Most Bought Products of '23, Training for MTB, Stem Length & More...Ep. 127 [Podcast]

Today on the podcast, Jeff gives us an update on the current state of the bike industry before we recap the most purchased products of 2023 and jump into some fantastic listener questions ranging from 27.5 or 29 for your next bike, what cross training workouts are good with MTB and much, much more! Tune in!

Submit any and all questions to podcast@worldwidecyclery.com

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ladies and gentlemen welcome to episode 127 of the MTB podcast presented and hosted by worldwide cyclery I am Jared I am Jeff and I am Liam in this episode we are going to discuss the most popular mountain bike products of 2023 shipped out over a quarter million products in 23 so we got some good dat we got some good data on what was popular and what wasn't Y and uh my take on the bicycle industry in 2023 it's been it's been in the media a lot well industry media it's not really I don't think the mainstream media is really covering news yeah caring about what's happening in the bike industry but people in the bike industry are so I'm going to talk about that uh just a good question about could the bike industry have avoided this kind of uh what did I write down here avoided this poop show that it's in right now that's a nice way of putting it yeah thank you I thought so too yeah and then uh listener questions ranging from stem length what because you're typing it right now Jared um from stem length to the Revel Royal 275 and what kind of workouts and fitness routines you can count on to improve your mountain bike Fitness that's nice nicely done nice save nice save see I tell you we could Wing these things every time but you don't believe me we can do it I want to totally wing it but there will be some there will be some good information about Fitness and training and that sort of thing that part is certain that part is certain which is good cuz that's front of mine coming into a new year most people it is absolutely big resolution guys big resolution guys how about you you going to be in big shape this year what's what's your big shape big shape small shape shape round rounds of shape yeah round shape what do you got no I'm trying to definitely get in better shape I think everybody comes into New Year wanting to improve themselves in one way or another and uh yeah it's definitely on my list of things you know it's on your radar yeah it's on Radar really Liam's perfect he's got nothing to work on I'm not perfect but I don't really set like New Year's resolutions like new year new me I just like want to consistent like lifestyle and like do it forever yeah um yeah I don't know I'm just working on getting in a little bit quicker shape right now you know what James C says systems not goals right systems cre outcomes not goals yeah mhm well systems consistently executed right yeah you can't just have them yeah you actually you can't just write the system down you actually have to do it I guess you got to do it I thought you didn't like his book it came off to me a little like pompus a little pompus a little kind of like holier than thou yeah I went to Yale and you should do this like yeah no D you should wake up and at 3 and do your cold plunge and then go work out and journal he's not that he's not that far I I know I know what you mean but he's definitely not I I respect James clear a lot more than I respect some of those random people who were like get up at 6 a.m. do this cold plunges BL like you know that's definitely a thing and he's not he's he's a little bit more on the intellectual side of it he's a little more rational about it 100% yeah don't get me wrong he has a lot of points a lot of good points but you know it's like at one point it was just like don't do this do this don't do this do this it's was like oh duh never thought of that before like yeah okay yeah you know it's better than it's better than rituals but yeah for sure I would I would probably that yeah I didn't read that one mediocre sales pitch vegan sales pitch yeah yeah that's bummer because it seems like rual has got a lot more to say than that yeah his podcast is much better than that but it speaking of top things of 2023 yeah Tomic habbits was the number one selling book and number one audible book just bashing no like I said it was a fine book but I mean some people don't like it yeah some people don't like titled your opinion even if it's wrong thanks

yeah uh we're going to start out with a couple quick segments instead of Zach's words of wisdom because Jared didn't want to bug Zach today since he's out of town he's you know he's not yeah yeah we've got mcclusky's words of wisdom mclusky is here watching the podcast being recorded he runs our store in Pennsylvania he's a general manager if you didn't know worldwide cyclers got a store in Southern California Reno Nevada and in Lancaster Pennsylvania also we can things to you faster and so you don't complain when it takes 3 days rather than two days and compar us to Amazon yeah you don't quite have the infrastructure that Amazon has not yet but one of these days when Daddy Bezos acquires us we will and then sometimes we ship too fast and we couldn't change your order from having a mistake that you ordered so there's no winning well MLK's words of wisdom well he's going to join us later in the podcast for a couple listener questions but the words of wisdom he had off the cuff were pretty good why don't you read them Jared off the the cuff words of wisdom if you see a hole don't put your finger in it that's some really Life practical really yeah just real life practical wisdom you see hold don't put your finger in it my favorite part is that it doesn't really go any further yeah doesn't say don't put your toe in it no you could fill in the blank I mean anything can happen if you put your hole if your put your finger in a hole Anything could happen all right usually not good things Daniel's fun fact this is a good one and ostrich's eye is bigger than its brain and I think I also saw a thing where they have like the biggest eyes of any animal I could be wrong though they I have big eyes though if You' seen an ostrich maybe a one those interesting probably land cuz I've seen some pretty big fish eyes and ostrich's heads aren't that big yeah small small head probably has a small brain small head small brain big eyes I think they said the diameter of the ey is like 5 cmers it's like huge hm yeah some fish eyes that are like yeah like on Survivor remember the guy took a bite out of his huge fishee it was disgusting you love Survivor don't you we I asked I asked you if uh you'd fire me if I went on it and he said who's going to do all your work so no you can't go on I think it would be worth it to be you have to take a six month sabatical or something you got on that I don't know the exact time one they shorten it now it's only what 20 uh 28 days 28 days it's like under 30 days maybe maybe 30 Before 30 after so we're talking 90 days dude and think about the plug he would go out there and be like I'm here from worldwide cyle be like whoa what's that look it up and then business with Skyrocket Skyrocket exactly how it would work yeah no to be honest