For this episode of All About Bikes, we introduce and get to know the two new hosts for the lifestyle side of the podcast, Kalen & Paz.
For this episode of All About Bikes, we introduce and get to know the two new hosts for the lifestyle side of the podcast, Kalen & Paz.
Today is a special episode for The Pivot All about Bikes, podcasts. It is more a podcast for all about people for now and the future. We'd like to share a bit of an insight on the wonderful humans who work at this company, what they are driven by, and how they join this movement and enthusiasts. Believing in a good time in the outdoors on a well-made bicycle. My name is Jens Staudt, your host for today, and I have two charming people on the show tonight. You will also hear more from in the future, Paz and Kalen. They will be hosting some episodes of this podcast, so very warm welcome to these beautiful people. Thank you Jens.
Paz:Thanks Jens, so happy to be here and explore, this new project with you guys.
Jens:So, so Kalen, Paz where, where should we actually start? Maybe what are you doing currently for Pivot?
Kalen:Yeah, I my job title is Technical Training Manager, which entails everything from working on user manuals, suspension, setup guides, and as much as troubleshooting bikes with dealers.
Paz:And my official title is Graphic Designer and Event Support. And this, this means I work with two awesome people at Pivot. Jeff Heesch, who's the head of graphic design and Lisa Krampton. Who's our event coordinator? Mainly I just do graphic design, but there's some events I've been doing over the years and I just +kept on doing them and I help Lisa and it's my way to. you know, being with people outside and not just in front of the computer.
Jens:We were trying to figure out where we, we all met for the first time and we weren't quite sure if it was Moab or Sea Otter. And you both were before you actually ended up in this position, you were doing what I would call the, some kind of extended corporate van life under the flag of Pivot, right?
Kalen:Yeah, exactly, jens. Paz and I were both demo drivers for four years and that's where we got our start at Pivot. And we actually met you at Sea Otter, not Moab, but do have fond memories of, of both, both times. The very first couple times we got to spend time with you. And yeah, when I interviewed for Pivot I couldn't believe I was gonna get paid to travel around and get paid to ride my bike ride amazing places all over the country. And when I interviewed, I asked Chris if my, my girlfriend at the time pause could travel with me, and his response was, well, if it'll make you happy, and so it did. I was glad that she was gonna travel with me. So we started off on the road together and at Sea Otter was, was when she actually met Chris for the first time and he was blown away by the work she was doing and how involved she was and, and it was amazing. And that's how she got her start at Pivot as well. So she, she might want to kind of extend on that, that story a bit.
Paz:Yeah. So funny story Jens, cause I telling Kalen that it's like, First time we met you was at Sea Otter, but also first time I met Chris in person. And I mean, it was kind of fun and a little bit nervous to meet him, but it was super cool, like from the get-go, they just treat you like family. They're so welcoming. And. as I was thinking about this story I remember something that happened that day. It's like, I've been, I've been helping Kalen a little bit, but not much. You know, take the tents out and set up all the bikes and, and when the demo starts that this is his job. So I would go and do my own thing, but c r was the first time he actually needed help, like truly with demos, and I just jumped. like, I'm like, okay, I guess you need help. I'll figure it out. I started just greeting people and asking what kind of pedals they needed so I can at least help him with that. But I had no idea , what they were like saying they're like yes, I am SPD or Crank Brothers or time, and, and I will just very quiet, turned around. It's like, Kalen, what's an SPD? Because I just had no idea . And and then I started like, More and more, and it just kind of took off from there. Like I, there was no way to stop. And I think by inner bike, which I mean Sea Otter is around April and inner bikes in September. I think by that time, I think I could run the demo without Kalen Maybe not, not really, but. Kalen: Yeah, she was, she was the. Yeah, her, her nickname's hek because she's the, the little boss that runs, runs the demo. We've actually gotten emails from customers saying that Paz's team, the demo was, was Paz's team at the time. So but yeah. Back, back to meeting you, Yens I think you were there doing a video project with Bernard and, and Emily.
