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Trevor's Savage Solstice Ride, XC & Trail Tire Combos, Anti–Pedal Kickback Devices & More... Ep. 169 [Podcast]
Today on the podcast, the guys discuss some epic rides they have been getting into lately including an absolutely savage effort that Trevor put down before jumping into a classic array of listener questions ranging from our favorite XC tire combos to the effectiveness of anti pedal kickback devices and everything in between. Tune in!
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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 169 of the MTB podcast presented and
hosted by Worldwide Cyclery, Ketl Mountain Apparel, and Trail One Components. I'm Jared. I'm Liam.
And I'm Trevor. That is right, ladies and gentlemen. The three amigos are back. And in this episode, we are going to discuss some
epic rides we've been getting into, some epic trips we're planning for 2026, plus
some classic listener questions ranging from how we would commit the perfect crime to suspension and tire selection
and everything in between. Perfect crime. I'm interested to hear your answer to that.
I haven't heard that question, so I don't know if I want to give out too many secrets on this vlog. It might uh might incriminate you a
little bit. Yeah, but yeah, I've watched some movies. Yeah, some movies, some TV shows.
There's plenty of inspiration out there. Oceans 11. Oh, don't even get me started on those movies. I love them. Speaking of which,
Zach's words of wisdom. You can't be sad while riding a bicycle.
Okay. I mean, I've had a couple sad bike rides, but
it's at the end of the day, you're having fun still. Yeah. Yeah. It helps. Yeah. I guess you started riding when you
crashed. Yeah, that's a good point. My my uh my my rule of thumb is like not
every ride is a good ride. Sometimes sometimes you just like forget something or you have a flat or break a chain or
something happens like a mechanical happens and just like all right take the L. Like I've had I've had a string of 10 amazing
experiences, amazing rides in a row and this one just wasn't it. So um was I sad? No. But I just I wasn't as happy as
I could have been. What's the fishing motto? A bad day of fishing is better than a good day at work. Bad day bad day on the bike is
still better than a good day at work. Yeah. Yeah, maybe. I still I enjoy days good days
here. So, yeah. Yeah, we have a fun crew. It's It's not too bad. It could be a lot worse. Overall, overall it's pretty it's pretty nice.
Overall, it's pretty nice. Yeah. But, you know, basically what you're saying is the opposite of what Zach said
is that you can Yeah. I don't really agree with it.
That's pretty funny. But you know what? Just being just being real here. Yeah. Sometimes sometimes you just don't have
a good ride or sometimes it's like pretty grim out. But yeah, I mean maybe it's better than like sitting at an
office, you know? I've just been riding in all conditions. Yeah. Lately. Yeah.
Yeah. You're you're kind of an animal. Yeah. We'll we'll get to it. Yeah. I mean sometimes like people call me fair weather Trevor. So like
sometimes uh sometimes I just maybe I'm not down for that. Yeah. There can be some disappointing
like times during a ride, you know, like I got like you get a puncture at a place where you're like, "Oh, of course I just that just happened, you know, that was
stupid." Or you break something, but then making it back to the car, fixing it, it makes it a good ride. So, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Still better than not doing
anything. Yeah. Which is what I would want to do if I was on the planet that is in Daniel's
fun fact. There is a planet where it rains glass sideways. HD189733b
has winds of over 5,000 mph that whip molten glass shards through the atmosphere. Definitely not vacation
material. The combination of extreme heat of over 1,700° and silicut particles in the atmosphere cause it to
rain molten glass driven horizontally by ferocious winds. That name really rolls off the tongue.
It does. HD1897. Sounds like Elon's kid or something.
Don't give him any ideas. That is a fun fact, isn't it? I hope it's a fact. That's crazy. Where
is this planet and how far away is it? How do we know this for a fact? So, we just have to trust the
scientists. But, uh, in my research, I want to say it was like 64 like light years away or something. It's not too
far. 64 light years. Light years. Oh, that's not too bad. Yeah. And what do we have that there like
crazy telescopes or like infrared stuff? Is that how we know what this stuff telescope? Yeah, probably.
Okay. It's pretty insane honestly when you think about I can I can I can understand the whole like raining glass cuz I mean yeah
silica particles and sand and stuff like that like when it gets hot it's glass right but it's molten so
that's interesting pretty hostile environment you could say pretty brutal probably wouldn't want to raise a kid on
that planet no probably not you know what is also brutal is our fantastic testimonial so
when I just started listening I mentally associated Jared's face with Jeff I've never watched the videos and I just
realized I was wrong. It's breaking my mind. You should see our uh cover photo from
like what was that swap? Yeah, we got to put that we got we got to put that photo in the video.
Yeah, we'll put that photo in the video. Um this is pre AI photo craziness. Y
and this was a legit Photoshop job by our boy Michael. Yep. And it's basically just Jeff and my
face photo swapped. Face swapped, but we're in our bibs. You're in bibs with no shirt on.
Yeah. So it's and Jared's got a hairy chest and Jeff doesn't. So it's insane. Did James James was the one who put on
canvas? Yeah. Yeah. James and Reno put it on canvas and it's sitting literally like right in front of shop when you walk in. It's our
bar and this photo. Yeah. And we probably gotten 20 20 or so people like, "Whoa, what the heck is
going on there?" It's like the first thing you see when you walk in the door. It's pretty good. Yep. Yeah. It's pretty awesome. But you know
what else is pretty awesome, boys? is the bikes and rides we've been enjoying lately. And Liam, you have been on a
tear lately. Back on the horse. Back on the horse back. Yeah. Yeah. Um yeah, I'm just riding close to
like as much as I can, but I'm still working out, doing physical therapy like more probably more times a week than I'm
riding, but I'm riding for like big hours now. again. Um I' I'd say I've officially crested the barrier into
training on the bike instead of just like PT and everything. Um excuse me. Yeah, we had a pretty wet Christmas to
New Year's in Southern California. Uh atmospheric river as the new term like
it rained for I want to say like it felt like two weeks straight rain for days and uh I I got out one of
the days with Tideman. I can't remember. It was all blurred between those two holidays. But we got out, we thought it
was going to be good. We get to the top of Yerba Buena, like a 3 2500T climb or
something. And uh we we get in the clouds and it starts raining on us. We're like, "Okay, whatever." Like not a
big deal. You're an hour 30, two hours in the in the ride, it's like if you get
rained on in the middle of the ride, you're like, "Ah, whatever." Kind of. Starting in the rain, you got to be real
hard for that. Yeah. Like I'm not there. Getting rained on like kind of turns the ride into like an
epic a little bit. Yeah. But starting in the rain is brutal. So like we got really wet, we
dropped out of it, then we kept getting wet, we dropped down. I went so slow down Decker like 5 miles an hour. I just
for sure did not want to crash. No. Um that sounds so scary. Road biking when it's wet is scary.
Yeah. Turning turning when it's wet. Yeah. No thanks on that. And then um turning down a steep canyon that's like
off camera. That road's like scary in the dry.
So yeah, we got wet there and then I went out another day. Like I wasn't going to ride cuz it's supposed to rain.
Then I walked the dog and then I was like, "Ah, you know what? It actually looked pretty good. Like I'm going to go
ride." So I rode for like an hour. I just literally like went over a hill in
the hidden valley. got completely pissed on like pouring so hard I had to take my
glasses off and I could still barely see like the road and everything going on in
front of me. I came back over that hill back into Newberry Park. Blue skies. I was like, "What just happened?"
I was like went in and out of a portal. Yeah. So, I got wet a bunch and like rode on
wet, muddy roads and debris everywhere and stuff. But yeah, this last week I put in like 12 hours of training and
Tidman and I did a 4 and 1/2 Yeah. 4 and 1 half hour ride of 7,000 ft on the road
bikes. Nice. I've yet to ride in the dirt. But how far out from that you think you are? I'm going to ride up Sycamore Canyon
tomorrow. Nice. So, it's not really like dirt handling or like rough rough.
Do like a loop on the hard tail or something? Yeah, I'll do the hard tail loop around and then up through Sycamore. So, do you think they do do
you think you could do a bunny hop right now? I can like kind of do like a pro hop in the road, you know, like both tires same
time to get over some cracks and whatnot. Yeah. Creeks are flowing. If I needed to fully bunny hop, I could.
