Bikes & Big Ideas

Mike Ferrentino is back behind the microphone in this episode of Reviewing the News, and Mike and Simon get right into what happened in the bike industry in August. They recap the exciting UCI MTB World Championships in Andorra; Mike gives his take on the interesting Specialized and Frameworks partnership; and they both agree that cross-country mountain bike courses should be longer. Simon puts Mike on the spot about his racing history, and they wonder if the bike retail landscape is ever going to return to ‘normal’, and lots more.RELATED LINKS:BLISTER+ MembershipBLISTER+ Real World TestimonialsBlister LabsThis Week’s Gear GiveawayBlister Mountain Bike Buyer’s GuideTOPICS & TIMES:The Breck Epic (1:49)Howard Grotts’ Crash (4:02)MTB World Championships (10:58) Mike’s Microphone Looking Safe 24:58)Spot Bikes vs Gates Lawsuit (25:57)Scott’s Two CEOs (30:35)Specialized/Frameworks Partnership (34:18)Lifetime Events and Races Doing Well (41:10)Mike’s Racing History & the Leadville 100 (43:21)Amazon Accountability (57:33) Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

We’re hard at work testing a huge range of bikes and other gear, as always, and David Golay sat down with Zack Henderson to talk about a whole bunch of it, from the Trek Top Fuel to the Marin Alpine Trail, the Forbidden Druid V2 to the Trek Slash+, and a whole bunch more. Plus we get off in the weeds about bike geometry, and wrap things up by issuing a big “I told you so” to a certain manufacturer.RELATED LINKS:BLISTER+ MembershipThis Week’s Gear GiveawayTOPICS & TIMES:Trek Top Fuel (1:40)Trek Slash+ (7:32)Knolly Fugitive 140 (16:06)Forbidden Druid V2 (20:51)Marin Alpine Trail (33:34)Privateer 161 V2 (43:22)Manitou Mara Pro PB vs Formula Nebbia (52:11)OUR OTHER PODCASTS:Blister CinematicCRAFTEDGEAR:30Blister PodcastOff The Couch Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

More and more women are riding mountain bikes, so why are there so few women-specific bike brands out there? It’s not just about making bikes for everyone — though that’s important, too.  Kara Williard and David Golay sat down with Ludi Scholz, the Off-Road Category Manager at Liv, to hear all about it.RELATED LINKS:BLISTER+ MembershipThis Week’s Gear GiveawayTOPICS & TIMESLudi’s Background & Role at Liv (2:53)Women-Specific Bikes (7:14)Why This Matters (11:31)Frame Design / R&D (15:14)Suspension Tuning (21:09)Liv’s Lineup (25:40)Pique & Intrigue X (29:12)What’s Next for Liv (32:02)The Industry at Large (32:43) OUR OTHER PODCASTS:Blister CinematicCRAFTEDGEAR:30Blister PodcastOff The Couch Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Gearboxes have some clear advantages for more gravity-oriented mountain bikes — less unsprung weight, the ability to shift while not pedaling, no derailleur to damage, and more — but have yet to reach widespread adoption. Zerode is perhaps the company best known for making gearbox mountain bikes, and we sat down with founder Rob Metz and Ali Quinn of Zerode to hear the story of Rob founding the company, and the homemade gearbox that kicked it all off; why they’re fans of gearboxes; their new World Cup DH race team; and a whole lot more.RELATED LINKS:BLISTER+ MembershipThis Week’s Gear GiveawayTOPICS & TIMES:Zerode’s backstory & history (3:46)Why gearboxes? (6:29)Early production bikes (12:58)Ali’s introduction to the company (17:01)Pinion vs. Effigear (25:01)Standard Pinion vs. Smart Shift? (28:50)Selling gearboxes to the public (35:33)The G3 & the DH team (43:01)Future direction and new products? (45:58)OUR OTHER PODCASTS:Blister CinematicCRAFTEDGEAR:30Blister PodcastOff The Couch Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Vermont Mountain Bike Association is one of the