Mad at being mad at the bike industry

a bit less PRO racing news, and more PRO personal gossip.  Why do cyclists get beat up by teenagers?  Nutmeg Spring Fling 5 report back, and is it time to finally stop being mad at the bike industry? 

Transcript

SPEAKER_03 0:01

Okay, sweetie, here we are, reporting live from the beating heart of Nutmeg Country.

SPEAKER_01 0:06

Cable actuated and automated.

SPEAKER_03 0:09

This is Altbike Now. Alternative Radio or Alternative Flicklers. I'm your host, Ronnie Romance.

SPEAKER_01 0:17

And I'm your other host, Arya Nuts. Thanks for joining us. Nut Nuts.

SPEAKER_03 0:24

You know, I really do enjoy a nut. Um, as you know. What's your favorite?

SPEAKER_00 0:28

I'm a nut. Uh, I like the slivered almonds right now. Yeah, yeah. It's easy to chew.

SPEAKER_03 0:33

I toast those up, put them in my granola, a little olive oil, maple syrup, a little salt.

SPEAKER_00 0:39

You know, I've also been loving your olive oil and maple syrup combo.

SPEAKER_03 0:43

That's a great combo, everyone.

SPEAKER_00 0:45

It's really good.

SPEAKER_03 0:45

Try it in your yogurt.

SPEAKER_00 0:46

Yeah. Yeah, I'm loving that right now.

SPEAKER_03 0:48

My favorite nut is uh roasted cashews.

unknown 0:51

Oh.

SPEAKER_00 0:52

I also like a good pecan.

SPEAKER_03 0:54

Brazil nuts, macadamia nuts, your red, your filberts, that's a macadamia nut. We can get really get into the what is that?

SPEAKER_01 1:03

You're like bubba gump shrimp. We got almonds.

SPEAKER_03 1:06

Is that best to show where Christopher Guest lists off all the nuts that he likes? One of my favorite books. Okay, well, not to talk about nuts anyway. Let's get into the nuts and bolts here, shall we?

SPEAKER_01 1:18

Okay, all right. I like that. We got a nut and we got a bolt.

SPEAKER_03 1:22

So, you know, we're we're gonna we can get right into headlines here. We're gonna kind of like hold off a little bit on all of our pro cycling news because there are plenty of other sources there you can get that and what they actually do it, they do it better.

SPEAKER_00 1:35

They actually might be accurate. Correct information, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 1:39

So I'll I'm just gonna get right into this. If anybody actually follows professional racing and is listening to us, you know, right away last week, uh what did I say in the Giro d'Italia that Milan had won stage three or whatever after all those crashes. But no, uh he did not. I just wanted to talk about how hot he is. So I I I think in the front of my brain, I was like, of course Milan won. He's gorgeous.

SPEAKER_00 2:00

Yeah, he's it was actually he was really close. Remember like that other guy.

SPEAKER_03 2:06

Well Paul Paul Paul Manier. Okay, another Paul Manier. Okay, another French another Frenchman named Paul, which is you know, we we talked about Paul's sexy ass last the weeks prior, which again we could get into trouble calling a 19-year-old a sexy ass.

SPEAKER_01 2:23

Oh my god.

SPEAKER_03 2:24

But Paul Manier, maybe only a few years older, if any. But another up-and-coming French star, okay, uh, for as a sprinter. Oh, he's up there. Yeah. He's doing great. He's won some other races earlier in the year, which I can't anyway. That's who won that race. So sorry for the confusion. But I hope you all looked up photos of Jonathan Milan. Uh he is beautiful. I'll say it again. Him and Filippo Ghana. Top Ghana. Look him up. They got fan clubs because they are that handsome.

SPEAKER_01 2:53

Ronnie's bricked up for him.

SPEAKER_03 2:55

Yes.

SPEAKER_01 2:56

I just learned that termed yesterday.

SPEAKER_03 3:00

Did you have any just like quick pro I mean obviously the Jiro is still going on. We haven't, I've we've missed a number of stages because of our weekend event, which we're going to get into when I get into real life reportbacks. Of course, the nutmeg country spring fling was this past weekend. We'll get into that later in the episode.

SPEAKER_00 3:17

I mean, I could get into covering like gravel and US stuff, but the the the coverage, the broadcasts are just not that good, and it loses my attention. The you know, easiest. Let's go talk about something else.

SPEAKER_03 3:33

I, you know, you're right about the pro I mean. Patrick, friend of the pod.

SPEAKER_00 3:40

Best friend of Ronnie's ultra tradition. Hi Patrick.

SPEAKER_03 3:44

Other other half of Ultra Dynamico. He he's been really good. You know, he watched Pro Cycle. He in my 10-year hiatus for pro cycling, he kept on watching it being ultra tradition.

SPEAKER_02 3:55

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 3:55

Uh well anyway, he's really gotten into watching US gravel stuff, which is surprising to me because he doesn't like anything US generally. And so he uh yeah, he and he he seems to love it. And I it's the Lifetime series, which is like the pro gravel series in our in our in the US, is they put out like like an hour episode like almost immediately after each race.

SPEAKER_02 4:17

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 4:17

So you could follow it pretty well if you wanted to, but there's just something about it, it just doesn't do it for me. It's just not exciting. It's just like a bunch of like there's no there's not a storyline like pro road racing, I guess. Like there's the characters aren't as interesting to me, probably because they're not as I don't know, there's something about the traditional European There's no Ghana or Milan that you can lust after. Who's a hottie in pro-US gravel?

SPEAKER_00 4:48

I don't know.

SPEAKER_03 4:49

Egan Swenson, not hot. I mean, sorry, Keegan, if you're listening to this.

SPEAKER_00 4:53

This is true. This is this is hot or not. Like, we're not doing that. So mean.

SPEAKER_03 4:59

I mean, in he could, you know, he could be considered.

SPEAKER_01 5:02

Um, getting back into it.

SPEAKER_03 5:04

I need, yeah, getting back into it. I need please email us some hotties in the pro US gravel racing scene. Now, there's a there's a euro gravel racing scene.

SPEAKER_00 5:14

That's so true. Very different, though.

SPEAKER_03 5:16

Very different. It's a totally different sport.

SPEAKER_00 5:18

What uh what do you think is the difference between American and Euro gravel? Because Wout won a stage. Or gravel race. He just showed up.

SPEAKER_03 5:27

A UCI. There's a U so all in Europe, UCI runs the show.

SPEAKER_01 5:32

Uh-huh.

SPEAKER_03 5:32

For better or for worse. Generally for worse. And yeah, the the great the so you know, aside from the rainbow bands you get to wear as a as a as a pro, as a uh a world champion of gravel. Who is the world champion of gravel this this year?

SPEAKER_00 5:47

This year, who was it?

SPEAKER_03 5:49

It's oh my God. I know. I just looked at it the pictures not long ago. But anyway, they're people.

SPEAKER_00 5:55

Was it Mechu?

SPEAKER_03 5:57

No, that was the first year, the year prior. Anyway.

SPEAKER_00 6:00

Could it be taught?

SPEAKER_03 6:01

Is it taught it? No, it's not. I'm sure it will be. You know, you like UCI Euro gravel is really where the pros go after they're done being pros and they can live out their second or third cycling lives as pro gravel athletes. And I find the racing in Europe to be a bit more exciting. It's actually like more of like a mixed surface type of event. It's more of like like a rubber with more dirt tracks and honestly, like sometimes like little like farm, farmy single tracks, and like it's just a it's more of what I think you you would uh imagine to see around here in New England. Uh it's basically New England is more Eurogravel, and the U.S. gravel scene is is basically defined by the big Midwest gravel races like Unbound and et cetera, where you're where you're doing like, you know, 100 to 200 miles on all gravel roads at super high speeds. And uh there's not much like variation in the terrain, so to speak. It's kind of like I mean, it's cool that you're on gravel the whole time, but it's just not very interesting. Like the actual race tactics are not very you can't like easily spot them happening. You can't spot the move because the coverage has to be so different. Like they have to be covering it from like a from like a side-by-side, like in front of the race. And there's been a lot of complaints about that. Because even if you're like in a breakaway, like one person, like you're getting blasted with the dust from the side by side.

SPEAKER_00 7:34

Like, and there's like a side-by-side for a women's race that like almost ran two of the leads over.

SPEAKER_03 7:39

That was in the mid-south, I believe.

SPEAKER_00 7:41

So it's I I don't know which one it was, but that that's kind of rough.

SPEAKER_03 7:44

They're figuring out, they're growing pains. But you know, this is we're not we're the outliers here. U.S. gravel is huge. It's really the only racing scene that is alive in this country right now. Trevor Burrus, Jr.

SPEAKER_00 7:54

We have a lot to offer the world in terms of gravel. Maybe we should have Patrick come on and talk about why U.S. the gravel is so.

SPEAKER_03 8:01

So in an upcoming episode, we will be doing that for sure. It's exciting because of the tech. All the tech is on the U.S. side.

