14. Managing the Chaos and Costs of New Tariffs

There is still a lot we don't know about the new tariffs, but experts all appear to agree – the costs of new bikes, as well as parts, accessories and everything else are likely to increase.

Steve and Kristin sit down to discuss how tariffs may be already affecting purchasing decisions for manufacturers, supplies and retailers, as well as what you can do to save in the short term whether you have a bike, or need/want a bike.

We also discuss the beautiful red SID Ultimate Flight Attendant RockShox fork spotted during this past weekend's UCI World Cup in Araxá, and the "ken-energy" of certain naming conventions.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:04

This is Kristen.

SPEAKER_03 0:06

And this is Steve, and you are listening to Cycling Together, a show all about bikes, riding, and riding together.

SPEAKER_00 0:11

It is my turn to wear the wool jersey. And here's my question. What year did we buy these?

SPEAKER_03 0:17

Oh, you're putting on me on the spot here. Um these are the original wool jerseys of the shop. Now I know I had this in Iceland in about 2017, I think that would have been. 2018. So I'm gonna say 2015.

SPEAKER_00 0:35

Close. 2016.

SPEAKER_03 0:36

2016.

SPEAKER_00 0:37

2016. We probably started it in 2015. 20 wait, no. What did you just say? 2015. Yes, because it's 2025. Yes. And one of the reasons I wanted to point that out is they have held up really, really well. We wear them a ton, right? We wear them.

SPEAKER_03 1:00

Yeah, and I wear that externally as a riding sweater.

SPEAKER_00 1:03

Right.

SPEAKER_03 1:04

So, and the amazing thing about merino wool sweaters is you can splatter them with mud. You can wear them mountain biking or gravel riding, splatter them with mud, and and honestly, you could be sitting around after and and everything the all it dries, the mud splatter dries off, and you shake it, and then suddenly you're like, Well, I don't even need to clean this. It's not it's clean.

SPEAKER_00 1:23

This is the only time we did a Steve the Bike Guy wool sweater. We have done Yeti Hunter. Oh, yeah. We have done ruckus, but we have not done another one.

SPEAKER_03 1:34

Oh, interesting.

SPEAKER_00 1:35

Until this year. I just released the pre-order for our brand new black, black STBG race flag jerseys. Same place. We're gonna get them from Oregon.

SPEAKER_03 1:47

Oregon, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:48

Uh, same, basically same cut. Unfortunately, unisex cut. They don't have women's and men's, but I find it's okay. They they form fit enough. Yeah, so yeah, I'm really excited, but I didn't realize it had been that long since we had even done them. You know, it's one of those where I was like, I I do have these great pictures of you. Um, you took some some from me also. We went up to Lake Placid. Lake Placid was their first time out when we did our fat bike vacation with the kids. And so I have these pictures where I was like, pose like you're a model. Because we were we had to sell them. We had to sell them. We had to sell them, right? You know, you work cheap. So I had you, you know, and there's one of me like head down, baseball hat on, like so. Oh yeah, I remember that. Yeah, yeah. That's it.

SPEAKER_03 2:40

We had just gotten these, and I will say my like my those will sweaters and all the variations that we own are some of my favorite pieces of clothing.

SPEAKER_00 2:49

Yeah, I sometimes rip out the pit.

SPEAKER_03 2:51

Do you? I do. What are you doing?

SPEAKER_00 2:52

Do I don't know what I'm doing, but they have held up really well. The biggest tell is that it says Velo Studio. That's the that is the biggest tell, but it has it has held up really well. So I'm really excited about that.

SPEAKER_03 3:05

I'm excited about the new ones then.

SPEAKER_00 3:07

So today, today we're gonna be talking about something that is all over the news, and it is tariffs. And I want to make sure that um I feel like you can't talk about tariffs without it taking a political turn. We are not we are not taking a political stance on any of this. We just want to talk about the fact that it is going to inevitably impact the prices of bicycles and bicycle parts. Tariffs have always been a thing, right? It's it's um again, I've always played paid the tariffs, but as I understand it, manufacturers might shift around where things were made in a way to reduce tariffs, right?

SPEAKER_03 3:54

Yeah, and the tariffs themselves, even on some of the the existing tariffs that there were were in the low single digits.

SPEAKER_00 4:02

Right. Um it always seemed to be like China was where you wanted to get out of, and so they would make things in like other places, right?

SPEAKER_03 4:12

Correct, and that was yeah, because tariffs there were on and off and higher, and and there was definitely more concern about what might happen with the different trade policies with China.

SPEAKER_01 4:25

Right.

SPEAKER_03 4:26

Right. So it was a lot of companies sort of diversifying and try to trying to spread around and and get out of China a little bit more.

SPEAKER_00 4:37

Right. So I was reading an article from uh Velo magazine, and here's one quote. The fact of the matter, however, is that based on what folks in the bike industry tell us, there's hardly anything at all that won't be affected by tariffs. That goes for bikes that are made in Asia all the way down to the local bag maker who doesn't source their materials domestically. So bicycle retailer reports that 87% of bikes entering the US come from China, Taiwan, and Cambodia, meaning 88% of bikes coming to the U.S. are subject now to a minimum 43% tariff. And I'll admit, I'm not, I'm, I don't want to say I'm not, I'm not, I'm not a math person. I'm not strong on like tariff math, but I thought there was another article in USA today, actually, where Stephen Frothingham, the editor-in-chief of bicycle retailer, and industry news, basically tried to give us an idea of of how that might what that might look like. How that works out. Right, how that works out, right? So he said a 25% tariff does not mean an item will cost 25% more. He said, a rule of thumb I've heard people in the industry use is that a$1 increase of import cost equals a$3 increase in retail on the showroom floor. So let's say a chain is normally$10 at import value. You put a 25% tariff on it. Now its value is$12.50, which gets passed to the distributor who takes a margin, then it goes to the retailer who takes a margin. So if you use the three to one rule of thumb, the price of the chain would raise from ten dollars to seventeen dollars and fifty cents.

SPEAKER_03 6:19

Yeah.

unknown 6:20

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 6:20

It's a little frightening.

SPEAKER_00 6:21

Yeah, I mean that's just but but we don't really know. Everybody's saying we don't really know because you could have some importers who eat a little bit of it, you could have some companies overseas eat a little bit of it. Like so we don't really know, but that's kind of a nice I like rules of thumb.

