Bikes & Big Ideas

There’s a whole lot of talk these days about becoming more “sustainable,” but there’s a big difference between talking and actually taking action. And Endura is a bike brand that is taking concrete steps to dramatically reduce their carbon footprint.

We’re talking with Pam Barclay about Endura’s pledge to plant one million trees every year for the next 10 years to cancel out all of the emissions produced over the entire history of the company; how Endura is working to offset their transportation and shipping emissions; what we all can do to mitigate the carbon footprint of the apparel we use, and much more.

TOPICS & TIMES:

• Endura’s history & brand (1:35)
• Planting trees to become carbon negative (13:17)
• Offsetting raw materials emissions (28:18)
• Transportation & Shipping footprint (32:22)
• Better ways to wash MTB gear (37:34)
• Endura’s repair service (40:13)
• Pam’s big idea (42:22)

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Blister editors Noah Bodman and David Golay join Jonathan Ellsworth to talk about the major rider and team moves in the world of men’s DH and women’s DH; we place our $1000 bets on the upcoming season; and we discuss some of the news and moves in the freeride and enduro scene, too.

TOPICS & TIMES:

• Big changes in the DH world (1:38)
• Our $1,000 bets for men’s DH (16:29)
• More news in women’s DH (20:50)
• Our $1000 bets for women’s DH
• Freeride news (27:03)
• EWS Updates (32:24)

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We discuss the Privateer 161; offer more fork and shock comparisons; wrap our heads around Marin’s ‘aggressive hardtail’ called the El Roy; and our bike editor makes the case for why you might want to reconsider swearing allegiance to one particular wheel size.

TOPICS & TIMES

• Privateer 161 (1:11)
• Suspension Roundup(14:06)
• Ohlins RXF36 m.2 Air (14:31)
• Ohlin TTX22 (19:34)
• Marin El Roy (23:01)
• David’s Big Idea: Wheel Size (32:55)

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Our guest today is Brooklyn Bell, who is a mountain biker and a skier and an artist and a former figure skater and a future frog scientist (maybe). So we talk about all of that and a whole lot more, including Brooklyn’s current big idea.

TOPICS & TIMES

• Preacher, teacher, or frog scientist? (2:20)
• Brooklyn’s hobbies as a kid (5:06)
• Art & “Mountain Art” (10:25)
• Getting into biking in Bellingham (18:54)
• Skiing vs mtn biking as boyfriend types (25:50)
• Becoming Ruby (33:48)
• Current favorite type of riding? (44:57)
• Brooklyn’s TV & music recommendations (48:28)

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Today our guest is Sam Meegan of Privateer Bikes, which is a company that has been pushing forward certain aspects of bike design that have been gaining broader acceptance in the bike industry and growing in popularity among riders.

So come to learn more about the origins, philosophy, and trajectory of Privateer, but stick around to hear Sam’s big idea about how to revolutionize a whole other product category.

TOPICS & TIMES

• Privateer Bike’s philosophy & origins (4:25)
• Designing the Privateer 161 with Matt Stuttard (14:40)
• Design & Play (23:06)
• Working with Ali Beckett (29:06)
• Adjusting wheel size based on frame size (32:16)
• Finding design inspiration outside of the bike industry (44:01)
• The Privateer 141 (48:25)
• What’s next for Privateer? (53:26)
• What’s Your Big Idea? (57:02)

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PeopleForBikes is one of the most important organizations in the bike world that you might not be too familiar with. So we caught up with Jenn Dice to talk about what the organization is up to; working with a new administration; and what each of us can do to get involved.

TOPICS & TIMES

• What is PeopleForBikes (2:50)
• Lobbying for bike legislature (6:16)
• Obstacles & challenges (14:14)
• Current progress (17:55)
• Working with the new Biden administration (23:57)
• E-bikes (27:17)
• How you can get involved (34:34)

RELATED LINKS

• Ashley Korenblat, founder of Public Land Solutions
• Dave Wiens, exec director of IMBA, on e-bikes
• Dave Ochs on Solutions to Increased Trail Use

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Yoann Barelli just signed on with Guerrilla Gravity, so we thought this would be a good time to catch up with him and talk about why he thinks GG is a great fit. (And for some important context here, we highly recommend checking out the conversation I had with the founders of GG and their composites engineer.)

Yoann and Jonathan Ellsworth also discuss the coaching he’s been doing (see barelliconcepts.com) and he offers some good coaching tips; we talk about his first introduction to bikes and to racing, and his plans for 2021 and beyond.

TOPICS & TIMES:

• Comfort Zones (9:00)
• Yoann’s introduction to mountain biking (19:04)
• Coaching (barelliconcepts.com) (31:31)
• New partnership with Guerrilla Gravity (40:40)
• Dialing in a bike: feeling good vs making it fast (48:14)
• Recovering from injury & 2021 plans (55:27)
• Yoann’s big idea (59:30)

RELATED LINKS

• Bikes & Big Ideas ep. 3: Guerrilla Gravity’s New Bikes & Big Ideas

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We talk with Blister’s bike editor, David Golay, about some of the gear he’s recently been testing; some of the most surprising products of the past year; some of the standout products of 2020; and a few predictions for 2021.

TOPICS & TIMES:

• Canyon Stoic (2:36)
• Ohlins suspension (8:13)
• Most Surprising Products of 2020 (9:36)
• Standout products of 2020 (11:56)
• Predictions for 2021 (17:15)

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Sage Cattabriga-Alosa is one of the best big line skiers of all time, and he’s an extremely good — and extremely passionate — mountain biker, too. So we talked with Sage about how he thinks about the similarities of skiing & mountain biking; riding lines in Virgin, Utah back in 2004; riding with Cam McCaul; what aspect of mountain biking he is most focused on improving; and his film, Balance.

TOPICS:

• Transitioning between biking & skiing (3:54)
• When did you first really get into biking? (15:00)
• Parallels between biking & skiing (19:57)
• Filming Balance & riding with Cam McCaul (38:16)
• What aspect of riding are you working to improve? (43:19)

RELATED LINKS:

• Survivor Endurance phone case 
• Our experience with the Survivor Endurance
• Blister Podcast, Ep. 41: Sage Cattabriga-Alosa on Skiing Spines
• Bikes & Big Ideas, Ep. 28: Cam McCaul on Preparing for Big Lines

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Noah Bodman is back to offer his review of parenthood (he’s a new dad); discuss carbon wheels; Sweet Protection’s convertible full-face helmet; and a number of forks that Noah has been spending time on.

TOPICS & TIMES:

• Parenthood (3:06)
• Hunt Impact Carbon Wheelset (7:39)
• Sweet Protection Arbitrator MIPS (18:56)
• Forks (20:25)

RELATED LINKS

• Survivor Endurance phone case 
• Our experience with the Survivor Endurance

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