Bikes &amp; Big Ideas

Ep.176: Anna Newkirk and Abby Hogie on Beyond Racing, the Contra DH Bike, & More

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Contra Bikes on Making the MC a Reality

Bikes & Big Ideas

10/26/23 • 78 min

The Contra MC — a US-made, steel, high-pivot Enduro bike — is an ambitious project by any measure, and designing and prototyping the bike is just half the battle. So we brought Evan Turpen, the driving force behind Contra, back on the show to talk about refining a prototype design and knowing when to stop tinkering; what goes into bringing a design to production and the challenges that arise from that; what he’s learned along the way; and a whole lot more.

TOPICS & TIMES:

The MC (2:55)

Design refinement & knowing when to stop tweaking (4:29)

Ramping up to production (17:26)

Tooling and streamlining the process (32:14)

UDH compatibility & the SRAM Transmission (45:36)

The Beyond Racing team & the DH bike prototypes (52:49)

Future refinements (1:04:15)

Finishing & cosmetics (1:12:27)

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Outbound Lighting on Night Riding, Light Design, & More

Bikes & Big Ideas

01/19/24 • 50 min

There are a lot of good reasons to try mountain biking at night, from simple necessity during the colder, darker months to seeking a new challenge and experience. We sat down with Outbound Lighting’s Tom Place to make the case for (safe) night riding, talk about light design, how to think about putting together a light setup for your needs, and much more.

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TOPICS & TIMES:

Tom’s background & founding Outbound (7:21)

What makes a good bike light? (14:04)

How to choose a light setup (22:14)

Bar vs. helmet lights and their different requirements (30:33)

Power output, battery size, and runtime (35:59)

Features (41:52)

Why ride at night? (47:31)

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Maxxis on the New High Roller, Tire R&D, & More

Bikes & Big Ideas

09/12/24 • 35 min

Maxxis’ new High Roller doesn’t look much like High Rollers of old, and Maxxis is talking a very big game about how widely their DH racers are using it. So we sat down with the Manager of their Bike division, Aaron Chamberlain, to talk about the impetus to update the High Roller; hear the story behind its development; peel back the curtain on how Maxxis manages their product line; and a whole bunch more.

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TOPICS & TIMES:

The concept for the new High Roller (3:12)

Maxxis’ tire development and testing process (10:04)

Adding new tires & balancing options vs. simplicity in the lineup (14:45)

The High Roller name (27:58)

Upcoming High Roller variants (31:26)

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Continental on Designing, Developing, & Testing Their Overhauled Tire Lineup

Bikes & Big Ideas

02/15/24 • 52 min

Continental’s overhauled gravity tire lineup has had a lot of success, both on the World Cup Downhill circuit and with everyday riders (we’ve personally been huge fans of the Kryptotals).

It’s a big departure from their prior offerings, with 5 new tread patterns to go with overhauled casings and rubber compounds, and we sat down with Alexander Hänke, the product manager behind the lineup, and Dan Brown, the CEO of Atherton Bikes and Team Director of Continental Atherton Racing, to talk all about their development, hear their takes on what makes a good tire, and a whole lot more.

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TOPICS & TIMES:

Introducing Alex and Dan (1:46)

Where to start when overhauling a complete tire lineup? (4:02)

Designing tires for World Cup Downhillers vs. mere mortals (9:24)

Beginning the development process (13:12)

Starting with casing designs & their importance (16:42)

Tread pattern design (22:38)

Splitting the Kryptotal into front and rear models (25:08)

The Continental gravity tire lineup (28:32)

Rubber compounds & why softer doesn’t always equal more grip (33:56)

Choosing which variants to offer (42:02)

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Miranda Miller on DVRGNT Minds, Burnout, & Riding All the Bikes

Bikes & Big Ideas

07/27/23 • 38 min

Miranda Miller has done a lot of different things in her career, from winning DH World Champs to racing the EWS (and now EDR), but in the last few years she’s branched out more than ever and is having more fun than ever before. So we sat down with Miranda to chat about her DVRGNT Minds project and how she charted this new course for her career; getting into gravel riding as a gravity-oriented mountain biker; the Downhill Southeast scene and the return of grassroots DH racing; and a whole lot more.

TOPICS & TIMES:

DVRGNT Minds & moving away from full-time racing (1:40)

Returning to DH? (9:35)

Getting into gravel riding (10:58)

Choosing riding destinations (16:46)

The Japanese mountain bike scene (18:27)

Racing goals (23:06)

Downhill Southeast, and the reinvention of the US DH scene (28:38)

Miranda’s 2023 plans (33:16)

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Happy Hour (for Blister Members)

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Drilling for Oil under Moab’s Slickrock Trail?

