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
110 - Quality Bicycle Products (QBP): Why Your Bike Shop Depends on This Hidden Giant (Guest: Bryce Buckner, QBP)
When your local bike shop orders parts, there's a complex supply chain working behind the scenes that most cyclists never consider. Quality Bicycle Products (QBP) operates as the invisible backbone of bicycle retail, distributing products from four strategically located warehouses to over 5,500 independent bike shops. QBP sales rep Bryce Buckner reveals how this system works, explaining why bike shops choose QBP over direct manufacturer relationships and how bulk purchasing power translates to better pricing and faster shipping for consumers.
The discussion explores QBP's house brands that have become cycling icons: Salsa's modular Blackthorn platform that adapts between different travel configurations, Surly's practical steel bikes favored by bike messengers and touring cyclists, and Problem Solvers' budget-friendly compatibility components. Buckner shares insider knowledge about industry challenges including the "Amazon effect" on shipping expectations, how exclusive distribution agreements work, and why certain products like Silca's electronic pumps were delayed due to tariff concerns. The episode balances technical industry insights with entertaining tales from Angel Fire, featuring dramatic tubeless tire explosions and the reality of riding with injuries sustained during thunderstorm conditions.
Links:
Salsa Cycles: https://www.salsacycles.com/
Surly Bikes: https://surlybikes.com/
Teravail Tires & Wheels: https://www.teravail.com/
Problem Solvers: https://problemsolversbike.com/
QBP Brands: https://www.qbp.com/brands
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I don't know if everybody knows that you do that, you physically do that. It's not a button. It's not a button I'm hitting now.
Speaker 2:Hey, I was going to tell you a joke about a broken collarbone.
Speaker 1:Okay, I wonder why.
Speaker 2:But I didn't want to fracture the mood. I think we should start out. Dane, right now is in a sling right hand.
Speaker 1:Yep.
Speaker 2:Doing the stranger with everything with his left hand.
Speaker 1:Yeah, tell us about your broken collarbone buddy. Well, uh, last weekend we hit angel fire big guru trip, you went, I did we had like 15 people, something like that 16 people including our guests. Yes, yeah, our guests. And uh, yeah, I went to literally pass a guy in the air as I hit a wall ride and did not think about the wall being wet and so I cause it was in a thunderstorm.
Speaker 2:Well yeah, I'm not actually hail coming down as well. It's not my proudest moment.
Speaker 1:It had just started, it was hail, I wasn't feeling wet, and so I was, didn't think that it was wet, like there was no mud or anything, there was no rain. It just didn't realize the wall was getting way more moisture than I, than I was on my bike and jumped. You have to jump into the wall. You should ride about halfway through it and then jump back down. And and there was a guy going slower who decided, you know smartly, not to ride the wall. So I was going faster than him, so I hit that lip. I. I got a good halfway up, if not higher, on that wall and it was like a cartoon. My wheels just did not stick at all and I went straight down into the ground, shoulder first, and broke my collarbone.
Speaker 2:And was the lift open at that time?
Speaker 1:No, no, it wasn't.
Speaker 2:So how did you get up on the trail?
Speaker 1:I was riding an e-bike.
Speaker 2:And you rode up the trail.
Speaker 1:Why are you trying to make me feel stupid? That was the smart part. Honestly, that would have been amazing if I had not hit the wall ride. I would have had an amazing descent because the climb was fine. It was the cross-country climb that goes up. I went for a while Enlightenment trail. Yeah, and I went for a while just having a good time until I felt the hail drops and I'm like, oh, I know, angel Fire. As soon as that starts, I could get a lot. It could be snow-like level.
Speaker 1:And so I turned around and jumped on this trail called hungry no, I'm sorry, lemonade, yeah, and lemonade took me into happy hour. And then, right as I got this new trail that, uh, they just built, has a a drop feature as you go into it and then a step up uh, that has been difficult for me to hit because you have to come around a berm and then pick up speed, go straight down into a gully and then straight up like four feet to hit the step up, which goes up another five feet, you know, and then you land. And so I was kind of picking up speed and I saw, um, these guys in front of me, and so as I hit the step up, I see another guy and he sees me and hears me coming and he pulls and I go high on a berm and pass him. And then I go around a couple more berms and then I pass another guy.
Speaker 1:There's a jump that jumps out of the woods and kind of hip jumps to the left as you go across one of the access roads up the mountain to the other side of Happy Hour where they have the wall ride, and so I pass the guy at the hip jump.
Speaker 1:So I've got two guys down and so now I can see the third guy and I'm thinking, this is awesome, I'm going to pass this guy too. Like I felt like a superstar, you know, and I'm just riding along and and he misses. I do the first jump on the right, which is a small one, and then I see he goes straight instead of hitting the wall ride, and I'm like, oh, I can either slam on the brakes and wait behind him or I can just pass him in the air. That's where it went bad, so no grip on that wall whatsoever, like I even saw. I saw Chad slipping on that wall when there was no rain, the video that I sent you right, the last two times he hit it he was slipping so, but I had been hitting that wall all day, not having any problems.
Speaker 2:And I was in the garage. Were you in the garage too when Dane came back? I can't remember if you were there. No, I was up at the other cabin. Yeah, we were all working in the top of the skills park or whatever, and then rode down kind of the hat, the second half of the happy hour, yeah. And where's Dana? I don't know. I think he's out there still riding. Okay.
Speaker 1:Good for him.
Speaker 2:You came up and you were all happy and you're like guess who broke his collarbone? And we were like so fucking happy. So we're looking around like oh, bryce isn't here. Shit, did he blow out another back wheel?
Speaker 1:that did happen, unfortunately.
Speaker 2:Yeah, how many back. How many back tire problems did you have on that trip?
Speaker 3:uh, two in two days, so two the first day, I feel like four well, if we include putting in tubes then, yeah, then we'll go four. We're not counting days.
Speaker 1:We're counting how many times.
Speaker 3:I tried to fix the flat on the first one. It didn't work, had to put a tube in. Okay. Same thing happened the next day. I cut the tire, put a plug in and it held for about half a day and had to put a tube in.
Speaker 2:So I guess, yeah, four tire issues altogether together two different tires, two tires and four issues, and chad told me he was riding behind. He's like I've never seen someone is so hard on their back tire. I'm like you must. I'm not fast enough to keep up with you, so I've never seen what it looks like riding behind you, but what are you doing to your back tire, man?
Speaker 3:uh I I'm not sure exactly, I would guess when I was younger I rode fixed gears a lot and was used to like skidding my rear end around, sliding at the back end, and I've probably transferred a little bit of that to mountain biking. It's the same thing as I'm going into a berm or tight turn. Why not kind of throw the rear end out a little bit, have some fun?
Speaker 2:oh, yeah, yeah, that'll do it. So you got a new tire, did you get a new rim?
Speaker 3:not yet. It will be coming soon. I just went with a tire first. Probably next paycheck will be new wheels what's the the tire that you got? I went with a Continental Continental. Yeah, conti Crypto tall rear and I went with the Enduro casing and super soft rubber compound. No more trail casing.
Speaker 2:We're six minutes in. We don't even know who we're talking to here. Would you like to introduce yourself and like where you are in the bike industry?
