The Classified Powershift Hub, with its internal gearing that makes a 1x chainring work like a 2x, has always been a point of curiosity around the Lab. However, without a full groupset to give the shifting a proper home, there has always been hesitation. That is, until Logan got his hands on the brand new collaboration between the Belgian company and the brake specialists at TRP for a full review at Cycling Weekly. From that testing, it was clear we needed to delve into it here. In this episode, Logan ceded the hosting chair to Stephen Fitzgerald, our Intern/CEO, and we brought Drew Van Kampen, our resident Always Trying New Things Guy, to pepper Logan with questions around the new groupset and explore a few tangents along the way. 

Host: Stephen Fitzgerald 

Guests: Drew Van Kampen and Logan Jones-Wilkins

Producer: Logan Jones-Wilkins

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

We are back after a spring break here at the Rodeo Labs Podcast with a brand new season of stories for your ears. Everything from tech to adventures will be discussed this summer as we head back to the (podcasting) lab to delve into things we are getting up to.

Fortunately for us, Stephen gave us a great place to start with a win at the recent Pinyons and Pines nano-ultra bike-packing race around Flagstaff, Arizona! Not only was it a win, but Stephen managed to do it on the Project Denver Show Pony, a prototype mountain bike that Rodeo is reaching, developing, and making right here in our Colorado home.

Logan and Stephen get in-depth into the race, Stephen's eclectic racing career, why the draw to race persists, and what Project Denver means in this crazy economic climate, the bike industry is currently facing.

Host: Logan Jones-Wilkins

Guest: Stephen Fitzgerald

Producer: Logan Jones-Wilkins

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

You might already be familiar with our next episode in the Rodeo Rider Files series: Luke Hall. Luke is our resident long-haul factory racer with big results in 200+ mile bike races like second place in the 2023 Unbound XL and a win at the 2024 Gravel Worlds Long Voyage.

Luke sat down with us to discuss the high peaks and low valleys of 2024, what he is looking forward to in 2025, and what he has learned from a decade of bike racing. Things get deep along the way, touching on many topics in a quick-hitting 45 minutes, but as the kids might say, it is all for the love of the game.

Host: Logan Jones-Wilkins

Guest: Luke Hall

Producer: Logan Jones-Wilkins

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Sponsorship in cycling is a moving target. In all aspects of the sport, sponsorship is a crucial marketing tool, but it is often economically inefficient. What’s more, those two outcomes are difficult to track, adding to the complexity of the topic.

While the importance of sponsorship is integral to a wide range of elements of the cycling business, it is so difficult to discuss because everyone has their perspectives and interests shaping how they interact with it. Even journalists cannot be entirely unbiased as relationships and support are unavoidable. Conflict of interest, to some degree, is unavoidable. 

Yet, here at Rodeo Adventure Labs, we are not phased. Sponsorship is a constant topic of conversation here, so we felt we needed to bring that conversion out into the open. To do that, we called up Hailey Moore from The Radavist to add to our collective understanding of sponsorship in terms of marketing, storytelling, and athletics. After two recordings, many emails, lots of outlining, and a dose of audio cleaning, we came up with an episode that we found fascinating. For those of you who have liked what we have done before, we hope you will enjoy this as well. 

You can read more from Hailey on The Radavist here, including a profile she wrote about the Rodeo HQ that sparked this whole conversation that you can find here.

Host: Logan Jones-Wilkins

Guests: Stephen Fitzgerald and Hailey Moore

Producer: Logan Jones-Wilkins

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

At the end of the year, most publications and their writers come out with the four or five favorite products they used in the past year. Most of these things are the cutting edge of their categories or a niche product that fits a specific year. These stories are great because they often allow journalists to write about their favorite things and are often useful to a wide range of people.

This year we here at Rodeo Labs wanted to get in on the fun, but to stay true to our roots we did things a bit differently. So we got together our host and resident bike journalist Logan Jones-Wilkins, CEO and Head Intern Stephen Fitzgerald, engineer and fourth finish at the Tour Divide Cade Richenberger, and product manager/master tinkerer Drew Van Kampen together for a podcast. Specifically, a podcast discussing our four favorite things from four different categories.

At the end of the year, most publications and their writers come out with the four or five favorite products they used in the past year. Most of these things are the cutting edge of their categories or a niche product that fits a specific year. These stories are great because they often allow journalists to write about their favorite things and are often useful to a wide range of people.

