The BikeRadar Podcast

BikeRadar’s XC fans Rach and Tom look ahead to the 2024 XC season. The first rounds are coming up shortly in Brazil and the summer’s Olympic Games are on the horizon.

The past six months have seen a host of exciting, new XC bikes and tech being launched, so in this episode we discuss the latest race bikes as well as picking out who we think will take home the gold from the summer Games in Paris.

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Which accessories do you need for mountain biking and which don’t you need? We run through the five most important mountain bike accessories and reveal the five you don’t really need (though they may be nice to have).

With over 70 years of cumulative MTB experience, Tom, Rob and Al know what makes our riding lives easier — and what doesn’t really make much difference.

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Fastest Known Times (FKTs) are individual time trials raced over typically mixed-terrain ultra-endurance routes.

A long-established racing format in the thru-hiking and backpacking worlds, cycling FKTs have surged in popularity in recent years. 

In today's episode of the BikeRadar Podcast, custodian of fastestknowntimes.org.uk and ultra-endurance racing legend Molly Weaver explains what FKTs are, their rules and how to take one for yourself. 

Weaver turned pro in 2015, riding for Matrix Fitness Pro Cycling, before wrapping up her pro road career in 2018 riding for Trek-Drops. 

Weaver has gone on to become a legend in the ultra-endurance scene, competing in this year’s Atlas Mountain Race, the Trans Pyrenees, the GB Divide, the Highland Trail 550 and more.

At the time of recording, she holds no fewer than eight UK FKTs. She’s also one of our only guests to have their own Wikipedia page.

Weaver is joined by deputy editor Jack Luke and senior videographer Robyn Furtado – the only person on the BikeRadar team with the necessary experience to talk with authority about what it takes to race an ultra.

• Robyn's Bright Midnight writeup: https://www.bikeradar.com/features/opinion/bright-midnight 
• Trans Cambrian relay attempt: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fv0CW77fZCg 

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How do you pick a pocket-friendly gravel bike? What should you look out for and what key features can you expect if you’re spending around £1,000?

Senior road technical editor Warren Rossiter has recently completed a test of budget gravel bikes, and in this episode he and Tom discuss the entry-level gravel bike market. 

They cover the kit you’re likely to find, and the types of bikes available at this price point, as well as running through the four bikes in Warren’s recent test.

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Bike of the Year is coming! Testing for our annual bike review bonanza is well underway. In this episode, George Scott is joined by two of our lead testers, Tom Marvin and Warren Rossiter, to preview Bike of the Year 2024. With nine categories across road, gravel, MTB and urban, what bikes can you expect to see in the test? Tune-in to find out… 

Read more on L-Twoo’s new gravel groupsets from the Taipei Cycle Show: https://www.bikeradar.com/news/taipei-2024-l-twoo-gravel-groupsets

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Specialized’s cross-country bike, the Epic 8, was launched with an updated RockShox Flight Attendant, updated to work seamlessly with XC race rigs.

In this episode, Tom Marvin speaks to Brian Gordon, Specialized’s product lead on all things XC, and Chris Mandell, North America PR man for SRAM. They discuss the new Specialized Epic 8 and Epic 8 EVO, as well as the latest wireless developments in suspension – Flight Attendant.

Along the way, host Jack Luke quizzes Tom on his experience of both new bikes and RockShox’s electronic equipment.

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What are your baseline fork settings? The dark-arts of bar tape, and our pick of the best workstands, plus more, feature in this episode of our Tech Q&A series.

Tech experts Warren Rossiter and Alex Evans weigh in to help out our listeners navigate the world of cycling tech.

Have you any unanswered questions? Pop them to [email protected] and we’ll include them in a future episode.

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It’s (another) new bike day at BikeRadar – the 10th generation Giant TCR has launched, and we’ve jumped into the podcast studio to cover the major headlines.

Senior technical editor Ashley Quinlan is your host, joined by road tech aficionados Simon von Bromley and Liam Cahill to discuss how the latest TCR stacks up.

We also hear from Giant’s Andrew Juskaitis, who helps us position the TCR versus the Propel, talks us through the brand’s new carbon manufacturing technique and explains how Giant has looked beyond the frame when designing the bike.

You can read all about the new Giant TCR on BikeRadar now.

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In this latest edition of the BikeRadar Podcast, senior technical editor Ashley Quinlan sits down with Factor Bikes CEO and founder, Rob Gitelis.

They discuss Rob’s history in the cycling world, firstly behind the scenes in carbon manufacture before taking over at Factor, then move on to the future of the material as well as take on the big question about the state of the bike industry today.

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Manufacturers of carbon rims are increasingly adopting hookless rims, citing benefits such as lower weight, improved aerodynamics and reduced manufacturing costs.

Last week, though, on stage five of the 2024 UAE Tour, Thomas De Gendt suffered a high-speed crash while – seemingly – just riding along.

De Gendt’s wheels, a set of Zipp’s 353 NSW carbon wheels with hookless rims, were initially deemed to be at fault, but can we be sure about what actually happened, and could there be more to this story than meets the eye?

In this episode of the BikeRadar podcast, deputy editor, Jack Luke, and senior technical writer, Smon von Bromley, discuss the incident and what it might mean for the future of wheel and tyre tech on road bikes.

• Simon’s in-depth feature on the incident: https://www.bikeradar.com/features/tech/de-gendt-uae-tour-crash-are-hookless-rims-safe

Since this episode was recorded, Vittoria has released a statement seeking to clarify the cause of the incident: https://www.bikeradar.com/news/vittoria-statement-de-gendt-crash-hookless-rims 

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