Bikes & Big Ideas

02/27/20 • 37 min

Moab’s Slickrock Trail is one of the best-known and most iconic mountain biking trails in the world. And yet, a preliminary proposal from the Bureau of Land Management was put forward to auction the right to drill for oil and natural gas under the trail. Now, the good news here is that, just as I was speaking last Friday to our guest, Ashley Korenblat, a preliminary hold was put in place by the Bureau of Land Management to stop the sale for the right to drill for oil and gas under Slickrock Trail, but this should very much ought to get our attention, first, because if this could happen to a trail as famous as Slickrock, we all ought to realize that this same thing could happen to many of our favorite trails around the US.

And so the important thing for all of us in the bike community is to understand how the current energy system works in the US; how fragile and susceptible our trail systems truly are; why we all need to get educated about the energy policies of our local areas and be contacting our local representatives, and more. And our guest today, Ashley Korenblat, is one of the best people out there to help us understand the current system, and what each of us needs to be doing to protect the places where we love to ride and recreate.

Among other things, Ashley the founder and managing director of Public Lands Solutions, and I would strongly encourage you to check out the important work they’re doing.

Ashley was also a guest at our Blister Speaker Series at Western Colorado University last year, and you can listen to my Speaker Series conversation with Ashley over on our BLISTER Podcast channel, episode 86, to learn more about her own extremely interesting background, and to get more of a general background on the specific topic she and I will be discussing today.

TOPICS & TIMES:

What exactly is going on here? (5:22)
Is there precedence for this? (8:17)
What’s the Trump administration’s case? (11:19)
What would you propose happens? (13:38)
What can residents of Moab and / or residents of Utah do? (18:24)
What can the rest of us do? (21:24)
Breaking news re: Slickrock (23:49)
What is the future of this debate? (28:30)
What we need to know re: energy issues (31:04)
Public Land Solutions (33:03)

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Deviate Cycles on High-Pivot Bikes, Onshoring Production, & the Lowlander Prototype

Bikes & Big Ideas

07/06/23 • 63 min

Deviate Cycles is well known for their high-pivot Trail and Enduro bikes, and that concept has gained a lot of traction in recent years, but getting consumers to accept new ideas can be challenging. Deviate co-founder Ben Jones has a lot to say about the balance of bringing new ideas to market without alienating potential customers; the tradeoffs of gearbox bikes and why they haven’t widely caught on; and much, much more. In this conversation, we also talk about Deviate’s recent efforts to explore bringing production to the UK, including their wild 3D-printed titanium and carbon fiber Lowlander prototype; the Moroccan MTB scene; and the importance of clarity in a brand’s model lineup.

TOPICS & TIMES:

Ben’s Eurobike recap (2:04)

The founding of Deviate (2:43)

The Guide & gearbox bikes (5:51)

Consumer acceptance of new ideas (14:34)

The Highlander (19:12)

The Claymore (22:38)

Morocco’s MTB scene (33:16)

Deviate’s model lineup & the importance of brand consistency (35:06)

The Lowlander 3D printed Ti prototype (37:32)

The challenges and benefits of onshoring production (44:58)

Why titanium + carbon fiber for the Lowlander? (49:24)

Launching the company with Asian production (54:20)

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Reviewing the News w/ Wade Simmons, July 2024

Bikes & Big Ideas

08/01/24 • 65 min

In this month's episode of Reviewing the News on our Bikes & Big Ideas Podcast, Simon welcomes freeride legend Wade Simmons as his guest co-host. Wade gives a recap of Crankworx Whistler and claims he can’t do tricks, then Wade and Simon try to sort out why they keep crashing, and the unfortunate reality of not being as fast as they once were. They get into the wild Les Gets World Cup and XC Mountain Bike racing at the Olympics, Wade’s spat with Rémy Métailler and Yoann Barelli over who rode the gnarliest lines first, and Wade gives an education on chain lube, plus a whole lot more.

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TOPICS & TIMES:

Crankworx Whistler recap (2:10)

Women competing in slopestyle (3:40)

Big-ring wheelies (7:31)

Getting old and crashing (9:44)

Machine built trails (16:35)

Checks and balances (19:33)

Wade’s spat with Rémy Méttailer and Yoann Barelli (29:09)

Shimano’s huge trail building donation (35:32)

Les Gets World Cup DH (44:30)

Amuary Pierron’s winning run (46:19)

Olympic mountain bike races (50:29)

Singletrack-eating bikes (57:47)

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Reviewing the News w/ Mike Ferrentino (June 2024)

Bikes & Big Ideas

07/04/24 • 51 min

In this month's episode of Reviewing the News on our Bikes & Big Ideas Podcast, Mike Ferrentino and Simon Stewart debate the polarizing topic of bikes in Wilderness areas. There's plenty of bike racing to talk about — including the biggest one in the world, the Tour de France. And they’re excited to talk about Red Bull Rampage including a women’s category, Simon winds Mike up about a new tire valve standard, plus a whole lot more.

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