a rig is not a bike we wanna ride

rigs of the tour divide trigger warnings, as well as news on Lael's round the world record breaking attempt depart.  Women's Giro gossip wrap up, and the passing of a true alt bike godfather, Charlie Cunningham.  Stick around for some ride reports and what's in Ronnie's bike stand(s)?!

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:00

Okay, sweetie, we ready to do this?

SPEAKER_06 0:02

I've been ready.

SPEAKER_01 0:05

Reporting live from the beating heart of Nutmeg Country.

SPEAKER_06 0:10

Table actuated and affinated.

SPEAKER_01 0:14

This is Up Right Now. Alternative Radio or Alternative Cyclists. I'm Ronnie Romance.

SPEAKER_06 0:22

And I'm Arya Gardman.

SPEAKER_01 0:24

Gardening, I like that.

SPEAKER_06 0:26

Thanks for joining us.

SPEAKER_01 0:27

Thanks for joining us. Thanks for tuning in to WKY Jelly.

SPEAKER_07 0:30

All right. That joke has gonna continue. That joke has left the building. Please. Make a good joke once and it just haunts you.

SPEAKER_01 0:40

Speaking of good jokes, I should apologize for the R. I mean, I'd like to say because I was so caffeinated last episode, but you know, I think we really hammered that point home during the episode. But I'm apologizing for talking over you so much, sweetie.

SPEAKER_07 0:56

Well, let me talk over you.

SPEAKER_01 0:58

Yeah.

SPEAKER_07 0:58

Actually.

SPEAKER_01 0:59

Okay. Yeah. So, you know, I'm going to try and be more conscious about that. Not try, I am going to be more conscious about that because you do have so much to say. And I oftentimes just get, you know, overly animated during the recording of these podcasts, because they are so much fun for me. And part of the fun of this is having these conversations with you. And if they aren't conversations with my beautiful sweetheart, then what is it? What is it? We're just another podcast, I guess. Yeah. So so I want to apologize. Am I a good male ally now?

SPEAKER_07 1:35

Ronnie Romance, male ally. No, I forgive you. It's fine.

SPEAKER_01 1:41

Okay. Well, shall we get right into some some news here, some headlines, or should we go? Do we want to go?

SPEAKER_07 1:47

Well, no, no, no. I wanted to I wanted to bring up some new contributors.

SPEAKER_00 1:51

Oh, right.

SPEAKER_07 1:52

Because we have three this week. We have Jacob Croft, Robin Priolot. Sorry, Robin. Robert. Let me try let me start again. It's Jacob Croft. Robert Priulot.

SPEAKER_01 2:06

Is that French Canadian?

SPEAKER_07 2:07

It's it I don't know. It's they've got a little doggy emoji. But yeah. Priolot and Angela.

SPEAKER_01 2:15

Who has a maple leaf next to their name? So that could be a French Canadian.

SPEAKER_07 2:19

Yeah, it could be. But thank you so much for Jacob, Robert, and Angela. We can now pay for our broadcasting for the podcast with our supporters, which is sick.

SPEAKER_01 2:32

That's right. All of your money goes to WKY Jelly.

SPEAKER_07 2:36

And there's even enough left over per month for Ronnie and I to go get an ice cream.

SPEAKER_01 2:41

Go get an ice cream at Honeycomb in downtown Chester, Connecticut, the Paris of Nutmeg Country.

SPEAKER_07 2:49

Yeah. Yeah. I was drinking tea.

SPEAKER_00 2:52

I was letting you talk.

SPEAKER_07 2:55

Well, anyways. All right, all right. Enough of that. Enough of male ally, Ron. Um, let's get into the headlines. We've got the first thing that popped up on my Instagram today when I opened it was that Latika Packy and Axel Merckx got married two days ago.

SPEAKER_00 3:17

When did we talk about this?

SPEAKER_07 3:18

I don't remember. It was one of the podcasts past, but I thought they were just girlfriend boyfriend, but they are properly married. So Axel Merckx is the son of the cannibal Eddie Merck's legendary Belgian writer. And he is 23 years Latikafeki Sr. And yeah, Ronnie's like, I think the man is just trying to get himself a son with his like super athlete. Yeah, this is some Game of Thrones shit. Like House Kapecki with House Merck.

SPEAKER_01 3:54

That's a big thing for in Belgium, that's a big deal. Yeah. Yeah. You know, this is the national sport of Belgium. So you have a character like Eddie Merckx and you have a character like Lotto Kapecki. Axel Merck. I'm so well, I'm saying a character like Eddie Merck's Axel Merckx, of course, raced. Oh, I see. He was always just the domestique. He was like he was Floyd Landis's domestique on Phonak in the you know the year after Lance retired the first time. And so he was part of that whole doping scandal with Floyd Landis of Floyd of currently of Floyd's of Leadville, if you're into CBD.

SPEAKER_00 4:28

Yep.

SPEAKER_01 4:29

Uh so I maybe so you know it's uh it's interesting to think what you said Axel had two daughters. Two daughters.

SPEAKER_07 4:37

One is 25, so lata's 30.

SPEAKER_01 4:41

And and what and who is this with?

SPEAKER_07 4:44

It's with some like his first wife, who was like a triathlete.

SPEAKER_01 4:48

A triathlete. Yeah. So, you know, Eddie Merck's if he's got any taste.

SPEAKER_07 4:52

Do you know what I say to triathletes? Try being an athlete. Oh. And pick one sport.

SPEAKER_01 4:58

That's good. Maybe we'll have t-shirts someday, folks.

SPEAKER_03 5:03

I doubt it.

SPEAKER_01 5:05

So yeah, uh, you know, you could think of like, oh, Eddie Merck's son has two daughters and it's with a triathlete. He's really letting out letting his dad down. And so, you know, I could see Merck's the elder just being like, Fine, make me a son.

SPEAKER_05 5:20

We need a boy.

SPEAKER_00 5:21

We need a boy.

SPEAKER_05 5:22

The eldest boy.

SPEAKER_01 5:24

We need a boy cannibal. And so this is I guess Axel's still just trying to please his father.

SPEAKER_07 5:31

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 5:31

You know. We could all, I mean, I think a lot of us guys can can can relate, you know.

SPEAKER_07 5:36

Congratulations, whatever, male ally, Ron. Last week was caffeinated, Ron. This week is male ally.

SPEAKER_01 5:43

I'll try to think of some more cringe things to say.

SPEAKER_07 5:45

That'd be great.

SPEAKER_01 5:46

Yeah, okay.

SPEAKER_07 5:47

Yeah, moving on. Congratulations to Latika Paggy, who does look very happy, happy for your girl, whatever. I know you're tuning into this all-bike podcast.

SPEAKER_00 5:56

Yeah, non non non-cis white males around the world, white girls around the world.

SPEAKER_07 6:03

Uh-huh.

SPEAKER_01 6:04

We just want them to be happy too, because we're we're in solidarity.

SPEAKER_07 6:07

We just want people to be happy generally. Yeah, we're in solidarity. Anyone, everyone should be happy, but especially queers on your Pride Month.

SPEAKER_01 6:18

You thought that you thought that I thought she was gay. Okay, so yeah. So there's a lot of people.

SPEAKER_07 6:22

I loved her when she was gay in my head.

SPEAKER_01 6:24

Yeah, there's a lot of disappointment in this whole story. Yeah. Things aren't always what you think they are. We make up our fantasies, don't we, on Instagram?

SPEAKER_07 6:32

We sure do.

SPEAKER_01 6:34

Make up our fantasies.

SPEAKER_07 6:35

Yeah, well, whatever, because other news is that the women's giro has ended. Yesterday was the final stage, and what a stage it was.

SPEAKER_02 6:44

Oh, it really was, yeah.

SPEAKER_07 6:45

It was so emotional at the end because in the final stage, Elisa Longo Borghini, who is the Italian national champion this year.

SPEAKER_01 6:54

And former winner, right.

SPEAKER_07 6:55

And she had the number one pinned to her back, so she's won it the last, I think, two or three years in a row. I know it's definitely two. So a beloved writer, you can tell, and she is like very emotive and had one of the best interviews where I like teared up and clutch my heart at the end of this because she's had a pretty tough season. She's had sicknesses throughout the classic season, which kept her away from some of her goals this year. And she just she was just saying, like, I didn't think I was gonna come back from this. I thought that cycling was over for me, and she was crying and crying, but the win, like, ugh, I could see that win over and over again for her. So, so starting. Okay, she won the stage. She won the stage. She didn't, she hasn't won anything in a while just because she's been sick. And when I started watching the games, this women's cycling like four years ago, she was winning everything. And I loved, loved to see her ride.

SPEAKER_01 7:53

She had a good uncle.

SPEAKER_07 7:54

No, no, no, that's Elisa Balsamo.

SPEAKER_01 7:56

She didn't have as good of an uncle as Elisa Balsamo to to kick Demi out of the race so that she could win.

SPEAKER_07 8:02

Demi didn't get kicked out.

SPEAKER_01 8:03

It was Lorena Weebs that was like, but she could, but if she had, if if she had an uncle like I get these two names confused, the sprinter.

SPEAKER_07 8:12

Classic.

SPEAKER_01 8:13

Yeah.

SPEAKER_07 8:13

Yeah, doesn't know the names. Oh, Elisa Balsamo.

SPEAKER_01 8:21

Yeah, she's got that braid that's like she was the one with the uncle that that was in the mob that got this is Ron's special story that he came up with.

SPEAKER_07 8:30

Just because in like the interview when she won stage three, she was like, dedicating this to my uncle because most people dedicate their wins. Elisa Balsamo.

SPEAKER_01 8:40

Well taken. I mean, there's some mafia shit going on here.

