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Today with us on the Incite Change Podcast, Coach Mauro sits down with Anna Stavrakos. Anna is a mom, wife and Schwinn, AMP & EDG cycle instructor who has enjoyed cycling for over 15 years. Like many others, she started her fitness journey by exploring the avenues of several fitness classes for personal fitness and well-being. She takes us through her journey of how she navigated trauma and bounced back from her “rock bottom moment” after diving into her fitness journey. She encourages everyone who wants a change to start with their mind and then the physical. The mental health component of fitness is important because it will allow you to show up everyday. Listen to Anna's inspirational story of prioritizing herself, navigating life's responsibilities and trauma and showing up everyday. Episode Timestamps ● [01:30] Who is Anna? ● [06:10] 6 Classes ● [12:42] Community Matters ● [16:52] Overcoming Trauma ● [26:22] Getting in the Groove ● [31:49] Lost an Aniston ● [40:58] Start with the Mind ● [47:14] Show up at your Best ● [54:18] Community and Fitness ● [59:53] Before you get Started Resources Mentioned ● Instagram: @anna_divein ● Cycling Quotes [Anna] “Show up at your best.” [Anna] “Celebrate You” [Mauro] “Head First. Dive In” Thanks so much for tuning in. Join us again next week for another episode! Contact us! If you would like to get in touch, leave us a comment! Visit our website - www.healthyincite.com Follow us on Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/incitecoaching/?hl=en Like us on Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/incitecoaching/
We've all heard of Schwinn bikes. have you heard the story though? You already know we got the scoop for you. Come and learn with us!Send us a textSupport the showCheck out our weekly newsletter! Also, catch Dario on the new season of Netflix's "High On the Hog" here!!If you have anything you'd like us to talk about on the podcast, food or history, please email us at media@77flavorschi.com WATCH US ON YOUTUBE HERE! Visit our website https://www.77flavorschi.com Follow us on IG: 77 Flavors of Chicago @77flavorschi Dario @i_be_snappin Sara @sarafaddah
A Patrick Kane autographed jersey, Schwinn bikes, and Tonka trucks. What do all of these items have in common? They could be worth money! Check it out before you throw it out with Americash! Brian Hoogeveen, The Cash Man from Americash Jewelry & Coin Buyers, joins Jon Hansen to discuss items that could be worth money. If […]
We have some very deep thoughts about Strange Adventures from DC Comics on this week's show. We also review Conan: Battle of the Black Stone #4 from Titan Comics, The Ultimates #7 from Marvel Comics, and Missing on the Moon #1 from Mad Cave Studios! Show your thanks to Major Spoilers for this episode by becoming a Major Spoilers Patron at http://patreon.com/MajorSpoilers. It will help ensure the Major Spoilers Podcast continues far into the future! Join our Discord server and chat with fellow Spoilerites! (https://discord.gg/jWF9BbF) RPG NEWS Rodrigo wrote an expansion for the Beacon RPG system! Check out Prismaxia here https://pirategonzalezgames.itch.io/prismaxia REVIEWS STEPHEN CONAN: BATTLE OF THE BLACK STONE #4 Writer: Jim Zub Artist: Jonas Scharf Publisher: Titan Comics Cover Price: $3.99 Release Date: December 04, 2024 CONAN OF CIMMERIA is haunted by shadows, living nightmares connected to a mysterious eye symbol etched in BLACK STONE. An unspeakable evil looms over the Hyborian Age and every age connected to it... and it will take more than a lone barbarian to stop its relentless march upon time, space, and sanity. [rating:3.5/5] You can purchase this issue via our Amazon affiliate link - https://amzn.to/49bXAXn MATTHEW THE ULTIMATES #7 Writer: Deniz Camp Artist: Juan Frigeri Publisher: Marvel Comics Cover Price: $4.99 Release Date: December 4, 2024 WHO ARE THE ULTIMATES? A NEW STORY ARC BEGINS! Perfect jumping-on point for the uninitiated! The aftermath of the explosive last issue - including the loss of a major member! Join the Ultimates in their secret HQ as they regroup and launch their bold new plan to change the world! [rating:2.5/5] You can purchase this issue via our Amazon affiliate link - https://amzn.to/3ODyHKB RODRIGO MISSING ON THE MOON #1 Writer: Cory Crater Artist: Damian Couceiro Publisher: Mad Cave Studios Cover Price: $4.99 Release Date: Dec 18, 2024 "The year is 1997, and crime on the Moon runs rampant...and in the Lunar colony of Buzztown, a billionaire's daughter has just gone missing. Washed-up private investigator Daniel Schwinn is tasked with finding the missing child, but in the process discovers a dark conspiracy stemming back decades... Schwinn will have to navigate a world of undead drug addicts, mechanized robocops, and blue-skinned Soviets known as Darksiders to discover the truth. In doing so, he'll have to confront his own allegiances, and try to atone for past mistakes since resurfaced. [rating: 3.5/5] You can purchase this issue via our Amazon affiliate link - https://amzn.to/4eW1qFn DISCUSSION STRANGE ADVENTURES Writer: Tom King Artist: Mich Gerads and Evan Shaner Publisher DC Comics Cover Price: $24.74 Release Date: December 2021 Adam Strange is the hero of Rann, a man famous throughout the galaxy for his bravery and honor. After leading his adopted home to victory in a great planetary war, Adam and his wife Alanna retire to Earth, where they are greeted by cheers, awards, and parades. But not all is as happy and nice as it seems, as the decisions Adam made during battles on Rann come back to haunt his family and threaten the entire DC Universe. Now his fate rests in the hands of one of his fellow heroes, Mr. Terrific, who must choose between saving Adam or the world. Collects Strange Adventures #1-12. CLOSE Contact us at podcast@majorspoilers.com Call the Major Spoilers Hotline at (785) 727-1939. A big Thank You goes out to everyone who downloads, subscribes, listens, and supports this show. We really appreciate you taking the time to listen to our ramblings each week. Tell your friends!
We have some very deep thoughts about Strange Adventures from DC Comics on this week's show. We also review Conan: Battle of the Black Stone #4 from Titan Comics, The Ultimates #7 from Marvel Comics, and Missing on the Moon #1 from Mad Cave Studios! Show your thanks to Major Spoilers for this episode by becoming a Major Spoilers Patron at http://patreon.com/MajorSpoilers. It will help ensure the Major Spoilers Podcast continues far into the future! Join our Discord server and chat with fellow Spoilerites! (https://discord.gg/jWF9BbF) RPG NEWS Rodrigo wrote an expansion for the Beacon RPG system! Check out Prismaxia here https://pirategonzalezgames.itch.io/prismaxia REVIEWS STEPHEN CONAN: BATTLE OF THE BLACK STONE #4 Writer: Jim Zub Artist: Jonas Scharf Publisher: Titan Comics Cover Price: $3.99 Release Date: December 04, 2024 CONAN OF CIMMERIA is haunted by shadows, living nightmares connected to a mysterious eye symbol etched in BLACK STONE. An unspeakable evil looms over the Hyborian Age and every age connected to it... and it will take more than a lone barbarian to stop its relentless march upon time, space, and sanity. [rating:3.5/5] You can purchase this issue via our Amazon affiliate link - https://amzn.to/49bXAXn MATTHEW THE ULTIMATES #7 Writer: Deniz Camp Artist: Juan Frigeri Publisher: Marvel Comics Cover Price: $4.99 Release Date: December 4, 2024 WHO ARE THE ULTIMATES? A NEW STORY ARC BEGINS! Perfect jumping-on point for the uninitiated! The aftermath of the explosive last issue - including the loss of a major member! Join the Ultimates in their secret HQ as they regroup and launch their bold new plan to change the world! [rating:2.5/5] You can purchase this issue via our Amazon affiliate link - https://amzn.to/3ODyHKB RODRIGO MISSING ON THE MOON #1 Writer: Cory Crater Artist: Damian Couceiro Publisher: Mad Cave Studios Cover Price: $4.99 Release Date: Dec 18, 2024 "The year is 1997, and crime on the Moon runs rampant...and in the Lunar colony of Buzztown, a billionaire's daughter has just gone missing. Washed-up private investigator Daniel Schwinn is tasked with finding the missing child, but in the process discovers a dark conspiracy stemming back decades... Schwinn will have to navigate a world of undead drug addicts, mechanized robocops, and blue-skinned Soviets known as Darksiders to discover the truth. In doing so, he'll have to confront his own allegiances, and try to atone for past mistakes since resurfaced. [rating: 3.5/5] You can purchase this issue via our Amazon affiliate link - https://amzn.to/4eW1qFn DISCUSSION STRANGE ADVENTURES Writer: Tom King Artist: Mich Gerads and Evan Shaner Publisher DC Comics Cover Price: $24.74 Release Date: December 2021 Adam Strange is the hero of Rann, a man famous throughout the galaxy for his bravery and honor. After leading his adopted home to victory in a great planetary war, Adam and his wife Alanna retire to Earth, where they are greeted by cheers, awards, and parades. But not all is as happy and nice as it seems, as the decisions Adam made during battles on Rann come back to haunt his family and threaten the entire DC Universe. Now his fate rests in the hands of one of his fellow heroes, Mr. Terrific, who must choose between saving Adam or the world. Collects Strange Adventures #1-12. CLOSE Contact us at podcast@majorspoilers.com Call the Major Spoilers Hotline at (785) 727-1939. A big Thank You goes out to everyone who downloads, subscribes, listens, and supports this show. We really appreciate you taking the time to listen to our ramblings each week. Tell your friends!
Josh and Deb are joined by surprise special guest, Alicia Schwinn aka Deb's sister! She joins the show to talk about: -Fun stories from growing up with Deb -Was Alicia really a “dream killer” like Deb said in a previous episode -What Alicia would and wouldn't want Deb to bring to Thanksgiving dinner -And much more! We also talk about listener submitted responses to questions we posted on Instagram about Thanksgiving. This was a really fun episode! We hope you enjoy it and have Happy Thanksgiving! FOLLOW US AT: Instagram: connectablepodcast YouTube: Connectable Podcast Facebook: connectablepodcast Twitter: connectablepod TikTok: connectablepodcast #connectablepodcast
John Kirkcaldie, an absolute legend of New Zealand downhill racing joins us this week to discuss just about everything from his years of racing in the USA - The bikes, the contracts, the antics, we leave very few stones unturned! JK did it all, from his early days as a privateer on a Foes, to being part of the factory Schwinn power house team with Dave Cullinan, to his very successful years with Maxxis racing on the Norba circuit. Maxxis Tyres - New Zealand's tyre of choice! To see the full line up from Maxxis, check out www.marleen.co.nz/brands/maxxis.html If you enjoy the OTB Podcast and would like to support, please consider joining us on Patreon and help keep the podcast alive. This isn't even close to a job for us and is done for your enjoyment! https://www.patreon.com/TheOTBPodcast
It's been a while, but Bike Shop Society is back on the saddle. In this episode, Joe is joined at the bike shop by a friend of the shop and podcast fan, Joe Torres. It's been a busy year, and the two Joes haven't had much time to catch up during the season. Listen as they reminisce about the early days of the bike shop and some of the young people who have come and gone over the years. Later in the podcast, we learn that Joe Torres has a side hustle as a basement mechanic—find out how he got started and what he thinks of vintage Schwinn bicycles. Finally, the pandemic introduced a whole new group of people to the sport of cycling. What does this mean for the future of the bike shop, and why is it such an interesting time to be in the business? So settle in and let us pour you a cup of Joe!X us @bikeshopsociety @cyclingreporter @joegasparWant a shoutout on the pod, do you like to write letters?Email us: mail@bikeshopsociety.comVisit our website, or don't. bikeshopsociety.com
Send us a textArt has such power to transform the way we see the world and to show us new perspectives, ideas, and values. Art can also be an invitation to beauty and joy, which is something we all need more of in our lives and the world, especially in these times. This week In the Den, guest host Sara LaWall talks with special guest Rae Senarighi, also known as the Transpainter, about his experiences as a non-binary artist. They discuss his drive to create art that highlights and celebrates the lives and power of trans people, and his passion for bringing self-acceptance and love to the world. Special Guest: Rae SenarighiRae Senarighi/Transpainter (he/him) is your average non-binary cancer survivor inspiring self-compassion, activism, and gender resilience via unapologetic portraiture of vibrant transgender and non-binary power. Rae is on a mission to spread self-acceptance and love, evident in his portraiture, typography, and speaking engagements. As the creator of the “You Are Loved” campaign, Rae's message of compassion has found a home on billboards in thousands of locations across the U.S. and Canada and includes flags and merch across the world. His partnerships with Schwinn, Nike and the Portland Trailblazers, GLAAD, and Netflix create trans visibility in diverse arenas.Links from the Show:Rae's website: https://transpainter.com/ Rae on IG: Rae Senarighi | Artist (@transpainter) Buy Rae's merch here: https://shop.transpainter.com/ Join Mama Dragons today: www.mamadragons.org In the Den is made possible by generous donors like you. Help us continue to deliver quality content by becoming a donor today at www.mamadragons.org. Connect with Mama Dragons:WebsiteInstagramFacebookDonate to this podcast
In an episode dedicated to answering listener questions, Larry and the guys discuss spearheading the HealthNuts fitness initiative that's taking the South by storm, some of their favorite shows they've played, and say a special thanks to a listener all the way from Brazil!
New episode podcast with Mr. John Salami. We go back to when John got into BMX in 1979 in New Jersey, making his way out to California in 1988, hooking up with Chris Moeller, becoming a POW, working at Rightway, and then GT, getting fired two times, and then making his way into the mountain bike industry as a soigneur in the mid-90s, working with Schwinn, Specialized, Shaun Palmer, traveling the world, getting into jiu-jitsu, becoming a black belt, what he is up to these days as a cinema photographer, and of course we talk about the Northeast Vintage BMX Festival at New Jersey BMX Hall, a famed banquet which is set for October the 5th. John tells us all about this new event, the sponsors, who's going to be there, and everything you need to know about it and so much more. Check it out
It's easy to spot a vintage Schwinn bike zooming around the city. The family business was rooted in Chicago.
In BaT Podcast Episode 84 Alex interviews the overwhelmingly knowledgeable Kim Barnes, who is the business development manager for vintage tire fitments at Michelin as well as a concours judge, car and motorcycle collector, and all-around friend of BaT. They talk about her love of cars as a child of the '60s and '70s, stemming in no small part from the split-window Corvette driven by her aptly named second-grade teacher, Miss Passion; keeping an AMC Gremlin trading card for decades until finally acquiring the real thing; starting a Schwinn bicycle restoration business in her mother's townhouse at the age of 12; daily driving an MGB GT for 350k miles; the highly effective, at least for one teenager, automotive product placement in Charlie's Angels; starting out on the auto show circuit at 16; being forced to take Home Ec instead of auto shop in school; the importance of mentoring young people; meeting her husband on a blind date predicated only by their mutual car enthusiasm; her path to her dream job at Michelin; fightin' words about stock vs modified tire sizes; a deep, deep dive into the various ranges of classic tires offered by Michelin; a simplified explanation of the main difference between bias-ply and radial tires; getting into concours judging via her own restored Sunbeam Alpine; tracking her Buell Thunderbolt; and skipping right to the top of the 964 heap. <span data-mce-type="bookmark" style="display: inline-block; width: 0px; overflow: hidden; line-height: 0;" class="mce_SELRES_start"> </span><span data-mce-type="bookmark" style="display: inline-block; width: 0px; overflow: hidden; line-height: 0;" class="mce_SELRES_start"> </span> The full episode is linked above—or you can listen on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, or wherever you get your podcasts. Links for other titles/listings discussed in this episode: 45:44 fireboltgirl user page 46:40 Le Mans–Style 1957 Triumph TR3 49:02 1972 Saab Sonett III 49:08 Supercharged 1958 Austin-Healey Bugeye Sprite 5-Speed 49:45 ZZ427-Powered 1973 Chevrolet Corvette Convertible 4-Speed 49:53 Unrestored 1964 Sunbeam Tiger Mk I Got questions for the BaT staff or suggestions for our next guest? Don't hesitate to let us know! Write in to podcast@bringatrailer.com and we'll do our best to address them.
Walz Picked As Harris VP Pick. Cori Bush out. Growing Iron Dome to prepare for an Iranian attack. Why Walz? Did Shapiro back out? Schwinn for sale. Walz let Minneapolis Burn. The Walz – Harris Optics. Gen Con Indy. Pakistani man connected to Iran charged with attempting to kill US politician. Fetterman calls JD Vance Weird. Cori Bush. Harris first choice is a miss and a mess. Hulu and Disney Plus are going up. Walz retired before being deployed. Axios lays off 50. I-69 Exchange opens. Property Taxes Should Be Eliminated See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Welcome to The Nonlinear Library, where we use Text-to-Speech software to convert the best writing from the Rationalist and EA communities into audio. This is: Can Generalized Adversarial Testing Enable More Rigorous LLM Safety Evals?, published by Stephen Casper on July 30, 2024 on The AI Alignment Forum. Thanks to Zora Che, Michael Chen, Andi Peng, Lev McKinney, Bilal Chughtai, Shashwat Goel, Domenic Rosati, and Rohit Gandikota. TL;DR In contrast to evaluating AI systems under normal "input-space" attacks, using "generalized," attacks, which allow an attacker to manipulate weights or activations, might be able to help us better evaluate LLMs for risks - even if they are deployed as black boxes. Here, I outline the rationale for "generalized" adversarial testing and overview current work related to it. See also prior work in Casper et al. (2024), Casper et al. (2024), and Sheshadri et al. (2024). Even when AI systems perform well in typical circumstances, they sometimes fail in adversarial/anomalous ones. This is a persistent problem. State-of-the-art AI systems tend to retain undesirable latent capabilities that can pose risks if they resurface. My favorite example of this is the most cliche one many recent papers have demonstrated diverse attack techniques that can be used to elicit instructions for making a bomb from state-of-the-art LLMs. There is an emerging consensus that, even when LLMs are fine-tuned to be harmless, they can retain latent harmful capabilities that can and do cause harm when they resurface ( Qi et al., 2024). A growing body of work on red-teaming ( Shayegani et al., 2023, Carlini et al., 2023, Geiping et al., 2024, Longpre et al., 2024), interpretability ( Juneja et al., 2022, Lubana et al., 2022, Jain et al., 2023, Patil et al., 2023, Prakash et al., 2024, Lee et al., 2024), representation editing ( Wei et al., 2024, Schwinn et al., 2024), continual learning ( Dyer et al., 2022, Cossu et al., 2022, Li et al., 2022, Scialom et al., 2022, Luo et al., 2023, Kotha et al., 2023, Shi et al., 2023, Schwarzchild et al., 2024), and fine-tuning ( Jain et al., 2023, Yang et al., 2023, Qi et al., 2023, Bhardwaj et al., 2023, Lermen et al., 2023, Zhan et al., 2023, Ji et al., 2024, Hu et al., 2024, Halawi et al., 2024) suggests that fine-tuning struggles to make fundamental changes to an LLM's inner knowledge and capabilities. For example, Jain et al. (2023) likened fine-tuning in LLMs to merely modifying a "wrapper" around a stable, general-purpose set of latent capabilities. Even if they are generally inactive, harmful latent capabilities can pose harm if they resurface due to an attack, anomaly, or post-deployment modification ( Hendrycks et al., 2021, Carlini et al., 2023). We can frame the problem as such: There are hyper-astronomically many inputs for modern LLMs (e.g. there are vastly more 20-token strings than particles in the observable universe), so we can't brute-force-search over the input space to make sure they are safe. So unless we are able to make provably safe advanced AI systems (we won't soon and probably never will), there will always be a challenge with ensuring safety - the gap between the set of failure modes that developers identify, and unforeseen ones that they don't. This is a big challenge because of the inherent unknown-unknown nature of the problem. However, it is possible to try to infer how large this gap might be. Taking a page from the safety engineering textbook -- when stakes are high, we should train and evaluate LLMs under threats that are at least as strong as, and ideally stronger than, ones that they will face in deployment. First, imagine that an LLM is going to be deployed open-source (or if it could be leaked). Then, of course, the system's safety depends on what it can be modified to do. So it should be evaluated not as a black-box but as a general asset to malicious users who might enhance it through finetuning or other means. This seems obvious, but there's preced...
Episode 155Once upon a time, in the not-so-distant past of 2020, a quaint little Facebook group dedicated to cycling enthusiasts was enjoying its glory days. It was a haven for discussions about the best bike trails, gear reviews, and sharing the sheer joy of cycling. But then, like a derailleur going haywire, things took an unexpected turn.It all started innocuously enough with a post about bike lane safety. But before anyone could say "Schwinn," the comments section exploded into a battleground of pronouns. Suddenly, the group wasn't just about cycling anymore; it had become a crucible for debates about gender identity, preferred pronouns, and the perceived sins of cis-normativity. The once harmonious cycling group had morphed into what could only be described as a Pronoun Dystopia.Cyclists who just wanted to discuss the merits of carbon vs. aluminum frames found themselves navigating a labyrinth of linguistic landmines. Every post required a preface: "Before I share my thoughts on the best pedals for mountain biking, let me first state my pronouns are they/them." Even the bots that moderated the group seemed confused, occasionally chiming in with their own preferred pronouns.The tipping point came when someone innocently posted a picture of their new bike. What should have been a simple "Nice ride!" thread turned into an 800-comment debate on the ethics of gendering inanimate objects. "Is your bike a 'he' or a 'she'?" one member inquired. "Why does it matter?" another retorted. "Bikes have no gender!" proclaimed a third. Meanwhile, the poor bike owner just wanted to know if anyone had tips for adjusting the seat height.By 2022, many of the original members had fled to quieter pastures, creating offshoot groups where the focus remained squarely on cycling. But like all trends, the Pronoun Dystopia began to wane. People started to realize that while pronouns are important, perhaps a Facebook group about cycling wasn't the best place for these debates.Fast forward to 2024, and there's a palpable sense of normality creeping back in. The great pronoun debates have largely subsided, replaced once more with discussions about the best biking routes, upcoming cycling events, and the eternal debate of road bikes vs. mountain bikes. It's as if the group collectively exhaled and decided that maybe, just maybe, they could focus on their shared love of cycling without getting bogged down in identity politics.There's a newfound balance in the group now. Discussions are respectful, and while pronouns are still respected and acknowledged, they're not the central topic of every conversation. It's a refreshing change, like the wind in your hair as you coast down a hill on a sunny day.In the end, the cycling Facebook group weathered the storm of the Pronoun Dystopia and emerged stronger. Members learned a lot about each other, about respect, and about the importance of focusing on common interests. So here's to 2024, a year where we can finally get back to what really matters: the joy of cycling, the thrill of the open road, and the never-ending quest for the perfect bike seat.Music:Buffalo Springfield - For What it's WorthThe Drifters - Up on the RoofSupport the Show.Insta@justpassingthroughpodcastContact:justpassingthroughpodcast@gmail.comArtwork @digitalnomadicart on Insta
Hello again, everyone. Welcome to episode 449 of the Outdoor Biz Podcast. This week, I'm talking with Lauren Hefferon. Lauren has been a devoted cyclist for over 40 years. While in high school in Southern NH, Lauren discovered her passion for pedaling after a serious ski injury prevented her from downhill ski racing and playing many team sports. Upon graduation with a degree in Graphic Design in Mass Art, Laure decided to follow her entrepreneurial cravings and launched Ciclismo Classico. Their mission is to inspire active travelers to embrace cycling as a soulful form of travel that connects us with the world and to the passionate, curious, and creative human spirit. Facebook Twitter Instagram Love the show? Subscribe, rate, review, and share! Sign up for my Newsletter HERE I'd love to hear your feedback about the show! You can contact me here: rick@theoutdoorbizpodcast.com Brought to you this week by Thrive Market Show Notes 00:00 Rick Saez shares outdoor industry insights, interviews, and product innovation on the Outdoor Biz Podcast. 03:30 Lauren grew up without a bicycle in 1950s, until she goe her green Schwinn. 06:34 Art and curiosity drives Lauren's varied interest in anthropology. 11:21 After Cornell, Lauren toured Europe, worked as a tour guide in Italy. 13:30 Created educational bike tours, focused on teaching, not luxury. Started with Pisa to Florence itinerary. 17:21 Some of the earlychallenges were in bike quality and hotel operations. 20:59 Lauren believe in learning through bicycle tours. 24:25 Promotion of lesser-known trips in Italy, creates a succession of tours. 27:57 The goal is to create memorable and safe experiences on bicycle trips, including organizing a surprise performance by the Cortina Choir in the Dolomites. 31:20 Switching from driving tours to biking trips, aiming for full human-powered travel, with exceptions for uninteresting or traffic-heavy stretches. 32:53 Gravel riding in Tuscany and other regions is popular. 35:25 Prefer phone calls for personal connection in planning bicycle trips. Focus on understanding and personalizing experience. 40:44 I love Mary Oliver's nature poems, they remind me to be grateful. 42:01 Cycling should be enjoyed at your own pace, not about speed or sleekness, akin to a ski vacation. 45:37 E-bikes are extending cycling age range and accessibility. 49:32 Lauren turned cyclist after a knee injury, emphasizing the importance of low-impact exercise. 51:13 Thanks for tuning in to the Outdoor Biz Podcast. Visit our website for show notes and subscribe to never miss an episode. Spread the word and leave a rating on Apple Podcasts. Learn More You can follow up with Lauren on Facebook and Instagram by email: and call her directly at: 617-640-4837. That's my cell phone. And then our 800 number is 1-800-866-7314. And our company is www.cyclismoclassico.com Next Steps If you enjoy interviews devoted to the outdoor industry, find us online at ricksaez.com/listen. We love likes and comments, and if you know someone who is also an outdoor enthusiast, go ahead and share our site with them, too. And be sure to Subscribe to our newsletter Keywords #Ciclismo Classico, #bike touring, #educational tours, #Italy, #guided tours, #safety clinics, #immersive experience, #cultural interaction, #ebikes, #adventure travel, #personalized experiences, #electric bikes, #environmental benefits, #eco-friendly practices, #gravel riding, #Piedmont, #Tuscany, #Sicily. Podcast produced using Descript, CastMagic Podcast hosted by Libsyn: sign up with code 'outdoorbizpod' for 20% OFF Show Notes powered by Castmagic Website powered by Wordpress Get Your Podcast Published NOW! I'm partnering with Tracy DeForge, Stephanie Euler, and the Produce Your Podcast team to get it out of your head and into your followers ears. Tracy and her team have helped me grow and monetize my show, and podcasters trust them because they deliver. Go to https://ricksaez.com/pyp to get all the details. Let's get your show created, produced, and on the air today. Go to https://ricksaez.com/pyp and get all the details. Let me know if you have any questions. Note: As an Affiliate of Amazon and others, I earn from qualifying purchases.
