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Emergency Essentials, Luxury MTB Travel Trips, Trail Rating Dilemmas, On Trail Pickup Lines? Ep. 136 [Podcast]

Today on the podcast, the boys are joined by good friend Phil Boorman, founder of the MTB tour company All Mountain Rides. We chat a little bit about what it was like for Phil to start his own MTB tour company and travel to dream locations to ride bikes before jumping into some classic listener questions ranging from MTB pickup lines to use on the trail to how trails should be rated and everything in between. Tune in!

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All Mountain Rides Italy Trip

MTB Down South Mexico City Trip

Chasing Epic Monarch Crest Trip

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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 episode

136 of the MTB podcast presented and hosted by worldwide Cyclery I am Jared I

Jeff I Liam I'm Phil in this episode our amazing kiwi friend Phil Borman who runs

the mountain bike tour company all Mountain rides is joining us on the studio for the podcast in the studio for

the podcast I should probably read this before uh we just jump right into we're going to discuss all sorts of

things from how trails are rated and what mountain bike related pickup lines you can use on the trails to what sort

of things you should put in your pack in case of an emergency and everything in between wow so that's a lot of good

stuff that's a lot of good stuff most importantly Phil's going to give us some tips about mountain bike tours and mountain bike trips sounds good which

which I'm pretty excited for nice so for context for the listeners uh Phil's the one who put on the Italy trip that we

went on last September all three of us which was incredible and epic thank you again Phil that was uh one of the better

weeks of my life my pleasure absolutely same here I also went on a trip that Phil organized in New Zealand in

December of 2019 wow in the Heyday of humanity pre preo when Humanity peaked out man

things were good back then when the world was normal yeah that's right that was one of the best mountain bike trips ever so cool that was good times so well

let's just jump right into into our segments for a little bit here we got to we got to tap on those oh yeah Zach's words of wisdom Z's words of wisdom if

you want to be happy then stop complaining did he he say that one he

said that one yeah he did which makes sense um you know a lot of people are worried about external factors

complaining about this complaining about that just focus on you stay in your lane you do you must just been frustrated

with somebody's complaints asked him for some yeah he was it seems a little simplistic to me have you met have you

met Z no should I be saying that well you know he gave me one that

before that was a little bit less PC and then I said then I laughed and then he said this I said okay that works

speaking of PC um we do try to keep our podcast PG-13 which I know is going to

be maybe quite the challenge for you Phil so don't worry no pressure be your authentic self uh we just might have to

bleep a couple things out I know in New Zealand it's uh kind of common to speak like a sailor so that's why I figured I

would mention that how soon can I [Laughter]

leave be better than what uh I mean he'll probably on part of Wade Simmons I mean Wade Simmons do you know we had

Wade Simmons on here oh did you we did right yeah I think I think Phil will do better than Wade Sim I think Phil he

been he's been in business meeting mode this week so he's on his aame yeah that's right that's true but Jeff did

just pour him a stiff cocktail so we'll see we'll see it's actually it was a

non-alcoholic cocktail um called spiritless a bit and switch which I which I got who hold on

hold on a friend of mine runs a a Marketplace online store for all these different

non-alcoholic beers wines and spirits and he's got some really good ones called better roads r h o d s and that's

where this came from the spiritless one and it's delicious and so what I do is I pour this over ice and some strawberries

and then I put some whiskey on top of that so that's what did are they are they like I don't normally drink and

this is yeah isn't this good Ian I think it's like meant to be just a spiritfree like

a mocktail but I just pour the alcohol on it and use it as like a mixer that's easy So Co that's fair right you go I

are they sponsoring this podcast this is a really nice plug for them I mean I just like Chris he's a good

dude he sent me a bunch of hey man this is supposed to be about me

yeah and drinking the the spiritless cocktail speaking of drinking cocktails and fun Daniel's fun fact yeah no number

uh no number excuse me before 1,000 contains the letter A than no number before 1,000 contains

the letter A everything from 1 to 999 none of those words have an A in

them wow yeah it's true I confirmed it with chat GPT 40 the new the newest and

latest model from open AI Gard that's how many plugs do we how many sponsors I

wish I got sponsored by open AI that would be sick come on that is something that I would find in a KD Mountain

newsletter all right yeah yeah yeah I'm always reading those things amazing I make those ton of fun facts in

there delete newsletters like that I make them every week they got yeah it's cool hand curated content hand curated

content by J Money himself that's right hey Phil why don't you read our next segment the Fantastic testimonial would

be great to hear that in a in a New Zealander accent the fantastic testimony at worldwide cery is always my go-to

place for bike parts they have great prices and super fast shipping and they seem like really cool people so far so

good oh yeah so if they are actually Bots they are using amazing Bots that

have me completely convinced that they are actually human beings with a sense of humor who also ride

bikes perfect excellent please edit that

out well done I really hope the the guy who wrote that hears this cuz he's like

wow I didn't see that coming right didn't think a guy from New Zealand would come to California to read my testimonial do you think anyone will

understand it yeah it's pretty broken yeah pretty broken crushed it fantastic

yeah you would nail acting class mhm that's great well should we discuss our our late rides our rides rides enjoying

lately what have you been enjoying lately well today Phil and I went for a beautiful ride out in Sycamore Canyon

with Buddy Mike um it was really nice not too hot no snakes that was cool um

have you seen a snake this year yeah a few have you yeah um but yeah and then

also did a little C Sentry on my road bike last week that was cool trying to do one of those every year um solo miss

and just you know a century jam out to some beats bro a metric or an imperal oh

it's Imperial excuse me oh wow very nice yeah very nice is that Miles uh gosh I

don't know how many it's like 60-ish 60 miles 100K is 60 miles yes o yes so it's

like a little over 200 or yeah almost 200 KS I don't know my math is whack but that's what I've been up to ride my new

