Nerd Alert Podcast

The Nerds had quite a few new bikes to talk about this week, and a lot of details to debate, especially regarding Cannondale’s new Synapse.

On the one hand, it’s strikingly normal now with no proprietary fittings whatsoever (even a threaded bottom bracket — from Cannondale!). But there’s now also a fully integrated onboard battery powering built-in lights and a custom rear-facing Garmin Varia radar. Is this a good thing, or is it a little half-baked? Meanwhile, Canyon has moved away from threaded to PF86 for its latest Endurace range, which seems nuts at first… but is it, or is there more nuance to it?

We also discuss SRAM buying computer brand Hammerhead, the same end for Bowman Cycles, and we hammer through a small army of Ask a Mechanic questions. Don’t miss it!

It turns out Canadian pro Geoff Kabush is pretty good at racing bikes — first in XC MTB and cyclocross, then more recently, gravel and enduro — and throughout it all, he’s never been afraid to speak his mind. But along with chasing podiums, Kabush has always also put his engineering degree and technical mindset to good use in a product development role, providing valuable feedback on what works, and what doesn’t.

So what’s he think about gravel gear? James and Dave ask the questions, and Kabush provides the answers.

There are all sorts of awards handed out in the cycling industry. There’s the Arlo Pfeiffer award for most convoluted cable routing; the Emma Stouffy prize for the more pungent tire; and the David St. Hubbins trophy — the “Hubby” — for blackest paint.

But when all is said and done, none of these matter as much as our annual CyclingTippies tech awards. What was the best bike we rode this year (and the worst)? Who shook up the industry the most? What new trend had us really scratching our heads? Go grab some popcorn and kick your feet up while you listen to this one.

If you’ve tried to buy anything bike-related over the last couple of years, you’ve undoubtedly noticed that no one has anything in stock — like, ANYTHING. But why is that? Has the pandemic really disrupted global production that much on the supply side, or is it that so many more people are trying to buy stuff on the demand side?

James and Dave sit down with the CEO of SRAM, Ken Lousberg, to get the inside story from one of the biggest players in the industry to get the full story. You won’t want to miss this one.

The Nerds are finally back with another group show!

This week, one of the things we’re discussing is one of the hottest trends in gravel bikes: adjustable frame geometry. On paper, the idea of having multiple bike personalities in one sounds awfully appealing, but how much of a difference does it really make, and how many people are actually going to use it regularly? Is it a way to really make bikes better, or is it just a way bike brands can hedge their bets? And what happens if it’s done poorly?

As always, we have opinions.

3D printing is the hottest new development in manufacturing, and as far as cycling goes, saddles have curiously emerged as an area that has seen the most widespread application with several models on offer from both Fizik and Specialized (and more to come, surely).

Although they’re horribly expensive, 3D-printed saddles have also proven to be freakishly comfortable while still being extraordinarily light and highly supportive. But what makes them so comfortable? When might they become more affordable? And why do they have to look so weird?

In this week’s episode, James sat down with folks from Fizik and Carbon — the 3D-printing development partner for both Fizik and Specialized — to get the nitty-gritty details on what 3D-printed saddles are all about, and where they’re heading from here.

This/next week’s episode of the Nerd Alert Podcast has dropped a little early. That’s because it’s a timely chat about the new Cervelo R5-CX cyclocross race bike that was just announced.  Our guests for this episode are Cervelo’s director of product management, Maria Benson, and the company’s engineering manager, Scott Roy. Dave Rome fills in as host and chats about all the nerdy details of the new model (such as the new threaded bottom bracket!) that was designed specifically for Marianne Vos and Wout van Aert.  It’s worth a quick note to say that while the regular CyclingTips podcast does occasionally do special sponsored episodes that take a deep dive on new bike releases, this isn’t one of those. Rather we just thought it would be interesting to have a candid chat about the discipline-specific design elements that some of the world’s best racers request.

This week’s episode of the CyclingTips Nerd Alert podcast sees tech editors Dave Rome and Ronan McLaughlin take control of the airwaves. 

They chat about new headset bearings that apparently can’t be killed, some big industry news, and a few new features you can expect to see on Zwift. 

Ronan and Dave then share a few of their most loved products for this year that didn’t make their respective Top 10s.

And finally, the episode wraps up with a teaser of what they’re working on for CyclingTips now.

Trek released an inward-facing sustainability report a few months ago, and it’s eye-opening.

The document doesn’t paint an especially rosy picture (e-bike haters will have a field day with this one), but it does provide some very useful information along with a solid roadmap for how to improve things.

In this episode, The Nerds sit down with Trek’s director of brand marketing and public relations, Eric Bjorling, to discuss some of the details of the report, and also ask some hard questions about how to deal with some of its inconvenient truths.

The Nerds have been pining for some sort of Mario Bros and Zwift mashup that lets us toss turtle shells at our competitors, but Zwift still seems to be too serious for these kinds of shenanigans. However, a new indoor bike called Tiltbike from UK outfit Muoverti nevertheless gives us some hope that we’ll see something like that from someone because built into one of its levers is — for real — a joystick!

Will our prayers ever be answered? We chat about some other tech news items in this week’s show — and answer a bunch of Ask a Mechanic questions, as usual — but really all we care about is the turtle shells.