Mountain Cog
Hosted by an enthusiast and a mountain bike industry expert featuring laughter and passionate guests.
Mountain Cog
084 – Unlike MF Doom, mountain bike sales reps are not supervillains. (Carlos Quintero, Enso Sales Group)
In this episode, Josh & Dane chat with Charles Kwintero (or as he says it, Carlos Quintero). Carlos has worked in the bike industry for 15+ years including roles at Giant, Specialized, and managing Bicycle Warehouse in SD. Today, Carlos is the Southwest Marketing Manager for Enso Sales Group (which covers Intense, POC, Mavic, & Derosa) and is a specialist at Guru Bikes.
The conversation includes some humorous stories from Carlos’ time at Giant and Specialized and sheds some light on the role sales reps play in the mountain bike supply base.
Enso Sales Group...
Intense: https://intensecycles.com/
Mavic: https://www.mavic.com/en-us
POC: https://poc.com/en-us
Derosa: https://derosa.it/
Carlos also digs… https://alchemybikes.com/
Listen to Mountain Cog
Apple Podcasts
Spotify
Other Podcast Sites
Socials
Instagram
Facebook
Email
mountaincog@gmail.com
Yeah, I just remembered that Carlos hasn't listened to any of our episodes. Yeah, it's probably the first time you've heard this music.
Dane:I don't know, he probably won't even listen to this one. I don't think he will. Maybe oh, I just lost my phone.
Josh:I got poison ivy and it sucks.
Dane:So yeah, I didn't even know there was poison ivy in Arizona.
Josh:Yeah Well, apparently on the top of Mount Graham at the Arcadia Trail, at the wet canyon crossing there is a significant amount of poison ivy.
Dane:I'm knocking on wood because I have not gotten poison ivy before. Yeah, well don't.
Josh:It sucks.
Josh:Willie was telling me that when he was a kid he got it and he came home and didn't realize he was in it and he took a leak. And so a kid, he got it and he came home he didn't realize he was in it and he took a leak. And so if you know anything about poison ivy, it's the oil from the leaves that is what causes the allergic reaction, and as soon as that oil gets washed off your skin, it's no longer contagious. So, like the rash itself is not contagious, okay, but if you have that oil on you and you have it on your hands and then you go, put it somewhere else, so he's like dude I had it on my junk.
Carlos:Oh my God.
Josh:So I guess, I didn't do that.
Dane:So I got a story about my grandma.
Josh:Oh, wow.
Dane:So I got her.
Josh:I haven't seen her in a while How's she doing?
Dane:She's good, she's good, I got her riding a bike. How tall is she? Now? She's four foot, and then she's just four foot.
Josh:Just straight four foot. She's a shorty.
Dane:But she's been doing 10 miles a day on this bike and I can't find her because it's been 10 days so I have no idea where she's at.
Carlos:Fuck, is that a joke, that's the dad joke?
Dane:I don't get it Okay. Is that a joke? That's the dad joke. I don't get it Okay.
Ben:So let me read it verbatim. I was trying to make it a story. Yeah, because it didn't work.
Dane:So my granny, my grandma's, dead, by the way, just to make you all feel like crap.
Ben:Rest in peace. Yeah, exactly Rest in peace.
Dane:My granny started cycling at 97 years old.
Josh:She has been doing 10 miles per day, and now we don't really know where she is. So is that bad? It's you want me to do another one? Pick that one. I mean, honestly, there's like a thousand bad ones.
Dane:That one was uniquely bad these are all bad, okay, dad jokes, uh should we just get on with the podcast, well. So there, I got one more okay, is it gonna be equally bad? So it's just a hill, get over it, that's weak, I'll look for a better one.
Josh:You don't have to, we can do it next episode, we'll get some better ones.
Dane:This says by the way, I typed in just to give myself a little credit what is the best? It said the best bike dad jokes ever, ever, yeah, and so it's kind of like we're the ninth best mountain bike bike mountain bike. Are we ninth now? I thought we were tenth nine.
Josh:I say top ten because I don't want to show off, but okay and nice.
Dane:Yes, yeah, that's, that's pretty good all right.
Josh:Today our guest is carlos quintero. How to do with the pronunciation? Uh, not good, but um say it's actually charlie last name. Say your last name. Yeah, so I know I got the carlos part right no, it's actually carlos quintero quintero, carlos quintero.
Carlos:Yeah, okay, carlos quintero, charles quintero I thought it was charlie charlie you called me char yeah our big baller Keen. You got to like Keen.
Josh:Wah Carlos has been in the bike industry over 15 years, Started out in 2010 when you ran or was a store manager for Bicycle Warehouse in San Diego. Yep Was an inside account executive and sales rep with Giant for four years. Sales specialist with Specialized. Yep specialist with Specialized. Today he is the Southwest Market Manager for Enzo Sales Group, which reps bike brands like POC or Mavic.
Carlos:He's also a specialist here at Guru Bikes. How are you doing today, carlos? I'm doing pretty good, just chilling hard here with the two main ballers of the podcast.
Dane:I'm in top 10.
Josh:You mean?
Carlos:top 9.
Josh:Carlos doesn't even know this, because he doesn't actually listen to the podcast but we reference you in every episode.
Carlos:Yeah, every time I hear the references.
Josh:Wait, so you actually have listened to the podcast.
Carlos:Well, everybody tells me about the references. After they usually hear the references, everybody wants to go and get a burrito at Nico's.
Josh:So I know the inside joke there.
Carlos:That's funny.
Josh:Who is it, Justin, that his dad joke at? He actually made a dad joke up on the fly about Carlos.
Carlos:Was it the one about not pulling out? No, it was not.
Josh:We're live right now. We are definitely live right now. It is now.
Carlos:Yes, yes, yes, yes, shout outs to Beats by Dre for providing all the sound equipment.
Josh:Right, who did your makeup, by the way?
Carlos:So there's a really good makeup artist. I think she's an ambassador for Paul Mitchell.
Dane:Yeah.
Carlos:Her name is Sharon.
Dane:I can't remember her last name.
Carlos:It's some weird last name osborne.
Josh:Yeah, yeah, I think so she had that same like british accent but you know you can tell my eyeliner looks fucking fire right yeah, it might be surprising to our listeners that we get makeup done for our guests on this episode. Yeah, yeah, there's no video. Yeah, exactly, dude, it's awesome, the vip treatment.
Ben:you know the the hot towel was nice wasn't it, Dude the hot towels, the massage the free cologne, the free iPods.
Dane:Oh yeah, so sick. The green room is dope.
Carlos:I know I just forgot all the questions.
Dane:We actually have an intern. Go and separate all the M&Ms into different color bowls.
Josh:Or like one M&M's into different color bowls. Some of our guests only want yellow.
Dane:Or green.
Carlos:Or everybody always wants a specific Swisher sweet, so they can cut it open and make a big fat blunt with that great Arizona weed.
Josh:By the way, for the record, I've gotten a lot of comments on this. I am not actually smoking weed on the podcast. When you hear me make the ball sound, it's actually just me slurping whiskey typically so so like have the comments been?
Dane:like, I can't believe you've done that.
Josh:Well, I have a security clearance I haven't had, so I haven't smoked weed since 1997 people at work are like hey, josh, uh, it's different now, yeah, everyone keeps telling me that it's different now. Yeah and uh that be careful, because it's been now. Yeah and uh that be careful, cause it's been you know what Almost 30 years since I smoke weed.
Dane:Yeah.
Josh:But the day I retire, you're smoking.
Carlos:There you go, there you go yeah. Doing some dabs. Yeah, is that what it is?
Josh:Or the day that it becomes legal federally Cause. Right now it's still illegal level employees. Yeah, yeah. What are you going to do? Yeah, what are you going to do, carlos, we got some questions for you. Sure Shoot Do.
Dane:I do, I get to go first. You go first. Buddy Sweet. Um, okay, so this is a legit question. Josh wrote a bunch of questions. I'm just going to give a disclaimer. Okay, some of. So, if you hear me, stutter, it's because I'm reading it going. This is dumb, but some of them are awesome and this is a real one that I have and it's basically can you tell us so, like, what do you do in your role at Enzo as a sales rep and how does that affect the supply chain that we live in?
Carlos:So, like the bike shop supply chain in general, like you know, the bike shop supply chain in general, so I mean, I'm still pretty, you know, new to this role, but basically my job is to, you know, basically like reach out to retailers. You know, like just check in with them. You know it's not just showing up and showing new product right, it's like checking in with them, you know, make sure they're doing good financially. You know, make sure, like what they want to order, the product that they want to carry, is in line with with their store. You know, not, not just trying to get retailers just to order, just to order, you know, cause I've, I've, you know, I've seen that you know it won't, it won't sell.
