Bikes & Big Ideas | Blister Outdoor Gear Review

Contra Bikes on Building a Bike From Scratch (Ep.118)

May 19, 2022 by David Golay

Previ

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Kavenz on Engineering a Better Enduro Bike (Ep.117)

May 12, 2022 by David Golay

Kavenz had been working on a high-pivot Enduro bike long before it was cool, and the VHP16 and new VHP18 that came out of the project have a lot of unique design features. So this week on Bikes & Big Ideas, we sat down with Kavenz founder Giacomo Großehagenbrock to talk about the founding of Kavenz; the design philosophy behind their bikes; starting and growing a business; and much more.

Kavenz founder Giacomo Großehagenbrock got an early start in the mountain bike industry when he landed an in

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Fanatik on Custom Bikes, Gear Trends, & the Bellingham Bike Scene (Ep.116)

May 5, 2022 by David Golay

This week on Bikes & Big Ideas, we’re talking custom bike builds, gear trends, and the evolution of the local mountain bike scene with Rich Frough of Fanatik, our Blister Recommended Bike Shop in Bellingham, WA.

We sat down with Rich Frough of Fanatik, our Blister Recommended Bike Shop in Bellingham, WA to talk about bike gear trends, the local mount

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Kitsbow CEO David Billstrom on Domestic Manufacturing and Community Investment (Ep.115)

April 28, 2022 by David Golay

A few years ago, Kitsbow undertook an incredibly ambitious plan to move to Old Fort, North Carolina, and b

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Revel Bikes’ Adam Miller on the new Rail 29 & the State of the Bike Industry (Ep.114)

April 21, 2022 by David Golay

Revel’s new Rail 29 was a long time coming, and now it’s here — so on this week’s episode of Bikes & Big Ideas, we sat down with Revel founder Adam Miller to get the story on its development; managing a bike company during the pandemic; the state of the supply chain; wheel sizes; and much more.

Revel Bikes recently launched the new Rail 29, so we sat down with their founder, Adam Miller, to get the rundown on the

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Chelsea Kimball on Van Life, Darkfest, & the Growth of Women’s Freeride (Ep.113)

April 14, 2022 by David Golay

Chelsea Kimball is really making waves in the burgeoning world of women’s freeride, so on this week’s episode of Bikes & Big Ideas, we sat down with her to talk about her unconventional path to being an MTB pro; Darkfest & being among the first women to participate; Freeride Fiesta; van life; the state and growth of women’s freeride; and a whole lot more.

Chelsea Kimball got a later start in MTB than a lot of pro riders, but she’s mak

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Lazer KinetiCore (Ep.112)

April 7, 2022April 7, 2022 by David Golay

Lazer’s new KinetiCore technology is meant to protect against rotational impacts while being lighter, cooler, more comfortable, and using less plastic than other systems, including MIPS — and its design is very clever in its simplicity. So on Bikes & Big Ideas, we sat down with Lazer’s Chris Smith to get the rundown on what KinetiCore is, why Lazer developed it, how helmet testing standards work and how they might fall short; the Lazer KinetiCore lineup (including the Jackal KinetiCore that we’ve just started testing) and a whole lot more.

Rotational impact protection in bike helmets has deservedly gotten a lot of attention in recent years, and MIPS has long been

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Lea Davison on Career Triumphs, Olympic Heartbreak, & What Comes Next (Ep.111)

March 31, 2022 by Jonathan Ellsworth

Lea Davison announced her retirement from international racing after the final World Cup of the 2021 season, but she’s definitely not walking awa

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EXT Founder Franco Fratton on a Lifetime in Suspension (Ep.110)

March 24, 2022 by David Golay

There are a lot of smart people working in bike suspension, but EXT founder Franco Fratton might have the most impressive resume

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Martin Maes on Team Changes, Bike Setup, & Fatherhood (Ep.109)

March 18, 2022March 17, 2022 by David Golay

Martin Maes practically grew up in the GT pits with his father, and had raced for them since he was a teenager. But he made the move to Orbea for

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Yoann Barelli on Progression, Coaching, & Career Shifts (Ep.108)

March 10, 2022 by David Golay

Yoann Barelli just announced the formation of his Into The Gnar Progression Team — so we got him back on Bikes

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Push Industries’ Darren Murphy on Product Development, Suspension Tuning, & Local Manufacturing (Ep.107)

March 3, 2022 by David Golay

We’ve got Darren Murphy from Push Industries on Bikes & Big Ideas to talk about suspension design and tuning, the Eleven Six shock, how to set up your suspension, and much more.

