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Revel Is Back! Founder Adam Miller on the Past, Rebirth & Future of Revel Bikes... Ep. 156 [Podcast]
Today on the podcast, Jeff and Jared are joined by our friend and founder of Revel Bikes, Adam Miller. We dive into all things Revel as well as the recent rebirth of the brand plus some epic listener questions ranging from taking punches from Richie Rude to the best rides in Colorado and everything in between. Tune in!
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Submit any and all questions to podcast@worldwidecyclery.com.
If you are one strange human that would like to read a transcript of the podcast above, continue reading below!
Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to episode 156 of the MTB podcast presented and
hosted by Worldwide Cyclingery, Kettle Mountain Apparel, and Trail One Components. I am Jared.
I am Jeff. And I am Adam. That is right, ladies and gentlemen. Today in this
episode, we are joined by our good friend, Revelikes founder and CEO, Adam Miller, to talk all things Revelikes,
plus some epic listener questions ranging from taking punches from Richie RDE to the future of Revelikes and
everything in between. That just leaves everything up for discussion, doesn't it? It really does. It really does.
I'm glad to be back on the podcast. I haven't been on since March or something. It's crazy. And for those of you watching this on
YouTube, I got one of those cool two week haircuts. You know, the one that you get and you look at and you go, "That will look nice in two weeks." Uh,
I've never heard that. I just made it up, dude. It's original humor. That's hilarious. I get a two week
haircut. That's hilarious. Two week haircut. At first, I was thinking you're going to say like, "I get a haircut every two weeks." But
it's going to look good. That's That's pretty good. Maybe three. That's pretty good. Well,
Zach's words of wisdom. Zach's words of wisdom. Say yes to hard things. I love that. Um, he may have uh come up
with that because I recently convinced him. Uh, well, he's he's running a a 50k
trail run uh in October, right? Uh, I think so. Yeah. Up in Big Bear, I believe. Mhm. So, I told him I was like, "Man,
why don't you put in some real miles and uh and you know, practice what you're
going to do." So, I convinced him into actually first asked him into a 50k and he said yes. And then 15 minutes later,
he's like, "Actually, how about we do 20 miles?" And I was like, "Okay, let's do a 20-m trail run." Um, and he said yes
and he had a hell of a time. That's not what I heard, but I'm just kidding. No, he's he said afterwards
that he was so glad, but that he wanted to quit so many times, which you kept pushing him and he came out the other
end of better man for for sticking to it. So, you have a really a knack for
pushing people to their edge and making them stoked for doing it. The type two fun, right? Well, thanks, man.
Yeah, that's awesome. Yeah, I tried to take care of him out there. I mean, he's been running a lot and his and his data looks good. He's
running a fast and he's running a lot. He's running fast and riding a lot and I was like, man, he's he's fit. He's
fitter than he's ever been. So, I don't know. I kind of thought he would be totally fine. And he was totally fine until about mile 15. And then it got hot
and that was where we went down into Sycamore Canyon, mile 15, you had to go back out of it. So, was 2,800 ft total elevation for the
trail run. And a lot of that was in the latter, you know, 5 miles. And kind of he kind of broke down on me there. And
um yeah, it was getting we were getting into some heated arguments cuz he then wanted to ride the he wanted to walk the road back and we're yelling at each
other and I'm like just sit in the shade for a few minutes. You don't you know we're so close. He was 17 miles in and
wanted to walk the I was like just we're just having this heated argument and I finally get him to sit in the shade and as we're right as he's walking over to
sit in the shade, Liam and and Jorge come back from a mountain bike ride riding up and they're like, "Hey guys."
And so luckily they kind of cheered him up and peer pressured him a little bit more and he kept going. He didn't he
didn't fight one of them and take their bike and pedal the rest of the way back. I was going to say give my bike. Surprisingly, no.
So, it was it was one of those peer pressure situations where it was now just not me telling him that it's you're
at mile 17, we're going for 20. Just walk it out if you need to, but walk the route and stay on the trail.
I mean, that's a that's a difficult bike ride, let alone running that far. Oh, yeah. That's a that's a huge distance.
That's a huge distance. Yes, it is. Yeah. Massive run. and and to leave the hardest part for the last 5 miles is
classic. Yeah, that's true. Well, it's it's hard, right? If you want to do a big trail run around here, the best way to do it is kind of drop into Sycamore Canyon and
once you're in the canyon, you got to get out of the canyon. Um Yeah. So, true. Yeah. Otherwise, you're just going up and down
the whole time. Yeah, I guess so. Well, right. If you do other trails, right? I mean, yeah, true. It's up and down the whole time.
Otherwise, it's you're just down and then up. Yeah. Yeah. Well, that doesn't sound like a ton of fun, but you know what is
fun is is Daniel's fun fact. Platypuses sweat milk. Unlike most mammals,
platypods don't have nipples, which they use to suckle their young. So, their bodies do the next most obvious choice,
and they simply ooze milk from the surface of their skin like sweat. Can you believe that? Could you imagine
sweating milk? I don't know, but I have absolutely no need to fact check that cuz I hope it's
true. I did. Yeah, I did for you. Oh, that's amazing.
Isn't that unreal? That's incredible. Could you imagine? Yeah. Mountain bike podcast. We're we're we're doing big endurance runs and we're
talking about platypuses and sweat. We're off to a good start. Viking. This is These are some fun facts.
Let's keep going with the facts. I like them. The facts are fun. And something new is why we call them Daniel's fun facts.
That is a good one. And uh Yeah, that's crazy. So, the kids have to like go up to the hair and like their armpits and get the milk from
that. Isn't that crazy? Yeah, that's uh that's fun. That's a heck of a fact. And crazy. Learn something new,
right, Jeff? You should read the fantastic testimonial. All right.
This is my favorite lowbudget bike podcast
where three nerds keep me up to date on all things going on of the mountain bike world. Seriously though, after several
years out of the space, this podcast is the best thing I found to get caught up on where mountain biking has gone in the past 10 years and what's going on now.
It's also nice that they routinely suggest products that aren't even their own brand. Keep up the good work.
Hey, thanks. Sweet. What a great testimonial. Some would say fantastic. Fantastic testimonial. Some would say,
"Yeah, that's these have evolved into actual This is still funny because originally we put this little short
segment of testimonials in here because people were just sending in these sort of chirpy making fun of us testimonials
and we were thought we'd read those, but you just started putting in people's actual nice testimonials." Well, some of them are.
It is good to keep it positive. They're fun. Yeah, it is good to keep it positive, but not just people making fun of me or
something. No, it's for your two week haircut, right? It's always fun to get one like hilarious ones from like the, you know,
the kettle website or whatever. Like, my wife thinks I'm hot in these pants or something like that, you know? I don't
know. I don't know. That's everybody's wife on all of our pants, though, right? Let's hope. Um, Adam, what kind of bikes
and rides have you been enjoying lately? I saw you went on a pretty cool trip recently. Uh, I did. I'm actually I'm
I'm more of a mountain biker, but I went on a gravel bike trip and I had a really good time.
A mountain bike trip. a a gravel bike trip. It was great. That sounds awesome.
You went to the Dolommites. That's if I Yes. saw correctly. Yes, I went to the Dolommites. It was a
little bit interesting because I planned this bike trip about 6 months ago with some friends in Colorado and uh 6 months
ago I was not working. I was no longer You were on your hiatus biked
uh I didn't think it was a hiatus. I thought it was just a permanent not no longer no longer working.
which was really fun. So, I decided to plan a lot of trips and go ride my bike a lot and uh so we planned a trip to the
Doommites and then you know the timing was a little bit funny which we'll get into but I decided I should still go on
my trip to the Doommites of course and uh it was can't cancel on the boys. Can't cancel. No,
when you plan a trip like that you got to go. It was great. We we biked all around. I'd never been to the Doommites. Beautiful place.
Fantastic. It's like where gravel bikes are made to be ridden. Gravel roads everywhere through the
mountains. There's all these little refugeios. Yeah. And you can have an apperal spritz and then just keep
climbing another 3,000 ft. Gravel roads were smooth and nice, huh? It's so cool. The best gravel roads. You
could call it champagne gravel. Didn't know. Amazing gravel roads. Like Well, we did a huge mountain bike trip
there before. Yeah, with Chasing Epic. Um, no, with all mountain rides. Chasing Epic doesn't go outside of North
America. That's up Kiwi Phil, mate. He's the one who puts that on. Yeah, that was sweet. So, yeah, we we did the Dol Mice. When
was that? 20. That was two years ago, I think. 22. 23. 23, something like that. Um, it was
amazing. I can imagine riding gravel bikes is pretty nice out there, too. I think any kind of bike you ride there is going to be amazing. The mountains
are just insane. Just sitting down in a chair there is pretty Everywhere you go, you just look around and the mountains are spectacular days
on end. Good food. Did you guys do refugeio to refugeio like throughout the trip?
We did a mix. So, we actually uh we did change the plans. We we had a like a car bring our gear, so it was like bike packing light.
No way. So, you know, we cheated a little bit. Credit card bike packing. Uh, but we carried, it was all day
riding. We were up at 7:00. We were done riding by 5. It was big, like way bigger days than we all expected. Wow.
And then we stayed in some refugeios, some little kind of host and hotels. And we were out in the middle of nowhere and
it was kind of right before the busy season, so it was like empty. Like every hotel, we were the only people there.