Carlos:then no, yeah, and the thing is all you're doing is, you know you're just doing a quick cash out. If you do things that way, the whole idea behind this is to and my role is going to be more of doing clinics with retailers, so it's not just talking about the features and benefits of the product, it's also about helping retailers sell apparel protection accessories, because bike shops were super focused on the bike and which is natural, and. But sometimes there's certain things like you know helmets and you know eyewear and accessories that sometimes us as shop people we, you know we forget, and so sometimes it becomes kind of awkward for for some people to sell that stuff.
Carlos:So my role is also to help you know again, the retailer and staff feel comfortable like educate, yeah, when they're talking about the product, where they don't sound like they're just reading like hi, welcome to uh, this is it has yes, it has, a carbon. You know like the whole idea is, so they feel comfortable so they can talk about it yeah exactly so aren't the margins better on accessories than they are on bikes?
Josh:Oh, for the shops, yeah.
Dane:Mostly yeah. So I mean it's you can't quote specific numbers, but I mean it's not even that. It's like you know, remember, I'm 29 years old, so I haven't been around that long, but oh my God, I'm 17. So you're letting me drink. But back, there was higher margins in, and so at some point they started slimming them, and so but today you make a higher margin on a accessory than you do on a bike. Yeah, the bikes have a much lower margin than people think.
Josh:Can you give me a percentage of like? What's the like? Don't tell me the exact numbers, but what's the difference between is it a 10% difference or 20%?
Dane:difference in margin. Like accessories you can almost do, probably another. It's almost double the margin that a bike has. Okay, so and so, but you know that accessory may be 25 bucks.
Josh:Yeah, so it's the volume, it's the size of the sale.
Dane:Yeah, and so selling bikes, a lot of people think, oh, we just get rich selling bikes. And I'm like, no, no, the amount of money you make on a bike is much smaller margin. And then you hope for the accessories and the extras and things like that to keep yourself going.
Josh:So, um, and then uh, so, so that you know. So. So we asked about enzo specifically. But you've worked in this kind of role with both giant and specialized in the past. I mean, like, can you like maybe highlight some differences between these three groups that you've worked with as to like what is the, you know, objective of the sales rep course?
Carlos:yeah. So like, um, that's actually a pretty good question because it's like each brand that I've worked for, like each role has kind of changed over time, you, you know. So originally when I was with Giant I was an inside rep and this was like right before COVID started. Before COVID it was kind of more like you show up, show the product, talk about it. You know, I feel like after COVID and you know, roles just started to change because you know there were certain reps that couldn't travel. So you have this weird position where somebody that's sitting at a desk behind the phone is sometimes doing the same job as the person that's driving.
Dane:Supposed to be driving? Yeah, they're supposed to.
Carlos:And again, there's always different circumstances why it can't always happen. But after that I feel like things did change, you know so yeah, I mean, consumers got used to buying online as well.
Josh:Brands got used to ordering online. There was probably less face-to-face interaction and more online. So like what's the role like today?
Carlos:So it was funny Cause, like so right when COVID started, like I was, you know, joke with with everybody. Um that, like you know, when COVID started, when I was at giant, my job became pretty easy. I mean, it sounds shitty to say it, but it became pretty easy because well, like bikes were flying off the shelves too, right yeah?
Carlos:Because? Because retailers were just like dude, don't call me, just ship me whatever's in my back. Yeah, you know. So that's, you know, literally you know what was happening. And then from there there's a transition to where it's like oh, now you can start going to stores.
Dane:Yep.
Carlos:So from there, like a lot of I feel like a lot of um reps had to kind of transition back into that. So then from there, uh, when I did leave giant and went to work with specialized, when I started they, they literally was like we're going direct to consumer, like they, you know, they gave me the heads up like this is gonna happen, so you know, and so how'd?
Josh:you feel about that?
Carlos:honestly it's I'm in between because you know I, I totally get it. You know obviously from working at bike shops, you know I, I, I understand both sides of it because, the thing? The thing now is that consumers just buy. You know they.
Carlos:They buy things how they want to you know, I mean you can buy a car from a dealership online, you know. So it's like get out of a vending machine, pretty much. You know like, yeah, so it's like if it's like if somebody can buy a car to them, they're like, well, I can just buy a bike, you know, and, but it's the same thing with it's still part of retail, right, it's like you can buy, you know, pair of vans or Nikes at like five different stores that are next door to each other, right, and you can even order it from 20 different online stores. And so I think that transition it's a combination of things. I think what it is is, over time, there were bike shops that maybe didn't provide the best customer service.
Carlos:And think about it, somebody that's new, that wants to do a new sport activity, you know you feel intimidated.
Carlos:Yeah Right, like I've, I've, like I, you know I kind of look at that way, like like, try going to to get into a new activity or sport, and you know you're going to still feel a little intimidated when you walk into that. That you know sports store, whatever it is, right, like if I wanted to start to learn how to play golf, I would feel really awkward walking into a golf shop, you know cause? I would just feel like I I want to do this, but I have no clue. Yeah, you know. So. Then you have sometimes you know that customer service where you know they're elitist, you know they're like what are you doing here? So that's where I can see that side of things, where why you know consumers do the online stuff. The downside about that is because a few retailers and in good do good customer service. I feel like the rest of the industry has to kind of you know so bike shops basically have to differentiate themselves with good service.
Dane:Yeah, to compete with well, they should have been direct to consumer and then brands likeized or whoever that sell both. I think bike shops should be doing that from the get-go. One of my degrees is in retail science literally like a degree.
Ben:They don't ever say it's not a fake degree, it's not a fake degree no yeah.
Dane:They teach you how to. I mean, customer service is huge, and there's a lot of people that don't go to school. They teach you you know how to. I mean, customer service is huge, you know, and and um, you know the there's a lot of people that don't go to school. Uh, don't get a degree, don't get a business degree, anything like that, and they open up a bike shop and there's nothing wrong with that.
Dane:You don't have to go to college but they don't necessarily get into the business, uh, to be a business person. They get into the business because they love bikes and so they don't have any kind of training on how to deal with people, how to treat people and how to cultivate that customer service mentality that should be there, and so they kind of just get running because they can fix a bike or they love bikes or what have you. And then that's one of the things that I see with the bike industry that seems to get the most frustrated customers. Or they they go into that shop where they're like probably all those guys are awesome mechanics and great on a bike, but they just they're assholes, but they're yeah, yeah, they don't, they don't have that customer service kind of you know cool, just be cool yeah, it's and it's, it's something that I mean I I feel like of you know, just be cool.
Dane:Yeah, it's, and it's, it's something that I mean I I feel like at guru, you know, we don't do that, we are actually separate yourself.
Josh:I mean, I've come in here several times to record podcasts or whatever and I've kind of just sat and watched how you guys seen lots of employees come in and like you know someone and we went over all this in the direct to consumer episode but like someone walks in the door, you guys greet them immediately. You know, like I went into another big shop in town, stood there for 20 minutes before anyone said anything to me and they lost me as a customer forever because they they just looked at me and said that fat guy over there doesn't, is not, is not deserving of my time.
Josh:Yeah, super old fat guy.
Dane:Yeah, I'm not that old.
Josh:I'm younger than you. Sucker what.
Dane:You're 28?.
Carlos:What I always try to, um, you know, try to bring up with. You know people are trying, you know, just to kind of get them more familiar with actual customer service. How I, how I kind of look at it, it's like okay, name the last place that you went to to shop where, as soon as you walked in, they greeted you. You know they, they gave you the time of the day, you know they, they showed you other options of what you had. So that's why I tell everybody, think about those times. So you, whether you're going to Starbucks, you're going to ACE, true value.
Josh:Yeah, shout out, I love it, dude you can't walk 15 feet without someone being like hey, can I help you? Yeah, you walk 10 feet and they're like can I help you? Can I help you, Can I help you and I need it? Yeah, and.
Carlos:I feel like, even like their services is it's real, it's not just like they're reading something you know like okay you need this.
Josh:It's like they're real guys that are trying to help you figure it out. Yeah.
Carlos:Like, I mean straight up, like again, I know you know there's, there's, you know bike shop guys that maybe don't go to the mall or don't go to retail stores, and which is fine, but if you can step into one, you know. That way you kind of get the idea, because every person that's coming into a store or to a bike shop, you know that, whether you know them or not, you know you want to still provide the same service. So if you're used to going to a restaurant, a retail store, and you're used to that, this is a retail store.
Dane:Yeah.
Carlos:This bike shop is a retail store. Yeah, it's just we sell different things, but it's like it should be the same type of service. We sell fun, yeah.
Josh:So, yeah, I mean, I remember coming in here and I'm like I got a frame off the internet I want to buy. I want to buy a dirt jump bike, I want to build a dirt jump bike and I have no fucking clue like all the specs and components and everything that I need that are going to work with this frame and your shop sat here and spent probably three hours with me as we like, researched everything, ordered every part, part. You got a couple of grand worth of business from me on that, but like I couldn't have done that, would it taken me a week or longer?
