Mountain Cog
Mountain bike podcast that will make you laugh and learn. Featuring a wide range of passionate guests. Available everywhere (Apple, Spotify etc).
Mountain Cog
109 - Bike Shop Secrets & Gear We Like: SportRX Huckson Sunglasses, Vittoria Agarro Tires, Frameworks DH Frame and more.
In this thorough mountain bike gear review episode, hosts Josh and Dane share their honest, long-term testing experiences with popular MTB products including SportRX Huckson Sunglasses and Vittoria Agarro Tires & Inserts. The discussion covers detailed performance analysis of Vittoria's graphene-enhanced tire compounds, weight comparisons between different tire and insert combinations, and practical advice for desert mountain biking conditions. Josh provides an 18-month review of SportRX Huckson glasses, explaining why they've become his go-to choice for mountain bike eyewear over popular brands like Oakley and Smith.
Dane delivers an in-depth first ride review of the Frameworks downhill frame, comparing its performance and surprising weight characteristics against his carbon Phoenix bike at Sunrise Bike Park in Arizona. The episode also covers essential bike shop secrets including tire installation tricks using 50-gallon trash cans, troubleshooting pedal kickback issues with different hub engagement systems, and the importance of professional mountain bike coaching versus self-teaching. Listeners will gain valuable insights into product selection, setup tips, and real-world performance data from experienced riders and bike shop professionals.
SportRX Huckson Sunglasses (Prescription & Non-Prescription): https://www.sportrx.com/sportrx-huckson.html
Vittoria Agarro Tires: https://vittoria.com/products/agarro-trail
Framworks DH Frame: https://rideframeworks.com/
Listen to Mountain Cog
Apple Podcasts
Spotify
Other Podcast Sites
Socials
Instagram
Facebook
Email
mountaincog@gmail.com
it's been a while you said that it's.
Dane "The Suspension Guru" Higgins:It's been a while. You said that it's been a while.
Josh "Magellan" Anderson:We've had so many episodes pre-recorded.
Dane "The Suspension Guru" Higgins:We haven't recorded one, and it'll probably be two months before we issue this one too, so I just listened Tuesday to our I think it was a Bike Shop Secrets that we just released. Yeah.
Josh "Magellan" Anderson:And it was out of order. It was totally out of order.
Dane "The Suspension Guru" Higgins:Do you even remember recording it? It was like three months ago, yeah, and and uh, I was just thinking to myself.
Josh "Magellan" Anderson:God was totally out of order.
Dane "The Suspension Guru" Higgins:We're going to have to actually pay attention to it.
Josh "Magellan" Anderson:Like if in order, well like, try to make them like future proof.
Dane "The Suspension Guru" Higgins:Yeah, you were like hey, there's some in Borg embargo stuff we can't talk about and we've already released that episode. Yeah, all right, I got a question for you.
Josh "Magellan" Anderson:Oh okay, why did the scarecrow win an?
Dane "The Suspension Guru" Higgins:award. Oh, oh, I got this. It's because he was in Wizard of Oz and I'm pretty sure he got an Emmy.
Josh "Magellan" Anderson:Nope, oh, it's because he was outstanding in his field.
Dane "The Suspension Guru" Higgins:You know, I wonder if all the scarecrows like if that's like a, a Jesus thing, like cause they're like nailed up on posts.
Josh "Magellan" Anderson:Oh my gosh. We've said no politics and no religion on this podcast. Buddy, we agree to that. That was one of us. Part of the terms and conditions.
Dane "The Suspension Guru" Higgins:I'm just wondering how they all look at them Like, like, are there others? Like do do? I'm like, like, are there others Do do? Department store dummies look at scarecrows in a different way because they're nailed up on posts? I don't know, I mean that's interesting.
Josh "Magellan" Anderson:So I don't know what's better.
Dane "The Suspension Guru" Higgins:They probably have a better view. Are they envious? Well, I don't know, but if they're on the second floor, they're better.
Josh "Magellan" Anderson:Yeah, okay, okay. I don't know where the hell we're going with this. I don't either. You know what I'm excited about Our podcast continues to grow. That's awesome. It's modest growth but it continues to grow, like every month it's more listeners and Instagram is growing and it's cool.
Dane "The Suspension Guru" Higgins:Yeah, it's. I get people contacting me which is awesome, yeah and either telling me I'm full of crap or that I think I was right.
Dane "The Suspension Guru" Higgins:Yeah, Either one doesn't matter. I'm happy to hear from them. I'm just a lonely man and I just want to hear from people. But, uh, but, yeah, no, it's been great. Uh, I, I really enjoy it. Uh, the the big thing that, um, I've been doing lately is doing a lot more testing of equipment and I wanted to kind of share that I don't want to you know, be like everybody else, yeah yeah, this isn't like.
Dane "The Suspension Guru" Higgins:The goal is not to give you a bunch of stats and tell you how many newton meters something is and like you know, whatever all of that stuff. You know I may throw out some of that stuff, but really it's to kind of give practical information on stuff we're we're trying out uh, there's a number of products that we're trying out, both of us and uh give people kind of a like an your viewpoint, which I feel like is like the every man.
Josh "Magellan" Anderson:I'm the every man.
Dane "The Suspension Guru" Higgins:Yep, you're the every man.
Josh "Magellan" Anderson:I feel like the every man.
Dane "The Suspension Guru" Higgins:And then my viewpoint, which is, you know, is it snake oil, Is it real, Is it marketing or is it, is it feasible, Things like that? And so that's kind of what I want to do, Not, you know, like you know, I don't want to have, like, a Canyon bike in the background of our you know studio that you know I'm constantly referencing because they pay my paycheck.
Josh "Magellan" Anderson:So so we have no sponsorships on this podcast Currently. We do get some product every once in a while from folks that want us to check it out, and we've had some folks send us some stuff and we've been like hey, we're going to be open and honest about this. If you send it to us, you're welcome to send it, but we're going to be transparent about what we think. Now, Dane and I are having a healthy debate on whether this is a good idea or not, including some product reviews. I think today we got some product stuff we want to talk about. We also have some more bike shop secret questions, depending on how the time goes. So we'll see how it goes, but let us know, like do you dig this content? Do you want us to talk about products or not?
Josh "Magellan" Anderson:I think, like, our perspective is that we're going to talk about products that we've had, you know, like longterm review or a bunch of time that we either really like or don't like, and give you guys those perspectives. And again to to this point, we're not sponsored and if we ever do become sponsored, we'll let you guys know in the event that we're talking about a sponsored product, we'll be very clear about that. So, yeah, you should get like unbiased opinions and some of these things Dan and I have both used. We might not agree. You're going to hear the perspective of both of us. Yeah, that's very true. You want to start or you want me to start?
Dane "The Suspension Guru" Higgins:I got my paper in front of me. Go for it.
Josh "Magellan" Anderson:Dan's going to start with a product that he's been digging, or a suite of products that you've been digging. If you guys hear thunder and lightning behind us, we apologize. We live in Arizona.
Dane "The Suspension Guru" Higgins:We're in the monsoon, which is awesome. We love the rain, um, so, uh, uh, I have been riding this brand for a while. Uh, it's a vittoria, vittoria tires, and so a little background on vittoria is there. Uh, we did a podcast with, uh, ken avery, yep, yep, so and cool guy. I had been riding vittoria well before I even knew ken, or got to know him, and we should disclose that after that podcast, victoria sent us some product to ride.
Josh "Magellan" Anderson:They did, they did. They're not paying us, but they did send us some product.