SPEAKER_03 6:41

Yeah, and and where we sit now is the the disruption that this is going to cause, and the disruption because of the uncertainty of the tariffs. Yes. The the tariffs went into effect almost immediately. A couple things are waiting until I think May 3rd, but but who knows that the problem that that we have been set up with is will these tariffs be here next week? Will they be here next month? Will they be a different rate next week? And you don't know that. And what that means is a lot of companies are going to just for right now, this early or April, just wait. Yeah. And I just just 10 minutes ago read uh an article of Parley saying we're just gonna hold off ordering parts right now because we don't know, and it and this is the worst case scenario, we think, right now. So why get anything?

SPEAKER_00 7:35

Yes, and actually, in the same USA article, uh Frothingham said, I was with some people who make bike tools. One of them said, We just don't know what to do, we don't know what step to take next or whether we should shift our production. Like they just don't, and and I know you see it yourself in you know, talking about it's 'tis the time to order bikes. It is right now it is any, and you don't even know if you should or what you should buy. You know, so it's just it there's a lot of uncertainty. I had two categories in my mind. One was you have a bike, and one is you need a bike.

SPEAKER_03 8:15

So right now, if you need a bike, yes, go get it.

SPEAKER_00 8:20

Go get it. Yes. I think I think that's like if you're in the market, you've been looking for a new bike, you know the bike, or you're close to just just get it.

SPEAKER_03 8:30

Right, and let's just lay it out there right now in terms of the past two years, year and a half, have been nothing but fire sales in a lot of ways. Price prices, discounts on on the on the prices of bikes that you will never see, all of us will never see in our lifetime again.

SPEAKER_00 8:49

Why?

SPEAKER_03 8:50

And that was the post-COVID issue. So all of the companies thinking that the COVID boom times in the bicycle industry were going to keep rolling, and some of that is because a lot of venture capital came into the industry, and those guys just thought because they and they came in because they saw all of the the the booming times in the industry, right? And they just during COVID, and then they just made these nice increasing projections and they ordered lots of bikes, and then the just total collapse in demand happened. Because it turned out people had bought their bikes, and people had bought their bikes, uh, people who only really got it because it was something to do during COVID, all that type of thing.

SPEAKER_00 9:33

Okay. So we saw so we saw an oversupply. So we went into the pandemic, we have enough. Then as we came out of the pandemic, everyone was super excited about all the bikes that had been bought. So they ordered a ton of bikes.

SPEAKER_03 9:47

Yes. And it turns out Which took a long time to get. Yes. So so at the same time, a lot of those bikes were still back ordered at the factories and they took longer to get. So there was this delay between getting excess supply and the demand dropping off. And then suddenly all these companies were left with massive quantities of bikes in storage and no buyers. Yes.

SPEAKER_00 10:15

I what I want to do, I don't want to tell people to rush out and buy a bike, because if it's not the right bike, if it's not because I do think we saw a little about that during the pandemic, is that people would buy a bike because it was the bike they could get. Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 10:28

Right.

SPEAKER_00 10:28

Right. It was the bike they could get, and now maybe they're replacing that because it wasn't necessarily the bike they wanted. But what you're saying is if you know the bike you want and you can get it, you should go ahead and do that. Because it's probably at the best price it's gonna be.

SPEAKER_03 10:48

Yeah. Hopefully. Even if it's I right now, as things stand, of course, with the tariffs, it's either on a good sale or it's at or near its regular price, which if the tariffs remain in effect is going to be way better priced than they're gonna be coming up.

SPEAKER_00 11:07

Right. Assuming that the retailer you're visiting has not jacked it in anticipation of the and that could be the case.

SPEAKER_03 11:16

That could have no, I mean that's heard that any bikes that are still on that clearance pricing, that's gonna be going away. And and maybe even just this week. Yeah. Because now all the the re all of the the retailers and the manufacturers, all these the bike brands, are gonna say, we're all right, we have moved most of this inventory, but now we need to hold on to this inventory that we have uh not overspent on because of the tariffs.

SPEAKER_02 11:48

Yes.

SPEAKER_03 11:49

And and that will also let us maybe wait out before we order a little more to find out what's gonna happen because they don't know what's gonna happen either.

SPEAKER_00 11:57

I did read that um some manufacturer sites uh are quietly removing like the sign up for our e-news and get 10% off or sign up for like those little those little things that you could have gotten are starting to disappear. Because again, in anticipation of they need to make the most they can off the bikes.

SPEAKER_03 12:18

Right.

SPEAKER_00 12:18

Which I'm not gonna do.

SPEAKER_03 12:20

I I also just read so it was a good article about Turn, the um Yes, the uh cargo bike maker, yes, and they make a lot of e-cargo bikes, really really nice bikes. So they actually have a whole shipment on the water right now.

SPEAKER_00 12:36

Okay.

SPEAKER_03 12:36

And if if that gets in, and I can't remember the exact dates coming up, but basically it was a case where in in the normal uh what was planned to arrive in, I think probably the the the port of Los Angeles or Long Beach or whatever, and and then it was gonna be split up and go to a couple of their warehouses and so forth. Well, under that scenario, it was gonna miss the deadline, and they were gonna have to pay a million dollars in in tariff fees on that shipment, which would basically bankrupt the place. Right. As opposed to I think it was gonna be seven thousand, something like that. Maybe it was seven, maybe it was seventy thousand. Anyway, huge difference.

SPEAKER_00 13:20

Right, right, huge difference, all because of a couple of days. Because a storm came through and slowed down the boat for a couple of days.

SPEAKER_03 13:27

Yeah, so exactly. So right now, I think they had said if the if the boat gets in on time, the plan is to sort of immediately, immediately truck it somewhere so that it gets logged in it it and by it's gonna beat it by like a day or two, right? There is no there is no margin for error there. Right. Isn't that good? That's just crazy. You can't, I mean, they're their their stock was already on the water. And right?

SPEAKER_00 13:55

I feel like there should be, well, again, this is it is what it is. We're just trying to work through it is what it is. Let's continue with if you need a bike. So that's new bike. Right. You're in the market, you know what you want, go get it. Yes. Hopefully, what's at the bike shop is pre-tariff pricing, because some shops do have a lot of inventory, or they have so they're the ones to talk to. And that might be a larger bike shop. We don't have a lot of inventory, we have a little bit, right, but we're not gonna have a lot of pre-tarif.

SPEAKER_03 14:29

Right, and and and there's a still a few really phenomenal deals on bikes that I can order from the warehouse. Yes, and again, as I I I have a you know, suspicious feeling that that those discounts are gonna go away this week.

SPEAKER_00 14:42

Right. And you have to decide if you want to snag a couple, that's which Yes.