Dane:Yeah, it's but that's part of the job and that's why we're here and then and we love doing that and okay, so I got a question back to and it's a relationships. Yes, yeah, right, so I got. I got two, one that josh wrote, which is a good one. I do want to know about this. But first, before we get on that, to touch on the um specialized giant and now a rep um. So a lot of times when I hear from one of our suppliers that they're going consumer direct, they are saying, well, there's some guy who doesn't have a shop near him and we want to be able to get it to them. So is that bullshit? From what you've heard? Like I feel like it's bullshit. I feel like what they're doing is they're going into a market and they're trying to soft sell me on it and not make me feel bad or like that they're cutting me out.
Carlos:I mean I don't know. I mean like there's, you know, obviously I feel like there's always that part of it you know like cause you know you're trying to make everybody happy. Yeah, yeah, um, I think again. I think just what it is and what's? What's really weird is just like, just again, everybody got so comfortable just purchasing online.
Dane:Yeah.
Carlos:And so again, it's this weird, weird part where it's like you know you're trying to, you know you want to provide, you know for the person that wants to, you know purchase that bike, but at the same time, it's like you know they want that thing, right then.
Dane:and there, do you so like we? Just this week we had two people come in that have bought consumer direct bikes. One one bought an e-bike, that's what brand? Canyon canyon yeah and it's end up being heavier than he wanted and it's for his wife and uh, heavier than he wanted. He didn't know what was available, but he bought it online, good price, good price. And we even told him just take, send it back, you know, like you can send it back, like that's one of their things, you know.
Josh:But then he felt so he was unhappy with the purchase basically.
Dane:He didn't realize there was other options that were better. And that's one of the things that I'm always fearful of with Consumer Direct is that you're not really getting the full story. You don't have somebody advocating for you and you're kind of. You know you're just a slave to marketing. And marketing can be good, like you see your favorite influencer on TV riding trails on a particular bike telling you how you should get it, and they're just doing these awesome things on this bike and then you get it and it's a heavy, awful pig you know, but that guy wrote it, so why can't I write it like he can?
Dane:And and you don't? You don't put two and two together. That that it's. I don't want to call it a snow job, but that's marketing. That is what marketing is. They give you the best view of something and tell you how amazing it is and that you'll love it. They don't tell you the bad. Yeah, you know, yeah, and I think I feel like at the bike shop you get that. You get a little bit of like hey, this is maybe not the best product for you, maybe this is, you know, or another option, or here's an equivalent and here's why one's good and one's good, and and they may not have the same goods.
Carlos:Yeah, and and and the downside right, like it's like once you, you know, run through all those things with with that person you know, they realize like oh shit, yeah, this, you know, like it looked cool.
Dane:You know cheap is is one of the things that I hear all the time, which is I totally get it Cause, like if you think about it, right.
Carlos:So so I look at at, like you know, consumerism, right, Like there's certain things that we purchase every day and we're like I'm not going to fucking spend full dollar on that, I'm going to get the cheapest shit. Yeah, people, that that's how they look at other activities right to them. They're like this is fun, this is a cool bike, but, like whatever, you know, like I'm not fully, fully into it. Yeah, you know so. So you know, I, I totally get that side of things, you know, because, again, you see a fucking nice, flashy bike you know for like, okay, I can get it for half the price. It has all the same parts as this other bike that I looked at. Yep, like I saw the videos.
Dane:I don't understand why it's been more. You know exactly.
Carlos:So, so I I get that side of things, but the downside is, like you said, once that purchase happens, there's a lot more to it. Right? The bike's not the right size. The bike's not designed for what they wanted to, you know, to use it for Cause. Again, they saw that video somebody just bombing down this hill and Whistler made it look amazing.
Dane:Yeah, but they live here and they live here in Tucson, right?
Josh:You know that happens, you don't need a Whistler bike in Tucson, exactly.
Carlos:Yeah, no, exactly Right, like that. That happens all the time. So once they do so, again the downside to them they already spent that money right. But if you notice most of those people, they end up showing up at a bike shop because they're like.
Carlos:I just got this bike Like this literally happened yesterday from somebody that we even did a bike fit. She's like I just bought this bike, got it out of the box. This is weird. This I'm like, oh yeah, it was just simple adjustments, right, I spot this bike, got it out of the box. This is weird. This I'm like, oh yeah, yeah, it was just, you know, simple adjustments, right, yeah. But again it's one of those things they start to realize where, like, oh fuck, like this probably wasn't what I needed, yeah, but it looks cool.
Dane:Or it doesn't fit you. Yeah, exactly it doesn't fit you. It looks cool it.
Carlos:you know the name, brand stuff and everything but but online it fit me. Yeah, exactly. But but the cool thing is, like, you know, once they come to the shop, you know how I look at it. It's like I don't think we should like, when somebody does buy a direct to consumer brand, I don't think we should, you know, make them feel bad because again there's a reason why they bought it, right. Like just ride a bike man? Yeah, no exactly.
Carlos:You know there's a reason why they got it Right. There's multiple reasons. So I think, like our job, you know, in the industry, when somebody you know does make those purchases, just, you know, just fully embrace it, just like dude, I'm so stoked you got this bike, glad you're on a bike. Yeah, here, let me show you, you know, you know what you can eventually do, you know, or what you're gonna step into, like I mean, look at, like devin, yeah yeah bought a canyon yep, rode the shit out of it, uh-huh, you know.
Carlos:And then he got, you know, that pivot firebird yep, and he just realized like like oh my.
Josh:God, this bike is so much better.
Carlos:Yeah, exactly so that is kind of cool, right. Let the people kind of have that decision.
Josh:He won't buy another direct-to-consumer bike.
Carlos:Well, yeah.
Dane:And that is cool. It is fun to see somebody's face light up when they're like, oh my God, I had no idea how cool this stuff is Exactly, and so I think I get a little bitter and I think I'm allowed to be a little bitter with just some of the marketing snow that's out there, and I get a little frustrated. I was watching.
Carlos:Jeff Kendall Weed. Oh, the Trail 429? No, he just put a video out about the Trail 429. Yeah, just in general.
Dane:And I'm just like you know he's getting better Like these again. I've been exploring YouTube, right. You know, I kind of bagged on YouTube the first time that we started talking on on the podcast with, uh Josh telling him that I get frustrated with it cause there's a lot of bad information.
Josh:Yeah, and it's only good information. On the mountain cog podcast yes, that's absolutely, but but really you know?
Dane:you, you start to realize that you know some of these people's motivations, and that's been forever. You know, you know.
Josh:I mean shout out to Jeff man. I mean he always kind of says, listen, I'm sponsored by this guy.
Dane:Yes, and I've heard him. That's where he's gotten better.
Dane:I've heard him bag on products that he's sponsored by. He's like I don't really like this, I don't really like that, so I gotta give him kudos for that. Well, he's also integrated in some disclaimers like hey for where I ride. The last uh video I think I was watching. He's in squamish or something, right, yeah, he's up in the north pnw type area and he's um doing steep bellingham or yeah, yeah, and so he's. He's kind. You know. We were talking about his review on a pivot shuttle and how he had to alter it to make it work for him. Yeah, he's realized now that that's a different. He's a different rider in a different place and there's nothing wrong with that.
Josh:I don't know a single person that rides like Jeff Kendall Weed. He's a badass rider.
Dane:There's a lot Like. I want to try and meet Remy.
Josh:Dylan's going to. Ronnie said he can get Remy on the podcast. That'd be cool. I'm not going to throw out any promises.
Carlos:No promises.
Dane:When we go to Whistler next year I'm going to actually try and reach out and see if I can. Just because he rides DVO. I find that hilarious. I don't know who he is. You don't know who Remy is Remember, I'm not a YouTube guy, but you're a mountain bike guy.
Josh:How do you not know who the best freerider is in the industry? And he rides.
Dane:DVO. I know that's why I thought it was funny, because I'm like this guy's cool and he rides haze brakes too. Yes, exactly, yes, yeah, so like we got a lot in common, I'd love to meet the guy, so, uh, and have him drop me like a bad habit at Whistler.
Josh:So let's, let's bring it back to this sales rep thing. I got another question for you. So just just curious, like as a as a like Carlos, you probably don't know this about me and my, my day job. I'm always interested in the economics of how things work, and this is like a five-part question or something, but it starts with you've worked kind of in the sales world, the sales rep world, for a while. Is the compensation model for the sales reps commission-based or salary?
Carlos:So if you're working for the big boys, it's a combination of both.
Josh:So base salary and then commission on combination of both. So base salary and then commission on top of that, or bonuses.
Carlos:Obviously the commissions change because they're already on salary. Usually a lot of the bigger brands, their reps even get compensated monthly for car maintenance. Yeah, your travel expenses and stuff like that. All those things their reps, you know, even get like you know compensated monthly for.