I think I dislocate a shoulder in like the first challenge yeah I'm just not I'm just not that like mobile anymore getting frail oh it's getting frail yeah speaking of getting frail speaking of frail the bicycle industry oh ouch yeah yeah exactly um we covered it a few times on the podcast uh yeah I don't know so I'll just give you guys a recap a friend of mine asked me a question he said hey do you think the bicycle industry could have avoided this current poop show that it's in and uh well let me just preface this with what happened was during the peak pandemic years the bicycle industry like some other Industries boomed sales went through the absolute roof everybody wanted to ride bikes more and buy a bike and upgrade their bike and upgrade their parts and they were working from home they weren't taking long Vacations so everybody whether they were you know very entrylevel or first timers or occasional Weekend Warriors or frequent Riders they just all rode more and bought more so the industry just absolutely boomed and oddly enough that held on for two years like 18 months 20 months yeah until it started to show any signs of fading it held on so long that the vast majority of the people in the industry the decision makers I.E you know the CEOs of bike brands bike component Brands retailers um had to do their forecasting and all of that and most people over forecasted they didn't it seemed like it was going to last forever seemed pretty durable turned out not to be um coming into winter of last winter so basically a year ago the off seon coming into December of 2022 it started really slow down and then 2023 was a pretty a pretty rough year for the industry cuz most everyone had way too much product way too much Supply and the demand totally waned and went back down to 2019 levels or Worse um I don't think the industry could have necessarily avoided it you know it's it's an unfortunate situation it's not the end of the world but business is hard it's a challenging game and I don't think that um I don't think anyone was just blatantly stupid or wrong or like didn't know what they were doing it's just it's just hard you know if you're in those positions and you have to do that forecasting and you see the the demand that it is and you don't have a crystal ball that's part of how business is if you if you think oh the bike industry could have avoided if they had more business sense well it's like okay well did you buy Amazon stock in 2001 Mr business sense so it's you know it's just about predicting the future and business is hard and it's it's not always that easy so the industry is in a bit of a challenging spot um it's different for different brands some are worse than and others were're fortunate to be in a pretty good spot ourselves where we just didn't really Overstock too much and I think there was a lot of uh rightfully so forecasting on our end in 2022 that this is going to come back down at some point here uh which I'm really fortunate and glad that we kind of saw that riding on the wall but not everyone's like that there's some bike brands right now doing bogos what what wrap your head around that buy one get one free shut up yeah I think Kona and GT who what he didn't see that is Kona a pawn brand no uh somebody bought Kona but it's not Pawn like lifetime brands or some GT is Right GT's own Pawn now at some point GT's Pawn yeah wow but yeah I mean it's it's insane there's yeah would free I I haven't heard that one I've heard crazy discounts but that one was wild yeah I know that one was the funniest one I thought you heard about that I mean I guess what's better right like 50% off or buy one get one it's like you know six one half doesn't the other right like I guess I'd rather an extra so it's yeah it's a challenging spot I mean the other thing that what's interesting about bikes too right is you imagine a lot of people who bought a new bike in 2020 or 21 or even early 22 they don't people don't buy bikes every year or every six months it's not something you just buy all the time so a lot of people bought and now they've going to ride that bike for three to five years so that puts the industry in 2023 or maybe in 2024 in a worse scenario than it was in 2019 so it's it's kind of it's went too high and now it's dipped too low and it's hopefully going to get back to sort of some level of normaly in 24 25 26 who knows but happened to a lot of Industries uh office furniture random cookware like there's a ton of industries that just utterly boomed during Co and all ended up in the same scenario so kind of an interesting thing that just happened you know yeah pandemic pretty crazy pretty hard to navigate those Waters as a business owner and an industry in general that did well others did you know if you had a restaurant or an airline business like you in a different boat went down and then yeah different scenario but pretty crazy do you think do you think there's a little bit of like maybe greedy forecasting that could have been avoided though well it's tough to say I mean I think I think people were overly optimistic more than anything but I also think there was people under pressure that they probably wouldn't have normally been in I mean even if you remember some of the brands we work with in 2021 and 2022 they're like well we're so slammed and the supply chain is all messed up you you can only have you can only place two orders this year it's like well what do you mean we can only place two orders this year last year we placed 30 yeah like we just placed orders you know every other week to keep inventory like you can only place two this year so then when you someone says that to you it's like well what do you do it's pretty hard you be optimistic do you R bolt down the middle you don't want to be under inventory you don't want to be over inventory it's just it just a mess um nobody really got it perfectly right but yeah some a little bit more than others and that was a challenging situation but business is hard so I don't I don't uh I don't hold that fault to anyone in the bike industry or in any industry that is in the same situation yeah challenging stuff and now it is a buyer's market so you want to buy a bike you probably don't because you probably bought one last year or the year before yeah yeah it's definitely a buyer market now and that's just how the pendulum swing around in the industry yeah and you got to imagine like people are at these you're talking about pressure or like people at the larger companies like you know Fox Factory or like you know they got they got shareholders right and they're like they got to make decisions to keep those people happy and they're like well what do you mean it's it's not going to be as busy more product more money okay pump the brakes there yeah Fox is uh in a challenging spot it's because they're a publicly traded company so they have a lot more pressure on them and a lot more just weird abnormal targets that I just think are shouldn't exist in the bike industry that and in addition and all that they have a lot of a lot of their businesses OE mhm so when you know a bike brand says hey yeah we need 1,000 bikes okay cool we're going to get you a th forks and then they're still within their cancellation window of