Alt Bike NOW! with Ronnie and Arya

grande tour and titanium crashes

• Ronnie and Arya • Season 1 • Episode 2

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things we talked about checking out (an incomplete list):

-Native Women Ride

-Wheel Talk Podcast (of Escape Collective)

-Planet Money Podcast- "Diary of a WNBA negotiator"


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SPEAKER_01

Hi sweetheart. Good morning.

SPEAKER_04

Good morning. Okay, well, we're reporting live from the beating heart of Nutmeg Country.

SPEAKER_01

Cable actuated and opinionated. This is all right now.

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Alternative radio or alternative cyclists. I'm Ronnie Rome.

SPEAKER_01

And I'm Aria Proud Feet. Thanks for joining me.

SPEAKER_04

Why the why the Proud Feet?

SPEAKER_01

Proud feet, it's from the Hobbit.

unknown

Oh.

SPEAKER_01

It's Proudfoot, but I'm Proud Feet.

SPEAKER_04

Okay, alright.

SPEAKER_01

Very it's a Hobbit family.

SPEAKER_04

Okay, bringing it in. I like it. Okie dokie now. Well, everybody, uh, this is our second episode. Thanks for for listening to the first episode. Um, I'm actually gonna bring up those stats while while uh Arya talks here.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, I heard that the sound quality was a little off, that it was pretty quiet, but you know, that's a nice way to start things off, and we will we'll figure that out.

SPEAKER_04

That 703 downloads.

SPEAKER_02

That's a lot.

SPEAKER_04

That was more than I had expected, honestly.

SPEAKER_02

I don't really know what a download means. Does it mean that they're listening or they're like I think does that mean listeners?

SPEAKER_04

I think that means like and subscribe, basically.

SPEAKER_02

Oh my gosh.

SPEAKER_04

Yeah, yeah, which is which in our world, I mean, that is everything.

SPEAKER_03

That's please like us, please.

SPEAKER_04

Please like so uh thanks for tuning in for another episode here. Um we've got um, you know, the I I think we I liked our uh how many times did you listen to our podcast, be honest?

SPEAKER_02

Like three times probably, because but I had a long drive.

SPEAKER_04

We'll get into that later. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02

Um we're still in our kitchen. I'm still on my second cup of tea.

SPEAKER_04

I mean, don't think these 703 downloads, you know, got us all pre-madoned. Pre-madonnaid?

SPEAKER_02

Yeah. Yeah, we're still we're still regular Madonna.

SPEAKER_04

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02

We're still virgins.

SPEAKER_04

Um Well, uh, why don't we just go over first like kind of what you could expect in this podcast and maybe we'll put it into chapters on the uh on the actual uh software applications that I can get into later. So um, you know, we're gonna start off with our headlines, basically our banter, pro sports gossip news, a roundup for the week. And then we're gonna get into real life report backs. Okay. Um uh Aria had a trip to DC, um, met a few people in the alt bike world, and I had my longest mileage week in over a year. Uh so we're gonna talk about those sensations a little bit.

SPEAKER_01

Big hats.

SPEAKER_04

Um and uh we of course we're bringing back Tell Em While You're Mad. Oops.

SPEAKER_02

Tell 'em while you're mad.

SPEAKER_04

Tell them while you're mad. That's a kind of a tongue twister.

SPEAKER_02

Is it though? No. Tell them why you're mad.

SPEAKER_04

Tell them why you're mad.

SPEAKER_02

Tell them why you're mad.

SPEAKER_04

So we're gonna tell you why we are mad this week. Um and we should also, I think we it it's worth repeating that that's a shout-out to Hot97.

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Hot93.7.

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Jenny Boomboo.

SPEAKER_02

You love Jenny, she's not my favorite. Mine is DJ Hawk because you get that hawk sound.

SPEAKER_04

I'll try to put that in. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02

Thank you.

SPEAKER_04

Um and then we're gonna wrap up the podcast with with other podcasts that we loved this week. So I think that should fill up the uh hour plus pretty quickly, uh, as it did last week. So yeah, why don't we uh why don't we get right into it? Uh yeah, headlines. What's what's up with your uh what's up with your headlines this week?

SPEAKER_02

Did you just call me Tenzin?

SPEAKER_04

Uh well, sorry.

SPEAKER_02

You did.

SPEAKER_04

There's a lot of we all have a lot of I guess that is my legal name.

SPEAKER_02

Um trying to get legitimate here. Yeah, I mean we've got a lot to talk about for headlines because we in the last week we've had the Vuelta Feminina finish all their seven stages. We know the winner now, and then the men's giro started.

SPEAKER_04

That's right.

SPEAKER_02

Um and it was like so quickly after classic season.

SPEAKER_04

It's just you Yeah, if you want to get into if you want to get into pro racing and you want something entertaining to watch pretty much every night while you're eating your beans, it's really, you know, pro racing has what you are looking for. I mean, there is a thick plot line. If you're you're ever into like pro wrestling or just like trash TV in general, you know, it's the uh it's not that good. It's no jersey shore. Certainly not certainly not.

SPEAKER_02

Um although everybody does have a little bit of a situation when they lift the jerseys.

unknown

Nice.

SPEAKER_04

Um yeah, well, you know, it's it's we we went right out of cyclocross season into classic season, and now all of a sudden it's uh grand tour season, which is incredible. So we got you know, if as long as you subscribe to like three different uh um I know that's the three different TV apps.

SPEAKER_02

Well, that's why you tune into this podcast.

SPEAKER_04

So you can listen to Altbike now.

SPEAKER_02

You have to waste twenty bucks a month on seven.

SPEAKER_04

Think about that money you're saving. These are just services we offer folks. So um, you know, we'll I again I know we realize this is an alt bike podcast and we're talking about pro road racing, which is I guess the antithesis of alt bike, but there are connections and it all uh depends upon the way that you consume this media and how you apply it to your own riding. Um I just think that I said it last week, I'll say it again, probably every week, that holistic cycling is what we are all about. And um, you know, I like it all with the exception of triathlons.

SPEAKER_00

Fair enough.

SPEAKER_04

So pick a sport, you know? Three?

SPEAKER_02

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04

Good god.

SPEAKER_02

I know. This isn't a polyamory situation, you know.

SPEAKER_04

Like Yeah, much, much less sultry. Um let's see. So, well, the Vuelta Feminina, uh, Aria, what did you observe on your mobile device? Because you were watching this in the van in Washington, DC, am I right?

SPEAKER_02

Uh yeah. Not necessarily in DC, but like in and around. So not not the best way to watch it in the van on my little screen, but it was still pretty exciting because every single day there was the red jersey, which is the jersey that the Basically like Yeah, like the yellow jersey in the tour.

SPEAKER_04

There's the pink jersey in the Jiro and a red jersey in the in the Velta.

SPEAKER_02

It was on a different back every day. You know, which isn't which isn't normal.

SPEAKER_04

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02

And listening to the route overviews, I knew what was coming each day, like what kind of a route, whether it was a sprinting route, a heavy climbing route. So the last two days um was just these incredible climbs, uh like mountain finishes, which are some of my favorites, because I'm a mountain person. And um, the reason I got into watching these grand tours was because you would you see like helicopter footage, uh road footage of just these incredible landscapes. And as we've learned from the introduction, I'm a Lord of the Rings fan, and because the descriptions of landscapes are just so stunning, it puts you right there. I think that's why I got into um the Grand Tour stuff.

SPEAKER_04

And and Spain right now, being a warmer climate, it is stunning right now. So the scenery was so green.

SPEAKER_02

Um and then the little towns. The people that are cheering, the little kids that like run alongside the pros.

SPEAKER_04

It's really like pro cycle watching pro cycling is like a cool way to like jot down little towns that they go through that look super cute. And you're like, I want to go here someday. I want to ride these roads. And the roads are like goat paths, they're so narrow. You know, it's not some of them, which is I don't know how much auto traffic they have and uh when the roads aren't closed, but I mean, at least while these riders are prancing up the mountains, it certainly looks uh quite inviting, I would say.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, it does. It does. And it is kind of neat that they get a day where you know they don't have to deal with cars at all. That's the reason why you want to be a procyclist. You want to ride some of the best roads without any with your head down looking at your head unit.

SPEAKER_04

What numbers are you putting out? Uh maybe you look up every once in a while. I'd have to imagine. Maybe a little bit.

SPEAKER_02

Bleeding everywhere.

SPEAKER_04

Bleeding out of your eyeballs.

SPEAKER_02

Yes, there were some crashes that were pretty brutal. Um we found out that Marianna Voss in that first stage did have a fractured collarbone and finished eighth.

SPEAKER_04

Yeah, still finished eighth on that stage.

SPEAKER_02

Talk about grit.

SPEAKER_04

Yeah, so probably just put a put a piece of leather between her teeth and just bit down and finish the stage.