Speaker 3:Yeah, sure, so I'm Bryce Buckner. I am the outside sales rep for QBP in Arizona. I've been in this role for a little over three years now and absolutely love it. That's kind of how I met Dane and Josh. That's awesome. Yeah, before that, I worked at Trek bikes for three years in customer service and their e-commerce department doing the live chat and phone support with people, and then prior to that, I worked at a bike shop here in Tucson, or Valley bikes, for about a little over five years.
Speaker 1:Oh, wow, yeah, At the, at the um or Valley store.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I started at the Oro Valley location and then, once I started going to the U of a, I was switching between Oracle and then the sunrise location with Corey Nice. That's very cool.
Speaker 2:So QBP is what quality bicycle products? Yep, you got it and and tell, tell us cause, uh, you know, as I was kind of talking to folks about this, about talking to you and doing a podcast with you, uh, I learned very quickly that, like most of your average riders don't even know who or what QBP is. But you guys play a critical role that we all benefit from, so maybe kind of talk us through, like, what QBP does.
Speaker 3:Definitely. Yeah, qbp is kind of that silent partner in the industry where we deal a lot with shops. We are the wholesaler to most bike shops. I like to explain. My job is I work for the Amazon and the bike shop world where every bike shop when they start up they set up an account with QBP and then they can order anywhere from up to over 300 brands with us Um, tram, shimano, rock shocks, fox, all the you know key brands that most shops supply. You know that's where they're probably going to get it from us.
Speaker 2:So some, some, some data just to kind of put it in in perspective from your website assuming your website's accurate, you guys support 5,500 independent retailers that's what the website says 50,000 unique products, 300 total brands, and 70 of which are unique or specific that you can only get through QBP. I picked a handful of companies. You mentioned a few but that our listeners will probably know Continental, crank Brothers, dt, swiss Fox, marizoki Industry, 9, hayes, magura, maxxis, park Tool, schwalbe, Shimano, sram, wolf Tooth and WTB. That's just a few examples of the big companies.
Speaker 1:You might know.
Speaker 2:Did you practice that?
Speaker 1:No, why did it sound like I did? Yeah, it did. It totally did. No, no, I just that's pretty good.
Speaker 2:Speaking of which, tomorrow night my son's getting I don't even know why I'm going in this, but my son's getting headshots, okay, and body shots Okay, uh, like pictures, just to be clear, just for the hell of it, because he wants to start auditioning for acting roles. That's awesome I think it's great, it's random. Huh, how old's your son? He's 12. Okay, yeah, yeah, he's 12.
Speaker 1:Does he do anything in school?
Speaker 2:He did was part of the drama program in his school for seventh grade and it was an interesting experience and he's just, he's got a super big imagination. To this day this kid still plays with like toys by himself, like acts out huge scenes and does all this stuff.
Speaker 2:So we'll see how it goes. This is interesting. Oh, that'd be cool, yeah, yeah, never, never, dealt with that stuff. So, in addition to being a distributor, a wholesale distributor, to these 5,500 independent retailers, these bike shops all over the country, um, you guys have some house brands. Maybe you can tell us a little bit about your house brands.
Speaker 3:Yeah. So, um, um, some of our key house brands would be salsa, surly and terraville, kind of our three key ones. Um, salsa is going to be more of our bike brand where we're having mountain bikes, gravel bikes, adventure bikes, kind of a full range of lines from anything from an entry-level hardtail all the way up to a race ready gravel bike, along with some of the bikes that when I was riding this weekend was the notch kind of our longer travel e-bike. That's really good one. It was handled angel fire really well. It's one 80 up front, one 70 in the rear with a Bosch mid drive. Yeah, and it's very cool.
Speaker 1:You didn't need the motor, though, that's for sure.
Speaker 3:No, I didn't. It was pretty much off that whole weekend.
Speaker 1:And if you would have not gotten a flat, you could have gone to South boundary.
Speaker 2:I know, hopefully gone in south boundary. I know, hopefully next time you gotta validate a story for me then, because you just told me that he didn't use the motor and chad chad's my brother-in-law. He was with us on the trip. He's a good rider and he was riding behind you and he said I couldn't figure out how brace was like able to speed up real quick and then hit these jumps and get so much more pop than I got and he said you told him that you actually flip it on and maybe do one half a pedal or something so, yeah, I do have a remote on the handlebars and normally it was off.
Speaker 3:Occasionally I would hit it on just because, oh, I know the jump's coming up, I'm not enough speed. Pump it up to like my emtb or something. Do a half a pedal and then it gives me a lot more speed, ready to hit a jump yeah, there's so many downhill pros that use e-bikes for training.
Speaker 1:It's becoming the thing, yeah we talked about that.
Speaker 2:I can't remember if we've published that episode. We talked about Jackson Goldstone. Or maybe we were just drinking beers talking about it. I can't remember. But how he's been putting weights in his what does he ride Like a.
Speaker 1:Santa Cruz V10 or whatever.
Speaker 2:Because it feels closer to his e-bike, because that's what he does most of his riding. Yeah, because it feels closer to his e-bike because that's where he does most of his riding. Yeah, and they like the low weight.
Speaker 1:you know, not low like the low on the frame weight. Yeah, they like the weight centered low and also they just like doing laps. They love the fact that they can go do laps. They don't have to rely on a shuttle or, you know, a chairlift, and they can just do lap after lap. So there's more training and they're not as tired.
Speaker 3:I mean that's kind of why I've gotten into the longer travel more e-bike stuff is. I can do laps on stuff that normally I do one lap and be cooked and that's it. Versus the e-bike, I can go do three, four laps on the upper 50 or red mountain rush at Hawes and I can sit there and session it all day.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah it. Session at all day. Yeah, yeah, it's it. I love Haas on e-bikes. It's great, you can just keep riding. It's awesome. Otherwise, I go up there ride my regular bike and I get one loop done and that's it so so let's let's dive a little bit on each of these house brands, if that's okay with you.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's fine. Like, talk about salsa for a minute. So you talked about the notch. What else are you excited about? Anything coming that you can tell us about? Anything like that?
Speaker 3:yeah, I mean, the other thing I'd be most excited about would probably be the spearfish. That's kind of the non or acoustic bike that I've been riding yeah, for the past and that's more of that xc kind of endurance, xc bike right, it's like a 130, something like that yeah, well, come out of the box it's 120, 120, but up front you can do 130 or down to 100 and in the rear you could go down to 100 as well.
Speaker 3:Make it like a true xc race bike. Okay, and that's been really great for when I'm doing lower stuff at haas all the lower stuff, not doing the red mountain rush.
Speaker 2:I'm absolutely loving that and it's extremely fast, very snappy bike and is that available in both carbon and and aluminum just in carbon just, but in the?
Speaker 3:carbon, we do have two layups we have a standard carbon and then a deluxe carbon. Oh, deluxe carbon, what's?
Speaker 2:What's the difference between standard and deluxe carbon?
Speaker 3:Deluxe carbon is just going to be a little bit lighter weight frame. You're going to have more carbon layup in there to help stiffen up the frame, but the ride quality between the two is exactly the same. It's just a weight savings thing.
Speaker 2:I wish the listeners could have seen his face when he said stiffen up.
Speaker 3:Did you see that Stiffen up Like a little A little wiggle in it.
Speaker 1:So what's the Salsa bike? I think it's a Salsa bike that just came out. That is modular, you can change.
