Mountain Cog

063 – Mike Festerling’s last podcast.

• Mountain Cog - Joshua Anderson & ??? • Episode 63

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Bittersweet.  It’s an interesting word.  It’s used to refer to something that has both happy and sad aspects.  It’s the perfect word to describe this episode.  The sad part is that this is Mike’s last episode as a co-host of the MCP.  He’s retiring.  The happy part is that we have awesome plans for the future.  Those plans include a new co-host (a seasoned mountain bike industry expert) and we plan to grow the podcast and increase focus on content related to mountain biking.  Who’s the new co-host?  Well, maybe we announce that in this episode. Or do we?

During this episode Mike & Josh get down to the straight and hard truth about why Mike is retiring.  Is it because they had an epic falling out?  Does Mike want to spend more time on his passion for S&M?  Is Mike joining Mike Levy, who recently retired from Pink Bike to purportedly focus on alien conspiracies.  Is Mike rolling up a stake and trying out a new career as a Power Slap athlete?  I guess you’ll have to listen to find out.

In addition to the truth on Mike’s retirement.  The two O.G. hosts recall their past episodes.  The funny parts.  The awful parts.  The episodes they recorded that were so bad they’ll never be published.  It’s a bit of a behind the scenes look into the MCP universe. 

Thanks to Mike for his partnership.  Sense of humor.  And willingness to give this thing a try.  We will miss you brother.  And to our audience, don’t fret, we have great things to come.

Power Slap: https://www.powerslap.com/

S&M for beginners: https://www.yourtango.com/200636/sm-for-beginners

Mike Levy: https://www.pinkbike.com/news/mike-levys-last-podcast.html

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Mike

So, josh, I don't know if I've told this one or not before, but I thought this would be good one for our listeners. They can, they can take away at a party. I've got something that'll crack the ice and be halfway funny. You got a party joke.

Josh

Party joke yes.

Mike

It's still dad joke. I think right, and it's apropos because the theme on this has been baldness for some time.

Josh

It's the theme of your life. I thought I thought S&M was the theme, but okay.

Mike

All right, good, good point. So S&M is the theme of the show. My theme of my is baldness, okay. So so, anyway, though, guys who go bald in the front of their head are great thinkers. Maybe know this, I don't know. Okay, men who go bald in the back of their head, like the, you know the blowny spot, are great lovers, okay, so do you know what men who go bald on the front and in the back are Great? Think yeah, great think. No, they think they're great lovers.

Josh

Oh, is that what happened to you.

Mike

So that's, that's Megan. That's why she loves me, cause.

Josh

I? That's funny. Hey, I was gonna, I was gonna. You know, we've always been talking about entrepreneurial things. Oh, yes, and for a while there, I don't know if you knew this or not, but I started a dating service for chickens.

Mike

I love chickens, okay, where?

Josh

is this going? It didn't. It didn't survive. I was struggling to make Hensmeet.

Mike

You've had some good ones, that's. That's probably my favorite, yeah.

Josh

And and this episode is a bittersweet it's gonna make me super sad. I'm actually in a really bad mood. Do you want to know why? Yes, I do want to know why. Because the last season of Letter Kenny came out. I don't know if you've watched Letter Kenny no 12 seasons on Hulu. It's about a small town in Northern Canada, from Michigan.

Josh

You know, it's a hockey Hick kind of kind of like humor. It's super, super weird. So if you're like don't appreciate hockey Hick humor, then you probably won't appreciate Letter Kenny. But there are 12 season came out last night, yesterday on Hulu for the first day, for the first time, and I've already watched the whole season. It's a marathon, yeah. So I'm in a super bad mood, but it's good, it's. It's. It's really weird. Okay, it's really not for kids, oh, and it is an acquired taste, for sure, and it's later. What is it called? Letter Kenny? Letter Kenny, letter Kenny, it's a town in in in Canada.

Josh

Okay, interesting, yeah, kind of like if you imagine, like Alabama, kind of Canada's version of Alabama. That's Letter Kenny.

Mike

Can we have listeners in Alabama? Can we say that here? No, I don't know.

Josh

I guess we could For all of our listeners in Alabama we love you. We too, absolutely.

Mike

All right.

Josh

No, no, in all seriousness, we have some interesting news. So a couple of things. One is you're retiring.

Mike

I sounds yeah, this is a bittersweet yeah Retirement.

Josh

Yes, retiring as the co-host of the Mountain Cog podcast, and but we're not done. Mountain Cog is not done. No, certainly not. We have a new host, which I don't think we're going to announce on this show. I'm not going to say we're not because then people might stop listening, but yeah, yeah, maybe we will, maybe we won't, I don't know. Good news is, the spot was vacant for 12 hours, you told me at night, made your final decision at night and by eight o'clock the next morning we had made a list and contacted the first person on the list and he said hell yeah.

Mike

Yeah.

Josh

Right, I will we'll, I don't know, maybe announce today, maybe not.

Mike

I gotta tell you I'm well, I'm super excited for you guys.

Josh

Yeah, man, yeah, we are. We are as well and we're going to. You know, the other thing we're going to do with Mountain Cog going forward is get kind of get back to our roots a little bit and focus on. I'm a mountain biker at heart and so a lot more content, a lot more focus on mountain biking in all the future episodes. But but I wanted to tell a story about why I think you're retiring and to see if you agree with me. So so back in September 2022, actually it was about probably August 2022.

Josh

I think, do you remember where you were when I, when I sent you a text?

Mike

Yes, I, that's part of my notes here. If it's the same story, the way I recall it is, I was gracing a broken his foot and I was at Tucson orthopedic Institute, toy and I was sitting there. You're like yeah, and so that's where I was.

Josh

You're at Tucson and I sent you a text that hey man let's start a podcast Like all right, this is a random, but it sounds fun. And then you know we've gone through. Now I think this will be episode 64 that we publish here. Awesome. And we said we'll do it for six months. And at six months we said we didn't really say anything, we just kept going. And then at a year we just kept going and somewhere along the lines.

Josh

we changed the publishing or release schedule from every week to every other week. Yeah, and you know we were reminiscing our, our hosting service, which is Buzzbrout, kind of released some metrics for us. You know what does a year look like and you know we've had 6,650 downloads, 30 countries, 43 episodes this year. In the top 50% of their podcasts and we've talked about our metrics before you know got a really good completion rate, which means like, how long do people listen to the podcast? You know one of the standards in the industry is 50% or greater, so people listen to at least 50% were well above that.

Prioritizing Time, Reflecting on Podcast

Josh

We're growing, although growing slow in the metrics show that we've got bingeable content, which means that when we get new listeners they go back and listen to our back catalog and so but but with all that aside and I think we've had a good time, we'll talk, you know, kind of the vision for today's episode is to kind of reminisce and talk back through our episodes and some favorite favorite moments and stuff like that. But but we're both dads with, you know, with families and children that are.

Josh

You know, try to be good dads, try to spend a lot of time, as much time as we can, with our kids. We're both professionals, have full time jobs. I both have high pressure jobs and our most valuable asset is time 100%, yeah. And so it's always a struggle and you have to choose very carefully where you spend your time. And so you know you kind of look at life and what's going on and job you got a. You got a, you know big promotion. You know kind of not that long ago and you're spending a lot of time, you know, focusing on that and figuring that out. Yeah, and it just comes down to a point where, like you're, you're making hard decisions about time and I think that's what led you to the decision.

