080 – How Social Media Transformed Mountain Biking Communities: Dave Slagle's Our MTB Rides Story

In episode #080 of Mountain Cog Podcast, hosts Josh and Dane welcome Dave Slagle, the founder of Our MTB Rides and a pillar of Tucson's mountain biking community. Dave shares his journey from riding a Schwinn High Sierra as his first real mountain bike to becoming a Specialized brand ambassador. As a Tucson native, he offers unique insights into the evolution of local trails from Fantasy Island to Mount Lemmon, and how the mountain biking landscape has changed over the decades.

The conversation explores Dave's founding of Our MTB Rides, which has become one of Tucson's most active mountain biking groups over its 10+ years of existence. Dave also discusses his involvement with Sonoran Desert Mountain Bicyclists (SDMB), his trail advocacy work, and the community-building aspects of group rides. The episode highlights the social elements of mountain biking culture in Tucson, from "refreshment stops" on trails to the importance of local businesses like the Hop Shop that serve as gathering places for riders.

Our MTB Rides, Tucson AZ
https://www.facebook.com/groups/ourmtbrides/

Sonoran Desert Mountain Bicyclist (SDMB)
https://www.sdmb.org

Cyclelogical Coffee, Pinetop AZ
https://www.facebook.com/cyclelogicalcoffee/

Tucson Hop Shop
https://www.tucsonhopshop.com/

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Transcript

Dane 0:09

I don't know about this coffee. You don't like it. So you know, with the sugar and the cream.

Josh 0:16

Yeah, oh, it probably wouldn't be good with sugar and cream. I don't think it stands on its own.

Dane 0:20

It's hard to evaluate because every coffee that I have has a certain amount of creamer that I put in every morning and, like I said, coffee is my creamer delivery system, and this one trying it and everything. I don't know if I'm smart enough or refined enough to taste the difference. It tastes different than the Kirkland stuff that I do at home.

Josh 0:43

So why the hell are we talking about coffee? This is in the history of the Mountain C. We talking about coffee. This is. This is in the history of the mountain cog podcast is this the first time? This is the earliest podcast we've ever done and I was like, hey, guys, I'm gonna make some breakfast tacos, yeah. And then I heard we were gonna have beer.

Dane 0:58

But then we, we back yeah, dave slack, I think he threw out breakfast beers and then just, I'm not against it.

Josh 1:05

I don't want this to get out. Hopefully no one hears that. No one hears this podcast. You're good, nobody's listening.

Dave Slagle 1:12

Or that it's this early.

Josh 1:13

Everybody knows I'm not here this early, yeah right, and the only reason we're here this early is because we have a ride planned. Yeah, we're going to go ride.

Dane 1:20

Yeah, and this made more sense.

Josh 1:22

All right. So, uh, I got a question for you guys, okay.

Dane 1:32

Why did the cyclist go to therapy? Hmm, why did the cyclist go to therapy? Why am I so bad?

Josh 1:35

at these jokes. I mean, you've seen these shirts cause, like, lots of people have them, but lots of cyclists have these shirts to to see a psychologist, because he was dealing with psychology, psychology, it's yeah, it's, it's, it's a psychological oh issues. Okay, simple but simple, but decent yeah, I'm okay with that one.

Dane 1:58

I like that one. I went to that um psychological cafe up in uh pine top on the way to sunrise so in northern arizona. There's a little cafe and I had as we're driving by. There's a bike out in front on the curb.

Dane 2:12

You're like oh, I gotta stop and it's I think it said cafe or something, and I'm like, oh, I gotta go there. And it was a cool little place. They had just moved from one location to the other but, um, they had already put some of the bike frames up on the wall and the theme was there. They had shirts and and was it?

Josh 2:28

did they just sell coffee or do they like sell bike parts? And no, no, no yeah.

Dane 2:32

So like that would be even cooler if it was like kind of a coffee shop and a bike shop. But it wasn't, it was just cafe. But you could tell whoever owned it was really into bikes so we have one of those in tucson.

Josh 2:41

We have a cafe bike shop in Tucson when, oh, hello, hello, yeah, that's.

Dane 2:46

Sam. Yeah, at Hello Bicycle, he's got his little bike shop off to the side of the cafe.

Dave Slagle 2:51

Yeah, it was there a while ago. Where's?

Dane 2:53

that at Over off of Dodge.

Dave Slagle 2:56

Right, right off of Dodge yeah.

Dane 2:58

Is it Flowingwell or is it Fort Lowell? Or is it Prince or is it prince? No, it's. It's off the dodge. Um, just towards between river and fort lowell. Yeah, just north of the hop shop.

Dane 3:11

Yeah, I gotta tell you, you know, if you come to tucson, uh-huh, and you ride a bike, you've really got to go to the hop shop. Shop is a great place. I think it's such a cool place. I I took my mom there, who's doesn't do you know, doesn't, doesn't ride a bike or anything, and she's not really into beer, but it's the hop shop. I've never been there. Is it, is it, is it. Oh that is, that is happening.

Josh 3:31

Okay, yeah, no, I'm in, I'm totally.

Dane 3:33

So so one of the cool things to do in here is you hit the hop shop, uh, you park, you can wait for your buddies and you can have a beer and then you go do the urban assault and then you come back and there's this place called uh chow pizza, which is amazing chow down, sorry, chow down yeah it's like a pizza.

Mountain Biking Community and Social Media

Dane 3:49

It's like a truck, like a well it's, they have a truck but they have a little um space. So the hop shop's in this kind of cool building. That's kind of a lot of metal work and it's like metal art metal arts village, yeah, okay, and uh, they've got a back patio. They do bands, it's. We definitely have to do a trip there, but if you're, if you're visiting tucson and you like cycling, that is a great place to go.

Dane 4:10

There's always cyclists there, yeah, you know so we should have those guys on uh, you know we need to tag them in this and just say hey, yeah, you know, we'll go talk to them. One, we appreciate them because, uh, I know the guru bikes crew is there all the time.

Dave Slagle 4:22

Yeah, we do rides based out of our Tuesday night or Tuesday night rides based, based out of at least at least no, it's not based out of it. It leaves from there.

Dane 4:30

Yeah, it's a meeting point, you know, and then you can just jump on your bike, go on your ride and come back and it's got everything you want in the beginning and everything you want If you want to get some like that and so, uh, it's really cool, the parking lot's always full it's always full.

Dave Slagle 4:44

It used to be super tiny and it was packed then, and then they tripled the parking lot and it's still.

Dane 4:49

You still can't find. It's just I. You know they're. It's just a cool place like the vibe is awesome yeah so that's cool.

Josh 4:57

Well, we'll go to psychologic up in uh, pine top, yeah, yeah, this week.

Dane 5:00

Yeah, we're up there see if they put any more stuff up, because when they they moved, everything was kind of fresh, yeah, so it looked like they were still getting stuff. The only thing, if they're listening to this, that they need to do is they need to put their coffee grinder in the back in a different room. It's too loud, oh my God.

Dave Slagle 5:15

Like when they're grinding coffee.

Dane 5:16

Like you can't hear anything industrial coffee grinder. It's new bike or, sorry, new um shop, kind of figuring stuff out. But yeah, we were there. Well, there's this guy grinding away and, like the, they're shouting at each other like what did you?

Josh 5:31

watch. Yeah, it's like they're just doing like 30 pounds of coffee at a time. Right, it's crazy. All right, so it's it's sunday morning. Uh, I guess this is church for us or maybe church, dirt church, when we go up and uh, we've got a great guest that I've come to to know over the last few weeks, actually with SDMB and some, some rides a couple of rides I've been on with you now.

Dane 5:55

Right, it's crazy that you one live on this side of town, to have been riding as long as you have, and this is the first time you've met.

Josh 6:03

You didn't have a mountain bike podcast? Yeah, but riding as long as you have. And this is the first time you've met didn't have a mountain bike podcast, and the first time, yeah yeah, but but it's weird because this, this city's so little and the community's so tight.

Dave Slagle 6:11

You know, it's just kind of weird, like, uh, I feel like I run into everybody yeah, so I'm sure we've been at the same place when I started listening to the podcast, I was like man I you know you could figure, you know you live on this side of town and all the stuff you guys talk about. It's like I don't know this guy.

Josh 6:28

I figure out who it is and it's like I meet you, I'm like no, no, never met him before. That's good man, that's good, um, but do you want to? We haven't even said who you are yet. Do you want to introduce yourself? Oh?

Dave Slagle 6:39

yeah, um, I'm dave slagle um, I run the rTB Rides Facebook group and do other random mountain bike stuff, I guess.

Josh 6:52

So our right Like our O-U-R.

Dane 6:56

Yeah, they just had their 10-year anniversary.

Dave Slagle 6:58

Yeah, actually last year. Yeah, if anybody needs a jersey still got them, I still got some.

Josh 7:05

So avid mountain biker, yeah, you run now our mtb rides. So so like how, how often do you guys ride?

Dave Slagle 7:12

so for the most part, most sundays, most sunday mornings, we do a ride, and then tuesday night we do a ride so is that what we're doing today?

Josh 7:20

is it an hour mtb? Ride okay yeah, I probably should have checked the facebook page on that that's, that's okay.

Dane 7:26

I you know, I just show up. Sometimes people are there and sometimes they're not yeah, it's just another, another ride option. So yeah, yeah, it's great like that social media for me. I've had a couple customers come in and they're new. And I'm like they're, they want to know where the rides are. And I'm like are you on social media? And they say no. And I get it right there's a lot of negativity with social media.

