Full Spectrum Cycling

Full Spectrum Cycling 339 rolls through Milwaukee fall riding, winter fat-bike events, AI-built bike tools, music, beer and the usual assortment of side trips.

This episode includes:

Show beer is Stone Buenaveza Salt & Lime Lager, which turned out to be considerably better than expected.

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People. Places. Bikes. Culture.

Full Spectrum Cycling #338 starts with an entirely unnecessary examination of the number 338 before getting back to bikes, Milwaukee and the usual assortment of malarkey.

In the Milwaukee Minute, we talk about Waukesha County's reminder that only Class 1 e-bikes are allowed on the trails at Minooka Park, along with concerns about faster electric bikes tearing up mountain-bike trails. We also look ahead to Biketoberfest, the Milwaukee Tweed Ride and the Riverwest Radio Ghost Walk and Bike Ride.

Talkin' Schmack includes a first look at the new State Bicycle Fat-bike v2, which we're hoping to get in for testing, plus Tony's surprisingly positive first ride on a 32-inch-wheeled bike. That leads into the Bearclaw fat-bike/32er crossover, whether rim brakes really need to make a comeback, technical cycling clothes you can actually wear off the bike, and the 2026 Coffeeneuring Challenge.

For Bikes on the Bus, we get into They Might Be Giants co-founder John Linnell's days as a New York bicycle messenger and the crash that sidelined the band long enough to help inspire the legendary Dial-A-Song project.

Show beer is Leinenkugel's Barrel Man Ale, with the inevitable Brewers, Racing Sausages and Milwaukee beer tangents thrown in.

Plus music, Turkish coffee, fall riding, Fat-bike Lab talk and considerably more than anyone planned when we turned on the microphones.

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Full Spectrum Cycling #337 covers a little bit of everything, from Milwaukee bike happenings and shoreline legal analysis to new fat-bike gear and musicians who ride.

Greg, JK and the crew talk about the upcoming Tweed Ride, recent Milwaukee events, and some old ride stories before getting into bike tech, including a remarkably effective solution for a seriously stuck seatpost.

On the fat-bike front, we take a look at the latest Salsa Beargrease and debate its longer, slacker geometry, check out a new 45NRTH carbon fat-bike rim, and wander into the increasingly real world of 32-inch mountain bike wheels.

There’s also more on Greg’s campaign to Save the Dash and distinguish real fat-bikes from the 20-inch throttle-equipped machines increasingly being called “fatbikes.”
https://fat-bike.com/p/why-the-dash-matters-fat-bikes-aren-t-fatbikes

Closer to home, the conversation turns to Milwaukee-area cycling issues, including beach access in Shorewood, a proposed 15 mph speed limit on the Oak Leaf Trail, changes to Hartford Avenue through the UWM campus, and the usual assortment of opinions that make us wonder whether we should have become lawyers.

Finally, we continue our search for musicians who genuinely ride bikes with Tim Commerford of Rage Against the Machine and Audioslave, a longtime mountain biker who has said he may spend more time riding bikes than playing bass.

Plus local music, beer, events, assorted tangents and everything else that happens when we turn on the microphones.

Full Spectrum Cycling is now settling into a twice-a-month schedule. Subscribe to the Full Spectrum Cycling newsletter for the complete show notes, links, events and everything we talked about.

Full Spectrum Cycling Show #336 rolls through another couple of weeks of bikes, music, Milwaukee culture and assorted derailments with Sven, JK and Tony.

This time around we recap a pile of recent Milwaukee-area shows, including Daikaiju, Devil’s Teeth, Sister Paul, Floor Model, The Grovelers and more. We also stumble into a fantastic Internet Archive collection packed with decades of live recordings from bands including Fugazi, Depeche Mode, Nirvana, Sonic Youth, The Replacements and plenty of other shows you may actually remember seeing.

On the cycling side, Sven talks about the evolving future of Everyday Cycles. Rather than returning to a traditional retail bike shop, the idea is moving toward something more like a cycling clubhouse, workshop and gathering place where people can learn to work on their bikes, hang out and be part of the local cycling community.

We also continue down the cyclist-musician rabbit hole started with David Byrne. This episode brings up Kraftwerk’s Ralf Hütter, a famously dedicated cyclist who reportedly incorporated serious road riding into the band’s touring life. That leads to a bigger Full Spectrum Cycling idea: finding musicians, touring crew members and other interesting people who ride bikes and getting them out for a ride or onto the show.