Mike

You hit the nail on the head. You know me, josh, and just if I could add to that because that is it, it's just a bandwidth of where are you going to prioritize, right? So I mean the show itself. Like I remember sitting at the counter and we're like, okay, so what are we going to call it? So Google, what are good names of podcasts? Like no shit came up with, like a podcast name generator.

Mike

I think within four hours you already had art logo to up and I'm like oh, this is, this is exciting. Do you remember how we got the art?

Josh

Yeah, I think you crowd sourced it. Yeah, and it was like some guy in Indonesia. Yeah, I think it was Indonesia turned out great.

Mike

Turned out great yeah.

Josh

It was like 80 bucks or something, I can't remember.

Mike

And some people, like family and friends, are like. I don't know about the name, it sounds a little friddy in, but you know that that's fitting right, the mountain cog so like, let's go with it for now and we can always adjust. I always.

Josh

I always pronounce cog. Yeah, very distinctly, I spell it out for people actually Very distinctly when you put it in a cog yeah exactly that was the first thing that scanner told me. You know, I rolled the sun, said hey dad, that might be mispronounced. Maybe you should think of a different name and we just, I don't know, it is what it is now. So, but but if I can, yeah, add to that.

Mike

So go for it because you know, thankfully, our listeners, you know they've been wonderful and the feedback, you know, like you've mentioned, to find our voice, yeah, for sure. So the success of the podcast has actually been fun to watch and and I'll talk more about kind of the some of the takeaways in that. But I also feel like you know our listeners have a certain amount of time as well, right, so to have you know an hour of time that our listeners give us, right?

Josh

Or you know together, I think maybe the majority of them listening to most 71% of the podcast.

Mike

Yes, and so we appreciate that. That's not lost on us. But you also have to really make quality content, yeah, right, and so I felt like I wasn't able to give to you, to the show, to our listeners, what they deserve, and that's part of it, right? So, because of the success of it, it's you guys are going to take it to the next level and just make it.

Josh

No, you are, I know you don't do anything, halfway I don't do anything.

Mike

And then yeah, we'll talk, you know, when you're ready to talk about the next guest here and, I'm sorry, the next co-host Thank you, you know, I really it's just going to be awesome and I think it's going to give the listeners what they you know what they're going to enjoy together.

Josh

So you know we're nervous, though I mean, you know, have good chemistry. Yeah, great chemistry great, great people. Person. All right, I got some questions to ask you before we kind of dive back. So do you still have a passion for mountain?

Mike

biking? Yes, I do, in fact here's. I'm glad you asked that. Here's what's cool about that is you got me in during COVID. Yep, absolutely love it. I got my new bike and you helped me build it, you know got some. Scream-a-deal and that Fox factory fork it just game changer for me. But then what happened is generationally. Now my son is helping me. He's like hey dad, you haven't ridden for a bit. Let's, you know, meet me out at the 50 year trail.

Josh

Yeah, and this is Corbin. You're right, corbin Right.

Mike

Yeah, and then Grace, and so we get to do this together. That's awesome, yeah, and he's. He's an awesome rider. He's better than I am already. He doesn't take much, so I absolutely love it Again. It's just this is one of my regrets, looking back on the year is not riding enough, and we built Corbin that it was a yes, the Kona.

Josh

You've course, that was the Kona process.

Mike

It's the big, the big Hanzo, big Hanzo, sweet ride. Yeah, that's a good heart tale for him to start out on, for sure Very solid, he absolutely loves it. Yeah, that's awesome, that's awesome.

Josh

Yeah.

Mike

No, the passion is still there again. It just goes back to that, that thing yeah, so are we still friends.

Josh

Did we have a?

Mike

falling out. Is there any problem? With me, with Mike and Josh, no, no just to to clearly air absolutely not, in fact, I, we need to spend more time riding together, 100% and, and you know, doing, doing some more fun stuff. Yeah, for sure, but no, absolutely. Josh, you're one of my favorite people in the world.

Josh

Okay, man, you got any entrepreneurial plans, anything in the works? He's still thinking about anything, anything you want to talk about.

Mike

So I love riding your coattails because you're very so. So I kind of look to you for that. To be honest, you're with your strategy. It's kind of what you do and not kind of doing. You're very good at it. Yeah, so I've got some things in the back of my head which I want to talk to you about. Yeah, for sure.

Josh

But we don't talk about them here?

Mike

No, but I do have some ideas and you know, you never know when we grow up what are we going to do with it?

Josh

What are we going to do when we grow up? Yeah, it's coming, man. Yeah it's coming, um. Will you consider coming on as a guest?

Mike

Maybe. So one of one of my things, as, as we kind of talked about this, you know, the neck taking it to the next level is one of the stipulations is all right. Um, if, if I retire, please have me, I would love to be a part of the conversation, but it's funny.

Mike

I don't know if this is like how to say this correctly, but I'm looking forward to listening to shows without Without Without Without Without yes, and I think, and jokingly I say, and I think but no, it'll be good to have a fresh, you know take, take on things.

Josh

So all right, so did the. Did the running joke about SNM and anything to do with your decision?

Reflections on a Podcast Journey

Mike

No, no, thanks for letting me. A wife doesn't listen to the show that much so I don't know how much she knows about the SNM joke. Uh, no, in fact, the the SNM, um, I don't think it was ever lost in our guests that we had. I think they they appreciated that that whole kind of running joke.

Josh

All right, all right, just, and I keep, and I've had, I think I said in one of our past episodes that I had people asking me and I've had more people now ask me, so maybe just just, let's just, let's just clear the air 100% late? Is the SNM thing Actually a joke?

Mike

The some, some of the episodes. I my head will hurt when because I'm laughing so hard. Okay, and and anytime you bring it the SNM like, I'll start my head cause it's so funny. Okay, so to clear the air, the SNM thing is completely, but I mean there's a little bit of truth in every joke, right?

Mike

I'm going to leave that one out there, because you mentioned the Viagra boys. Yes, so I'm taking out my Christmas lights yesterday, yeah, listen to the vagaboys. Yes, and vagaboys is on my Pandora is my station and has been for some time now because you brought it back up again and they have a song in there about about one light bulb in a room and it's a whole song about S and M.

Josh

Technically, oh, wow, yeah, so that could be a new theme song.

Mike

Part of my memories. I want to talk about our theme song.

Josh

Yeah.

Mike

Okay, okay.

Josh

Cool.

Mike

These are great questions by the way. Thank you, thank you, thank you, magellan.

Josh

I haven't heard that name in a while.

Mike

What are you going to miss most, man? Oh, that's, that's a good one. I think the laughter right. We talk about it, yeah. And just meeting you never know who's going to be sitting in the chair with us in studio. So many cool relationships, so many cool people. It's been amazing, hasn't it? Just meeting new people, hearing their stories yeah, it's been absolutely fascinating. So I'm going to miss that. Just having that conversation, like you mentioned, it's a conversation and I just love that part of it.

Josh

Yeah, just sitting around and sometimes it's a little stressful leading up to the episode, yeah, but I can't think of one episode Maybe one where we had the kids running in and out where it was a little stressful, but like I can't think of a single episode where I was stressed out like dirt, like, yeah, like I did it you know this and maybe I probably talked about in the podcast, but I did a giant project this year, right, and it was like the most stressful thing I've ever done and this was like a little light. Yeah, you know, every week when we were doing a weekly yeah, it was definitely.

Mike

I mean 100% fun, a little bit of you know prep, but the conversation, once it gets going, our guests and our guests and it's all around. You know the two wheels and in bikes, and so that that was the common thread, of course. Right, that kept it on track.

