Bikes & Big Ideas | BLISTER Outdoor Media & Gear Reviews

Reviewing the News w/ Ryan Palmer, February 2024 (Ep.212)

May 2, 2024March 7, 2024 by Simon Stewart

Ryan Palmer and Simon Stewart are back for another episode of Reviewing The News and there’s plenty to talk about: Kyle and Rachael Strait’s possible new bike sponsor; Red Bull Hardline in Tasmania; brake lever lawsuits; the Dutch police crackdown on modified e-bikes; a groundbreaking new eMTB from Cannondale; and more.

Norco on their New High-Pivot Optic and Sight (Ep.211)

February 29, 2024 by David Golay

Norco has a long history with high-pivot bikes, but the switch to that layout on their new Optic and Sight still came as a surprise. So we sat down with Norco engineer, Colin Ryan, to hear all about the thinking, testing, and development behind the new models.

Ed Masters on Hardline, the 2024 Race Landscape, Pivot’s Prototype DH Bike, & More (Ep.210)

February 22, 2024 by David Golay

Ed Masters is back on Bikes & Big Ideas to talk about his 2023 season, the upcoming Tasmanian iteration of Hardline, the 2024 race landscape, the state of pro-level Enduro, and a whole lot more.

Continental on Designing, Developing, & Testing Their Overhauled Tire Lineup (Ep.209)

February 16, 2024February 15, 2024 by David Golay

Designing a new MTB tire from scratch is a lot of work. Doing 5 at once is a massive undertaking — but Continental did just that with their updated gravity tire lineup. We sat down with Continental product manager Alex Haenke and Atherton Racing’s Dan Brown to get the full story on the development and testing of the new tires.

Reviewer Reports: Nicolai Nucleon Supre Drive, Ibis HD6, & More (Ep.208)

February 8, 2024 by David Golay

David Golay and Zack Henderson give their early impressions on a bunch of bikes they’ve been testing lately, including the wild Nicolai Nucleon Supre Drive, Ibis HD6, and Chromag Lowdown.

Reviewing The News w/ Ryan Palmer, Jan ‘24 (Ep.207)

Reviewing the News w/ Ryan Palmer, January 2024 (Ep.207)

May 2, 2024February 1, 2024 by Simon Stewart

We’re expanding our Reviewing the News podcast series to Bikes & Big Ideas, and in this inaugural episode, hosts Simon Stewart and Ryan Palmer kick things off by discussing Greg Minnaar leaving Santa Cruz, Mondraker’s US expansion and new ultra-talented World Cup DH team, the state of the bike industry at large, and a whole lot more.

Rónán Dunne on Joining Mondraker Factory Racing (Ep.206)

January 25, 2024 by David Golay

Rónán Dunne is on a meteoric rise through the World Cup Downhill ranks, and he’ll look to continue that on the newly formed Mondraker Factory Racing team. We sat down with Rónán to chat about leaving Nukeproof for Mondraker, the state of DH racing in general, his goals for 2024 and beyond, and much more.

Outbound Lighting on Night Riding, Light Design, & More (Ep.205)

January 18, 2024January 18, 2024 by David Golay

Night riding is a lot of fun, and often the only way for many folks to find time to get out in the darker winter months. We sat down with Outbound Lighting’s Tom Place to chat about light design, how they go about it, how to choose the right lights for your needs, and much more.

RAAW Bikes Founder Ruben Torenbeek (Ep.204)

January 11, 2024 by David Golay

RAAW has built a reputation for offering burly, no-nonsense bikes, and we sat down with founder and engineer Ruben Torenbeek to chat about his vision for the company, the bikes he wanted to build, how their lineup has evolved over the years, and much more.

Vorsprung’s New Coil Shock & Development Process (Ep.203)

January 4, 2024 by David Golay

Vorsprung Suspension has been teasing an upcoming coil shock for a while now, and we sat down with founder Steve Mathews to get the rundown on its design, the prototyping and testing process, and a whole lot more.