Plus:

• Chris Kegel’s Slow Roll
• Northwoods adventures and questionable cured meats
• Milwaukee music and venue talk
• JK’s latest DJ exploits
• Vinyl acquisitions
• Strummer Fest and Milwaukee Public Schools music programs
• The usual Full Spectrum Cycling tangents

People. Places. Bikes. Culture.

Full Spectrum Cycling is Milwaukee-based conversations about cycling and all the things that happen around it.

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Show 335 - Full Spectrum Cycling Show 335 rolls through a recap of Riverwest 24, upcoming Milwaukee bike events, Chris’s Slow Roll, Daikaiju, Bikes, Boats and Goats, and a first look toward the 2027 RW24 All Roads route.

In Talkin’ Schmack, the crew gets into David Byrne’s biking playlist, cycle trucks, new tools, 3D-printing projects, a Velo Orange restock, and a very interesting folding Omnium-style cargo bike from Belleville Machine.

We also talk about some upcoming bikeable Milwaukee destinations, including Center Street Daze and the WMSE Backyard BBQ, plus JK brings the tunes.

The Milwaukee Minute (or 5)

Chris’s Slow Roll September 20th

• https://chriskegelfoundation.org/chris-slow-roll

Talkin’ Schmack 

Show Beer - Lagunitas Trooper - West Coast IPA

Mike McAbee sat down with Full Spectrum Cycling’s Sven Hammer on the Veggas Pub patio in Riverwest, Milwaukee, just as the neighborhood geared up for the 2024 Riverwest 24. It was a one-year reunion, Mike had been on the show in 2025, and since then he underwent triple bypass surgery and took a two-month hiatus from the road.

In this interview, Makabe talks about what it took to get back to playing out, why the experience was less painful than some breakups he has endured, and how he has managed 25 years as a working musician. He still plays mostly dive bars in Midwest towns of fewer than a thousand people, drives a semi in the fall for extra income, and lets the crowd request whatever they want from a set list hundreds of songs deep.

The conversation also covers McAbee’s life in Frankville, Iowa, an unincorporated town where he lives in a restored old bank building, runs the street-light and water committees, and throws the annual Keep Frankville Wet and Lit fundraiser. In the summer, he and his daughter Lula live on a 1971 Gibson houseboat on the Mississippi.

We touch on RAGBRAI, the growing scale of Riverwest 24’s bonus checkpoints, indoor training with a blood pressure cuff, and the physics of Midwest roundabouts. Recorded live as 2,000 cyclists were getting ready to roll.

Joining Sven, JK and Tony is Corey Baumann, Riverwqest 24 Bonus Checkpoint Manager, Drummer and host of Cream City DJs, for a return engagement! We hit a lot of stuff this week. Have a listen or watch the big show on Youtube!

https://youtu.be/WEebhg_oX68

Tour de France??

• Heat like today but 120 miles and 14,000 feet of climbing!

Chris’s Slow Roll September 20th

• https://chriskegelfoundation.org/chris-slow-roll

Tour de France??

• Heat like today but 120 miles and 14,000 feet of climbing!

• Take the tropics up North with Leinenkugel’s Tropical Hazy IPA! With bursting notes of passion fruit, guava, and a balanced citrus bitterness, this approachable hazy IPA comes in at 7% ABV, and is sure to be a hit year round.

If you like this show PLEASE Subscribe in Apple Podcast – https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/full-spectrum-cycling/id1569662493

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Contact [email protected]

=============================Equipment we use during the production of Full Spectrum Cycling:=============================

• Rode Podcaster Pro II – https://amzn.to/3xKbRfI  (Amazon)

=============================Disclosure: Some of the links on this page may be affiliate links. Clicking these and making a purchase will directly support Full Spectrum Cycling. Thanks!=============================

Full Spectrum Cycling Podcast – Episode 333 (333.2) with Allroy from Canada

https://youtu.be/xX9fEGCrRhw

It doesn’t happen all at once. Usually it’s one bike, one caliper, one cold morning where you squeeze the lever and something is clearly not right. But on Episode 333 of Full Spectrum Cycling, both Sven and Allroy – independently, on different bikes, in different countries – arrived at exactly the same conclusion about hydraulic disc brakes and winter fat biking.

They’re done with them.

Allroy rides a Norco Bigfoot as his primary winter machine. Last season, one of the Shimano hydraulic calipers blew out. He had a spare cable-actuated brake sitting around, swapped it on, and rode out the rest of the winter without issue. No drama, no performance drop he could actually notice.

