Geek Warning

This week, Escape’s Dave Rome and Jack Duncan go a little behind the scenes of the bike industry. Dave explains how some products come to be, the value of a brand, what open mould means, and how the business of generic products works. 

Later in the episode, the talk turns to new head units from Garmin and Coros, and whether some of this is merely duplicating technology we already own. Then the geeks chat about the closure of Santa Cruz’s women’s-specific brand Juliana. 

That’s it for our free listeners, while those on our member feeds also get Ask a Wrench – where technical questions from our members get answered. 

Time stamps:

• 02:30 - Brands and manufacturers 
• 08:00 - Own design versus open mould 
• 12:30 - Same factory doesn’t equal same product 
• 17:00 - The value of a brand
• 23:00 - Price is not always an indicator of quality 
• 26:00 - Generics explained
• 35:30 - Outsourced design 
• 41:40 - Two new big head units and Dave’s hate of beeping noises 
• 51:00 - Juliana becomes PON’s latest victim
• 57:00 - Ask a Wrench (Member-only content) 
• 57:30 - Pedal toggle explained 
• 1:07:00 - Disc brake calipers that twist upon tightening 
• 1:11:00 - A follow-up to fixing a torque wrench 
• 1:13:30 - Fixes for slipping shifters 

Recently, Escape’s Ronan McLaughlin surfaced from a multi-month outdoor tyre testing project. That test not only sought to find which fast road race tyres were fastest, but also to study the testing itself. 

All of this was only made possible with the expertise and instruments made available by John Buckley of Streamlines. As a former lead aerodynamicist at Mercedes F1, Buckley brought a unique skill set to cycling, and works with a number of professional cycling teams and national federations to find performance gains. 

In this bonus episode of Geek Warning that crosses over with Performance Process, Dave Rome peels back the layers to better understand the science and methodology behind Streamlines’ approach to outdoor testing. The conversation covers topics such as why drum testing alone doesn’t provide the full story, and where there may be limitations in the Virtual Elevation method of testing (aka, the Chung method). 

Happy geeking! 

Every other Geek Warning episode typically ends with the geeks answering 3-4 technical questions submitted by members. This week, we’re opening up our usual Member-Only ‘Ask a Wrench’ section to everyone.

For this episode, Dave Rome is joined by US tech writer Jack Duncan and mechanic Zach Edwards of the Boulder Groupetto. The episode starts with some tech news from the week, and then gets into answering member-submitted questions.

If you like this format, please know we offer a shorter version of it every week – you just need to be on the member-only feed to see it.

Time stamps:

This week on Geek Warning, Dave chats with Ronan about his extremely comprehensive road tyre test, published a week ago. The conversation covers how the test was run and why the data is so reliable. 

Then, Ronan and Dave chat about Silca’s acquisition and re-release of the analogue-watch-lookalike Omata cycling computer. 

Midway, Escape's US-based tech writer Jack Duncan jumps on to discuss Colnago’s new Colnago gravel bike and a somewhat peculiar wheel release from Cadex. 

Lastly, members of Escape Collective (on our exclusive member-only feeds) get access to Ask a Wrench, where we answer technical questions submitted by our members. 

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A report published by CyclingIndustries.com highlights an extreme shortage of skilled mechanics and the issues that presents. Dave and Ronan discuss some of the challenges behind this and what it may take to better retain skilled mechanics. 

Later in the episode, Dave shares why he thinks rim brakes will return in popularity, at least a little. Ronan argues why Dave’s crystal ball is faulty.

You’ll also hear a tech tip that’s perhaps more just an excuse to treat yourself. To wrap things up, and as per usual, members of Escape Collective get our Ask a Wrench section, where Dave and Zach Edwards answer technical questions from listeners. 

Happy geeking!

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Geek Warning is rarely about the chapter titles, but rather the expertise and information shared within. That sure applies this week, as the conversation covers the real story behind Pidcock’s recent wheel choice at Worlds, Ronan’s ideal rim widths for road racing, and what Dave considers to be the benchmark in SPD pedals. 

There’s also a relatively new Good Thing for SRAM Transmission, a tech tip for anyone turning a spanner, and plenty more. 
 
 As usual, members of Escape Collective (on the member-only feed) get Ask a Wrench at the end of the episode. This week, Zach Edwards of the Boulder Groupetto returns to help answer tech questions from our members. 

Timestamps:
 

Many brands within the bike industry often speak about higher-performing products being stiffer, lighter, more aero, and faster-rolling. And yet when it comes to off-road disciplines, it’s rare for brands to discuss smoothness as a performance metric. It’s an area many have dabbled in over the years, but it’s tough to market a product on. 

Berd, makers of rope-like spokes, recently published a white paper detailing why they believe their new gravel race wheels are the fastest for the off-road discipline. A big part of that claim relates to vibration damping and impact reduction, metrics that historically haven’t been included in the performance modelling used today to calculate a road cyclists’ speed. 

In its white paper, Berd proposes that vibration damping and impact reduction should be included as a component of rolling resistance. Geek Warning host Dave Rome has long shouted as much for off-road – smoother is faster – and thought that was all quite interesting. So he sat down with Berd co-founder and CEO, Charlie Spanjers, to hear more. 

An edited transcript of the conversation is also available at EscapeCollective.com.

Talk of big wheels continue to dominate headlines in the cycling tech world. This past week, Trek and Scott raced production-ready 32ers at the World Cup round in Utah, while Sea Otter Europe showcased other production-ready options. 

With that, Dave Rome chats with Escape’s Suvi Loponen and Alex Hunt about what they each saw in person at these respective events. For Suvi, Sea Otter Europe, with about 80,000 attendees this year, offered an opportunity for a vibe check from members of the European bicycle industry. 

Members on our member-only feed will also hear Ask a Wrench, this week with Zach Edwards. 

Time stamps:

Welcome back to Geek Warning. This week, Dave Rome and Ronan McLaughlin talk through Shimano’s new road pedal system, which will eventually supersede the now two-decade-old SPD-SL. Dave has been hands-on with the new pedals and offers insight into how nuanced the differences are. 

Dave is then joined by Suvi Loponen to discuss the new Canyon Grail gravel bike along with a number of other standout bits of tech news from the week.

At the end of the episode, and for those listening via a member-only feed, we have an interview with Bill Alcorn of BikeFlights about how air freighting and door-to-door bike delivery have changed, and potentially how to mitigate those increased costs. 

Timestamps: 

This week, Caley Fretz returns to Geek Warning alongside Jack Duncan and Dave Rome. It’s been a week full of big new bike launches (all of which Escape Collective attended) and there has been some equally big industry news. 

The geeks discuss new bikes from Scott, Factor, and Enve, and how each finds (or doesn't) a balance between performance and enjoyment. Plus, there’s a shift in product from WTB, some somewhat sad news out of an Australian business, and we speculate over why Specialized’s founder has returned to the helm. 

As usual, members of Escape Collective have access to the exclusive member-only feeds of the podcast, and in this we answer a number of technical questions in the Ask a Wrench segment.

Happy geeking! 

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