Jens:Is that, is that right? Yeah. This is like seven years ago now. It was two. 15. We were traveling, starting in la going all the way up to Port Angeles and doing races, visiting jobs at shop shops, and . Yeah, we, we, we bought a, like pretty much the van from Breaking Bad from Craigslist and of course it broke down and we spent the night on the road side of, yeah, Inglewood. Like for those who are not familiar, it's not the best place to be at night. And uh, . . Yeah. We, we had to switch to a rental car and which got packed like all the way to the top and yeah. Visited Sea Otter and it was, it was a fun trip. But, but, but now you, you mentioned Kalen that you are now doing more of a technical, like in-house job or, and past you were doing graphic design, but you started as a demo driver means you enter, pivot at some kind of a level or a different kind of job, and then you grow within the company. How it'd go? Is that Pivot? Yeah.
Kalen:Yeah, definitely. I think when we started at Pivot about nine years ago, there was, we were in a different building that was a lot smaller. There was 20 some people it was, you know, a small, little tight-knit group. And we've grown so much. Now we're at over 120 employees in the us 30, around 30 in Germany and close to 20 in Taiwan. It's just the growth has been amazing in these years. And, and with that there's been new opportunities and new positions created and a lot of times it's kind of write your own ticket. So Pivot's been amazing in that way in helping people grow with the company. And if you, you know, prove yourself, work hard and, and kind of write your. your own job. You know, you can make that, make that happen if, if there's a need for it and you know, just work, work your way up. A lot of people at Pivot have been there for, since the beginning. There's a handful of employees that have been with the company for 15 years. We do a employee newsletter highlighting how long people have been with the company, and it's just impressive. How many people have been there for at least five years? Just people, people love pivot, and once they're there, they're, they feel like family, like Paz said, and, and, and grow with the company.
Paz:Yeah, I think, I think I'm like pretty, like a proof example of, of that because the, the fact that I started as just being company for Kalen while he was on the road, that like I became a demo. Person, demo tech, not tech, kind of. But and, and then, you know, I moved from being on the road doing demos to working in marketing, in graphic design. And it, it definitely shows that if you put your time in in care, to be honest, it's like, I think we all work really hard, but if you really care, like there are. There's gonna be possibilities for you in the company to grow.
Jens:Maybe let, let's dive a little bit deeper on one of these details. Kalen you mentioned like technical support. And what I really like about pivot is the, yeah. Excellent technical documentation about our bikes. So you can have like every small parts schematic of every bike. You can know, you can as a, even as a consumer, you can., the bearing sizes. There's, there's explosive drawings, there's like suspension setup guys, and for the suspension setups, guys, we both work on those. I mean, you, you gather all the information and build them from scratch and I'm, I'm contributing and then I'm also doing translations for that. What are, what are you doing in this kind of stuff to help consumers understand our bikes and set it up perfectly.
Kalen:Yeah. So this is, this is a. Huge lift from everybody at the company. I mean, pivot, being such a technical company and people knowing us for our engineering and our development, it goes all the way through the CSR team, our customer service team, they're some of the most knowledgeable people in the company because they're fielding questions from dealers. And customers about, you know, what cranks to use. Can I use this chain ring? So it's amazing to have everybody from our customer service team all the way up to our engineering, purchasing the assembly guys are incredible. Everyone's a pro bike builder, so it's working with everybody to. to help propel our, our product forward and make it so that it's easy for you to find the information to set your bike up right? Because all the engineering in the world, all of Chris and Kevin and Bill and everybody else involved with the development of the product, their work, doesn't matter if the bike's not set up properly or you don't maintain it, right? So making it easy for people to find. and and set up their bike the way it should be set up is huge. And the Suspension Setup Guide is one of those things that Jens and I and Paz has helped. You know, tons of people. The demo team has a lot of great input from helping set up so many people, all different shapes and sizes. And we work for hours and hours to do this, and it feels like, oh, we're just making. this guy that is just gonna end up thrown away in the trash or somebody's gonna get rid of it. But it's amazing how many shops have have mentioned that they use it all the time and how great it is that it really helps get people set up. And you see a lot of customers having questions about how to set up their bike, they refer their friends to the suspension setup guide to get, to get a good starting point. So it's really, really makes us feel good when, when people do use that, or I show up at a, at a bike shop doing a dealer visit, and I see the suspension setup guide's greasy, sitting there on the top of the counter next to where they set up all the bikes. So it's, it's cool to see that our. Is, is appreciated and, and it's, it's used in the field.