Josh:You know car maintenance. You know, yeah, you know Travel expenses and stuff like that, yeah, exactly All those things you know.
Carlos:So and the difference, being an independent rep, you know it varies from you know different brands, but it's basically just commission-based. You know. A lot of times expenses are either you know on you, you know, or there's a certain amount where you know everything's, you know, covered, you know. So it, yeah it. It just kind of depends. But for the smaller brands.
Josh:It's more salary based. Um, no, no no. So so for everybody, it's it's commission and salary.
Carlos:Uh, yeah. So like, for instance, like yeah, if you're, you know, probably working for you know, the bigger brands like you know specialized giant Cannondale Trek. You know you're probably like on on.
Josh:You know salary and in commission Okay, and then the smaller brands is what?
Carlos:Yeah, it just depends. But usually a lot of smaller bands are are brands are just going to be, just, you know, commission based pretty much.
Josh:So commission based for a small brand. So so which model, this combination of salary and commission for the bigger brands versus, you know, straight commission, which model do you think is more effective for the from the brand's perspective?
Carlos:I mean honestly, like one way or another, it's going to be more effective when you're on salary and commission, because the thing is too like if you're on salary right, you do have somebody like yo, you got to step up your goals, you know. So. There's also, like you know that, that motivation.
Josh:So that way too, you're, but you attract better talent with a with a compensation model that's got some kind of fundamental like protection with the salary. Is that where you're coming from?
Carlos:yeah, because you know at the same time, too right, there's, depending on the territory that you have, there might be seasons where it just sucks.
Josh:you know it's just summer in Tucson yeah.
Carlos:You know, so like um, you know, I think obviously you know salary and commission, you know kind of keeps you again just dedicated to. You know what your role is every day. You know, um, you know versus, you know sometimes being independent. You know you have multiple brands, you know that you have to kind of deal with, so you have to kind of figure out. You know when's the. You know what brand's going to work better at each store. You know different seasons versus when you're just working for just one brand, just literally just rolling up, just talking about that lineup.
Dane:Gotcha, yeah, all right. Right, so I got one of my questions. So if money was not an object, I will not make out with you, dane, I told my wife I'm like I mean, it depends on the dollar. Wait, you just changed.
Carlos:So what you're saying is there's a chance. Yeah, yeah, a million to one.
Ben:I've got a bunch of cash on me right now.
Josh:How much would it cost?
Dane:for you to make out with Dave I mean I can hear you Is a hundred bucks enough. But who gets the money, Carlos?
Carlos:Oh, Carlos gets it.
Josh:Because I know you would make out with him for free.
Carlos:That's probably true. All right, nobody will know, it's a secret.
Dane:Does Carrie listen to this? Yeah, she does.
Josh:Don't tell Carrie or Tara.
Carlos:Tara, if you're listening.
Josh:I can attest.
Dane:Trust me, they're both laughing at us.
Josh:Professionally, it wasn't, it was a professional kiss.
Carlos:Yeah, there's no feeling, it's like acting, we just tongue-tied.
Josh:It's just like acting. It's just like acting. I mean, this is a production, yeah exactly.
Dane:All right, all right. So if money wasn't an object no brand affiliation, you don't work for anybody what bike would you buy? That's actually a really good question. So I want to clear this up because I don't want to hear some canned answer because you work for one company. I'd be a derosa and I'd have mavic wheels on it, but like, like actually that's a really good question if you could go out and just be like, uh, somebody said, hey, whatever you pick, I will get you g miller dream bike.
Josh:What's your dream? Yeah, like what is what is your?
Dane:what is the bike that you would pick?
Josh:are we? Are we specifying a specific discipline and why no, I'll leave it open. Okay, leave it open and why.
Dane:And that's because you know. I want to know your reason.
Carlos:Does it have to be just one, or can it at least be two?
Josh:Two bikes? Yeah, two bikes yeah, let's go. Are they two different bikes? Yeah.
Carlos:Well, just so I can give you a reason why bike oh, no, no, no okay, I'm just saying no, I'm just saying, like like brands, like like like, say okay two brands, okay.
Dane:So if it was, I swear to god, if you say specialized and giant, I'll be so mad have you ever heard of giantalized? No, no so so, uh, you mean a spying spying special, special, special lion. Yeah, so you know. So I I actually started riding.
Carlos:Spiant Special Iant.
Josh:Special Iant. Special Iant.
Carlos:So I actually started riding mountain bikes. It was about 94. So I really got into cross-country mountain biking. So this was when I was living down in San Felipe, mexico. So I did that for I want to say about four years, did state and national championships. So I subscribed to say about like four years, did like state national championships. So I was like I like I subscribed to mountain bike action, right, so every time I get that fucking magazine you know like I would get it and like just go through everything and memorize it yeah, like, yeah, like I cause it was a month, so you got another one.
Carlos:Exactly yeah.
Josh:I don't even look at my magazines anymore. I keep subscribing because I feel bad, but like I'm, like I digest so much content online, Keep it.
Carlos:All the last, like mountain bike action magazines I got. I would just take them from the giant bathroom you know, because I just go into like, oh, they got the latest edition. Yeah, no, like I think. Okay, so back in the day I always wanted a Yeti, okay, you know, and this is like 94, 95. You know, like when, like I don't know.
Dane:Yeah.
Carlos:So, like I don't know, I've always had a thing, I've never ridden one. I don't know how they ride Like.
Josh:I don't know. You're really going to pick a bike you've never ridden?
Ben:Yeah, no.
Dane:Again. So, I think that's more pure right, Because he's doing it off of like whatever.
Josh:So which Yeti would you get?
Carlos:SB-160?.
Dane:Or would it be in the 90s Yeti?
Carlos:Well, that's what I'm saying Because I always remember the Yeti arc. The yellow and blue had, like the Easton carbon. You know, trispo. Yeah, like that was the shit.
Josh:Like the stuff that Missy Gio was like no-transcript.
Carlos:Had it or I wanted it back then we couldn't get it exactly yeah, so now you got like 40 of them yeah, 50 of them looking around I would say like as an older, you know traditional brand, you know, definitely like a Yeti. I would say on the newer brand something kind of a little bit weirder or you know something a little bit more. I guess you could say underground. I think the Alchemy bikes were pretty sick.
Dane:The newer bikes.
Carlos:Yeah, so they use a.
Josh:Yeti design. Alchemy is like a hardtail. No no no.
Carlos:They make some sick yeah full suspension.
Dane:So they kind of adopted the old Yeti design when Yeti switched to the new Switch Infinity.
Carlos:Yeah, yeah, exactly.
Dane:And they're cool bikes. They actually are really cool.
Carlos:Yeah, I think those, and even like the Rebels, are also pretty sick. Again, they remind me of that kind of style bike, you know. All right, let's put our answer next. Dude, I set this up.
Josh:I put it on the tee Perfect for him to just hit a home run. I knew he was going to say specialized and he didn't.
Carlos:No, you have completely disappointed me. You thought it was going to be like. Yeah, you know, net over in.
Dane:He's like I always want to be like net. Specialized cross country and giant free ride, that's what I'd ride With the Mavic wheels.
Carlos:I mean the only thing that was kind of sick, like when I was at Giant, like in the fitness room they had a bunch of like the older bikes there so sick. They had Tomac's bike.
Dane:Yeah, yeah. And then they had one of I think it was like they have the tomac, uh intense. Yep, no way they had the tomac intense that was painted giant.
Carlos:No way, that's cool yeah so it's kind of cool like every day, like walking through there to talk with my homies, like you just look and you're like, oh shit, I remember that bike.
Dane:Yeah, that was the one I wanted, you know that's kind of where that question comes from, because back in the day, you know, when giant didn't have a downhill bike and they had sponsored riders, they're like, well, what the hell do we do? And those guys are like, I want this bike. And then they just painted it Giant or Mongoose.
Dane:You know Eric Carter was Mongoose Intense, I mean, they were the fabricators that made the coolest shit they really did, and so it's kind of cool, because there was a time when even pros got to actually pick their bikes.
Carlos:Yeah, got to actually pick their bikes.
Dane:Yeah, exactly, and it was so cool because you're like that's not that brand, that's an intense yes, exactly.
Carlos:You're like I saw Chainsmoke.
Dane:I know it's the same bike that Sean Palmer's riding. Shout out to Sean Palmer that dude is crazy. Oh yeah, he's probably high as hell right now.
Carlos:Yeah, hopefully I'm not but he is All right.
Ben:It's story time. Okay, carlos.
Josh:Okay, so you know you've been in the industry for 15 years. Yep, what is the best like weird, odd or funny story you can tell us? You know, obviously related to bikes. Okay, In your time in the industry.
