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Grinduro Recap, KETL Rocky Mtn Oyster Challenge, Bike Upgrades & More with Tydeman Newman... Ep.162 [Podcast]
Today on the podcast, Jeff and Trevor are joined by our good friend and local pro Tydeman Newman to chat about his win at Grinduro, plus Jeff gives us a preview of the KETL Mtn Rocky Mountain Oyster Challenge. The guys then get into a classic set of listener questions ranging from upgrading drivetrains to swapping frames and everything in between. Tune in!
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Submit any and all questions to podcast@worldwidecyclery.com.
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If you are one strange human that would like to read a transcript of the podcast above, continue reading below!
[Music]
Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the MTV podcast, episode 162, presented and
hosted by Worldwide Cyclingery, Kettle Mountain Apparel, and Trail One Components. I am Jeff.
I'm Tidman. And I'm Trevor. Bit of a different episode today. Jared is doing what he does best, and he is
MIA on vacation. Uh, and Liam broke his wrist. So, it's just us three today.
Yep. What did he break his arm, his wrist? He broke his uh Yeah. A radius.
Yeah. Just his radius and then his triquetum, which is one of the small bones in his hand.
Oh, wow. So, hand and arm. Yeah. You know, after all these episodes, it's surprising. I think this is the first
time someone has missed due to injury. Yeah. Surprised it doesn't happen more often. We're all like pretty pretty competent.
But if you saw what we did on like a Saturday, Sunday, regular Saturday, Sunday, you're surprised that they're
not peeling us off the grass anymore. It's a It's a shame cuz you you know, you go you go on all these trips and
ride all these crazy trails and try and push the limbs all the time and everything seems pretty much okay and
then he was doing his local Wednesday morning loop um that he does every Yeah.
every week. And he uh Yeah. Maybe you just get complacent and you are not
super focused cuz it's just trails you've ridden a bunch and you know you slide out one little time and or uh swap
the front end one little time and yeah, wrong angle, wrong time and break your wrist. So
I think I've crashed harder on home trails than anything else. Like the little trails that near your
house generally the ones that are like spin back to home. Those are the ones you're like zoned out, not thinking about it, and next thing you know,
you're lying on the floor in a pile going. The the only time I've ever hit my face
like really bad. Um, and broke glasses and scraped my face all up was on just a
local dosiano trail. Just it was it was getting dark, spacing out, rut went
left. I was just completely looking forward like I'd done a hundred times and then just next thing you know, just bam, face on the ground. Even know what
happened. That's so rare cuz you usually always put your hands out. So yeah, be careful on your home trails
big time. It's worth it to just always always keep focused too and um like take it take it
always pretty seriously, you know, cuz sometimes you just Yeah. You get relaxed and you're flowing and seems to come
easy sometimes and um there's always still consequences to what we're doing. So got to pay to play a little bit.
Yeah. Yep. Yeah. Yeah. That's mountain biking. Um you can get hurt every now and then, but
in general it's much safer than road cycling and much safer than a lot of other activities. That's for sure. True story. Just on rare occasion you
might get scraped up or break a wrist or a collar bone, but that's not that bad. It heals. Yeah, exactly.
Pieces back together. Yeah. And he was telling me he didn't have pretty much a single scratch on his body. Bike's all good. Didn't really
even know how it happened and just Yeah. Bummer. Broken wrist. Yeah. Well, anyways, so it's us three. We're
going to get started out here with Zach's words of wisdom, which uh he he did a great job this time. Um I we were
trying to figure out what kind of quotes to have him say cuz he wanted to say some other quotes then we're not going
to make the cut for the podcast. Um but he came up with uh people say nothing is impossible but I knew do nothing every
day which is a Winnie the Poo quote which I told him to use a Winnie the Poo quote.
Did you write in here uh Zach works hard every day? Zach wor Yeah. I just wanted to give him some credit. Zach does work pretty hard.
He does work hard every day. He definitely does not do that. That's I was reading some quotes from him and he loved that one. So yeah, that's what we
got. It is funny. There's a uh Have you ever watched Christopher Robin? No. Sort of a Winnie the Pooh movie.
I know. I haven't seen it. That's really good. It'll bring you to tears. Yeah, that I was looking really close
and I'm like, "Wow, this is amazing stuff actually." Yeah. Poo Pooh is philosophical. Yeah, some people know. U but Christopher
Yeah, watch Christopher Robin sometime. It's a It's a good heartwarming movie. I'll put it in the notes. Um watch it with your parents. It's like
a good movie to watch with your parents or something. Yeah, that's that's my tip of the day. Cool. Daniel's fun fact. Read it off.
Tidman. Sharks can sense the Earth's magnetic field. They use it like a natural GPS to
navigate across oceans. Jeff, would that be useful for you? That's rad. Yeah. Would you be incredible?
Yeah. Yeah. I mean, I'm sure some humans probably claim that they can tell that. It would actually be really interesting
to tell if you could take a human and drive them all over and blindfolded and spin them around if they could then
still know what direction was north. Um, I think some people probably could, but
I don't think most people. Yeah, there's definitely some people out there in the world, some savants or something that can do that type.
I've definitely had some bets with bets with friends where they're saying like, "Oh, which way is the ocean or which way is wherever?" I'm very conf like you're
sitting in a room doing it and like, "Oh, it's I'm very confident it's that way." and then I'm totally wrong, you
know, because you I just think I'm I have good direction, but sometimes you just have no idea. I feel like I'm pretty good until I get
on a plane and planes throw out my whole whack. If I drive somewhere, I can like even if I'm in a room, I'm like, "Oh,
okay. I know where roughly everything is." But then you get on a plane and it just feels like everything spins backwards. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, I mean a lot of it is,
you know, we didn't grow up in a world where we really needed to know all the time what was north and south and east
and west and what direction we were going cuz we just used GPS and Google maps and yeah, we grew up in a different
world. But if you ever get into adventure racing, then you start using compasses and memorizing maps and understanding how to know what's what
direction and yeah, it's a good skill to have. Yeah, I was I was going to say this would be a great superpower for you for your adventure.
It would be rad. Yeah, it would be. Everyone chooses flying and Jeff would choose GPS using magnetic PS. I mean,
the thing is is all you need is a compass and you got the same thing cuz that's what a compass does. It's more more of just knowing instantaneously
where you are on the map would be the useful cheat code that would be GPS rather than just compass.
But that is pretty cool. Uh, fantastic testimonials. I've listened to a lot of mountain bike podcasts and this is the only one that
connects with the everyday rider. I've shared this with riding buddies by riding buddies and never miss an
episode. Keep up the good work team. The real Mike. Thanks Mike. Thanks, Mike. Thanks, Mike.
Yeah, we've done a good job, I think, at trying to, you know, not be super snobby
in the weeds podcast for mountain bikers. Um, yeah, try to answer questions that we think will actually be
useful to people who actually ride bikes and do it as a sport and they're enthusiasts about it and keep it PG so
you can listen to it with your kids in the car. As hard as that is for us sometimes, myself included, we've done a great job at that and it always will be
that. Mhm. Um I mean we are at the shop at least very spoiled with like stuff we get to ride
and just all the equipment we have, but I think we try to just keep it light and
um keep it like a normal conversation that we'd have in the shop anyway, which is what happens every day. So um yeah,
it's cool. Yeah. And I've always said, let's just try and bring value with any of the worldwide cycling mountain bike media.
Just bring value, educate people, tell them interesting, new and cool stuff that's happening in the mountain bike world, things that we know and have
learned. That's useful for people and it's just fun. There's also something like every podcast lots of
podcasts nowadays have to have a reason like oh this is going to make you faster or like this is how to do this or that.
It's like oh it's just a conversation with some guys like no specific objective like that just chatting about
bikes. Uhhuh. Which is good time. Yep. Yeah. Every every uh title doesn't need to be like viral clickbait, you know,
just just what we're talking about. Yeah. No controversy, no clickbait, no uh no virtue signaling, none of the
stuff that's going to get people enraged. Just casual conversation about mountain bikes. We're just riding bikes.
Yep. Just riding bikes. Speaking of riding bikes, Tideman, part of why we wanted to have you on was you
had an epic experience at the Grind Duro. Um and you've done a bunch of those races. Yep.