Josh

A couple of them we had to like bring right back to bikes right yeah, like when we had Sam Credio on.

Mike

we're like okay, we're talking about transportation, but like yeah, it was cool to go on those tangents though, to learn kind of the adjacencies. You know that, that and have to do with the whole scene. Yeah, and then one of the best though who was it? Who is the guest? Was it Richie? He's like or was it your buddy in Michigan? When he's like, yeah, listen to it. And he's like it's a show about mountain bikes, it was my cousin, it would be great.

Josh

It would be great when you guys talk about mountain bikes. That was. That was from one of the when we were doing the videos right and we're doing a little video clips of like you know what do you think.

Mike

What do you think, what do you think about the mountain cock podcast.

Josh

He's like I'm wondering when they're going to talk about mountain bikes. All right, we talked about what are you going to miss most? What are you not going to miss most Like? What are you going to be like? Oh God, I'm glad I don't have to deal with that.

Mike

So you never know how a show is going to go right. So you kind of do some show prep and then when you go back and listen to it it's like ah, but you know you listen to that.

Josh

That didn't do anything like what I thought it was going to be.

Mike

Yeah, exactly, but you listen to, like Joe Rogan or what's the other guy's name, lex Friedman, you know, and everyone's got their different style and we try to find their voice and you know, not not to sell out, but also make it, you know, so it's enjoyable for the listeners, right? And you know, you hear, there's some, some moments of silence.

Josh

It's like who's the while there, we said like every podcast had a like, a moment of silence Right Like a uncomfortable moment of silence.

Mike

Yeah, and you can always edit stuff, but you always think it's like I hope it doesn't send anything too stupid. You know our editing is minor. Yeah, I mean we.

Josh

Every once in a while someone would would. Typically it wasn't. Well, there was a couple episodes where I got really drunk. We had and there were and our listeners probably don't know this but there was three or four episodes that never will see the light of day, that I still have right that we never published that we're just so bad we're like. We can't release those into the world.

Mike

I think we talked about doing B sides or something at some point.

Josh

Yeah, well, one of them, one of the really bad ones we actually published in a secret location. Oh that, yeah, so it's still out there. So there's a really bad one that that we recorded that actually you weren't on that one because it was with the old Sonoran pirates. Oh yeah, that's right, and there's a secret. It's on the web and there's and you can find it.

Mike

I don't think I ever found it. After the episode I forgot to look.

Josh

There's a secret episode out there. I don't know, maybe at some time we'll we'll release the location of it. But yeah, if you search for it, you know it's with the old Sonoran pirates I can probably. That's probably all I can tell you. But with that amount of information you know, mountain cog and Sonoran pirates you could probably find it. Oh yeah, but that was, you know, the old crew drinking in a hotel room and a resort, like the whole setting.

Mike

Yeah.

Reflecting on Journey and Lessons Learned

Josh

It was, it was, it was so raunchy, we were like all right, this is not gonna, this is too much for our audience. Hey, did you learn?

Mike

anything in this process? Yeah, so that's one of my. My main things is not only, not only did I learn just about like being being a human right and listening and trying to ask you know kind of conversational questions about it all, but I so I learned how to ride better, I think, just from everyone that we talked to in training.

Josh

Yeah, Right, yeah, yeah, I learned a lot from Andrew. Yeah, the Wolfman, of course, for sure.

Mike

Learn, learn a lot about a community. You know when we have the, you know the city leaders on, which is awesome, and every guest brings something that I say we take away something from.

Josh

Yeah, would you agree yeah, no, for sure, I think I have learned something in every single episode.

Mike

Yeah, and and, and. I hope I think according. You know, when I talk to other listeners, I think they also have learned some things as well, whether it's short or crank lengths which, like, is the trend now. I don't know if you've noticed that. Yeah, it is totally. It's so funny.

Josh

So I'm not going to say that we started that, but maybe we started that.

Mike

So you know, I don't I could point to a few things that I did learn, but I also know that our listeners have learned things as well, so that's cool to have that journey together.

Josh

So so you know, some of our listeners I do, and some of our listeners probably listen to Pinkbike. Yeah, and their main host, mike Levy, kind of went. He went dark for like months and with with very, with no kind of explanation, and then finally in the last few weeks they've published a podcast with Mike and Mike Levy said, hey, I'm not going back to Pinkbike. And he he kind of like surprised me, you know, I think he just got kind of burnt out with it. But then, like he went down this hole, like this hole, just just rabbit hole around his obsession with, with aliens and like in the recent information that's come out with aliens, and it sounds like he's like completely focused on on aliens, much, much like Tom DeLonge from Blink 182.

Mike

I don't know if you've heard anything about him.

Josh

But does aliens have anything to do with you leaving the show?

Mike

It does not actually, but thank you for asking. Yes, none whatsoever.

Josh

Hey, um, what recommendations do you have for us going forward? Is there anything that you would change or do differently?

Mike

Uh, I don't, I don't think, I don't think so. I mean, um, you know, sometimes we would go off on the rabbit holes which I think are, I think are fun, especially like one of the comments on the Apple podcast, someone to comment on one of them that said I don't know, don't know these guys, but they keep it light and fun. Yeah, so I think that's. I think people want that because, like you mentioned, our jobs are stressful, right, and life is stressful. So I think it's a, it's a relief valve for people to turn on mountain cock the music cues and they know they're going to, you know, halfway, halfway funny sometimes Groner jokes. Yes, so I think, just the light and fun, um, around, something we all love to do. You know when we can get out on the bikes? You mentioned the vagaboys earlier.

Josh

Yeah, yes, kind of get deeper into nursing homes, give their male patients Viagra every night. I don't know, I don't know.

Mike

It's to stop them from rolling out of bed. Oh yeah, there you go. Hey, would you do it again? Heck, yes, I would do it again. Yeah, yeah, absolutely. Um, all right, I think I've covered. Oh, what are you going to do with those? I don't know, I don't know, I don't know, I don't know, I don't know.

Josh

I don't know, I don't know, I don't know. Yeah, I wouldn't have. If I didn't, I wouldn't have had. The nerdy guy realizes that I was only focusing on television because he didn't get offended.

Mike

I didn't know that. I only learn to roll the book. That was a video you can watch and the music. That's the sort of maintenan荺 that I've covered. Oh, what are you gonna do with all your, with the massive amounts of free time that you're talking about? So, as I mentioned, one of my regrets is is not getting out.

Josh

I'm on the bike itself and so I'd like to spend more time some of our episodes, but before we do that, is there anything that you want to chat about? Okay, yeah.

Mike

So, excuse me, you go down to your memory lane, right? And I think our listeners might appreciate this, especially ones who would look to the back catalog and you don't mind with this from the inception here. Thank you all, but we talked about the origin story, right?

Josh

Two Sun.

Mike

Orthopedic Two Sun. Orthopedic Yep, you had to be there to appreciate it.

Josh

but yeah, For sure.

Mike

But then the another fun part was selecting the music, which has never gotten old the Jack Ripper, right, right, right, right. And so we were. Do you remember how we selected?

Josh

it. So we were on a mountain bike ride, yeah, and we were playing our. This was back when we were riding with the speaker.

Mike

Right, yes, riding with the sister to scare away the boomer or the cougars, mountain lions right.

Josh

Not you, cougar ladies. We don't want to scare you guys away, but you ladies away. But yeah, to scare away mountain lions.

