Rich Houseman forged a successful career as an American mountain bike racer in the late nineties and early 2000s. Taking wins in downhill, dual slalom, 4x and dual, Rich has seen all the different trends and changes that mountain bike racing has taken over the last two-and-a-half decades. As his race career wound down, he found himself at a company called Sponsorhouse, which managed athlete and brand sponsor partnerships. Sponsorhouse changed its name to Hookit and Rich has remained an integral part of the business for 19 years. He continues to oversee athlete and sponsor relations and discusses how Hookit uses data-driven information to help companies and riders succeed in their marketing efforts.

Thanks  to JENSON USA  and MAXXIS TIRES  for supporting The Inside Line MTB podcast.

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Discussion Topics
0:00 - Introduction and Fontana
7:10 - BMX to Basketball to Downhill
16:50 - World Champs DH in Cairns
19:57 - First Sponsors, Racing for Tomac
24:54 - Slalom, Dual & 4X
30:59 - Bike Setup Back in the Day
34:28 - Why Did 4X Die?
35:56 - Proudest Racing Moment
38:08 - Making a Living Racing MTB
42:48 - Discovering Aaron Gwin
54:05 - Sponsorhouse to Hookit
1:00:17 - From MTB Racer to Desk Job
1:06:26 - Social Media's Impact on MTB Sponsorship
1:19:53 - What Makes a Successful Social Media Pt?
1:32:52 - Difficulties Female Athletes Face on Social Media
1:35:27 - Athletes Succeeding on Social Media
1:40:14 - Leticia Bufoni using Hookit
1:47:32 - Lew Buchanan Riding for OnlyFans
1:51:22 - Wyn Masters' Sponsor Value
1:56:11 - Dad Life

#MTB #Mountainbike #bike

It's a downhill bike. It's an enduro bike. It's a gearbox bike. It's a regular derailleur-based drivetrain bike. Learn all the details about Trinity's diverse and unique mountain bike with Mic Williams. Mic runs Williams Racing Products and is 1/3rd of the Trinity crew. 

Interview Contents
0:00 - Trinity and WRP Background
2:39 - Gearbox-Adaptable Trinity Design
7:15 - Steel and Aluminum Frame Build
9:30 - Modular Frame Flex and Compliance Tuning 
4:54 - Importance of Swingarm Flex
17:33 - Geometry - Matching Rear-center & Reach?
19:24 - Suspension Kinematics
23:44 - Modular Drivetrain Design
25:47 - WRP Gearbox Explained

Aaron Gwin's mechanic and potential 2023 Fontana 30-39 Expert champ, John Hall, joins Team Robot, Jason Schroeder, Jonny Simonetti and gordo on The Inside Line Ride Along. We spend three hours discussing everything from the unwritten rules of World Cup downhill warm-up spots, spoke tension myths, creating mountain bikes for consumers vs. pro racers, the new Intense M279 HP6 prototype,  Gwin's chainless victory in Leogang and plenty more.

These great partners support The Inside Line
www.jensonusa.com - use coupon code INSIDELINE and receive 10% off qualifying items.
MAXXIS TIRES - they've been with The Inside Line since day one and make the best-performing mountain bike tires for all styles and riding conditions.

Interview contents
0:00 - Intro / Semi-final World Cup DH format Impact on Mechanics
17:35 - How Many Tires Used at a World Cup DH?
21:15 - John Hall was Jason Schroeder's Mechanic
25:45 - Becoming Aaron Gwin's Mechanic
40:35 - Trying to Get 27.5 DH tires and wheels in 2013
47:57 - Spoke Tension Debates
53:25 - Prototypes and Different Rider Setups
1:00:54 - Recipe for Winning
1:15:47 - Will John Hall Be the 2023 Fontana Ex 30-39 Champ?
1:27:50 - Thoughts on e-Enduro Racing?
1:38:38 - Developing Bikes for Every Rider
1:59:13 - Bike Reviews Based on Incorrect Setup
2:11:14 - You Can't Scrub
2:14:36 - Don't Make Bets with Mitch Ropelato or Aaron Gwin
2:19:36 - John Tomac Stories
2:24:29 - Developing the Prototype Intense M279 HP6
2:43:18 - Suspension Platforms
2:54:45 - The Broken Chain Leogang Win Story
3:12:53 - SoCal Speed Team

In December last year, Warner Bros. Discovery announced fairly monumental changes to the format of UCI World Cup downhill racing. The introduction of a third points-paying race per round that will result in less elite riders in finals quickly stirred up a commotion. On today's episode, the crew sits down to discuss the details of these changes and the possible implications they will have when the season kicks off in June. Enjoy!