Carlos:So I think. So I have a couple of weird ones Go for it. So I'm not going to mention the brand. It's definitely not specialized. Okay, definitely not non-specialized. Yeah, because it couldn't be. No, no, I'll let each person to their imagination. I think the weirdest thing was moving from San Diego up to Newberry Park. Not talking about the brands moving from San Diego up to um very park.
Dane:Uh, not talking about the brands.
Carlos:Uh, no again shout out to everybody at a giant that are still homies. Like you know they're, you know they're the friends, but like um, I had a he's picking his words.
Dane:Nobody can see the dancing. Yeah, I know he's totally like he's uncomfortable.
Carlos:Because the funny thing is, like all my friends and everybody that I still know at Giant, they probably know this story, so okay. So the first few weeks.
Josh:So we've established the company now.
Carlos:So the first few weeks, exactly, like you heard me. Whatever, fuck it.
Josh:So, a couple.
Dane:I say this All you have to do is say no offense, and then tell the story.
Josh:Everything's good with the no offense You've absolved yourself, you're so indemnified, so I'm just going to just tell.
Carlos:I do have a couple of stories I'm just going to tell. The one is a little bit more appropriate, cause I don't want to get anybody in trouble. So when I first, you know, again moved from San Diego up to Newberry parks, literally about like three hours Right, and so my third week there at giant, you know they knew I spoke Spanish. Yeah, so I'm there. And then, um, one of the, like, you know, lobby secretary, you know people that were working there.
Carlos:So they go up to my cubicle and they're like hey um so um you speak Spanish, right, and I'm like yeah, you know, you know only on weekends, you know no.
Ben:So so I'm like yeah, yeah, like you know what's up.
Carlos:You know again like I just started there. So I'm like you know, yeah whatever you need me to do.
Dane:So can you tell the gardener if he can just not cut this one tree down? Yeah, sure.
Carlos:Okay, so we walk outside, you know, and it's like me and two other people.
Dane:You're out on Giant's lawn.
Josh:It took two executives from Giant.
Dane:What do we do?
Josh:Someone find Carlos.
Carlos:So I go outside, I'm like, yeah, okay, yeah, you know, I'm like, of course they just need me to translate something. We're totally fine, I get it. So I go out there and then you know like they're like, hey, can you tell him just leave this tree up here, but not this one? I'm like, okay, so, like you know, start. You know like, hey, si puedes nada mas cortas este arbol y el otro no. And the dude just looks at me like what the fuck did you say he doesn't speak Spanish, he spoke Portuguese. Oh shit.
Josh:So I'm like isn't Portuguese and Spanish pretty close no not at all.
Dane:Well are they not, they're not even related.
Josh:They're both romance languages. Come on.
Carlos:So it was kind of funny. I'm like, yeah, I don't speak Portuguese, and they kind of looked at me like what I'm like yeah, totally different language, totally different language, totally different, totally different.
Josh:So you go inside and they're like does anyone speak Portuguese in the company? Pretty much.
Carlos:But the funny thing is like the next day I was wearing a Brazil jersey. No, I'm just kidding. You got any other ones?
Dane:that are like more incriminating that you can like not tell yeah that was tame, that was pretty tame, that was good, but your voice was good.
Josh:Just don't tell me like keep any details out of names or specifics.
Dane:Yeah, yeah, exactly. Or change out of names or specifics yeah, yeah, or change them.
Carlos:You could be like felipe, so craig, no, yeah, I mean like this guy named fernando. What was what was pretty funny is, um, like it was fun. It was like interacting with different like retailers, like when I was a giant that would come and, you know, visit, you know, like visit the store. So we'd always like usually go out with with everybody. Yep and um, there was one of my retailers that came out, um, they were from the Massachusetts area, it was South, I think it was South cities.
Dane:I is this pertinent Cause you're narrowing it down?
Carlos:Yeah, Somebody's going to know who it is. Oh no, no, they're they, they're, they're they're East coast bike shop.
Dane:Yeah, no, there's super on the corner of fourth and third.
Carlos:No, they're like super, super cool people. Um so they came out to you know, newberry park and um so what I did is, since they were, you know, part of, like my, my, my territory, I was like dude, so I literally took him around Ventura, took him to all the bars, took him to a few taco shops down there.
Josh:Yeah, is that like taco shops? Is that like code for something else?
Carlos:It depends, it could be no. No, I literally took him to a taco shop, I mean he lived in Tijuana.
Dane:I thought that was like.
Josh:California slang for strip club.
Dane:It could be? That would be nice.
Carlos:No, the slang for strip club in Tijuana is Hong Kong Hong.
Ben:Kong, what Really?
Carlos:Yeah, it's either Hong Kong or Comida, china, that's what they call it.
Josh:We used to call it the ballet ¿Cómo se dice Comida China en español or en inglés?
Carlos:Chinese food.
Josh:Okay.
Carlos:So the reason Chinese food.
Ben:That.
Carlos:That's a translation so the reason is so in Tijuana there's like a it's a strip club called Hong Kong. A lot of Chinese women there. No, no, no no. So well, the funny thing is like it's kind of more of a joke with everybody that like lives in San Diego or in Tijuana.
Carlos:So there's always a joke that that when you know somebody is going to go down to like the strip clubs, they're like, oh, I'm gonna go and get comida china, you know I'm gonna go get chinese food, but they're mentioning they're going to hong kong yeah, okay, so you never got to the taco shop or the taco yeah no, so what was cool about it is like um, so you know, I took them around there in ventura, went to like a couple bars, um and dude, they had like the best time ever. So the following day we were still supposed to have, like you know, meetings because they were you know they're there for a reason yeah, I've never seen a crew so hung over, like so hung over like it's like I, I got to work and you know I'm.
Carlos:It's not like I was like, feeling you know 100, you know I was 99. Yeah, work hard, play, feeling you know a hundred percent you know, I was 99%, yeah, work hard, play hard. Yeah, you know, I'm just trying to keep it real and so like, uh, I can remember rolling in and I was like dude, you guys look fucked up.
Ben:You know, I was kind of like you guys need some coffee or anything.
Josh:Maybe you went too hard last night.
Carlos:But, but no, they, they had an amazing time. Um, like it, amazing time. It's funny because the following week when I called him, they have that Boston accent.
Josh:Oh, Carlos, this is the best time we've ever had. Oh my God, that is the worst Boston accent I've ever heard. I know I should have been. That's like New Orleans or something right there, I know.
Carlos:Well, that's my Mexican Boston accent.
Dane:It's just basically New York accent.
Carlos:Like hey, hey.
Josh:God, I wish this was on video. We wasted all that money on makeup. I know.
Carlos:I know, dude, look at how shiny my skin is right now.
Josh:You look so good though. You look so good, yeah, yeah.
Carlos:Dude shout out to Calvin Klein for providing the perfume.
Dane:That's awesome, ck1. Ck1, baby CKB doc Got that black CKB bottle. Okay so Josh wrote a question that's awful. It's a great question. I don't even want to read it.
Carlos:I already told you guys about making out.
Ben:Yeah, so like basically he wants to know why Specialized is the best bike in the world.
Dane:It's just a horrible question. I knew you guys were going to do that, yeah. So what I'd like going to do it yeah. So what I'd like you to do is tell me what drivetrain do you prefer?
Carlos:Oh, okay, god damn.
Ben:Yeah, Schrammer, Shimano buddy.
Josh:AC.
Carlos:Delco, take a side, pick a side.
Josh:He's going to say micro shift, okay.
Dane:Don't even I like the mic that's on the kids micro shift. Okay, Don't even I like the mic that's on the kids bikes.
Josh:We can agree on something.
Carlos:Yeah, high five, hey, but you guys don't have macro shift.
Dane:I don't know Um what's on your bike.
Carlos:On my bike, my bike um on my bike. I have a SRAM transmission. Yeah, so transmission.
Dane:And it's because you got that free that you put it on there.
Carlos:Yeah, yeah, yeah, Like they hooked me up. No, just kidding. Paid full pop. No, I mean honestly, like I think you know both brands, Shimano and SRAM like they make really good stuff.
Josh:Seriously, you're going to give us the political answer. You're not going to pick a side.
Dane:You kind of have to If you work in a bike shop, Because in a week Chris is going to be here, our Shimano rep. He's going to be like I heard.
Josh:Yeah, he is going to be. I'm going to send him this podcast, I know.
Ben:I know.
Dane:And then Jimmy's going to call me a week later and by the way Shimano's got new stuff coming out, campy dude, I'm all about that, campy Campy.
Carlos:Have they ever?
Dane:done a mountain bike group. Yeah, they did a while ago.
Josh:That must have been when I was like four. I think it was called Dampy.
Dane:No, it was Dampy, that's.
Carlos:If you got it to work, You're like damn but um I don't know, I I have been digging the sram stuff in the last couple years, but, um, you know, I think I don't know, like, again, every brand is always trying to one-up each other. Yep, you know so. So I am pretty excited, like once the shawana stuff comes out.