Josh

Mountain lions? Yeah, for sure, and I was rolling through. So before we had a mountain cog, way before we had another business called audio cyclists, which we've talked about a couple of times, and we had written me and the crew from audio cyclists had written a bunch of music and we were rolling through. I think I'm like, hey, I got this whole catalog of like short ditties, let's roll through them. And I think we just like rolled through them while we were riding, yep, that's it.

Mike

You just kept playing these riffs or clips, or?

Josh

whatever you call them.

Mike

And then it was interesting, we'd listen to them. I'd have to stay in your back wheel so I could hear them. And then we stopped at one of the round, one of the circles.

Josh

Yeah.

Mike

And then we okay, did anyone any of them? Kind of, and both of us, if I remember, we're like this one stuck out, the Jack Ripper, like what was that? One back three, whatever it go, you're like you played it and like that's it, jack Ritter.

Josh

Jack Ritter, yes, not Jack Ripper, right.

Mike

And it's been great, am I? Am I right? Yes, and that's what we're talking about. Just yeah, josh produced that Yep you know for was that was that the audio cyclist?

Josh

It was. Yeah, this was one of the. It never made it into the audio cyclist. It just didn't didn't fit. But it didn't fit at the time.

Mike

You kept it in the catalog and.

Josh

I've got hundreds of these, honestly, so good, yeah, there's actually I don't know if our listeners picked up on this, but there was a, there was a. There was a, that particular one I think it was in the Dusty Horton episodes when I went back in and we ended up cutting that that recording into two episodes and we released them on the same day. You know, one focused on on Dusty's BMX experience and one focused on his mental health journey, and we just didn't feel right about putting both those out in the same episode so that people could choose. And it was really two distinctly different topics, right?

Josh

But I edited it a little differently that time and, instead of using the equipment I normally use, I was doing most of it in the, in the software tool used, which is Logic, which is, if you know what Pro Tools is, it's a they call it DAW digital audio workstation and so I was. I was editing in Logic and I pulled in a, an audio clip, but it was the wrong version of that song and if you listen to the Dusty Horton episode, you'll hear a much different, almost like a techno drum beat. Come in, oh.

Mike

Yeah, so I listened to what I'm doing, stuff or on the house. You know what I mean, so maybe it wasn't.

Josh

It just has a musician. I mean like the, the, the melody is the same, yeah, but the drums come in and it's way different Check it out and I was like whoa. And so when I was kind of planning for the next phase of my own cog, I kind of was going back and forth and like should I keep? This one or should I go back to the one? And I just decided to keep the keep, the keep, the one that we've, everyone likes and yeah and here, so yeah.

Mike

And I was like, you know, just kind of going back to the. Yeah, that was, that was the start. And then one other thing which it'll I think it'll still kind of come up as we go through some of the old is as you mentioned it. You're like if some of the episodes we had made a difference in people's lives.

Josh

I'm not trying to overstate no, no, no, no, and and and and I mean that's what we said with Dusty was on. I said, hey, if, like, if this helps one person, if Dusty and, and how and I'm just Dusty's just on the mind, cause that was a recent episode, but you know he was, he was very vulnerable, very humble. You know he wanted to just tell a story and that was a hard, really hard thing for him to do. For sure, I can imagine you know he, he was great and he, he didn't show it, but I can imagine that was a really hard thing to do. But we said in that episode of like one person, if it, if it positively impacts one person, it's worth doing this. And within like a day he had gotten text messages from people saying this really helped me.

Josh

And so it was like all right, man, it was worth it, Like we met the criteria right. I mean, I don't know how many people had helped it, Didn't?

Mike

contact us. We don't know. Yeah, we don't know, and you know I'm the last one to just dropped with our, our famous favorite German bike fitter. Yes, and you mentioned bike fitters and bidets will change your life. Yes, this one's about the bike fitting Great title, by the way, but in all seriousness it does make a difference. The other one that comes to mind along with the dust.

Josh

is it the bidet or the bike fit that you're talking about? That'll change your life here, or is it both?

Mike

They're both in different ways, but I would suggest yeah highly recommend both.

Josh

I think the bidet actually will have a better impact on your life. Long term yes, Because the time, the amount of time that you spend, it's a gift that keeps on giving.

Mike

Keeps on giving. Yeah, just keep it for 30, 40 bucks.

Josh

As a matter of fact, for Christmas I gave out four of them.

Mike

That's such a great gift.

Josh

Yes.

Mike

Oh, I didn't even think about that, for four people Got the days. Oh, that's, that's, that's great idea. The other one is the bike monk, the Craig Randall tribute. Yeah, I mean, how special was that.

Josh

It was super special and his wife, you know his late wife or his wife. His widow contacted me afterwards and we had never met her before. As a matter of fact, I'd never met the bike monk before I heard of him, but never met him and she was just like thank you so much for doing this and you know I'm sending this out and this is a great memorial for his life.

Mike

So yeah, so I think it's been a good platform for other people's voices as well.

Josh

Yeah, an unusual platform. Yes, right, to help, you know, someone grieve and mourn the loss of, you know, one of the bike icons in our city here, but then also, you know, with mental health and and other things as well. You know it's definitely helped.

Josh

You know the episode with Chad Kazmer, the you know the Tucson police chief you know, every time I see a Tucson police officer I stop and talk to him and say, hey, we had your chief on the podcast, you're like what? And we tell him they're like oh yeah, he likes the bike.

Mike

So, yeah, it's really cool. And then the other part, josh, is I think that it's improved people's lives. I mean, you know, just in little ways not trying to get too heavy about this, but so so, like in those two, two examples we mentioned, and also I think it has improved people's riding. Yeah, including line, you know right, yeah.

Josh

And so, like we said, the stuff that we've learned from everyone I mean just just just going through the bike fit process with with Frank yeah has like completely changed the way that I interface with the bike, the way that I feel on the bike, like these little pains that you have, that you don't know, you know, and your shoulders or your back or your legs, your hands, go numb.

Josh

All that stuff is bad fit, yeah, and or at least, or at least a good portion of its bad fit. I guess some of it can be bad habits as well. But but I find myself it's changed the way that I ride the bike and it's definitely improved how much fun I have in the bike and how good I feel when I get off the bike, or or the stuff that Wolfman told us right. So like I've been doing the base work low and slow, or or or, and I think Frank said it too. He said long distance slow makes you fast, and I made a joke that my wife said this, but in a different context low low and slow, or deep and slow, right Okay.

Mike

So okay, beastie boy song low and slow. Is it Let the beat flow?

Podcast Episodes and Bike Adventures

Josh

I don't know Nice, yeah, all right. So so back in September 2022, we started the podcast Everything in the desert wants to kill you. Everything in the desert wants to kill you. We released five episodes Not our best episodes, but it was. It was you and me. You know, everything in the in the desert wants to kill you. We brought in then then punk rock.

Mike

Dan.

Josh

PRD. We haven't had punk rock Dan on. We probably should bring him in some other time. As a matter of fact, one of the things I want to do pivot, pivot mountain bikes is up in Phoenix, and I don't, I almost said it. I almost said the new host name, but there's a relationship there. And then I was up with pivot and asked them if we could go through their factory, and so, since Dan is a just an amazing engineer, a manufacturing engineer, I want to take him up with me.

Mike

He would love to see the factory right Go through, go through Pivots factory and then have him, you know, tell us his observations.

Josh

Him and I have probably been through, you know, 500 factories in our lives, you know, oh yeah, between the two of us, between our work. So we've definitely seen, like you know, every you know manifestation of a factory that you can think of, from great to awful. So kind of take a look at pivot and see how they stack up to all the defense contractors and everything that we've seen over time.