mountain bike riding my Yeti sp40 um around here and just the trails

been a little overground it's kind of tough It's kind of you know super overround you guys know how it is yep

yep when that bush gets too thick oh God I hate it when bushes are thick yeah trim it you got trim it up I I've been

riding uh my new L Hefe oh I've been out in uh Reno uh for the last couple weeks

and I've been riding the sieras a bit um on the reavel ranger a good bit but then also I did a big ride on the L Hefe

which man I love that bike than Liam for building such a nice bike for me that's a cool bike turned out

fantastic hand welded the frame myself wow yeah it's a titanium hard tail but I got a rigid carbon Fork on it and man

it's just fast did a 56 mile ride which contained it was like the perfect bike for that it's like some rocky gnarly

single track was like way over its head but just barely hanging on some gravel roads some rough gravel roads some smood

gravel roads some Street some City it was like the perfect bike for that so it's really fun I really enjoyed that

urban assault and somewhat non-urban assault vehicle yeah that is what's crazy is like when you're is starting in

the town of Reno um I went I went a little uh to the east of town which is

in some shady areas along the river and the bike path it's a little apocalyptic and then you start heading down you see

some like tracts and then you and then you cut up in the mountains and there's literally wild horses and like beautiful

mansions in the hills and then you're on some like rugged ATV style trails and you drop down and there's like Other

Mansions little towns Hot Springs uh people who have like big farms and then

you pass by these like really nice developments and then back into the City and like you just see a lot like it's a

very diverse area cool CI mountains yeah it was really fun sounds a lot more diverse than here kind of is yeah yeah

yeah yeah wow bigger mix out there what about you Willis rid you been doing um

well last week I've been stuck to the road bike had a little accident and hurt

the wrist yep little head-on collision you can admit it it's all right it's a safe place you can tell the people about that safe space yeah I just don't really

want to broadcast that well I was nice to guy like it's nobody's

fault like that's a common thing that happens people run into each other on the trails every now and then I've done it you did it have you done it uh no cuz

in New Zealand we don't really have shared use riding trails it's all this is a bike trail way more this is Trail

what about two Trail yeah well even even then most trails are this is a climbing Trail this

is a descending trail that would fix a lot of problems

out here we don't so yeah yeah I just uh hit a dude I went left he went left and

uh I hit the ground and he did not so I would imagine that happens often here

yeah probably I mean it's happened to me twice really well once I had a guy

another another Rider climbing on a mountain bike and then another time I had a dirt bike whoa yeah that one was

bad ever happened to you had some really close calls um but

uh no not no contact no contact yeah yeah yeah well hurt your wrist a little

bit but you've been on the road bike yeah it was nice last weekend I had uh Matt mclusky from our East Coast location out there you go and took him

on some nice Road rides so shout out one like Matt where'd you guys go can just yeah Santa Monica canyons and stuff just

cruising around so yeah it was nice ready to get back on the mountain bike but probably another week or so the rest

is pretty tender yeah brutal tender Phil what rides you been riding lately What

bikes You' been riding uh I really haven't been riding that much uh about I

think about 5 days before coming out here I went out for a ride with my buddy

Mike and Sam and we just hit local trails in rarua we're really lucky where

we live because doesn't really matter what time of year you ride even if it's

been raining heavily like the day before you just know you're going to get like you know soil conditions are going to be

generally pretty good that volcanic oil so we just went out for I think it was

like 3 hours i' been actually a bit of a been driving a desk most of the time so

it's the first time I'd actually done any significant climbing for a while so not on an ebike

though you were on a no no I'm on my zero tany far MH um and yeah it actually

been the first time I've been out for a ride in a long time so um those guys

really schooled me on it was only like a I don't know it was only like a 300 met

climb you know um but super satisfying cuz immediately like I think we dropped

into about four or five different trails that you got you would have done when you came to SI mies a flow um I'm a big

fan of sort of steep routy Tech so we kind of hit that straight up would you

call them secret ler there was actually one secret ler that we did yes lmer

I mean you know Ro R it's all about that love it yeah so sick yeah it's a good place to ride it really is yeah that's

it's an amazing place to ride it's actually not that hard to get there I think most of my life I thought New Zealand was way more just far away and

exotic and hard to get to and then I was like oh actually you can just fly direct from LA right to ockland I it's not that bad yeah and it's an overnight flight

yeah so from LAX into ockland um it's just flight go to sleep you wake up

you're in Oakland you can either drive down to Rua or take a quick like 30

minute flight and you're in roor you know um it's it's easy wow yeah I didn't

do that yeah me too yeah um a buddy of mine who I used to be in business with

runs cool mountain bike trips down there yeah sick well I know biking that lives

down there and yeah Jamie right he's still running New Zealand M biking yeah so Jamie from New Zealand mountain

biking runs amazing he runs I think one of the sort of most popular trips that

he runs is like a six day um six day sort of Enduro based tour

it's called the hero dirt and it's you know 6 days of a little bit of climbing

but predominantly shuttle uplift but um concentrates a bit on Ru some Trails

South of there there's even a heli trip in there wow so in 6 days you get to take a bite out of like you know the

best dirt that New Zealand has and all the descending that you want to do and

he's a he's a master yeah he's really cool sounds should check it out nice

that sounds great yeah he did you do hel drop when you yeah we did really yep wow yeah amazing part of Phil's very storied

uh career past which is just the scratching the surface of what I know probably compared to you know who knows

what else you've been doing with your over your career selling hot dogs or something selling hot dogs on mountain biking

tours I say that cuz well cuz I remember you telling me you you used to run like hiking and rafting trips then you sold

that business then you started up New Zealand mountain biking you ran that with Jamie until covid and then obviously the tourism business and

travel business got changed up quite a bit then you sold your partnership to Jamie yeah so like I mean we don't need

to get in the weeds of all it but yeah so you and Jamie built that whole trip out the one that I did when I went there right 2019 yeah yeah that was the

funnest trip ever it was an amazing time so super cool yeah yeah so when Co came along and I was actually in Italy when