So, give us give us the rundown on all things Grinduro. So, if you haven't heard of it, Grinduro is the mountain
bike race of gravel races. So, it's basically a style of an enduro race that you're out there big day out on the
bike, but they're only going to be timing uh certain number of segments. So, Grinduro has it set up that they're timing four segments throughout. Uh so,
this one was in California. This is where it originally started. Uh it was in Quincy, which is up in the Lost
Sierra. Um, this was actually the first time it's come back to Quincy, uh, since
the original first three to four years, I think. Um, uh, so the first couple
years were there and then it started expanding globally. So they had some races in Japan, uh, Canada, Scotland,
uh, can I think I said Canada. Um, and so those are the couple ones around. They now have like South Africa, uh,
Italy, actually the same place you went for that tire, the Conti thing. Mhm. Uh-huh. They have a uh a grinder there
now, which is really cool. Apparently Nino's dad, Nino Sher's dad designs the course. But so, long story short, big race.
I've done it a bunch. This was kind of felt like a very homecoming type thing, going back to a race, a place that meant
a lot to us, a lot to me, especially kind of like really kickstarted my racing career. Um, racing and riding,
I'd say. Uh, so it's really cool cuz it's very casual. Everybody gets to go and have a good day. like we're just
talking about like appealing to the everyday rider. It's not a race for the racers, I would say.
So, it's like you're doing a big day, but you're only racing certain stages like a typical enduro would be. Yep.
Um, but it's kind of like up and down and traversing and Yeah. So, they kind of generally shoot to have two uphill or flat segments and
then two kind of more downhill ones. Uh, here at this one, all of them were on dirt, which I was always stoked on more
dirt. Uh so this one, the first one was about a 1.7 mi hill climb. Uh I think it
was about 600 ft of elevation gain. Uh the second stage was 2.8 mi long and
that was about 250 ft of elevation gain but like rolling flat fire road. Third
stage was five and a bit miles uh and like 1500 ft of descent just ripping
fast fire road descending which was super awesome drifting corners getting wild. And then the last one was a single
track uh ripping descent which was the original Mount Huff Trail which was the original trail that they built in that
area. It was like one of the first things that the Sierra Butes did in Quincy. Um and then now going back what
is it 5 6 years for me. Uh that was the original trail the only trail and then fire roads and now I think there's 20 30
different trails all top to bottoms like all over the mountain. That's from Sierra Beaches from Sierra Beaches trail stewardship
who kind of runs up that whole area up in the Lost Sierra makes it sick. And so that's how they ended up hosting the
Sunday event. So they instead of it just being Grinduro this year, it was actually called the uh Mountains to
Meadows Enduro Fest. So combining Grinduro and then the Mount Huff Enduro on Sunday. And that was very similar,
same area. We actually rode a lot of the same trails. Uh but none of the time segments were the exact same. And that
was five stages more mountain bike focused on that day. I would say like downcountry trail bikeesque.
What bike did you ride on Saturday? On Saturday I uh went to the dark side. Well, the good side and rode a hard tail
cuz gravel bikes. They're cool. They're they're fun, but I prefer to keep my hands in one piece.
So, what percentage of the field rode drop bar bike gravel bikes versus hard tails or something?
Yeah. So, I'd say this was probably the year I' I saw the most mountain bikes. I think nowadays with like how gravel
bikes are trending and that like bigger tires, everything's kind of just getting bigger and fatter. Uh I think most
people are just like looking at their shed at home going like, "Why would I take my gravel bike? Like I'm going to bring my mountain bike. That sounds
awesome." And especially at event that's like a little less focused on like who's actually putting out the most watts.
It's like a lot about having a good time and enjoying the weekend. I think the mountain bike was really fun. Um, I would personally like to see
some more like something that splits it a bit more because back in the day that was kind of the coolest part about Grindero for me. They used to have a
road segment in it as well, which made it even more like which bike do you turn up with? That was kind of like the
coolest thing was everybody was kind of or not the coolest thing, one of the coolest things was like everybody's sitting around going like, "Oh, do you
want to ride a gravel bike? Like that's faster here and there, but like mountain bike's way quicker here, but you're
losing a ton of time here." And so do they tell you you have to have the same bike for every stage for the Saturday
race? I don't know. You're getting into the weeds there. Somebody's going to turn up next year with two bikes now.
Question was kind of normal. I think the races they do specify you got to have Yeah. typical enduro stuff, but I think
like grinder is pretty lax or pretty loose. Like it's pretty easy program. Their motto is part the party to race
ratio. Yeah. Um so is it kind of like TDS of the gravel world? Yeah. Oh, it's the like full TDS of the
gravel world. There's more people having like beers at 9:00 a.m. 10:00 a.m. after the first stage than there are people
like super serious. I don't think I saw a single skin suit, which is always good. No way. They're serious enough that they don't
want you to have an ebike out there. But on Saturday, but then Sunday they had an ebike enduro. Oh, they did. They
started SBTS held held their first ever ebike event and uh Dr. Rob, who Trevor
knows, was sitting there and so it was a blind enduro on Sunday. Okay. So, they weren't telling us the course, weren't telling us anything until the night
before. And even then, they didn't tell us the what the actual stages were. But every time I talked to Dr. Rob, like
trying to weasle some information out of him, he was like just started giggling and said, "Man, the eBike guys, man, if
they don't come back with a dead battery, like I did my job wrong." He had one stage that was like a loop with
like a 5minute climb in it and like burning batteries. They were, "If SBTS is going to hold an ebike race, it was
like, we're going to kill all your batteries. You guys are not like we're making the playing field equal. That's awesome.
Yeah, it was super fun. Best event out there. Uh it's so sick. We got some stats here. So Sunday or
Saturday, the gravel race was uh 54 miles. Uh it was about 7 12,000 ft of
elevation gain. And then I took a ride around 5 1/2 hours to ride it. Is that all the stages added together of
54 or is that you're the total day? Total day is 54 miles. Um so between each stage you're just kind
of cruising. just riding with your friends at your own pace. Like you're not killing yourself on these climbs to
Exactly. Yeah. That's cool. Which is like the best part is cuz you get to go fast. You do that fun thing. You're sitting at the top elbowing your
buddy going, "Oh, I beat you. I beat you." And he's going like, "Oh, we got another stage. We're going to go to the next one." And then sitting for 2 hours
along like beautiful up in this Lo Sierra, beautiful aid stations to stop at and they've got all the all the food
you want, all the drinks. Like I rode with my girlfriend all day, Sophie, who those two days were her two biggest,
longest days on the bike ever. And so it was awesome. Like I've done a million races, tons of
races, especially over like that length. That's not too big of a day. But then getting to race side by side with her
and like roll through the finish at the end. You never get to do that. Yeah, it's awesome. Like that is that was the coolest thing is I got to ride
with her all weekend and that was so fun. And I get to catch up with friends during my race and then you finish and
then get to go try another stage, do whatever. Yeah, it's good fun. Super sick. You get to race all the fun parts, too.
Yeah. And then you still have the fun part of like getting to the top, going trying to go fast still. There's still like It's not like a full fondo
where everybody's just having fun. You're kind of like, "Oh, well, was it worth it?" type of thing. You still have that little bit of racing element, but
it's just enough that it kind of keeps that stoke, but the rest of the time you're just having a good time. Good
music, good food, hanging out, good day out there. There's a lunch stop, all that stuff. Yeah. Very cool. And then Sunday was
kind of the same vibe, but is like on mountain bikes, more mountain bike enduro kind of race. Mhm. Yep. So, a little bit smaller of a
day. It was our first year doing that one as well. So, yeah, very similar, same type of vibe. Uh I actually think
Sunday was a harder day on the bike even though it was a little bit shorter. Uh just because we were on mountain bikes
and the stages were on the like good downhills, good downount stages and
whatnot, but you were just pedaling so much. And after doing a big day before as well. Yeah, I did the first stage was
maybe 20 probably like 30 minutes in and I was just gassed after the first stage. Yeah, I mean got a full day to go.
Sounds tough especially after Saturday as well. So then looks like Sunday the enduro race was 40 miles 5600 ft of elevation
gain and then just around over 5 hours of riding time as well. So two pretty big days back to back especially if
you're if you are doing some intense efforts like racing. Um, you're probably pretty smoked.
Yeah, like those are numbers that even that's a big weekend at home, let alone factoring in like 10 minutes of doing a
hill climb effort or How'd your stomach hold up? Yeah, actually, you're not going to love that one either. Stomach didn't do too
great, but I suffered through. I was just shoving food down. I had a little throw up on Sunday uh because I ate too
much watermelon, though. I was They had a big plate of like cold watermelon. Pretty hot. And I was just like standing
there shoveling watermelon down. And we went straight into an like the flattest most pedily stage and I just blew up on
the like the last minute I was holding on for dear life and I got to the bottom and it was just like stomach was
cramping and I couldn't figure out why. And then I had tried to get some other stuff down. Came back up and I went,
"Oh, no wonder like nothing solid came up. It was just watermelon that I was eating." So I figured that one out
pretty well. I just I just knew there was going to be a funny answer there cuz No, definitely. I the last time I asked
you about that, what was the race you did in the San Gabes that you Oh, yeah. bonked out the Great Descent.