Mike

That's cool.

Josh

So he got his leg open massively and told me he needed first aid. We did a whole episode on PRD, introduced him. Do you remember when we had Jeremy Bonnie and Brett Muxin on an episode number four?

Mike

and.

Josh

Jeremy wrote his bike here and shows up and we're standing, it's a camelback full of camelback with a camelback full of beer and we're in the garage and he opens up his camelback and he pulls out a beer. And I'm like Jeremy, we got beer in the house, man, he's like I didn't want to wait for you to offer it to me.

Mike

You know it's going to be a good one when it starts in the garage.

Josh

Yeah, man, and then we were finding our legs. That first, those first handful of episodes. Oh, there's one episode I want to talk about. This episode didn't do very well from number of listeners, but it was like one of my favorite episodes that we've ever done, and that was Craig Boydell, episode 15, papa Crumpet. So Craig is just an amazing. So if you haven't listened to episode 15, go back and listen to episode 15. Papa Crumpet explains the awesomeness of British trail centers. Craig, he's an American expat from from from Great Britain. He's a fire American firefighter. Just an amazing athlete, amazing human being, great mechanic, bike mechanic just a great guy.

Josh

And I enjoyed that episode so much. It was so and I it's one of the ones I love to listen to.

Mike

So sadly on that episode. If you remember about um cause, he's emergency response right, yeah. And we talked about, there hasn't been like a bad accident up on Mount Lammon, I think. Recently there was a pretty bad crash.

Josh

Oh, I didn't know that.

Mike

Yeah, I didn't know the details and I forgot I was going to look into that and then talk to you about it. But I like to check that out. But hopefully that person's okay whoever that was and they're back up and going again.

Josh

But yeah, so, yep, ryan, Ryan Beamish, come on from a team Semper Fi, uh, and he, he read for transition um bikes, but um. But he came on and he told us about his Duke Suoros right, these Duke Suoros that he makes out of bike chains out of bike chains. And uh, four days ago, right before Christmas, I go out to my front of my house and there's a box and it's a bike company box. I am like what the hell did I order?

Mike

You know, this is one of these times when I got drunk at night and I ordered some random bike stuff.

Josh

I mean, I got a. That's a trend. That's a GX transmission, oh really, whole transmission, though In the box. Yeah, very cool. And there's also an E optimized Fox performance bike. Is that the one you won so?

Entering Bike Raffles and Generosity

Mike

yeah, so we're gonna do an episode. We're gonna do an episode about my E bike. How?

Josh

to win raffles.

Mike

How to win how to win a bike raffle.

Josh

But yeah so. So I guess I'll just I'll tease it, but we, every single bike raffle that comes out, I enter and like I can't help it Like like G Miller does these dream builds and he's in England or in. He's somewhere in the United Kingdom, I'm not sure. Maybe he's, maybe he's Scotland or Wales, but he's up there and he does these dream builds. If you haven't seen a G Miller and if you like ASMR stuff at all, yeah, it is like it's a 45 minute video of him building a bike.

Mike

I think you mentioned it before.

Josh

There's like no words. But then he gives away the bike and he runs a raffle on a platform called Rafal. Anyways, I enter every single bike giveaway that I see, like I just do. It's just a numbers game, yeah, and I've probably entered a hundred or more, okay, right over the years, and hang on a second, I'm gonna get a drink.

Mike

Yeah, I'll share the text message that we received before Christmas. Yeah, josh says can I share this or is this given away? Go for it, okay. And he says to me and Cheetah, I forgot that's the nickname that easy cheetah. He's been on the show a couple of times Is Josh says good news is I won a new bike and the raffle I entered from San Diego. Bad news is I have COVID, so they pretty much balance each other out.

Josh

Yeah, so I've bought, I've entered a raffle for every single bike and I we have all acoustic bikes, don't have any bike. We've ridden them a couple of times, rented or whatever. You know, lacey went out with homegrown a month ago and rode up in Phoenix and Tara brought a. You know she's. She's running a Rocky mountain in her in her, in her fleet right now, and so she ran a Rocky mountain e-bike up there and Lacey just loved it, like like self-shoddling.

Mike

Self-shoddling yeah.

Josh

Exactly, yeah, and anyways, the Sonoran, or, I'm sorry, the San Diego mountain bike association was raffling off two specialized carbon, turbo-levo e-bikes and in a size medium and a size large. I ride an extra large, Lacey rides a medium and I entered, you know, really I had, there was no expectation or I didn't think I was going to win.

Josh

I never think I'm going to win, I just you know, just donating to Throw your name in the hat, well, throw my name in the hat but then also like donate to a good cause, and so it was $25 and and Suzy, their director, came on and we had them. You know, on the podcast I think that was episode 60-ish, 60, something, let's see, yeah, 60., exactly, perfect. Yeah, episode 60. So, and I think I even mentioned in the podcast there that I, you know, I, I donated 25 bucks or whatever it was and got five tickets, and then I got a text message like two days before, or I got an email two days before, or voicemail two days before.

Mike

Christmas Suzy calling you right Suzy.

Josh

And I saw. I saw I was sleeping when the call came in. I was, and I was, and I looked down and like San Diego, what else calling me from San Diego? Yeah, I didn't answer it. I got the voicemail and said, hey you, you won one of these e-bikes. I was like Holy shit, that's freaking amazing. So yeah, I got a GX transmission right there it's going to go on it.

Mike

All kinds of toys, josh I got a.

Josh

I got a Fox performance e-optimize. It's going to go on it and we're going to. We'll talk about the experience of of getting that e-bike and and swapping out some parts and getting it going and then and then highlight specialize just open the new store in Carlsbad and that's actually where it's coming from.

Mike

Oh. So that's right Specialized was the one who did that.

Josh

Yeah, we may. We may have those guys on and talk to them, Maybe not. We'll see if they want to come on, but yeah, yeah, anyways. I never got to the punchline here. It wasn't me winning the e-bike, but it was probably the best gift I've gotten this year was Ryan Beamish. Oh, that's what showed up. It was a. It was a Duke Suwaro.

Mike

Really.

Josh

Yeah, Showed you, it's out there. So he, he, he made and and brought over a Duke Suwaro and yeah, that is so cool.

Mike

Yeah, it's super cool, and I think he he makes those as fundraisers right.

Josh

He definitely does yeah.

Mike

For I think it was for a cause for all kinds of stuff, Right.

Josh

He makes them. It makes them as fundraisers.

Mike

And I've donated again cause.

Josh

I cause every single bike related, anything I enter and I have donated. He did one with Ajo bikes and we had Brian you bury on from Ajo bikes, as in one of our episodes here but part of that though, josh, in all seriousness, is you have a very generous giving heart.

Mike

That's just part of who you are.

Josh

Thanks, man.

Mike

And so anytime you have an opportunity to give and you've been blessed, you know to do that it's, it's awesome, trying to get back man. Yeah.

Josh

We had bubbles on bubbles. If you don't remember, that's Ben Chandler, right?

Mike

Who runs Ben's bikes?

Josh

here in Tucson and he's been a an icon in the mountain bike industry and, before that, the BMX scene here in Tucson for sure, great conversation there.

Mike

One of my best memories is doing the 24 hour in the old Pueblo and Ben Chandler bubbles was at the at the whiskey tree. No, you know, he was at the tent and and he looks like festering and like what's up bubbles, and I shot it so loud and he's kind of like, oh geez, I'm like, but yeah that didn't stick, man, I wish it would stick.

