Podcasts about wolf tooth components

This week's episode is a compilation of chats with builders from the MADE handmade bike show in Portland, Or. This week included Rodriguez Cycles, Destroy Bicycles, Battaglin, Argonaut, Wren Sports, Velo Orange, Rizzo Cycles, WH Bradford, Speedvagen, Celilio Cycles, Wheatfall, DeSalvo, Larkin Cycles, Sage Cycles, Wolf Tooth, and Onguza Cycles. Episode Sponsor: Dynamic Cyclist (use code: THEGRAVELRIDE) 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 sharing a bunch of interviews with frame builders from the made handmade bicycle show in Portland, Oregon. This past weekend, the event was so packed with builders and bike brands that I'm actually going to have to divide this into two episodes and each of them are going to be longer than I typically would release. I'm hoping you'll enjoy these little snippets to get to know some brands that might not otherwise be familiar to you. So many great hand-built bicycles up there. Very enjoyable show, and I hope you enjoy these interviews. Before we jump in, I do need to thank this week. Sponsored dynamic cyclist. The team at dynamic cyclist has built cycling, specific stretching and strength training routines. That are available from an app. Or directly from the web. Go visit dynamic cyclists.com to check out the videos. They have a free one week trial and gravel ride podcast. Listeners can get 15% off. All plans using the code, the gravel ride. Stretching is one of those things that I've committed to over the last year to try to get over the hump on a back issue. And I found the dynamic cycles program, very easy to follow. They've got a bunch of different routines. They somewhat trick me into doing a little core work, which I appreciate, but I appreciate very much the specific intention of the program directed at us cyclists so if that's of interest to you, go visit dynamic cyclists.com. And remember that code, the gravel ride for 15% off. With that said, we're going to slam all these interviews together. So we're going to jump around a little bit, but each of the builders and brands introduces themselves. So hopefully it's easy to follow and remember i'll have part two coming next week as well [00:02:24] Alder | Rodriguez Bicycles: My name is Alder Keld and I work for Rodriguez Bikes Alder. Tell me about Rodriguez and where you're from and what you, what your vibe is on the gravel scene. Rodriguez's bike shop over in Seattle on, on the Ave and we've been around for 50 years. I feel like only recently. We've really kind of tap, started tapping into maybe in the past like three years or so, the, the gravel market. You know, a lot of our disc brake bikes have gone like really popular now. As the road bike trend, kind of like, you know, starts to fade away. But we have our gravel models of Finney Ridge and the Bandido. That's Bandido. There's also Bandido and that's, that's a Finney Ridge right there. Let's talk about the differences between those two models. I mean this, this one looks pretty amazing with that old kind of GT inspired rear triangle. Yeah. Triple triangle there is is really nice. The, the line gets a little blurry between the two models. You know, it's mostly the way the break mounts. So the Finney Ridge is gonna be post mount, is post mount, and then the bandidos gonna be flat mount. But you know, we are completely custom. You can choose whatever tire, tire clearance you want, either one. And if you put a carbon fork on it, you're generally gonna get a flat mountain up front. So the, the line gets very blurred between which one is which. It's kind of, they both come through axle if you want, so. Gotcha. And does one have more of like a, a bike packing orientation and the other, more of a kind of race ride orientation? I would say the Bandido is definitely kind of on the race here, side of things. Just like the, the fitting of ridge, you know, I mean it's again, like this is a bandido, but it has three pack bounce on the fork. Yeah. And that's Finney Ridge and it has three pack bounce. You can really do whatever you want. And what, what frame materials are you building out of? So we do, for our lowest end one is 7 25, which is still much better than a lot of production bikes out there. And then we do velo spec and then we have like an ultralight blend that we have. And we do, we actually velo spec makes a lot of our tubing custom for us. So we get our specific Rockwell hardness and budding and tomb shape that we want out of everything. Okay, so what's the best way for people to discover the bikes you have an Instagram that they should follow? We do have an Instagram. It's at Rod Bikes on Instagram. You can see a bunch of, you know, cool, cool stuff there a lot of fun photos. We do also have a website we, rod bikes.com and you can see all the models. As well. And what does that ordering process look like for customers? Is it a long lead time or what's, what is it? We have a six to eight lead turnaround time. Okay. Usually, and then in the slower season, it could be four to six weeks. Okay. So pretty quick to get this dream bike underneath you. Yeah. We do full fittings and everything, so we have 20 stock sizes. So if one of our 20 stock sizes does not fit you we'll, measure your body parts, put it into our. Fit machine that we developed called Next, next Fit, and it'll spit out numbers. We'll double check those numbers and build a frame for you. We weld and paint in-house, so the turnaround time is very fast. Sweet. Thanks for that overview. No problem. [00:05:22] Sean | Destroy Bicycles: Can I get your name and brand? Yeah. My name is Sean Eagleton and I'm with Destroy Bikes. Sean, can you tell me a little bit about Destroy, where do you build out of and what's your philosophy about Gravel? We are out of Portland, Oregon and we actually just got the c l o, the old c o factory with inside of Chris King. And Gravel has been, has been growing this last year a lot. Sorry. That's all right. And what about this bike that we're looking at? So this bike is a personal friend of ours who wasn't really riding the last couple of years. She just started racing this last year. And a few of the races that I worked, she came in a good 10 minutes ahead of her husband. And it was, a friend that has just been killing it every time she goes out on a race and was. Basically a easy choice to say that this was gonna be our next cross racer, gravel racer. Her husband's known for being in the bicycle world already and doing a lot of really long extended gravel rides. And it was just a, perfect opportunity. Someone that we're very picky about our riders. We like people who aren't necessarily the typical racer. We like a little bit Grier and people with a little bit of attitude. So hence the, that matches with the Destroy brand name. Yes. That's why we wanted to go like super colorful with this thing. So the lights don't do it justice in here, but the full rainbow sparkle with the gold detailing really shows who she is as a person too. She's just a bit out there, a bit wild. What kind of frame materials this one built out of? So this is all Chrome, Molly and I like to do, tend to do a mix of stuff. I prefer Columbus seat stays and chain stays on a lot of things. The seat tube is a Tonga seat tube and the down tube and top tube are both Columbus as well. And do you like that from a ride performance perspective or how they weld together or what do you like about them? The Columbus in particular, like their seat stays, they're one of the few brands that make something that's bendable. I believe a lot of pre-made chain stays and seat stays aren't supposed to be used directly right out of the package. They still should be modified in some way to better fit the ride, better fit the bike and they're one of the few companies that I have, without a doubt, I can always modify them whichever way I want to. The bends come out clean. There's a lot of tubing that they do, certain hardening processes that it's just almost impossible to manually work them after. And just like to leave no tube left untouched, basically. What, and what does the customer journey look like if they are interested in a destroy bike? What do they do? How do they reach you? What does the timeline look like and what is the kind of experience of working with you? So it's a fairly simple process. We have. We now have a submission form online on our website, and you basically go on the website. We do a lot of batch stuff as well, so you're gonna choose between one bike or five bikes. And the whole process is getting to know you, getting a fit for you. And then I like to go a little bit crazy with the tubing talk, which most people get a little bit weary of. But everything is style as well, right? And when I'm choosing tubing, it's what do you want the bike to look like and how do you want it to ride? Ride, ride quality is just as important to me as how the bike looks. I'm very big on the geometries that we build. I tend to do things a little bit differently than a lot of people. But it's all based on my riding experiences and how I want the bike to handle. Yeah. And what's the best way to get more information about Destroy destroy by co.com. Instagram, destroy by Co, and TikTok as well. Right on. Yeah. Thanks Sean. Thank you. battaglin bicycles Okay. Can I get your name and the brand? Hi, I'm Marco from OA Battlin and I'm the marketing manager. We are a small company based in Italy making handcrafted custom still bikes. And how long has Baten been around? Battlin has been around since 1981. That's the year when our founder, Jovanni Battlin won the Jalia and Walter Espania. It's a legendary grantour double achieved which was achieved only by Eddie Merckx. That in 1981, our founder right after his grand tour victories launched his autonomous bike brand. Amazing. And I know the gravel scene has been slower to take off in Europe, but now it's catching fire over there. When did you as a brand start to explore building gravel bikes? We started exploring building gravel bikes two years ago. Obviously. The company has been, has always been focused on road bikes because that's that's what our founder used to ride as a professional cyclist, obviously back in the eighties. We knew that the gravel scene was growing. And we knew also our customers were asking for gravel product. But we wanted to find the right product, not just launch a random random gravel bike. And two years ago we started designing the port of energy which is a sort of gravel variant of our flagship product of the Portofino. So basically our port of energy has the same shares with our with its road counterpart, the same construction, the lag construction with the oversized logs and the oversized tubing. Yeah, I think that's very, a very striking element of the bike we're looking at is these lugs. Yes. It very much has the feel of a of a race oriented gravel bike. Yes. Which seems to be the front end of where European gravel is right now. This kind of more racy oriented bike. Would you, is that accurate? Yeah, it's accurate to say that and also you have to consider that our founder Giovanni and his son Alex, who is the c e o of the company right now wanted to. To design the port of energy went back to the old bikes the company used to make for the professional ra racers of the eighties who who raced in competitions the per rube. On on the pave on rougher roads. Yeah. Back back in the day, the roads were rougher than. The roads, the professional erasers are riding now. Basically for the port of energy we went back to the old geometries, to the old frames the company used to make, and we wanted to find this gravel variant, but with still with a road racing feel. Yeah, it's super interesting. I'll make sure to link to this bike in the show notes, 'cause I think people need to see this one. If people are interested in finding more out about the brand, where would you direct them to? They can visit our website, officina battalion.com and they can find us also on YouTube. We have many videos where we share our best builds. And for a US based customer, how would they get their hands on one of these bicycles? Actually the US is probably our most important market and we sell directly. Okay. We have a direct relationship with the consumer. We build our, all our bikes from scratch, so they send us their body measurements, their specifications. And we build we start from there. And would they be buying a complete bike with a groupo or are they just buying a frame and fork from you? It depends. All our bikes are custom made it depends on the customer's requests and specifications they can buy just the frame or we are more than happy to build a complete bike. Got it. Thanks. I appreciate the time. Thank you very much for coming and enjoy the show. [00:13:30] Ben | Argonaut: Okay. Can I get your name and brand? My name is Ben Farber. I'm the founder and head of r and d at Argonaut Cycles. Ben, where is Argonaut based? We are based in Bend, Oregon. Right on. I think I knew that and I'd seen the bikes for a number of years, but it seems like over the last few you've both expanded the line and added some small batch production. Can you talk about like the brand a little bit as it spec specifically to gravel cycling? What the custom bikes are all about and what the super knot's all about. Certainly. Yeah. So we are fully vertically integrated production facility based again in Bend, Oregon. We've got two models, the RMM three and the GR three in terms of the style of bike. So the RMM three is our road bike. It's a fairly racy, generally designed road bike, but it comes in custom geometry as well as proven geometry. With custom layup as well. So our big thing is how we engineer the carbon inside the bikes. And that's true for our gravel bike as well. So our gravel bike is the G R three. The idea behind the G R three is that it's a go fast up, go faster down, a gravel bike where the geometry is pretty progressive in terms of the front end with a 68 and a half degree head to Bengal. But then also a really nice tight rear end of a 415 millimeter chains stay with clearance for a 700 by 50 C tire. I think we've seen Sarah Max go quite fast on that bike this year. Yeah, absolutely. Sarah is our is our top racer that's been out there and doing the lifetime series. She was just in Steamboat and then getting ready to go somewhere in the south again. Pretty soon think so. Yeah. Yeah. Awesome. And then tell me about the Super Knot. I hadn't seen that before. Super Knot is our non-custom production line, essentially. So it's the same technology that is in our custom bikes in terms of the layup pattern of the frame and where and how they're made. They're just not custom to the individual. So we make these for in two different build, two different. Models. Essentially there's