A hero's journey to dérailleur enlightenment

Arya is back in the studio with Ronnie to discuss the recent ultra endurance drop outs, our weekend bike camp trip, what we bring on these camp trips, why are derailleurs so damn big and ugly??? Ronnie's Klein in the stand, and finally some PRO cycling gossip.   

ALT D'Huez by La Chouette: July 22-26, 2026

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:03

Okay, from the beating heart of Natalie Country. It's occupied now.

SPEAKER_03 0:15

Alternative radio. I'm your host, Robbie Roman. And I'm already at home. Thanks for joining us.

SPEAKER_01 0:27

It is great to have you home, sweetheart.

SPEAKER_03 0:29

It's nice being home. The humidity agrees with me.

SPEAKER_01 0:32

Yes, yes, yes. My hair is a little frizzy right now. Can you give me a real life report back on the state of my hair?

SPEAKER_03 0:39

I actually think your hair is really nice because it's get it gets the nice waves. And you have that like natural ombre balayage thing going on in the summer.

SPEAKER_01 0:50

Yeah, folks, a lot of people think I dye my hair.

SPEAKER_03 0:53

People say that about his dad, too. Yeah, right. Captain Pete has amazing hair.

SPEAKER_01 0:57

I like my tips, they're all natural.

SPEAKER_03 0:59

Yep. Yep. Okay. Hello natural.

SPEAKER_01 1:05

Well, you had a really nice time in Portland, didn't you?

SPEAKER_03 1:07

I really did.

SPEAKER_01 1:08

Bike City, USA. Because last week, folks, if you recall, we had Arya here on a hotline.

SPEAKER_03 1:13

Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Hotline blink.

SPEAKER_01 1:16

Yep. In Portland, Oregon.

SPEAKER_03 1:18

Yeah, I had a nice time with Sal from Shovel Research. We hung out with Rhe from SimWorks, did a little climbing.

SPEAKER_01 1:31

Inside the Chris King.

SPEAKER_03 1:34

No, I didn't hang out in there, but we hung out afterwards because we're like friends. So we're like friends. And you know, just spending time with her. Fiance. Of course. Um, yeah, just the getting food.

SPEAKER_01 1:50

What was the best what was the best meal you had in Portland while you were there?

SPEAKER_03 1:54

That's a really good question. I like that Greek place that's the far Pluto. Yeah. I had a really nice bean something there, rather.

SPEAKER_01 2:05

I mean, if it's made of beans, it can't be bad.

SPEAKER_03 2:07

It's really hot, so it was nice to have like chilled Greek bean.

SPEAKER_01 2:12

Oh, a cold Greek bean.

SPEAKER_03 2:13

Yeah. Okay.

SPEAKER_01 2:14

All right. All right.

SPEAKER_03 2:15

Yeah, I know.

SPEAKER_01 2:17

Um well headlines? Right into it.

SPEAKER_03 2:21

Well, let's get into headlines. We have to. I think that the Kennedy curse has made its way down from Massachusetts to Connecticut because all of the people that we've been following on the Tour Divide and others have not been doing very well and they've just run into some bad luck here. We'll start with Ron's cousin Matt. He got a live text from last week. What happened there?

SPEAKER_01 2:46

Yeah, if you all tuned in last week, you may have heard a unique moment in live radio when you get a live text message from somebody out on the course, on the Tour de Vie course. Thank you for the music. Live, local and late breaking.

SPEAKER_00 2:59

I'm getting better.

SPEAKER_01 3:00

Yeah, that's the kind of stuff we offer here on Altbike Now. My cousin Matt, who was doing the southbound Tourdevide Grand Apart, did something terrible to his wheel and ended up having to walk 30 miles to the U.S. border. Interestingly enough, Riley Osgood, who we shouted out last week, who is, I think he's in his late 20s or so, and he had a really nice tour devide, rig of the tour devide setup, if you recall. Well, we we had shouted out both of them, and this was just cute how this happened. And no longer than maybe like the next day or something, Riley sends me a update from the trail, and it's a photo of him helping my cousin. And he said, Yeah, it looked like he had a long way ahead of him. We tried tried our hardest to get that wheel repaired, but but it was a no. So then I got a text, I think, like a few hours after that, from my cousin saying that he had scratched at the border.

SPEAKER_03 3:56

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 3:57

Moving on, which is understandable.

SPEAKER_03 4:00

Understandable. So cousin Matt's out.