Co came along that's a whole other story yeah but um and then we I finally ended

up coming back to New Zealand and because we had no idea how long our borders were going to be

closed um and it got to the point where I was like hey man look you know um it's

probably better if you kind of just take this thing and while New Zealand International borders were closed like

cuz he runs incredible like mountain bike and skills clinics it's like you just take it man you take it away from

here and then you know if if the borders open up at some stage then carry on

doing it so um that that was the best thing to do and so when the borders

opened up he was like boom he took it away and then I uh I then went on and um

started another couple of Tourism entities including all Mountain rides Which is my to a company you went bougie

and decided to go to Italy and do the do mates yeah yeah well it was you know

that was a place where I lived um pre like leading up to co so I was living

there doing some work um for a tour company out there and then obviously you

know I got to know the trails in that whole region like super well and so when

when it looked like you know the world was quote unquote getting back to normal I thought actually this you know I know

this place really well I've ridden everywhere here it seems like the logical thing for me to do is to sort of you know put something together and then

we started talking mhm nice Y and you know and the writing there is just yeah

so cool world class it is unbelievable you did ski touring there right or am I wrong yeah I did a bunch of ski touring

in um in the winter there like that sort of 2019 2020 winter was a good snow yeah

and um yeah the like in terms of ski touring it's all about big kolss so did

a bunch of that there so sick scared myself I watch all the Marco's videos they I mean yeah like that kind of stuff

yeah yeah yeah I went skiing with Marco a few times there and uh yeah that was an

experience prob the same as riding a bike behind him yeah that sounds like fun yeah likewise when you go riding

with yeah man yeah he pushes the boat out yeah big time I love it so to speak so

sick well so you're going to do the dolomites trip this September as well right yeah so running another trip this

September um September 2nd yeah it goes out and there's already quite a few

people who are already signed up on the trip there's a few spots left um so yeah

if anyone wants to join then um I'm sure you guys will let people know yeah put l the descrip the show notes J

in the show notes that was that was such a fun trip I mean I think the you know I

would would compliment you on the two trips that I've done that you've arranged all the little details are

dialed in and you've also got a really good mentality which I think is really hard for tour operators when it comes to

not everything goes as planned like it's just the nature of the the business different skill levels flat tires like

just different things happen and and you're very good and light-hearted at like oh we'll just call an audible we'll pivot here we'll do that like yeah so

Props to that I do think adaptability is like there's a few key components but

adaptability on on a trip like that is super key obviously you know you have to

you have to make sure as well you're getting the right people coming and join you on on a trip like that for so a trip

like that was an Enduro based trip so there's a certain there's definitely a certain amount of vetting you want to do

with people to make sure it's it's a fit you know if you're an XC Rider it's for

example it's not going to be the trip for you um and you don't want people who are like constantly going to feel out of

your league but you know on a trip like that remember that first riding day that we had and we got to the end of that

first riding day couple of people liked it and I was like hey Jeff what did you think you're like man that sucked

you know so like you know we listened to that when I talked to Marco I was like kind of not everybody's cup of tea we

need to switch things up a bit here so you know that's when we were like well we've got all the knowledge on hand we

know how we can just adjust things on the fly to make sure that it's a fit you know pretty you know for most people if

not everybody yeah um so adaptability is just so key you know and and being just

super upfront with people going how did you enjoy that you liked it you thought it sucked okay what can we

do yeah yeah it was a long day on the bike that was a big day but that was

also a bit of a test piece yeah yeah you know yeah I think that day one was half of

our climb when we did over the six days of riding yeah yeah yeah and then the rest was like three 3 3500 feet of

climbing that day and then we did 3,500 more feet for six more days yeah in total

I wased at the end of that day oh yeah for sure absolutely that was so fun

though you know one thing that uh you didn't in New Zealand that I was hoping you would do in Italy um was at the top

of well maybe this was a Jamie thing more than you you can tell me but at the top of basically every big climb Jamie

would have those what are those big chocolate bars that are made in New Zealand Winston's or Whit's chocolate whiters yeah yeah so and they're huge

they're like the they're massive chocolate bars and and he would be the top of every climb and they had these

like they're like little squares right so he would just like break you off a little square of chocolate and when you got to the top of the climb it was like

you were labat was like good job good job it like

a lab right yeah but it was like it was amazing it's like you're in New Zealand you get this authentic New Zealand made

chocolate and is like kiwi Jamie like gives you a little piece of it at the top of every climb like that really

makes you actually want to climb more and you're like climbing you're like I'm going to get that damn chocolate from Jamie a great touch the flip side we got

espresso three times throughout the day on every Italy is like oh you're was going

to stop at this Refugio and have some pizza and an espresso and then do that again in another hour the village and the next fujio and the next Village so

gelato and espresso the afato aato oh yes oh my gosh take me back love

everything about Italy except for one thing how they don't slice the pizza they don't slice the pizza it makes no sense at all it's extremely frustrating