leading organizations in the country in the assessment, funding, and building of adaptive trails —  and in collaboration with Vermont Adaptive Ski and Sports, they are creating an inspiring network of adaptive accessible trails. We sat down with Kenzie Brunner from VMBA, and Jeff Alexander from Vermont Adaptive Ski and Sports to get the story on what they’ve been up to. RELATED LINKS:BLISTER+ MembershipThis Week’s Gear GiveawayTOPICS & TIMES:What is VMBA? (2:23)How VMBA is Structured (4:53)Vermont Adaptive Ski And Sports Overview (10:00)Adaptive Trail Access In Vermont (12:30)The Kelly Brush Foundation (15:11)ADA Compliant vs Adaptive Accessible (17:36) Adaptive Trail Assessment (20:33)Adaptive eMTB-friendly trails (30:06)Biggest Challenges (35:28)What Does the Future of Adaptive Trails Look Like? (40:47)Adaptive Tourism (42:48)Non Adaptive and Adaptive Riders Riding Together (45:29)How to Plan an Adaptive MTB trip to Vermont (48:18)OUR OTHER PODCASTSBlister CinematicCRAFTEDGEAR:30Blister PodcastOff The Couch Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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.RELATED LINKS:BLISTER+ MembershipBLISTER+ Real World TestimonialsBlister LabsThis Week’s Gear GiveawayBlister Mountain Bike Buyer’s GuideTOPICS & 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)OUR OTHER PODCASTSBlister CinematicCRAFTEDGEAR:30Blister PodcastOff The Couch Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Hannah Otto’s obliteration of the Whole Enchilada FKT a couple of years ago was already hugely impressive, but she went much bigger — double the elevation and well over double the mileage — in her follow-up pursuit of the Kokopelli Trail FKT. She came painfully close to pulling it off on her first attempt, despite horrific weather and trail conditions, before finally getting redemption with her second attempt this spring. So we sat down with Hannah to chat about what inspired her to choose the Kokopelli Trail for her next FKT attempt; hear the story of her brutal first go-round; discuss going back for her ultimately-successful second attempt this spring; and much more.RELATED LINKS:BLISTER+ MembershipThis Week’s Gear GiveawayTOPICS & TIMES:Chasing the Kokopelli FKTWhy Kokopelli?Hannah’s prep for her first attemptThe cold, snowy first attemptRegrouping & the second attemptGear selectionManaging fearTraining for long-distance FKTs vs. racingOUR OTHER PODCASTSBlister CinematicCRAFTEDGEAR:30Blister PodcastOff The Couch Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The first production batch of the Frameworks DH bike is sold out, but they’ll soon be opening preorders for the Enduro version. So we brought Neko Mulally back onto the show to tell us all about the new bike; the variants of the DH bike he’s been testing; the expanded Frameworks race team with Angel Suarez and Asa Vermette; and a bunch more.RELATED LINKS:BLISTER+ MembershipThis Week’s Gear GiveawayTOPICS & TIMES:Recapping the 2024 race season to date (2:16)The expanded Frameworks team (6:20)Tuning the DH bike for different racers (11:56)Frame materials & testing other variants (20:14)The Enduro bike (34:13)Balancing racing with team management / mentorship & Neko’s evolving role (57:29)OUR OTHER PODCASTSBlister CinematicCRAFTEDGEAR:30Blister PodcastOff The Couch Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Geometron arguably did more than any other bike brand to kick off the geometry revolution of the late 2010s, but they weren’t content to leave their longstanding G1 alone — even though its geometry still looks pretty up to date five years after it first launched. So we sat down with Sam Robson and Marcel Lauxtermann from Geometron to talk about the development of the new G1, their