Josh 7:47

Facebook echo chamber, echo chamber stuff and.

Dane 7:49

I you know, if I could teach a class on how to use social media to your benefit and not your detriment, it would be like you just click on kitty videos and mountain biking and that's it, and you just find your local groups and you and you um join their groups and you can now find rides, and it's such a great tool to find rides that's the main benefit for me.

Dave Slagle 8:16

I mean, yeah as much. I mean I run a facebook group. Yeah, but I'm not on facebook. I mean I'm. If you look at my main profile, I hardly do anything. I'll check in for when I'm at a cool beer place and a cool place to eat. That's about it.

Dane 8:30

Yeah, and that's probably the smartest way to use social media is to use it to your benefit and just watch out for those pitfalls that are automatically going to pop up and you have to navigate them. I feel like they should have classes. I mean, no joke. I think my, my daughter, when she enters high school, should have a social media responsibility class. I don't think that's a bad idea.

Josh 8:51

Yeah, so. So I, we, I think, would be remiss if we didn't say, in addition to kitty videos, they should also like follow guru bikes. Oh well, so yeah. And mountain cog podcast? Absolutely, for sure, those are like.

Dave Slagle 9:02

Instagram. Instagram's the same thing Instagram Yep.

Dane 9:05

Whatever you click on, you're going to see a bunch of it, and whatever you rack, react to, you're going to see a bunch of it, and so if you make the mistake of showing anger because you saw something that upset, you just know that you just made it come up more. And so you just need to ignore it, just like life, and so you just need to ignore it Just like life.

Dane 9:23

I think it's a good life lesson If something's really frustrating, just ignore it, unless it's a house fire or something like that. But yeah, it's a good tool and I've actually talked to a couple people. We talk about bringing people in to cycling and one of the ways that you do that is get them involved in these groups, like our mountain bike rides and just in general. They get a community automatically. They go to a trail, they automatically have tour guides and trail leaders and people that can give them pointers, and there's so much good about it and I I know there's a lot of people out there that just ride by themselves, cause they're maybe self-conscious, because they don't want to be, and there's so many of these groups are so welcoming and and it's.

Dane 10:02

It's just a great way to get into cycling and just feed that need to get better and way faster.

Josh 10:10

So wherever you're at in the world, go into your local bike shop. Ask them who's who's coordinating. You know group rides, yeah, and if there's nobody, then start one.

Dane 10:18

Yeah, seriously, dave did Seriously.

Josh 10:22

Yeah, okay, so before we get too deep into our mtb rides. I want to, I want to, I want to learn a little bit more about you, since I'm just getting to know you anyway. So this is like super convenient, we can do it, and then the whole world can get to know you as well, or, uh, at least the, whatever, the 12, the 12 people. We say 12. You probably shouldn't say that because for the, for all of you, there's more than 12 there's a lot more than 12.

Dane 10:42

It's funny. I'm listening to a lot of podcasts and you realize that one. There's a lot of transient listeners that come across it and they listen once or twice, and then you have like diehards, and then I don't think we get metrics. If you, unless you do certain things you know, like I guess if maybe somebody listens we get a metric, but if you subscribe it's not subscribed. What do you have to do? I go to show. My experience is I go to show and I follow show.

Josh 11:08

So those would be subscribers, and so we can see that. And then we can see downloads, we can see listens and we can see plays, and all those things mean different things.

Dane 11:16

Okay, so if I listen, we may see that metric, but if I download it it's different.

Josh 11:20

We'll see that metric as well. Okay, it it's different. We'll see that metric as well. Okay, and typically, like our like downloads is the one that we see the most easy, okay, so for us, I don't know if it's like this for all podcasts, but for us the downloads is about 20, okay, and then the listens is like five times that yeah yeah, right, so um, about 20 of the listeners are downloading it, so you can multiply the downloads by five.

Josh 11:42

yeah, that'll kind of give you a feel for, like how many people heard that episode.

Dane 11:45

Okay, At least for our metrics, and, honestly, a lot of people are listening to this. I don't know why?

Josh 11:53

No, it is. It is a little interesting. Like just in the last like month I've been in random places and people have come up to me and been like you're the guy at the podcast.

Dane 12:05

I'm like, yeah, you get this little tiny mic micro fame. It feels good, it does, until they start throwing rocks at you.

Josh 12:09

You'll have to tell us how many people ask for your autograph after this goes live Dave but let's get to know Dave a little bit. So all right, so I'm going to go like through the 20 questions, or we'll go through the 20 questions Like where are you from originally?

Dave Slagle 12:21

Tucson. Born and raised in Tucson. My parents were both born and raised in Tucson, that's you were rare, like double rare yeah.

Dane 12:29

Wow, that's how my wife is Really yeah.

Josh 12:32

Okay so.

Dane 12:33

I think my, actually my father-in-law was born in Phoenix.

Josh 12:37

Okay.

Dane 12:37

Yeah.

Josh 12:38

I mean, it's amazing. It is rare, I'm from Detroit and came here with the military, I got stationed at Davis Mothman and then I keep trying to leave. I've left like four times and the desert just sucks me back in like in a good way, right. Eight months of awesome Four months of awful.

Dane 12:52

Yeah Right, it's definitely yeah, my whole family's Wisconsin and so. But I came out as a little kid I didn't have a choice, but I don. I'll leave Every time I travel somewhere. I think this would be awesome, and then it's full of mosquitoes or something you know like there's something hurricanes or like yeah, something, something where I'm like you know what? I'm going to go back to Tucson.

Josh 13:14

And we're right in the middle of the horrible part right now, where it's just super hot but it really is a dry heat. That's not bullshit, it's not the same Like. It's like 80 and I think is worse than 110 and dry for me anyways, for sure, and we have signed, and we've highlighted this in episodes before, but we're going to go up today. That's, that's your, our and, by the way, thank you for changing the ride time to facilitate this.

Dane 13:31

That's a big deal.

Josh 13:32

Hopefully no one's throwing throwing tomatoes at me up there, but um, but we're going up to this hidden gem that is Mount lemon. And it'll be what? 20 degrees, At least 30 degrees cooler.

Dave Slagle 13:42

It's. Usually, by the time you get to the top, it's 20 to 25 degrees cooler up there, yeah. So if it's 110 down here, it's you know. 80 to 90 up there, yeah, and it sounds hot, big pine trees In the shade, it's perfect.

Dane 13:57

They call it the Sky Islands.

Josh 13:58

Yeah, it's the Sky Islands. Yeah, arizona's like the Sky Islands with at least southern Arizona kind of, because we have these mountains that kind of just come out of nowhere.

Dane 14:06

And it's like a different ecosystem on top of it yeah, yeah. So it's pretty cool.

Josh 14:10

So we'll be up there riding in the pine trees today, which I haven't done in a long time, so I'm super excited and I've never ridden the trails we're going to ride today. That'll be great.

Dave Slagle 14:26

Okay, so you grew up in east side, tucson, east side. Yeah, yeah, I've been.

Josh 14:27

Yeah, I haven't been further than wilmot actually. So we've had a couple guys on wilmot and harrison. They're east side guys but they're mostly bmx guys like ryan beamish do you know, right, you know beamish and um, oh my gosh, I'm so bad at this I'm gonna forget all the guys that we've had on. They're all kind of associated with oh, this is park shoot.

Dane 14:42

Yeah, the other bmx race awesome. I used to work with him. Miracle Chris, chris.

Josh 14:47

Miracle, and then Andy runs Tucson BMX, which is right there by Fantasy Island. You know there's a BMX track right there by Fantasy Island. We haven't had the BMX guys on in a long time. Yeah, you have to do that. So you grew up on the east side, so how'd you get into mountain biking originally? Um when when did you get into? I know you're like 20 years younger than than than than Dane, for sure.

Dane 15:09

Cause that makes him like 12. That makes him like well, it makes him like 40.

Dave Slagle 15:16

I wish I was that young. Um, it was man, it was. I had a Schwinn. First mountain bike was the Schwinn High Sierra.

Josh 15:31

Okay. So when that came out, that's like a well-known mountain bike too, yeah.

Bike Shop Memories and Mail Order

Dave Slagle 15:36

I mean we went. I remember I had like a beach cruiser. I had a paper route back in the day, yeah, and talked to my dad and I needed a new bike. My buddy had a beach cruiser. I was like man, I found this beach cruiser at the Costco or wherever it was and I was like man, I got to have one of those. It was 80 bucks. I got to go get one. There's price club back there.

Dane 15:56

Price club.

Josh 15:57

Yeah, I was going to say Costco is not.

Dane 15:59

Yeah, yeah.

Dave Slagle 15:59

Price club yeah, and had my own money. Dad's like no, that's a crap bike, don't buy it. Yeah. Oh wow, no, no, no. This is cool. I love this thing. It'd be perfect. Yeah, don't buy it. It's my money, I do what I want, so you bought it. I bought it First lesson. Listen to dad. It lasted maybe six months, yeah, and then he's like uh, of course between that and the paper route.

Josh 16:25

Yeah, it tore it up pretty quick. You put some miles on it.

Dave Slagle 16:28

So you know, six months later dad's like all right, well, let's go get a real bike and it was actually, dane was probably even there. Full cycle, yeah, went there.

Josh 16:39

Okay, I remember full cycle, then it turned into performance, right? First Supergo and then Performance Supergo and then Supergo, supergo. That's right. Full cycle, supergo, full cycle was awesome Boutique. Uh-huh.