I'm not I'm not a fan of Pizza comes from like I don't think they ever did that right they ever sliced it adapt

adapt the new times improvise adap not using modern technology you know that thing with the that's got a wheel and a

roller at at least here hear me out Italy at least put listening yeah at

least put the slicer on the table I'm okay with slicing my own thing someone the option don't give me a knife to cut

my pizza ad it's tough with a butter knife right mhm yeah you know so give me the slicer on the table I'll slice my

own pizza yeah if you like have this thing against slicing Pizza Italy but like do you hear that Italy yeah do you

hear are you listening do you hear well speaking of trips is this a good time to

say that Liam and Trevor are going to Mexico City yeah it is in uh August August August so we were just

telling Phil pre pod that last year when we were on a chasing epic trip uh a few

of the guys from Mexico City they decided one of them Andre decided to fire up his own trip in Mexico City that

you and Trevor are going on in August right what's what's the gist of the trip Liam uh August 14th through the 18th uh

we're going to Mexico City to enjoy the riding outside of Mexico City which is

uh I think the city itself sits at just around 6,000 ft and the riding is up

like uh 7,000 ft in actually like Forest so uh if you can picture that it's a

forests in Mexico um pretty awesome riding

everything from man-made Trails jumps drops to some pretty rough Rocky stuff

um looks sick yeah Yeti did a Yeti did a tribe Gathering there last year I believe oh cool um and we're riding some

of those same Trails um and yeah Trevor and I will be going down there with a handful of other people and we also get

to experience Mexico City have dinner in the city or staying I guess in a really cool uh part of the city a new kind of

more hip happening spots so is this the anural trip it is the inaugural trip

yeah and it says on the website there are three spots left oh so wow okay sick

there you go um inaugural trip which is very affordably priced and may not be it

is yeah post past the Ann exactly yeah it's it's uh $2,000 $1,999

so uh you know trip yeah 5day trip um you know I

think once you don't don't hold me 100% to this but I believe once you show up everything's covered to you know going

back to the airport so all inclusive all inclusive nice it says right here all inclusive so Phil uh what tips do you

have you've been running various types of trips for your whole life so what what tips do you got well it sounds like

first one adaptability mhm yeah yes well adaptability aside I think uh knowing

yeah knowing who you're pitching this to as well like U like I talked about it earlier you know that sounds like a

descending Focus trip so making that clear that this is a descending focused

trip and what types of trails you know you're going to be riding and even if that means drilling down a little bit on

in the itinerary cuz that's going to make a certain amount of people self- select and go no not for me and while

it's great it's great to get lots of bookings on mountain biking tours as a tour operator that's awesome but it is

an absolute nightmare like and we learned this the hard way with New Zealand mountain biking in New Zealand the first couple of trips we ran we're

like great lots of bookings on this trip and you've got eight Riders who can all

look after themselves descending focus and you got you know one person over here who's just

like like I can't do this over their head weighing over their head and that just doesn't have an effect on

that person that has an effect on the other eight people on that trip cuz you don't want people waiting around has an

effect on your guides you know and ultimately you're going to have one person who's going to walk away and feel

like that wasn't a fit for me so identifying you know what this is and

who this is for um that's that's the first part you cover that off first then

that's cool um not having to move around a lot either I think you guys might have

noticed like in the dollar well you know we stayed in one central place mhm um so

not having to pack up your bikes and like transport to the next place um I

I've always found that really helps having a central Hub CU that's where everyone comes together at the end of the day tells lies about the lines that

they rode you know all that stuff I ha that double so

big yeah if you're are having to move on from place to place place it's a bit of a pain um and you know packing down

packing up bikes all that sort of stuff you want to kind of just you know lay it all out once you

arrive um making sure people are really well fed as well you know for sure the

other thing I would say is uh it's going to sound a bit funny

but the riding side of it once you if you've got the right people the riding and the trails side of it and the

scenery and all that stuff that stuff speaks for itself you know that delivers for you the stuff that really matters is

how you engage with people before their trip you know making sure people feel

really well looked after like if that means like making sure people know about the best flights to take you know if

they're arriving a couple of days earlier giving them some tips on what they can do beforehand what they might be able to do afterwards all of that

sort of stuff and making sure that people just don't feel dropped in between the time they book their trip

and pay you a deposit and when they arrive and turn up that sort of stuff means that you've got a relationship and

you know they know who they're dealing with and you know who you're dealing with before they turn up and you shake hands with them at the airport that

stuff really matters and so it's really all that peripheral stuff around the writing itself that's the stuff that

matters cuz the writing just delivers itself yeah like so you can out from

that you whatever it is that you need better send Andre's podcast so he gets the tips I remember one thing we did

before the otherly trip was like that Zoom call right and everybody yes everybody kind of met each other before the trip and we kind of hashed out some

of the details and stuff and just like yeah that that kind of thing is nice right especially if it's your first like mountain bike trip experience um you

know you're going a long ways and there's a lot of unknowns right just to like have some more certainty of the

whole situation and like the experience is nice to have yeah that's true like you know and you'll be back and forth

via email with somebody like even if you're on the phone one or two times but

you know email and phone are actually very narrow communication channels like but when you get somebody on a screen

they can see the expression on the face you know um you can share so much more

communication cues like with people when when you're online it's it it means so

much so I booked a bunch of people on this trip about a month and a half ago and like so in the next few weeks I'm

going to reach out and go hey let's all connect um via Google meet or Whatsapp

like a group and then then we can probably talk about the trip so that stuff that's the stuff that matters yeah

like the writing will do its thing yeah yeah people always have fun writing in great areas oh yeah that's right that is

the easy part that's where you're going right the magic from Phil good stuff cool well now what we need to do is

magically put some more oh alcoholic booze and then put booze on top of them

that's right that sounds good and we have a new sponsor this week oh that's right yeah a new ad a new sponsor for