This year we here at Rodeo Labs wanted to get in on the fun, but to stay true to our roots we did things a bit differently. So we got together our host and resident bike journalist Logan Jones-Wilkins, CEO and Head Intern Stephen Fitzgerald, engineer and fourth finish at the Tour Divide Cade Reichenberger, and director of product development/master tinkerer Drew Van Kampen for a podcast. Specifically, a podcast discussing our four favorite things from four different categories.

We didn’t limit ourselves in this discussion to new products like most end-of-year lists do – some of our products are much older, while others are still to hit the shelves – but we did do all non-Rodeo products to ensure our recommendations stay true to things we have simply enjoyed and would like to put on your radar. Most importantly, we also didn’t limit ourselves to a set clock, so for this pod, we lingered a bit to cover all the ground we needed to and we found some pretty interesting rabbit holes along the way. 

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

We are back with another Rodeo rider episode! This time we sat down with Jeff Chapman. Jeff is from Kansas City, Missouri, and is new to Rodeo Labs this year as he has waded further into the gravel thicket.

Jeff started his journey into cycling around the pandemic and is now a two-time participant of Unbound. The race in Kansas has taken on extra meaning for Jeff whose day job is spent out on those same Flint Hills gravel roads. Nevertheless, as is common practice for Rodeo riders, the urge to explore has brought Jeff to expand his racing exploits and explores bigger challenges, most recently taking on a race in Germany.

Jeff's story is different from our previous guests, but for me, it was very similar to the countless chats I’ve had with rodeo owners all across the country at races. Only this time did we turn on the microphones first! 

Host: Logan Jones-Wilkins

Guest: Jeff Chapman

Producer: Logan Jones-Wilkins

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Over the last few weeks, the Lab has been hard at work finishing the new updates to our range of bikes before the holiday season goes into full swing with a brand new Flaanimal 6 Titanium and a tweaked Trail Donkey 4.2. Both bikes offer a new Spork and a new UDH-capable slider system, while the new Flaanimal offers a laundry list of new innovative ideas packed into the bike that builds on the legacy of the previous Flaanimals that have already wandered the Earth. Logan sat down with Drew to get into the weeds of Rodeo's unique way of doing development cycles, what goes into a new iteration of a bike that has a great tradition, and the specific joys of the myriad of gems included in the final cut of the Flaanimal. Less is said of the new Trail Donkey, mostly because the bike is the same, beyond the way the slider adjusts the rear of the bike and the fork updates. More information on both bikes is available on the Rodeo Labs website.

Host: Logan Jones-Wilkins

Guest: Drew van Kampen

Editor: Logan Jones-Wilkins

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Cullen Perkey is a U23 mountain biker and a new member of the Rodeo Labs Family after he got his Trail Donkey 4.0 this past summer. Cullen's baby blue Trail Donkey is what he describes as "the most aerodynamic mountain bike ever," and trail mode is his standard operating procedure: big tires, short cranks, and lots of steez. In this conversation, Cullen and I dove into his roots as a rider and a racer, what brought him to get a Rodeo, and what he has done thus far as a mountain biker with a new drop bar habit.

Host: Logan Jones-Wilkins

Guest: Cullen Perkey

Producer: Logan Jones-Wilkins

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This week, we are back in the Lab to consider the new SRAM RED XPLR AXS (so many capital letters!) and its use of the UDH (moar capital letters! moar!). While we jest at the branding, the tech is serious business. The new 1x13 groupset leans into the SRAM Transmission style rear derailleur and brings it to drop bar bikes, with the UDH hanger instead of the previous convention of specific hangers for specific frames.

We delve into some of the specifics, but the majority of the conversation is about how these big standard shifts in the bike industry affect small-frame brands. Along the way, we also find a few tangents to discuss some of the nuances of groupsets in this day and age of cycling. In this conversation, Stephen and Logan talk shop at first, before the Intern passes the baton to Drew Van Kampen and Cameron Lindberg to get into the weeds. Then, it's back to Stephen and Logan to bring it all around.

Host: Logan Jones-Wilkins

Guests: Stephen Fitzgerald, Drew van Kampen, and Cameron "Coco" Lindberg

Producer: Logan Jones-Wilkins

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This is the first installment of a podcast series that we are calling the Rodeo Rider Files where we will sit down with extended members of the Rodeo Labs community. First up is Conor Dancy.

Conor lives in Northern Virginia, amongst the historic gravel roads of Loudoun County, and is a pilot in his free time. He is a real matter-of-fact presence and someone who loves cycling, the little things, and Big Dumb Rides—all things we can get behind.

Host: Logan Jones-Wilkins

Guest: Conor Dancy

Producer: Logan Jones-Wilkins

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.