Jens:So, I mean, it's quite interesting because if you, you can find setup guides for your fork or your shock, but it's always a system and over a bike is a system overall, and it works in conjunction like the fork with the. Kinematics of the bike and the shock. So it's important to set it up as a whole, not only the fork and the shock, and we are diving. Maybe it differs a little bit and we were also diving a little bit deeper on that in the in the Fox Setup podcast. You may want to jump back in our timeline of the podcast and listen to that one. It really, really is a very good starting point and you can have your bike set up in maybe five minutes and you're ready to go and hit the. Pause. You also kind of involved in manuals a little bit because it's also touches the graphic design side of things because a brand like Pivot, I mean, we are updating our products and we participate in events and we are engaging with the community. But I mean, we don't just put a billboard out in a parking lot and tell people about our brand. Right? There's more to it. There's more communication., can you tell us about that? Yes.
Paz:I mean, started like the first year at Pivot and I was 2014 when we were on the road and I already had a, a graphic design degree. So seeing, touching on the brand side first, like seeing the evolution of Pivot's brand and pivot's marketing over the, over the years, it's been awesome because I feel like now we have a, a consistent look and an idea of what Pivot brand is beyond the product. Because I mean, the product is amazing and it's always been amazing, but just the brand itself, like, you know, identifying the pivot. Logo everywhere and, and how people get to know it. It's, it's just been super cool to see. And yes, like Jeff, Jeff and I have been working really hard on this over the past couple years to make sure that all our product that we put out there for our dealers and the consumer itself, it's consistent so that we all get the same information and, and so like, we might not be the technical ones. you know, like developing all the content that goes into every little piece that we do, but we just make it look all the same so it stays consistent and at the end, that's also part of our brand.
Jens:I mean, for, to put a finger on it. It's pretty much the look of the website. You have presentation going out to media, the press, what else? Like advertising.
Paz:Everything, like from advertising to newsletters, to social media posts, to, I mean, the podcast, like every little piece that it's get produced. I mean the the dealer newsletters, the, I'm trying to think other things that Kalen does that are like more the manuals that goes with each bike. There are so many little pieces that we just trying to make them all look away, , and it's you know, it's, it's fun. I I get to do all the newsletters that go out for pretty much everything. And I started doing that this year and it's kind of funny because for some people that might seem a little bit boring, but I enjoy it. Trying to figure it out a way of engaging with people in a graphic way is, is interesting. And it takes a lot of research too, because sometimes what you do doesn't work and sometimes it does. And. So it's fun.
Jens:So, you're pretty much explaining the importance to stay connected to the community, to catch ongoing trends, emotions. And where do you actually draw your inspiration from mostly?
Paz:It's kind of funny, but I now subscribe to a lot of newsletters for different companies. I am just doing research on and seeing what other companies are doing. because I feel like if you just keep doing what you're doing, it, it, it's like stays, it stays calm, it stays, I don't wanna say boring, but kind of. So I feel like if you go outside the box of also what the bike industry does, cuz this is something I do a lot. I go to the snow industry and the surfing industries to see what they're doing. And just think outside of what the cycling industry is. So that we just change and, and have a different perspective and not just keep doing the same over and over.
Jens:There's also a festival you are very happy to go to, like every year, and it's, it's, I I think it's just a couple of weeks ago, right? Yes.
Paz:So this is an event that I've been doing since 2018. Since 2018, I think there's been nine. They started their first festival was in 2017. And, and that's the only one I've missed since they started, it's called Rome Fest. It's pretty close to my heart. I've known Ash and Andy who started this festival when they were demo drivers. and well, Ash was a demo driver for Liv, and so that's where I, I met her and just kind of like we were a family back then when we were on the road. All demo drivers from different companies will see each other at each festival. And like, it was kind of like your coworkers to work for different companies. It was, it was just a cool big family that a travel circus, I guess it was kind of like a travel circus. So yeah. And then Roam fest is a women's festival.. Right now there's three one in Knoxville, Sedona, and Fruita. Sedona was just a couple weeks ago. It's it's a demo event, so a lot of ladies can come demo bikes, but it's it's, it's free. It's like, well, it's not free money wise, but meaning, like, the feeling, it's like you're free. You can, you can Kind of like that relationship between women's, it's like empowered, so, so you feel like comfortable and fun and they just took it to the next level. This is not just your regular demo festival. They made sure that it's of. It's a celebration. It's a party that lasts like three days and you get to experience writing happy hour, a dance party. And you also get to learn from really cool people and their experience through life. They have a, something called the Shred Talks panel, and it, it's, it's just amazing to see. woman power in the industry and, and, and how we have grown and evolve over the years. So yeah, it is, it's one of my favorite events over the year.
