RockShox announced their new Flight Attendant electronically-controlled suspension system a few months ago, so we brought Chris Mandell back on Bikes & Big Ideas to tell us all about what the system is and how it works; who it will benefit the most; what the tradeoffs are; and Chris wraps it all up with a really important Big Idea.

TOPICS & TIMES:

• What is Flight Attendant? (1:58)
• How does Flight Attendant work? (4:40)
• What forks, shocks, & bikes is it available on? (23:35)
• Why no aftermarket sales? (25:09)
• What are the tradeoffs? (32:49)
• Who’s the target customer? (37:43)
• Chris’ Big Idea (39:02)

RELATED LINKS:

• Introducing: Blister Labs
• Getting Here: Gunnison & Crested Butte
• This Week’s Gear Giveaway
• Gear Giveaway / Newsletter Signup
• Become a Blister Member / Get our new Buyer’s Guide
• Register for the 2022 Blister Summit
• Blister Mountain Bike Buyer’s Guide

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BMC has a strong heritage in road and cross country bikes but isn’t as well known for gravity-focused offerings. Mariano Schoefer and Christof Bigler — an engineer and designer, respectively, at BMC — were looking to build the bikes they personally wanted to ride and started modifying existing models as an after-hours side project. Their tinkering caught the attention of their bosses, and long story short, their efforts spawned an entirely new bike brand, SCOR. So we sat down with Mariano and Christof to get the full backstory and the rundown on the bikes themselves.

TOPICS & TIMES:

• Mariano and Christof’s roles at BMC
• Background as riders
• Project origins
• Management catching on & growing momentum
• Design ethos & bike details
• Launching SCOR
• Mariano & Christof’s Big Ideas

RELATED LINKS:

• Introducing: Blister Labs
• Getting Here: Gunnison & Crested Butte
• This Week’s Gear Giveaway
• Gear Giveaway / Newsletter Signup
• Become a Blister Member / Get our new Buyer’s Guide
• Register for the 2022 Blister Summit
• Blister Mountain Bike Buyer’s Guide
• SCOR 4060

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Neko Mulally has had a very successful career racing for some of the biggest teams on the World Cup circuit, so we were surprised — and excited — when he announced that he was launching his own team for the 2022 season, and racing a bike that he designed himself. So we had to get Neko on Bikes & Big Ideas to talk about how he decided to take on such an ambitious project; designing the bike(s) and working with Frank The Welder to build them; starting his own team; and a whole lot more.

TOPICS & TIMES:

• Project origins & initial concepts (1:31)
• Making the leap & leaving Intense (16:00)
• Working with Frank the Welder (19:00)
• Design goals & tradeoffs (28:09)
• Going from kinematics & geometry to a real bike design (35:07)
• Testing & refining the design (48:37)
• Sponsorship & starting a team (59:00)
• Neko’s Big Idea (1:06:17)

RELATED LINKS:

• Neko's video series, FRAMEWORKS
• Getting Here: Gunnison & Crested Butte
• This Week’s Gear Giveaway
• Gear Giveaway / Newsletter Signup
• Become a Blister Member / Get our new Buyer’s Guide
• Register for the 2022 Blister Summit
• Blister Mountain Bike Buyer’s Guide

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2021 was Blister’s busiest year ever for testing mountain bikes and gear, and there were some real standout products among that crop. So we rounded up a bunch of our reviewers to give a rundown of the highlights of the last year — including a bunch of bikes all over the travel spectrum, some suspension products, and tires, inserts, pants, and more. And since we’re so excited to build on all that momentum into 2022, we make some predictions for the year to come and talk about a bunch of the bikes and gear that we’re most excited to spend time on soon, too.