SPEAKER_07 8:43

Okay. That is that is the that's one of the conspiratorial uh takes of this women's gyro because there was there was a lot of excitement. The Cola de Fenestra stage getting cut wicked short because there were avalanches, and I think it's a good thing, but they went from having like 30 plus cams to go to like six. So really exciting. Again, I would tune into the Wheel Talk podcast. They have been covering this stage to stage every single day, and they have really cute like audio journals from the pro writers that send them in and they play at the end and in the beginning. Trying hearing Italians try to say wheel talk is so cute because like they can't they can't say it. They're like we'll talk, we'll tell podcasts. Like it's really cute.

SPEAKER_01 9:34

What kind of accent was that?

SPEAKER_07 9:35

I don't know. That's how they say it. Um but there's also a great audio journal from Allison Jackson, who I'm a really big fan of. She's not on Team EF anymore, but Canadian, so she speaks English. Lovely, entertaining. Like I'm I'm hoping that she goes into announcing down the line because she is thoroughly entertaining.

SPEAKER_01 10:00

More uh more famous for her Instagram and TikTok reels. Oh, right. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_07 10:05

I was I thought you were talking about her sensational breakaway Perry Roubaix win a few years ago, but we've seen that that was yeah. She's a breakaway queen, but the breakaway doesn't win as frequently in the women's peloton as much as others. But anyway, the women's hero was sensational to watch. Gem Demi Vullering ended up taking the pink jersey on the last stage, and now she is the second woman to have all three grand tour jerseys. She's got the pink, the blue. Wait, she's got the pink, the yellow, and the red.

SPEAKER_01 10:43

The ochre. No, the ochre is the ochre is something else. The tour of is the Australian one.

SPEAKER_07 10:49

Yeah. Yeah. The Tour of Australia.

SPEAKER_01 10:51

Wonder when, you know, the for the women, the all is the Tour of Australia, it is, I believe, seven stages also. I could be wrong.

SPEAKER_07 10:58

No, it was only like three or four last year.

SPEAKER_01 11:00

Well, they are doing it at the same time as the men's this next year, which is you you think otherwise, but uh there's been a lot of like that. This has been what the riders have been wanting, so they could have the people out on the course still like running their races the same days as the men, like they do in the amateur ranks, I guess.

SPEAKER_07 11:17

I don't know.

SPEAKER_01 11:18

But it's a lot of lot a lot of running around, I guess. But okay. So I mean I was back up. I I loved watching that Cole di Fenestra. Did I say that right? Cole D Fanestra, which is a incredible climb in Italy that turns into dirt. And I I've I know I've watched it with the men's before. I just miss maybe was nodding out the whole time. It seemed like half that climb was dirt.

SPEAKER_05 11:46

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 11:46

And they stopped a cave from stopped a K from the top, but it was a beautiful looking climb. Like I wanted it to be there. Like I wanted to be right there.

SPEAKER_07 11:54

We're definitely gonna do that. Yeah, I'm definitely gonna do that climb.

SPEAKER_01 11:57

It looks sick.

SPEAKER_07 11:58

Yeah, it was amazing. Because there's one, there's like some helicopter shots where they're on the gravel climb, and like it's it's insane the the gradients that they're doing these like paces at. But anyway, they've they got this like kind of winding ribbony dirt that they're climbing, and then there's this like gorgeous waterfall that they're kind of like paralleling as they're riding up, and that's some of my favorite stuff on the bike is like going really slow because you're going up a climb and like getting into that that like rhythm of your breath and the pedal, and then also keeping your eyes really open and noticing everything.

SPEAKER_01 12:37

I love that sensation of I love um I love road bikes on dirt. Like just the image of that always looks really cool. It harkens back to the to the past of when all of these passes were unpaved, really until the 60s.

SPEAKER_07 12:51

I kept saying like that's gravel that they're riding on. Like that's pure grass.

SPEAKER_01 13:00

You know, the last few years where the tires have gotten significantly larger. So, you know, you think about like riding like you know, 700 by 23 tire, pumped a 120 psi on this stuff, and it's super sketchy. But you know, most of these riders are on thir on tires that measure, you know, 32 to 34 at this point, running at like, you know, 50 psi. So it's like uh, you know, they have a completely different sensation. And I love, personally love, and I could I can almost sense it as they were climbing up that. I love the sound of of gravel underneath the tires when you're climbing and you're and you're in a quiet, I mean they're not in a quiet headspace, they got a helicopter over the top of them. But when I'm out in the backcountry, just riding on like a gravel switchback climb and you're in the zone, and the sensations are like you're everything is is raw, it's heightened, you know. And that sound, I can just listen to that sound, and it can just lull me into a lull me into my rhythm. And just keep on just keep on going for hours. So, yeah, kind of put me there watching that stage. And that is really why we watch this stuff, you know.

SPEAKER_07 14:02

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 14:03

One of the reasons.

SPEAKER_07 14:04

Yeah. The other stuff, of course, is uh speaking of amazing things, women doing amazing things.

SPEAKER_01 14:10

Women doing amazing things. Layle Wilcox, folks. Layla Wilcox.

SPEAKER_07 14:15

Ever heard of her?

SPEAKER_01 14:16

Never heard. Likely you have. Layla Wilcox is currently holds the women's record for riding around the world. How many days was that?

SPEAKER_07 14:26

I think she did it in.

SPEAKER_01 14:29

Well, don't don't hold us to that, but don't don't hold us to the numbers.

SPEAKER_07 14:32

But she beat Jenny Graham's record by like a significant number of days. I want to say like seven days or something. Jenny Graham was a Blackwren Ranger with me. She's Scottish and really, really amazing. So she wrote a book called But First Coffee about her attempt. So if you want to know about that, just do that. She's also really inspiring, like a mother, and just a very joyful person. So it's fun to see Layle break her record and then this year go for the overall record.

SPEAKER_01 15:05

She wants the overall record this year.

SPEAKER_07 15:07

Which is at 78 days set by some dude, and Lyle is going for 75 days.

SPEAKER_01 15:13

She's trying to beat his record by by riding how by riding two to oh, I should say she, you know, the we'll get into uh as I click through the website here because I can't remember it all. We're gonna well she started yesterday in Chicago. I want to go over the the route right here. Hold on. So she She started yesterday in Chicago and she's instead of going across the U.S. like to New York City where where they flew out the previous attempt two years ago to Europe, she is going north from Chicago along the Great Lakes into Canada. Ever heard of it?

unknown 15:47

No.

SPEAKER_01 15:48

Above us? Well, we have a number of Canadian supporters, Canada. Into Canada, uh, across Ontario, T Area, not across Ontario, but around the lakes, through this big, you know, you oftentimes forget how big Canada is. When you open it up on a map, you're like, holy smokes. She's going through New Brunswick to Nova Scotia. I've ridden a few times in Nova Scotia with my mom and sister after I graduated college a number of years ago, and it was beautiful. So, you know, a flatter route, so they're picking much flatter routes, which is smart. And because of course, going across the Appalachian mountain chain through, you know, Massachusetts or Vermont. Actually, they didn't do that because they went down to New York. Even going through New York, through the Catskills or the Adirondacks, you got some hilly terrain, you know. So once she reaches Nova Scotia in just a few days, she gets gets over to Europe and has like a really nice ride through Portugal, Spain, France, Deutschland, and Poland, Slovenia, Hungary, Romania, Serbia, Bulgaria, and ends in right before ends in your mom. If your mom is lives in Istanbul. Or is it Constantinople? Constantinople. Or is it Constantinople? Yeah, yeah, yeah. All right, so let's let's head up the live tracking here. You know, you know, folks, the live we're gonna be following the live track. We're gonna be following this.

SPEAKER_07 17:18

She's trying to average 240 miles a day.

SPEAKER_01 17:21

And she the first day, I was I was one of the first kudos on her Strava yesterday.

SPEAKER_07 17:26

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 17:27

And that first day, she got boy, I wish we had this in front of me.

SPEAKER_07 17:32

I guess I could always she had like she's ahead of her pace right now.

SPEAKER_01 17:37

Ahead of her pace right now. The first day she rode like 280 miles. So I'll find that somewhere else. She wrote 280 miles that first day. So right now we have her there's a great web her her website, Lale Wilcox.net. You can find they've put in a great, I guess Wahoo is paying for this whole thing. She's got some great sponsors.

SPEAKER_07 17:56

Because part of it was that the last guy who had set this record had a whoops.

SPEAKER_01 18:03

Silence that notification.

SPEAKER_07 18:05

Yeah, calm down. So he had a budget of like half a million dollars to do this because you could only imagine the logistics.

SPEAKER_00 18:15

Oh my god.

SPEAKER_07 18:16

You know, whether it's like visas for going across, airplane tickets, like and the everyday stuff of like international travel is w is way more difficult now than it was when this guy attacked uh. Yeah. But so she needed to make a bunch of money or fundraise for this. Yeah. And it looks like she's got, you know, REI, Kamut, Specialized, SRAN, Rafa, like just Wahoo. So the the tracking is whoop.

SPEAKER_01 18:48

Revelate designs.

SPEAKER_07 18:49

Revelate, of course.

SPEAKER_01 18:50

Thule. I want to shout out to shout out to Thule. That is a Connecticut-based company. Thank you.

SPEAKER_06 18:57

Land of steady habits.

SPEAKER_01 18:58

Shout out Travis Stevens, my old manager at Cycles of Madison in the 90s. Been working for Thule for like 30 years now. Shout out, Travis.

SPEAKER_06 19:06

Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 19:07

I met Travis.

SPEAKER_06 19:08

Anyways.