Dane:You know like, I I'm amazed in the shop it's pretty, even split you know, like as far as like uh, customers, employees, everything like everybody.
Josh:It's pretty even like there's really no, I definitely prefer your employees that are on shimano, like willie's one of my favorite guys, that's but that's the thing is like when he uses the sram chain I'm trying to think so.
Carlos:No, I'm just kidding.
Dane:Brian's on SRAM, no, brian's on XTR. Oh yeah, that's right. So Brian's on XTR, willie's on XTR. They actually sprung for the nice stuff.
Carlos:Yeah, yeah, they got the XTR Like yeah. Not like the cues.
Dane:Yeah, I don't get the XTR was on my way. Josh is on like dior. He's like look, I am. Yeah, I got no problem with dior rocks it's great, I got cues.
Carlos:I mean, what's what? Is interesting too. I mean, I know it doesn't matter to us everyday, you know lemon bikers yeah lames. Uh, lame, you know well, like, you know, like just watching, like the olympics, some of the people were on shimano oh, yeah, yeah, cable you know they were playing. You know they had the guitar, strings, guitar strings attached to their derailleur.
Josh:There's nothing wrong with a guitar string.
Carlos:Ernie Ball.
Josh:Shout out to Ernie Ball.
Carlos:Ernie.
Josh:Ball. Listen to this guy.
Carlos:Do you play guitar. No, no, I just went to a lot of Warped tours when I was a kid there you go Perfect. I would always get free shit.
Josh:I shifter cable and it never fit through the housing. It was way too short. Yeah, it's the shortest shift cable I've ever seen. Is this for ants? Oh, I totally want to try it. What do you call?
Dane:the brake. Um uh the brake, uh, wedge, it's like it's way too thin, it's way too thin, and why is it?
Carlos:triangle shape like every time I'd shift. Be like boom, be all boom boom, boom, all right.
Josh:So, since you work for both Giant and Specialized, can you tell us anything about the differences that you experienced between them? Maybe it's around product development or how they go to market, or the culture. What were the big differences you saw between Giant and Specialized when you worked for them?
Carlos:I mean honestly the big difference I noticed from Giant and Specialized. It's like like it again, it sounds weird, but it's like like being at the like, the sales meetings and everything. It's like it's. It almost felt weird, like you know, cause I, I like, I think one of the first um sales meetings that I was, uh, that I participated in, was, um, I think, like Jason Momoa was there.
Josh:Oh, no way this is this is, this is what specialized yeah.
Carlos:Like I didn't I didn't see him in person, but it was just like you know, like he was there and then and it was funny cause, like, um, you know, when they did the cells thing, they even like, had a video of like Harrison for like. Hey everybody is specialized Thanks, you know like.
Dane:Indiana Jones, you know last crusader.
Carlos:But um so it, you know it, it did you know and it did have this like feel more. Hollywood. Yeah, yeah, I mean it. It kind of did because it's like, um, you know, and again you can tell it cause it's they're on a different level. So, it was always funny when I was at giant, cause I know the person that's running giant used to work for a specialized.
Carlos:So there's this internal clash you know, in between, but the funny thing is like Specialized is just on this other level. Yeah, you know where it's like. So imagine if you're like you have your own local AXS TV show and you're the one that fucking everybody knows. And then you have the person that hosts the Tonight Show.
Dane:Those are the two different Pretty much.
Carlos:Yeah, when you're just like oh yeah, yeah, I gotta wait over here so I can talk to you. So giant is excess. Yeah, giant is like. Uh, yeah, it's like the wb, it's like the wb.
Dane:Oh my god dude, jesus, that's probably the most inflammatory thing you've said. The wb I mean again.
Carlos:They thought I spoke Spanish.
Josh:You do speak Spanish, you just don't speak Portuguese. I don't speak Portuguese Spanish. Ask him the mountain cog question.
Dane:Is this mine or yours?
Josh:Go for it man Shit.
Dane:I've got to read it because I don't have it memorized. It's a paragraph.
Carlos:Do you want?
Dane:me to do it.
Carlos:Do you want the answer in Spanish? So, here's what Josh wrote. I saw him writing it.
Dane:So he's letting you know that Mountain Cog, by the way, which is top 10 in the world.
Josh:In the world. Top 9 in the world.
Dane:We'll just go with Mountain biking. We don't want to be bragging, not overall Mountain biking podcast Top ten mountain biking podcast in the world.
Carlos:You guys are like right there, right tied with Joe Rogan's podcast.
Josh:We're so close. If you were at Joe Rogan's podcast, we would not be working at a bike shop.
Dane:Everybody listening, just tell one more person to listen and Joe Rogan's done yeah he's done, done, yeah, he's done.
Carlos:we're gonna put him out of business put him out of business.
Dane:You're done, son. So knowing that, um, why are you not an avid listener?
Josh:okay, like why don't you listen? Why even you listen to one episode?
Dane:okay like we even call you out.
Josh:I know I get you to listen, I think this was a ploy for us to call yeah so I mean to be.
Carlos:I don't listen to any other bike podcast. Okay, so like, the only podcast I listen to is just comedy podcast. What do you?
Dane:think this is.
Carlos:True, it's not a comedy podcast.
Dane:Somebody looked it up. I actually showed it to the guy and somebody looked was it Eric? I showed it to Eric and it was under comedy. I kid you not no?
Josh:I have us listed as these comedies. That's what I mean. No, and this is awesome.
Carlos:So like there you go.
Dane:There's your loophole.
Carlos:No, again, it's awesome because it's funner to like talk with you guys.
Dane:Like you know, just to have fun and talk shit.
Carlos:Like, honestly, like I don't listen to any. Like there's even, like you know, I have like super close friends that have, like you know, bmx podcasts. I don't listen to them are they top 10 in the world. Yeah, okay yeah, yeah, no. And again it's like, it's no, because the thing is like, like we're saying that in just.
Josh:I mean, we really are top 10, but we're saying that in just right, it's a very small pool.
Dane:Yeah, we're. Yeah. Yeah, there's like 17 people actually there's like 100 people.
Josh:No, there's more than that maybe more.
Dane:Well, there's more than that, maybe more, there's probably 117.
Carlos:If you look later at your followers. You'll see 20,000 followers just because of me. Yeah.
Ben:That's why we brought.
Josh:Carlos on yeah, I mean, you know it like really hurt my feelings. No, so again, again, I don't, he couldn't even like just give me like a cursory, like just a courtesy. He'll take people out to taco bars and strip clubs and get them blitzed, but he won't listen to our podcast. He won't listen to one podcast in the way home. What the fuck.
Carlos:What I should do is take somebody down there Now that you're a rep.
Dane:You have to drive around and listen to these.
Carlos:What I should do is take somebody down to Tijuana and be like all right, we're doing this live for for mountain. Uh, mountain cog podcast, uh, you know. Um, no like, so this probably sounds funny, but like listening being here like at guru.
Josh:Yeah, hearing about bikes all day yeah, conversations, you don't want to hear about bikes when you get home yes, I but I can accept that, but but not not in this, like I'm fucking over it.
Carlos:It's just more of like I need to just kind of chain chain it up.
Josh:It's like I don't want to hear about, I don't want to hear about missiles when I log off of my work. No, no, exactly. Yeah, I'm with you.
Carlos:So it's like a lot of the podcasts I listen to is just always like it's obviously mainly it's comedy or it's like music.
Josh:Yeah, so like I that is probably the only acceptable answer that you could have given me carlos and you, just once again, once again.
Dane:We call that sidestepping.
Ben:Sidestep. No, no, you once again shut me down.
Dane:So the guys were talking today about this podcast and Ben wanted to call in.
Carlos:Yeah, we were going to.
Dane:Can we yeah? Okay, here.
Carlos:I'm going to have him give us a call. Should we call?
Josh:Ben? Yeah, let's call him. How do you pipe it in? Give me a call. Should we call Ben? Yeah, let's call him. How do you pipe it in? Give me a second. Let me see if I can figure this out.
Dane:It's been a minute, keep talking. Oh, you can do Bluetooth, okay, and we'll make Ben feel very uncomfortable. So, hey, you know what? We should talk about some of your stuff that you sell, while Pretty much, yeah, okay, yeah, Whenever you're ready, we've got to put in Ben's number, oh nice. So on the Mavic front, what is the newest, coolest thing that you've seen?
Josh:Wait, mavic is still a company, so we've talked extensively about this. They were badass back in the day, but I haven't heard from them in a while. What's going on? I haven't heard from them in a while.
Dane:What's going on? I don't know what happened to them, but in the US they pulled out for a little while, much like a teenager. Don't pull out, don't they do the opposite. I don't know. Looking at teen pregnancies oh my God, they were bought by somebody else. That company then bought Envy.