Yeah, great descent. Yeah, I remember just asking you and this listening to you reply, laughing just all right. This is not super calculated.
So, this all it's a pretty loose program. Yeah, we're as good as you ride a bike, Titan.
You're a little loose program on the nutrition, dude. The nutrition has been my weak spot for a long time, but it's
okay. We're working on it. I just it worked at Downeyville and that one I like I'll get my nutrition right at
Downeyville but at Grindero I think yeah I'm pretty sure I had a beer at like 10. So
again that seems like the type of race you do. It was pretty perfect. Yeah, I wasn't counting I wasn't counting the gels or
my carbs or any of that which was perfect. That's cool. That's good. It's exactly what you need at the end of the year especially. So
yeah. Yeah. And then I ended up winning how'd you do? Yeah. So I ended up winning both days
which was pretty bonkers. That's awesome. Um, especially like going back to Grinduro, which I've I raced that my
first year. I was 15 years old and I won the junior race there. And then I won uh
at the time Sierra Butes had a triple crown, which was Downeyville, uh, Lost and Found and Grinduro, and I won the
junior triple crown, which they were all stoked about, all the Sierra people when I talked about that.
Um, and so yeah, coming back to now racing the elites and pro or open, whatever you want to call it. And uh to
take the win was pretty pretty special. I didn't even like to be completely honest wasn't thinking about it. Wasn't
even worrying about it. And me and Sophie had kind of rolled across the line and we were definitely closer to the back to finish like enjoying the day
out there and whatnot. We rolled across and I think I was sitting there chatting to somebody and somebody came up and
tapped on my shoulder and went like, "Oh, are you Tideman?" I was like, "Oh yeah." Like yeah. He's like, "Oh, congratulations." Oh, thanks. Like I
finished like it was a good day, but like I don't know. not that hard. And he's like, "No, man. You won." Like,
"No, what?" Like, "No chance I won. Like, you're kidding me." He's like, "You have no You have no idea during
Yeah. There's like no live results, no nothing. You didn't even get your times until you crossed the line once you got back. So, like this last stage finished
like five, six miles out of town and you spun back into the race venue and you came across and that was when you got
your times. That's when they broke down every time for each stage and they added them all up for the and then they added up. So I think total
race time was like for me was like 44 minutes flat I want to say. Um and then
it gets yeah even more a little bit surreal when it's like Lachlan Morton was the one that got second who is like
kind of a hero of mine growing up all that type of stuff and he's like standing second on the podium. Um
ironically Yeah. How did that pan out? Yeah. Well that was great. How did you beat Luck? I I don't know. I'm still wondering man.
I'm still wondering. Single track descents. I uh I hung it out there on the descent. I made some passes that I
uh was really hoping I wasn't going to see that person. So, did he do both days as well or just exact? So, he just did Saturday. I would argue
they had a pretty sweet weekend. So, they uh bike packed actually back to Auburn afterwards. They did like a I
think they stopped in Downeyville overnight. What bike did he ride on Saturday? Ironically, he had the identical bike to
me. We were on identical uh Canondale hard tales from back in the day, which is pretty sweet. With like a sweet like black and white
paint job, same paint job, same everything. Maybe we can get a photo in there. But it's uh it's kind of cool that you guys have the same exact bike.
Yeah, we were rolling out at the start and we just ended up next to each other right before the first stage and I just kind of turned to him and was like, "Oh,
nice bike, man." Just kind of rode off. Left working all Yeah, it was pretty good. Um
So, what bike did you ride on Sunday then? And then I was on my spot on so my like downount ripper kind of pretty much
exact setup I run around here. Um and it ripped. It was perfect. That was awesome. I would
wouldn't really have wanted anything different. Tires were good. I was on peacekeepers like same similar downount setup and that was perfect. It was fast
and flowy and fun. The original grind duro was always like that. It was all sort of a staged
gravel. So that was kind of their whole thing all along was like it allows it to be way more inclusive
and fun. It's like appeals to people that don't want to just go smash themselves for 4 hours.
It's kind of an interesting format cuz there's gravel races then there's a ton of gravel just rides that people put on
that got really popular. I did a handful of those here and there just for fun. Um yeah, which are cool because they're
casual and you can do some a huge sentry or something. Exactly. You get a big day out there. But then yeah, the concept of doing it in stages
is is pretty cool. It's pretty sweet. And then cuz as I was saying, you get that like fun thing if you go with a couple buddies and you got
a sick day out on the bike all together, but then you get that similar thing of like same thing I do with Trevor and
Liam when we go on a ride of like I'm going to beat you down this this descent here. Like I'm going to beat you or like oh like I'm about to drop you all
how you ride normally. Like that's like think why enduro is so enticing to a lot of people. It's like just riding your
bike normally. Exactly. And I feel like this is just the gravel version of that which is pretty sweet. Yeah. It's cool to That's definitely
unique. Yeah. I would say it's I wouldn't even call it a bike race. I'd say it's the best bike event out there is my in my
opinion obviously but it's pretty pretty awesome. It combines just about everything you want in an event.
That's sweet. Party to race ratio. I think I need to put that on the list next year. Yep. No, I think everybody we got to get
everybody up there next year. The other thing that sounds more fun than Dannyville today. Oh, dude. 100%. Downville is awesome. Downville is like a hard race that
you're very hard. Yeah. Like pushing your body and all that, but Grinder, you're just in it for a good weekend in a beautiful part of
the world that not many people have gotten to and on some like pretty spectacular fire roads, spectacular
trails. It's pretty awesome. I'd say everybody should come. It's one of those races that if you can if you can like at
all find a way to get to this one around the world, any of them, you should go experience it because it's it's something special. It's super cool,
right? Yeah. So, how much they paying you to say that, Todd?
I think Tany is very stoked on his weekend. I'm stoked. Yeah. You should at least send them this pod and say, "Hey, by the way, I said some
nice things. Can you maybe send me a pair of socks or something?" Like, that's what you'll get. You'll get a pair of socks.
Speaking of speaking of that, we had signed up a whole bunch of the guys here, myself included, for lost and found travel race.
Um, but it was in 2020. Oh, so they canceled it and they sent us all a pair of socks
and didn't give us our money back for 150 bucks. Oh, it's kind of funny.
At least it's going to a good place. Similar to Trail. Yeah, that was a thing. Yeah, it puts on all their races.
They they apologize. Whatever. I mean, everyone had putting on events during 2020. It's like I'm not going to I'm not
going to yank their chain about that one. It's no big deal. And on that on kind of that similar note, that is one of the really cool
things about these races is that they're talking to CRB's people. They're saying like, "Yeah, these are
fun to put on, but the main thing we're doing is that these fund the trails." Like that's what comes out of that's
Yeah. Like that. Yeah. It's maybe not the cheapest race you're entering in of the year, but every dollar is going to
people that are like actually making a difference and building trail. Like coming back 6 years later and seeing I
think it was something like 30 or 40 miles of trail that they've added in the last 6 years and not just like some it's
all right trail like they correctly. Yeah. Yeah. Sutes is amazing. They're one of
the best in the whole country at that stuff. And that's why we you know a lot of Trail One donations head their way because they really do such a good job.
Yeah. I'm a huge fan of everything they do. Super cool. Cool people, too, which is important things. So,
yeah. Yeah. Good times. Yeah, that's rad. Did you happen to have the new firmware update for your driveway?
I did not have the new I'm actually mechanical on the hard tail. Old school. Yeah. So, so uh yeah, changing topics a
little bit. Yeah. From the party to race. The random the random thing that uh
pre-recording this pod, I go, Trevor, what what's new? and he said, "Oh, there's a firmware update for Type
drivetrains." So, yeah, there's So, there's a firmware update for TT type drivetrains. Basically improves the shifting speed
for three gears, uh, hitting three gears in succession. Um, which is kind of a
big deal because I think So, it's not the shifting speed just one at a time, but it's the shifting speed for when you do three at once.
Well, it's like clicking it. It's clicking it three times. Got it. Oh, man. So, like prior, it's not it
wasn't a huge deal, but prior and was I think people's biggest gripe about TTE drivetrains is they're relatively more
slow than a mechanical drivetrain or let's say the new XTR that just came out. Um, wireless XTR.