Speaker 3:Yeah, so that would be our Blackthorn. And so the Blackthorn is offered in two versions called the Blackthorn 125 and the Blackthorn 145. Same frame, it's just changing out the linkage and suspension on it. So the 125 is 125 travel on the rear, 140 up front. The 145 refers to the 145 travel on the rear and then 160 up front.
Speaker 1:So I'm going to say something because I've been watching a lot of YouTube and watching about e-bikes, watching about bikes. Trek has a new modular bike. It's all the news that this is going to be the thing, and if some of our listeners remember one of our episodes with faction bike studio, they mentioned that they're going to we're going to see more modular so, which I thought was insightful. But I got to mention right now that I've been a Rocky fan for a long time and they've been doing that. I just want to get it out in the air so people can can can understand that they've been doing this for like over 10 years.
Speaker 1:where you can change the bikes around, so it's not a new thing. But man, everybody is getting on well I mean even salsa.
Speaker 3:The previous gen blackthorn was the same way. If you look at the cassidy and the blackthorn, it was the same frame, same concept.
Speaker 1:You just change out the linkage and suspension and you could go from all mountain to enduro bike very quickly I think that's so smart, because too many riders start off either they get talked into one thing by a friend and then they don't end up doing that thing, or they end up getting the smaller version because they're just starting and the salesperson or whoever they talk to is like you don't need that much bike. And then they quickly advance and then they either need a second bike or something. You're even your gorilla is that? Yeah, I was just say that.
Speaker 2:I mean, you know, last year for all the bike park trips I rode that gorilla and it was set up in the smash configuration which is like 150, 145 yeah and I just felt like I wanted something a little bigger and so, luckily, you know gorillas, gorilla gravity's out of business right now.
Speaker 2:but um canfield picked up all their old like leftover material whatever, and I was able to. To convert my bike to the narvana configuration, you need to change the seat stays, and so I got some new seat stays, brought them over here, dane, which we thought was going to be a quick job press the bearings. And it wasn't a quick job, um, but we got the bearings pressed and, uh, put that on. Uh, we swapped out the shot or the fork, the shock you had. I think we had already overdriven that shock anyways, and so that worked okay. And first trip, I went up to Sunrise, the bike park up there, and just absolutely loved it.
Speaker 1:It was just fantastic. Yeah, that's that growing with the bike idea. So Salsa's doing that, trek's doing that, rocky's done that, gorilla did it.
Speaker 2:I know there's more, so it's it's awesome I think that new trek, they said, is like six, can be 16 different bikes. Yeah, it's crazy.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I mean the, the knots that I was riding this weekend. You can I had it 180, 170, but you can go down to 160, 160, all the way up to uh 200. Dual crown up front 180 in the rear.
Speaker 2:So that's, that's their big bike.
Speaker 3:That is their big bike and same with our other e-bike. The Moraine is the same version. It's a lighter assist, so it's using a Fazua, but it's the same travel as that Blackthorn where he comes in the 145 iteration 145 rear, 160 up front. But you can step it down to the 125 where you have 125 in the rear and 140 up front with the Fazua.
Speaker 1:I think that's the future. I really do, and I I always have you know, even before other companies were doing it and we heard it from somebody else. I always thought this is smart from a business standpoint because you've got one frame and a couple of different parts that you can change around to make it fit more people.
Speaker 2:Yeah, definitely from a consumer perspective, All right. So if we move over to Surly unless there's anything else you want to talk about relative to salsa that you're excited about- no at this time.
Speaker 3:That's about it.
Speaker 2:Everything I'm talking, about everything I'm trying to like, needle them here and tell them to give us something secret you guys still sell the quick releases and the collars right uh, we still do some of the collars, not as many anymore.
Speaker 1:Yeah, um, some of that's going to be changing here that's where a lot of people will know salsa from way back in the yeah.
Speaker 2:I think I had many Salsa collars throughout my time early on, when I was riding Back before you were born probably Possibly.
Speaker 1:Yeah, salsa. Quick-release collar with a Chris King headset was like standard.
Speaker 2:Because you matched the colors too.
Speaker 1:Man right, they were pretty close.
Speaker 2:Not exact, though, if I remember correctly, surly which is near and dear to my heart, for I don't even know 20 years I rode a cross check and then, when I took some time off from riding and I got back into it the first bikes I was heavy, I was big, I was over 300 pounds and I needed something like meaty that could hold me up, and the first thing I did is went, bought a krampus, um, which that was when the 29er plus was like a thing, yeah, and we've kind of moved past that, I think for the most part, but just rode the shit out of both those bikes and they were just rock solid and I was so heavy, didn't know, we didn't, didn't you know? The steel frame didn't matter me. There is something special about riding a steel frame though. Yeah, like you can, just it just like sucks up the, the trail, chatter man, it's, it's fantastic. Anyways, I love surly.
Speaker 3:But tell me, tell me what's going on with surly, surly. Oh, I'm trying to think what I. I'm trying to think what I can and can't say, because right now we're in the process of, like, pre-booking for new stuff that's coming out okay so don't, don't, don't get yourself in trouble.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, how about this? What is the most popular? I've heard there's a bike in tucson that sells more krampuses than any uh in the country. Is that true, do you know?
Speaker 3:that I don't know. Off the top of my head, that wouldn't surprise me. I'm thinking campfire, it's.
Speaker 2:Broadway, broadway bikes. That's what they told me.
Speaker 1:Broadway told you that.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's where I bought my Krampus. I had a bunch of Krampuses in there.
Speaker 3:That might've been true when you bought your Krampus so much anymore Not so much anymore. No, they're great. They still do another, some surly, but yeah, they have not doing as much anymore.
Speaker 2:Not doing as much. They had a surly guy in there. That's where. That's where I ended up.
Speaker 1:I always take a issue, when I always am skeptical, when the person that tells you the biggest or they're the best at something, is the person selling it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you have no way to independently verify it. I took him at his word.
Speaker 1:Yeah, if Bob tells me that Joe is the best person on the planet, that weighs more than if Joe tells me Joe is the best person. All right, fuck you, Bob. We're going to strike that from the record.
Speaker 3:I'm just saying.
Speaker 2:But what would be? What do you think? What's the most popular surly bike that's out right now?
Speaker 3:Yeah, I mean for my territory it would definitely be kind of the karate monkey krampus. Those are kind of up there as a very popular one. One that we're seeing that's getting more and more popular in my opinion would be the midnight special okay that's kind of more of that. Um, is that gravel? Yeah, that's a gravel kind of gravel in all road bike. I'm actually building one up myself right now for a gravel event. Um, yes, steel frame, I can accept up to a 700 by 45, officially, uh-huh, you know people have pushed it.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I might have a little bit bigger than that on my in the desert, in the desert especially so that one's been doing pretty well. We got some exciting stuff coming up in that model later or early next year.
Speaker 1:Very cool what um, so you know what do you ride? Do you ride mountain gravel road, everything like a little bit of this, but more this, what is?
Speaker 3:it do a little bit of everything now. I started more in the mountain xc world and that's kind of where I come back to um. I spend probably most time on my gravel bike anymore and then probably e-bike now okay, okay, do you ride the gravel bike on trails? Light trails yes.
Speaker 2:Because that's like my favorite thing to do, I mean is it like blues and greens? Yeah, that's totally yeah, you can take it down to black, but it's so awesome.
Speaker 1:Okay, so for both of you, what's your most desired tire width on the gravel bike? And everybody, don't get bored with us right now. I just I wanted to start a fight, and so I just want to hear what everybody's desired with this.