So, they cooked us these meals and it's like, it's just crazy. You get like great food and beautiful rides and
you're in the middle of nowhere and it's like not an expensive place to travel when you're there. It's It's just like really cool. Like really nice people all
around, too. Yeah. Wow. So, really makes you want to go back, doesn't it? It really does. Let's go.
Should we do another trip there with Phil? I'm sure I could convince him into anything. I think we should. I think he's doing one next year. So,
I want to I want to ride mountain bikes there. Gravel bikes there were great mountain bikes there. I could only imagine. We should just do that trip again.
Yeah. Um we should. Yeah. Sign me up. Yeah, I mean I've been I've been chatting with Phil actually about just
future trips and things like that and um yeah, Phil's the man. He's so good at running trips. He is the Tasmania trip, which you guys talked
about at length. Um I didn't cuz I haven't been on the podcast since we went to Tasmania, but god that was a fun
trip. The best. That was so much fun. Riding there was amazing. And Phil just has everything dialed in as always. Just
the food was insane. Sandy. Oh my god. We had a private chef. Load it up. So Phil's Phil's I know that
was nice. I don't think we'll have that in the Doommites. Oh my gosh. But the food was also amazing in the good there. Yeah.
Just that kind of guy. He's got like Oh yeah. My you know super close friend in Italy has a hotel in the middle of the
Dolommites or whatever you call those lodges. And that's that's where we stayed there. And then in Tasmania his uncle owns uh multiple cabins called the
Derby cabins. Derby forest cabins. Derby forest cabins. And it's basically just purpose-built mountain biker cabins
that are super nice. And we had a chef and like at the old store of all time. It's like a dream trip, dude. Phil and
all mountain rides. It's money. It's so much fun. So yeah, we got to we got to do more of
those trips cuz they're adventurous and fun and always just so well done. So we should just go back to Italy.
Yeah. Yeah, we should. Speaking of ride bikes, Jeff, have you done any awesome rides
lately? Uh yeah. I mean, let's see. I've been I don't even know where I've been. I'd
have to reference my calendar. your your Garmin Connect. I'd have to reference my Garmin Connect.
Uh the the biggest the biggest ride I did since the last time I was on was uh
I did an adventure race uh 4 day I think it took us 93 hours a four 4 day adventure race in uh sort of outside of
Bend, Oregon. Um awesome. which was I think the total so it was 93 hours split between mountain
biking, trail running/ trekking, um a lot of pack rafting, white water pack rafting which was super fun. Um yeah,
and then we covered in total 270 mi. Um oh, it was freaking incredible. It
was so much fun. Um yeah, we did well. We cleaned the course, which in adventure racing world speak that means
essentially you have, you know, on these super long courses, you've got all these checkpoints all over the place. you're navigating to them with map and compass
only. And to clean the course means you get every checkpoint. And typically in these races, only about 30% of teams
clean the course within the allotted time. And we were the we were the last team to clean the course, but we cleaned
the course. So I think eight teams clean the course out of 25. Um,
wow. So, and yeah, for those of you that heard me talk about, so this was uh this
was America's Toughest Race, Expedition Oregon, and I did it last year in September. This year they did it in May.
Um yeah, if you anyone remembers me talking about it last time, we also cleaned the course by the skin of our
teeth and it was hellacious and a really rough time. This time was a lot smoother. Like we just have gotten better as a team. And
the Canada one. No, that one that was a different race. It was uh that was a different one, too.
The one last September was the 6 day one. That was one that took 144 hours. That was the gorge, right?
Yeah. Yeah, that was in Mount Hood, Oregon. Yeah, Mount Hood. Got it. It's a lot of days to be out there sleeping for like
an hour a day. Yeah, it was whatever crazy starting day. That's a long time. Yeah. Yeah, it was crazy. So, yeah, that
was that was fun. I I just Adventure racing is a lot of fun and um the couple
Jason and Chelsea Magnus that put on America's Toughest Race and they they run bend Racing, put on a bunch of these
adventure races. They're just so good. It's just them and their crew. It's you do one of their races and you they just
they care. Like they give a [ __ ] They're like they care about safety. They care about things being organized. They care about the course being
amazing. They care about people having fun out there. Like if you go and do a race and you have race directors that are that passionate and involved and
into it, it's like that's what makes you want to go do that race again. Even if it was brutal, you're like, I want to do
that again cuz that was miserable. Sign me up again. Exactly. That's pretty much how we felt after the last one. We're like, that was the hardest thing we've ever done. Let's
do it again. So that's amazing. It was cool. So that was that was my biggest awesome ride. And um yeah, rode
the Yeti ASR on that one. Um, lightweight, fast, good adventure race bike. Your custom build that you just
finished. I did. Yeah. Custom built an ASR, custom painted it. Um, yeah. Got to get a
YouTube video out of that thing at some point. Definitely. So, I got to say, Anyways, no custom built Revels lately,
Adam. I'm sorry, but uh, you know, I got to get one of those in the queue. Oh, well, yeah, you better. I'm going to hold you to it. I I'll say that. The
Yeti was pretty sick. I just saw it today for the first time. It's a pretty awesome looking bike. I did a ton of my
adventure race training on my Revel Lhefe. Yeah, my hard tail, my Thai hard
tail. So, I did a bunch of training on that thing. Um, which was a ton of fun. So, great bike.
I got too many bikes in the stable. They're going to come back. Titanium. Titanium. Yeah. What is the deal? What is going to
happen with the tie bikes? We're Well, I don't know exactly when this podcast is coming out, but in
next week. Well, okay. This is a little little ahead of the game, but we are going to be announcing Titanium coming back. Oh, wonderful.
Love titanium. Love those bikes. Well, that's so funny. Somebody happened to ask that as a question. We're getting ahead of ourselves here.
But spoiler alert. That's exciting though. A lot of people were wondering about titanium bikes. So,
they're great. Sick. I love my Hefe. That was like one of my favorite bikes. Super fun bike. Such a cool bike. Yeah. Yeah. I have one. I'll have it
forever. Nice. But for an adventure race for 4 days or six days of riding, I think having a full suspension bike probably makes a
lot more sense. Yeah. Yes. Totally. Yeah. I remember you did that one ride in Reno and you were like uh you said
you needed a backachchiottomy afterwards. I needed a backyto. Well, you also put a rigid fork on your
Well, this actually I had a suspension fork on it. The the mistake I made. So, I I did a training ride. I did a 45 mile ride um
with my adventure race pack on as a training ride. So, I had like 25 lbs on my back. Oh. Um, but the bigger problem was I was
with two guys, my two adventure race teammates that were on full suspension bikes and we rode a bunch of these uh
sort of 4x4esque roads that had the sort of embedded rocks in them. And on a full
suspension bike, you can really just continuously push power down and pedal through that stuff. Whereas on a hard tail, it just to push and put power down
on that, you're just basically getting bucked and there's no way around it. So, it was like the worst way to ride a hard
tail. And I had I was like with these guys and I was like I got to stay with the guys. I'm not just going to go way
slow. So I just dealt with it and just got bucked everywhere whilst trying to maintain pedaling as hard as I could.
And yeah. Yeah. You kind of with a hard tail. And whenever I switch back to my hard tail, it takes like one or two rides to get
used to it and then I'm like, "Oh yeah, I can ride totally normal." But it takes a few rides. Different line choice a little bit. Different you want to ride. Yeah.
But getting used to like kind of lifting yourself off the seat a half an inch on that mountain stuff backpack on. No.
Yeah. You got to like stand up on that. It was, as I like to say, user error. So, and nothing to do with the bike.
I hope you got a backyota after that. That's too funny. Mhm. That's awesome.
You got any good rides recently, Jide? Yeah, actually a couple good rides. Um, I actually, you know, the local people
are going to be like, "Oh, wow. You just got out there, but I went out to St. Gabes and rode El Prito, which is like famous trail out there, right, that I've
been wanting to ride for a long time. But, you know, I just don't get out that way very often." Yeah. And I rode that. As close as it is, it's, you know, you
just have to drive past a lot of good riding to get there, right? Um, but it's just kind of been on my radar radar for a while. Um, so yeah,
I went out there with my buddy Andre and Andy and we rode that and that was sick. And they had just gotten like a bunch of dew and like it was really nice
conditions and I seemed like they had just done a bunch of trail work on that. So that was pretty cool. And uh, yeah, just totally different
environment and, you know, and trail style than we're used to out here. So that was super cool. Um, and yeah, I've
just been riding my SP140 with all the new XTR stuff and just kind of loving that and uh putting it through its
paces. So XTR this. Yeah, putting that through uh through the ringer and you know that'll there'll
be a review after that stuff later. So was that was it loud today when we just rode? It actually wasn't.
Huh. It's funny. So, I used to have the short cage, you know, with the 9 to 45 tooth cassette with the XTR carbon wheels and
like Forecasters like super lightweight XC setup on the 140. And I just put my Raceface era wheels back on with the
bigger cassette 1051 and the long cage and it's like seems like it's quieter now. Maybe it's just the those wheels
are like super lightweight and they made it kind of louder. Yeah. Um but now it's like the only thing I'm
hearing is the brake pads rattling. So yeah, once I figure out how does not solve that?