SPEAKER_01 19:09

Seymour, Connecticut, folks. Seymour, Connecticut. Come move to Connecticut. Work for Thule.

SPEAKER_03 19:14

Connecticut is the place to be.

SPEAKER_01 19:17

We also got Cannendale, folks. Not sponsoring this. Okay. You know, either you can get a lot of people. I want more friends.

SPEAKER_03 19:25

John Mayer's from here. Rivers Cuomo, born here.

SPEAKER_01 19:29

President Bush. Yeah, he does watercolors now. People like him. Let's see. So Lail right now. Lail right now. This is insane. So this is kilometers, that's why. So she's between the 500, she's like 570 kilometers in already in a day and a half. And I know she started yesterday. It's only 10 30 in the morning. So she's going for it, folks. So follow closely either on Lil Wilcox.net or right here at alt bike now.

SPEAKER_07 20:02

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 20:03

Turn your dial though.

SPEAKER_07 20:04

We'll definitely be following it. Turn your dial to that jelly. It's so cool because it is such a like ultra endurance mountain bike camping is like such a strange thing, you know.

SPEAKER_01 20:17

Like she's not doing any mountain biking, I don't believe. I'm just saying her her background. Okay, I'm getting that look. All right.

SPEAKER_07 20:25

If if Ron starts interrupting me, I'll just start saying male male ally over and over again. Male ally. Male.

SPEAKER_02 20:32

Male.

SPEAKER_07 20:32

Um it's just such a strange and peculiar sport for strange and peculiar folk. And it's nice to see someone with like, you know, a personality who's very relatable, is good with people, being freaking a huge ambassador for the sport and doing it during Pride Month because Lale's married to a woman is like pretty sick too. And she's finally talking about that, which is really neat. All of this stuff, like the combination of all of these ingredients, makes this a really interesting thing for both me and Jenny. Ronnie's good friends with her, so he has other reasons, but for me, it's purely like the societal impacts of seeing a badass woman beat records for really tough, gnarly stuff.

SPEAKER_01 21:22

Yeah, I think it really shows. I mean, a lot of this is because of how I don't, you know, a lot of this is because of how tenacious Layle has been with all these records and just coming up with new ways to wow people over the years. But it's, you know, I can remember not long ago, her and I living in Tucson, and I was living off the fat of specialized, and she was still not supported whatsoever from specialized, just like bikes. And she was trying to scrape together a living and just being and and she had just started dating Rue. Rue was had worked for a paper up in Alaska out of college. It just Gotten their first, you know, reporting job and got f got canned right away as all those local papers are shuddering. And so this is, you know, pre-pandemic stuff. But you know, it's just cool to think of like that time when they were just busting their ass working at like two different pizza restaurants in Tucson, just trying to like put together a living so that Lale can maybe erase the tour divide or something like that, you know, or afford to do what she wanted to do in the in the summer seasons. So with that, good segue.

SPEAKER_03 22:31

It's pretty awesome. It's pretty awesome. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 22:33

It's really awesome. And I I could I could remember her like her commiserating about specialized because we were having trouble. I was having trouble with them too, just trying to get them to pay up with their invoices and things like that. And she was just like, when is when am I gonna get beyond specialized?

SPEAKER_07 22:49

I was like, you're gonna be well, she's a specialized darling now.

SPEAKER_01 22:55

They actually realize this, like you're gonna like, you know, but she's had to work really hard for really fucking hard.

SPEAKER_07 23:00

She's had to, I mean, because I mean they're interviewing people like Remco and Demi and Lorena and Anna Vanderbreken, and then here's like, like I was saying, just like around like a roughneck group of people who are following ultra-endurance races.

SPEAKER_01 23:18

And it's become such a big thing now. It has become such a big thing. And it's not only like gravel cycling, and of course, that's become a big thing too, but like ultra endurance, like bikepacking stuff. I never would have thought that that would this would have become a thing, but there are a lot of people out there that love to do this shit, and it's really marketable. Yeah, you included.

SPEAKER_07 23:39

Yeah, I I love the hard stuff.

SPEAKER_01 23:40

Yeah, and so yeah, so I I could just, you know, Lale's trajectory is that it's I mean, she's she's she's a star. She's made for this. And I really, really, of course, we wish her the best on this journey, and I have no doubt that she will reach her goals. So this is gonna be an exciting, an exciting dot watch.

SPEAKER_07 23:58

So the cool thing is, is that Lale started this uh this attempt this week, next this Friday, this upcoming Friday, is when the Tour Divide starts. This is the ultra-endurance bikepacking race that starts in Banff, Canada and goes all the way to Antelope Wells. It's 2,745 miles along the uh spine of the Great Divide. I mean, the yeah.

SPEAKER_01 24:32

It's like a 90% off-road route.

SPEAKER_07 24:34

It is, and it is beautiful. Aria me has attempted it twice and it's my white whale. But I love seeing the Tour Divide stuff. It's are you a dot watcher? I am not necessarily a dot watcher, but it is really cool to see that this sport, this part of the bike world is like very active. And every year the record's being broken.

SPEAKER_01 25:08

Yeah, it seems like every single year the the at least the men's and women's record is is pushed to the Yeah, for sure. I mean things get more and more optimized. I suppose the gear is more purpose-built. You know, there's it we think of when even when Lale did their first attempt and and did they I I believe they when they broke the record for the first time for the women's record. You know, it was on a you know, uh basically a you know, a fifteen hundred dollar hardtail mountain bike with a bunch of bags strapped to it. There was no there w you know, it was very primitive still ten years ago as far as the gear went. And we've just seen, I mean, not only in professional road racing, but in all other aspects of of of riding, we've seen so many technological improvements in the last ten years. And I like to get as an altcycler, it's really it's you know fashionable to be a naysayer to everything, to every technological improvement. But the proof is in the pudding. We've got, you know, we've got some people that are just pushing the absolute limits of what the human body can do on a bicycle, and you really can't do that without a hefty dose of science.

SPEAKER_07 26:17

Yep, we like science here. We like science.

SPEAKER_01 26:21

In this household, we believe in science. Was that a male ally thing?

SPEAKER_07 26:26

Male ally won't tell it again. Um so the current records for the tour divide, Austin Killips on her in individual time trial broke Lale's record. She holds the overall women's record at 14 days, 23 hours, which is to me like mind-boggling.

SPEAKER_02 26:46

Yeah, wow.

SPEAKER_07 26:47

Alexandria Houchin, shout out to her, a former pen pal, lovely, lovely writer, writer and rider. She's so strong. She holds the single speed record at 18 days, 18 hours, which is to me also insane. She broke her own single speed record in 2023.

SPEAKER_01 27:08

That's how nobody gets their feelings, hurt. You just keep on breaking your own records.

SPEAKER_07 27:13

No, I think I think people who have records could maybe secretly lie. They they can't, like all those feelings have been burned away. So those are really cool things. Last year was the fastest men's overall record at 11 days, 19 hours.

SPEAKER_02 27:30

Jeez.

SPEAKER_07 27:30

Yeah, that beats the the one that Lockheed Morton did that didn't count because he had a camera crew. He did it in like, I think 12 days. So that that even beats that attempt that wasn't even counted.

SPEAKER_01 27:45

Wow, I didn't realize that.

SPEAKER_07 27:47

Yeah, yeah. And the single speed record for for men is 15 days and eight hours, which someone who owns a bike shop called Sincere Cycles in Santa Fe.

SPEAKER_01 28:01

Bailey Newbury.

SPEAKER_07 28:02

Bailey Newbury is trying to beat that this year, the single speed record. And if you want to see a bike that looks great, look at Bailey's bike for for this.

SPEAKER_01 28:14

Well, yeah, relative like you think of it in the terms of what other uh quote unquote rigs of the tour divide look like. Which we'll get to a little bit later. Bailey's is yeah, it's a it's beautiful.

SPEAKER_07 28:26

Yeah, it's it looks like he's I mean, he's set up the way that I would set myself up if I was to do this again.

SPEAKER_01 28:34

Yeah, what would your what would your setup be if you were to do this again?

SPEAKER_07 28:37

So just to c for context, the first attempt that I did in 2021 was we couldn't go to Canada because the border was still closed for COVID. The border uh the northern border to Canada. So I was on the romanceer that year.

SPEAKER_01 28:55

The disc romanceer.

SPEAKER_07 28:57

That's the only romance here I have. So that's the one I was on with you know, chests, the frame bag, like small chest up front, small chest up front, and like Tibet frame bag.

SPEAKER_01 29:11

What did you have in the rear?

SPEAKER_07 29:12

And I can't remember. I think oh, I had the Akatanga seat tube bag.

SPEAKER_01 29:18

Tiny butt rocket.

SPEAKER_07 29:19

Small butt rocket. And I thought that was pretty good.

SPEAKER_01 29:22

Not a seat tube bag. You hate sea tube bags. This was a this was a butt rocket bag, which we also hate, but this one was tiny enough that it didn't look offensive.

SPEAKER_07 29:32

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 29:33

Yeah.

SPEAKER_07 29:33

Yeah, it was fine. And I remember my bike weighing in at like 53 pounds with water, like, which is pretty good. So then my second attempt, I got so how far did you make it on that one? Okay, yeah. The f the first one I made it, I think, to somewhere in Colorado, in northern Colorado. Oh, that was in that was And then you came and picked me up because I was like, I'm done with this stuff. That was uh yeah, that was I tied some Tibetan prayer flags at the top of a pass, and then I knew I was done. I think it's the mental stuff that got me. My physical body and my bike was fine, but mentally it's just so lonely out there. Um anyway, the second attempt in 2023 was on the first lumolith, yes, yes. And I had some technical issues there because my mechanic, uh male ally mechanic had it was a fill it was a fill it was a fillwood bottom bracket.