that PO and they go ha we only need 200 bikes and they're like well we started making a th000 Forks yeah so what are we going to do if this 800 then you know now that's the every company did that kind of example and all these different GRE yeah just blew up right so when you're a manufacturer and you're pulling parts from these other brands and you you're able to cancel it just balloons right just snowballs into you know Overstock situations into a poop show Chain Reaction see what I did there into a poop show yeah uh if you ever want to read more about bike industry stuff uh bicycle retailer uh in bicycle retailer and industry news known as brain that's a website that you probably don't go to unless you're in the bike industry but they cover all this sort of stuff and more um if you want to just read through some of their headlines in the last 6 months and go oh oh oh oh yeah oh that's bad Doom and Gloom headlines it's a bit Doom and Gloom Revenue down in Q4 yeah every company ever Yeah in our industry dramatically down so I don't know if you have any more questions relating to this feel free to hit us the podcast at world.com I always like to talk about business stuff a little more than super nerdy bike stuff at least this stage in my life but that's why we got Liam here to handle the bike nerd stuff we got Jared over here to talk about uh cats cats and bikes and meat me and bikes love bikes speaking of cats why don't you tell everybody the big news what's the big news uh Jared had me over for dinner and I met his cat you met bean I I thought the big news I was about to lose it I thought Jeff was getting cat that's soon I'm I'm not going to get anytime soon yeah I don't know I like cats I'm not I'm not a cat hater I think cats are cool I had cats growing up and dogs I liked them both yeah different personalities yeah no need to comment Liam I just I don't hate cats I'm not cat like hater or killer I just prefer dogs that's fine even I you know prefer dogs probably I still you wanted to say it so bad you prefer dogs probably I me I GRE up with do heard you say that and bean would not appreciate that oh yeah but uh you know didn't you didn't wasn't the counter event for having dinner with Bean's parents yeah it was yeah I just I love how like much a dog like you know just unconditionally loves you right like Bean is is in the mood or she's not it's it's fully conditional whether you're going to give her love or food Bean is 100% conditional have you given me TR I heard this thing of like if you died in your home within something like 36 to 72 hours your cat will start eating your dead body and dogs never will dogs will lay next to your dead body and sounds like sounds like a Daniel's fun fact yeah it could be off it's totally unified I just you know heard it but yeah I mean depending on the dog I don't know who knows what if it's like an Absol Savage of a dog or the way the owner treated the dog like I never like that guy anyways yeah lot of variables here pretty much the saying dogs are super loyal yeah dogs are great we need to rip through the top products the most popular products 2023 so by the way we have a YouTube video that we put out each year that's usually our best video of the year and it covers this and it's about an hour long it's essentially a documentary but the way it is done is it's all categorized so you can look at any single possible category that you're interested in and pan through that to find that spot in the video if you want to know what's popular in that category and in this podcast we're going to quickly rip through the top categories which is almost all of them but not all of them I mean I like oh we'll just we'll just talk about the important ones the key ones and I started looking at I was like well we can't miss can't just skip dropper post we can't just skip breaks we could just kind of no get pedals cuz then people be like well what about the pedals can't ride a bike without all pedals like everyone comments on the photo that we post you can't ride a bike pedals guess what bikes don't come with

pedals so if you want to know more about the rest of these categories and watch a video where you see all the imagery of every single product and all that then look at the main worldwide cycler a YouTube video but for now we're going to rip through the top stuff starting with drivetrain tires cockpit oh I didn't know why you're were reading them off like this dropper post brakes suspension pedals and that's it his IQ didn't catch we did we did it like that in the uh the Youtube video I don't know you guys are going to do it like this for the podcast of course man so uh with that said do we just start out drive just go ahead right into drive train talk about some top stuff popular we'll go from 5 to one cuz that's like way more suspenseful number five is the stram xot type Eagle Transmission group set with 170 mil cranks do I just keep going 5 to One Number Four stram GX Eagle 12-speed group Set uh complete number three stram GX Eagle access drive train upgrade kit number two sham nxgx Eagle group set with GX shifter derailer chain and NX cassette and the number one group set is the stram GXT type Eagle Transmission group set 165 millimeter cranks hot Trend hot hot hot hot Trend so if you didn't know samam pretty much dominates the drivetrain category but there's also a bunch of other brands which uh mix it up in the drivetrain category but don't ever really take the crowns don't take the podium so we did we did note some of the top selling stuff that's not Shram yes and that is starting with number five k Creek Ewings crank preloader which works for other cranks as well number four race space turbine crank set number three e113 Helix race cassette number two five Dev rspec race Trail SL Enduro crank set in um probably 165 millimeter length and then number one is the Shimano XT chain for 12-speed drivetrains there you have it wow wow wow wow wow there you have it wow all right Tires Tires Tires Liam tires all right also dominated I love tires so much this is Liams category uh tires starting from 521 Maxis Recon Tire 29x 2.4 EXO plus casing number four Maxis forecaster Tire 29 by 2.4 uh that was dual compound EXO number three Maxis ay 2.5 3C Max grip EXO plus number two dis Maxis diss sector 2.4 3C EXO plus and number one Maxis minion dhr2 2.4 3C Max Terra EXO plus all 29 all 29 all 29 mhm maxus dominated but again uh there's non- Maxis tires non- Maxis tires that were our top selling non- Maxis tires M terl honcho in a 2.6 tan light and supple number four Victoria Baro Baro correct Baro Baro 2.35 in black and tan number three Michelin wild and duro racing line Tire 29x 2.4 rear tire uh number two continental cryptool front tire 2.4 and number one swabby naobi Nick 2.4 Evol line super ground attic speed grip I don't know who is more confusing schabes naming convention or Maxis is I think honestly I think chabi is to be honest cuz I can't I can't tell you which one is the casing which one's the you know I don't I just I'm lost I get I get there I'm lost hard to say it's if Schwab was as popular and as common as Max so familiar with all terms we that language better again you don't really know on Maxis what the casing is if you're just reading it