Dane 16:49

It went to Supergo and it was kind of like big box but nice.

Dave Slagle 16:53

Yeah.

Dane 16:54

You know, like XTR, like nice stuff, and then when it went to performance it just went in the shitter.

Josh 17:05

It's just a different model, dean. Yeah, I know, trust me, I worked there. It went in the shitter All right.

Dane 17:08

Yeah, no offense to Performance Bike. Yeah, total offense. They went out of business. They're still in business, bro. They sold and somebody bought their name to try and.

Josh 17:16

Oh, really yeah, yeah.

Dane 17:17

Okay, in fact, they were so bad that I think the company that owns Fuji because Fuji was a big player in that yeah, if I remember correctly, the company that bought fuji, or owned fuji, bought performance, trying to salvage it because it was like one of their number one customers to buy for distribution yeah, but it didn't. It didn't last, huh okay and yeah, somebody bought performance, uh, at some auction. Yeah, it was auctioned off Interesting. Yeah, they're trying to keep the mail order side of it going and I think Nash Bar too.

Josh 17:51

So that was the same company. We don't really do mail order anymore, but online.

Dane 17:54

Yeah.

Josh 17:55

Yeah.

Dave Slagle 17:58

Sorry. I remember mail order getting all those catalogs in. I think we should bring it back. Let's bring it back. Let's bring back mail order.

Dane 18:02

Man those well we talk about Email order.

Dane 18:04

We talk about Supergo, right?

Dane 18:06

I used to open up their little mail order flyer and like, because Supergo started in California, it was a small shop Goldsmith Goldstein, something like that, is the guy who started it.

Dane 18:18

He was really cool and he had a bunch of shops and then he did some really cool things and he would buy closeout bikes from these companies when they needed to get rid of them. It's kind of like instead of sticking the whole bike out, he would part them out, he would package each part and then sell all the parts. And it was brilliant, you know, and it worked really well at that time because it was mail order and it was harder to uh, harder to do bikes through the mail yeah, in fact you weren't allowed to from a lot of manufacturers, and so it's kind of crazy. But I used to browse that super go catalog and there there was a couple of catalogs where they would list the weight of the item, so you could go into bottom brackets and look at a Samson tie bottom bracket and it would have the weight and my friends and I would sit there on paper and build bikes and figure out Spreadsheets like that.

Josh 19:06

you know, yeah, Well.

Dane 19:08

I hate to say this, but it was before spreadsheets, Like it was on paper.

Josh 19:13

You're like don't talk about how old I am, and you're like talking about mail order and before spreadsheets.

Dane 19:20

Well, I mean it's true though.

Dave Slagle 19:22

We would do this on paper.

Dane 19:23

No, they didn't.

Dave Slagle 19:24

No, they didn't, Dave don't even joke about that, I know.

Dane 19:26

I was in school when there were no computers. Maybe they had those ones in school with the. You know, that's not true, because this was after I was out of school but nobody had them yet. You know, because in school we had those little weird.

Josh 19:38

Macintosh. Maybe it was a Tucson thing, because, like I'm not that much younger than you you're not younger than me, no, no, you're like 75 years older than me. We had computers when I was in school. I don't know man no, we had.

Dane 19:52

I graduated in 94.

Josh 19:54

What year did you graduate?

Favorite Colors and Bike Memories

Dane 19:55

I can't tell you that see you 94, 94 that's when I graduated. 98. You're full of shit. 98's my first downhill that I won Do you like our rabbit holes? We asked you how you were your first bike and we spent 10 minutes talking about mail order shit. I have a serious question what's your favorite color?

Josh 20:18

Favorite color oh yeah, I got a follow on question.

Dave Slagle 20:22

I got a blue truck right now and I really like that Is that shirt salmon or pink.

Josh 20:25

It's like a salmon. I got a follow-on question. I got a blue truck right now and I really like that. So blue.

Dave Slagle 20:27

And what color is that shirt? Salmon or?

Dane 20:28

pink.

Josh 20:28

It's like a salmon, salmon and I can't find mine of that.

Dave Slagle 20:31

Yeah.

Dane 20:31

I have no idea where it's at. I think I wore it once and it's probably under my bed or some weird place.

Josh 20:38

You're rocking the nipple manager shirt today. I do like that one.

Dane 20:45

I have yet to wear that. Yeah, it fits me good too. I'm just embarrassed about it. It's awesome. So I I literally will watch people as they walk by me and see if they say something, because a cyclist is going to understand so what josh is talking about. I had shirts made because we did an episode where we said, uh, that I was a nipple manager yeah, right yeah and uh we were talking about.

Dane 21:02

This is spoke nipples, yeah and so I took a picture of a spoke nipple and it's in the center of the shirt and then it says nipple over the top and manager on the bat on the under the bottom. And so if you're a cyclist, you know exactly what I'm talking about. Like, if you know bikes, then you'll know what a nipple is. It's part of it.

Josh 21:21

And then on the back there's a giant mountain. This is like the first major brandon, big branded thing we've done is the nipple manager so when I go to a bike park or something with it on, everybody loves it.

Dane 21:32

Yeah, but then my wife is embarrassed with me, yeah if you're walking through the park, place small or something yeah, the kids probably love it right on the kids love. I went to the bike park uh or the uh, the pump track and the kids were just cracking up Like they all just had the best you know cause it's a bunch of 12 and 15 year olds.

Dave Slagle 21:49

I thought you were talking about the mountain bikers. No, no, the mountain bikers they're cracking up too.

Dane 21:54

They just don't do it openly and like slap their knee as they walk by you Mentally, the mountain bikers are 12 to 15. Yeah, all right.

Dave Slagle 22:10

Let's let's, can we bring it back to the schwin high sierra? All right, so you went to full cycle, or actually we've determined, oh, we've determined it was full cycle. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, and that was the first bike. Had that for a while and just riding it around, I remember back then me and dad each bought the same exact bike um, that's cool.

Josh 22:24

So you really started riding with your dad yeah, he didn't ride as much that.

Dave Slagle 22:28

Uh, you know I did when I was a kid. That's that was. You know, that's your freedom, you go everywhere with that yeah that's what we did, um, but kind of got put away and stopped riding for a long time. High school came, did you get a car?

Josh 22:44

get all busy, got a car, yeah of course, you get a car as the girls. Yeah, cars and girls yeah yeah, bike's not interested anymore.

Dave Slagle 22:51

Yep, good job, then you can actually afford the bike after you get a job. So started getting a little bit better and in my job is pretty physical. Try to keep in shape. The better, better shape I am, the you know, the more money I could make technically.

Dane 23:06

Yep.

Dave Slagle 23:07

But getting back into it I was like, man, I need to exercise, I need to do something. And I'm not the guy that goes to the gym or goes running or anything like that. I'm like, I like riding bikes. Maybe I'll ride my bike again. Yeah, started riding the bikes again. Got another bike.

Josh 23:23

What was the second one?

Dave Slagle 23:29

in got another bike. What was the second one? Second one was a specialized rock hopper so you've been. You've been repping specialized for a long time yeah, back in the day, you know this sean palmer. You'd see him videos and I don't know what it was. You know richie, and and all the specialized stuff, stump jumper, you know. You know that was the bike to have.

Josh 23:46

That was the bike to have, yeah.

Dave Slagle 23:48

I guess I never grew out of that, you know.

Josh 23:51

No, you still rock it.

Dave Slagle 23:52

Finally had the money to buy myself a stump jumper. Yeah, I was at, actually Sabino Cycles, Went up there and get my bike. I was getting. I think I was taking the grip shift off of the bike and putting the the shifters on because I didn't like the grip shift and sitting there on the floor was a stump jumper that was on sale for a huge discount. You know, knowing what I know now it was end of the year was probably a year, two years old man, I could afford that one. Still new.

Josh 24:22

Yeah, it was brand new.

Dave Slagle 24:24

Finally get my stump jumper. Bought it, take it home, rode it, loved it. Realized later it was probably like an extra small. Definitely not an extra small rider, no.

Josh 24:39

You probably ride a large frame now.

Dave Slagle 24:41

So I think you guys were on the ride we did with Dane yeah, I don't remember if we were there or not the retro ride we did.

Josh 24:48

Oh yeah, oh, from the hop shot. No, he wasn't there. Yeah, I couldn't make that one.

Dave Slagle 24:51

Yeah, well, I had it there.

Josh 24:52

Yeah, oh, you still have it. Yeah, I still have it, wow.

Dave Slagle 25:00

I can't get it's just specializes.

Josh 25:02

So is it like? Is it like three by seven or three by eight?

Dave Slagle 25:08

Um, it is three, three by three, by nine, I believe.

Josh 25:11

Three by nine. So then and, and you know, rim brakes, rim brakes uh, yeah, rim brakes.

Dave Slagle 25:17

Yeah, definitely rim brakes.

Josh 25:18

And, uh, it does crappy suspension.

Dave Slagle 25:21

It does have a last-a-meter suspension on it now, oh my gosh. That was put on when I bought it. Oh, it didn't have suspension, okay.

Josh 25:29

Is it a hardtail, hardtail, yeah, hardtail okay. Dane, what was your first real mountain bike? And you can only give one answer, because I know you're going to go into like 27 different stories.

Dane 25:38

I can't even remember all the bikes.

Josh 25:40

What was your first?

Dane 25:47

Mine was a giant iguana. Anyone recognizes a giant iguana? I would say my first one. I've told people this story because it's kind of weird. Uh it, my mom went and bought a microwave and I got a free mountain bike with it right on and it was called a forensic and uh and fire enz and um it, uh. It was not a bad bike like it was a crap bike that you got free with a microwave.