SPEAKER_00 8:08

Yeah, yeah, that's that's fun. You get to talk about tire sizes, you get to talk about, you know, what what works, what doesn't work. So I have the who the world championships of gravel are. So the elite men, it's the first place is Florian Vermeer.

SPEAKER_03 8:25

Yeah, yeah. Who look who looks like my cousin.

SPEAKER_00 8:28

Yeah, yeah. He really does. And second was Fritz Bisterberg, and third was Mate Mahoric, who we really like. And for elite women, the first place was Lorena Weebus, of course. Second was Marianna Voss, and third was Sylvia Presico.

SPEAKER_03 8:45

Yeah. So it's cool that the a lot of US pro I mean a lot of Euro pros are racing the gravel scene. And I think it's a good, you know, I there's we're seeing so many more like all-around cyclists now in the in professional racing, like they'll do mountain biking, road racing, gravel, cyclocross. And you get to watch them do that. You get to watch your favorite athletes do that all year. And they also, being in the times that we are, they also put out their YouTube episodes from behind the scenes stuff and their little so much content.

SPEAKER_01 9:17

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 9:17

Bricked with content. Oh my god. Did I use that correctly?

SPEAKER_01 9:20

I don't know.

SPEAKER_03 9:21

Is that only fans? Okay. Well, that's so what yeah, you got you got anything else about uh I mean we've got some corrections out of the way. Are we we are we we're gonna drop we're gonna drop a really uh breaking news, like a hot headline, but we're not gonna but it's gonna be at the end of this news segment, okay? So we're gonna kind of lead into it artfully.

SPEAKER_00 9:46

When I'm talking about them dang teens.

SPEAKER_03 9:49

Yeah. I mean, the the really the theme of headlines this week are those dang teens.

SPEAKER_00 9:54

Why are teenagers avoid teenagers? Get off my launch.

SPEAKER_03 10:00

You know, in a time where we thought teenage mischief was at an all-time low.

SPEAKER_00 10:08

I know. What's the deal with that?

SPEAKER_03 10:10

I want to start with. I mean, in the I can't remember which stage of the Jiro there was some some teenager trying to get away from the city. Two nineteen years old.

SPEAKER_00 10:18

UCI pushed the video out so they could, you know, get this video out to everybody to say, hey, this isn't cool. So what had happened was there's two teenage boys, they were both 19, and they were trying to push people like riders off of their bikes, like in a pretty big bike.

SPEAKER_03 10:37

Some roundabout, which are already dangerous.

SPEAKER_00 10:39

It's it it was it was hard to watch. And there's two of them, and one was filming probably for TikTok or something, but they were both charged and people found them right away. But like yeah, really dangerous situation. I mean, we've seen in other tour, like grand tours, people holding up signs that's kind of and then sometimes people will like just when they're cheering, their arms will go out a little bit.

SPEAKER_03 11:08

Which is which is okay.

SPEAKER_00 11:09

Like, which is just clearly an accident.

SPEAKER_03 11:11

But this These weren't fans. These were kids just like being jerks and trying to push riders off their bikes as they went by. Now, you know, cycling takes place in the open, like in the public, you know. And so it's a big thing. Vulnerable. There's they're ever the riders are vulnerable.

SPEAKER_00 11:26

It's not like they have helmets and arm pads, like all this stuff that other sports have. They have a thin piece of well, they have helmets on, but they have a thin piece of foam on their heads. They have barely nothing covering their bodies.

SPEAKER_03 11:42

Barely any vulnerable so fast. So, you know, sacks of bones with legs. I think the I think the the Italian cops found these kids and locked them up for life, I'm sure.

SPEAKER_00 11:56

No, that's not what happened.

SPEAKER_03 12:00

Shipped them off to Australia, the penal colony.

SPEAKER_00 12:03

Stopped being one in 1900.

SPEAKER_03 12:06

So, you know, leading so leading into more teenage mischief. To me, this is the this is the second story of the week.

SPEAKER_00 12:14

There were ages. So another one was an assault on tour, two-door, trip down. Two-doors down.

SPEAKER_03 12:24

Two door two-door rider, uh, which is a a two-door rider.

SPEAKER_00 12:28

Who used to ride for UCI last year?

SPEAKER_03 12:30

It's a watch company. He used to ride for UAE last year, not UCI. His name, you want to try to say his name? He's Dutch. And this happened in Dutchland, which is not Deutschland, but actually the Netherlands. He's netterish.

SPEAKER_00 12:45

He's a sprinter. Arvid decline.

SPEAKER_03 12:48

Oh, that's pretty good. Pretty good. 32 years old.

SPEAKER_00 12:52

Beaten unconscious on a training ride by a group of teens. Oh my god, can you imagine? That's like that's kind of scary. He said that they were like clearly under the influence, they were drunk, and maybe something else he said. And they had said something to him, and he was like, Why do you have to talk like that? That's not a good word to use. And then as he was riding away, one of them punched him in the head and made him unconscious and broke his nose. I mean, I don't know. Like, is there something going on with teenage boys? Like, what is happening in the world where teenage boys just have no role models and are picking on the classic person in the world to pick on, which are cyclists? Cyclists. Like, how many of you guys have been bullied in high school and beyond for being cyclists? Are all cyclists victims of bullies?

SPEAKER_03 13:53

Absolutely. I mean, this is one of the gayest sports out there, you know, and and we gotta own that. What did I say? I mean, you know, I'm using that word, but it's true, you know, next to figure skating, you know, cycling happens in public though. You know, we're prancing we're prancing around in our little outfits on our little bikes in public in front of all these motorists and teenage kids. And you know, I I've been called gay for being a cyclist my whole life.

SPEAKER_02 14:19

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 14:19

And, you know, you're really you're putting yourself out there when you're on a bike. And you know, it's it's not the coolest sport by any means.

SPEAKER_01 14:28

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 14:28

You know, it doesn't have any respect.

SPEAKER_01 14:30

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 14:31

People think nowadays, like if you're I mean, any day they think, you know, if you're not wearing a kit, then you probably lost your license, like if you're just riding around or something. Like that's what people assume if when they see me on like Route One or something. But you know, it's no no one really thinks that you do this for fun. If you if you're riding a bike for fun, you're on an e-bike.

SPEAKER_00 14:50

Yeah. The really big tires.

SPEAKER_03 14:54

And that's what the kids, that's what the teenagers ride these days. They even ride in the the uh scooters, or I know we could we could talk trash on teenagers because there ain't no teenagers listening to this. I'm sure.

SPEAKER_00 15:02

I just feel bad for the kids these days because like who are they gonna look up to? You know, like who are the who like look at the leadership in the world. It is beneficial to psychopaths. And so we are seeing. I don't blame the kids. I blame the world and the culture that we're living in right now. Like we can definitely change this up and do a little bit better for our kids. Because yeah, this is horrible to see, but these babies' brains are still developing, like they need to be molded into place, and maybe you know, some Machiavellian punishment is is right for some of these kids. Like get them scared straight. Remember, remember that remember that?

SPEAKER_03 15:43

We need like a bodybuilding cyclist to get picked on and then do like have like a incredible Hulk moment.

SPEAKER_00 15:50

I don't know what I don't know what these kids need because another story was that the cannibals. Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 15:56

Speaking of teenagers again, yeah. Yeah, Eddie Merck's story to Eddie Merckx, the the I mean, what who many consider the greatest of all time cyclists. His career ended in the early 80s, late 70s or something, but he's a Belgian cyclist, huge in Belgium, probably one of the most popular bo Belgian sportsmen of all time.

SPEAKER_01 16:22

Oh, yeah, absolutely.

SPEAKER_03 16:23

Um if you don't know Eddie Merckx is, I would I would invite you to look him up and learn all you can about him because it's a pretty fascinating character.

SPEAKER_00 16:31

Yeah. And he's still alive. We watched that documentary, The Hell of the North, when uh like when was that from?

SPEAKER_03 16:38

I think that was Tete de la Course.

SPEAKER_00 16:40

The name of the film?

SPEAKER_03 16:42

Yeah, yeah. And that's like a classic cycling move film. If you haven't seen this, what was it called again? Teti. Tete de la course. Is it Teti or Tete? Does that mean front of the race?

SPEAKER_00 16:54

Tete means head in French. So tete in the house. So it's it's it's it covered oh that makes sense because it's Perry Roubaix, so it would be French.

SPEAKER_03 17:02

Sunday in hell.

SPEAKER_00 17:03

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 17:03

Sunday in hell. No, there's a Sunday in hell, too.

SPEAKER_00 17:05

So it was Sunday in hell.

SPEAKER_03 17:07

Well, I'm gonna I'm really sh getting them both of them confused, but look them both up. You're gonna want to watch both of them.

SPEAKER_00 17:13

No, it was Sunday in hell that I remember where you can see Eddie Merckx like getting off of his bike with his little measuring tape and like measuring his like seat post. Like it's it's funny. He what he he was.

SPEAKER_03 17:25

He's meant he measures his he measures his saddle height like six six times. It becomes like a r like another character, his saddle height in that film.