the podcast wow foreign one I heard foreign products not from here are

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your deck today and now back to the show and we're

back so we've got a question here recently all the great sponsors disappeared did those sponsors stop

sponsoring a show or did you guys just get boring huh how about that hm how about that

sponsor what was the brand again Uncle Way's dick polish yeah

legitimate sponsor from uh lot of legitimate sponsors yeah we have a lot of legitimate sponsors uh you

know you know we just uh we took a little

break and the next question read the first listener question well I guess that was the first one read the second one this this is a doozy yeah it is a

little bit good day boys from Australia big fan of the podcast emoji from Jonathan's and Steven days I've enjoyed

both versions a lot and I'm loving the wwc format especially now that you finally dropped Jeff it's fun

informative the only podcast where you satisfy my nerdy Tech Fetish anyway to

the point I'm replacing in my 2022 Yeti Arc and need your sagely advice on which bike to buy do I get an S sp120 which

seems to be the dual suspension version of the arc or am I better off with the ASR or even an s sp15 my garage

currently has an unbuilt scar Sweet Spot Skyler oh sweet spot hard tail that I'm

Keen to build this Yeti Arc and a specialized stum jumper Evo lastly there's a dark horse riding into the background do I simply buy an SLE bike

like the hler Heckler SL or orbis and have the best of many worlds but no street cred or even

self-respect wow

well what do you think Phil what should he get you think should get an ebike or should he get a little yeti sp120 Trail Ripper

I think he maybe lears needs to learn the art of concision what would you what would you

do what would Phil do I'm biased yeah we're all biased as you know I'm biased

bikes that I like go go unbiased for the podcast Phil I'm allowed to yeah there's

no rules here not many hey what well I would I would look a zeroed there you go

[Music] yeah hey

hey that was completely unbiased that was uh what are they it's the only New

Zealand bike brand that Phil happens to work for part time so what what is what is your other job besid my disclosure

statement is so I am I am also the marketing manager for zeroed B oh got it

yeah yeah yeah okay okay I I did I did communicate my bias before you did

stting there and we're like I said we're all biased that's what we're here for to bring our opinion and our bias mhm you

know we're all all unbiased and we wouldn't get any I just want to answer it oh okay well go ahead go ahead I would do an ASR

really yeah wow he has the the sclar or Skyler I don't actually know which one is I thought it was Skyler cuz I know

the brand he's talking about the're really cool sweeping hard Tails um I don't know how it's pronounced but you

have the hard tail which kind of safies that hard tail need even though it's kind of like almost like a trail hard tail but the ASR is that dual suspension

fast efficient bike and then he has a stump jumper Evo for the trails and nuro he does have the St Evo that's like the

whole wrench in the he he has a Trilogy you know you got the light full suspension the beefy full suspension and

then the really cool like you know sentimental with soul hard tail mhm yeah that's a good quiver you know Liam

originally I was going to say get the N20 because I think that's a great bike kind of all around Trail Ripper but I

forgot about the stump jumper Evo they get really close that is pretty close so I mean with that said I guess I would

probably go ASR um for that reason to have that kind of XC Ripper and then you

kind of have that in between the stump jumper and then the hard tail yeah kind of like what you just said thanks jar

yeah you're welcome Jeff he has no talk comle the guy doesn't want me to answer either he just

says like especially not great that you've dropped Jeff oh Jeff got his feeling je his butt hit

oh fly to Australia and find this gentleman that's right oh well I've got his information he has a good day from

Australia to throw me off he's actually in Austria let's put another shrimp on the

Bobby um wow do you want to even answer this guy's question all right I agree

with what Liam said okay yeah I I always say it makes sense to have some somewhat

of like decent differentiation between all your bikes absolutely like you want any that are too close to each other you

put a suspension for exactly exactly right hard tail ASR stum Trumper with

some of those Trifecta you can swap tires and like you're really blurring lines you know once you do a tire swap

so yeah yep well I guess we'll do the next question hey guys love the podcast

I've been listening daily since I found it and can't get enough not only do I learn a ton from each episode but I love

listening to Jared's sexy olive oil voice wow smiley face two questions today

one I currently have a trail bike with an integrated stemar combo it's super

light but frankly looks dumb what bars and Stems would you recommend for maximum cool Factor SL stees and two I

am a single MTB gal looking for an MTB boyfriend what pickup lines and or ice

breakers can I use to meet a cute guy on the trail thanks well number two is easy

um I don't know her name but hi I'm Susie

you could always point out like there you could always point out something like oh my God is that a puncture in

your tire or like you know oh my gosh it looks like you lost a bolt or something you're going you're going too far man

hey that's true I you have a really cool Yeti sp140 my name's Susie you can say

hey I like sounds about right yeah that's all you need to say that's true yeah or hey what trail did you just

tried where you headed yes how much travels on that dropper post

is that the new 240 one up or wow that's a long dropper post that's long

travel uh yeah honestly any question about where you're going where you're head where you've been what you doing

that's a cool bike yeah you know I think anything related to that or right yeah

are those the new Kettle shorts there you

go and question number one question number one we can just stick to that one

speak of being biased but Trail one components would look super stey on your bike that would be pretty stey mhm

especially with the new cool logos we got going on here is that only on the carbon sort of different colors decal

kits yeah well I'm talking about the one with like the outline the outline logo new outline logo quite fond of that that

looks really cool yeah yeah it does right and then maybe with either the polished stem or or do we still have the

black and Polished yep sure yep all of this on display on the Mt podcast

YouTube channel if you want to watch us wow or you look at some links in the description we have a new top cap kit to

finish it off just went live on the site today boy black polished and bronze wow

will also look super stey but in all honesty um depending on what length your

bar your stem is and what rise your handlebar is on the bar stem combo uh

should list it on the site um is that a perfect f for you or are you wanting to

change that a little bit cuz that will steer your decisions a little bit right yeah for sure so um you know inquire a

little bit more about that and then find what brand makes that length and Rise that fits your needs if it happens to be