Sven had a similar story with Magura hydraulics on his fat bike. No crash, no obvious damage – the front brake just stopped having fluid one day. Replaced it with a TRP Spyke cable-actuated caliper and hasn’t looked back.

The culprit with hydraulics in cold weather is usually fluid behavior, seal expansion and contraction, and the fact that a small leak or air pocket that’s a nuisance in summer becomes a real problem at -20. Mineral oil brakes (Shimano, Magura, and TRP’s own hydraulic line) handle cold better than DOT fluid systems. Plus, DOT will strip your paint and be a general nightmare but even mineral oil setups aren’t immune to cold-weather issues.

The difference between a TRP Spyke or Spyre and a mid-range mechanical caliper like a BB7 comes down to pad movement. On a BB7, only one pad moves the other is fixed, which means you end up micro-bending the rotor to make contact. It works, but it’s not ideal.

TRP’s mechanical calipers actuate both pads from center, which means you get consistent, even contact and a much cleaner adjustment. The Spyke is the mountain/fat bike version (long pull lever), and the Spyre is the road version (short pull). Both are made by the same people who make Tektro, just at the higher end of the line, and they’re priced reasonably for the quality.

The honest take from both Allroy and Sven: on a fat bike, you’re not descending at 60 mph. You’re not shuttle-lapping a bike park. The actual stopping power of a good mechanical disc brake is more than adequate for how fat bikes get ridden, and the reliability advantage in winter is not small.

The Fat Bike Lab community on Skool is at 110 members and, notably, it’s not a ghost town between November and April. A good chunk of the current engagement is coming from UK riders, who tend to have terrain suited to fat biking year-round and don’t wait for snow to justify riding wide tires.

Allroy gave a specific example of what makes the community worth being in: a thread where someone broke down the differences between Manitou fork variants, complete with technical detail that’s hard to find anywhere else. That kind of thread, from people who actually know the equipment, is what makes the community useful rather than just a place to post bike photos.

The discussion about adding a “Pantry” section, essentially a classifieds or gear swap area, came up as a logical next step. The idea is to give members a dedicated space to post used gear for sale or trade, separated from general discussion, without turning the whole community into a marketplace.

If you’re a fat biker and you’re not already in Fat Bike Lab, it’s worth checking out.https://www.skool.com/fat-bike-lab-4983

This is a real bummer! Coming from Wisconsin too we are saddened to learn that Wyatt Bicycles, based in Bangor, Wisconsin, closed after 15 years of building American-made aluminum fat bikes. These weren’t budget bikes! They were well-engineered, reasonably priced for US-made product, and built with some smart design thinking around how the chainstay and seat stay yoke were jigged for easy, consistent welding.

The story of Wyatt is also the story of what happened to the fat bike industry more broadly. The big brands, Specialized, Trek, and others, came in, made money off the trend, and then dropped fat bikes from their lineups when growth slowed. The small builders who had been doing it seriously before the trend, and kept doing it after, were left trying to survive in a market that had been inflated and then deflated by companies with no long-term commitment to the category.

Allroy’s town went from four bike shops to zero. The closest option is now a 20-30 minute drive to a big-box franchise. The same pattern is playing out in Milwaukee, where COVID accelerated shop closures that were already underway.

None of this means fat biking is dying, the Fat Bike Lab community is proof of that, but the retail and manufacturing infrastructure that supported it is thinner than it was five years ago.

The conversation moved naturally into brands that are still doing things right. A few that came up:

We Are One Composites – Canadian carbon rim manufacturer, making wheels that save real weight without the overseas price-to-quality lottery. Seeley Dave went North American for a summer wheelset build and landed on We Are One after running the numbers on a full US build with Onyx hubs, Bird Spokes, and Velocity rims.

9.8 Components – Also Canadian, makes dropper posts and the inverted-style flat pedals that Tony is a dedicated fan of. The dropper posts are fully user-serviceable if you want to do the maintenance yourself, or you can send them back. That repairability matters for a component that takes a beating.

Onyx Racing Products – are made in Minnesota by Christianson Systems, a family-run machining operation that originally built farm equipment. The hub line started with BMX racing and has since grown into arguably the most comprehensive hub catalog in cycling covering BMX, mountain, road, gravel, fat bike, park, and track, with hundreds of configuration options across axle standards, driver bodies, colors, and their Classic and Vesper weight tiers. The engineering centerpiece is a patented sprag clutch mechanism which delivers completely silent coasting, zero drag, and engagement so fast it’s effectively instantaneous. Every hub ships with ceramic hybrid bearings as standard. For fat biking specifically, the combination of instant power transfer and dead-silent rolling makes them a standout choice, and the fact that they’re built in the U.S. and backed by a company that has been doing precision machining long before cyclists discovered them doesn’t hurt either.