a super knot RMM three, the road bike and the super knot, g R three. And they are the build kit that they're outfitted with is essentially what we at the shop. If we could ride anything, it's what we would ride. It's if I would build myself a bike tomorrow, this is what I'd put on it. And that's the ethos behind these. And it's for a customer who doesn't necessarily need or want a custom bike, but just wants a really great riding, super high performance, really well made bike. That's what the Super knot is. Where they're cheaper in terms of relative to the custom bikes. So it's fif 14 nine for a complete RM three and then 12 nine for a complete g R three and lead time's about four weeks. So we're able to reduce the lead time. Got it. And is this bike, does it have a similar kind of race orientation or are you going for a broader applicability of a gravel bike? It's more of a go fast gravel bike with ample clearance. Essentially. And what does that mean, ample clearance for you guys on this bike? 50 C tire. Okay. 7 0 5 50 C. Perfect. Yeah. Yeah, it's interesting to see like over the last few years that size become commonplace, whereas four or five years ago it was a little bit tricky, I think, for a lot of frame builders to make that work. Yeah. And that's the art. And the cool thing, the magic in the G R three is having that short chain stay length with enough clearance for a 50 C tire. It makes it really capable, but also really fun to ride. Bike. A lot of times with the geometry of clearing that big of a tire, you burden it by having a super long wheel base, especially the rear center. And what, that's what really concentrate on the G three is that tight rear center makes the bike just so much more lively. Nice. And if customers are interested in learning more about Argonaut, what's the best way to find out about what you guys are doing? Argonaut cycles.com. And then follow us on instagram@argonautcycles.com as well. And I think you mentioned already the timelines for these various spikes, but if someone was coming to you for a custom build, what does that look like? I realize like the back and forth about getting the custom geometry right with the customer takes some time. Yeah. But yeah. What does it generally look like? Turnaround time? No. Good question. So we're about 12 to 14 weeks on the full custom bike. Okay, so it's still not too bad. Yeah. Right on. Thanks, Ben. Absolutely. Thank you. [00:17:29] Cameron | Wren Sports: Okay. Can I get your name and the company? Yeah. I'm Cameron Sanders. I'm with Rinn Sports. Cameron, let's talk about this handlebar you have in your hands. I know this is a little tricky since we're on audio, but let's do your best to describe it. Awesome. Yeah. So this is our perseverance drop bar. We have a perseverance flat and drop bar. The flat bar. We actually have on a number of gravel bikes out there as well. What it is, it's a one piece integrated arrow accessory alt bar. Think. If you're thinking like Jones or Redshift kitchen sink, you're in the right space but let's say the box that showed up on your doorstep was twice the size. Yeah. So what we're looking at, it's a, drop bar handlebar with an arrow extension kind of built into it. Correct, yeah. And a lot long as you said, a lot more longer and extended than you might be visualizing with sort of the short stubby extensions that we see on other handlebars. Yeah. It's not just for a psyching. Cycling computer or just resting your palms on this is like a full other position to get into. And from a manufacturing standpoint, we have not just like one loop, there's multiple angles here. So it's going out, it's flaring up, it's going, it has a nose that it goes around. And that definitely makes this a harder bar to manufacture. Basically we have enough material out front to make a whole nother bar. And where, what type of athlete, gravel athletes are you seeing kind of gravitate towards this bar? What type of events in your mind as a designer, are they? Is it intended for? Yeah, so the people that I think are benefiting the most from this are bike packers and like hyper endurance athletes. This was a. I jotted down notes about what I wanted after riding the Baja divide. And then I went and did a thousand mile gravel tour of Eastern Oregon. And between my mountain bike and my drop bar bike, I wanted something that felt at home on either one of them. But we also are getting a lot of riders and racers that are doing a hundred to 300 mile like ultra endurance days that are really enjoying the bar. Yeah, I bet. I've just recently been, Watching from afar, peri breast, Paris. And thinking like you need to get in an arrow position to finish an endurance run today like that. We have had a few people that there's some gravel events that don't allow you to a add on the arrow like clips, but because this is integrated, it's like this weird loophole where you can run it at some of those events. And I've had people that bought it just for that, which was not something I intended or thought of whenever I built the bar. But Even for the weight weaning, because it's integrated. It I'm also not a weight weaning myself. I'm bike packing with a hundred pounds of gear, but because it's integrated, it actually is very lightweight because you're minimizing the amount of stuff you have to use to attach an arrow position. Yeah. Offline, you were telling me a little bit about the armrests. Can you just describe them a little bit? Yeah. We wanted something in the aftermarket. We talked to profile design and a number of different companies and we just. Couldn't find what we really wanted for the bars. I wanted something that had a very tiny footprint on the bars so that you're not losing any real estate for hand positions or mounting things or shifting or whatever. And the armrests will clip onto the flats or the drops and either where the bars are themselves on along the top of the plane or in the loop itself, and they fully articulate and rotate so that you can. Just really fine tune your rest position in a way that you can't on a normal clip on. Because they are integrated into the arrow loop, there's only so much you can do with playing and moving them around. So ours are a lot more adjustable. And if people want to find out more information and or buy your products, where do they go? So they go to rin sports.com. Super easy. That's Ren Sports with a w r e n sports.com. Right on. And Cameron, thanks for the time and congrats on finishing the Oregon Timber Trail just in time to join us here at Maid. Yeah, thank you so much. Yeah, it was a great 18 days of riding. Awesome. [00:21:22] Igor | Velo Orange: All right. Can I get your name and brand? Sure. My name is Igor Stainbrook and I'm with Velo Orange. And where is Velo Orange located? We are in Glen Burnie, Maryland. The Maryland's not a name you often hear it's such, there's such great riding there, but you don't often hear about a lot of bike brands out of that area. That's right, yeah. There's a lot of really good riding, especially out of DC like you mentioned earlier, there's the c o canal and the gap trails, and a lot of our customers do long distance touring or random earing events. And so those kind of trails are perfect for our style of bikes. Yeah. What was the origin story behind the brand? So we first started in 2006. We were basically importing stuff from France and Japan and UK stuff that was more vintage style. And since then, since those sources dried up of new old stock stuff, we started developing our own things, improving on those designs. And now we do a lot of both classic style. But also more modern stuff too. Gotcha. So that was the inspiration that kinda, I see it in what I'm seeing around the booth here that, yeah, those classic styles and classic lines. As you started obviously it appears to be a touring reveering vibe, some of the stuff you're doing. As you started to see more kind of off-road riding, popularized in the us, what have you developed from a product perspective? So obviously tires are getting bigger and bigger. Since we first started, everybody was riding like 20 threes and 20 fives, but now we have a number of models. We have one that has, that's the rando that's coming out that has 30, that can take up to 30 eights. And then we also have the P L A, which is our kind of bike packing style bike. But it lends itself really nicely to, if you wanted to do two point fours, but you could put 45 millimeter tires, two point ones. It takes racks and fenders. You can put drop bars on it. It's a nice frame that has a lot of versatility. Yeah. You've got. The two ends of the gravel cycling world here. Exactly, yeah. Your road plus and then the bike backing side and not in the middle. It's interesting. Yeah. On this bike you were just describing with the bigger tires, can you talk about the rear end? It looks a little bit unique. Yeah. So the p l a, it's actually been in our stable for a number of years now. It's gone through a couple iterations, the most recent one. We now have through axles. And it has a new paint, but the geometry that everybody really likes is still the same. It has a wishbone rear end and it has a lot of custom stuff that goes into it that maybe a lot of people don't really, maybe not notice, but it's basically the rear end is a segmented wishbone that has, it's a bent tube and then there's plugs that are custom C and seed inserted and then braised in. And so it's a lot of. Technical stuff that goes into something that people may not even necessarily notice. Yeah. I think with a brand like this, it gives it some unique, beautiful details. Absolutely. Yep. Which always makes owners super proud to show off their bike. For sure. And you were mentioning that this one can be built up as a drop bar bike or a flat bar. Yes, absolutely. Yeah. We have a lot of people will build them up with drop bars. They most of the time they're one buys. We've seen some two buys as well. And it just lends itself nicely to a variety of build styles. So we don't really say, oh, it has to be this way, because they come as frame sets so you can build it up as you want. And so we also designed the geometry and the fit to really fit the rider nicely. So the larger sizes are 29 er and the smallest size of 26. Got it. So you don't have to compromise on frame bag size or kind of having weird fit on a very small bike with really big tires. So it's a nice, it's a nice rider. Gotcha. And Igor, what's the best way for people to learn more about Velo Orange? Go to velo orange.com or on Instagram. And what are you on Instagram Velo orange. Got it. Thanks for the time. Absolutely. Anytime. [00:25:17] Reuben | Rizzo Cycles: Can I get your name and the brand? My name is Ruen from Uhha Cycles from Spain. Ruen, can you tell me a little bit about the bike we're looking at? Yeah. We have gravel a gravel bike with a big tri freelance up to 750 with a new MV fork that they are actually selling on their mocks. But now it's available for the builders. And I have built a fulled titanium gravel frame with the with the full cable integration. We have some three D printed parts the dropouts which are U D H standard compatible. A joke for the chaining credence and the upper part of the head tube for having the custom cable integration without a, without having a super heavy and big head tube. It's a very clean look. Yeah. It's very You building out of Spain? Yeah, I'm building in Spain. I have the workshop in the near the City Center of Madrid. I'm a one band, one man band operation. I do everything but the paint and the finishing. Yeah, that's pretty much everything about the main things about the bike. Yeah. Tell me a little bit more about the dropout in the rear here that's using. The newer kind of mechanism of attaching the rear rail. Yeah. I developed my own dropouts for the to match my style and have a custom product my own aesthetic. And yes, we, I recently, this is the second bike I build with the U D H. We are, we were all forced to embrace this new standard. So I have been pretty reluctant. But now I have developed all this new platform with the dropouts. I have both C N C machine for the steel and three D printer for the titanium. Yeah, you can see it's I achieve because the main problem with the U D H is the symmetry of the dropouts on the rear end. I kindly achieve the symmetry with a few touches on the sign. And they are three D printed. We have a drive side with for the U D H power. And then Onri side has the flat mount brake mount. So everything is in line and easy to build. And are you able to three D print in Madrid as well? No. The three D printer is is made somewhere else. It took me a long time to find a supplier that meets my quality standards in terms of finishing overall, because the main problem with the three D printer is this grainy finish you, and you can click easily tell the difference between the three printed part that the rest of the tubes. And as you can see in here, if you touch the yolk, the finish on the yolk is pretty smooth and yeah, super clean. It's almost seamless with the rest of the tube. That is what I wanted to achieve. So it took me some time, but now I'm starting to use in this so that this technology that give you so freedom for design and so many options. And how did you get your start building? I start building almost seven years ago when I wanted to occupy all my free time between jobs and I started looking at the I, by that time I started to meet all the builders and see some custom bikes around. So I went into deep into the knowledge of first of all knowing more brands and builders and. Be aware that we're still people building bikes by hand. So I started really slowly and then I was pretty much self-taught in my workshop and making bikes for friends and for myself and doing this trying and error thing constantly and trying to get better and better in welding and building and everything you do at the sub. Amazing. And for a US based customer, what's the best way to learn more about the brand or ultimately order one of these bikes? First of one you can visit my website and my Instagram. If you look for Rho cycles in the web, it will be easily appears at the first of one of the first results. It's r a said O. And it's pretty easy to get in touch with me via Instagram or or mail. I try to keep a quick responses on all the direct messages and mail and yeah, the talk for a custom bike. Start straight away with me and we can talk about all your dream projects. Awesome. Thanks for the time. I appreciate it. Thanks to you. [00:29:35] Brad | W H Bradford: Can I get your name and brand? Hi, this is Brad from w h Bradford Designs. Brad, where do you build out of Sacramento, California. Right on, right up the road from me. I'm in Marin County. Oh, awesome. I ride Mount