goals for the updated bike, the testing that informed the updates they made, and a whole lot more.RELATED LINKS:Geometron G1BLISTER+ MembershipThis Week’s Gear GiveawayTOPICS & TIMES:Introducing Sam and Marcel (3:29)Updating the G1 (6:32)Refining geometry (9:04)“Loading patterns” and bike setup for customers (13:57)The new G1 (18:11)David’s bike setup preferences (25:52)Headtube angles and front wheel loading (30:47)Stem lengths and steering feel (37:29)Bottom bracket drop and geometry adjustability (41:31)Other updates (43:25)Suspension kinematics (47:39)Sam & Marcel’s personal bike setups (51:42)OUR OTHER PODCASTSBlister CinematicCRAFTEDGEAR:30Blister PodcastOff The Couch Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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.RELATED LINKS:BLISTER+ MembershipBLISTER+ Real World TestimonialsBlister LabsThis Week’s Gear GiveawayBlister Mountain Bike Buyer’s GuideTOPICS & TIMES:Simon’s recent crash (0:53)Bikes in wilderness areas (7:30)Women’s competition at RedBull Rampage (18:41)World Cup DH racing in June recap (22:15)Nino Schurter wins his 36th XCO (29:18)Tour de France (30:32)The great bike valve debate (42:10)OUR OTHER PODCASTSBlister CinematicCRAFTEDGEAR:30Blister PodcastOff The Couch Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

We’ve been testing a big spectrum of bikes from the XC-race-derived Specialized Epic Evo to big Enduro sleds including the RAAW Madonna V3 and Marin Alpine Trail, so David Golay and Zack Henderson sat down to chat about a whole bunch of them, and along the way we take a deep dive into tire design & a variety of options we’ve been testing; discuss the wide variety of mid-travel high-pivot bikes on the market, and a bunch more.RELATED LINKS:BLISTER+ MembershipThis Week’s Gear GiveawayTOPICS & TIMES:Deviate Highlander II (2:00)RAAW Madonna (11:14)Specialized Epic Evo (21:38)Marin Alpine Trail (27:44)Schwalbe Tacky Chan (37:48Michelin Wild Enduro and DH (45:19)OUR OTHER PODCASTSBlister CinematicCRAFTEDGEAR:30Blister PodcastOff The Couch Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Bryan Hance is a bike enthusiast and web developer who combined those two interests in co-founding Bike Index, a database that tracks ownership to help recover bikes that end up stolen. Through that work, Bryan uncovered a sprawling bike theft and trafficking operation, which he traced back to one man, operating out of Jalisco, Mexico — and the story only gets crazier from there. So we sat down with Bryan and Chris Solomon, who wrote a piece for Wired on Bryan’s work, to hear all about it. RELATED LINKS:Bag BalmBLISTER+ MembershipThis Week’s Gear GiveawayTOPICS & TIMES:Bike Index & Bryan’s interest in bike theft (2:14)Constru-Bikes’s operation (7:46)What did this network look like? (13:41)How Bryan uncovered Constru’s trafficking (22:20)Arrests in the US (29:11)How to shut this down? (34:56)OUR OTHER PODCASTSBlister CinematicCRAFTEDGEAR:30Blister PodcastOff The Couch Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Bike companies file a lot of wild patents, spanning from “nearly released product” to “outrageous pie-in-the-sky idea.” Dan Bacon of Wheelbased chronicles many of the more interesting ones, and we brought him back on the show to talk about some recent highlights, from Bilstein’s proposed fork damper to Shimano’s multiple electronic brake concepts, a carbon fiber cooler from Yeti (the BIKE company), and a whole bunch more.RELATED LINKS:Bag BalmBLISTER+ MembershipThis Week’s Gear GiveawayTOPICS & TIMES:Bilstein’s wild fork damper (2:28)SRAM’s gravel linkage fork (7:48)Fox’s new Live Valve (17:04)Shimano’s piezoelectric shifters (25:10)Shimano’s electronic brake (31:11)Yeti (the bike company) making