Send us a Text Message.Meg takes a drive on the Cross Bronx Expressway and spots Mayor Koch's Potemkin Village of decal covered bombed-out buildings. Jessica hops on her 10-speed and joins the bike messenger revolution, terrifying pedestrians and forever changing NYC cycling laws.Please check out our website, follow us on Instagram, on Facebook, and...WRITE US A REVIEW HEREWe'd LOVE to hear from you! Let us know if you have any ideas for stories HEREThank you for listening!Love,Meg and Jessica
Episode Summary This week on Live Like the World is Dying, Spencer and Inmn talk about bike packing and how cool bikes are. What is bike packing? Where can you ride? What do you need? Find the answers here. Guest Info Spencer can be found on IG @spencerjharding or at www.spencerjharding.com Host Info Inmn can be found on Instagram @shadowtail.artificery Publisher Info This show is published by Strangers in A Tangled Wilderness. We can be found at www.tangledwilderness.org, or on Twitter @TangledWild and Instagram @Tangled_Wilderness. You can support the show on Patreon at www.patreon.com/strangersinatangledwilderness. Transcript Live Like the World is Dying: Spencer on Bike Packing Pt. I **Inmn ** 00:15 Hello, and welcome to Live Like the World is Dying, your podcast for what feels like the end times. I'm your host today Inmn Neruin, and today we're going to be talking about something that I've been wanting to do an episode about for a really long time because I really love to do it. And I think what I'm going to learn in this interview is that I have been doing it really wrong. Or not wrong, but making it so much harder for myself. And it's just going to be...it's going to be a lot of fun. And today we're gonna be talking about different ways that you can travel long distances, or short distances over strange terrain, on a bicycle. And we're gonna be talking about bike packing. But before that, we are a proud member of the Channel Zero Net of anarchists podcasts. And here's a jingle from another show on that network. Doo doo doo doo doo. [singing] **Dissident Island Radio ** 01:27 You're listening to Dissident Island Radio, live every first and third Friday of the month at 9pm GMT, check out www.dissidentIsland.org for downloads and more. **Inmn ** 02:15 And we're back. Thank you so much for coming on the show today. Could you introduce yourself with your name, pronouns, and just a little bit about what you do in the world? And what you're here to tell us about today? **Spencer ** 02:32 Hi, my name is Spencer Harding. My pronouns are he/him/his. I do a lot of things related to bikes and I have for the last...oh, at least 10 or so years. I'm currently a photographer, writer, and editor for a website called theradavist.com. We do all manner of cycling related articles and content reviews. I've worked as a bike mechanic at local community coops and full on bike shops a like, and I've been traveling by bike since 2009 pretty regularly. And that's been a huge focus of my interest in bikes and kind of my forte in bikes. **Inmn ** 03:18 Cool, cool. Um, it's funny because I know you real life and we, you know, we like play dnd together and I actually didn't know that's what you for work. And I just knew you knew a lot about bikes. So cool, great. **Spencer ** 03:40 I don't love that I'll know people for years and years and years and I think in a lot of the communities I've been in for years, no one really asks what anyone does. And it's not really important because we're all just doing these weird niche activities or hobbies together. And it's kind of fun. **Inmn ** 03:55 Yeah. I'm going to immediately go offer a little script. How did you get into bikes? **Spencer ** 04:07 I got into bikes right on the verge of the huge fixed gear craze that happened in like the early aughts. **Inmn ** 04:18 Oh yeah, I remember. **Spencer ** 04:21 So I was in school at Long Beach State in Southern California. I saw some people riding around bikes. It was the begining of my second year of college. I was moving off campus and I realized that I could buy a bicycle for the same price as a parking pass. And it took me as long to ride from my apartment to my classes as it did to walk from the parking lot to my class. So I took the, what, $130 that that parking pass would have been and I bought an old Schwinn off Craigslist. And it's been all downhill from there. **Inmn ** 04:59 [Laughing] I'm sure it has not been all downhill, but I appreciate the pun. We'll get into this later, but I did a big--introduction to me and biking--is that I have always just really loved bikes. Like similarly I had this thing in high school where a car became suddenly unavailable to me. And I lived in like a suburb of a suburb of a suburb. And I was like, can I take my dad's old Schwinn that's in the in the crawl space and ride it to the city? And the answer was, yes, I could. But like, fast forward many years to going on my first bike tour, and we like went over the continental divide and I was like, "So it's all downhill from here, right?" 06:00 [Laughing] That's one of the things. You never trust the elevation profile. There's always more up somehow. You could be on top of a mountain and somehow there will be some more uphill. **Inmn ** 06:11 Yeah. Always uphill. Always. Um, cool. Well. So yeah, let's just kind of happen to it. Um, what is like...what are the different kinds of scopes of bike travel? I feel like there's like a lot of words that were new to me as of a couple of years ago where I was just always "bike touring." But now there's all these kind of other words that people use that maybe seem like little subsets of bike touring, like gravel bikes or bike packin or r maybe there's other words that I don't know about. 06:50 There's so many buzzwords, and most of it is marketing, and like an ever smaller niche-ification of bikes. When we talk about bike travel, I think the word that comes to mind is bike touring, like, everything is bike touring. You're touring on a bike, you're riding, you're exploring, you're traveling by bike. The buzzword of the last decade has been "bike packing." And there's a lot of arguments about what that means, what that constitutes, what's bike packing, what's not bike packing. I won't go down a huge rabbit hole. I feel like the word bike packing ushered in a more modern sense of ways to pack a bicycle as opposed to what was classically bicycle touring. But if you're traveling by bike and you're strapping shit to your bike, you're going bike touring, Call it bikepacking. Call it gravel biking. You can call it...there's a multitude of other things like that. But when it boils down to it, it's all bike touring in my mind. **Inmn ** 08:09 Yeah. Okay. Um, golly, I'm going to immediately go on another tangent because I... [Spencer encourages it] It's reminding me of like.... I suddenly found myself thinking about like, wait, I wonder if Spencer knows the history...like what the history of the development of the bicycle was? This is a question I should have sent to you yesterday. And I mean, maybe you do, maybe you don't-- 08:39 I'm not super familiar. It popped in my head like I should probably do some sort of research. I mean I know the vagaries of it. But nothing specifically. I couldn't sit tell you names or dates or anything like that. **Inmn ** 08:53 Totally. But it's like, it is something that people have...like people have been riding long distances on bikes since bikes were invented, which is something that I find really interesting. Like there's.... Which I know you could take like a rewritten fairy tale and call it like absolute historical fact, you know but have you ever had any Angela Carter books. **Spencer ** 09:22 I haven't. **Inmn ** 09:24 She got famous for like rewriting the for rewriting a lot of fairy tales. And people were like, "Oh, you rewrote them with like a feminist lens." And she was like, "I absolutely didn't. My goal was to bring out the innate horror in all of these stories, and these stories just happen to be really like femicide-idle. And so that reads is feminism because the main conflicts in them are misogyny." But there's this story called Lady of the House of Love. About this vampiress who like lives in a collapsing, ruinous castle in Transylvania and is the offspring of like Dracula or something, who's just like quite bored in the world at this point. And there's this like whole diatribe in the story about this guy who she lures into the castle who has been traveling around France in Europe on a bicycle. And this is my funny tie in, and this is like in... this is like, in the early days of World War Two when this... Yeah, that's what.... And it's like, it's like these little nods where I'm like, okay, it's it's a fictional story, but I'm like, that sounds like a real thing people did, just travel around Europe on a fucking bicycle. **Spencer ** 10:56 I am 100% sure that there is some real world influence. Yeah, there's all those memes, you'll see. Like, there's some Scandinavian guy who just lived by his bike forever and ever. And, you know, big beard and all that jazz. I can't think of his name. But I can only imagine that there's some truth or they met some weird guy in a cafe one day and decided to just write them into the story after that. **Inmn ** 11:23 Yeah. Okay, wait, but back to the things. So if you had to kind of put a definition on what bike packing is, what is bike packing? **Spencer ** 11:37 So I would even back up to just bike travel. So bike travel is riding your bike multi day--so that could include a single night--somewhere, taking whatever you need for that journey, whatever that may be. Totally self sufficient. Maybe just change the clothes and a credit card. But using your bike as a means to explore and travel to somewhere. **Inmn ** 12:08 Cool. Cool. That sounds right. And what.... I guess maybe this.... It's like maybe some of these specific classifications kind of seems like it maybe gets down to what kind of bike you're riding or what kind of gear you're using? Or like something? I don't know. **Spencer ** 12:35 Yeah, there's been some discussion last few years about intent. So by touring, they've gone to the more recreational side of the venn diagram. So people on vacation, people going for a weekend trip, or for enjoyment. And by packing has, since it came at a time when people were packing less stuff on their bikes in new and creative ways that lent itself to more off road or very light and fast travel. So some people had defined bike packing as like a racing intent or like a competitive intent. And there are bike packing races. Someone who's staying with me right now, Austin Trace, she's training to ride the Arizona Trail and possibly some others. And that's an incredibly long distance. That's 800 miles of off road. There's many like 3000 plus mile bike packing races that happen all over the world over. So some people say bike packing for that kind of competitive intent. Some people will say they're going bike packing, when they're going camping for a weekend. There isn't really a line in the sand that I can thoroughly really draw. Bike packing is definitely like a new buzzword that's popped up in the last few years. And it encompasses everything that bike travel or bike touring would, depending on who you talk to or how you want to delineate that. **Spencer ** 14:07 Yes. And this is another fun thing where we have like, you know, all bikepacking Is bike touring but maybe not all bike touring is bikepacking. So all road bikes are gravel bikes, but not all gravel bikes or road bikes. If you really want to get into it--and this is even...I just wrote a review talking about how the word gravel needs to be split into two things because we're getting a recreational version of what gravel means and a competitive version of what gravel means, and those things are very different. Roughly speaking a gravel bike is traditional-ish road bike. You know, curvy handlebars, road levers. You're just getting bigger tires and typically a more relaxed geometry. That's the easiest without going into a whole mess of other unnecessary details, but the just is road bikes with bigger tires optimized for riding on dirt roads, like farm roads, forest roads, things of that sort. **Inmn ** 14:07 Yeah. Okay, that makes...that makes sense. And then there's this other word that I've been hearing people use a lot lately, which is--and by lately, I mean, this is years ago and I'm just like, really behind the the ball on things--but like, gravel bikes? **Inmn ** 15:35 Okay. Where can you ride a bike? **Spencer ** 15:40 These days? Where are there **Inmn ** 15:41 Or rather where are places that you can not ride your bike to? **Spencer ** 15:46 Legally speaking or terrain-limiting speaking? **Inmn ** 15:50 Terrain. Let's go with terrain limiting for right now. **Spencer ** 15:54 Okay, we don't need to dive into like the Wilderness Act limitations on mechanized travel. There are, if you're looking into that, there are so many crazy bicycles out there these days. There are very few places that you could not ride a bicycle. You're looking at incredibly steep and loose terrain or very deep snow or sand. But even that...like there's so many cool things with...like fat bikes have opened up just an incredible amount of terrain and versatility that wasn't available even like, you know, 20 years ago to bikes. And that's even expanding now. I've heard about some cool stuff I can't talk about, but there is some cool new stuff coming down the line that I'm very excited about in the monster truck realm of bikes. So there's.... Off road in the last few years has just totally exploded with gravel, with the accessibility of fat bikes, and like what those can.... So, fat bike, if I'm talking about, you're talking about four to five inch tires. They're just massive. So you run those incredibly low pressures like 10psi You're riding on snow, you're riding on sand, like, you know, that just opens up so many things that you can experience by bike and can travel across. And you can type in "adventure fat bike," and you'll get some crazy shit in fucking Alaska. A bunch of my friends have done it and they're just like...they have little boats and they're putting a bike on boats and they're riding down beaches and like...just places you would never would ever expect you could ride or get a bike to. And they can get a bike there and they can ride it. So there's obviously limitations like verticality or steep terrain but as far as like surfaces, you're...the world's kind of your oyster these days with that. There's so many options. **Inmn ** 18:07 Okay. Wow. Some of those are new to me and I'm like, okay, cool. Cool. Cool. **Spencer ** 18:14 I have a fat bike I just built it. You can come over and ride it. Play monster truck. Come over here, Inmn. I'll show you next time you come over for dnd. **Inmn ** 18:22 Wow. Love it. I, you know, on.... So like a background for me is my first bike tour, I didn't know anything about bike touring. I just knew that I wanted to do it. And so me and my friend Marie, we like...I met her up in Portland and then we rode our bikes to--Portland, Oregon--and then we rode our bikes to Boston. **Spencer ** 18:56 Oh, wow. Okay. [Laughing with incredulity] My first bike tour was taking the train to Santa Barbara with my like messenger bag and then riding back to LA as an overnight. You went full hog. Okay. **Inmn ** 19:11 Yeah, first first time ever riding a bike more than I could ride it in a day. **Spencer ** 19:19 Impressive **Inmn ** 19:19 It...you know, we're gonna go with a blend of impressive and utterly reckless. **Spencer ** 19:30 I know and I want to talk to this in the end too. Like, you can be really reckless on a bike and if shit goes totally pear shaped just.... Yeah, and like the accessibility of things going wrong and the ability to fix those or to get out of those situations is just such a cool component of bicycle touring that you don't get with like cars or motorcycles or, I mean, I guess hiking even less so, like there's even less to pickup. But yeah, tell me the story. How did it all go, you know, on the way to Boston? **Spencer ** 20:05 Oh, those are the worst. **Inmn ** 20:05 Um, well actually, you know, we're going to talk about that a little bit later, probably. But just, as this one funny tie in, was that in Glacier National Park, we met a...we met someone who is about to finish his bike tour. And he had been...he'd ridden the entire continental divide on a bicycle with like a little, like one of those little swivel trailers. **Inmn ** 20:06 Or, actually I don't know what they're called. They're like two wheels, in line. **Spencer ** 20:20 Oh, the bob trailer. **Inmn ** 20:42 Yeah, the bob trailer. Yeah, yeah. And he had crossed the Continental Divide like 30 times or something over the course of it. And it was utterly incomprehensible to me at the time. I'm like, "Are you riding on trails?" And he was like, "Sort of?" **Spencer ** 21:03 If I may do a quick... So the Continental Divide Trail is a long distance hiking trail that is mostly not bikeable due to the Wilderness Act thing with the wilderness stuff. I think the route you're referring to is the Tour Divide. **Inmn ** 21:18 Yes. **Spencer ** 21:20 Yeah. So those things kind of get interchanged, but they're vastly different beasts. The Tour Divide is a very popular off road route that a lot of people do these days and is one of the first mapped long distance routes, and still remains one of the longer documented off road touring routes in the world, too, which is super cool. **Inmn ** 21:42 Cool. Okay, wait, I'm trying to try to follow a little bit of a thread here. [Pauses, thinking] And maybe this is where to start. How do you...how do you start traveling long distances by bike in, you know, whatever capacity, whether you're like, I want to ride to a neighboring city, I want to ride across the country. I want to ride into the wilderness. These are vastly different. How do you get started? How do you get started? **Spencer ** 22:19 So my start was literally, my friend in college gave a talk, and at the time I was a backpacker. I'd done some backpacking, like three, four days. Stuff like that. And my friend gave this talk about how she went to France and took a bunch of kids bike touring and they took all the camping gear and they put it on their bikes and they just rode their bikes for like two months. And that blew my fucking mind. I was like, wait, I could put all my camping gear on my bike and go ride my bike. And this is in the very like first few years of me riding bikes. I was like, "This is the shit. I love this. Wait, I can go camping and do this?" So that was my first introduction. And I literally, New Year's Day, 2009, I took my road bike and my like good o'le Chrome messenger bag and I zip tied my sleeping bag under my saddle rails on my road bike and I took the train to Santa Barbara and I rode from Santa Barbara down like Highway One, like out near point Magoo, and I camped for the night. And I rode back to Long Beach the next day. And that's part of the Pacific Coast bike touring route. So it's just another established route from Adventure Cycling, who also does the Tour Divide, which you mentioned earlier. And that was my first time properly traveling by bike, and I was like, "This is cool." And a few months later a good friend of mine, Julia, who had just ridden across the country, kind of as you did. I can't remeber if she started in San Francisco or Portland as well. But she did that same trans-america ride. And she was like, "Hey, I just got off school. Like, I don't want to drive back to Southern California. Do you want to just like take a bus up here, and we're gonna bike back to LA together?" So I went back a few months later that summer and tried...like I got a different bike that had racks and all that shit and some bags. And you know, as that ball rolls, you get more bags, you get more specific stuff, you get bikes that are designed for it. And then I rode back from Santa Cruz to LA and then I was like, "This is fucking sweet." So, two months later, I flew to Seattle and rode all the way back to Santa Cruz that same summer too. So that ball kind of rolled pretty quickly for me. So, I think it's literally taking...like at the time I had a messenger bag and a sleeping bag and a stuff sack and that was what I took and I had a little tiny pocket stove and a sleeping pad. I don't know if I even brought a sleeping pad. I might not have. I have to look back at the photos. It might have been strapped to my handlebars or something. But it's really what you have. If you have most any kind of like reasonably lightweight camping gear, from car camping to backpacking. Like, all of that gear translates. And if you have a bicycle, there's--especially these days--almost...there's so many ways that you can affix things to your bike. **Inmn ** 25:14 And yeah, it's kind of funny, because I feel like I've seen this funny arc of like "bike luggage" or something. I don't know what to call it. [Spencer laughs] Where, like, when I was trying to get into bike touring, it's like--I'm sure like gravel bike/bike packing/offroad stuff, I'm sure I'm sure all that stuff existed, but I was less aware of it. But in the realm of bike touring, it seemed to be all about like how to like really neatly contain a lot of stuff on a bicycle, you know? And, like, now I see people's gravel bike or bike packing setups, and it's literally just like shit strapped anywhere that it could be. **Spencer ** 26:02 Yeah, so if we're gonna get into like, if we're gonna delineate two words, we're gonna do bike touring on one side and we're gonna do bike packing on the other. If we look at bike touring luggage, or traditional touring luggage, was usually two to four panniers [rhymes with "your"], Panniers [Rhymes with "yay"]. There's a whole video you can watch about someone from Webster's talking to my buddy Russ about how to actually pronounce that fucking word. It's a bag strapped to a rack. You can argue about it all day long. Typically two to four panniers, maybe a little bag on your handlebars, some water bottles, that was kind of the traditional setup that's been around since the inception of bicycles. Bike packing is when we're moving to more off road focus. So you, obviously panniers are just little hooks on a rack and maybe a bungee. If you've ever written off road with those they don't...they tend to eject. I've got buddies who have got busted collarbones from catching someone's unwanted, flying paneer **Spencer ** 27:02 Oh, no. **Spencer ** 27:03 So in the other corner, we have more modern bike packing bags, which arose from a cottage industry of people developing bags for things that they wanted to do that didn't exist at the time. There's a ton of them, like Revelate Designs has been around since the beginning and were big pioneers in a lot of these venues. And typically what that looks like is you have a bag on your handlebars. It's typically a double sided stuff sack, say 10 to 15 liters. Smaller, bigger exist. That's rolled on there, secured with some straps. There's harnesses and all that jazz. A big thing in bike packing that has really bled out to a lot of the other aspects of cycling, it's really convenient, is using the main front triangle of your bike. So bags that fit the center of your bike and fill that space. **Inmn ** 27:56 That's like the spot kind of like underneath where you're sitting, right? It's like the space between the seat and the handle bars, right? **Spencer ** 28:01 Correct. So, if you're thinking about a bike frame, this kind of goes back to the--I wanted to actually mention this in the history too--so a double triangle, like a diamond. So you have two triangles. You have the front triangle and the rear triangle. That design has been around nearly since the inception of bikes and fundamentally hasn't changed, which is kind of miraculous. There's there's always going to be some kooky weird shit that people are cooking up to make bikes better. But 99% of bikes that have ever existed have been the same design, and it's still the best and most efficient. So, you're filling that front triangle with gear. So it's where you would typically have your water bottles and things like that, but being able to put four liters of water, as opposed to two bottles, and a bunch of camping gear is more efficient. So frame bag. And then there's a bag attached to your seat post called a rocket bag or a butt bag or...[laughs] And this is where stuff gets real bondage-y. There's like 17 straps holding those fucking things on. They sway if you don't pack them right. And there's a bunch of designs to make that better, and we're getting really close to really nailing it. So you have those kind of are your three main staples for bike packing bags. There's bags that strap your fork, there's bags that go onto your down tube, there's ones that attach to your stem to put snacks in. If there's a tiny spot in your bike, there's a bag for it, I guarantee it. And those are kind of your two corners of like bicycle luggage. **Inmn ** 29:32 I see. I see. You know, what I.... Something I weirdly really appreciate about some of these bike packing luggage, or whatever, is when I was...when I was first hearing about some of this and I was like, oh.... Like I remember like 10 years ago when people were starting to have frame bags and stuff, and I was like "Where do you get a frame bag, like where can I go and buy this?" And the answer was, you had to just know someone who fucked around and made one and wanted to make you one. And it was like...it's like watching an entire--like, you know, fuck an industry, but it does make it more accessible for people that there's like more people making these things--but an entire way of making things, or a culture of making things, like erupting from like watching some people just fuck around with fabric and like cordura and vinyl and shit and just like.... Yeah, I don't know. I feel like...yeah, it's like watching that and watching the same thing happen with messenger bags like 15-20--I know, it's been more--years ago. But I don't know, it's something I've weirdly always appreciated about like bikes is that there's been a lot of innovation not on an industrial level. It's like on the level of people just messing around with stuff in their garages and figuring out some really cool things. I don't know, does that...does that track? Is that real? Am I under the right perception? **Spencer ** 31:11 100% There are so many cottage bag makers and a lot of them have scaled up and some of them are still really small. And a lot of the innovation is still coming from those cottage industries. Big companies have caught up. So there are a multitude of companies offering frame bags produced overseas that you can get at REI or on Amazon. There's a there's a host of options. Industrial production has caught up to it. One thing that's cool that they will never be able to do is there's a bunch of frame bike bag sewers--builders? What's the word? And you can send them a photo and they've written their various different scripts and computer programs and you send them a photo of your bike with like a ruler in it. And they will make a custom tailored bag exactly to fit your bike where you can put bolts through it, like just over the internet. And that's somethingl.... Like I personally have one from Rogue Panda. Nick is a crazy mad scientist and incredibly innovative. Yeah, you can just send him a photo of your bike or if they have the dimensions already in their system, they just sew you an exactly perfect custom bag. So you can get a bunch of off the shelf things that will work for most bikes, but if you have a weird like I do, or many that I do, you can get a custom one, and that's something that's always going to be around as like a cottage level industry. **Inmn ** 32:38 Um, okay, how.... Or.... Okay, so say...let's say I want to...say I want I want to ride my bike from where I live to a neighboring city. It's like...maybe it's four days away, or something, by bike. What...or, this is a regular thing that I want to do. This is a thing that I want to kind of invest in doing. And I'm asking this from the perspective of, so like on my month long bike tour, I feel like there was a way to have a bike that I didn't fucking hate riding. And so I'm wondering...I'm wondering kind of like what kind of bike do I need to do that? What will make my life be less terrible? I was on an old Schwinn steel frame that I put a mountain bike drive train on, essentially. And some like other mountain bike parts. I like converted it to 700s [wheel size]. I didn't know anything about fat tires. I just had like-- **Spencer ** 34:03 It barely existed back then. So yeah. **Inmn ** 34:05 It was like, I don't know like one and a half inch ties. This is embarrassing to say at this point. **Spencer ** 34:14 That's fine. I can't tell you the breadth of dumb ideas around bicycle. **Inmn ** 34:22 Yeah, yeah. And it's like my life was so bad in comparison to my road partner who was riding a Surly Long Haul. [Specialty touring bike] **Spencer ** 34:34 Yeah. So to segue out of this, if you ask the internet, the internet's gonna tell you the Surly Long Haul Trucker's the best bike touring bike for blah, blah, blah, blah. I'm going to tell you right now, the Surly Long Haul Trucker rides like fucking dogshit without about 100 pounds of gear on it, and I don't think is the right bike for almost anyone in this current day and age ofbike touring. But let's get into your actual question. So the cool thing about touring is the bags will fit to most bikes without racks or rack mount. So if you have a bike that's comfortable, that fits you, it's probably...it can probably be made to be some kind of touring ready. So every bike is a bike touring bike if you have enough gumption. I've written tall bikes halfway across this country on multiple occasions. So I wanna say that you can always a specific bike tailored to the trip or the adventure you want to go on. But you can probably make whatever you have work. And I could recommend, if you give me more specifics, I could be like, yeah, you should get this size tire. This is a great bike for that. Like, height matters. All right, before I run away on this, let's start at the...let's start at the bike. So more important than any other consideration is whether you have a bike that's comfortable for you? Does it fit you? **Inmn ** 36:07 What does that mean? **Spencer ** 36:09 So bikes come in multiple sizes for different bodies, different heights. Like, I'm all torso. I've got relatively short legs for my height, but I'm like 6'1" so I ride an extra large bike. If you're 5' or shorter, you might write an extra small. That's going to be...those bikes are gonna fit differently. So there's a varying size run. So most importantly, you want a bike that fits you. And that's going to mean different things to different people, depending on if they have any back issues or what have you. So comfort is going to be kind of paramount to start. So your four day trip, is it off road? Is it mixed between the two? Is it single-track mountain biking? You're not going to take your Schwinn Varsity on a bunch of single track trails in Arizona, because you're not going to have any fillings or teeth left at the end of that ride. So, once you have a bike that's comfortable, once you have a bike that fits you, then you want to say, "Does this bike...is it adequate for the terrain?" And that's typically going to be tire size. So tires come in a bunch