SPEAKER_03 14:48

Um and I and earlier this week, I in fact, I think the m the day of before the tariffs were announced, I think Tuesday morning or something like that, uh, I was talking to another brand, which we're not announcing yet, and I was going to sign on with them, and I probably still will, but it's a case now of oh, but what's happening with your pricing? Like, I can't I right right, I can't now uh sign as a dealer and buy a bunch of bikes right now because I don't know what's gonna happen, so now I have to wait.

SPEAKER_00 15:22

Well, this is probably better for an offline conversation, but but there is something to be saying if you order it from them right now at the price that is shown right now, that's gotta be their pre-tariff price. Right, but they assume they're gonna be able to do that. This is all questions I have for them now. Yeah, so it's you can see how difficult it's gonna be for every size business to figure out. And I know when we talk about tariffs, one of the things people say is, well, you should just buy American. Just buy American. And there are a couple of American bike.

SPEAKER_03 16:00

Yeah, let's let's get into that a little bit because I also want to sort of look back in time at American bikes.

SPEAKER_00 16:07

Oh, okay. How long is this podcast? Spark in the day.

SPEAKER_03 16:13

So so there are some American bikes, and Envy makes frames in the United States, Allied makes frames in the United States. Um I believe, and I have not checked on this, but Trek made their very, very top spec bikes in the United States. I don't know if that's still the case. I should I should know that, but I I don't know that anymore.

SPEAKER_00 16:36

We have our local brand Seven.

SPEAKER_03 16:38

Yes, Seven that makes there's a bunch of custom frame builders out there, like Seven and others, uh Moots, if we're in the titanium space, uh Linsky.

SPEAKER_01 16:48

Yes.

SPEAKER_03 16:49

Um, all of these companies are making metal frames in the United States, titanium and steel. Um, and so there are options there, but they are all the top of the end of the of the of the spectrum.

SPEAKER_00 17:04

Well, and the materials are getting tariffed. So so if they have materials that are coming in from kind of like the example that Frothingham said, it could be, or in one of the articles said it could just be your bag maker who's getting material from out of the they could be a US-based bag maker, but they're getting material from a different country. And the parts are still the all the components.

SPEAKER_03 17:34

Well anything on the full bike is still coming from yes, okay. All the SRAM parts are coming from Taiwan. Shimano is coming from uh a lot from Japan, um, some from Malaysia. Um the the low end for Shimano is coming on um some coming from China. You're not gonna find that on your own.

SPEAKER_00 17:51

So there's no way to get an entirely 100% built USA bicycle.

SPEAKER_03 17:57

Oh, it's it's been done in this sort of like experiment of can we build a bicycle 100%?

SPEAKER_00 18:04

It's not the reasonable, the the normal person in the world.

SPEAKER_03 18:07

No, it's it's using these really, really sort of boutique CNC derailleurs from I think Paul makes one and there's another company at Kenber. So yeah, so it's a it's a case of can it be done and it can be done, but um it's not uh it's not something people are gonna buy.

SPEAKER_00 18:25

Okay, thank you. Not for the mass market.

SPEAKER_03 18:27

No, it's not.

SPEAKER_00 18:28

A guy, a person could do it if they were truly committed.

SPEAKER_03 18:34

There are a couple of uh there's actually a few American-made companies for parts. Okay, like Wolftooth out of Minnesota, and and they make chain rings and headsets and industry nine, and Chris King is a famous one. And there's a bunch of, like we mentioned, Envy, but also zip rims. If you're in, you know, again, this is all high-end stuff. So their carbon rims are made in the United States. So, but of course, if you get a full wheel, they're using um hubs that are not, and exactly tires and sealant and all that other stuff. Right. Uh orange seal. So yep, so orange seals sealant uh is made in the United States. So there's a there's a good one. So there are options that will probably not see the price increases. Then again, this is how things work. If a company's competitors all raise their prices because of tariffs, then even though an American company isn't seeing tariffs, they're gonna rate they can raise their prices a little bit because they can, but also remember that other stuff may be impacted.

SPEAKER_00 19:43

What or let's use orange seal. Where are their labels made? Where are their bottles made? Where are all the chemicals coming from? Where are the the screw tops coming from? Where does the nozzle come from that lets you put it in it? So one of the articles I read was that you'll see Uh one way that that companies might try to keep prices level and accommodate for tariffs is they won't include batteries. They might reduce some of their packaging, right? So some of it will be cost savings, inefficiency, some will be you get less shrinkage. Maybe orange seal has to reduce the amount of seal you orange seal you get in a way to keep things. So there are gonna be lots of ramifications, but the point of every article I have read is that there is no one escaping the tariffs. Right. Because everything is impacted.

SPEAKER_03 20:37

You look at Wolftooth Industry Nine and Chris King, they rely on a lot of aluminum. Well, that's all tariffed.

SPEAKER_00 20:42

Right. So it's just can't necessarily just buy American when it comes to a bicycle, because short of some very specific situation, it is not possible to do.

SPEAKER_03 20:57

Okay. And we can go now. So I said we could go back in time here, and we can a little bit. So let's let's roll back the clock to say even just the 90s. You um Cannondale. All the all the Cannondale aluminum frames were made in, they were welded in Pennsylvania.

SPEAKER_00 21:13

I bought you a Cannondale road bike that was made in the USA. Yeah. Yes, I didn't.

SPEAKER_03 21:19

And they were normal, competitive pricing. Yeah. Your first mountain bike, a Trek 850, it was the bottom entry-level mountain bike. And that it had a chromale steel frame. Yes. And that was made in the in Wisconsin. That was made in the United States. And I do, I mean I can remember an article. I have a Le Mans TeteCourse, which is a titanium and carbon fiber bike. And and there was a whole article about how Trek went to their factory and then pulled their very best welders to come onto the Le Mans project.

SPEAKER_02 21:53

Ah.

SPEAKER_03 21:54

And that was a USA-made frame welded welded in Wisconsin. The carbon fiber was laid up in Wisconsin.

SPEAKER_00 22:02

Well, that's I mean, we know from say Allied that they can make carbon.

SPEAKER_02 22:07

Yep.

SPEAKER_00 22:08

What I would like to see when we talk right now about anything that's USA made, you've said it a couple of times, it's the high-end stuff. And that's unfortunate because the tariffs are gonna hit the entry level stuff pretty hard. Right? Kids' bikes are also getting smacked with this.