Dane "The Suspension Guru" Higgins:Yeah, but I will throw out that I've been riding this product I'm going to talk about before that. So, roger, so it wasn't him doing that. Um, the the tire inserts I'm going to talk about are a little bit new. So the big background story is I discovered Vittoria back when it was called and some people may know this GX or geeks or whatever you want to call it and that was the brand name that Vittoria had for their mountain tires, and we had a tire called the Goma. I don't know if anyone's old enough to remember the Goma. Nobody's old enough 20, 26 by 2. Uh, I don't know if anyone's old enough to remember the Goma.
Dane "The Suspension Guru" Higgins:Nobody's old enough 20, 26 by 2.4, which no one no one on this podcast ever rode 24 inch tires 26, 26.
Dane "The Suspension Guru" Higgins:Yeah, Um, but, uh, I love those tires. They did great. Um, we also had, uh, the Saguaro Saguaro, saguaro, S-A-G-U-A-R-O, thank you, cause I can't spell. Um, so I've been riding these tires for a long time and then they changed their name. Finally, vittoria, who was really really well known in road, changed their name to, to, uh, the GX brand. They, they just shelved it and just made it so it was gx. Previously it was gx, is was their mountain division and vittoria was their road division. Then, uh, they got rid of the gx name and just decided to stick with vittoria and if you want a deep dive on this, go back to episode 100.
Josh "Magellan" Anderson:Beyond marketing vittoria's approach to mountain bike tire design and manufacturing look at you having that queued up.
Dane "The Suspension Guru" Higgins:Look at that I know. So okay, to get to the review, I have been riding a tire that they make in our desert conditions and I ride enduro downhill cross-country trail. I ride everything. This is my favorite tire right now and it's called an Agero, so it's the Vittoria Agero. They come tire right now and it's called an agaro, so it's the vittoria agaro. Um. They come in various widths pretty much two widths now they've narrowed it down to 2.4s and 2.6s. They come in 27s and 29s. They usually have just a trail casing and so vittoria has um in their lineup. They have an enduro casing which is much more durable, and they have a trail casing for their tubeless tires. The big thing that Vittoria does that I I kind of grabbed on to early was they put graphene into their, their rubber compounds, which allows them to last longer and still have a good bounciness or grippiness, you know.
Josh "Magellan" Anderson:Yeah, yeah, okay. But like we talked about all the technology okay with ken in that episode, like how are they working?
Dane "The Suspension Guru" Higgins:so when I ride these tires, the biggest thing that I notice is that the side knobs are pretty even.
Dane "The Suspension Guru" Higgins:Uh, they're squared off and they're real supportive, so they're not super tall. So, like if I ride a dhf or a dhr, um any of the maxis big tires, like the enduro tires, they have big fluffy knobs and they kind of get a little squirmy on our hard pack and so what I've noticed on the agueros is a little bit lower knob so they do wear a little faster, like you know. Uh, they're just not as much material but they're so much lighter and so when I spin them up to speed it's faster. When I want to turn the wheel it's faster. Uh, they grip awesome in the corners. They do real well in shale and hard pack, but they still have enough knob to grab into pine needles, like when we're on mount lemon. So for me it's one of the fastest, lightest tire that it just barely holds on to the enduro category. So like I wouldn't call it a like a like a no-brainer enduro tire, I would call it a like somebody who wants a light, fast tire, they can ride this as an Enduro tire.
Josh "Magellan" Anderson:So only drawback that I found and I talked to Ken about this is… Ken Avery, the product manager for Vittoria, yep for.
Dane "The Suspension Guru" Higgins:Vittoria is that I was getting some sidewall cuts and actually pinch flats, you know, and he suggested I run the new Enduro tire I'm sorry, the new Enduro tire insert, and so I had been running the old insert, which is kind of round, and the old Vittoria ones, you kind of. You had to cut them and then loop them around and then zip, tie them together.
Josh "Magellan" Anderson:I mean he also said there'd been some manufacturing changes that even without the tire insert. Yes, that may have resolved that.
Dane "The Suspension Guru" Higgins:Yeah, yeah, they put in. Let me see, I made notes. They put in a bead, kind of a bead shield that is wrapped around like where the bead is. That makes it stiffer near the edge of the rim so that when you compress the tire down near the rim it's harder to get your tire to cut at the bead. And that's what I was having problems with to get your tire to cut at the beat, and that's that's what I was having problems with. So that's my. My big take on these tires is that I want something light, fast, kind of adaptable to almost every terrain and durable enough, you know, to be able to ride on an Enduro bike. I'm I'm super easy on on wheels, so I will. The disclaimer to all of this is that if you're known for denting and tearing tires, I would go with their bigger tires and their Enduro casing. But if you're a cross-country person that gets aggressive, this would be a great tire. And if you're somebody who's light on tires and wants a faster Enduro bike, this would be a great tire.
Josh "Magellan" Anderson:You know, it's interesting when we talked to Ken and I think one of the things he told us that we can't give any specifics. Right, we shouldn't give any specifics, but like they make tires for more than just Vittoria.
Dane "The Suspension Guru" Higgins:Yes, yeah.
Josh "Magellan" Anderson:And so that kind of opened my eyes a little bit. And then they did send us a couple. They sent me a Mazan Martello which I had started on my e-bike. I've just put on my Enduro bike, which I had already pushed on you. You had already pushed on me and I was not a Vittoria fan, but since I started riding them I am now systemically going through every one of our bikes and swapping them all over from primarily Maxxis to primarily Vittoria. One of the things I've had a lot of just love for is the mezcals on my gravel bike.
Josh "Magellan" Anderson:Yeah, yeah, yeah. It is just fantastic. It's a great tire Like. I think I've tried five or six, not five or six four or five different uh gravel tire configurations and at least for the loose over hard dry pack that we have out here in the desert for like cross country type trails on that gravel bike those mess cows are and they're fast.
Dane "The Suspension Guru" Higgins:They're fast Do. We sell a lot of those to the Leadville, like our Leadville athletes that go do a Leadville, they love that tire. Um, so the um, the insert that I got from him that's new, is the biggest drawback to their old one. It was kind of round and so you could run flat all the time on it. Uh, not all the time, but you could run flat all the time on it. Uh, not all the time, but you could run flat on it. It was so round and filled your tire so much that you could have a flat tire and still ride in.
Dane "The Suspension Guru" Higgins:Uh, you can still do that on the new one, but it's shaped closer to a like a cush core where it has like kind of a bead lock center channel and then it kind of flares out to protect the rim and the big thing that. Um, because I've ridden a lot of different inserts and I gotta say that this is one of the lightest inserts I've ever ridden, and so I did some calculations because, unlike you, I'm doing the opposite. I've been going through my garage and kind of forcing myself to try new tires because I get into a like, a tire I like and I just stick with it right, and I'm trying to try new products, so I'm not, I'm trying those.
Josh "Magellan" Anderson:Hence the Schwalbe, the Schwalbe Yep.
Dane "The Suspension Guru" Higgins:Trying the new Schwalbe. I've been putting Maxis back on my bike to to ride them. What yeah?
Josh "Magellan" Anderson:Are you putting Maxis back on your?
Dane "The Suspension Guru" Higgins:bike yeah. You know Maxis to a point where I'm like sometimes people buy maxis because of the hype and not necessarily because it's the best tire yeah, so I like a little bit of an underdog and vittoria was kind of that underdog that would consistently shine if you actually tried him can I take his down a rabbit hole?
Josh "Magellan" Anderson:sure, I don't know if you noticed, but my buddy chris's bike's out in the garage. You're gonna take his fork home to work on it. Yeah and uh, he showed up there today with new tires. He was all excited. I got new tires, yeah and, and so he's got a ranger, uh, revel ranger, which is effectively like a downcountry slash, cross country bike. Uh, yeah, it's like, it's like a 130, 120, yeah, and he shows up with 2.6 dhfs front and back yep, yeah, same tire.