of different flavors, but you're pretty much looking at anywhere between a 26" rim, a 27.5" rim, or a 29" rim, which is also coloquially referred to as 700c. And those come in--oh my God I'm really in the rabbit hole here--so many sizes. But, so is your bike comfortable? Does your bike fit you? Do you now have the appropriate tire size for the terrain you hope to traverse? And we're going to assume that you have all of those things. And the next consideration will probably be luggage. So how much frame bag space do you have? Can you get a frame bag for it? Do you have mounts to put a rack on the front, or even the back, of the bike? You want to make panniers to go on there? You can strap anything, like anything with the stuff sack, you can strap. I mean the quintessential like bike co-op special is the old kitty litter boxes with hardware hooks and some bungee cords. Like, do you have a cat? Do you use cat litter? And these are all things that can become bike touring luggage. It's so up to you and how you can fit it. I've seen such a plethora. There's such a rich community of people DIYing these things. And there's ways to use like old cutting boards to make handlebar rolls to hold stuff sacks, you know? Like, I could go on and on. So the next thing you want to figure out is how are you going to pack all your shit on your bike? And okay, we've got that. There's a plethora. And next thing is food and water. Is there water available? Do I need a water filter along the way? Where can I get more food, snacks, etc... along the way? How many days of food I need to pack? Those water and food options are probably going to inform how you pack or what kind of luggage you're going to need, beecause those your essentials. Like if you want the bike to move, you have to pedal it and you have to be alive to do that. So you're gonna need to eat and drink. **Inmn ** 39:36 Yeah, can I have a little segue off that? It was funny on this cross-country bike tour, like our attitude about that changed throughout the trip, you know, where it was like--Marie definitely had more like bike touring experience than I did--but like when we started, we were in rural Oregon, we were in Montana, we were in all of these big western states. And we didn't have a water filter, which is probably something we should have brought. But like, you know, we weren't camping. We weren't--or sorry, we were camping every night, but we weren't trying to ride off to find nice places. We were like, whatever's along the road, you know? And so we were like, "Okay, well, we just have to bring all of this stuff with us." Like, I think we had like two weeks' worth of food each and three gallons of water on us at all times. And it was utterly absurd, like our bikes were so goddamn heavy. But we often went a week without going to a grocery store. **Spencer ** 40:57 That could be the reality of your trip. And there's some of these long distance routes, especially the off road ones.... Like road touring, if you're on established routes, like highways or secondary highways, you're gonna hit a gas station hopefully once a day, if not every other day. And like, you know, it's not gonna be great food. But that's...those are all considerations to how much you need to pack. And that's...that's typically the first thing I would be like where's my reasonable resupply? Especially ifwe live down to the desert, like water is the main concern and the limiting factor for a lot of my trips. Like how much do I have to carry? Where can I get it? How can I get it? **Inmn ** 41:39 Yeah, cuz it's like, you're not--unlike being in the Northwest or something, you're not just gonna happen on a stream that you can like.... **Spencer ** 41:47 Exactly. I mean, maybe you can if you know that's there. But that's a big if, and I've planned to get water from a stream and then I got there, and the stream was dry. And I was like, "Oh, this is going to be interesting." **Inmn ** 42:01 But yeah, sorry. You're talking about water, food, etc... I don't know what you were going to say next. **Spencer ** 42:09 Yeah. So once you figured out how much water and food you need to be able to carry between places that you can get water or food, then you're gonna go to gear. So clothing, is it going to be hot? Is it gonna be cold at night? And then you're thinking about sleeping. So tent, sleeping pad, sleeping bag, at the bare minimum. How warm is that sleeping bag need to be? What's the weather going to be like? Is it going to rain a lot? How nice of a tent do you need? How many people are going to fit in that tent? And once you've figured out those things, those are all going to inform all the decisions we made already about like luggage. Like oh, I need to make a three person tent because there's three of us. Are we going to split it? Yada yada yada. If you've been camping at all, you understand that these are like kind of the basic things you want to have with you. Or maybe you're going there's a hotel every night and you're like, I'm just gonna get a hotel in and take a shower, and people do that and it's great. It's a different way to tour. **Inmn ** 42:10 We met someone like that who was credit-card touring, as it's called, I think. And, you know, I have a friend who just writes crazy distances in like single times, but like meeting this person who was like...he had a very fancy performance road bike and a couple regular small water bottles and like some granola bars and in his fucking lycra pockets, or whatever, and a credit card that was it. That was every single thing this person had. **Inmn ** 43:07 Still bike touring. My 20 year old self would be would be shaking at me saying that but still bike touring. **Inmn ** 44:01 Yeah, I mean if you got a credit card and he just like fucking get a hotel every night. **Spencer ** 44:08 But, you know, these are considerations with things. Like, I've stayed at hotels on bike tours. Like I had a real shit day got rained on for like this last trip I did in the Midwest past summer. We got stuck in like damn near a tornado. And I was putting up our tent in the downpour rain and then it was drizzling the whole next day. And I was like, fuck it. I'm getting a hotel. Going off route. I'm going to a hotel. Sleep in this hotel and shower and dry all of our shit out. And these are things you want to consider and this is all part of what goes into considering to go on a bike trip. **Inmn ** 44:44 Yeah, um, so we're getting close to the end of our time for today. I didn't say this at the beginning, but this is a two part episode. And I'm wondering if we could kind of end today's episode with, could you just tell us a story about going on a bike tour. Could have gone well, could have gone horribly. Kind of whatever. Tell us about a trip that you went on and kind of like what... Yeah. Yeah. **Spencer ** 45:21 Alright, I'm gonna tell you about my favorite bike tour. And it will bring it back together because you met that lovely gentleman in Glacier on the Tour Divided some years ago. So my buddies Kurt and Sam--this was 2016--so fledgling days of kinda packing bags. This is when one of the bigger companies, Blackburn, was getting into making bags. They sponsored a bunch of folks to go ride big long off-road routes. My friends got this scholarship sponsorship thing. And I was like, okay, cool, like, I'm gonna go meet them. I just finished up work. I worked as a bicycle tour guide, but the van stuff, not so much the touring that we're talking about, but going to hotels, yadda yadda yadda. And I got off work, drove out there. I took my dad's hybrid from like 1994 and I strapped a bunch of bags to it. And we went riding down. They had like slick bikes, all the new bags. But the fun thing was they were big rock climbers at the time. So we were carrying all of our camping gear and a full 60 meter rope, a full trad rack of cams and nuts and like our climbing harnesses and shoes, and every week we were climbing at least once a week. So we're doing trad climbing up some mountains in Montana or Wyoming or wherever the hell we want that being that week. And we packed nothing. We had.... Like none of us had real tents. We have like one spare tube between us because we just didn't have room for anything with all the climbing gear. It was just so reckless and stupid. We hitchhiked a ton and climbed a bunch of shit that was really sketchy. And it still to this day is one of my favorite memories of traveling by bike, just getting to go climb and just riding those wide opens stretches of Montana, Wyoming, a little bit in Colorado. And it was just the dumbest fun. God I miss you, Sam and Kurt, if you're out there listening somewhere. That was my bike penultimate trip that had been on. It just...it was silly and dumbn. There's photos and videos of that from years ago that I can send you some links to or whatnot. But the joy I still take from those memories and that trip stick with me. **Inmn ** 47:35 Hell yeah. That's wonderful. Um, one of my like, weirdly favorite memories of going on bike tour was--and we'll talk about this a little more in part two--but is preparation, how to prepare for a trip, how tolike plan an actual trip, you know. And me and Marie didn't plan literally at all. We just hopped on our bikes and started riding. Every day we woke up and we were like, "Yeah, let's go on that road. That makes sense. Whatever. It'll be fine." Weirdly, we did end up on...we accidentally ended up on Adventure Cycling routes, you know? Which makes sense. They were the most logical roads to ride on. We just didn't know. But our lack of preparation and planning was actually the most fun part of the trip. **Spencer ** 48:39 So my buddy Kurt on that trip, and we did a bunch of subsequent trips, and I'm a big planner and Kurt hates planning. He made me fly to fucking Columbia with zero plan and like one half contact that we called when we got to Bogota and a bunch of paper maps and was like, "Nah, we're just gonna figure it out." Speaking of accidentally winding up on ACA routes, did you the pro move where you found someone riding in the opposite direction and you asked if they were done with their maps because you were going the opposite way? **Inmn ** 49:11 No, that would have been smart. But we didn't... We met a couple other people on bike tour. We were incredibly surprised. We met exactly three people on bike tour on a two month long trip and I was actually surprised about it. **Spencer ** 49:30 Wow. I wound up on that TransAm for a little bit. And I didn't have any maps because I was being a total of shit bird and would be like, "Hey, you done with that section?" cause I didn't want to buy maps. **Inmn ** 49:42 Yeah, they're expensive. **Spencer ** 49:45 I mean, Adventure Cycling is a really lovely organization that has done a lot of good and they're a nonprofit. Do you ever, did you guys go through Missoula and go to the headquarts? **Inmn ** 49:55 We did. We got the free ice cream. **Spencer ** 49:56 Popscicles and soda. Yeah. Okay, well, that's why those maps are so expensive is they gotta give free sodas and ice cream to all the dirt bag toursists that won't buy them. **Inmn ** 50:07 Yeah, yeah. Cool. Well, that about does it for the time that we have today. Before we go, are there any things that you want to plug, any projects, any places that people can find you on the internet where you would like to be found? Anything like that? **Spencer ** 50:29 Anything on social media, is just Spencer J. Harding. Like I said, I write for the theradavist.com. You can type my name in there and there's a bunch of reviews and trip reports and stuff like that. My website is just SpencerJharding.com. There's a bunch of photos organized there from a bunch of my bicycle travels, if you want to check that out. **Inmn ** 50:50 Yeah. Cool. Cool. And for folks who...just to let you know what we're gonna be talking about next time, next time being next week, we're gonna be talking about how to actually plan a bike trip, what are things you should be prepared for kind of like on the road, why traveling by bike is just a really cool idea--if you haven't been swayed already--what are its limitations, and how does this fit into preparedness models for any kind of collapse or disaster situation that we might be in. So tune in next time. **Inmn ** 51:33 If you enjoyed this podcast, then go hop on a bike and ride around and see what happens. And also, if you like this podcast, you can please just tell people about it. It's the best way that people hear about the show and one of the best ways to support us. But if you would like to support us in other, I think, sillier ways, you can support the show financially. And you can support us financially by supporting our publisher Strangers in a Tangled Wilderness. And the best way to support us is to go to tangledwilderness.org and buy some books. There's some really cool books you can buy. You can buy a cool TTRPG that me, Margaret, Casandra, and Robin wrote called Penumbra City. You can get a lots lots of other really cool books too. And you can also support us by supporting our Patreon at patreon.com/strangersinatangledwilderness. And there's a bunch of different levels of support that you can give us, anywhere from like $5 a month, which kind of gets you a lot of cool stuff. It gets you discounts, it gets you digital versions of all of the stuff that we publish and just like lots of really cool updates. You can also get a zine mailed to you every month, that we put out as part of our monthly feature, which if you also just want to hear those, you can read them on our website or you can check out another podcast that I do called Ttrangers in a Tangled Wilderness, where we take our monthly feature and turn it into an audio zine and interview the author. And then there's another fun part of it, which is that for $20 a month, you can get us to thank or acknowledge anything that you want us to thank to or acknowledge, whether that be you or a cool organization that you want to get shouted out, or whether it's just someone you love and care about. Or as I'm still plugging for, a fictional or theoretical concept. So check us out on Patreon and we just want to give some special shout outs to these folks right now. Thank you alium, Amber, Ephemoral, Appalachian Liberation Library, Portland's Hedron Hackerspace, Boldfield, E, Patoli, Eric, Buck, Julia, Catgut, Marm, Carson, Lord Harken, Trixter, Princess Miranda, Ben Ben, anonymous, Janice & O'dell, Aly, paparouna, Milica, Boise Mutual Aid, theo, Hunter, SJ, Paige, Nicole, David, Dana, Chelsea, Staro, Jenipher, Kirk, Chris, Michaiah, and Hoss the Dog. Thank you so much for everything and we hope that you're doing as well as you can with everything that's going on and we'll see you next time. Find out more at https://live-like-the-world-is-dying.pinecast.co
In this episode Amber Asay and Lisa Congdon talk about the legend that you may have not heard about, Gere Kavanaugh, who's work spans 1950's through 2020. She's another Cranbook Academy and multi-hyphenate designer, and has the most impressive repertoire of work. Sources:Architectural Digest Articles:A Look at the Life's Work of Multi-Hyphenate Designer Gere KavanaughThe Unlikely Story of One of General Motors's First Female DesignersLA Times: Gere Kavanaugh's color avalanche brightened midcentury California design2019 Book: A Colorful Life: Gere Kavanaugh, Designer (written by Louise Sandhaus, Kat Catmur)Metropolis: Gere Kavanaugh: Pioneer With a Penchant for ColorAIGA Medal ArticleAIGA Short Gere Kavanaugh, born in Memphis in 1929, is a legendary American designer known for her vibrant and innovative contributions across industrial design, textiles, and interiors. Educated at the Memphis Academy of Art and Cranbrook Academy of Art, she was influenced by greats like Charles Eames and Eero Saarinen.In the 1950s, Kavanaugh broke barriers at General Motors as one of the few female industrial designers. In 1960, she founded Gere Kavanaugh Designs in Los Angeles, known for bold colors and playful forms. Her work spans textiles, furniture, and interiors, always pushing the boundaries of traditional design.Kavanaugh's influence extends through her collaborations, mentorship, and numerous awards, including the AIGA Medal in 2010. Her legacy is marked by innovation, courage, and an unwavering dedication to making the world a more beautiful, functional place.––––Thank you to Lisa Congdon!https://lisacongdon.com/https://www.instagram.com/lisacongdonHer exhibit is up at St. Mary's until June 23, 2024: https://www.stmarys-ca.edu/museum-art/lisa-congdon-hold-it-lightlyLisa Congdon an internationally known fine artist, illustrator and writer. She makes art for clients around the globe, including The Library of Congress, Target, Wired Magazine, Amazon, Google, Schwinn, Warby Parker, Method, Comme des Garcons, REI and MoMa, among many others. She exhibits internationally, including solo shows at Saint Mary's College Museum of Art (California), Chefas Projects (Oregon) and Paradigm Gallery (Philadelphia), along with group shows at Hashimoto Contemporary in Los Angeles, Museum of Design Atlanta and The Contemporary Jewish Museum in San Francisco. She is the author of ten books, including Art Inc: The Essential Guide to Building Your Career as an Artist and Find your Artistic Voice: The Essential Guide to Working Your Creative Magic. Lisa is self-taught and didn't achieve momentum in her career until she was nearly 40 years old. Despite her untraditional path, Lisa has achieved recognition, not just as an artist, but as a leader in the industry for her work in social justice, mentoring and teaching. In March of 2021, she was named “One of the 50 Most Inspiring People and Companies According to Industry Creatives” published by AdWeek. When she's not making art, you can find her racing her bike around Oregon. She lives and works in Portland, Oregon.
So excited to share Stacey Lei Krauss (SLK) with you all today! SLK is a Fitness Educator, Yogi and Truth Seeker. She is the creator of several internationally recognized group exercise education programs which specifically address emotional health. Her practices focus on integration of mindfulness, meditation, conscious breath, and intentional barefoot movement. She's certified as an exercise physiologist, personal trainer, meditation coach and Reiki healer. She completed her 500hr yoga training in Mysore, India. She is a conference speaker and has represented BOSU, Schwinn, Nike and Peak Pilates as an international Master Trainer. Speaking to us from Mysore, India. SLK dives deep so many important things here: living and embracing the solo life finding something to light your heart on fire moving out of your head and into your gut speaking to herself like a child sitting in the silence and getting to know yourself falling from grace and getting back on track There is SO much to chew on in this episode, do not miss the strength and wisdom of SLK as well as tales from her Indian adventures! In 2020 SLK launched an online platform for fitness and yoga classes, and this spring will be adding pranayama and meditations to her complimentary offerings. Join her tribe: www.StrongLikeSilk.com Her fitness-yoga-fusion program, Cardio Yoga is a 40-hour online, self-paced course. Message her on social media for details: @staceyleikrauss | https://www.facebook.com/stacey.lei.krauss/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
In an episode originally published in the first weeks of the Covid Lockdown, Wesley sits down with his dad to discuss growing up on a bike that was too big and racing downhill at fifty miles per hour on a 3-speed Schwinn.Hire Wesley to produce a custom birthday podcast!https://www.fiverr.com/wesleycheney/produce-a-congratulatory-podcast-for-your-birthday-or-graduation Listen to Welcome to Nightvale!https://www.welcometonightvale.com/ Support the show
Alan Foster Podcast up next. Alan talks about moving to California, working at a bike shop, living at the POW house, riding Twin Palms, riding with Elf, TNT, Airwalk, Schwinn and Free Agent. We talk about Alan winning his first AA race at the ABA Del Mar Nationals in San Diego, being in the mid 90s when sponsorships and the industry caught a good wave, with magazines, company cars and plenty of opportunities as a pro rider. We also talk about training in the 90s, being race-smart and reading the race. Alan talks about transitioning into the business side of the industry with Airwalk while still racing, buying houses and schools and really setting himself up for his post-racing career and being wise with his money. We talk about current times, riding bikes, traveling, Dirty Fest and much more.
PLEASE NOTE:An Updated version was released at 7:30pm April 15, 2024 to fix an editing mistake. Bill Nitschke hails from Indianapolis, Indiana. He grew up riding with BMX Flatland legends Perry Mervar, Steve Mulder and Danny Meng. Inventor of the Whopper AKA "Hop Whip" as well as a bunch of other tricks. He rode for DK, TNT, Haro, Homeless Bikes, S&M, GT Bikes, Schwinn and Master Blaster Planet. Currently riding for Flatland Assasins. Special Thanks to Shaun Jarvis for handling our socials. Support the show
Welcome to the All Things BMX Show!! This week brings you episode 197 “Cruising with Crews” with John Crews. John started his love affair with bikes the day his dad brought home a second hand Schwinn in the early 70's. It was the first in a long line of bikes that would take him from being a typical kid riding his bike around the neighborhood to a BMX pro who traveled the world and appeared on numerous magazine covers, finally settling into making a living in the bike world he loved.The ATB Krew coming to you live from "The Ethan Clark" studios, in the busy metropolis of Hartland Michigan.Chris and I are at the Die Job Apparel News Desk. Die Job Apparel offers full design and production of custom apparel, customer promotional items and vinyl decals. Elevate your brand today with Die Job Apparel. https://www.facebook.com/diejobapparelMelissa is back in her producers perch brought to from the good people at Gatenine Custom Number Plateswww.gateninedesign.comDanger Snacks brings you our guest this week.“The snack that is the difference between draggin' ass and haulin' ass”www.dangersnacks.com Discount “Shitshow”Don't forget to support the show you can send us stars on Facebook or directly send us support on our Buy Me A Coffee Page the link is in the chat.https://www.buymeacoffee.com/allthingsbmxThe show's chat is sponsored by BMX-Rox Photographywww.roxandcoco.comTonights Trivia is brought to you by Bombshell Racing Systemhttps://bombshellparts.comTonights Lighting Round is brought to you by 110% Nutritionwww.110nutrition.com Discount Code “allthingsbmx” Our show doesn't happen with the support of the following companies. Please shop them for all your needs. The Hack Shackhttps://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100057675570612Get-O Wear https://www.facebook.com/getoweardB Sports Worldhttps://www.facebook.com/dbsportsworldBmx Race Supply https://www.bmxracesupply.comMega Design Grouphttps://www.megadesigngroup.comGuest Contact Infohttps://www.instagram.com/1hasbin/https://www.facebook.com/1hasbinwww.onehasbin.comNext Week's Show:Make sure you are back here next week when Henry Sarria joins us again to talk All Things BMXSupport the show
I think it would be ok to say that Matthew Pohlkamp is a jack of all trades or rather a renaissance man. He went from having a great BMX career to becoming an established actor in Hollywood. Originally from Cincinnati, Ohio he began his racing career at 11 years old. His dad bought him a Huffy bike from a grocery store. The first track he hit was River Star BMX. Pohlkamp got second in his first race. By the next year he was racing state races. When he turned expert by his own admission Pohlkamp says he got waxed. Hard work saw him eventually get picked up by the iconic brand S&M. Throughout his career he would ride for companies like DK, twice, Schwinn, Kuwahara, to Dan's Comp. Before his career ended Pohlkamp would race in the XGames and become a world champion. Pohlkamp got the acting bug after a friend encouraged him to take an acting class. From that day he's never looked back. He's done commercials, movies, and he recently finished work on the show "Grey's Anatomy." The episode is expected to run in April of this year. So, when I first said Pohlkamp is a jack of all trades I wasn't joking. Fit, Healthy & Happy Podcast Welcome to the Fit, Healthy and Happy Podcast hosted by Josh and Kyle from Colossus...Listen on: Apple Podcasts Spotify
SHOW NOTES... We've been talking a lot about Education of late, and the insurmountable problem of getting kids interested in reading if they aren't already. Two clear thoughts have emerged. One, I think the tired but all-too-accurate metaphor that American society is an Allegory of High School (jocks, cheerleaders, druggies and criminals in the making, nerds, and disaffected sub-groups, etc.) is becoming more concrete and congruent with each passing year. The only new element I see is the School Shooting. Telling. But as I was thinking about reading in this context, I realized I don't recall learning to read myself very well. I vividly remember the discomfort of learning to handwrite (print and cursive). The pencils always seemed too big for my hands. What I do recall about early reading is that it meant Independence. I didn't have to rely on my grandmother or older sister. For me, reading was an expression of masculine self-determination—stepping out from the females who both dominated and positively directed my young life. How many people today would see reading as an expression of masculinity? How odd. Only a short while ago, our most important poets were men like James Dickey, James Wright, and W.S. Merwin. Those days seem long ago. The second thought to reveal itself from this stream was The Bicycle. I used to ride my green Schwinn 3-speed to a bookstore in a strip mall to purchase the next Hardy Boy book I hadn't read. One rainy day, I realized I'd eventually run out of Hardy Boys…so I feverishly began creating my own deeply imitative series The Benton Boys. My real, private passion about writing came out of Fan Fiction. I openly borrowed characters. I just didn't want to run out of story. I paid for the Green Bike myself…with the money I earned cleaning toilets and vacuuming floors for an industrial dry cleaner, starting at age 9. The job gave me more than $ and work ethic pride. It was a place to be after school in the strange days following my violent rape in 4th grade. The Green Bike was what I needed. The rape would never have happened if I'd had a bike. I made a major correction of reality. The Hardy Boys entered in…and then the Benton Boys. Reading + Green Bike = Independence.
Der Methangasausstoß durch Rülpsen und Flatulieren, exorbitanter Wasserverbrauch bei der Rindfleischproduktion - Florian Schwinn meint: Viele der "Kuh-Mythen" stimmen nicht - im Gegenteil: Die Kuh könne zentraler Faktor einer fälligen Agrarwende werden.
Janssen, Christinawww.deutschlandfunk.de, Andruck - Das Magazin für Politische Literatur
On this episode, AP finds a series of articles to read to us, written about Iowa Legend Clarence Pickard. Pickard, from Indianola, rode the first RAGBRAI on a 10-speed women's Schwinn bicycle. He quickly became RAGBRAI famous, biking across Iowa that first year at age 83 and also due to his bike riding attire: a pith helmet, long-sleeved shirt, long trousers and tennis shoes. In these articles we find out more about the interesting life of Clarence Pickard, and how important his presence was to the future of RAGBRAI. His famous bike was restored by Charlie Harper of Harper's Cycle & Fitness in Muscatine and is now on display at the Warren County Historical Society Museum. www.ragbrai.com www.murphologypodcast.com RAGBRAI LI Registration is open! https://ragbrai.com/ragbrai-li-registration/
New traffic law review continues with listener calls, low rider and Schwinn bicycle talk!!
A visionary and trailblazer in the early 20th-century motorcycle industry, WilliamG. Henderson left an indelible mark with his contributions as the co-founderof Henderson Motorcycles and later as the founder of Ace Motor Corporation.Born in 1886, in Scottland, Henderson's fascination with mechanical engineeringmanifested at an early age. His passion for innovation and machinery set thestage for a remarkable career that would shape the landscape of Americanmotorcycles.In 1911, Henderson, alongside his brother Tom, embarked on a journey that woulddefine his legacy. Together, they founded the Henderson Motorcycle Company inDetroit, Michigan. The company quickly gained acclaim for producing powerful,reliable, and well-engineered motorcycles. Henderson's keen engineering acumenwas evident in the inline four-cylinder inline engines that powered theirmotorcycles, setting them apart from the competition.The pinnacle of Henderson's early career came with the introduction of theHenderson Model D, which featured a groundbreaking 1,301 cc engine. Launched in1912, the Model D became an icon of American motorcycle design, admired for itsspeed and innovative features. Henderson Motorcycles established a reputationfor excellence, earning the loyalty of riders who sought performance andquality. Alan Bedell was one of those riders, on June 13, 1917 Bedwell traversed his Henderson from Los Angeles, California, to New York City, roughly 3300 miles in seven days, sixteen hours, and fifteen minutes,breaking the record set by “Cannonball” Baker on an Indian Twin. It was such a proudmoment for the Henderson brothers that beer was free in Detroit that day.Despite their record-breaking and endurance racing success, the industry was notwithout its challenges. In 1917, as the United States entered World War I, thegovernment redirected manufacturing efforts toward the war. HendersonMotorcycles, like many other companies, shifted production to support the wareffort by providing motorcycles for military use.Henderson faced financial difficulties, and in 1917, the Henderson brothers sold theircompany to Ignaz Schwinn, the owner of Excelsior Motor Manufacturing &Supply Company. Despite parting ways with the company he co-founded, William G.Henderson's passion for motorcycles persisted.Determined to make another mark on the industry, Henderson didn't stay on the sidelinesfor long. In 1919, he founded the Ace Motor Corporation in Philadelphia,Pennsylvania. With a renewed commitment to innovation, Henderson set out tocreate motorcycles that would captivate enthusiasts once again.Under Henderson's leadership, Ace Motor Corporation introduced the Ace Four,featuring Henderson's tried and true inline 4-cyl, a powerful 1,047 cc engine wascreated, and carefully designed so as not to infringe on any of Schwinn's patents.Henderson's dedication to engineering excellence and performance shone through,and the Ace Four garnered acclaim for its advanced features, including atriple-speed transmission and a modern fork design.William G. Henderson tragically perished on this day December 11, 1922, after collidingwith a delivery truck while testing a prototype ACE Sporting Solo. Henderson'simpact on the motorcycle industry was profound. His commitment to engineeringexcellence and innovation continues to be celebrated, with the motorcycles heplayed a key role in designing becoming revered classics. Henderson's legacylives on in the spirit of motorcycle enthusiasts who appreciate the pioneeringcontributions of this visionary figure in the early history of...