These awesome brands make The B Practice Podcast possible:
Maxxis
Burgtec
Industry Nine 

0:00 Dakotah Norton's initial reaction as a World Cup racer
4:51 Breakdown and discussion of new semi-final and finals format
9:45 Impact of the new format on US DH racers
11:38 Why did Warner Bros. Discovery implement these changes?
16:27 Broadcasting top 30 vs. top 60 
17:30 Points breakdown per round  
19:07 How will more points per round affect racing? 
26:55 The dynamic of doing three race runs in a weekend
33:52 How to watch World Cups in 2023
36:05 Third-party media changes 
39:55 New protected rider rules  
50:09 The stresses of being a top 10 racer OR top 30-40 racer in semi-finals
52:10 Rumors of track standardization
53:40 Why not a B Final or last-chance qualifier?  
55:05 How season-long storylines could change with less racers in finals 
1:00:02 Will wildcard racers still be a thing?
1:00:14 Updates to replacement rider rules 
1:02:04 2023 Schedule breakdown 
1:08:04 Are all these changes just TV broadcasters taking over our sport?

Bob Weber set out on a crusade to make the safest motorcycle and mountain bike helmets available and today they're celebrating their 10-year anniversary. Vital spent a morning with Bob and Derek from 6D riding bikes and then sitting down to discuss their journey. Their patented ODS helmet technology is explained along with Bob's philosophy about preventing concussions and minimizing injury from cycling and biking-related crashes.

Jason and Shawn rode in the 6D ATB-2T helmet earlier that morning and were surprised by its comfort and stability on the trail. The protection offered by the helmet, paired with the comfort and fit has them considering running it full-time.

These great partners support The Inside Line
www.jensonusa.com - use coupon code INSIDELINE and receive 10% off qualifying items.
MAXXIS TIRES - they've been with The Inside Line since day one and make the best-performing mountain bike tires for all styles and riding conditions.

Team Robot, aka Charlie Sponsel, drops in for the first Inside Line Ride Along, where mountain bikers sit down with no real agenda to discuss life and bikes.

It's a new year, and we have some exciting changes for the podcast! First, we are finally filming the show. Unfortunately, this means Dakotah can't cook dinner while we record and Austin will have to get out of bed. But we couldn't be more stoked to continue evolving the podcast and offering everyone entertaining and insightful conversations focused on downhill racing. If everything goes to plan, the plan is to pump out a weekly podcast. Wish us luck.

And second, we've managed to score some fantastic sponsors for the podcast this year. Somehow four friends bantering and bench racing has turned into a mildly successful passion project, so shoutout to everyone who's listened in the past and helped get the podcast to this point, and a big shoutout to Maxxis, Burgtec and Industry Nine for coming on board to support the podcast. We will do our best to keep these sponsorships from going straight to our heads and changing who we are. 

Professional downhill mountain bike racer, Chris Grice, checks in from a training camp in France. He's recently moved from Specialized Gravity to Generation Specialized for 2023. We talk about that move, how he's training, what he thinks about the changes to the 2023 UCI Mountain Bike World Cup and World Series, meeting Aaron Gwin for the first time and his insane crash at Windrock while filming for Vital RAW.

These great partners support The Inside Line
www.jensonusa.com - use coupon code INSIDELINE and receive 10% off qualifying items.
MAXXIS TIRES - they've been with The Inside Line since day one and make the best-performing mountain bike tires for all styles and riding conditions.

We sit down with all the members of the Santa Cruz Syndicate downhill mountain bike race team, Laurie Greenland, Nina Hoffman, Jackson Goldstone, Greg Minnaar, Steve Peat and Lee Huskinson, Laurie's mechanic. We talk about everything from impressive race performances to making sure that little adjuster knob on an airplane tray table is perpendicular to the ground.

Vital MTB thanks
Jenson USA
- use coupon code InsideLine at checkout and receive 10% off qualifying items

Maxxis Tires

Santa Cruz Bicycles

Jackson Goldstone and Greg Minnaar of the Santa Cruz Syndicate join us on The Inside Line mountain bike podcast. We met up with them at the Fox MTB headquarters as they were deciding on their new race kits for 2023 and debuting the new Union shoe. Jackson discusses his insane huck off a bridge at the Andorra World Cup. Greg talks about breaking his neck in Val di Sole, Italy, 20+ years of racing downhill, going from a super long V10 to reeling the length back in, the 45,000-Euro Showa forks on his Honda G-Cross downhill bike and more.

Next week, we'll continue the episode with all the members of the Santa Cruz Syndicate - Laurie Greenland, Nina Hoffman, Jackson, Greg and even Steve Peat! 

Vital MTB thanks
Jenson USA
- use coupon code InsideLine at checkout and receive 10% off qualifying items

Maxxis Tires

Santa Cruz Bicycles