SPEAKER_03 22:27

There's some companies though that do make the low-end bikes in the US. Cool. With all foreign parts because that's where the components come from. Um but they are making the frames in the US.

SPEAKER_00 22:42

So we talked about pre-tariff stock, we we talked about whether or not you could buy American. Is there anything in the custom build territory as a way to save or to save with a better um with better pricing? Like buy a frame, say, and then build it up yourself or have somebody build it? Is that one way that you could possibly save it?

SPEAKER_03 23:10

I mean you always no doubt doubt doubtful. So you always I mean you always save money by buying a full bike over trying to build it from individual parts. Okay. In in most cases, you know, you could be very creative and and where you get all your parts. So I'm gonna get shop this sale here, and and my buddy has this one part, so I'm saving money there, and so forth.

SPEAKER_00 23:33

If you're handy, maybe if you're hand if you're me, no.

SPEAKER_03 23:37

And and you're able to build up the entire bike from scratch, yes, absolutely. So it could be possible to do that, but I mean, not not realistically for the for a normal bike buyer.

SPEAKER_00 23:48

You should take your time, do not panic and buy the first bike that you get because it is a larger waste of money to buy the wrong bike than to buy a bike with a tariff increase on it.

SPEAKER_03 24:03

Yes. And it's a sense well, yeah, that yes, and that's always the case no matter what. It is always more expensive to buy the wrong bike, the wrong bike, the wrong size bike, the slightly lesser bike. Some people who are getting into it by the entry-level bike, they could afford one or two steps up, they end up loving it, and now they're like, I yeah, this isn't gonna I I need it, I need something different.

SPEAKER_00 24:34

We were gonna talk about upgrades on the bike you already own, but I think that's a good thought too, which is when you buy a bike, if you go into it thinking that you can so I'm able to get this bike and then I'll upgrade it. Not all bikes are upgradable. Right. Right? Like we were talking very specifically about a recent example where we had two bikes.

SPEAKER_03 25:01

Two bikes. So those are entry-level bikes, and one was a Trek Marlin, I believe, and the other was a specialized, I think, hard rock sport. Okay. By two teen riders who are racing in the um youth cycling league.

SPEAKER_02 25:16

Yes.

SPEAKER_03 25:17

Both of these kids asked if they could add droppers to these bikes. And both of these bikes had internal routing of the shift cables. So they had ports at the head tube, and then they came out a big port at the bottom, um, both aluminum frames.

SPEAKER_00 25:33

Okay.

SPEAKER_03 25:35

All these companies had to do was add in one hole on the back side of the C tube, and this and both these bikes would have been dropper ready for virtually any dropper on the market. Okay. Okay, but instead they didn't add that one hole. They already have holes, a big hole at the bottom for all the cables to come out, and uh and and ports at the top, and they couldn't add that one hole. And now these kids have to use an externally routed cable dropper. Okay. Of which you basically have uh I two choices in the market. One one chaos one, which is really expensive, like$320 retail. That when you have a bike that's was six, seven hundred dollars, that's not what these parents are looking at. Right. And then the other one, which um I believe is only maybe$150,$160 retail, but has I have looked many times. It's been out of stock for at least six months from two different distributors that I use.

SPEAKER_00 26:36

Because it's$150 retail, right?

SPEAKER_03 26:38

Yeah, maybe, but it's but the options for externally routed droppers are just now down to a couple options, and it's not great. Right.

SPEAKER_00 26:49

Why why don't why don't they put holes in those frames?

SPEAKER_03 26:52

I this yeah, this drives me nuts. I think they do it purposefully to promote upgrading to their next model series. Right. Right? Yep. And it that is so frustrating.

SPEAKER_00 27:07

Um yeah, and it means that this goes back to what we were just talking about, which is you if you buy a bike thinking that it is upgradable, right, you want to unfortunately think about what those upgrades might be and ask the question, can it be upgraded?

SPEAKER_03 27:28

Right. And so in it and in the mountain bike world, the the deraillers and your handlebars and and and you know, obviously tires and all that, all those sort of bolt-on parts are typically upgradable. Okay. Okay. So when it comes down to what you're getting to think, okay, can I can I live with this and and and grow with this bike, you're looking for things like that dropper compatibility, if it doesn't come with a dropper. So the other thing is the head tube, because if it came with a low-end suspension fork, it might not have a head tube that is one and a half on the bottom. And so therefore, if you ever wanted to upgrade the suspension fork to something good, it won't fit. Right. Um, not without it either won't fit or not without a headset modification. Okay.

SPEAKER_00 28:26

But even stuff like but someone at the at the shop today, uh, this week, she tried a bike, couldn't stand over it, she was 29er. Immediately you say, Well, she probably needs a 27 and a half. You cannot put that on that bicycle. That bicycle does not have the geometry for 27 and a half. You can't just assume you can swap out wheels. This seems obvious to you. It's not obvious. It wasn't obvious to her, was it's not always obvious to me, because then you're like, well, if you do that, then well crank is hitting the ground. Like, there's there's ramifications that you may not as a consumer recognize.

SPEAKER_03 29:06

You were knowledgeable enough to say, could you swap the 29 to 27 and a half? So you had this knowledge base of thinking, well, maybe we could just do put up the smaller wheels and therefore it would lower the bike just a little bit, and that's all she needed. She needed it. She needed uh she needed three-quarters of an inch.

SPEAKER_00 29:23

Yes.

SPEAKER_03 29:24

Um, because otherwise in a riding position it fit her, but because of her shorter legs, it didn't fit her in standover. She couldn't stand over. So uh and but correct, right. You can't just do that on a on a bike that was designed for 29-inch wheels and that does not have what's called a flip chip in order to adjust the geometry. Right. Yeah. Um, because she'd be she'd be too low to the bike would be too low to the ground and she'd be smacking the pedals and the in the crank all the time.

SPEAKER_00 29:54

Okay. All right. So if you can't buy new or you want to look to avoid tariffs, another way to get a bike without a tariff would be used.

SPEAKER_03 30:04

Used. Right.

SPEAKER_00 30:06

Right. So we've talked a little bit about how bike shops often have pre-owned, whether they're demos. I know after the winter at that ranch camp up in Stowe was selling off a bunch of fat bikes because their season was over. So those are demo bikes. They can be really good deal. There's consignment bikes, there's pre-owned. Then there's the other side of things, which is Facebook Marketplace, eBay. What are some things to be aware of when you're talking about Facebook Marketplace and eBay?

SPEAKER_03 30:40

Facebook Facebook Marketplace can be a great one. I see a lot of people complain. I don't have I have limited experience using it.