TR one awesome if not if you want longer stem or you know higher rise bar than we

make let us know and you know yeah and also it options out there change up the

setup a little bit right instead of being like pigeon hold into just like everything is one piece this is like the

that you're going for so yeah you play around that a little bit and you know thanks for the compliment for my olive

oil voice Jared's just pagess and also depending on her location she could just email

Trevor worlds.com and ask to go on a date with them wow single single right yeah wow I

think he is email anyways or Liam at worldwi cy.com and

next question uh let's see here Liam do you want to

read that one love the podcast I have a common stall clash and would like to would like some higher engagement hubs

but I don't want to spend too much money on them any High engagement less expensive options out there also will

there be any Kettle Mountain Youth GE oh that's a good question too um isn't hope

a little bit uh pretty decently priced the Hope Pro five hubs I don't know if they're decently priced or not high

engagement and low cost just doesn't the top of my head it would be um the I9

one:1 hubs that's true those will probably be the least expensive and most engagement uh but that being said if

you're going to lace in a hub you start adding a price of Spokes and labor to

lace it and all these things that then become not so affordable that's true um but getting a wheel set with that one to

one Hub like I9 makes them or true uh don't the reserve alloy wheels do they

come with one to ones or no um I think you can get those but they come with

they typically will come with the DTs which you could get a 54 to upgrade kit that might be higher engagement than what you have and I think 54 Toth is a

good happy medium of Engagement to feeling it's it's fast enough it's not

super fast but it's fast enough that you know you don't I don't miss anything when I ride 54 too I actually like the

balance of it well I can tell you right now on the website the one: one Hub is a little over 300 bucks hope Pro five 280

bucks okay what's the engagement of um I want to say the hope is like around 100 points of Engagement okay um the same

and they also usually sound pretty cool too I don't know if you guys heard H hubs lately but um they do sound good

they do sound pretty good I just think if if cost is a concern custom building a wheel set's not the way to go a prebuilt wheel set which there's a lot

of good ones these days um it's a lot more financially feasible to buy a pre-built wheel set and get a good

product that way 108 points of engagement on the Hub on the Hope hubs it's pretty good um but yeah you're

right you're pretty much just better off buying a whole new wheel set and just getting fresh and all new and yeah

dialed in unless you really want colored hubs that's true that too that is true if you want color you kind of have to

build that custom wheel set and hope would be the most affordable colored Hub it would it would well Phil do you want

to read this one I do most of my riding solo on local

trails and other Trail centers around my state which is Texas lately I have been

thinking about what I carry on my longer solo rides where I really encounter other people not just for bike needs but

in the event of a crash for personal safety what are some suggestions for an inclusive trauma kit that one could

carry in the event of in the event of such an event

well I think well I think the first thing you need to think about like even before that is

communic what you going to do to communicate if you're writing alone if it's relatively back country or even bit

of side country you know you know if you if you're hurt if you're hurt to a

certain degree you're going to need to communicate with somebody so comms is the first

protocol um and then you start thinking about what to bring in a kit well kits I would say Adventure

medical kits yes that's the way to go they kind of solved all those problems pretty much super good really dialed in

kits all varying different sizes for how much you want to carry and how extensive you want all of the stuff inside to be

that's true I've seen those like REI right they have like certain typ C super well thought out certain number

of days like this will cover multiple people on multiple day trip yeah I always take that with me on rides yeah

oh for your raw dog himself huh well not like little local 10 Mile rippers I

don't take I don't even take a multi-tool half the time that's what I'm saying you surpris me but like proper rides and Adventure races or like any

like big long things I always take that that's good to have yeah anytime I have a pack I have one of those Adventure medical kits in there one of the smaller

ones they make it that's the thing they make so many different sizes depending on how serious you want to have but also

comms like you said Garmin in reach that's an amazing SOS device um you can

also even on a Garmin watch I guess Apple watches you can kind of do that SOS feature too if like it senses a

crash it'll call your emergency contacts obviously with apple you need service whereas Garmin it'll go through satellite so you don't have to have

service so does your phone use a little bit of satellite if you need to make an emergency call yeah iPhone I think it's

14 right 14 and 15 will have that like satellite connectivity now that you could do an SOS call on if you have no

service yeah yeah it's going to be interesting when things like starlink uh come into play as well which is going to

help with direct two-way comms cuz different different emergency communication systems have you know come

with their own caveats you know a garment in reach requires you know that someone is actually going to read you a

message for example well Garmin already figured that all out they have yeah so like you can subscribe to the Garmin

inre thing and like you can contact their SOS Services 247 365 and like almost every country on the planet

covers like almost the entirety of the planet that's like the best Global like if you're a real true hardcore outdoor

adventurer like that's the way to go hands down yeah I think so I think the irony though is if you if you're riding

on your own on your own doesn't matter if you can have like medical kit in the

world like and you can put a Sam splint on yourself and go great this is cool I

think I might be fixed you still got to get out of there yeah yeah true very true yeah that's true yeah or if you

knock yourself out it's kind of yeah you're kind of screwed yeah have you ever had a situation where you needed to

deploy such things on a trip uh yes yeah it actually the the last time I had to

do it was uh I actually on a on a kaying trip ironically it was on a river like a