Speaker 2:So I'm running. 44 is right now and they're Victoria. That's on your road bike, right? It's not my gravel bike.
Speaker 1:Lacey calls it a road bike, and uh.
Speaker 2:I think if I could get the tire that I'm running, which, for the life of me, has escaped me Mescal, mescal If I could get it in a 46, I'd run it in a 46. I'd prefer a 46, but I can't. I can only get it in a 44. Okay, so I think 40, 46 would be my ideal for my bike.
Speaker 1:You would go bigger if you could.
Speaker 2:I would, but I think I'm riding probably 75% on green trail. It may be a little bit of blue trail, but mostly green trail.
Speaker 1:I feel like your green trail is smoother than all of our gravel roads. I'm not kidding.
Speaker 2:I ride on Fantasy Island too, right so? That's not that smooth, but yeah our green's not that smooth, yeah, but um, yeah, uh, our, our green trails are pretty smooth, yeah, um, we do have plenty of washes and stuff like that and some rocks and stuff to get over, but uh no, it's just, it's a fucking blast and like 35s is my max.
Speaker 3:Yeah, so 45 I'm very happy with, I don't. It's going to be tough for me to want to put on like a 50, because in my mind that's a mountain bike and once you start getting into that like, 2.1.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that is your 2.0 I think 2.0.
Speaker 3:That to me is like well, why don't I just have suspension, a flat bar at that point that, 45 and 50, I think, would probably be the max I would ever consider that's what all the bike companies they're in the, so the e-bike companies are all in this arms race with power right you know, and torque and stuff and the gravel companies are all in this arms race with how big a tire you can fit on the bike.
Speaker 1:You know every year they come out bigger and bigger, so I'm just wondering where it's gonna stabilize. I think the monster gravel thing where we're at is really makes sense to me so what's?
Speaker 2:what's monster gravel?
Speaker 3:that's go ahead I mean monster gravel is essentially an old school mountain bike or certain bikes like the salsa cutthroat. It would be a perfect example of that where it can accept up to like a 2.3, you can put on a hundred millimeter travel fork up front, so it's very capable, but it still has drop bars Like I know a lot of people that would love to ride it up at honeybee. It fits perfectly up there. So it's kind of essentially older mountain bike would drop ours.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and they usually have, um, they'll usually run like a 50 or 51, even a 52 cassette one by. So they're running kind of mountain gearing but they'll usually have like a 44 up on the front or a 42 on the front for you know kind of it's. It's basically a monster truck, gravel bike is what I think of it as I feel like I've seen some Surly set up that way too.
Speaker 2:What would the frame be that they would use? Is it a karate monkey that you do that too, or is it a cross check?
Speaker 3:More like a bridge club, bridge club. Yeah, the karate monkey is going to be more of your mountain bike style.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and there's a lot like at Leadville. That's a big deal. They they're starting to put drop bars on the full suspension mountain bikes and so like you can cross them up all over. That's one of the things with all this wireless stuff coming out is they're getting interchangeable. Even Shimano is starting to do that, so you can kind of add mountain gearing into your road setup and vice versa. So it's kind of cool. So I want to see the flat bar XT bike with Dura-Ace gearing. Oh, Jesus.
Speaker 2:It seems like we used to get weird like that more often.
Speaker 1:Yeah, there's been a trend to where everything's systemized. I remember when wheels started. So Mavic was one of the big ones that pushed what's called system wheels, their wheel system, which meant that they made the hub, they made the spoke and they made the rim, and so then they could test them all together and get the optimum weight and strength and all of that and that was the selling feature. So, you know, chris king would make a kick-ass hub, and then, you know, dt would make an awesome rim, or even mavic would make a great rim, and then you could get a dt spokes or sapiums or whatever you know, and put them all together you could could get the tie dye, you know, or whatever. You know. Titanium that kind of went away when they started making these wheel systems because they really could nail the strength to weight ratio at a better price, you know you just didn't do them in volume.
Speaker 1:You just didn't get the customizability. Now that carbon's come out, it's gotten away from that a little bit.
Speaker 2:Yep. So yeah, because a lot of the carbon guys are just building rims, yep. And they build them up with different.
Speaker 1:Yep, yeah, that way you can get the color you want. We do that. So if you don't need color, we love Reynolds, but if you want color, we do our own wheels that are like Reynolds. And then bikes started doing the same thing, where they kind of integrated everything only into their own thing. There was a little time where you could swap derailleurs between brands you know and mess around. You'd find the pole ratios were so close that you could make them work. Now they're all. I mean anything wireless is not talking to each other.
Speaker 2:And as you talk about getting weird in, like trying to integrate multiple different parts from different companies onto the same bikes, you can run into a lot of fitment and connector problems. Yep, and that leads me to one of your other brands, which is problem solvers, and I was. I was telling bryce that I deep dived problem solvers, which is really cool, and if you don't know about this, you should go take a look at it. I think wolf tooth does some similar stuff with, like you know, matching shramAM brakes with Shimano shifters and stuff like that. It looks like Problem Solvers has all that, but your price points are a lot better.
Speaker 1:I was going to say Wolf Tooth is like the more bougie Problem Solvers.
Speaker 2:I didn't realize that there was another option, and now that I do, Problem Solver is your budget option.
Speaker 3:You need that to make it work.
Speaker 2:That's where you're going to go with Problem Solver.
Speaker 3:You're not going for something super light, you're just like it's gonna work and it's gonna last. Yeah, you need something for that old bike to make it work and run it in this scenario go to problem solver.
Speaker 2:Yeah, they literally solve the problems we deal with them all the time in the shop well, if you're a bike nerd like we are, I suggest you get a beer or a whiskey and you get onto the problem solvers website and just mess around for an hour or so. That's what I did last night and I was like oh shit, I didn't know I could do that.
Speaker 1:Yes, yeah there's a um, a company that started rebuilding shram derailleurs. Have you seen this? So, uh, we see shram derailleurs twist. Their parallelograms will twist, and so what often needs to happen is new parallelograms, and they don't make them SRAM doesn't. So you're kind of out, and if it's an access derailleur or XX1 or XO or something expensive 12 speed derailleur, you're kind of out, a big coin. So I think it's a drone.
Speaker 1:I think they're in the US and they started rebuilding them and putting CNC you know, basically parallel links back on the derailleurs and drilling them out and fixing CNC. You know basically parallel links back on the derailleurs and drilling them out and fixing them, which is great. Then they started doing colors. That was cool. Then they were kind of like oh, we'll make them work with different ratios. So they started doing that.
Speaker 1:Now they have their own derailleur, so you can buy one of their derailleurs which you can then take these chips and change the pull ratio so you can use it with different drive systems. So I want to get one of those because I, I, w, I w. It's pretty universal. You know it's probably spendy. I haven't looked at the price yet, but when you compare it to the price of an XX one derailleur it's can't be that much more, and you could use it on Shimano. You could use it on Shimano, you could use it on SRAM, and then you can use it on 11 and 12 speed. So it would be nice to have in the shop to really get somebody out of a jam. So SRAM, derailleurs are bending.
Speaker 2:Well.
Speaker 1:I can tell you about the Shimano problems too Nice. Most of those aren't repairable oh, how long does that laugh button go.