educated right yeah but like double down implies like double downhill casing that's pretty self explanatory super ground that doesn't say anything to you super ground attic speed grip that doesn't speak to you speed grip which way adex adct is like their 3C and then next to it is like speed grip or Max grip or all kinds of different grips I don't know I don't really run trby tires so yeah I'm still lost well there you go it's a mouthful either way yep yep what's the next what's the next category's next cockpit [ __ ] cockpit all right cockpit I can I can uh which I don't think even have stems in here do we but we'll just we'll just talk about handlebars and grips grip bars and grips and grips um all go from uh so number five is the title MTB ah1 35 clamp 25 mil rise spank spoon 40 mil rise bars with a 318 clamp some serious high-rise boys right there number three Trail one Crockett alloy 3535 number two Trail 1 Crockett carbon 3535 and number one was one up carbon 3535 highrise people like high-rise bars yeah people love them it's pretty hot m y pretty hot good we've talked a lot about handlebars and so hopefully nobody asks again to have me explain the difference and the nuances between the trail One bars and the one I panel bars since I've answered that question on my own Instagram several times and if they did ask then you can direct them to the oneup video that you made where you that was so old that was before a lot of other hand came out including Trail one well I guess you got to redo it you got to go back out to the trail and test five different handlebars back to back maybe even more we should make a 10 this time was five was test five wasn't enough I'm going to test 10 handle bars back to back the other five are different than the other five yeah you know it was a surprising video handlebars do change the feel of your bike a lot more than I thought yeah which you know took a lot of that learnings into the design and the feel of the trail one bar yeah you know what would be cool be like a stem length comparison like you start with a short one you go to a long one and you see how different the handling gets get with every increment you busy you should bust that video out next week whoa bust it out dude yeah I'll bust that out l number five p&w LOM grip XL oh I think the LOM grip was one of the top selling grips last year but not in the XL version cuz the XL was kind of new I think I do believe you are correct a lot of people realize little little thicker grip is nice th then ODI Rogue then ergon ge1 Evo Factory with the Frozen stealth SL oil slick lock on and the elite pro and then in the number one spot Trail one Hell's Gate yeah boy talk about I think those ODI Rogues have probably been a top selling grip for 20 years that's an ancient design it's probably like the first lock on design that and the Ruffian but the Rogue still sell man yeah and the Rogue was also probably like OG fat grip yeah right mhm yep wow all right we got to rip through the rest of these in Time Dr is dropper post dropper posts dropper post themselves right dropper posts all right I'll do dropper posts just uh posts or posts post post just the post number five bike Yol revive 2.0 in the 160 mm travel 31.6 clamp uh number four p&w LOM dropper post 150 travel 31.6 number three Rock shock Reverb axis 3161 170 number two Fox transfer Factory 316 175 mil travel and the number one post of 2023 the oneup components V2 dropper post 316 210 travel that's interesting that's what I have 210 that's too much travel I don't want that much travel talk about a category not dominated by one individual brand yeah top five with five different brands yeah I mean same with grip right all of those are 316 mil just point that out yeah you know maybe we should make that like the standard size that be crazy what a what a Nutty idea you know you know make it all the same like Trevor was working on a bike back there and I was like why is it 34.9 349 makes sense in the engineering sense and Manufacturing sense but no one wanted to jump to it so now it's just like four brands that do it and no one else it was kind of like super boost oh kind of makes sense and then no one adopted it but four Brands the problem with super boost was your heels hit the rear end a lot yeah that's true and that was an issue for a lot of people you got like bigger than size 10 shoe you hit your end you know and I already do regular boost all right we got 2 Minutes last two categories cam Code Ultimate stealth number four Shram G2 RC number three meura mt5 number two Dior XT from Shimano that is and number one trp DHR Evo dude wow those are some powerful breaks wow all right suspension do it jar suspension oh my gosh hold on hold on hold on we're already getting pretty people want more in depth than this they got to watch the Youtube video all right Forks okay number five rockx Ze ultimate 170 travel 29er number four Fox 38 29 180 travel number three Fox 36 160 no excuse me 150 travel uh number two Rock shocks Recon silver RL 29 in 100 Mil travel the number one fork the fox 34 stepcast Factory 29 120 44 offset shiny black F4 I wouldn't have put that in the top spot but that's cool more popular than you thought and rear shocks should I hit it hit it at number five Fox Float X2 rear shock 210 by 55 mil number four Fox Float Factory uh 190 by 45 number three Rock shock super Delux ultimate rc2 T coil 230x 65 number two Fox Float X Factory 190 by 45 ooh floex in a short travel MH number one rock Shar superlex ultimate rc2 rear shock 210x 55 one coil shock in all of that all the rest air yep makes sense to me yeah but then number two short travel but floex with a big air can yeah down country AF that's I don't Ranger yeah M well pedals clipless Crank Brothers Mallet and duro then the time special8 then Crank Brothers Mallet Trail then the expedo mforce tie cross country pedals still out there and then Shimano XT clipless it's nice to see time climbing those and FL yeah right time is making some nice stuff you're riding time these days am yeah they've really stepped up the game when it comes to the mountain bike side of things uh flat pedals pnw whose alarm's going off is that my alarm oh yeah oh my God whoa my bad dude ruined the

show I was so close to finishing all right hit the flat pedals p&w range composite in all black Crank Brothers stamp one deity death trap also composite Trail one Vortex composite and oneup components composite yeah all composite all black all composite all black wow good stuff uh for the forecasters out there composite black pedals are