SPEAKER_02 30:48

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 30:49

And I hear I hear it's more of a problem for sellers is that you constantly get inquiries than then those people just ghost you.

SPEAKER_00 30:57

My favorite, my favorite are the people that will post a bike and they'll say, Don't ask me if it's still available. If you can still see it, it's still available. That seems to be the number one thing because it's a Facebook automated when you open it and you click the thingy that says contact. Hi, is it still available? Hi, is this still available? Is the first never respond?

SPEAKER_03 31:21

And I've done I've because I responded to looking to buy a few things. I'm like, Right. If this person is not going to pay attention unless I make it look like I'm a real person and really ask about your product.

SPEAKER_00 31:32

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 31:33

I would be concerned about stolen bikes on Facebook Marketplace.

SPEAKER_00 31:36

How do you know if a bike has been stolen? How do you how do you protect yourself from that?

SPEAKER_03 31:41

There is a stolen bike registry, I believe. We should look into that and see if we can we can post that. Otherwise, the biggest thing to look for is turn the bike upside down and look for the serial number and see if the serial number has been scratched off, uh written over, you know, you know, somehow defaced. If you if you were always when you're looking at a used bike, look for that serial number. Okay. If it is defaced or missing at all, do not get that bike.

SPEAKER_00 32:13

Yes. Okay, there is the site is bikeregister.com. It's the national national cycle database. It's a free service for people purchasing secondhand bikes who wish to check the status of the bike on the bike registered database. So this is where you can check if your bike has been stolen. I think the other good sign is they don't know what the hell they're talking about with the bike. If it's either just a banging deal, too good to be true, too. And have zero understanding of the bike. Who rode it, when did they get it, who did it belong to, any anything. If they can't tell you anything about the bike, I would be very suspicious that they got that in uh a nigga wrong, Lee. They stole it. That's that's what I would say. Sometimes you will see bike shops that will and you you collect the uh the serial number for all the bikes that you sell, right?

SPEAKER_03 33:13

Or at least the bikes that I sell, and then that serial number is on people's receipts. Right.

SPEAKER_00 33:18

So it's on the receipt, but you would see sometimes I've seen bike shops say like a customer's bike was stolen, or yes, you know, just keep it can if you can keep an eye out for this bike. So you can maybe work with your local bike shop on that. And then there's the second tier that I don't think that most average consumers know about. Pink bike.

SPEAKER_03 33:42

Pink bike is a website.

SPEAKER_00 33:45

Yes.

SPEAKER_03 33:45

Uh it is now a fairly well-known website in the mountain bike world. It is owned by Outside Magazine now.

SPEAKER_00 33:53

Okay.

SPEAKER_03 33:53

Right, which is that also a Warner Brothers thing now?

SPEAKER_00 33:57

They own everything. I feel like outside. They own Bike Reg. They owned it.

SPEAKER_03 34:01

Yeah, it's part of a big conglomerate now. Yes. So, but they do have a buy and sell forum.

SPEAKER_02 34:07

Okay.

SPEAKER_03 34:08

Uh, it is great for sellers because it's free.

SPEAKER_02 34:11

Yep.

SPEAKER_03 34:12

I have used it, and there's no uh back and forth in terms of ratings or so forth, so you don't know how good a seller is. Yeah. But it tends to be enthusiasts on there.

SPEAKER_01 34:26

Okay.

SPEAKER_03 34:26

And so far I have bought and sold on there and have no problems.

SPEAKER_02 34:32

Okay.

SPEAKER_03 34:33

So it is definitely a place to look for for mountain bikes. They do have gravel and road sections. I would say less people are looking there, but that also might mean that you could find something without a lot of competition, also looking for for other categories.

SPEAKER_00 34:48

Okay. That reminds me actually to go back to Facebook for a minute. There is a way to sell things, not just in the general marketplace where you're next to pinball machines and shoes and baby equipment, which is to go to specific groups. There's one called New England Classifieds, New England Bike Classified.

SPEAKER_02 35:06

Oh, okay.

SPEAKER_00 35:07

So there's one called that. There's another one that is a bike swap specific for the bicycle league that the kids that we work with, the kids race in. So that's probably one for vintage parts. Yeah. So that is one way you can, if you are more comfortable in the Facebook marketplace world, protect yourself a little bit from just general everything. Right.

SPEAKER_03 35:33

And I've I've also posted stuff on Craigslist and gotten responses out of that. But as I've also posted paid as a commercial business. Yeah. So I think that perhaps my response is a little bit better because people were responding knowing that I was a bike shop and then coming to the shop, where it could be a little bit more tricky between two private parties.

SPEAKER_02 35:56

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 35:56

But I said I'd say Craigslist is right in that same realm as Facebook.

SPEAKER_02 36:00

Okay.

SPEAKER_03 36:00

I mean, getting a getting a used bike can be a really great way. It's going to avoid the tariffs. It is one of those things, though, that I tell people you have to be knowledgeable about what you're looking at and what you're getting. Because you have to be I I I have gotten people who've bought a used bike, and I sort of just you want to help them and you want to be enthusiastic about what they bought, but you also go, I can't believe you spent so much on this. And I've had people go, oh, like, like, oh, you know, this is oh, this is vintage. I'm like, oh, this is you know, oh, this is probably from about 92, and their face sinks because they had no idea what they bought was over 30 years old. You know, they're probably thinking it's five, six years old. Oh, yes, you get that a lot.

SPEAKER_00 36:51

And I mean, in some of those, it's fine. In some of those, we had one woman come a couple of years ago, she went to an estate sale and she just found the cutest Scott bike, perfect conditions, totally vintage. She knew it was vintage. I think she was just gonna use it on the rail trail, and it was a win-win-win all across the board. It was just such a great deal. But yes, if you're looking for more of a performance bike and you thought you were getting something that was newer, I can see being disappointed. Right.

SPEAKER_03 37:21

I had a guy come the other day, he brought me two bikes. He he brought me in, I don't know where he got them, but he was basically wanted to get my opinion. One was a full bike, and so it was will this bike fix up and I can use this, or should I use the parts off of this? And he had a partial other bike.

SPEAKER_00 37:40

Okay.

SPEAKER_03 37:41

Okay. So he brought them. One was a vintage 90s trek.

SPEAKER_00 37:47

Okay.

SPEAKER_03 37:47

Exceptional condition for its age and era. So he pulls it out, and I go, Well, the first issue here is this is a 21-inch frame, is how mountain bikes used to be. They used to go by the inches.