Dane "The Suspension Guru" Higgins:Yep, yep he's like I got him for 50 bucks, man, yeah well, so like we have a guy and and he's probably going to listen to this who buys, he's going to get mad at me and send me, uh, some sort of hate mail yeah because he buys the tires that matches bikes color, you know.
Josh "Magellan" Anderson:So so like forget the tread or the casing or anything like that.
Dane "The Suspension Guru" Higgins:He says he swears that they're good tires and they ride good, but he buys them because they're that color and because of the.
Josh "Magellan" Anderson:Are these the versus tires?
Dane "The Suspension Guru" Higgins:yes, yeah and uh baby foot, and oh baby foot shout out to baby foot.
Josh "Magellan" Anderson:Yeah, baby foot's injured right now and it makes me super sad because he's not going to be all right on our upcoming angel, oh yeah.
Dane "The Suspension Guru" Higgins:Yeah, so so these inserts. I put the inserts in. I can't. I did a weight comparison of one of my bikes. It's got the Maxis DHF. I'm sorry, dhr, on the rear.
Josh "Magellan" Anderson:Yep.
Dane "The Suspension Guru" Higgins:And it's an exo casing, max grip 2.5. I think it's 2.5 okay, I think that's right um and wt and it is around 1100 grams for that tire. So it's got extra protection. The exo is one level and then exo plus gives you a little extra. It's not a DD, it's not the downhill specific rating. My Vittoria tire is 970 grams, so that is.
Josh "Magellan" Anderson:Is that a trail?
Dane "The Suspension Guru" Higgins:That's a trail casing, so they have the bead protection.
Josh "Magellan" Anderson:So similar to the XO, I would say like an XO not an.
Dane "The Suspension Guru" Higgins:XO Plus, and then I also have the, the insert, which is around 135 grams, and so combined they're at 1100 grams. So now I have a lighter, faster rolling tire with an insert. With an insert, so I have a similar pinch flat protection and rim protection and then it's just faster. So and that's really what it is, and in our terrain that this is really important, because you know we talking to over 60 countries in our terrain that tire is really fast and still grippy.
Josh "Magellan" Anderson:Um now, you're still on the Victoria Saguaro, saguaro.
Dane "The Suspension Guru" Higgins:Aguero.
Josh "Magellan" Anderson:Aguero.
Dane "The Suspension Guru" Higgins:Yeah, the Saguaro was their older, older design, Uh so. Aguero Older design, so Aguero. So the Aguero is kind of like if you took their cross-country tire and it had a love child with their downhill tire, you know basically.
Josh "Magellan" Anderson:We're talking about love children now. Yep, yep, all right, perfect.
Dane "The Suspension Guru" Higgins:So okay, so that is my product review on. These is basically great tire, super fast, corners, awesome, light and agile, not necessarily for a shredder. You know, Um, but for a a aggressive trail rider or a super aggressive cross country person, they're a great tire. Uh and just will make your bike feel a little bit lighter and more puppy.
Josh "Magellan" Anderson:Can we? So I've got a public service announcement, okay, uh, related to a Victoria product. Poppy, can we? So I've got a public service announcement, okay, uh, related to a Vittoria product.
Dane "The Suspension Guru" Higgins:Okay.
Josh "Magellan" Anderson:So I you know, ken sent us some product and what he sent me was some, uh, enduro casing, mazda Martellos and some of the e-bike, uh specific liners, which I've gotten my e-bike and I've had no problem. I actually absolutely love that configuration. It's working great so far. I don't know, maybe 10 rides on it. Um, but I also bought the airliner lights xc's, xc's and I put that on my uh those are stupid light, like 50 grams or something, yeah, yeah, don't quote me, but it was their stupid light.
Josh "Magellan" Anderson:Yeah, I put them on my uh epic evo, which is a kind of downcountry bike, although dane and I have or dane, I should say dane, dane has like overstroke that bike, so I think it's like 140, 130 right now. I think that's right. Yeah, and I went out on a long ride a long ride for me anyways, 18 miles and I got six miles in and had a sidewall rip.
Dane "The Suspension Guru" Higgins:Oh yeah.
Josh "Magellan" Anderson:Okay, yeah, um, and you're going to hear about this in the stands, in the stands podcast, right, when we talk about, like, the dart tool, which would have solved my problem. But I didn't have a dart tool with me at the time, so I, I'm a big boy 250 pounds at the current time, which, by the way, is down from 305. Nice, can I get some?
Josh "Magellan" Anderson:wait wait, that's the wrong button. Why am I laughing at myself? All right, but 250 pounds, not a light guy and the whole like run flat thing with carbon rims and a air light on my bike didn't work with 250 pounds. So I weigh too much and you have which? Insert the xe. I have the xe airline I think that's too light. I think, for if you weighed 150 pounds or 170 pounds, probably no problem, but for 250 it was too much yeah the problem was I had a tube, I had everything I needed.
Josh "Magellan" Anderson:I couldn't get the tire off the rim on the trail with the insert in it. Oh, you need like a spat, like I, for this particular configuration of of you know, reynolds carbon wheels with the tire that I was running, which was not a vittoria tire don't't get mad at me.
Josh "Magellan" Anderson:And these inserts Just too tight, like I spent an hour and I could not get the tire off. Yeah, so I walked. So I called my wife she four wheel drive my truck out to sag me out and I turned an 18 mile ride into a seven mile ride in a two mile hike, into a seven mile ride and a two mile hike. So the lesson there is understand that it's hard to get the tires off on the trail with inserts in. And if I'd had a Stan's dart tool, which we're going to talk you've probably already heard this by the time this podcast comes out we would have released the Stan's episode. But that dart tool is designed to fill bigger holes and it also has a chemical composition that reacts with the stand sealant assuming that you're using stand sealant and creates a forever bond. Had I've had the stands tool, I would have used the dart. It would have sealed, I think. Yeah, very easily.
Dane "The Suspension Guru" Higgins:maybe I had to did you have any bacons or anything?
Josh "Magellan" Anderson:I had bacons. At all that stuff, none of it worked. It was too.
Dane "The Suspension Guru" Higgins:It was too too too big a hole.
Josh "Magellan" Anderson:Okay, um, and I didn't have that much air. I had like two uh CO2 cartridges and I expended those, so I ended up having to walk out. You know, this is like the walk, a different type of walk of shame, but I had to walk a shame, had to walk out. So that's the lesson I learned is like, if you're running inserts, you know, think about the implications of a trail side flat If you had to change it and throw a tube in as an emergency, which I run. Those I always carry those tubalite, tubalito, uh, really thin polyurethane tubes because they're super light, super small, they pack down really small, they're great, they work good to get you out, get you home. I had lots of experience with the, with the two Alitos, and I think there's other brands that carry the poly.
Dane "The Suspension Guru" Higgins:Yeah, we've got them in the shop. A couple of different brands make the same stuff. Yeah, same stuff.
Josh "Magellan" Anderson:But those were great. But that was an experience you know, like you can't, you inserts in on the trail.
Dane "The Suspension Guru" Higgins:My first experience with kush core um, I needed I put it in at the shop. I got it in. It was a struggle this is when it first came out and this we would hang the kush core on the, the bike stand on the jaws and then you would almost sit in the hoop to stretch it out. And the other trick that we tried was taking the CushCore and putting it on the dashboard of the car for an hour or so in 100-degree weather to heat it up and make it more pliable, and those all worked really well.