Josh

But, speed that same trail. So episode 22,. We had Sean Nelson come on, do you remember, and he told us about the fact that he had gotten attacked by a bull. Do you remember that?

Mike

On the trail, on the trail. Yes, in the ranch we see him.

Josh

I mean so. So like I've been doing the low and slow thing in riding the loop of Bunch on my gravel bike.

Mike

Dude, I forgot about all these. These were so good, it was so much fun yeah.

Josh

So, like two, three weeks ago, I'm riding and it's like six, 37 o'clock at night and it's getting to be. It's not. I'm sorry it's not that late because we're in, we're farther down south, but it was. It was probably 530 and it was getting dark and about, about. You know, just outside of my field of view on the loop, and I'm way out in the middle where the loop loop is a paved trail that goes around Tucson, but I'm way out in the middle of nowhere where there's like not any people, it's not by any streets or anything like that, and I see something black, kind of like float across the trail and I'm like what in the hell was that? I swear like I have a very active imagination.

Josh

Yes, and I was like dude, that's a ghost or something, and I get up there and I'm looking around. I get up to where, like, I saw this, this black, like apparition, yeah, apparition Like float across the trail. I'm looking around, I'm looking around, I'm looking around and there is like this pitch black giant bowl and it had just walked across the trail.

Mike

Oh, really it was a big bull.

Josh

It was just a big, giant bull. Well, it brought me back to Sean's episode where he told us. You know, you see, I think at least I have seen a lot of bovine creatures on the trail out there and I never really think too much about it, but in this case one of them attacked him.

Mike

That was a great story, and he lived to tell about it, which is which is even better. But then they went back to the, to the scene, didn't they? If I remember, like the next year? Yeah, just a recreation.

Josh

I think the rancher came up or something like that was a story and was asking what they were doing. And they told the story and they're like oh, that was you guys. That's crazy. Yeah, we had Ian come on episode 24. Yeah, the godfather of the Godfather of premises the best you know indoor skate park in the United States that I've ever been to and I've been to a lot. Guys have got a bike background, BMX background and he can't sit still.

Mike

It keeps adding to the party.

Josh

He can't sit still.

Mike

Have you been there lately? Yeah, I was there two weeks ago. Yeah, no, I was longer than that. My daughter wanted to go skate. Yeah, you were saying that, so they got. Yeah, so they got the, the foam pit and everything now added. It's always adding cool stuff.

Josh

He's always changing stuff up and yeah, man, so you know, just shout out to Ian with premises and if you're in Tucson, you know, go check it out. Yeah, those things are. That's a hard business to run. We had Wolf come on episode 27 where we had an exercise physiologist, and both those episodes We've had them twice. On both those episodes I think we're super Wolf's. Just a really interesting character, right.

Mike

Yeah.

Josh

For sure. He's good, you've known him for a long time.

Mike

I think 13, 14 years now. Yeah, how did you meet? Yeah, so my, my wife worked with his wife at the swim school. Oh okay, I didn't know that, yeah, and so I bought a car from him back in the day, right on. Yeah, and then we just kind of hit it off and and, and then he's he's got to have him on again at some point. He's getting a new setup, I think. Oh yeah, cause he rides an old custom steel frame road bike.

Josh

Oh, I didn't know that. Okay, yeah.

Mike

So he's getting a new bike this Santa's, I think he did for.

Josh

Santa.

Mike

Yes, yeah. So anyways, he's really excited about that, but yeah.

Josh

He, you know, he recommended, you know, during COVID, in addition to starting his podcast, I got it really into like working on guitars and I built a parts caster, which is like you buy different pieces of the guitar and kind of put it together. And I got a maple neck.

Mike

You guys call it a parts caster.

Josh

Yeah, so you have like telecasters and static casters.

Josh

And then, if you, if you build one, you build your own with with parts, and so, like I bought, like you know, fishman electronic, anyways, I don't want to get too deep into it. Anyways, on the last podcast, um, and maybe the first one too, andrew talked about Gabrielle guitars, which is just across the street from park place, um, in downtown Tucson or not, or in midtown Tucson, yeah, but, uh. But my, if you notice, one of my guitars is missing. You probably don't Cause there's so many guitars in here, but it's the part caster that I started and never finished and I took it into yeah, it was on the bench.

Mike

It was on the bench, okay, yep.

Josh

And I took it into uh Gabrielle's guitars and uh Keegan, over there is is is he's he's he's. He's finishing the work that I never finished.

Mike

Sad on his bench for a whole, for a whole podcast.

Music, Tours, and Interesting Podcasts

Josh

For like a year it's been sat there. I've never actually played it because it never got finished. Oh, okay, so, uh, maybe today, maybe tomorrow. Oh, that's awesome, it'll be done, and uh, so, thanks to are you still? Playing music. Uh, I've been playing more um just feeling like got that creative itch, yeah and uh, I've been playing more. My brother's been playing more.

Mike

I'm not going to lie. I cannot wait for you guys to announce your next tour where you and your bro go on tour.

Josh

Yeah, and there's a couple of interesting plans, like I'm going to. I've got so much music at some point on release on album, and then I've got a buddy uh named, named Christian uh, back in Detroit and uh, he uh and I grew up kind of playing music together and we've got a plan that when I, whenever I retire, we're going to go to a studio somewhere for two or three months and record us.

Mike

Uh, record an album. Yeah, that'll be awesome, yeah.

Josh

He's. He was kind of one of the original guys, Very cool.

Mike

Anyways, uh, back to the podcast. We um.

Josh

We had Danon from Guru bikes and guru suspension and you know that was definitely one of our best performing podcasts and people love that one and he was super, super knowledgeable and funny, so definitely enjoyed that.

Mike

I don't think he saw his Instagram eating in slow motion a Christmas cookie. I was laughing so hard about it. He's always got.

Josh

They've got a good social media game. They're a funny guy, they're pretty funny and they do lots of, lots of rides and stuff like that out of guru. If you've not been down to guru, you should go check it out. Not just for locals either, I mean he does. He does suspension work and takes, you know, suspension products from all over the country. We talked forever about Will Bissell, that's right, and we finally had the Phantom on the guy that like rides around scoping empty pools on a I don't know $10,000 gravel bike set up with flat pedals and he's wearing Jorts.

Josh

You ever see a guy in Jorts in a super expensive gravel bike?

Mike

That's probably Will Bissell, the Phantom Riding wheelies or something like that.

Josh

We had the carbon fixed guys on, which was super interesting. We were just riding one day and we saw a sign on the trail. It said, hey, you got you break your carbon frame. And I'm like, well, you can fix a carbon frame. I didn't know that and had those guys on and learned. Definitely if I haven't had any any need to fix a bike since then, but that was super interesting.

Mike

Yeah, it was also fun going episode 43 when we went over to Bohemian.

Josh

I've got that one. Yeah, bohemian bikes in framebuildingschoolcom, and that was the most interesting thing, right? So, like we contacted David Baum and said, hey, we'd love to you know, hear about your frame building school and learn about custom frame building, and would you be willing to come into podcasts? And he's like, yeah, but you have to come to my shop, which was a good suggestion, right.

Mike

It was like really.

Josh

He's like cause you're not going to appreciate it, yeah, If, if you don't come here. And so we, we, I picked you up, we go on my truck, we got the podcast mobile set up and we, we pull up and we're like in this neighborhood, in the middle of Tucson, we're like what in the hell is going on here?