I'm just not like might hurt a little bit. Might hurt slash like not going to try
to do it right now. Yeah. Just not smart. If something happened, I I could probably get over a curb. Yeah. Yeah.
Yeah. The creeks are flown. I'm going to ride a hard tail. Pretty good. Yeah. It's pretty cool to see, but makes the bikes get dirty so
fast. Whatever. Yeah. Um but yeah, so I've been doing that. That's pretty sweet.
Uh stoked to be on it. Uh goal is to do the second LA tourist race in basically
like a week and a half. Oh wow. Yeah. Dang. And then gobbler in 3 weeks or something like that.
Is LA tourist race? Is that going to be a gravel thing? Mhm. Okay. Those are huge. They vary.
Okay. Yeah. Like what's this one you're doing? They don't uh they don't announce the checkpoints
until like 48 hours before or something like that. Oh. And then you map out your own route. The rides are a bit they're been nuts
and like but they're cool though. Like there's hiker bikes sometimes there's crazy stuff. Um I think there's
been some that are like 11,000 ft of climbing and some that are like I think the first one
this year was like pretty mellow at like you know 40 or 50 miles like 5 or 6k. That's cool. So, you're saying there's
like stations you have to get to, but just kind of choose your own adventure to get to the point. So, they have checkpoints with books and you have to go pull the page of what
number plate you have on the book. Yeah. So, they send out the checkpoints and then you can map your own ride. So, like
that's cool. I think everyone ends up going on a pretty similar route, but uh you know there's I'm sure there's some local
knowledge that I even don't have and whatnot. I've never actually done one of these, so Oh,
yeah. Oh, so this is different than the one you guys did. Um, what was that called? It was by the Great Descent. The same
guys who put it on or the same guy who puts it on, but ours was the Great Descent. This is just like a standard LA tourist race. Okay.
Yeah. But yeah, he Mike at uh Let's Ride Cycling puts on all these events. They're super cheap community, you know, focused
and super fun and like Yeah, just great to go. You know, you could race if you want. Like there's a
couple fast guys there. Like Brendan and Brandon are, you know, full rippers and they usually like go one, two, or three.
And then like there's people just out there having a good time. And it's definitely like a super LA core thing to do. It's as core as it gets to
me, you know? Yeah. And it's like it's like 45 or 50 bucks for this. You get, you know, you
do the ride and then there's like um hot dogs and beer after. Nice. Like you don't get that anyway.
That's awesome. Yeah. Super cool. I'll do those. Do cobbler. Wow. Nice. Get in the in the horse.
Yeah. Just getting inside of it. How about you, Jared? What have you been on?
Are you in the horse? I'm in the horse, Liam. Um, I've been trying to ride all the bikes lately. So,
that's my goal is to not neglect one bike, and I feel like I'm doing pretty good at that. Um, so yeah. And honestly,
I just kind of took a little bit of a break after all the rain cuz like all the stuff locally, you know, as you guys know, it's like pretty good right after
the rain. But, um, it's crazy how dry everything is already now. The road signal, you know,
it's dry except for a couple. Last three days have been Yeah. hot. Gale force winds. Gale force winds.
Just dried it all out. Yeah. Yeah. And then like I rode to Palmato, that area, super dry except for a few
boggy areas. But yeah, just been trying to get into all the local stuff and kind of just, you know, stay sharp and stay
fit. Get more fit. Actually, not really very fit right now, but only one way to do it. Only one way to do it. That's right. And
you can come ride the road bike with me. Yeah, maybe I'll do that. That's a way. That's a great idea. Mhm.
Yeah. But yeah, that's pretty much it. Nothing crazy, nothing too exciting. Went down to Lagona and rode with my
buddy Andre and the homie Johnny, I believe his name is. And I'm pretty sure he's a podcast listener, too. So, what
up, Johnny? Showed us some sick trails in Laguna. That was super rad. Can't wait to go back down there and shred.
Just stuff that like, you know, you you probably ridden past dozens of times and you're like, "Oh, dang. That was
There's so many trails out there. So many trails out there." And they're all like kind of hidden, too. Yeah. And they're all legit.
All very legit. Like way more legit than the stuff we have here. So, just different. Yeah, different for sure. Mhm.
But yeah, I'm stoked to get back down there. What about you, Trevor? Um, well, I guess we'll talk about it, but I I haven't really been riding in
the past I haven't ridden bikes in the past 3 weeks. One, cuz it's been raining the past 2 weeks. Yeah.
And I got sick as well. Um, but before that, it was on the uh winter solstice,
which was on the 21st, Sunday, 21st of December. Uh, so shortest day of the
year, shortest amount of daylight of the year. And uh the boys out in Santa Barbara um put on a cool ride um or just
put out put out a cool ride that they did last year as well and thought I'd join it this year. So me and Ty went out
with the and Sophie as well and then Liam came out to take some photos and just hang out and be a part of the crew
for the day which was cool. Those your wrists definitely couldn't handle those trails. No one's wrist can handle those
trails really. I mean, for those that don't know, Santa Barbara is like extremely rocky um and very gnarly.
Yeah. So, like tunnel trail is 100% rock almost. It's ins it's insane. Um so, yeah, it
was it was cool. It was a PR ride for myself and yeah, we rode from sunrise to
sunset, which was cool. For real. Um pretty much. I think it was like 53 or 58 miles,
something around there. Wow. Um and then I think it was like almost 11k. It's like 10 10 plusk. Oh.
Um, monster ride. So, we, uh, yeah, we parked at the bottom of Jibralar, which is a big famous road climb out there, and we
climbed it three times. So, road climbed three times, and then went down three different
trails. Um, each lap we went down a different trail. Started on tunnel, which Liam just said is just like super
rocky, not very steep, but steep enough to carry some speed. And it's just rocks
on tops of rocks on tops of rocks, and you kind of have to just like plow and be committed to lines. And it's pretty
gnarly. Um, all on the Druid, right? Yeah. Rode the Druid. Trail one wheels.
Um, and it was great. Cast tires. Cast tires. Mhm. Yeah. How do you like those so far?
Good. I mean, that was the test. Yeah. For anything. And what was crazy is during the whole day. Um, the only
mechanical that anyone had was um Will, the guy who actually put on the ride, he broke a wheel on tunnel.
Oh, wow. Um, which is expected. Carbon wheel. Carbon wheel. I don't know which wheel it was, but um he broke it regardless.
No flats other than that. No wheels broken, no no like major crashes or injuries or anything like that. So um
that's a success. Probably 20 people started. Yeah. Really? Yeah. Or probably honestly probably more than
that. Probably 30 people started. Maybe like 20 20 or 15 or 20 of us finished the whole thing.
Dang. A lot of people bailed each lap. So um which is understandable. I mean for sure understandable. Yeah.
I mean, one one lap up there is like a normal ride. Yeah. And you're doing it three times. That's crazy. So, yeah, one lap's about
like 30 something,000 3,300 ft, something like that. So, um it's a big old road climb. Not too
hard of a road climb. Nothing's there's only one like steep section. The rest of it's pretty mellow, but it just takes a
while. So, it's a great road bike climb. Um and it's honestly, it was pretty chill. It was uh I was kind of worried
about doing the climb like that with kind of heavy tires and um heavier just a heavier setup on my bike and you just
take a chill and actually it was funny cuz each lap we did was faster than the next one.
Wow. So our third lap was actually faster than our first lap. Wow. Which was crazy but I think you just kind of get into the groove and your
your legs are warmed up and start feeling good. So yeah, we did tunnel and then um Cold Springs and then Sanro and
uh they were yeah all pretty gnarly. Um I think it was San Cedro. It was like
extremely rocky. Yeah. Um rockier than uh it's flatter than tunnel.
Yeah. And yeah, the honestly that trail was savage. You have to pump a lot or what?
You have to pump a lot and you're just in a rock garden the whole time. You're like almost about to go over the bars cuz it's not that steep.
Yeah. It's like so physical and it's really hard to carry speed. I think the Druid is a great bike for that.