SPEAKER_01 30:41

And I couldn't find my fillwood bottom bracket tool, so I put it in with something funky, and you know, yes. I mean, what how bad could things get? Well, they got pretty bad, but luckily Jordan was out there, another male ally. Jordi Gomez was out there and he was able to uh uh back out back out the cups enough so that the crank didn't rub the frame.

SPEAKER_07 31:01

The second time I did really well, but I made it to like the Tetons, the Grand Tetons.

SPEAKER_01 31:10

Well yeah, before when I was like, I think I think I want to be because that's right before that, right before that long stretch across the Great Basin, which is I which is really what takes out a lot of riders.

SPEAKER_07 31:22

Yeah, yeah, because when it gets muddy, it can get pretty muddy or wind or windy.

SPEAKER_01 31:27

Oh my god. It was super windy when it picked you up at that gas station. You were like, I ate a hot dog. I was like, okay. Things must have gotten pretty bad. I remember you smelled like hot dogs and a and cigarettes? Yeah, cigarettes. And because you had been inside a smoking place. And all but also the uh the laundry detergent from using like tide in like the it's like all your stuff smelled like really strong of detergent.

SPEAKER_07 31:57

You become a different person. You do. I was like, on the Floodie Boy channel. It's it is, yeah, it like I said, it is my white whale. I will be back. I will be watching this.

SPEAKER_01 32:06

It's a really exciting summer because boy oh boy, do we have it's a different it's a big difference between our riding styles. Like you, I like to just ride every day and not make it like a big deal. I guess because I I like I want to ride for the rest of my well, it's I don't think it's really even conscious at this point. I just love riding bikes and need to do it every day, and I don't want to ever be sick of it. And you love to ride until you are absolutely sick of it.

SPEAKER_07 32:34

Yeah, I'm like that kid in Matilda where Miss Trunchbill is like, eat the chocolate cake, and he has to eat this entire like huge cake. That's me perpetual.

SPEAKER_01 32:45

Yes, it is.

SPEAKER_07 32:46

I my pendulum swings to like to the extremes. I love it.

SPEAKER_01 32:50

Yeah, or I'm I'm I'm a you're an you're an everyday I'm a moderate.

SPEAKER_07 32:56

Of course you are. And I'm a progressive.

SPEAKER_01 33:00

Yeah.

SPEAKER_07 33:01

So that's our that's our major difference, and that's his major fatal flaw as a white male ally, because you can't be neutral on a moving train.

SPEAKER_01 33:10

Yeah, but you know, yeah, it's true. I could try my darndest.

SPEAKER_07 33:13

You certainly do, and I do love you. You are I I love you too. Oh, treasure. Treasure this. Anyway, that's uh that's a really fun thing. Moving on to some sad news.

SPEAKER_01 33:27

Oh, yeah. So speaking of yeah, speaking of some some treasured bike love, uh Charlie Cunningham.

SPEAKER_05 33:35

I'm gonna be my home.

SPEAKER_01 33:37

Yeah, Charlie Cunningham. I'll I'll give a little context. Uh Charlie Cunningham of Cunningham Cycles, part founder of WTB, uh, before it was sold to whoever owns it now. Mountain bike legend, gra you could even call him the godfather of gravel because he, you know, 1978, uh, if you go and look on the Radivist right now, there's a bunch of stuff on all of his accolades. But you know, he his first prototype was essentially, you know, it's a it's a 26-inch, you know, positive rise stem drop bar gravel bike for lack of a better term. He's got all the modern stuff on there. It's even one by folks.

SPEAKER_07 34:15

And what year was that?

SPEAKER_01 34:16

This was 1978 aluminum. Of course, anybody, any lover of aluminum is a lover of Charlie Cunningham, myself included.

SPEAKER_05 34:24

Any lover of bikes.

SPEAKER_01 34:26

Any lover of bikes, this guy's a gentle soul, a genius, and just contributed so much, I think as John on the Radovus put it, we lost a Prometheus level bicycle person this past week. He had had the last few years, the last ten years of his life were tenuous. He was test riding a bike that he had made for his wife, Jackie Fallon, who's equally as famous for riding his creations to victory in the early, I believe she won three Norba nationals, which was the Norba was the National Off-Road Mountain Bike Association. That was a big deal in the 80s and 90s. It no longer exists today. And yeah, she's just these two were uh Fairfax, California eccentrics, had lived there their whole lives, came up in that whole scene. They were Charlie, I believe, was 78 when he died. So, you know, Lit still lived a uh a full life. But yeah, again, the last 10 years, he had a crash on somewhere in Fairfax, hit his head somehow. He was wearing a helmet, hit his head somewhere, and just kind of was never the same afterwards. So there's been a GoFundMe Up ever since that incident ten years ago because Jackie and Tim did not have much savings. They were just kind of living by the seat of their pants. Jackie, in particular, I've she formed the uh Wombat Women's Off-Road Mountain Bike Association, and they would do their their tea parties, and she was very integral in getting a lot of women into the sport back in those days by being such a community community expert. I don't know.

SPEAKER_07 36:03

Community-centric community-centric person.

SPEAKER_01 36:05

There you go. And you know, she her they were they were eccentrics, as in she just thought outside of the box. I don't know. Who knows? Yeah, some ways. But I I can recall, I mean, this isn't Charlie related, it's Jackie related. But uh, you know, for me, my own I read something that Jackie wrote in the Wombats website. As a good male ally, I read the Women's Off-Road Mountain Bike Association's uh publication. Shepo. Sheppo.

SPEAKER_00 36:37

Shepo, my homie.

SPEAKER_01 36:39

And she had a whole from her health class in way back when she had a a pie chart and it said that, you know, and healthcasts are like, oh, these are all the things in modern life that you need to have: a house, a home, a family, this and that, and that, a car, a house and a home are the same thing, a car. And this is how much you're gonna have to work, how many hours a day or a week you're gonna have to work to afford these things. And her aha moment was, well, what if I just don't have those things? I don't have to work. And that was the that was my whole spiel for the first at least five years that's a good thing. Your 20s and 30s. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. And so, you know, it's just an interesting way to live. But then, you know, when things like tragedies like this happen, you're kind of left without a you know, and you're of age, aged, you're, you know, you have fewer options.

SPEAKER_07 37:27

Yeah, that's a perfect philosophy for 20 and 30 year olds. Yeah. So that's why we would trust us.

SPEAKER_01 37:31

That's why we have so many businesses now. So yeah, you know, it's it's tough to lose such a such, you know.

SPEAKER_07 37:40

If you want to know more about Charlie Cunningham or Oogle on his bicycles, check out theradivist.com. They have some lovely, lovely pictures and videos. There's that really cute video of him and Jackie wishing someone a speedy recovery. And Charlie had made that little device that's like on every part. Yeah. That little chain tool that like screws, and then you can chain breaker.

SPEAKER_01 38:09

Yeah.

SPEAKER_07 38:10

What's on every like uh it's on every single like multi-tool now.

SPEAKER_01 38:15

So Crank Brothers multi-tool.

SPEAKER_07 38:17

Usually on the Crank Brothers. So it was cute seeing him like explain how that works.

SPEAKER_01 38:23

92.

SPEAKER_07 38:23

It was it was really sweet.

SPEAKER_01 38:25

A little peek into uh alt bike past.

SPEAKER_07 38:28

And in Tibetan tradition, we mourn people's passing transitions for 49 days. So for 49 days, we're gonna think about all of the amazing things that Charlie Cunningham has brought us.

SPEAKER_01 38:42

We're gonna ride bikes. We're gonna ride some aluminum bikes.

SPEAKER_07 38:45

We're gonna ride aluminum bikes, we're gonna break all these chains with our chain breakers.

SPEAKER_02 38:50

That's right.

SPEAKER_07 38:50

We're gonna turn every bike we see into single speeds out into the wild in in celebration of Charlie's life. Yeah, yeah. We're breaking chains. All right. That's what we're all about. Thank you, Charlie, for the limptic stem.

SPEAKER_01 39:05

Yeah, yeah, all sorts of stuff. Tashi Dennis, a collector in and rider in uh Boulder, who I had the the pleasure of seeing his secret stashes uh throughout you know a few years ago when I was visiting. He's got most he's got a lot of.

SPEAKER_07 39:19

I think John has he might have uh He's got Tashi's 29er.

SPEAKER_01 39:22

The only 29er cutting ham was actually Charlie's personal bike. Yeah. He's got one of those.

SPEAKER_07 39:27

So again, definitely check out the Radivis for all of this stuff. You are going to want to zoom in.

SPEAKER_01 39:34

You're gonna want to scratch and sniff if you can, if you got one of those types of computers.

SPEAKER_07 39:38

Yeah, yeah. So long.

SPEAKER_01 39:41

Long live Charlie cutting ham. Long live.

SPEAKER_07 39:43

Oh money bim. So back to something lighter. Real life report backs.

SPEAKER_01 39:50

What about the what about the uh no? We're not doing pee problems?

SPEAKER_07 39:54

Well, pea problems is kind of part of the girofinito thing.

SPEAKER_01 39:58

I think this is just interesting if we want to continue on our pea talk, since we can't we can't really talk. We can't have one an episode without pea talk.

SPEAKER_07 40:05

All right, pee-p-poo-poo it is. So the the giro find six people for peeing. In the women's. In the women's.

SPEAKER_01 40:14

So it's not not just their equal equal opportunity.

SPEAKER_07 40:19

So they s they DQ'd two writers for a sticky bottle situation, which is like, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 40:25

Were they were they holding on to the sticky bottle while they were peeing?

SPEAKER_07 40:29

No, no, no. This was separate.