hot the forecasters forecasting bike industry demand list to this podcast black composite pedals like oh I need to tune into to the MTV podcast for my latest analytics this wouldn't be the episode to do that with all right and now a word from our sponsors yes paid sponsor we sold out and now a word from our sponsors hey guys Jeff again I wanted to quickly ask you all for a favor if you've been listening to this podcast for a bit you likely know that we own the Appo brand Kettle Mountain we have been working extremely hard to create premium level mountain bike apparel with a very clean and minimal aesthetic while still keeping features and fabrics as Technical and practical as absolute possible and we make a ton of other stuff for General lifestyle and travel Adventure wear for example on the mountain bike side our Canyon bib with three perfectly positioned rear pockets and an amazing Italian shammy it would mean the world to us if you could check out the website at kettl mountain.com and when you get there feel free to snag 20% off your entire order with the code MTB pod MTB p o d so just hop onto the Google machine and type in ke TL thank you and he says Jared has a beautiful and listener questions listener questions speaking of Liam I keep hearing about how much Liam Likes His Rebel rail 29 I've been wanting to try one out to swap for my Tre remedy 275 and I want to stick with the 275 Wheels but I never hear about the 275 version rail like to ride jumps and go off and feel like this would be a better option but hesitant because I only hear about the 29ers am I missing something or would this be a good option for me I'm 6t tall 20000 pounds ride in Wisconsin you know well that's that's a good point I would my personal take would be demo both if you can 29 and 275 MH that being said 29ers are quite playful especially rail 29 but that also being said I think the 275 rail is like the best 27 bike I've ever ridden yeah that bike's awesome yeah super good we made a whole YouTube video about it too by the way so we talk about it yeah I mean I haven't had a revel rail 29 but I did have a Yeti s sp1 165 and one could say it's pretty close not really well it's both long travel 275 bike they both pedal pretty well and they both descend like you know like an endur bike they have the playful 27 5es feel they do so like in my experience with that bike like I didn't feel like it pedal horribly so like if that's your main concern like and you really want to have the 2075 wheels for jumps and stuff and like to goof off and that would be more fun like you know but I don't know you could be like you know jumps like jump park or you could go to like Whistler aine like Whistler aine is fine 29er it doesn't matter yeah so like depends how steep your jumps are depends on the jumps um I did build a rail 275 mullet oh yeah with a 29 front 275 rear and it was pretty fun um just locally for the terrain I just preferred a full 29 for the Trails um but it was riding on like pretty steep stuff in Santa Cruz I took it at Santa Cruz and I had so much fun on that bike it was like a real blast on that um yeah yeah I'm not really sure what the riding is like in Wisconsin I imagine there's not really as much elevation so maybe you would want a more efficient bike I don't know I've seen some pretty cool videos of Wisconsin There's decent enough elevation and people do a lot of work out there with Bridges and jumps Rock rolls and yeah I've seen some videos of it out there pretty lot of fun on a 400 Foot Hill yeah like a water tower that's like 250 ft that's true and it's filled with jumps and burms and hits and slaps that's true man I mean if I guess the last final point on this is if you're want to ride that bike uh and you're worried about it not climbing well that's the last thing you need to be worried about with any Revel so and of all 275 long travel bikes that's the best climbing one I ever ridden which I talked about a lot in that review which I don't think that many people cared about cuz they're like bro it's a long travel 275 bike why do you care if a climb so good I'm like well just just to let you know it climbs really good yeah but I loved that bike I think it's super fun yeah and for a 275 that's what I'd do there you go it's unfortunate 275 is you know just not as popular yeah so so be it so less Brands kind of sell them and make them and care about them as much and you don't see him covered as much in media anymore yeah well you know still cool still awesome you probably remember there was a time where it would be weird to R riding a 29er like I was talking to my Budd day and he's been out of the Bike World for a few years now and I'm like we're like trying to give away like 275 fors like people are not buying he's like that is crazy like 29ers weren't even a thing when like last time he was riding a bike you know which was like what you know five you know six years ago maybe but you know obviously 29ers have come a long way so I don't know like Liam said demo on both if you can yeah that's a good idea because a new modern nice 29er you might be surprised at how playful and fun it can be once you get used to it yeah y if you've always been on 275 be surprised I just feel like your bike is very versatile the real 29 it's super versatile that's why like it so much yeah whereas like 275 is probably not quite as vers not quite not quite so there pretty decent but not quite Different Strokes for different folks so this next question mclusky is going to be our uh guest answerer come on in mat there he is there he is go ahead and read it off Jared all right hey guys I've found myself in the weeds lately about stem length most of the content I see is on full suspension geared bikes that seem to lean towards shorter stems I ride a spot rocker single speed hard tail 29 belt driven my current stem is 100 mm is there a reason it's so long is longer better for this type of setup the bike climbs like a machine and I don't want to mess with that but I'd like to be able to pick up the front end a little easier thanks for the input thoroughly enjoying the podcast for context I live and ride in eastern Pennsylvania so mostly flow and Rocky Tech with short Punchy climbs and descents this guy PL probably rides where you ride he probably does yeah yeah yeah you live in eastern Pennsylvania I do um so really my uh my thoughts on that is that he probably has a little bit older older style geometry bike um the more cross country um rated where those came with 100 mm stems right so looking at the newest spot those are um 60mm stems right now now um so they have a longer reach on the on the frame so he probably has a little bit um older style geometry um so he has a short reach on the on the frame so uh basically it's just a cross it's just a cross country bike and that's just the way they run um but if if he wants to get if he wants to go all the way to a 40 that's a pretty drastic change pretty aggressive it's pretty aggressive yeah uh I personally did this exact same thing so on uh my old ner that was a cross country bike uh that had 100 mm St and I did the super short thing it handled really really fast but um it made the front end like almost too too Twitchy so I would probably start somewhere like splitting the difference um maybe try somewhere around the the 60 mm stem a sa for bets yeah I I don't know if I would jump from 100 to 40 that's that's a huge jump on that type of a bike as well um but props to ride in you know single speed uh on in eastern PA I me I used to do it and it's a lot of fun depending on where you ride it so but uh yeah if you're in some of those rocks and stuff that we have out out east um yeah yeah it's rugged yeah there you have it I agree with that yeah couldn't have put it any better myself and you know good news is you can probably get a smoking deal on a 60 mil stem right now yeah for sure hit up eBay get a 60 mil to try it out if it works perfect then