SPEAKER_02

Don't know where she got that leather, but she found it, folks.

SPEAKER_04

You can't use your toe straps anymore. That's what they used to do, though.

SPEAKER_02

Good God.

SPEAKER_04

That's right. Um, I I I think to to wrap up the Velta coverage here, uh, there were two the two mountain stages, which were the ones that if you were to look back at the highlights, that's what's most exciting because the the racing happens in slow motion towards the end, these steep ass climbs. I mean, the the stage six was incredibly steep, like twenty percent plus gradients, and the way that they were able to capture it on the uh with the motion picture cameras from the helicopter, I'm assuming, it was like yeah, it was like um it just looked unrelentingly steep, like incredibly steep.

SPEAKER_01

I know.

SPEAKER_04

Actually made it that stuff inspires me to go out and ride some steep shit around here, which is you know, not something that I often do during the work week because a lot of the steeper climbs around here I like to reserve for the weekends only. I don't know what it is. I get like anxiety during the work week. I'm like, oh God, I'm too far away from home and I gotta get up that climb to get home. Back to my chocolates and various other sundries. But no, you know, uh the watching procycling on TV puts me out there. I'm like, well, if they can do it on TV, I could do it at home here. Trevor Burrus, Jr.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah. Thinking about all the external and internal pressures they have to give us these performances, um, these battles, these risk of life and limb, you know, it's it's a lot.

SPEAKER_04

And again, for next to no pay.

SPEAKER_02

I mean, are we gonna Yeah, next to no pay is absolutely right? So that's so that that's I'll get into a little bit of that in the wrap and tell why.

SPEAKER_04

Why you mad, yeah. Um little teaser for why you mad. Am I saying that right now? I'm just saying why you mad.

SPEAKER_02

Is that your one of the many yurs that you mess up on spelling?

SPEAKER_04

Your your and your So stage six, incredibly steep, won by Anna Brand Van Brain. Anna Vanda Bregan, who is a fun character because she retired from procycling uh when the women's uh teams like didn't they just didn't have as many races or racers that were Yeah, it's really in the last four or five years where things have really taken off for for a women's racing.

SPEAKER_02

And I think she just like because she was um, I think I want to say director sportif or maybe like an advisor she was for SD, the work the team that she um rides for now.

SPEAKER_04

Like the biggest women's team.

SPEAKER_02

Um yeah, arguably, because it's got Lorena Weebes, it's got Lotta Kapeki, it's got Anna Vanderbriggen. There's there's others in there too that I'm forgetting the names of, but extremely a superstar team. They used to have Demi um Vollering, but now she works for another team that's also very good, FDJ. Um who Demi won the Vuelta the last two years. She's not in it this year.

SPEAKER_04

I'm a hot girl, I'm moving on.

SPEAKER_02

Maybe I don't know what's going on in her head, but um the winner this year was uh Spanish rider uh for the Spanish grand tour, which is Well, for the overall, we're getting ready to get to jumping ahead a little bit here. It's fine. Uh it's fine. We can do whatever we want. It's our podcast.

unknown

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04

So Anna Vanda Bregan winning stage six, uh, just kind of dropped everybody slowly on these unrelentingly steep pitches. Uh, very cool to watch and slow motion because she was.

SPEAKER_02

And she had no expression. And there's like perfect cadence.

SPEAKER_04

She has no expression.

SPEAKER_02

It doesn't look like she's suffering at all.

SPEAKER_04

Like if she, yeah. If she wins or loses, she has the same expression on her face. Yeah. Yeah. She like the like the the shades on, just like cool, calm, and collective. Maybe. I don't know what's going on in there. Maybe maybe. I've never seen her. She smiles.

SPEAKER_02

Oh, she smiles a lot on the podium.

SPEAKER_04

Well, on the podium, she smiles, but when she's riding, no smiles.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, it's game on.

SPEAKER_04

Not many people smile when they're riding at that pace, I guess. But um anyway.

SPEAKER_02

Stop telling women to smile. How about that?

SPEAKER_04

Right, right. Smile.

SPEAKER_02

I don't have to smile for you.

unknown

True.

SPEAKER_04

Don't have to smile. Um yeah, maybe she had something in her teeth or something. Like spinach. You know.

SPEAKER_02

You're just thinking about food all the time. Let it go wrong.

SPEAKER_04

Um, and so then fast forward to stage seven, the final stage. Oh, I forgot. I I in stage six I missed the opportunity to say penultimate. The penultimate stage. Stage six. I honestly, that's get that word gets thrown around so much in procycling. I didn't even know what it meant until recently. Um Blondes Writes Now, you can say say what you will. Did you know what it meant?

SPEAKER_01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04

You did? Second to last, everyone, if you're like me. Uh so um, yeah, I would just be like penultimate must mean ultimate. Like that must be the biggest climb. Like more than ultimate. More than ultimate.

SPEAKER_02

Ultra ultimate.

SPEAKER_04

Pen. Pen must be somewhere.

unknown

I don't know.

SPEAKER_04

Anyway. So, you know, that that's uh so stage seven, um, another mountain stage, and it it was the first time the women's vuelta had gone up the iconic climb of the Angler Lu. Anger Ang Angleru, I think I said that correctly.

SPEAKER_02

Tribune. Uh which is a pretty uh I mean this is Spanish.

SPEAKER_04

Uh a beautiful climb, super steep, uh, and it was won by uh uh the Swiss rider Petra Stasny. Stasny. Petra Stasny. Um under 100 pounds, pure climber, um, just completely dominated that stage. Uh and in doing so out of the saddle, right, most of that climb just Yeah. In doing so led uh um the UAE rider uh who ended up actually the Spanish UAE rider who ended up actually winning this race overall.

SPEAKER_02

Um everything changed in that last year.

SPEAKER_04

Yeah, do you know the do you know the name of the rider that actually ended up winning the women's Velta?

SPEAKER_02

Paulina.

SPEAKER_04

Okay.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, because I haven't I haven't heard of her that much. Um you know, the stars in the the women's field, I'm so bad at it because I only know like the top four or five, you know, people that do have done really well. But in the in the women's races, there usually is somebody that can be like um super strong and they kind of come out of nowhere. You know, like what happened with the the world championships last year, um the Canadian homie winning it, like, and then Kristen Faulkner winning the the Olympics, um, American Rider kind of in that way. She was pretty strong too.

SPEAKER_04

Um this just then we know the name of the racer who won't be. Oh my gosh, Hispana women's femmes. We are talking UAE rider, Paulina, no, sorry, Paula Blasi.

SPEAKER_02

Paula Blasi, she was only she's only 23. I know.

SPEAKER_04

She looks she's so Anna Vanderbreken uh lost 24 seconds on that last stage and crossed the line and looked the same as when she crossed the line when she won the stage the the day before. Just um no expression. Uh was smiling a little bit on the podium, although you gotta you've gotta you gotta wonder how how much turmoil was inside. Do you think that she's just psyched on anybody who wins, or is this kind of like I think being number two is always shitty.

SPEAKER_02

Get it? Number two is shitty. Oh um like it just doesn't you you've you've gotta be like oh freaking 30 34 seconds.

SPEAKER_04

Like I came back. Dang. Yeah, I came back from retirement for second.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_04

Against a 23-year-old. Well I mean it's a it's a young person's sport these days, but you never you don't really know for women's because the science isn't there and people who's your who's this Momby Garcia. 42 years old.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, on the same team.

SPEAKER_04

On the same team as you as uh as Pauline. As Paula.

SPEAKER_02

Paula, my bad. Sorry, Paula.

SPEAKER_04

So, you know, pretty cool.

SPEAKER_02

I know you're tuning in.

SPEAKER_04

So what's next? What's next for the women's Peloton? I haven't really checked.

SPEAKER_02

Well, we'll get into that later because I I feel like we've spent a lot of time.

SPEAKER_04

Okay, we're gonna move on. I'm gonna there's so many other. I'm gonna really rush since since um women's racing is arguably more alt than uh than men's racing. I'm just gonna spend a little bit of time on men's racing game.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, no one really cares about men's racing.

SPEAKER_04

The Giro d'Italia, which is the first grand tour for the men of the season. Um Grande Tour, right? It's uh I think it's it's one of the my favorite to watch because it's Italy is the most beautiful country in the world, let's just say it. And at this time of year, especially, you know, when they're in the mount doing mountain stages, there's often oftentimes like really inclement weather. Snow, sleet, freezing rain, just gnarly conditions. And the road surfaces are often, you know, not as um polished as what you'd find in the uh um you know, in the Tour de France or something. You know, so it's kind of a it's a pretty dangerous race for most racers. Being at the first grand tour of the season, you got nerves are pretty high. And also, again, it's just kind of second rate. I don't mean that in like a bad way, but it is second rate as far as like safety goes. And so there's I know there's a little sadistic part of me that really likes this. I don't know.