SPEAKER_00 17:32

He was like laser focused on it. The bikes look great, the jerseys look great.

SPEAKER_03 17:37

Like it's the same scene is like that guy with the lube on a paintbrush just going through going through all of the gears on a bike. Like you can hear the old campy super record like clicking and stuff. It's just like yeah, it's a very it's it's it's a feast for the eyes and ears. Yeah, a treat for the senses.

SPEAKER_00 17:52

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 17:52

And we don't even it could be it could be a Sunday in hell or it could be Tete de la Course, but you should watch both. Both.

SPEAKER_00 17:57

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 17:58

Anyway, so this guy, Eddie Merck's statues. There's statues all over building. Well, either way some some teenagers took the head off.

SPEAKER_00 18:08

They defaced it and took the head off and threw it in a different place. And then another teenager found out.

SPEAKER_03 18:15

Yeah, they treated him like he was Christopher Columbus in 2020 here.

SPEAKER_00 18:18

Yeah, I mean, Christopher Columbus can fuck right off and get beheaded for all I care.

SPEAKER_03 18:25

Not Eddie Merckx.

SPEAKER_00 18:26

But not Eddie Merckx.

SPEAKER_03 18:28

He was his nickname was the cannibal. He's not actually a cannibal, folks.

SPEAKER_00 18:31

Yeah, don't eat him.

SPEAKER_03 18:33

He's a few. So that's so yeah, just teenagers going wild. That's really the news and gossip around here. Disrespecting cyclists. And I'm and to I wanted to like, I'm going off script here again, but I wanted to correlate.

SPEAKER_02 18:48

Yeah, there is no script.

SPEAKER_03 18:49

I wanted to correlate that to like, you know, we have h really high gas prices in around the world right now. For what I can't remember what reason. Um but yeah, we've got high gas prices around the world. Sorry, the rest of the world. So, you know, in the 70s, this caused a giant bike boom that lasted a decade.

SPEAKER_02 19:09

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 19:10

Really what we thought the COVID bike boom was going to be, but which we uh I think we learned our lesson relatively quick there. Not quick enough, which we'll get into later. But the the uh you know, I think you know, people waiting at the pump, paying whatever they were paying for gas in the 70s caused a lot of people to just start riding their bikes places. And it was like a big boom to the industry, a big boom to touring cycling. You know, you had the bike centennial happening during then. It was just uh you had all those bike movies like American Flyer and Quicksilver and Breaking Away that came out in the early 80s, like and you had Craig Lamont winning the tour. So, like late 70s, early 80s, you know, cycling was having a really big, I don't know, resurgence. I guess the first surgence would be like the advent of the safety bicycle, like in the early 1900s.

SPEAKER_00 20:02

First wave feminism, right, right. Women riding on bikes.

SPEAKER_03 20:05

So I I just want to say like in the bike face. Right, right. My oh bike face. The you know, so I think cycling is at like an like I j it's just a feeling, a vibe I have here. Like cycling is at like is at like an all not in all time, but is at a pretty big like dip in popularity world like as as an activity and as a mode of transportation.

SPEAKER_00 20:31

I wonder if it's a dip or if it's at a crossroads. You know, like if you're thinking about the 70s, I was actually talking to your mom about this, about what the the the gas situation crisis in the 70s was. Number one, they couldn't like there were no there wasn't gas at the pumps. Like we still have it. It's we get expensive, but they like we can still get it. And in the 70s, they didn't have other distractions, you know, like they couldn't just be distracted by their phones or the many, many channels we have on the TV or you know, whatever it is. So they had to find other ways to entertain themselves because they literally couldn't get gas. So yeah, and they had to find other ways of transporting themselves. And we learned from COVID that when you do get on a bike, like you really fucking like it. Like it's a joyful thing to do. You get hooked on it. It's such a good time to just contemplate whatever's going on. So there's those challenges. I feel like we're at a crossroads here. I would hate to think about it as like a dip or a place of no return because Definitely not a place of no return.

SPEAKER_03 21:40

Yeah. But you didn't say that. I did. But I think we just need a uh, you know, I I think all alt cyclist here listening know what sustainable cycling looks like, how you become a cyclist for you know lifelong. It's not all about the performance metrics and rate. And to the stuff that's at the top of the top of our cycling food chain. It's it's the lower stuff, but you gotta make it I don't know. It's uh it's you gotta make it cool in some way to people who are just getting into it.

SPEAKER_00 22:12

Yeah. Um but because I think I think you know, kids these days need cycling more than ever, like pedal biking more than ever, because these kids obviously need to let off some steam. I mean, we did it. Both Ron and I grew up in the shoreline of Connecticut where there was like a pretty healthy hardcore scene and like just a lot of good music coming out where we could thrash our bodies and we get our like teenage angst, the rage that we felt at like the collective woes through music. And the kids have that a little bit, but like they also have so much more to deal with too. Like, you can have information from around the world just like ruining your day if you have a heart. So, like, where's where does all of that go? You've got to let it out somewhere. Where's the release? And the release valve has to be enormous these days. Yeah, so I do think that that we're at a crossroads, we're just not messaging right or something. I don't know what it is, but the kids need to ride bikes, they need to feel tired in their bodies, and they need that kind of release, I feel like.

SPEAKER_03 23:18

Yeah. Well, and I I guess how do we spread the love? Yeah, how do we spread the love? I to close that. Do you think these high gas prices are going to help the bike industry? Is this gonna be another little bike boom here or or not? I think probably not.

SPEAKER_00 23:33

But there is a way to leave comments in the pod, like in the show notes, you'll you'll see like leave us a message. So I do get those emails. There also are let me know.

SPEAKER_03 23:45

There also are like comments on Apple Podcasts and Spotify, right?

SPEAKER_00 23:49

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 23:50

That's we've seen your comments. Thank you, folks.

SPEAKER_00 23:53

Yeah, let us know. Let us know.

SPEAKER_03 23:55

Let us know.

SPEAKER_00 23:55

Because we we'll we'll bring it up and talk about it on the next pod and shout you out. So that's the thing. I mean, speaking of yeah, yeah, I love it. I love a shout out. We shout out people all the time.

SPEAKER_03 24:07

Yeah, we do.

SPEAKER_00 24:08

You know?

SPEAKER_03 24:08

We do. Shout out people.

SPEAKER_00 24:10

Hey.

SPEAKER_03 24:12

Okay, so that that's the teens.

SPEAKER_00 24:15

Yeah. Back to back to Eddie Merks. Speaking of Eddie Mercks. Oh, yeah. Okay, this is all right. This just in. Yeah. It's not just in news, but I am a very gossipy person by nature. I really like like romantic relationships and like thinking about those in people's lives. I am just very nosy. And I was looking around the other day. I was like looking up Lata Kapeki, who is a former world champion. She rides, she's a big deal, cyclist.

SPEAKER_03 24:52

Road racing world champion.

SPEAKER_00 24:53

Road racing world champion.

SPEAKER_03 24:55

And she's kind of like who would you compare her to? I mean, for the she's kind of like uh the Matthew Vanderpool of women cycling, or vice versa, would you think? No.

SPEAKER_00 25:07

Because she's only one discipline. She's just one discipline. Yeah, that's true. There's no comparison. You you really can't compare the men and the women. There's they're just completely different.

SPEAKER_03 25:14

But she's a big deal. She's a big deal. She wins one-day races. Yeah. And and yeah, she's just an incredible sprinter and one-day racer.

SPEAKER_00 25:24

Yeah. I swear, like in the 2024 Gravel World Championships, a lot to get backy and Marianne Voss had a two-person breakaway.

SPEAKER_03 25:34

Marianna Voss, who's all who's a which is so everyone knows.

SPEAKER_00 25:39

We everyone knows Marianne Voss. We talk about her all the time. She's the best. We love her.

SPEAKER_03 25:44

She's a 38-year-old Dutch cyclist on Visma Lisa bike.

SPEAKER_01 25:50

There you go. I knew you could get it.

SPEAKER_03 25:53

Sexual orientation.

SPEAKER_01 25:54

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 25:54

You know what, Janny?

SPEAKER_03 25:57

I'm just trying to get the facts out of you.

SPEAKER_00 25:59

Well, I would get there.

SPEAKER_03 26:01

All right. Sorry. Sorry to energy.

SPEAKER_00 26:03

Mara Navas is the best. So Lata Kapeki and Mary Navas are. I had, you know, our friends Sam and Sal were here that year, and I had them watch, re-watch the gravel race because I swear they fell in love in the breakaway. They were like, they were working so well together, you know, taking turns. Lotta kept looking at her and smiling. And Marianna Voss just kept like looking at her and smiling. And I was like, I had this whole narrative in my head, like, oh my god, they're in love. They're both so freaking strong. And they are just, you know, they're gonna live that fairy tale life. That's where I go into daydreams in my head. And in my head, I'm like, okay, they're both like queer icons. I love it. So that's the story I've told in my head. So randomly the other day, I was like, Logica baggy. I was like on the Google, I was like, Latica Peggy girlfriend, but it said lots of boyfriend, and I was like, wait, what? So I clicked on that. She's currently dating Axel Merckx, the son of Eddie Merckx.