Well, they said they did, but they didn't. They said, "Oh, the hole is ovalized, so it doesn't." It still rattles quite a
bit, you guys. I'm sorry. Did anyone ride this? I'm Yeah, it's like, did you guys just
say this and nobody tested it cuz it's clearly rattling. Um, so we'll get some non-finned pads and we'll
figure it out. But they work really well. I'm stoked. There's the bite point is has not been wandering, which is
nice. That's like a I think if if they were going to fix one thing, that's a big thing to fix and they fixed it. So,
at least so far, the brakes have been really good. Yeah, that's cool. Well, it's cool to see Shimano kind of come back and start
competing with again cuz for a little while there they're falling off with some older product and was just innovating and making new stuff and now
they're back in the ring battling again, neck and neck. Their lunch was being eaten as they say. Huh. Yeah.
Yeah. So, yeah, just been just been chilling, enjoying riding bikes and a little trail work here and there. get our local stuff back up and running. And
you know, what a guy. What a guy. Nice doing trail work. Just a little bit, you know. Yeah, just a little bit. Just
cut a few branches here and there. I don't own a weed whacker and that's what we really need is like serious
haircuts all around. Yeah. Didn't we buy weed whacker for the shop or do we bought those other hedge trimmers or something?
That's news to me. Oh yeah. Um Liam asked like if the shop would pay for some trail trim tools and a while ago and I said, "Yeah, sure.
Just need handguards on every bike. You're right. There we go. Yeah. Instead, just use handguards. Exactly. Which are getting increasingly popular
for good reason. Yeah. Those are overgrown. Don't trim, just buy handguards.
Great solution. Yeah. Right. Well, you know, that kind of I mean leads us,
I guess, into our next topic, which is kind of why you're here, Adam, to talk about the rebirth of Revel bikes.
The rebirth of Revel bikes. the exciting uh you know future and current state
that we're in and then just the yeah the exciting nature of what's going on. Yeah. But yeah, tell us a little bit
bit of bit of a story to unpack there. Hey bud, let's a little bit unpack there.
How much time you got? Yeah. Well, start from the top. So all the way back in 2018 2018 launched,
right? 2019 launch. 2019 launched. Okay. Yeah. 2019 launched. Yeah. Yeah. No, I'll say that
being back here is something I didn't like if three months ago you said that, oh, you'll be back and having a podcast
with Jeff and Jared. Like, I wouldn't have believed you. Like, this is kind of crazy to to to be back here and talking about bikes again. So, I feel I feel
really really lucky. I kind of had a year and a half away from the bike industry and I kind of really miss the
bike industry. It's really nice. So, I did not expect to be back this way. Definitely did not expect to be back this soon or back at Revel, but um the
last few months a lot of stuff's happened and and here we are. So, it's it's pretty cool. It's good to
So, to timeline it out a little bit, um you and some some dudes founded Revel
and whatever, but you launched it in 2019. Some epic bikes. Um you were the
founder, the key founder CEO, rode that into the crazy boom times of the pandemic years. Um and then what
happened from there? So, yeah, launched launched in early 2019. Had a year of normal sales. Things took off. Like we started working with
you guys a few weeks after we launched which like at the time when we launched it was me and five other people like it
was six of us total like in the small warehouse in Carbondale, Colorado like small little mountain town with cool
bike trails and stuff and uh I got a call from from you Jeff and I remember like I was on the phone and I was like
trying to be all cool and stuff but I was like oh worldwide's calling worldwide's calling. I was I was so excited cuz like we were a tiny company.
I didn't I didn't think like I I just thought it would take a several more years for the brand to grow how it did
and like we started working with you guys. We we were getting bikes kind of shipped all over the place and things really took off in 2019 like way faster
than I ever thought they would and it was it was great. It was really cool. We had two models at the time. Uh we had our titanium bikes for Y cycles and then
our uh Revel uh carbon bikes and a year in things were growing faster than ever
thought. It was great. And then CO happened and like we all know what happened to the bike industry then like you know
crazy crazy stuff to the moon as the crypto boys say. To the moon. To the moon. Crazy
looking back on it. It was just really nuts. It was nuts at the time too. It totally was really crazy.
Yeah. Everybody was riding bikes and everybody had extra money. It was absolutely crazy. Yeah. We were getting uh what did they
call them again? The um the checks. We were getting stimulus. Stimulus checks. Yeah. The checks.
Bike purchasing checks. The sty checks. People were just buying bikes with them. Carbon wheel checks.
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Exactly. Can't go on a vacation anymore, so you buy a bike check. Fox fork checks.
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. We should bring those back. Oh, man.
So, so things went were going great in 2019. CO happened. We just we boomed. We were growing like many hundreds of
percent a year and hiring people as fast as we could and and it was kind of it was just going really great. It was
super fun. and 2020 then 2021 rolled around. We were still just growing like
crazy. We were launching new bikes. Like we were investing in new development. Like things were going really really well. Um things were going so well that
I was kind of like almost a little freaked out about the whole thing. I was like, "Hey, these these bikes are great. Like I really like these bikes and like
a lot of people really like them, but this is like this is crazy." And one of the things that we were always
working on was like the being a bike brand is I mean one, it's my dream job. too. I wish I chose a different dream
job if I just cared about making like the most money possible because it's not a very efficient business from a cash
flow perspective. So, everything is about investing in money. You invest in designing a bike, paying for frame
molds. That can take one or two or three years to make a bike pretty normally. And then you have to buy all those
bikes, and then you sell the bikes to shops or to customers, and then it takes a little bit of time to get paid. So, the the kind of boring business side of
a of a bike business is that it's it's really cash intensive. Um, so a big part
of my job, which I never really talked about because it's bikes and I like to talk about bikes more than I like to talk about business. But a big part of
my job for all those years was making sure we had enough cash in the bank just to simply buy inventory to then go sell
the bike. So even though business was growing, we were doing well. We were profitable. It was a really healthy company. I was still like always looking
for cash for the business. And as you grow faster, that need for cash becomes even more. So, a big part of my job and
and how I've gone about some of my businesses is always like bringing on investors a little bit before you might need the cash. It's easier to have that
conversation. Make sure you can choose who you work with. And as we're getting into 2021 and our business had just
grown like 500 and something% from the year before, like insane. Like we're
realistically we were growing a too too quickly to manage all of it as well as we should have. Um, but business was
good. So, I decided, hey, this is a good time. I should I should sell a majority of the company. Um the business was so
good, but I knew that it was the right thing to do for some of the investors I had, but really it was the right thing to do for the business. My second
mortgage I had on my house, the money I'd borrowed from some, you know, friends and investors and stuff, like
that wasn't going to be enough money to continue growing the company and funding the bikes we wanted to develop and
making sure we could buy enough inventory to be able to deliver bikes to customers. And so everything kind of
lined up and the numbers were good where I was like, "This is the right time to do this." But I didn't want to just sell it and walk away. I wanted to sell it
and just say, "Okay, you know, things on the cap table changed, but you know, companies change their cap table and
ownership structure all the time and that doesn't really affect anything and who cares." And um so I was pretty excited about that uh
in terms of like setting up the company for success. And then for me to be able to like take some time and focus you
like be able to focus more on making the bikes and building the business. the right way instead of spending like I
mean I was spending like 20 hours a week just on talking to the bank and talking to investors and trying to make sure we always had enough of money and I was
like man if I could not do all that and we could have you know have all this you know have have you know venture funding
or or capital in the bank and I could focus on bikes like that's sweet. Um
there was like one particular time in 2021 that's a little bit of a turning point in my head, but we like we got
really good at saying no actually which is a new business is always like like you know you have bike shops people
calling and yeah they want to like buy product and it's like hard to say no cuz you're like man I just spent like years like
taking out all these loans and like going into debt to like fund this business and and uh you know people want
to buy stuff from us now but I knew enough to be like okay we really need to pump the brakes. So we I mean we had
dealers calling every day when they wanted and they wanted to like take on you know take Revel on and sell them in their shop and you know that's that's
kind of a nice feeling to have as a business but then to say no we we can't sign you up as a dealer. I'm sorry we
just aren't going to be able to like you know give you the customer service or take care of our other customers like we should. But we had one of the major one
of the major online retailers at the time like they kept on calling and wanting to sell our bikes. And I was like guys like sorry we can't like we
can't sell we can't sell you the bikes. we're just not going to be able to like handle it. And they ended up like they didn't really want to take no for an
answer, which was really cool for me kind of. It was like kind of flattering, but totally flattering. They ended up at one point they like
sent me a purchase order for our bikes and I had never even sent them a price list. I never sent them like part numbers. This like made up all these
things. Take my money. And this purchase order like I got this
email from them and I like kind of laughed and I opened it and I was like I was like shocked. It was like the largest order we'd ever seen. It was
like it was a seven figure order for bikes. Wow. Just about right there. And I looked at
it and I just sort of laughed. I was like, "Yeah, there's no way we're accepting this order." Which, like, if
if someone had showed me that order 2 years earlier, I would have thought like I never thought I'd see an order for, you know, like 900 and something
thousand for bikes. Like I never thought I'd sell that many bikes. And here we are, one piece of paper from one customer. And I thought, okay, like at
this point, am I doing a disservice to the business by like not having the the
cash, not having the expertise, not having enough people on hand? Like, how do I handle this? Like, I don't know
what to do here. Like, I'm saying no to an order like this. Like, that's that's crazy. Um, and so all those things kind
of lined up and I was like, "All right, sell the business, but nothing will change besides we'll be able to like do a lot of this stuff the right way." Um,
so in let's see October 28, 2021 signed a whole big fat stack of documents and I
sold the company to a private equity firm. I maintained a little bit of ownership. Um, but that was kind of a
big turning point in the business and then they tried to go big and they
eventually ended up going home.