SPEAKER_02

I I think Machiavelli is Italian.

SPEAKER_04

So yeah, you know, I I kind of like the action of I mean the p cycling has not become any safer with the advent of like better equipment. Um people are still crashing hard, like every single stage, seemingly. Um and I, you know, the first three stages of the Jiro are in Bulgaria. Bulgaria just makes me think of yogurt personally. And I love yogurt, one of my favorite foods.

SPEAKER_02

So it makes me think of bulgar wheat.

SPEAKER_04

Bulgar wheat.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04

Another great delicious things in Bulgaria. Um other things in Bulgaria. So they were so the the tour, the Jiro organizers were a little bit nervous about um hosting the the opener here in um you know in Bulgaria. Uh they do kind of like uh have openers in the both the the Tour de France and the Giro in like other countries. That's kind of that's a normal thing. But uh Bulgaria never happened before, and so I guess like a few weeks right before the um right before the the races were bound to happen in Bulgaria, they like hastily paved the streets, the roads that these riders are gonna be going on, because they were all potholed. And uh they did uh you know a nice job. It was very like slick and smooth, but it rained like every stage. And so on stage two, there was a horrific crash going down a mountain descent, and uh it took out like it took out like the entire UAE team, which uh um I feel like they're cursed. Well, yeah, maybe this year. Well, they've they've they've got Tade Pagaccha, that's a UAE rider, of course. Is not racing the the um the zero this year, but won it two years ago when he did race it. Um so this is like Jonas Vindigo's like race to lose, which is Tade's like main rival, if you want to call him that. Um anyway, uh He's a sweet boy, leave him alone. Jonas made it out unscathed, but uh Adam Yates, who is the the favorite for UAE and was the twin brother of Simon Yates winner from last year. Um, you know, so had a very high uh you know, could if anybody could go up against Jonas, um, it was this guy. And uh yeah, he It would have been Yates. Yeah, it would have been Yates. And I'm telling you, he went over the guardrail at like 40 miles an hour and landed like straight on his face. And and so there's just carnage all around him, like people moaning. I mean, it's this it's a gnarly sport. Carnage rules the fields of death. Rules the fields of Fields of Death. One of my favorite Sacred Sphere songs Sacred Steel songs. Maybe I'll put that in the in the show notes here. Uh and so he gets he gets up and is like kind of like taking, you know, taking Um inventory of what's going on around him. And he's got mud all over the front of his face because he landed straight in the mud. And he also got a cut behind his ear. And so there was blood coming like in the front of his face. So it's just like blood and mud on his face. And he's looking for his bike to get back on so he could like finish the stage. And they did like a concussion check on a few other things. He got back on, but um a number of his other teammates, uh such as Jay Vine and um I forget the other guy, uh Marcus Hilaire did not make it all the way down to the finish. Uh and as the uh as it goes the next day, uh all three of them had abandoned the race. So not a great start to the Jira for UAE. Um stage three was won by Jonathan Milan, who is super sexy. Uh if you want to just look him up, he's like 6'4, and like you know, there's people uh Philippo Ghana, he's northern Italian, he's two Italian racers. Filippo Ghana and uh Jonathan Milan are some of the hottest guys in the Pro Peloton. Not saying much, but these guys are hot, let me tell you. So check them out. Uh okay. So let's yeah. All right, so we're gonna leave you with that.

SPEAKER_02

That ends our, I don't know why we lead with pro bike stuff, but maybe because we're trying to really quickly and they've just kind of sausaged all of these incredible races, just like it's it's still cold outside. We're still wearing our fuzzy thick robes.

SPEAKER_04

Do you think we should do a little ad break here before we get into the other stuff? Because we're kind of like on the time. Yeah, well, the ad break is our sponsor is Ronbikes.com. Our sponsor is Ronsbikes.com. Well, you know, they just released these amazing bags. They did. Yeah, in all three styles. We've got a Fabs Chest Mini, Fabs Chest Small, and Fab's Chest Large in uh a color that we haven't released in some time now. I I was looking through for some photos and I couldn't find them. You know, this is charcoal waxed canvas. It's actually wax cordura. Most people don't know that, but it's got the same look and feel as canvas, but it's it's much more um uh mold repellent and uh mildew repellent, and uh it doesn't uh you know it doesn't get that kind of like dry rot that some other groups can get.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, it looks really nice too.

SPEAKER_04

So it keeps it shaped nice and something that you'll have for the rest of your life, you know. And uh all repairable. Um runsbikes.com is really, really doing it.

SPEAKER_02

I know. Oh man.

SPEAKER_04

I know so that's our ad break. Uh check out runsbikes.com. Okay, so back to it, back to the show. Um we I I want to get in well let's get into uh um Lynxy, uh the titania, the American titanium manufacturer in Chattanooga, Tennessee. Chapter 11, bankruptcy. Another one bites the dust, folks. Not a great, I mean, we're kind of in a transitional period for cycling in general right now. And while it has been uh focused more so, the the pain has been focused more so on the bigger brands. Um small brands too, um, especially if you're kind of relying on an older model, um, you know, you're not doing probably not doing so well. Um case in point, LinkSe, I'm I can't recall how many employees they had, but it's a uh you know, a heritage uh titanium American manufacturer. In I believe 21 years they were doing it. Um they've made bikes for a number of pro racers over the years, as well as kind of like uh off-label stuff for other uh bike brands, other titanium bike brands. So they stayed busy doing only not only their own brand, but making stuff for Lightspeed, um and uh also um you know doing some making stuff for other people. Well, uh as it goes with the way the the world is going right now, um LinkSeed didn't was not able to pull through. They owed a lot of money to SRAM. Imagine owing money to SRAM.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04

That that would hurt. That would hurt. You know, I'd owe money to Campagnolo any day. Well, no, I wouldn't want to owe money to them. I want to pay, you know, I'd want to make sure that they, you know, I didn't owe money to Campagnolo, but you know, actually having to give money to SRAM after you're bankrupt, that's rough. Um moving forward. I I think this begs the question is titanium dead? Is it just not cool anymore? Um you have a titanium bike. Well, you know, you've got NAMS or sorry, Aria has a Thai fat chance.

SPEAKER_02

I do.

SPEAKER_04

Which is totally sick.

SPEAKER_02

It is.

SPEAKER_04

Um, but it's an old bike.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04

And it was made in a time where titanium was like the creme de la creme of frame materials. If you had a titanium bike in the mid-90s, you were likely very rich.

SPEAKER_02

Right, right. Because it was new.

SPEAKER_04

Yeah, it was newer.

SPEAKER_02

It was newer, so people carbon wasn't around yet. Yeah, people were kind of into it as a carbon.

SPEAKER_04

Aluminum was kind of like aluminum was kind of like not seen worth it. It wasn't like expensive enough to be high zoot, but um, you know, titanium is just super expensive.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, I don't know if the question is, is titanium over? Because the whole sell on titanium is the durability. Like you buy it once and then like you got it. Like that my bike is from 1996 and it still rides like a dream, you know? And it's just not gonna it's not gonna go bad. It's not gonna get a crack and then be I mean it it can, but it but yeah. I suppose, but for like how long it lasts.

SPEAKER_04

That's the way people generally look at titanium bikes as like forever bikes. But the way that bike trends move these days, especially when you're sp you're paying a lot, like if you're saying what is what is like a new bike from Moots cost? Like I I want to say like I saw one in like the mid like $14,000 range for like a complete Moots titanium bike. So I mean that's in line with what like uh like an S-Works tarmac or like a S-Works, like maybe like the new Sworks S-Works crust. Crux crust. Yeah, the S-Works crust. Anyway, there are plenty, like you may not, people may not realize just how expensive uh you know, like the highest end bicycles are these days. I could recall in my day um in the mid-90s when I was looking at bike prices all the dang time, working at shops, uh, the highest, like the most expensive specialized that you could buy back then was like the you know, the S-works M2, uh, which I had, and that was $2,000 complete with full XTR.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04

And suspension fork, like a what would what would that have come with? Like the like the Manitou Mach 5 or something with like the carbon legs.

SPEAKER_01

Sounds sick.

SPEAKER_04

Sick. It was a sick mic. $2,000. And now we're talking like $14,000. But uh you know, I look back on an inflation cal calculator and it is in line. $2,000 back then.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, it's about $14,000.

SPEAKER_04

$10,000 now.

SPEAKER_02

So you know Meanwhile the federal minimum wage hasn't been at oh why are you mad? Yeah, that's later. That's later the madness just keeps creeping in.

SPEAKER_04

So it's like so titanium bike at that level, you know, there's so many other um different frame materials that you can you could go with, you know, be it aluminum or steel. I feel like aluminum, for me personally, you know, I like aluminum bikes. Yeah. I've been riding aluminum bikes since those M2 days. Um I just think that it offers a great uh, you know, it's as lightweight as titanium, but uh the same cost as steel and sometimes even less than steel.