Speaker 2:Oh, you gotta shut them off.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I see how it is. That's that better. So if you and that one shuts off automatic some of them are short.
Speaker 2:I didn't realize we don't use the laugh one, that we don't use any of these. Really, I know nobody laughs, nobody laughs at us. People laugh at us.
Speaker 1:For sure, people laugh at us.
Speaker 2:All right, next brand TerraVal. So I've been running just randomly.
Speaker 2:I've got a friend of mine who runs a little kind of service-only shop out of his garage and it's like a mile from my house and he's a fantastic wrench and so it's like perfect and I'm an amateur wrench wrench and I often get myself over my head. So anytime I call him or come walking and he's like God damn it, not again, cause he knows that like all the easy shit I can do, but if I'm coming to him like there's something bad. But he he suggested I tried the Terravel A-line which I've been running as a rear tire out here.
Speaker 2:So it's like you know it's hard over hard, pack over, you know soft over hard. Basically, desert, desert riding, and I've, I think, replaced my rear tire three times and I keep going back to that same retirement. It's fantastic.
Speaker 3:Yeah, no, the airlines are great tire. I was using that as a rear tire for a long time and absolutely loved it. Um, I mean, I would pair it with a Kestrel up front and that's going to be kind of your more aggressive setup, but it's a fantastic. It hooks up really well. It'll last really long and even in the tan wall which, from my experience, tan walls tend to dry out a little bit quicker the TerraVale one seems to last the longest out of my tan wall tires.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I wonder.
Speaker 2:I wonder why that is like. Is it the color Cause it happens in grips too. If you have gray grips they go gummier usually quicker. Yeah, something with the color impacting the material properties.
Speaker 3:I think it's just yeah, the it's a lighter, lighter color, so it's absorbing, absorbing a lot more sunlight. That's my kind of thought lighter colors did not absorb yeah, they reflect more, they reflect more, here we go I know you just out signs you're gonna have to bob GPT or whatever it is Claude, Claude yeah.
Speaker 1:We're not supposed to say Claude.
Speaker 2:What other tires are you guys excited about that TerraVale makes?
Speaker 3:TerraVale just actually launched three new tires. One is on this Spearfish that I have with me. This is going to be the Camrock. That is our fast XC rolling. Then we had the Clifty and the Drop Point. Those like fast XC rolling. And then we had the Clifty and the Drop Point. Those are going to be more of like a down country and kind of all mountain tire focused.
Speaker 2:What are the different casing? It seems like on the TerraVal there was two options. It's like kind of I can't remember. The camera is like saw or like light and heavy or something.
Speaker 3:So yeah, typically in TerraVal we're offering two sidewall casings. There's going to be like for the xc tires it's going to be light and supple and durable, or you'll have durable and durable plus. Those are kind of the kind of options, depending on whether it's more xc focused, it'll be that light and supple and durable. Where you start getting to that more all mountain and more aggressive tires, you're going to have that durable and durable plus I've not tried terribles yet, so yeah, why not, we carry them in the shop.
Speaker 1:Uh, I don't know, I have so many tires. Most of the time I have four, four sets of a brand that I want to get rid of. So well, do you need four more? Uh, not of that same brand. You want to do some horse trading? I? Mean maybe depending on what brand it is okay. Well, I'm trying to say it because there's one brand that I don't like yeah, which you've said on this I have.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you keep saying you don't like this one brand, and then I'm like it's Maxxis. And then everyone knows oh no, no, it's not Maxxis, oh, it's a different brand that you don't like.
Speaker 1:No, like. So here's my love-hate with Maxxis. I think they're actually a really. We had some issues with casings and I kind of like an underdog and I feel like maxis gets so much credit for being amazing when it's really mainly because they have a huge oem business and if you didn't have that like if bikes, if you went and chose your tires and they weren't forced upon you, I think you would see more out there.
Speaker 2:So try different tires.
Speaker 1:Well, I like to, and so then I tend to like brands that seem as good or better than Maxxis, but aren't necessarily as big. I don't know why it's like it's the underdog.
Speaker 3:I totally get that Trying to be punk rock.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I think that's what it is. Now I genuinely have some tires where I absolutely love them better, but I'll ride a Maxxis all day long. I've raced them. They do great, so it's nothing against them. But if I'm pulling for somebody to win a race, I tend to like the underdog.
Speaker 2:So you should listen to the Mountain Cog podcast and just turn Pinkbike off. Basically, is what you're saying? I don't know, man, we're the underdog.
Speaker 1:I've been listening to those guys and I respect that they're. They're a bunch of bike geeks. But the only thing that I bugs me a little bit about all YouTube including when we talk honestly um YouTube or or podcasts or whatever is that you know, sometimes people you know kind of take it as gospel and it's not. It's an opinion in most cases and I think it's well-established. We don't know what the fuck we're talking about. I don't think there's a single listener.
Speaker 2:right now it's like definitely going to take us a hundred percent on our word, and that's my big issue is sometimes.
Speaker 1:I just wish they were a little bit more clear about the definition of their opinion versus you know, uh, what's better. I think everybody struggles with that.
Speaker 2:Well, that's a good reminder we should check ourselves. Yeah, yeah, yeah for sure.
Speaker 1:I do it all the time and and I'll I'll try so hard not to tell somebody that this is what it is, but this is how I feel about it, or I like that, or my favorite tire, because I ride this way, you know or something like that, rather than what's the best tire in the store oh, it's this brand, you know. So I try and steer clear of those, and that's many, many years of practicing and it's not an easy thing to do, so for sure.
Speaker 2:So I want to put our listeners in the in the seat of the bike shop owner. Okay, and you are starting your bike shop, you're starting to to to bring in product. You know what's the decision matrix? Cause cause a lot of these things. Besides the 70 that are unique to, besides your house brands, and the 70 that are unique to QBP, the 330 other ones you can get from other locations. So what? So I'm interested, like what's the decision tree or decision matrix that you go through to decide what are you going to buy from QBP versus what are you going to buy from some other distributor or direct from that company? And like, how do you, how do you decide it's convenience factor? Like, like, how does it work out for you? You're talking to me, talking to the bike shop owner. Bike shop owner.
Speaker 1:Okay. So, um, if you don't know, you're going to go find out. But but quality is probably considered the biggest they're. They're just really big in how much they have. The other thing is their, their business facing um website is super easy to use, and so that really creates a flow and makes it easy. So your first decision is when you're opening a shop is like where do I get all this stuff? You have to call every single company and try and talk to them. They usually have minimums and they usually charge shipping and uh. So you kind of find out real quick that if I want some stands, you know I need to have a case of it, otherwise I don't get free shipping. Or maybe they don't even offer free shipping, uh, or they only sell it by the case. But I only need one or two bottles. Maybe I'm like your buddy Chris, who doesn't need a case of it, he just needs a couple bottles because he's not as high volume.
Speaker 1:And then same for tires, same for everything, and so quality does that, and they have so much in one location. It makes it really really easy, and so it's really nice. We go, that's it's. It's really nice I. We go direct sometimes if it makes sense for volume.