Dane 26:11

Yeah and um, I love that thing because I had bmx all before that yeah and that thing had gears and I could for the first time to actually do a wheelie. I could never do a wheelie on my bmx bikes, but I could put that in that low gear, sit on the saddle and just pull back and wheelie. That sucker like crazy, but yeah. And then there was a bum fight in front of a store and they picked my bike up and threw it at each other.

Josh 26:38

I'm not even kidding. There was two unsheltered people that were fighting out in front of your store.

Dane 26:44

They may have had houses, but they were like why knows? So back then you called them why knows, right Cause they would just sit out and drink and get drunk and just not do anything. Okay, and they got mad at each other and I'm in the store I think it was yellow front, if anyone knows what that is.

Josh 26:58

I don't even know what that is.

Dane 27:00

I don't else knows what it is, but it literally they would put, the front would be yellow and it was like a think, like a, like a dollar store. Okay, it's kind of like that kind of store I would go in there and get candy and I leave my bike outside unlocked. By the way, yeah uh, because nobody would steal bikes.

Dane 27:17

You know, in the 20s um and did you get that one, yes, in the 20s, but anyway, these two bums started fighting and one picked my bike up and threw it at the other one. He dodged it, it landed and broke, broke the bike, and so I think that was the end of that bike, so bike killed by a bum fight oh man I walked home pretty much crying my eyes out like I was pretty upset, I was pretty pretty little too I think we should ask our listeners like what's the worst way?

Josh 27:43

you've destroyed a bike.

Dane 27:45

Yeah, like what's the worst thing that's happened to your bike?

Josh 27:47

Yeah, I think it'd be like a bump fight. It's probably gotta be up there in the top ten. Bump fight is most unique, you know.

Dane 27:52

I pity the people that drive into their carports, you know, or? I mean I always tell people if you hurt your bike, like put a Sharpie on date where it happened and cover that up, man, memorialize that like yeah, cherish it, remember it, yeah so all right.

Memory Lane

Josh 28:07

So, uh, you got this specialized stump jumper now, yeah, and so what was uh like when I first started riding here, it was kind of like fantasy had been pretty much like just kind of starting out to be developed. We rode elephant head, we rode chiva falls, all the time, obviously, mount lemon. Where else is there anywhere else, I guess you know?

Dave Slagle 28:25

we used to ride the shoots.

Josh 28:25

I don't Elephant Head. We rode Chiva Falls all the time. Obviously, mount Lemon, where else Is there anywhere else? I guess, we used to ride the Chutes Chutes.

Dane 28:29

Yeah, I was going to say what'd you ride on Mount Lemon? I don't ever remember riding Mount Lemon when we were riding Elephant Head and we rode Pepper Sauce on the backside. That was a trail, but I don't remember any trails that we would ride on Mount Lemon.

Dave Slagle 28:47

No trails that we would ride on mount lemon.

Dane 28:48

No joke, like at that time period, yeah when I, when I started, it was fantasy I mean east side I lived right down the street for fantasy.

Dave Slagle 28:52

Yeah, yeah, um, that's all I wrote that. That was it. I wrote fantasy right and a couple guys at work were riding. Hang out with them a little bit. Uh, they took me to a place. Where do we go? I remember riding. I remember riding on this trail out in the middle of nowhere. All of a sudden you see a castle. And then you see some railroad tracks. I'm like Holy cow, we're far out of here. And then later on I realized we were riding on the Arizona trail back.

Josh 29:17

Oh wow, yeah, we probably should. Should clarify there actually is a castle on a mountain.

Dane 29:27

Yes, actually is a castle on a mountain. Yes, just east of tucson. Yeah, yeah, I just got my puppy at the base of that castle. Yeah, remember that's.

Josh 29:30

Oh, yeah, that's the podcast that we were gonna ride and we didn't ride that night.

Dane 29:32

Yeah, because I had to drive to new mexico.

Josh 29:34

Yeah, dean's like I'll be there at this time. I'm like I reworked my whole schedule. I've told the story before. I've already whined about this, I don't have to whine about it again, but but yeah, it's.

Dane 29:43

It's crazy how many trails have popped up yeah in in that amount of time.

Dave Slagle 29:47

You think that's a long time, right, but in realism it's it's a long a lot of trails, yeah, so so you've been riding for a long time yeah, it is on and off for a while, like in high school it was. You know, it's well today's too hot, so I'm not riding today. Uh, maybe I'll ride later tomorrow. Maybe tomorrow I'll ride it. Just, it would weeks go by and I'd like, oh man, I really need to ride my bike. Yeah, I'd go ride. Never in good shape, never that good of a rider.

Josh 30:18

We used to take smoke breaks in the middle of our ride.

Dave Slagle 30:22

Yeah, I never did, never did.

Dane 30:24

So sixties of you? Yeah, we totally took smoke.

Josh 30:31

I remember being in England at like the Red Bull course in Wales and like we got to the top and I'm like puking and smoking a cigarette before walking by. Maybe you haven't figured this. Actually, it's not that foreign in England.

Dane 30:39

Actually a lot of people there take smoke breaks on their bike rides yeah.

Josh 30:43

Definitely not the smartest thing, but uh, keep going, I cut you off yeah.

Dave Slagle 30:47

So then you know. Just, I'm always figuring out where to ride. That was. My big thing is is I didn't know where to ride. I knew fantasy, that was you know ride fantasy.

Dave Slagle 30:57

The bunny loop was literally an out and back. That was before all that. It was literally the cactus loop. Uh, I remember riding one day during the week and all of a sudden, in the middle of the trail, I see this guy walking out with a shovel. He's oh hey, man, I just finished this trail over here. You should check it out. I'm like the monk and and he's like yeah, I just named it after my dog and that's all I remember. I'm like oh sweet. Yeah, it was both both loop yeah who was it?

Dane 31:24

chuck, or or yeah, yeah, I imagine. So I think it was chuck.

Dave Slagle 31:28

Yeah, yeah, I think so, yeah, and, and I never really knew him personally, but yeah, um, I'm pretty sure that's who it was and I ride it. It was cool riding the new trail. You know, I felt like I was the first one. Obviously I wasn't knowing now, but yeah you know, just finished it. That was cool. I remember riding that and fantasy was always, you know, a 10 minute bike ride from my house. So yeah, ride to fantasy, do a loop there, ride back home. What else do we ride?

Dane 31:57

I didn't ride that much do you ever do star pass?

Mountain Biking Community and Group Rides

Dave Slagle 32:01

no, you know, I never did star pass until I got into it a lot more.

Dane 32:03

Yeah I, I rode out there, my neighbor took me out there for the first time and we none of the trailheads were there, none of the trails were there. There was just an old um wagon route. Yeah, that went through and, uh, I don't even remember which street we ended up at the end of and then got onto it. I don't think it was 36th street, I think it was. You know where the wall is? Yeah, so if you go out into the neighborhood from there, I'm not sure which street that is, but houses weren't even out there.

Dane 32:32

You know, like they've been built up since then and and he even showed me in the rock where the tracks of the wagons would go. It was like carved out from from going over these this one, you know, kind of like slab and they would just carve a little trail and it was really cool. So it's just amazing how much, uh, you know, mountain biking is just popped up and realistically in the timeline of our, our universe and, uh, everywhere. Like I'm sure this is the same conversation that people have in Maine and in Germany and, you know, everywhere you know, and it's still happening, which is awesome.

Josh 33:11

I wonder if it's happening in Djibouti, djibouti is a that's a country in Eastern Africa. You were talking about my butt. You're a tree.

Dane 33:18

Yeah, cause you're like Joe booty, Joe booty, Joe booty tracks for for our listeners.

Josh 33:24

You know where we're deep in Tucson, lore right now and since we're talking. You know, historically, if you go back to episode 54,. Um, we do a tribute to Craig Randall who was like one of the guy with Chuck and he's one of the kind of like fathers of of fans and we had Mark Flint, john show, see, and Steve Roach, I don't know.

Josh 33:50

Do you guys know Steve Roach? I don't know. Do you guys know steve roach? I don't know steve. So, man, I bet you, if I saw his bike, so he comes here, and he was like he comes here and and and I'd never met him before, and they obviously these guys had you guys, you know, you know john, because he works over at ben's bikes and mark flint's kind of you know ubiquitous in tucson.

Josh 33:58

But uh, but steve, I didn't know and uh he was here, for he here sitting in that chair right there doing the podcast. And then later on someone tells me, steve, or you had Steve Roach at your house. I'm like, yeah, who is this guy? And he's like this Grammy nominated ambient musician, right and he'd like he tours like all over the world doing his ambient music for real, oh wow.

Josh 34:19

And and I got into his music afterwards. So now, like when I'm like working on something deep for work, like I put Steve Roach on. So, anyway, shout out to Steve Roach.

Dane 34:26

We didn't even talk about it. He didn't even mention his music.

Josh 34:28

I mean, he looked around and he was like cause we've got a bunch of instruments in here and he's like oh, you're a musician. I was like yeah, we, I figured we'd have that conversation, but we didn't. Um, all right, so, um, let's see, let's fast forward a little bit, right? So been riding forever Specialized stump jumper. Yeah.

Dave Slagle 34:44

Fan of them. I was riding, met a couple people out on the trail. Yeah, ended up showing me around. I was out at Sweetwater.

Josh 34:52

Yeah.