SPEAKER_02

Also a kitchen product.

SPEAKER_04

Was it a kitchen product?

SPEAKER_02

You know, aluminum wraps run over.

SPEAKER_04

Aluminum foil. Oh, okay. Yeah, it makes a great baked potato.

SPEAKER_02

I know. I'll I can remember the commercial where they did like the the bake in the potato thing where you like made a little pocket out of the aluminum, pop it in the oven. Yeah, of course.

SPEAKER_04

Yeah, yeah. All from you know, so you can't do that with titanium.

SPEAKER_02

Can't.

SPEAKER_04

Um or if you could, it would be very expensive. The fatal flaw of titanium. I don't know. I just think I just think titanium bikes were once really cool and now they're just not. And there are uh like ways that you could like 3D printing is kind of revolutionizing titanium in some ways because you can make like cool forks, like uh um whereas before titanium is inherently like a flexi material, so you have to use like a really oversized, you have to use an oversized tube um to make it not and not overly flee. And so for forks, that people are not able to figure out titanium forks for the longest time because um you've got to make make them hugely oversized in order to uh you know the lateral stiffness of them for when you're actually trying to accurately place your front wheel on something. If you've got the the for the your axle moving, uh your front axle moving fore and aft, it's not necessarily a a very um it's not a uh confidence-inspiring feeling. So they're now able to like 3D print titanium and make it and tune it to in ways that it's more laterally stiff and um and compliant uh um you know for uh in the other way. Non opposite of laterally vertically compliant, there we go. Um and so uh so yeah, so there are some brands that are kind of like pushing the envelope with that, but it's still you know, titanium is just overly priced. I just don't think that it offers, you know, I don't think it offers anything as far as you know more durability or like more like better ride quality. I just think it, you know, that's all in the tires, folks. We've talked we're gonna talk about that. You know, your ride quality is in your tires, your handlebars, and your saddle and your pedals. That's what you're feeling when you're on your bike. You just need the frame that all that stuff is attached to. It just needs to have good geometry. Um, whatever the material is, it does not matter. I prefer the lightest weight materials because I have to carry my bikes a lot and I like to travel with my bikes. It just makes a big difference if your bike is a few pounds lighter. Um but you know, that's all.

SPEAKER_02

Regardless, I love my Thai Fatrance. Yes. And the first time I rode on it, I was like, wow, this is what it's also a 13-inch frame. It's very small. Very small. But I'm also 5'2 on a good day.

SPEAKER_04

I think that's a great application for titanium, a small frame, a small triangle. That's a small triangle, so it doesn't have an opportunity to flex a bunch. But if it were my size, which would be, you know, like a a 21 to a 24 or a or a 59 to a 62 centimeter. It's it's very um noodly and not in not in a way like steel is noodely. Like a good s well-tuned steel bike, I think, rides way better than a uh well-tuned titanium frame. Because I think most people just rely on it, rely on like the name titanium to make their bike cool, and it's just not enough. And that's uh obviously um playing out in real time with Link C going bankrupt, chapter 11. Not that we wish that on anyone. It's just it's unfortunate to lose any bike brand. But um, I don't know. Just kind of was made me think a little bit about titanium in general and if it's cool moving forward.

SPEAKER_02

So just a change, right? I mean, we had to cl we had to shutter our factory when we had a factory. We've been there. We've been there. It's not a fun feeling. Um but hopefully this closed door is a open set of doors somewhere else.

SPEAKER_04

I'm sure someone else will buy it up and it'll become something else.

SPEAKER_02

Because I know I remember going to a bike sh expo and they had a panel of um frame builders that were that all worked with Thai. And they, I mean, every single one of them, I think there was like six people up there. I wish I could remember who it was because it was years ago, but they were saying how much they loved working with titanium. Like it was their favorite metal to weld, to play with. And it is hard.

SPEAKER_04

It's hard to work with. So I guess probably once you master it, you're feeling pretty good about yourself.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, yeah. I think it was it's just like the relationship they said that they had with this um working with this versus steel or anything else. Just they just and like everyone was nodding their heads in agreement. Like, yeah, it is it is definitely a rewarding process. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_04

So it is a shame that um we've got some great titanium brands still left here, uh kind of like from the Merlin, you know, Merlin cycles was was uh turned turned up.

SPEAKER_02

The Merlin person was the moderator for this.

SPEAKER_04

Right, right. Um which then turned into uh seven. Um we've got our our shout out to Susie and Matt. Susie and Matt uh in Massachusetts who come come to all of our events and have uh Matt was with Merlin back in the day. And he's now with he's been so he's been in working with titanium. Matt doesn't Matt is a is uh I forget exactly what his role is, but he has been working titanium adjacently for his entire cycling career, which is well over thirty years. Yeah, yeah. So um uh so seven is still going on in Massachusetts. We've also also got Firefly in Massachusetts. Um beautiful doing some beautiful stuff. Um so you know um Long Live Titanium. We got I did I got to ride around a little bit the singular cycles, um kite, which is a new which is titanium frame. It's a Taiwanese titanium frame from an English brand. Tai Tai Thai uh as a 3D printed uh titanium fork. Um I think that that is a pretty cool bike. Um so you know, there's there's stuff out there, but we'll we'll move on now. We'd love if you yeah, yeah, yeah. If you want to, I I don't know. We maybe maybe we could have Matt on someday, you know, just as a guest and tell tell us because he's given us some pretty good.

SPEAKER_02

It would be fun to have some guests. Yeah, yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04

Matt would be a good one. Um all right.

SPEAKER_02

Well come for breakfast.

SPEAKER_04

Yeah, come for breakfast. Oh my goodness, my amaranth is cooking still. I'm gonna turn that off the camera.

SPEAKER_02

All right, go turn that amaranth off because um the I mean, my favorite part of being in bikes is where it intersects with pop culture. Big pop culture, you know, like Joe Biden falling off of his bike was pretty fun.

SPEAKER_03

Um gosh.

SPEAKER_02

Um I get all these like ads of uh the late Robin Williams, the late great Robin Williams, a came his doubt fire, like on all of his nuts bikes that he's got. Yeah, he was a collector. He was a collector collector.

SPEAKER_04

Yeah, yeah. Definitely definitely also like a incredible talent to like a like a Lance sub, also. But he was he was all about it. Um we also have um what with the Kennedy. What's the Kennedy guy?

SPEAKER_02

John.

SPEAKER_04

No, is it John?

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, it's John Kennedy Jr.

SPEAKER_04

with yeah. Well they've all died. Yeah. Plane crash died.

SPEAKER_02

Unfortunately, there's still one like turning around.

SPEAKER_04

Making his tools for us. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02

Um hanging out with weirdos.

SPEAKER_04

Yeah. Yeah. So, you know, uh yeah, there's been a lot of iconic photos of John Jr. uh with a uh in your favorite decade. Yeah, favorite decade of the 90s with his with his looks.

SPEAKER_02

Looking damn good.

SPEAKER_04

Um but his bikes are kind of played. Like he like I think he had like a Gary Fisher huku or something, which is the Grateful Dead one, which was most people like try to collect those now. Like they're like good bikes, but those were shit bikes. Like those weren't those were like budget bikes.

SPEAKER_02

They had like STX on them, which is like Okay, I guess we're talking ill of dead people's choices on this podcast.

SPEAKER_04

Below LX. LX is synonymous with 105. 105, so below 105 if you were talking road terms. And if you're not done. Yeah, that's you're that rich and you're riding bullshit like that. Like get a nice like get a titanium fat chance for crying out loud.

SPEAKER_02

I know. You know, and you're the son of America. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04

Um, yeah, so so that that intersection with pop culture, a nice setup there.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, I got um I keep getting people sharing this with me. Molly just shared this with me last night that Jonathan Bailey and Natalie Portman are gonna star in a thriller called Pumping Black.

SPEAKER_04

Interesting name.

SPEAKER_02

I know that's that's what the name of this movie is. It's launching in the Cannes Film Festival.

SPEAKER_04

And it's cycling adjacent or it's cycling the main plot is in the cycling world.

SPEAKER_02

The f okay, quote, the from this variety article. The film is set in the cutthroat world of competitive cycling. I'm just curious. I like those two actors a lot. I'm a fan of um Natalie Portman, of course, and Jonathan Bailey, who was in I originally uh saw him from um Bridgerton and he's really good. And then he's been in a bunch of other stuff since then. Um pretty big star. I mean, he was voted People's like sexiest man alive, right? Um and Natalie Portman is just a legend at this point icon except for Palestine a lot, too.

SPEAKER_04

Natalie Portman has a pretty slight stature. Do you think she is going to play Guy Realini? Well, we haven't gotten into the guy reality yet. I was gonna ask if she was gonna play a male character.