Tam quite a bit. As naturally you would from that area, it's like Mount Tam is amazing and not too far from you. This bike actually would be pretty good on Mount Tam, given that we're looking at a gravel bike with a suspension fork and dropper post, which the listener well knows. I'm a big fan of. It is actually the bike that I designed to do the alpine dam loop on. You called it out. This is our Gazo gravel frame. This is the bike we build the most of primarily double butted air hardened c molly for the front triangle Columbus rear end. We've made a few aesthetic changes for the bike this year. We've allowed integrated dropper post routing for 27 2. So it adds a second internal line to the frame. And then it is designed to work with the fox ax suspension fork, or you can switch it back to an envy, gravel fork if you wanna stay rigid. And so that's like a slight adjustment in the axle, the crown between those two forks, is that right? It was actually. Thank you so much. The axle of the crown is so close and given the fact that you probably want the front end a little slacker and a little higher, I didn't adjust the axle of the crown, but what I did adjust on the geo. Was the actual forward seating position of the rider. So the seat tube angle was increased forward by half a degree. We offset the seat tube at the bottom bracket by 7.5 millimeters, and then I actually made the top tube longer by like quarter inch and slacked the head tube angle out by a half a degree. Putting the rider more forward in the riding position and now allowing him to actually actuate the suspension fork better. Yeah, it's interesting. I'm totally with you on that, that, a small difference in actual axle to crown when swapping those forks actually positions the bike more oriented towards a rigid fork versus the suspension forks. So it's a natural compromise. Exactly. And w given the 45 millimeters of travel that the ax has, it doesn't raise the bottom bracket hype that much, but then you're still gonna be descending into your perfect pedaling position. Instead of having it drop down into a lower pedaling point and possibly smacking, roots and things like that. And that's a major concern in Marin as well, because you have Nice, those, all those nice polished roots on all your trails. Exactly. For customers, is this a custom bike or are you doing stock sizes? Pretty. So as a builder I offer three separate models. Our gravel bike, our adventure cross, which is a flat bar, gravel bike. Bike packing bike and our mountain bike. And then we do custom geo custom sizing on all frames, but we don't really venture out of those three designs currently. Gotcha. And how did you get your start building? Oh wow. I fell into this life. I sold my first bicycle design when I was in eighth grade to Alan Brown at Ozone Bikes, and it's just been a never ending process since then. And I got to this point and I've always wanted to do really high-end, road mountain bikes and I think that I've gotten to that point in my career. Nice. And for a customer looking to learn more about the brand, what's the best way of finding out more? Go to our social media page our Instagram, w h Bradford Designs, or just shoot me a message and ask me any questions you have. 'cause I'm always available. And what does the purchasing journey look like for a customer when they contact you? They fallen in love with what you're doing. How long does it take? What is the experience? Feel like I, I am a working builder, so you'll contact me. Basically, we figure out what bike you want sizing. I work with you. We produce a cad drawing of the bike and then small deposit down once we've gotten to that point. And it's usually 30 to 45 days for delivery. Okay. Right on. Thanks for the time. No problem. Thank you very much. [00:33:13] Richard | Speedvagen: All right. Can I get your name and brand? I am Richard Poole. I am the creative director at Speed Bogging. I couldn't come to Portland without talking to speed bogging. For sure. So let's talk a little bit about this bike. Yeah, just gimme a little bit of the details of the gravel bike we're looking at. Alright, so we got a pretty traditional custom rugged road for us. What we do with our rugged roads are, since they're all custom, they're built specifically to the tire size you want We're good and firm believers in short chain stays and more playful bikes. So if you never plan on running a 45, we're not gonna build you a bike that's gonna clear a 45 if you know you're only gonna run a 35. That's what we're gonna build it to. That makes sense. All these bikes from speed wagging, they're always Super tight and clean on the rear end. So that makes a lot of sense. Yeah. But if I did come to you and say, Hey, I'm all about a 50 C tire, you can deal with that. We can do that. We actually have the upgraded model of this called the rugged or road. And that will use, like any of the new suspension forks on the market, like the gravel forks, or we could use the envy adventure fork on that to clear about a 50. Gotcha. And tell me a little bit about the c o situation here on the svi. All speed vs. Have integrated seat masks. The seat post head is made by NV for us. We've been partners with NV since the launch of both brands. Seriously. They just keep making 'em, we keep using them. What does that translate to? So if I get one of these out of the box and I've ordered it from you, do I need to cut anything down to, to get the right seat post size? No. No. So the way one, we prefer, everyone that gets a bike from us gets a fitting from us too. That way we can get all the measurements dialed. We will have everything ready to go by the time your bike's built. And then, so we'll cut it down. It'll come as you see it right now. And those seat post heads have 30 millimeters of range. Okay. So if you do, it's made for 30 millimeters of range, just in case you swap a saddle or something like that. It can go up or down. Yeah. I gotcha. That should be plenty. Yeah. And then what type of tube set are you building with on the gravel bike? Oh all of our tubes are custom to us. A mixture of two true temper Columbus. And yeah, that's about it really. And what does it look like for a customer looking to get one of these bikes? How, what's the process look like and what's the turnaround time? We start with the fit. The fit is the most important measurement. We like to say we can get your bike 95% there if you're gonna send us your fit numbers from someone else. But we're big believers in being balanced on the bike and our fitting process incorporates that into each bike we build. And that's proprietary to us. No fitters really do that besides us. They tend to focus on comfort and like body angles and that sort of stuff. And is there a little bit of a sort of customer exploration conversation that goes on when I come to say, Hey, all I do is ride rowdy gravel. Could be mountain bike trails, but I want a gravel bike. Yeah. We'll walk you through that entire process. It all starts with that fit and at that fitting process, we will try and get you your entire build spec confirmed, your geocon confirmed, and then your paint scheme confirmed. It's about a three hour process, sometimes more. And by that time, like after the fitting, your bike's going into the queue and getting ready to be built and what does that sort of build process looks like after we've. Got the geometry ironed out between the two of us. Oh, that's a wild question just given the last couple years in the pandemic. But typically speed volumes are designed to be turned around in three months or so. Sometimes it's three to six. And then during the pandemic it was quite a bit longer, but we're pretty much back from that. Nice. And what's the best way for people to get more information about the brand? The website www.speedbogging.com. Awesome. Thanks for the time. Yeah. [00:36:43] Ross | Celilo Cycles: Can I get your name and the brand? Okay. My name is Ross Hatton and I'm with s Lilo Cycles out of Corvallis, Oregon. I'm looking at something rather unique here at Made. Can you describe this bike and the material you're building out of? Yeah, so our bikes are made out of wood reinforced with carbon fiber. So the outside shell is either hardwood or soft wood, depending on the material properties we want. And then it's reinforced in the inside with a full carbon fiber. Shells. We've got all the riding strength of carbon fiber frame, and a much smoother ride from the wood, which I acts as a damper on the frame and takes up some of the sting of the vibrations. Fascinating. So can you tell me a little bit about that process as I'm visualizing it? Obviously I'm seeing the, the wood exterior. Are you crafting the wood and then inserting sort of the carbon fiber after the fact inside that? Or does it start with the carbon fiber? So it starts with the wood, and we basically make two bicycle frames, so as if the frame is butterflied open. So we cut every tube twice, then we hollow them out after joining them together into the frame shape. And then we do a lined layup with the carbon fiber. So we've got all the directional layup inside the tubes. Then we put them together and we do a bladder supported circular layup on the inside. So there's no seam. It's a continuous circle on the inside. And then the we take the two halves of the wood, we put it together. And we machined down the outside to get the bicycle shape part of the machining process. We set up a we set up spaces for carbon fiber inlay, and then we overmold the carbon fiber and sand everything down. And so we get a clean fusion between the carbon fiber reinforcing tapes on the outside and the wood appearance. That's most the outside. I think I gave you a basically impossible task to describe how complicated that process is. If someone's interested, and I think they should be to, to sort of discover more about that process and what, what it actually looks like. Where would you direct them to? It should go to celilo cycles.com. Celilo is spelled c e L i L O. Okay. And you, you mentioned that adding the wood on the exterior of the carbon fiber kind of interior adds this dampening element to it. If you could describe like maybe how this bike might feel different. Than a, a standard carbon bike. What would you say? It's gonna be a lot smoother. If you can think about the difference between a wooden baseball bat and something so I don't think people do carbon fiber baseball bats, but you can imagine like aluminum versus wood. Yeah. The wood's got, takes a sting out of the impact. Okay. And so carbon fiber's gonna, would have the same kind of sting if you would make a carbon fiber baseball bat. And the wood is gonna have that less sting. So the carbon fiber frame when you get a hit is going to buzz a little bit. And so the wood really takes that buzz out. So this bike. I take it over like small chattery stuff. Just you don't feel it all, it just floats. Okay. And are, are you guys in production on this model? We're this is so we are, we are in production. Scott's working on various bikes. We've got a number of different models. Okay. One of the nice things with the with the setup is that it's customizable so that when we come in there's various hard points. So like, this is our. Showroom flagship model. It's got hard points all around the inside, so you can do different mounting pieces. It's got internal routing for generators, and depending on what you're looking for, the you can, we can tune the, the specific construction to what you need on the bike. Super interesting. And, and as a customer, if I come to you, are you building something custom from a geometry perspective? For me, we are. Yeah. We, we can do custom geometry. The process has a CAD pro, we have a CAD program that is parametric, so you can put in your reach and stack and all of that. And then the files from which we d cut the different tubes that's all driven by that geometry. So we can very easily customize that geometry for every given frame. Super interesting. And how long does it take for a customer to get a bike after ordering? It's gonna be several weeks. We can, so that's very quick. Yeah, we can, we, our, our process goes through very we, we've got, we've got a process set up so that you can put that, put that into your into our. Take. Take your measurements, put them into your production. Into production and manufacture that frame. Yeah. And you mentioned the website, that being the best place to get more information? Yes. Awesome. And then again Celilo Cycles, c e l i l o. Perfect. Thanks for the time. Thank you. [00:40:52] Ming Tan | Haley Cycles: All right. Can I get your name and the brand? Hey, this is Ming Tan from Haley Cycles. Ming Tang. This is a pretty cool looking bike with a special fork on it. Can you describe what we're looking at? Yeah, so this is one of our gravel bikes. This is outfitted with the cannondale lefty olive gravel fork. So it's got 30 millimeters of travel up front. This one's built with our standard oversized straight gauge tube set. So basically we offer. Three different tube sets you can choose from when you decide to configure a bike, and then we can build it however you like it. So fully custom geometry and fully custom geometry. All of our pricing is inclusive of custom and it's inclusive of your choice of paint and finish. Amazing. These bikes, the paint jobs are always gorgeous on these ha's, thank you. Really appreciate it. I mean it's, we really take pride in the fact that almost any bike that you see on our feed is different. Not all, some of them are similar, but. We really encourage our customers to go and make it unique to them. And are you working exclusively with Titanium? Only with Thai. Okay. Yeah. Gotcha. And what does the customer process look like? If someone wanted to get a Haley, what is what, how do they come in the door? What kind of consultation do they get and how long does it take to get a bike? It's a pretty organic process and usually it starts with a dis, a general discussion of what they're looking for. Whether it's a. A road bike or an all road bike or gravel bike or a hardtail, anything that doesn't have a rear suspension, no problem. But it usually starts with the type of bike they're looking for and then we start talking about fit and whether or not the customer has fit data or if they need to get fitted, or if they just want to duplicate their cockpit, fit off their current bike, we can help build that CAD geometry file for them based on the information that they have. And then, we get deeper into the weeds when it comes to. Tire clearance and gear choice. 