TOPICS & TIMES:

• Dylan Wood (1:45)
• Luke Koppa (17:20)
• Eric Freson (36:00)
• Noah Bodman (49:43)
• David Golay (1:03:35)

RELATED LINKS:

• Getting Here: Gunnison & Crested Butte
• This Week’s Gear Giveaway
• Gear Giveaway / Newsletter Signup
• Become a Blister Member / Get our new Buyer’s Guide
• Register for the 2022 Blister Summit
• Blister Mountain Bike Buyer’s Guide
• Pivot Trail 429
• Norco Range
• Commencal Meta TR
• Canfield Lithium
• Ibis Ripley AF
• We Are One Arrival
• Marin El Roy

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Guerrilla Gravity just celebrated their 10th anniversary, so we sat down with co-founders Will Montague and Matt Giaraffa to talk about what inspired them to start a bike company in the first place; going from aluminum single-pivot DH bikes to pioneering an entirely new way of making carbon fiber frames; weathering the Covid-19 pandemic; and doing all that while building every single frame in Denver, CO.

TOPICS & TIMES:

• GG’s origin story (3:10)
• Growth, new models (18:48)
• Current Guerrilla Gravity lineup (23:52)
• Modular Platform and converting models (25:22)
• Will & Matt’s personal rides (28:28)
• Build customization & staying flexible (30:47)
• What’s next for GG? (33:02)
• US manufacturing & predictions for the future of the bike industry (33:57)
• Favorite parts and other gear? (41:42)
• Will & Matt’s Big Ideas (45:40)

RELATED LINKS:

• Ep. 3: Guerrilla Gravity’s New Bikes & Big Ideas
• Guerrilla Gravity Trail Pistol
• Guerrilla Gravity Smash
• Guerrilla Gravity Gnarvana
• Getting Here: Gunnison & Crested Butte
• This Week’s Gear Giveaway
• Gear Giveaway / Newsletter Signup
• Become a Blister Member / Get our new Buyer’s Guide
• Register for the 2022 Blister Summit
• Blister Mountain Bike Buyer’s Guide

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Clipless vs. flat pedals is a hotly debated topic in the mountain bike world, but now there’s a third choice — Hustle Labs’ Avery magnetic pedals. We were, frankly, a bit skeptical about this new in-between option, but we’ve had three reviewers spending time on the Avery, and they’ve wildly exceeded our expectations. So we sat down with Hustle’s Design Engineer, Tripp Hurt, to talk about where the concept originated; how the pedals work; who they are (and aren’t) for; what’s next from Hustle; and a whole lot more.

TOPICS & TIMES:

• Origin story & Craig’s “ecliffany” (2:14)
• Avery pedal design (4:36)
• Weight & Who are they for? (12:31)
• Tripp’s background & bike shoe ergonomics (16:57)
• What’s next from Hustle? (28:31)
• Tripp’s Big Ideas (30:12)

RELATED LINKS:

• Hustle Avery REM Tech Pedals
• Getting Here: Gunnison & Crested Butte
• This Week’s Gear Giveaway
• Gear Giveaway / Newsletter Signup
• Become a Blister Member / Get our new Buyer’s Guide
• Register for the 2022 Blister Summit
• Blister Mountain Bike Buyer’s Guide

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Cannondale has a long history of doing things their own, quirky way, and the last couple of bikes they’ve rolled out — the Jekyll and Scalpel HT — are no exception. So this week, we’re joined by Cannondale’s Scott Vogelmann and Travis Tomczak to talk about those bikes, Cannondale’s weird streak, the wild dual-shock DH bike prototype that informed the Jekyll development, and a whole lot more. And along the way, they drop some teasers for what’s next from Cannondale, too.