I think that's a good way to put it. Well said. Yeah, that's awesome. They they went big and they went home.
Yeah. Yeah, you're right. Usually it's one or the other.
Yeah. But it was it's kind of crazy how you were you were acting in the interest of self-preservation
and then that just kind of like went out the window when you sold the private equity. They were just kind of just like they became the yesmen, right? Kind of
is what happened, right? Yeah. And you know, I I thought I had prepared for all that and I was I I knew
that things would probably change a little bit when you whenever you bring on any investor if they're buying, you know, a dollar share of the company or a
bunch more like things can change, you know, you you know, and that's okay. Um but the the timing was a little rough
for these guys. I mean, they bought in at the end of 2021, which the bike industry, that was kind of a high point of the bike industry, and then things
slowed down a little bit. And I think um they were, you know, rightfully so, what a private equity company does is
generally buy a company and they invest money into it and then they hope they make more money out of it and they all have their internal goals of how much
money they want to make. Um and the reason I actually went with these guys is they were pretty chill about all that
stuff. Like a lot of the private equity companies I talked to were really strict about like, oh yeah, we'll invest in the
business, we'll buy out, you know, a certain amount of the business, but in 3 to 5 years we want to get X amount of
return on our money. And I was like, "No, I don't want to work with people like that. Um, I want to be here for the
long haul. Really, I'm proud of this brand, you know, myself and some great friends created and like, let's let's do
this for the long haul." So, I I went with these guys with that in mind, assuming that this would work out for
the long haul, but then a big part of what they wanted to do was put a bunch of money into the company and just grow
it really fast, which is all well and good until it doesn't quite work out that way. The first I will say the first
several months were actually really cool because they were very supportive of products which you know the good thing is business was really good at the time.
So I was like kind of able to like have my choice of who to who to work with. Um so I chose people that I've you know
were really at the time at least aligned with what I wanted to do which was invest in new product development, make sure we could you know have the capital
to have the right inventory uh invest in our international distribution with this Taiwan facility. Um, so they kind of
said early on like, "Adam, what's what do you want to do for new products and making bikes and where do you want to
make them?" And I kind of laid it out there and they're like, "Great. We'll pay for it." And I was like, "Well, that's pretty cool." Cuz before, if I
wanted to do that, it would be like going to the bank and asking for more money, which they had already said no to me like for the last year or like, you
know, trying to raise money from a handful of other investors or whatever. Um so we were able to develop actually most
of the new bikes that just came out. We were able to develop um all those I started each of those projects in 2022
or so kind of shortly after working with the private equity guys and we were able to get them into the best factory in the
world and you know realistically develop products that we wouldn't have been able to at least as quickly otherwise. So
that was a lot of the good stuff. They also helped fund the development of our we have a facility in Taiwan, which for
a company the size of Revel on the smaller end of the spectrum is a really big deal. It's like the best possible
way to grow a global brand and be able to sell products and uh take care of customers all over the world with direct
shipping from Taiwan, especially now with all the tariff stuff. Like this was a big deal back then. Now with all the tariff stuff, it's an even bigger deal.
So there's a lot of good stuff that came from working with the outside money. are able to like move many years ahead of
what Revel would have been. Um, but then there was also kind of a lot of not so
good stuff. So, uh, a lot of that kind of started to come out and, you know, I I I got really
into the bike business for a lot of reasons. Mainly because I really freaking like bikes, but I also kind of found that I really like the business
side, too. And we've talked about this stuff a lot. Like, the business side is super super fun. It's a great industry to be in with good people that are
passionate about creating cool products and riding bikes and being outside and yeah, not every industry is like that.
The bike industry definitely is good. The people are here cuz they care. They want to want to be here. That makes going to work every day
really fun. So, um, but kind of what started happening was the private equity firm was really
into a lot of this like kind of big bureaucratic management stuff. I found like most days I felt like I was spending time like I hadn't made a
PowerPoint presentation since like freshman year of college when I had to like make some book for I had to learn PowerPoint.
Oh man, I was Zoom PowerPoints like all the time and then we'd have all these like department meetings and everybody
would do these big reports and like there's a lot of like very slow like big meetings and just like so so many
PowerPoint presentations. Um, and so I ended up letting the them know that I was going to work my way out
of the business, but I'd take my way, you know, take as long as possible. Like, how can I help set the company up uh for success? You know, really care
about the business, care about all the people there, want to want to be able to set it up, but that it would be best if I just wasn't there anymore. Like, hey,
that's you guys want to do it this way. Like, that's all good, but I'm going to slowly step step my way out of things.
Um, which was a super tough decision. Uh, so we ended up hiring a CEO. I and I
I got to, you know, we worked together on that. Um, having a CEO to replace me was it actually went really well. It was
like an easy good process and I was kind of really proud to be able to step back and say, "Okay, you guys, you know, I
was excited to go ride my bike and see what they were going to do with the business and it's all good."
And then if I really fast forward a little bit, it was a little bit of a tough year. You know, I stepped back. It
was it was the hardest decision I ever made to leave the business cuz it's not what I was initially planning on. Like I'd put nearly 10 years, 9 and 1/2 years
into the business. I had a bike company before this one. Like I'd worked in bike shops since I was 14. I had an eBay
business and I was like a kid selling bike parts. Like this is like my life. And like Revel was just something I was super super proud of. So actually making
the decision to say, "Hey, on April 15, that's my last day of work. Like see you guys and pack at my office and move
out." Like it was it was a tough one. Um realistically I'm glad I did. I think it
was a way to avoid a lot of maybe challenges that I that that were going on there. But left, spent a year kind of
traveling, ride my bike a lot, some cool trips, being unemployed.
Being an unemployed bum. Yeah, that's awesome. As they say, funemployed. Uh, that's unemployed. Good
point. You know, unemployed and fun combined. It was fun employed. It was fun employed. I had some fun. I can't complain about
that unexpected amount of fun at that point in my life. But then after a few months, I was like, well, being fun
employed is actually looks a lot more fun on paper.
It's kind of fun to like make things and do things. And so I was getting a little antsy and actually like
little little young to be funed for that long. Yeah. I need a few more decades in the
world world before I can enjoy that. Oh man. Um, and then actually during
that time, like I know we always like catch up and talk business stuff, but I was like I had a non-compete, so I
couldn't get back into the bike world, which was fine. I like didn't wasn't like itching to do it that badly, but I was starting to think of new bike ideas.
I I I bought like 20 different domain names for my next bike company name. Like anytime I thought of something good, I'll be like, I'm going to buy
that domain name. They all like kind of suck to be honest. Anyone wants some bike company domain
names, I'll be selling them now. Oh, that's funny. Uh, but I was kind of getting to the point where I was like, "All right, I'm I think it'd be fun to
get back into this like after all sorts of soulsearching and you know what what what might I want to do?" Well, the bike
industry is just the best. Like it's just it's just awesome in every way. So, um
then uh we were on a trip uh kind of heard some mumblings, some rumors by got
some texts from some people in the industry. No one at no one at Revel. This is this is a couple months ago now. this is in what is this early April I
think and kind of heard like hey there's something going on with your old company like you should follow up on this like
something's happening and I kind of heard that from a few people and there were some murmurss and I I'd thought like in my mind I I'd thought a lot
about Revel and you know everything but I wasn't I don't know I did obviously I didn't know what was going to happen and
then the day before that news went public that a lot of people listening to this might might have seen a few months ago where they announced that Revel was
closing its doors and had all was debt and everything. Uh the night before that news went out, um I got a call from
Revel and they said, "Hey, really sorry. I want to let you know that the company you started closing tomorrow." And dude,
it was like it's pretty pretty unfortunate news to hear. Yeah, that's crushing.
I was not very stoked. It was like it was actually it was like the biggest gut punch I've ever had. I was like, "Dude, this is ridiculous. There's no way."
That's like one of those you idiots. What' you do? like my child.
Yes. What have you done to my boy? I wish you guys were there when I got that phone call so you could say that. I
was like sitting on the couch like like flabbergasted. I was like, "What? Wow. What? How does that happen?"
Like I didn't believe it till I heard it from them. I was like, "Oh, you're you're closing." Like that's crazy. Like
to me that's like like a small private business, you know,
you can you have a lot of freedom. You can do a lot of things you want, but one thing you can't do is run a business in
a way where you have to where you have to make a decision like that. Like to me, that's like kind of the basics. Like a company should not run to the point
where they need to close the doors and lay off employees and let down vendors and let down customers and let down, you
know, people that that's running it ragged big time. Yeah. It's just not like it was, you know, all
kinds of weird emotions around that. But I was like, that's that's you can't you can't do that. So then I
jumped into, okay, I need to figure out how to buy this company back. Um, and it was really weird and without going into all the like crazy details of talking to
lawyers and like I don't even know all these different types of law, there's like all these different lawyers and
people in the banks that like deal with this sort of thing. And it's like after working with them for a few weeks,
that's one line of work I would love to never never be a part of ever ever again.