SPEAKER_03 27:16

Former also a former professional.

SPEAKER_00 27:18

Former professional cyclist. He works for like the uh that Bergman White whatever team. He is like, he's on the Devo. Did the development, he's like a development coach for keeping his eye out for a younger. Yeah, the Bergman, whatever, what's that team?

SPEAKER_03 27:36

I don't know. It doesn't matter, I guess. Uh we're so bad at this as part of the please don't listen to us for pro views. Go to Escape Collective. We're here we're here for gossip that may or may not be true. Yeah. That's why it's gossip.

SPEAKER_00 27:48

It's true. It's true. Belgian news outlets confirm this in January that Latika Becky and Axel Merckx are together. They have been out publicly, they have Strava rides together. Like they are very much together as of January 2026. And out since January 26 as a couple. And I was like, what? And Latika Becky's like reported to be like so happy with him and stuff. But he's he's much older than her. He's 53, she's 30.

SPEAKER_03 28:19

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 28:20

I mean that's a pretty big difference.

SPEAKER_03 28:22

Pretty big difference.

SPEAKER_00 28:23

Because he's got a kid that's closer to her age because his kid is 27, her his older kid is 27. So, like, that's to me really fucking gross. You know? He has he also dated Chloe Diger in the past, who was also much younger than it. Like Chloe's younger than Lotta. So, I mean, if anything, my rule is if you could be their parent, like if you if the age gap is more than 17, we got a problem here, folks. You know, like pretty yucky stuff. Especially like the male.

SPEAKER_03 29:03

We're so dumb, though. Older male. We're like, we're at age 53, we're basically where y'all are at 30.

SPEAKER_00 29:09

Yeah, it doesn't mean that we have to make those decisions. I'm talking about us. Get grossed out by old dudes. But it seems like Lotta likes older dudes anyway because she dated her coach who was 41 when she was like in her 20s. So that's my juicy gossip that I have.

SPEAKER_03 29:28

It's Europe.

SPEAKER_00 29:29

I don't give a fuck, bro.

SPEAKER_03 29:31

Like, so the juicy gossip is not only that Latta Kapeki is dating the same person as what's her name?

SPEAKER_00 29:40

Chloe Kirk.

SPEAKER_03 29:42

Chloe Kirk. Chloe Dygart famously fined for I think in the Time Trial World Championships last year for having uh written on her fork uh Charlie Kirk was right.

SPEAKER_00 29:53

Or something like that. I stand for the truth.

SPEAKER_03 29:55

I stand with Charlie.

SPEAKER_00 29:56

Yeah. She's a very problematic cyclist.

SPEAKER_03 29:59

She's a problematic cyclist, but no butt about that.

SPEAKER_00 30:02

She's a problematic cyclist. She's one of the things.

SPEAKER_03 30:04

She's unfortunately, this is kind of like the she's one of the best women's US. She's like one of the best U.S.

SPEAKER_00 30:10

women's out there. We have Kristen Faulkner who is a decorated Olympian.

SPEAKER_03 30:16

I should say one of the best. One of the best.

SPEAKER_00 30:18

Ron just likes that she wears short shorts and pink shoes. Like that's literally it.

SPEAKER_03 30:23

I to watch, she, you know, uh everyone's wearing shorts that are so long on the men's and women's. I know they're they're more aerodynamic, but they just look bad. And Chloe somehow gets to wear like short shorts.

SPEAKER_00 30:37

You can decide.

SPEAKER_03 30:38

Essentially, I would be wearing booty shorts on the men's side. And so I could see, you know.

SPEAKER_00 30:43

Ron's wearing his like super cut-off denim shorts, like as I speak. And he cuts them super short and he folds up the bottom.

SPEAKER_03 30:51

You got to see the pockets out the bottom.

SPEAKER_00 30:53

So that way.

SPEAKER_03 30:54

That's how short it likes the shorts.

SPEAKER_00 30:56

I also really love a short short. Like it it's a really good thing.

SPEAKER_03 31:00

So that's maybe like a one thing that Chloe's got going for. And she and but yeah, so and I thought it was very interesting that they were commenting on what you went through their Instagram. Oh my god, comments and I went deep. Went deep. So yeah, if you're like liking things on the internet, I I'll see it. Aria's gonna see it.

SPEAKER_00 31:17

I'll see it.

SPEAKER_03 31:18

Aria nuts is gonna see it.

SPEAKER_00 31:20

I am nuts. But I've also been reading the Court of Thorns and Roses series, which is like fairy smut. Shout out to Amanda Gates for giving me those words. Because it 100% is fairy smut. But I feel committed. I'm on book five. They're super thick, they're easy to get through.

SPEAKER_03 31:41

Good books. And very intellectual.

SPEAKER_00 31:44

It's full of intellect and beauty. I would only read that in a library. And I'm like, ooh, that sounds pretty.

SPEAKER_03 31:55

Chloe, Chloe wore booty shorts with pink shoes.

SPEAKER_00 31:58

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 32:00

Okay. Enough about that. I just thought it was fun that you were looking through those two Instagram accounts and you were like, wow, they were dating the same guy at like the same time, maybe. And like there was a lot. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 32:12

So I mean He's cute though. He's cute.

SPEAKER_03 32:15

Yeah. So Axel Merck's cute. Nam's is like in a 53-year-old, which I guess isn't too outlandish, being that I am not that much younger than that.

SPEAKER_00 32:28

We have a five-year difference. I think you could not have had a child of five, so we are out of my gender side.

SPEAKER_03 32:35

I'm saying, yeah, I what am I? Uh six years away from being 53. I don't know. Anyway.

SPEAKER_01 32:40

But I'm 40, bro.

SPEAKER_03 32:41

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Let's see here. Okie dokie. Moving on from the smuddy. That was a Aria Nuts breaking news segment. Hope you like that one.

SPEAKER_00 32:54

I spent way too much time digging in for that. That was a good thing.

SPEAKER_03 32:57

That was a small segment for how much digging he went. Okay.

SPEAKER_00 33:00

Ridiculous. Let's move on, folks. We we so this is Monday. We're reporting from our kitchen. I'm drinking coffee. That's and it's like starting to hit me, so here we go. We're gonna roll.

SPEAKER_03 33:11

So nice out. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 33:12

It's really nice. Ron wanted to record from being outside today, but I thought that the car noises would be too much.

SPEAKER_03 33:19

We have a car pass us like every 30 minutes sometimes. Every 30 minutes, but it's enough to be like it's like all bird noises and quiet, and then a car passes, and you're like, where did that come from?

SPEAKER_00 33:29

It's really abrupt and shocking.

SPEAKER_03 33:35

Being where we are in the middle of nowhere.

SPEAKER_00 33:37

We like the quiet.

SPEAKER_03 33:38

Yeah. But I'm gonna push for an outdoor episode one of these days.

SPEAKER_00 33:43

Get there.

SPEAKER_03 33:43

So yeah. Real life report back section.

SPEAKER_00 33:56

What's the coffee that you said is like out of this world this morning? What's the name of it? You scot up.

SPEAKER_03 34:04

Yeah, this one was gifted to me.

SPEAKER_00 34:07

Is it uh is it a Matt Hunter gift?

SPEAKER_03 34:10

I got three great bags right here.

SPEAKER_00 34:12

Uh-huh.

SPEAKER_03 34:13

The skinny dip one is from the UK, and that was gifted to me by Peter. Uh that was gifted to me by Peter at Bespoke UK. That stuff is like it's a yeast inoculated natural, and I'm telling you, it tastes like a chocolate milkshake, cherry bakewell, strawberry cream, quality streets. I don't know what that's supposed to mean. Um, then I got my one of my favorite coffees that I get over and over again is from this company and or this cup this roaster in up in upstate New York, Buffalo, New York. It's just called the blueberry. And it is a worka cicaro godeb Uthiopia natural. And it is blueberry citrus boozy. And let me tell you, it's an heirloom variety, so you know it's the more words it has, the better you know it is. But this stuff I I buy over and over again. Overwinter coffee, the blueberry. Worth the price. I think it's like $32 a bag, but it is to die for if you like that those blueberry notes, which I do. I like deep, funky blueberry notes in my coffee. That's kind of like what got me into coffee in the first place.

SPEAKER_00 35:20

Is blueberries?

SPEAKER_03 35:21

Blueberry it's not flavored, but coffee that has like natural blueberry flavor to it. Okay. Uh just by the way it's processed. I do a V60 pour over.

unknown 35:33

Okay.

SPEAKER_03 35:34

One gram of coffee to 16 ounces of water. No, the other way around.

SPEAKER_01 35:38

Yeah, one gram of coffee to six to six ounces of coffee.

SPEAKER_03 35:43

Blonde's rights. Not great in math, folks. It's a, it's a, it's really is something else that I could pull this together every morning. But I do. I do 25 grams of coffee, and that's generally my 25 to 30 grams of coffee, depending upon how I'm feeling. But okay.