Carlos:And then they sold Mavic right. Yeah.
Ben:Is that right?
Dane:Like so they're like nevermind, we got a good one.
Josh:This is like some, some South. You know, I'm not even going to make a South, I'm going to keep it, yeah.
Carlos:So I mean so basically like kind of back into the not not the same hands, but it's like now back into like um, so it's a family I can't remember their, their last name, but it's a family that basically I guess they own a bunch of different like car dealerships on france and they're like really into cycling, so they're, I guess you could kind of say they're kind of like the, the waltons you know of, uh, right on you know. So they're kind of like like, like like that, and so you know it's one of those brands where it has, you know, this history. You know like I think it's like 135 years of like just been you know making wheels.
Josh:So so you got something like you got some. So it was a brand with a deep history, had some, had some kind of sketchy ownership over the years and now it's back into an ownership that really believes in bikes.
Carlos:Yeah, because I mean, again, it's like, I guess, how I look at it, it's like if there was like a I don't know like a car brand, that kind of phased out for a little bit. But you've always known about them, you know their history, you know their background.
Dane:Yugo, yugo, yugo comes, I can. You've always known about them, you like. You know their history, you know their background. You go, you go, you go comes on.
Carlos:I can't wait till you goes. Come back, no you go no, you go, no, you go Is that, like Nova, are they really coming back?
Dane:No, Okay, like usually, if something fades away they don, and like a phoenix yeah, well.
Carlos:So the funny thing is like it's funny like when I talk with people like because? Because I think the issue for a while was because they're proprietary stuff, right, yeah um that killed them in like the late 90s, early 2000s yeah, again replacement stuff, but it's like everything is proprietary. Now are they still doing that?
Josh:I mean, those wheels, right there, are proprietary that he's pointing to a set of bird wheels. For the record, yes, so so you know.
Carlos:So that's a funny thing. We, you know, when I have those conversations with, with, with people it's like, whoa, what about this? I'm like, yeah, even an industry nine spoke a nipple is proprietary to, that will set because it's a system. Yeah, right. So it's like if you're trying to build just a rim and hub, yeah you're gonna, you're not gonna use those specific items, you know. So, um, you know how I kind of look at it. Like I, I rode the their wheels when I was like at bicycle warehouse, we carried mavic, I rode their wheels I've had good.
Josh:I've had good.
Carlos:I mean, back in the day I had really good luck with mavics, like I probably had them on every bike I had yeah, I mean like, if you think about it, like when you ask anybody that has that has had mavic wheels, there's never been like oh, they sucked. It's always usually mechanics of why couldn't get their parts, you know it's.
Dane:A lot of times is that and then I get it.
Carlos:I totally understand it, but it's like, but for like the, the user or the consumer to them are like dude. I don't care, this feels good. I want this Like you fix it.
Dane:Yeah, are we calling Ben or no?
Carlos:Yes, I'm going to get his number. Put his number in. You got it right there, yeah.
Josh:There you go here. Just type it in that way. We don't have to say it on the air, Although it would be funny if we said it on the air.
Dane:You just put a 555. Seriously, I'm not even joking. So you do 1-555.
Carlos:It says Benedict right, 555. Five, five, five. So it's.
Dane:Benedict right Five, five, five, five, five, five.
Josh:It's been a minute since we Actually the only podcast episode that we have that has multiple phone calls in it was Is the secret one. Is the secret one.
Dane:Oh no, Did you crank call New Zealand?
Josh:No, we called oh, for fuck's sake.
Dane:Dude, you got to put it in again. What, oh, oh, for fuck's sake.
Carlos:Dude, you got to put it in again. What? Oh no, never mind, okay, here we go. So this is Benedict, this is Ben Benedict.
Dane:Ben, this is so cool. I didn't know we could do this. We can do this. This is so sick. This is awesome.
Ben:Hello, hello. You are on the air right now yes.
Carlos:You are live on, so are you are you dressed?
Ben:long time listener, first time caller yeah, are you. Are you dressed? Yeah, I have to comment right now that the audio quality of getting through my phone yes uh, it's absolutely terrible oh is it really?
Carlos:it's not because we're live. We're live right now totally live.
Josh:yeah, sorry that the audio is terrible, didn't know that.
Dane:But it sounds good, you sound good, it sounds good in our end, which really is all that matters.
Carlos:It sounds like ASMR.
Ben:Ben, have you had that second beer yet? No, not yet. I'm actually just about to start a video chat with a friend to help them on a project, but I got a moment to chat.
Carlos:What's the project about?
Ben:It's really boring. She's trying to get a job.
Carlos:Okay, let's move on to the next thing.
Ben:It's not for him access or DI2. I gotta say that. What did he say?
Josh:It's not DI2. Oh man.
Carlos:It's DI hashtag.
Dane:Alright, so we called you for a question.
Josh:What's the question that we're going to ask Ben? No, he's supposed to ask us a question.
Dane:Oh, he's supposed to ask us a question, just a random question.
Josh:Yes, and Carlos is our guest, so we'll address the question. Yeah, charles, charles, yes, quintero, quintero, quintero.
Dane:Willie Quinoa.
Ben:So my question okay, so I'm asking it to Carlos.
Carlos:Yes, go for it. Okay, but in a question, can you?
Dane:do it in the form of a question yeah, obviously Okay.
Ben:so, Carlos, quick question, dude you ready.
Carlos:Yeah, wait, wait, wait, wait. Okay, now I'm ready.
Ben:All right, could you do me a favor? Sure, okay, that's it.
Josh:Okay.
Ben:Pleasure talking to you.
Josh:Love you All. Right, talk to you later, babe. Toodles Cheers.
Carlos:Love you.
Ben:No, I actually I don't have any good questions on my mind because I kind of just phased out of bike mode.
Carlos:Just ask a bad question A bad question.
Josh:Okay, well, how great Specialized and Shemar.
Dane:No, that's not a Shemar call.
Carlos:Dane and I made out.
Dane:Yes, we did, josh gave me $100.
Josh:We recorded it.
Dane:You can hear the audio. It's just audio. Oh, we just did it again. There you go.
Ben:Does it sound like two rubber balloons just squeaking against each other?
Josh:Pretty much.
Dane:You nailed it.
Carlos:You should see the hickeys, oh God.
Josh:All right.
Carlos:They look like little heart shapes.
Dane:This is going to end up being a secret episode. How do you do that? Is it the collagen in the lips? Yeah, from the makeover, If you notice.
Carlos:I do the yeah, because you know we got a makeup artist With the Botox Bot. It's Botox in.
Ben:Texas called Botox it sounds to me like you guys are recording a bike podcast and not talking about bikes like at all no, we're on bikes, we are talking about?
Josh:yeah, this isn't about bikes.
Dane:We just ride bikes while we do it. Let's ask Ben.
Josh:Since we bothered him, let's ask Ben a question what is your favorite bike that you own at the moment, and why?
Carlos:that's a good question the favorite bike that I own yes, sir it's down to three bike that you own at the moment and why?
Ben:Ooh, that's a good question.
Carlos:The favorite bike that I own. Yeah, yes, sir, now that you use.
Ben:Okay, so right now it's down to three. Oh no, no, I had, yeah, for a while like there was one part of my life where I had like five or six, and like when I moved here it was down to two. Okay, and now I have three bikes, okay. It's really difficult because they all do different things very well and I have a good time riding all three.
Dane:Okay.
Ben:So how do you do that? Well, you don't. You plan different rides, so that way, you ride one bike at a time. Um, but I'd have to say, like my favorite bike that I own, it's gotta be my light touring bike, because I've had it Like it's been the bike I've owned the longest of my life.
Josh:Is that the Elephant? What kind of bike is it?
Ben:It's by Elephant Bikes, it's National Forest Explorer. I've had it for nine years now Wait so you own an Elephant.
Carlos:Wait, what do you feed?
Ben:that thing, the caloric requirements alone are insane, but it's worth it, hopefully it still has its tusks right. Yeah, that elephant has more personality than I do is what I would argue, could you?
Dane:imagine picking up poop, elephant poop, yeah, elephant poop. Dude, we are all over the place today.
Josh:It's got to be the size of your head or more. I think the beer I brought was too strong.
Ben:So hanging out with Dumbo. So about the elephant? So I think the thing when you're trying to decide how long to hang on to a bike, at least the more committal aspect of it, is like what are you doing with it and what's it doing for you and what is it not doing for you, which is why I have three bikes.
Ben:ultimately, like all bike nerds have like more than one thing yeah, and it's because they all, they all do different kind of riding in different sort of situations differently, and I I firmly believe that a bike is the best when it's designed for a specific purpose and you use it for that purpose yeah but on the flip side of the coin is I have this nfe because, yeah, it kind of does a lot of really thing, a lot of like a lot of different things, pretty damn good and I would argue that it's better at cycling than my body is by a lot.