SPEAKER_02

I don't know. It doesn't matter. Like, I'm interested in these two, and I'm interested in what the story is going to be. We will definitely be watching this. Um I yeah, I'm I'm curious how they're gonna what like what storyline they're gonna pick, like who, what era they could pick. Because like it would be fun if it was the era of like, you know, the olden days. Oh better-looking bikes.

SPEAKER_04

Kind of like kind of like a period piece.

SPEAKER_02

It would be fun. You know, you know, going on. Just because I'm used to Jonathan Bailey being in period pieces because of Bridgerton and that's the connection I made.

SPEAKER_04

Is this is Jonathan Bailey the one with the jawline?

SPEAKER_02

I mean, he has a jaw.

SPEAKER_04

He has a jaw, okay.

SPEAKER_02

It's it's pretty much.

SPEAKER_04

I'm not into him. Yeah, I was thinking of the the guy with the jaw. Which I don't know.

SPEAKER_02

I guess that's only Oh, from the first season, yeah. That's he's in another movie that we digress.

SPEAKER_04

This Jonathan Bailey guy's kind of kind of fugly in my opinion.

SPEAKER_02

He's not fugly. Take it back.

SPEAKER_04

Well, he's no Jonathan Milan nor Philippe Ogana. Uh anyway, we uh yeah. We have um I I mean there were the 80s had a a whole host of cycling movies you know that were big budget.

SPEAKER_02

That's true.

SPEAKER_04

Uh with like uh we you've got Fruit Flyer, with uh Kevin Costner, uh then you've got uh What's the one with Bacon, Kevin Bacon? Well that's Quicksilver and Lawrence Fishburne. Um and then and then you've got um bacon's many vests. Then you've got um um uh Bri Breaking Away with uh um uh Dennis Quaid and the guy and then the burglar from uh Home Alone. That's true The Wet Bandit The Wet Bandit before the Wet Bandit days. So three three iconic movies there, and if you haven't seen those, like make a point of it because those they're all classics.

SPEAKER_02

Wait, what about the later one with Joseph Gordon Love It?

SPEAKER_04

Um Premium Rush.

SPEAKER_02

Were you an extra in that movie?

SPEAKER_04

I want to be on record right here saying I have no uh uh early aughts fixie um uh uh association. Like that wasn't I was still I was in Durango, um, which is famously unfashionable. I was being fashionable in Durango, mind you, but I was not a a a sweet fixie kid. And now you've stepped away to go urinate.

SPEAKER_00

Well, you know, hello nature calls.

SPEAKER_04

Um talking about talking about sweet fixies over here.

SPEAKER_00

I know, I know.

SPEAKER_04

Leaving me alone, leaving me alone and uh being vulnerable.

SPEAKER_02

It's not vulnerability.

SPEAKER_04

Um sweet fixies are sweet. That's how I mean a lot of people got yeah, that's how a lot of people that we serve now.

SPEAKER_02

They're called sweet fixies because they're sweet.

SPEAKER_04

Did you get yours at Urban Outfitters?

SPEAKER_02

Um no, we don't have urban outfitters where we live. Oh wait, no, there was one in New Haven. Yeah. That's right. That's right.

SPEAKER_04

Um so okay, no hate on sweet fixie kids. That's that's that's but that's racist.

SPEAKER_02

That's just straight up white supremacist racism.

SPEAKER_04

Okay. Um got a lot of people into bikes.

SPEAKER_02

It sure did.

SPEAKER_04

And And uh I want to talk about this at another time. I feel like the sweet fixie of today is the vintage, is like the old mountain bike, the 90s mountain bike, because they're easy to work on, they're they're accessible, sure, and there's a lot of them out there, and they're great bikes. And you could actually like work on them and see how they work. So great entryway into bikes for young people of college age.

SPEAKER_02

And you can be you can like do all sorts of tricks and ride up a tree or whatever.

SPEAKER_04

I guess it was the tricks and fix like fixy tricks were always kind of like pretty cringe to me personally.

SPEAKER_02

Because you hate fun?

SPEAKER_04

Yeah. I always was like, these are meant for the track or they're meant for just a purist. Like a purist thing, like training for um road race. Like I I followed this blog back in the day, Belgian knee warmers. And this is when I was racing a lot. And they, you know, it was a br very British thing to train on a fixed gear in the winter time. And it would help um, you know, uh it would help like identify your your smooth pedal stroke and enhance it. So uh if you did like the first month of training on a fixed gear, upping the uh gear ratio, making it harder each week. And so I I got into fixed gear riding doing that post-high school where we would um uh booger weld in the shop in shop class the a uh freewheel to two of the spokes to make it fixed gear. And we would have a little track racing uh neighborhood criterion, just the three of us, one person would have to wait at each intersection to make sure a car wasn't coming.

SPEAKER_02

See, it's fun.

SPEAKER_04

That was fun. That was fun.

SPEAKER_02

All of it is fun. Let people have their fun.

SPEAKER_04

Yeah, I don't even know where I was going with that.

SPEAKER_02

But it was just a fun side story. I mean, you like to have fun on a fixe with country fixed.

SPEAKER_04

So country fixed is so fun. Yeah, because of that whole yeah, training with the fixed gear um in the uh late aughts. Uh I had a lot of I would there's a lot of dirt roads and stuff around here, so it's fun to just uh blow through those dirt roads and like keep that momentum going on a fixed gear.

SPEAKER_01

Scorching.

SPEAKER_04

Scorching, we call it. And so yeah, my my first uh scorching fixed gear was like a a cross check with uh 42 mil no 42 millimeter pan eraser fire crosses and a fixed gear.

SPEAKER_02

Eight.

SPEAKER_04

I had brakes.

SPEAKER_02

Eight.

SPEAKER_04

Gotta have uh but you know, I was able to ride straight through the winter through like the slush and everything because you get like better traction. Um you know, it's uh posi track traction where you've got like, you know, you're connected to the rear wheel so you could kind of feel if you're gonna slip or not. Uh that's why they were it was popular for British racers in foul weather. Less maintenance, less maintenance on your bike because the gears aren't getting all salty and crappy.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, yeah. I think I think just you know, variety is the spice of life, and we're always looking at it.

SPEAKER_04

We're talking about holistic cycling here. I take back all of my words. No, no hate on fixy tricks. Do some fixy tricks. Get out there right now, everyone, and do some fixy tricks.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04

Bar spins on your fixing track stance. Okay, we gotta we gotta move on here. We're probably anyways. Um That was that was all from your your your premium rush joke.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah. It it doesn't take much.

SPEAKER_04

It doesn't take much for me.

SPEAKER_02

You say one like trigger word like premium rush, and the memories and thoughts just come rushing out of Ron here.

SPEAKER_04

And then here we are.

SPEAKER_02

Um because we were starting with Cycling Movie and Jonathan Bailey, and then of course you had to go on a tangent about you don't think Jonathan Bailey is hot, which is like ridiculous because the people would disagree. Okay, well, um So it's cool that Natalie Portman is in this movie. We're curious to see what it's about. What do you think it's about? Let us know in an email we don't have currently.

SPEAKER_04

I saw that people have left like comments on the like Spotify.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, but I don't have Spotify.

SPEAKER_04

I think they do it on Apple too, right?

SPEAKER_02

Oh, okay. I have the Apple thing, but um please keep leaving those comments. We'll read them. Ronnie will read the Spotify ones.

SPEAKER_04

Well um and don't don't like out me as a Spotify user. I just I've just used it for too long. And what why weren't we?

SPEAKER_02

No excuses, no excuses. They were running ads for ice on it. Like I'm not gonna pay money for anything that granted Apple's not great yet.

SPEAKER_04

But what can you do these days, folks, if you're pretending to be pure? You pick a side. Yeah, you pick a side.

SPEAKER_02

You pick a side. There's a line and you pick a side.

SPEAKER_04

Nobody is uh clearly absolved of, you know, we all got our hands in this bullshit stuff.

SPEAKER_02

No, we're not doing all lives matter right now.

SPEAKER_04

We're gonna move on to your real life report backs. Real life report backs.

SPEAKER_02

You um so I just went to uh I went on a little road trip down to Northern Virginia, middle Virginia. Excuse me.

SPEAKER_04

Yeah, you haven't been around much this week.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, I left on Tuesday in the van. In the van, which is nice because don't um it's still not registered. You better stop. I was like, oh my god, people don't but all of the safety is like caught up. We we got it fixed up, oil chain. Safety is caught up. Yeah, it's insured. It's just you know, the state is illegitimate. I don't um I don't play that. Anyway, sorry, mom. Um just took a trip down to DC. It was pretty nice. I saw some old friends and some new friends. Um, I was there originally like to see this band Chewy uh that I saw opening for Bunny. She saw opening for Bad Bunny. Bad Bunny. They blew me away. I cried so much. Aria saw Bad Bunny in Australia. Yeah, with Cheech and Molly. And Molly was at the show too, and it was her third time seeing.