Speaker 1:But uh, in economics or business world it's called breaking bulk, and that's where you're taking a big item, shipping it, paying that shipping is is a lot cheaper the bigger the item, believe it or not. You know, there's usually a break point. Um, and then when that item gets there, if you split it up into a ton of little ones, they've all shared that shipping, and so that's what quality does. And so if Shimano wants to ship one crank to every single person who's buying a crank in the country, it is so much labor for them to do. But if they send a pallet of them to QBP, but if they send a pallet of them to QBP and QBP is selling that crank along with some stands, along with some silica parts or you know what have you or some Maxxis tires or Terribles or whatever, it all gets put in a box and then you can actually get freight credits towards that, so you can get a certain amount coming and get either no freight or reduced freight a certain amount coming and get either no freight or reduced freight.
Speaker 2:So so, convenience of those. So you got a. So you get a badass gui. That's really a graphical user interface. It's really easy for the website for.
Speaker 1:Thank you for that, because I was very confused when you said badass gui I'm like what, what the hell? I've never heard that term.
Speaker 2:Never heard that term. You've never heard that term. Dui no, all right. So you've got a great GUI that's easy for the bike shops to use. It pulls the pain in the ass of calling 100 different people. You can call one person. You've got 55,000 SKUs to pick from, or 50,000. Sorry, 50,000 products to pick from, to pick from most of the major brands out there, from uh parts, pieces, tools, goo, gel, food, clothes, all that shit. It's just really easy for the um bike shops to work with you guys.
Speaker 3:Yeah yeah, I'd say that's spot on. I mean, like dan mentioned a lot of brands you can go direct and, to be honest, you'll probably get better margin than what qbp has. The big thing is, is those hurdles to kind of order from them directly? It's like we just want to make it convenient for everyone to order from us.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and you're adding a step in the in the distribution chain, right, so you gotta. You guys gotta make money too. So you, so you there's, a it's a little bit less margin for the shop, but a lot more convenience.
Speaker 3:Yeah, a lot more convenience, yeah, a lot more convenience. And then that's a big part of us is being a distributor, is our supply chain and how that functions is very fast, and that is our main focus, and that's why we have four different warehouses and we're constantly trying to figure out ways to improve those and how orders flow through there.
Speaker 1:Yeah, right on their GUI I'm going to use that so much Right on their page it'll tell you what warehouse is coming from.
Speaker 1:So when I'm talking to a customer I can give them a good idea, you know, of roughly how much time it's going to take to get that product for them If I don't have it in stock. And then I can also make decisions like oh, this cart is going to, everything is in this one, but it's going to get held up because of this other one in Pennsylvania, or something like that. We can kind of shift that around. We can see it, so it's not unknown to us. So that's very nice.
Speaker 2:So you said I had asked you this when we were up in New Mexico about where your warehouses were. You had mentioned that there were four. I'm assuming that's the Minnesota, pennsylvania, nevada and Colorado locations. Yes, but your website also says you got one in Vancouver and Toronto.
Speaker 3:Yes, so I believe we do have some distribution up in Canada I am not as familiar with that area because I do not live up there. I'm on the farther side of the US.
Speaker 2:So, but so so is QBP just United States and Canada, as far as you know. Do you guys? Do you guys ship to bike shops outside of North America?
Speaker 3:I am not sure I don't know. On that, yeah, that doesn't fall under my job description no, I'm asking big questions, I'm sorry.
Speaker 1:But that's a good question, because I would have said no, I would have said they're a US distributor. But you see Salsa's and Surly's all over the world.
Speaker 3:Well, that's the thing is. I have heard that Surly's are very popular over in Japan just because of the kind of the name and what it represents and everything. They find that it's a very American brand and it does really well over there. Really, he says they're big in Japan Everybody's big in Japan.
Speaker 1:I got a band.
Speaker 2:They're super big in Japan. There's no way to independently verify that, but they're big in Japan.
Speaker 1:Just there's no way to independently verify that.
Speaker 2:but they're big in Japan, Just fuck with you, keep going, it makes sense Surly lines up with Japanese culture, I think.
Speaker 1:So I wonder if they have distribution of that product somewhere else.
Speaker 2:Yeah, because those are house brands, right, so I would imagine those you could sell anywhere, right?
Speaker 3:Yeah, Surly's an air and house brand. So yeah, I would imagine we're distributing over there.
Speaker 1:But again, I don't know, it's not my job. The big distributor in in uk was, uh, wiggle wiggle. Yeah, they were a big one. Yeah, they went out of business because they were a bike shop, a consumer direct and the distributor for so many things and it caused a lot of problems. But I think they had a heavily weighted consumer direct business plan and as soon as the consumers stop buying stuff, it affects them way faster.
Speaker 2:So I bought one of their bikes, yeah.
Speaker 2:The Vitus after it won like budget bike of the year when I hit the Krampus and I was like I gotta get a, I gotta get a full suspension bike. So I bought a Vitas trail bike and it was like 2000 pounds or something, it's like 2,500 bucks Super cheap bike. And uh, it was like 2 000 pounds or something, it's like 2 500 bucks super cheap. Yeah, you know, kind of dior spec is good bike. Marzocchi fork, which I had all kinds of problems with, ended up replacing it with a fox, but um took it up to its first real test.
Speaker 1:Now I was probably 280 pounds at that point and took it to prison camp and that little drop in the middle yep yeah, and just collapsed that frame, the one that we were practicing that little, that little drop in the middle, yep yeah, and just collapse that frame, the one that we were practicing that little, that little drop, oh jeez, took one.
Speaker 2:So I was scared of drops forever, not because I was afraid I was going to crash, yeah, but like I don't trust that the bike, it's going to hold up, it's going to hold up. That's why you see this giant monster truck that I, you know, I don't know what the gorilla gravity, gravity.
Speaker 3:It's massive yeah.
Speaker 2:Cause I'm worried, like when I jump, is it gonna? Is it gonna?
Speaker 1:collapse. Yeah, I think that's legit, like, uh, I think some companies rely on the average in the middle and then they just kind of pink and shrink or blue and blow up or whatever you want to call it up for the big ones, you know, and they end up being just kind of short sighted on the ends.
Speaker 2:You should probably explain pink and shrink. Cause I could, I could I could come up with about 16 different definitions of that.
Speaker 1:Pink and shrink is a term in the bike industry. Whenever a bike company, instead of making a women's specific bike, they just make a small one and then do it in a feminine color and they don't really design it around a woman. And there's cert there's some companies that… have women-specific design?
Speaker 1:Yeah, and then there's some companies that say they do, and they just change the color. So like figuring that out, and then you know. On that note, one thing we always preach is just because it's a women's bike doesn't mean it's the right bike. If your geometry takes a different style of bike, don't feel like you have to get the women's. That's the number one thing that we see wrong with women's bikes is that women buy them because Because they're a woman's bike, because it's Only because they're a woman's bike, yeah, and they don't actually get the right size for themselves.
Speaker 2:All right, Bray, so we got some questions for you. Here we go. All right, Bray, so we got some questions for you. Um, what is like? What are your most popular products that the bike shops are hitting you guys up for in your region in Arizona today?
Speaker 3:Ooh a region. I would say probably tires or components as a fill-in.
Speaker 2:Okay, so which, uh, which brands of tires, which models are most popular?
Speaker 3:Continental. Obviously You're a big Conti guy, huh. So which brands of tires, which models, are most popular? Continental, obviously Continental.
Speaker 2:You're a big Conti guy, huh.
Speaker 3:Well yeah, we just became their sole North American distributor about a year and a half ago. So that's why you're slinging the Contis, that's why we're slinging them so hard.