Um I think a dreadnot would be even better. Just a high pivot kind of growing bike would be sweet. I loved
riding the the place where I felt the deviate Highlander. Highlander, I think. Claymore Highlander.
Oh, you wrote a Claymore up there. Maybe I rode them both. Yeah. But that's where I was like, "Oh, I like
high pivots here." High pivots. And then also like I understand why a lot of guys at Santa Barbara run coil shocks. There's not a
ton of impacts and you want it to be super supple. You want the turret to kind of get out of the way and uh that's super good. Super good for
Santa Barbara trails. Wow. I uh I went up there, took photos on every trail, so I just like did a
trail run down the trail like a mile or two, took photos, and then ran back up. Oh, sick. And then met him on the next one.
Yeah. And uh Tideman's going to finish a ride up on it. Okay, cool. I'll try to once this podcast live, I'll
try to have it in the Trail One website. Yeah, I'll throw we'll throw a link in uh the show notes. It was It was a cool day. Um Tyman's
buddies with Rally Amos, who's like Trek factory XC guy. He's the top placed USA Olympian of all
time. There you go. Mhm. Wow. Only one to ever crack the top 10, I believe, for the Olympics.
That's right. He did do well at the Olympics this year. That's cool, huh? Um, so Tidman's buddies with him
through like college and stuff and riding bikes and racing and stuff. So Riley was out there training and he joined us for a lap. Um, he joined us on
a lap up and then he went down um Cold Springs with us, which was which was great cuz I wouldn't have recommended
him to go down the other trails on his XC bike, but he went down Cold Springs, which is a more mellow trail. It's like mainly
just single track, but but it's still not mellow. It's still rough. Middle is gnarly. It's still rough and really fast. It's
honestly great trail. What was the highlight trail for you? Um, honestly, that trail
was my favorite. It was in really good shape. Um, I don't know if the Sage guys did work on that or what, but um yeah, the Sage guys,
they kill it. So, the trail was wide benched. It's it's you're pretty much on a cliff edge and it's it's a bench cut
trail the whole way, so it's just a ton of work and it's constantly falling away. Wow. And that was uh pretty pretty
sweet. Then yeah, Riley joining us was cool. A lot of the guys in the ride were pretty stoked about that. Yeah. Um Riley also was on a super caliber.
So not even like their top fuel, like their 80 mil travel. Super super XC.
80 mil travel with XC tires, full Lyra XC shoes. Oh my god. Keeping up mid pack with trail bikes and
enduro bikes. It was cool to know. He was ripping as as he as he should. Yeah. He's like top top guy, but
that was gnarly. It was funny. when we were climbing and we were kind of comparing him on his bike compared to me on my bike. It just
like couldn't be more different. Um just his bike was super small, super low, and my bike's long and tall and it
was just kind of a funny and like a heavy tires and he's got the lightest of the light and Mhm. So
yeah, that was uh that was cool. Yeah. Again, PR ride. Sophie did a PR ride that that day as well. She wasn't even
supposed to be on the ride. Um she was going to fly to Florida, but her flight got cancelled. So she joined, did the
whole thing. our other buddy Jorge did the same thing. Um I think that was a PR ride for him as well, I'd imagine. So
yeah, he was also on a druid and yeah, it was just pretty sweet like starting starting
in the kind of marine layer and then and then climbing above the clouds and you kind of could see all the peaks
of the mountains and the Catalina Islands and so epic. I don't know. It was just awesome. So kind of honestly one of the highlight
rides of my life, I would say. Like it's just a cool ride to do. Sick. And I haven't ridden bikes since then.
I've been I've been sick and it's been raining. So, but you've ridden dirt bikes. I've been I've been riding dirt bikes. It's been raining. So, um
that's still legit. It's still legit. I was going to I was going to say uh talking about getting rained on. The past couple rides we've
done in dirt biking in the desert. We've gotten rained on as we're packing up. Oh, yeah. So, we're like we finish, get back to
camp, and then we're loading the dirt bikes up, getting changed, and you just get dumped on and you just get soaked. I think that's why I got sick, honestly.
So, yeah, that's what I've been up to. That's sick. Been good. Oh, man. That really makes me want to go up Santa Barbara and ride bikes.
Yeah, they they probably got they I think they're already rebuilding trails, but Santa Barbara always gets hit pretty
hard in the winter time with rain. Um like like if we let's say if we get 10 in, they get 20 in, you know, like
they just get it's like just the front facing canyon right there and they just get dumped on. So, um that's
why there's no dirt on those trails anymore and it's all rock cuz the dirt's all all in the ocean now. I guess it's all been eroded down all been
flooded. So, yeah, it's a cool it's a cool spot though. Sick. Yeah, it's really underrated, I think,
for riding cuz like you have I think the peak up there is like over 4,000 ft and
you drop down to like 900 ft. Yeah. Yeah. It's like from sea to sky kind of
for California. So sick. And like straight long poles, you know, k on those trails are like 18 minutes
type of deal. That's crazy. Huge huge mountain. And then there's also some really great backcountry riding there as well
where you kind of just feel like you're way in the middle of nowhere, but you're 15 minutes from town. So, um, yeah, pretty pretty sweet area.
There's a reason why it's like one of the nicest places in the world, I would say, just to even like live. Oh, I love Santa Barbara.
It's beautiful out there. Yeah, there's that's a great candidate for one of the questions we have later. Yes, for sure.
Um, but yeah, that's sick. And people don't realize that we have such huge mountains right next to the ocean. Yeah,
even where we live it's the same way. You know, Mal Malibu mountains, there's Monica mountains, ocean just like And
then just mountains straight up. The all the road climbs are pretty savage, too. And some great road riding as well, but
great mountain biking in there. And it's it's pretty cool. Yeah. No one really thinks about that, but no. Um Yeah, it's cool.
But uh before we go, how about we take a quick break and uh get a word from our sponsor. So, we are going
Yeah. Away. Away. We'll be right back for a little BRB. And now, a word from our sponsor. Ladies
and gentlemen, thank you so much for tuning in to the podcast. It's lovely to have you back after our little holiday
break. And don't get too comfortable because uh we've got some exciting stuff coming up for Kettle. We've got a couple
of treasure hunts that are dropping here in the next couple of months. So, keep
your eyes peeled. One of them is going to be all over Nevada in the loneliest part of the country, if not the world,
if I'm not mistaken. So, definitely keep your eyes peeled for that. It's going to be a pretty epic road trip style
treasure hunt. And then we've got a Phoenix treasure hunt, greater Phoenix area. That's going to be amazing. So,
keep your eyes peeled. It's going to be a couple of really good ones. So, stay tuned and be ready. Catch you in the
next one. Cheerio. And now back to the show. We are back.
All right, listener questions. Hey guys, great podcast on the November 24th podcast. You gave a lot of praise to the
WTB Peacekeeper. I went in and looked at the specs and it has me really interested given its lightweight on their 2020 120Ti fast rolling model
offering. For context, I have a transition spur and generally ride rolling XC in Minnesota. It's mostly hard pack terrain. bike stock combo of
dissector recon has served me well, but I'd like to experiment with the Peacekeeper given Liam's praise. My
question is, what is a good tire to pair on the front within the WTB product line? It seems like the Trail Boss could
be a good fit, but it's marketed as a rear tire on their website. Some additional thoughts, I've tried running dual casters, which is okay, but I do
feel they are a bit skinny. to Liam's point. I've also tried Victoria tires, specifically a Maza Martell combo, which
I really did enjoy in terms of grip, but thought it was a touch heavy. Bottom line, I want my tires to be light and
fast rolling without sacrificing too much cornering grip. That's a good question. That is a good question. Well, he said
the fast 120 TPI. Yeah, which I have not actually ridden yet.
I'm waiting to get that for the season. Um, I've just been riding the 60 TPIs in
the high grip or the fast rolling. And that's what I'd recommend for the spur and most of your riding. Um,
just dual peacekeepers. Dual peacekeeper 60 TPI high grip front, fast rolling rear.
Or if you wanted the 120, I'd run dual peacekeeper 120 front and rear. Oh, yeah. Fast rolling compound and in both.