Wow. Uh um but and it wasn't you know it's kind of
funny now cuz as it's been now about a month of like actually operating this new this new company but a lot of people
are like oh yeah that's cool you bought it back like that makes sense and and it and it does on one hand and some other
bike companies have done it you know you've seen like Kona go through this and stuff which is really story of the industry these days.
Yeah. Um, but when I was going through the process, when the the bank foreclosed, like basically Revel couldn't pay back a
bank loan to the bank. And so the bank finally was like, we're taking the assets of your company. It's just like
if you can't pay the mortgage on your house, the bank can take your house back. And that's what they do at a certain point. Um,
and when the bank took the assets of the company, then their goal was then and they sent it to like a third party and the third party tries to just like sell
it for what they can and like get bids for whatever, sell some inventory, sell some assets and then sell the, you know,
hopefully sell something to somebody like me. Um, that that group, you know,
they did their job correctly, but, you know, they didn't care one bit that I was the founder of Revel. like they only
go. Yeah, we're just trying to liquidate stuff dollars just just they get paid off making more money for the bank, which is
totally fine. Like that's that's how banking works. But there were quite a few other offers for the business that I
had to basically out bid and kind of out maneuver to be able to get the company back. And like I was pretty fired up at
the time where I was like, "Hey, this is not how I wanted my company to go. I couldn't imagine another like finance
group or liquidation group or uh bike break bike brand that maybe I wasn't like a huge fan of buying the company
and then just maybe shutting everything down, putting the Revel name on it, taking maybe the suspension designs or whatever. I was like that would like
destroy me for my whole life. Add insult to injury. Yeah, exactly. So, it was pretty it was
a pretty gnarly couple weeks in there of trying to make sure I could actually
make it happen. And then there's like this 10-day public notice and this 1-hour auction period for the foreclosed
debt. Like all this stuff I never knew existed. I was like asking Chat GBT all these questions and a really really good
lawyer that rides Revels who was super super super helpful and um but it worked
out and pulled it off. Bought the company back. Amazing. Mhm. And it feels pretty good to have that
part done so we can focus on a lot more fun things than than that whole process. Yeah. Wow.
Yeah. I'm stoked, man, because I'm obviously a fan. And the reason that I reached out to you guys when you
launched was, you know, Worldwide Cyclinger's mission has always been to curate all of the best brands in the
industry and bring them all into one place. And finding rare boutique, small, privately owned brands of any kind,
bikes, components, whatever. I like those things and admire those things and want to be able to sell those things and
be involved with that. And that's like to me one of the coolest things about the bike industry is that those brands
even exist. Um cuz a lot of industries don't have that, right? I mean most of them are just all agopies. Um and the
bike industry is not. There's actually like a ton of small boutique brands. And so that's cool. So needless to say, you
know, I was like, well, that's kind of lame. You sold out. And we've become much closer friends
since all of that, funny enough. Um but then yeah, so I'm just stoked to see you back and the brand back, which is cool.
Thanks, man. So yes, stoked to be back. It's I learned a lot, you know. It's like um and yeah, we've we've become
closer friends. We talk business a lot and and I' I've tried to make a point over the last year and a half to like just talk to as many people as possible
about business and you know, some bike stuff and and everything to try to kind of get more perspective on the whole
thing. And it was funny like I' I'd been into business stuff for kind of my whole life I guess, but mostly into bikes and
then trying to make a business out of bikes. And I kind of sort of thought like, hey, the the option is you build a
business and and then you sell it. Like I sort of thought that was like the path that you're supposed to go on. And as
we've talked more and like have spent time talking to other entrepreneurs, it's like, hey, that's that's one option. And that's kind of like, you
know, talked about a lot in the news and you see like big companies like tech companies doing that, but like that's is that really like the right thing to do
or what what you want to do? And and what I've kind of learned is like definitely not. Like I really like
having a bike company. Like I get to come in here and just run a business and enjoy it and then life goes on.
Totally. Just run the thing, operate it and make it good and carry on.
Yeah. Imagine that. No, no need to shoot for the moon or sell it or, you know, create the next multi-billion dollar company. Just like
run a good small business that you enjoy and people enjoy. And that's all. Don't overthink it.
If you like going into work every day, you make stuff that people like to ride. Like especially bikes. Like I feel super lucky I get to make bikes.
Yeah. It's pretty funny that the the concept of a quote unquote lifestyle business is, you know, gaining a little
bit of trendiness in the entrepreneurship scene. Um which is like
I don't know why that took so long. Yeah. like before, which was funny because, you know, it used to just be
like this whole Silicon Valley mentality of get crazy investment money, go huge, shoot for the moon, move fast, break
things, blah blah blah, be a unicorn, make a billion dollar valuation, valuation, valuation is just like, no, you could just like have a business in
an industry you love and operate it super well and be proud of that and like just that's all. Yeah. And when you sit back and think
about it, like that sounds way more fun. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Exponentially better. Like you said, you
know, it's like if you just want to make a boatload of money uh in an industry you don't care about, you just sell furniture. Yeah. Yeah. 100%. Yeah.
Like but you actually, you know, you live in and work in an industry, you sell bikes, you ride bikes, you know, we live and eat and breathe this stuff.
Yeah. Makes it a little more fun. And to like make a product and sell it to a customer and they like we get
emails, we still get emails every day of someone that just like sends a picture of their bike and they're like, I love this bike. This is the best. I just went
on this trip to this place on this bike. My vehicles for fun. Cool. That's a nice reward you get for
like putting in the hard work and the time and effort. So, totally. People creating core memories with the product that you created.
Yeah. Is pretty awesome. It's pretty sweet. So, yeah, I had I had some time away from that and kind of
made me realize like, oh, I really miss that. And then the fact that Revel closed and I was able to buy it back was just like mind-blowing. Like, didn't
didn't think that was going to happen. Like a several week span. Yeah. Drama. Lots of drama.
Did not have on my 2025 bingo card, I'll tell you that. No, no. If anybody did, I want to talk to them.
What do you know that I didn't know? Absolutely wild. It's It's good. So, it's it's really
fun. Now, we um Yeah. I mean, like it was fun working with you guys in the beginning,
especially I remember one, you know, business trip we did where you guys were going to come out and you came out to ride new bikes and film a video or
something and we all went to the Revel Rodeo and like looking back on some of those things, it's like, man, this is a really
cool industry. Like this is a very legitimate business trip, but looking at it like, man, we went swimming in the river. We went for a few
bike rides. We, you know, had a had a beer or two at the rodeo. Lifestyle business. Lifestyle business.
A beer or two at the rodeo and then got absolutely plastered at the Nugget or what was that place called? The nugget. The nugget. Oh my gosh.
That did happen. I remember some wheelies. Uh, a few people were riding their bikes through the Nugget and the
bouncers were trying to throw everybody out. Yeah. What a good time. What a great trip. Oh my god. The best
Was that the first time I went to Carbondale? Yeah. It's a fun town. Super fun little town. The best introduction into a town it
probably could have ever had. You know, rafting, biking, rodeo, the carnitus, I think what the guys were
like at the the stand smoking carnitus. They're good. That was so good.
Yeah. Oh my god. Yeah. What a good time. Come on out. Every Thursday there's a rodeo. Oh yeah. Twist my arm.
Lifestyle business. that business. Hey, speaking of speaking of the rodeo, anyone ever talk about that bike
anymore? Why are we getting the rodeo? Was that the last time we had you on the
podcast when you talked about the rodeo? Yes. In Sedona. In Sedona, right? When we recorded on a go, I think so. I
think that was cuz this is your third time on the pod, right? And the last time was in Sedona Bikefest in March in
23. Three. Yeah. 23. We were out there. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And we got that Airbnb with the weird converted garage into like a
man cave. And we recorded a podcast remotely on a pool table in a garage of an Airbnb. That weird like closet bedroom that I
think Liam and I were sleeping in. We just like open a closet. There's like two beds are so weird, dude. That was a weird one. That was a weird one. Put a bed in every
corner of that place. That was that was a cool little Airbnb. What a fun trip, too. Yeah, that was great. It like snowed and
it was it was crazy. Did you go to Sedona this year? No, I did not go to Sedona or Sea Otter for
the first time in Sea Otter. I think was 11 or 12 years since I've gone every year. Wow. I a year at March and April, I was like
I had a lot of FOMO. I was seeing everybody's post about Sea Otter in Sedona and you know maybe it was maybe it's good to
have a year off fired up to go back and take a break. It's it's good to take a little break from things and reinvigorates your
passion and excitement for them, you know. Lets the industry heal a little bit. Yeah, for sure. But the rodeo, um, I
actually I want to start like screenshotting DMs that we get on Instagram because actually I now do all the Instagram for ripple bike. So I if I
gave myself an employee performance review, it would be not super good. But but we're getting there.
Uh, so I get the DMs and we get DMs every day from people saying, "Please
make the rodeo. When are you gonna make the rodeo? Come out with the rodeo. Make a downhill bike." Um,
so for context, the Rodeo was a downhill bike that you guys created and worked
with the late Arivo. Yes. Oh, they're gone. They're gone. Oh, no.
Their funding dried up. Oh, yeah. It was 3D 3D printed carbon, right? Yes. 3D printed thermoplastic carbon.
3D printed thermoplastic. And they had made some headway like they were making stuff very various different
industries and whatnot. And so you guys designed uh full-blown downhill bike with a CBF platform which was epic.