SPEAKER_02 38:00

Okay.

SPEAKER_03 38:01

So extra large.

SPEAKER_02 38:02

Yes.

SPEAKER_03 38:02

And you're 5'7, you can't even stand over this bike. And and the first thing he's like, oh, I didn't even realize that. Oh, right?

SPEAKER_02 38:11

No. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 38:12

So I said, okay, so this does not fit you, but let's take a look at the other bike. So then the other bike was a specialized mountain bike, his his size that could work. Okay. It's covered in stickers, which uh I don't always worries me a little bit. I mean, when I say covered, I mean covered in the colour.

SPEAKER_00 38:31

Oh, yeah, I've seen I've seen those. I've seen it.

SPEAKER_03 38:33

So it's somebody trying to hide a crack. Okay.

SPEAKER_00 38:36

Oh, see.

SPEAKER_03 38:37

Yep.

SPEAKER_00 38:38

I can see why that would be suspicious. Yep.

SPEAKER_03 38:40

Yep. And and and hammered. I mean, it, you know, the the the this is also probably late 90s now. The rock shocks fork on there can't be serviced anymore, but it was also for rim brakes, which was fine, but missing the brake studs that the brakes grew into. Oh. Yeah. So that's a problem. Disaster. It's a bit of a disaster. It was a disaster. It was a disaster. And you know, and and and we and I kind of went over a thing. I said, you're better off finding an intact used bike for as much as this would cost you getting one full bike. And and your sort of mint uh vintage truck, it has some value, not a lot of value, but it has some value. And and and I worthy of putting up for sale, taking that money and buying it.

SPEAKER_00 39:33

The other one should be recycled, and the first one should be sold so that he could then use that to fund anything new.

SPEAKER_03 39:41

That specialize was definitely um well loved. Yeah, it was pretty it was pretty much recycling fodder.

SPEAKER_00 39:49

And I I would also say, and kind of back to the don't rush to buy a bike, don't underestimate the option that you might have to borrow a bike from a friend, right? Like my friend. Friend my cousin who did Vermont Overland last year didn't have time to think about what he would need for a gravel bike. He had a friend who had two, right? So he was able to borrow one. Uh the woman that we were seeing this week was riding a friend's extra mountain bike. And I said, if she's gonna let you ride it, then ride it as long as you can until you can find the right thing. So I think a lot of us do have some extra bikes in our garage that for special friends you can you can borrow, you can get to see what you like. It's kind of like your own personal demo. Sure, if you have that. I just feel like cycling people in I want to say the most optimistic thing, but I think cycling people love cycling, and we want all other people to be riding bikes, and we will often let you borrow our bikes, especially if we have an extra one. Just be nice to them. I'm still scarred from when we let someone borrow my new cycle cross bike years ago, and I watched him break the chain on Facebook. So because he was so strong. Okay, so that's if you need a bike, right? Need or want a bike. What if you have a bike? What is the best way we can avoid tariffs with the bikes that we have?

SPEAKER_03 41:27

Well, keeping them running, right?

SPEAKER_00 41:29

Back to service.

SPEAKER_03 41:30

Yeah, always always comes back to service. Right. Right. So yeah, so for a lot of people it's going to be maybe holding off on getting a new bike and so keeping that current bike running longer.

SPEAKER_00 41:45

Right. Try to get them two things before things become catastrophic. Yeah, right. Replace those chains.

SPEAKER_03 41:52

The very first thing that I always harp on is keep the bike clean.

SPEAKER_00 41:57

So clean your bike, service your bike.

SPEAKER_03 42:00

Keep those chains replaced as net as needed. We talked about that last week. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 42:06

That it can be real it can make a really big difference. Replace parts as needed. Yes. They will be tariffed, but it is still less than a whole new bike. And then if you are right on the cusp of uh you wanted to get a new bike, maybe you can talk to your shop about some upgrades that would give you some of the performance that you want.

SPEAKER_03 42:30

Yes. Right. And and I do get people, there are there are sort of two sets of people that I see who come in and ask about bigger upgrades, not just just servicing and replacing the the worn parts. I'm talking about full drive train upgrades because it's older and so forth. Yeah. I I see people with older mountain bikes that let's say a guy comes in with 26, it's 26 inch wheels, it's sort of bad, what we're gonna call bad geometry nowadays. It's just not modern.

SPEAKER_02 43:03

Old.

SPEAKER_03 43:04

And I want to get a feel. Do you if you really like how this rides? Yeah, then yes, let's talk about upgrading it.

SPEAKER_01 43:11

Right.

SPEAKER_03 43:12

Sometimes there are things that start to throw that off the rails, such as forks that can no longer be serviced, and rear shocks that are blown, you know, there could be bigger parts problems. So that's one side of the coin where I get people with mountain bikes that they would really enjoy a more modern mountain bike. So is it really worth upgrading?

SPEAKER_00 43:36

Right.

SPEAKER_03 43:37

And then the and then the people who have mountain bikes that they do really enjoy how it rides, just things are just worn out, or they have an old two-by or three by setup. And then there's a good conversation about, yeah, let's you you really like how this rides. There's a bunch of mod of good bones to work with here, so let's let's work with you on figuring out an upgrade here.

SPEAKER_00 44:04

You had one customer that uh had it the the bike wasn't that old. I recognized it as something you had sold. It was a Scott Mountain bike, and he said his friends kept telling him he had to upgrade, he had to upgrade, but he brought it to you and you gave it all the love. And he was like, Rides like a new bike, right? Loved it. He was so happy. We saw him at an event. He was pointing it out to me. Your husband, what a job he did on this, but I didn't need to upgrade. Everybody told me I had to upgrade my whole bike. Um, but he did a great job, and I'm not really sure what you had done to it, but he was thrilled. And and there is something for just some people want to make the most of what they already own.

SPEAKER_03 44:46

One thing you're gonna hear a lot of is sort of this this general five-year thing. Oh, that's older than five years, so bikes have gotten, you know, mountain bikes have gotten way better, and it's so maybe you're better upgrading. That five-year rule has aged a little bit. Yeah. In fact, I would say it's really now more eight, nine years. Yeah. In that an eight or nine, there are many eight or nine-year-old mountain bike frames that are still modern enough that they're worthy of upgrading.

SPEAKER_02 45:20

Yes.

SPEAKER_03 45:21

So keep that in mind. It is no longer that that five year. It's okay. Mountain bikes have been good for a little longer than that.