just get a fancier one right but yeah yeah I was on a hunt for 55 wow yep talk about getting in the Weeds on stem yeah I know Liam did you ask us this question I'm just kidding you don't have a belt driven spot rocker sounds like a pretty cool bike though that would be cool that sounds like a cool bike I wouldn't mind riding a belt driven single speed it's probably so quiet right yeah probably unbelievably quiet when I was racing I remember those uh those that just came out and people were making a bunch of like single speed XC race bikes with that bike really yeah that and the the Ibis [ __ ] they called it wow I'm not not doing anything weird it just was what it it's called it was a name of it yeah since changed changed they still make that no no they don't no they don't yeah those bikes had a kind of a Heyday when everyone thought they were so fun and cool and then they kind of got less popular but I remember that probably when you had your Niner yeah all right next question saw a buddy named his bike on straa and tagged it on a ride is it weird to name your bikes Jeff names all of his bikes and then he like puts the names up on his wall and he like has a goodbye good night message for every night not true but it did remind me it's the way you know how people make uh Instagrams for their animals like you have an Instagram for bean for examp and a lot of people have Instagrams for their dogs why not just have your bike have its own separate Instagram that I've actually seen that I've seen people with like Instagrams for like like when the SB 100 was coming out and people had like SB 100 you know that was the Instagram handle1 100 just their bik yeah yeah people yeah for cars and stuff and a lot of girls that name their bikes and are like really into it not not too much guys most most of the guys I ride with though aren't like emotionally attached to their bikes they just they just thrash them and you know sell them buy a new one like you know I don't think it's weird I think it's kind of fun if anything to have a little have a little name on your bike on straa or whatever like I don't know it's like probably means that he takes really good care of the bike and loves it and is going to have it for a long time and really enjoy it and it means something to him so fine yeah but like I wouldn't like refer to it as it like it's nickname like in a conversation with a buddy like yeah just got to go clean Sparky for a little bit you know we're like no I wouldn't do that I got I got to go get Chrissy yeah yeah right um this is pretty good one can Jared and Liam name each of Jeff's bikes I think the old green Raider should be named green bean for being the cat I think that's a great idea can we name each one of Liam's bikes I'll start um each one of my bikes yeah well you got the Banshee Titan and then we can go in descending order of travel from there bikes are we naming current bikes no I think we're just like we're all my past bikes oh I think we could oh wants to name he wants us to come up for a name I like that okay well what should we name the Titan oh my goodness this is going to take a long time we can name one of them all right I'm I'm going to name it a silver fox fox that's good Joe would like that Joe Fox Joe Fox shout out Joe Fox shout out Joe Fox um I think that Ranger your Ranger he Ranger yeah your Ranger Bluey not blue that's the old one oh I was thinking you're Rover man your so many bikes which reel is it man I call him you Rover Bluey okay you're new ranger you can name it I'm a name the ranger Penny oh cuz it's got the copper on it copper on so cute got a great names thanks appre go up your straa after this up St I don't think chess's on stra not no I don't use straa I'm just trying to get less social media in my life in general you want to read that one lamb I guess so uh I was wondering what lifts I could do in the gym to improve my mountain bike performance I ride XC for Texas Nika and I love the podcast the chills I write it quite Technical and I can sometimes struggle with endurance thanks am I also reading the questions after no just that oh those are sep those are different set questions yeah yeah well uh Liam you probably do more gym stuff to improve your mountain bike performance than me cuz I don't do

any I guess that would qualify that I do more yeah I don't know if I'm qualified for more than that but uh well we do work with d d Tidwell kind of hard to say actually dwellwell D Tidwell D Tidwell um with train what's it called Now train to ride train to ride train to ride he's like a famed mountain bike coach and golf coach he does a lot of that it used to be Enduro MTB or MTB Enduro right uh Enduro I don't know this is what MTB training something like change the name I did I did his program um probably like MTB strong program strong program I did that like three years ago now I guess maybe even four or then it was like Co um that's crazy it four years ago uh seriously and it was really good I will say it's a little bit at Le at least the mountain bike strong is a little bit more structured for like Enduro riding it's definitely a little bit more emphasis on weights than necessarily mountain bike and if you're riding XC I might flop the two and go a little bit more bike than weights um I'm not a trainer I don't know how to give full advice but that was that's my experience um but yeah I mean in normal stuff in the gym for you know performance uh I think core is really undervalued in a lot of mountain bikers M um they think upper body strength for handling and leg strength for power but core like you can't do anything without core yeah um you're hunched over pretty much you're hunched over the whole time your hip flexors and your you know your abs in your lower back are always having to be engaged to either go downhill to support your upper body or to support your lower body so um I just think some well-rounded like calisthenics would be great place to start pull-ups push-ups air squats planks situps boat pose yep stuff like that um great place to start and then you can build from there and also I think a foam roller uh is also a great spot to start cuz it'll also help you know strengthen your core and loosen stuff up so you can actually engage your muscles y nice I agree yeah D Tidwell is pretty amazing he's super well known I think we got in touch with him yeah years ago because at one point he was the main coach of all the yeti and professional athlete mountain bikers so um yeah he got a lot of notoriety from doing that and he's got his multiple mountain bike training programs and we even partnered with them at some point years ago to basically offer a exclusive discount to worldwide Cyclery fans so Jared put that link in the description but yeah check that out he's he's got a number of programs that you can buy that are super affordable and have an immense amount of really good content that is mountain bike specific from a professional trainer and yeah I I think it's certainly worth it if if you care about this stuff and you want to improve your Fitness and your health and especially on bike that's the way to go from someone who knows what they're doing and does the sport themselves and has trained other professional mountain bike athletes