Yep. And made it, but it never really made it to logical production capacity. And then they disappeared and
Correct. Yeah. It was cool. It was like we learned a lot. Like it was true like when people say an R&D budget, this was this was the
R the research it was a concept bike. It was a concept bike. People talk about that with concept cars. That was kind of a concept bike.
You never really planned to bring like that to market in that, you know, form, right?
It would have been nice if we did, but we knew going into the project that it is might not happen.
Might not happen slash probably won't happen, but we're going to try it because if we could 3D print composite
bikes in America, in California, and be able to do this like customized thing like had all this promise for what would
be awesome. And I think when we were doing it, we probably realized, oh, maybe in five or 10 years
that bike industry will be there. I think after the last couple years it might be might be a little longer. Like a lot of that funding for that
innovative composite manufacturing in the US has has dried up over the last few years.
But it was cool for us cuz we got to learn suspension kinematics for downhill bikes. We designed a pretty sick downhill bike. Like I was pretty I was
pretty stoked on it. CVF carbon downhill bike made in America 3D printed. Um
and we had a partnership with Avivo where they did they they wanted to
develop the bike too. So, it worked out really well for us from like a business standpoint. It's a concept bike.
Totally. Um, and I would love to make it someday. That's the best answer I have right now.
It is. I I mean, I got to say when we were fielding questions, I had at least half
a dozen asking for a downhill bike. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Like, when is Revel making a downhill bike?
And people do people buy downhill bikes? People People buy downhill bikes. Good question.
They do. People say downhill is dead, but people are clearly DMing wanting to buy them.
Will they DM with their credit cards? Will they put their money where their mouth you want till you pull out your
credit card and buy a downhill bike? Limited run. Yeah. Just make sure we get a few of
them. Yeah. You know, no, I'd like to do it. I will say we're we're a month into operating the new
company and I'm jumping back to full kind of startup mode. It's a relatively
established brand. It's still a very new brand, five-ish years old. um but more established than when we launched at least. But we have uh we have eight
people in Carbondale. We have six people at our Taiwan facility. So we're very small. We are now hiring. So if anybody listening is looking for uh to to help
help get people stoked on bikes, we are going to be expanding our our company a little bit slowly, but to the point of
building a long-term successful business, I want to take our time with that. So, we're going to focus on a few of the kind of key models right now, but
there's so much passion within our building to design a downhill bike that it will absolutely happen. Like,
and that's where being a small independent boutique brand, like we don't have we can do whatever we
want. We can make we can say, "Hey, we're going to make this bike and we know we're going to make $1 on it and not a dollar more." And that's okay.
Passion project. Wonderful. Someday it'll happen. Someday we'll see it. Awesome. Well, that's kind of like an
amazing segue into listener questions. Should we bang out a few of these right now? Let's do it, man. All right, Adam. When are we going to
get the massive Revel logo back under the down tube? Everybody wants it.
Yeah, the quote unquote rad down tube decal. When can we get the rad down tube decal again?
It did look good. It did look good. Yeah, people love it. You guys liked it. Multiple messages asking the same
question as well. I liked it. I mean that that original uh rascal
the blue one with the like your shirt kind of. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Except that's kind of coppery, but um
Yeah, that was a sweet colorway. That was like the Alaskan That was the Alaska colorway. Alaskan memory. Yeah.
Yeah. Had to do a little nod to the home state with the blue and gold. So it was sweet. It looked so good. And that was right
when Sam had launched that gold colorway in the Eagle stuff. It's like all looked so bling matchy match back.
Yeah. Uh, one of our main head sales guy, Greg at the time, built up that bike with the gold shramm with like envy
wheels with custom gold foiled decals and like to date the best looking Revel
I've ever seen built. So sick. So sick. Um, well,
uh, I do I How do I answer this professionally? Do I need to do I need to answer this professionally anymore?
Yeah. No, it doesn't matter, dude. You don't, uh, you can just say, I'll put that in my consideration bank. That's what I
tell people. Oh, that's a good way of saying it. Um, what what I'll say is I you the the
bikes in person now, the new bikes with the paint we have, they all look like photographing them is so hard. The
paint's got like cool shimmery glitter stuff. The decals have some different hues. The bikes look in person, they
look so fre like they look good on their website. Obviously, I really like them, but in person, they're better. And everybody's been saying that like they
we have a lot of walk-in customers now, and we have a small little showroom in Colorado. And it's cool for me. I've
like moved my desk right in the main front of the showroom so I can see everything going on. People walk in and they say, "Whoa, that looks that looks
so sick in person. I didn't think it would look like that." But I like the logo on the down tube.
You like it, too? On the bottom of the down tube. Yeah, it looks good. Stay stay tuned. So, it's in considerations.
Okay. It's being considered. It's been considered. Love to hear that. Speaking of Colorado, before we jump to
the next question, Jared, I think you've got a epic new sponsor for the show. You're going to rip a quick ad. Oh, I am. That's right. Okay. We're
going to rip a quick ad. Amazing sponsor coming soon. And now, a word from our sponsor. Ladies and gentlemen, listeners
of the MTB podcast. Thank you so much for tuning in. We truly do appreciate it. We just wanted to take this moment
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We'll see you guys in the next one. And now back to the show
part two. Favorite trail ride in Colorado.
That's that's a hard one. Yeah, there's a lot there's a lot of good ones in Colorado. Turns out
I I like living in Colorado. I know everyone who lives in Colorado likes to talk about living in Colorado because there's lots of good bikers. Instagram
pages dedicated to making fun of people talking about Colorado, which I really appreciate those pages cuz most of them
are like very accurate. Like the stereotypes are there for a reason. Um, I'll say my favorite trail is truly
Red Hill and Carbondale. It's like we've ridden there a few times. It's it's a perfect lunch ride from the office. You
get like chunky techy red Sedona style riding, but you're in the mountains. It's like super weird. It's like nothing
like crazy legendary and all day, but it's like an awesome place to go for a quick ride. So that that's my favorite
for sure. But like oh man, there's so many like between, you know, we're an hour and a half from Cresb. We're an hour and a
half from K Junction. So in the winter when it's like gnarly and cold and there's snow on the ground, we can go to
Junction ride. Yep. We got we're 25 minutes down the road from Snow Massike Park. If anybody is
listening and they come out to Colorado and you like to ride Bike Park, Snow Mass is amazing. On Tuesdays, they keep
the chair lifts running till 7:00 p.m. We've reestablished the Revel Tuesday
bike ride. So, we shut the company down at 3 p.m. and everybody can go ride downhole park till 7:00. So, sounds like uh some Carbondale
propaganda. They paid me They paid me to say that. I wish.
That's awesome. That's so good. Jeeoff, what's your favorite ride in Colorado?
Uh probably that trail we rode in Cresute called Block and Tackle, right? Oh, yeah. That's what it's called.
That's a good one. Yeah. It's It's a moto trail, but it just flows super good. And because it's a moto trail, all the corners are banked
perfect and it's wide so you can just move around on it and it's really fun. Crusted has definitely got some of my
favorite rides in Colorado as well. I think that uh that Star Pass ride was epic. Dr. Park also favorite.
Oh yeah. Yeah. Yeah. That was cool. A little bit of everything on that ride. You got the tech, the flow, different environments.
Yeah. Super cool. Huffing and puffing at 12,000 ft at the top of that climb. And Right. Then you get like the best descent of
all time after that. Yeah. And just the best views out there in I mean unreal.
Awesome. Uh great place. All right. Bike industry question. How long did it take to bring the rerun
from concept to market and what was the toughest challenge with that bike? That's a good specific question. I like
that. Um we started concepting that at least talking about it in end of 2021,
early 2022. So I guess in that sense it took about 3 years. So, I spent a good
bit of time on that bike in the beginning and we got set up working with Bosch and ebikes are, you know, compared to a normal analog bike, whatever we
call them these days. Normal bikes. Normal bikes. Meat powered meat. A meat powered bike.
That's one of my favorites. I like that. There's there's a lot going on with ebikes. There's a lot of parts
in there and a lot of little wires and motor mounts and batteries. There's a lot of things changing every day. in um
so we we all had to learn a lot like revels like a lot of us like actually I'll say confidently none of us in the
building are like were huge ebikers at the time so we had to learn a lot and I
didn't want to just make a bike like re we've established the brand Revel of like we make the bikes we want to ride I
kind of hope other people do too. So, the ebike was definitely stepping out of that a little bit, but it's like, hey, we're also like a modern company. We
like trying new things. Like, we're not like super, you know, we're not going to just like stay super close-minded. And
ebikes are super fun at the end of the day. Like, we all know that. But we had to learn a lot about ebikes. Um, and we made a pretty unique one with a like
long travel but lightweight motor. And we sort of said like you go up Ajax Mountain near us. It's like a 3,000 foot
climb and then this like awesome crazy cool fun descent. and we were like, "Hey, we want to make a bike that's
perfect for doing that ride, doing two laps that after work if you want to do two laps cuz you couldn't do that on a normal bike." And it's like, "Well, this
would be really cool." Um, and I think we think we did a really good job. Biggest challenge, so I mean, I left the
company, they had just gotten a ridable prototype of that bike when I left the company, and then the team there did an
awesome job finalizing it and getting it to market. And um, you know, a lot of the little final details that normally
I'd be really involved in, I was gone from the company, and I wasn't. But I got back and I was like, actually before I like closed the deal to buy the
business, I grabbed one of those bikes and I went and rode it and I was like, I need to make sure this bike's really good because cuz I want to make sure
it's really really good. You go riding, you're like, actually I taken my offer back.
