Bikes & Big Ideas Podcast

Conversations with the pro riders, product designers, & others who are shaping the sport and bike culture.

Recent Episodes:

Betty Birrell riding the North Shore (Photo: Travis Rummel)
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Hope’s new Tech 4 brakes got a big bump up in power, but there’s a whole lot more that goes into designing a brake than just turning that dial to 11. So we sat down with Hope engineer Sam Gibbs to talk about all of that; the tradeoffs that go into brake design; the new Tech 4 lineup in detail; and a whole lot more.
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REEB does a lot of things differently, from their founding in a brewery, to how they think about bike design and manufacturing. So this week on Bikes & Big Ideas, we spoke with REEB’s Jeff Lenosky and Adam Prosise about all of it, including the equally-interesting stories of how they both got involved with REEB, their current (and future) MTB lineup, & a whole lot more.
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RockShox has released a crazy amount of new suspension in the last few months, and we’ve been spending time on both their Flight Attendant electronically controlled setup and the new ZEB and SuperDeluxe. So on this week’s episode of Bikes & Big Ideas, we give the rundown on all of it, plus updates from our testing of bikes from Santa Cruz, Orbea, Rocky Mountain, YT, and Antidote.
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Jess Blewitt (photo by Dominic Blissett)
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Contra production bike
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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.
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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.
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Domestic production of apparel has all but disappeared from the US, but Kitsbow is leading the charge to bring it back and hopes to be a blueprint for how other brands can do the same. And on this week’s episode of Bikes & Big Ideas, their CEO, David Billstrom, has a lot to say about how it’s been good for their brand, their customers, their community, and the planet.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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Lea Davison announced her retirement from international racing after the final World Cup of the 2021 season, but she’s definitely not walking away from bikes or racing. So on this week’s episode of Bikes & Big Ideas, we sat down with the two-time Olympian and 20-plus year XC pro to talk about the career that’s taken up her entire adult life to this point; the highs and the lows; the state of XC racing; mentorship & career evolution; what comes next, and a whole lot more.
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There are a lot of smart people working in bike suspension, but EXT founder Franco Fratton might have the most impressive resume — which includes working for the Ferrari and Lotus Formula One teams. And so on this week’s episode of Bikes & Big Ideas, we sat down with Franco to chat about his career and life story; his suspension design philosophy; how he went from focusing on motorsports to making some of the best bike suspension out there; and a whole lot more.
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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 2022, and so on this week’s episode of Bikes & Big Ideas, we sat down to chat about his career trajectory and the value of a change of pace; the mental aspects of racing & injury recovery; becoming a father; bike setup for Enduro and DH racing, and a whole bunch more.
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Yoann Barelli just announced the formation of his Into The Gnar Progression Team — so we got him back on Bikes & Big Ideas to talk about it. And along the way we talk about Yoann’s career shift into freeriding; what he’s learned about coaching & training in recent years; his plans for 2022 — including teasing some very big news — and a bunch more.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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