Um, so it's basically improving that speed for three gears in a row. They were saying they didn't want to do more,
otherwise it would affect the shift quality that they kind of want out of it, but there was still some room to
improve it, I guess. So, before the pod, downloaded the firmware real quick, tested it in the stand versus a non
updated one, and I couldn't tell a huge difference, but riding it outside under
power, um, I definitely could tell it was extremely quick, almost unnoticeable that it was even changing three gears.
It just kind of slammed right into place, which is kind of what I was looking for originally. Um, I know for some people, like me and Tyman were just
talking about this, but for some people that is not even an issue at all. Um, for me personally, I think when I'm
riding and I see like a huge downhill or huge uphill right away and I'm not really expecting it, I like to just dump
like five gears at a time just so I'm like in the right gear. With a normal T-type setup, like you either have to
shift early and then kind of pedal, which is annoying when you don't want to pedal. Um, otherwise you're not in the
right gear when you're up the hill. And if you can just do one kind of pedal stroke instead of like three or four
pedal strokes, I think that makes a pretty big difference. Um, so now it's just a little bit faster. Yeah, I think it's cool. I'm definitely
uh I'm not sitting there. I've never thought that it was too slow. Like you see on Instagram the people like dumping
Type versus XTR like you were saying from hardest gear all the way up to the easiest gear and back down. Like, oh,
it's so much quicker. No one's doing that in real life. When am I ever doing that? Like even the dumping thing like I
definitely I was thinking about it now since there's situations. Yeah. where it's maybe a little bit slower, but not like crazy notice, but quicker is
better. As long as like the shift quality is still there, which it sounds like it is, and they're doing all that, then that's the main thing for me. I
think that's it won't hurt. It's not going to hurt. And and for the people that want it a bit quicker, then awesome. I was I was reading um some
Pink Bike comments from the article that Pink Bike put out for that and um people were screaming about a possible
subscriptionbased service that that Stram is going to implement for their shifting where you're going to have to
where you're going to have to start paying for upgrades or the possibility of that. Plus, subscribe to Plus in order to
shift your T faster. I don't think they're ever going to do that, but because you're already paying for the product, but I mean, every other company
in the world has done that with subscription based stuff. So, it's kind of interesting. I don't I don't think they they'll do
that, though. They just want their product to be better. Just wait until the frame comes out and you've got to buy your only ShraMM
subscription to ride your bike. It would be a good just April Fool's
press release thing for them to do. Or maybe that would be a great April Fool's. Maybe we could just do it. Yeah, we just
pretend straight face that Ram's introducing it. It's just completely incorrect. And then it's
say they've added like a 14th gear or something. Um, but you have to buy it. You have to you have to buy the add-on package, the
DLC. It's downloadable content for your for your drivetrain for your subscription service for your
drivetrain. That's crazy. Oh man, that would be funny. Could happen though. Make a different noise when you shift. That would be a good
one, too. kind of on the same lines as that um with the new like ebike drivetrain and the wired in axis
drivetrain you can put on the new DJI motors and um I think I don't know if Bosch has it but I know um Bros has it
too like Specialized and Stram their motors have it um where you can yeah your TType derailer is wired into the actual
battery of the bike so you don't have to you don't have an external battery you never charge it right you never charge it and if it does fail
for whatever reason the cable fails you can just put a normal axis battery on it which is pretty sweet Um, but you can
shift on the shifter in the derailer and the um, spider on the motor will spin
independently from you pedaling it. So, you just we have a video on it on Instagram so you can see with the new
DJI stuff. And so, you can be just cruising on the trail riding normal, shift a couple times, and without you
pedaling, it's already going to be in the gear that you want, which I think is pretty sweet. That's pretty sweet. I think that's like
it's the same advantage that gearbox bikes had. You could basically just shift without pedaling. without pedaling and then you you start the shift and
it's already straight into gear which is which is pretty sweet. Now a normal drivetrain will never be able be able to
do that just because the spiders attached to the crank arms like normal bikes do. Um but yeah, something along the lines
of that. It's kind of interesting. Yeah, I could see that being super useful, especially on an ebike.
Yeah, you just like Yeah, you just shift shift whatever gear you want to and it's there. Yeah, it's a cool benefit. You think they'll ever integrate that whole wire
and battery system to the dropper post, too? Yeah, I think so. I think they they might as well. Although, like, it's kind
of annoying cuz I don't want that cuz then you have a wireless dropper post. A wireless dropper post is a mechanic's
dream. It's so good. There's no cables. It just works. Sure, it's a little heavier, but it's it
they're so good. Um, so just having extra wire on there, it's going to remind me of like an old DIT bike with the with the with the
battery in the seat post and just pinched cables and it just seems like a like moving the seat up and
down. It seems like a nightmare. I mean that that's really what's happening with the rear derailer though cuz that doesn't that wire run from the back of
the derailer all the way through the chain stay all the way up into the bike. Yes. So it is the same although there's no
like you can't call it a wireless drivetrain anymore. Now you can't Yeah. That's a wired in drive train. Now you have an electronic wired
drivetrain partially. But you can make it wireless. Mhm. Both ways. Yeah.
Huh. Nice. Ebike tech, man. Ebike tech. It's getting crazy, man.
It's getting crazy. It's getting nuts. that that video that Jared put on Instagram showing that it
was very confusing. Yeah, there was not enough context. No, it just you just looked at it and it looked like
the bike was pedaling by itself cuz when basically in the stand what that ends up doing is it looks like it
it pedals the bike when there's no weight on the rear wheel at all. Yeah, it I should have had I should have
had the cranks not moving. Yeah, I think the cranks were moving with it. I should have hold held the cranks, put
it in the stand, held the cranks, and then that way it shows the rear wheel and the spider moving. Requires some explanation.
Yeah, but maybe it was good rage bait for some people. Well, things that are confusing are great on social media cuz people watch
it and they're confused and they watch it again and then they're confused and they watch it again and next thing you know it does great. Like it's good for the algorithm.
Like the DT Swiss hub video that you guys made. Yeah. Showing the different engagement in the different spots.
The craziest one we put out was a thing. I'm I'm forgetting the the hub manufacturer right now, but
I remember that. It was the the like reverse hub where the the the PS were on the rotor side
and this the splines the drive splines were built into the rotor. Um so it's completely reinventing the
hub and I guess the advantages of it were that it's super stiff and the bearings are equidistant apart and um
there's just less flex I guess in the whole system. I'm probably ruining that explanation of it. It's very
complicated, but the way we filmed it made it just look like the rotor was
gonna spin independently, which would never happen when it's all sealed up. Yeah. And the video looks nuts. It's
absolutely crazy. Yeah. It has on It's on the worldwide cycling Instagram. It's a gold hub. It has 26,000 likes
and it's got a couple million views, I think. Yeah, it went crazy. Liam Liam's top comment that has 1323
likes says, "Who let the engineer out of their cage?" Which is kind of true. What What was the What was the We were Zach commented, "I
don't even know what the heck I'm looking at." What was the hub called just so we can give them some credit? And the
I don't know. They didn't put it in here. Go to the
Oh, I think they I think they commented on the actual post explaining themselves or or uh giving some validation to it
because because everyone was just kind of roasting them in the comments. Is it this ride k? Yes, kic
hub. So, pretty interesting stuff. Yeah, that is. Well, that's that's
definitely a letting the engineer out of the cage type of bike in this thing time. Yeah, somebody that roast roaches my
brake rotors, that sounds not very pleasant. Yeah, a little bit. It's like proprietary rotor and probably really
very expensive as well. Um, but if you're into some cool weird different tech, then that's right up your alley.
And if you break hubs, yeah, maybe that's your maybe. Yeah, the rider I built that wheel for um in particular has a problem with
breaking hubs and just breaking bike bike parts in general. And he heard about this hub and it's way more
durable. So, we wanted to try it out. I don't know what the prognosis has been um since then. But um yeah, that was
that was the idea of it was just getting something that was going to be ultra reliable. But I don't I don't know. It
didn't seem degrees out. I don't know. It could have been could be great. He could be still riding. I have no idea. But that was that was the
idea behind it. Yeah, we'll have to follow up on that. I should follow up on that. Yeah, it does look cool. I mean, half the
things that are just bike parts just look cool. Hubs, taking a hub apart, spinning it, listening to the clicks
just looks cool. Watching it a full suspension frame collapse and unc. It just looks cool. Whenever I like have a shock off a bike
in the in the back, working on it, I always like someone's walking by, I'm like, "Hey, check this out." cuz you
never get to see the suspension movements to travel like independently like that. It's kind of cool to just see how how it works. You can see the whole
triangle like kind of move forward or that's why RC cars are so fun. RC cars are fun.
Anyone ever taken a nice high-end RC car and you know taking the shocks on and off and it was really watch Trevor do that like 10 beers deep.