Mike

We checked the address. I'm like is this the right?

Josh

place Is this the? I mean, maybe there's like a shop out back or something like what, and we walk in and he had converted this house to like a frame building factory. A small, you know small output, so a couple of frames at a time in like building built into the house and like he would let guests come in and he would teach them. And that's what framebuildingschoolcom is you can't around the world.

Mike

I think there was a guy from Europe or something. Yeah, there was a guy staying there while we were there.

Josh

Yeah, he spent a couple of weeks. You learn how to build a frame and you build a frame while you're there. So that was. That was a super interesting podcast, for sure.

Mike

You know what else was cool? One is having little Maddy on your son. Oh yeah, you know we talked just just because I think all of us can harken back. We've talked about this many times as a kid the freedom you have on the two wheels. So just to hear his little voice and how much fun he had in San Diego right, I mean riding around, and what a great idea. Bring the bikes, park the car and experience your vacation on your bike.

Josh

We've had the kids on a couple of times, man. I mean, you know, one of the one of the episodes I have highlighted here is when we talked about your awareness.

Mike

Scandar and Grayson.

Josh

And like that was amazing. So we go to Angel Fire we talk about Angel Fire all the time. It's it's, you know, within driving distance so where we live, one of the best parks in the country. So I hear I haven't been to many but or really any other ones. But, um, but it's, it's supposed to be amazing. And I think you know the root cause of why it's a strategy. We always try to get down to the grucks or the root cause and uh, it's because it's private land and they can like you know they can do what they want.

Josh

If they want to change a trail that day, they can go change a trail that day. Where?

Mike

they do and they, they, they, they work on it, yeah.

Josh

For sure, they definitely do. Yeah, but I was just amazed we took Grayson and Scander out there and you know we talked about in the air awareness podcast that these kids like really, really, just like are comfortable in the air and we take them to this downhill mountain bike park with big, big features and not exaggerating, like just really, really big features and like first run down there, clarence stuff, blind, that like that, that some really good riders wouldn't even attempt.

Mike

Yeah, it was. It was amazing to me. And one of those features, Lacey took us down one of the black diamonds, whatever it was, yeah and EZ and I rolled up to it that steep drop. It's still embarrassing that they just rolled over it like nothing and it'd be an easy walk, or bikes on the side of it.

Josh

Yeah, yeah, we got to talk to and that same, that same week when we were up in Angel fire. That was a great trip. Yeah, uh, we got to talk to uh Patrick West and and uh Tucker Van Ormer. Yep, yeah, so Patrick runs the, or at least ran. I think he still does the the he was the park manager there and and Tucker was a trail builder. I see I see posts of them now doing the snow work.

Mike

Oh really, it's, yeah, it's a snow time, yeah.

Josh

So I see, I see posts of ski season. Yeah, Ski season up there and and Tucker driving the big big cat, I don't even know what you call it.

Mike

Yeah, the big track, yeah, snow groomer, yep. And also I think wasn't Joanna and Phil there? I think I had left at that point and you had them on, you left. And that's another one, there was still up there.

Josh

That's another one I've highlighted. So if you haven't, you know, in addition to the Papa crumpet episode we talked about, if you haven't listened to Joanna and Philly. It's just an amazing couple. Yeah, um, they live in Sedona. They run, um, you know, bike coaching and bike uh tour kind of business up there in Sedona. Um, episode 49, point your knees, twist your hips and go ride. Trail lovers in Sedona. Yeah, that episode was a lot of fun. Yeah, yeah, here's.

Mike

here's the cool part about where we live, um, and, and you know, there's back, uh, east. There's some wonderful places we've talked about as well, but it's funny to talk to people back East, someone I work with. He's an OG, been riding for 40, 50 years, wow, and yeah, and he's like on my bucket list before I get too old. You know, sedona, sedona, yeah, and so, um, it's really cool that people back East, you know, 2000 miles away- want to come out to Sedona, definitely.

Josh

Yeah, it's an amazing place to ride, yep. So you haven't been up there and ridden yet I have not ridden there. No, we got to do that and let's try to do that this year. Um, interesting story about Joanna and Phil. Uh, right after that podcast we got to talking and found out that we were both all all kind of like coffee snobs.

Mike

Oh, yes, oh, I still have not tried that. I put it in the freezer. I have a thing when I get something good where it's like I don't want to like, you know, I want to save it for a special occasion, yeah, and it's so anyways, yeah.

Josh

Go ahead, yes, so. So they introduced us to a coffee from uh. That was from one of their local um uh roasters there in Sedona free form was the name of the roaster and uh, they, they. They gave us like a small baggie of this coffee and we drank it while we were up there in Angel fire Lacey and I did my wife, and we're like, oh my God, this is amazing. And so I started buying it from free form, this specific uh type of anaerobic coffee. Anaerobic means it's fermented without oxygen, and I just got addicted to it. And then one day I went to free form to order it and it was out, I like sold out, and so I sent him a note. Are you guys going to get any more?

Mike

I only got three bags left.

Josh

I'm like I gotta have this coffee from his dealer and they never responded. So, um, so I was like bomber dude, and so I was getting the the. The supply was dwindling down, dwindling down, dwindling down, and I'm like oh shit. And so I I look closer at like where the coffee came from. I find out where it came from in Columbia, contacted the the um vineyard or coffee plantation.

Mike

Yeah.

Josh

Plantation and said where else did you guys send this in the United States? Found out that they sent it to this other place, uh, in Pennsylvania, um called Gnosis, and they still have some, and so I've been buying it.

Mike

Are you still getting it from Pennsylvania? I'm still getting it from Pennsylvania. All right, if I have that one bag still. So if you get down to it, I will have to drink it. I will drink it. You have to drink it, yes.

Podcast Reflections and Future Plans

Josh

It's uh, it's totally worth it, it's that good. Hey, yeah, it's, it's amazing. And then you know we already talked about um the bike monk. That was an awesome episode, episode 54, you know, learning about one of our icons who had passed, had the chief of police on. I was super surprised that he came on. You know, one of the things that blows my mind is when he comes on and I'm like, I'm like chief. Well, even before that, I was like do you do? You're like public affairs, people need to review the questions we're going to ask.

Mike

He's like nope.

Josh

I'm like do you want to hear the questions we're going to ask? He's like nope, there's nothing you can ask me that I can't answer. I was like dude, this guy's like I got a little bit of a man crush on that guy. Honestly, dude, that guy's like like I like I'm like, well, that guy's hard core yeah, he's cool, just just a great heart and uh, doing a lot of great things for the city and an awesome cyclist. He, yeah, he is, huh.

Mike

Yeah.

Josh

For sure? Yeah, absolutely. And then recently, you know my nephew, brady Hogue, with, uh, you know, getting on EF onto and uh, interesting story, he's on a plane right now and he's on a team with Enzo Hinkappy, which is George Hinkappy's son. Yeah, and where's he going? He's going to George Hinkappy's house to stay there for a week and do a do a bike camp with with George Hinkappy himself. Well, yeah.

Mike

Well, he rides with his son, is on his team. I don't know if George, George, but he's staying at.

Josh

George's house and they're going to.

Mike

It's super cool Dude, the places that kids going to go, I mean, you know how exciting, very cool, it's amazing.

Josh

And then uh, and then Wolfman came back on and, uh, you know, really changed a whole lot of things Got my help me getting my guitar fixed, changed my bike riding. We had Dusty. That was super interesting. Susie, I want a bike. Yep, sam came on and that was a super cool conversation, learning about how, how, potholes, potholes.