'cause it's all interrelated in terms of how the bike gets built. Yeah. And then once the customer decides to move forward and the geometry looks good and the spec looks good, it's about a 16 week, 16 to 18 week lead time to get the frame done Okay and finished. And then if it, if the customer's looking for a complete bike, the complete bikes are all custom quoted considering that you can customize bikes to the valve stems these days. So everything is custom quoted at that point. Nice. Amazing. Thanks for sharing. Thank you. Appreciate it. [00:43:14] Julio | Wheatfall Cycles: Can I get your name and the brand? Yes. Julio Burino from wheat Fall Cycles. Julio, where is Wheat Fall building out of? Santa Cruz, California. Okay. He's currently designing there. We are having them made overseas, but we are now currently looking for someone stateside in either Oregon or California. Nice. And is it a completely custom process with the brand? Right now they're made to order, but we are working out sizes within our Within our bikes, either the gravel or the mountain or the cruisers. This bike we're looking at, what's the frame material? It's titanium. All of the bikes are currently titanium. Gotcha. And what's super unique for you listeners out there about this bike? It's actually got dual top tubes, the two thin top tubes rather than one across the top and a little bit of a sort of asymmetry and where they hit the C tube. What's the story behind that? It's something that my partner and I have been talking about for a long time to do something a little bit more unique. Make an asymmetrical bike that is aesthetically pleasing for the eye, but has a compliance that feels really well on the trails and on the road. Yeah. You nailed it on the aesthetically pleasing part here. I love it. That was the emphasis. Certainly for a show like this, it gives you a chance to stand out with a, titanium finished bike. Oh, thank you. Thank you. So what does it look like for a customer interested in finding out more about the brand? Where should they go and what does the process look like in creating their dream bike with you? So essentially this is our first show. We're just gathering ideas. We have a webpage that we do need to still work on Instagram and the maid show is catapulting our Success to get the name and the brand out there, but you we are at ww dot wheat falls cycles.com and you can get information and email us from there. Fantastic. Great to have another brand outta Santa Cruz. Awesome, thank you. All right. Can I get your name and the brand? I am Jeff Fra, and I am with Wild Bikes. Welcome back to the Pod Jeffrey. Thank you for having me. Can you tell us about what you brought to Maid? Yeah, so today at Maid, our big, our kind of big reveal is that my business partner Andy, is a huge Schwinn Paramount fan, and we have a Wayfinder fork, right? So what's cool about our carbon Wayfinder fork is that it's an inch and eighth straight steer. With all the modern gravel functionalities, dynamo routing, three pack mounts, fender mounts, rack mounts, all that good stuff that we like as gravel folks. Yeah. And what we wanted to really showcase is to other builders really what you can do with this fork. And so we build a lugged bike and we chrome the lugs. So it would be that, Schwinn Paramount homage. Yeah. Painted the main tubes, painted the fork. And this is the first lug bike that Wild has yet created. And it's this very classic looking thing with all the modern gravel capabilities. It fits 50 C tires has all the, has three bottom mounts, top two feedback mount. And we just wanted to really lean on our love for the past and bring it into the future and show people what was possible. Yeah, I love that juxtaposition of the kind of old visual styling. But as you're describing all that modern gravel performance, and it's super lightweight and it's a really cool lug set. So the lugs taper, so if you notice the tube actually tapers down to the C tube. Got it. 'cause you want the stiffness here and you want a little more flex in the seat area, cluster area for comfort. And so it's a really cool, well-thought out lug set designed by Chris Bishop of Bishop Bikes. Okay. And the carbon fork, it's super light. It's just, it just happens to be lug. And in, you may not know the answer to this question, but I'm gonna ask it anyway. In terms of lugged bike manufacturing experience, is that an art that sort of was at risk of disappearing and are fewer and fewer people understanding how to make a bike that way? I've been shocked at how few lugged bikes there actually are at this show. So it, it maybe seems to be waning. I think the problem is just the lug sets themselves present physical limitations. So this lug set is cool 'cause it has a sloping top tube, whereas most lug sets have a very horizontal Strat tube. So the lug itself actually dictates the geometry of the, to a large extent. You have a couple degrees you can play with, but it's set. So when you start building large tired bikes with a 700 by 50 C and then a straight top tube stand over becomes an issue. And so it's cool because we have products like this emerging that actually allow you to build that. Traditional logged construction with modern gravel features. And so I think our obsession with big comfortable tires has made the old lug sets a bit obsolete. So yeah, I think until we have more things like this available, it is gonna be a little bit of a dying art form because people just aren't building road bikes like they used to. Yeah. And if you are building a road bike, chances are you wanna fit 30 twos, 35. That makes a ton of sense. And is this a bike that a customer could come and buy from you today? Oh, we would love to. We are so hoping that people, we, we've loved this process and we love the outcome and so yeah, we would love to sell a customer this bike. We'd love to build more. And is that, is it a longer process for building and design or about the same? No, it's about the same. About four to five months is, what it takes for us from the project kickoff to when we are able to deliver a finished to product. Okay. Awesome. I hope I see more of these beauties on the roads and trails. No, thank you, Craig. Cool. [00:48:36] Mike DeSalvo | DeSalvo Cycles: Can I get your name and the brand? Yeah. My name is Mike DeSalvo from DeSalvo Cycles. Mike, can you tell us a little bit about the Scrabble bike we're looking at? This one I built was, it's actually for a customer. It was a fun project. He just wanted to go for a steel bike. Wanted to clear a tire, about 48 to 50 and keep it pretty classic. Unlike some of the really crazy stuff here with all the integrated hoses, lines, everything he wanted, all external mechanical shifting. It feels a little like blast from the past in a way. And is this a typical like tube set that you build with, or do you build with other materials as well? So I build with steel and titanium. This one right here is a steel bike, mostly Columbus Steel is what I use. Okay. And is there a reason for that? Is it as far as just, as far as name, the branded tubing, Columbus has always just been my favorite when it comes to steel. Yeah. Most of the bikes these days actually are titanium, but this one is a steel bike. Yeah. Okay. Gotcha. And you've been building bikes for quite some time now. Is there? Yeah, I'm sneaking up 20, 24. I'll make 25 years of building for me. Amazing. Yeah, it's a huge milestone. Yeah. It's, I know I started when I was 26 and now I'm 51. Has the process, has it always been a custom relationship you had with customers? Yeah. Everything I've always made is made to order. Okay. Yeah. I've never, I never worked in one of the bigger, or not bigger, but one of the, One of the smaller manufacturers or any of that just been a one man band and always made stuff to order. And how many bikes do you typically put out in a year? These days it's mostly titaniums and my numbers have gone down. I usually, I'm just in the 40 to 50 range is a comfortable spot for me these days. Is it titanium tube set? Just a little trickier to deal with? Yeah. More time consuming. Yeah. The whole process of building titanium bikes is just more time consuming than steel. Way back when we were doing a lot of steel road bikes, I actually almost did 151 year. That was my record. It was like 147. It's a crazy amount when you dig into like how much time it takes to make these bikes. Like it's a lot. And they've gotten a lot more complicated over the years too, right? We've got through axles and disc brakes and if you rewind 15 years or something when we were doing rim breaks and quick releases and things like that, but just a little more streamlined, a little quicker to do. That makes sense. So what does a customer journey look like? If I wanted to get a bike from you? The interesting thing coming off of Covid right now, at the moment at the moment I'm probably still a year out and I'm actually not currently taking deposits. COVID was a really interesting journey for me because I got a whole lot of orders and got backed up. So about a year ago, I quit taking deposits and I just put people on a wait list. So if you were to come to me today, what we would do is I'd put you on a wait list and unfortunately you'd have to be patient for, about 10 or 12 months. And then once I would get within a couple months of building your bike, I would circle back around with you and we would start then making the decisions. As a one man band, it's really hard for me sometimes to track all of the customer changes, shall we say, along the way. Yeah. So what I do with folks is I'm always happy to get excited and everything, but essentially, the gist of the way it works is I get a deposit and as the build gets closer to the top of the list, I circle back around with the customer. And we go through all the final details. And I think some people are amazed because once they're at the top of the list, that's what I'm focused on. Yeah. And it's gonna be that week or two or three, then I'm gonna build their bike. Versus the waiting, for the 10 or 20 or 30 in front of you Yeah. To get done. Yeah. That's a good way actually to handle it. Yeah. Master that excitement and enthusiasm and get 'em a bike pretty quickly thereafter. Yeah, exactly. Yeah it's tricky. All of us small builders, it's the battle we all face. Is just trying to get stuff done. When you're wearing all the hats during Covid, was it a, an issue of getting the supplies you needed to make the frame or what, and I know obviously there was a lot of enthusiasm about buying bikes during that period. Yeah. Covid was a really crazy thing because it was tons of orders. I'm still building bikes. I'm a little embarrassed to say, but I'm still building bikes that are some of the orders that were placed in during Covid. So I, for me, it was a ton of orders and then it was me being too optimistic about how quickly things might turn around. So then we had the supply issues both. With parts, we had suppliers with raw materials and everything. So you know, what should have taken six months now took a year and a half kind of thing. So just trying to come off of that a huge demand with no supply was just a really awful combination. Yeah. Gotcha. And if people are interested in learning more about the brand, what's the best place to go to? I have a website, DeSalvo cycles.com. I'm on Instagram at DeSalvo Bicycles as well. And I'm still a little fashioned. If somebody wants to talk to me, gimme a call. I'd be happy to chat with you in the shop. Perfect. Thanks, Mike. All right. Thank you. [00:52:49] Darren | Larkin Cycles: Can I get your name and brand? Yeah. Darren Larkin with Larkin Cycles. Darren, where are you building out of? I'm in Deep River Connecticut right now. Okay, interesting. So not a lot of frame builders outta Connecticut. Strangely. There's a couple really good ones right there in my same town is Richard. Richard Sax lives about Mile Away from Me. Oh. And then Peter Weigel is about 20 minutes away. Got it. So it's a nice, it's like a nice little hub of sort of old school frame building. How did you get into Frame building? As a hobby. I guess I was always a tinkerer and it made sense to, it made sense at some point to build a bike for myself. Got it. I was doing a bunch of messengering and riding and just made sense to build myself a better bike and then, built bikes for some other friends and got, I got really lucky getting a connection, helping out another frame builder in their shop, and learned a lot from that. Yeah. It seems like that's where you get the reps, right? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Can you talk about the sort of gravel models that you have and what are you building out of and what are some of the attributes you'd wanna highlight? Yeah so this sort of main stock model that I've been doing, it's been calling it the Dreamer and I've been making it for, at this point, at round five years. I've been trying to make just like a pretty light good general all around. Like affordable gravel bike, that is gonna ride really great and not cost a ton of money. So it's all tig welded, like Columbus, a mix of zona and life tubing. I'm trying to use like American made, like Paragon Machine Works, dropouts, bottom bracket. I've been getting fork blades made on my own, like getting those sort of custom fabricated different places. And cool. Yeah. And what does that, what does a sort of customer journey look like? How do they find you and what does the process look like? Are you building stock frames or custom frames? The, my, my goal is to have this particular model be a stock frame that is just available on the website, but over the past few years, between pandemic materials, availability, and then sort of me moving and resetting shops, it's been a couple years where I haven't been able to do that and I'm. Very much hoping once the dust settles after this show to get stocked back up again and focused on that. Nice. And so how can customers find out more about you? Larkin cycles.com or Larkin Cycles on Instagram. It's the best spots. Perfect. Thank you. Cool. [00:55:07] Dave | Sage Cycles: You, Dave from stage. Hey Craig. Good to see you again man. Good to see you too. And super stoked to hear about the updates on the Storm King. It's a bike. I love the original version of Yeah. And this thing is gorgeous, so why don't you tell me about it? Sure. No, yeah, it's the Storm King. The original Storm King has been such a good, fun bike. It's so versatile. It just, you can do so much with it. Racing, bike packing, adventure riding it just really allows you to do a lot. And as time has gone on from the original bike to where we are now, I've really developed the geometry and the design of the bike to improve it for future proofing, if you will. So from a tire clearance perspective and a tow overlap perspective, those were things from a custom standpoint have always plagued customers. And so I wanted to go about. Fixing that issue