In both. Yeah. I think that's all they offer right now. Yeah. Um, I think a trail boss in the front like wouldn't be the worst thing ever if he's
like doing some aggressive stuff. Yeah, but you wouldn't want to pair that with a 120 out back. That was going to
be my my next thing. You want to pair that with a 60TP outback. Mhm. And the Peacekeeper casing runs a little
bit bigger than the Trail Boss, too. The Trail Boss is so much like a forecaster. Yeah, true. Yeah. Square. It's It's very very
similar. Yeah. So, uh I personally would do that. Peacekeeper front and rear or 120 TPI
peacekeeper front with a macro 120 rear. That's going to be my XC bike daily
combo when I get my XC bike built up soon. Yeah, that sounds like a good combo. That's like Look that up. Kind of like a
macro is almost like Icon, right? Yeah, it's it's going to be like, you know, Oh, yeah. It's It's almost like a
That'll be fast and light recon aspen combo or something like that. Yeah, but from WTB. It's going to be really
fast, really light. Um I like that. But yeah, dual peacekeeper is so sick. Um, I'm putting I'm building
up a rascal right now and that's going to get dual peacekeepers right now. I'm going to build like underbuild that bike
a little bit for when I get back in the dirt. I too want to try the dual peacekeeper
combo or the peacekeeper macro. That sounds like a great combo too. Yeah, peacekeeper macros with 120 is
definitely like, you know, in the XC realm. Yeah. Where dual peacekeeper 60TPI is like XC plus
light trail. Yeah. Yeah. Nice. Or going away. He said Victoria.
Uh the Sarah is what I'd recommend. Um Sarah, what about the Barzo?
Uh the Barzo is a little bit too round for me. I thought the Sarah had more bite and was more trusting on the front.
Um, I raced I raced Sarah Mezcow at Downey Bell. Sarah front, Mezcow rear.
Nice. But I think dual Sarah's is sick as well. Nice. I think that that was a great
answer to this guy's question. Yeah, that was perfect. Yeah. What do you think, Trevor? Would you do the same thing?
Um, yeah. I mean, I would do I would do dual priest keepers. I do like prefer
I'm not trying to like go crazy fast in racing and stuff. So, I wouldn't be opposed to putting a trail boss in the
front if I was going to the WTB line just cuz I do like relying on the grip of the front tire and then having the
rear tire kind of skate away if it needs to, but more just roll fast. I I I've always run that
setup as like a downount setup and I love it. So, I'm always a big fan of having like the the grippiest front tire possible,
even if it means a little bit slower rolling. Mhm. Um, but it is very satisfying to have
two fast rolling tires. So, um, I wouldn't be opposed to putting dual peacekeepers at all,
for sure. What about a 2.3 Vigilanti? Is that overkill? They don't make that anymore. Oh, yeah. I know.
What? 23 Vigi was one of my all-time favorite tires. That was a sick tire. Yeah. I didn't know that was a thing.
That's That sounds like a cool tire. It is like old school. Yeah, right. Um, before down was kind of a thing.
Yeah. Yeah, like me and Troden only ran those tires and it was sick cuz all I
had to buy was like three tires. I bought tough casing high grip for everything on like a big bike
and then light casing high grip on the front, light casing tough or light casing fast rolling for the back of like
a downount bike. Yeah. And like that was it. And then like Trail Boss 225. Yeah.
On a SP100. I think I raced one of those at Downeyville. I had it on SP 100. I had it on a
Mandreaker. Nice. Yeah, I like WTB and um I feel I kind of respect them a little bit because
they're their designs are not super typical. They're a little bit different than everybody else, but they're so good
for sure and they're kind of just Yeah. go against the norm a little bit. Like everything's kind of looking like an asy guy now and everyone everything's kind
of looking like a DHF and everyone's kind of copying the Maxis trend a little bit, but WTB is like in their own lane
for everything. I feel like their line is easy to understand. Yeah, I love that about it.
Tough casing or light casing. Yeah, says it all. High grip or fast rolling says it all.
They figured it out in that they'll you can mix and match those on some tires, some you can't, but like it's easy to
understand. Keep it simple. No. Yeah. No acronyms and weird things that you don't really follow and
everything. Racing performance. Yeah. Gum X 3C or just like random names. Yeah,
like it's hard to try hard to follow that stuff for sure. We're all so deep into this and it's still hard to follow it sometimes.
Like the continental one, you need like uh you know, you need like a map like a legend.
They have a what looks like a periodic table on the deciphered tire. the tire
casing grit and like come on ridiculous and then it's like it's just explained to me in in English words instead of
like logos you know like I have to look at the continental thing for like a minute to be like okay that's
the trail and that's one looks one one of them looks like a molecule one of them is a periodic table and I'm not sure what that corresponds
to all the time you know and and you got to realize like probably everybody if we're thinking this like
everybody's got to think this no one has any idea there's nobody who goes up to a con goes Yeah, that's the trail grip. And uh you
know, there's nobody. No, no, no. Maybe maybe the product guy who works
there. I doubt it. That's funny. Oh, that's funny. What is What's also
funny is question. Crazy question. What is it, Trevor? How would you pull off a perfect crime?
That is a great question. You know, I want to say it's it's in this era with phones and and technology
and all this craziness going on, it's harder to pull off a crime. Yeah. You know, like, you know, like in the
I'm just going to say the 80s, you could do kind of whatever you wanted to and as long as no one saw you
Yeah. doing it, you could probably get away with it. You had no GPS tracker on you. It's like even even like I I I'm a very
like I'm not trying to do crimes or anything like that. That's a forwarding.
We're pretty straight. So like I'm imagining like let's say like someone's trying to steal a bike, right? It would
be very dumb to steal a bike in today's day and age. Today's day and age because of Air Tags. Yeah. You know, like the possibility of
someone having an Air Tag on their super expensive bike. I see customers with Air Tags on their bikes all the time. Yeah. And you can hide them in bikes now and
like how is a random thief going to know that? I mean, thieves are going to be stupid and not think about stuff like that. But
chances of you stealing something and having it being tracked to wherever you are,
yeah, is very high. I'm just gonna say you, you know, I'm not gonna tell you
when I pull off the perfect crime, but you'll know cuz there'll be way too many Toyotas in my driveway.
Well, you guys, you see, I've been watching the show called uh Almost Got Away with It.
Oh, did I have I watched that? I think it's on Hulu or something, but I've seen there's a common theme with
the people who very very almost got away with it. like they were they were pretty
much they gotten away with it, but then they like slipped up, you know, they did something stupid like they committed another crime and then they got caught.
And the one thing they all did that almost they got away with was they changed their identity somehow.
And one guy would um he would assume the identities of homeless people
because because they're very little like they're very uh not frequently they're not in
the system, right? Yeah, you could easily assume somebody's identity and like you just got to hope they're not a criminal too, right?
Or or somebody who like an older person or something like that. So they changed their identity to that person.
They would assume that identity. Yeah. Yeah. And there's like this one guy who's crazy. It was insane. He basically
just like walked up to like DMV in like another country and just said he was somebody else and they're like, "Okay."
Boom. ID, new name, done. Wow. Yeah. So if you're going to do it,
that's how you do it. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. That's a good good plan. Yeah, it doesn't matter what you do, but
just pray in the homeless. Yeah. Just assume somebody else
less owned home or you got to I mean houseless. Yeah. Unhoused.
Unhoused. Yeah. Yeah. I don't know. The uh I think the um the Lou in Paris got robbed.
Yeah. a couple weeks ago and those guys just assumed they had any of the construction workers or
they stole the Fabra eggs which was like from Oceans 11. Yeah.
Where they did that, right? Something like that. They went through the lasers and stuff, but these guys just broke in and just like and just like
no one had any clue what was going on and they just did it and looked like they were fixing a window. Didn't they use like a cherry picker or
something? I mean I have said I think they got caught though. Yeah, they did. Did they the Lou thieves? They were caught
and but it was right before Halloween cuz people were dressing up as well, right? They were so it was like a couple months ago. Um
I've always said like I've done it a few times at like a Supercross or some event like that. You just act like you know
what you're doing. Yeah. Most of the time like you just roll through VIP and
you're like, "Hey, what up dude?" And there's like keep going like you and your posi just roll through and like 50%
of the time they stop you. 50% of the time they don't. That works at Supercross. Yeah. All the time. All the time.