Yeah. Yeah. I just he just run away. No, I did the opposite. I got back and I
was like, oh, this is awesome. This is that feeling of relief. I was really excited. um toughest challen I mean there's a lot
of stuff when you how you mount the battery and how you mount the motor and how you get your cable routing in there
if you want you know I'm a huge fan of like carbon guided internal cable routing it's just easy to to do anything
mechanically with your bike at that point and it keeps your bike quiet I'm a huge fan of quiet bikes the new ones are like crazy quiet all this awesome stuff
with tolerances and bearings and all this stuff where it's like they're they're so great from a from a quiet
standpoint But making that ebike look good and fit a battery and fit
internal cable riding that is easy and makes sense was really difficult. A lot of ebikes
little engineering challenges. Yeah. Had to fit everything in there. And I'm super happy with how it turned
out. Awesome. Do you think we should say the name that it was going to be called?
I think you should say the name that it's going to be called cuz I thought that was the best name So, when we visited Revel um the last time, which
was when you weren't there, um people were pretty excited to tell us that the name was going to be the relapse.
They're like relapse, like doing laps, relapse. I love that. Yeah. But, uh it got shot down,
you know. Too triggering or what? Yeah. I mean, that's that's what I was told. I mean, I thought it was a great
name. That's very clever. Actually, I will say we always did these I guess it's a sensitive topic. So, yeah, it could be, but there's a lot of
sensitive topics. What are you going to do? Yeah, there's there's the naming thing was always like we do all these like
competitions and everybody would write down ideas for names and names and colors are two things. They're impossible,
especially in this state in history. You want to come up with a good business name in 1964, tons of great names. Okay,
whatever. Try it now. Try it now. I dare you to try it now. Yep. So true.
So true. That's so true. Watch out. Oh my gosh. Yeah. So, it's called the rerun.
Yeah. I think which is also a good name. It works as well. Yeah. The bike it's super fun, man. It's
it's as you know, being away from that project, seeing what the team did to get to the finish line. The little details
that, you know, it's like with a lot of projects, like the last 10% of the project takes 90% of the time. Like that's definitely the case with a lot of
bikes, especially the first ebike we made. And I was really, really proud of the company after I was totally gone,
especially with having outside institutional money involved. There can be a lot of pressure sometimes. And they
did a great job of dialing in all those little details that it's easy for companies to kind of skip over sometimes.
Yeah. And that bike is really dialed. I'm I was really excited to see it.
Super fun bike. Fun bike. Really fun bike. CBF on a motor. Kind of a good time.
Yeah. Yeah. Great recipe. Yeah. Yeah. No ebike with a better suspension platform. For sure. Yeah.
Yeah. It's tough. And now the question we've all been waiting for. This is a good one. Uhoh.
You want to read it, Jeff? Sure. Would you rather ride a Gorilla Gravity for the rest of your life or take a hit
from Richie Rude one time per day?
Long live Gorilla Gravity. That's a crazy question. I don't even know how you
The reason why it's a good question is because immediately I'm thinking, well, I'd probably rather take a hit from
Richie Rude. But where would the hit be? Because if he punched me in the face, I wouldn't even be able to ride that day.
So, and it wouldn't matter. Then I would rather take a real grab. But if it was just like a friendly, oh,
what's up, dude? Kind of jab, I'd be like, "Yeah, no big deal." or like a dead arm or, you know, maybe maybe my stereotypical Colorado
reaction to that one was take a hit from Rich Rude like he's going to pass me a joint or something.
No, take a hit. I see. Richard Rude is a Chuck Norris of the bike industry. He's ripped and jacked
and Yeah, he doesn't ride his bike. The earth spins. That's right. Of course, he's
kind of like, you know, a lot of those funny Richie rude Chuck Norris things have faded away since he's
like I've never heard about that. You never heard those? There was like a whole when when he was on a tear, which is
obviously still a, you know, podium level, one of the best riders in the world, but when he was on a tear of just
winning everything. Enduro World Series was at its peak and he was just winning everything. There was all of these Chuck
Norris memes that were it was like the Chuck Norris thing, but it was all bike related and it was Richie Rude. It was so funny cuz
he's just he's just he was just ripped. He's just like straight out. He's a beast. He's a beast. Like incredible athlete.
So total athlete. Um, so that's hilarious. So the answer is
taking the hit cuz you're going to ride your Revel. Yeah. At this point, God damn. I'm going have to get like a fullface helmet on at all
times and, you know, chest protector. Better watch out. You know, if a Yeti truck pulls up to Revel one day, you
know you're in for it. Oh, I'm going to run out there, slap a Revel sticker on the back of that truck, and keep running.
Oh, that's funny. Well, how about this one? Will will there be new titanium
bikes from Revel in the future? He answered it. He answered it. Yep. And the answer is yes.
Yeah, we got ahead of ourselves there. We are like keeping it on the download, but you know, we're we're going to talk about this stuff way more. Um yes, we
are going to be bringing back the same current Revel bike, Revel Titanium bikes that are in the lineup. Um the previous
company which I have it's still weird for me to say the previous Revel um they
kind of slowed down the tiebikes and didn't didn't you know didn't buy any of them for the last couple years and they
weren't into that. It's you know from a business line standpoint the way they were doing their how they were
purchasing and building bikes which was like build bikes ahead of time and put them in boxes instead of having frames on the wall and then parts over on the
shelf and then you get an order and then you build the bike. So like that was a very big difference in in how I was
operating the business to how they wanted to operate the business. Um in that sense it's tough to do tie bikes
because the quantities are so small like obviously we sell a lot more carbon bikes than titanium bikes. Um and so planning like well we have
like two different titanium hard tails. Well how do you say are we going to sell 1% of our overall sales are going to be
the LFA and 1.7% are the Ty like you can't guess it. So, they decided to not do titanium bikes because from a
business standpoint with how they were operating the business, it didn't make sense. But, a huge thing that we're
doing is going back to kind of what I think makes a lot of sense is not building bikes until they're sold. So,
then a customer can buy Eagle 90 build, maybe upgrade their carbon wheels. Um,
you know, that you can get a you can get a Rascal with that same build kit or you can get a Tirade with that same build kit. So, now it kind of goes back to
making sense. So, we have some frames on the way to us. limited number. We're going to announce it in the next few
weeks here. And everybody in our building like loves tie bikes. And also what's really cool is we can use the
titanium bikes to try a lot of things cuz we can make a lot smaller numbers. The first titanium bike like back in
2015 I made uh I guess we launched in 2016 the Y cycle titanium bikes. We did
like some pretty pretty funky ones. We did a 275 plus which back then was like kind of right on trend. and we
prototyped a bunch of those hard tails and basically used the exact same geometry for the first 275 rail that we
made. So, it's a great way to try seat angles, head angles. The gravel bike, the R+, we made four
different versions of that bike where we kind of tweaked all the angles, tweaked the tire clearance, tweaked the bottom
bracket drop a little bit before we made the carbon rover bike. So like we were super it was it's like the two the
titanium and carbon really play off each other to develop better bikes. So yes,
we will definitely be doing more titanium bikes. There's some really cool stuff going on with some 3D printing for titanium where you can like make some
different shapes that you know kind of what we've said about our tie bikes is it's a modern take on traditional on a traditional material. So things like
drop in headsets, internal cable routing, slack head angles, like anything you'd see on a carbon bike, we
did in titanium, which was not is not super common. Um, but we're going to
keep on innovating on that with the 3D printing. You can make some really neat shapes, kind of like a carbon bike
almost, and squeeze your chain rings and your tire clearance and things. I was just going to say that cuz a lot of, you know, traditional Thai bikes just look
like steel bikes, but you guys had way more hydroformed tubes and way cool
looking. Like the aesthetic looks so much better for sure. Which I thought would be rad to do a
full suspension tie bike that looked like an aluminum bike and not like a cuz I just don't like I know some people
love like the look of a steel full suspension bike. I don't like it. I like tubes.
Yeah, the skinny tubes. I just don't like the look of that. I like the look of an aluminum bike. Like you look at Banshee's aluminum full suspension line,
I was like those are like I love the look of that cuz you could do that and tie with the same hydroformedesque
looking tubes. Yeah. Odd boy that night any day. That's a What do I do? I add that to the
consideration box. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Consideration mugs. Awesome.
Love that. No, tie bikes are fun, man. They're super fun. And that's like Yeah. Yeah. We'll be doing more. I think I too would buy a full
suspension type bike. That would be rad. Yeah. Well, if it looks two sales already. Two sales already. You got two pre-orders.
Two pre-orders, right? Yeah. Awesome. Good. All right. This is a pretty heavyhitting
question right here. It's going to be polarizing for a lot of people. Oh, no. What are your opinions on warm
Sprite? How about a warm Coke? I'm not talking hot. I'm talking left and a car. You You guys do really, you know, you
get a really good array of questions. Like, we get some really serious ones about business and bike development and
then really serious ones. Never underestimate the worldwide cyc audience. We strive for that. We strive for
diversity. Uh especially on the podcast. Yeah. Diversity. Yeah. Of questions.
