with high-pivot Trail bikes, including prototyping the layout on what would become the current Fuel EX; a ton of the design considerations that went into the new bike; how he sets up his personal Slash; and a whole lot more.

TOPICS & TIMES:

Introducing the new Slash (1:33)

Matt’s role at Trek (1:59)

Goals for the new Slash (2:52)

The first prototypes, and dialing in front-rear balance (4:01)

High-pivot bikes & choosing to go that route on the Slash (5:54)

Anti-squat & pedaling performance (10:38)

Idler pulleys and drag (14:20)

Geometry & other details (15:08)

Mullets & their tradeoffs (18:59)

Chainstay lengths for mullets vs. 29ers (22:35)

Axle paths & suspension kinematics (25:48)

Frame adjustability (33:33)

Matt’s personal Slash setup (36:18)

RELATED LINKS:

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This Week’s Gear Giveaway

Blister Mountain Bike Buyer’s Guide

OUR OTHER PODCASTS

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GEAR:30

Blister Podcast

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Happy Hour

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D3O’s non-Newtonian materials are used extensively in mountain bike protective equipment from a lot of different brands, and David Golay recently sat down with their Senior Vice President of Marketing, Kevin Franks, and their Head of Product, Kevin Fleer, to talk about the state of the mountain bike armor market; the ways it’s changed in recent years; where D3O sees it going in the future; the tradeoffs inherent in designing armor; testing standards for armor and how D3O thinks about them; armor for kids + the challenges in designing it; and much more. Along the way, Kevin and Kevin talk about D3O’s use in everything from consumer electronics to Formula One, and tease some upcoming new bike products, too.

TOPICS & TIMES:

Introducing Kevin Franks and Kevin Fleer (2:09)

What is D3O? (3:13)

Differing formulations and applications of D3O (6:50)

Tradeoffs in armor design (11:08)

Testing standards for bike armor (15:26)

Limb protection standards vs. helmet ones (17:57)

D3O versions and their tradeoffs (23:06)

Areas for improvement in MTB armor (27:31)

Evolution of the MTB protection market (30:35)

Working with partner brands to design armor (32:52)

Fitting armor and army data (34:12)

Designing armor for kids (35:45)

The future of MTB protection (39:09)

RELATED LINKS:

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BLISTER+ Real World Testimonials

Blister Labs

This Week’s Gear Giveaway

Blister Mountain Bike Buyer’s Guide

OUR OTHER PODCASTS

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GEAR:30

Blister Podcast

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Happy Hour

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Chromag has been doing things very differently from most bike companies for decades now, helping to pioneer modern hardcore hardtails — and doing so in Whistler, BC, in the shadow of the legendary bike park — not exactly classic hardtail terrain.

So when Chromag launched their first production adult full-suspension bikes late last year, it wasn’t a huge surprise that the Darco and Lowdown stood out from the rest of the bike market in a number of ways, from geometry to material selection and more. We sat down with Chromag engineer Joe Swann to get the story behind their development (which stretches back more than a decade); chat about the design goals for the bikes and the ways that Chromag went about achieving them; material selection and the ways that Chromag thinks about choosing the right one for a given application; our impressions from having spent quite a bit of time on the Darco recently (full review coming soon) and a whole lot more.

TOPICS & TIMES:

Joe’s role at Chromag (3:16)

Chromag’s first full-suspension prototype (4:02)

Hitting the reset button (7:39)

The design goals for the Darco and Lowdown (9:07)

Chromag design identity, and carrying that over to the FS lineup (11:40)

Material selection (15:21)

Tuning frame stiffness (18:04)

The Darco (22:26)

The Lowdown (27:04)

Material selection, Pt.2 (29:36)

Brand identity & going FS (31:52)

The 155 prototype (34:05)

Upcoming models? (42:02)

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David Golay, Dylan Wood, and Simon Stewart sat down to chat about a whole bunch of the bikes we’re reviewing currently, from the Chromag Darco to the Commencal Supreme, with a ton of other ones in between, including the Pivot Shuttle AM and the Trek Fuel EXe AL. Along the way, we discuss bike design more broadly; eMTB drive systems and their tradeoffs; and a whole bunch more.

TOPICS & TIMES:

Chromag Darco (0:56)

Pivot Shuttle AM (8:28)

Trek Fuel EXe (18:31)

Rocky Mountain Instinct Powerplay (26:13)

eMTB drive systems (32:38)

Canfield One.2 (38:39)

Commencal Supreme V5 (42:30)

RELATED LINKS:

BLISTER+ Membership

BLISTER+ Real World Testimonials

Blister Labs

This Week’s Gear Giveaway

Blister Mountain Bike Buyer’s Guide

OUR OTHER PODCASTS

Off The Couch

GEAR:30

Blister Podcast

CRAFTED

Happy Hour

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