Speaker 1:So in your world, in distributor, because that's one thing that we can mention is that QBP is one of only a few of these companies that do this for the bike shops, Yep, and so a lot of those distributors have Maxxis, as do you. They do, but nobody else will have Conti. Correct, yeah, okay, and so if you guys like Conti, nobody else can sell it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you have to go through us to get continental anything mount bike related and there's 70 brands that are in that category, that are unique to, to quality, to quality, yeah, yeah which is, I mean, you have to be the biggest to leverage that.
Speaker 1:So, because conti used to have its own distributor right so but you don't have victoria no, we have victoria as well, you do uh-huh, we sell victoria. It's not on your website oh, interesting worst marketing company like canaver but yeah, we're business focused, not consumer folks.
Speaker 2:Okay, yeah you're right, you're right and I don't have access to the business. Uh, yeah, okay, so so obviously, tires, components, stuff like that. You said you guys are slinging conti components, are you guys? You you seeing more Shimano or more SRAM? What are you seeing right now?
Speaker 3:Yeah, so probably more SRAM, although that is changing as they're trying to do their own direct-to-shops.
Speaker 2:Oh, really yeah.
Speaker 3:I can definitely see that trend when I'm looking up shops, information and seeing, oh, they used to have this much, and then all of a sudden it drops off a cliff and that's probably because they're going direct.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you don't think. That's because they realized Shimano was better.
Speaker 3:I mean, that's what I would have thought.
Speaker 1:No, there's a little time when some of the companies will pull out of distributorship, yeah, so when they want to get control of their supply chain for SRAM, where their big not so much distributors but their big online retailers were kicking a fuss and so they had to do some stuff to appease them, which pissed off all the little guys. So you run through that once in a while and then when you're using distributorship, you lose a little control. So I think Shimano just wanted a little more control. And keep in mind Shimano North America is not Shimano Japan, and they are a distributor. So they're actually kind of a competitor.
Speaker 1:Double distributors, yeah. So the other thing is they aren't the ones who manufacture the product, they're the ones who represent Shimano in North America. They're the ones who represent Shimano in North America. So that's a little weird, because we went through a similar problem with the Wiggle and the Chain Reaction, where they were getting the big difference in costs that allowed one distributor to undercut the other one and it caused a problem and we found out those two guys are just customers of Shimano.
Speaker 2:A little rabbit hole. Did you see the text that I sent you about the Taiwanese dollar? Yeah, it's gone up 11% in three months. That's going to have a significant compared to the dollar. The US dollar, that's going to have a significant downstream impact on bike prices.
Speaker 1:Yes, yeah.
Speaker 2:And then this is separate from tariffs.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's just in general. What's causing that? I didn't. I didn't die that oh no, yeah, it's a that's. All of these little things can affect things. I have talked about how Rocky never really was popular in the U? S for quite a few years because at one point, but they were at one point and the.
Speaker 2:Canadian exchange rate changed.
Speaker 1:And then, when it came back down, all of a sudden Rocky started popping up. So and same for Da Vinci's and Norco's and stuff like that. So if the world market trading is affected, if we may stop seeing stuff, it's interesting. Oh, that gets me on something. Let's talk about silica yeah, yeah yeah, tell us about silica.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you brought me some cool silica stuff yeah, the one thing I want to ask you that I wasn't clear about, but because I've been watching some of the videos and stuff, is I thought it was an italian brand, but it's not.
Speaker 3:No.
Speaker 1:So did it used to be, because I could swear they were an Italian brand. It's just really good marketing, no Serious dude.
Speaker 3:I could be wrong, but I thought it was started from someone who left Zip.
Speaker 2:Oh, really we can fact check this.
Speaker 1:Are you going to Bob GBT that?
Speaker 2:I'm going to GBT it, but keep going.
Speaker 1:Okay, so that was one of my questions, because the new guy was talking, and he was talking about mini pumps and this was coming around the tariffs, and he was saying that one of the manufacturing partners that they're using and that's, by the way, code for somebody else may make part of, or the entire product, which happens yeah, no, I mean, if you watch the video on silica, they're pretty open about who's manufacturing it for them and where a lot of people are getting those pumps.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and he said that because it was affected by tariffs, that they may just choose not to bring it into the us, and so they released it all over the world except the us. So, but I think, because things have stabilized not necessarily gotten cheaper, but we have a better idea of what's going to happen, I think. I think, um, now we can get them. Is that correct?
Speaker 3:yeah, that is correct. Yeah, you're right on with everything you said there. They initially had developed them. We're like, oh, we're going to bring them in then with the tariffs, they're like, I don't know if that's going to be realistic. And then everything's stabilized and we're like, all right, we're able to bring them in at this price point. Okay, yeah.
Speaker 2:So Soca is an Italian company.
Speaker 3:It is.
Speaker 2:Okay, soca was founded in 1970 by this is from their website, by the way Okay by Felice Sacchi, just outside of Milan, italy. The company innovated and grew quickly by innovating as the first company to to put gauges on pumps, the first company to produce a true high-pressure frame pump, the first to work with revolutionary lightweight material plastic after the end of World War II.
Speaker 1:Now scroll down to Silica today, because I think what happened is somebody in the US bought it.
Speaker 2:In 2014, Silica headquarters and manufacturing moved to Indianapolis, Indiana, so they started as an Italian company and they are now a US companyapolis, Indiana. So they're they started as a Italian company and they're now a U S company. Okay, yeah. Uh, here we are rebuilding a once great icon into a new great icon.
Speaker 1:That's cool, cause I think that's about when we started seeing a bunch of different random parts coming from silica silica that weren't just a frame pump, you know, cause that's what they were famous for. And then their floor pumps were and their presto heads. We would buy their presto heads for the bike shops and they would just get hose clamped right to a hose, like with super perfect yeah so um, so yeah, so silica now has, uh, mini pumps, which is a big thing.
Speaker 1:So yeah, you had to tell us about that silica mini pump yeah so silica has two now electronic pumps.
Speaker 3:They have their micro version, which is a just basic pump, has one button on the back. You turn it on. It would automatically shut off at 72 psi or you could toggle it on and off can you change that, or is that just always? 72 no, it's just a preset.
Speaker 1:They're like this is the best pressure you should all ride.
Speaker 3:Don't do that on your mountain bike. Yeah, exactly. No. Yeah, the mini one, I would say, is more of like a road and gravel focus Cause it's a little bit smaller package. Like I can throw up my Jersey pocket and I don't even really feel it bounce around at all. It's a very smaller one compared to the ultimate one, which is the one I was showing you this weekend, that has the gauge on the back. You can turn it on and you can set it from pressures up to 100 psi. Once it hits that pressure it'll automatically shut off.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, how does? How's the battery life on that thing?
Speaker 3:it's been really good.
Speaker 1:I mean for the, the bigger ones, the one I've been using more, and I've gotten anywhere from like three to six tires completely inflated on that with one charge with one charge and then the mini one you said automatically cuts off at 72 and you have to be careful because I heard that if you rely on your pump automatically shutting off and somebody messed with your pump, you may blow your tire off I heard about that yeah and
Speaker 2:should I tell that story now that you've introduced might as well.
Speaker 1:Yeah, because I think it's hilarious, because I think you're not alone. You know, I think people do that.
Speaker 2:So I have an air compressor with a cool park bike shop head and I set my air compressor to 40 PSI and that's the most it will.