Dane "The Suspension Guru" Higgins:Stalling it on one of my downhill bikes and then needing to change a tire in my garage I wasn't at the shop and pull my tire off and I'm using tire levers and I got so angry, could not get the stupid thing off. This is the when it first came out, like it was the only. I think there was a couple other brands on the market, but this was the stuff. Cushcore was the stuff to get. And I just got so angry. And a buddy of mine that I ride with um, who had been doing using it too, had developed this trick, and I don't know if he stole it off the internet. I'm sure he did, but um, basically putting the tire on these 50 gallon trash cans that we have in our garage right, and you put it over the top of it and you use the the trash can to brace it and then you pop the bead that way and it's a game changer. So that's our one of our bike shop secrets.
Dane "The Suspension Guru" Higgins:If you're installing uh kush core at home, one of the best things that you can have is those plastic rubber made 50 gallon you know, plastic uh uh trash cans and your wheel will fit practically over the top of it, perfect. And then you can use that at a good bench height almost to brace and push down with your your what do you call this part of your hand? Your palm? Yeah, that like the meat of your thumb. Yeah, you know, the palm of your. And you can kind of just push that bead down in underneath the CushCore and then start to pop it off, and it works so much better than trying to hold that wheel in a normal way. You know, normally we would just hold a wheel and we would pop it with our fingers and pop the bead off with, you know, a couple tire levers. It's not a big deal. You just can't do CushCore the normal way.
Josh "Magellan" Anderson:Well, I tried for probably several hours to get a tire off with, uh, the Vittoria airliners in it and couldn't do it, and I didn't know about your trick, and so I got on Google and researched it and found out that Vittoria makes a tool. It's like 30 bucks. You got to show me this, by the way, before I leave. Yeah, I will, I'll show it to you tonight. It's fantastic, yeah, and so I ordered that tool. It came in literally like 20 seconds. I had the wheel off. Yeah, with that tool.
Josh "Magellan" Anderson:I got two hours of like banging my head against the wall. Half a bottle of whiskey.
Dane "The Suspension Guru" Higgins:Cushcore has, the one that people make fun of because it's shaped like a Dildo.
Josh "Magellan" Anderson:No like a butt plug Like a butt plug. Okay, that's better, that's good.
Dane "The Suspension Guru" Higgins:But I haven't tried that one either, because with this 50-gallon trash can trick we can do them relatively quick. In the shop we actually charge a little extra to do inserts because they are a lot more labor-intensive.
Josh "Magellan" Anderson:Yeah.
Dane "The Suspension Guru" Higgins:But we can do it much better than struggling in your garage. At home. The crisscross can be kind of a nightmare until you use something to brace and that's that was the game changer, something to hold that thing up so you can push the tire and get some leverage, whereas you can't normally do that if you're just trying to hold the rim and use one hand or what have you.
Josh "Magellan" Anderson:So the to summarize, like what we just talked about, you and I are both. You've always been bullish on or a big fan of vittoria tires yes, yeah so you're digging the aguaro aguero, aguero thank you and I am like the huge fanboy of vittoria now and I'm going through all of whatever 16 bikes in our convert or a convert.
Dane "The Suspension Guru" Higgins:you converted me, Thank you.
Josh "Magellan" Anderson:Yeah, conscript, you converted me from from Maxis to Vittoria and, uh, I'm loving like every, like every bike. I want to just put Vittoria on and I'm going through as soon as the tire wears out, I'm buying with my own money, in the spirit of full disclosure. They did send us a couple tires to test. Yeah, and I was like holy shit, these are awesome. Yeah so then I just expanded from then and I've had several orders on Vittoriacom since that time.
Dane "The Suspension Guru" Higgins:Now we're not saying that everybody should ride Vittoria. We're not saying that everybody's going to love Vittoria. There's going to be some people that don't. Because that's the beauty of having different brands is everybody gets their brand that they like you may buy your tire because it matches your bike color. Who knows baby foot? Yeah, baby foot, um. Or you know you may buy. You know like, oh man, I had a guy who would only buy like a certain tire, like every single bike we ever built. Him had the exact same tires on it every single time you had to ride him.
Dane "The Suspension Guru" Higgins:He just would not ever change, you know. And then guys like your buddy who come in with like a lightweight cross-country bike with dhfs on it and then the opposite I've seen like recons on an enduro bike.
Josh "Magellan" Anderson:You know you're like what are you doing here, bro?
Dane "The Suspension Guru" Higgins:yeah so so like. But I gotta tell you that one of the things is I do ride a lot of tires and I favor cornering. So that's where I'm coming from. If a tire is supportive in the corners and I feel as though I can rail a corner faster with it, I tend to like it more, and so I look for a certain profile. Um, you know, there's other tires that do that I I actually, on my cross-country bike I ride nothing but maxis because they make some super light tires and I've been pretty happy with them. But the Vittorias have just been really stellar.
Josh "Magellan" Anderson:So there's two guys in my life that I ride with. One is Dane Higgins, the other is Chris Bonzac, over from Bonzac Designs that are like exceedingly faster than I am, just amazingly faster than I am like exceedingly faster than I am, just amazingly faster than I am, and when I want, and so I go out and I study and I get lessons and I learned what the proper technique is and I'm practicing all those things and I'm studying and I'm trying to get bike body separation and loose grip and I'm trying to get my weight distribution correctly and I'm trying to get all these things that we're supposed to do. And then I go ride with Dane or Chris and neither of them follow any of these techniques at all and they're all like they're both like twice as fast as me.
Dane "The Suspension Guru" Higgins:I, you know, man, so I've been trying to relearn things. You know and jumping things like that, and you develop a habit and you do certain things. You know and jumping things like that, and you develop a habit and you do certain things. But I also have a lot of years of doing something where the other thing is that the thing that I've noticed in my deep dive of like YouTube and trying to learn from videos online they say a lot of things, they don't. It's very difficult to actually know how to do them. And then the thing that they don't really talk about as much is what I call muscle memory, where your muscles are used to doing it.
Josh "Magellan" Anderson:Yeah.
Dane "The Suspension Guru" Higgins:And that is sometimes. I see somebody try and explain the way that somebody rides and they describe what they look like, but it doesn't really give you an idea of the little tiny muscles they're activating and how those muscles are interacting with the bike and what they're doing. And an example of that is I'll tell you is like if you try and look at somebody go around a corner, you may talk about how they dip their shoulder or their angle of their elbow or something like that, or their where their legs are if they're pedals down.
Josh "Magellan" Anderson:it's out to the right. Exactly their hips are in all of this.
Dane "The Suspension Guru" Higgins:They cannot see how much pressure you're pulling up on one side of the bar and pushing down on the other. They can't see how much tension you're putting on the handlebars to keep that corner or your feet, or or how your feet are scooped Like. They'll talk about scooping.
Josh "Magellan" Anderson:Yeah.
Dane "The Suspension Guru" Higgins:They. They can't see how much you're tensioning the pedal to hold on or, like I told you, I like to corner. Uh, I'm descending my seat, not all the way down. They can't see sometimes how much you're bracing or holding yourself up or holding the bike from going down with your knees and and so it's funny, cause I I, you know who I like a lot to watch because he's super entertaining is a. Is it Ben Cathro?
Josh "Magellan" Anderson:Yeah.
Dane "The Suspension Guru" Higgins:The big, tall, six, eight guy dude his Scottish accent.
Josh "Magellan" Anderson:It just cracks me up.
Dane "The Suspension Guru" Higgins:Yeah. So I love watching that guy and he does a really good job of analyzing a lot of things and I really geek out on it and I, I, I really admire it. But then I remember all these little things like how hard it is for me to describe what I'm doing, and then when I stop and actually try and think about what I'm doing, there's way more, way more than just pointing my hips a certain way. How many times do you think?