SPEAKER_01 4:02

Cousin Matt's out.

SPEAKER_03 4:03

Bailey from Sincere is also out, even though Bailey was doing really well. They just felt like, you know, every day waking up and trying to do this.

SPEAKER_01 4:15

Bailey is a is a lot. Is it correct that Bailey currently held the single speed record or had set it up?

SPEAKER_03 4:22

Had for for a while.

SPEAKER_01 4:24

And hadn't attempted in a while. Yeah, yeah. So had a great great single speed bike set up that we dug into a bit.

SPEAKER_03 4:32

It was the favorite bike.

SPEAKER_01 4:33

The favorite bike, favorite rig of the tool live.

SPEAKER_03 4:35

On my end. I saw that bike and I had to talk about it. So sorry, Bailey. I think we might have cursed you a little bit there.

SPEAKER_01 4:42

But that, I mean, truly, being out there, you know, you've been out there for a while.

SPEAKER_03 4:46

Yeah, I was actually looking through my photos and videos from 2023. And yeah, there's a lot of like talking random stuff into the camera because I was pretty lonely out there, you know. After after all of the friends bailed out in Montana, I just had the hardest time. I think I made it like two more days, which goes to show you like we need each other as human beings. These efforts, I've always seen the Tour Divide as like a journey of like extreme pain, you know, kind of like the Sundance or these ceremonies where you go really out of body, out of spirit somewhere else. And these journeys are really important for people to take because you get so much from that collective unconscious that's up there all around us, but hard to access unless you go into deep levels of pain.

SPEAKER_01 5:47

And loneliness.

SPEAKER_03 5:48

And loneliness. I I 100% support anyone who has gotten what they want out of that experience and are like, yeah, nope.

SPEAKER_01 5:59

Yeah. I I used to, you know, there was a uh a movement years ago, pre-pandemic, I remember seeing this phrase a lot being like, make bikepacking lonely again.

SPEAKER_03 6:11

And is that what brought on the male loneliness epidemic? Oh no.

SPEAKER_01 6:16

We found it. It's confusing because as as I don't think just males, I think everybody is encouraged to take on these in our individualistic society, we're encouraged to take on these long, lonely treks to find ourselves. Uh or, you know, I don't necessarily find yourself, but find something about yourself because that's undoubtedly what you may be looking for in those experiences. And I I, you know, as a before, you know, before you and I started touring together, sweetie, you know, for like the first five years, I was lone, I was, I was lone, you know, I was a lone, a lone puppy out there.

SPEAKER_03 6:55

I know.

SPEAKER_01 6:55

And it is lonely. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 6:58

And I was just a golden retriever with allone to compliment their hairs.

SPEAKER_01 7:02

Precisely, thank you. You know, and it's it's one of those things where you're but you're reading about it and you're like, oh, this is what I'm supposed to be doing. So you kind of make it a part of your personality, being like, oh, I don't need anybody. Or I think we kind of went through this during the pandemic too, when we were uh separated from our friends, you know, face to face, where where people are just like, well, you know, having somebody else around is a liability. Like, I don't need anybody. I could do this all by myself.

SPEAKER_02 7:28

Which is a trauma response.

SPEAKER_01 7:30

Trauma response. Or honestly, like we've been really kind of taught that in our society.

SPEAKER_02 7:35

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 7:35

And so these feelings of loneliness when you're out there. For me personally, you know, I can't I know that enough about myself.

SPEAKER_03 7:42

I've let go of that like of that, you know, uh Well, I also think you've been through the hero's journey. I mean, that's what this is, right? Like the Joseph Campbell idea of you go and find something that you're like utterly transformed, and then you come back and realize how much transformation. Then that is like the the good, gooey stuff that is in that universal archetype scene. I think it's important to do these things in life. Like you have to journey out. But I think once you have done that and once you have had those transformative experiences and you come back, you're like not going to maybe do that again right away. I don't know what it is.

SPEAKER_01 8:24

Yeah, yeah, it's it doesn't melt. Well, I mean, I had I had connections via Instagram and text messages and all this other stuff that really became like my lifeline to um you know if I if I weren't That's the media empire. Right, the the media empire that I was building at the time. I don't think without that positive reinforcement, because I would I would post something back then it would be just one static image post from an iPod touch and and I would get all these like comments and like people being like, hey, come by here or come by here, and then I'd be like, Okay, yeah, I'll meet up with you there. Yeah, I'll go to I'll ride over to that town, and you'd spend like four or five days riding to another town, but you knew at the end of that ride you were gonna have some social media.