class 5 River kind of close to where we live down in a Gorge where all of a

sudden you know you enter this Gorge and there's no no coms um and friend of ours who was

paddling with us took a swim on a really steep rapid um came over the bottom drop

on a on a rapid which was pretty kind of shallow and like blew out his entire

knee W like his patella was like smashed into bits and you could kind of see the whole thing it kind of moved up his leg

um and so yeah we after you know doing all the sort of safety and rescue stuff

then it was like immediately bang eerb like straight like that's uh that the

the system that we had then was a one-way communication system which was

we're in trouble send help and helicopter came straight in wow yeah um

so that that helped a lot I can't imagine how hard it would be to to get out of something like that in that in

that state I mean yeah uh we were we were fortunate in that you know we were

able to get him to a place get him up out of the river you know patch him up to to the extent that we could right and

then you know we knew that you know help was on on the way because we had the comps yeah that's important yeah yeah

that was the last time it was probably two years ago wow it is important to be prepared mhm yeah mhm mhm mhm well I

guess we could go to the next question what do you guys think about that in my experience I found trail trail ratings

to be a little inconsistent but it does seem like they follow one of two trains of thought either off the ability to hit

the hardest features or they are based off the easiest route down I've ridden blacks that ride like a blue if you take

the easy route down and blue trails with black side hits SL optional features how

do you feel trails should be rated that's a hard one wow I you guys

have a different rating system yeah yeah it's way it's way they do it the same way in New Zealand as Australia right we

do from like grade one to grade five actually and like we it's pushed out to six now yeah yeah that's a cool way I

mean yeah there's definitely a difference between like a California black and a and a Whistler Squamish

black for sure mhm um I think they should be rated on the mandatory feature

yeah agreed is there a Gap you know you cannot get around it there's no beline mhm yeah um I think that should be I

think if there's a Crux feature then you write it off that yeah

yeah right off the top there's a you know what you call squirrel catcher right a hard feature with a gap to to

make sure you have the skill level to get down the rest of the trail so yeah yeah that's tough though right cuz

like some things are like super subjective I guess right I mean yeah that's where it gets tricky yeah yeah

yeah you guys are like yeah this is easy but you're not going to rate a trail that has a bunch of say like Gap jumps

and you know Black Diamond level terrain you're not going to rate it as a blue just because you can go around all of

those right the main features you're supposed to hit that's how the trail should be rated it should be rated based

off of the go around ability totally you know yeah so I agree with that too agreed yeah I don't know that is a

challenge it is totally confusing and not consistent it's different at every bike park it is and a jump Black's

different than a tech black as well right yeah you know I'm more comfortable on a jump black than I am on a tech black yeah so I think Whistler has it

done the best of anywhere I've ever seen they even like break it down into flow or Tech or Tech flow a rating system per

one so you know if like something is black because it's flow it has like big black d level jumps or you know if it's

like black and there's not really any jumps and it's Tech and like some people are confident going down really

technical Black Diamond level Trails they're just not com that same person might not be comfortable jumping yeah you know exactly yeah I think it will

forever be controversial as well especially when ego is bought into it you're like that's not a black Trail man

you know yeah yeah well I remember solid blue yeah yeah our our friend Nico who

when when he was like originally designing and building all the downhill trails at Windrock Mountain Bike Park and I went going there and riding there

and I was like dude everything seems rated like it's way harder than it's rated and he's like yeah I did that on

purpose and I was like why I was like don't don't you think people are going to come here and crash and wreck themselves he's like oh yeah totally but

but that's the point he's and like he's he's a he literally said that and I mean

he's a he's an elite level World Cup racer and he his mentality was I want the trails to be extremely hard for how

they're raided so people come here and refine their skills and get better at riding mountain bikes when they come to this bike park and I was like that's a

really like cool optimistic mentality Nico sounds like something like like you

who's like I'm going to work on my skills and be a pro racer would develop not like the general mountain biker who would be like yeah I went to Windrock

and I wrote a blue Trail and crashed nine times because it was like a double black you know and at uh what was it I

think at R canooga I rode one of the trails off the back I don't remember if it was a black or double black it was probably a double black and uh it had

some big like right off the top was a pretty good I don't know wasn't all that

big maybe 4ot drop but it was so slow and aggressive that it was just like the

harshest head slap ever even though it's only like 4 feet right and then you keep

going down you're flowing a bit and then all of a sudden boom 20 foot real Gap like out of nowhere and just like oh

yeah I guess with double black you expect that right yeah exactly single black maybe not yeah but yeah double black like you know 20 foot legit real

Gap yeah yeah yeah yeah no perfect solution yeah double black is almost like you

know F around and find out right pretty much yeah yeah that's exactly what that is

wow Jeff we got two questions for you right here for wait weeny Jeff if you were going to participate in a charity

race for Nika and they will provide you the race kit to wear if the kit for both men and women were almost identical

however the women's kit for one reason or another a six gram slider than the men's are you going to choose the

women's kit to save six grams you'd look good in it I've I've never been a weight weeny

with with like my gear per se like I've never worn spandex like never seen it oh

I want to say like you wore spandex but you are weight wining with your gear well and oh you are a lightweight guy

lightweight guy I mean all all the things for sure I care about the weight but yeah not not to the extent where

like I'm not going to sacrifice like I'm not going to wear spandex just because it's lighter I'm not going to

run pedals that don't work or tires that don't work good just CU they're lighter so I have my limits he does have his

limits I have my limits admittedly yeah has the adventure racing thing like

impacted on your perception of weight in mountain biking you know cuz you need you need like things light with

adventure racing right yeah totally I don't know I mean I I think that's just just mostly changed like I don't know

adventure racing you're it's such a mess cuz you're just like trying to survive and you have you have all this stuff on

your back and it's it's a total disaster like like overall system weight right

versus just like the bike weight or something it's like it's so different there yeah it's like even if you're all dialed in and your bike set up and your

