2022 was Blister’s busiest ever year for bike reviews, and we’ll have even more coming your way in 2023. But before we dive headlong into the new year, we wanted to sit down and recap a bunch of our favorite bikes and gear that we tested last year, including suspension, brakes, tires, and more. And along the way, we chat about bike versatility vs. specificity, tease some upcoming reviews, and a bunch more. TOPICS & TIMES:Orbea Rallon (6:30)Revel Rail 29 (9:37)Pivot Shadowcat (11:56)Kavenx VHP 16 & Canfield Jedi 29 (16:50)TRP DH-R Evo (23:59)Hope Tech 4 V4 (28:43)SRAM GX AXS (31:44)RockShox ZEB (35:53)Ride Concepts Tallac Boa (39:10)Rimpact Pro (43:49)Continental Kryptotals (48:00)RELATED LINKS:Eric Olsen (Ep.126)Matthew Fairbrother (Ep139)BLISTER+Blister Summit 2023Become a Blister MemberBlister LabsThis Week’s Gear GiveawayBlister Mountain Bike Buyer’s GuideOUR OTHER PODCASTSOff The CouchGEAR:30Blister PodcastCRAFTED Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Gear of the Year, 2022

Bikes &amp; Big Ideas is the weekly podcast from BLISTER that's dedicated to the most interesting conversations and ideas from the bike world — and beyond. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Sports

Health & Fitness

We’ve been testing a huge variety of bikes, from the E-Gravel Scott Solace to a bunch of high-pivot Trail bikes (including the Deviate Highlander II), plus several new forks, some new tires, and a whole bunch more. So we sat down to chat about all of it; recap the World Cup DH season opener; recount being repeatedly heckled on the local trails; and argue about the relative merits of tire inserts vs. beefier casings. RELATED LINKS: BLISTER+ Membership This Week’s Gear Giveaway TOPICS & TIMES: World Cup DH season opener (1:44) Norco Fluid VLT & Canyon Neuron:ONFly (12:34) Bosch SX Motor (13:21) Deviate Highlander II (24:51) Yeti ASR (30:25) Michelin’s new Enduro and DH tires (41:34) Fox 38 Grip X2 (57:51) Formula Belva (1:05:31) Scott Solace (1:11:04) OUR OTHER PODCASTS Blister Cinematic CRAFTED GEAR:30 Blister Podcast Off The Couch Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Reviewer Reports: World Cup DH Recap, Tons of Bikes, Suspension, Tires, & More

Carbon fiber bike frames have become ubiquitous in the high-end world, but metal bikes are making a comeback — and the number of steel full-suspension bikes we’ve reviewed in the last few years is a testament to that. So we sat down with Daniel Yang and Nick Neuhaus of Neuhaus Metalworks to chat about the case for metal bikes; hear the story of their respective journeys into frame building; talk about bike sizing and size-specific geometry; and discover that Daniel and our Bike Editor, David, are maybe secretly the same person (?) RELATED LINKS: Bag Balm BLISTER+ Membership This Week’s Gear Giveaway TOPICS & TIMES: Introducing Nick and Daniel (2:50) Are Daniel and David secretly the same person? (13:57) Group learning & sharing info (15:24) Metal bikes (18:40) Carbon fiber frames & industrial design (26:12) The UDH (35:00) Frame sizes & size-specific geometry (50:37) Making biking more inclusive (58:20) The case for custom bikes (1:03:29) OUR OTHER PODCASTS Blister Cinematic CRAFTED GEAR:30 Blister Podcast Off The Couch Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Neuhaus Metalworks on Metal Bikes’ Resurgence, Learning to Build Frames, Size-Specific Geometry & More

Simon welcomes guest co-host Mike Ferrentino to go over a busy, weird month in the bike world. Of course, they have to talk about what happened to Kona, which leads to a discussion about the negative effect Venture capital and investment companies seem to have on the bike industry. But there’s also fun stuff going on with companies like Gates, and Mike places a bet with eating his microphone as the stakes. Plus they get into the incredible start to the XC World Cup season for U.S. athletes, the new Canyon lightweight eMTB, the scourge of poison oak, and, naturally, some discussion of zombies. RELATED LINKS: BLISTER+ Membership BLISTER+ Real World Testimonials Blister Labs This Week’s Gear Giveaway Blister Mountain Bike Buyer’s Guide TOPICS & TIMES: What's going on with Kona? (0:41) Enve is being sold again (9:25) Rapha closed their U.S. office (14:42) The Mountain Bike capital of the world (18:03) Gate’s 100k belt drive prize & Microphone eating (29:00) Recap of the first two XC World Cups (34:46) New Yeti ASR (42:22) XC bike amnesia (52:03) Canyon Neuron:ONfly first ride (56:04) Poison Oak (1:03:30) 28 Days Later sequel and Zombies (1:04:47) OUR OTHER PODCASTS Blister Cinematic CRAFTED GEAR:30 Blister Podcast Off The Couch Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Reviewing the News w/ Mike Ferrentino, April 2024

The Norco Factory Team has a new DH race bike, and the story of its development is an interesting one. So we sat down with engineers Adrian Ward and Kirk McDowall to hear their take on the goals and design intent of the bike; what they learned from the development of the existing Enduro bike, the Range (and its modified DH version); the original test mule for the new race bike; working with Greg Minnaar to continue the bike’s development; and a whole lot more. RELATED LINKS: BLISTER+ Membership BLISTER+ Real World Testimonials Blister Labs This Week’s Gear Giveaway Blister Mountain Bike Buyer’s Guide TOPICS & TIMES: Introducing Adrian and Kirk (2:03) Origins of the DH bike project (3:59) Racing DH on the Range (6:35) The next steps (13:27) Kirk’s testing (17:28) Building “the fastest race bike” (22:53) The design of the bike (28:41) Wheel sizes & going MX (32:33) Suspension layout (41:07) Greg Minnaar & reconsidering 29’’ wheels (46:52) Future development (56:26) OUR OTHER PODCASTS Blister Cinematic CRAFTED GEAR:30 Blister Podcast Off The Couch Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Norco's New DH Race Bike

We’ve been testing a massive assortment of new bikes and other gear, and David Golay and Zack Henderson sat down to chat about a whole bunch of them, including the high-pivot Norco Optic and Sight, the new Specialized Epic Evo, the newly-mulleted Yeti SB165, and more.
RELATED LINKS: BLISTER+ Membership BLISTER+ Real World Testimonials Blister Labs This Week’s Gear Giveaway Blister Mountain Bike Buyer’s Guide TOPICS & TIMES: Yeti SB165 (1:29) Norco Sight & Optic (8:46) Kavenz VHP 16 V7 (22:43) Rocky Mountain Instinct (31:52) Rocky Mountain Altitude (38:33) Ibis HD6 (45:46) Specialized Epic Evo (53:18) SRAM Maven brakes (58:58) OUR OTHER PODCASTS Blister Cinematic CRAFTED GEAR:30 Blister Podcast Off The Couch Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Gear of the Year, 2022

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