On this episode, AP digs deep into history and finds an article to read to us written back in 1974 by Clarence Pickard. Pickard, from Indianola, rode the first RAGBRAI on a 10-speed women's Schwinn bicycle. He quickly became RAGBRAI famous for taking a wrong turn that first year and ending up riding his bike on Interstate 80, and for his bike riding attire: a pith helmet, long-sleeved shirt, long trousers and tennis shoes. After completing the very first RAGBRAI, he was invited to write an article for the Des Moines Register which he titled Pickard's Bike Riding Advice. His bike was restored by Charlie Harper of Harper's Cycle & Fitness in Muscatine and is now on display at the Warren County Historical Society Museum. www.ragbrai.com www.murphologypodcast.com www.rumrunnertour.com
Episode 266: I will discuss my memories of my first Schwinn bicycle, Lasser's Beverages in Chicago, actor Burt Young, and actresses Suzanne Somers and Lara Parker. --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/pete-kastanes/message
I was ten years old when my grandfather died. He died in his sleep during the cold February night with his rosary in his hands. My cousin had to break into the house on Sunday morning because Grampy never missed Mass and it was time to go.He found him under the covers, cold and still. The doctor told my father that he had died peacefully, that he fell into a deep sleep and his heart slowed and then, eventually, it simply stopped. My father always said that he hoped that was how he would go - to fall asleep in one world and wake up in the next. His was the second earliest death I can recall. Grammie had predeceased him by five years and it was during those intervening five years that I got to know the old man. Grampy spoke French, used Pearson's Red Top Snuff, spoke little and worked hard. He lived alone in the same little house he had built in the 1920s, heated only by a woodstove. To say he didn't work would be a lie; he was retired, but spent his time working hard, keeping himself busy living a life that would have been familiar to anyone born the century before, every day filled with vigor and purpose. He drew his water from a spring, used a scythe to reap the hay from his field, and cooked his own meals, with a liberal use of salt pork and beans. He was a simple man who had supported his family by working for all of the farmers his property bordered and maintaining a huge garden, a large barn and small horse barn, a pig sty and chicken coop. His house always smelled of wood and wintergreen, molasses and roses. He had a Farmer's Almanac tied to a string hanging on a nail on the wall next to the telephone he never used. He drank his water from a tin dipper kept in a pail covered with muslin, still the freshest, clearest water I have ever had. After my grandmother passed, I asked my mother if I could go visit my Grampie, alone,all by myself. We lived on the Back Presque Isle Road in Caribou, Maine in a part of the world that still felt new and untamed. It was 1971. At seven years old, my mother gave me permission to visit him, possibly because of her concern for the solitary state in which he dwelt. I had heard conversations on the phone between my father and his sisters worrying about the fact that the old man was talking to thin air, addressing his wife even though she had gone and met her maker. My father wisely told his sisters not to concern themselves with his need to speak to the close and quiet darkness, because, to be truthful, I spent entire days with the old man during which he might have uttered only a dozen words to anyone, living or dead. “He's not hurting anyone,” my dad had said, “and otherwise, he is fine. Leave him alone.” They did. I would tell my mother where I was going and she would tell me to make sure I came home when I saw the porch light flashing, something she always did to summon my brother and I back to our evening meal - which was supper, never dinner. That was the thing. I could see my grandfather's house from the kitchen of our home. I had to look over Grampy's field and past his gray-boarded, tar-papered horse barn, a low-built double stall affair that hadn't seen a horse in my lifetime. If I looked in the falling dark, I could see her switching the light on and off. I even knew when the light was right so I would look out for it. On the days I visited my grandfather, I would walk along the side of the road until I got there and I would just walk up to him and he would look over at me and nod, his youngest grandchild, without even a word. We would spend long hours like that, just being together without much conversation at all. He would answer me if I had questions, usually about fishing or axes or cows, because he still had one that often got loose and wandered through our garden. Later in the day he would offer me molasses cookies he had bought at the store. We would watch Gunsmoke together on Monday nights and then I would walk home in the growing dark, and my mother and father would ask my how the old man was. I was their emissary. I was also very fond of my grandfather. He was good to me in a quiet way and I would help him by turning his whetstone wheel while he sharpened his ax or go inside to his chair and get his Pearson's Red Top snuff, which he would pinch and put between his gums and lips. Even now, as a man in my sixties, he is current in my mind, a living thought sandwiched between old memories that never seem to fade. I am telling you all of this because less than a year after he died, he began to haunt me. I never told anyone at the time. I knew it was a haunting. One of my earliest memories is of my sister who woke the entire house up with her screams when I was five years old because she had awakened to see my grandmother's spirit standing at the foot of her bed. If my sister could be visited by a grandparent's ghost, why not me? There was also the idea that I didn't really know how to tell anyone what I was experiencing. Like most hauntings, it occurred first to me when I was alone. I tried with all of my mind to find a reason for what I saw but my eleven year old mind simply couldn't. My father and mother were very busy at the time.Dad had just taken on a partnership in a business in town and was gone most of the time. I never told my brother. I remember the first time I saw the light in the barn. It was twilight and the orange-red of the sky was dying down to a level glow tinged with shadows. It was late October and the cold of winter was already dancing around the edges of things. Puddles had margins from razor-frost ice. You could see your breath in the early morning. I was alone in the house, my parents not yet returned from work, and I was setting the table. It must have been around five-thirty. Our dining room windows looked out over Grampy's field, a view I'd seen a thousand times before, waiting for the bus to come down Buck's Hill, watching for headlights or the smoke as it rose from the chimneys of the neighbors' houses. What caught my eye was a light where a light should not have been, in the window of Grampy's small horse barn, a building never used and seldom entered. Even during his last few years, I had never seen him enter it. It was a place I entered only a few times in my life, a place forbidden by my father, no longer used , with old hay and sisal twine binding rope on pegs, old leather straps hanging, dust and memories. As I gazed at it, it seemed to glow steady and bright. I marveled at it for a moment and when I could not think of any good reason on God's good Earth why there would be a light there, my mind went elsewhere. Was someone inside? Surely not. But perhaps? I couldn't be sure. I waited and watched and my heart beat faster while my mind searched for something, anything that would explain it, but I couldn't find an anchor to tie to my thoughts. And then my parents came home and I debated whether or not I should tell them and Mom made dinner and when I sat down to eat, I looked in the direction of the barn and there was nothing - no light, no sign of life, nothing. Had I imagined it? Perhaps I had, or perhaps I had been given a vision? One day flew past the next and, seeing no further indication of the light, I told myself I must have been mistaken. Then comes another early evening and I am again alone in the house and then, I see it again, as clear and bright as Polaris, a light in the window of my grandfather's barn and I begin to put two and two together - his speaking with my grandmother who had passed, my grandmother's ghost showing up to my sister, the loneliness of the vast landscape in which we lived and my own eleven year old vivid imagination and I came to the unbearable conclusion that somehow, for reasons unknown to me, my grandfather was sending me a message. He knew I was alone in the house and that I would be looking in his direction and there was the light, a sign from beyond that he was still lingering. I stared at the old ramshackle barn for long minutes, my heart beating like a hammer in my chest, wondering what this meant and why. And then my mother's car drove into the driveway and she came in and put her coat away and when I looked out again, the light was gone. It was a light just for me, I concluded, a message that only I could see. I did not know its meaning. As the days and weeks and months rolled by, I saw that light often, just at twilight, almost always when I was alone, sometimes when others were there. I never told a soul about it, either. There was something personal in it for me, something meant for me and only me and I kept it that way. I loved my grandfather and I missed him and if he was trying to send me a message, I wondered, it must be a message of assurance and trust. I found myself thinking about him more often, wondering exactly why he would do this. Was I supposed to understand the meaning of the light in the barn, because I didn't. I could never tell when it would show itself or for how long. I got to the point in the bleak midwinter of finding some small comfort in the fact that he had chosen me to contact, his youngest grandchild. But I'll tell you something else. I never once went near that barn. I entertained the thought of forcing my way in - it belonged to my Aunt but she lived in Boston and would never know I had trespassed. I never went near because I believed that my Grandfather's spirit now dwelt in that old place and the last thing I wanted to do was encounter something from the other side, something that should not be there, even if it was my grandfather. I kept my distance and as spring gave way to summer, I discovered, much to my relief, that the light in the barn ceased to glow. It was gone. I confess that a small part of my mind actually missed it. Was my grandfather now truly gone? Was he in Heaven, at rest, where he should be? One hot Sunday afternoon in midsummer, when everyone was busy and had forgotten that I even existed, I got on my green Schwinn banana bike and rode to his little house on the corner, owned now by my father. It sat there empty because my dad was getting ready to rent it out. I tried my hand at the door but it was locked. I climbed up the woodshed roof and then up to the roof of the back ell and finally shimmied to an upstairs window and found my way inside. There I was, in the oppressive heat, walking the floors of the little house all by myself, without permission. I went from room to room. There was the old beige cabinet TV we watched together. I turned it on to see if it still worked. It did. I went into the kitchen and opened all of the cabinets, all empty and clean from a long day of my mother's hard work. I went into his bedroom, the one he had fallen asleep in and never woke up and sat in a circle of warm sunlight on the hardwood floor and watched the dust float in a sunbeam as time itself stopped and I realized why I was there. I was looking for the old man. I was looking for my grandfather, or maybe his ghost. I had no idea how long I had been there when I decided that I was indeed the only one there. The isolation of the place, the emptiness of it, made me sad. I wandered into the living room and found an old bronze knick-knack of a sailing ship that my grandmother got when she went to Old Orchard Beach once in her youth. I took it and stashed it in my pocket. Then I left the same way I got in, closing the window as I left. I never told anyone about this until now. It has been my secret. I still have the sailboat. When autumn came again and the nights grew almost intolerably long, I found to my surprise and my fright that the light was once again visible. For five nights in a row I found myself not even wanting to look but forcing myself, I saw it there, as clear as a fallen star from the sky. And now I wanted to know more, so much more, than I did. I was bolder and thought, if this is a sign from the old man, I need to get over my fear of the horse barn and go inside and perhaps find what he wants me to find to help him go to his rest. I tried twice and failed, my heart failing me, my courage a small bird in a cage not willing to fly free. I rolled in my bed that night unable to sleep. I could see him there in my mind's eye sitting on a stool in the corner of the horse stall, his mouth considering wad of snuff in his mouth, his eyes squinting behind his glasses and in my imagination we was calling over with his hand, motioning me to come nearer and nearer. When I did, I could see him moving his lips, trying to tell me something. He wasn't impatient or bothered. But no sound came from his mouth and that made my skin crawl. I tried to stay, in my mind, - God knows I did, but even in my imagination I ran. It was almost too much to bear. This was not the kind of thing that could be real. It was something out of a Saturday afternoon matinee at the Powers Theatre, not the reality of my ten year old life. I still hadn't told a soul. I didn't think I ever could. There are moments in your life where the sudden realization of a simple fact changes everything. It's often something you should have known or seen all along, but you didn't and you live in fear or you suffer anxiety when you realize something so life-changing is, in fact, so simple, so common. I was sitting in the darkness of the dining room in late October, staring again at the light in the barn, when my mother drove into the driveway. I heard her close the door of the Mercury station wagon and come into the house. I knew I had to leave the dining room - I didn't want her to know I was sitting in the dark. As I sat there for one last moment, I heard her enter the house and then turn off the porch light that I had turned on not an hour before. The loud click of the switch was immediately followed by the disappearance of the light in the barn. Time stopped. I said hello to her but my mind was racing too quickly to think. I flicked the switch to the porch light, saw that it was on, and went back to the dining room. The light in the barn was back. I ran back to the switch and flicked it. Sure enough, the light was gone again. All of this time in my imagination, I had been haunted by my parent's porch light reflecting in the window. The next day I found the courage to go to the horse barn and I discovered that, before he died, my grandfather had put a bright piece of tin behind the window facing our house. Positioned as it was, the angle of the light to the window of my dining room presented a perfect vector of fear as light was reflected back to my eyes from the tin and the porch light. I laughed in relief and was happy that I had suffered in silence. I told my mother of my discovery and she didn't laugh. She understood I had spent a good year wrestling with the supernatural, all by myself. She never laughed at me. I never told my father. So you see, the light in the barn was not the ghost of my grandfather haunting me. It was a trick of the light, a misunderstanding of the brain. I was young enough at ten years old to still believe in things I could not prove. In the years that have passed since, I recall that year of wonder with a kind of strange fondness, because for a year, I felt my grandfather's presence. I still imagine that he was there with me as I stared out in wonder and some fear at the light in the barn. Perhaps he had been trying to tell me, in my imagination when he spoke but I could hear him, that the light was just a reflection. I suspect that I didn't hear him, because I didn't want to. I did not want to let him go, just yet, and I held onto that light as a kind of hope, as a benevolent spirit in a lonely, sad world. The thing about seeing a ghost is that it is inexplicable. Those of you who know you have seen one, even if you've never told anyone, understand that. Maybe you haven't seen a spirit, but you've felt it, or heard it, or simply knew it. And probably, you were alone and it caught you like a whisper in the dark and you know you've experienced something uncommon, something from beyond, and you own it like a secret and tell no one or perhaps only those whose trust you know will keep you safe. I thought I was haunted by my grandfather's ghost and perhaps I was, in a way. Perhaps he was with me in spirit during that time. Since that time, I have had the occasion to witness three other moments when I encountered something that defied explanation, so perhaps I am prone to believe in such things or, like my good friend Paul says, I am sensitive and simply refuse to accept it. Since that time when I was ten years old, I have been haunted not by ghosts but by the possibility of them. In a world where everything can be explained, even the simple reflection of a porch light reminds me that ghosts aren't real. So why do I keep searching for them? Why do I have the strongest hunch that they are real AND explainable? I don't know. But when darkness falls and I look out into the world from my window, even now I see phantoms in the wind, I hear them call my name and I know that though I cannot prove they are there, nevertheless, they are. If ghosts are merely memories or thoughts of those past, then it is as much a part of the human condition to wonder about them, about what comes after the last breath, as it is to seek to explain them away with logic and science. I am still haunted. I think I always will be.
The Mission of the Bike Karma Podcast to bring humans together through sharing good bicycle stories. BK EP 72 Segments: 1- Stories from the Wheel Happy Bike Shop in Martha's Vineyard https://wheelhappybicycles.github.io/ 2- PSA Bike Check with Calvin Jones from Park Tools 3- Mid Roll Gratitudes and Show Supporter Spots AD Bikes with Fred Thomas The link to AD Bikes. https://a-dbikes.com/ Also... Link to my Patreon Page (You can help the show for as little as $1 a month). https://www.patreon.com/posts/bike-karma-extra-35705281 4- Come to a Bicycle Swap Meet with me and Tarran While there we Bump into Rob Bareiss from Bike New London! https://www.bikenewlondon.org/ 4- Credits and Final Thought If you like any segment or episode PLEASE follow, like, share, or even better give a positive review (especially on iTunes), and share with any bicycle loving friends or people who don't like bicycles but who need to understand why you do. FREE STICKERS!!!! while they last To see what is mentioned in the podcast check out... www.bikekarmapodcast.com I'll put links and additional materials there... THANKS VERY MUCH FOR LISTENING! Bike Karma, The Bicycle Karma Project, The Bicycle Karma Cat are TM Tom Brown. All Rights, Copyrights,TM, etc... (apart from music) are reserved and asserted. Opening and Closing Theme Music used with Permission by the Band Mobjack at Mobjack Music and written and performed by Keller Glass https://kellerglass.com/ . Other segment music is royalty free, attribute free, and we appreciate those artists as well. Contact bikekarmaguy@gmail.com The show is not meant to be a guidebook (you should think for yourself and safely ride within your abilities) just interesting stories to bring us together. Thanks for coming along for the ride. Keep it Wheel!
Dr. Laura Schwinn, a psychologist specializing in working with women and mothers, is interviewed in this podcast episode. She discusses her background, experiences as an identical twin, and her perspective on the use of the title "doctor." Dr. Laura emphasizes the importance of empowering clients in mental health and supporting women and mothers in reconnecting with their vibrancy. She shares personal experiences as a mother and highlights the challenges and pitfalls that mothers often face. Dr. Laura also discusses the importance of letting go of control and focusing on internal states and feelings in achieving goals. She offers one-on-one coaching and group coaching and is the author of You Are The Most Perfectly Perfect You: Reclaiming Self-Love. “We need to come back to our own vibrancy, our own light, so we can be more attuned to the attachment of our child. ” - Dr. Laura Schwinn Links: Christie's Website Christie's Instagram: @sasssays Dr. Laura's Website Dr. Laura's Book Dr. Laura's Instagram: @drlauraschwinn Ep 2 Chelsea Riffe
Community, exchange, interdependence, celebration, purpose: in this episode, Randall and O+ Founder Joe Concra share an example of bicycles serving as a vehicle first for connection, and from there serendipity, collaboration, and the creation of meaning. Join Joe, Randall, and other members of the community at the O+ Festival in Kingston, NY from October 6-8 for a weekend of music, art, riding, and wellness. https://opositivefestival.org/ Episode sponsor: Hammerhead Karoo 2 (use code THEGRAVELRIDE for free HRM) Support the Podcast Join The Ridership Automated Transcription, please excuse the typos: [00:00:00] Craig Dalton: Hello, and welcome to the gravel ride podcast, where we go deep on the sport of gravel cycling through in-depth interviews with product designers, event organizers and athletes. Who are pioneering the sport I'm your host, Craig Dalton, a lifelong cyclist who discovered gravel cycling back in 2016 and made all the mistakes you don't need to make. I approach each episode as a beginner down, unlock all the knowledge you need to become a great gravel cyclist. This week on the podcast, I'm going to hand the mic over to my co-host Randall Jacobs. Who's joined by Joe conqueror. Joe is the founder of the O positive festival. In New York. He's joining. Randal's talk about community and how the bicycle serves as a vehicle for connection. I think you'll enjoy this conversation. But before we jump in i need to thank this week sponsor hammerhead and the hammerhead crew to computer The hammerhead crew too, is the most advanced GPS cycling computer available today with industry leading mapping navigation and routing capabilities. That set it apart from other GPS options, free global maps and points of interest included like cafes and campsite. It means you could explore with confidence and on the go flexibility. Once again, the other night I was hit with hammerheads bi-weekly software update where new features are released so unlike other head units, your crew too continues to evolve and improve each ride, getting better than the last. Personally, I love the climbing feature. That's available on the crew too. One thing I noted in comparison to some of the other devices I've used is that now the climber feature kicks in whether or not you've got a route loaded or not. That's super important. I was riding the other day, testing out another device and I had a climb that's very known, but I didn't have a route loaded. And all of a sudden that climbing feature wasn't available. I very much appreciate what the engineers at hammerhead have done to make this computer as good as it can be, but to continue to improve it. For a limited time, our listeners can get a free heart rate monitor with the purchase of our hammerhead crew to just visit hammerhead.io right now, and use the promo code, the gravel ride at checkout to get yours today. This is an exclusive limited time offer for our podcast listeners. So don't forget to use the code. Duck gravel ride. That's a free heart rate monitor with your purchase of a career to. From hammerhead.io. With that business behind us. I'm going to hand the mic over to Randall and I'll talk to y'all next week. [00:02:33] Randall Jacobs (host): Where do we [00:02:33] Joe Concra: begin? I don't know. The Randall Joe Comedy Hour. I have no idea. Where do you wanna start? Well, [00:02:38] Randall Jacobs (host): how about origin story because people have asked me this a number of times and I actually don't know if I get it right. I think I get the high level of it, like how we met, [00:02:47] Joe Concra: how we met. Huh? How did we, you you go back a little ways now. Yeah. So here, this is what I remember. It was a dark and stormy night. And, uh, now if I remember correctly, so I'm sure we'll get into o positive and what O positive is at some point, but I was doing. As I often do research on partners for O positive to help this crazy experiment continue. But I'm also like a mad cyclist, mad being the operative word. And I somehow found thesis and I think I just wrote to the info at and was like, I think this model's really awesome. And I do this festival where we exchange for healthcare, which probably doesn't make any sense at all. And. Would you like to come talk about being a sponsor or a partner? Yeah. And then you said, we're actually gonna be on the east coast. And then I ridiculously said, well, why don't you swing through Kingston and we can demo a bike? Which then I had to buy a bike. That's how [00:03:51] Randall Jacobs (host): that why you bought a [00:03:51] Joe Concra: bike. Well, I rode it. Okay. I mean, it was pretty simple. Once you ride it, you're like, okay, this bike's amazing. I should probably ride more gravel and get off the road. I've survived this long in my life without being killed by a car. So, uh, yeah, that's why. Is that close to what you remember? That's [00:04:07] Randall Jacobs (host): more or less exactly the way I tell the story. Yeah. So essentially you'd reached out and, the way I've told it is you had said, Hey, I like what you guys are doing. I'm thinking about getting a bike also, here's what I do and you should come check out Kingston. Um, and then that evolved into, you know, we did a small, uh, event at, uh, utility bikes. [00:04:28] Joe Concra: Yes. Uh, great time. [00:04:29] Randall Jacobs (host): Yeah. And really from that first moment there was a seed planted in me about being here. Some listeners will know I now live in Kingston, but [00:04:37] Joe Concra: we're closing the gate after you. Yeah. Like nobody else, like, oh yeah. Don't come here. It's not fun here. It's terrible here. Yeah. Don't, this is not where you want to be. Yeah. [00:04:46] Randall Jacobs (host): And I remember, at the time I was becoming, I wasn't quite done with San Francisco, but , I was getting to a different place in life and didn't quite know what would come next. And that seed was watered every single time I came back and I kept coming back. Mm-hmm. So, I'm trying to remember, I think the next time I came, we had a little team summit. Mm-hmm. A couple of team members during Covid. And, we were here with you and, you showed us around, and we were here for a couple of days and that was great. I remember ending up on your roof deck, looking at the mountains on this beautiful day with my colleagues, and then the next time I came, I think it might have been my first O positive. Did the gravel ride. Yep. I made a couple of friends on the ride who are now friends here that, you were starting the, what was then trust hub now Trust up project. Mm-hmm. And, you were looking for somebody to, to help run it. You had this idea for something and some funding lined up. And. I joined the, the hiring committee. And now, I've been involved as a advisor and now, Rob Jameson, who runs that project is a good friend. Yeah. And so, on a very personal level, like you've had a pretty big impact on my life. Through the direct things that you've done with me, but then also, just the, the resonance that I felt while being here, hanging out with you, the people I met through you and through the, the, the community that is here. so much so that I moved here, I bought my first house. That's says a lot about, about you and about this place, and this is a place that has a significant amount of your influence on it. Hmm. You walk around and you have the murals and you see the little o positive, the bottom of the mural. And, you know, there's a number of community initiatives that have been kicked off in this area, presumably stemming from that initial o positive grant when you first got the festival off the ground or, or a few years after that. Mm-hmm. So . [00:06:43] Joe Concra: Thank you. Yeah. I'm so glad we're not. Like you actually said, do you want to do this with video? And I, and it's because of this, cuz I be, people would see that I'm bee red right now. Um, because I'm, I thank you. And also, like, it makes me very uncomfortable to hear these things. I feel like everybody does the best they can. And you get lucky to create space for things to happen if you're really, you know, if you really, really think about what we do. As human beings, as people listen to this as cyclists, right? We're always looking for the gaps. We're always looking for the space. We're always looking for that. That thing between the thing, right? At least I know I am. So when we met, I was like, oh, well here's the bike I'm going to ride, and this, this guy seems really interesting. I want to know more about what they're doing and what gives somebody a. Like, why does somebody wanna reinvent the wheel? Is literally what I thought when I meant you, like you want to bring down costs, you want this thing to be this, this way you're designing it. It's amazing. Like same for me, like being on a bicycle for me in the woods, being out. Like last night I went riding in some hippie, decided to destroy my knee, but it was a voodoo doll. And we'll get to that. And uh, I wanna keep you all the same. You're riding in Woodstock. Yeah. No close. Rosendale, same thing. Yeah. Um, but you know, There is a desire to work a lot in community and do a lot of really good things. The counter weight to that is being on your bicycle and being alone. Yeah, so I can tell you that the thesis bike that I ride more than any road riding I did since 1982 on right. Being in the woods on gravel alone and like riding by a beaver pond and seeing an owl. At seven o'clock at night in the Hudson Valley is the quiet, it gets the monkeys outta your head and quiets you down. So I'm very, very thankful for, you know, what you've designed. This podcast. I really like the, I really like what's on Slack. I think that's really, really great. It's able to communicate with people on the ridership is great. So, you know, there's mutual respect in that way. I think that it's really, really important just to acknowledge how. You know, cyclists are weird, right? They're like hockey goalies, soccer goalies, cyclists, place kickers in football, right? They're, every cyclist I know is like, yeah, I really wanna be your friend, but also leave me alone. Like it's this weird dichotomy, like they've got their hand up and come here at the same time, which I really appreciate and I find that really, really, really, I'm just thankful [00:09:19] Randall Jacobs (host): You have maybe more of an outside view on cycling and cyclists than I do, cuz I had just been in it for so long. Mm-hmm. Like I was a competitive cyclist for a period and that's its own kind of mindset. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. worked for, worked in the industry quite a bit for quite a long time. I mean, obviously I have a company I do this podcast and so on, so I was like in it versus you are, I think first and foremost, what. An artist, a community builder. [00:09:47] Joe Concra: Yeah. I think first and foremost, I, I make paintings. I mean, that, that's what I do. Right. And then I do all these other things outside of the studio. Right. So I, I run a nonprofit with my friends who, which I built since two in 2010, um, that exchanges art and music for medicine at the festival you've been to every year? Yep. We're about to go year-round with a clinic after 13 years to take care of artists, musicians based on an exchange model, not based on money, trying to take money outta the system. Um, and. I ride bikes and I've ridden bikes like every day of my life for my entire life because I love them and surround myself with cyclists and just riding in general. Um, so yeah, not a pro avid cyclist, I think is what they would call it back in the day. An avid [00:10:26] Randall Jacobs (host): cyclist. Well, before we, we dive in on the, the clinic and o positive and so on. I'm just, uh, want to kind of pull at this thread. What, what do you notice? Do you notice patterns amongst cyclists in particular? So you mentioned [00:10:41] Joe Concra: like, can I just throw this? Can I throw a cyclist under the bus? Like metaphorically? [00:10:44] Randall Jacobs (host): I mean, we're under there. All right. It does [00:10:47] Joe Concra: too. I think everybody listening to this knows this. This isn't a secret. But I was a road rider for years. Mm-hmm. Like back in the, you know, you turn whatever age you get your, you save up your money cuz you're working at McDonald's or your newspaper route and you buy your first road bike, it's like a Ross, it's yellow, it's ugly as hell. Then you graduate to your next bike and you get a Schwinn cuz you think that's the best bike, whatever. And you're, Greg Lamonts, your, all those things. Then you spend years in group road rides and you do a little bit of like racing, like you and stuff, and you do all the things and you train to, and you go on group rides. A couple years ago, after getting the thesis four years ago now, I stopped. Hmm. And I was like, what a culture shift. I'm not hammering, I'm riding with my friends, I'm getting a great workout. I'm in the woods and just recently, and I know people are gonna listen to this and know me, and I rode ride with him. Please don't put your pump into my spokes when we ride together. But I went on a group ride again, a road group ride, and it was terrible. I spent the whole time looking at the wheel in front of me and somebody's back when I went to the front. I got to say I have a good, nice view, but that's what I noticed more than anything else. People are moving away from that way of riding to a more community based ride. For instance, you mentioned utility bikes. There's a whole generation of kids in sneakers and cutoff jeans. Yeah. And that's their ride. That's how they ride. Yeah. The old guys like me wearing stupid spandex, plastic shit. Like, sorry, I didn't mean to curse. Can I curse on a [00:12:23] Randall Jacobs (host): podcast? No, no. That's definitely gonna get us in trouble. [00:12:26] Joe Concra: Well, sorry. Ftc. F F, fda, whatever, whatever. Regulatory agency. Not the human consumption, [00:12:32] Randall Jacobs (host): fda, [00:12:34] Joe Concra: But I think that's the big shift, right? There's been this massive cultural shift. I'm a little bit nervous to see money going into gravel riding. Yeah, in a way that I think it might screw it up a little bit. It starts getting a little bit competitive where I really like the, like, like the first big long distance gravel ride I did. I remember like getting ready and being like a little bit nervous, like it was a race. I kept reminding myself it's a ride, and then like some dude passes me cranking out Aerosmith on a boombox tied, tied underneath his top tube wearing a cowboy hat, cut off jeans and sneakers smoking a joint, and I'm like, this is amazing. I couldn't believe it. I was like, what a different culture. So I, I hope that that culture, um, exists and keeps growing. I, [00:13:15] Randall Jacobs (host): I think it will. I think gravel specifically, there's something about the medium that is itself, very conducive to that. You're doing mixed terrain riding. You're leaving from your back door. It's not like a road ride where. You're either going solo or you might be going on some group hammer ride. The train isn't changing all that much and so on. Or a mountain bike ride where you're hopping in your car. so there's something more out the door. I think the events that I've been to, there's definitely a trend towards, elite racing. Mm-hmm. , we, we've had, event organizers, for some of the biggest races on the pod, uh, had, have had elite racers on the pod and so on. Mm-hmm. And like, that's its own thing. And as a, I would've joked in the past and I almost did it again, I was gonna say a recovering racer, but at the time I was racing, it was great. Yeah. Like I was living my best life. And just because current me isn't into that, Doesn't mean that past me was getting it wrong, cuz future me is definitely gonna look at current me and say what were you doing at that time? Right. Yeah. And the other thing I'd say is if you're more resonant with one way of riding create that and let people migrate to it, like the utility ride and a couple of the rides around here. But also what we've talked about, growing o positive rides around that, there's no race. It's more like, here's a ride where we're gonna go out and have a shared adventure. go through a share shared ordeal. It'll be accessible to riders of a variety of different abilities. And then we're gonna have a party after. Totally. [00:14:43] Joe Concra: in fact, it's a whole weekend of [00:14:44] Randall Jacobs (host): a party. Yeah, let's talk about that. So let's get in, but I also, what are, what are the dates? [00:14:48] Joe Concra: Uh, this year will be October 6th, seven and eight. Yep. And, but I just wanna say this for all my roadie friends, cuz I still go out on the road, don't hate me, but there's road rides at Oak Positive too. Are road ride right? Mean there's road gravel and a mural to mural tour. Mm-hmm. Um, for families and kid-friendly and bring your dogs and whatever craft you want to try to pedal around. Yep. Uh, the city of Kingston. So I'll give you a little bit of the origin story and what we do cause I think that'll probably help people. So if you haven't heard about o Positive, which I suppose most people haven't, um, we are based in Kingston, New York. And our festivals, which are music and art based, every artist and musician who plays the festival. Puts up a mural, dances tells comedy, whatever they do. In exchange, we build a clinic, and in that clinic are 160 providers. Everyone sees a doctor, has access to a dentist, mental health professionals, acupuncture, massage, you name it, it's all there. We started in 2010 with a really simple idea. As a painter, it was very, it was very, Easy to say, well you know what, we never have insurance. So what if we did a festival where instead of paying the artists with money, cuz we didn't have any money anyway, we got a bunch of doctors who loved music and art and said, would you see these people? So what started as a very, very small festival in 2010? We've done 22 festivals nationwide. Our home base is here in Kingston every year in October. We do the big one here and, uh, it's grown to include gravel riding and a whole weekend of experiential yoga and sound healing dance parties. You name it, it happens from Friday night till Sunday night. When is [00:16:23] Randall Jacobs (host): this coming out? We can put it out whenever. [00:16:25] Joe Concra: Okay. Whenever makes sense. I can give you a headliner. So yeah, this year one of our headliners will be comedy. It's bobcat. Goldway. I dunno if you remember him from the movies and, but I remember it was a standup guy with that crazy voice. But I can't wait to say hi to him and meet him and thank him for making me laugh for years. Because especially coming outta the pandemic, like, we're not dead yet. Like, we should laugh. Like, we should be like, holy shit, we're alive. Like, let's enjoy this moment. And hopefully he'll go to the doctor, he'll go to the dentist, he'll talk about mental health, you know, and, and people will be able to come out and enjoy the weekend. Yeah. [00:16:58] Randall Jacobs (host): Well, that was one of the things that really resonated with me when I first started looking into a positive and getting to know you and coming here was this feeling of okay, there, are there issues in the world that affect me personally? Like I have a significant concern about engaging with the medical system, the medical industrial complex because you hear horror stories. And I know people who've been bankrupted by a system that, on the one hand people say, here in America we have the best healthcare in the world. Well, you might add the caveat that money can buy. Mm-hmm. But, unless you have really good insurance you can end up drained, if you're a small business owner or something like that. Yeah. and you don't have a platinum package. And then there's all these ways in which it deals with symptoms and not with underlying issues. Mm-hmm. Like mental health isn't simply going to a therapist once a week, though I've had periods in my life where that was really helpful in transitioning and getting context and so on, but it's much more holistic. It's like, do you feel a sense of belonging in your community? Mm-hmm. are you part of something bigger than yourself where other people rely on you for certain things and when you have need people are there to help you out. And that's something I, I experienced from day one, uh, upon moving here. And I have it within my family and I've had it within friend groups, but to a lesser degree, in other places cuz people lived to apart or like they're too focused on their career or whatever it else. Mm-hmm. I had some very dear friends in San Francisco, but, everyone's really busy. Mm-hmm. I didn't know my neighbors. I lived in a building with six units. And I barely ever spoke my neighbors, despite my best efforts, right? Mm-hmm. I, you know, I'm very gregarious in that way. And the dynamics here were different. And last year was really the tipping point for me being at the festival and just seeing how all the things that I liked about, say, something like burning Man, but without the excess and the exclusivity and the whole place of washing and money, even though it's pretending not to be about money. Mm-hmm. and you're seeing live music and you're celebrating with your neighbors. Mm-hmm. Like, you're in celebration with people that you're going to see the next day at the cafe. Mm-hmm. Or my neighbor works at the convenience store on the corner. Mm-hmm. You know, things like this. that's a very different thing that for me, I, I had this feeling of wanting something and not knowing what it was. Mm. And then when I experienced that, I was like, this is it. Mm. This is the thing where, I go positive for me represents something much bigger. As big as the healthcare component of it is. Mm-hmm. It, it is, is a different mindset in many [00:19:37] Joe Concra: ways. Yeah. I think, I mean, that's, So wonderful to hear you say that. I would say that because O Positive takes money out of a system that people are used to having run by money for three days and says, Hey look, this can be different. The whole tenor of that weekend feels. Like what you just said, it feels inclusive, it feels community. And people have always said, I can't even describe what it is. And I'm like, well, don't worry about it because we're not used to it. Right. Like we are not used to living in a system where we go, you know, that's not, I mean, yes, we take donations to come into the festival, we run on donations, right. But when you go through the clinic, if you're an artist or musician or volunteer, and you go through that clinic and you get a root canal in exchange for playing your set, Mm-hmm. That's a whole different conversation because what it does is it says, Hey, we value each other equally. Yes. And that is different because we live in a system that does not value people equally ever. We value money first, usually, and we say it, oh, positive, not this weekend. Not this weekend. And that is vital. And the other thing that I think that's really important is you recently moved to a town where. You know, it's in flux. Yes. Because people have moved in, in, in droves here during the pandemic, but also like we introduced artists, musicians for 13 years now to their local doctor. So we hear it on the medical side. Like, I love being a doctor here because I know these patients, these are now my friends. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Because when you're at that show and you're dancing Yes. That doctor's dancing next to you. Yep. And that is totally cool because the lab coat's not on. Yeah. And we take, we just peel away. All of the, all of the things that we, all the baggage we bring. [00:21:29] Randall Jacobs (host): Well, so you mentioned money and, and we can really distill it down to using price, denoted in money as the sole driver of exchanges. And so you need a thing. And you go on Amazon and you order the thing cuz it's the lowest price and it gets delivered at your door and you get up the next day or a couple days later and it's there. Right? Mm-hmm. You have no relationship with the person who made it. You probably don't even interact with the person who delivered it. Right. There's no relationship there. Mm-hmm. Nobody involved in that exchange is going to be there for you when you don't have money to buy a thing. Right. Right. And furthermore there's benefits of providing things to other people that are not incorporated in what you get paid. Like I don't help out my neighbor when he needs to move an air conditioner because he's gonna pay me. I do it because it's an opportunity to hang out. Mm-hmm. And because the day I moved in, he was coming over the fence to say hello and we were talking about taking down the fence. yeah. And, having that sort of Interdependency and having exchanged that is taking into account. Like, I get to interact with you, I get to be in community with you. That has value. the other thing you mentioned, valuing everybody the same, the trust up project. Core to that vision when you initially pitched it was this concept of time banking. Mm-hmm. It took me some time to get my head around it. I kept wanting to fit it into a model of like, oh, well maybe somebody can earn two time credits if their service is worth more. Right. Or something like that. It's like, no, no, that's not how it works. Maybe talk about some of that concept and how it integrates into the mindset around what you're building with o [00:23:03] Joe Concra: positive. Well, yeah, I mean, it's interesting, right? If we talk, first of all, I mean, The dollar is a great unit, unit of measure, right? We all agree that this is the unit of measure, so I get that side of the story. I think what we are trying to address is the inequity of that dollar and how that dollar is different values for each, for different professions. So if we think about time banking or we think about just straight exchanges, what you want to do is even get away from what you said. In our mind, it's like, no, a doctor visit isn't worth two units of measure. Yeah. Right. You don't [00:23:39] Randall Jacobs (host): need a medium of exchange. It's a, it's, it's a direct exchange. [00:23:42] Joe Concra: Exactly. It's harder. Exactly. And time is just time. Yeah. I will give my time, whatever that time would take mm-hmm. To do this task. Oh, I am available. I could also let you use my lawnmower for this much time. I mean, Yeah, this, the funny part is Randall, at the end of the day, I think what we are doing in all the things we're doing here in Kingston and, and other small communities that are doing a lot of these things, we're just trying to get back to the way our grandparents lived in community. We've somehow lost our way cuz we've gone so global to really hyper-local action and, you know, oh, positive to me, from the beginning, sitting at this exact table, like writing it all up and coming up with friends and dreaming it all up. Was about knowing that my grandparents, who had nothing would trade sweet potatoes to see the doctor with their doctor. And that was enough for the doctor. The doctor always had sweet potatoes. Somebody else would give 'em money. My grandparents could give him sweet potatoes, so they got to go to the doctor. So, you know, it's, it's just a different way of being a neighbor. [00:24:48] Randall Jacobs (host): Yeah. Well I think that the getting to be a neighbor is, Really the essential bit, being in community has value and there is resiliency that comes into it that doesn't get banked in the sense that there's some ledger. Mm-hmm. Right? Mm-hmm. But it's banked in the sense that people have a certain feeling around you. Mm-hmm. And you around them. And when there is hardship, that trust in those relationships that are built up mm-hmm. Form a web of interdependence Amazon's not gonna be there for you if you don't have any money to buy the thing. Right. and you know, it may be more expensive to make certain things locally and there's certain goods that it makes sense to centralize and distribute long distances and so on. But there's a lot of things where it does that doesn't make sense. And the price mechanism only works because there's so much direct subsidy in the firm of government subsidies, tax breaks, and so on. Or there's indirect subsidies in the sense that there's all these negative externalities, depletion of soil fertility or pollution of the water or pollution of the air, or changes in climate , that are not incorporated into the price. And that's Economics 1 0 1. You get Adam Smith's various market failures taught early on. And then you forget about them from then on when you get your neoliberal economics education. That was my undergraduate. Wow. Yeah. That, that [00:26:04] Joe Concra: sounds, yeah. Well, it's interesting what you, what you were just saying. You know, as you're talking, I'm like, oh my God, yes. Oh my God. Oh, it's too big. Oh, what do we do about, because people need money to pay to buy food. Still, we're not, we don't have a, we haven't built a perfect system. What we're trying to do is show people what's possible and then hopefully they can go to their own communities and do something that is important to them to do, because, you know, we are not gonna get away from this system tomorrow or the next day. We may not even have a planet by the time we're ready to get rid of this system and change it with something else. But in the meantime, we sure as hell can try and we sure as hell can build something that like someone like you is attracted to, right? Like, we know people have moved here because of O positive, like you just said it, but like we've been getting that for years because I wanna live in a community that actually values art and medicine and everything else. Equally, that's life, right? Without that, what do we have? Like, I don't know. I don't wanna live in a world without art and music and caring for each [00:27:06] Randall Jacobs (host): other, but we can have some sense of security from accumulating lots of things and living in a big house with a tall fence or Yeah. Or building a big buffer of dollars in our bank account or something like this. But, I don't think that the issue is gonna be, we're not gonna have a planet. I mean, the planet's not going anywhere. The question is how well it's going to support the sort of existence that we actually want to have for ourselves and those we care about. I view it as kind of a series of incremental experiments. Mm-hmm. You know, not everything sticks. Not everything works. And I love the, iteration process [00:27:38] Joe Concra: did you see the waste basket behind me with all the different ideas that are just all over the floor, like thousands of them. Like just the things that don't work. Oh my God, that time I was gonna start, you know, give mayonnaise to a tuna and cut out the middle man, that kind of thing. Yeah. Yeah. [00:27:52] Randall Jacobs (host): Well, I mean, being going for 13 years, so that says something. Yeah, it's hard. [00:27:57] Joe Concra: It's, um, you know, we survive off the support of the community. At the festival, everybody gets tickets. There's a price to it, but it's, it's like $75 for three days, which is insane. Um, and if you don't have that, we have community tickets available for everybody. So it's, it's, you know, It's a very low barrier to entry. In fact, if you have nothing, I'm sure we can let you in. So it's very simple to, to get involved and to, to do it and to do the work. I think that the, the hard part, We started as all volunteers and now we have a staff cuz we're going year round. Mm-hmm. Right. When we're taking over a space, we're building a clinic that's gonna open on August 11th. We're gonna go from three days to 365 with the dream of having a building that has music every night and art every night. And people can just wonder what the hell's happening there. But you get healthcare at the same time. Right. So we're like a Trojan horse of healthcare. Right. We make a party and inside that party, Are all these doctors and dentists and massage therapists and acupuncturists and mental health professionals. So we still need people's money, right? We still need the dollar while we build a separate system. And that is the hardest part. Like, that's what I worry about every day. How do we keep the lights on? And, um, it's daunting. That was my reality [00:29:15] Randall Jacobs (host): check. Yeah. I mean, it is the part that, um, I'm excited to, you know, be more involved with. As you know, my, my other commitments are less all-encompassing. Mm-hmm. Uh, building a house amongst them. Yeah. [00:29:28] Joe Concra: Have you told people about your house? Uh, I've mentioned it because you say building a house, but does everybody know that you like bought like a. Freaking falling down log cabin in a city that nobody even knew was there. It was covered in brambles. Like you guys, you all have to see and ladies, you, he Randall needs to, needs to post pictures from this place cuz it's like some weird mountain man's retreat from, but like 1970s with like shag carpets and bong hits everywhere. Like, but you're doing an amazing job. There may have [00:29:57] Randall Jacobs (host): been some paraphernalia previously. Less bongs and more bullet casings. Yes. Um, in flashband grenades. [00:30:05] Joe Concra: Really? Oh yeah. Wow. Yeah. Yeah. I mean it's [00:30:08] Randall Jacobs (host): pretty, that, that was a scary day when I found [00:30:09] Joe Concra: those. Wow. That's ama It's pretty phenomenal what you found. And you are literally resurrecting someone's dream cabin from the 1970s and making it your own. Yeah. And [00:30:20] Randall Jacobs (host): it'll be, uh, it'll be a community space as well, like adding, uh, a couple of, uh, loft bedrooms in there that I. Uh, we'll make available for, for people to, to, you know, coli. And then, um, there's a new ADU law accessory Dwelling Unit law in Kingston. Be attending some meetings around that and hopefully I can build a couple of smaller structures on the property. Nice. And then everyone who's on the property would have access to the main cabins, so like the grand room and the kitchen and the solarium off the back and so on. And have it be, um, well, I, I want, I want to learn permaculture. Mm-hmm. I want to grow as much food as I can fit. On that small little parcel in the city. Mm-hmm. Have some fruit trees facing the street that people can walk by and graze from. Mm-hmm. As I've enjoyed doing with the, uh, I think, uh, most recently it's, I got raspberries coming in and then, uh, there's lots of, uh, oh, what's the, the tr the tree berry that looks like a blackberry. That poison berry? Uh, mulberry. Mulberry. Mulberry. [00:31:15] Joe Concra: Oh my god. Mulberry's everywhere right now. The [00:31:17] Randall Jacobs (host): birds love them. Yeah. Yeah. I just like stand under, stand on sidewalks, under, under trees and just like, you know, eat Yeah. Eat my weight and, and mulberries in those. Yeah. Sit there for 30 minutes and my hands and mouth are all, you know, blackish purple. Uh, but yeah, that, that is something that I'm, I'm, uh, You know, it's still very much a still, still early stage, but as soon as it is structurally sound, um, there'll be, there'll be [00:31:46] Joe Concra: gatherings. So you haven't put any pictures up on the ground? You got? Not really. No. You have to kind of behind the radar. It's crazy now that we've talked about it. People have to see it. Yeah. [00:31:56] Randall Jacobs (host): Um, so let's talk about, well, let's talk about, so come to a positive. What's the experience? [00:32:01] Joe Concra: Yeah. Um, you get a wristband for three days. You have access to this year, ob. I said earlier about Bobcat, but there'll be 50 bands, maybe more. Um, several different stages to four or five different stages throughout the city. It's all walkable. Um, the art will be, I think there's five or six muralists we have. It's a very small city of 22,000, but we have 60 murals up at this point. Mm-hmm. Um, there'll be five. More murals going up this year. Um, plus all the other art events that are happening. Dance and readings and performances and spoken word. And, you know, you go to go on the website and as we start announcing the schedule, you'll get to see it. It's pretty exciting. Um, headlining music, amethyst Kia is playing. Um, there's a bunch, there's so many bands. It's, it's every year we're like, can we do 30? And it ends up being 50. And then you still reject. Hundreds and hundreds of bands apply and you always feel terrible because you can't accommodate them all. But the clinic can only handle so many artist musicians. So that's one reason for us going year round that is so important. So we could have every night having people seen and then, you know, the whole weekend just feels joyful. And Saturday morning, Those of us who ride get together and go on a 50 to 60 mile road ride. Um, the gravel ride, I think we will design it as like a 30 to 35 mile ramble down all the trails that Kingston is a hub for the Empire State Trail and a number of other trails. Mm-hmm. So we'll ramble down some trails to New Paltz and probably go up into Mohawk a little bit and then come back around and have a barbecue after and a big party and enjoy that. And really, I mean, it's like you get a gravel ride, but you get like, All this music and all this art all weekend long. [00:33:43] Randall Jacobs (host): Yeah. And this, the, in terms of the venues, uh, so there's Kegan Nails. Yep. Uh, which, you know, brew Brewery, local Brewer has been there for a while. And there's a, a whole stage there as well. Uhhuh, that's one of the venues. You have the old Dutch church. Yeah. Beautiful. Uh, just beautiful. And that is a music venue. And that's where the big, I know last year, Kimra amongst others. Yep. [00:34:04] Joe Concra: Kimra played there in Mercury. Rev played there. I'm trying to think else who played there last year. But yeah, it's a beautiful space. It's a Dutch reform church. It's one of the oldest buildings in the city. [00:34:12] Randall Jacobs (host): It's, which is an old city. This was the original capital of New York state. Yeah. [00:34:16] Joe Concra: Yeah, it was a fence around it to keep out people. It was very weird the way it was taken over. Oh, the stockade. Yeah. Yeah, exactly. But hey, we're learning, you know, every couple years in the city of Kingston, they do this thing called the burning of Kingston. And just one year I wanna just see if it actually will just burn. Like, I'm just like, why are we celebrating the, there's this, they do this celebration. This gives everybody an idea of like what living in Springfield and the Simpsons really is like every two years they, everybody dresses up in red coats and. So, and, um, revolutionary wore outfits and they chased the red coats around the streets and forced them out. But the reality is when the red coats got here, everybody just left. Like everybody just, everybody just went to the next town. Nobody fought. Everybody's like, whatever. Take the town. We don't care. But in our myth making history in our American myth making history, this town has turned it into this event where, you know, we held off the British, we didn't, it was no holding off. In fact, if we would've not held them off, maybe we would have a healthcare system. Not saying it would work great, but maybe we'd have a national healthcare system. So too bad we won. Yeah. Um, [00:35:22] Randall Jacobs (host): myth making. Uh, [00:35:23] Joe Concra: but it's true. We make such crazy myths in this country about our history. Well, that's true of [00:35:27] Randall Jacobs (host): any. Any country, any culture, totally. Any, I mean, myth is essential to unifying groups of humans, uh, for collective action, for community, for cohesion. Yeah. Shared myths are essential. I mean, money, we talked about money earlier. Money is a shared myth. That's true. Why does it add value? Like what can you do with money? Muddy? Yeah. I mean, it has a little bit of thermal energy if you burn it, but not much compared to what you have to do to acquire it. Um, but no, it's the, the fact that you believe that this dollar is. So, I mean, that's no [00:35:58] Joe Concra: different, right? Well, except that everybody dressed up in costumes and chases everybody around the streets firing muskets. I mean, that's just weird. Yeah. I mean, I suppose so I think it's actually this year, by the way, and, and it, you, there have been years where it's taken place during O positive, so you get all these musicians and like leather and like weird outfits. Amongst just itself, like a, you know, it's costume. This is my, it's its own mythmaking. Yeah. Oh my God. The rock and roll myths don't even get me started. But, uh, but it's pretty wild to see. Yeah. Rock and roll costumes and colonial costumes at the same time. [00:36:30] Randall Jacobs (host): That's super funny. So we talked a bit about the festival, talked about the rides that are going on. Yeah. Another thing I just wanna share about, you know, from a personal experience standpoint, with the festival is. There, I found, anyways, something very serendipitous, which is to say, I showed up. I, I know you, I knew peripherally a few people, who I'd bumped into. Um, and then I went on the ride and I saw some people I'd seen on the ride, the previous year and had spoken with a bit, but didn't, you know, couldn't even remember their names and so on. Mm-hmm. But there was enough of like, oh yeah, I remember you from last year, and. What started as like, alright, I'm gonna go check out Kingston. Cause I feel drawn to there for some reason, but I'm going solo and I don't really know anybody. Ended up being like a series of serendipitous little events where I get pulled into something. It's like, oh hey, like you're, you know, um, you were here last year. Oh, you know, I, I'm, you know, what do you do? Oh, I do this. Oh. Oh, what do you do? Oh, I'm a musician. I'm actually playing across from Rough Draft. Mm-hmm. Uh, tomorrow. And I go to that show and I see other people from the ride and then hanging out with him afterwards. And it's. And get invited to another thing to, to go sit around a fire. I actually, in that case it was, uh, it was, it was, uh, I get a text from, from Rob who runs Trust Up, which mm-hmm. You got kicked off. He's like, Hey, are you in town? I'm like, yeah, I'm in town. I was thinking of heading back. He's like, oh, well we should hang out. Ended up staying with him and his wife and his daughter. Mm-hmm. Um, over, I think a couple of nights and sitting around a fire, uh, that evening with a bunch of people who I now consider friends and so on, and, and that just, Happened over and over and over again over the course of the weekend, really being, being here. And I find that that often happens as I'm kind of walking around the neighborhood. Mm-hmm. Uh, because there's, again, there's um, it's a big enough place where. It doesn't feel too small, it doesn't feel too isolated or anything else like that. It has all the things that I need. Like I very seldom feel, uh, granted I just got here mm-hmm. Uh, some months ago, but I haven't had this feeling like, oh, I gotta go really far in order to, to find something interesting. Right. Um, but it, it's small enough where you bump into the same people over and over again. Like you see that person at the cafe. You know that that's also working there one or two days a week. Like you, you bump into them every so often and eventually you end up sitting around the big table. Um, and you know, you have a conversation. [00:38:49] Joe Concra: Yeah. The blessing and a curse of a mid-size to small town that Yeah. You know, you get to know everybody and at the same time it's like, oh, do I really wanna know anybody? Everybody. But yeah, you're right. But the other interesting thing, and I mean you're somebody who's moved here recently is I'm always curious how you, how does one I. Wherever you're listening to this, wherever someone is, when someone new comes to town, there used to be a thing called the welcome wagon, right? Like there would be, people would come over with a, a hot dish, right? Welcome to the neighborhood, here's some macaroni and cheese. Like how do you bring people in? And also economically, what's happened here, and I think what's happened if you draw a two to three hour circle around any major metropolitan area during the pandemic is. The value of prices has gone up so high that a lot of our RS musicians have had place housing [00:39:40] Randall Jacobs (host): in particular. [00:39:40] Joe Concra: Yeah. A lot of our folks have had, have had to leave. Yep. Right. So how do you get the new crop, which everybody's always looking for, greener pastures, wants to move somewhere, right? So how do you engage new people to get involved and feel like they're part of the community? I think that's, that's a difficult nut to crack sometimes. [00:40:00] Randall Jacobs (host): I mean, I, I would flip the question. In a way that I think would have similar answers, but is more immediately actionable and say, what can you do where you are to kind of kick off or catalyze those types of dynamics. Mm-hmm. So, you know, examples of like, you know, I have a neighbor who, uh, sometimes I'll come home and they'll be a pastry in a, in a Pyrex container on my deck. Mm. Right. Little acts of kindness go a long way. Um, or I. Uh, you with, I mean, trust, trust up was very much like looking to create, uh, a platform for kind of facilitating those types of dynamics. Mm-hmm. Where it's like, okay, you, here's a place where if you have some, some need or you have something you can contribute, you can come here. And this, it's almost like a clearing house for, for, you know, those needs and resources, whether it be like you, you know, you need a tool, you need a hand with things. Something. Mm-hmm. Or you have some expertise and, uh, you can provide to someone else. And then the process of doing so again, unlike a, an anonymous remote transaction over the interwebs mm-hmm. Where something just arrives at your door, you're having an, you're having a very intimate interaction with somebody that you're going to see again in your community. Mm-hmm. Um, you know, it really shifted, uh, like shifting the perspective from, uh, one of. I need to get as much utility defined very narrowly from every dollar I spend to, I have a certain set of needs and there's more than one way to get them met. And in fact, when I think about fun, fundamental needs, um, most of the things that we think of as needs in in modern culture, even if you don't have a huge amount of resources, are wants. Right. Right. What do you really need? You need to be fed, you need to be Mormon. You know, you need shelter and water security. Right. And then, you know, to, to live a live rich life, like, you know, you need a, a sense of belonging. Mm-hmm. Uh, you need, uh, some, some feeling of purpose, of, of meaning. Right. We are meaning creating machines like it, it's if, if humans do anything that seems really, um, that, that might be unique though. Uh, who knows what we'll discover as we are more and more able to interface with other non-human beings. Mm. Um, but we generate meaning, you know, we're, we're using words that it's like language is meaning built on. Meaning on meaning. It's abstraction. On abstraction. On abstraction. Mm. But its core, like, uh, uh, if you, like, if you feel insecure, Like somatically insecure, and then you have all these narratives around it. Only if I only had more money, only if I had this, this, this thing, right? That would be give me a feeling of, of, of esteem, right? I have the nice car, I have the clothes, I have the fancy bike, right? Mm-hmm. And the blingy, the blingy thing. Um, then I would feel, I would feel enough and I would feel secure and so on. And that whole mindset is something that is uh, uh, it's running up the down escalator. [00:43:15] Joe Concra: Oh, I like that. Yeah. Running up the down escalator sounds about right, but I didn't realize we were gonna get, I thought we were gonna just tell jokes for a while. This is getting really, this is getting, so I'm, I'm in a really philosophical mood these days. Here I am making fun of people who wear spandex like me, and I'm trying to, and we're getting so heavy. But you're right. I mean, it's, are you a mammal, mammal, [00:43:37] Randall Jacobs (host): middle age, something in Lycra. Middle aged man in Lycra. Oh my [00:43:42] Joe Concra: God, I've never heard about that. I hope not. No, I don't think so. I'm past middle age at this point, aren't I? I don't even know anymore. [00:43:48] Randall Jacobs (host): Well, I guess actuarily. I'm middle aged. Yeah. So to the extent that I'm still rocking Lycra on occasion, I guess I'm [00:43:53] Joe Concra: mammal. I, yeah, I think you're mammal. I think they're just looking at me in, be like, you're on the, I'm on the down. I'm on the, I'm on the downhill at this point. There's no more climbing. I'm on the downhill. That's, that's it. But the climbing is my favorite thing to do on a bike, I have to say. Yeah. That's one thing I miss about road bikes versus, versus gravel bikes. Mm. I do love climbing on road bikes. Yeah. I love the dancing on the pedals. I love going up mountains. I think it's, and around here it's great. Like, it's still my favorite thing. It's one thing I have not been able to do on a gravel bike is truly learn how to climb on gravel because it's so different than climbing on the road. And I find it, um, it's just less exhilarating. It's more of a slog. To sit in the saddle, figure out when to stand, when you're not gonna, how to distribute your weight, all that stuff. See, now I'm getting a little cycling geeky. Yeah, keep going. But it's true. I really do. I really do have, I mean, I just, I love climbing and I am, when I'm on the gravel, first of all, most carriage roads and gravel roads around here at least are old rail beds. So the grades aren't super steep. So you find places to go climb. So I find that, and this is one reason I decided to get a thesis, is. With the slicks on, I could just jump off the trail and just go climb a road. Because as you know, there's so many climbs around here. Yeah. So that's really great. But, but I'm not super good at, I'm not good at climbing on dirt. I'm really not. [00:45:21] Randall Jacobs (host): It's a different thing. There's a certain, um, you're far fewer variables on the road, and so you can, I, I find that. Uh, well, not I find recently, but I have found in the past that there's a certain flow state they can get into on a long, sustained road climb. Yes. Where, you know, you're, you're escalating the intensity and your heart rate and your cadence and all your breathing and all these things are kind of at their limits. And then once they fall into sync, all of that perception of suffering just kind of fades away and you're still going like, Really hard, but it's, it's, um, the all there is is that, that, that sinking mm-hmm. Of all the things, like, it's very, very, like in one's body, in, in that particular time and place. Mm-hmm. That, that, that string, that world line of events, it's like very much in that. Uh, I love, I love that feeling. [00:46:23] Joe Concra: I've never heard, I've never heard anybody talk about the thinking of it before. That's exactly it. That rhythm, that moment. Oh my gosh, it's so beautiful. It's so beautiful. You can't even des you just described it, but like, I want to get, I just wanna put on my freaking spandex and go out. Now I [00:46:39] Randall Jacobs (host): described it, uh, it was in Daoism, like the, the, the words used to describe the thing are not the thing itself. Yeah. Any, any Chinese nerds out there. But, but yeah, it's, that was the thing for me with cycling, it's like, oh, everything, everything can go away. Mm-hmm. Everything can fade and it's a whole different context, a whole different head [00:47:04] Joe Concra: space. Yeah. I call my thesis, my mental health machine. I'm sure other people call their bike that too. I think. I think it's just that thing that gets you. To what you just said, that flow state, that place, the other place. I feel that on a personal level is my studio. Yeah. There's only, there's only one place other, and my studio will always win even over the bike. But, but it, but when you're just, when you get to that place where the thinking stops and the being is and it's just, it's, it's tremendous. [00:47:29] Randall Jacobs (host): You know where I get that these days? Clearing brush, I [00:47:33] Joe Concra: had that. I knew you were gonna say something about the cabin. Have we named this cabin yet? What is the name of this cabin? Well someone tried to [00:47:38] Randall Jacobs (host): call it Disaster Cabin. Yes. [00:47:39] Joe Concra: I love that. [00:47:40] Randall Jacobs (host): Um, But, you know, and, and I'll accept it, right. Because, you know, it was in rough shape and there's the Disaster Mansion and Disaster Cottage from, you know, two, two mutual friends. Yeah. In town, other, other falling down houses that hadn't been inhabited in a long time, that are being resuscitated. Yeah. Um, but it doesn't feel like a disaster for me when I saw that house in the condition it was in, um, my feeling wasn't, oh, this is, this is. Gonna be a lot of work. Oh, this is, you know, how, how is it in this state? Or whatever The feeling was, this is my house. Yeah, that's great. I'm going to make this wonderful. And in fact, having that, that thing to push against, kind of like pushing oneself up a mountain, um mm-hmm. But not being, you know, there, there are times, you know, again, just as with on a bike, it's like, oh, the top of the mountain is like so far away and my legs are burning, and like, I, I don't want to, why am I even doing this? Mm-hmm. Why am I choosing this? Why am I such an idiot that I like, take on these hard things? Um, you know, that that's, you know, there are definitely those moments in, I think in any relationship. Mm-hmm. You know, any, any relationship to a thing or a person or something like that. If it's a meaningful relationship, it's, there's going to be some, some great difficulty. Mm-hmm. Uh, but, but the reward is that state of like, you know, I'm doing a thing and yes, it will have a result. And that result will be satisfying. But actually I just love doing this thing too. Mm-hmm. Yeah. Yeah. The reward is the process and not the outcome. Yeah, I [00:49:16] Joe Concra: was just gonna say that it's all about [00:49:17] Randall Jacobs (host): process. I think that, that, if I were to think about like a, a healthy relationship to the bike and, and, you know, would extend to any anything, is, uh, you know, it's used as a vehicle for that type of connection. [00:49:34] Joe Concra: Yeah. Yeah. I, yeah. I thank you again for making such a nice gravel bike. Uh, it's really fun. It's just really [00:49:43] Randall Jacobs (host): fun. There are, there are lots of very enjoyable bikes. I think the stories that you have around it probably matter as much. It's [00:49:49] Joe Concra: crazy how, I mean, I remember we first talked way back when, when you were, when you had been at specialized and you had started a thesis. It felt like a different world. Like there weren't as many companies making gravel bikes. Mm-hmm. And now it's just like it was the early days. Yeah. Oh my gosh. Everybody has a gravel bike. I ride in order I, one of my road bike that I've written tens of thousands of miles on is a 2007 frame where Baya Orca just, I had bought the frame and I built it up with Campy and built all these, it's a Franken bike. Right. I've spent more time on that bike than I have with anything in my life other than my cats. And, uh, And they now make a gravel bike or bay. Oh yeah. Every, and I'm like, what, what? How, how did they end up here? I, I [00:50:32] Randall Jacobs (host): used to define it as the, the multipurpose road bikes that the industry should have been providing to regular riders all along. Yeah. Like most riders don't need, you know, several different bikes for all the different purposes. Like a single bike, maybe with two wheel sets. Maybe with some features to, um, you know, make it adaptable to different types of riding, like a dropper and so on. I mean, that, that, that was the thesis. Yeah. I mean, not the only part of the thesis, but that was one of the core product thesis. Right. And why we, we called it as such. And, uh, I still feel that way. Yeah. Like I, I still have a single bike with two wheel sets, so I still drink my own Kool-Aid, I guess, in that regard. That's great. Um, how'd you get into riding? [00:51:16] Joe Concra: Oh, well, I was a disenfranchised youth. Ronald Reagan. Ronald Reagan made me ride a bike. Um, I think growing up, you know, we all have our own stories, right? And I, I'm not a big fan of people. It's a big push these days, it seems. Everybody has to tell their story, right? It's just like kind of whatever. Everybody has the same damn stories. At the end of the day, we're all just trying to survive. So, But I found the bike because I was a disenfranchised youth. That's the, that's the broad stroke of it all. And I was just like, I need to get outta here. I just need to get outta here. And I remember my first bike in a paper route, I think in Philadelphia where I had a paper route when I was a really young kid. And just riding around the streets early in the morning, tossing paper newspapers. Remember newspapers? No, no. Nobody remembers newspapers. I do. All right. I delivered papers too. Excellent, excellent. I'm Ask Walham, Walham News Tribune, Massachusetts, right? I think I was the first. My sisters did as well. What the, what is [00:52:14] Randall Jacobs (host): sometimes when I wasn't doing the route that I was supposed to, what was it called? The Wal News Tribune. Oh, [00:52:19] Joe Concra: I love that. I just heard that a nonprofit bought 11 out of the 12 independent newspapers in Maine yesterday to keep them alive. That's pretty [00:52:28] Randall Jacobs (host): cool. That's much better than Sinclair or some other conglomerate [00:52:31] Joe Concra: right. So there's now 11 of the 12 newspapers in Maine will survive as a not for pro anyway. I, I digress. Throwing newspapers and then, um, uh, you know, remember the, the mo there was a movie Breaking Away. Yeah. Right. And as an Italian American that kid's singing in Italian in the beginning of the movie. And then being a cutter and like being an outcast and not in the, the college, I was always an outcast. I was totally never comfortable wherever I was, I became a painter, like nobody, whatever. So I discovered bikes really early on, and it just got me out of whatever bad situation I was in. Hmm. And that to me, that was always the escape machine. So even now when I leave my front door, I can go do a 30 mile gravel ride now and never have to hit a road. And I always feel so much better when I come back, cuz now it's all in my head. [00:53:22] Randall Jacobs (host): Unfortunately at this point, the software we were using, having to cut out. So while the conversation continued for quite some time, we don't have the rest to share with you. However, if you'd like to join us at the O positive festival, whether for the rides or the festival itself, you can visit opositivefestival.org or reach out to Joe or myself in the ridership. So with that, I hope you've enjoyed the episode and as another dear friend of mine likes to say. Here's to finding some dirt. Under your wheels.