Dave Slagle 34:54

It turns out to be a buddy now, but back then it was just a guy we kept passing.

Josh 34:58

Right.

Dave Slagle 34:58

Me and another friend were out riding oh hey, how. And me and another friend were out riding and oh hey, how's it going. You see a mountain biker out on the trail. You talk to him for a second oh, and he's going this way, I'm going that way and we pass each other and next intersection you come around again. Oh hey, maybe I'm going the wrong way wait a minute, didn't I just pass you?

Dave Slagle 35:16

it's like groundhog's day so we ended up starting following. He's like, yeah, follow me, I got route and he showed me the route and we followed him around, had a good time, met another guy at Fantasy Outriding kind of same type of deal. And he's like hey, you should join my Facebook group. We're the mountain bike addicts.

Dane 35:34

Oh yeah, Is that Bobby?

Dave Slagle 35:36

It was actually Scott. Scott, not Card. Oh, yeah, yeah, scott. And. I was like oh, yeah, that'd be cool, you know, get some different rides in and learn some different things.

Dane 35:47

Are they still active? Oh yeah, yeah, they're active.

Dave Slagle 35:49

Yeah, yeah, right on, they're good guys. After that I went on one of their rides. They were meeting out at this Loma Alta Street. I'd never heard of before street I never heard of before. And yeah, you go out there and I end up looking it up, trying to figure out where this ride was starting at, and go down the old spanish trail and turn the wrong way, of course, and look across. You know where my pin drop had sent me. It was out in the middle of the desert area and right off a street and it turns out that's where the veil trails are now.

Dave Slagle 36:20

Yeah, yep but before I didn't think the veilils were there then or unknown of then Figured I was at the wrong place. I was at the other side, head up the street, met with those guys, of course, running late, trying to keep up with them. They were definitely better than me. I was always the guy at the back.

Josh 36:38

Oh wow, Hanging out, oh wow.

Dave Slagle 36:44

You haven't ridden with me yet, you won't be at. The guy to the back Trying to, you know, whole ass to keep up with them Felt like I was slowing them down, and not a big deal. You know, anytime you're the slow guy, you always feel like you're slowing everybody down Every ride I go on, brother, People don't realize that that's not what the group ride's about. You figure that out later. Ended up how the hell? At work we have a health coach. There's a company. Our employer hires a company to keep us all healthy. That's cool.

Dave Slagle 37:16

She knew I was into riding bikes. Someone up at one of our other stores organized a lunchtime walk. Go on a walk. You should do the same thing with the bikes. You could organize some bikes and I'm like no, I'm not too busy, I'm here to work and I don't want to do all that. Yeah, it turned out to be. People at work would just organize rides and every Sunday they would do something. And hey, we're going to ride here. And hey, we're gonna ride here. We're gonna ride here it was all word of mouth stuff.

Dave Slagle 37:46

Yeah and uh, go on a ride and come to work on monday and one of my buddies is hey, did you guys ride yesterday? Like oh crap, we did.

Josh 37:55

I forgot to tell you yeah, yeah yeah, we were at this place, you know if only there was a place we could tell everyone at one time. Well, I could just tell one person anyway, everybody would know about it, right?

Dave Slagle 38:06

so you know the next day that was in 2013, actually, I looked it up yeah, wow uh, april, third april 2013, I started this facebook group. I could, I could just, everybody could just post their rides, yeah, and you know, meet up time is there. It's super easy.

Dave Slagle 38:19

Everybody would know about it nobody would have to ask you want to go on a ride. Here's where Everybody could just post their rides. Yeah, and meet-up time is there. It's super easy. Everybody would know about it. Nobody would have to ask you want to go on a ride? Here's where it is Perfect. And that was the idea of the RMTB rides was. You know, it's not my MTB rides. I always tell everybody it's our, it's our MTB rides. So you know, dane comes, he wants to ride here, posts a ride. Everybody shows up, do a great ride. Josh wants to do a ride, I want to ride here. Here's my trail. Everybody was going to do that. Well, I quickly found out that people like me to do that.

Josh 38:54

It's much easier to join the ride than it is to coordinate the ride.

Dave Slagle 38:58

So it turned out that, so you guys have been rocking for 11 years. Yeah, and you the ride.

Josh 39:02

So it turned out that. So you guys been rocking for 11 years. Yeah and uh, you said you ride primarily on sunday and tuesday nights sunday and tuesday nights. Sunday, tuesday nights and uh, sunday, like, like, what's the vibe of the ride? Is it like? Is it like, uh, you guys all shredders?

Dave Slagle 39:15

it depends who shows up. Yeah, it's. It's probably more of an intermediate ride. Okay, very rarely do we have expert style ride. You know advanced rides.

Josh 39:25

Sometimes we do a couple of those, yeah, but do you post that and let people know like, hey, this is a, this is a good you know going to kill you.

Dave Slagle 39:31

Yeah, yeah, Be careful if you're a beginner, I try to word it, not not to not attract people. Oh yeah, right, right, if, if you come to this ride, you know you're not going to like it, it's a squirrel catcher statement.

Josh 39:42

So what's today's? I'm just trying to gauge how fucked I am. What's today's ride going to be Today's ride?

Dave Slagle 39:47

should be easy with climbing. Most of the trails up top of Mount Lemmon are fairly short, with a climb to get back up.

Josh 39:57

Okay, fairly short downhill, yeah, yeah, okay.

Dave Slagle 40:01

Yeah, so most of the trails. I looked at it the other day. Dane asked me about how long this couple of trails are. Told him it's like 15 minutes of riding and then you got like an hour of climb. That's totally imbalanced and I ended up looking it up and it's the last time I did it. It was like eight minutes of descending of descending and like 30 minutes of climbing back up, 40 minutes of climbing back up yeah, wow but you know, if you're in shape, you do it a little faster and yeah I don't know, it's just one of those being on the bike up on the mountain yeah, you got right in the

Josh 40:36

middle of summer.

Dave Slagle 40:36

Yeah right, anytime you could ride in the middle of summer at 12 o'clock in in arizona, in arizona, in tucson.

Josh 40:41

Yeah, this is part of our four months of awful yeah, yeah, so it levels Anytime you could ride in the middle of summer at 12 o'clock In Arizona, in Arizona, in Tucson. Yeah, this is part of our four months of awful, yeah, yeah.

Dave Slagle 40:45

So it levels the playing field up there, but you do got to pay the price, yeah.

Dane 40:49

Yeah, it's definitely pay to play. Yeah, but eight minutes of a descent is usually a lot. Almost the same. It's the same distance.

Biking Club Culture and Traditions

Dave Slagle 40:56

Yeah. Right crazy, your same distance going down as you are coming up but it's eight minutes one way in 30, yeah, so well.

Josh 41:05

Dane's been talking to me about how bad my technique is no, that's not true yes, but he bought me dinner.

Josh 41:11

He's like I'm gonna buy. And then he sat me down. He's like let's talk about how you ride. He like buttered me up and then I went out on fr and I spent two hours practicing what he told me and I have never railed a corner in my entire life until Friday after I implemented his technique, which is like probably second nature to you, but just dropping your outside foot and waiting that foot and dropping the bike, so I did that.

Dane 41:36

And all I did honestly, this is no joke Like we did. We were talking about stuff and I all I did was mention to him that people hear those statements drop your outside foot and wait the outside corner, drop the bike instead of your body, things like that and they go uh-huh, uh-huh that's awesome and then they don't ever really think about what it? Actually means, and he just took a second to think about what he did and then went out and did it, and that's the difference.

Josh 42:03

I didn't do anything. I don't know anything. So then I came back and I told my wife, who's better rider than me?

Dane 42:08

And she's like you shouldn't do that. That's retarded and I'm like listen, listen. This is what I've come to conclude.

Josh 42:14

I'm six foot three and I'm heavy. In the way that I have to ride a bike's different than the way you're skinny. A small ass has to ride a bike so yeah, I got to get that weight down.

Dane 42:23

Anyways, we'll see how today goes and incidentally, just just a quick thing on on anyone giving you advice there's always take that with a grain of salt. But uh, that cornering technique does the best on flat corners off camber flat corners we have, no, we have loose over hard here.

Josh 42:38

Yeah, kitty litter, yeah, so that technique works well on our yeah arizona and high speed flat corners.

Dane 42:44

Any coach that tells you there's only one way to corner, just fire them immediately. You know there's multiple ways and there's multiple conditions and ways that you do it differently depending on the conditions so we have a lot of like ride groups in tucson so we've had old old pueblo mtb yeah they.

Dane 43:02

And then they have some subgroups too, like the, the divas, yeah, the dirt divas, like they're ladies um orientated yeah, I don't want to say specific because a lot of guys go on them yeah and um, but uh, that's a club. Uh, cranksters, uh, the you mentioned the addicts.

Dane 43:18

Yeah, uh, our mountain bike, these are all facebook groups right you know, and, like I said, social media helps them congeal into one group where, you know, back in the day we used to call each other. You know, we used to write fantasy every Tuesday, Thursday, and it was like four of us and we would just call each other and that phone call hey man, I'm going to be at the trail at six. We'd always do it at night, got you motivated and if you promised to be out there and didn't show, you had a lot of shame.

Dave Slagle 43:46

That was the big thing with the RMTB rides, yeah.

Dane 43:49

If you said you were going to come and don't show you would. Basically, it was a motivator.

Josh 43:54

And it's really nice to have Someone's holding you accountable.