Josh:I think we all are there with you.
Dane:Every bike I've ever owned so this is, this is a like a. Is it a gravel bike? It's the gravel bike, or that's what you're saying.
Ben:It's multifaceted. It's multifaceted. It's kind of like from that ethos of design. Before gravel, bikes were like a marketing term and like you gotta keep in mind that like bicycles predate paved roads.
Dane:Yeah.
Ben:So, like bike began as gravel bikes and they will end as a gravel bikes.
Dane:Nice. So bikes began as gravel bikes and they will end as gravel bikes. Listen to this guy throwing down the facts a little bit of knowledge super deep.
Ben:I think that's a good place to end with you and so this is a bike I can strap a bunch of shit to go camping, commute on it, ride on pavement, ride it on fire roads and dirt roads and derbos and just kind of like have a blast at. Like you know, there's uh, one other bike vlog out there now. I think they do more video than anything, but they have a a phrase called party pace party it's kind of like yeah, you go and you have a good time they're called the pathless pedals and that kind of idea is like the NFC, like yeah, you can pick it up and make it move, but it shines best as a party pace.
Ben:Like have a good time while riding without like the need to suffer or get yourself beaten up on like hard Sonoran granite.
Carlos:So that's ready for Cinco de Carlos, right.
Ben:Absolutely. It is a primo Cinco de Carlos right. Absolutely, it is a primo Cinco de Carlos bike.
Carlos:There you go. If nobody knows about the Cinco de Carlos, all right, you've got to look it up, right?
Ben:And it's also it'd be good for Carlos del Cuatro as well.
Carlos:That's right. So it's a two-day event next May, so everybody's invited.
Dane:So it's Cuatro de Mayo and then it's Cinco de Carlos.
Carlos:So it's a two-day banger where we basically ride to every awesome spot that we know of and do shots at every single bar, oh God.
Dane:Oh yeah.
Josh:My son's birthday is on Cinco de Mayo, so I don't know if I can make it. Well, for next year, know if I can make it, that's definitely got to be a social ride.
Ben:For the next one, one station is going to be shots of alcohol, the other one is going to be a COVID vaccine. The next one is going to be firing wrist rockets to have Alina or whatever is in our way. It's going to be all different shots, beauty shots of them all.
Carlos:And dressed up as mariachi, because we've got to celebrate the Cinco Day or Cuatro Day, you know.
Josh:Hey, ben, yeah, exactly Ben.
Ben:Thanks for answering buddy this random number that you didn't know. You got it. Thanks for calling you. Guys have been great tonight.
Carlos:All right, man, take care, I love you. You've been listening to this live, right, yeah?
Ben:Yeah, I got it streaming on real audio I'm a real player of it.
Josh:We don't stream live, by the way, for our listeners. You're not missing anything.
Ben:I think this is going to be a thing. The Guru Bike's secret anniversary is going to be a live podcast.
Dane:Nice, that's a good idea. We can do it yeah.
Ben:I'm down, don't miss out.
Carlos:Take care, guys, cheers.
Ben:And only a coward would edit that out of the podcast. Yes, he just called me a coward. Yeah, yeah, don't forget about that second beer, ben.
Dane:Don't forget about that second beer. Cheers. Go pick up elephant poop, get it Okay.
Ben:As always, Later guys.
Josh:Okay bye, I just proved out that we can do that super fast Phone in. I like that. That worked out nice, all right.
Dane:Caller line two yeah, I feel all professional now we could, we could do questions, we should. I always wonder how that works. You listen to audio shows and they're like, yeah, this question from caller or something, blah, blah, blah. And I'm like did you get that two weeks ago? Like what's cool, is that person been waiting two weeks to hear your answer? I got it I got it.
Josh:Well, look, I didn't ride for two weeks and now I know how to change a flat. All right, carlos, carlos, before we end, you know, tell us what you're excited about, like new products or whatever. What you're excited about with mavic, with poc, any of the companies that you represent.
Carlos:What I am pretty excited. I mean, first and foremost, like I love, you know, getting out there being on the road, like I love, you know, stopping in shops, just seeing the different personalities of different shops and just kind of getting you know an idea, like you know how things are run Because you know first being here at Guru. You know we're locked in, you know we see what's happening here, but it's always interesting to see what's happening in different, different areas and different territories. Yeah, but what I am pretty excited about a lot of the POC stuff is their apparel looks pretty sick. Yep, yeah, it looks pretty. It's pretty simple, like nice. Like you know, I feel like right now riding apparel is kind of past that, like 90s moto, you know, neon flashy you know, stuff.
Carlos:You know. I think like now everything's just kind of a little bit more kind of like low-key. You know, yeah, or things like you know match, like look good. You know, um, so there's a lot of really cool stuff you know, coming out from poc, um, even like even I'm not a big fan of you know, road cycling, but like there's some pretty sick like road helmets, yeah, um, and then and then like the mavic stuff does have some pretty cool stuff out. You know, like there's um, for instance, on the mountain side they do have like their cross trail. You know carbon wheels that just came out pretty good price they're like 1500 bucks, you know carbon, carbon carbon, um, and then again all the the mavic road stuff too.
Carlos:You know carbon, carbon, carbon, um, and then again all the the Mavic road stuff too. You know it's like you can never, never go wrong. You know so it's. It's like anything, you know, it's just it's another option to what's out there. You know so it's like I feel like anybody that's stuck. That's a firm, you know, a believer in certain brands, like they're going to always you know, believe in that brand.
Dane:So you know.
Carlos:I feel like a lot of these brands are, you know, brands that people who know about that. That's what they're going to follow.
Josh:It's not really trying to convert people to. You know different stuff I did. I did go out to Virginia tech's website which does all the helmet testing for the bike companies and I did notice, out of all the bikes they've tested or all the helmets they've tested for for bicycling, there's five pock helmets on there that all have really high ratings, so yeah well, the whole idea, like with, with pock, it's like they're the first, you know, the first concept about them is safety.
Carlos:You know safety, performance and design. You know. So, if you look at like, you know again, every brand has their different motto, like what they're trying to achieve, what, what they want to, you know, showcase, you know. So there's some brands that you know want to showcase somebody that looks cool, which obviously we always want something that looks cool.
Ben:Right, right.
Carlos:But then there's brands that want to focus on just the protection and safety side of things you know. So what I think is pretty? It's a combination of both you know, and again form and function, yeah, and, and also too, just like everything just kind of looks a little more simple. You know, again, I feel like all the brands are kind of going you know that route, you know. So you know, I'm, I'm, I'm pretty excited about all you know, all the stuff that's coming out.
Josh:Right on, okay. One final question. All right, I want to know what's up with the haircut scissors you have tattooed on your right arm.
Carlos:So my mom used to be a hairstylist, so that was kind of like.
Dane:I know it sounds cheesy, right.
Carlos:It's an honor Homage to your mother. Yeah, exactly.
Josh:Once again he like crushes my question and you can't argue.
Carlos:I can't argue with him, but no, like so I don't think I've ever paid. That's why my my tattoos or whatever, like I've never paid any like money for any of my tattoos. It's always just been homies Like hey, I learned how to tattoo.
Dane:I'm like all right, I practice on. Yeah, it's like have.
Carlos:I actually drew it myself um but like, but yeah, it's just kind of just that.
Josh:And then you know if anybody knows about mf doom. I know about mf2. Yeah, I don't know about mf2. You got now. You know it's because you're 75 years old, that's true. No, you're 29, 29, you're just too young to know about mf doom? That's what I'm talking about. He's got you man. Do you have any final thoughts for our listeners, brother?
Carlos:um, yeah, I would, you know, support your local shop. You know, that's the main thing, you know, because what you want to think about is like supporting your local shop is like supporting your local grocery store, supporting your local restaurant. You know, I know sometimes, you know, financially, sometimes things don't align, you know, with you know different shops or anything but it with with, uh, you know different shops or anything but it's like I think everybody just has to remember, like you know, be a part of the community, support it.
Carlos:Um, you know if, if you did buy a bike from a direct to consumer, you know, I mean, I know some people might give you some shit, but you know what I think is cool about it is like at least those people are on bikes. You know they're supporting the actual cause and you know, again, just, I think, just stoking people out. You know riding that I think that's the main goal for everybody Ride a fucking bike. Yeah, yeah.
Josh:Well, hey man, thanks a lot for joining us for some time it's happening. It was fun.
Carlos:Now I will listen to this podcast Are you going to listen to just this? One. No, no, no, I will listen to the rest Fuck yeah, dude, awesome.
Josh:You don't say you're going to listen to the rest. There's a lot of episodes out there.
Carlos:I probably won't listen to my own, because I feel weird listening to my own shit Now that you're going to drive A lot, exactly, take care, guys. No, I really will.