that I want somebody to get on this bike, and no matter what size tire they ride, they're gonna have tow clearance. How are you achieving that? So what I did was I redesigned the geometry, and what I found is that if I push the front end of the bike out by two centimeters and then shortened the stem by two centimeters, your handlebar stays in the same place for where it should be. But because I've pushed the front tire out, now you now have toe clearance that you wouldn't have had before. So technically speaking, the bike with the shorter stem will steer quicker than the original version because the, if you think of the stem as a lever and as you turn that lever, the shorter lever turns quicker. But the longer wheel base, because I've pushed out, the front end, actually is more stable at speed. So if you're going down high speed gravel road, it's chunky, washboard, big stuff like that kind of thing. The bike is actually way more stable in a straight line, but when you have to turn in tight corners because the steering is quicker, you can still turn around corners kind of thing. So it's this really nice improvement of being able to stretch out the rider and give a better ride quality. It's similar to mountain bike, but it's not mountain bike. Like it's just different in that way. Yeah. I think it's been just this interesting journey for builders as gravel came about. Yep. To distance ourself from the original kind of maybe Road Plus Origins Correct. Of the design. Yep. And thread that fine line between two Mountain Bikey, but still fun to ride on the road. And I'm super excited about this moment in time because I think for buyers of bikes we're, it's great moment where, yeah, if you get a bike that's produced in the year 2023, There's so much thoughtfulness in the design that have just added versatility to what we were using a few years back. Yeah, no, I agree. Gravel is, has really evolved over the last 10 years. If you think back to 10 years ago, seven years ago, something like that, a 40 millimeter tire was as big as you ever needed for gravel. Didn't need anything bigger, you weren't, nobody was pushing it. Now, with our new Storm King, for example, yeah, it takes 700 by fifties. But we also have an option that you can run a six 50 by 2.4. Yeah. It's huge. Yeah. That's just the versatility of that range to go from a 40 to a 2.4 is huge. So you can very much have one bike. You can take bike packing. Yep. But you can also go to S P T Gravel and throw some forties on it and race hard. Yeah. It'll be great. Yeah. This would be a perfect S B T bike. I know there's a lot of people at S B T that are using road bikes or modified road setups, but the reality is this, Will do the job just fine. Yeah. I think for those of us without a quiver of bikes in our garage to choose from, like you, you wanna be able to modify your bike with just changing tires or wheel sets if you have that opportunity. Yep. You're also doing some neat things with like three D printing right on this bike. You wanna talk about that? Yeah, sure. One of the things going back to the tire clearance issue, but now instead of tow overlap, now tire clearance on the frame one of the things we wanted to really standardize was chain ring size. Crank sizing, if you will, but chain ring size in combination with tire size and how that we can make an, from an efficiency standpoint of building the bike. So what we created was a chainstay yoke. Yeah. That sits behind the chain rings. This is nothing new. Plenty of builders been doing it for years. And. We made a three D printed version of it rather than a, we used to do chainstay yolks that were solid titanium plates. Yeah. And they'd be welded or bent and it was just a chunk of heavy metal. Going the three D route allowed us to really dial in from a CAD perspective using modeling software and and just other types of three d printing software and equipment. We were able to really dial in. The specs that we wanted. So we knew this is the tire size. We knew this is the chain ring size. We knew this is the Q factor of the cranks. What fits, what do we want to do? And then, okay, it also has to be able to run. If somebody wants to run a mechanical shift line, you can still run a mechanical shift line through the yolk. It's, oh, really? Just big enough to be able to do it. Okay we worked on that one quite a bit. But it's great because it allows you to From a building standpoint, it allows us to go, we have one chain stay design, and we can sit there and go, okay, this is how the chain stays, are shaped. We're good. We can repeat it every single time, and we're guaranteed to have this tire clearance, this crank clearance. Yeah. Et cetera, et cetera. And it just it just works. And and the three D parts are actually lighter than the solid plate parts, so we're dropping weight in that regard too. So it's a best of bonus. Bonus. Yeah. Yeah. Let's talk about the rear dropouts. I know, sure. It seems from the mountain bike side of the world, obviously there's new attachment Yeah. Strategies from various manufacturers going on. Yeah. Yeah. How are you thinking about that? Obviously like it's something you can change in real time as the trends move. Yeah. But what have you done with the dropout and just your thoughts on that? So the dropouts that we have on the bike that's on display right now, these are technically version one. I

One of the biggest hurdles to managing startup life is balancing expectations at home with the drive to spend every waking hour (and every last ounce of energy) launching your company and fostering its growth. It can be all consuming, which leaves little for anything else. Brendan Moore, co-founder of cycling components brand Wolf Tooth Components shares how he and his wife set expectations in advance, and set some boundaries, which set the stage for them to succeed professionally and personally. And that was a welcome bonus for this interview, which was originally conceived as a lesson on how to deal with product ideas and submissions from your customers. It's a concept that's rife with pitfalls, and can become a sticky mess if not handled properly. Brendan tells us how they do it, how and why they work with select outside designers, and why they pretty much don't want you to share your ideas with them. It's fun, and very enlightening. For full show notes, links and images, check out this show's post at tylerbenedict.com/podcast Be sure to subscribe on iTunes, Stitcher, Google Play, Overcast FM, or wherever you listen to podcasts and leave a review and rating! And let me know who you'd like to hear interviewed...just message me on Facebook, Twitter or Instagram.

Think you have a great idea for a new bike component? Want to share it with a brand and hope they make it? Or, better yet, partner with them and share the glory? And maybe the reward? Wolf Tooth Components would like you to slow your roll. And please don't just send them your idea. In this episode, we talk with WTC co-owner Brendan Moore about how they come up with ideas, how they deal with customer ideas and submissions, and how you can go about sending them (or any other brand) your idea the right way. Yes, there's more to it than just thinking something would be cool and sketching it out on a napkin. Hit like, hit subscribe, and hit play. Then just get out and ride! FOLLOW BIKERUMOR Keep tabs on all the latest bikes, wheels, components, gear and tech on The World's Largest Cycling Tech Blog by following us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. FOLLOW TYLER & WATTS Like us? Love us? Follow your hosts on social @tylerbenedict (FB //  TW // IG) and @revoltingcogs (FB // IG)

February 7, 2019 Midwest Dirt Show Page ABOUT THE EPISODE Brendan Moore of Wolf Tooth Components and Otso Cycles joins Ben at the Wolf Tooth & Otso Cycles Headquarters in Minnesota to catch up on what’s new and chat about the business and cycling world. --------- THANKS FOR THE SUPPORT OF THIS EPISODE Wolf Tooth Components – https://www.wolftoothcomponents.com/ Otso Cycles – https://otsocycles.com Borah Epic – https://www.borahepic.com/ --------- Music by Addison Chase Check out his band Dressed For The Occasion: www.dftomusic.com On Instagram @dftomusic Do you have an idea for New England Dirt? If so, let us know at nedirt@mountainbikeradio.com.     RELATED SHOW LINKS Listen to the 2013 interview with Brendan Moore – http://traffic.libsyn.com/mountainbikeradio/Brendan_Moore_-_Wolf_Tooth_Cycling_12-18-13.mp3 Listen to the interview with Brendan discussing Otso Cycles – http://traffic.libsyn.com/mountainbikeradio/EC_10-16-16.mp3 Listen to the interview where Brendan discusses elliptical chainrings – http://traffic.libsyn.com/mountainbikeradio/EC_7-22-16.mp3 MOUNTAIN BIKE RADIO LINKS You can support this content by becoming a Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/mtnbikeradio Support Mountain Bike Radio by shopping through our Amazon Affiliate Link: http://amzn.to/1SC3svC Go to the Mountain Bike Radio Store: https://shopmbr.com/Become a Mountain Bike Radio Member: http://mountainbikeradio.bigcartel.com/category/mbr-memberships Mountain Bike Radio Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/MountainBikeRadio Mountain Bike Radio on Twitter: https://twitter.com/MtnBikeRadioMountain Bike Radio on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mtnbikeradio/Mountain Bike Radio on Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCYE6EAkjP_dmm94_HbKya0Q

November 14, 2018 The MBR& Show Page ABOUT THIS EPISODE Matt gets the opportunity to catch up with Kaitlyn after her 24 Hour World Championship winning performance. Tune in to hear about the travel, driving on the wrong side of the road, rain, more rain, and how teamwork played together for a great year of solo racing. Kaitlyn spills the beans about coming into a new challenge a little later this year and makes sure to tell everyone how lucky she feels to have all of the support in her endeavors. Do you have a person or company you want to hear on Mountain Bike Radio? If so, let us know at info@mountainbikeradio.com. ------------ RELATED SHOW LINKS Support Mountain Bike Radio by shopping through our Amazon Affiliate Link: http://amzn.to/1SC3svC Kaitlyn Boyle - http://mountainbikeradio.com/mbr/kaitlyn-boyle/ Pivot Cycles - http://www.pivotcycles.com/ Industry Nine - https://industrynine.com/ Revelate - http://www.revelatedesigns.com/ ESI - http://esigrips.com/ Maxxis - https://www.maxxis.com/tires/bicycle/mountain Kuat - http://www.kuatracks.com/ Wolf Tooth Components - https://www.wolftoothcomponents.com/ Feedback Sports - https://www.feedbacksports.com/ 24 Hours in the Old Pueblo - https://epicrides.com/events/24-hours-in-the-old-pueblo/event-guide/ Arizona Trail Race - http://topofusion.com/azt/race.php Kaitlyn's Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/kait.boyle/ Mountain Bike Radio Links: Shop via our Amazon Affiliate Link: http://amzn.to/1SC3svCGo to the Mountain Bike Radio Store: https://shopmbr.com/Become a Mountain Bike Radio Member: http://mountainbikeradio.bigcartel.com/category/mbr-memberships Mountain Bike Radio Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/MountainBikeRadioMountain Bike Radio on Twitter: https://twitter.com/MtnBikeRadioMountain Bike Radio on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mtnbikeradio/Mountain Bike Radio on Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCYE6EAkjP_dmm94_HbKya0Q

Episode Links: Wolf Tooth Components  Wolf Tooth Components Instagram Otso Bikes Otso Bikes Instagram Automatic Transcription (forgive any errors): All right, Brendan, thanks for joining us on the podcast this week. I'm really excited to get to know wolf tooth and also a little bit better today. Yeah, thanks for having me. I always like starting out by learning a little bit more about you as a writer and since you're a, a, an owner of a company, I'd love to learn just a little bit more about how the company started. Yeah, well I guess I'll talk about the three of us that started together. Um, Mike is the original founder and Dan and I joined him, uh, about a month or two after he started at Mike's. Been racing 20 or 25 years in cross country avid mountain bike, rabid sat biker Dan, my other business partner is a more of a distance guy. He'd done. I did a bike or I did a rod, I guess he's done the arrowhead 1:35 half a dozen times during the Baja divide, you know, just all kinds of crazy long distance stuff. And then, um, I come from an SCC race background erased ECC pro level, like c for about 10 or 12 years and still dabble in some racing, but, uh, given the business and growing children, I haven't been doing quite as much as they used to. So, so we kind of come from a bit of a diverse set of, uh, a writing background, um, which brings a lot to the table when we start talking about out. So yeah, absolutely. And did you guys have an engineering background professionally? Yeah. Yeah. Well, so we all came from the tech world, um, engineers and tech. Mike and I worked in a automation engineering department, so we basically designed robots that built a hard disk drives and then Dan was on the design side of the hard disk drive, so designing the intricate details of a hard disk drive and all the mechanical features. So we all worked together doing this and um, had a passion for riding road at lunch together, that kind of thing. And always talked about bike parts and maybe deficiencies in some and things we liked and didn't like. And um, and that's where the passion started and then an opportunity came to give this a go and we jumped at it. What was the problem that you guys saw initially? What was the first product? The very first product was actually a chain ring, a wide narrow chain ring for a fat bike, um, because we here in Minnesota, we're forced to ride bikes four or five months a year. And so mike design that up and I started testing it and it's about the same time that [inaudible] came out and we really felt that one by was a key, um, technology for fat bikes because front railers tended to not work with snow and ice. And so that was the first product. And then what actions actually the biggest product for the company that Kinda really got us off ground was those cassette extenders. And um, back when people were just starting to go one by and adding the 42 to two, their 10 speed. And uh, you know, at this point we basically don't sell any of those anymore. The oems have largely answered that large wide range cassette question. But uh, so those are the two kind of first products that got us off the ground while we were still working our day jobs, packet packet, ca technology hard this rep company. And was that derailleur extension piece, was that something that originally was solving a problem that you were seeing in the fat bike world