I was I was 60% of the time. It works every time. All the time. Yeah. I was I was in like at uh at
Supercross this week this this week in A1 and I had like uh industry seats and it was like open industry GA so everyone
in and who has this ticket can just sit in this one section. It's like open seating. Yeah. And I had my buddy with me and he didn't
have that but he just sat with me and I no one ever checked any of our tickets. So
um yeah, it just didn't even matter. Sick, you know. Yeah. I I flagged a bunch of those when I was like 18 and
we could pretty much go everywhere but there's a few spots we couldn't but like same thing like you have like a high
enough pass and you just like you're like yeah what up and you just keep going and you just like literally roll all around like any stadium pits VIP
like I guess my my answer is going to go off of that is and it's just going to be high viz vest. Yeah,
you know, just pull into a pull into anywhere with a hive of his vest and um maybe a clipboard and a hard hat and
say you know say you know boss man sent you or something and my uh you don't want to hear the end of this one or something. You know
he pulled a Ricky from trailer park John Jeff or Jimmy whatever the heck his name
was. He sent me out here to get this job done. I got to get it done. He's all my ass. Yeah. When they steal all the furniture
from the school and he's like yeah he goes getting all new furniture. Oh okay. Yeah, give them the furniture.
Yeah. In my old photo bag, I used to always have a high vis because you never know, dude. You just pull it out and
That's smart. They know. They It looks like you know what you're doing. There's like media on the back. Yeah. Yeah. That's awesome.
Yeah. Very cool. I don't want to I don't want to give away this too much, but someone someone we know told me about uh you could for
getting onto an airline with with anything like Oh, yeah. You can uh you can print out like an ESPN pass, like a media pass.
Yeah. and they'll like cover $100 or something worth of whatever you're bringing saying
it was a camera and it's just like a a work thing just cover it.
They have like a like ESPN pass and it doesn't scan to anything. It's a it's a QR code
and if you make it look legit flights checking stuff on flights is so who you
get. Totally. Like all of us know when you bring a bike, when you bring a bike, you're rolling the dice of who you're
going to get and how smooth it's going to go. Yep. Yep. Pretty much.
Speaking of flying and going places, Trevor, you got this question from your
buddy. Where would you move to in California? Yeah. So, I just got a message on Instagram um literally two hours ago. Um
this man named uh Ryan, he uh get his Instagram. Ryan Bikes Ski is his Instagram handle. I guess he likes to
bike and ski. And he said, "Trevor, I believe we met back in uh at Sierra Norte, Trans Sierra Norte in Waka,
Mexico. In 2022, how have you been? Started listening to the WWC podcast last year and realized I remembered you
from the race." Anyway, I wanted to reach out cuz I currently live in Colorado, but I'm reluctant to move. Um,
blah blah blah, job prospects in Cali. He has a few potential options in LA and uh he wants to basically know where a
good place in California is to uh move to so you can ride a bike.
Well, you know, we made a pretty strong case for Santa Barbara earlier. Yes. And if you can swing it financially, I
honestly, you know, I'm I'm probably going to have to go with that. Weather's good. Riding's pretty darn
good. Really great downtown. Yeah. Good scene. Not too big of a city, but big enough.
Yeah. Has an airport. has an airport. That's pretty cool, actually. It is close to an airport. I mean, that's why
I also like where we live in Newbury Park, Thousand Oaks, Kaneo Valley. Mhm. Uh we got pretty good riding around
here. Not as like massive or like maybe as much legal stuff, but like if you know, you know there's good riding, good
road riding, mountain biking. I'm 45 minutes to an hour from LAX.
Yeah. Good. Same weather as Santa Barbara. Good all year round. It was What was it today? It was like mid70s today.
It was mid70s. We're warm today. Jared's wearing a short short shorts t-shirt and and uh Birkenstock with no socks.
Mid January. Mid Jan. Insane. It is insane. Um if I had to go outside of our bubble,
you know, Ventura County, Santa Barbara County. Mhm. I would either go Santa Cruz because I
love the riding the city. So So y But there's good spots like Aposto and like there's stuff outside of Santa Cruz
that's pretty good. or never live there, but I've done a bunch of riding and all kinds of stuff. Auburn area.
Just the access to the Sierras is so good. You're close enough to Sacramento for
same thing, an airport, big city or job or whatever. You could ride year round. You can ride close to year round if not
year round. Might be a little wet in the winters, but cuz I'm pretty sure the Reno guys go there to ride in the winter time.
Yeah. Yeah. They go over the pass and ride ride uh lower Auburn. Mhm. Yeah. So, those would be my spots. What
about you guys? Yeah, I think I think where we live is pretty pretty insane. Like you were saying, like the whole Santa Monica Mountains,
there's just trails everywhere. Like anywhere in LA where there's kind of mountains, there's trails.
Yeah. And most of them are pretty good. Um they so and so on if they're running on
a certain time of the year or not, but um yeah, there's trails everywhere. So where we live is pretty cool. I wouldn't
necessarily recommend living in the valley, the San Frernando Valley. I would live in Thousand Oaks instead. Yeah. Um Trev lives on the
I live in the valley farthest edge though. Like you're barely in the valley. I'm barely in the valley, but it's still the valley.
Like literally one exit in the valley. Yeah. Yeah. The valley circle is what it's called. Yeah. Which is pretty funny. Um so yeah, there
is pretty good. I think I have to copy Liam, honestly. Auburn's pretty sick. I've got a couple buddies that live up in Auburn and they used to race um
enduro and downhill and they uh I've I've got to got to visit them a couple times and Auburn's pretty sick. I've
I've heard people say it's like the endurance capital of the world. Tons of trail running out there and stuff. There's also like sick mountain bike
trails, river rafting, too. And yeah, you're like an hour from Tahoe. Yeah. Which is insane. I love riding in Tahoe.
And there's just endless riding there. Yeah. Um close to Reno, too. Close to Truckucky, down. This you're just like close to the
Sierras in general. So, if you There's so much stuff in the Sierras to just explore. It's It's honestly overwhelming.
Um so, I would I would pick Auburn as well. I think it's a pretty cool place actually. Yeah, it really depends on the kind of vibe you want, right? You can you can
get mountains, you get beach if you want, you get city. I'm also gonna say Lagona would be sick. Lagona would be sick if you could afford
it. If you can afford it, Orange County is a pretty nice place to live. Yeah, if you don't mind the density, it could get crazy with the tourists and
stuff. Um, also, North County, San Diego is pretty sick, you know, like uh was that like Oceanside and not a lot of
riding there. Not a lot of riding. You have to go inland. A lot of really fast and talented mountain bikers come from San Diego, but
they don't have any big hills in San Diego. Yeah, you got to go inland and you definitely have to drive to get to trails. Like you might have one
little zone to you, but you're not like linking a bunch of stuff. One of my old roommates like um was so
stoked on mountain biking here and he moved down to San Diego and he like he's still he rides still but not as much as he wants to
cuz he's like there's not a ton of trails and he gets kind of burnt out and doing the same thing. And again, there's not like
something awesome about doing a huge ride. Yeah. And you can't really do from the door big mountain climb. You can't really do
that there. But the weather is insane. Yeah. If you like to do other things like surf or you know
you know other stuff like that be in San Diego. It's just a nice place to It's a nice vibe there. I do like to visit San Diego. It's a
good time. San Diego. Uh well,
so how about this next question? Liam, you want to read that one? Yeah. From Instagram. Is this different?
Oh, no. That's from the second other question. All right. First off, thanks for the
podcast and for taking listener questions. I've been digging into anti-pedal kickback devices, ochain and
the like. I'm curious on what your take is and how effectively they actually are. Worth the money or snake oil? I do
raise enduros when they are close to me. I already run a DTS Swiss 350DEG hub, so
the upgrade would be the easiest for me and I can run it as zero for regular trail riding. Um, yeah, you answered the
question right there. Uh, He's straight up dead. They're They're not snake oil. They're
not a magic ticket, right? Like they fall somewhere in the middle. It's definitely noticeable.