SPEAKER_02 45:27

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 45:28

I'm not saying there haven't been changes, but um, and then on road bikes, now road bikes are a different story. Road bikes have not, except for disc brakes, road bikes haven't really changed. So it can absolutely be worth it to upgrade an older road bike. Okay. The biggest the biggest issue I see is that there are some older frames that only still take the old the 23 millimeter tires.

SPEAKER_00 45:59

Yes, yes.

SPEAKER_03 46:00

Still perfectly good road bike if you want to use it, but certainly around here, when people start riding 28s or 30s or 32 millimeter tires at a lower pressure, it's just a world of difference. It's just so much more comfortable. So there's a little bit to look at there. Not every old road bike is worthy, but a lot are.

SPEAKER_00 46:23

Well, it's I think when I my experience with road bikes, and I'll throw gravel into these, is how big a tire can I get onto this frame? That's what a question I hear you get asked. How much can I adjust the gearing? Imagine I came in with my Lamond road bike, and I said to you, I want a dinner plate of a of a climbing gear on the back of this, similar to my gravel. Is that possible?

SPEAKER_03 46:50

Well, road bikes don't get that kind of gravel bike gearing.

SPEAKER_00 46:54

Okay.

SPEAKER_03 46:55

Even still. Yes. Right? But they on a road bike, you're going to be doing two by.

SPEAKER_02 47:01

Okay.

SPEAKER_03 47:01

So yes, you can get much easier gears than you certainly could 20 years ago.

SPEAKER_02 47:09

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 47:09

So there are a lot of certainly 90s road bikes, except for the tire limitation that if only if you want something bigger. Anything 90s and and newer is likely worthwhile to upgrade if you really like how the bike feels.

SPEAKER_00 47:28

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 47:29

Um, I had a guy, yeah, in terms of Lamond, I had a guy just asked the other day about his it might have been a it might have well, I can't remember the year, but it was it was in that vintage of in terms of of road bikes, and he was wondering about he really likes it. He uses it for a couple big road events a year, and I said, then that's totally worthwhile to upgrade.

SPEAKER_00 47:50

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 47:50

It gets when you start even some 80s bikes, that's where you start to get on that cusp of whether the bike is worth it or not. Okay. Just because of of how they were. And then when you get into the 70s, that is where it really starts to fall off on it's not it's not worthwhile. Because they were quite different bikes, and a lot of bikes in the 70s were were based, they looked like road bikes. They were road bikes, they they had drop bars, yes, but they were consumer road bikes that were almost designed after racing bikes, and we didn't because they didn't have hybrids back then.

SPEAKER_02 48:34

Right.

SPEAKER_03 48:35

So if you were a casual rider, you didn't get a flat part bike, you got a dropped barred road looking bike.

SPEAKER_00 48:41

Yes, I did.

SPEAKER_03 48:42

And the position of those things was horr just horrible.

SPEAKER_00 48:47

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 48:47

Uh just the you they weren't meant, they didn't have hoods that you were meant to hold on to. You were almost meant to be in the drops, it uh and the way over the front, long reaches, okay, uh very tall standovers, just not so those bikes tend to be when they come in for an upgrade, or those tend to be because someone has a soft spot love for them.

SPEAKER_00 49:12

Yes. Not necessarily because it is a quote unquote smart choice. Right. It's the it's an emotional choice, and that's okay. That's I remember you re um rehabbing this Bianchi, and the guy was just so happy. Like he was just like, I love this bike, I just love it, right? I don't even know if he's riding it, but he loved it, and so for him it was completely worth it.

SPEAKER_03 49:35

I think that was an 80s Bianchi steel frame. Yeah, yeah, that was a good one.

SPEAKER_00 49:39

That was a good one. I think that's it on tariffs at this point. I mean, as as we said, there's just there's a lot we don't know right now. We know they're in effect, we don't know how long they're gonna be in effect, we don't know how it's gonna impact prices, we don't know how it's gonna impact inventory.

SPEAKER_03 49:56

Yes, yeah, we don't know, we don't know, we don't know.

SPEAKER_00 49:58

We just did a show on all we don't know. My timing, by the way, if we can move on from this topic, my timing is impeccable because of course I decided to upgrade my mountain bike with a brand new mountain bike and brand new parts and brand new I have yes, I have excellent timing. Look what I got.

SPEAKER_03 50:18

She's showing off her new SRAM motive brakes.

SPEAKER_00 50:22

Okay, I have one question. They're called SRAM Motive Silver, they're black.

unknown 50:26

Why?

SPEAKER_03 50:26

Yeah. So we have Why are they black? We have the are you ready for this? We have the SRAM Motive Ultimates, which is their top spec. Okay. The SRAM Motive Ultimate is silver colored. Then we have the Motive Silver, which is a second tier, but it's black colored. And then we have the motive bronze, which is also a black grayish color, I believe.

SPEAKER_00 50:52

So it's not motive gold, like it's mold of motive ultimate motive silver silver, motive bronze, but the mold is silver and the silver is black.

SPEAKER_03 51:04

And the so yes, but the mode of ultimate silver and the mode of silver is black.

SPEAKER_00 51:08

Speaking of parts, one of the parts, and I think this ties into we're gonna call this a scene while scrolling. Uh, we have to figure out my shock situation. Right. Right.

SPEAKER_03 51:18

And I we saw we were watching racing and oh yeah, this weekend is the first mountain bike world cup race in Brazil. It's gonna be the same venue next weekend, and so we watched that yesterday and today.

SPEAKER_00 51:32

Yeah, and I hope you like red, because uh all the women were had the rock shock Sid in my favorite color, red. But then you couldn't find it.

SPEAKER_03 51:43

No, so I went to SRAM's website, not there. I went to my dealer website, not there, and then I went to the I went to the Google, yes, and there was no chatter about this. What where are people talking about? Okay, so I just responded to SRAM's Instagram account on one of their posts, okay, which showed the red fork, and I said, Right, this is coming to everybody.

SPEAKER_00 52:08

Right. So I'm probably not gonna get the red because it doesn't um match the prettiness that I've selected. But we were talking about forks.

SPEAKER_03 52:17

We were talking more talking about the rear shock, right?

SPEAKER_00 52:20

Oh, or is that okay? So I have to decide. So you decide on the shocks, I have to decide what travel I want. One is based on what my bike is. Bike can do.

SPEAKER_03 52:31

My bike can do one 100 to 120, depending on what shock and fork you put in there. Okay. Well, so the rear shock was either gonna be a rock shock sid. Okay. Okay, so they also make a sid labeled rear shock. Okay, or it's going to be uh a fox. The rock shock sid doesn't have any adjustment levers on it.