Josh "Magellan" Anderson:we've ridden together, I don't know, 10, 20. So more than that, more than that, yeah, I don't, I think I can count on one hand, the amount of times I've seen you stand up.
Dane "The Suspension Guru" Higgins:Yeah, yeah, well, and that's, and that's also like a different style of writing right, um, like it's. It's very different. So like, uh, I have actually been trying to change. So I'm trying to that attack position. I used to make fun of people ready position, the ready position with their arms like stuck, stuck out, like, and I'm just like that's just goofy looking, but I'm trying to like emulate it. Maybe I'm missing out on something. I have other muscles that are probably compensating for the fact that I'm not doing that and still let me do what I do, but maybe that's better way.
Dane "The Suspension Guru" Higgins:You know, standing up at the jump is the big thing that I'm trying to teach my body to do. My body is so used to hitting a jump at very high speed and sucking the bike into my belly, like it's literally like pulling the bike straight up to my belly and then pushing it back down on the landing. So if you watch me jump, I a post on one of my my socials about this. They had an example of two guys riding and one popped the jump and went straight up in the air and the other one, like speed jumped it like I do.
Dane "The Suspension Guru" Higgins:Yeah, and you can see clearly that the speed jumper is faster, yeah he's clearly gonna win the race right, but he's not super exciting to look at the guy popping is who everybody looks at, so I'm trying to train myself to go that way, cause I'm used to you want to go slower. It's not so much slower. I just want to, I just want to, I want some Steve, yeah, I do.
Dane "The Suspension Guru" Higgins:I do, I want some Riz. So yeah, oh Jesus. So. So I'm trying to learn all that, so it you know, one of the things that I think people get caught up on when they're watching videos or trying to figure this stuff out is the biggest thing that I tell people and I'm not a coach and I don't want to teach anyone.
Dane "The Suspension Guru" Higgins:You shouldn't get coached by Dan. No, I'm a horrible teacher, but one thing you should remember is it all takes practice and you have to develop the little muscle memory and the little muscles to support what you want to do. So you can't just… have a position and then automatically do it. You have to do it over and over again. To where that second nature? You don't think about it.
Josh "Magellan" Anderson:Yeah, well, I can tell you, you know, like watching Lacey and my wife, we talked about her a lot but her progress from being fast to being like crazy fast, yeah, and she's gone through and and I guess the common methodology that's taught today, the technique that's taught today, she is like textbook If you ride behind her she's doing, technique that's taught today. She is like textbook, if you ride behind her. She's doing everything like exactly like they teach you, and she has gotten. She's amazingly fast.
Dane "The Suspension Guru" Higgins:Now I would. I would argue that she's not gotten fast cause she's emulating the textbook as much, but because she's in a good position and she does it a lot.
Josh "Magellan" Anderson:She practiced, that's part of it for sure, but she's practicing those techniques.
Dane "The Suspension Guru" Higgins:Yes, it's giving her a thing to practice, whereas if you don't, even if you don't have a clue, you know you can go out and ride the wrong way and just it'll take you a lot longer. I, I, I, I, uh. When I learned to snowboard, I tried to teach myself to snowboard. You know how to snowboard?
Dane "The Suspension Guru" Higgins:I kind of, uh, we should go snowboarding, yeah, except my knees can't take it. I was thinking about selling my snowboard, um, but uh, when the first day that I snowboard, I'm like I can figure this out and I spent. I have to like what do you have to do? You have to like face down. I have to face down to get up on the board.
Josh "Magellan" Anderson:Oh, me too, buddy. I'm too fat to get up from my butt. Yeah, I can't do that.
Dane "The Suspension Guru" Higgins:I get up from my knees, yeah, and it kills my knees, but anyway, on the first day I was trying to snowboard, I got on this little hill, not even on the ski runs.
Josh "Magellan" Anderson:Yeah.
Dane "The Suspension Guru" Higgins:And I'm just trying to get up. And I spent half a day just trying to figure out how to get up. Yeah, and I was like, screw this. I took a lesson and the coach had me riding up and riding and going down easily. Greens and blues the same day. So like half the day wasted and then the rest of the day I'm I'm up and riding.
Josh "Magellan" Anderson:So the lesson in all of this is get some fucking instruction.
Dane "The Suspension Guru" Higgins:Yeah, if you're, if you're struggling, get somebody to help you out, because I think it really helps. I I am forcing myself to do that, you know, and I'm I'm like swallowing my pride and thinking that I'm good, you know, and trying to relearn stuff you know and trying to to get better. I'm also, as, as I'm getting older, my body is just not happy about what I've done to it over the years, and so I'm also trying to like learn how to ride in a way that doesn't kill me the next day, you know.
Josh "Magellan" Anderson:So for the ever shrinking audience that is based in Arizona why is it shrinking? Because the audience is growing outside of Arizona.
Dane "The Suspension Guru" Higgins:Oh, proportion, proportion, the percentage, percentage. It's not actually getting smaller, just the percentage is getting smaller, I would say it's getting bigger.
Josh "Magellan" Anderson:It's getting bigger.
Dane "The Suspension Guru" Higgins:Yeah.
Josh "Magellan" Anderson:Yeah, number wise is getting bigger, but whatever. Yeah, I don't know why I went there, but if you're in Arizona, in Southern Arizona, homegrown Tara Alcantara's, who've had on the podcast before, if you're looking for like gravity type stuff, fan fucking tastic, yep. Um Jody Bart's, if you're a beginner just getting in, fantastic, she's amazing.
Dane "The Suspension Guru" Higgins:If you're a little farther up north, um joanna yates yep, sedona, yes, sedona, colorado, right now she may be yeah absolutely fantastic and there's good, good trainers everywhere, so like, go out and get some some mountain bike coaching.
Josh "Magellan" Anderson:It's outstanding, it helps. Should we switch to our next topic? Sure, go for it all, right. Next topic so if you go back to episode 71. Oh my God, yeah, we're going to. We're going way back. This was in April of 24.
Dane "The Suspension Guru" Higgins:Is that before or after?
Josh "Magellan" Anderson:me, you were there, man. This is.
Dane "The Suspension Guru" Higgins:this is sunglass, rob, oh yeah, that's one of my first one of your first podcast, my best friend.
Josh "Magellan" Anderson:Rob who, in the spirit of full disclosure, is a good friend of ours, the CEO, ceo of sport RX, are based out of San Diego. Yeah, they're a sunglass, I guess, just optical company. Yep, um, and, again in the spirit of full disclosure, we're good friends with Rob. But uh, at that time, before we recorded this episode, rob um got me a pair of these Huxon sunglasses. That Sunglass Rob, who is a deep, deep subject matter expert in all things sunglasses and is an avid mountain biker himself, designed, I think, specifically for mountain biking, although I don't think they market them this way.
Dane "The Suspension Guru" Higgins:These glasses, yeah, they don't want to pigeonhole just for mountain biking, they're for everything. Yeah, for all kinds of different sports but, uh, the sport rx.
Josh "Magellan" Anderson:You can get it at sport rxcom. And again, rob's not paying me and I've bought two. So he gave me one pair for free prescription sunglasses that I ride with and have ridden with on every single ride since I got them in March of 2024. They still look brand new, like I've never. Somehow I managed to not lose them, um, and I bought two other pairs. I bought a driving pair with polarized lenses. By the way, you shouldn't ride with polarized lenses on a mountain bike trail.
Dane "The Suspension Guru" Higgins:Well, yeah, there's, there's reasons not to, and and people's idea of polarized is weird.