Speaker 2:It's got like a little gauge that goes up to like 180 PSI or something. I set it to 40 and that's the most that it'll do, unless I'm inflating my gravel tires and then I'll go and take it up to I think 65 is what my tires are set at. But so I'm out there and I'm putting a new tire in the whole tubeless system or whatever, and and I'm I, I just, and I it was, it was a gravel bike, gravel bike tire and I wasn't thinking about it and I'm like, oh, this thing will shut off at 40 and we'll see if it pops and if I have to increase it. So I really wasn't paying attention to the PSI and I was, I don't know, probably listening to some punk rock music or something rocking out, not really paying attention, looking at my phone or something, trying to inflate this tire, and it blew. And it blew so like like fantastically that it like like literally knocked me back. I hit my head in the refrigerator.
Speaker 2:I like, I like blacked out for a minute. My ears were, I felt like it was like a grenade. I was like holy shit, what in the hell just happened? I like Holy shit, what in the hell just happened? I like I'm on the ground. I'm like I didn't know. I didn't exactly know what happened I?
Speaker 2:just knew. I was like my ears were ringing really bad. I had a fricking bruise on the side of my face and, yeah, it blew off. And, uh, what had happened was my my beautiful bride had gone out and she didn't really understand how that air compressor worked and she just cranked it up and so, I don't know, it probably blew it like a hundred PSI or 110. Psi or something? I you know my fault for not paying attention.
Speaker 1:I've seen some violent you know, uh, like blowing off the rims. Uh, the ones that I feel so bad for the customers are the ones when they put their bikes in their cars and in this heat that we have in Arizona, and they blow while they're at work, like, oh, I'm going to take, I'm going to go ride after work. So it's really common that somebody will stick their bike in their car and then go to work, right, and then come back out and then go to on their bike ride, and the amount of times I've seen those things blow in their car Cause they heat up and air expands when it hits and, and it's just all over the interior like there's stands and stand.
Speaker 2:When we talked to the president of stands, we asked him is there, do you have a secret to getting the stands stain out? And he's like I don't know no don't get it on your stuff.
Speaker 1:That's what we need. Is we need everybody to give us their worst tire explosion?
Speaker 2:any cool tire explosion stories. I did see you walking on Ziggy with no tire. Yeah, I mean, that happened twice this weekend.
Speaker 3:But those weren't that impressive, they were just unfortunate. Yeah, yeah, no, I mean recently, probably in the past year, I was at a shop and he was trying to set a tubeless tire and we were both kind of chatting. As he was sitting there doing it with the air compressor and it blew up and there was sealant all the way like to the wall all around the whole service area it went all over and I had my dog with me. She was not too happy, she ran to the door.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I felt kind of bad, but besides that, I mean that's kind of a yeah, that happened with Brian's dog Casey.
Speaker 1:She was shell shocked for weeks afterwards.
Speaker 2:You guys had one blow here yeah.
Speaker 1:We have one blow so violent it blew the carbon rim apart.
Speaker 2:Oh Jesus yeah.
Speaker 1:And that's that was an expensive issue.
Speaker 2:Yeah, but uh, was that a? Was that a new mechanic? Probably yeah, Like me.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, I mean, honestly, it was it. Honestly, it was somebody who was waiting for the system to do something they were used to, but in a bike shop environment it was a different system. So that's what happened to you, right? Yeah, common, yeah, you were used to it always shutting at 40, and then you had somebody come in and change it and then you didn't think to look at it because you were used to it. And so if you're used to your tire making two popping noises every time you put it on, you may wait for the second pop, but you may not realize that some tires don't pop. We heard that. Who is that?
Speaker 2:That came up in the garage this weekend, when you were doing your tire someone's like. Well, we didn't hear the second pop and you're like it doesn't always second pop.
Speaker 3:Look for the bead, that's all you need to do.
Speaker 1:Look for the bead, do yeah, I usually go to 40 is my max, and then if I'm going to do anything beyond that, I put a floor pump on it.
Speaker 3:Yeah, to pump it, just to watch and I'll watch it.
Speaker 1:I'll just watch the bead and you can see it kind of creep into place and sometimes they creep into place and pop but make no noise so that's crazy, it's above 40, it's going outside the door.
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah, yeah, you put it away from you.
Speaker 1:I've. I I've even been holding one, you know. Luckily it didn't go, but I've held them before. But usually if you take it to 40, you're probably pretty safe, unless you've got something bad. We did have that happen the other day in the shop where, when the beads was bad and so the guys got it up to pressure and then, because the bead was is what holds that round, and when it started to go and flex, it just got too big for the rim and popped off.
Speaker 2:So that's what happened with that uh schwalbe tire that I brought in and had.
Speaker 1:You know, yeah, yeah yeah, I've seen that once in a while not very often, but we do see it so all right.
Speaker 2:What do we miss? What do we miss aboutBP? What should our listeners know? Why should they care?
Speaker 3:I mean your listeners, I'm not sure. We're more focused on bike shops. Oh, here we go.
Speaker 2:Well, what you should know is they're a crucial part of the bicycle supply chain. Make it easier for your shops to get all the stuff that you need.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I would say, for consumers the big thing to check out would be salsa, surly Terravale. They're kind of our consumer facing brands. Go check those out. And problem solvers, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1:And I got a little PSA for people. So, um, one of the things that in the bike shop that troubles us that we can't do much about is, uh, shipping time and this day and age of Amazon and you get stuff in one day or two days. When I tell a customer it may take three or four, they sometimes give me the side eye. You should know that I have to usually get it from a distributor, from direct, not from Amazon. And even when you can get that product, if you can go through the shop and it's the same price, try and give them the business. But just also realize that the ship times are not for us to get a free shipment. We have to build enough product that we're buying to get that free so that we don't pass that to the customer. And that's one of our disadvantages is that we don't get that free shipping in one day from Amazon.
Speaker 3:We talk about that, how the amazon effect has been a big issue where everyone expects free shipping two days, and that is not how shipping works. But that's what consumers think because they deal with amazon all day long. But that is an extraordinary case of like how they've optimized their logistics to make that happen. Well, it's not sustainable.
Speaker 1:They're actually making the. The product sellers take a smaller margin and they've built their own infrastructure, you know, and their margin is going towards that, and so it's not sustainable in a world without that so uh, you can't. Even when you get it from your grocery store, you usually have some sort of fee. If you get dominoes, you get some sort of fee.
Speaker 2:Yeah, are you guys going to start using drones to deliver?
Speaker 3:I don't think so.
Speaker 1:No, unless fedex or ups is we're not going to that's awesome, I think that semis are going drones before anything yeah, semis are driverless.
Speaker 2:Yeah, driverless semis. Yeah, right on bryce. Well, thanks for taking the time and spending an hour with us. You got any final thoughts for our listeners?
Speaker 3:no, appreciate you guys having me on um, I would say encourage listeners to check out salsas earlier. Terravale yeah, there you go, there you go, I really.
Speaker 2:I like that a line. So if you're looking for a good cross country rear tire in a hard pack, it's uh, it's been great for me, yeah, and problem solvers make my job easier yes.
Speaker 1:All right, guys. This thing keeps going down so slow I don't notice it, and then I get uncomfortable.
Speaker 3:Can you dig it?
Speaker 2:Can you dig it? Can you dig it?
Speaker 3:Can you dig it?