Dave Slagle 43:57

Getting your ass out of bed. Yeah, that's the main thing for this. Rm2b rides is and people are counting on me do a ride on sunday. I gotta be there. It's like one less beer. Saturday night.

Josh 44:06

You're like I should probably put.

Dane 44:07

I should have put that, no, no, so so it's funny that you say that, because each club has kind of themes yeah.

Josh 44:15

So what's your theme then? Is it, it's beer? He's this. He's got a shirt that says eat beer, drink bikes, ride tacos and so like, and I'll just say this I'm gonna make that the title of this podcast eat beer, drink bikes, ride tacos.

Dane 44:32

I'm gonna make that the title when I first started riding with our mountain bike, there was they would stop in the trail, they would have a place that they would stop and they would all pull out beers out of their camelbacks oh, really, it was the first time.

Josh 44:44

Like don't they get all shooken up and nasty depends on how good of a rider you are. Oh, here we go.

Dane 44:49

This is why I drink whiskey because you could shake it and it still tastes good, but like that was. That was the first experience I had with that and my first mountain biking was pot smokers. When I was really getting into it they wanted to get away from town, go smoke pot and peace and just have a nice relaxing ride. And I would want to go ride and I didn't do that. But they would stop and they do the safety meeting. These guys stop and they do a beer stop.

Josh 45:15

So is that going to happen today on this ride? Is there going to be a beer? Stop in the middle of this ride.

Dave Slagle 45:19

This one yeah, that going to be a beer stop in the middle of this ride.

Josh 45:23

this one yeah, that's the nice thing about there is the trails are so short. You do a couple loops so you can have a couple. So yeah, instead of.

Dave Slagle 45:28

Instead of carrying them with you. You can leave them back at the vehicle in the vehicle. Okay, yeah, you know so you don't need to carry them this time. But usually, yeah, okay, usually I schedule and you know it's not a. It's not a beer stop, it's a refreshment stop, yes. So if you like whiskey, you bring whiskey, okay, cool. If you like soda, you bring a soda. If you like beer, you have a beer. If you're just going to drink your water bottle, then that's what you drink.

Josh 45:50

You guys, don't judge no no, no, no judgment.

Dave Slagle 45:56

Just out to have a good time Instead of going to the bar. Hang out with our friends.

Dane 45:59

Yeah, and we used to do quilting rides what the fuck.

Josh 46:04

Dave, what the hell are you talking about? So we would ride, you would stop and quilt.

Mountain Biking Group Dynamics and Community

Dane 46:09

Well, so we would stop Jesus Christ, you got big looms set up, the leaders would stop, and then they'd wait for the last people and then they would talk, and then they would talk forever and then the last people have shown up. You got to let them rest, and so you keep talking. And so one guy got frustrated. I think it was a Brian Vance ride and a Kathleen brewing and one guy got frustrated. He's like you guys are always out here quilting and like because we just sit there and talk while we're waiting and you get carried away and just, and nobody's got this, this, um, you know this strava asshole kind of mentality that we gotta go, go, go, go go everybody's just out there to for the social aspect too, and so quilting rides or social rides where you're just hanging out I actually thought, you realized we're bringing quilting shit

Dave Slagle 46:55

you guys would stop and like all right, let's work on the arm of the sweater.

Dane 46:58

I gotta get this done today but that term is awesome it is a good and it just. It was like everybody's sitting around quilting, talking like having a good time and and, uh, you know everybody's like when are we gonna ride?

Josh 47:10

yeah, we have that problem sometimes, oh yeah, yeah so that's and we were just talking about that how jilly your daughter's getting into it and she's like I gotta teach you.

Dane 47:19

Like, let's go, let's go, let's go.

Josh 47:20

And it's like she what the problem is? She's, she's gotten like she's, she's got a bunch of old men yeah, she doesn't want to talk to us. Yeah, that's why I try to engage her as much as I can.

Dane 47:28

I'm like how you doing? Yeah, she really enjoys it, but she's whipping dude, she's she's gonna be sick.

Josh 47:34

I know like if she sticks with it she's gonna be sick.

Dane 47:36

The only thing is, I've seen a lot of people that it could be really amazing and because they didn't have to struggle. They don't. They may not appreciate as much. I've seen that a couple of times with junior development teams and things like that. Where they have this natural raw talent, they go out, they do great. It's no big deal for them. That's my son. Yeah, and then because of that, they don't really feel like they're accomplishing a lot, so it's easy to just drop.

Josh 48:00

If you can go do a 50 foot double and clear it blind on your first time down and you're just like, yeah, whatever.

Dane 48:07

I'm going to go try this other thing.

Josh 48:09

He's like I really don't want to ride, yet this isn't that hard.

Dane 48:12

Jesus Christ and why did you do that? Yeah, and then you see guys like us and I. I put group where we've been doing this forever and we still got to learn and we still got to work.

Josh 48:21

You said you're learning to jump again. Yeah, I want to relearn. If my wheels get off the ground, I'm like it's like I get a half inch and I'm excited.

Dane 48:29

I finally got into where I leave the ground and now I'm like how high can I go?

Josh 48:34

the only problem I have is that, like, if you watch friday fails, you know pink bike, so here's every time they fall, it's when their wheels are off the ground.

Dane 48:44

So I'm just like if I don't jump.

Josh 48:46

I'm probably not going to fall that much.

Dane 48:48

I've learned Just don't do that, don't watch it Don't watch Friday.

Dave Slagle 48:53

I thought you were saying don't crash, no no, you're going to crash, but don't watch.

Dane 48:57

Friday fails Cause man.

Josh 49:02

I Because man, I'll tell you what it gives you all the bad juju, oh gosh, oh gosh. Okay, so RMTB Rides. Thank you, by the way, for the service that you provide. Thank you for coming and thank you for inviting me to your ride today, I guess like secondhand through Dane. It might be the last time I get included.

Dane 49:13

We'll see, so that's what's cool about these groups is you're not singled out and invited individually. You're not singled out and invited individually. It is a group that welcomes you and it's something that you can find and you can join and you can go have fun and they bring you along and they're showing you trails or showing you techniques like it's all new people.

Dave Slagle 49:31

Yeah, that's a big thing it's.

Dane 49:33

It's a community that everybody wants you to be a part.

Josh 49:35

So all these different ride groups? Are you guys like bloods and crips, like? Do you guys like everybody always thinks that, yeah, it's always us against?

Dave Slagle 49:42

them and oh, our group's bigger. Yeah, our group's better and to me it's. It's an option. You know, old pueblo does a lot of stuff over on the other side of town. Yep, um, you know, if that's where you want to ride or that's where you're going to go or they're going to go to, you know, honeybee, yeah, um, you know I'll do a ride. I try not to look at their rides. I I try to pick, being being the guy that leads all the rides. It's more about what works good for me, yeah yeah, um, which it should be.

Dave Slagle 50:11

It should be, yeah, I mean, if somebody you know, dane, comes to me, hey, I really want to ride, you know, I want to add urban assault, oh yeah, yeah, I'll plan a ride for that. That sounds fun, but you? Know, usually it's it's around, around my schedule and what works good for me.

Dane 50:23

So it usually established so his Tuesday Sundays.

Dave Slagle 50:27

So, Tuesday.

Dane 50:28

A lot of times is a fantasy.

Dave Slagle 50:29

Okay.

Dane 50:30

And remember, I took you to Mulligan's.

Josh 50:32

Yeah, so that ride we did at fantasy a couple of weeks ago, was that an RMTB?

Dane 50:47

No Wednesday. By the way, I've been to Mulligan's three times, to include yesterday.

Josh 50:49

Now you know why the shirt has tacos.

Dane 50:50

Oh my God, dude those fish tacos Like they're so basic, but they're so amazing.

Josh 50:53

Like shout out to Mulligan's man If you're in Tucson, it's amazing and so like that.

Dane 50:57

that. That's what's cool is that personality is there. And so I see people you know, cause from my perspective, I'm seeing all of the rides, you know, and I try and do my own rides and I'll, because my rides are not established, they're just, you know, shop rides. Yeah, I try, and I do look at the other ones and try and figure out a night that nobody's riding, so that I won't be by myself.

Josh 51:18

You can offer something different, right? It's not?

Dane 51:20

just Dane and Josh, right, yeah, but but for the most part like there you just get. I see people from each one. Val hits like every ride, you know, and like there's a, a couple other people they're like hit all different rides and usually like um, you'll be like, okay, I can ride on Wednesday, what's going? On and you just go to a yeah and so, and then you have the diehards.

Josh 51:40

You know there's definitely people that will go on like, hey, this is, I've picked this this group, this group, and this is who I ride with, you know, does anyone have an rmtb rides tattoo?

Dave Slagle 51:50

not that I know of. I haven't seen that yet.

Josh 51:52

Yeah, that was like back when we had our old team, the sonoran pirates. Yeah, one of the guys got a sonoran pirate tattoo and what's the?

Dave Slagle 51:57

logo holy shit uh, I got a crossbones or yeah.

Josh 52:01

It's like I got. It was in like the. Do you remember the Tucson peddler? I think so.

Dane 52:06

Yeah, yeah, it was like a magazine. It was Damien.

Josh 52:08

Yeah, yeah, yeah, we, we did an ad in the Tucson peddler at one time, just because we thought we were All right. So that's RMTV Rides. You also are involved, and have been involved, at least for a while, with SDMB, sdmb yeah, I've been like geez.

Dave Slagle 52:27

it's probably been like 10 years now.

Josh 52:29

Okay.

