Bikes & Big Ideas

We’re testing a ton of new bikes with more on the way (stay tuned!) so David Golay recently sat down with Dylan Wood and Simon Stewart to talk about the Revel Ranger and Commencal T.E.M.P.O.; offer more thoughts on the new SRAM Transmission; and give a rundown on a whole bunch of suspension we’re testing from EXT, Öhlins, and Manitou.

TOPICS & TIMES:

Commencal T.E.M.P.O. (1:15)

Revel Ranger (7:08)

SRAM Transmission (14:20)

Orbea Wild (25:11)

EXT Aria and Era V2.1 (34:14)

Öhlins TTX Air (41:55)

Manitou Mattoc (48:08)

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Making it as a World Cup Downhill racer is hard and, as we discuss in this episode, the new rule changes to the series for 2023 just might make it harder. So we sat down with Wyn Masters, whose incredible new Privateer Program — the escalation of his longstanding Privateer Award, whose past winners include Camille Balanche and Nina Hoffmann — to talk about all of it, including why he started the award in the first place, how the race landscape has changed over the course of his career, and a whole lot more.

TOPICS & TIMES:

• Privateer Program (2:51)
• Successes of the Privateer Award (4:32)
• Privateer life (7:58)
• World Cup rules changes (9:41)
• Improving the format (12:25)
• Choosing winners for the Privateer Program (15:07)
• Lenzerheide 2023 (17:25)
• Changing approach for the new race format (19:10)
• Predictions (20:44)
• Rider’s Association (23:45)
• Fostering up-and-coming racers (25:27)

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EXT Suspension founder Franco Fratton is a wealth of information when it comes to all things suspension, and in the third installment of our deep dive on suspension series, Franco and I cover everything from the tradeoffs between air and coil springs to the history of coil springs being used on wheeled vehicles; EXT’s new Aria air shock; inverted vs. conventional forks; and Franco teases an upcoming EXT project as well.

TOPICS & TIMES:

Air vs. coil springs & their historical uses (1:28)

EXT’s Storia vs. Aria (13:39)

Packaging limitations & the modularity of bikes as a double-edged sword (22:15)

Why EXT started with coils, and the lessons learned to get to building an air shock (32:55)

EXT’s upcoming dual-crown fork (38:59)

Inverted vs. conventional forks (39:29)

The future of MTB suspension (41:42)

Active suspension & how we could get there (52:42)

RELATED LINKS:

A Very Deep Dive on Suspension, Pt.1 (Ep.140)

A Very Deep Dive on Suspension, Pt.2 (Ep.146)

BLISTER+ Membership

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This Week’s Gear Giveaway

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Designing, prototyping, testing, and refining a carbon fiber wheel is deceptively complicated. Things like weight, stiffness, vertical compliance, and durability are the standard buzzwords for talking about a new wheelset, but how do you strike the right balance between all of them, and how do you go about validating a new design? And what how does athlete feedback factor in, especially considering that the needs of top-level pros aren’t exactly the same as those of mere mortals?

We sat down with Kell Kirby and Travis Tomczak of Forge+Bond, as well as F+B athlete Jill Kintner to talk about all of that, and along the way, we get into the differences between thermoset and thermoplastic carbon fiber, why Forge+Bond uses the latter when the vast majority of carbon wheels (and other carbon fiber bike parts in general) take the thermoset path, and a whole lot more.

TOPICS & TIMES:

• The founding of Forge+Bond (2:29)
• Travis’ role (3:44)
• Kell’s intro & roll at Forge+Bond (6:10)
• How Jill got involved (7:48)
• The vision for Forge+Bond (9:35) 
• Why thermoplastic carbon fiber and what is thermoplastic carbon fiber? (15:58)
• Why aren’t thermoplastics used more widely in the bike industry? (18:05)
• Where do you start designing a wheel? (20:57)
• Jill’s feedback and the role of athlete testing (30:39)
• Forge+Bond’s design philosophy (35:43)
• How to iterate on a design (39:45)
• Learning from prototyping (42:15)
• The current Forge+Bond product line & the recyclability of carbon fiber parts (46:33)

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Jesse Melamed won the 2022 EWS Overall, and then, despite that success, made the move to Canyon from longtime frame sponsor Rocky Mountain. So we sat down with Jesse to chat about what he changed with his mental approach and bike setup to make the 2022 season come together; why it was time for a team change despite that success; his decision-making process in choosing his new race bike from Canyon’s extensive line; the start of the 2023 season, including Jesse’s insane save at Maydena; the new EDR point structure and race format; and a whole lot more.

TOPICS & TIMES:

• Jesse’s 2022 EWS Overall Title (3:18)
• Bike setup for the 2022 season (8:38)
• DH vs. Enduro (10:20)
• Bike setup for racing vs. riding for fun (11:42)
• Richie Rude & the battle for the EWS Overall (15:28)
• Jesse’s race prep and approach (21:05)
• Moving to Canyon (25:55)
• Changing bike setup & approaching getting on a new one (30:28)
• The start of the 2023 season (43:10)
• The new 2023 Enduro point structure & merging with the UCI (48:21)
• Jesse’s “near-death” save (51:02)
• Growing and managing Enduro racing (55:37)
• Jesse’s 2023 goals (1:02:27)

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After tackling broader questions like “which bike and ski brands are the current holders of their respective ‘Cool Kids Belts’” in Part One of Bikes vs. Skis, 2023 last week, we’re diving into the head-to-head comparisons: which bike company is most comparable to Rossignol skis? Who is the ski equivalent of Guerrilla Gravity? And many, many more.