for sure the other cool thing that he incorporated into that was the nutritional information and like all the best stuff to keep you fueled up and just yeah not have you feeling bogged down like that was just a whole another element to it that was super impressive that he included in that yep yeah great sweet well there you go uh this next question kind of ties into that are MTB coaches and personal trainers worth it and how do you find a good one for a good price well I guess that's kind of like a that's kind of different I guess like a mountain bike coach right like like for skills and stuff um gosh I've never really never really dabbled with a mountain bike coach honestly I haven't either I've seen at some bike parks I mean I know in Whistler they have those coaches that work there I it just really depends on your skill level yeah yeah and I know couple people that like coach locally in like Southern California I don't know how to find one per se I don't know if there's like a yeah they're not they're not very good at the search engine optimization strategy um but personal trainer D Tidwell be a good program D Tidwell would be amazing for that if you're looking for just strength stuff if you're looking for like an actual Hands-On local mountain bike skills coacho that's a tough one yeah it just varies so muchl a lot of it I think maybe just asking around right it's probably the best you're going to do it is get a reference from someone who also used that coach that is you know can speak highly of them because of course there are some mountain bike skills coaches out there that I have seen with not very many skills and seem a little seem a little underqualified yeah not naming any names here but I think we've seen that yeah I make sure make sure they can ride a bike in a very admirable inspirational way before you pay them to teach you how to ride like that yeah that's some good advice but part of it is also being able to teach cuz like you can be really good at riding a bike but the worst teacher ever right yeah so yeah cool true next question just go to this one right here since we covered all the rest of that y perfect what fraction of listener questions do you answer on air and what makes for a good question that you're likely to choose wow that one that's a great question actually we chose that one so I don't even know that messes with all the analytics um well honestly we do answer most of the listener questions that we get in from email honestly maybe 80 plus percent email is your best chance rather than various plac of comments and stuff I'd also say it fits within our realm of knowledge right yeah cuz if we don't know the answer we're not just going to spew something out there that's wrong or like I don't know about that kind of thing you know or like for instance if somebody ask like what's your opinion on the 2019 Norco Shore it's like well I'm not really sure that bike we haven't ridden that bike if you ask us about a bike that we sell for sure we could give you or have ridden we could definitely give you some insight on that but yeah sometimes we get questions about bikes that we you know don't sell haven't ridden and unfortunately we can't really we can't really talk about those CU that would be diservice buy a used 2017 com to ride to tell you how it worked but also if your question is funny we'll likely we which actually we haven't really had a funny one this whole time people been real serious I guess naming your bike was kind of funny that was kind of fun yeah funny well I will say too that a lot of the ones we choose intentionally are ones that we know the answers will bring value to the various mountain bike listeners that we have CU kind of the core elements of this podcast is be educational and helpful and valuable to mountain bikers to teach them more about mountain biking and mountain bikes and mountain bike parts and all that sort of stuff so if it's that kind of question then yeah absolutely yeah right on we we did skip this one above here because it's kind of related but I also think it's different enough and it's kind of hit it man good one send it will you progress skill or Fitness faster if you sacrifice a few hours of sleep per night for more training time or is rest that important I think rest is important I think sacrificing hours is not going to benefit hours of your sleep to train more who has a life like this Goin you have that choice go you have the choice to just sacrifice hours to ride bikes more I I wish I guess we all kind of do a little bit but yeah I think sleep is super important like getting a solid at least 7 hours of sleep is like pretty necessary to just have any sort of cognitive function the next day right whether you're training or working or you know um but I do think like sacrificing 10 minutes for like a stretching routine is totally worth it yeah I think hours is not I think a little 10 minute like 10 minutes not going to make your next day better but it might loosen up your body just enough to make you train better the next day I don't yeah I agree with that I don't think you should sacrifice sleep at all I think it's an incredibly important thing I think what and like advice on this kind of question maybe you should sacrifice certain random fun rides with your buddies for skills days where you just kind of be like you know what I'm going to ride by myself and I'm going to hit this corner 100 times I'm going to ride by myself and I'm going to just focus on this one section of Trail until I really nail my shift points activates a race course like think the way that a professional athlete does is just focus on a thing and perfect your skills and work and do it by yourself which is kind of boring and monotonous and not quote unquote fun mountain biking but it's very productive to do that yeah it's true or if you're XC racing do intervals instead of skills right yeah cuz you can't yeah focus on your weaknesses too you can't uh do intervals on a group Pride it doesn't work like impossible yeah yeah so unless I'm riding with Liam then it's like trying to catch up and then Catch My Breath Again basically inter um but yeah I mean 100% you know like you said if you're writing by yourself I think just in general you can focus a lot more just in general on your on your form and like your writing sometimes you get so caught up in like either you know staying with the group or like not you know fall off back or like just other things right that you're kind of not really thinking as much about yourself yeah and if you go out with the intention of today I'm just going to spend an hour or two hours just working on my form working on corners or working on Tech climbs and you just think about that like that's a huge way to improve quickly yeah section of trail that you're that you know you're weak on go back to it and you know session it like that's definitely a huge and also a confidence booster for sure yeah it really is um all right last question we got here I recently got a new bike and I have been feeling like the fork Rock shocks Recon gold RL is bottoming out when I pump into jumps and such but only then never over roots or rocks I think some volume spaces might fix this but I do not have a shock pump as this is my