Dave Slagle 52:30

Actually, I don't have that on my phone.

Dane 52:32

It's almost been the same amount of time.

Dave Slagle 52:34

Yeah, so the way that started was we started this group. I had 10 or 15 riders, 10 or 15 people in this Facebook group. Like we started this group, I had 10 or 15 writers, 10 or 15 people in this.

Josh 52:44

Facebook group Like holy cow.

Dave Slagle 52:44

I didn't know. I didn't know I had that many friends. People start showing up. You meet people on the trail. Some guy's like oh man, we really need to get our own jersey. How cool would it be to have your own shirt.

Dane 52:55

Yeah.

Dave Slagle 52:55

It's like, oh yeah, that'd be cool. I had a buddy that owned one of the restaurants here in town and thought it'd be cool to be sponsored. I don't need no money, I just want to look like I'm sponsored.

Dane 53:09

Hey, you want to be on our jersey?

Dave Slagle 53:10

And talked him into giving me a little bit of money to make the jerseys nice and cheap. Yep, all of a sudden we had a jersey. I wanted to say thanks to SD&B for all their stuff that they've done, you know, taking care of the trails and and there's torca and then arizona trail association. Everybody has a little thing. I was like trail advocacy group yeah, yeah, I'll put their logos on there.

Dave Slagle 53:32

You know kind of get them in the notice. And ended up talking to uh, his name was zach mcdonald there. It's probably someone you need to get in the show too. Yeah, he's on the on the list. He's on the list. He's on the list. Yeah, Good, good dude.

Josh 53:42

We're coming for you. He's good dude, yeah.

Dave Slagle 53:47

And, uh, I I talked to him and I'm like, hey, I want to put you guys' logo on the Jersey, you know. And he's like, oh, let me know, I'll give you some money. I'm like, no, no logo. Okay, cool, so and I'm putting that logo on and that's how I ended up getting to know him a little bit more.

Dave Slagle 54:06

And, yeah, I found out about this, this bike park they keep talking about over there at 100 acre woods yep, yep and man, I would see zach or talk to him maybe once a month or once every two months, and hey, is that bike park done yet?

Dane 54:17

hey, when's that gonna open? You know it's right down the street from my work. I want to go.

Community Involvement and Trail Advocacy

Dave Slagle 54:21

I I'm going to go check it out. Oh no, no, not yet, not yet. And next thing I know he's like, hey, you should be on the board. I'm like, oh no, I got time for that.

Josh 54:32

Nobody ever has time for that. Ain't nobody got time for that.

Dave Slagle 54:34

Ain't nobody got time for that I mean, I got this running, I got work.

Josh 54:44

family, kids were at that age where you know high school, all this activities for the kids. I definitely got time for this. This sounds super familiar this is how I'm feeling yeah, right at this moment, when that's like, hey, you should come help out man yeah you never have time, you're right, you just make it, you just make yeah so I was like, nah, I got time for that, he goes.

Dave Slagle 55:00

well, you should at least come to one of our meetings and have a beer. And I'm like, oh, that's how they hook you.

Dane 55:04

A beer huh Alcohol Addiction, Addiction.

Josh 55:10

Maybe I'll come hang out for a minute.

Dave Slagle 55:12

And before the next meeting I find out that Zach is moving out of town so he's not going to be with SDMB anymore. I was like, oh, perfect, that's my easy out. You know it's easy to say no. Now, yeah and uh, I never did go to the meeting, waited a while driving to actually drive into a ride, get a phone call, hey, uh. Hey, this is Evan with SDMB. Uh, zach told me that you were thinking about being on the board. Well, you know, I was kind of busy and I got my club I'm working on and I really don't think I had time. Oh man, you should just come have a beer. Come to our meeting and have a beer. All right, maybe I'll come to a meeting. So that's the way you do it. Talk to my buddy, one of my buddies that helped me, pedro helped me start the RMTB ride, stuff.

Dave Slagle 56:02

He's a big part of that. Vote for Pedro, yeah, oh yeah, stmb wants me to be on the board. You want to go with me to this meeting? Oh, sure man. Yeah, I'll go with you. I always suck him into everything.

Josh 56:14

Poor Pedro, he is like the guy from Napoleon Dynamite, then right he's kind of like the no offense Pete Always willing to join my shenanigans.

Dave Slagle 56:26

Yeah, so we go to this meeting and it seems all right. You know, I thought first day I didn't know anybody. You know I want to hang out with a bunch of people I don't know. Evan tells me Evan was the president, then the newer president. He tells me, oh yeah, he started naming like five or six people. I'm like, oh, I guess I, I guess I do know some people.

Dave Slagle 56:48

Oh go to this meeting have a beer. Yeah, this is pretty cool. You know, I kind of want to be a part of this. It seems like something a lot bigger than me, but yeah, I don't know, it was seemed like something to do and, uh, slowly got got worked into that. And the thing with SDMB is, is they never assign you stuff like, okay, dane, you're going to do this. I need you to do this, josh, I need you to do that, you're going to do this? It's kind of a a volunteer thing. You know we don't need people saying, hey, you should, you should build a trail over here, you should do this, you should do that. It's always what can I do, what works for me, and one of the things that they brought me on for was to run rides and events, because they saw what I was doing with RMTB Rides.

Josh 57:38

Right.

Dave Slagle 57:39

And I was like I could do that. I guess, just do the same thing, but just include SDMB and invite our members.

Josh 57:46

Yeah.

Dave Slagle 57:47

Okay, so that's the way it started. And next thing you know I'm on the board and organizing this and that and started working on the jerseys or some shirts or something, and I'm handing out shirts at the board meeting one day and, hey, I think Dave should be the president. No, I'm too busy for that ain't.

Josh 58:08

Nobody got time for that.

Dave Slagle 58:09

Nobody got time for that so, yeah, sure, no, I was president for a little while and I kept things going with that and and and man a lot of stuff with sdmb started building. First thing that got me hooked was building a trail. Going out to some of the trail days, building some trail. Any time you build a trail, work on trail, you come by, ride that later on you're like man, I did that this, two feet of trail right here.

Dane 58:35

I worked on.

Josh 58:36

It's true, though, yeah.

Dave Slagle 58:38

I mean, that's your trail. Now, yeah, the more you do it, the more you go on rides, and that's all you think about is the trail that you did.

Josh 58:45

Do you like look after your little sections?

Dave Slagle 58:49

You know what I wouldn't say? I look after them, but every time I ride by it. Like if something's messed up on your part of the trail, you would stop and be like I've got to fix this shit.

Dane 58:59

This is my thing, so for our listeners, you know the Sonoran desert mountain bicyclists, which is different than the san diego mountain association, but because we've had both those guys on, but episode 52 we had nat gordon on and we focused that on what he was doing in mount graham with the graham cracker down there, which is amazing kind of big mountain.

Josh 59:17

So go back and listen to episode 52. But stmb does trail advocacy. You guys work with um government agencies to get approval. You guys do something we call brush-tober.

Dane 59:29

Brush-tober. Brush-tober.

Josh 59:31

So we have an interesting thing here in the desert In the late summer we get the monsoons that come in, so we'll get a lot of rain that comes in and then when that happens, we get a big spring up of grasses and foliage and stuff just grows a lot at that time so the trails get like kind of I guess it'd be like spring in other parts of the other country maybe yeah, so we got to go out and like chop down all that stuff and kind of brush out the trails. You guys do that because everything's sharp and pointy yeah yeah, so you, they do. It sounds like you guys, I don't do. They still do group rides, or that's not really the focus right now.

Dave Slagle 1:00:04

No, we've talked about that in our meetings and there's such a great community of already. Yeah, I mean, it's easier for RMTB Rides and Old Pueblo and mountain bike addicts to run rides.

Josh 1:00:17

SDMB doesn't need to do that, so we don't do that, that's awesome that this group and I'm starting to help out a little bit get involved a little bit there, so trail advocacy.

Dave Slagle 1:00:29

Josh came around to have a beer with us.

Josh 1:00:31

You guys hooked me.

Dane 1:00:33

The first one was at Moto Sonora, which is a great brewery.

Josh 1:00:36

You want to come to Moto Sonora.

Dane 1:00:40

I'm like, yes, why Just come hang out?

Josh 1:00:42

Just come hang out.

Dave Slagle 1:00:45

Actually, even before that that, I went down and helped nat down at graham. Yeah, I think that's where I met you at first.

Josh 1:00:48

Yeah, and you taught me how to. You can't. You're like you're not doing that right no no no, no, you fucked that up let me show you how to do that right, and it's funny just a little bit that you showed me. Yeah, um, I'm riding trails and like poorly built trails that don't have the right drainage or runoff.

Josh 1:01:08

And you can see like I think what you taught me is that cause we were, we were building into the side of a Hill. You taught me that you want to slant it down to the trail so that the water will will slide down and slow the water down before it gets to the trail, and then, so it doesn't create like a channel right there, and I've seen so many trails that were not built that way and. I'm like.

Dane 1:01:28

Jesus dude, that guy was smart it totally makes like the time I was like what the hell is this guy talking about? Why do I want an angle coming out from the trail?

Josh 1:01:37

it doesn't make any sense, just cut it and drive it down. So that's SDMB. I guess we should thank you for all the stuff that you've done for the mike mountain bike community that's awesome and you are also a uh uh brand ambassador for specialized right, yeah, tell us a little bit about that, like what does that entail and how did you, how did you get into that?