JK brought an Abita Brewing “Jockamo” Juicy IPA from New OrleansABV 6%, 30 IBU and Jazz Fest-approved. Allroy went with Rouge River “Hop Eye” Hazy IPA at 6.8%, purchased from his local government agency store now that corner stores in Ontario carry beer. Both received passing marks.

Sven’s 3D printing setup was on display during the show, and Allroy’s son has been printing glow-in-the-dark Godzilla figures and working through a backlog of functional and decorative projects. If you’re new to 3D printing, the first thing you print is a Benchy. It is law.

Allroy also got out for a three-day bikepacking trip with Rory – described as genuine Goldilocks conditions, meaning no rain, no mechanicals, and no regrets. He’s hoping to get back out in August.

And Sven’s birthday is July 4th, which coincides this year with the United States’ 250th anniversary. He has complicated feelings about competing with the entire country for his own birthday!

Full Spectrum Cycling drops new episodes monthly. Subscribe on YouTube or wherever you get podcasts.

Show 332 – Sven, Tony and JK hit the backroom at Amrophic Beer to test the Nomono recording set up. How did it go? You guys tell me! How does it sound?

https://youtu.be/POThHN9wqHg

Decorah is an IMBA Trail Town – Mason City too! No Wisconsin towns though. What gives? – https://www.imba.com/trail-towns 

Fat-bike.com news 

Doom and Gloom in the Bike Industry? 

The Bike Farmer’s shop, Gib’s Bike Shop, is closing – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lG-FMJP52g4&t=770s 

• I like the bit at the end about “The Bike Surplus Problem”

It’s not ALL Doom and Gloom 

Show Beer – Kettlehouse Brewing Co.’s FRESH BONG WATER – Hemp Pale Ale – 5.0% ABV https://kettlehouse.com/Beer/fresh-bongwater/

If you like this show PLEASE Subscribe in Apple Podcast – https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/full-spectrum-cycling/id1569662493

Stuff for sale on Facebook Marketplace

Contact [email protected]

=============================Equipment we use during the production of Full Spectrum Cycling:=============================

• Rode Podcaster Pro II – https://amzn.to/3xKbRfI  (Amazon)

=============================Disclosure: Some of the links on this page may be affiliate links. Clicking these and making a purchase will directly support Full Spectrum Cycling. Thanks!=============================

Show 331 Part 2 – Show 331 was a big one so I made it a 2 parter. Part 1 runs about 45 minutes and you can find it here – https://fullspectrumcycling.com/full-spectrum-cycling-331-part-1-fat-biking-electric-bikes-milwaukee/ 

https://youtu.be/eilI_r77h6g

In Part 2 of 331 we have sprawling segment of Full Spectrum Cycling featuring guest Jeremy Prach – 27-year Milwaukee Public Schools teacher, community organizer, and catalyst behind some of Milwaukee’s most beloved DIY events. Threading through all of it is a shared philosophy: community built on genuine stoke beats anything you can sell, and the best events are often born from a group of people drinking beer and throwing darts at a crazy idea until it works.

Segment 1 – 44:42 to 47:00 | Jeremy’s Day Job: Teaching, Cooking, and Community

Jeremy describes his 27-year career as an MPS teacher and his current role running a real working cafe with special needs students at the teacher training center – today’s special: chicken pot pie.

Segment 2 – 47:00 to 53:30 | River West 24: Origin, Ethos, and the AV Club

Jeremy reflects on how Riverwest 24 grew from backyard beer drinking into a Milwaukee institution, the challenge of explaining its ethos to outsiders, the involvement of “certified radicals,” and the new RW24 AV Club looking for production volunteers to control their own media narrative.

Segment 3 – 53:30 to 57:10 | Sign-Up Day Entertainment: Vaudeville, Gong Show, and the Line Experience

The group discusses plans to turn the RW24 registration line into a variety show – somewhere between vaudeville, the Gong Show, and the Muppets – with Jeremy MCing. Sven mentions three years of video footage he’s sitting on from past sign-up days.

Segment 4 – 57:10 to 1:01:30 | Podcast Philosophy: DIY vs. Monetization

Jeremy shares his own motorcycle podcast (Flat-Out Friday / Mama Tried) and the group wrestles with the tension between staying punk rock and actually making the economics work. Sven recalls the heyday of scripted Weekly Dose of Fat episodes with 3,500 listeners vs. the current no-edit approach.