Josh "Magellan" Anderson:So, and people's idea of polarized is weird yeah.
Dane "The Suspension Guru" Higgins:Because they get really into like oh, I need polarized, but it you don't. Yeah, If you're ever wondering about that, do a deep dive, even call Rob. Just go back to episode 71. We talk about it in there.
Josh "Magellan" Anderson:Yeah, but these Sport RX and I've tried all different kinds of sunglasses for mountain biking from Smith to Oakley, to you name it. I've tried our net, I've tried all different kinds of sunglasses. These sport RX Huxons, a hundred bucks If you get them, not $99. If you get them, non-prescription. If you get a prescription, there's all kinds of options on things you can do to the lenses and stuff. They are absolutely fantastic. The best, the best riding glasses I've ever had.
Dane "The Suspension Guru" Higgins:So describe them. I think they look like kind of like a wayfarer.
Josh "Magellan" Anderson:A wayfarer.
Dane "The Suspension Guru" Higgins:I don't know what that is A Ray-Ban wayfarers, so let's see. So they're kind of squared off lenses.
Josh "Magellan" Anderson:Yeah, a little squared off lanes they're not there.
Dane "The Suspension Guru" Higgins:They don't look like you know M frames or anything like that.
Josh "Magellan" Anderson:No, they don't look like M-frames. They're not blades or anything like that.
Dane "The Suspension Guru" Higgins:They're separate lenses.
Josh "Magellan" Anderson:Yep, two separate lenses. They're plastic. They've got really good grip on the and Rob's going to be pissing me because I don't know all the right terms, but where they go around your ears, they grip really well. Where they go around your nose, they grip really well. They have a good set of coverage.
Dane "The Suspension Guru" Higgins:They have. Big thing is the squared off at the bottom, so you have more viewpoint.
Josh "Magellan" Anderson:More viewpoints. Good for wind, good in rain, good in sun. I've got the rose-colored ones, which are outstanding for the trail that Rob designed specifically for mountain biking. I've got transition lenses that change based on how much sun there is, and that's a big deal for us in the desert, so I can go out at 630 when it's still light, and when I get back at 839 and it's getting dark, I'm not completely blind. I put them on and I don't even realize they're there. I can see amazing.
Josh "Magellan" Anderson:I used to ride with contacts and then regular glasses. Now I've switched to just riding with these prescription glasses. I have non-prescription one as well that I bought with my own money. I have driving ones that I bought with my own money. They're like the only sunglasses I wear. So the Sport RX Huxons for the price are just fucking fantastic.
Dane "The Suspension Guru" Higgins:So after we did that episode, I will tell you, multiple customers came into the shop and told me that they were buying glasses from them.
Josh "Magellan" Anderson:Have you gotten any feedback from them? Yeah, they love them.
Dane "The Suspension Guru" Higgins:So their customer service is amazing.
Josh "Magellan" Anderson:And so fantastic customer service so far.
Dane "The Suspension Guru" Higgins:You know, I think one customer said that he had an issue and had to do a return and it was smooth and seamless. Yep, and other than that, everybody I've heard has just loved them. So so the long-term test is that you not only used them, because in that episode you were using them and you wrote.
Josh "Magellan" Anderson:I had already written them a couple times, yeah, and so we talked about that. Now I've written them for more than a year. Yeah, like I don't, I don't need to replace them.
Dane "The Suspension Guru" Higgins:Yeah.
Josh "Magellan" Anderson:And I don't know how many years in the future I'm going to ride them, but like if, if I crash and break them or do something like that, I'm going to buy another pair of of sport RX.
Dane "The Suspension Guru" Higgins:Huxons and I I feel like his, his expertise and the way that that company is designed to like to give you the most help getting you the right glasses for the way you're going to use them, and that's probably, if I'm yeah, hopefully I'm doing him a service and saying it that way, because his passion for getting people the right pair of glasses and it's a big deal yeah, like he does not want to just slap his his name on a box and send it out the door.
Dane "The Suspension Guru" Higgins:That's not the goal. He wants that person to get the best optical. What do they call themselves? Opticians? Opticians, yeah, yeah, I don't. I don't remember, but it's in the episode so you guys should listen to it if you're into this stuff. But that is a rave review. Now can I tell you about my glasses?
Josh "Magellan" Anderson:Yeah, can I tell you about my glasses? Yeah, but let me, can I finish one?
Dane "The Suspension Guru" Higgins:part of the story, oh yeah.
Josh "Magellan" Anderson:So I texted Rob today. Okay, I was like, hey, we're going to test out this talking about product thing. Yeah, I'm not sold, but Dane's all into it. Yeah, um, we're going to see what the listeners think. And I asked him a couple of questions. You know, are you going to still sell the Huxons longterm? He said yep. I said, uh, is it still a top seller for you? He said absolutely. And I said is there anything new coming out? He said yep, ansi rated safety version and a version in clear, clear frame front with matte black temples. So he's all stoked about that. Then he said, hey, let me call in and come on the podcast. And I said no, no, no, no, no, no man.
Josh "Magellan" Anderson:If we bring you on that's like, not that's unbiased.
Dane "The Suspension Guru" Higgins:That's a bias. That's a bias. This is an advertisement.
Josh "Magellan" Anderson:Yeah, I'm a real user. I'm a real customer. Yeah, these were fucking awesome. If you're struggling with either prescription or regular sunglasses to ride in, check out the Huxons. Yeah, okay.
Dane "The Suspension Guru" Higgins:Over to have to get my eyes checked. So you said that in march of 2024 so I'm going to tell you about the glasses that I wear.
Dane "The Suspension Guru" Higgins:I don't. So yeah, and I gotta tell you, you know, I'm not proud of it it's really that I misplace my riding glasses all the time and every time I've gone out in the last, I'd say, few months, I think I've gotten a bug in the eye every single time. So, and it's driving me insane, cause I I'm I normally don't wear them, not because I don't need them I could use them but mainly cause I've either left them in the wrong car, can't find them, or you know they're with my gloves that I can't find, you know. And then I'm riding with no gloves and no glasses, so I've just gotten used to not doing them. But man, lately, uh, we were, we were preparing for this podcast and I'm doing notes on the tires and Lacey is like how can you even see your phone? And I can't.
Dane "The Suspension Guru" Higgins:it's a blurry mess, so I'm going to have to call Robin and talk to him about a pair of glasses.
Josh "Magellan" Anderson:So yeah, they have readers. They also have two different styles. They have the Huxon and the Huxon XL. Yeah, so if you're a big boy, you can run the XL. I am a big boy. Maybe I don't have a big face, not sure but I ride the normal Huxons and they work outstanding for me. But you can call them and they've got, like I said, amazing customer service.
Dane "The Suspension Guru" Higgins:I just want some clear ones so the bugs don't hit me in the eyes. Yeah, and I have a little protection because every once in a while I'll be behind somebody and rocks will kick up or something like that, like the little debris we were riding Sunrise a couple weeks ago.
Josh "Magellan" Anderson:Which is a bike park in northern Arizona, in Arizona.
Dane "The Suspension Guru" Higgins:So chairlift riding. So that's one more product that I'm going to talk about real quick. So, uh, we're in sunrise and it's super powdery was where I was going with that, and so it was a dust wait, there was snow no, no, it felt like it. There was a good layer of powder on the ground, but it was dust, right so, and it was like moon dust.
Josh "Magellan" Anderson:So it's just and this was early summer in arizona, where we haven't had the monsoons come in with the rain yet.
Dane "The Suspension Guru" Higgins:So that's expected, it's super dry. So the next product I'm going to talk about is a product that we didn't buy. Um, I just get to test and use and one of our listeners actually is letting me borrow it so I can try it out and it is the frameworks so I built up the frameworks downhill frame, so size medium is.