a cooler?? (38:45)Dan’s Big Idea (43:48)OUR OTHER PODCASTSBlister CinematicCRAFTEDGEAR:30Blister PodcastOff The Couch Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Mike Ferrentino is back again as co-host for this month’s iteration of Reviewing the News, and Simon is delighted to have him in the studio to help try and make sense of the Red Bull Hardline drama. There were two exciting DH World Cup races to talk about, as well as an XC World Cup in Nova Mesto to cover. And in a fun change of pace, they get into the recent Giro d'Italia and the upcoming Tour de France. And there’s much more than just racing to go over, including an exciting update about Kona and a whole bunch more.RELATED LINKS:BLISTER+ MembershipBLISTER+ Real World TestimonialsBlister LabsThis Week’s Gear GiveawayBlister Mountain Bike Buyer’s GuideTOPICS & TIMES:The MegaVolt eMTB festival (0:59)Red Bull Hardline’s insane canyon gap (3:46)Moto rider Johnny Walker’s mindblowing run down the Hardline course (15:10)Mike’s microphone is safe (for now) (20:47)Loic Bruni dominates (23:13)Ronan Dunne and Mondraker (26:56)Bike theft (30:56)Nova Mesto XC World Cup (33:51)Tom Pidcock (34:59)Nino Shurter’s incredible career (35:49)The Giro D’Italia (42:39)The Pog (43:39)Tour de France predictions (46:46)The return of Kona (53:57) Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

We’ve been very impressed with the EXT Storia V3 on a whole bunch of different bikes over the years, but EXT is launching a new V4 iteration soon, and they’ve found a lot to tweak. So we brought EXT founder, Franco Fratton, back to Bikes & Big Ideas to give us a rundown on the new Storia and Arma V4; talk about the potential for truly “active” suspension systems in the bike world; tease some more upcoming EXT products; discuss the state of patents in MTB suspension; and a whole lot more.RELATED LINKS:Bag BalmBLISTER+ MembershipThis Week’s Gear GiveawayTOPICS & TIMES:The Storia & Arma V4 (2:27)Aria vs. Storia (26:55)Active suspension in MTB (41:27)Future EXT products? (46:45)Patents & the bike industry (48:59)OUR OTHER PODCASTSBlister CinematicCRAFTEDGEAR:30Blister PodcastOff The Couch Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

When it comes to rear shocks for mountain bikes, there are tons of options for both air- and coil-sprung versions, but the Cane Creek Tigon is both — an “air-charged coil shock,” as Cane Creek describes it. So we sat down with Cane Creek’s Will Hart to get the rundown on the Tigon, including why Cane Creek decided to make it; what its pros and cons are relative to their other shock offerings; who it’ll work best for; and more.RELATED LINKS:BLISTER+ MembershipThis Week’s Gear GiveawayTOPICS & TIMES:Introducing Will (1:38)The Tigon (3:34)“Air-charged coil” shock (10:29) Setting sag & air / coil interplay (15:31)Cane Creek’s shock lineup & choosing between their offerings (18:50)Suspension kinematics & what the Tigon is best suited for (22:56)The Tigon damper (27:03)Base tunes vs. wide adjustment ranges (34:18)Durability (40:26)OUR OTHER PODCASTSBlister CinematicCRAFTEDGEAR:30Blister PodcastOff The Couch Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