specifically or, or any one by setup? Well, so there was the cassette extender, so it's actually a cassette cog that went behind the cassette was the first product later we did follow up with a, a derailleur extension piece to help help that work better. Um, but that was just a cassette piece that honestly it was pretty ubiquitous no matter where you lived in the mountains or you lived in the flat, he lived in the flat so you could just run a bigger chain ring. And at the time, remember the cassettes were only 1136 was the biggest right now, you know, now we're talking 10:50 AM, 10:51 in the case of Shimano new 12 speed. Uh, the 1136 sounds absolutely teeny, like a road or gravel or something. I think that's absolutely where I first came to become aware of, uh, was in that I was running my niner gravel bike and I always needed more gears and someone came up to me and said, you know, you don't have to change the derailleur, you can just get this little part by this company in Minnesota and it can solve all your problems. Yeah. All the problems. Maybe not the problems with my lack of horsepower at times, but you youth it not me a man. Well that's great. That's a really interesting origin story. And then presumably as you guys acquired more equipment and sophomore or opportunity, you just sort of let your engineering minds grow wild. And I've seen you kind of pick a lot of problem opportunities across the cycling space to tackle with your unique componentry. Yeah. Yeah. So we, uh, from the beginning we had a lot more ideas than those are just the two products that kind of allowed us to launch the company. But very quickly just knowing that oems are going to make wide range cassettes, which they do now today. And knowing that there's going to be other challenges, we'd with a derailleur optimization, all that stuff. We quickly moved into the things that like our be Rad system and some of these more innovative standalone products that aren't tied to necessarily somebody cassette or somebody is derailleur. Um, so that's something we did very early on with foresight to all products have a finite life when we need to go specifically probably only had three to four year run rate. So. Right. Yeah. What a step back. I definitely want to get into the be rad system. But with respects to gearing for gravel riding, you'd mentioned sort of your excitement, enthusiasm behind. No one by trend. Do you see that continuing across kind of all segments of cycling or GC, the roadies still retaining to buy as you know, the predominant option? It's an interesting and kind of polarizing question on the road. Um, I think it's less, less so on a gravel and then not at all in the mountains. The mountains by rights all switched to one by. I know there's some still some holdouts, and I'm not saying everybody has to go one bike because it gives people, some people pretty worked up, but uh, and then on gravel, honestly having a little, a little wider range cassette, I think you've found it extremely useful. Um, you know, you end up with these little corn cob cassettes, I call him like 11, 25, you end up with double shifts anyway. Most of the time on gravel road is going to be a bit more of a challenge and you know, just just a frame road for a second. The number of usable actual years on a double. A typical double setup is about 14. So you know, where we're at right now, we're at 12 speed right now. Right, right. And so you could see a way to 13 speed in the near future, I'm guessing on the road. Um, and so if you got the 13 speed, could you fudge those bigger three cars and not upset roadies and have small enough jumps in the small causes? Maybe that's what it's going to take though. Yeah, I think you're right. I, I, I struggled a bit, so I've bought my last spike two years ago and I had made the decision that I was going to buy one bike that was gonna replace my road bike and gravel bike and all the research I pointed to lead me to believe yeah, there were some nuances that I would lose and going to a one by. And so I elected to go to a two by simply because I was trying to purely replaced my road bike and I've largely been happy with it. But one of the things that I have come to realize that know, which is probably obvious in retrospect was that the one by a drive train off road is just so much quieter without, uh, you know, the longer chain and the front trailer on there that there's, to me a real advantage there and any disadvantage I was perceiving or loss of, you know, gear subtlety really hasn't manifested itself in the way I feared it would. No, you got to remember though, there is really high level road racing and there's the time where it can get annoying. Basically if you're in a group road ride and you know, the, the um, the speed is changing subtly and you want to shift, just barely shifted gear to keep your cadence at a certain level or people that have spent years and years on road bikes and expecting that one tooth cog difference, that those are the people that'll be the last hold outs and honestly it'll take 14 speed's probably to convert them. And uh, do you still have a road bike in your garage? Not the kind with skinny tires. The skinny tires I have on right now are $38, I think 38 because honestly with, with cell phones, um, I avoid at all costs that a personal impact. All of us, pretty much everybody on staff here does. I don't. There's maybe one or two guys that do group road rides anymore. Yeah. But even then, like this time of year, they're, the group road rides shifts to gravel. Um, I was just out this weekend, this out this weekend for a cruise in several hours. I saw four cars unraveled and that was, it was bliss. It was blissful. Every time, every time I'm on the road, it's like, you know, white knuckles is, are they on their phone, are they drinking their coffee or you know, whatever. And uh, just not the fun relaxing experience I want when I'm out riding my bike. Yeah. I'm always saying the same thing to my roadie hold out friends that they just don't know what they're missing. When you can get out there and get off the beaten path and not have to worry about cars at all. And you can just have pure peace during your rides. Yeah. Yeah. You've come out and just like totally refreshed. Maybe. Maybe you're tired, but totally refreshed mentally and, and happy. I don't know how else to describe it. I, I'll feel after her gravel. Right. But just, just content and happy. Yeah, I agree. I think it just, it plays on a number of different lover, the levers emotionally. When you're out there riding, you get the peace and solitude, but then you also get challenging sections where you felt glom onto something a little bit more tactical on your gravel bike and get your heart rate up. Yeah. Yup. So it'll be, you know, if we get to 13 or 14 speeds, I think one by will make huge inroads into road and probably completely take over gravel. Yeah, I think you're right. And then certainly on my next bike, which is upcoming and I'm definitely going to go the one by route and um, you know, any shortcomings, I spent so much time off road that they've road shortcomings aren't going to bother me whatsoever. Right. And the interesting thing thing on the side that we've seen with, with gravel and road is that, um, it used to be all a lot of the chain rings we sold in the gravel and road segments square, 40 to 40, 38 meaning cyclocross racers and writers and now we're seeing a shift to a lot of $46 going out the door, which is kind of that sweet spot for the one by gravel with a wide range cassette or one by road with a wide range. So we are actually seeing it on the chain ring side too. What type of cassette gear ratio or people matching to that? 40 six? Um, typically it'd be 1140 Shimano cassettes are and that's our favorite, that's what we all run. They have nice, small, not small for roadies again, but smallish your steps, I'm relatively inexpensive cassettes, they're easy to get if it on hd driver. Um, so that's the most common one that we're seeing. And what derailer systems does that put you into? Well, for one by you can basically get any derailer to work if you're using our thriller optimization products, um, the road linker to go link or some of the trailers work natively with you had the 10 pan which allows road shifters to work with mountain bike rider railers, but basically the 1140 isn't too challenging to get to work from a one by perspective once the 1142 is a little more 10:42, and then once you get to 1146 you're really pretty much stuck with you than a mountain bike reader. Railer and your road shifters. Um, or in Graham's case, Ram actually has a, some wide range of solutions that work with that out of the box. So. Right. Interesting. Well, shifting gears a little bit, let's talk about the [inaudible] system. I mentioned in my initial outreach to you. I had my first multiday bike packing experience and I recognize the shortcoming in my bottle setup, so I was interested to talk to you about the Rad and where that came from. Oh boy. I don't know if I. I should let this out of the bag, but so be routed. Actually it stands for bottle, a relocation and accessory device, but the initial design for the very first came out of Iraq and scientists know Joe guy that works at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory a. He happens to be my brother. Brad. Going to be Rad. Came from ice. No joke. He made he uh, yeah, he was A. Yeah, I don't think we've ever told this story. He was trying to move his bottle around a little bit on trying to remember. I think it was his ibis, maybe a Mojo. Um, anyway, he came up with this little kind of looks like the two that we sell today. We sell three different signaling for people that don't know, three different bases. Is that allow you to mount things on your bike and move bottles around you have to go to the website to see how it all works. But he designed the smallest base, smallest of the three to be read to kind of. And it was actually, um, you know, something that I had seen and then one of my employees and uh, the guy that runs a machine shop unbeknownst to us and without asking, just went off and made a couple and I saw that and actually we had been working on some other, the double bottle thing where you can mount the two bottles side by side, which is some people laugh at. But uh, those that have tried it, no, it's pretty sweet. Um, if you need to throw more water, we'd had some prototypes around that, but that didn't really become a product until I saw the Rad. And I'm like, you know, the double bottles of product if it's an accessory to another system. And so we kind of put that together and started developing the different length basis. Um, and then launched with this system with the three bases I'm mounting plate with a strap, then those bases and the double bottle. And so what this allowed you to do is mountain bottles up and down and move bottles around, knocked two bottles on mount these straps that held things on your bike and it really allowed gravel and adventure riders and even at cross country racers to too, I'd extend, gets stuff off their back and so, and then it's just grown from there and I'll go on there and there's, I think a 10 or 12 accessories you can buy for the system all based on these, these three bases that you can mount on your bike. Right. So that's how it started. It was, it was kind of an accident, um, and kind of something that we didn't prove the guy that was working on to work on, but we didn't stop them either. Right. And then you found out it started working in and opening up some new possibilities. Yeah, it was more like, hey, we had this other stuff that, oh yeah, if we took this and this together, it becomes a system and then, and then now here we are today. Yeah, for those of you trying to visualize it, so you've got a base that mounts into your existing water bottle, water bottle, cage area, and then you can adjust where you attach your water bottle cage or accessory to a different area of your top two or sorry, happier. You're down tube. Um, which provides with the accessory mounts a unique way of adding multiple water bottle cages or pumping tube strap. A whole bunch of other accessories. Yeah, yeah. The best way to go to the site and look at it, look at it because there's so many different ways. It's always kind of described it as the erector set of a bicycle accessory mounting because there's going to have tinkered with it for hours in my basement. Moving stuff around, especially with the bags and stuff we have now. And you can really hang in, jam a lot of stuff on your bike. And basically at this point I'm writing most of the time with just a cell phone in my pocket, right? Yeah. And my bike packing setup, I had a sort of a quarter frame bag and I just needed the bottle cages to be exterior to that. And I looked at the two water bottle mountain. I was like, that would have been perfect because they were just set the bottles outside of that bag and solved a big issue for me. Yup, Yup. Yeah. We have a number of people doing that exact setup you just described. So you guys were working in the machine shop, you were making accessories and the derailer optimization stuff and later that'd be Rad. But recently, and I'm not sure how recently you started your own bike brand. How did that happen? Come about. Yeah. Yeah. So once again, we ride fat bikes four or five months a year. That's how it started. We started selling bikes about two years ago, I guess last month, two years ago in September. Um, so also is not that old. Um, for those that don't know a. So is a, it's a bite than our, I guess our slogan is born in the north woods. We try and build bikes around what, what the kind of writing one might do in the northwoods, whether that be northwoods of, of California, northwoods, Minnesota. I'm not, I'll call it not shredding bikes if, if that's a term that people know. I'm not downhill, not enduro. Um, these are more general cross country and gravel adventure bike. Uh, anyway, we, we ride fat bikes a lot here. Obviously. I've said that several times and I'm one of the big buggers that fat bikes is the q factors really wide. I'm on the order of like an inch wider than a mountain bike and more than an inch wider than a road bike. And so, um, that really it can be hard on knees and hips if you spend a lot of time peddling the summer and then switched to this thing where your feet are way out. It puts a lot of strain on the inside of your knees. Um, and so we've been kicking around the idea. We'd seen some prototypes with people kicking around. The idea of using what was a, a and I guess still is a downhill standard. So that'd be um, in common terms. And 83 millimeter bottom bracket. I'm a road, it would be 68 millimeters a mountain would be 73 and this was 