But the 350 DG, the coolest thing about it is literally I forget. I don't know what it retails for, but it's not
expensive. The DF kit, I think it's like 100 bucks, maybe. A little over 100 bucks, I think. Pop it in and you can backtoback runs 0
1020 degree. You can see the difference for yourself and it's something you really love. I would say that the the
350 DEG is the easiest to use, the least amount of maintenance, and the cheapest.
However, I probably would put Ochane as like a dedicated anti- kipback like
chain device as a better device. Would you guys Especially the Especially the one where the new one where you can change on the
fly like by reaching down and doing it. That's huge. It's huge. But it's you know what 4 or
500 bucks for that. It requires services. Service is a pain. Yeah. Trevor and I literally were looking at
one yesterday. I think today. Today. And uh I'm like I don't have time for this right now. Yeah. And and we both were like, "Oh,
mine need to come apart." And both of us were like, "Screw that." Like literally don't want to do that.
Whereas this is just like plug and play. This is like nothing to go wrong with it. I'm going to have that system on my
Rascal and my ritual this year uh to mess around with it and use it if
I want it and don't if I don't. like we spec them on the on the trail one wheels for the same reasons like it just it
just makes a lot of sense. The DF kit or just I saw that um Reserve wheels are
offering that as a free like upgrade upgrade. Yeah. It just makes sense to put it on. It's like
it's hard to even justify getting a normal 350 hub over the the DEG hub
for sure because you can do that. Well, and it's just better better bearing, better stance, you know, more
points of engagement if you want it. So, like the DG hub. Yeah. Well, I don't know why you'd buy a normal one.
Yeah. I've been I've been running it for a while now and it's been great. I've been running the 10 degree for a little bit now and um I I don't even really
notice it. It feels like just a 36 to be honest with you. And uh it's great.
Yeah. But the plus side is is like the way that the spring loads it, right? It's like it makes it more consistently
Yeah. It just makes it more consistent. It's very similar to a 36 to, don't get me wrong. Like it's it's very similar.
Yeah. But it it guarantees you that you're not going to have any catch-ups or bindings
in that. It just guarantees that you're going to have the same consistent anti- kickback.
Yeah. Or non-engagement than than otherwise it would be essentially a lower engagement like a 36
to be 10 degree or zero degree depending on where the P's going to catch. And
like the guy says he races like you're not going to win a race because of it, but you it might help you with
confidence or smoothness a little bit which help you go a little faster. Yeah. Fatigue over a long run. It just it's
very marginal stuff. Like very marginal, but it'll help. Yeah. Yeah. It's pretty special. It's cool that
people were making improvements like this on bikes, you know, that you can, you know, like you said, marginal gains,
but you can just modify your bike in this little way and make it a little better. If you already have that, yeah, just a norainer. No brainer. Yeah.
How about this next one? What's up, boys? Been loving the podcast. Pumpcy and Downyville. My question is, my wife
rides a 2023 Rocky Mountain Altitude 160170, I think, on all our trails,
which range from XC to Enduro. She loves the long travel, but has pretty slow rolling tires. She's a good rider, but
not super aggressive. If we are riding mostly blue trails, would a faster rolling tire on an enduro bike be
beneficial? I was thinking maybe Forecaster new dissector combo. other brands with faster rolling trail tires.
What do you think? Always got a place to stay in Montana when you make it up here. Happy holidays. Cheers, Corey.
What's up, Corey? Is that Cory? Cory, that's Cory. Cory. Oh, nice. Yeah, he's coming to Downeyville. We'll see him there. Oh, sick.
Yeah. Going to have a sweet little squad. Um, honestly, that new dissector sounds like the perfect candidate for
that bike. Even run it front and rear. I would run that front. I would even run it front on a big bike. Like, I wouldn't put a forecaster on that
bike. Yeah. Yeah. There's like a distinct difference between the forecaster and the new dissector.
Mhm. And like the forecaster's got very small little knobs and the the dissector has way
bigger knobs that aren't going to like be kind of weird. I don't know. It's hard to explain, but yeah,
they I the I haven't ridden the new Decector, but I already know it's going to give me way more confidence riding
than the forecaster ever would. Yeah. And you were running dual forecasters on your 140 when you're like
trying to get a faster setup out of it. Uh-huh. And Yeah. And I ran that at Downeyville and um this is a Downyville
thing, but I would have even run faster than that. Yeah, it was even I had too much traction. But regardless, for a 16
170 bike, I think the the sector front and rear with some different casings um or different compounds would be great.
Yeah. What are you guys thinking about light casing Albert's front and rear too? Could be good.
Yeah. Albert trail rading like just the trail casing. I've been running those.
Um Oh, for this question. Yeah. Still a little slow though. Probably. Yeah. They're slower than dissectors.
Yeah. And it's still probably what 150 150 grams heavier. I think that's a good option.
Yeah. Cuz I've been running those on my druid and it's it's like my trail setup right now and uh it's consistent and
it's I I don't think it's too slow. Yeah. I mean, if they do have like roots and stuff or whatever, like it it
probably would match the capability of the bike a little better than the If they're in Montana, I think I'd rather have that than the Deectors.
Yeah, I'd like to know what's on there now. Probably an as guy or something if it's that kind of bike.
Yeah. Yeah. But yeah, Albert would be a would probably be a good choice. Albert's like a mini as a guy. Yeah. And that's how the dissector is though,
too. I I see the Albert and Dctor, the new dissector like almost identical. Yeah. Yeah.
Mhm. I haven't gone back to back on him, but it was just like comparing visually. Yeah, they are very similar.
Yeah. Very interesting. I guess it just depends on if you wanted to have the radial the radial or not.
Yeah. If you want if you want that. Yeah, true. I was thinking about doing Albert's for the Tasmania trip actually said though.
We'll see. Trail front, rear, gravity rear, trail front maybe. Honestly, you could just probably do
trail front rear probably. But some of those trails were really rocky. They were rocky but like they weren't like sharp edge rocky. They're all like
hard bottom out rocky cuz you're a magic mary for the front. Maybe
it's hard. It's like rolling like Rocky Peak post rain every everywhere. Post rain.
Yeah. Oh, really? Like you know how Rocky Peak is that super hard pack fast like almost like a bike park?
Yeah, it is. It's a bike park. Yeah. So, a lot of the trails there's some fluff but not a lot. It was mostly a
hard pack. So, you could get away with like a double Albert probably. I think so. Yeah. Gravity casing
maybe in the rear. I was thinking almost trail. Really? Mhm. I think a rascal there would be so
sick or a 140. Yeah. Like I think having the frameworks was good in times, but I would have I
could have ridden a smaller bike and had probably more fun as a whole. Yeah. Yeah.
It's the neverending, you know, why we answer a lot of tire questions is cuz you it's like it kind
of changes the way your ride is. Yeah. You know, for sure. There's so many combos out there you can change. And we always like to run like
same same uh brand tires and like keep it consistent, but you can change brands if you wanted to. Double front, rear,
whatever you want to do. You really just don't want to be overt tired and you don't want to be undert tired like pretty much regardless,
right? Like Yeah. You know, to put it simply,
yeah, I'm so crazy about it, too. Like I know Liam is too, but it's like if I
have like a setup on my garage or something and or my bikes has it set up a certain way, I'm like, "All right, I'm
not even going to think about riding X trail because it's not going to be ideal."
Yeah. You know, it's like it's a problem. You got to be fully optimized. It's like, it's not optimized. I'm not
going to have the best time possible. Like, it could be better if I just put different tires on. I'm not even going
to ride. legitimate risk though of like not enough tire, you're going to crash,
you're going to get hurt, you're going to break your crap out of your wrist, wait in a puncture, break a wheel or puncture. And like you said, you
could have a sad ride from a puncture. Mhm. I want all my rides to be as happy as possible.
Sad ride. You have too much tire and now you're slow, you're sloggy, you're not carrying enough speed, and
now you're sad again. And God forbid you're with people that have fast tires and you have slow tires. Go back to Zach's comment.
Yeah. Uh, you can't have a sad ride on a bike if you have the correct tires.
I agree with that. I agree with that. This This brought the podcast full circle, guys. Oh, man.