We’ve been testing a huge variety of bikes, from the E-Gravel Scott Solace to a bunch of high-pivot Trail bikes (including the Deviate Highlander II), plus several new forks, some new tires, and a whole bunch more. So we sat down to chat about all of it; recap the World Cup DH season opener; recount being repeatedly heckled on the local trails; and argue about the relative merits of tire inserts vs. beefier casings.RELATED LINKS:BLISTER+ MembershipThis Week’s Gear GiveawayTOPICS & TIMES:World Cup DH season opener (1:44)Norco Fluid VLT & Canyon Neuron:ONFly (12:34)Bosch SX Motor (13:21)Deviate Highlander II (24:51)Yeti ASR (30:25)Michelin’s new Enduro and DH tires (41:34)Fox 38 Grip X2 (57:51)Formula Belva (1:05:31)Scott Solace (1:11:04)OUR OTHER PODCASTSBlister CinematicCRAFTEDGEAR:30Blister PodcastOff The Couch Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Carbon fiber bike frames have become ubiquitous in the high-end world, but metal bikes are making a comeback — and the number of steel full-suspension bikes we’ve reviewed in the last few years is a testament to that. So we sat down with Daniel Yang and Nick Neuhaus of Neuhaus Metalworks to chat about the case for metal bikes; hear the story of their respective journeys into frame building; talk about bike sizing and size-specific geometry; and discover that Daniel and our Bike Editor, David, are maybe secretly the same person (?)RELATED LINKS:Bag BalmBLISTER+ MembershipThis Week’s Gear GiveawayTOPICS & TIMES:Introducing Nick and Daniel (2:50)Are Daniel and David secretly the same person? (13:57)Group learning & sharing info (15:24)Metal bikes (18:40)Carbon fiber frames & industrial design (26:12)The UDH (35:00)Frame sizes & size-specific geometry (50:37)Making biking more inclusive (58:20)The case for custom bikes (1:03:29)OUR OTHER PODCASTSBlister CinematicCRAFTEDGEAR:30Blister PodcastOff The Couch Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Simon welcomes guest co-host Mike Ferrentino to go over a busy, weird month in the bike world. Of course, they have to talk about what happened to Kona, which leads to a discussion about the negative effect Venture capital and investment companies seem to have on the bike industry. But there’s also fun stuff going on with companies like Gates, and Mike places a bet with eating his microphone as the stakes. Plus they get into the incredible start to the XC World Cup season for U.S. athletes, the new Canyon lightweight eMTB, the scourge of poison oak, and, naturally, some discussion of zombies.RELATED LINKS:BLISTER+ MembershipBLISTER+ Real World TestimonialsBlister LabsThis Week’s Gear GiveawayBlister Mountain Bike Buyer’s GuideTOPICS & TIMES:What's going on with Kona? (0:41)Enve is being sold again (9:25)Rapha closed their U.S. office (14:42)The Mountain Bike capital of the world (18:03)Gate’s 100k belt drive prize & Microphone eating (29:00)Recap of the first two XC World Cups (34:46)New Yeti ASR (42:22)XC bike amnesia (52:03)Canyon Neuron:ONfly first ride (56:04)Poison Oak (1:03:30)28 Days Later sequel and Zombies (1:04:47)OUR OTHER PODCASTSBlister CinematicCRAFTEDGEAR:30Blister PodcastOff The Couch Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The Norco Factory Team has a new DH race bike, and the story of its development is an interesting one. So we sat down with engineers Adrian Ward and Kirk McDowall to hear their take on the goals and design intent of the bike; what they learned from the development of the existing Enduro bike, the Range (and its modified DH version); the original test mule for the new race bike; working with Greg Minnaar to continue the bike’s development; and a whole lot more.RELATED LINKS:BLISTER+ MembershipBLISTER+ Real World TestimonialsBlister LabsThis Week’s Gear GiveawayBlister Mountain Bike Buyer’s GuideTOPICS & TIMES:Introducing Adrian and Kirk (2:03)Origins of the DH bike project (3:59)Racing DH on the Range (6:35)The next steps (13:27)Kirk’s testing (17:28)Building “the fastest race bike” (22:53)The design of the bike (28:41)Wheel sizes & going MX (32:33)Suspension layout (41:07)Greg Minnaar & reconsidering 29’’ wheels (46:52)Future development (56:26)OUR OTHER PODCASTSBlister CinematicCRAFTEDGEAR:30Blister PodcastOff The Couch Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.