SPEAKER_01 40:30

Okay.

SPEAKER_07 40:31

But in one day, they had disqualified two people and fined six people. So six people were fined, 100 CHF.

SPEAKER_01 40:39

It's all Swiss francs.

SPEAKER_07 40:40

Yeah, Swiss francs, for quote, damaging the image of the sport, right?

SPEAKER_00 40:46

Where are they supposed to pee?

SPEAKER_07 40:47

So the people, I mean, it's like the people that got fined were Nee Fisher Black, Elisa Balsamo, Bella Homegren, Celia Jeree, Allie Walliston, Silka Smolders. Like these are all people who perform really well.

SPEAKER_01 41:01

So where are they supposed to pee? You know, I guess in the past they've always just gone off the side road, pop a squat, and now you're getting people complaining about it.

SPEAKER_04 41:07

I guess so.

SPEAKER_01 41:08

I mean, as long as they're not taking a dump. If you gotta pee, pee. If you're gonna if you gotta take a dump, then you should probably go a little bit off into the woods or find a restroom. But if you're gonna pee in professional road road racing, you can't the Peloton doesn't stop.

SPEAKER_07 41:22

Like you've gotta pee or you gotta chase back out. I've always wondered. I thought that you know, people are just peeing in their chamis, but But not everyone likes to do that, I guess. Because the the the Peloton stays together as a group. Like, so you're you're peeing all over.

SPEAKER_01 41:38

Everyone's peeing all over everyone.

SPEAKER_07 41:39

But you know last week with Taylor when it comes to how people are peeing on their chain to keep them greased.

SPEAKER_01 41:45

Oh, that's true. Shout out, Taylor, that was great. To get the mud off the chain during unbound, people are peeing on their chains.

SPEAKER_07 41:51

Yeah, this is why I'm saying, like, okay, these these women need people with vaginas need a pea style. Just stick it in, pee it out. You could probably You don't think they're using pea styles? No, um as I'm getting back into writing, I'm going to attempt to use a peace style while pedaling.

SPEAKER_01 42:09

Oh, I'll I'll be there to take the photos. Yeah. So you perverts can check it out.

SPEAKER_07 42:14

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 42:14

On ronsbikesblog.com.

SPEAKER_07 42:17

Ronspikes.onlyfans.com.

SPEAKER_01 42:20

Um that's a good that's a good segue into my first ride. The real life report bag. Namdoll Arya Tenzin has gone for a bike ride. Yes, folks. Yes, folks. It's I'll clap with that.

SPEAKER_07 42:39

I've been a while. Like I said, with the tour divide stuff, I either go all in, like I had nothing to really like train for. I I just have not had like any big goals, and without that, I've gotten into other stuff. I've gotten into gardening, I've gotten into organizing the warehouse, you know, like other stuff, spending time with family, seeing friends, all that stuff. That I just um haven't been riding in a city. Yeah, I did two cyclocross races last year, which was really fun. But then I left because they banned trans athletes because these were USAI or no UC. USA cycling. Yeah, which is similar.

SPEAKER_01 43:21

I mean, shout out to Jeremy Brazil and Richard Sachs, who are the the organizers or part organizers of our local cyclocross racing series here in called Mayhem. Right? Uh why can't we remember that? Project Mayhem. Project Mayhem Cyclocross here in Connecticut. We have like six or seven races.

SPEAKER_07 43:44

Because I talked to Jeremy about that last year. I was like, Oh, it's such a bummer that they are no longer use. And he was like pissed too. He was pissed. They're giving us nothing and they're giving us like

SPEAKER_01 44:00

And the races are going to be a lot cheaper this year. It's going to be like $30 instead of $60 or whatever it was. So USAC can suck it.

SPEAKER_07 44:07

Suck it, sack.

SPEAKER_01 44:08

Suck it, sack. You sack? No, you suck sack.

SPEAKER_07 44:11

You can suck sack. But Richard Sacks is a cool guy. Richard Sacks is the sack we like, but USAC is the sack we don't like.

SPEAKER_01 44:19

Whoa, who sack? You're talking to me, USAC?

SPEAKER_07 44:21

No, USAC or my sack? No, I'm talking about Richard Sack.

SPEAKER_01 44:24

Not my sack. I'm an ally.

SPEAKER_07 44:26

Okay, we're all allies here on the show. The ally wagon.

SPEAKER_01 44:30

So yeah, so you were talking about your first ride.

SPEAKER_07 44:33

It was great. Ronnie and I Fridays to Starting this Friday. Yeah. Like in the summer. It is summer. Feels really, really nice. The big flowers are out now. We have peonies blooming and all. Those are blooming everywhere.

SPEAKER_01 44:50

Blooming onions all around.

SPEAKER_07 44:52

Yeah, yeah. Inside the woods, we have all of those pretty flowers that come from the mountain laurel. Like Connecticut's the mountain flower state flower.

SPEAKER_01 45:02

Very geometric. It's 3D. Beautiful flowers.

SPEAKER_07 45:05

Anyway, great time to be riding. I think that I'm gonna go flat petals for a little bit because it's for me with ADD. It's like coming back into the house to grab another thing because you've forgotten it.

SPEAKER_01 45:19

I think ADD is overused a lot these days, but folks, Aria is the poster child.

SPEAKER_07 45:24

Whatever, he's the centrist.

SPEAKER_01 45:26

You're the poster child for ADD.

SPEAKER_07 45:27

I'm definitely wait, what were we talking about?

SPEAKER_01 45:30

Exactly. I just want our listeners to not roll their eyes at ADD, ADHD.

SPEAKER_07 45:36

This person can do whatever you want. Yeah, they can do whatever you want to do. Roll your eyes, flip us off, whatever. It's it's okay. We can't see you. You were in your safe space. But yeah, I think flat pedals and just like because I got super into, you know, I started watching the the pro races, and then I thought, like, oh, I have to have I I have to be somewhat like that, and it's kind of ridiculous because it's like there's that we're all we're in different, we're on different planets.

SPEAKER_01 46:06

Every cyclist has that moment. If you watched any sort of like professional ranks of the sport, you get it, you again go like, yeah, I'm gonna do that, and then you you do it a few times and you're like, oh god. Yeah, that seems like a lot.

SPEAKER_07 46:18

This is why pros are always crying when they win something because they have to work so hard. And then it's not me.

SPEAKER_01 46:25

Quit cycling and gain 50 pounds the second they're gonna be.

SPEAKER_07 46:27

Which is fine. Which is absolutely fine. And I totally get it, but yeah, I think I'm gonna go flat pedals. I'm gonna do like rides to get ice cream and rides because I want to check on a tree that I really like in the woods, like close to us.

SPEAKER_01 46:45

Which is which is that's that's where it's at. Like that's how you get into practice, like of doing your ride and that ride being restorative rather than like a chore that you're doing.

SPEAKER_07 46:54

Yeah, yeah. It did start feeling like a chore.

SPEAKER_01 46:57

If you're ready to go and don't have to get anything ready, you just hop on your bike, just fill up your water bottle, hop on your bike, and have a couple of snacks. Yeah, yeah, head out into the woods. Take it in. It's a beautiful way to end the day, especially in the win in the summertime when you have hours of daylight after your work day's done.

SPEAKER_07 47:13

Yeah. So getting back more into that, I think it'll be really good for my mental health because And and mine too, because I miss riding with you.

SPEAKER_01 47:21

I mean, on Friday we just cruised down to every every uh first Friday of the month in Chester, or uh the town that is across the river.

SPEAKER_06 47:30

I think most towns do that for expressions.

SPEAKER_01 47:33

Especially if they're like artistic leaning. There's a lot of galleries in Chester, so we we uh rolled down to the ferry landing where I had re-stashed my canoe after melting some zip ties on the bottom of it to repair a few holes. I saw it on you I saw it on YouTube. We it held up. It worked. We uh put our bikes. Yeah, we put our bikes, you could check out my Stravo, or I'll probably I've probably put uh you've probably seen several photos of that canoe with our bikes on it going across the Connecticut River on my Instagram.

SPEAKER_07 48:02

It's my most favorite part of summer.

SPEAKER_01 48:04

Oh, it's awesome. So we paddled across after dinner, get to the ferry landing on the other side, take our bikes out, snatch the canoe, ride into downtown Chester, which is only maybe a mile and a half from the the canoe landing there. And we met up just randomly with like all of our friend, like a lot of our friends in the area. There's probably like eight of us at the end of it, had some ice cream at Honeycomb, which is an incredible ice cream spot if you've never had it in downtown Chester. And then we went over to Little House Brewery, and we all sat because even though Chester is the most happening place in our area, pretty much closes, everything shuts down at 8.

SPEAKER_03 48:40

8 30.

SPEAKER_01 48:42

So yeah, we all just kind of hung out and and Darren Larkin of Larkin Cycles came by with his sweetheart and I mean it was so Brian Game Troy. It's just cool.

SPEAKER_03 48:57

My favorite people.

SPEAKER_01 48:57

I I love it when everything can kind of come together like that and you feel like you live in uh Star's Hollow.

SPEAKER_07 49:03

And then we go back, and there's two boys on, like as we were loading our bikes back for our commute home in the dark. They, yeah, we saw them fishing, which is like so cute when you see kids fishing in the summertime, and they they were kind of hanging out at the ferry while we're loading up our bikes, and they're like, I said, Hey, like beautiful day or whatever, and they were like, Yeah, we just love being outside, and like I'd rather be outside than playing video games. It was like so cute.

SPEAKER_01 49:32

But it was it was a cool, like futuristic, it was like, you know, like mom and dad, and then the kids essentially. We were there riding our riding our pedal bikes, smoking weed the old-fashioned way with a lighter and a pipe. And these these guys roll in on their Sauron electric motorcycles, and they're vaping.