Oh, that's amazing. Well said, Liam. Yeah, I corrected Zach's comment. That's something that makes me very
happy is having the if I have like the right tire setup, I'm like, "Yeah, I'm optimized right now. This is awesome.
I'm rolling faster. I have so much grip right now. Like, this is the best." And I like will see
other people with like a different setup or something and I'm like, idiot. Having a better time.
No, it's not that. I'm just kidding. I'm just kidding. I'm I'm I'm having a My experience is marginally better cuz my
tires are stuck to the ground right now. Yeah. Yeah. It's crazy, but I think we're all just a little crazy about it.
Yeah, we are. There's a reason why my garage has two massive boxes of tires, right? Yeah.
Well, how about this next one, boys? Trevor, you want to read that? Yeah. Uh, longtime listener, first- time rider. Thanks for the pod. Enjoy the
conversations. I ride in Vermont with my wife on mountain gravel and fat bikes. It's pretty cool. Fat bikes in the
winter in Vermont. Pretty dope. Um I do a fair amount of wrenching for her since she rides about 300 days a year. Wow. Um I am looking for advice on
tire pressure gauges. We have several We have tried several but not found a suitable solution to trying the new
Schwabby radio tires this fall and it is now fatback season. Accurate tire pressure is more important. So do you
have any recommendations for a reliable and accurate gauge? Do you have any suggestions for an inflator with a
gauge? I want to find an easy solution for her to check and top off her bike tire before we ride, preferably without
using a compressor. We carry CO2 on the trail for a rare flat. Um, do you have any feedback on the new small battery
inflators? Some good questions. That's a good question. I think it's an important question, too.
SKS is the one that you like. I use the SKS and I have like five of them that float all over my toolbox at
home, my travel pack, like all over the place in my car. And I
think I don't think they're probably accurate at like 100% accurate from device to device, but I think SKS like a
Topi sticking with SKS is going to be more accurate. And those also give you
like point decimal decimal points five, right? Or is it even more? It's it's every tenth.
Oh wow. Yeah, that is where the Topi doesn't. I think Topi's.5. I don't think Topek does it at all. It's
just straight. Yeah. No decimal in the Topek. Yeah. Yeah. So that's why I go the SKS is cuz
it gives you that tenth. Mhm. Um Dang. Yeah. I I use a Top Peak and I just I've
always used it and that just is what it is. That's that's all that's my only reason. And um I I keep a tire gauge in my helmet um
so that I never forget. I have one in my toolbox. I have one in my car. Exactly. Like it just like they're
everywhere if and there's sometimes I don't have one and I'm freaking out inside. Well, and then I'm straight up freaking
out. Then that way you can use any pump and you just need a gauge, right? Like you don't have a pump with a drill head
or something like that or like you know shop compressor. I don't even have like a gauge on my compressor at home. I just
fill it up and then you know I use the the gauge for what I need.
There you go. I think a handy thing that I try to do is like the night before a ride I'll overinflate my tires so that when I get
to the trail head in the morning I don't have to pump any tires. I can just deflate tire a little bit. That just saves so much effort and time and makes
your morale a little bit higher. It's a great tip. Set yourself up or great tip. Set yourself up for success the night before.
Yes, that's by waxing lubing train or wax based. For sure. Just Yeah. Set yourself up for
success. Like get dialed and you won't be stressed in the morning cuz you never have time in the morning to do that anyway. So
yeah. Um um and the small battery inflators. I've only used the Silka ones. It's probably nice. Silas
like pretty dialed and then that's all I've used. Probably kind of pricey, aren't they? Like a
Yeah, they're probably, you know, 20 30 bucks more than like a name brand one and probably double the price of
like a like a straight Alibaba Amazon one. But yeah, I think using what you pay for using a a
tire gauge checker is uh or gauges can't be understated. like um I feel like I've
been doing this for a while and I still don't trust my hand pump or my um tire
pump. That thing lives in the back of my truck. But anyway, there's no way the thing's accurate. I don't think they're
any any of them are really that accurate. And then um also just like people say like they
feel the sidewall the tire or they they push it down or like that's not consistent. I I I work on bikes all all day and I
still don't trust myself for testing it. Like I don't know what PSI that is. You can tell if it's too low. Right.
Yeah. I can tell if it's too low or too hard. Definitely. By like 5 PSI. You're not getting within
5. Yeah. Like the extreme ends like um I can't tell cuz it's casing to casing, tire to tire. It's going to
change the way it feels by squishing it. So when people just do that, I'm just like, you just don't know what you're doing cuz
you just need to have it. You need to have it be accurate. It's just the most important variable to eliminate and
how to set up for your success for a happy ride. Yeah. Unless I'm just like going down the road, then you need to check with an
accurate a gauge. Like with my las floor pump, um if I just like inflate it and
then like I tap the gauge on the pump, it goes like down 5 psi. Okay. So, I can't trust that at all.
Yeah. I wonder like there's some pumps that have a digital reading on it. I wonder how accurate that is. Oh, yeah.
Lazy had them for a while. They just kind of This was early on when they first started making them and they're finicky for sure.
Like the seals. It' be a good thing to test actually to see like um get like a pencil gauge or something and or analog
gauge and then test it to the different things. It'd be hard to test because every time you lose PSI though.
Yeah, true. That is true. I was just thinking it would be very interesting to like compare both gauges like the top peak and the
SKS, but you're they would lose air if unless you do it like super quick, but even then. Yeah, it'd be hard to even if it's
within like one PSI like hard to make that consistent. Yeah, it would be but that would be a good test. Mhm.
Um, yeah. What do you guys say we have uh time for one more question here? This next one, number five, or should we
skip that cuz that one is massive. Um, let's see. Yeah, let's go to number six. Yeah, let's go number six.
Recently got a MRP damper for my Yari to get more custom and avoid charger maintenance approach. I love it so much.
Are there any other boutique component part replacement you all recommend for value or nerdery? I tried the MRT MRP
damper on my Pike and I liked it. Is this is the damper or is it the little volume adjuster?
Just the damper. Okay. Yeah. Huh. That's pretty cool. Yeah. So, they had a drop in replacement. It's really great for like
a Yari or what's the other one? Uh, a Judy.
No, there's a Pike equivalent or Yeah, a Yari and a Lyric or something
like that. Anyways, I'm forgetting um try to focus on uh starts with a D.
Anyway, domain. They're great for those, right? Because it it elevates it better than that
damper came with. Yeah. But it's not like uh you know, premium or I should say Rock Shocks is top line.
It puts it near equal to that. Um other boutique. I will I will say as far
as like the Rock Shock stuffs goes like the Select Plus option for Rock Shocks is insane value.
It's pretty cheap and you just I'm pretty sure all you lose is Buttercups and I don't know how much you can tell
Buttercups anyway. So like the Charger 3.1 damper is like pretty legit. Solid. Well, this isn't boutique either, but
the Stram Maven base brakes so dialed for the price. So good. Yeah, it's hard. Yeah, for boutique and
value is hard. Um cuz a lot of time the boutique stuff is not value is not a a
budget value thing. It's valuable. But yeah. Um talk about marginal gains. Um I've heard
the bike yolk shifty is kind of a cool little thing to add to your derailer pulley.
It just kind of uh has a nicer feedback to it. James and Reno put one on his Eagle 90
derailer. Yeah, I should put that on my Eagle 90 derailer. Yeah, I think I'll do too. I'm a big fan of keeping stuff stock,
you know? I just love it. just stuff is so good right now. Yeah. Um there's nothing that I like to do
that's like out in the weeds. It's tough. Bike bike parts have gotten to the point
you don't really need to search for those solutions as much anymore. For sure. But I will say
uh I think both of you guys can attest to how well this worked. It takes apart his value for asking.
That's what I mean. It's hard. But it is damn sick. the ceramic speed
uh oversized pulley wheel setup that I put on my Eagle 90 derailer. Yeah, cuz remember I was like, "Dude, this
feels so draggy." And I was like, "We're dragging it." And like literally checking every component. I'm like, "It
has to be these pulley wheels. Everything feels buttery." Replace bearings. I have a ceramic speed bottom bracket.