Originally from Glendora, CA, Ryan Cooley is an account director, producer, and business owner of The Medium Creative Group, a creative agency specializing in still photography, video production, graphic design, Web design and more. Based in Costa Mesa, CA, Cooley and co-owner of the MCG, Luis Rodriguez works with clients such as Red Bull, Nike, American Honda, Toyota, Schwinn, Brixton, Cannondale, and more. However, before the MCG was birthed, Cooley got his start in the motocross industry working at TransWorld Motocross Magazine as associate editor and then managing editor from 2003 to 2008. Cooley, Garth Milan, and Luis worked together at TWMX, building the magazine into the most creatively iconic and powerful publications within the motocross world. The three of them eventually parted ways from TWMX to start The Medium Creative Group. And, Cooley shares the journey at TWMX and why and how the MCG came to fruition. For anyone in the creative world or looking to start their own agency, this is a great listen for you. Cooley candidly opens up about the trials and tribulations of operating and owning a small business in the state of California, keeping up with the trends, wearing many different hats on set, as well as diving into the early years of TWMX, his first-ever assignment for the magazine, and more. Visit the MCG Portfolio: https://themediumcg.com/Follow the MCG: https://instagram.com/themediumcg?igshid=Y2IzZGU1MTFhOQ==Support The Failed Experiment: https://www.buzzsprout.com/2156809/supporters/newFollow The Failed Experiment: https://www.instagram.com/_thefailedexperiment/Follow Kyle Cowling: https://www.instagram.com/kylecowling/Support the show
This week on the podcast we dive into the origin story of Wilde Bicycle Co with founder, Jeffrey Frane. As a child, Jeffrey found the bike and along the way found freedom, adventure, and ultimately, a calling. Jeffrey has spend over twenty years in the bike industry finding himself at QBP managing the All City Brand since its earliest days. His experience and passion has led to the founding of Wilde Bicycle Co. Wilde Bicycle Co. website Episode Sponsor: Hammerhead Karoo 2 (use THEGRAVELRIDE for free HRM) Support the Podcast Join The Ridership Automated Transcription, please excuse the typos: [00:00:00]Craig Dalton (Host): Hey Jeff, welcome to the show. [00:00:04]Jeff Frane: Uh, hey Craig. It's great to be here. [00:00:06]Craig Dalton (Host): Yeah, this is gonna be a lot of fun. I'm excited to learn more about you and more about the Wild Bicycle brand. So let's, let's start off by where, where'd you grow up and how'd you discover the bike? [00:00:16]Jeff Frane: All right, so, uh, for the listeners joining us, uh, my name is Jeffrey Frame and I am from, I grew up in the North Woods of Wisconsin. In a small logging slash milltown called Rhinelander, Wisconsin. A shout out to the Hoda. Um, so I grew up small town Wisconsin and luckily there were a bunch of mountain bikers around and we had, you know, several mountain bike races like twice a year. And, um, all these woods to explore. And got hooked on bikes as a kid because it was the only way I could leave my neighborhood. I lived outside of town where most of my friends lived in town, so I had to get there somehow. And my parents had jobs, so it was ride the bike and I just never stopped. You know, when I was 16, when most people, you know, kind of put down the bike. I was really afraid of killing somebody. I was, I was immature. I'm, you know, I, I, up until like my 40th birthday, I was pretty immature. Um, but I was afraid of hurting somebody with, you know, the power of an automobile scared the crap out of me. So I just like never got my license and I just kept riding. I did eventually get my license, you know, when I was 20 years old, but, so I just never stopped. [00:01:34]Craig Dalton (Host): and was it just sort of pleasure riding back then, or you'd mentioned there was a couple [00:01:37]Jeff Frane: Yeah. [00:01:38]Craig Dalton (Host): Did you get drawn into the race scene at all? [00:01:40]Jeff Frane: did. Um, and it was, it was wonderful. My parents were always incredibly, uh, supportive of my sporting endeavors. And, um, in Wisconsin, we're really blessed to have the Wars series, uh, the Wisconsin Off-Road series, which is one of the largest and longest running, I think, state series in the country. And, uh, they would take me to the races. I started racing in junior high, uh, in the local stuff on my Little Trek eight 30. And, uh, that was wonderful and then kind of progressed. And then in high school we started racing full war circuits and my parents were awesome enough to take the time off of work and to kinda lug me around so that I could get, you know, fifth place in a sport class or whatever. [00:02:20]Craig Dalton (Host): I love it. And was there, was there a high school mountain bike scene back then, or was, were you a little bit of a, an outcast? [00:02:26]Jeff Frane: yeah, I was the only, I had some friends kind of coming up or growing up who raced with me, but once we got to high school, it was largely me. You know, we didn't have Nica or anything like that. In fact, I remember I played hockey as well, that um, I got a local sponsorship from Schwinn and like it was this big kerfuffle cuz like, they didn't know if I was still eligible for hockey and all these people were really upset about it and, you know, whatever. Um, I was, it turned out I was eligible for hockey, but, [00:02:55]Craig Dalton (Host): Some, someone just need to explain to the hockey world that bicycle sponsorship is not exactly making a living. [00:03:00]Jeff Frane: no, and you know, there was no money. But, uh, so, you know, I, I just, I just kept racing and mountain bikes were my first love and it was just a way of exploring, you know, the area around me. And we had a cool local shop, Mel's trading post, and they were super rad to me and put me on the little bike team. And then we got, that team got sponsored by Schwinn and, um, you know, it all, all just kind of held together until I went to the university and. As a poor college student, I really couldn't afford to race, but I was able to still ride my bike all the time. [00:03:32]Craig Dalton (Host): Were you still in Wisconsin at that point? [00:03:34]Jeff Frane: Yeah. I went to the University of Wisconsin at Eau Claire, [00:03:37]Craig Dalton (Host): Okay. [00:03:37]Jeff Frane: um, which is like a, a rivertown and, you know, a couple trail systems, but found, started finding like the bigger community, you know, there were a bunch of really fast racers and I learned so much by chasing these people around, you know, eventually got to. I still raced a little bit in college and was able to race expert where I got my butt absolutely handed to me. Um, and then after, after college, I spent a couple years living in my van, uh, 1992 Dodge Caravan. [00:04:05]Craig Dalton (Host): out Dodge Caravan. [00:04:07]Jeff Frane: I was gonna, I was like, I can't shout out too many things, but yeah, the Dodge Caravan was a, was a workhorse. Really good car. Went through transmissions like he wouldn't believe though. Uh, so lived in that for a while. And then, um, I got tired of, of living on people's couches and just being broke and there was a, a person I wanted to date. So I came back here and now I live in Minneapolis. I've been here since 2005. And like that's really kind of when I think things really took off for me in terms of bicycles as a lifestyle. You know, that was the height of the fixed gear. Boom. And, you know, so I, I moved to the, I moved to city, the city with like a single speed Magna Mountain bike that I had cut the bars down. I had like my little Dickies Messenger bag and I was like, oh, you know, like in the big, I'm gonna cut traffic. And cuz I had grown up like seeing bike messengers and like MTV sports and stuff [00:04:57]Craig Dalton (Host): Yeah. [00:04:58]Jeff Frane: and uh, you know, got a job at a bike shop, started wrenching. And, um, started my little company Bike Jerks. So if you find me on Instagram, my handle is bike jerks, uh, which was a dumb inside joke at the shop. And it seemed like a real funny thing to call my, my little company, uh, when I was 25. Now I'm 43. Not as funny, but I'm stuck with it. Um, and the reason that started is like I needed a, I always needed a creative outlet and I really wanted to participate in the community. I wanted to organize, I wanted to throw races. So I needed a platform to do that. So I invented this thing, bike Jerks, which was the little, um, you know, platform for me to throw Alley Cats and Bandit Cross and, and other events. [00:05:41]Craig Dalton (Host): gotcha. Yeah, it seems like that Minneapolis bike scene is, has always been so creative and spanned so many different disciplines of the B of the sport, including disciplines that no one knows even exists, like tall bikes and random cobbled together bikes. [00:05:58]Jeff Frane: Yeah, it's, it's weird being here cuz we're a straight flyover country. You know, anything that gets media attention or national renowned is pretty much coastal. Um, so we, it's awesome to hear people say that. And, you know, people know that we're a bike city, but like, nobody comes visits Minneapolis, you know, um, we're kind of forgotten about. But we have this really, really special and unique culture. And, you know, there was Gene Ober, pillar and Hur ever stone. And Paul Ziegel and you know, the surly bikes and there's all these pretty amazing contributions that have been made. You know, single speed mountain biking. It wasn't invented here by any means, but I think it took on like its bigger cultural relevance. There was a huge push for that here, especially with, you know, surly bikes coming on outta the scene. Um, so we're standing on the shoulders of giants. There is an amazing, amazing culture that goes back generations, uh, here in the Twin Cities. [00:06:53]Craig Dalton (Host): And then I'm not sure exactly when quality bike parts came to be, but qbp is this cornerstone sort of backbone of the bicycle industry. Maybe you can describe who they are and what they do. [00:07:05]Jeff Frane: Yeah, so q uh, so the first shop I worked at here in Minneapolis was FreeWheel Bike. It was originally a co-op. By the time I got there, it was no longer a co-op. Uh, but, uh, what Steve Flagg, the owner of qbp, was one of the owners of the co-op, and they were, Essentially frustrated not being able to get small repair parts from Europe. And so he started bringing in repair parts and boom, that's how Quality Bicycles products got started. Him and his wife Mary, and you know, now it's the largest bicycle distributor distribution business in North America. They own Surly, they own Salsa, they own All City. They own whiskey. They own 45 North. Um, you know, it's a, it's a massive, massive operation. [00:07:48]Craig Dalton (Host): Yeah. Yeah. Super interesting. I never, I never knew that backstory, but I've, I've certainly known Q BP my entire cycling life, it seems like. And you've ultimately, you've found your way [00:07:58]Jeff Frane: to Q. Yeah. So you know, there Qbp was always like the, you know, like the beacon on the hill kind of thing. It was like all the shop rats were like trying to get to Q and uh, I was lucky enough to get hired there, so I worked like part-time seasonal at FreeWheel bike my first year in Minneapolis. Got laid off for the winter, uh, took a bunch of weird random jobs and eventually, um, QVP was hiring for warehouse people. And so I started there. I think in, it would've been 2006, uh, as part-time seasonal picking, packing, labeling, like literally the bottom rung on the totem pole. You know, it doesn't get much lower. Um, you know, in terms of. I mean, it's a fine job. I don't mean to say that the job was low, but you know, as far as the ranking goes, you're a part-time seasonal employee. [00:08:52]Craig Dalton (Host): it's the entry point. The very [00:08:53]Jeff Frane: Yeah, it's the entry entry point for sure. Um, so I got a job there and you know, by that time I was already kind of getting a reputation as like the fixed gear guy and I was already active in the community here in Minneapolis, organizing events. And they recognized that love and that passion that I had. And so, um, a few years in, I was able to start suggesting some product to Lisa Snyder, um, who was the brand manager of Dimension at the time. So there was the Dimension brand and they had like some track things and you know, kind of the whole thing was I was like, Yo, I'm really into track bikes and you have nothing I wanna buy. Like I'm buying all my stuff from Mary Sales and from these other distributors, Euro, Asia, imports, et cetera. Like, what's going on? Like, you're freaking qbp. Like, y'all need to do better. And so I started suggesting some product to her and she brought them in under the dimension label, and they did well. And then I was able to suggest more products. And then those did well. And eventually, um, I kind of got the, I was talking to Lisa about doing some other stuff. It just didn't go anywhere. And eventually I kind of got the guts up to say, oh, screw it. I'm going right to the top. And I drafted this, like, you know, at the time I thought it was really like rock solid, but it's ridiculously amateurish, like little business proposal for a brand that I was calling All City. Um, and the reason I needed a name change was I was like, I wanna do nicer stuff and people don't wanna buy nice stuff from dimension like that is repair level parts. So, I wanted a track crank, um, because there was a shortage at that time of 1 44 bolt, circle, diameter, you know, track cranks. And um, so I was like, let's call it All City. So All City Championships was the name of my alley cat that I was throwing every year. So the name comes from, uh, graffiti, uh, in New York City. Um, There's a term called being All City. And what that meant was that you had a piece on, on a train in all five boroughs. You were all city. So my race went to every part of the city, so that's why it was the All City Championships. And I just thought that would be a slick name for, you know, an urban track bike brand. And so, [00:11:14]Craig Dalton (Host): such a cool origin story of the name All City. I'd never heard that before. [00:11:20]Jeff Frane: Yeah, well, there's not many people, many. There's no one left to tell the story, like, I'm it, I'm the dinosaur. Um, [00:11:27]Craig Dalton (Host): So you started out All City and and didn't know this also All City started out with a basic concept of more premium track. Track componentry. [00:11:37]Jeff Frane: to make nicer stuff and I didn't think anybody would buy nicer stuff with the dimension label. Um, you know, it was kind of a weird deal cuz I like nice stuff. I've always been in a vintage bicycles and so like we had to kind of Trojan horse some of the ideas in, so like, I was like, okay, cool, now we have these parts. I wanna do a track bike and I wanna do a Minneapolis track bike. And we have winners in Minneapolis, which means, and fixed gears are like, are the best thing for winter commuters because, Maintaining a geared bike is just, that's way too much work. You know, I want the simplest bike I possibly can for these salty, crappy, slushy wind, you know, weather we have. Um, so I want our track bike that's a real track bike with real track geometry, but I wanna be able to fit a bigger tire. And, you know, at that time, like $500 complete fixed gears we're like dominating the market. And so I'm like, yeah, we're gonna do a $500, you know, uh, track bike just to like get the project rolling. Knowing damn well I don't wanna ride a $500 track bike. Like, no way. I wanna, I like nice stuff. Um, so then it was, you know, we kick off the project and I'm like, you know, I've done some market research and I really think that that price point is saturated. Like what we really need to do is do a thousand dollars track bike. Uh, no one's there, like no one's in that market space and we can put all our own parts on it and we don't have to use this cheap stuff. And that's how the big block was born. That's why it's a nice bike. Uh, because I convinced them that the $500 price point, price point, there was too much competition and we could never win that game. So we need to go upmarket. [00:13:10]Craig Dalton (Host): And at that point had QBP acquired or started any other, uh, full bike brand [00:13:15]Jeff Frane: Yeah. So Surly started, um, in like 1999. They changed their name to Surly in 98. So 1998 was when the Surly, or was when the one by one. Which was the precursor name to Surly Rat Ride came out and they had done some parts before that. Uh, sh I'm gonna do another shout out to Wakeman Massey, uh, founder of Surly Bikes. He, um, freaking visionary surly bikes, in my opinion, is the most influential bike brand of the last, you know, 30 years. Um, the steel Renaissance fat tire clearance. Every modern gravel bike is a crosscheck. Like I know they're, they didn't invent that stuff. Um, you know, big tire clearances, blah, blah, blah. But they popularized it and democratized it, and I think brought it to the forefront of the culture. [00:14:03]Craig Dalton (Host): Certainly democratized it. I would, I would double click on that one. And yes, double shout out to Wakeman. He may, he definitely doesn't remember this, but I met him back when I was at Dean Bicycles. I think he rolled in his first, Ever framed that he welded himself at university, a 24 inch dirt jumper that was ratty as hell, but he was super enthusiastic and passionate, and I think we even tried to hire him, but he wanted to go move somewhere else other than Boulder. [00:14:30]Jeff Frane: Yeah. Um, you know, and the fat bikes and 29 ERs and blah, blah, blah. Like surly, you know, they've done some really special things for sure. Um, and you know, QBP had already bought salsa, um, prior to that. So they had salsa and qbp, or I'm sorry, salsa and surly they had Sylvia at that time. Um, [00:14:51]Craig Dalton (Host): had, you started to kind of understand what a supply chain for a full bicycle looked like at that point when you brought the idea of the track bike to them. [00:14:59]Jeff Frane: I mean, kind of, you know, so like I, again, like with it was all baby steps, right? Um, You know, I was at first when All City started in 2008. It was 15 hours a week, and I was the sales and marketing coordinator, and then I made it to 20 hours a week, and then I made it to 30 hours a week. Well, you know, I was still doing warehouse stuff and all this, you know, and eventually it got to be a full-time position for me. Um, with Lisa still, like with Lisa still in charge. Like Lisa was awesome. She was the operations person and she had a really strong product background. [00:15:37]Craig Dalton (Host): yeah. [00:15:38]Jeff Frane: Um, and I was able to contribute, you know, my ideas and passion for the urban, you know, what we used then called urban cycling, um, for that. And, you know, we were a really, really great team. [00:15:50]Craig Dalton (Host): So that was probably the urban cycling angle for all cities, probably where my knowledge intersected with the existence of all cities. I started seeing these steel bikes underneath who were clearly passionate commuters in San Francisco. So how, how quickly did it kind of go from track bike? It's a commuter bike. And when did you start to see, hey, people are using these to ride on dirt? [00:16:14]Jeff Frane: Um, I mean, so right away the big block cleared a 32 seat tire, which in 2009 was like a pretty good sized tire. And you know, we were, before track lacrosse was track lacrosse, we were riding our fixes, you know, in the dirt, uh, doing that kind of stuff. Um, I had gotten interested in cycl lacrosse. We put out the Nature Boy, which is a single speed cross bike. You know, all city's evolution was always, there were always constraints for all city. We had surly on one side of us, we had salsa on the other. And it was like, how are we going to be different and offer something actually unique and not just, um, you know, compete with our sister brand. So, you know, the Nature Boy was a dedicated single speed, which didn't exist in the QBP for portfolio, you know, and when people came up, they're like, oh, that's just a stop and crosscheck like, what are you idiot kids doing? It's like, well, you know, ride the thing like, Um, you know, the nature boy, all the canal cities, I think have, have aged really well and become kind of culty classic bikes. Um, so, you know, I think, I think that came out well. We, we put out a bunch of fixie freestyle bikes if people remember fixed gear freestyle, which were also super fun to ride on dirt cuz they had big tire clearance. Uh, then we did the Nature Boy. Um, I think the bike after that was we went geared with the, with the macho man. And the Mr. Pink and the Space Horse and the Space horse was like the bike that really unlocked all cities potential. And you know, we've always been, I've always been interested in all facets of cycling and, you know, we saw what was happening with the crosscheck and it was like, well let's, if we make a bike like that, we're gonna sell a bunch. And that was the Space Horse, and it was our own spin on things. It was as sporty of a light touring bike as we could possibly make. Um, You know, that was Anna Schwinn's design and she absolutely crushed it with that. And that's the one that like started really opening doors and opening a lot of outside eyes to the brand because it was just a really good looking, functional and practical bike. [00:18:17]Craig Dalton (Host): Yeah, yeah. And and clearly quite versatile. I think if you talk to anybody who's been around gravel for a while, as people were getting those first generation gravel bikes, you were seeing people on that bike, on the trails. [00:18:29]Jeff Frane: For sure. [00:18:30]Craig Dalton (Host): I already have the first generation. It's been underneath my legs for a few years. [00:18:34]Jeff Frane: Well, and you know, the Mr. Pink cleared 30 twos, so that was my, uh, I, I raced gravel on that for a number of seasons. You know, um, the, the, the Minnesota gravel at that time was strictly like gravel roads. Like we weren't doing like, necessarily a much of like minimum maintenance stuff or double track. It was gravel, gravel. The El Manzo 100 and you could ride a 28 C in that race. Uh, Mr. Pink Fit 32. So that was my gravel race bike at that time. I eventually moved over to the space horse because it had longer chain stays in a lower bottom bracket, which as you know, our awesome for descending fast on gravel. Um, you just, it's just significantly more stable and more planted in, I think, confidence inspiring. And so then, then the space horse. And my big regret with the space horse is that so many people got them and just put racks and fenders and they became these beasts of burden. But if you build built a light space horse canny, it was a ripper of a gravel racer. Um, it was fast and it was fun, and it really came alive under power. [00:19:41]Craig Dalton (Host): And you know, looking at the other Q BP brands was all city, and I know, I believe Surly is the same way. All City was always focused on steel as the frame material. [00:19:51]Jeff Frane: Yeah, I mean steel was definitely our focus. Uh, we did have an aluminum track bike because aluminum in, in track, velodrome racing is an incredibly relevant material. But yeah, it was always steel. And you know, as I was saying, we were always trying to find that niche and there were all these guardrails. Well, you know, how am I gonna make a steel bike that's different than surly. Well, I love ornateness in bikes. You know, I love those classic details. And so it was, let's design our own fancy pants dropouts. Uh, let's do the reinforcement stars on the bottle bosses. Let's design our own braised on seat collar. And you know, my whole, the whole concept there was if you stripped the frame of all of its paint, could you still tell it wasn't all city and nothing else? And that was what we were going for, was, you know, unique detailers and details and bringing. Back kind of beauty into a production bicycle. Cause like a surly is a pretty utilitarian, stripped down thing. And so we wanted, uh, and, and you know, the salsas were kind of, of that ilk too. And so we wanted a little more embellishments, a little more, um, call out to the, you know, the, the, the frame building, uh, heritage of the sixties and seventies and eighties, you know, internal top tube cable routing. You know, those kind of details became an important signifier of the brand. [00:21:03]Craig Dalton (Host): Yeah. Gotcha. I wanted to spend a few minutes on your QBP experience, cuz I just think it goes to underscore how much time you've thought about bikes, bicycle frames. [00:21:14]Jeff Frane: adult life, like this is it. Um, you know, and, um, so I, I became the brand manager and the leader of All City, officially, uh, Lisa was needed elsewhere in the company. And they were like, okay, dude, like, you're ready. I, I wasn't ready, turns out. But they were like, all right, so in 2013, I became the brand manager and kind of started assembling a bigger team because the brand was growing and you know, we put out a lot of bikes that I'm really proud of. Uh, you know, the cosmic stallion I think was a pretty, a pretty special and cool, uh, steel gravel racer, you know, and that was really the first gravel race bike that we, that we put out. You know, prior to that it was, we were using our cross bikes. Um, for these things, and now it was, okay, this is like, this is what a dedicated gravel bike should be. [00:22:07]Craig Dalton (Host): Yeah. Yeah. So obviously working within an organization like Q bp, you've gotta advocate, you've gotta create the business case, but they've got the capital to bring an idea to market, and they've got the infrastructure to get it out. You've subsequently left qbp and you decided to go on your own journey and create your own brand in wild. What was, what was that journey like and. Why? Why are you doing wild? [00:22:36]Jeff Frane: Um, so in 2019, I left qbp, um, after being with them for, what, 13, 14 years. And, you know, I, I had a really, really wonderful experience. I, I learned so much at QBP that it was really time for me to move on. I'm kind of a weird dude. And, you know, in a corporate environment, any kind of nonconformity will only be tolerated for a finite period of time. And we were starting to reach that point. And so I left in 2019 and, uh, you know, I never intended to start a bike company again. Um, you know, this is the thing I know how to do. I know how I have, I'm really good at having a vision and driving towards it. Obviously I know how to run a bike company cuz I had been doing it at Q P P for, you know, quite some time. Um, but kind of a random encounter with Paul Crick, uh, who owns Donkey Label here in Minneapolis. Donkey label's a clothing company. He was starting up a fab shop, uh, for the brand Stomper here. And, um, we ran into each other kind of on the massage table. Um, cuz he has like a fit studio and a sports masseuse and stuff, um, in his building here in Minneapolis. And he was like, oh, you can write work on bikes. Like, I need a mechanic. And so I was like, all right, cool. Um, started with Paul part-time and then he found out about my background and what I could do. And so I started taking over some of the operations, um, here in Minneapolis for Stomper. Um, and it was a pretty casual arrangement. Um, and so this is 2019, right? And so 2020 comes around and I have the opportunity. So my background is in marketing. Um, that was my, um, comparative studies in religion and marketing with a re I got at Eau Claire, which is why I ended up in a bike shop in Minneapolis. Like those things, uh, wasn't super employable at the time, so, Um, marketing came knocking and I had the opportunity to move to Portland to work with, uh, Billy Siford and his team at Echoes Communication. And I was really excited about that. Um, you know, I, I enjoy marketing. I was really excited to work with their portfolio of brands And I [00:24:59]Craig Dalton (Host): is a, echos a marketing PR agency that works with a bunch of different brands in the bike [00:25:05]Jeff Frane: Yeah. And they're the ones doing the maid show, so the maid, hand-built bike show that's happening in Portland this fall. Um, it's an echoes thing, so I had the opportunity to do that and I was like, all right, yeah, of course. Like I'm, I'm there, you know, Billy's been a friend of mine for a long time. He calls, I answer like, no problem. And so I was, uh, I quit my thing at Stomper and I was gonna go be, you know, a marketing dude in Portland, Oregon. Um, pandemic hits. I'm one week away from moving to Oregon and everything just freaking shuts down. So, you know, he is like, you know, don't come dude. Like, I don't know what's gonna happen. And I was like, that sounds really reasonable. I'm not gonna come. No worries my friend. You know? And so I'm here in Minneapolis and while I was working with Paul, working on his operations, um, was one I learned how to paint, which was amazing. Painting bicycles, super fun. Uh, but I had developed an American supply chain and there was nobody really using that supply chain. And some people hit me up when they were like, Sorry, I'm ahead of myself. So while I was working at Stomper, I built what is a, what was the first Earthship? I built this personal bike for me and Paul was in the process of potentially changing the name of the company. There wasn't a solid name and I was like, you should call it wild. Like that's a good name for a bike company. Naming bike companies is hard and I think this is solid. So I painted wild on the side of, of my titanium bike. Um, and then shortly after left, and so I had this bike wild that people were seeing on my Instagram and people started reaching out to me and they're like, yo, I see you got this bike. Like, what's up with that? Can I get one? And I was like, yes, actually, yeah, yes, you can get one. Like, let's, let's, let's freaking go. And so started kind of doing onesie twosies there. Um, building, you know, in Oregon, uh, was simple. And then at Waterford, um, so using a couple different fabricators and started making a few, few bikes on my own. Um, it was going really great. But, [00:27:12]Craig Dalton (Host): And were you just following where the customer was taking you at that point? Like if they wanted a, a gravel bike, you were building a gravel bike. Road bike. A road [00:27:20]Jeff Frane: a absolutely, you know, one of my biggest pleasures is working with a customer to co-create the bike of their dreams. So I don't ever try, I have a vision for these things and I've been riding bikes and testing bikes and evaluating bikes my entire professional career now. Um, so I have a pretty good idea when they describe how they want a bike to handle what we have to do to get it there. And, you know, I have a strong vision, but it's really about facilitating their, what they want. Um, you know, and some people are like, I want this hedge two bangle and this C two bangle. And I'm like, bet. Like that's cool. And then some people are just like, describe a feeling they want or the best bike ride they've ever been on, or tell me about the bikes they've rid the past that they've really liked. Um, so at qbp, I was leading the team, uh, that created these bikes, but I wasn't, I wasn't the engineer. [00:28:12]Craig Dalton (Host): Yeah. [00:28:12]Jeff Frane: Um, and I wasn't the product manager. Like I was authoring the briefs and then leading the team of the engineers and the product manager to the, you know, to the finished product. But now, I got to learn all the things. Uh, I got to learn how to do everything. And it, it is been amazing. Um, I consider myself to be pretty darn good at bike geometry now. Um, you know, I'm the one drafting all the bikes. I'm the one doing the mo doing, doing geo. Um, I was doing a lot of the tubing choosing, but I'm finding out that there's significantly more knowledge than I have in that regard. And so I'm always all about turning over those things to the best people, you know, who, who, who will get me the best outcome. And so, you know, we're working with our fabrication partners on that part of it now, but I get to be significantly more involved with product than I ever was at Q, which has been really, really super fun for me. [00:29:08]Craig Dalton (Host): I bet. So it sounds like, you know, people were coming to you, they were interested in the bike that you were riding and, and showing on your Instagram feed, et cetera. Was there, was there a moment that you sort of decided, Hey, I've made six or 10 for people I know I need to really kind of build some infrastructure around this brand, put up a website, get a little bit more structure so I can build a little bit more scale to this business? [00:29:31]Jeff Frane: well, you know, um, building bikes in the US is really challenging. Um, there's capacity issues in terms of how many frames we can get made. You can't really scale up a ton, um, or at least at the level I was at. And more importantly, one of the driving factors