SPEAKER_07 49:52

They're s they're called Saurons, yeah, yeah, yeah. Yikes. So we know what team they're on.

SPEAKER_05 49:59

Yikes.

SPEAKER_01 50:00

So they're vaping, but they but we we both we both respect it, I thought, both sides. It was like at first I thought they were gonna bully us. I thought they were gonna bully us, and I was kind of scared, but Bronze traumatized. Yeah, I'm traumatized by people that age. And uh but you struck you struck up conversation and they ended up being really cool.

SPEAKER_07 50:18

I'm not afraid of I'm not sure.

SPEAKER_01 50:20

You're not afraid of bullies.

SPEAKER_07 50:21

I'm not well no, not at all.

SPEAKER_01 50:23

Yeah. Being being one yourself when you were young.

SPEAKER_07 50:27

I bullied the bullies. Like when you are a poor person who had to learn English, coming to one of the richest states in the world.

SPEAKER_01 50:37

But I think we were the richest state back then.

SPEAKER_07 50:39

And it was. And you you build up you build up a strong sense of like justice and sticking up for yourself. Especially because I grew up with like a sister who loved me and told me that I was perfect and did nothing wrong, and brothers who taught me how to fight and to defend myself. So yeah, I I do have a strong sense of uh justice, and I hate bullies. And I will bully them. I will call them ugly.

SPEAKER_01 51:13

These kids knew it. Yeah, they knew it, so they respected. And uh they wished us farewell across the river. And we said these kids are fine. Yeah, they are. They just they were really ex- They were like, I w I go hiking all the time. I just got back from Alaska.

SPEAKER_07 51:25

Yeah, we were like sick, and then we My sister lives where you got anyway.

SPEAKER_01 51:28

Yeah, then we pushed off. It was kind of muddy, so I had to give us a few good pushes, like gondola style. We live, it's a tidal river, the Connecticut River.

SPEAKER_07 51:37

We loved that river.

SPEAKER_01 51:38

I'm telling you, folks, picture picture one of the most beautiful river mouths, river, lower river valleys in the world. It's but it's it does it without being too showy, you know. It's just a a river with some bluffs on each side, not much. There's a castle, there's not much else to look at other than woods and bald eagles, I'm telling you. So we paddle across that night. I love it. There's not much going, you know, the the river is so quiet at night. You could hear the the peepers on each side, the frogs, you could see the lights of the castle, and then you could see the campfires of people camping below the castle. So it it was kind of like a medieval look to it as we were coming across. But and then as we uh drifted closer to the landing on the headlime side, I uh got tangled in somebody's fishing line.

SPEAKER_05 52:24

Who didn't even care. They didn't even acknowledge us.

SPEAKER_01 52:30

That guy is still there, no doubt. Yeah, yeah, it was like like 72 hours of fishing straight. This guy that's just been parked down at the ferry landing with his lot of like 10 lines in the water.

SPEAKER_05 52:39

Oh man.

SPEAKER_01 52:40

But that's that's salt life, folks. I love summer.

SPEAKER_04 52:44

I love summer.

SPEAKER_01 52:44

Loving summer. So that was a great first ride back, and I was so happy that we made that happen. And I can't wait to do it again next Friday, especially with all of the these subscribers that we're getting uh paying their three dollars. I mean, that is how calm down.

SPEAKER_07 52:59

We've already we've already spent our ice cream money this week.

SPEAKER_01 53:02

So help us get an ice cream this week.

SPEAKER_07 53:06

I want that baklava topping.

SPEAKER_01 53:07

Um that's extra. My real life report back. I've been riding, folks. You have to know about you? I don't know about all you out there, but I've been riding, been putting in these miles.

SPEAKER_06 53:18

He's been very boastful about it, too.

SPEAKER_01 53:19

Well, you know, it's it's it's something that I pride myself on putting in these miles, trying all these bikes, coming up with all these ideas. You know, everything that you see on our website comes from rides that are just like this. Things that I love to do and love to think about.

SPEAKER_07 53:36

So much experience. So, Jandy, tell us about your century of the storm.

SPEAKER_01 53:41

Century of the storm.

SPEAKER_07 53:42

Not storm of the century, but century of the storm.

SPEAKER_01 53:45

I like that.

SPEAKER_07 53:46

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 53:46

So I I've I had a uh kind of a slow winter, even though I did go out to Arizona in the van with plans for putting in some big miles, getting some big training camps in and the grav down there. I injured my hip and was not able to. So I am way behind on my mileage and getting into kind of like long riding shape. Because for me, folks, the best use of a day is being out on a bike from sunup to sundown with your friends. Like that is I mean, that is that's like being that's like being a uh a grown-up kid. You know, you think about what we used to do when we were kids, I'm speaking for myself, was ride my bike around with my friends all day long. What felt like it was all day long. I don't know, we definitely weren't putting in 100 miles, but it was there. We were putting in the saddle time, chamois time. Shammy time in our tidy whities. So, you know, it's uh you know, I I I think it's only natural that we still love to do that when we're older and in a more adult way by doing, you know, 100 milers. We like to build up to 150 miles. Try to get one of those rides in per year when the days are this long. But so my first sentry of the year, I usually get a few in in Arizona before I come back here, was just last week. And some guys that were at the nutmeg Spring Fling who had stayed over, camped down in our field, were like, hey, we want to get in on some roadie sentries also. So I was like, yeah, come on down, we're gonna do one uh and this, that.

SPEAKER_06 55:17

And so we I You chose the best day to do it.

SPEAKER_01 55:20

I chose the best day to do it. Uh it looked clear all week, but uh, you know, as it as the day got closer, you know, it had been like warm, it had been like in the eighties, and then uh there was one day on the map, the the one day on the on the forecast, and it happened to be the one that we had planned to get a bunch of people down here and camp over the night before from upstate New York and uh New York City. So we were kind of locked into it, and we had eight people that were gonna go. So that particular day was going to be maybe like a maximum temp of fifty.

SPEAKER_02 55:52

Yes.

SPEAKER_01 55:52

Uh but an average of forty-five with fifty-five mile an hour gusts, not necessarily where we were leaving from, but where we were riding to. And so it was actually a nor'easter.

SPEAKER_02 56:03

Ooh, okay.

SPEAKER_01 56:04

So it started raining immediately when we left my barn. Like it was kind of clear. The warmest part of the day was when we were leaving.

SPEAKER_07 56:12

It was a frightful day.

SPEAKER_01 56:13

And it was we had some folk camping in the in the field the night before, and we were all just kind of stirring and being like, Well, are we gonna do this? And then we were all like, Yep, all right. And we left, and it's and I I had been talking to Franco the few weeks before. I was like, I don't ride in the rain. Like, I don't, if it's raining when I'm leaving, I don't do it. And and we were like, Yeah, yeah, yeah, that's the way to do it. But no longer than a week later, I'm like, all right, it's raining. Let's do a hundred miles.

SPEAKER_07 56:41

And let's go to the gustiest part of the gustiest part of the state. And so that was the You saw some trees falling down. Oh my god. Sparks.

SPEAKER_01 56:50

Ugh. First three hours it poured on us. We got soaking wet. And then the temperature dropped to 45 and it got super windy. We just couldn't stop. You know, you just can't stop when it's that temperature and you're wet.

SPEAKER_07 57:02

So last week you heard about Taylor's trauma bonds on it was the same day as understanding.

SPEAKER_01 57:07

We wanted the trauma bond too, yeah. And so I remember at one point we let we got underneath the highway underpass and uh kind of made we were like, okay, well, it's still pouring rain, and what are we gonna do? And we're like, we're gonna stay the course. And we all stayed together for you know, the rest of the whole. I mean, we had a few kind of you know, a few minor meltdowns, but everyone for the most part stayed together the rest of that ride. And we came across numerous downed trees onto power lines that were actually smoking, like on the live.

SPEAKER_07 57:40

Check out Ron's photos if you follow Monstrava. It's really something else.

SPEAKER_01 57:45

I should put those up on the blog too, because yeah, it was I had never seen that before. You know, I'd never seen trees actually smoking on power lines. You're like, holy shit. And and there would be like there would be like townspeople walking by the roads and be like, yeah, it's a little something up there. You know, like no, no big deal, really. And then we come through, we're like, holy shit. And then we we came to numerous ones like that where we had to go under line power lines that were only inches above our heads. Pretty perilous, you know.

SPEAKER_06 58:10

I'm glad I didn't know about any of this until you came back home safely.

SPEAKER_01 58:14

But that's the thing about riding. It was a 106-mile ride with like 9,500 feet of elevation gain. Pretty it's very hilly around here. People don't realize how hilly Connecticut is once you get away from the shoreline. It's all hills, but it's all hills, it's just up or down, there's no flats, so that you don't get affected by the wind. You know, you don't it wind is not a factor on our rides, especially in the summertime when the trees are leafed out, it blocks all the wind. It's kind of cool. You just hear it above you, and you could see the the you could see the the trees swaying above you. And I love that. I love hearing the wind and seeing the wind, but not feeling the wind.

SPEAKER_07 58:52

Yeah. And I do think we get spoiled with the lack of wind.

SPEAKER_01 58:55

Winds, I cannot do wind. I could do every other condition. I'd rather ride in the rain than ride in the wind. 1000%.

SPEAKER_07 59:02

Yep.

SPEAKER_01 59:02

And nothing demoralizes me more than riding in the wind. And that's why I don't attempt tourtivide type stuff. Like I'm just I just know that about myself.