SPEAKER_00 35:59

And now the coffee bags are going. I can't do coffee anymore because I worked at a coffee shop in Tucson called Presta Coffee. Shout out to Curtis.

SPEAKER_03 36:05

Presta does some incredible natural processed like co-ferments.

SPEAKER_00 36:11

And I drank so much of that coffee that I like tore the lining in my stomach with all of the coffee the acidity got to me, and now I can't do it anymore, even though sometimes I do because I love the taste of the coffee.

SPEAKER_03 36:26

I love the taste.

SPEAKER_00 36:27

Well, anyway, let's go back to real life report facts after the short coffee break we just had.

SPEAKER_03 36:34

Yeah, if you have any coffee suggestions for me for heavy-duty blueberry funky notes. Please leave it in the comments. Yeah, I'd love to hear. So, yeah, let's get let's get right into the spring fling, Spring Fling 5.

SPEAKER_00 36:46

Yeah. What is the Spring Fling, Ron?

SPEAKER_03 36:48

It's kind of a dumb name. And I don't think I would. I disagree. I think it's I mean, it's kind of it's pretty generic, I guess. But it it was like five years ago, we right when we moved to East Haddam here where we are, we I was like, oh, it's nice to kind of like you know, it's kind of planned. Yeah, it's kind of it's kind of nice to for me. We have our big event every year, the nutmeg Nor'easter, which is the end of October.

SPEAKER_00 37:14

For foliage. Foliage? Foliage. Foliage.

SPEAKER_03 37:17

Foliage. October, of course, being, I mean, pretty much the best month to ride anywhere in the world.

SPEAKER_00 37:23

I think it's the best month ever.

SPEAKER_03 37:24

Yeah, because it it's also Aria's birthday. And so, you know, the Nor'easter is going to be its 10th edition this year in the fall, this fall. What is it? What what are the dates?

SPEAKER_00 37:37

The 20th. It's the weekend of the 23rd. Weekend of the Friday 23rd to Sunday 25th.

SPEAKER_03 37:44

And we don't generally put the registration up for that until really August.

SPEAKER_02 37:50

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 37:50

So you look for it then. It's a 500-person event. We have to cap it at that. Anything more becomes a little bit less intimate. Less intimate and a little too much for us to handle. But the Norwich chair at this point is it's a it's a it's a gargantuan task. I've I used this last week for getting bikes ready, but it is a gargantuan task. And Aria does an exceptional job at organizing it, making the groundwork, making the flow charts, or whatever.

SPEAKER_00 38:18

Just all the organizations.

SPEAKER_03 38:21

And we had a lot of we had a lot more um volunteers last year, which helped a lot.

SPEAKER_01 38:25

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 38:26

But it's something that we don't we don't have any sponsors. It's all just S-roots. And we accidentally didn't have any sponsors. That wasn't like intentional, but it has kind of become part of it, I guess, that there's no you know, you go to a cycling event and you're gonna see you you see a lot of tents from other companies and stuff like that. You don't have anything like that at our events, and so they don't really make they don't really make any money, but they but it makes friends.

SPEAKER_00 38:53

And that's the one thing people wait, like people give me so much feedback. Like I really do run myself into the ground because I don't have great planning skills or boundaries, and I'm an empath, and whatever people want, I'm like, yeah, you can have that. People pleasing, and I'm okay with it, you know? Yeah. My therapist would probably disagree, but I'm okay with it. I really like it. I was raised a Buddhist. Others before self is like a mantra that was spoken to others before self.

SPEAKER_03 39:27

Yeah, you really do embody that to a fault.

SPEAKER_00 39:30

I mean, whatever.

SPEAKER_03 39:32

But it's rubbed off on me. It's rubbed off on my Western brain also. And I guess I learned that from my mom, though.

SPEAKER_00 39:39

She's she's an others before-self kind of a person as well. So we can go into the Freudian all of that later.

SPEAKER_03 39:46

But that's what we do. So that's the point. We're gonna be talking way more about the Nor'easter in upcoming episodes. But the Spring Fling is something that I I wanted to have an event where I get to actually ride it and have fun and hang it with everybody because lower organization. It's it's it's free in quotation marks. We just say it's a $20 donation to the East Haddam Land Trust, who we work closely with here in town. Shout out Pete Govert.

SPEAKER_00 40:15

And Teresa.

SPEAKER_03 40:16

Pete Govert, I think during the maybe the first or second spring fling, he noticed some it was it was the Gateses, I think.

SPEAKER_02 40:23

Okay.

SPEAKER_03 40:24

Uh Amanda and Kevin Gates. Kevin Gates is a tattoo artist, and he's covered in tattoos, you know, face and everything. And Amanda, quite a few tattoos also. You know, you look at these people and be like, oh, that's a rough bunch, you know, uh for elder the elder people.

SPEAKER_00 40:38

And then they speak, and you're like, oh my god, they're the sweetest people like rescuing cats from their neighborhood.

SPEAKER_03 40:45

But Pete Pete Govert, who's in his like, I don't know, mid 60s. 60s? 60s, gotta be in his 60s. He's he's very young at heart. And he's you know, you wouldn't know it just looking at him, but I guess he like hollered at them and was like, Hey, are you here with Ronnie? And they're like, they thought they were getting in trouble, but they're but he walked over, he's like, We are so happy you all are here, you know, and and made them feel you know incredibly at home and special. And and and I've been working with Pete ever since, I think that was five years ago. And Pete Govert is like in a number of like bluegrass bands around here, but he's also in a metal band. Yep. So it's really funny. He's like, Well, I've got to go to metal band practice now.

SPEAKER_01 41:23

Loves it.

SPEAKER_03 41:24

Great politics too, progressive thinker, feminist. Super cool guy. So we've got the land trust on our side here, which is a big, a big constituent con contingency?

SPEAKER_00 41:36

Constitu Constituency.

SPEAKER_03 41:38

There we go. In town. You know, they're all on the older side. I'm definitely the youngest by far.

SPEAKER_00 41:43

Oh, yeah. Any meeting I go to, I bring the age, like the average age down probably by 20 years. And I'm 40, you know.

SPEAKER_03 41:50

So But they really love us, and they all have their like matching land trust hats and everything, and they're they're like a crew when they show up to these town meetings. And I love being part, love being part of that crew. And so stuff like this, like just donating to them, helps them a lot.

SPEAKER_00 42:05

And like, and they love it when you the trails get used because it actually helps with the upkeep of the trails. Right.

SPEAKER_03 42:12

They need to get used, otherwise they get overgrown. We have so many trails here and they just don't get used. They get used by us. That's very that's why they love us.

SPEAKER_00 42:20

It's not like crowded like out west because we just don't have the young people with the knees to be riding. And that's sad when we're the young people, right?

SPEAKER_03 42:30

So yeah, yeah. It's cool that, and it keeps them like thinking of as mountain bike, like cyclists are welcome on these trails because they're we're good stewards of the of the whole network.

SPEAKER_00 42:40

And I gotta say about the crew that shows up for the nutmeg sprinkling and the nor'easter is that it's just a really nice bunch. Like everyone is really considerate and kind. Unbelievable. Like the the hosts of Deer Lake, the Where we have the Nor'easter. Where we have the Nor'easter, they cannot they they host people all the time, right? Like there's all these different groups from like NASA scientists to like corporate leaders, whatever it is. And the hosts like actually come and hang out with us the whole time because they love our group.

SPEAKER_03 43:15

So that's their favorite group all year.

SPEAKER_00 43:17

The favorite group because we tend to be more environmentally conscious, we're a little bit softer on the city. We clean up, we clean up after ourselves, we leave no trace.

SPEAKER_03 43:26

Yeah, we we you know it's it's a it's we're it's a really we love animals, you know. It's an incredible community that we're a part of.

SPEAKER_00 43:34

Yeah, I can't so much gratitude. It's a lot of soft boys. So the spring was uh motivated from MTV Spring Break.

SPEAKER_03 43:43

Yes. Back to Soft Boys. MTV MTV Spring Break, I think I saw I used to watch it all the time because we didn't have pornography, so you really had to watch MTV Spring Break if you wanted to see any skin on TV back in back when I was growing up.

SPEAKER_01 44:00

No money for Skinemax.

SPEAKER_03 44:02

So yeah, you know, kind of a kind of a play on that. And it uh so you know, this this year we had an incre incredible weather.

SPEAKER_00 44:10

Yeah, it was like summer.

SPEAKER_03 44:11

It was 75 and sunny, and uh we always have a little group of riders stay over at our place the night before and the night after, and so a nice little camp out before, a little barn hang, and I love the barn hangs because we're just nerding out like head, like it is it's you it's basically, you know, everybody's just coveting their pocket protectors and hoping that some bullies don't come by and f flush the toilets with our heads in it or something, you know. But we can we can all get together and talk about our favorite XTR derailer, whether we like rapid rise or just standard or you know, whether whether we're into one buys or doubles, we could just talk about these things deep into the night and nobody is there to judge us.