TOPICS & TIMES:

• Scott and Travis’ intros (1:44)
• Cannondale lineup highlights (4:36)
• Upcoming product teaser (7:20)
• Keeping Cannondale weird (8:51)
• Jekyll development (14:20)
• High-pivot bikes (18:20)
• Dual-shock DH bike prototype (25:39)
• Travis’ promise on supply chain woes (30:05)
• Decision making behind athlete team (30:59)
• Travis’ Big Idea (36:00)
• Scotts’ Big Idea (38:21)

RELATED LINKS:

• Cannondale Jekyll
• Cannondale Scalpel HT
• Getting Here: Gunnison & Crested Butte
• This Week’s Gear Giveaway
• Gear Giveaway / Newsletter Signup
• Become a Blister Member / Get our new Buyer’s Guide
• Register for the 2022 Blister Summit
• Blister Mountain Bike Buyer’s Guide

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We’ve been testing a ton of bikes, and have a whole lot of updates to share, so Jonathan Ellsworth and David Golay sat down to discuss all of it. We get into it about high-pivot Enduro bike comparisons (with some surprising conclusions), offer some early impressions of an ultra-efficient long-travel Trail bike, and David talks about the frontrunner for his favorite bike of 2021. And along the way we talk about some of the most exciting recent developments in bike tech and break a little news about some upcoming Blister bike content, too.

TOPICS & TIMES:

• Recent BBI Highlights (1:58)
• We Are One Arrival (16:16)
• Norco Range (22:10)
• Nicolai G1 (26:21)
• Cannondale Jekyll (31:24)l
• Orbea Occam LT (35:44)
• Sneak Peek: Upcoming Content (40:01)

RELATED LINKS:

• Ep. 89: Mick Hannah
• Ep. 92: Jordi Cortes
• Ep. 93: Williams Racing Products
• Ep. 94: Cedric Eveleigh of LAL Bikes
• Getting Here: Gunnison & Crested Butte
• This Week’s Gear Giveaway
• Gear Giveaway / Newsletter Signup
• Become a Blister Member / Get our new Buyer’s Guide
• Register for the 2022 Blister Summit
• Blister Mountain Bike Buyer’s Guide

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Mountain bike derailleur drivetrains haven’t fundamentally changed for just about as long as there have been mountain bikes — until now, anyway. Cedric Eveleigh has a very promising idea for how to rethink the derailleur and founded LAL Bikes to make it a reality. So we brought Cedric on to talk about the limitations of existing derailleurs; why gearboxes (still) haven’t taken off; prototyping and refining the Supre Drive; what’s next for LAL Bikes, and more.

TOPICS & TIMES:

• The origins of the Supre Drive concept (1:35)
• How the Supre Drive works (2:58)
• The limitations of gearboxes (5:25)
• Prototyping & refinement (15:15)
• What’s next for the Supre Drive (35:44)
• The LAL Bikes & Supre Drive names (41:56)
• Cedric’s (other) Big Idea (43:39)

RELATED LINKS:

• Ep. 93: Williams Racing Products
• Getting Here: Gunnison & Crested Butte
• This Week’s Gear Giveaway
• Gear Giveaway / Newsletter Signup
• Become a Blister Member / Get our new Buyer’s Guide
• Register for the 2022 Blister Summit
• Blister Mountain Bike Buyer’s Guide

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Mic Williams was racing as a privateer when Covid hit and racing went on hold. But instead of binging Netflix, he used his free time to start a very unusual bike company — Williams Racing Products. Mic has a whole lot of ideas for how to make bikes better and WRP has offered a lot of out-there products, including what can only be described as the reincarnation of the Honda RN-01 downhill bike. So we sat down with Mic to talk about all the big ideas he has for WRP; the Privateer Parts Program and privateer racing in general; and much more.

TOPICS & TIMES:

• The origins of WRP (1:27)
• Mullet links (8:24)
• The heyday of garage-built bike parts (14:21)
• Centre Hub (20:12)
• The return of the Honda RN-01? (28:04)
• Privateer Parts Program & racing as a privateer (38:36)
• Custom stems & future projects (50:54)
• Mic’s (next) Big Idea (58:42)

RELATED LINKS:

• This Week’s Gear Giveaway
• Gear Giveaway / Newsletter Signup
• Become a Blister Member / Get our new Buyer’s Guide
• Register for the 2022 Blister Summit
• Blister Mountain Bike Buyer’s Guide

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.