SPEAKER_02 59:10

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 59:11

I know I've ridden across, you know, I've tried to tour across the country a number of times before. I know this enough about myself now to know that I am not, I just I'll I'd rather hitchhike or get on a train. Like I'm not doing that. You know, I'm not putting myself through that. I'm not making myself hate riding the bike. You know, I'm telling you, the wind is the worst.

SPEAKER_05 59:31

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 59:32

You know? Yeah. We tie it, tie this back into Eddie Merck's, you know, that's how in in in Belgium and the Netherlands it's totally flat, but they have wind. And so for those riders to train when they're young, especially, you know, when they're not going to altitude camps as amateurs, they are riding into the wind to simulate climbing.

SPEAKER_07 59:51

The wind does make you crazy. You know the cant of Monte Cristo?

SPEAKER_01 59:55

I know the sandwich.

SPEAKER_07 59:56

Oh. All right.

SPEAKER_01 59:59

All right. So that was my century of the storm. We completed it all together, and it was great. I can't wait for the next one.

SPEAKER_07 1:00:05

It was Summer's first century of storm. Oh, Summer. Group ride friend who's sadly gonna leave us.

SPEAKER_01 1:00:10

She's um a uh student at the Lime Art Academy from Arizona, unfortunately. I mean, she's one of the, if not the best addition in recent memory to our ride group as far as overall demeanor and riding prowess. We are unfortunately gonna lose her back to the West. It's okay.

SPEAKER_07 1:00:30

Everyone needs to go west at some point in their lives.

SPEAKER_01 1:00:34

So good, great job, summer. Amazing. Didn't even didn't even flinch. First century. It's just like, yeah, that was my sin. Okay, didn't even mention it. It's just like, yep.

SPEAKER_07 1:00:42

Until the end.

SPEAKER_01 1:00:43

Until the end.

SPEAKER_07 1:00:45

So we love summertime and we love summer.

SPEAKER_01 1:00:47

So on that, on that, oh yeah, on that, on that note of positivity, let's get right into negativity.

SPEAKER_05 1:00:55

Negative. Tell them why you're mad.

SPEAKER_07 1:01:00

Wow. Tell them why you're mad. I since we're talking about the Tour Divide and it's starting this we uh on Friday, you know you're gonna see rigs of the Tour Divide. Um my God.

SPEAKER_01 1:01:15

Um not only probably my most the most triggering time of year for us as alt cyclists, but also it really loads us up with zingers. You know, like we could talk about it for the rest of the year.

SPEAKER_07 1:01:27

Yeah, I get nauseous looking at these photos of these bikes. But the thing that always gets me where I'm like, I look at the bike and I'm like, that emoji face with a green face, is the long top two bags, you know, like the smaller ones that are like the the gas tank revelate has called them like they were the first ones to do it. So that that thing is called a gas tank, and that's what I'll call them. Because originality matters. So but they have extended those so it goes all the way across the top of the top tube.

SPEAKER_01 1:02:02

Anyway, you could use dead space on these on these bikes. I mean, I I'm I'm personally the it's the short gas tanks that get me. The long ones don't bother me as much. Oof.

SPEAKER_07 1:02:12

Because it doesn't break up the lines.

SPEAKER_01 1:02:13

Yeah, I guess so. I guess I guess we should we should preface all of this with there's something about riding the tour divide, namely the Grand Depart that brings out what what what you had you had Jeffs. Is that what you were calling them?

SPEAKER_05 1:02:29

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:02:30

There's a there's a certain I mean you may be among them, folks, and and you know an archetype. An archetype, they're usually freshly retired or going through like a midlife crisis. 50s to 70s, we'll say. And they're all named Jeff. They're all named Jeff.

SPEAKER_05 1:02:48

They're all on a war bird.

SPEAKER_01 1:02:50

Or or some sort, something that salsa makes. Salsa. Something that salsa makes, and they strap their they try, they're trying to do, you know, the the days of touring. Even though you could do a paneer's a paneer setup and stuff on the tour development, it's not like there's not much single track on the tour.

SPEAKER_07 1:03:07

Some do uh there is some single track.

SPEAKER_01 1:03:10

Some people some people would consider it a long gravel race. You know, there's some sections of single track where you probably wouldn't want paneers. But you know, there's that would have been like the way that people would have done it, you know, about 20 years ago. But now modern bikepacking gear is kind of given and modern bikepacking gear is designed without any any thought of aesthetics. Like there's no like this is what's gonna look good. There's it's just well, how what is the most lightweight, efficient to carry, not necessarily the efficient to get things out of my bags? What is the what is the the most what what is the I mean it's turned into what is the ugliest way that I could carry my shit on my ugly ass bike with the handlebars that are like a foot taller than my saddle, and then another arrow bar on top of that. And how can I ride something that bicycle pubes has drawn? And that's what people go for. Yeah, well, I mean there are and it's there are nicer looking, like if there, if there's a uh a route that is more single track centric, like you'll get a much you can only carry so much on a mountain bike, so you get uh some better looking things. Oh, that's a beautiful that's a this is all grand. We're looking at bikepacking.com right now. We're looking at of course good day, it's gonna do a nice one. Shout out some friends. But you know, it's uh that's Chris. That's a great bike. So, you know, it just brings out the worst and just about everything that comes from uh packing your stuff, stuffing your stuff in your stuff and and strapping it onto your bike. I mean, it is you can't do it any uglier than these rigs of the tordovides. So when you do see these roll out, that's why we made the Fabs chest. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_07 1:04:54

Yeah, because it's like you do need a lot of stuff and you literally can't dangle everything. Not only is it dangerous, it's gonna get caught on stuff, it's also just like things that clank around at some. I mean, you do need some clanky things to keep the bears away.

SPEAKER_01 1:05:10

That's where the that's where the dangling mug and and sport, tie sport, people think you're just dangling for fashion, but you're dangling to keep the bears away.

SPEAKER_07 1:05:18

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:05:18

It becomes like a little bell.

SPEAKER_07 1:05:19

Yeah, yeah. And like don't drink out of that mug. Didn't I know, right? So what it's literally just around you can get.

SPEAKER_01 1:05:27

I feel like that dangling mug could have been like in like like the alt cycling call sign back, you know, back five to ten years ago. Yeah. That mug dangling was a big deal. That was like how you knew your people.

SPEAKER_07 1:05:39

Oh, people are still dangling mugs. Still dangling. Let me tell you.

SPEAKER_01 1:05:41

Yeah, yeah, still dangling.

SPEAKER_07 1:05:42

Yeah, still dangling in 2026.

SPEAKER_01 1:05:45

But uh yeah, post-diardia.

SPEAKER_07 1:05:49

Oh, please don't get diardia.

SPEAKER_01 1:05:50

So, yeah, and this is gonna be some really so what we're mad about, uh it's not is it mad or just because we do look. We uh we willfully go on. To these websites and look at these rigs just so just so that we could look at the car wreck. The faces of death.

SPEAKER_07 1:06:06

I haven't looked at them for a while because it's that upsetting. You know, I'm a Libra. I love beauty. I love flow. I you know, I cannot see these bikes. Like, there's gotta be a point, right, where you like this bike becomes your lifeline.

SPEAKER_01 1:06:24

That's all you're looking at. It's forever every day.

SPEAKER_07 1:06:27

It's everything that you need to travel, survive. It's everything. Why does it look like that?

SPEAKER_01 1:06:35

You know? And you know you're taking photos of it to send to your friends and your family back home. Do the do you want them to just laugh at you?

SPEAKER_07 1:06:42

Yeah. Yeah. You know, if they have any sense of this isn't a Miyazaki cartoon, okay? Like this is real life.

SPEAKER_01 1:06:49

This is real life.

SPEAKER_07 1:06:50

You cannot capture the light of Miyazaki's illustrations and your and you're on Talk about Castle in the sky.

SPEAKER_01 1:06:57

And you're taking photos of this of your rig of the tortivide, not only submitting it to the to the world by sending it to these websites, but you're sending it back to your family that you're probably had to convince that you were worthy of this trip and that you wanted to do it, and you're having your midlife crisis.

SPEAKER_00 1:07:16

Well, this is instead of me buying a Ferrari, or I'm not getting a fish, I'm not getting a boat.

SPEAKER_01 1:07:21

I'm not getting a boat, but I'm gonna dangle this back from in the middle of my arrow bars, so I can put I'm gonna put a picture of my wife right in the middle of the arrow bars so that so that when I nod out in the middle of the night, my face lands right on it.

SPEAKER_06 1:07:34

And we have a little keys.

unknown 1:07:37

I don't know.

SPEAKER_01 1:07:38

So, you know, we're just it's just and this you know, anytime there are ugly ass bikes, especially what would be considered alt bikes going out into the world.

SPEAKER_07 1:07:47

Like it gives us a bad nap.

SPEAKER_01 1:07:48

It gives us a bad rap, you know. This is your this is this is front facing here, everybody. You know, is this what you want people to know and remember us by? No, and that's why we are mad.

SPEAKER_07 1:07:58

So and then madness over.

SPEAKER_01 1:08:01

Madness over. We're happy again. So I guess it's a good time to start.

SPEAKER_07 1:08:06

We're gonna wrap it up here. Yeah, so we we tend to talk about the podcast that we listen to throughout the show. So I figured that to wrap up, we'll have what's in the bike stand. So, Ron being our family mechanic, what's in the bike stand?

SPEAKER_01 1:08:24

It's really uh a question of what isn't in the bike stand right now. Uh maybe a problem that I have. It's you know, I do a number of customer builds, not only with our own bikes that we offer, but a lot of people send me in Rivendells and things like that to build up for them. And generally, it's people just want me to build the bike as I would build it for myself. With the I I have them answer a few questions on their riding styles and their and how they like their body to be positioned, or I have them send in photos of their old bikes, and then I kind of extrapolate from that what I think they should be on. So it's kind of like a uh it's a it's a process, I should say, all of my custom builds, because oftentimes I am making up my own component groups, you know, using people want to rely on my expertise of mixing and matching, you know, Shimano and Campignolo and Suntour, things like that.