SPEAKER_00 44:56

It's really cute. I saw you guys in a circle in the barn, just looking at bikes at at the end of the night, just talking about your rides. Everybody had like little raspberries on them from the falls, they must have done. Well, like the good wind trail.

SPEAKER_03 45:11

You know, it's a it was a it's a it's a stout route.

SPEAKER_00 45:14

But everybody had smiles, they all looked exhausted.

SPEAKER_03 45:17

And so the the route is 50. So we we generally change up the route every year, depending upon what the weather's gonna be like. We have a beautiful beach down by down below about uh 10 miles as the crow flies below us on Long Island Sound. It's Rocky Neck. This time of year, it's even on the weekends, it's like empty, even on a nice weekend. And so we have a mixture of surfaces that take us down to Rocky Neck. And I did two routes, one a roadie route and one the ATB route. And my apologies somehow, you know, I I sent out these routes at the end of like Thursday night, I think, and I had had a long day of shipping bikes and doing whatever else. Very busy week. And I was like, oh, I gotta get these routes out. And I swear I remember routing the road ride, not single track, but somehow, yeah, the road ride ended up on single track.

SPEAKER_00 46:09

A little bit slipped in.

SPEAKER_03 46:10

Yeah, a little bit slipped in. No one seemed too mad about it. And so then we meet at Rocky Neck and we have a big picnic right on the beach. And that on that little grassy area on the grassy area, which is gorgeous. Check out Ronsbikesblog.com if you want to see the photos. Ronsbikesblog.com. And there's some so after that we kind we the roadie, the people who are doing the road route and the ATB route, we all depart from the from Rocky Neck together and we head up north and we hit up the Goodwin Trail. But while we were in Rocky Neck, we obviously actually weren't supposed to be in there with our bikes uh down by the beach. And Park Ranger came up to us and we were like, Oh no, we're in trouble. But the park ranger was cool as hell. And he was like, Well, guys, you're really not supposed to be down here, but this is cool as hell. And he's like, I love that you guys are doing this. I'm like, I can't be mad. Like, this is but you know, like just for the future, you like shouldn't be you're not supposed to be behind that gate on your bikes. And he's like, But damn, this is like so cool. Like, guys, just don't do this anymore. Like he was just like saying saying, I guess, what we were talking about earlier on. And we have to like really be thankful that we have this community. Like, I hope everybody else has their own little bike communities in their own little towns and whatnot, but it's so important to me and so many other people I know. But yeah, this guy, this park ranger, just couldn't be mad at us because he was he wishes he had his bike and was riding with us. Oh, so after uh an incredible picnic at the beach, oh yeah, star star shout-outs. Okay. Brian Chapman Chapman Cycles.

SPEAKER_00 47:53

Oh, you know, it was the sweetest thing. He knocked on the door in the morning and brought like homemade scones.

SPEAKER_03 47:59

Oh, to hear?

SPEAKER_00 48:00

Yeah. I missed that. You missed it because I I shared it with people at the at the sample sale at the barn. And yeah.

SPEAKER_03 48:08

Such a nice guy.

SPEAKER_00 48:09

I was reading Hobbit to the little ones when that was happening, so I didn't get up. But I know he was also running late.

SPEAKER_03 48:15

Or nephews, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 48:16

Yeah, my favorite part.

SPEAKER_03 48:17

So yeah, thanks, Brian Chapman, for continuing to come out here. Brian Chapman, I'll I think, in my opinion, has like, as far as like followership and views and stuff, has like the hottest alt bike Instagram.

SPEAKER_00 48:29

Uh Chapman Cycles.

SPEAKER_03 48:31

If you want to see process shots of the most beautiful bikes in the world being made, check out Chapman Cycles if you haven't already. Really, the the he's carrying the torch into the future. He yeah, he's he's a little bit older than I am.

SPEAKER_00 48:46

He's carrying the torch. Yeah, that was good.

SPEAKER_03 48:48

The torch into the future, the brazing torch we're talking about here. He's you know, he's he is as far as like the randoneering style of bicycle goes, I don't think there's anyone consistently building in the world that does it better than him. And we have him right here only an hour away in in Paw Tuxet Village, Rhode Island. And he is one gem of a guy, let me tell you.

SPEAKER_02 49:12

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 49:14

So we left from the beach. The people who are doing the roadier route split off on their own, beautiful country road ride, while the ATBers entered the Goodwin Trail, which is a 12-mile continuous kind of like. It can be if you're, you know, it can be if you're tired. Yeah, because we did, because the water was shut off at Rocky Neck. So once again, I deprived people of water, but you know, this is you know it's no MTV spring break.

SPEAKER_00 49:47

Or maybe it is because everybody's dehydrated.

SPEAKER_03 49:49

Yeah, dehydrated and shredded, yeah. Yeah. And we enter the Goodwin Trail and with a group of about 20 of us, which is awesome. I love I hold another reason why I hold these types of events is because I love socializing on the bike. Like this is my party, this is my way of partying. And I don't I'm not really like a social party guy in any other way. It's gotta be like bike adjacent. And if I can get in on a social, on like a socializing while doing like a hard ride and everyone's kind of going through it together, there's just so much to talk and chat and commiserate about. I just love it. You know, it's just like to me, it's it's I don't know if I really had these experiences as a kid. You know, I didn't have as many cycling friends, but you know, later in life it is so nourishing to me to find people who I don't know, we just have so much in common. And it's just so nourishing to be able to share trails and hard riding and technical, you know, technical aspects of a hard day with. So just really getting into it. We were they're dropping, dropping off little by little. I think by the, you know, by midway through the trailer maybe like ten of us left. But it was a core group, and there was a guy on like 35s, which is crazy on the Goodwin Trail. Definitely the narrowest tire to ever navigate the Goodwin Trail. And there were plenty of people getting flats on fat tires, but this guy, uh, he's probably about my age also, you know, um, was just like pounding himself.

SPEAKER_00 51:18

Legolas.

SPEAKER_03 51:19

Yeah, and yeah, so shout out to that guy. Pretty pretty impressive. Yeah. And it got me thinking, you know, a lot of like guys like who are riding the narrower tires and swear that that's the only bike you need, they could be really insufferable at times. This guy was not one of those people. But you know, they could be like, oh, you have one bike to you only need one bike, you know. It's like the Jobs brand, the Jobs brand types who were who are all into if you're not familiar with that guy, he was like riding bike, riding road bikes all over the dirt tracks of California along with like Tom Ritchie in the early days and like influenced Tom Ritchie. But yeah, just a hard guy, you know, he would just drink from like seeps of water that went outside the mountain and just uh would ride everything, all the most technical stuff in Northern California on super skinny tires. Well, I got me thinking, I was like, you know, if you're riding those like super skinny tires, you're being a lot more careful. And you're being you're also able to find lines between rocks that other people with fatter tires can't ride. And so maybe it's like the people in the middle, like in the middle, like we're talking like 38s to 45s that are that will get a lot of flats, you know, because you have a little bit more volume, but not enough to really let it fly, and you're letting it fly anyway because you feel that extra volume. Whereas I was on my highest volume tire yet for that ride. What were you on? I was on my Alliamax 2 sample, which is a complete ripper. Like I can't believe how good that bike is. And I had the brute in the rear, which is the new Ultra Dynamico 700 by 53. Oh, okay. It's kind of a slicker tire, and then I had a Mars in the front, 7700 by 55. Knobier tire. So I had plenty of braking traction and cornering traction, whereas my rear would would roll fast because we had a myriad of surfaces, and had my handlebars at the right height, I guess. And I don't know, everything was just like set up perfectly. I was so comfortable on my bike for that entire ride, and I was able to ride everything on the Goodwin Trail. I was able to, I think, you know, a few dabs here and there, but that whole 12 miles was ridable for me on that bike.

SPEAKER_01 53:27

Not a single flat?

SPEAKER_03 53:28

And not a single flat. I'm talking, I was riding T I was riding TPU tubes too.

SPEAKER_01 53:32

Okay.

SPEAKER_03 53:33

Like Amazon TPU tubes. I don't I don't pay the big bucks for the name brands. But yeah, so thin Amazon TPU tubes. I'm gonna go over that in the next episode. How to size your TPU tubes. You want to oversize them a little bit? That's a little hint. Um, but yeah, a pretty cool, pretty cool thing.

SPEAKER_00 53:50

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 53:50

So we just had like an incredible patch.

SPEAKER_00 53:53

You need special patches to do that. Yeah, there's a lot of downsides.

SPEAKER_03 53:56

And a guy, Dom, who was with us on on a 26-inch single speed, was just overly sending it. Being a little he was he was having fun. He was having fun. Shouldn't have shouldn't have had that much fun. He had three flats on TV tubes.

SPEAKER_02 54:09

Fine by him. It was glowing.