83. And then a fat bikes for 100. So you can see a kind of the step 73 would be typical mountain in 83 is what we retargeting and we'd seen some prototypes and we're like, you know what, I think we think we can do this. And so I'm one of the enablers. They're doing it though was one by you can't do an 83 millimeter bottom bracket that bike, like we do our vojtech without committing to one by because everything's competing for the same space down there. So once we committed to one by which we were comfortable with because there are know we were both to to, to do, um, once we committed to one, by then it was a matter of doing the layouts and understanding the engineering. And then I'm working with a frame manufacturer there was willing to explore with us because there was challenges in the layup, you know, getting the chain stay right where it kind of goes between the crank arm and the chain ring gets pretty narrow. And so, uh, anyway, one thing led to another and I guess took about 20 months from when we started. Mike might had business partner started to cad to when we launched. And then um, when we launched, we also, we ride a lot of gravel. I mentioned that too. And uh, the opportunity arose to do a production made in Taiwan, um, but production stainless steel bike and which has some unique properties that we appreciate around here, namely corrosion resistance. And so we pursued that as well because we had, as part of the fat bike, develop this rear dropouts system that allowed you to move the rear wheel around for different types of snow or different kinds of conditions. Some are writing, I'm shortening or lengthening the chain stays. Which law on the roadside lends itself to something like cyclocross geometry all the way through road touring geometry. By moving the rear wheel further away from the bottom bracket or closer to it. So we took that same technology, the same dropout, and put it on a stainless steel road bike so we can launch the company with both bikes, um, at the same time. So that was about two years ago. And then subsequently you've added a third bike in the gravel category, is that right? Yup. Yup. So in the most recent ad, um, we kind of, we tried to get it out last spring, but we missed it and because we were getting left few last things right, but there's new one really, uh, the word hasn't gotten out on it yet, but it's got some really interesting features that I think you're going to start to see in almost all gravel bikes. Um, first one is, it's built on a 420 millimeter exela crown. So that's how tall the fork is, if you will. So from the axle to you, the headset, um, traditional gravel cx, even road to a large extent is much smaller than that. Gravel cx. Excellent. The crown is usually around 400 millimeters. Um, ours is 420 and you might ask why a core 20? Well, it's not what you think exactly really because yeah, it's not that it's actually because the roads this road suspension forks, the MRP, um, the Fox and even the [inaudible] which is a strong spring forth, um, those all operate on a little higher exhale to crown. And so when you just plot those on, a normal bike is built around 400, it kind of prompts the bike up and changes the geometry and there's really no compromise to do in 420 x or the crown 400 is just kind of a legacy thing that just carried through. So we took a fresh look at it. So why are we doing $400 when and you need 420 to make these suspension forks have travel so they don't hit on the front wheel. So, so 420 x with the crown is one interesting feature. Has internal dropper routing maybe will become a thing. It's becoming more popular and drop our bikes. It's not going to be for everybody. Um, and then 29 by two point one tire clearance, um, that might sound like a lot, but you know, you go out and some of these back country roads up in the mountains and at 29 by two point one tire is not too much tire. Now it gives you a ton of versatility is gone that wide. It does, it does. But then, then you get the, the people argue, well that raise the bottom bracket too much and I'm like, trust me in situations where you need a tire that why'd you want to hire bottom bracket? You don't want, you don't want your pedal and inches from the ground. Um, and so that's going to be, that is the only bike out there that both that and the water can actually sit 29 by two point one tires. So those key features were engineered in and those aren't on most sites today. The other thing that we did with where he lives, we did a longer reach. The reason we did a longer reach, it's not to be longer, slacker, lower like all the enduro bikes. It's actually one of the reasons is just to get the size, the geometry between the small and medium and large and exhale to be the same. So typically what you do on a small frame is you slacking the head tube a bit to make the, a toll her lap, not so bad on a small frame. So if you're stopped, you know, hit your front, you hit your toe on the front wheel. Um, it also creates a more stable handling bike across the board. That is the reason the enduro bikes are doing it because you get a more stable handling bike with a little shorter stem. But the front wheels further out, I think the count most common geometric term anymore as long front center, I'm talking about long front centers and long rear centers. But what that means is that the steer tube is just pushed a little further forward away from the seat from the seat post. Um, so you run a little shorter stem, but that gets the front wheel out there a little further, which makes her more stable handling, which on all road gravel, whatever you want to call it, adventure road is, is actually a good thing in a, in a, in a nutshell that you took a relook. We took a relook at everything that had been kind of leveraged that road and cyclocross that has driven what gravel is today and said most of that's right, but there are some things that we think should be a little different. Yeah, it certainly feels like a very forward thinking bike and one of the areas where the several areas of things that you, you mentioned that have been hotly debated by previous guests on my podcast, specifically suspension in gravel bikes and drop receipt perse. So I'm interested to drill into your thoughts on suspension for gravel bikes because I think that's a bold positioning. Obviously you do have a rigid for that this bike is available with, but giving a couple of different suspension options I think is a bold choice. Can you talk a little bit more about that? Yeah, the dropper posts thing, um, you know, I don't know for art types of gravel riding, we don't use those. I've been in situations on my mountain bike where I've been on gravel roads in the mountains. Again, for example, where a dropper posts would have been useful. There's no doubt if I would have been on a drop bar, bike out wanted one. Um, the challenge with dropper posts is durability. I'm the 27 two so far I haven't had the best record because you're smashing kind of the same internals and other smaller tube. Yep. And so, so that's been a challenge on the dropper side. It is a thing though, there's a lot of people doing it and there are people that say it's necessary and useful. Um, so that's why it's in our bike. Um, and having that, having that option doesn't hurt anything. I mean I can understand the debate about maybe wanting it or not wanting it, but having it as a feature should provides no detriment. Yeah. It's certainly terrain specific. I know, again, who have heard me talk about dropper posts, I'm sold. I don't have one yet, but I do believe in in my. My area of riding here in Marin County, I could definitely use it. Yeah, you definitely can. No doubt about descending download, whatever, and similarly I do believe that suspension will hold a place in some gravel writers future. Again, depending on your terrain, I understand if your idea of gravel riding or mixed terrain is just kind of light fire roads, but if you get into some serious terrain, just like on a mountain bike, the full front suspension fork is going to allow you to go faster and likely more safely. Yeah. I think honestly, as silly as this sounds, the thing that's going to drive suspension into gravel is going to be a good looking for work afford like an inverted arm. Think about like a cut down rs one. Like if you saw it at nine or dual suspension, gravel bike, they did something like that cut down rs one that looks kind of normal on a drop our bike. I honestly, I honestly think that's one of the biggest holdups because we had the Fox on there and we had it set up with um, one by, with Shimano and the left shift or was set up as a remote lockout. It was sweet. Yeah. Had everything you needed at your fingertips. I mean like you could lock it out as completely rigid breaking bumps coming. You flipped the left shift there, but it still look like a mountain bike park. It functions, it functions great. It does everything great other than it looks like a mountain bike parking. That's a hurdle that I'm not sure the general gravel crowd is willing to give up yet. Yeah, it's been a theme that's come up on the last couple of podcasts and I totally agree with you. I think the gravel market tends to draw its biggest base from roadies and roadies came with a very specific aesthetic in their mind and uh, even it's going to take awhile. I think once the performance attributes of suspension forks and dropper posts, and maybe the aesthetics, as you mentioned on the suspension side, come around, there's really going to be no reason not to have them on your bike. Yeah, I mean if, if, if it looks, if it's a 40 millimeter micro suspension that looks mostly like a fork and you're not a weight weaning, um, it would be faster even even in some races where you're mostly gravel, maybe a 30 Kanza for example. I'm guessing over the long, long haul, a lot of writers will be faster if they're more comfortable. Yeah. Pedaling those forks, those forks don't move there too and they're tuned the right way. They won't move when you're seated pedaling. Um, and then you flick a switch, hopefully a left lever or some kind of lever when you stand up and it's rigid. Yeah. Um, so we're just not there yet. But the, the point of the bike was we had to get the bike geometry there because when that comes out is not going to be a 400 accidents crown. That's going to be 4:20 and 4:30, whatever it wants to be, but yeah, I think it's going to be a part, uh, involve writers coming to the conclusion that gravel is actually their primary use of a bike, not as secondary use in addition to their road bike or mountain bike. Yeah. Yeah. I mean I think that will be a. If they want to have one bike, having the suspension on there and the extra weight will be a difficult one for them to overcome. Now that said, nothing to say. I mean on the Vojtech we'd put a suspension fork on there in the summer and we rided rigid and fat in the winter. Nothing to say you can have a rigid fork and a suspension for kind of gravel bike too. Yeah. Are you seeing any of the oem fork manufacturers kind of a approach the market and the way you've described. I know the Lao fork in it of itself just a little bit of a different beast, but is, is fairly lightweight as it is, but with Fox and some of the other fork manufacturers are people looking at gravel and, and thinking about 20, 19, 20, 20 with some more gravel specific suspension. I gotta think they are, but I can't want, I can't comment to the, you know, being an oem customer on what, what's coming, but um, I hope so. I mean, I think it's a market that's ripe for that. Um, I just don't know when that's gonna happen. Yeah. It's probably a one more than an f at this point. Given the current trends around gravel bikes. Yeah. I mean you'll know about probably six months before because you'll see teaser images on instagram or something like that. Yeah. And going back to the dropper post comments, actually no. You make a couple of cool nifty adapters for drop bar graph, a dropper post activation. Is that right? Yeah, yeah. We have a remote lever that's really a successful mountain bike product for wolf too, but we also make one that mounts on the, um, the road bike up by the, uh, the, that, the, uh, the stem and um, and allows you to activate your dropper post. We are, we didn't tie something back, uh, about, I guess it was last winter bikes, enl support 10 or 15 months ago. Um, there was a bar end dropper post activation and you might see that come to production here real soon. Okay. Well you'll definitely have to keep us posted on that. I'm keen to see that kind of stuff. As the said, they'll, they'll soon be a dropper posts in my future. Yeah, we played when and then when we showed that it got teased on, it was on bike rumor and then there's all kinds of like, oh, that's the worst place. So that's the best place in like we've played with and I've seen where others have put the remotes for their road droppers. And first of all there's not a perfect place for it. I'm the perfect place would be a left lever on a one, but the proposition of gutting a hydraulic lever to get the, the Paul's out of it, if you will, you know, the clicking mechanism is a tall, tall order and so it's difficult to make the left shift at work unless it's a dedicated left shifted dropper. Post activator smells only exists. And then on the mechanical side we do know people that have got it on, but when you're talking like a hydraulic disc brakes left shifter, um, other than that, the Ambar end ended up being the best position. So you'll see if you search on bike room or in the internet, you'll see what, what we had shown at the show. But, uh, basically that's the next best spot for ergonomics, for safety, you know, not moving your hands too far. All of that. Yeah. And being able to at least keep it on one part of the bar while you're activating it, I think it's going to be important. Yeah. Not Getting in the way of your critical hand position spots. Yeah. Yeah. Well, and it's exciting to see the industry continue to innovate and have you guys fill the pockets where there's a short term need, but also look at creating longterm sustainable products. So I appreciate you spending time with us today. Yeah, well thanks for having me. It's always, always something to talk to you and glad to gladly come on again, if you ever would like to see come up. Well we'll put links to all the products we've talked about in the podcast notes and make sure everybody knows where to find you to see if any of these teas products come out and definitely I want people to take a look at the auto bike because I think it's a really. It's a good looking bike. It's got some unique attributes to it and clearly you guys are super thoughtful about what you're doing. Yeah, thanks. Cheers.