SPEAKER_05 1:09:14

Deep custom.

SPEAKER_01 1:09:16

Deep custom. Deep eBay. It's just yeah, it's a lot of deep eBaying. It's a lot of trying things for the first time, seeing if they work, and oftentimes even trying things for the third or fourth time and they may not work. It's just tuning, you know, it's constant tuning and tinkering.

SPEAKER_07 1:09:30

So Do you have the patience for it? I have the patience.

SPEAKER_01 1:09:32

It's something that I really like doing. So I I've got I've had this, I've had Fred from down the road, have had his orange Ivoo in the stand for months now. Just right now, I uh it's got everything. I mean, it is this bike is sick. I can't wait to I'll do a video on it once I do have it finally built up.

SPEAKER_05 1:09:50

But it does look really good so far.

SPEAKER_01 1:09:52

Yeah, it's a 29 or mountain bike that we did. I had it, he won't he gave me a photo of his uh surfboard that he liked and said he wants a bike to match the surfboard.

SPEAKER_02 1:10:01

Oh, that's awesome.

SPEAKER_01 1:10:02

And so I was like, okay, and so it was all um gray and and mango colored. So I got a bunch of just like beautiful mango and orange anodized bits on it, including like a garbage crank and uh of course Paul cantilevers, all with like the gray and orange anodized stuff. The whole the mango Chris King headset and seat collar and so forth. So gray tires, of course. It's just gonna look totally sick. So the thing I'm waiting on right now is it's a 27.2 seat post, and PNW components is not doing the dropper post in 27.2, the silver one. And this bike needs a silver drop, needs a silver seat post. I mean, Fred wants a dropper, so I've got to de-anidize a Kashima coated Fox well whatever SL dropper post. And I've been, I can only get like more environmentally friendly oven cleaner around here, and it just wasn't strong enough to strip this thing into silver. So working on that for a little bit longer. I think that one's gonna be done maybe in a week, two weeks. We'll check in next week, see if it's still there. I got another customer out in Portland, Oregon, who's having me build up an orange Rodini, so a lot of orange here.

SPEAKER_07 1:11:13

I do love the orange and gray combo.

SPEAKER_01 1:11:16

Oh, it looks great.

SPEAKER_07 1:11:17

And like the lavender and gray. I'm I'm into like the gray and uh fun color combos these days.

SPEAKER_01 1:11:24

Yeah, I agree. They look really good, especially if it's like a pastel. It's gotta be a pastel.

SPEAKER_07 1:11:28

Yeah, like a pink, a purple, or that orange. It's yeah, the orange looks really good.

SPEAKER_01 1:11:33

So this orange Rodini has a cream head to head tube. So another I'm bringing in a lot of creaminess to the build. You know, it's this one I'll I haven't put too many parts on yet. I've got pretty much everything there. I'm trying to keep everything black off of these builds, which is always a challenge. Uh, you don't want to have any black in the build to stand against the all-silver motif as far as the components go. It's kind of like abrupt when something like that happens, especially when you're using gray tires. That's one of the great things about Ultra Dynamico race casing tires with the gray tread compound, is that you can do an all-silver bike, which I think is really cool.

SPEAKER_02 1:12:13

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:12:14

So there's that one, and then I'm also working on a new CR1, one of our road bikes, for my mom for her 73rd birthday. She's it's gonna, it's all her favorite color is blue. So I did it's kind of like a teal blue, powder blue, with it's gonna be an upright bar. She's got really bad arthritis. Uh, she rides every day, but she's been on a romancer for the last eight years that we built her up so she could do the tour divide with us in uh when she turned 65.

SPEAKER_05 1:12:40

So she's the summer of 65.

SPEAKER_01 1:12:42

Summer of 65, she kept saying. And so uh yeah, my mom is awesome. Shout out to Mary Jane Engel. So, you know, we so on that one I'm doing electronic shifting because her arthritis is so bad she's having trouble shifting.

SPEAKER_06 1:12:55

It's a really good idea.

SPEAKER_01 1:12:56

So I'm doing electronic shifting on an albatross bar, of course, rim breaks, and it's gonna be a speedy machine. I've got a lot of blue anno. I did a white industries order for her, so it's all white industries blue stuff, including the hubs, this seat collar, the headset. And I did one of the one of their one by square taper cranks with a blue with the blue self-extracting cap on it. So yeah, that was a big one. True blue for the blue blood. True blue for the blue blood. And I've been loving the Ergon carbon leaf seat posts. I don't know if you noticed that on my mountain bike, but I've got her one of those with a Brooks C17 carved. That's the carbon one.

SPEAKER_07 1:13:38

And uh yeah, she's vegan, she doesn't like leather.

SPEAKER_01 1:13:41

Yeah, right, right. So it's gonna be a sweet bike for MJ. So be on the lookout for that. Or if you're you're a near Shoreline Clan, be on the lookout for MJ taking your qualms.

SPEAKER_07 1:13:53

Definitely the local legends. Whoops. So Mary Jan Engel just nabbed your local legend title. You're gonna have to go back, Joe Huba.

SPEAKER_01 1:14:04

That's an inside joke there. But that pretty much wraps it up for what's in the stand. This this what's in the bike stand segment is uh ever present because there is always something in the bike stand, and I only got to half of what's in the bike stand there. I mean, I got my Atlantis up and running again for the first time in what seems ages. I know that you cringe when you hear me talk about my Atlantis.

SPEAKER_07 1:14:26

It's all in it's all in good fun, but I won an Atlantis, so I always like use derogatory terms about other Atlantae because I'm just jealous that I don't have one.

SPEAKER_01 1:14:37

So the rebuild of my Atlantis, I put one of the Rivendell silver rapid rise derailers on there. The One's gross fucking disgusting. Disgusting. So it looks great. It looks great, folks. And I took it out for a ride lat yesterday with Troy before band practice, and I got a uh a freshly waxed chain on there, that new derailleur. I had broken an axle again on that bike in the rear, so I replaced the rear axle. Thing was running pretty smooth. I put on some some Brute Ultra Dynamico Brute 700 by 53s JFF casing instead of Mars so it could roll a little bit quicker. I think I'm gonna go back to the Mars because the knobs look so much cooler on that.

SPEAKER_03 1:15:19

They really do, yeah. They really do.

SPEAKER_01 1:15:21

But I mean the shifting, I've I I have some modified simplex retro friction shifters uh mounted to Paul thummies bars. And so the shifting, the rapid rise shifting with the wax chain, long wax chain, because it's a long tail riv. Yeah, I think everyone needs to have at least one long tail riv in their collection, and they're all by collection. So that's I feel like that's a must-have. I don't know. I've I I talked here. I talk trash I talk trash from time to time on the long tail ribs because the short ones are I don't know, you know, it's just much more normal. And I don't think he really, you know, the long, I don't know. I'll I'll go, I should go into this in another another episode, but you know, it's kind of uh the long rear end is kind of I don't know, it's just long. You need extra chain, a lot of extra chain suck, things like that. But anyway, this bike has never shifted better uh in the eight years that I've had it. So it's uh I'll do a long-term review on that derailleur after I uh have ridden it for longer than a day. But it first impressions are pretty sweet.

SPEAKER_05 1:16:34

Very good. Get your two chains.

SPEAKER_01 1:16:36

Get your two chains. I get that up from rivendale.com or from soma.com.

SPEAKER_07 1:16:41

Oh my gosh, two chains was originally called Titty Boy. All right, ADD.

SPEAKER_01 1:16:52

Six foot four.

SPEAKER_07 1:16:53

Easiest.

SPEAKER_01 1:16:54

So yeah, you could uh two chains. We're we're referring to the two chains that you need for a long tail rib. It's really like a chain and a quarter, but you know, two chains, baby. You need more than one.

SPEAKER_06 1:17:04

Mm-hmm. Okay, well, goodbye, titty boy.

SPEAKER_01 1:17:10

Folks, it's been really good. Really good hanging with you here this morning. Namdal, my beautiful lover. It's been really good hanging with you this morning. I want to say, like, keep sending in those questions and things like that to Yeah, we'll do an episode where I just answer the questions.

SPEAKER_04 1:17:26

Do the question and answer.

SPEAKER_01 1:17:27

But we're getting we're getting your questions. We're getting your questions. I love reading your questions. We haven't had time. I feel like, oh, I could just respond to these via email, but it's much more fun when we elaborate, I'm sure. So we will do an episode, maybe it's next episode, who knows, where we will answer these questions, which we'll probably get to one sooner rather than later, so we don't get too behind. But so keep on sending that stuff in. Keep on sending us some money for ice cream too, folks.

SPEAKER_05 1:17:54

And keep tuning in.

SPEAKER_01 1:17:55

Keep tuning in to WKY Jelly Jelly on your AMFM dial. We are out for the week, folks. We actually we're not out for the week. We've got a lot of ships.

SPEAKER_05 1:18:07

I need to ship a bunch of bags.

SPEAKER_01 1:18:08

We we released uh some new bags on Friday, and there is a ton of shipping to get done. And I've got a lot of bikes to ship, too. So we better get to it on this Monday morning because it's already 11 30 a.m. here in Nutmeg Country in the beating heart. Off to work. I hope you are either off to work or off to some play, folks. Maybe it's your summer vacation already. We just want to thank you for tuning in to KY Jelly. And we are out of here. I love you, everybody.