Mike

How quickly, how quickly they get, and now that I've been driving around town is I have noticed the roads are better, you know, and because they respond to the whatever that hotline was.

Josh

for sure we gave out, we didn't give out a cell phone, but oh, and I, when I was writing up the show notes of that episode, I was like man, we should, I should put out his phone number or his email, and I didn't. I put the phone number and the email that you can contact.

Mike

Yeah, and so I spoke with him later, because my daughter goes to school with his, his daughter, and um it. What did our part about the podcast which I'm going to miss, josh is? I think the guests also have a good time.

Josh

I think so right, you know, yeah, everyone seems to like. Some people come in kind of nervous yes Right, they're like oh, I'm a little nervous.

Mike

I'm like don't be nervous, this is just a conversation and they show up in the guitars and yeah, they know it's a little yeah, it's not assuming at all yeah so yeah, yeah, yeah, so uh.

Josh

Yeah, man Did you just just. It's been a great ride. I've learned so much shit.

Mike

It's crazy. So, yeah, back to you then on those questions, you know, yeah, I can pose them back to you. Go, go, go. Like you. You said you've learned stuff Like what. What are some things that you've learned from doing this show?

Josh

Yeah, just um, my my bicycle IQ has increased like exponentially yeah. Uh whether it's fitness geometry, um my appreciation for other forms of cycling. Um you know, bmx, um you know, I bought that 29 inch BMX bike and within two weeks broke ribs on it. Um, so I haven't. I'm like afraid of that bike now. I'm like scared of it.

Mike

I haven't really ridden it since that it's not psychological, but yeah, it's totally. It was a bad crash yeah.

Josh

It was a bad, stupid crash, but um, but you know, watching a couple things right, Watching how you interfaced with the guests, the type of questions that you came up with, the research that you did, how you made people feel comfortable, you have like a great way, Like I've never heard you say anything bad about anybody ever, and I joked about you being Jesus all the time and I know that that's a big part of your life and I hope you know what I mean. It's a compliment.

Josh

I definitely do I know it makes you uncomfortable but it definitely means compliment. But watching the way that you would interface with our guests and make them feel good and comfortable and ease their nerves, I'm hoping I can steal a little bit of that going forward and making people feel better.

Mike

Oh, thanks, josh. That means a lot because sometimes when you go back to the episodes, you know Michael from the office. Yeah, excuse me, it's like how awkward can we make something happen? It's like sometimes you listen like okay, I was. You know, fessing is a little awkward, but that's all part of the deal.

Josh

I never felt like that.

Mike

I never felt like that Okay, all right, well, thanks.

Josh

No, there was never. I mean, at the beginning we had the awkward silences before. We like knew, yeah, sure, but like you know, modeling after Rogan, which is like just a conversation not that we're talking about the same stuff, but like just come in, have a conversation. You have interesting people on. You know, we have a central theme there with bikes previously and we're gonna focus more on mountain bikes going forward.

Mike

Amen, you know what you mentioned, the bike IQ. I like how you phrased that is. What's neat is we then would go out in a field field test what we learn on the podcast. You know, it's like, it's just real, Like, oh, this does make sense. I like that part of it that you know, that whole yeah, I mean trying it.

Josh

You know even some of the names, like you know, point your knees, twist your hips. I still, you know, people told me to twist my hips, but no one had ever told me to point my knees before. And when Joanna said that on the podcast, I'm like, wow, that's got to, we got some great free coaching, didn't we? We did get some great free coaching yeah.

Mike

And leveling up with Troy Jacobson yes, that was yes, yes.

Josh

Spinner Volts like that. I mean, he had a huge impact on me before I even knew who he was. Yeah, and then to find out that he lives in Tucson, that was the craziest thing, all right.

Mike

I don't want to put you in a spot but, as I mentioned, I am beyond excited to see where this goes. Yeah, okay, cause you know. Thankfully it's been fun, it's been a great journey. And now, speaking of leveling up leveling up, you know, for the podcast can you share it all kind of like what your vision is? Yeah, for sure, if you don't mind.

Josh

Yeah for sure. So like so. So before you decided, we were kind of kicking around for the same reasons right, should we keep doing this? Does it make sense to keep doing this? Is it worth the time? And we went back, we looked at the metrics. We said, hey, it's got a completion rate that's higher than industry average. It's bingeable. So people are going back and listen to the back catalog. People seem to be enjoying it and it's growing, not growing fast enough. That's the thing that we have to tackle going forward. And so we said, hey, if we're going to do this, we need to grow it. And so the idea is to give it a shot, try to grow it.

Josh

Shrink to grow is, you know, one of the concepts we talk about in strategy. Sometimes, when you're you know, they say, like one of the biggest problems or one of the biggest mistakes that some content creators have, whether it's podcasts or vlogs or whatever, is they go too wide with their subject matter, and so we're going to shrink to grow. You know, focus on mountain bikes, our new co-host. I'm super excited for y'all to meet and get to know him. You've actually already met him, I'll say that much, but he is someone you know connected into the industry. He does know so much about bikes, about mountain bikes, about selling bikes, about fixing bikes. You know deep, deep, deep mechanical understanding. And he's pretty funny too, and he's funny, he's super funny.

Mike

Yes, I can't wait to. He's super funny.

Josh

So, so we'll bring on the new host and we'll keep rolling, keep rolling every other week. See how, see if we got to find our voice again.

Mike

You know, so find our voice with the new co-host.

Josh

He's got a whole different network of people. It's interesting, you know there's so many. We've talked to so many great people in Tucson, here and around the Southwest, even beyond that. But he's got a whole other network. He's very connected. He's very connected. So we're going to tap into a whole bunch of different guests. He'll have a different voice, different perspective, bring a different angle and we'll see. You know how the podcast goes.

Mike

That's awesome, and in the meantime, you and I are going to go do some more riding, going to ride some bikes, yep.

Josh

Mike, you got any final thoughts for us man?

Mike

I knew you were going to ask that.

Josh

I actually, so I prepared, I got to find my note. Uh-oh, he prepared notes for his final thoughts.

Mike

Not that I had to prepare for that, but I love that question that you would ask our guests because I think it was a nice you know at the end.

Appreciation, Growth, and Excitement

Josh

Yeah, way to signify that we're done.

Mike

Yeah, okay, so three things.

Josh

Three things. That's one thing you taught me. Everything comes in three.

Mike

Simplicity, that's right, all right. So the first one is thankful For you, our guests and our listeners. You know this was your brainchild back when I was at Tucson orthopedic, so you know you had the idea and the vision for it, and so I appreciate your leadership on this and just being being so supportive.

Josh

Well, I appreciate you too, man, and I mean I'm very, very thankful.

Mike

Yeah, for our guests, because they stuck with us when we were pining our voice. And you know and asking questions in that, and that goes for our listeners as well, right For sure. So you know, very grateful for that. The second thing is we've mentioned already we've learned a lot through this about ourselves, about conversations with people, about people, and then I think our listeners have also learned some things as well. And then the last thing, which I already mentioned, is I'm just more than excited to see where you take this.

Mike

Right on so yeah, that's it.

Josh

It's been a ride, it's been a lot of fun. We're not done and you'll hear from Mike again, yep.

Mike

Can't wait to come back on.

Josh

Take care team. Can you dig it?

Mike

Okay.

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Dane "Suspension Guru" Higgins

Host
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Josh "Magellan" Anderson

Host