Kit's perfect it's like wow you just mess up one navigation piece and like it's over like yeah it's such a crazy

sport for sure you need to be durable too right I mean you got to count on your equipment like yeah that's true you

really have to make sure stuff's durable and like worry about flatting a super lightweight you you don't want worry about that yep

well Liam do you want to read the next one yep

love all right one yeah love the podcast and I love shopping at worldwide thanks

I'm wondering how Jeff is liking his Titan his uh Banshee Titan and

specifically how it compares to his old rebel uh which was a rascal does the ks2

suspension which is what Banshee uses on their bike climb as well as CBF switch infinity or DW link it's a good question

oh that is a tough question it pedals remarkably well Ro

yeah that Banshee is like very very impressive like how well it works and

how well that bike handles climbing and descending I just don't have enough like I never it's not that bike isn't

comparable to Rascal it' be comparable to a rail 29 which I haven't spent enough time on and has enough time on

recently like riding that then right into that Titan so I don't know I wish I had a better answer you need more back

to back I need more back to back with the exact comparable like Revel or or switch infinity or is that the bike you

had in Italy last year yeah that was nice yeah that thing's rad yeah that

Bike Works super good I definitely enjoy that thing from what I've felt I do think actually the ks2 design is very

close to CBF yeah it um I think it's closer to CBF than infinity or DW L DW

and and switch Infinity both seem a little stiffer off the top where the ks2 and the CBF feels pretty plus but also

supportive and not very Bobby MH so but again I don't have like a straight back toback either I just have ridden both I

would say that I mean all these platforms mentioned so like the ks2 on the Banshee the CBF the switch Infinity

the DW link like comparing all of those Enduro bikes like you're really splitting hairs like all those

suspension platforms work really good they're all like they're like classing

suspension platforms for Enduro mountain bikes so they're all so good so bit of

splitting hairs at that point but yeah it's true but it's good I mean at least

as good as the others compar absolutely yeah absolutely like one's Pro might have you know the other slight con but

we're talking like you know 5% 10% one way or the other yeah yep sick Phil do

you want to read this next question all right I want to buy another bike oh

I am an aging bmxer that is 6t and 20b I have been leaning towards a 27.5

hard tail like the salsa Timberjack what I'm wanting what I'm wanting from huh what I'm wanting from

is it's something I can mess around on a pump track and skate park and Crush some

miles on the greenway or gravel roads and do some Urban rides with stair sets

hux to flat and other Shenanigans oh my God you want all sports considerations

recommendations good Lord I mean I don't know where do you start it

sounds like a good I mean it sounds like you picked a good bike for it honestly the salsa Timberjack and

like just make sure you put the appropriate wheels on it um yeah probably is the right bike right what

this guy's looking for yeah I mean I want to go ride the pump track and you know that's a lot of

things a frame up build of something that might just be more like a boutique but basically same thing would be a

banshe hard tail oh yeah Paradox a paradox there's two of them there's a paradox and uh oh yeah

ignite yeah that would be more Boutique and bougie yeah but very similar higher price point though but Enigma yeah

oh the igna is the paradox's playful sibling 275 I think it's 275 wa so yeah

the Enigma might be your uh little more bougie option uh you know you you have

to do a frame up build but uh it sounds I mean those Banshee hardtails are so cool yeah and they're actually not like

like insanely expensive thousand, for a frame yeah that's like insane for a frame yeah really cool alloy hydraform

so couple good options right there w wow amazing makes me want to build one

thinking about it I know kind of does I know actually sounds like a super fun cool bike it really yeah I was thinking

the exact same thing looks really cool and like just hanging out with this guy and riding with him sounds fun like

Crush HS to flat and just like ripping stair sets and hit the pump track in the rway I always want to hu to Flat always

H flat sounds like what I was doing College riding around campus and stuff it's a good love jumping off stairs way

to have fun on a bike Urban riding is cool yeah well well I guess that wraps this one up eh that's it that's all Phil

if uh that was pretty good man man we jinxed twice today wow we're really the same

wave it Phil fantastic work on uh not saying any bad words oh my goodness

sorry je you said mute everything say mute everything I can't even stop the

sound now Jeff broke his own rule it was the alarm of the camera's going to die or something so yeah if anyone would

like to reach out to Phil all Mountain rides website we'll put it in the show notes any other any other plugs for

yourself ah oh you've put me on the spot now oh yeah go to all mountain

rides.com and um check out our dolomites trip there's still a couple of spots

left um it's going out in early September this year when you get in contact you'll hear directly from me um

and um if you want yeah if you want to find out anything then I'll get straight back to you yeah what a it is it is you

know it is my favorite place place to ride in the world it's unbelievable and he lives in New Zealand I live in New

Zealand kind a third of my time there yeah epic epic thank you for joining us

Phil pleasure thanks pH it's really good to see you all again you too that's really cool likewise epic thank you all

very much listeners uh please rate US on Apple podcast on Spotify really helps us

out really helps us out we need like subscribe all that bullsh

smash that subscribe button podcast worldwide cy.com that's right I remember

podcast worldwi cy.com and want send you a gift card great see you later great see you

later bye bye love you [Music]

May 21, 2024

MTB Podcast › Video ›

Emergency Essentials, Luxury MTB Travel Trips, Trail Rating Dilemmas, On Trail Pickup Lines? Ep. 136 [Podcast]

If you are one strange human that would like to read a transcript of the podcast above, continue reading below!

May 21, 2024

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