Jens:So it, being involved in events and design means you also do designs and stuff, and maybe the booth design for this stuff, how you would describe your. in maybe a couple of sentences to an outsider, because it sounds like very abstract.
Paz:I try to work with with different people. Like I, I don't think I have the answers for everything, so I like teamwork and when I am approaching a concept for a design or for a. Wrapping the van or the tents or stuff like that, I try to like, go with to my team and kind of like brainstorm and talk about different ideas look at different concepts. And, and then try to come up with something. I feel like that's the biggest thing for me is being able to work with a team. And I guess I'm pretty lucky about that. I think one of the biggest thing right now, it was a a poster that we were working on for our P team and it took, it took a village. It took three of us to dig in into all the photos, all the content, everything that we had. to come up with like something pretty small. And, and, but yeah, I think the, the communication in between everyone and different ideas and not just, you know, I have all the answers kind of thing. It's, it's, it's huge. And, and luckily we have that team at Pivot and. And now I've made this way too long, but like, yes, like teamwork overall on the graphic design side and also when I'm doing events, like there is no way I could do a row by myself. There is so many people that come and help and are part of the events to make sure. awesome. And that we have good representation.
Kalen:Well, Jens, I think we've we've kind of talked about ourselves quite a bit now, so let's let's hear from you a little bit more in your background. So, yeah, when we, we met at Sea Otter had a good time there. And then the next time we ran into I think it was a bike launch in Moab, And so you were there shooting stuff, working kind of as a, as an editor riding stories on some new bikes Pivot was launching, but you also had a very special bike that you were riding after the event that you were working on with Chris and Kevin in, in Secret for a special story. You want to fill us in on what that was?
Jens:Yeah, my for those who may not met me in person, I'm like six three ish. And then, which is kind of tall and I'm riding bikes for pretty much all my life and started racing in the nineties. So you may ex, yeah, you could guess that not all bikes fitted my riding needs or my physical physique needs. Means it looks pretty much like a bear is riding a tiny bicycle and you hear circus music. And so when I ended up, after my racing working as an editor, I got to ride so many different bikes and every company is telling you that they have the best possible solution for that. And this is the biggest bike and if, if everybody says it's the best solution, it may not be true., I started to search for the, for an answer on that, and I said, why is the head angle only getting slacker by 0.5 degrees or one degree from model year to model year? And so if there's some kind of a linear development into one direction, why don't we just like make the full step and make it five degrees slacker or 10 centimeters longer? I met Chris, I think it's almost 10 years ago, I don't know. At at, at also after theater, at a company visit. And we were connecting on this nerd kind of level. And I knew that he could do prototypes and I had this idea in mind. And so a couple of years later, I was reaching out to him and said, are you up for a crazy idea? And he was like, yeah, I'm always up for a crazy idea. And then, . Yeah. I was like, I wanna build a bike. And I said, oh yeah, please send me the numbers, like the geo numbers. And I was shooting him this email and yeah, he pretty much answered the email with three letters. Like wtf, because, because he thought I'm kind of crazy. And but he was maybe thinking, yeah, he's up for something. And, and so we kept continuing working on that project and. It got built and when I came over, flew over to Phoenix and we, we drove down to Moab for testing. He eventually also built himself a second bike of that, like a medium. And this is where I ran into you guys and I, I think I still have this one photo of Paz like riding the extra large and past. You are five foot tall?
Paz:I'm two. Five two, yes.
Jens:So five, two. And you were laughing your ass off because it was so big back then. But this is seven, six or seven years ago.
Kalen:Yeah. What, Hey, Jens, do you remember what your, you know, the, the, the reach numbers, the chainstay lengths, all this stuff was the head tube angle. It was all radical at that time. Do you remember what, what those numbers were and, and where are they? Where are they now in today? Today's geo they were at,
Jens:the reach was at 530. The chainstay were adjustable between 450 and four 30, and the head angle was adjustable between 62.5 and 63.25. And this
Kalen:was, this was a shorter travel bike too. This. If I, the Franken Trail, this was built off the trail 49 concept, but, but yeah. You know Frankenstein?