Dane "The Suspension Guru" Higgins:This is, uh, not the most current version, it's the one before, so they've done a tiny bit of tweaking on the new framework is nico's company and nico malali, yep and so, and that's also one of the ones that the faction bike studio, who we've done podcasts with, has helped develop, and so this bike's pretty sweet, it's um uh. It has a mullet 27.5 rear and made it to a 29 front. I'm running fox 40 on the front and a fox dhx2 coil so that's, that's a double crown on the front yep, yep, okay, yeah, and uh see, I built it up with a set of Guru carbon wheels. So custom carbon wheels and Guru is your specific brand.
Dane "The Suspension Guru" Higgins:Yeah, our brand of wheels, and they're the DH rated ones, so I'm testing those. At the same time, I'll tell you about the review of this bike. So one cool thing is I pull up in the Sunrise parking lot and unload the bikes and the first thing is somebody comes up and goes is that a frameworks? So that was pretty cool. So it's a famous, famous bike.
Dane "The Suspension Guru" Higgins:If you're paying attention to downhill bikes, so, just this last weekend, on this little timestamp, when we're recording this, Asa who rides for Nico just won the hard line line oh did he get asa one, yeah, yeah and so uh on that bike, and so it's pretty cool to see the bike that I'm riding. Now I'm not doing it justice, you know, I'm definitely not doing no, you don't even stand up.
Dane "The Suspension Guru" Higgins:Yeah, no, I don't so um, so first ride review is I wrote it sunrise. Sunrise has, um, they have a couple greens, but they have pretty nasty terrain, yeah, and so on the smooth stuff, it felt good. Uh the uh suspension. I took a couple runs to set up the suspension, but it's just fox stuff, so there's nothing really crazy in setting up the suspension. It's a four bar.
Josh "Magellan" Anderson:We should put it in context. You are an expert in suspension, so for you it was easy so.
Dane "The Suspension Guru" Higgins:So my point is I got the suspension set up pretty easily. Yep, uh, so that that wasn't a factor. Yep, so I could really test how the frame fell. I tried to. I'm trying to trying to compare it to my pivot 29. So I have a phoenix 29, uh, front and rear 29 carbon bike. Amazingly enough, my carbon bike has got dvo front and rear suspension with carbon wheels, carbon cranks and xodh group on it. Yep, and it weighs around 36 pounds. For my downhill bike, my enduro firebird weighs 36 pounds. The frameworks frame is all aluminum front end with a carbon rear end and an aluminum rocker, uh, a coil over and the triple clamp. Fox. Guess how much that bike weighed? 38 pounds, 36 pounds. Wow, I couldn't believe it. So, lifting the frame by itself, it felt pretty substantial, like downright heavy. I was like kind of bummed that it was heavy and I was like, wow, that's okay, I get to ride it. I'm not buying it, I'll just, you know, no big deal. The finished product came out the same way as my carbon fiber it's interesting.
Dane "The Suspension Guru" Higgins:Yeah, I was really surprised. Uh, they're both size medium, is it really? Apples to apples with the component group um, so on the now I did slap the frameworks together with stuff lying around. So on my so it's funny cause on my Phoenix I've got carbon bars and I'm running, I think, guide RSC or guide ultimate brakes. I'm a notorious under breaker. I don't need big brakes on my bikes, Cause you don't break.
Dane "The Suspension Guru" Higgins:Yeah, I try not to Um. My wheel set on the Phoenix is I nine hubs with guru rims. And the guru rims are pretty light but they're the downhill rated ones, so they're probably 400 grams a piece. Uh, for the rims themselves before the wheel, so probably around 1800 gram wheel set and carbon xodh cranks. So they're carbon but they're not super light. Uh, ally c post, uh coil over dvo and then DVO Onyx DC front fork, so not the lightest fork on the market. And then the XO group is a seven speed. So it's like this tiny little XO SRAM downhill group. It's got seven speeds and they're all tight, so there's no climbing gears On the frameworks. I built it up with the fox 40, the dh coil and I have the custom guru wheels. So I have guru wheels on that too. So that should be a wash all the ones.
Josh "Magellan" Anderson:Uh access drivetrain with a full 10, 52 cassette you got batteries on the yeah, you got batteries on the phoenix and no, no, that's batteries on the frameworks yeah, so I feel like that's even heavier.
Dane "The Suspension Guru" Higgins:This doesn't make any sense. I know it doesn't make sense why it's lighter. I'm trying to think. So on both bikes I have vittoria. Uh, so I have vittoria on both bikes martellos and maza combos I'm questioning your weighing protocol at this point and I weighed them right next to each other and took pictures. So I have proof, I don't know so now, both were without pedals of course always.
Dane "The Suspension Guru" Higgins:We don't weigh anything without with pedals and I'm trying to think I do have a carbon bar. I have a carbon envy bar on the frameworks and it's alloy bar on the downhill bike or on the uh pivot. So, yeah, I can't I, I just don't feel like so. One thing about this frameworks frame is, um, it's welded up by a guy, uh, frank the welder, so he's a really cool guy yeah, we've talked about him before yeah, he's.
Dane "The Suspension Guru" Higgins:Uh. In fact I started following him on socials and it's fun because he is just cranking out frames. I forgot who he's working for now, but he does. He's like the hired gun of welding aluminum. Right, so so I know that the frame is not sloppy, which means it doesn't have a lot of excess.
Dane "The Suspension Guru" Higgins:Yeah On it, and so I bet you that aluminum frame, as strong as it is, doesn't have a ton of extra weight on it. And then it's got a carbon fiber rear end, which I don't know much about. I'd love to ask Nico about.
Josh "Magellan" Anderson:That's got a carbon fiber rear end which I don't know much about. I'd love to ask nico about that's an interesting idea. I mean I've always thought that because the rear ends are so fragile, yeah, like why would you do carbon fiber on?
Dane "The Suspension Guru" Higgins:the rear end. I think it's weight versus stiffness. You can make it stiffer yeah engineering carbon, you can get a lot of characteristics. Um, interesting, yeah, I'm. I'm not 100 sure. So um, one's a horse bar, one's's a DW link. So back to the ride. So powdery conditions, pretty loose, you know.
Josh "Magellan" Anderson:You're back at sun. You've taken us all the way back from this comparison of weights to sunrise bike park in Northern Arizona.
Dane "The Suspension Guru" Higgins:Yeah, first couple of runs were pretty good and I was able to just get right on the bike, like, feel pretty comfortable. The frameworks, yeah, ride quality, it was pretty bottom bottomless. So as we progressed through the day and went from, like you know, the greens to the blues, to the blacks, and then there's a pretty big jump from the blues to the blacks at sunrise, they're pretty, pretty nasty. They're not like necessarily like big, huge road gaps or anything, they're just as chunky, chunky and steep and. And so there's one of the trails that most of the time they race on called sticks and stones. So we did a sticks and stones and that intersects with the trail called world cup, and then I forgot which trail we ended up finishing out on. That's a pretty substantial run.
Dane "The Suspension Guru" Higgins:They raced the downhill last. I mean they have one of the big mountain Enduros there at sunrise and they have some downhills going on there now too, and so the bike did really well. What I was really happy with is on those steep sections where there was a drop in the middle of the steep. So you're already at a steep angle and then there's a drop. I never felt too far over the front, like I didn't feel… the wheelbase. I think I was pretty centered over the back. The seat tube on this thing is really, really, really steep and you think that I don't ever stand up on a bike.