SPEAKER_00 52:52

Okay.

SPEAKER_03 52:53

Their rock shocks does make another shock though.

SPEAKER_00 52:57

Meaning like reach down between my legs and and adjust.

SPEAKER_03 53:01

Yes, we could do a remote operated one, but you tend not to use those, so I don't think we're gonna use that. Yes. So they do make another shock which does have that control on it with a flip lever on the shock body itself. Yes. So that's the deluxe ultimate. So there is also the super deluxe ultimate, that is their piggyback shock, which has the extra reservoir on it. Now that would be overkill for your bike. We're not gonna get one of those.

SPEAKER_00 53:31

The super deluxe ultimate.

SPEAKER_03 53:34

The super deluxe ultimate.

SPEAKER_00 53:35

That is the name of the shock. Yes. That's how I tell it's different from the deluxe ultimate. There's some real kennergy going on with this, with these names. And I'm starting to think that this is intentional. Like I feel like the average, how does someone like me know what the difference is between the wait, is there an ultimate?

SPEAKER_03 53:56

There's not just a plain ultimate.

SPEAKER_00 53:58

There's not just a plain ultimate. That would be crazy. That was okay.

SPEAKER_03 54:02

So you take their model and then you add on ultimate for their top level spec. So in the forks, they'll have a sit ultimate and they'll have a lyric ultimate and they'll have a pike ultimate. Okay. And then in the rear shocks, they will have ones called the ultimate, but they'll also have ones called the select. So those are the lower specs.

SPEAKER_00 54:27

Select is lower.

SPEAKER_03 54:29

Yes. And they'll have select plus.

SPEAKER_00 54:31

What?

SPEAKER_03 54:31

Now select plus is usually only found on new bikes. You can't buy aftermarket.

SPEAKER_00 54:36

So you have select. Yes. Select plus.

SPEAKER_03 54:40

Right. Ultimate.

SPEAKER_00 54:42

Ultimate. And then you have ultimate supreme.

SPEAKER_03 54:47

No, the ultimate supreme. No, that's it.

SPEAKER_00 54:49

That's it. Okay. Sure. Very clear on that one. No wonder it's I swear. I mean, I'm a professional communicator, so let me just say that. But I swear bike manufacturers do these things on purpose to make things as confusing as possible for someone. I also the fact that don't like mountain bikes and road bikes use just completely different measurements? Like, how do you decide the size? If you're a large mountain bike, that's not anywhere close to being a large road bike. Like, how would you the measurements on it?

SPEAKER_03 55:27

You mentioned earlier how in the say in the 90s mountain bikes came in inch sizes. So you would get like a 17-inch frame, a 19-inch frame, a 21-inch frame. And now, of course, mountain bikes are all extra small, small, medium, large. Whereas road bikes and gravel bikes maintained their number measurement, which is typically based off of the length of the seat tube.

SPEAKER_02 55:49

Okay.

SPEAKER_03 55:50

But they all measure a little differently because it could be from the center of the bottom bracket to the center of the top tube, or to the top of the top tube, or to the top of the seat collar, which could be rise above the seat tube or the top tube a little bit. So that's why you can't quite compare exact same sizes between branches.

SPEAKER_00 56:10

Right.

SPEAKER_03 56:11

They're gonna be close.

SPEAKER_00 56:12

You would think as a woman in the world who has to um buy clothing, I'd be used to this since you know a six is not a six across the board.

SPEAKER_03 56:20

And because of slope top tube, sometimes that number is virtual if the top tube was actually level to the ground.

SPEAKER_00 56:26

Okay. All right. Well, there you go. Um, we do have one listener comment. Uh, Kyle wrote in. Uh Kyle said, something that has come up twice in recent rides in the woods. What to do when you ride near horses? Turns out I was being asked to keep talking, especially if behind the horse. They told me it did not matter if I rode or walked, but keep talking in a normal voice. Allows the horses to know you're there, not a threat. I thought of your podcast and it might be something to share. I had no idea. Maybe everyone else does. I do love listening. Thanks, Kyle. Um, I agree that it's always worth repeating how to how to pass a horse because they are the scariest little beast big beasties ever, trying to pass them. Yes, you want to speak naturally, you want to ask the rider what they would like you to do, you want to make sure the horse knows you're a human.

SPEAKER_03 57:23

Generally just talking and the horse knows you're a human. Yeah. Because you are a big contraption with your bike and your helmet and so forth. And if as long as you're talking, then the rider assumes you are a person.

SPEAKER_00 57:38

Right. Right. Just be good. I was thinking the other day about the etiquette, because of course, bikes are have no right of way, right? Everyone has right of way over cyclists in the in the trails. But how it doesn't always actually translate that way. So horses, yes, they get right of way. Often when you're in the woods on trails, while the walker has the right of way, they almost always will just step off.

SPEAKER_03 58:06

Oh, almost always. Almost always. It's just easier for everybody.

SPEAKER_00 58:09

That's what I'm saying. But technically, they have the right of way. But it practically doesn't it doesn't ever work out that way. In fact, the only time this last weekend when I was riding with our daughter, um, I thought we passed a bunch of walkers in the woods and they stepped off and they stuffed off, and then one group was coming up and I pulled over because I was like, that is what we're supposed to do. I'm just curious what this feels like to step. And they were completely confused. They were like, What are you doing? And I was like, No, no, you have the right of way. Go ahead. And they're like, Oh, we do. Turned out it was a friend, so it worked out well. We get to say hello. But um, yeah, it doesn't really work out that way. No, ever. No. So just again, etiquette, rules, all different. All right. Well, I think we have uh gone way over. So let's wrap this up. Cycling together with Kristen and Steve is a production of Steve the Bike Guy, an independent bicycle shop in eastern Massachusetts and Sundon Marketing.

SPEAKER_03 59:03

If you like the show, please leave a review or share with a friend for show notes, links, or to leave a comment, question, or topic suggestion visit visit cyclingtogether.bike. Uh, and you can follow the shop on Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube at Steve the Bike Guy.

SPEAKER_00 59:17

Thanks for joining the ride.

SPEAKER_03 59:18

All right, we'll see you next time. In the component world, there are a lot of of options. So Wolf Tooth is a great one. Okay. And for say um your chain rings and headsets and like knickknacks in terms of the bike parts. Um, and uh who else? We have industry nine.

SPEAKER_00 59:42

Um don't look at me, I don't know.

unknown 1:00:00

So