SPEAKER_04

Molly, give a little why don't I give a little background on Molly Sugar, also a co-founder of RAR Adventure Riders with Aria here back in the day.

SPEAKER_02

People don't really love the idea of explorers because of its colonial history. Um, but yeah, it was nice because she was finishing up a week-long tour um on the CNO with her friend Tenzin.

SPEAKER_04

Another Tenzin.

SPEAKER_02

Another Tenzin, and we just have to meet.

SPEAKER_04

Tenzin is like the Smith is like the Smith of Tibet.

SPEAKER_02

It's not the Smith, it's more common than the Timothy. More common than Smith. Yeah, because it's a first name. Um Tenzin, famously the first person um who's recorded to have climbed Chomulumma, aka Everest.

SPEAKER_04

I could say I'll say Everest so you don't have to. That's the white. That's the white in the room.

SPEAKER_02

Thank you. Yeah. I guess the person who it's named after didn't even want it to be named after him because he was like, my name is not worthy of Chomalum. And I agree. I mean, that mountain is sacred. But there's just so many bodies and there's like a boxing company named after it. Ridiculous.

SPEAKER_04

What would it yeah, yeah. Could you imagine uh Mike Tyson um with Chomalum boxer briefs on?

SPEAKER_02

I mean, that'd be kind of cool.

SPEAKER_04

I like Tyson.

SPEAKER_02

Wait, maybe I don't. Yeah. Anyway, regardless, we digress. Uh I also met up with my friend Varina, who does Native Women Ride. Is that their Instagram handle? Yeah. Follow Native Women Ride, um, support their work. She's an incredible artist. She's an incredible artist.

SPEAKER_04

Um really great photographer, also. Incredible photographer, strong. Never met, never really strong writer.

SPEAKER_02

And um does actually she does like all the art forms. She writes, she's writing a memoir right now. She just had an art show. Um, we went to the gallery that hosted her art show for another art show this um this past weekend, and it was also very, very cool. It was um uh this artist named Um, I wish I could remember his name just off the top of my head.

SPEAKER_04

Well, we could put it in.

SPEAKER_02

But maybe we could put it in the show notes, but really check them out. Um, what do you know if Native Women Ride did a movie also called the Carlisle 500 video? Um, we'll link that as well. Pretty important stuff to think about in the alt bike world. Really important for all of us to be riding to heal and to remember and to feel connected with the land. Um, that's without that, we we got nothing. So it was a nice reminder of that. I just had a really um beautiful trip. Sounds like a nice time. It was it was really good. I mean, meeting up with friends that I was organizing with over 15 years ago before I even met Ron was pretty neat um being in those spaces and being reminded why I do the things that I do today. Um, and it was great meeting new friends and seeing old friends um in the heart of darkness, which is DC. Um DC.

SPEAKER_04

They've got some great bike paths, though, I hear.

SPEAKER_02

You know what? That's another thing I wanted to bring up. I saw so many cyclists like roadies, though.

SPEAKER_04

And it's like a lot of non-white roadies, and he's a non-white sick bikes.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, yeah. Like going fast and looking good. Like sometimes I see these kids and I'm like, why are you wearing the Soudal quick step jersey from three years ago and it's loose on you? Like on that like shitty ass, like like what is it, wild our bike? Like what is Williaire, Williaire.

SPEAKER_04

They're not shit. I mean, Williaire is a heritage brand, but yes, I agree. I agree.

SPEAKER_02

Just because heritage doesn't mean it looks good.

SPEAKER_04

Like a like an like a classic logo on a carbon bike looks terrible. And that's what Williaire does. That's why they look bad. It just looks mad. All the bikes are the same. All the carbon bikes are the same. We talked about this on on my trip in in England, but yeah, it was there's also another hallmark of this type of cyclist. They'll wear the entire kit and have like the $14,000 bike, yet they won't be clipped in. Like they'll be wearing tennis shoes. And it and the feet are always pointed outwards.

SPEAKER_02

It's just quacking along.

SPEAKER_04

Yeah, so I've got we were we've got like a group chat where there's a lot of different photos of this thing sent back and forth. Yeah. We sound like mean people right now.

SPEAKER_02

Well, it's a it's a we have opinions.

SPEAKER_04

This is cable actuated and opinionated.

SPEAKER_02

I have opinions. And I'm a Libra and I like beauty. I like that's why we're together because you're beautiful. Um also Leo and Libra.

SPEAKER_04

Do I but do I have a face for radio? Um DC could be the heart of darkness because some people are on those bike paths uh in their full kits with the No, it's the Heart of Darkness because of power and wealth, concentrated. But do you think that that begets this tennis shoe look?

SPEAKER_02

Like, you know like they don't know what they're doing. Yeah, right, right, right.

SPEAKER_04

So you're working for government, you're getting you're getting paid more than you deserve, and you just don't even have the foresight to wear clipless shoes.

SPEAKER_02

I don't know what it is with your bikes. I think that you know, worshipping power makes you not have style of your own. That's why you have to tune into Altbike Now and know and just some just some basic ideas behind what works and have some opinions.

SPEAKER_04

Yes, opinions. Of course, you know, if you're riding like a chill like alt bike, flat pedals with your feet sticking out, that's fine.

SPEAKER_02

Oh, we notice you right away. We're like, that's that's a friend right there. But um I I feel like there goes our friend on that basketbike.

SPEAKER_04

I think if I were to see a person who we just described though, um, like in real life, I would I would ride up alongside them. Actually, we have a lot of people like that or don't really have to be.

SPEAKER_02

They're usually like boomers, you know. They're on a week. Which is which is fine.

SPEAKER_04

But if I saw like a younger person like that, I'd I'd feel inclined to roll up alongside them and just kind of like, you know, offer a little offer a little bit of advice, you know. Um I don't know if they'd take it from me, but uh you you suss it out. I would suss it out, but I'm here, I'm here to help.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah. Same here.

SPEAKER_04

Not going to quietly judge. I'm here to help.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah. I will quietly judge the elders' bikes because anyone who's older than me, because I'm not allowed to talk to elders like that.

SPEAKER_04

But you are you're of the boomer generation, though.

SPEAKER_02

I do identify as a bright.

SPEAKER_04

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02

Uh I won't talk to them like that. I'll just judge them silently. But if they're my age or younger, I might bring it up.

SPEAKER_03

Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_02

I might be like, hmm, how does that feel? You know, to get it started. Because you don't want to be that person who rides bikes and is like, actually, you could do this, you could do that, without knowing, you know, what that person's doing.

SPEAKER_04

And of course, we I wouldn't like roll up and do that to a woman.

SPEAKER_02

You should not. Absolutely not.

SPEAKER_04

I wouldn't. I wouldn't.

SPEAKER_02

It would have to be even if it's like uh there's like a beauty I'm being distracted by this gorgeous woodpecker.

SPEAKER_04

Well, I thought you were looking at me.

SPEAKER_02

You're also very distractable with your good looks, but that woodpecker's got just one on you right now. Redhead.

SPEAKER_04

I know. I got a face for radio. Let's uh tell me a mother good looks like that. Let's move on. Let's move on to uh my real life.

SPEAKER_03

Oh, so that was my real real.

SPEAKER_04

Oh, that sounded that sounded a lot, a lot of fun, and I am so happy that you're home because I missed you. Um I really do. I really do. I had a a very um you know action-packed week also, but uh, you know, in the back of my mind, I'm always like, this would be better if my sweetheart were here. Katie. So but um without you around, I had my I had my uh longest mileage week on Strava in over a year, which is crazy to think. Um but I had a a hundred and ninety mile week, which Wow, you have the data. I have the data to back it up. It doesn't seem like that long of a week, honestly, when I've got other friends that are routinely do 200 mile weeks. Lorenzo, shout out Lorenzo, Larry Ravioli in in in San Diego. I mean, doesn't kit up, doesn't always just wearing just like toe clips like on vintage bikes, and he routinely puts in 200 mile weeks.

SPEAKER_02

Easy. Probably 200 mile days. Yes.

SPEAKER_04

Loves it. Um a great, a great Strava follow and Instagram follow.

SPEAKER_02

Um Dang that woodpecker's like eating our treaty. Get out of there, Woodpecker.

SPEAKER_04

Damn doll. I'm talking about myself.

SPEAKER_02

Oh my bad, my bad.

SPEAKER_04

This is my week.

unknown

Sorry.

SPEAKER_04

Uh but with springtime here, like the sensations are off the charts, in my opinion. Like I I I rode like four different four or five different bikes. You know, that's part of my thing. Keeps me motivated to ride bikes, is having all these different bikes because it makes it just a different experience or different outfits. And you just kind of like, yeah, you I walk into the barn. I know this is a luxury, but this is how I've built my life, folks. Okay, I've been working on this since I was a teenager, and I'm finally almost here, I feel like, that I could walk into the barn, I could take stock of what's what has a flat tire and what doesn't. And I could choose my bike according to um my mood for the day. And for the weather.