Yeah, he's watching me do it and still shing RC cars these days time. I haven't broken, isn't it? No, I I fixed it. But
yeah, I brought it to TDS and um I brought it there broken and so I had it was night time and I had to fix the
clutch on it. The clutch was slipping. I had to take it all apart, tighten the clutch and then put it back together in the dark with a couple beers
in me and then on your tailgate. On my tailgate and it was wet and rainy. It was raining.
But it was worth it. It was so fun. This is what Liam should get into. He should Yeah. The last time I went
deep into RC cars was when I had a really bad broken collar bone. Um cuz there's not much else to do. I think me
how bored he was today. Yeah. See, that's what RC cars are for. When I was 17, I had a broken collar
bone. I just rebuilt the RC car, painted multiple different bodies for I mean, what else are you going to do? Can you
just do it all with one hand? Tedious. I mean, like, if you're not like broken and you're working on RC car
all day, it feels a little irresponsible, you know? What are you doing? I'm painting the I'm painting the body of my
RC car the worldwide colors. It's insane.
But it was awesome though. I love it. It's pretty fun. I'm I'm a I'm a I'm I'm a mechanic, so I like tinkering with stuff anyway. So,
they are cool. It's just fun. A little bit little too fragile for me though. I would say they do break all the time. Yep.
If you got like a a spectrum of like dirt bikes at one end that seem to never break and like mountain bikes are
somewhere in the middle that they kind of break some of the time. And like RC cars are like way to the far other side.
They just break by like looking at them. One one of the guys I was bleeding a brake today and one of the guys in the back was saying he's like, "Hey, I've
had my dirt bike for all these years. I've never had to bleed the brakes." He's like, "I've never had to do that." I'm like, "Well, maybe you just like
don't know." Or like, "Yeah, everything is like way more durable on it. It's just going to last forever." Um the
mountain bike like every everything is so engineered to be light and small that
Yeah. If everything on mountain bikes was that weight wasn't a consideration, you would never have to maintain them
nearly as much and they would be way more durable. It's Yeah, it's it's all it's all weight related thing. And it's
the other difference that I've heard people talk about is that when you're on like a dirt bike,
you're uh like you're not riding what you go and buy at the shut like at whatever store nearby, you're not buying
the equivalent of what we're buying with mountain bikes. What like the majority? A lot of people do like to compare the two.
Yeah. Like when you especially when you hear like on a similar argument like people being like, "Oh, like tires are
$130 these days." It's like, "Well, you're buying like the best tire you possibly can that like the greatest dude
in the world is riding the same weekend." Yeah. It's like comparing your car tires to the F1 car tires.
Yeah, exactly. Those are not the same price. I can buy two car tires for the same of like a m set of mountain bike tires and
whatnot. And you're like, I guess for moto like like technically you can't really buy those tires evening.
Yeah. Like the dude the bike that Hayden Degan's riding costs hundred grand. Like those things are getting torn apart
every time they touch the track. So it's like goes both ways. I don't know. I see it both sides.
That's dirt bikes are sweet. It's nice they don't break. Yeah. True.
Well, before we jump to our quick intermission, I wanted to make my announcement about the Kettle Mountain
Treasure Hunt edition three. Um Tidman, you going to go out to Colorado to do it? I don't know if I'm going to go out
there. I think I think Tyman's done going out to Colorado. I'm done. I think I drove out there like 12 times
separately last year, like there and back 12 separate times. So, I think I will not be driving out there, but I got
some people that I'm going to be uh I bet you have some friends that would love to use. I got some friends that are itching to
get lost in the woods. Yeah. So, this this one's going to be a very different format than the prior ones. So, this one uh I'm calling it the
Rocky Mountain Oyster Challenge. If you know what that is, awesome. If you don't, feel free to Google it. Um, but
it's, yeah, very different than the prior ones which were spread across all these different states. This one will be
just Colorado and it'll be 10 jars that are going to be lined up on the front
range of the mountains all the way as north as Boulder and all the way down to Colorado Springs. In those 10 jars, $100
cash, $100 gift card, and also the five coordinates to another five jars which
take you west into the mountains. Um, those jars, $200 cash, $200 gift card,
and three coordinates to jars that take you even further into the mountains. Th those three jars, $300 cash, $300 gift
card, and the final coordinate to the final jar, which will be somewhere nearish Leadville. Um, so it's a little
bit more of a challenge format. Um, so it'll be announced on Oh, what's what's
my what's my goal? I hope I can stick to October 18th at 8:00 a.m. Mountain Standard Time. Um, so this one's not
going to be just spontaneous and dropped out of nowhere. What are you laughing at? I just love that you just like pulled out the like exact date and time.
I got to hear, man. Well, because all the last ones have have been totally spontaneous by design, intentionally.
And a lot of people get mad and they go, "Oh, you dropped these at Tuesday at 1:00." You know, all these schmucks who are unemployed are getting these things.
And I know you're just upset that people tried harder than you and they left work early and you didn't get a chance to go
get these things. So, so this one I'll I'll be basically leaking everything um
you know on the podcast and on the kettle Instagram and via the kettle email list and uh yeah, it'll it'll be
all sort of structured and then October 18th morning we'll we'll release the 10 coordinates to those jars and then 10
people will go and grab those immediately and then hopefully play along and continue to just go further west into the mountains to get more and
more cash and gift cards all the way to the final jar. Yeah, that's awesome. That's wicked. Bit of a challenge. Hopefully it works
and people like this format. I think it'll work better because there's more opportunity for success to get to the last jar versus Yeah. Like
you were saying rewarding someone who like Yeah. maybe on Instagram first, you know, like Yeah. Um or or maybe they
don't live like right next to the place or who whatever the reason may be, they they can go to this first jar and
um there's yeah 10 jars to choose from, right? So hopefully you get lucky and get that one. Um or hopefully maybe someone leaves
leaves a coordinate there or something. Yeah. Yeah, I mean people it'll be interesting to see how you know
basically tactful people are because you know that the the way the jars are laid
out starting in Boulder going all the way down to Colorado Springs. If you just look at the population centers obviously the jar by Boulder and the
ones really close to the west side of Denver have are going to have the most amount of people going to them
immediately and the ones that are kind of in between Denver and Colorado Springs there's way less population next
to them. So maybe people will notice that and think about that and realize if they didn't get it right away, they'll
have a better chance of getting no. Well, so we'll see. We'll see if people are No, it's cool. You know, it'll be a challenge. Um
and I just think, you know, people I have I have a lot of faith in the Coloradoans that have, you know, good
ability to trail run, hike, mountain bike, camp, do all of the things they need to do to get these things. So I
think it should work. I think there's going to be some people fired up to get out there. Yeah, it's going to light some fire into some
people that you know people who are into adventure racing that's just like, "Oh yeah, no problem. I'm going to do this in 24 hours."
A slight reason to go do it and you're just committed. Go for it. Will the winner, the person that gets
the last jar have to have a Rocky Mountain oyster? Well, is there going to be like a video submission element?
We'll see. My my plan was was to potentially go out there while this was going to be finished and just wait at
the final treasure jar with the bowl of Rocky Mountain oysters. Kind of crazy.
But the more I I've never had them, so the more I looked into them, apparently you you deep fry these things and you
kind of need to eat them fresh. Um, but there's apparently a restaurant in Leadville that serves them.
You could be like, I don't have all those answers just yet. Have you seen that guy on Instagram that's been like hiking? He goes on like
a trail run and makes ice cream in his backpack and like gives it to random people on the trail side. You could we could get you with a fryer up at the top
of the last one just sitting there waiting. Oh man, I don't really cook anything, so I'm not the guy to cook that. I'm going
to have to kill that. Yeah. You want something that'll give
you food poisoning after you just finish this treasure hunt? Yeah, that's funny. So, anyways, if you have any questions,
feel free to send them to uh treasure kettle mountain.com. Um, I'll be replying to those emails. But yeah,
we'll be, uh, leaking some more information and, uh, October 18th. Exciting. If you're a Colorado or you
want to fly to Colorado just for this, uh, get ready. It's a good way to win some money and and have a good time
while doing it. Um, and hopefully not freeze cuz that time of year, but won't be that bad. Yeah. Ah, you'll be fine. Yeah, it's not
that bad. I'm not going to put anything above 12 13,000 ft. So,
totally. Or will you? Yeah. I don't actually know. Yeah, I shouldn't say that yet. I haven't gone
out there yet. Yeah, I think it's every time I've asked you, I think that max elevation has gone up 1,000 ft. I think I see you started
out saying like nine maybe. Well, it's almost impossible to stay below nine once you're out there cuz
everything's above nine. Now we're getting So, you haven't hit the jars yet? No. So, I'm flying out there October 1st
to the 6th and I'll be just uh I'm just going to get a car on Turo and just live in the car and just drive around for 4
days putting these things out. That's awesome. Sweet. Yeah. It should be pretty fun. So, I'll
have it all set, dialed in, uh, perfectly organized, and then ready for everyone to just charge on October 18th.