SPEAKER_03 54:11

So it was kind of nice so that we we would always wait for him to fix his flats, and that kind of made it nice for everyone to stop and get some snacks and water or whatever. Chit chat. Chit chat. So you know smoke a J. Yep, plenty of that.

SPEAKER_00 54:24

Yep.

SPEAKER_03 54:24

Um, and yeah, so just a beautiful day of riding, one of my favorite days of the year to ride with a big group and have a little adventure here in in our little corner of the nutmeg country. And I just think that we have, again, you know, you hear people say it and it's really nice to hear, but I just think we have some of the best cycling, if not the best cycling that I've ever experienced in this world.

SPEAKER_02 54:49

Okay.

SPEAKER_03 54:50

So I I heard it here. You heard it here. I don't think anyone does it better. I just think we have it. I just it's so gorgeous here.

SPEAKER_00 54:56

You also know how to find all of the good stuff.

SPEAKER_03 54:59

So much good stuff.

SPEAKER_00 55:00

You're always out there sniffing out, you know.

SPEAKER_03 55:02

Unbelievable. Like, like I was just riding around with Troy yesterday after we like built up his 650 bead light speed obed titanium. Again, for last week, I'm sorry I said titanium is dead. I meant new titanium is dead. Old titanium, still sweet. And so we built up Troy's light speed and went out for a little ride afterwards. And I was just like, we live in a park. Weigel has told me that before. He's like, Can you believe this place? We it feels like we live in a park.

SPEAKER_00 55:28

Don't tell people that too often now.

SPEAKER_03 55:31

Well, I want all I want cyclists to.

SPEAKER_00 55:33

Actually, young people, younger cyclists, I would love it if there's more.

SPEAKER_03 55:36

Because if we honestly there are quite a few of us, and you know, we get maybe like one every other year or something. But it's uh it's you know, if you're it's a good pace. If you're looking for a community and amazing riding, please, please consider us. I want to import the right people here, you know.

SPEAKER_00 55:57

I feel like you want the gentry to arrive here, yes, so we can have some money.

SPEAKER_03 56:01

So we can kick so we can kick out the gentry.

SPEAKER_00 56:03

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 56:04

The old gentry. There's nothing to gentrify here but the old gentry. So, you know, it's also it's also safe for whites. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 56:14

No such thing. No such thing as that, according to me.

SPEAKER_03 56:18

But so beautiful spring.

SPEAKER_00 56:20

Beautiful spring fling. I was I was at the barn slinging sample sales for Ron Spikes things that didn't quite make the we ended with a sample sale.

SPEAKER_03 56:30

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 56:31

Yeah. And you had some used tires from your mini bikes sets, and people were really excited about that. I think I will put the stuff that I still have left over from the sample sale on the site. So keep an eye out for that because I still have that's ronspikes.com. That's right. If you want some like big tote bags, a couple of Fabio's purses that go right shoulder instead of left shoulder, tool rolls, you know, a couple of those things. Keep an eye out on the site. I'll have them on there. I really liked having people come through at the end and getting your stories. That was awesome.

SPEAKER_02 57:07

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 57:08

Uh I did see a lot of dirty legs and a lot of smiles and a lot of stories. And it's just nice talking to people who, you know, have the same kind of worldview and gentleness to them and same kinds of excitements and value systems of respecting life.

SPEAKER_03 57:28

You know, it's and they love to get dirty.

SPEAKER_00 57:31

They love to get dirty, they don't mind a little bloody knuckle from falling.

SPEAKER_03 57:36

Shout out, Rolly. Should have seen the tree, should have seen the tree that he punched. So, yeah, that's that's a wrap. Spring fling has been flung. Really cool. Thank you for coming out if you did. If you didn't, well, you missed out. You did. There's next year. There's always next year.

SPEAKER_02 57:55

Yep.

SPEAKER_03 57:56

Okay. Ad break? Well, this podcast is always sponsored by ronsbikes.com. You get all your bags, get your bikes, get your shoes. What else can you get at ronsbikes.com?

SPEAKER_01 58:11

Uh some trinkets, wallets.

SPEAKER_03 58:12

Yeah, a lot of little trinkets. You know, get those at ronsbikes.com. Ultradynamica.com. That's ultradynamico.com. Tires. Probably the best you'll ever ride. Check them out. Ultradynamico.com. All right. Well, why are you mad?

SPEAKER_00 58:30

Ronnie. Are you mad?

SPEAKER_03 58:34

I am mad.

SPEAKER_00 58:35

Oh, well, tell them why you're mad, Ronnie boy.

SPEAKER_03 58:39

I'm mad at the world for being mad at cycling.

SPEAKER_00 58:42

Ooh, okay. Okay.

SPEAKER_03 58:43

There's so many nayers. I mean, there's so many naysayers out there, myself among them.

SPEAKER_01 58:48

Okay.

SPEAKER_03 58:49

I'm mad at myself here.

SPEAKER_01 58:50

Oh my gosh.

SPEAKER_03 58:51

I know it's so easy to talk trash on the bike industry. It's like insert your trash talk here, which, you know, we're guilty of. So bike industry meaning the big industry, the little industry, everything. You know, I'm talking about the entire bicycle ecosystem. And, you know, it it's these bigger brands, especially, they get caught up in these product cycles. Every year they got to come up with something new. That's capitalism.

SPEAKER_02 59:17

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 59:17

And, you know, this is these are still bike brands though, which you know, it's as far as like sporting goods go, they're probably amongst the most marginalized. You know, this is not big business. It it, you know, it is, I mean, this is not like this isn't like a car company, is what I'm saying. Okay. And we all have, I don't know, I have a number of friends in the bike industry, in the mainstream bike industry. And maybe you know someone in the mainstream bike industry. Do you want these guys to lose their jobs? People to lose their jobs?

SPEAKER_02 59:48

Thousands have.

SPEAKER_03 59:49

Thousands have. I mean, these the big companies are cutting people left and right because people are, I mean, cycling is like we touched on earlier, is not deemed very cool right now, I don't think. And wonder why. And and you know, in the US especially. Well, although a lot of our examples went to went to what was happening in Europe earlier in this episode, but I digress. Did I use that correctly? Digress? Yeah, that's so the the So I'm mad at people being mad at like the course 32-inch wheels, what else? Very like specific bikes, like niche bikes, like touring-only bikes, or like with like integrated racks in the integrated racks, yeah, things like that. Like these are all things that the bike industry needs to keep making money. And not only to keep making money, but to like stay like where they are and like hold jobs where they are. Like, you know, it's it's not a this isn't a um like a a covert operation to uh steal your money by saying you need something that you don't really need. Bikes are fun, you know, and having a lot of different bikes are fun is is really fun. And and there's plenty of people out there that would say you only need one bike for everything, but I disagree in that. Right, right, right. I can do everything.

SPEAKER_00 1:01:15

And most of that were in the city litter boxes on the crack and anything else.

SPEAKER_03 1:01:20

This inner tube has 24 patches, you know, and yeah, sure, that's fine, but you don't have to tell the rest of us that you're trying to make us feel bad or something. Like, what is that about? You know, for for for cycling to move forward, it needs a lot of changes, obviously, but it isn't stuff like that. You're not going to change the world by patching your tube 24 times and riding your rock hopper everywhere.

SPEAKER_00 1:01:43

I mean, more power to you. More power to you.

SPEAKER_03 1:01:45

More power to you, but go ahead, Fred. Alt cycling is about the gear.

SPEAKER_01 1:01:49

Yep.

SPEAKER_03 1:01:50

And it's a fashion show.

SPEAKER_01 1:01:52

Yep.

SPEAKER_03 1:01:53

And that may seem not inclusive in ways, but I feel it is also the kind of commitment to the sport and to the culture that signals your your card-carrying uh altcycling opinion um moniker.

SPEAKER_00 1:02:12

Yeah, you find your people that way, right?

SPEAKER_03 1:02:14

I mean, this is personal. I think I I find my people that way.

SPEAKER_00 1:02:17

I know. I think it's the flavor, you know, like you can you can have your own like preferences on what flavors you like in life. And you find the people that like your flavor, and that's it.

SPEAKER_03 1:02:29

And sometimes that's a 32-inch wheel.

SPEAKER_00 1:02:33

So you're saying that you're mad at people for being mad at 32-inch wheels? Because like you're kind of you're like into it.

SPEAKER_03 1:02:40

I'm not I've ridden one. I rode one, I rode the new house, the one that Daniel Yang had at MAID last year. I just rode it around in the MAID parking lot, but I found some little gravel patches. You know, the thing, the thing with a bigger wheel is you have a bigger contact patch, and so it's more rollover as in there or less like the inconsistencies in the surface that you're riding over, it kind of bridges the gap between like a pothole or something better than a 29-inch wheel or a six-foot inch.

SPEAKER_01 1:03:08

Fair notes.