I put on the ceramic speed uh pulley kit and it's like gliding on ice. It is. So,
it took away It's pretty insane. I don't know. It probably took away multiple watts from that. Like I think
it saves like two to five watts or something like that from a XX1 derailer. It probably save 5
to 10 from this Eagle 90. From your from yours for sure. Yeah. Like a lot. A lot. Were those pulley wheels metal or were
they on the 90 or the on the the ceramics? Carbon. No, they're they're I think they're polyurethane.
Polyurethane. I think that's that's a a a good thing cuz I I used to run uh Kogal bearings or Kogal pulley wheels on
a team I was on and they're metal like we're sponsored by them and they're metal and sure they're like will last a long time but they're loud.
They're loud. They're loud. I do think they are efficient but they're loud. Yeah. So it was like the trade-off
wasn't really worth it cuz it made the drivetrain louder and just in all aspects. Um so yeah. But no, the ceramic speed
ones are they're a little pricey for sure. But I did the math by getting the
Eagle 90 derailer and the oversight polar wheel kit. My derailer was about the same price as a XXSL,
but lighter and more efficient. Wow. Yeah. I think something that answers this question would be u maybe like a
coil conversion kit for a fork. I had that same thought, too. Like a smash pot. Yeah. Like smash. I've
installed one of those before for a customer's bike on like an ebike and he had a coil shock and yeah, the fork felt awesome honestly. It
was like super supple and I did that on my Zeb a while back and I liked it. Yeah, Vorsprung used to be sick as a
whole for that and same thing like they come out Yeah, yeah, they came out with a product and then Rock is like,
"Yep, that's a good solution. We're just going to build it in now." Yeah. Like the new boxes, huh? Like the
prototype ones. the It looks like something like that. Yeah, like it looks like a Warsprung type deal.
Yeah, it's like a a tunable tunable cartridge or something that's going to plug in the fork.
It's interesting. Um yeah, I don't know. I'll have to come back on like some of these boutique.
But honestly, that was my first initial thought was like, "Oh yeah, Vorprung makes some great stuff."
And they used to be way more popular, I feel like, and now this stuff from these big manufacturers are so good.
Yeah. Um, it's like I there's no I can't I can't even find anything to complain about. It's like I don't want to change
any of this. I don't want to change like shim stacks or or tuning or like unless
you're at the end of the range of something. No. Yeah. Or if you're like a super light rider and you need like a custom tune or
something. Yeah. I put this was years back like Charger 2 days. I think I put the Push
HS2 damper in. Yeah. And it's like you take apart the whole damper and it's this upper and it's like same thing like shim stacks
and all this stuff. But made a significant change to that bike back then. But uh yeah like as soon as the
Charger 3 came out like fix that issue. Yeah there you can tune so much stuff now. Like talk about value volume
spacers or negative volume spacers if you really wanted to like change something up. Yeah. Oh that's a good one though. the
uh deluxe X linear XL air can. It's like a magnet but new.
There you go. You can totally change the way the shock feels. Like completely different. Yep. That's pretty sick. Um
I feel like those those coil conversions are are dope, but like I feel like the coil forces are so linear and like
heavy. You're adding a pound. I don't love them. Like it would be good for somewhere like Santa Barbara. Yeah.
You know where you want it to be just like soaking up everything. so supple. Like the coil forks do feel amazing. But let's say you're like jumping or
like doing any trail where you're like going to flat, you're just going to blow through the travel so hard.
And you don't really want that from a fork. I don't think I personally do not. No. I want I want to be able to like
I like to do like a rear wheel and then front wheel just goes boom straight straight.
So much force into that. And you you need like a progressive system to do some people's riding style.
Yeah. I had like a overstroke smuggler back in the day, like an alloy one. Oh, and I had like coil rear and coil front
and like an alloy. It was kind of a sick bike. Like your uh offering, you had the push coil. Yeah, I push coil and push on that as
well. Yeah. I didn't like it on the offering. It didn't fit the bike. I liked it better on the Smuggler. Mhm. What bike did you put the trust fork on?
Uh I had it on SP 100. That was a demo, I believe. Yeah. And that bike got stolen
and then I and then I rode for trust for like a couple months there and I put it on a Mandreaker Foxy.
No, sorry. Mondreaker F podium. That's right. And it really matched that bike well. Like the way that suspension worked.
What travel was that considering? 130ish. Okay. So, it was like it was like a shorter travel thing. Down.
Do they have a bigger travel version? They had the message. Oh, no. The message was the short and the big one was like the Oh, man.
I was kind of out of the bike industry during that whole time. Like I was just I was riding. I forgot what the big one was called. I never rode the big one. Um
I only rode the the short travel and this was like 130ish and it paired well with that bike cuz it's kind of
had this like weird stiff off the top feeling, but like it did work well. That would be a fork to run at Sanro or
tunnel. Yes. Would be sick. Shout. The shout. Trust shout. That was the long travel one. Yeah. for like
Yeah, they're interesting. They definitely had some massive cons, but also some massive pros.
Yeah, talk about boutique. That's boutique. Two grand for a trust fork. That was the
biggest thing, honestly. You know what's crazy is FO or a new podium's two grand. You don't even get the fender.
Yeah, dude. I can't believe that. Oh, man. It is a sick fork, but man,
that fender is just hideous. I don't know. I just can't believe it doesn't come with it. Yeah, same thing. I think
there's big pros and big cons. If you if it did come with it, would you put it on?
No, I wouldn't. You wouldn't. I wouldn't run that. I mean, honestly, I've been running my uh ASR without a fender for since I
built it and like I love a fender. I don't miss it that much. Like in the mud.
You'll miss it when you need it. Exactly. You have been riding in the mud a little bit. A little bit. Yeah, it's fine. Plenty. Yeah. I don't I mean like if
you're going fast in the mud though, Yeah. you'll stuff will fly out in your face. I always run rock shocks and every
fork they make has a fender bolt on them. It's worth it for have it on when you have new tires cuz that stuff gets flown
up. True. On like sandy trails and stuff. It does bum me out that they don't make a bolt-on fender for the 34. Like
there's the there's the bolt holes there. If it looked like the the podium fender, would you run it?
I put a zip tie fender on there so fast. Oh yeah. Yeah. But I I just don't get it cuz they
I I don't know. I guess they don't have a way to mount the lower part, right? Yeah, cuz like on the 36 it goes to the farms,
but none of the rock shocks mount that way. True. It just all goes to the top of the crown, right? Back
fender mounting. Yeah. Yeah. I don't know. It's funny cuz like on on a dirt bike, they're all inverted forks and a dirt
bike is so standard, but it's so much bigger. Yeah. But like it matches the aesthetic of the dirt bike.
And that podium for fender looks worse than any dirt bike fender I've ever seen. That's what I mean. It's like it's like
it's like so it just looks good on a dirt bike. Yeah, it doesn't it's not in the right spot on that fork though. That's the problem.
They're way lower on a moto. And like it's also a dirt bike. It's different different thing. But
same same but different. I saw somebody who's like the only person in the comments who like was praising it. They're like, "Oh, this is
going to look so sick with my handguards and my number plate." And I'm just like, I don't think they're praising it, Jared. Yeah. You don't think
it might be sarcasm with the number plate and handguard? Yeah. I don't know, dude. Totally. Oh, dude. There you just got
trolled, dude. I guess so. That's That's sarcasm. He's saying it looks like a moto. Well, they tricked the the moderator on
the Fox account cuz they were like, "So glad you like it." They tricked you, too. They tricked me, too.
Sounds like he won. Yeah. Well, they seem sincere in the comments, so I guess I'm just that gullible.
That's funny. Yeah. Uh, you know what else is kind of funny is I think that just about wraps
up this episode. Is that funny? That's hilarious.
Oh my god. And uh thank you guys so much for tuning in. We truly do appreciate it. Our first podcast of the year.
Yes. Yeah. First one of the year. A minute. Yeah. It's been about what a month or something like that. Yeah. We took a little hiade.
Have a little break for the holidays and we're back now. So these are going to be rolling out more consistently. Back
action. So yeah, thank you guys so much for tuning in. We really do appreciate it. See you later. See you. Love you.
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