Cool. Perfect. I'm super excited to see how that turns out cuz the last two have been crazy
like jam-packed with people like like ding ding ding people finding all the jars. So, y this will this will be a little bit more
delayed and it'll be cool. Yeah. Yeah. It'll be a little bit more of a ramp up. People will know when it's coming and uh yeah, there won't be any
complaints of people saying, "Uh, couldn't you have done this on Saturday morning?" You know, it's like, "Well, now I am doing on Saturday morning."
just for you. I don't think I ever got the result from the one the jar they hit on Santa Cruz Island. Do you know do you never what
happened with that? So the So that was in edition one, the very first edition we did. Uh that was I think 10 jars in four states or five
states. Um and the one on they all disappeared in less than 24 hours, but the one on Santa Cruz Island I knew was going to be
there for a long time. And um because it's hard to get there cuz you either need your own boat or you need to take
there's only one ferry service that goes there and it's sold out almost every single weekend. So eventually somebody
did get a booking on the ferry and went there and got it and then we got a text
message and a photo saying good news and bad news. Um we we got the treasure on Santa Cruz Island uh but we missed our
ferry home. Yeah. So now the the ranger is four hours on the island. Like it's not that long.
Yeah, it's not that long. So, you really have you had to be really good at understanding basically the distance from where you get dropped off to where
it is, your route planning, how long it's going to take you, you know, it's a lot of variables cuz how you how you don't know how long it's going to take
you to find the thing, but you do need to have a turnback time in mind, which maybe they did. Maybe they just said, "Oh, f it. We're just going to stay out
here." Um, obviously they missed the ride back and then the the the park rangers had to put them up for the night
cuz there's no structure on that island other than the park ranger cabinets. So yeah, that was the last I heard from
them. So they they redeemed the gift card. So they eventually got home and got their gear.
That's such a good story. Yeah, that one I actually did. I found a really nice actual legitimate wooden
treasure chest cuz I thought, ah, I'm putting this in scorpion of Scorpion Canyon on Santa Cruz Island. I'm going
to put this one in an actual treasure chest. So I bought a treasure chest, lugged it all the way out there, and hid
it out in some rocks. So that's cool. Yeah, it definitely does give off that vibe of like finding hidden treasure out there. Yeah,
it's pretty sweet. Yeah. So, I'm just going to keep leveling these things up because this is this is fun. This is a ton of fun. Super
fun. I enjoy doing it. So, yeah. Hopefully, if this one in Colorado goes well, we'll continue to do this format.
Um and then in the winter time, we'll do it out here in the Southwest. So, Phoenix, LA, various maybe Vegas, who
knows? So, should be good. Stoked. Well, quick intermission and then we'll hit some listener questions. Let's do it. Yep.
And now, a word from our sponsor. Hello, mountain bikers. Just a quick favor to ask. If you're a longtime
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is mtbodcast25os. Gracias amigos.
And now back to the show. Listener questions. Tyman, you want to
read the first one? Yeah, I got this one. Hey guys, first love the podcast and listening to the banter every new
episode. I know I've gotten some trip ideas and learned a lot listening to you guys. Second, I currently have a 2023
Trek Fuel EX with GXaxis and I'm looking to switch to a mechanical drivetrain. I
would like to switch to the Eagle 90T type, but want to know if there is something better. Oh, if there is
something better and what besides cassette derailer, shifter chain needs to be changed, if anything. Thanks.
Um, yeah, you you have experience on Eagle N. Yeah, I'm a I'm a massive fan of the
Eagle 90. I think it's like the greatest thing that happened to drivetrains with the push to electronic stuff. Having
like a budget option that actually works and is I'm putting it on my bikes over
electronic stuff is pretty awesome. I love that stuff. Yeah. I think the only thing that needs to be I guess updated or is like the
biggest downside to it is just the shifter doesn't feel the best. And even when you're in kind of the
Eagle Granny Gear, there's kind of like a little bit more of a play. Um, like it feels like your your limit screw is like
not correct, but there's no limit screw. Just the flex and the lever and the qualities of materials and all that stuff. Yeah, it just doesn't feel great. But I
think I would assume eventually doesn't feel great in comparison to really expensive 11-speed mechanical
stuff. Yeah, I agree with that. That is still much better than, you know, a $500 mountain bike.
It has it has the advantages of having the TTY interface chain cassette. Um,
yeah, which I was about to say where you can shift under load. Yeah. And and just doesn't miss a shift.
Doesn't miss a shift. And then the cool thing as well is that all the TT type stuff like works together. So I've got
the 90 uh derailer and shifter on my bike, but that's the only 90 stuff I have. I've got exo the rest of the way
through for my enduro bike. And that's like the coolest thing is you can all of a sudden now you can like pretty much build the drivetrain you want. So,
want to build a super light XC XC race bike, you go XXSL all the way through and then have the derailer. And I'm
pretty sure Liam's done all the calculations and all that. And um I'm pretty sure it's either the same weight,
if not lighter, very similar. It's within the same range. Um but then you can have it the derailer costs 200 300
bucks or something, which is pretty awesome. Like I smoked my derailer the other day. I was like, "Oh no." Like
I'll just order a new one. which is much better or something.
If you were to upgrade any part of the system or what do you think would be the most important? You think like the chain
would would be good or like cassette depends what your goal is like whether your goal is like weight or
also just compatibility too. None of that stuff's going to be compatible with his existing GX. Yeah. So he's going to have to go full
new drivetrain. I guess you can keep the cranks but you'd have to go to a new chain ring and all that. So, he's asking like where should he like budget his
money, you know, like or where should he put the money into? I would say going like my group set that
I have. Again, depends what you're searching for for weight or whatnot, but I'm running a 90 drivetrain with exo the
rest of the way through. And that's pretty good. I feel like that's like the good balance of like budget where I'm
going to break things and then all the expensive things I'd put a little bit more money into. A little bit lighter, a
little bit nicer finish, all that type of stuff. But then your big old giant TT type derailer that's hanging around
below, you can smack that and get a new one nice cheap. And when there is a nice shifter, that would
be the next thing I want to buy cuz that's definitely the one my only complaint. And I wouldn't even say it's a complaint. It's more of like a
a gripe or something. Something to pick at. Yeah. It's like if I was really nitpicking, that's the one thing that's
a little bummer. Like when I get between I have a XX1 12-speed mechanical on one
bike and that thing is like money crisp. you get on, you're like, "Oh, okay." Like, "This is how bikes
were meant to work." And then you get on that and it's like, "Okay, it's like me." It's like feels a little smooy.
Still does the job, but doesn't have the the tactile. The nice thing about the TT type, which I think kind of makes up for that, is
that you're not as worried about like that precision shifting feel because you can just shift. You like just click it.
Does under load. Yeah. Way quieter, too. Super quiet. This going from GX Access to Tram 90
Type. This guy's bike's going to get way quieter. It's like going to make a huge difference. Yeah, that especially that
GXaxis stuff that was like I would say one of the noisier drivetrains I've had on my bike in a long time. And the nine
the TT type stuff just as a whole system is just silent. So good. As far as like
for the whole TT type ecosystem, as far as like cassettes go, I would say the shifting quality between like a base
level like GX cassette and like the XX cassette is very similar. Just the main
thing is going to be weight. I feel like with the Axis system, if you had like a GX cassette and GX chain, the shifting
quality really wasn't that good compared to if you had like an XO or XX1 cassette
and chain with the normal axis like setup. The quality is very different and the weight was very different for this
new TT type stuff. The weight is still very different, which is to be expected, but the quality is still there with the
lower lower end stuff, which is 100%. Obviously, it's not the mechanical stuff, but I ride my dad's bike that has
GX transmission on its if I close my eyes riding my bike. Exactly. You can't tell, but the
weight's there for sure. So, no, good stuff. Highly recommend it. Especially if you want something that's
going to last. Yeah. I can't wait for them to come out with an updated shifter for that. It'll be I was actually looking there's this
company what they need is an XXSL mechanical TT type drivetrain. Yeah. Me up.
I think that's a niche market. Yeah, but I'm the niche. I want that. It is, but it isn't because it's just
going to be lighter than the the battery stuff. That's a good point. I would put that on
my bike. Although, I have gotten really used to um wireless shifting and it is nice. That is the one thing I'll say.