Segment 5 – 1:01:30 to 1:05:30 | Punk Rock Roots and Milwaukee Basement Shows

The conversation digs into Milwaukee’s basement show scene, Jeremy’s punk rock community entry point, Tony’s backyard as a venue, and the visiting Iowa wrestlers who couldn’t believe what they’d walked into.

Segment 6 – 1:05:30 to 1:09:30 | Community as a Core Value: “Bowling Alone” and Catholic Guilt

Jeremy connects his lifelong drive to organize – hockey, Jiu-Jitsu, motorcycles, music – to a deeper need for community. References the book “Bowling Alone,” his altar boy days, and the irony of Catholic guilt as a motivator.

Segment 7 – 1:09:30 to 1:17:30 | The Origin of Flat-Out Friday: From MECCA to the Bradley Center

Jeremy tells the full unlikely story: a whiskey-and-Dr.-Pepper car ride where Scott from Fuel floated the idea for Mama Tried, Jeremy collecting $5 tickets at a door he showed up 30 minutes late to, renting the MECCA Arena and watching them rip the covers off extra seats because more people showed up than expected, losing that slot to the circus, getting blocked out of the Bradley Center, and finally getting a cold call from promoter Raj who said yes because he knew Riverwest 24.

Segment 8 – 1:17:30 to 1:21:15 | Milwaukee Music Connective Tissue: Mike Maccabee, Dub, and Veggas Bar

A detour through music – solo performer Mike McAbee (who plays 3 hours straight because “when I stop, everyone leaves”), Max Knoll’s loud reggae sets, dub music as a full-body experience, and the shared language of Milwaukee’s underground scene.

Segment 9 – 1:21:15 to 1:26:19 | Wrap-Up, Upcoming Events, and the New Bar on the Block

The hosts thank Jeremy. Upcoming items include the Milwaukee Fat Tire Tour, Riverwest 24 registration, a Goddamn Gallows show at Cooperage, and the newly opened (and apparently controversial) Diaspora bar – dropping on Milwaukee Day, 414.

• Urban Jungle cross rumblings. Mike Glodowski has been out scoping.

We have a couple of CYC Photon Gen 2 motor projects in the shop.

I had to check that all the shows were moved and was amazed at the cycling industry luminaries we’ve had on our various shows, especially from fat-bike heyday.

• Ned Overend from Specialized, Todd Lyons from SE, Travis Brown, Tinker Juarez, Paul Price, Nick Ginster, Sov Greg Matyas, Paul Ellis, April Morgan, Will Ross, Wyatt Hrudka, Bill Fleming, David Gabrys, Jeremy Prach, Mike Herlinger, Tim Krueger, Scott Quiring, Corey, Stelljes, Kathi Merchant, Olov Stenlund, Erik Noren, Kevin Wren, Tupps Becker, Adam Blake, Travis, Hubbard, Big Sexy, Zito, John Trusky, Jay Petervary, Natalie Mendez, Chewy, Spinner, DFL, Seeley Dave, Chris Daisy, Mark Peterson, Allroy and several Sams. Naturally, the list goes on and on.

Show Beer – Firehouse Brewery (SD) – The Watch – American IPA – 6.5abv – https://www.firehousebrewing.com/beer/Utapped Ratings – https://untappd.com/b/firehouse-brewing-company-south-dakota-talkin-prairie-boy/5334092 

Searching for a summer-ready IPA? Look no further than The Watch, a medium-bodied, hop-forward beer brewed for those who choose bold flavors and sunny adventures. Crafted with a variety of New World hops that are enhanced with tropical aromatics, this IPA has the kick and complexity that hop-lovers crave with a brightness that won’t weigh you down. 

Show Guest – Jeremy Prach

If you like this show PLEASE Subscribe in Apple Podcast – https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/full-spectrum-cycling/id1569662493

Stuff for sale on Facebook Marketplace

Just announced – Sunn O))) Tour – https://pitchfork.com/news/sunn-o-don-their-cloaks-for-new-album-song-and-tour/ 

Contact [email protected]

=============================Equipment we use during the production of Full Spectrum Cycling:=============================

• Rode Podcaster Pro II – https://amzn.to/3xKbRfI  (Amazon)

=============================Disclosure: Some of the links on this page may be affiliate links. Clicking these and making a purchase will directly support Full Spectrum Cycling. Thanks!=============================