SPEAKER_02

I feel like you choose your weather.

SPEAKER_04

For the weather, you know, of course. Um, and so yeah, I've got my Alumax 2 sample that I've been riding a bunch and been having a lot of fun um on the local gravel and uh ATB stuff around here. Like it rides single track super well. Um I had it was my cousin Sean's birthday on on Wednesday, so we did a birthday ride for him, a big a pretty large group of us. It was uh um, you know, Alex came over for uh Alex, who I want to have on the pod. Friend of the pod, Alex. Can we say that already? Friend of the pod.

SPEAKER_03

We already did that.

SPEAKER_04

Friend of the pod, Alex Dyson uh um uh is a complete pervert when it comes to bicycles right now. And he he recently he got into it within the last four or five years from Pixie Culture. And he uh he is such a pervert, and I mean this in the best way. Uh like you know, he's yeah, I've seen him like completely shaming. I've seen him completely pie-eyed like looking at looking at different builds before. He comes up to like snap them out of it. Like he like at the More Easter last year.

SPEAKER_02

Just like wide and glazed at the same time.

SPEAKER_04

And he's got a relate, he's he's got a he's got a serious relationship, which is shocking.

SPEAKER_02

Don't don't bring this up.

SPEAKER_04

Yeah, so and so he just keeps on adding to the collection. Like it's a new, it's like a it's like I don't know where he's a carpenter, and I think I think like you know, at least like at least half of his income has got to go to his bicycle addiction right now. And I am all about uh facilitating that addiction guilty party here. Um, because it does make for some pretty entertaining uh um uh chats while we're riding. And so anyway, his n one of his newest bikes is is a country fixed.

SPEAKER_02

And so he's but I I mean I I I don't like this like, oh my partner's gonna be mad because I have another bike thing. Because uh But you've never been mad.

SPEAKER_04

You've never been mad. I've never been mad because when you're every other partner I've had, which are not many.

SPEAKER_02

You've had two other partners in your full life. Like, give me a break.

SPEAKER_04

I had to hide bikes though. I I remember I would I would get But that you were also much younger. I was younger and I was way broke. And you know, when you're and I would have to order, but I would I would get new bikes and I would have them shipped to my friend Andy's house so that they would never even enter the house. And then he lived close enough that I could go to his house to you know use that bike for a ride.

SPEAKER_02

I think when you're like in your 20s or maybe like in your 30s, you're still trying to figure out like who you are, where you're gonna put your attention, and this and you're kind of in it together. Everything feels so like urgent and scary. And when you get to the 40s, it's just a little more settled. And at this point, I just want my partner to be healthy and happy. And uh the more bikes you have, I mean the joy that comes to your face. You're just like a better person to be around if you've if you're excited about bikes and if you've been on regular bike rides. You're a much well, thank you.

SPEAKER_04

I I mean it's a big it's not that you're it would be a deal, it would be a deal breaker. It would be a deal breaker if we weren't able to like let one another um do their things.

SPEAKER_02

It's just the nature of a relationship. But yeah, people are just better when they've exercised regularly.

SPEAKER_04

Yeah, Alex is Alex is like 15 years younger than me. And so, you know, he is still in that like finding his own.

SPEAKER_02

When you're excited about something, like you just got that's the best part of life.

SPEAKER_04

I mean his partner does seem very supportive. But I like to I like I like to stir the pot a little bit and be like, I can't I can't believe you have a relationship. Like you do you just kind of because he he had like a thing where he's like sitting on the couch and he had like there was like someone offered up a wiggle in our group. Um, and uh and I was he was like, I think I'm gonna get that wiggle. And I was like, I was like, I don't uh have you brought this up with with your with your uh girlfriend? And he's like, uh yeah. And I was like, how'd you do that? He's like, we were just sitting on the couch, like watching TV, and like uh I just said like, so uh there's like a wiggle, you know. I really like and um um appreciate this local builder, and uh I think I might get it. And I think that she just was like distracted and said, sure. Well, somebody else in our group ended up getting it before him. But I was saying we Alex and I Alex and I went on a nice ride on Monday, which is great to get out for a Monday ride if when somebody can motivate me.

SPEAKER_03

That's true.

SPEAKER_04

Uh and he had had a new IR IRO, which I guess is like a fixy brand, um, that that he made into a country fix to clear 700 by 42s. And so him and I just went on a cool like dirt ride on our fix gears, which was pretty cool. Uh anyway, great stuff. I did a pizza ride on uh we went all the way down to uh Granda Pete's in uh in Clinton to get some because auto has been lacking lately, kind of like underdone. You know, we like our Connectic our Connecticut pizza has got to be charred. Uh yeah, that's that New Haven style. New Haven style. And Granda Pete's and and Clinton, that's where I grew up. That's my like that's like my childhood pizza, and it's legit. Granda Beats. Granda Beats. It's real New Haven style. So it was warm enough that we were actually able to like get the pies take out and brought them to uh the little like Clinton landing area right by the Indian River. And got to see like this marshy area before the bugs get there, and just watch people fish and and uh I knew that I had like a long ride home from.

SPEAKER_02

Oh, a quick little note. Balls was on that to on that ride too. Our friend Balls looks so much like Francine Cock Koch, who won Perry Rue Bay and won a stage of the Vuelta too, I believe, or was in the red jersey one of those days. And I looked at their faces and I was like, That's they're twins.

SPEAKER_04

Yeah, so we've got a we've got Bowls, you have to be a Roubaix winner right here among us.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04

Shout out Bowls.

SPEAKER_02

Shout out Bowlsy. We love bowls. Everybody knows bowls and loves bowls.

SPEAKER_04

Yeah. So we had a a great night. Uh it was nice and warm, and uh the we just had all had lights on our bikes. We rode back through the woods, and um it's just nice. I got home pretty late, like at 11 or so. That's normal for the pizza ride. But I had like I had like 40 miles.

SPEAKER_02

That was our origin ride as uh as the nutmeg country wheeler.

SPEAKER_04

Nutmeg Country Club.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04

Um and uh on top, and you know, uh the this uh this weekend they had a nice long road ride long-ish road ride that turned into like a uh um oh yeah. I wanted I wanted to say on the a way back from that pizza ride, you know, when you're riding at night this time of year, you get these awesome, these like beautiful sounds uh of the frogs and the peepers uh um doing their thing. There's plenty of bogs and swamps and stuff around here. And so I love um because we're the town that we live in, like the doors like they roll up Main Street at like 6 p.m.

SPEAKER_01

About that.

SPEAKER_04

Yeah, yeah. And you don't see any cars on the road after that. Generally. Generally, maybe one or two. And so you get even on like a relatively busy road that I try to avoid, you know, during uh you know, during peak hours, which is really only like a few hours a day. Like if you go out midday, you don't see anyone either. Uh it's just when people are coming home from work, wherever that is.

SPEAKER_02

Or going to pick up kids from school. It's like a big kids at school.

SPEAKER_04

Yeah, yeah. So I was just I was just alone with my thoughts and those peepers and the frogs, and it's just like a like a warm enough night that I didn't have to rush home. And it was just uh, I mean, that's what I ride bikes for. It's just like it just puts you in this place that you can't get anywhere. I I can't get anywhere else. And um, you just uh the you have along with the sensation of flight, the spring smells, the spring sounds, it's the symphony. Symphony for the senses.

SPEAKER_03

That's beautiful.

SPEAKER_04

So I had a good deal of those this week, and um I can't wait to go on a ride today.

SPEAKER_02

Um, because it's and happy birthday, young Sean, our cousin.

SPEAKER_04

Happy birthday, young Sean, my cousin, midweek last week on Wednesday.

SPEAKER_02

One of the best people in the world.

SPEAKER_04

Yeah. Um, okay. Well, we are already at an hour and eight minutes.

unknown

Oh my god.

SPEAKER_04

I don't think we're gonna even get gonna get to what tell us while you're mad.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, we are. We're gonna get through all of those.

SPEAKER_04

All right, all right. Let's let's quickly get into tell them while you're mad. Tell them while you're mad.

SPEAKER_02

All right. We're mad at the UCI as usual. The what is the UCI saying?

SPEAKER_04

Uh instigator. Uh you know, this is the gu this is the overall, this is these are the police of the cops.

SPEAKER_03

The pigs.

SPEAKER_04

These are the these are the this is who you know sets all the rules and whatnot for the city.

SPEAKER_02

I think it's Union Secret International.

SPEAKER_04

There we go. I think that's pretty. I think you got it.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04

Um it's only saving grace is that it's European. Um and and that their uh championship bands are rainbows and they look incredible on any rider. And uh you could talk all the trash that you want about the UCI, but once you win a world championship and get to wear the most coveted, I I'd argue the more coveted than the yellow jersey in cycling is the world championships kit. All white with the UCI rainbow stripes across the chest.