When you're when you're tired and you're like smoked or your heart rate's super high and all you have to do is press a button, it is kind of nice to just press
a button instead of actually shift it. It sounds so stupid, but I'll say the one thing I've done actually, so on a similar note with the
shifter is uh going from the pod to a back to a regular shifter. I'll uh be at
like the end of a long ride going up a climb and go to hit my easier gear and just not thinking about it, click the
harder gear and uh it's not a very fun time. You click three harder gears and you're oh down to zero or no it's good
stuff. Recommend it. I think my favorite wireless shifter they've come out with has been the when
they first came out with like the upgraded paddle or upgraded like trigger shifter for axis. Like it it mimicked
the mechanical version trigger shifter. We've sold so many of those. So good. And then insane little what $20
upgrade or something. I got so used to it and then the pod and I it took me a while to get used to that. Yeah, but there is a pod adapter,
isn't there? And the um Yeah, but and you can still run a normal
axis shifter on it, which is the the best part. Whatever. Axis pod rocker paddle upgrade kit.
$25 and free shipping on worldwide.com. Yeah, we've sold so many of those when those came out. Easy upgrade. It's like a no-brainer.
Yeah. Yeah. It's just way more intuitive. Why didn't they just do that to begin with is the question. Cuz the first one sucked. Yeah.
It didn't make any sense. Yeah. I mean, I guess that's what's cool about Saram is they they released it and they got a lot of feedback from people that said,
"Hey, this should have a different feel and should be more intuitive, yada yada, and they just made a product and produced it really quick."
Even the new the new reverb uh remote um it doesn't come with it actually, but
you can buy it's like part of the same kind of package and um does not seem very intuitive. I don't know why they
went away from the pod. It's different than the pod. Mhm. It's a It's like a pod but has more
surface area and has a little like notch on the back. you can hit it with your like your pointer finger if you want to.
Um, but it doesn't seem very good to me or it just seems I don't know. I just I'm not really a big fan of it, but I
haven't run it on a personal bike, but I've built up a couple bikes now with it and um yeah, I'm not a not a huge fan.
I haven't even seen that. Well, this next question, I'll give you the uh AI generated summary of it. Uh,
this gentleman has got an original Rebel Rascal and he's basically just trying to
get faster and uh, his friends are telling him, quote, "Lose some weight and do some squats." Uh, but but it
sounds like he's more trying to figure out how he can get faster without doing that and just upgrading his bike. Um, he
mentioned he went to Max's Forecasters, probably a little bit lighter tire setup
than he was originally running is my guess. Um, he mentioned that he also used to have a IBIS Ripley AF, which was
fast as a rocket ship on the climbs, NXC stuff, but wanted to kill me on everything else. So, yeah, this is just
the the typical mountain biker dilemma. You could always have more bikes, your bike could always be nicer, and you
could always be faster. That's that's the progression out there.
That's how this goes. He also wants to know if the new Rascal SL will solve his problem of basically
getting has the old Rascal right now. Yeah, he has he has a Rascal V1. So, they have a V2 and then now they have a
Rascal SL um which is just a little bit lighter for him. I mean, it would get him closer there. It wouldn't hurt. I mean, it would it sounds like he he
probably would really like uh just, you know, what is called a downount bike, which is something more like a a Revel
Ranger or something in that, you know, in between an XC bike and a trail bike. Um, which your spot is kind of like
that. Um, there's a bunch of good bikes like that. 120 mil travel bikes. The the money bike right now that
everybody's trying to come out with. I think it has been for quite a while. It is pretty fun. Yeah. I mean, that's
what the Rebel Ranger was um is. And yeah, the Yeti SB120. There's a ton of
bikes like that that Yeah. are really fun and because it is a perfect balance of, you know, almost as fast as an XC
bike, but has really good trail bikees geo and feels good and stable and solid and I mean that's why I loved and rode
that Rebel Ranger for so long. Um, and yeah, now riding that Yeti ASR, it's
definitely not as stable and gnarly, but it's so close and it's so fast and light
that I've just kind of got addicted to that bike for XC stuff. Um, but yeah, that sounds like uh, you know, to answer
your question, man, you just need more bikes. N plus one. Yeah, 100%. So, yeah, I I don't know.
That's that's a tricky one. I mean, I always tell people to get a bike that makes the most sense for where you ride
the most often. So, if he's riding, he says he's riding in Rhode Island. If he's riding a bunch of trails in Rhode Island that are really not that gnarly
and he could get away with something like a Yeti ASR or a Rebel Ranger, he'd probably be faster on that bike and have
more fun on it. But if they are a little bit gnarier and he still wants a little bit more of a trail bike, Rascal SL,
those Rascal SLs do look pretty sick. Fun bike for like everyday riding. You can build a little bike.
Yeah, you can build it a little smaller and it's a little bit faster to get get anywhere. You could build a little burlier and it's a little bit more like
handle what you want trail bike. Those things look cool. I definitely say I'd recommend one. In my opinion,
you can buy all the fancy parts in the world that'll make you feel fast, but it doesn't actually make you go any quicker
like that. In the end, that's where the actual uh all the other parts work. Yeah. The actual getting yourself quicker. You can
It feels great. I'm not saying it doesn't feel great. Buy a bike. It's sick. Getting on a fast bike feels really fast.
But uh you're not actually going to go quicker. Like her friend said though, lose some weight and do some squats. Actually does work.
Yep. Hey, even better recommendation, ride your new bike even more. Don't do this. Like the squats are good.
Simple answer. Simple answer is ride more. Yeah. Buy a new bike so you go ride more or or push yourself a little bit and uh
get stronger just on the bike simply and yeah, it'll become way more fun. Yep.
Ride bikes more. That does make a big difference. And sometimes you just need an excuse to ride more and want to ride more and the
new bike is the ticket to that excuse. It is a crisp ticket. It is a good
ticket to go ride your bike. I think everyone's done that. Oh, I do that on like a weekly basis, dude. I put new parts on my bike to go
like, "Oo, I want to go ride this bike now." Yeah. So, yeah, it is fun. That does help. And then you go up the climbing at the
same time. Yeah. Yeah. No, it's good stuff though. All right, Trevor. Next one. Juan Carlos, he's got a question for
you. Juan Carlos. Okay, so Juan Carlos says, "Hello, guys. My daily driver is a 2021 Giant Stance E+1. That is a EMTB full
suspension bike with a 130 fork and a 120 millimeter shock. Uh the head tube
angle, so it's a short travel EMTB, which is definitely unique. Um so his head tube angle is 65° after a Wolftooth
two° angle set. Um stock was 67°. Um so is jumping to say 150 mm uh fork
too much? I normally ride trails in San Diego that are identical to trails we have here in Newberry Park. Thanks for your advice. best mountain biking
podcast, period. So, let's see. So, he got So, he made his head tube slacker.
Um, and he wants to go to a bigger truck. He wants to go from a 130 fork to
a 150, which will make it even more slack. Um, I think he should take the
angle set out and then jump to a 150 fork cuz that might be crazy slack.
That's sounding like mega slack. That's what I've just seen. Two different bikes are. I don't know the top of my head what the numbers are. What is it? What
is each every 10 mil is like half a degree is the rough. I don't know. That's what Liam says, I think.
Okay. But I don't know. It is rough because it kind of depends on the bike. It depends on where your head angles at.
Yeah. Yeah. I mean, the general rule of thumb is bikes are designed around a certain
travel fork. And in this case, it sounds like it was designed around a 130 fork and has 120 mil travel in the back. So,
the general rule of thumb is don't push your fork more than an additional 20 mm, which in this case would be 150. Um,
and if you do that, yeah, you lift the whole front end up, it makes it more slack, in which case you probably don't
also need the angle set. Um, my kind of question is like, why are
you wanting why are you doing all of this? Like, what is the original reason for going for it? Like, are you trying?
Yeah. Like, are you trying to go in the slacker realm or you trying to add more fork to it? He's got a a short travel
ebike. So, he probably just wants he probably wants what all ebikers probably should have, which is like a big burly
travel ebike, you know. Yeah. Well, that that's what I mean. Like, if you're if your goal is to make it slacker, then like Yeah, perfect.
Like, that's your goal. I'd question why you're doing that. Like, you're getting pretty slack. Probably just riding gnarly or downhill
trails on it and wants to make it a little beefier. So, which is honestly, it sounds really fun. Um, I'm always a fan of just over
forking bikes. Yeah. Nothing more than what Jeff said, like nothing more than 20 mil. Yeah. Nothing more than 20 mil what it
was originally designed for and not also with an angle set. Yeah. That would be with if you stuck with the same travel
fork. Yeah. I did the same thing on my Forbidden Druid cuz that's a 150 travel fork stock and I made just 160.