Dave Slagle 1:01:55

well, it was one of the bike stores. Again, you know the specialized store that I go to all the time sabino cycles, they um, they come to me and they were just under new ownership. One of the guys that was there for a long time ended up probably retiring, I don't know. But a new guy shows not not shows that one of the guys there bought into it.

Bike Brand Loyalty and Models

Josh 1:02:14

Yep, and the current owners. Yeah, current owner can. And then that old owner, you know, my Epic Evo. It was his bike.

Dane 1:02:21

Steve, yeah, yeah. Great dude, great dude yeah, I actually used to work there.

Dave Slagle 1:02:25

Awesome, but the old owner, mac mac, yeah, that's that's who I got the, the, the stump jumper from mac. Yeah, oh, wow. And I remember, yeah, I remember going in there five or six years later, you know, getting back into bikes and yeah, I walk in the store and mac was there and he's like hey, dave, how's it going I'm like holy shit this guy remembers me.

Josh 1:02:46

This guy is not face blind, yeah definitely not.

Dave Slagle 1:02:50

Yeah, so, yeah, um, but we uh, um. What was he talking about? We're talking about brand ambassador, for that ambassador, yeah, yeah ken comes to me and he's like, hey, uh, I want you to be a you know, a specialized brand ambassador. And I'm like, um, I ain't got time for that and nobody got, nobody got.

Josh 1:03:08

He's like just come have a beer and let's talk about it what do I gotta do?

Dave Slagle 1:03:15

well, you know, you organize some rides and and do these events and you got to build some trail and I'm like holy cow I do that.

Josh 1:03:23

I'm already doing that stuff. I'm already doing that stuff. I could just yeah, okay, and I get a specialized sign me up.

Dave Slagle 1:03:29

So yeah, I've been doing that for a couple years now, but it's pretty good. Okay, it allows me to afford bikes a little bit better yeah, just get deals on yeah so it works out pretty good. Right on what else?

Josh 1:03:45

Specialized makes great bikes.

Dane 1:03:46

Yeah, I believe I think there's. So just so you know he's picking a fight.

Josh 1:03:51

Yeah, I'm not actually picking a fight Totally.

Dane 1:03:53

I own two specialized bikes, I know, and that's your deficit.

Josh 1:04:00

Oh man.

Dave Slagle 1:04:00

Did you hear that?

Josh 1:04:01

Have you.

Dave Slagle 1:04:04

Do you listen to Pink bike podcast by chance? Every once in a?

Josh 1:04:05

while. So they just did one. You know, um, specialized, just opened a new uh development center for mountain bikes. Uh, that's kind of more in with easier access to a variety of trails.

Dave Slagle 1:04:17

Yeah.

Josh 1:04:18

It's in a different location. So they, they, they got a facility and they've got their whole like design team and test team all down there. I think it's like two or three episodes ago on pink bike. You should give it a listen yeah, it's super interesting.

Dave Slagle 1:04:28

I have to check the work that they're putting into it. So I heard about that. I never did look into it, but I heard they were opening something up yeah, and that new stumpy office looks just sick.

Josh 1:04:41

Dade's not a dade's not a lover of specialized surprise, even rise with me anytime, yeah well, I just it's because I feel sorry for you guys.

Josh 1:04:50

Oh my gosh, yeah, just the company that's got all that money to put into r&d like their products have to be shit. I would imagine you guys listen. If only you knew we were just. We talked about in the episode that recorded earlier this week about how I think most bikes are in really good shape right now. I think the companies have figured out geo. They figured out the manufacturing. If they could figure out distribution and like their pricing model, life would be good yeah.

Dane 1:05:16

There, I mean all the bikes are great.

Josh 1:05:18

Yeah.

Dane 1:05:19

And especially, you know I used to say I give specialized a lot of crap. I sold specialized uh, uh in the shop. You know we, we never try, and you know, belittle anybody's bike because every bike is awesome and if you're riding you're awesome, and um and the joke you know we joke around with our friends. Yeah, and I would make the same joke about a lot of bikes that if I don't carry them because that's my bias.

Dane 1:05:41

But um but I've, I've often said that if specialized, knocked on the door, I would probably sell it. No, no joke, and like, I say that with all seriousness because as a brand they do a great job and um, it's a good bike. And there's, you know, it's a, it's a very good bike, Um.

Josh 1:06:00

But if you only you knew a brand ambassador that might be able to help you.

Dane 1:06:05

So I told you, I just had an Evo, so I just had a stumpy Evo 2023. Ok so but I sold it. So but you know that, for for me, my whole career of selling bikes, yeah, whatever you don't sell, you have to figure out what's wrong with it.

Dave Slagle 1:06:24

Yeah.

Dane 1:06:24

You know that's what you do. Is you figure out what's wrong with that?

Josh 1:06:27

because you got a difference. You have.

Dane 1:06:28

How does the stuff I have compare? And so you get in this mindset and um, because I've had different brands and I realized that each brand is a unique and they have to, you know, have advantages and disadvantages. I don't kid myself into thinking there's one good bike, you know, and when I worked for, trek is a good example it was all we sold was trek.

Josh 1:06:48

It was probably the most frustrating job do you know how many trek frames I've broken? A lot as somebody who warranted in their, in their defense, every single time they replaced it, yeah but it just I got sick of like being off my bike for two weeks because I broke the frame again. Yeah, and and.

Dane 1:07:04

But when you sell one product and you can't sell anything else, that was super tough because I'm addicted to bikes and I I'm you know. I see a new bike and I'm like, and if it's a bike that I really like. I want to go get that brand and sell it in the shop, you know, and so, and sometimes you can't do that.

Josh 1:07:22

You just can't so. So, Dave, what bikes are you riding right now? Like what's in the stable today my two main bikes.

Dave Slagle 1:07:27

I have a uh Epic Evo which is more of a cross country yeah.

Josh 1:07:33

I love that I over well, Dane helped me overstroke it. Yeah, the new one. I saw the new one.

Dane 1:07:37

Oh yeah, seattle.

Josh 1:07:39

Yeah, 120, which is how mine's set up now do you guys?

Dane 1:07:42

is your epics? Do they have the rear pivot or are they um flex day? Flex days next day, okay, flex days. Yeah, I didn't remember so.

Dave Slagle 1:07:49

So I have that one that's my cross-country bike, and then I have um, when I was able to have two main bikes oh, let's get serious yeah I had the for the longest time. I had just the regular stump jumper. I was able to sell that. Get the uh stumpyvo, which is the next step up a little bit bigger bike.

Josh 1:08:09

That's like what Is that? A 160? A 150,?

Dave Slagle 1:08:11

160? 150, 160. Yeah 150 in the rear.

Josh 1:08:14

Yep.

Dave Slagle 1:08:15

Allowed me to get the cross-country Epic Evo. So I mean for here in Tucson the Epic Evo is great for every trail 90%.

Josh 1:08:24

Yeah, in tucson.

Dave Slagle 1:08:24

the epic evo is great for every trail, every trail in town, yeah, anything, and then you can ride it up on mount lemon, but it's definitely well, well, you could ride it up on mount lemon.

Josh 1:08:34

I could not ride it up on all bikes could go on all trails okay, how much here we go. Yeah, how much fun.

Dave Slagle 1:08:41

You're gonna survive or thrive, which is gonna be yeah be, so the faster you want to go, a bigger bike will definitely help up.

Josh 1:08:48

So you get a Stumpy Evo and an Epic Evo basically. So a Stumpy Evo. No Levo in that.

Dave Slagle 1:08:53

No, no, no, no, levo, I haven't.

Josh 1:08:55

Are you?

Dave Slagle 1:08:55

anti-e-bike. I wouldn't say I'm anti-e-bike. There was more places to ride them yeah, legally have you ridden one yeah, it was a while ago. One of the things that sdmb did is they sent me down to the uh imba summit that was in bentonville, one of the last ones they had jesus, that sounds like a rough assignment.

Dane 1:09:14

Next it was horrible. Next year, bentonville, let's do it let's do it well.

Josh 1:09:18

We got a lot of things next year, taipei bike show euro bike.

Dave Slagle 1:09:21

I'm going to whistler, whistlerler. Jesus, I'm going to have to quit my job, my real job. It just gets in the way, this whole needing money thing, damn it.

Dane 1:09:32

So you can't quit your job. I can't quit my job. I got to pay for the trips.

Josh 1:09:40

So what's next? What's the next bike? What are you thinking about?

Dave Slagle 1:09:45

That new Stumpy? Oh my God, that looks like a great bike. I need to borrow one of those somewhere. I mean, I just got a new Stumpy Evo literally in December. So, I'm not ready yet. I mean I'm ready, but it's N plus one.

E-Bikes and Community Engagement

Josh 1:10:01

Buddy, it's N plus one. You need something between the Epic Evo in this, yeah. You need a bike for every trail you need a bike for every trail. Yeah, yeah, and you need an e-bike, and if you're Dane, you need multiple e-bikes. It's crazy.

Dane 1:10:15

It's so crazy.

Josh 1:10:16

They're addictive, but we're not spending some time with us. This is awesome. Getting to know you, you seem like a really cool, cool guy. I appreciate everything that you've done for the community. Continue to do you got any final thoughts for our listeners?

Dave Slagle 1:10:29

Final thoughts Um geez, I want to tell you about a uh a ride. I was on the other day with a microbiologist. I don't know if you've ridden with them before, but much bigger than I thought they were going to be, much bigger than I thought they were going to be awesome that was awesome, thank you so much.

Josh 1:11:09

Have a good day, guys. Thank you.