September 11, 2018 MBR& Show Page ABOUT THIS EPISODE Neil Beltchenko needed a place to stay in Salida so Matt and Andrea said sure . . . as long as we can put a mic in your face. Tune in to hear Neil give you the quick and dirty (bikepacker) on the upcoming Bikepacking Summit in Crested Butte, Colorado. They talk bout what to expect and what kind of fun will be had at the 2nd Annual Bikepacking Summit. Do you have a person or company you want to hear on Mountain Bike Radio? If so, let us know at info@mountainbikeradio.com. ----------- RELATED SHOW LINKS You can support this content by becoming a Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/mtnbikeradio Support Mountain Bike Radio by shopping through our Amazon Affiliate Link: http://amzn.to/1SC3svC Bikepacking Summit Homepage - https://www.bikepackingsummit.com/ Salsa Cycles - http://salsacycles.com/ Rockgeist - https://rockgeist.com/ Adidas - https://www.adidas.com/us Five Ten Shoes - https://www.adidasoutdoor.com/fiveten-men-bike-shoes J.Paks Bags - http://www.jpaks.com/ Kate's Real Food - https://katesrealfood.com/ Wolf Tooth Components - https://www.wolftoothcomponents.com/ KLite USA - https://www.kliteusa.net/ Siren Bicycles - https://www.sirenbicycles.com/ Big Agnes - https://www.bigagnes.com/ Kammok - https://kammok.com/ CEP Compression Sportswear - https://cepcompression.com/ Honey Stinger - https://www.honeystinger.com/ Tailwind Nutrition - https://www.tailwindnutrition.com/ Mountain Bike Radio Links: Shop via our Amazon Affiliate Link: http://amzn.to/1SC3svCGo to the Mountain Bike Radio Store: https://shopmbr.com/Become a Mountain Bike Radio Member: http://mountainbikeradio.bigcartel.com/category/mbr-memberships Mountain Bike Radio Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/MountainBikeRadioMountain Bike Radio on Twitter: https://twitter.com/MtnBikeRadioMountain Bike Radio on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mtnbikeradio/Mountain Bike Radio on Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCYE6EAkjP_dmm94_HbKya0Q

October 16, 2016 Engineer's Corner Show Page ABOUT THIS EPISODE This is a special episode of Engineer’s Corner. While Phil has taken a little break to change jobs and move to a different city, Ben sat down with Brendan Moore of Otso Cycles. If you recognize Brendan’s name, that’s because he is also one of the owner’s of Wolf Tooth Components. The gang at Wolf Tooth has recently launched their new Otso Cycles brand of bikes. Otso isn’t just another bike company. They’ve launched with several new ideas built into them. For example, the new Voytek offers the smallest Q-factor of any current fatbike. Also, the Warakin and Voytek come equipped with the Otso designed “Tuning Chip” dropouts. Listen in to here Brendan discuss the new brand and what they are up to. Otso’s are currently in stock and shipping, so be sure to head over to the website if you’re interested. If you have any ideas for future guests or episodes, or have a question for the show, please contact us at ben@mountainbikeradio.com. ------------- RELATED SHOW LINKS Shop through our Amazon Affiliate link Otso Cycles Website Otso Cycles on Instagram Otso Cycles on Facebook Otso Cycles on Twitter Mountain Bike Radio gear and kit Who is Phil the Engineer? Mountain Bike Radio on Facebook Mountain Bike Radio on Twitter Mountain Bike Radio on Instagram Mountain Bike Radio on Pinterest Email Ben Email Phil Support Mountain Bike Radio   

July 22, 2016 ABOUT THIS EPISODE: Brendan Moore of Wolf Tooth Components joins Ben for a special, short episode of Engineer’s Corner. This is a follow up to the previous episode in which Phil broke down the details of elliptical chainrings. Brendan gives you a taste of what other customers think and shares some thoughts from his perspective. If you have any ideas for future guests or episodes, or have a question for the show, please contact us at ben@mountainbikeradio.com. ----------------- RELATED SHOW LINKS This episode is brought to you by Podiumwear Shop through our Amazon Affiliate link Previous Engineer’s Corner about elliptical chainrings Wolf Tooth Components Website Wolf Tooth Components on Facebook Wolf Tooth Components on Instagram Mountain Bike Radio gear and kit Who is Phil the Engineer? Mountain Bike Radio on Facebook Mountain Bike Radio on Twitter Mountain Bike Radio on Instagram Mountain Bike Radio on Pinterest Email Ben Email Phil Support Mountain Bike Radio       

May 27, 2016 The Last Aid Station Show Page ABOUT THIS EPISODE Steve is kicked off the show…..nah…..Mark’s just goofing. This episode is like the others – filled with great, detailed racing information. Listen in as they give updates in the world of mountain biking, including the new National 24 Hour Mountain Bike Solo Championship Series, Cohutta 100, Whiskey Off-Road, Bootlegger 100, Almanzo 100, and Mark  gives a great preview of the upcoming Mohican 100. They also chat about what they have going on and catch up on some other news. If you are a race director or racer who would like to hear your race report on an episode of The Last Aid Station, please contact Mark at Mark@Mountainbikeradio.com. If you have any questions or feedback for Steve, please email him at Steve@Mountainbikeradio.com. ---------------- RELATED SHOW LINKS Shop through our Amazon Affiliate Link   Wolf Tooth Components   Lindarets licenses all its bike product designs to Wolf Tooth Components   National 24 Hour Solo Championships   Cohutta 100   Whiskey Off-Road   Bootlegger   Almanzo 100   Mohican 100   The Last Aid Station is on Twitter   Steve on Twitter   Support The Last Aid Station   The Last Aid Station   The Last Aid Station Facebook Page   Mountain Bike Radio Endurance Calendar   Email Mark   Email Steve   Email Ben   BECOME A MOUNTAIN BIKE RADIO MEMBER

March 11, 2015   This is a wheel-filled show. Listen in as Andrea, Matt, and Kenny dissect wheels, spoke count vs. rim material, brands, tires, and basically anything you need to know. If you have any questions about your next wheel purchase, you may want to check this out.      A huge thanks to this week's supporters! William Kannenberg - Michigan $25 Tyler Loewens - Nebraska $25 Christine Schulz - Ontario, Canada $25 Rob Clark - Arizona $25 Scott Merchant - Michigan $10 Kenny: "What you're supposed to do is pour a bunch in your hand, cup it, and warm it up with your balls....then run the chain through your hand." Matt: "Hold on...wait, what if you're a lady?" Kenny: "You do a falcon cup."    We want to hear from you! If you have any questions, comments, or ideas for the next episode, contact us at info@mountainbikeradio.com.    ------------------------------------------------------   SHOW SEGMENTS:   Listener Emails: Scott Merchant - Wondering about upgrading his Giant Trance 2013 Andy Mention - Looking to upgrade wheels on two bikes James Banta - His life is ruined and he's looking for advice on spoke count and rims Pete of Canmore, Alberta is wondering about Kenny's Wolf Tooth 40-tooth cog experiment and loves SILCA NFS Pro Chain Lube Tony C - Wondering about what tire to run on the Jersey Shore Griffin - Are Light Bicycle Carbon rims worth it?   Shit We Probably Hate: This is a like. Andrea and Kenny want titanium hammers.   Matt's Pissed Scale:  Matt is a full 5+ on a scale of 1 to 10     RELATED SHOW LINKS:   Industry Nine - http://www.industrynine.net/ Wolf Tooth Components - http://www.wolftoothcycling.com/ Nox Composites - http://noxcomposites.com/ SILCA NFS Pro Chain Lube - http://silca.cc/products/silca-nfs-pro-chain-lube 92Fifty.com - http://92fifty.com/ride-camps/ Support Just Riding Along - http://store.mountainbikeradio.com/category/just-riding-alonghttp://store.mountainbikeradio.com/category/just-riding-along 2015 Endurance Calendar - http://www.endurancecalendar.com Buy a Just Riding Along Tshirt - http://store.mountainbikeradio.com/category/just-riding-along-shirts Buy a Just Riding Along Mug - http://store.mountainbikeradio.com/category/just-riding-along-mug Become a Mountain Bike Radio member - http://store.mountainbikeradio.com/category/mbr-memberships Brickhouse Racing Website - http://www.brickhouseracing.com/ Brickhouse Racing Facebook Page - https://www.facebook.com/BrickhouseRacing Brickhouse Racing Instagram - https://instagram.com/brickhouseracing/ Mountain Bike Radio Facebook Page - https://www.facebook.com/MountainBikeRadio Andrea's Twitter - https://twitter.com/BrickhouseMTB Matt's Twitter - https://twitter.com/Beanpolematt Kenny's Twitter - https://twitter.com/NoFullFaceKenny

December 18, 2013   Chainring setup and selection has become a HOT topic in the world of mountain biking. Mountain Bike Radio got wind of Wolf Tooth Components back in February 2013 at NAHBS in Denver and has been following how things have unfolded. We were lucky to track down a very busy owner of the relatively new company!   Brendan Moore of Wolf Tooth Components joined Ben to discuss the company, the chainrings, what they have going on, and even hints at a lot more coming from them. You even get a sneak peak of the crazy fatbike ride one of the other owners is doing soon.   Listen in to hear more about the chainring options that Wolf Tooth Components gives you.   Related Show Links: Wolf Tooth Components Website Arrowhead 135 Iditarod Trail Invitational 9:Zero:7 Fatbikes Frozen 40 Beargrease Sled Dog Race CarboRocket