Yeah. It makes it it makes the uh stack a little higher, makes it a little little makes the reach a little shorter
um and slackens it out just a little bit. So, which is kind of what I'm looking for in a bike and just to kind of do everything with. But
yes, 20 mil is a lot with the angle sets too much. Yeah. Yeah. Sorry, Juan.
Got to change some change some stuff around. So, this next question, another another giant essay of a question, but the
synopsis of it is um recently switched from a Maxis DHR2/DC
combo to Continental Cryptol front and rear. can tell that the Maxis tires really relied a lot on the Max Grip
compound to stick to terrain. The Conties seem to be made of a harder rubber but get more traction.
Admittedly, it's still summer here in Austria and I haven't ridden the Conties in very wet conditions. Would be great
to hear pros and cons of each tires. Tires are expensive. And then he goes on to make fun of me for me always having
brand new tires and giving away my slightly used tires, which is uh fair. I do that. I was talking about doing that
today actually. Yeah, you were. Because the tires on my bike are just weren't enough where
someone else would have some great life out of them. But I also guess you're not selling your used tires. That's true. They're always donations.
That's I'm I'm cool with that. That's awesome. To be fair, your rear tire is pretty smoked. Yeah. Front tire is probably fine, though.
Yeah. Yeah. The rear Yeah. I mean, those those What's on the rear of that bike? A recon race? Recon? Yeah, just recon. Yeah, those get smoked
pretty quick. I'm a sucker about changing front rear tires at the same time, too. Really? Oh, yeah. You want to do both at once? You can't
just do one. Looks so sick. Yeah, the fresh tires. Yeah, I agree, man. I'm the same way.
Same way. I have like a stack of very lightly used front tires at home that I need to take the dirt jumps and just
give to kids or something cuz I'm like a I'm going to use it at some point and then I go to put on a new tire and I just put it on a break set. Yeah. Well,
I guess part of this question really is getting down to, you know, what are what
are our thoughts on when you think of how a tire performs versus how long it
lasts and how much it costs? Factoring in all those variables, do you feel as if one brand is any better than the
other? So, I've got a pretty good amount of experience on both Maxis and Conti. And
I would say if you're if you're kind of going more towards budgeting and not not
changing tires every other weekend because the Maxis tires, yeah, they they will run out a little bit faster. Um the
Continentals do last a crazy long time. We've got some Conti rubber on and even
this in the super soft downhill casing. We have Conti rubber on some ebikes in the shop and they they last for half a
year which is incredible cuz if you were to put Yeah. They last a long time, which does make me like wonder if like
maybe the rubber should be softer, right? Um cuz if you were to do the same thing with like a Max Grip or even a Max
Terra Maxis tire, especially on an ebike, like that thing is torn up in a weekend. So,
um I it's it's hard to say cuz I think if you're riding like super loose terrain
um and you want something that's going to kind of dig in um dig into the ground and actually have some some bite, I
think the Conties do a super good job of that cuz they don't really deform at all. Um, and it's the way their knobs
are shaped, they kind of have some like mechanical advantage on that. So, they do go into the ground more and they're
not going to really the knobs aren't really going to roll. But, um, I personally kind of prefer the Maxis cuz
it is super soft and if you can really feel the traction um, and it's it's
sometimes like with a max grip acid guy, it is hard to slide out. Like you can go as hard as possible and it's hard to
slide out slide out. So, um, yeah, I'd go to what I was saying earlier about like we were talking about the
expense like you when we're talking about not lasting long, like the Max Grip Max's tires are what like pro
downhill dudes are using for one run. Like it is like designed to be the grippiest thing you can. Like it's not
going to last long. So, I'd kind of like say what I like to do as well is I I
will put tires on like depending on what I want to ride. Like I'm sitting at home just going to be smashing a bunch of
training miles. I'll put on a a tire that I know is going to last a bit longer. I know it's not going to last me
like one weekend of hard riding, but then let's say like, oh, okay, I'm a time of year I want a little bit more
performance out of my bike. I'm like pushing harder or whatever it may be. Then I like spend that little extra money or whatever it may be and put a
stickier rubber on. So, I would say like that's not an answer. That's saying both are good. But I think it's like like you
were kind of saying it's like use cases. Yeah. you're going to put on back of an ebike, maybe going for something that's
going to last all day is a good option like the Conties or something. But if you're like focusing on grip,
yeah, let's say you should expect your tires to wear out if you're like pushing. Let's say you're riding in wet conditions, like you definitely want the
rubber. You want the stickiest thing. Like I'll pay anything to ride in the wet and like not feel like I'm dying in every corner.
But when I'm at sitting at home and want to just like bang out a thousand miles in the month, like probably want to put
something on that's going to last. So, that's not a not the greatest answer for you, but kind of that's where I that's
where I stand on it at least. Like, don't don't waste your money on super sticky tires when you're just like
cruising around. That's what I see all the time is when you see somebody with like max grip tires on. They just put a
like fresh set of max grips front and rear and it's like summer and it's like terrible trail
conditions and all that and I'm like on the rear if you're like not if you're not racing downhill it's probably a mistake.
Yeah, exactly. But again, it's just like what do you want out of it is the thing.
Yeah, it's valid point. I mean, it's probably not relevant for this guy cuz I don't think he's uh or maybe it is, but
dealium. Remember those tires? Mhm. That's that's still alternative. They're
Yeah. Yeah. Like through those literally $50 a tire. Neither Maxis or nor Conti are cheap at
all. They're super expensive. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. you're kind of splitting hairs when you talk about Maxis and Conte and comparing them in
terms of grip and longevity, but Delium just blows them a lot of the water cuz they're literally half the price.
Um, and a lot of people who just burn through tires, especially people on ebikes or ebike rear tires, like you
mentioned, people love Delium for that stuff. Yeah. Like perfect use case. And their their soft compound is
actually pretty good, too. Like Yeah. Well received. I mean, for for a tire at that price point, it's impressively
good. That's sweet. And you know, you know, people like that. Don't expect it to be super light.
Yeah. I'm pretty sure uh I don't quote me on this, but my buddy Eli used to ride for WTB back in the day. And I'm pretty sure
they used to make a tire that had hollow side knobs. And he would say that he would just like tear the entire set of
side knobs off in three runs, but they were the sickest tire for two and a half runs. And then by then the tires were
just smoked and you were just sliding everywhere. But yeah, those if you want to go like real durability issues back
in the day. Yeah, I'd like to I'd like to feel like the World Cup downhill guys. I'd like to feel like whatever their compounds are
for their race only compounds like just to see what I mean if they exist or if they're just the same.
I I doubt they're running much different than what we can get. You think so? Well, like I think if there was a better
rubber compound, why would they not sell it? Yeah, that's at least again I don't know
because it just really won't last that long. But we already have literally last you two weekends,
but there's already people that are swapping like there people that swap their tires every week and want that performance. Like I feel like they
especially if they sold it for like 170 bucks doesn't have to like make the money in the grand scheme. I I don't know. Again,
I'm not professional tire person. I think I'm a believer in like what what we can go and
buy other than sizing and special like things they're working on. I think that's what they're running for the most
part. That's what's cool about the mountain bike race racing world. They're racing all stock stuff. Yeah. Like it the only time it's you
can't go buy it is when it's a prototype and it's in the works to become available. Like the UCI has rules to
make it that you have to be able to go buy the product within a certain amount of time that it was raced in
competition. So that's pretty cool. Like you can't see that in many other sports period. That's piss out.
Yeah, pretty much every Dino World Cup was won on stock tires until this just last one, right? Was that Goldstone had
some world champs, right? Where he had some proto he's on a prototype Maxis tire. It wasn't the dissector 2 though, right?
It was something else. No, the the new dissector is like a downount tire. Um the what he's on is like kind of like
a new DHF something like that. Um so he's he's been on that but
cool. Mhm. talk. We had to get it in. Liam's out. Yeah,
we had to get in a little casing. So, well, anyways, I think that's enough for
the pod. We've gone long enough. Thank you all very much for listening. We appreciate it. Um, feel free to continue
to send in your questions to podcast.orldwidecery.com. And uh yeah, by the way, if you want a
sneak little 10% discount on anything on the world site, MTB Podcast10,
special little treat for people who listen to the whole pod. And yeah, that's it. That's all. Thank you. See you guys next time.
Bye. In honor of Liam. Love you. [Music]
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