SPEAKER_02

So you can have a rainbow across your chest to be the ultimate sign of what it means to be a champion. Yeah. And yet you will outlaw trans people from racing. Rainbow being the sign and symbol for queer liberation. You are going to say to trans athletes, you cannot come play with us, you freaking cowards. Let trans people race. Let the sport be a little more fun, a little more interesting. There hasn't there like all of the science backs this up. What is your freaking problem, UCI? You bunch of cowards. You could be different. You can do so many things, it's within your power. I would have loved to have seen Austin Killips racing in use uh in Psycho Cause. Now they're doing other great things, but gosh dang it.

SPEAKER_04

I mean, let's face it here, folks. Whatever your opinion is, how many trans people were actually going to race at the professional level?

SPEAKER_02

And what if they are at that level, how hard they had to do that?

SPEAKER_04

How hard they had to do to get there and to get there. And it's and there's no such thing as bad publicity. This is a dying sport that we are in love with.

SPEAKER_02

Say more, yes.

SPEAKER_04

Okay. And they are holding on to old models. And it's something you know, if you can anything that you can do to make s professional cycling more uh mainstream, more accessible, um, even more. More deserving of the rainbows. You know, it's it's uh you know, it's just unfortunate that I think it's it's it's uh you know, it's an old guard that's kind of hanging on like in most of our developed world.

SPEAKER_02

May they all fall. Um they will.

SPEAKER_04

I mean, it's gonna happen. We've got to be patient. Hopefully there's something left by the time we inherit all this.

SPEAKER_02

But um, you know, it's uh it's it's well we're gonna make it actually beautiful when we do inherit it. Our generation, we meet.

SPEAKER_04

I mean, cycle, yeah. I mean professional cycling is a dying sport. I mean, I don't know when it peaked, maybe the Lance era.

SPEAKER_02

I don't know. It seems like it needs more It needs more cohesion. It needs to be updated to today's time, like today's ridership, today's level of multiculturalism we like, today's level of gender fuckery we like. I mean, just let trans athletes play, you cowards.

SPEAKER_04

I guess I guess the other the other argument there is doping. I guess they're trying to dissolve themselves with doping, and then a trans athlete would have hormones involved. So kind of like you don't think these people are doping right now?

SPEAKER_02

Give me a freaking break.

SPEAKER_04

I mean, it's not like they're not. I mean, I don't know.

SPEAKER_02

Are you playing the devil's advocate right now? Go away, devil. Okay, okay. Go away. Go with the cowards.

SPEAKER_04

Oh yeah, I got one. I'm like one foot in cowardice, one foot out of cowardice at all times.

SPEAKER_02

He's a lover, not a fighter.

SPEAKER_04

Yeah, yep.

SPEAKER_02

So I'm a fighter and a lover.

SPEAKER_04

Oh.

SPEAKER_02

How does that but fighter first?

SPEAKER_04

Yeah, right. Yeah. Right, right. You know, yeah, there's room for both.

SPEAKER_02

Of course there is.

SPEAKER_04

Of course there is.

SPEAKER_02

Non-duality, non-binary.

SPEAKER_04

Oh, she said it.

SPEAKER_02

Okay, I know you're mad at the UCI.

SPEAKER_04

Well, I I don't I feel like I'm gonna get into that next time because we're already like well over here.

SPEAKER_02

Okay.

SPEAKER_04

Um, and I think that we're both mad enough at that.

SPEAKER_02

Um because you also want trans athletes to play.

SPEAKER_04

Yeah, yeah, yeah. So um, so next segment. Wrap up. Uh what are some other podcasts you loved this week?

SPEAKER_02

I loved the Wheel Talk Podcast from last week.

SPEAKER_04

Escape Collective and Escape Collective Wheel Talk Podcast, which is the women's uh specific uh racing podcast.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, they cover so if you are into our segments of you know pro sports and women's gossip, definitely tune into Wheel Talk Podcast. They on that podcast, they were asking for more listeners and more interaction because women's sports needs the eyes' attention and the engagement to continue to um be a source of broadcast news, be a source of um, you know, just fairness and equity in the sport. Um, and because it's the most exciting part of racing right now to me and many others.

SPEAKER_04

So it can it could be so much more exciting if more resources were put into it. Exactly. I think that's the the more coverage. You know, it's it's one of the was am I saying that right? Chicken or the egg?

SPEAKER_02

Which came first?

SPEAKER_04

Yeah, which came first. You gotta have, you know, we gotta have to build up the so you you gotta have like professionals for young people to look up to so that they aspire to be professionals. And that's pretty new here. And they gotta look up to professionals and be like, oh, that's like a paying profession. Like I could actually break my body right now to do that. And uh I don't know why we're promoting people to break their bodies, but that's essentially what you have to do with the body.

SPEAKER_02

But if that's what they're doing, uh and that's then what they want to do, like and so it's gonna be like make sure they're paid well.

SPEAKER_04

It's easy to be like, oh, the men get all this coverage, the men have like there's way more people watching the men's races on the sidelines and stuff. But that's just because the m men have been racing for 150 years. You know, the women have been racing for the last four at the grand tour level. Well, I mean, there have been grand tours, but they've just been segmented, like they would go for like a few years and then they wouldn't go for like ten years.

SPEAKER_02

And well, no, I mean the Tour de France was Femmes of Egg Zwift was the first one that happened in I think it was 2021 or 22, and it hadn't happened since like 1989.

SPEAKER_04

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02

And the 80s, like they were made fun of. I mean, there's straight up Yeah.

SPEAKER_04

It was a different time.

SPEAKER_02

It was a different time. That the shadows of that still touch us today.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02

And so the Wheel Talk podcast, they had one of our favorite cyclists of all time, Cassian New Doma Finney. They had an interview with her. You should definitely listen to it because it to me resonated very much with like what alt bike is, which is like riding at the top level. I mean, she's a Tour de France winner, thank you very much.

SPEAKER_04

Friend of the pod.

SPEAKER_02

Friend of the, I guess, friend of uh friend of friends. And she's talking about how she rides bikes because she loves riding bikes and like the things she sees and how she feels in her body. It's really beautiful. Tune into that. Um, great podcast. I also listened to another uh podcast that's I think Planet Money. They covered how the WNBA negotiated for a fair contract for themselves. And it was really fascinating how they got uh to the negotiating table with uh with the people that make the NBA because it's the same package, and they got a really amazing deal because they were being paid one eightieth of what the men were being paid, and by all like calculations done by like a Nobel laureate economist who helped them to be at the marketing table, they should have been getting paid like a quarter based on like ticket sales, the number of games, like they did all of these number crunchings. And I feel like a similar thing needs to happen with women cycling as well, because if we did the numbers, I wonder what the ratio would be to what men get paid versus the the women.

SPEAKER_04

So yeah, right, right, right.

SPEAKER_02

That's another one for me, those two.

SPEAKER_04

I was just listening to music on my rides, I guess. I don't think I got I'm not recalling many podcasts, but I've been listening to this band Slomosa from Norway. They call themselves Tundra Rock, or that's their latest album. Um I was turned on to it by my cousin Nick down in Asheville, North Carolina, because he saw them play on their last tour through. And I wish I had seen that too, because um they've got like a uh um definitely have like a like a doom factor to them as far as uh the sludginess of the riffs, but they're big riffs and there's a little bit more pop to it, like grunge and I don't know, they're younger people, skateboarders. Uh it's just cool to see like younger people playing actual rock and roll. It's not corny, I don't think. Like is geese corny? Geese? No, well, you know, I mean the guy's voice can be considered corny in the way that the kind of like clap your hands bands were in the you think he's like Tommy York, but he sounds a little tough. I think that we've we saw that them on Saturday Night Live a few months ago or whatever. I kicked ass. Like that was awesome. Um, well, folks, I hope you enjoyed this podcast.

SPEAKER_02

Thank you so much for hanging out with us this morning on a beautiful spring day as the flowers bloom. I hope our listenership blooms as well. If you want to support us, you can contribute online, I think. Um maybe we could buy better mics. Uh I think this mic is gonna be good.

SPEAKER_04

But yeah, you know, my yeah, we're gonna see. My amaranth is ice cold at this point, so I've got to reheat that up before starting our day on a Monday. It's just nice to have these conversations with you, sweetie.

SPEAKER_01

Oh.

SPEAKER_04

And uh, can you believe it that we held true to our word? Another podcast a week later.

SPEAKER_00

Wow.

SPEAKER_04

All right, folks. Well, hope you all get out for wonderful rides today and for the rest of the week and are enjoying the spring sensations. Until next week, I'm Ronnie Romance.

SPEAKER_02

And I'm Aria.

SPEAKER_04

Okay, bye.

SPEAKER_02

See you next week.