Jens:Yeah. Chris used to call it the Franken bike because it's, it, it's made out of three different bikes and pivot had more alloy bikes back then, and he just, Taking tubes from this and that and boiling them together. So Frankenstein, and then because of the trail 4 29 and had the kinematics of the trail, 4 29 and only 120 mill of travel, rear travel it became the Franken Franken Trail and.. Yeah. Still write it to that day. I mean it's still in news. That's awesome. Yeah. And yeah, in, in, in the podcast of the Firebird we were talking a little bit about it because Chris was very, very specific on his chainstay likings and we had different opinions and we were not, not really arguing, but discussing different concepts and then some of the genetics. if you wanna put it that way, ended up in the Firebird, like with the longer chainstay for bigger bikes or longer reaches.
Paz:So does this lead to you to helping develop bikes for Pivot?
Jens:Not really. I'm, I'm not developing bikes for Pivot or it's just, it, it was kind of a passive, how you say, application for a job kind of. Yeah. He, he, he, Chris realized maybe that, okay, this sounded crazy, but it worked and the industry kind of moved into that direction of geometry wise. And it's still kind of modern right? Feel, if you jump on it, and it's, it's kind of an old bike right now. But yeah, we, we, we, we started talking and he needed help on the European side of things, and so we continued this conversation and I ended up doing like, yeah, my title says brand manager for Europe. So, yeah. And also, like I said before, we, I'm working with Kalen on, on, on manual stuff and we work together on, on designing. Bottles for the Firebird, and it's just like we, yeah, we are, like you said, we are. Everybody's writing their own job description. There are a lot of tasks in this company, and it's not necessarily like strong borders between departments.
Paz:We cross borders in between departments quite a bit and work together.. So what is your actual background then? Cuz I mean like you do a little bit of marketing, you a little bit of design photography, build crazy bikes,
Jens:The real bike thing, I mean, it was shooting around in the forest in the nineties or as a kid on my BM X, but like, it really took off at the end of the nineties with the first full suspension bike of mine and got into racing. Also, I mean, you, you have a designs degree and I, I, but during my racing, I also were doing at the my time, I spent my time at the university doing a designs degree in communication design. And maybe similar to you when you, you were working in the bike industry or it just like go to events. You meet so many. and you, you just talk and then you, ah, what, what you were doing for a living because most, most of us don't make a living racing bikes, right. It's just we are going to bike events and then riding and Yeah, you, you're doing design and oh wait can you do me some, some logos? Can you do me, whatever? And it just starts from there. I mean, and yeah, from there I got some clients out of the bike industry. Went to Taiwan a couple of times, like really got into the manufacturing side of things, how everything works, what is water transfer, what is a laser logo? How does izing work? Welding, carbon manufacturing, it's, it's, it's, the bike industry is very complex and my history helped me like understanding. From different perspectives and I've really benefited from that.
Paz:It's, it's so cool. I think, I think most people in the bike industry, or at least the ones that I know, like you cannot just be in one place and say, my job is this and this is the only thing I do. You have to know and learn of so much. If you don't, then your job is not, you know, a hundred percent. Like you have to, and, and it's like evolving so fast too, that if you don't, if you don't know what's new, what's out there, what's changing, what's not changing, I mean, You're behind. Absolutely.
Jens:I mean, I mean now this year we launched two e-bikes, the complete industry is changing. And have you thought of e-bikes like 15 years ago?
Kalen:You know, I see an E-bikes in the past it was kind of this niche thing. I didn't think it was gonna catch on, but I'm usually slow to. Change with trends. I remember arguing with my friend Scott about tubeless I was like, tubeless is never gonna catch on. You know, yeah, he, I owe him for that one for sure. But with, with the E-bikes, it's, it's crazy now to, I wouldn't have thought that you'd call somebody up, talk to a shop and troubleshoot a bike over the phone and remotely control their computer to see what's going on with it. And the level of complexity in our, our user manuals, it's you're trying to set, set somebody up so they can go hop on the bike and, and use it. But people don't necessarily always read a manual. So it's, it's kind of like, When you get a new phone, you don't sit down and read the instructions. Your phone doesn't even come with instructions. But with our new bikes, we try to include instructions so you know how everything works, how to set it up, and to have the best, best ride with the bike. So it's a, it's a complicated process to get these things going. And yeah, a whole, whole new. Batteries. Learning about batteries, learning about wiring, you know, making sure everything's functioning properly and the troubleshooting that goes along with it. And you know, as we were setting up for this podcast, you know, oh, plug in, plug your headphones in, unplug 'em again. You know, just, just stuff like that. This, this troubleshooting instead of, you know, look at something, see if it's bent or not. No, you, you actually have to look at what's going on with firmware and software and yeah, it's just a whole, whole different can of worms.