Dane "The Suspension Guru" Higgins:I know you do, I'm just joking on a downhill bike I never sit down like because the seat's not where I want it, you know it's it's like way too far forward. I'm standing the whole time. Um, I didn't ever feel like I was going to get trapped by the tire and the seat, even though it was really forward. Uh, I never felt a bottom out, which was nice. Uh, so cause I'm a big guy and I didn't change the spring from the guy who loaned it to me, so you're not a big guy Uh, I'm, I'm bigger than my height, Okay, yeah.
Josh "Magellan" Anderson:Let's put it that way yeah, so you carry a little more mass than the average person. I'm stocky, you're stocky. Yeah, so you're looking good man. Did you lose some weight, by the way?
Dane "The Suspension Guru" Higgins:I was going to ask you that I stopped eating. Okay, that's good. Yeah, you should, you should stop.
Josh "Magellan" Anderson:You should definitely not eat. Just don't, yeah, just don't eat.
Dane "The Suspension Guru" Higgins:I found that. So I was really amazed on how well it pedaled. Like you know, that's not usually something that they focus on on a downhill bike, but this thing, when you want to put down the power and sprint, it goes. You know there's no like bobbing and lagging, you know it just pedals really really well. The super smooth, very bottomless on big stuff Jumps. I felt really I don't get huge air, like I said, I speed jump mostly, but I felt pretty confident in the air. Um, all in all, it was like just kind of you could tell it's a world cup level bike when you get on it. It's not. There was nothing that that bike couldn't handle, that I was willing to do.
Josh "Magellan" Anderson:So I'm looking on frameworks website right now just to give our if there's anybody that heard that you know explanation, and they definitely want to have one it looks like the frame. They just sell frame Yep, just frame and they have a DH frame and Enduro frame. It looks like the Enduro frame is not available or they're working on making it available. They don't have any available right now, but the how much do you think the downhill frame costs?
Dane "The Suspension Guru" Higgins:I know it costs 4,500.
Josh "Magellan" Anderson:It's 39. It's 38, 99 right now. Is that a sale Does?
Dane "The Suspension Guru" Higgins:it, say that it's sale 38 99 on their website right now. Originally 45.
Josh "Magellan" Anderson:Of course they only have large available today. Oh, okay, yeah, no mediums, yeah.
Dane "The Suspension Guru" Higgins:So so I'm really lucky that one of our listeners actually is letting me use this thing. So now my negative feedback so far oh yeah, the only thing that there's two things that happened on the bike that I didn't like. That I can't super explain, Like I don't a hundred percent know what's going on, but we're going to put a a different rear wheel on the bike and try it again.
Josh "Magellan" Anderson:And the.
Dane "The Suspension Guru" Higgins:O chain thing, it's yeah, so I have a pedal kickback yeah, I was getting some chatter in the roughest sections, almost to where my feet were getting kicked off the pedals and the most the the aha moment is what I realized is you know, somebody's like, oh, you need an o-chain, and then I realized that the hub that's on this wheel set that I put on the bike is an onyx, and onyx has a kind of instant engagement um, they're a silent. They're really cool because they're silent. It's something that I don't care at all about, but I've sold them to customers because they want this silent experience when they stop pedaling. They don't want to hear the ratchet yeah, exactly I love the ratchet.
Dane "The Suspension Guru" Higgins:I do too, you know um, I didn't notice it as being something I was really excited about right so, um, but that onyx is instant, so we're going to take it to sunrise, not this coming weekend, but the following, and we're going to try it with a low engagement hub, which means kind of a low end. I think I got a dt swiss uh with like an 18 tooth or 18 degree or whatever it is. I think it's 18 tooth, yep, um, drivering in it, and that should give me a different experience enough play.
Josh "Magellan" Anderson:Yeah, you're not experiencing the, because that's an interesting thing the, the pedal kickback happens less when you have a low engagement hub. Yeah, yeah.
Dane "The Suspension Guru" Higgins:Yeah, and so we're going to try that first Cause I don't want to buy a no chain and I don't want to buy a a side. Whatever FSA has, this new hub that does the similar thing. This is a thing on the world cup that they're trying to work on, where the rear end, as it moves, it doesn't yank your, your your chain and you know. On on the same note, your feet doesn't isolate or stop the suspension from moving smooth.
Josh "Magellan" Anderson:Couldn't you also just turn your clutch off?
Dane "The Suspension Guru" Higgins:I don't have a clutch, or or oh no, yeah, no On that one. It's not got a switch, it's tram.
Josh "Magellan" Anderson:Okay, but it's still.
Dane "The Suspension Guru" Higgins:it's still got a clutch but it's not the clutch doing it, it's the top of the chain. Ah, oh okay, so it's not necessarily the bottom of the chain because the cage would give it some movement.
Dane "The Suspension Guru" Higgins:It's the top of the chain, so we'll see if this low engagement gives me a different experience. The other thing that I noticed is it's a mullet bike and riding it with a smaller rear wheel, I've ridden mullets before and not had this kind of sensation. But in some of the bigger berms where I really just carried speed and I would hit that berm, it really felt squirrely, almost like the rear wheel was sliding up the berm and I'm not a hundred percent sure what was going on. So I think with the different wheel I'm also going to put a different tire on.
Josh "Magellan" Anderson:What did you have in the back? I had a.
Dane "The Suspension Guru" Higgins:Martello. But I had a pretty clapped out Martello, Because again I kind of threw this together.
Josh "Magellan" Anderson:Yeah, you just pieced together with what you got right.
Dane "The Suspension Guru" Higgins:So I think I'm going to put a fresher tire on the back and just make sure it's not just a grip thing. See if it's the size, because I'm used to riding 29s in the rear and it shouldn't make a difference. But I just want to make sure, because we're going to go back to the same trails, right the same trails, with a different wheel and a different tire. See if we get a different super interesting for the whole time I've known you.
Josh "Magellan" Anderson:I've known that you're someone that likes the big thing in the in the rear end.
Dane "The Suspension Guru" Higgins:Yeah, yeah, that's what they said, that's what she said, something like that.
Josh "Magellan" Anderson:All right. Well, I had this whole list of like 10 bike shop secret questions to ask you.
Dane "The Suspension Guru" Higgins:But, bro, we are freaking out of time well, I'm glad we did this and I really hope if people enjoy this episode, yeah let us know, because because I don't think you guys want to hear about products like this.
Josh "Magellan" Anderson:Yeah, you may hate this. Dane thinks you do. Yeah, let us know who's right.
Dane "The Suspension Guru" Higgins:Yeah, and then, if you guys say dane, or, if there's, if there's a product that you want to hear about. If you're tired of hearing about downhill bikes and you want to hear about gravel bikes or road bikes, you're listening to the wrong podcast, but gravel bikes we could talk about it. We could. Yeah, that's for sure.
Josh "Magellan" Anderson:So because that's just mountain biking? Yeah, Lacey says, cause I love riding my on trails. She says I'm transitioning at the point I probably shouldn't say that on the podcast.
Dane "The Suspension Guru" Higgins:I'm transitioning to a road biker. You know it's okay to be a bicyclist. A bicyclist, yeah.
Josh "Magellan" Anderson:No judgment whatsoever. I love my gravel bike. I don't care who knows it. I love my cross-country bike, my downhill bike I don't have a downhill bike. My downcountry bike, my enduro bike. I love all of them. Yes, um, you got any final thoughts for our listeners, buddy?
Dane "The Suspension Guru" Higgins:I think that's it. Uh, hopefully everybody goes out and rides their bike ride your fucking bike can you dig it?
Josh "Magellan" Anderson:can you dig it?
Dane "The Suspension Guru" Higgins:Can you dig it? Can you dig it Bye?