SPEAKER_03 1:03:09

I mean, so and it and you could feel that when you're riding it, you know, if anybody had been on a 29er for the first time after riding 26 their whole lives. I remember getting on my first 29er. It was a single-speed Gary Fisher rig, rigid, and I I was blown away. I was like, this is faster than my suspended 26-inch mountain bike. And I uh continued to ride 26 inch after that. I had a 29er, right? But it doesn't, it's not it doesn't change your world, but it's a different bike and it's a different way to use a bike. And it was really fun and engaging for me. And you know, there'll be times where I probably wouldn't have gone out for a bike ride if I didn't have that other option there to kind of call me into it, call me into the ride. And uh the 32-inch experience for me just in that parking lot, trying to lose traction, going around corners as sharp as I could in these little gravel patches and and bunny hopping and trying to case the wheel into a pothole. I was like, wow, this is pretty cool. And it's of course only for tall people, because otherwise when you if you're with someone your size, if they leaned behind the saddle, they would just buzz their yeah, you just buzz your own.

SPEAKER_00 1:04:17

It's not made for 5'2 or below.

SPEAKER_03 1:04:19

Oh no, I was just saying five.

SPEAKER_00 1:04:21

Five.

SPEAKER_03 1:04:21

Five ten and below. I'd say but there's a big push. Like there's already all these brands from Sea Outer are all releasing 32-inch bikes, including I think this the salsa Fargo is now 32-inch, which is a dedicated, was a dedicated like tour-divide touring bike. There's a number of others. There's a lot. And then of course there's a lot of hate online being like, I can't believe they're doing this to us again. More standards, this, that, and that. We don't have to follow those standards. There's room for all of it, you know. Just let them do what they need to do to survive, folks. These companies are at, they're they're barely holding on.

SPEAKER_00 1:04:58

I don't know if that's what they need to do to survive, though. Because they're not really surviving.

SPEAKER_03 1:05:03

They need new stuff. We can't, like as an ultra dynamico, we can't make a 32-inch tire. Pan eraser who makes our tires, we I asked them immediately because I was like, even if this is a fad, we're a small enough company that we can absorb the mold cost if we're like one of the only ones that's making a tire like that. But they told us absolutely not two years ago because it would take so much retooling of their small factory, traditional factory in Japan. So it's really only the bigger manufacturers that can do these tires because the molds are expensive and machines that make them, the vulcanizing machines, are massive. So it's really only the Chinese and Taiwanese companies that can do tires like this or Malaysian factories. And so there's a lot of tires being released with those right now. So it's another wheel standard where the entire frame geometries all need to be redesigned to accommodate. The wheels need to. change because you need wider hub spacing in order to mitigate the you know the larger the larger leverage that you get off of a bigger wheel you know so there's all sorts of crazy stuff that needs to happen to the bike to make this work but at this time right now it's kind of I mean if it does I mean hopefully it does catch on because a lot of people have already put a lot of money into this but you know it's just one of those things that I mean much like 29 plus or like 275 plus like plus tires previously when everyone was doing three inch tires I I had a Krampus I was I was about that but you know these three inch tires on my kitchen for touring and stuff. There's a lot of yeah there's a lot of 32 inch for touring would be really good I think because you know the spin like they're heavier wheels spinning them up they're not quite as nimble I suppose in like tight New England style trails. You know but anyway that we'll we'll definitely do a 32 inch episode at some point after I've ridden more of them. But you know this is I'm just mad at people for being mad at this stuff. Like just let it happen. We l we're no one's pure here. No one's like wringing their hands of atro of not atrocities that's way too strong of a word but nobody doesn't exist. It doesn't exist like you can't live a virtuous life you could try. You could try that's the only thing you could do but you can't be like nothing it's like not all or nothing. You've got to be in this world that we live in today there's it's you're gonna drive yourself crazy if you try all or nothing is a logical fallacy. Yeah you're gonna drive yourself crazy. So stop like being mad at the bike industry be mad at other things I think it's okay to be mad at the bike industry sometimes because you gotta get it out.

SPEAKER_00 1:07:47

Like some it is frustrating to be like what now we need another thing now we need to put more missions into the sky and the earth because we decided to come up with some ridiculous thing that no one asked for like there there are some things to be mad but that's such a small piece small chunk of the bigger picture. Like being a climate change activist for most of my teenage and 20s I can understand that but we've gotta point our arrows upwards. I mean like the bicycling industry is very very small potatoes compared to like the big meat pie of you know the military wars you know you blow one bomb in Iran and that's like pretty much every single cyclist. Not just that that's all of the cyclists for all of our lifetime's worth of emissions right for what the industry so you know point the arrows upwards keep that in mind and keep the joy if you need to point arrows you know if you like bet if you just need to point those arrows like you just can't live without it. Go for a hard mountain bike ride.

SPEAKER_03 1:09:00

Yeah on your favorite bike 126 inch truck operator with with 26 patches on your inner tube yeah you know um if you want to know more about what the what's going on with the industry there is an escape collective podcast that's called overnight success they have many different podcasts there spin cycle the wheel talk for women cycling not all the overnight success episodes are as good as these industry ones but they kind of talk about where the industry went wrong in COVID.

SPEAKER_00 1:09:34

And there's a there's a really good one I it's like a really long one. This is part two and they're gonna do four episodes or five I think and I was listening to the first one and there was a fascinating woman who was speaking just with so much clarity and like excitement and like knowledge about the bike shop she used to run in Colorado. And there was an interesting thing like if I say cycling is at a crossroads I would say according to what this woman said that she was talking about like the numbers that her store did with demos because they had demo bikes that people would come in and then they would take the information of course of people who are doing the demos and she said that consistently there was women who are doing the demos more and then going and buying bikes online probably because a lot of bike companies do direct to consumer now like Yeti. They talked about that on the pod. So it's interesting that like there are demographics that just haven't been explored for more ridership more culture. Women tend to be culture keepers kinkeepers naturally so I'm just excited to see maybe not excited I'm just curious to see where it goes from here. And I do believe that underrepresented riderships whether it's along race class gender lines is a a thing that I will be focusing on and seeing seeing how that shifts the culture and hopefully shifts the industry towards studying the ship a little bit there.

SPEAKER_03 1:11:15

Yeah that's a great I would recommend everyone listen to those I don't know if the the first installment of them that they released a few years ago is behind a paywall but I would check that out in your Apple or Spotify or whatever you get your podcasts. Heck yeah and to wrap it up we've got a what podcast do you recommend this week?

SPEAKER_00 1:11:36

I talked about two from last week so what have you been listening to Ronnie Boy?

SPEAKER_03 1:11:41

I found this one really interesting it was a freak I listened to this on the airplane back from the UK it was a Freakonomics episode 663 a Ricky Williams who was a NFL star. I can't remember with I don't know much about the NFL I can't remember which team he was on but he was a big deal and he was not only a not only a great athlete in baseball and football but he was also a scholar got was a Dean's list like every year when he was in college and high school and also an avid cannabis user. And so this episode of Freakonomics is basically is weed at a per is weed a performance enhancer. Ooh and many of you altcyclers out there I think would say yes yes it is it's been my right on the magic dragon you know uh news flash I am a cannabis user and boy I don't never use that word cannabis I smoke weed and so not all the time but I do I have been known to partake on the bicycle yeah inhaled on the bicycle yeah and so you know I just I've always thought of it as like it's a really good way for me to finish a hard ride if I'm out there and I I you know I'm just bonking and I need some food and I generally need a few puffs or an edible or something and it really helps me get home and it helps me kind of get in the zone and I enjoy the process. And so they said and the science says that cannabis is not performance enhancing it actually worsens your performance not because you're inhaling smoke in your lungs or anything. That's of course something else but it just makes you kind of a little bit more I don't know you know how you feel when you're stoned. But you think you're going fast. You're like so Ricky Williams breaks it down and he's just like I just every time the pressure got too much for me in in you know in the NFL or in high school or college or whatever. You know I was but they were they were drug testing back in his day. So he got kicked off the team like over and over and over again and people thought he was a total loser for for this because he would rather pick Marawing stoner than being over but he was still performing like really well in the NFL. Not that he was out on the field stoned or anything but it was just something that he needed to deal with the pressure and just to and and also to train the training wise you know it's or if you're smoking like a high CBD content or something, you're gonna get some you know some anti-inflammatory properties off that some better recovery. And they also noted that the performance enhancing also come actually comes from enhancing the activity that you're doing. And so they they talked about the runner's high that feeling that you get when you're running and you get that of course when you're cycling too it may take a little bit longer but you know it it stimulates that runner's high like the entire the entirety of your activity. You could basically control it you bring it into your life when you need it.

SPEAKER_00 1:14:40

Trevor Burrus Because you're actually high.

SPEAKER_03 1:14:42

Yeah yeah you're actually high and you're so you get you're getting your runners high and you're actually and that helps people not only like look forward to those activities but complete those activities and make them more fun in many ways. And of course that's not the whole truth you should listen to the podcast for that that's free free economics. Episode 663 with Ricky Williams is weed a performance enhancer so well tune into that one tune into that one I think we're at an hour and 17 minutes here so it's uh folks thanks for listening. This has been episode three got anything else to say well folks this has been Altbike now see you later see you next week