Jens:I mean, it, it's also a lot of opportunities and we were talking about that in the, in the SL podcast. I., we, we, we have new opportunities to conquer new terrain and work with new people and communicate to new people. And this is really the, maybe the essence of working in the bike industry. Like you said, past on, on Rome. You, you meet so many people which influence you, and then we're moving. and we are constantly changing our job description, if you want to put it that way.
Paz:Yeah, I think it's kind of like inspiration too. And maybe this also reflects into bikes. Like you see what other people are doing. You see, you get inspired by their riding their, their life. And I think it also translate to bikes, right? Like.. Not that we wanna up each other, but I think we all wanna create the best bikes out there. And so inspiration from what we have done in the past, what others have done in the past, and try to like, make it better. And I think right now, like we've, we've done it with with non e-bikes. Like if you ask Chris what's his best bike? He'll say the next one. And he's always been like that. But with e-bikes is such a new thing that I think we're all learning from each other and we will get there to make them perfect. It's just, it's kind of new and, and it's cool too because they're, they're riding so well too, even though they're not perfect yet.
Kalen:Yeah. And you. In the Shuttle SL podcast, how, how that bike was the e-bike you've been looking for and you weren't excited about e-bikes before that bike. You've got the Franken Trail, the Firebird, you've got a garage full of bikes. What's, what's your go-to bike these days?? Jens: My, my, my, my myself from five saying that the e-bike I really like. No no, I really also, there's. One plus n maybe you never have enough bikes. You only run out of basement at some point. It's every, every single one of them, it's having their like specialties. And on one day you totally, and I, I, I totally feel like want to be on a hard tail, for example. And then on the other day, I, I. Gave me the full on rig, just like to go into a bike park and just like, just blast into every rock garden. And then you're like having maybe a long day in the office and you're like, ah, I don't feel like really pedalling now. And I only have like an hour left. Like in German winter is long and dark. And so how you can get that lap in or just like stay at home. So then you pick the e-bike. you. I can't really put my finger on it like this is my favorite bike. But maybe if you, if you would say you have to pick one, it's potentially, again, something like switchblade I guess because, but just by changing tires and wheels and you, you totally have enough an opportunity to make it more bike park. or just be able to do easily 4,000 feet of climbing on it. If you have like quick tires on, then you have a full day of riding and you're not like exhausted because you're carrying so much weight around and it's just pedaled so great. Yeah, potentially I would go like mid travel range, I guess. Switchblade.
Paz:Yeah, that, that seems like a sweet spot for most people.. I could, I will second that switch. Play. It's, it's my go-to bike. It's my fun bike. It's yeah. I, I, I say if you wanna travel the world, take that bike cause no matter where you, yeah. No matter where you are, you're gonna have fun.
Jens:Yeah. And you can totally do crazy stuff like with the, with the geometry adjustment. And it's, we are not offering it that way, but if malad is your thing, you can totally put a 27 5 in the rear. It's, it's, it's just doable.
Kalen:Speaking of, speaking of switch blades and, and you two different sized riders on either end of the, the size scale there pause. You know, when we were on the road, you talked to pauses five, two and we'd meet a lot of ladies that were, or smaller riders that were between sizes. And it's, it's hard for me, I'm just average size guy, so my, my take on a bike, I don't, I don't know what an extra large rider's experiencing and I don't know what an extra small rider's experiencing. So it was amazing on the road. Say, Hey, talk to pause. She's five two. She can tell you what's going on. So, you know, Jens has helped influence the extra large size. What about you? What do you like about. Pivots on the extra small side.