first air Fork so I want to get it right the first time and not have to go back and forth to the bike shot more than one or two times also wondering if the MRP ramp control cartridge would work on this Fork but that's a bit more expensive than a volume spacer or two um well first thing 100% get yourself shock pump you're not going to regret it and it's not like it's going to go bad or obviously like you'll be able to just keep that shock pump and use it for bikes yeah forever you got to have a shock buy one keep it yeah number one shock pump number one get the shock pump number two go out and mess with it yeah yeah go out and mess with it it's very likely that you could just not have enough air in the fork um and then once you get to like the perfect air pressure then you can check out your other settings maybe you add a volume spacer or too I'm not 100% sure if a Recon gold all does take volume spacers I think it does MH but not 100% yeah same but likely so and also sometimes just bigger compressions like that like you you can bottom out your fork right yeah it is it is okay to bottom out once or twice on a ride like that's good especially rear shock Fork not as much but like yeah yeah for sure yeah um yeah got to get the shock pump you got to get a shock pump even one of the cheap analog ones like you don't really need anything more than that also just you know be realistic when it comes to the performance You're Expecting and demanding out of your fork depending on that Fork's price point so if it's a $500 Fork yes that is you know a nice Fork however it's not going to perform have the same amount of adjustments and bells and whistles as a $1,200 top-of-the-line Flagship Rock shocker Fox Fork is going to so y yeah Recon gold gold RL good Fork but certainly not going to have the same performance as the flagship Rock shck stuff yeah so just keep that in mind too yeah I would not worry about the MRP ramp control cartridge until you know later on in the future yeah when you got a nicer fork or bike in general um you know and and you've also messed with volume spacers sometimes just adding one volume SPAC is all you need yeah you need yeah you don't need to continue to add and remove which is what the MRP ramp controls great for right but usually a lot of people can get set up pretty well just a volume spacer so and a and a shock pump to test out your setup definitely and if you really want to take it far cork shock whiz yeah that is a as expensive as that fork but it is a uh what would you call that a remote suspension tuning device that Bluetooths to your phone to give you all your suspension feedback data and yeah monitors your your fork with air pressure um and kind of delivers some of that information to an app it's not quite like a analytic collector like the full downhill ones but it also gives you a lot of info and will help you with set up a bit tells you how often you bought them out and stuff like that so yeah points you in the right direction yeah I think that's a really good I mean that's that's basically the Telemetry system of the weekend warrior true for sure yeah it's pretty cool which just only works on air suspension too which is another thing about it but yeah that's a rad product we made a video about that a while ago and a lot of people have bought that and used it and loved it and uh another Pro tip on that is go in with your buddies because it's you know if you if you all go in on four go go in fours everyone does a quarter and you have this awesome suspension tuning device and you all share it one month at a time it's pretty cool to do that so totally yeah that's a cool to look into if you really want to tune your suspension you guys want to get one yeah pretty sure we have one nice well should we should we gloss over the uh notes from episodes p real quick go for it okay so in the last episode we I believe that was the last episode the strees trees versus strees versus Stars yeah trees versus Stars estimate uh this person wrote in and said yes that is true but the misleading thing in this fact is that the volume of those trees and the quality of the forest they exist in these days think of it like this in7 1776 there let's say $1 million was vented in gold coins in 2023 that million dollars remains Val okay I kind of gotten the Leeds there anyways long story short the volume of the trees today the quality and the size of the forest habitat and the value of those trees is approximately 10 to 20% of what it was when Europeans first showed up a billion more teeny trees doesn't make up for the loss of old GR both Giants mhm it's a valid point but teeny trees are more fun to look at have you guys ever seen a bonsai tree do dude I could totally see you having a bonsai tree and garden and taking care of it and getting like those burn down those glasses in the house yeah I could totally see you having like a I thought they were so cool yeah there's a guy who sells them on Kanan road on the way to the beach I got to buy one of those next time I see him yeah if you ever see him out there send me a text I'll drive out there just to get one maybe I'll just pick one up for you expensive that's why I haven't rebot one they're like $200 yeah nice one they oh I heard they take forever to grow and they're hard to take care of is that true there's there's a whole thing about how they have to trim the roots and I don't know it's wow I'm more of a succulent kind of guy yeah water like once every 30 days bons pretty much stays alive my bonsai tree basically petrified cuz I never watered it but it didn't fall apart it just kind of froze there and changed color Co it's like the ancient bristle cone up uh the White Mountains that's right right are just like petrified old technically they're still alive trees but yeah they look dead speaking of petrified you guys ever been to the Petrified Forest in Arizona no where is that that's a great question so you haven't been there either no I was wondering if you guys been there so actually no I don't think I have no looks cool all the all the trees look like marble or something it's really cool I've been I've rid my bike to the ancient brist con Pine Forest nice yeah I want to go there too if you like the episode please leave us a review Jeff out we would we would genuinely appreciate it um and Jared will give you a $15 gift certificate to the worldwide cycy website that's a good deal that pumped up all you got to do it's always been 15 15 bucks all you got to do is hit Spotify or apple podcast drop a review and screenshot it email it over to podcast at worldwide.com that's right 15 bucks as your that's that's more than 50% off a pair of grips which is a pretty smoking deal wow really appreciate the review can I do that technically you could do that Liam cuz I don't think you've submitted one yet yeah do it go ahead it's fine wow apparently I could do and I could we are already the highest rated in mountain bike podcast at least the best mountain bike podcast on in the world oh in the Galaxy no we lost we have less reviews now we have a higher rating but less reviews so we are the best reviewed I guess the highest rated 5.1 I most review highest rated in the univers thank you very much see you later love you thank [Music] you