for me is working with my friends at the bike shops. So many of my best friends, uh, own shops and. The US stuff is, is awesome, but it's hard for them to make margin on it. And so I knew that I wanted to be in business with my friends and I knew that the best way to secure financial stability for my company was going to be to use my connections in Taiwan to have frames made. And luckily I was able to partner up with, um, Leche International Amazing Trading agent. Um, I could name off a bunch of brands that they work with, but I don't know if that would be polite, cuz I don't know if people want that information out there. Um, and we partnered up with them, right? I knew I wanted to do these Taiwanese frames, but I didn't have the resources to do it and nobody was gonna give me a loan for the money I needed. But luckily, Because I like to work with my friends, I was able to reach out to my buddy Josh at the Angry Catfish, Josh, uh, and Andy Co-Own Angry Catfish, which is a pretty well known bike shop here in Minneapolis. And they were into it, you know, they were having was pandemic time, so they were having all these issues with their supply chain and they wanted to, they, they, they didn't really feel like they could depend on anyone in the bike industry. To supply them. So they were like, hell yeah. What we wanna do is to take more of our future into our own hands as well. And so by owning a bike company, we can make sure that our bike shop has frames to sell, has bikes to sell. And so they were all about it. And that gave me the financial, uh, horsepower to be able to afford to do our first batches of frames in Taiwan. And we partnered up with the Max Way factory. Max Way is one of the best. One of the, one of the best places to make a bike. Um, their knowledge and depth in the industry is, is just incredible. The quality of their bikes are superb. Um, they're not the cheapest by any means, but they are really, really great bicycles. And so now we have this Taiwanese product that we're able to sell to our dealers at a decent margin where they can make a living and partner, partner with us. And I don't know, it's just really cool that our small business. Supports their small business. And it's the same thing when we work with our fabrication partners here in the US and we work with, um, you know, our designers and we work with our bag makers. We try to make as much stuff locally as we possibly can. It's our small business supporting the community, supporting their small business, keeping the money in the wealth in the community, among the culture creators. And that's become really kind of a rai and detra for us is, um, building, building strong community, and. Trying to keep as much of the wealth as we possibly can inside this kind of network of friends. [00:32:36]Craig Dalton (Host): Amazing. So if I'm understanding you correctly, if a customer comes to your website and they're interested in the bike, they've got two paths they can go down. One is kind of working with you on a custom US made frame. Second is either buying from you or from one of your bike shop partners, a production frame that you've designed. [00:32:55]Jeff Frane: Yeah, so we do custom uh, and production here in the us you know, and there's all shapes to that. Like somebody might say, Hey, I like the custom geo, but I want this and this, this paint job. You know? Um, I'm in the business of saying yes. Like, if you wanna do some stuff, you wanna try something And we haven't done it. Like I'm game. Like this is how we ex expand and grow our capability. And so, yeah, pretty much everything's on the table. Yeah, we have the Taiwan stuff. Um, it's cool because I feel like we can serve a customer at all levels of their kind of journey through bikes. Um, where they, where they don't, I mean, they can leave us if they want. Like you can buy whatever you want, but they weren't gonna outgrow us. Cause it's like, okay, you're gonna get in with a $2,300 complete Taiwanese bike. Awesome. And then maybe a few years down the line you're like, you know, I really want, have this idea that I wanna see come to life. And then you order a custom, uh, you know, steel bike from us, uh, that we make here in the USA to your specifications. And maybe a little later you're like, oh, you know, I also need, um, you know, a titanium mountain bike. Like, let's go wild. Like, can you make that? And then the answer is, hell yeah, we can, like nothing would give us the greatest pleasure. So it's cool cause I'm hoping that customers kind of get in. They, they love their bikes and then they continue growing with us. [00:34:14]Craig Dalton (Host): Yeah. Gotcha. I love that vision. So on that $2,300 price point, which I think is so amazing, I mean, it's so often that. We get people on the podcast and the, the bicycles they're talking about are just unattainable by the majority of the population and you need to start somewhere. So the reason I was asking the question about kind of custom versus production line, the Taiwan Taiwanese lineup, you had to make some decisions there because it wasn't a customer coming to you saying, I want 50 millimeter tire clearance, or I want this head two bangle. Tell me about the design of that bike. What's, who's the rider that you designed for, and what are some of the attributes of that, of that model? [00:34:56]Jeff Frane: Yeah, so if we're talking about the Rambler, which is our Taiwanese made gravel platform, we sell it in two versions with a carbon fork. We call that the SL super light. And then we have the steel fork version that we just call Rambler. Um, that is kind of based on the earth ship as, um, it kind, it borrows heavily from the earth ship. So in my lineage, as I progressed through the industry, we had the Space Horse, then we had the Cosmic Stallion, and then I created the Earth ship, which was an iter iteration of those works, an evolution of those works. And now we have the Rambler. And so when I, things I like in gravel bikes. I believe that an endurance bike comfortable is fast. Um, I love a tall, I have a bad back, uh, as we talked about before the podcast. Um, so I like Tall Stack and I'm super stoked that the industry trend is going more and more towards tall stacks because, you know, high-end bikes serving elite athletes, professional racers is freaking ridiculous. Um, you know, most of us who ride even. Those of us who ride, you know, 10,000 miles a year, we still don't hold like that riding position for a long period of time. Um, the way a professional can, um, so you know, comfortable is fast. So taller stacks. I like to design our gravel bikes with a relatively quick handling front end. I try to keep the trail number in the low sixties because I want it to be really agile. Um, I like bottom bracket heights. That are just slightly, they're slightly lower than a road bike. Um, you know, traditionally, like a touring bike was an 80 mil bottom bracket drop. Uh, with a space horse, we have that cuz we want it to be sportier at 75. Uh, I think the cosmic stallion is 73 and the Rambler hits at 72 with the carbon fork on it. And I really think that's a good, uh, position for it to be in. Um, for, you know, keeping it stable on those gravel descents, having it be very confident, inspiring. Uh, we spec a big tire and with big tires come longer, chains stays. Our chains stays are 4 38, uh, which I kind of think is a magic number in terms of still being agile, but giving you a little bit of cush from that rear end. Um, kind of interesting with the rambler is that the steel fork and the carbon fork have a little bit different geometry. The steel fork needed to be a little longer to clear that big tire. And I'm actually really excited about the change because it makes the, that version of the bike really slick for gnarlier double tracks. Um, some, you know, single track more, more aggressive off-road terrain as well as it makes it really good for six 50 B conversions. When that conversion, it's, it's designed for it. So a six 50 B set up, [00:37:43]Craig Dalton (Host): And what is, what is for 700 C? What kind of tire clearance were you able to achieve? [00:37:48]Jeff Frane: uh, a 50 in the rear, and then the fork clears a two, one. [00:37:51]Craig Dalton (Host): Okay. [00:37:52]Jeff Frane: You know, I, I mean, to me that's gravel standard now. Like if you're not clearing a 50, like you're off the back. [00:37:57]Craig Dalton (Host): Yeah, totally agree. It's been interesting, like the journey over the last, at least for me, the last five years to come to that point and see the industry come along and you know, when I first got into it, it was like you had to have two sets of wheels because. If you wanted to get big tires, you had to go down to six 50 B and now not the case. Right. I can run 700 by 55 on my current bike and that's, that's ample, right? [00:38:21]Jeff Frane: Yeah, absolutely. You know, I love that. Um, like every once in a while, like a, like something that's really popular, like, I'm gonna use the example like blood stones are really popular the last couple years, right. And I just so happen to be amazingly comfortable. Awesome shoes, like gravel bikes are super popular and they're also the most versatile, most practical bike you can freaking buy. Like, it's spectacular when. The really good, smart thing also becomes the popular thing, cuz that's not always the case. [00:38:51]Craig Dalton (Host): Yep. Yeah. The, the idea that we have this one bike in our quiver that can do so many different things and have so many different personalities depending on where we wanna ride, is absolutely what's drawn me to the sport. There's no question about it. [00:39:05]Jeff Frane: Totally. And you know, um, so I designed the Rambler so that it can also flex into bike packing if you want. It'll fit a, a, a two two or 2 3 6 50 B. And, um, like on the Earthship, which is a, a dedicated gravel race product, um, I have just bottle mounts in the main triangle and a bottle mount underneath the down tube. Uh, but on the rambler we have three pack mounts on the top of the bottom of the down tubes. A little more versatility there. I don't have rack mounts on the earth ship because it's a gravel race bike. But the rambler being, because it's a little more of an all arounder, will have your rack mounts. Um, you know, all of our bikes have three-pack mounts on them because I think that's standard internal dynamo routing, you know, um, all the features that I think should, should be on a, on a, on a current modern gravel bike. [00:39:57]Craig Dalton (Host): All great stuff, Jeff. So if people are interested in finding out more about the brand or ultimately purchasing one of these bicycles, how, where are you encouraging them to go? I know you wanna work with local bike shops whenever possible, but what? Yeah. Tell me about your vision for how you interact with customers. [00:40:15]Jeff Frane: well, um, you know, we're working to expand our dealer network. Uh, we're trying to keep it, we were trying to keep it significantly tighter. Um, but now we're ready, now that we have a decent amount of inventory from Taiwan, like we're ready to expand. The reason I wanted to keep it tighter is because I don't wanna be a crappy supplier. I don't wanna open up all these dealers and then not have the product to serve them well. [00:40:37]Craig Dalton (Host): Yeah, [00:40:38]Jeff Frane: So we're starting to expand a little bit. It's tough because people are like, oh, I saw this on your Instagram. Is there a place where I can go try it in my area? And for most of the people right now, the answer is no. There, there, there isn't really. Um, you know, I think we have 20 dealers around the country at this point, and then we have some in Canada and Japan as well. So, So it's a little tough, you know, here in Minneapolis, like Angry Catfish has all of our stuff on the floor and that's been a really awesome resource for it. I feel a lot of conversations, uh, you know, of emails and such from, from customers asking about the product, um, it's kind of handy cuz in a lot of cases I can be like, well, do you, can you write a space horse? Is there somewhere you can go check out a space horse or a cosmic stallion? Um, our bike is not the same geometry as that, but if that feels good to you, This was my previous, this was the previous work. Check out the new iteration. I dunno if that sounded like a d Was that a jerky thing to say? I hope not much love to, to all this stuff that, you know, we've done in the past and much love to all city. [00:41:43]Craig Dalton (Host): So are you guys holding inventory? Like if someone came to you today and said, I need a rambler, [00:41:48]Jeff Frane: absolutely, absolutely. Um, you know, the struggle that we're having a little bit is, uh, we're offering complete bikes. Which is important and we're offering complete bike shop bikes to our dealers. Um, cuz you know, it's one thing to sell a frame to a dealer, but chances are that frame's just gonna sit there. Like, people need to, like to need, people need to be able to test ride it and, and see it and touch it. Um, so we're selling our shops complete bikes as well, and it's proving a little bit of challenging to put together kits sometimes, but we're doing, uh, as good of a job as we possibly can. [00:42:20]Craig Dalton (Host): And then on the custom side, if someone came to you and said, Hey, I want you to build this dream bike for me. What does that timeline look like and what's sort of the process they go through? [00:42:27]Jeff Frane: Well, uh, I didn't answer the first part of your question, which is do we have inventory? Oh, yeah. We, we absolutely do. We have ramblers in stock. We have our bike packing bike Super Tramp. I have earth ships, US made gravel racers in stock ready to jam. Um, those are really interesting because it's some of the last stuff to come outta Waterford before Waterford closes its doors. And so if you wanted something from that historic, um, historic place, Um, we've got earth ships for you and every time I kind of sell one I'm like, Ooh, there's one less Waterford, Mike, like, we're getting down to the end. [00:43:00]Craig Dalton (Host): I hope the people who are buying them know that that's where they were fabricated cuz that is a meaningful origin of that bike. [00:43:07]Jeff Frane: absolutely. I mean, Waterford is American cycling to me, uh, Richard and his crew there. It's a legendary place with legendary people. You know, I was fortunate enough to work with his daughter Anna, at All City, uh, who I mentioned earlier. And, um, it's a huge, huge loss culturally to us and to the American bicycle industry, um, that they're closing shop, but at the same time, Richard, that's a freaking well earned retirement and what a legacy he li leaves behind. So many happy riders, so many great bikes. [00:43:40]Craig Dalton (Host): Yeah. If you, if for the listener, if you haven't heard of Waterford, just do a little Googling and you'll see what we're talking about. [00:43:46]Jeff Frane: Um, to answer your question about timeline, usually takes us about three to four months for a steel or titanium, uh, frame set for a custom. Uh, some of that, you know, we've got a pretty good handle on production time. Uh, some of the variability comes with finishing. Uh, you know, we use a number of people depending on if you want a saraco or if you want powder coat, or if you want. Or if you want really, really, really fancy ano, like those are all kind of different vendors to get us that. [00:44:16]Craig Dalton (Host): Yeah. [00:44:16]Jeff Frane: so there's a little bit of variability, but typically four months, [00:44:20]Craig Dalton (Host): Nice. Nice. Anything else that we didn't cover about the brands that you'd like to share, [00:44:27]Jeff Frane: man, Craig, um, you know, I, I, I couldn't be happier with where we are. Um, I get to continue to contribute to the, to the cycling world in some small way. And, you know, I'm super excited about that. Um, I do have something to say though, um, which is this brother. Um, when I trying to figure out how to, how to like, segue into this with, I'm just gonna say it, um, to all the people listening out there, the thing that. Um, has really changed for me in my career and that has really helped me develop as a human being is this, um, you know, we live in a a, we live in the United States of America. We live in a capitalist society and we all have to work and we all have to hustle, uh, to make, to make life work. And, um, you know, one of the big things that, that, that happened to me, Was that I was so, I loved all city, I loved Q bp. I was so emotionally connect, interconnected with this thing. And you know, I was Jeff from All City. Like, that was my identity. My work, my job was such a huge part of my identity that when it was time to leave, that it was like this huge crushing, I mean, it ended up being the best thing that could have possibly happened to me, um, because I was able to develop, um, into the human being. I am, I am today, which is a much healthier. But I had conflated that my work with my value and my identity, right? And, um, so what I want everyone to just to know and to reiterate, like, you're not your job. You're not your output. You aren't how many freaking widgets you made in a day. Um, you're a beautiful special human being who deserves love. And you know, for me, part of that deserving love is deserving to ride my bike every day. Because that's when I feel at, at most, at peace with the world, at most, at peace with myself. Like, that's what bikes are. Bikes are fucking, bikes are salvation. Pardon of my language. Um, and so I just, I don't know, like this is like the message that I wanna just tell everyone is that, um, you're amazing just the way you are. You don't have to make anything. You don't have to produce anything. You don't have to do anything. Just you being you, um, brings a big, big, big, big, big light into this world and. That I love you so much for everyone out there and, uh, yeah, [00:46:51]Craig Dalton (Host): Yeah. Thanks brother. I appreciate the sentiment and I appreciate all the, all the good energy you've put into the world, into the bike community. I mean, I think we all realize this, that, you know, we're, we're. It's a luxury to be able to ride these great bikes that we ride. It's a luxury to have the time. It's a luxury to have the community and the environment to get out there and do what we do. And for people like you who are putting it out there in good energy and creating brands like wild, I wish you all the success in the world. [00:47:19]Jeff Frane: Yeah. Well, and thank you so much again for the opportunity to be here. It's, um, you know, it takes a village. Um, we're a little brand just trying to make our way in the world. You know, the, the biggest thing for us is like, people just, it's not that people aren't willing to choose us. It's like that people don't even know we're an option. And it's really hard to build an audience with, like, the way the algorithms are set up. These days. So, you know, opportunities like this to be on the Gravel Ride podcast are, are freaking huge for us. [00:47:47]Craig Dalton (Host): Yeah. Well, awesome. I appreciate the conversation, Jeff, and it was great to get to know you and we'll make sure everybody knows how to get in touch with you guys. [00:47:54]Jeff Frane: Yeah. If, if y'all are looking for, you know, if y'all are looking for bikes, we got 'em. And, uh, I think they're real nice. [00:48:01]Craig Dalton (Host): I love it. Thanks, Jeff. [00:48:03]Jeff Frane: Thank you Craig.
In 1895, Schwinn was driven by the pursuit of an American dream when bicycling was still a relatively new sport. As one of the longest-standing bicycle companies, Schwinn signified influence and innovation amidst a biking craze that further catapulted their success. But over the years, it would lose its luster after a series of poor leadership decisions that led it to a dead end. Get the full story on Episode 58 of The Great Fail to hear the story. Special thanks to Jay Townley for his contributions to this segment.SCHWINN SOURCES No Hands: The Rise and Fall of the Schwinn Bicycle Company, an American Institution by Judith Crown and Glenn Coleman Schwinn Bicycle Company A Short History of Schwinn: 1990s Bankruptcy though 2021 No hands: The rise and fall of the Schwinn Bicycles Company: an American institution, Judith Crown & Glenn Coleman, Henry Holt&Co. A Rough Ride for Schwinn Bicycle Schwinn Cycle and Fitness L.P. - Company Profile, Information, Business Description, History, Background Information on Schwinn Cycle and Fitness L.P. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Fine artist and cyclist Lisa Congdon was not prepared for the impact menopause was going to have on her body or the extent to which those changes would cause a drop in her athletic performance. So, she dug into all the resources she could find for athletic menopausal women and, at the then age of 54, went back to the drawing board, making changes in her diet, training, and lifestyle to help her be the best menopausal athlete she could be. Now at age 55, she's crushing those goals. Lisa has recently had the best race of her career, beating her previous time on the same course by 22 minutes, and is putting more power into her pedals than ever before. We talk all about how she did it and how our old, ingrained behaviors, like dieting to be a certain size, can prevent us from reaching our fullest potential. Lisa Congdon an internationally known fine artist, illustrator, and writer. She makes art for clients around the globe, including Target, Amazon, Google, Schwinn, REI, and MoMA, among many others. She is the author of ten books, including Art Inc: The Essential Guide to Building Your Career as an Artist and Find your Artistic Voice: The Essential Guide to Working Your Creative Magic. Lisa is self-taught and didn't achieve momentum in her career until she was nearly 40 years old. In March of 2021, she was named “One of the 50 Most Inspiring People and Companies According to Industry Creatives” published by AdWeek. When she's not making art, you can find her on her bike. She lives and works in Portland, Oregon. You can learn more about her and her work at lisacongdon.comResourcesLisa's race report Instagram report hereFollow Us on Instagram:Feisty Menopause: @feistymenopause Feisty Media: @feisty_media Selene: @fitchick3 Subscribe to the weekly Feisty Menopause blog: https://www.feistymenopause.com/feistyinbox Hit Play Not Pause Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/807943973376099 Join Level Up - Our Community for Active Women Navigating the Menopause TransitionJoin: https://www.feistymenopause.com/monthly-membership-1 Leave your questions for Selene:https://www.speakpipe.com/hitplay Get the Free Feisty Women's Guide to Lifting Heavy Sh*t:https://www.feistymenopause.com/liftheavy Support our Partners:The Amino Co: Shop Feisty's Favorite 100% Science-Backed Amino Acid Supplements. Enter code HITPLAY at Aminoco.com/HITPLAY to Save 30% + receive a FREE gift for new purchasers! Velorosa: Use code FEISTY15 for 15% off your first order at https://velorosacycling.com Previnex: Get 15% off your first order with code HITPLAY at https://www.previnex.com/ Bonafide: 20% off your first purchase when you subscribe to any product with code HITPLAY at hellobonafide.com/hitplay That's It.: Receive 20% off your order with the code PLAY20 at thatsitfruit.com
There is a job for kids that doesn't exist today: the old paperboy. Kids would wake before sunrise and hop on their shiny Schwinn bikes with a banana seat to deliver the newspapers to the neighborhood. 13-year-old David Reed was the local paper boy for the Pottsville Republican, and he always made sure to get papers to his neighbors in Schuylkill Haven so they could get the morning news with their coffee. David always wore his uniform, a t-shirt with the newspaper's name and logo, when he delivered so people knew him and liked the kid. At this age, your bike is your transportation. You take great pride in it, and it gets you to where you want to be. One summer day, David left on his bicycle to go and meet up with friends. This was common; however, when he failed to come home, worry sets in as this was not like David. It was also a concern because David had juvenile diabetes, and eating on time was crucial. It would take years to find out what happened to David Reed.Join Jen and Cam on this episode of Our True Crime Podcast entitled 'The Bone Collector: The Death of David Reed.'Listener Discretion by @octoberpodVHSAll Music is by our Executive Producer @wetalkofdreamsSources:https://www.mcall.com/2009/02/27/man-sentenced-23-years-after-schuylkill-death-he-says-guilt-haunted-him-ever-since-fatal-blow-over-marijuana/https://www.mcall.com/2008/01/20/pursuing-break-in-boys-case/https://www.wnep.com/article/news/local/schuylkill-county/local-cold-case-makes-national-television-david-reed-joseph-geiger-files-bone-keeper-ae-network/523-09a8b600-9648-4c1a-bd61-7057b2d373bfhttp://berkspets.com/article.aspx?id=109811http://www2.readingeagle.com/article.aspx?id=103130https://www.nbcnews.com/id/wbna29413530http://www.mcall.com/news/all-coldcases-story-012008-story.htmlhttp://triblive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/news/regional/s_584353.html#axzz3pbYOOztOhttp://www.foxnews.com/story/2008/08/21/police-arrest-suspect-in-185-murder-pennsylvania-boy-13-who-left-home-on-bike.htmlhttps://www.amazon.com/gp/video/detail/B0B8QRSNCF/ref=atv_dp_season_select_s2
This we sit down with Andrew Juskatis from Giant Bicycles to discuss the Giant Revolt X gravel bike. With 50 years in the bicycle business, Giant brings massive engineering and manufacturing resources to the sport. The Revolt X model features front suspension matched with a compliant rear end and dropper post. Sounds like my kind of ride! Support the Podcast Join The Ridership Automated Transcription, please excuse the typos: [00:00:00] Craig Dalton: Hello, and welcome to the gravel ride podcast, where we go deep on the sport of gravel cycling through in-depth interviews with product designers, event organizers and athletes. Who are pioneering the sport I'm your host, Craig Dalton, a lifelong cyclist who discovered gravel cycling back in 2016 and made all the mistakes you don't need to make. I approach each episode as a beginner down, unlock all the knowledge you need to become a great gravel cyclist. This week on the podcast. We welcome Andrew. from giant bicycles to the show. Andrew is a global product marketing manager. And had a hand in the launch of the new revolt acts, gravel bike. I have to say after I saw former Gaston friend, URI has walled. Old riding this new giant bicycle where the RockShox suspension fork on it. I couldn't resist reaching out to the team at giant to learn a little bit more. I'd been curious as to when we'd start to see larger manufacturers bring suspension forks into the gravel bike world. I know it is a topic. That many of you feel very passionately one way or the other about, but I thought it would be interesting to talk to Andrew about that decision and how they see the market evolving. Giant is a close to 50, maybe 50 plus year old company. That's been producing bikes for many, many other brands, as well as developing their own brand. Back in the eighties, they've got a huge amount of research and development and organizational strength in the engineering department. So it was exciting to talk to them about what they were seeing with this bicycle. Obviously they have models available. With, and without that rock shock, we talk about the revolt X model as well as one of the other models that shares a similar chassis, but not an identical chassis. And we'll get into why giant was uniquely capable of producing something specific. For running a suspension fork versus just slapping something on the same bike or the same frame that they had produced for the non suspension. Model. Anyway, I look forward to you listening to this conversation, Andrew and I are contemporary. So we share some stories about our early experience in the mountain bike market and the evolution of that market. And some of the parallels were. We're seeing in the gravel world. With that said, let's jump right into my conversation with Andrew. Andrew, welcome to the show. [00:02:29] Andrew Juskatis: Hey, thanks for having me, Craig. [00:02:31] Craig Dalton: It's good to, good to have you. I'm, I feel like I've been wanting to have someone on from Giant for a few years now, and I couldn't resist reaching out through my friend Yuri Oswald, who just started riding for Giant u s A. Uh, when I saw the new Revolt acts, it seemed like too, too much of a bike that was right up my alley not to get someone on the show to talk about. [00:02:53] Andrew Juskatis: Yeah, absolutely. You know, it's, it's a new launch for us. It just came out this February. Um, so it's still new, it's still hot, and it's an interesting product from Giant. [00:03:02] Craig Dalton: Yeah. Yeah. Before we dig into that, let's just get a little bit about your history. Where, where did you grow up and how did you discover the bike, and ultimately, how did you end up working in the bike industry? [00:03:13] Andrew Juskatis: cow. That's a long story, but I will try and make it short for you so, I'm coming up on 50 years old. I've been riding and racing bikes, specifically mountain bikes since I was 14 years old. I grew up in Southern California. I started ri erasing and then riding, you know, around 87, 88. So I've, I've been through the f almost the full trajectory of mountain biking as, as a result of that, my love and for cycling has grown. So Southern California. Um, you know, went to college at University of Utah and just absolutely fell in love with the sport of mountain biking. But out of that, I took my first job, um, working for cycling publications. So over a period of nine years, I worked for five different magazines starting in 1996, working for Mountain Biking, mountain Biker Bike Magazine, bicycling, and then eventually finished off my tenure at Venu and throughout the entire. I was the tech editor for all those publications. I did a lot of product testing, um, and, and had a pretty good gig doing all that, but it was 2004 when I was an editor. I flew from Colorado out to Southern California to be a guest at Giant Bicycles when they were introducing their maestro suspension technology. And I remember specifically as an. Riding that product, meeting the people behind the product and saying, Hey, giant has something going on for it. Like this is legit. Not only is this technology legit, but the people behind it are serious about what they're doing, and it really put, honestly put Giant on my radar for what is going to be my next job. Lo and behold, position opened up in their marketing department in 2005. I took the job at Giant, and here I am, what, some 18 years later. On the other end of the stick here, talking to editors around the world. [00:04:58] Craig Dalton: Amazing. I love that we're in the same age range and went through sort of our coming up and mountain biking around the same time. I know we could probably share a lot of stories that might not be interesting to our gravel riding audience, but thanks for sharing that. And just for a little bit of context, can you just talk about the origins of the giant, uh, giant company and the giant. [00:05:19] Andrew Juskatis: Yeah, for sure. And for, for those listeners who aren't aware, you know, we're ob. OB obviously a legacy brand. We just celebrated our 50th anniversary. And again, another really long story short, the reason why giant exists is way back in the seventies when Schwinn was having its bicycle boom, Schwinn was manufacturing the great majority of their product. You know, here in the United States. They realized that they needed to expand, they needed to bring prices down to some more affordability. So they sent off kind of their Lewis and Clark guys over to Asia to source out, uh, bicycle manufacturing over in Asia. And one of those guys ventured over to Taiwan, which at the time wasn't. Producing anything to do with bicycles and fortuitously stumbled across a fledgling little company, manufacturing company called Giant at the time. Um, at the time they were not making bicycles, but had the capability to do so well. Long story short. Giant became the main manufacturer of Schwinn bicycles kind of in the, in the late seventies there. And so they were pumping out the great majority of Schwinn bikes that maybe our parents grew up with, or we grew up as, grew up with as kids. That grew and grew and grew. The manufacturing business continued to improve. The factory got bigger and bigger. We got better at it. And then in the, um, early eighties, we started our own brand, and that's the brand that I worked for, which is Giant, that's the brand that most of your listeners are familiar with. So, early eighties on that, we started making our own product, unique product, own designed, um, manufactured and engineered by us. And that's the brand that we're talking about today. [00:06:55] Craig Dalton: I remember in the very late eighties selling a giant iguana or two on the mountain bike side. If I can name, drop