Paz:Yeah, it's, it's kind of funny. I, I'm, I don't have a lot of technical background when it's, when regards to bikes, right? I'm a graphic designer, but when I started riding for Pivot and riding all the extra smalls, knowing that that was my size, it fit me. I like to call it fun size cuz like, they're, they're small but sweet and fun., I realized that by experience and by trying to talk to these other ladies about what I'm experiencing in the bike, how important the reach is the standover for some the overall geometry of the bike how it was fitting me, like things that I could. and I couldn't do on, on the, on the right size bike. So one of the biggest things I, I told everyone was, okay, I can ride a small. I, I know my body can fit a small bike, but then when I was out there trying to do things that were comfortable, for example, just pulling on the front end, going out of a drop, like I realized I didn't have the same skills because my body was not. In the right position for it and going back to the extra small and realizing that it felt more comfortable. It it, I was able to corner better. I was able to even climb better, like there were so many different things that by experience I was able to help others., kind of like figure it out. And it's kind of funny because sometimes short people don't wanna ride extra small bikes, and I don't know why. But it's like, sometimes you hop on the bike and just the parking lot ride, it might feel too small. I, I've been there before. I have been on bikes where like, this feels weird. I'm gonna ride this mall. And then I go out on the trail and it. Nope, not good. So definitely experience has helped me translate the idea of why we need to be on the right size bike because being on the right size bike will make you be a better rider overall. Cause if you keep riding the wrong bike, yes, you might improve because you just keep doing it. It's practice. You can get way better if you are on the right size bike.
Jens:Overall job, like we all described it and how it is in our daily business life. It, it doesn't sound like any job I had ever in any other industry. Like we, there's no job crossing so many borders between departments. Towards outdoors. You're being on the road. You're being in the office. You may be on a shooting you, you on on whatever production. And it's, it's ever changing and ever evolving and maybe this is what makes it so great. And it's not only that bikes are uniting us or the passion for bikes, but the passion for this kind of a gleeful. if you want to put it this way.
Paz:Yeah, I think it's kind of like a lifestyle. In, in, it's not the normal, oh, I, I just work because I need the money for traveling, or I need, I want the money to buy things like the, this job, it's beyond the eight to five. It's, it's the experience, it's the, like you said, the outdoors, the like going outside borders in the apartments and also countries like, it's, it's an experience, it's a lifestyle. And I like something that Kalen when we've kind of like first met, he said that it was like, . You, you have to have fun and you have to like your job to live your life. Like, and, and Kalen, maybe you can rephrase it the way you actually said it, but it's like, we are spending most of our time doing our job, so why not make it fun? Why not making it something that you truly like? And, and I think that's what's so cool about what we get to do. Yeah.
Kalen:The, I, I went through kind of a rough career time, you know, just kind of some weird things happened during the recession in 2008 and so. one day I just decided to simplify things and just say, okay, what's important to me? And it's where you live, who you spend your time with what you do for fun and what you do for work. And if, if you don't have a good balance with those four things, then you know, you gotta, you gotta figure something out. So, I, I love working at Pivot and I love my job, and, and, you know, most days go by really fast and you, you forget. You, you're just so focused on getting what you're working on done. You don't, you don't think about, oh man, is it lunchtime yet? Oh, is it five o'clock yet? We were just actually on vacation and standing in line, coming back from our, from our trip. A lady in front of us was like, oh man, I have to go back to work. And, ah, and complaining about, you know, her trip being over and the only reason she works is to go on vacation and. I mean, I love vacation, but I was excited to come back to work and you know, get, get caught up on the projects I'm working on and, you know, just having this passion to, to improve everything. You know, you, you talked about where we're at with our technical information out there and how we have a lot of it. I feel like, you know, we've got a long ways to go to get there and, and that's fun. It's exciting to have that challenge and, and everybody at. Is working hard to improve everything they're working on. Whether it's the bikes, whether it's the, the photos, the videos, you know, everybody's working nonstop to make, make things better. That's a
Jens:great way to sum it up. I would say. Thank you, Jens.
Paz:Yeah.
Kalen:Thank you, Jens
Jens:perfect. Thank you Kalen thank you, Paz. This was a good time and yeah, looking forward to your, Twist on the, on the podcast and when we will focus a little bit more on these like insights on the people and the lifestyle within Pivot and around it.
Kalen:Thanks Jens. So yeah, in the upcoming episodes Jens, what, what's the, what's the next bike coming out that you're doing podcast on?
Jens:Oh, this is, this is something that really gets me very exciting and we will talk about the new. Kalen: Oh, man, I can't, I can't