Gear of the Year, 2023 (Ep.202)

January 18, 2024December 28, 2023 by David Golay

David Golay, Simon Stewart, and Dylan Wood sat down to recap their favorite bikes and bike-related gear from 2023, argue about headset cable routing, and more.

Forbidden Bikes Founder Owen Pemberton (Ep.201)

December 21, 2023 by David Golay

Forbidden does a lot of things differently, from offering a full lineup of high-pivot bikes to taking an unconventional approach to size-specific geometry, and we sat down with founder and engineer Owen Pemberton to hear all about it.

David Golay reviews the EXT Storia Lok V3 coil shock for Blister

EXT’s Franco Fratton on the History, Basics, & Details of MTB Suspension (Ep.200)

December 14, 2023 by David Golay

EXT founder Franco Fratton has more experience working on suspension than just about anyone, and today, we’re revisiting our first conversation with him that kicked off our “Very Deep Dive on Suspension” series, where we discuss all the details when it comes to suspension design and tech.

Tool has been developing a stunning-looking made-in-Quebec machined high-pivot Trail / Enduro bike with some radical geometry and design details, and for this week’s episode of Bikes & Big Ideas, we sat down with founder and designer William Boisvert to hear all about it.

Tool on Their Radical Machined High-Pivot Bike (Ep.199)

December 21, 2023December 7, 2023 by David Golay

Tool has been developing a stunning-looking made-in-Quebec machined high-pivot Trail / Enduro bike with some radical geometry and design details, and we sat down with founder and designer William Boisvert to hear all about it.

Albatross Bikes on the Super-Adaptable Apogee Module (Ep.198)

November 30, 2023 by David Golay

There are lots of custom hardtail builders out there, but the constraints of pivot locations, maintaining frame alignment, and the tooling needed to make it all work means that fully-customizable full-suspension bikes are a lot rarer. Albatross Bikes has taken a very creative approach to offering customizable full-suspension bikes with their Apogee Module, and we brought them on to hear all about it.

Katy Winton on Burnout, Recovery, & Returning to Racing (Ep.197)

November 23, 2023November 23, 2023 by David Golay

Katy Winton has had a challenging last couple of years, from a protracted concussion recovery to having to put together her own privateer program at the last minute to even race in 2021. And then two races into the 2022 EWS season, she was so severely burned out that she pulled out of the rest of the season to recover. Now, she’s ready to tell the whole story, so we brought her back on Bikes & Big Ideas to share it.

Cornelius Kapfinger on Founding Intend, Inverted Forks, and Doing Things Differently (Ep.196)

November 16, 2023November 16, 2023 by David Golay

It can be hard to stand out as a smaller component manufacturer, but Intend BC isn’t shy of doing things differently, and their forks, shocks, brakes, and other components don’t look like much else out there. Founder Cornelius Kapfinger is here to tell us all about it.

Neko Mulally on Selling the Frameworks DH Bike, Signing Asa Vermette, and More (Ep.195)

November 9, 2023 by David Golay

Neko Mulally’s Frameworks DH bike is now available for pre-order, and we sat down with Neko to chat about its development, the production version of the bike, his experimentation with different frame materials, and much more.

Lachlan Morton on the Tour Divide Record, Bears, Payday Bars, & More (Ep.194)

November 6, 2023November 2, 2023 by David Golay

The Tour Divide route covers 2,670 miles from Banff, Alberta to the US-Mexico border near Antelope Wells, New Mexico — Lachlan Morton just completed it in a record-setting 12 days, 12 hours, and 21 minutes. So we sat down with him to hear all about it.

Contra Bikes on Making the MC a Reality (Ep.193)

January 18, 2024October 26, 2023 by David Golay

Designing and prototyping a bike is hard work, but bringing one to production adds a whole new set of challenges, and we sat down with Evan Turpen of Contra Bikes to hear all about getting his US-made steel high-pivot Enduro bike, the MC, out into the world.

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