that little bit of history to [00:07:04] Andrew Juskatis: Yeah, that's still a running joke I get all the time. What do you feed the Johnny Iguana? I, I love oldie, but goodie. [00:07:11] Craig Dalton: And I also remember obviously like, you know, in addition to that Schwinn product line that they were producing for many years, they then expanded to a lot of product for a lot of different manufacturers. And I remember sort of learning that as I was working in a bike shop on the East coast and realizing that, you know, of the seven brands that we were selling, it was three or four of them were actually produced in the same factory, um, via Giant, which was kind of interesting at the. [00:07:38] Andrew Juskatis: Yeah, for sure. So our manufacturing side of the business. Does produce bicycles for some other brands out there, but the great majority of of product that comes out of our factory is giant. And just to clarify, you know, anything that comes out of our factory is engineered and, and designed by that brand. So everything is unique. Like the giant brand is completely different than anything else that might come out of that factory. Um, but I'm here today to talk about, you know, giant product and the giant brand. So excited to get. [00:08:09] Craig Dalton: Yeah. And you know, as we trace back kind of the brand history as you've been there the last 18 years or so, obviously Giant is a full service brand, meaning they're doing everything from kids' bikes, Tor de France and you know, U C I downhill bikes across the product line. When you think about how the brand kind of approaches. Entire suite of product. Is it, does it, does it sort of come from the top down and you're trying to make the best product possible? Or is each, each kind of division kind of focused on like, oh, I'm trying to make an affordable bike, or commuter bike, or what have you, and really just trying to be best of class in the area that it's competing in. [00:08:49] Andrew Juskatis: Yeah, first things first is we make sure that we have the right people leading the right categories. From that, every one of those category managers, their goal is to build the absolute best in class for that. Whether it be, uh, a youth bike, whether it be a road gravel or mountain bike, we always wanna shoot for the top. Only after we have all those, these pieces in place, do we start thinking about price points. How do we want to, you know, what price points do we want to hit? We look at, maybe sometimes we'll look at our competitors and see what they're doing and see how we can, you know, beat them. But for the great majority of time, because our factory, we are the factory. We have the greatest buying power in the entire cycling industry. If you think about it. I mean, we buy more D R X T rear derailers than any other brand on Earth. So normally we're, we're always gonna get the best pricing out of that. We don't normally focus on pricing. You know, your, your, your listeners can certainly do their own shopping and, and look at different brands and different prices, but that's certainly something where we differentiate our categories. Um, how do we break it down? And that's something we can talk about when we talk about Revolt X. What are, what are the prices here in the United. [00:09:54] Craig Dalton: Yeah. I'm curious and excited given your tenure at Giant, just when you started to see like a gravel bike first emerge in the lineup, and obviously the date you dropped to me earlier I think was 2013. The category barely existed at that point. So I'm curious if you recall, like why was that bike created originally? [00:10:14] Andrew Juskatis: Yeah, that's a really good question. And I, I, I don't wanna say it was created by accident, but at the time, w. You know, the category managers, the marketing staff, we're in touch with the market. We ride a lot. It's our passion. So we're out there and seeing what, what people are doing. Gravel at the time from a mass production level really didn't exist. This is over a decade ago, like you just indicated. The consumers were, you know, maybe the, the elite that bleeding edge was kind of experimenting with, you know, taking a road bike and putting on the biggest tires possible and riding it in more aggressive terrain. I would say we caught onto that, that, that, that trend and it was, it was just a developing trend way back then. And we said, Hey, you know what, let's experiment. It seems like it makes sense. This might actually go somewhere. This, this might not be a fad. Like single speeding, right? Like that came and went for the most part. This actually has legs given the trends at the time of. Generally speaking, you know, road bike sales were just beginning to slump off. People might, might have started getting turned off a little bit about road riding just because of safety issues or just because of wanting to explore their terrain a little bit more than a traditional road bike could take them. Um, so it was kind of a culmination of a lot of a different events. Let us dip our toe in the water with the first Revolt series, and that was like over a decade ago. And looking back at the bike, looking at the geometry, looking at the max tire size, you know, I'm not gonna say it was wrong in every way, but it was an experiment, right? It was our first mass production toe dipped in the water, and we learned a tremendous amount from that first generation. So here we are today talking about our latest generation, which is the Revolt X, which as your listeners know, is a front suspension, gravel bike, and definitely happy to talk about that. [00:12:06] Craig Dalton: Yeah, it's so interesting. I feel like back in that 20 13, 20 14, 20 15, like there was this pocket of riders that weren't necessarily, you know, riding gravel. They were just happened to be riding on dirt roads or wanted a more durable drop bar bike for commuting. And so there was like enough of a pocket in there despite like. People wanting to use the bike for many different things. That type of bike made a lot of sense. And then, you know, as we moved forward into 20 15, 20 16, you started to sort of see this very much more specialized gravel event happen and people like really leaning into a gravel bike as a replacement for a road bike potentially in certain scenarios. So talk a little bit, if you can, at, at sort of a broad level. How you saw the revolt model evolve over those early years into, you know, 20 16 20 17? [00:13:00] Andrew Juskatis: Right. And so just like you indicated, Craig, you know, the, the racing scene at that time was. Just starting to bubble up more local events, little kind of underground events, but we, when we a, anytime we create a new product, we do ask ourselves. Okay. Is this product going to be raced or is this product going to be ridden? Is this for the adventure rider or is this for the guy, you know, shaves his legs and has the liker, uh, one piece kit on and is going, going for the number plate thing? So at that time we said no on racing, cuz racing really didn't seem like it was that big a deal. So the original revolt was geared more towards a. Was more towards exploration, was riding those b and C level roads, or even some, you know, all all, maybe at the time very light single track kind of stuff. But it was not [00:13:47] Craig Dalton: it originally a, was it a carbon bike originally? [00:13:50] Andrew Juskatis: no, no, no. Again, I, I would use the term experimental at the time, and so first generation, I think we talked about this a little bit offline, but committing to composite cutting molds. Is an entirely different thing than building an aluminum bike. Aluminum bikes obviously take a lot of engineering. There is a lot of technology in it, but the commitment level to building an aluminum bike from a, from a mass production standpoint is. Significantly less than committing to composites. So, like I said, bit of an experiment. The first revolt, um, we want to dip our toe in the water. It was aluminum and so really easy if we needed to second generation, if we needed to change geometry. It's very, very easy to do that once you cut molds, and, and I know you and I know a lot of your listeners know this, but once you cut those molds for composite, there's no going. And you know, I think we talked about this offline, the commitment level to cutting molds for a composite bike can can be darn near a hundred thousand dollars per size. So you need to think about your return on investment when you're committing to composite. [00:14:56] Craig Dalton: Yeah, for sure, for sure. Amazing. Like I love taking this journey with you. And then, you know, as I mentioned to you offline, like I became super attracted, I think, to the revolt aesthetic and performance attributes in that like 2018 timeframe, maybe, maybe 2019. But found that it was sort of oriented towards a, a narrower tire size at that time. Does that kind of track with the, the sort of design and performance objectives at that time for that model? [00:15:26] Andrew Juskatis: for sure. At that time when we, you know, we're trying to look into our, our crystal ball of the future, just, you know, point of reference when we build, uh, or create a new range or series of bicycles, you know, we're looking at a three year lifespan. No more, absolutely no more than a five year lifespan before we're gonna come out with the next generation. So three years generally. But we need to look at our crystal ball because we need to see what trends are happening, what trends are, are, are growing. What trends are faltering At the time, we, um, wanted to kind of maximize tire size without going bonkers. And I know a lot of folks, including yourself, kept screaming for larger and larger tire size at that, like that second generation revolt. Um, we didn't feel it was necessary, but when we move into this next generation here, like especially with Revolt X, we can talk about larger tire. [00:16:14] Craig Dalton: Yeah. Yeah, yeah. Well, let's get into it. Let's get into the revolt. Um, and, and maybe you can sort of break down. You've got one series that has the Rock Shock Suspension Fork and a Dropper Post, which I love the idea of. And then you've got the other, the other sort of, uh, standard rigid bike. [00:16:33] Andrew Juskatis: Yeah, that, I mean, that's a, a great takeoff point. And, and kind of just for the record, let me, let me state our, our view of what you, just, what you just talked about. So, currently in our line, um, we launched this, uh, a little over a year ago was our Revolt Advanced Pro, and that's her composite, um, revolt bike. That's the bike you're gonna see our, um, professional racers on. Um, you're gonna. With most folks should probably pick that bike if they're gonna put a number plate on for most type of terrain. Um, and we certainly in our marketing materials and our communications, we talk about racing openly, freely, and, and proudly with that bike. No, it is not just a race bike. It's a very lightweight, it can be used for exploration or simply, you know, riding on ruffle roads. That's fine. But you will hear us talk about racing quite a bit with that, with that current model of revolt advance. The bike that we're focusing on today is the re, is the Revolt X Advance Pro. And so that has a suspension fork, just like you said. Just like you love, and it has the suspension seat post on it. It does have a little bit of suspension on it if you notice that in the spec, but the dropper as well, so. Not to say that's not a race bike, but we're not gonna be positioning it. Our professional racers probably won't be seen racing on that bike. It's a bit more for exploration really. Those all day adventure rides down rougher, rougher terrain, which there is certainly a trend for, but just to put it in perspective, um, in terms of sales numbers, You're gonna still see most people choosing the Revolt Advances Pro, that that composite line, um, for their everyday writing, this Revolt X is for a unique person like yourself or maybe some of your listeners who want and are asking for more. [00:18:15] Craig Dalton: Yeah, it's interesting, you know, as when rock shock and sh tram launched that fork, gosh, maybe a year ago, [00:18:21] Andrew Juskatis: Right? Mm-hmm. [00:18:23] Craig Dalton: like I realized that, you know, the early adopters of that fork were likely gonna have to either retrofit it and deal with the geometric changes that it's gonna apply to their bike or get a custom frame built because, The larger manufacturers just weren't ready to kind of jump on that trend. I think it made sense to like allow rock shock to put it out there in the world alongside, um, what Fox had been doing for some time earlier than that and just see where it was gonna sit. But I was sort of eagerly waiting for a larger brand like Giant to put one on a bike just to expose the world to the attributes of something that was purpose built and designed. Around that fork because to your point, not everybody's racing and it seems like there is a world and there are locations in the world where this type of suspended gravel bike, while it's still oriented around. Gravel riding, right? You're still gonna ride it on the road and mix train or whatever. But giving the rider an advantage, whether it's more comfort or stability, or safety or performance, with that suspension fork was gonna be something that is gonna appeal to yet these ever more refined niches of gravel that are emerging. [00:19:38] Andrew Juskatis: Yeah, it, it, it's interesting, Craig, you know, you and I were talking offline before and I, I learned a, a bit about your history, um, certainly with mountain biking and, and we all remember way back in the day when, you know, the rock chalks RS one first came out, it seemed like a gimmick, maybe a novelty, and manufacturers, pretty much all of them simply took that suspension fork and threw it on an existing frame and frames back then were all steel, but, You know, that was one way to kind of dip their toe in the water to try out suspension and see if it's gonna stick and, and all of that. But they were taking a new product. That seriously altered the geometry and putting it on an existing frame, and that would've been the easy way for us to approach this. It certainly would've been the more economical way. Again, you know, we think about commitment to cutting molds is so expensive in order to open a new mold for composite frame. But we said, and we believe, you me, we argued about this a lot, um, within the company is do we fully commit if we're gonna put a suspension. On a revolt, do we fully commit to creating an entirely new series of molds? And the answer was, we either do it or we don't. And so we did it and we committed to a full size. Um, of new frames that are suspension, augmented, or suspension adjusted to accept a 40 millimeter fork. Um, it's a gamble. Uh, we will see about how sales are, um, universally again, um, it's, it's, it's definitely a risky move cuz we invested a lot into this frame to make sure that it, it handles correctly. We didn't want it to be, you know, a tugboat and really sluggish. If you put. A longer fork on an existing frame, it would slack out the front end so much so that it would, it would kill the characteristics of the bike. We didn't want to do that. [00:21:23] Craig Dalton: Yeah, I think that's a critical balance. And for the, for the listener who can kind of, can't visualize, like with the suspension fork, your head tube has to, there has to be a little bit more space, right? Cuz those forks are longer in order to add that 40 millimeters or whatnot of suspension in there. So there has to be an adjustment and if you just slap it on your average, It's gonna make it a little bit more relaxed, and maybe that is actually appropriate for how you're gonna ride, said bike, but is not the intended geometry that the designer put underneath you to begin with. So it is important to have someone thinking about those adjustments and designing them into the frame. Geometrically speaking, but also you mentioned to me that you, you also added a little bit more beef to the head tube in an understanding that the bike is gonna face different challenges and obstacles out there. [00:22:12] Andrew Juskatis: Yeah, th That's exactly right, Craig. So if you think about this, so our existing revolt, advanced Pro, all size medium, has a head two length of about 150 millimeters in order to properly compensate for the kind of that axle to crown length of a suspension fork. The Revolt X Advanced Pro that we're talking about today is 115 millimeter head tube, so that head tube is significantly shorter in order to accommodate that longer lever arm of a suspension fork. And just like you indicated, um, in order to make sure that the bike would be safe, strong enough to handle that longer lever, lever arm, the engineering of the frame is a bit different In order to handle that, that suspension fork. [00:22:54] Craig Dalton: Now, I know you've got a ton of experience personally and passionately about mountain bikes in the mountain bike world. When it came to putting a dropper post on that bike, what were you thinking and how do you feel that, you know, the dropper post adds value in that particular bike? [00:23:09] Andrew Juskatis: For me it was easy because I am a mountain biker and it, within the company I was early adopter of, of a drop seat post and. I can't imagine riding a bike today without a drop seat post. It just has become part of the ride experience. And maybe I'm even more radical in thinking that pretty much every bicycle should have a drop seat post on it. And, and I know I'm joking about the roadside of things, but maybe I'm not joking about the roadside of things when it came to this product, especially considering its intent of being rid ridden over more rough terrain, vari. Yeah. I mean, that was a no-brainer. And so there is a, a dropper seat post on all of the models of the Revolt X. [00:23:52] Craig Dalton: Okay. Yeah. Well, you'll get no objection from me here. As everybody well knows, big fan, I considered an upgrade to any bicycle I have underneath me, but I will get off my soapbox or maybe not even mount it today because I've been on it many times before on the pod. [00:24:07] Andrew Juskatis: Yeah. [00:24:10] Craig Dalton: We've talked a little bit about the, the fork and the, the dropper post, but let's talk about the frame and some of the other attributes. I know that there's some shared attributes. The revolt, advance, and the Xs. In terms of like that flip chip, let's drill into what that means and let's talk about the tire size and capability of the bike. [00:24:26] Andrew Juskatis: Yeah, for sure. So some of the similarities between the two, uh, ranges. So that's the, the Revolt Advanced Pro and this new Revolt X Advanced Pro is, and that's one of the features you just mentioned, is the flip chip dropout. Flip Chip dropout is simply a flippable chip that is located in the rear dropout of the frame. That dropout, whether it can be shifted from its low. Or to its high position, that's 10 millimeters of difference, what that 10 millimeters does for yourself and for your listeners, you do understand that that will elongate the wheel base, making it more stable ride. Um, I think more significantly than that even is that it allows for different tire size. So in its short position, when the flip chip is, is shifted forward, that allows for a 42 millimeter maximum tire size. If you really. [00:25:14] Craig Dalton: On the 700 Seari. [00:25:16] Andrew Juskatis: 700 C. Yeah. If you wanna flip to the, um, long position that allows for a 53 millimeter tire, um, in that long position, that's, [00:25:25] Craig Dalton: Yeah. [00:25:25] Andrew Juskatis: that's pretty meaty [00:25:27] Craig Dalton: What are the, what are the different lenses of the stays, if you recall? [00:25:31] Andrew Juskatis: off top of my head. I, I don't know, but it is a 10 millimeter difference from the short position to the long position for sure. All geometries are available on our website, so you can see. And that, that is size specific as well, that change. [00:25:44] Craig Dalton: Got it. And then on the, on the rigid fork, on the advance, is there a flip ship up front [00:25:49] Andrew Juskatis: No, no, we didn't see the need for a flip chip up front. Um, you can run, you know, a 53 millimeter tire. It doesn't matter. Um, there is no flip chip up front. That's, you know, we, we, we ask ourselves these questions when we're creating the product. That starts to get down the wormhole of how much is too much. You start adding, A lot of features to a product like this. Obviously that adds complication. That can add complexity and maintenance, and it can also add weight. So what is really gonna make a difference for the rider is something we always ask ourselves. [00:26:21] Craig Dalton: And when you design these bikes, are you designing strictly around a 700 sea wheel set, or are you also, you know, accommodating a six 50? [00:26:28] Andrew Juskatis: No, we, we think about 700 c I mean, the majority of of consumers who are gonna purchase this product are interested in purchasing this product. Certainly will ride a 700 C wheel. I know others, including yourself, might wanna run a different size wheel. Um, you're obviously free to do that as well, but are geometries listed. Don't get in, go down that, that rabbit hole of what if you use this size. [00:26:50] Craig Dalton: Yeah. It's interesting, you know, several years ago, I think just sort of the, the design constraints or the vision at that moment was. You needed to do six 50 B wheels in order to get that bigger tire size. And now that you and you, like many others, are able to run 700 by 50 tires without changing geometry. To me, who was a big proponent of six 50 b a number of years ago, I'm, I'm sort of more open to the idea that, you know, at 700 c you. you could need. If you can go up to 700 by, you know, in your case 53, like I don't see a need for, for much more than someone on the bike packing margins to ever want. More than that. And then to your point, like the bike, both aesthetically and performance-wise, you go down to a 700 by 40, which maybe is a sort of standardish race size. You can take that tighter, uh, rear end with that flip chip. And you've gotta have the supercharged race bike underneath. [00:27:50] Andrew Juskatis: Yeah, for sure. Yeah, so it does have that, that variability in it, and we're just seeing, I don't, we are seeing less six 50 B out there in the market because again, um, we've been able to compensate very well for 700 C so we're, we're pretty satisfied with that decision. [00:28:06] Craig Dalton: Yeah. Yeah, that makes sense. Any other attributes of the bike that you would typically point out? [00:28:12] Andrew Juskatis: Well, the, the neat thing about it is, you know, if you're a reader or if your, uh, listeners are familiar with the Revolt Advanced Pro, one of the, the core features on that is what we call our, our diffuse handlebar and diffuse seat post. Um, in general, you know, kind of taking a big step back with Giant, one thing we've always been really proud of is not promoting, not creating gim. Um, integrated suspension systems, you know, really, really complex things, unique to frames like that. We try and avoid doing that kind of stuff because we see a lot of our competitors making those decisions to add whatever their own integrated suspension system and, That's not our angle. That's not what we're pro we're proud of. So when we introduce the technology, we want it to be effective, but we want it to be simple as well. Diffuse is our kind of flexible handlebar and flexible seat post. It's a D shaped seat post. It's a D shaped handlebar. It offers a little bit of compliance. It's a little bit of compliance. No weight penalty, simplicity, you know, it's not gonna break. It doesn't require maintenance, and it's something that riders can feel. Now obviously the Revolt X that we're talking about today, um, doesn't have that diffuse seat post. It has a, a dropper seat post, which does have a little bit of suspension in it, about 20 mils of suspension. Um, But the point I'm trying to make here is that there are options for seatpost. If you don't wanna run a dropper, you can run a traditional round, uh, seatpost if you want, or you can run our defuse seatpost, which offers, I'll call it a 10 millimeters of four AF travel on it as well. So options for the, uh, for the rider, for the owner. [00:29:54] Craig Dalton: And for clarity, so that the diffuse C Post it, it's the, the frame accommodates a round C post, but the diffuse has a D shape somewhere in the. In the post. [00:30:06] Andrew Juskatis: No. Well, so the entire seatpost itself is D shaped. It's using a series of shims you can put in, um, that D shaped into our round seat tube, or you can use a different shim to put in a, you know, a round seat post. [00:30:19] Craig Dalton: Okay, [00:30:20] Andrew Juskatis: So options, the bottom line is options. [00:30:23] Craig Dalton: one of the hallmarks I always think visually of the giant design has been that sort of dropped seat stay. And I know it's not just an aesthetic decision. What's the kind of design philosophy behind that? [00:30:37] Andrew Juskatis: Rudimentary suspension. If you think about it, it kind of creates a pivot point for the seat tube. If you think about it, your listeners can visualize this. The actual flexing of the seat tube is kind of pivoted off that drop. Um, That drops stay. If you put the stay up in a old school traditional format, it would kind of negate that. So, long story short, it offers a tiny bit of overall seat tube suspension as the seat post, as your seat, as your weight. Kind of pivots off that pivot point. [00:31:09] Craig Dalton: that makes sense. And am, am I correct, does that technology also translator or maybe it originated on the road side of Giant's business? Are the road bikes kind of leaning into that compliance as [00:31:20] Andrew Juskatis: Started way back when everything we just talked about started from the Cyclecross side of things. Um, started with our Tcx Tcx featured a lot of what we're talking about today. That was our test bed for Diffuse. Um, that was our test bed for kind of the, the, the drop stays because it, and, and you know, we all know how the sport of cycle cross has gone. It, it's, it's kind of been superseded by, uh, by gravel. But everything we just talked about today was tried on our cyclecross bike first We proved it and it moved on to revolt. And then a little bit, we'll move on to, you know, endurance road bikes as well, and then to some degree onto high performance road racing as well. [00:32:06] Craig Dalton: Yeah, interesting. I just had this other giant model name pop into my head and I, I think it might have been officially my first proper road bike I bought as an adult was a giant kdx. [00:32:17] Andrew Juskatis: Yeah, that's a really, uh, that's, that's a poignant topic you're bringing up. So KX was our first line of carbon fiber bicycles, you know, way back when, first one of the first mass produced, um, not the first, but one of the first mass produced carbon fiber bikes that consumers could buy, both road and mountain. That was innovative at the time, really complex to make, reasonably successful for us, but that went away. Um, today, the KX net name lives on in our extremely high performance range of componentry that is separate from giant. Um, those components can be found on many other brands as well, but that KX name lives on, um, moving into the. [00:33:03] Craig Dalton: I reme, I recall it being reintroduced, uh, as a brand for those components. And I, sorry, I can't help but jump on the way back train when I'm talking to you. [00:33:14] Andrew Juskatis: it, it's totally, it's totally appropriate. I, I, I love jumping on the way back machine and, and looking back because you know, the, the topic of. The conversation of the comments that certainly come up with Revolt X are, my gosh, you know, it looks like an old school mountain bike. And, and I, I'll be honest with you, Craig, I just hopped in the garage. I have a revolted Revolt X advanced Pro zero sitting in my garage. It's size extra large, and I just wanted to weigh it. Just, you know, this is actual production. This is the same bike you can buy again, size, extra large. I'm a pretty tall rider, but it was 20 pounds, 15 ounces, uh, without pedals. So, you know. That, that, that's fairly heavy. And you know, I think you could get a hard tail mountain bike somewhere down within that realm of range. But these are two totally different products that are geared towards two different riding experiences. So you can draw your similarities, but it's different. [00:34:08] Craig Dalton: yeah. You know, I get, I get drawn into those debates as well, and I, I, you know, living in the Bay Area and formally living in San Francisco itself, I had a hard tail mountain bike. And I can tell you that while I touch the same terrain that I, I did back in my hard tail mountain biking days, I definitely ride it differently and create different loops because of the drop bars and the gravel bike. It gets definitely like it. It exists and it's hard to describe potentially. It definitely exists in a different space in my mind and in my garage in terms of like where I'm gonna go when I get on a gravel bike versus a mountain. [00:34:43] Andrew Juskatis: Yeah, for sure. I mean, uh, we're speaking of generalities here, but I'm sure as heck not going to ride my mountain bike 15, 20 miles on the road to get to some. Mixed conditions. You know, I'm not, I'm not gonna do that on my mountain bike. You can, but I, it's just not traditionally done. I would gladly do it on Revolt X, right? You pump up the tires and, and go for a 15, 20 mile, 30 mile road ride to get to those interesting BC roads or light, single track, different experience altogether. [00:35:14] Craig Dalton: Yeah, that's so true. Like you would consider that a failure of a mountain bike ride. If you had to ride for an hour, rode 30 minutes of dirt, and then rode an hour home on the road, that would not be a mountain bike ride. Whereas it's a perfectly fine gravel ride. [00:35:27] Andrew Juskatis: it's exactly what we intended when we created Revolt X. [00:35:31] Craig Dalton: Yeah. Yeah. Amazing. I will, uh, Andrew, I'll put uh, links in the show notes so everybody can find images of these bikes and find where to buy them from their local, giant dealer. And I very much appreciated you coming on the show and talking a little bit about your history and the history of Giant, because it's such a, A storied brand that many of us have been familiar with for obviously, you know, our entire cycling careers, that it's great to see it come full circle and for you guys to have such a, what I think is sort of a spot on spec for a modern gravel bike. [00:36:03] Andrew Juskatis: Well, great. Thanks for having me, Craig. I mean, I, I think it's a really interesting story, not only with this particular product, but kind of where it came from, what we were thinking and, and how Giant was able to make it unique in the marketplace. [00:36:14] Craig Dalton: Yeah, and I think it's also like, you know, the economics of the bike industry are important to consider and the, the sort of, uh, engineering and manufacturing might that a giant can put forth just kind of provides a lot of confidence, I think, for owners that, you know, the bike has been well engineered, well tested, and didn't come out before it was ready. [00:36:33] Andrew Juskatis: Yeah. Yeah. Thanks for noticing that and that that really was, you know, a massive argument within the company. If we're gonna do it, let's do it right, and let's commit to a frame that is suspension adjusted. So thanks for noticing that. [00:36:46] Craig Dalton: Yeah, of course. It was a pleasure talking to Andrew. [00:36:48] Andrew Juskatis: Yeah, thanks Craig. [00:36:51] Craig Dalton: That's going to do it for this week's edition of the gravel ride podcast. Big, thanks to Andrew for joining the show and talking a little bit about Giant's history and a lot about that. Interesting revolt acts, gravel bike. That is now available. In the United States. I look forward to seeing more front suspension, running gravel riders out there in the world to join me. I certainly enjoy it in my local terrain. If you're interested in connecting with me, please visit www.theridership.com. The ridership is a free global cycling community, where you can connect with athletes around the world to talk all things, gravel and gravel riding. There are two ways in which you can support the show. If you're able to ratings and reviews or sharing this podcast with another gravel rider are hugely appreciated. Ratings and reviews are aware. Podcasters get noticed. So reviews of the five-star variety, if that's your opinion are hugely helpful to what we do at the gravel ride podcast. Additionally, if you're able to financially support the show, you can visit buy me a coffee.com/the gravel ride and contribute to our ongoing efforts to bring you coverage of the world of gravel cycling. Until next time. Here's to finding some dirt onto your wheels.
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