And we’ll be back with a third installment next week, so let us know what your best comparisons are, what we got wrong, and/or if there’s a specific company you want us to touch on.

TOPICS & TIMES:

• Santa Cruz (2:18)
• Road bikes as XC skis or frontside carvers (5:22)
• Santa Cruz, cont’d (11:24)
• Specialized (17:00)
• Major brands as innovators (20:41)
• Rossignol (25:18)
• Transition (27:33)
• Which brands have the best marketing? (29:52)
• ON3P (35:57)
• Yeti (38:32)
• K2 (51:06)
• Guerrilla Gravity (56:52)
• Atomic (1:03:38)
• YT (1:11:17)

RELATED LINKS:

• BLISTER+ Membership
• BLISTER+ Real World Testimonials
• Blister Labs
• This Week’s Gear Giveaway
• Blister Mountain Bike Buyer’s Guide
• Bikes vs Skis, 4th Edition (2023): Part 1
• Bikes vs Skis, 3rd Edition (2021): Part 1
• Bikes vs Skis, 3rd Edition (2021): Part 2
• Bikes vs Skis, 2nd Edition (2020): Part 1
• Bikes vs Skis, 2nd Edition (2020): Part 2
• Bikes vs Skis, 1st Edition (2018): Part 1
• Bikes vs Skis, 1st Edition (2018): Part 2

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• Off The Couch
• GEAR:30
• Blister Podcast
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• Happy Hour

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Richie Schley is one of a kind — pioneering freeride mountain biker, former pro skier, hilarious storyteller, & much more — and in this conversation, we cover a lot of ground, from the early days of freeride MTB to the current state of the sport and what he’d like to see change, and along the way we chat about his recent bachelor party; how Richie was too early in adopting fanny packs; how hard it is to get new ideas to achieve widespread adaptation; and a ton more.

TOPICS & TIMES:

• Richie’s bachelor party (2:56)
• Early freeride & the Kamloops scene (4:44)
• Pulp Traction (11:55)
• The Fro Riders & things starting to click (19:02)
• Early freeride bike evolution (23:29)
• Balancing pro skiing & MTB careers (36:04)
• Refining bikes & gear (41:03)
• Bringing about change & consumer skepticism of new ideas (45:06)
• The growth and expansion of freeride (47:35)
• The “sanitization” of freeride (53:53)
• Rider empowerment & evolution of the sport (57:18)
• Richie’s 2023 plans (1:03:35)

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When Payson McElveen rode across Iceland in a single pull a few years ago, he found something in that effort that’s not present in his racing career and immediately knew he wanted to follow it up with something in the same vein. So he dusted off his globe, and after an immense amount of planning, he put together a monster route across Tasmania, spanning 360 miles and nearly 35,000 feet of climbing — most of it on dirt — and set out to ride the whole thing straight through. And while the physical effort to do so was immense, Payson does an incredible job of telling the story through the lens of self-discovery and finding something different in this form of cycling than what he gets out of racing.

TOPICS & TIMES:

• Recent race results & changing approaches (3:51)
• “Crossing Iceland” & The follow-up, “Crossing Tasmania” (6:37)
• Emma Flukes & local knowledge (11:44)
• Planning the route (18:03)
• Scouting and pre-riding (29:23)
• The ride (32:10)
• Racing mentality & switching that off (36:33)
• Payson’s takeaways from the ride (45:50)

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• Become a Blister Member
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We just got back from the 2023 iteration of the Sea Otter Classic, and while we’re definitely still recovering, we sat down to chat about a bunch of the most interesting new gear we saw at the show — including Push Industries’ mysterious new fork, a bunch of new drivetrains / drivetrain components, a ton of new DH bikes, and a whole lot more. And we also discuss a few of the broader trends that we saw at the show, first and foremost the proliferation of headset cable routing.

TOPICS & TIMES:

• Push’s new fork (1:38) 
• TRP’s new drivetrain (5:13)
• SRAM T-Type derailleur disassembly (11:08)
• Classified’s two-speed hub (14:24)
• DH bikes galore (16:54)
• Headset cable routing (22:15)

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• BLISTER+
• Become a Blister Member
• Blister Labs
• This Week’s Gear Giveaway
• Blister Mountain Bike Buyer’s Guide

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• Off The Couch
• GEAR:30
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• Happy Hour

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Project Bike Tech was founded to answer the question “what if there was something like high school auto shop classes, but for bikes?” And now 15 years later, they’re operating in dozens of schools across a bunch of states, and are expanding rapidly. So we sat down with their Executive Director, Mercedes Ross, to talk about what Project Bike Tech does and how they designed their curriculum; what kinds of career paths their alumni have had; what it looks like setting up a new chapter & how you can get one in your community; & much more.

TOPICS & TIMES

• What is Project Bike Tech? (2:37)
• Project Bike Tech’s History (4:05)
• The Project Bike Tech curriculum (6:58)
• Expansion & opening new chapters (10:12)
• Project Bike Tech’s community impact (14:11)
• Alumni trajectories (17:36)
• Project Bike Tech’s goals (21:38)
• How to get involved (25:48)
• Project Bike Tech’s new trailbuilding arm (32:47)

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• BLISTER+
• Become a Blister Member
• 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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