Darren Murphy of Push Industries

Push Industries is one of the best-known suspensio

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Cascade Components on Making Bikes Better (Ep.106)

February 24, 2022 by David Golay

Mountain bike suspension is better than it’s ever been, but there’s always room for improvement. Cascade Components certainly thinks so, and have made a name for themselves making aftermarket suspension links to do just that. And on this week’s episode of Bikes & Big Ideas, we sat down with Cascade engineer Jimmy Davis talk about suspension design, why it’s possible to improve stock bikes for the right riders (and who those riders are), and a whole lot more.

Mountain bike suspension ha

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Starling Cycles on Simplicity, Design, & Building Bikes in a Shed (Ep.105)

February 23, 2022February 17, 2022 by David Golay

Starling Cycles have made a name for themselves building simple, elegant steel single-pivot bikes, and this week on Bikes & Big Ideas, we sat down with founder Joe McEwan to talk about going from working on aerospace composites to building metal bikes, his thoughts on bike design — including why simpler is often better — and a whole lot more.

Joe McEwan

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Ed Masters on Racing DH & Enduro at the Top Level (Ep.104)

February 10, 2022February 10, 2022 by David Golay

We’ve got Ed Masters on Bikes & Big Ideas this week to talk about the incredible end to the 2021 World Cup season (and get hyped for racing to fire back up in 2022); catch up on his injury-laden 2021 season and how he’s doing these days; the similarities and differences between Enduro and DH, and the challenges of racing both; and a whole lot more.

Ed Masters often looks like he’s having more fun

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Katy Winton on 2021, Life as an EWS Pro, & Signing With GT (Ep.103)

February 3, 2022 by David Golay

We sat down with Katy Winton on Bikes & Big Ideas to get the full story on her whirlwind 2021 season — including having to start her own team at the 11th hour — as well as her recent signing with GT. And along the way she sheds a ton of light on life as a professional racer, and everything that goes into training, mental preparation, race-day focus, managing a career and team contracts, and a whole lot more.

Katy Winton has reliably been one of the top contenders on the EWS circuit, but she found herself without a factory ride in 2021 and had to put t

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RockShox’s New Flight Attendant Electronic Suspension (Ep.102)

January 27, 2022January 27, 2022 by David Golay

RockShox launched their long-awaited take on an electronically-controlled suspension system, Flight Attendant late last year. And so we brought RockShox’s Chris Mandell back on Bikes & Big Ideas to tell us all about it, including how it works, who it’s for, what the tradeoffs are, & more.

RockShox announced their new Flight Attendant electronically-controlled suspension system a few months ago, so we brought Chr

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SCOR on Turning an After-Hours Project Into a New Bike Brand (Ep.101)

January 20, 2022 by David Golay

BMC has a strong heritage in road and cross country bikes but isn’t as well known for gravity-focused offerings. Mariano Schoefer and Christof

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Neko Mulally on Designing His Own World Cup DH Race Bike (Ep.100)

January 13, 2022 by David Golay

When we heard that Neko Mulally was planning on racing the 2022 World Cup season on a bike he designed himself, we had to get him on Bikes & Big Ideas to talk about how he decided to take on such an ambitious project; designing the bike(s) and working with Frank The Welder to build them; starting his own team; and a whole lot more.

Neko Mulally has had a very successful career racing for some of the biggest teams on the World Cup circuit

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Gear of the Year — 2021 (Ep.99)

January 6, 2022 by David Golay

2021 was Blister’s busiest year ever for testing mountain bikes and gear, and there we

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