Of questions. Yes. Oh, warm Coke all day long. Really?
Absolutely. If I'm going to have a warm warm Sprite, it's syrupy. It's gross. Oh, yeah. Gross.
I don't know. I honestly have not even had a Sprite or a Coke in so many years. I don't really know what even I don't
even know what I'm think what I'm missing here. Maybe I've had one of those Mexican Cokes, but I don't think I've had a Sprite in 20 years since I
was like a kid. Probably. What? Yeah. I don't know. I don't drink that stuff. I don't drink
crap like that. I don't I definitely have a Mexican Coke. I've had those when you get a nice glass bottle,
you know, proper cane sugar coke. Like those I get, but I haven't had a Sprite since I was a kid.
Especially not a warm one. No. I remember I remember drinking Mountain Dew Baja Blast from Taco Bell a
lot and loving that. Baja Blast. Baja Blast. Baja Blast. Wow.
Taco Bell drive. I don't know. This is tough, dude. I'm surprised you bit on warm Coke cuz that's pretty foul.
Yeah, that's rough. Are you offended? No. I'm just surprised more than anything. I got You would choose a Sprite.
H neither. Yeah. I don't even know if I'd go. I'd probably take a be like, "Ah, no."
Yeah. Yeah. If you were like deathly dehydrated, what would you But I mean, yeah, if I was dehydrated,
like I do prefer Sprite. I prefer the clear soda. Mhm. But I I will say I had a I had a Coke
like after ride. I don't know if it was Tasmania or or uh Oh, no. It was in Whistler. It was after Ryan Whistler and I was like, I'm
having a Coke. And it was so good. Yeah. Oh, there a cold Coke after bike ride was there's not a lot better.
That's what Liam loves, too, right? Does always drink a Coke after and I was like, maybe he's on to something. Turns out he was.
He knows. Did he write this question? No. No. I mean, I was shocked, but you know,
not as shocking as What do you say? We got room for uh I think we should do two more questions cuz this this one is
pretty good, too. All right. Will there be a lightweight DJI Revel EMTV?
Speaking of Oh, man. Really going straight for the consideration bank on that one.
Yeah, we're going for your throat. Yeah. Yeah, that consideration bank is wide open today.
We're gonna we're gonna drop that one in there.
Hey, I think I think cool new innovative stuff is awesome. Whether it's Shimano coming out with an electric drivetrain
that competes with Shramm, like that's freaking amazing. DJI coming out with a new motor that competes with
in a really good way compared to other motors, that's awesome. Like I think that is what the bike industry needs.
even if I put myself in a in you know whatever place that's so awesome for the bike industry to have cool new stuff
like that all innovation managing well said yeah what I say the rising tide uh
lifts all boats lifts all boats and so this is going to this is going to I mean yeah I think that DJI motor when they dropped
everybody was kind of like shaking in their boots like whoa this is going to eat some lunches in the bike industry right I mean
the power to weight ratio like when we did that video I was like this is when they came out I think it was it was I
has blown everything out of the water. That's pretty cool. Um I remember when we first heard about it and we're just like we have to sign some
NDA for some thing at DJI. What the what is it? Is it a mountain bike? Is it a commuter? Is it like
they're going to launch ebike? Like what? This is crazy. Yeah. And I was like, "Oh no, they they
know what's up." Yeah. Apparently they they really do. Apparently those drone guys really know how to make a ebike motor.
Well, if if you ever get bored, go look at DJI's full product line. You know they make those industrial drones.
Oh yeah, dude. Those things are insane. They can like They're huge. They're the size of a mini They make drones the size of a Mini
Cooper. No way. I swear to God. Look at their product line. It's crazy. And and there's these really in-depth
videos. They make these commercial use drones that people use and operate remotely to fly around perimeters of
land and inspect power lines. And they're they're literally the size of a Mini Cooper. My buddy does that. He doesn't drive the
huge one, but he does he inspects power lines for for SoCal Edison. And uh he uses DJI drones.
Yeah, it's wild. But he said that the government is like they're phasing them out because of all that conspiracy stuff and they want
Americanmade drones even though they're not as good as it doesn't even exist. Well, it's not American.
It doesn't get exist. That makes sense though. I mean, there's a lot of solar solar panels and cell
phone towers and apparently drones that fall into that category. I wonder to make ebike stuff. That's I
think I think because if you look at those industrial grade drones, the the motors that spin those blades is
probably the same exact tech. Yeah, it's got to be. That's my And and think about it. Their whole life building drones has been
wrapped up around a huge concept of weight, efficiency, motor power. It's all the exact same metrics that you're
looking for. It's like, how can we get these propellers to spin this fast at this efficiency? Because the more
efficient those are, then the smaller battery they can put in there. How can they make the battery more efficient? How can they make the operating system be efficient to run the whole thing?
It's it's exact same problems they're solving. So, it's this same aerodynamic shapes.
Like, it's all the that is all the same problems. The user interface with the screens and
they already had that upfall from the cameras. It's so similar to an ebike. It's like crazy when you think about it. Just change their things a little bit.
Now, we have an ebike motor. Yeah, that was And I guess if you're talking about these massive drones that Yeah, the big ones a big part of their
business. You got to know those motors are powerful and then they're just like, well, pop it in a bike. Yeah,
pretty cool. Um, this this last question though, I think is probably the heaviest
hitting one of all, so be ready. Was Jeff named after the LFA or was the LF
named after Jeff? Chicken or the egg? And that was from formerly Big Mac shout out formerly Big Mike.
Did he Okay, my question is, did he write formerly Big Mike himself or did you write that? Oh, no. I put that. Oh, you put that. Okay. I I just thought
it'd be funny if he was started to call himself formerly big. So, you know, he might maybe he does.
He's probably has people coming up to him like at the bar like, "Wait, are you formerly Big Mike?" And be like, "Yeah, that's me."
Oh, you you must have named the L Hef way before he ever even met me. Yeah. I wasn't wasn't it the Y Cycles L Hefe
before Yeah. Revel. No, I'll tell you the story of it, but I think I think the real answer is it can it can be whatever you want to
be. We can give you whatever whatever store you want. But it was after Hefe, right? The bike pack. Yeah. Bikeackers. Right.
So, and now it applies to to Hefe and Hefe. And there there's Well, I think most people named Jeff
that grow up in the Southwest have been nicknamed L Hefe their whole life. So, and I'm one of them.
I you know, that's something I didn't know growing up in the cold white north. I I wasn't aware of that. That makes sense.
Yeah. Well, here it's like you got, you know, a lot of white people and they say say J E F E J E F Jeff Hefe. It's just
like everyone whose name Jeff out here nickname is L Hefa. Oh, that's awesome. People called you that your whole life.
Oh, yeah. That's been my nickname since I was a little kid. Like just like random. My clean like the people used to clean our house called me LFA and like
call me FA forever. Oh, that's so that's Well, then yes, the bike's
partially named. No, there it was actually kind of cool. So, we we made that bike. We worked with with with Heff Brandham, bike packer. He
lives in Gunnison, Colorado. Incredible guy. Like he's done all these like crazy bike packing races and won a bunch of
them and set a bunch of FKTs and puts on a few races. Just like the world's nicest guy. Just really awesome and does
like the most badass crazy races and rides and is really fast. So we worked
with him um and we we did kind of a pro model in the beginning. We said, "Hey, for a couple years like one, we want to
work with you and have you help us design this bike." like it's a fast racy bike packing bike. Um, and then a
portion of every bike we sold went to support his race entries and race career and all that. So, it's kind of like a
really fun a fun thing. Um, and he still still rides the bikes. He's he's he's he's the man. The all the artwork on the
bike. There's um some Lily flowers on the bike. Uh, his daughter is named Lily. So, we kind of worked with with
that idea. He's he sketched out like some flowers and artwork and then we worked with a graphic designer to like
do all those sand blasted logos. So, it was like again like it fits the bill of like well this is a really fun bike to make cuz there's like a story behind it
and it's and it's what he wanted and he helped us design this awesome bike. So, totally cool. Great story.
It was sweet. Yeah. And a great bike. Mhm. Yeah. Really is. I got mine in my garage. A Y branded
one. Same. Nice. I think mine's a Revel branded one. Yours is named after you, man.
Yeah, yours is named after you. It's got your name on it. Oh, good. I do special artwork for your bike.
Well, Adam, massive thank you for coming out to do the pod. Um, if people want to reach you, they now know to just message
the Revel Bikes Instagram. I know. Oh, no. I made a big mistake. Oh, man. Uh, thanks for having me out.
It's great. Great to be back. But you guys are hiring and uh people hit you up. What do you got like some
kind of support email for Revel? Hit us up. I think it's uh support@revelbikes.com. You can you actually can DM us on
Revelbikes at Instagram, Revelbikes on Facebook. Call us. We're We're around. You can contact us. You can text us. I don't
know. It's kind of however you want. We're back. Come say hi. We're ready. Stop by.
Carbondale. Oh yeah. Amazing. Come to the good stuff. Thanks for joining us, Adam. It's been It's been a pleasure.
Thank you. Appreciate it. It's been great. Any final words, JR? Uh, thank you everybody for listening
and watching. We truly do appreciate it. And uh, I guess we'll see you guys in the next episode.
See you guys in the next episode. Cheerio. [Music]
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