SPEAKER_02 9:08

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 9:09

And so that made it comforting.

SPEAKER_03 9:10

I knew I wasn't just out there bouncing around alone where no one really cared about me or it is gorgeous though the connections you do make when you're out there and you do find these people, and it's like it's like finally someone to talk to, and they're so precious, like because of it. So I meant somebody that's a that's a fun thing. But it is a lonely sport. Um big big caps chapeau to Bailey for their effort. I mean, he was he was right there, and even more chapeau for letting or knowing when to say no, because that is the hardest thing, and I'm sure you could ask Lale Wilcox about that right now.

SPEAKER_01 9:52

Not necessarily on Tour Divide, but trying long bikepacking trips.

SPEAKER_03 9:56

Super hard things. I mean, the journey itself is hard enough as it is, but she had intense heat waves.

SPEAKER_01 10:05

Yeah, no longer breaking news, but we'll we'll we'll we'll give it to you straight. Lel Wilcox is no longer in the middle of her attempt to ride around the world.

SPEAKER_03 10:15

It was the right call. It was the right call.

SPEAKER_01 10:17

I mean a heat dump, extreme temperatures in Europe. 104 degrees.

SPEAKER_03 10:23

I mean, she said she's been feeling nauseous every day and threw up within the first hour. Those are the classic symptoms of heat exhaustion, and if you keep going with that. Oh, have some coffee. Nice. It's a bad situation, and we really need her to continue.

SPEAKER_02 10:40

Take care of it.

SPEAKER_03 10:41

Her spirit is extremely vibrant, and I'm sure she's feeling all types of ways right now. So sending mad love to Lale.

SPEAKER_01 10:49

I guess this happened maybe two days ago, should she call it?

SPEAKER_03 10:52

Yeah, it was on Sunday, I believe. Yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 10:56

If anybody has been. I mean, even last week it was super hot in Europe, but she landed last week, and I think she was on the plane when we last broadcasted. Got off and rode across Portugal very quickly through into France, and then France is just France is boiling right now. And I was watching on her Instagram, they were stuffing her with ice cubes like every hour on the hour, seemingly.

SPEAKER_00 11:21

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 11:21

And trying everything they could do to cool her off. And and she was still making like 220 miles a day. Which is 20 short of her goal.

SPEAKER_03 11:30

I mean, it was so hot in France that 40 people died of just drowning because they're probably cooling themselves up. It was in the news. Like that's how bad.

SPEAKER_00 11:38

40 people died of drowning.

SPEAKER_03 11:40

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 11:40

Wow.

SPEAKER_03 11:41

Yeah. 40 people drowned to death because you know swim lessons, Europe. We gotta uh I mean that was I mean, that's that's just something that happens, you know. But it just it just goes to show you what what kind of boiling temperatures they're dealing with. And yeah, Lael's right, they need to really consider climate change when trying records like this because it wasn't just the heat wave in Europe, they were going across Kazakhstan. Yeah, they were gonna go down into Southeast to Bangkok, to Singapore, which is hot, humid.

SPEAKER_01 12:14

Like it's just I know the frying pan. Reading what Mark Beaumont, the current record holder, did was he was able to ride across Russia, which you can't do now. And or you could do now, but as we've learned in the last few years, it's not who's the uh who is the right thing. Who's yeah, or yeah, Brittany Britney Granger. And then most recently, uh Stefan so-and-so, the the other French uh bikepacker who has a bunch of records of Stefan. He he uh was detained, detained for like a month in Russia for trying to to break the record of riding across Europe earlier in the year. So no one messes with Russia anymore. So but Russia is a cooler country, so if you could ride across that, it's gonna be a lot easier. And that's a lot of miles without having to deal with it. Having to deal with crossing borders and stuff. So I mean Lale obviously wasn't gonna be able to do that. So I think she was probably looking ahead being like, you know, and it was her crew that called it.

SPEAKER_03 13:17

Yeah, yeah. And thank goodness, because riders really shouldn't be making those decisions. I mean, she's got tears. I mean, it is breaking her heart to not.

SPEAKER_01 13:27

It's a huge I mean, I can't imagine being in her shoes for a multitude of reasons, but you know, it's it's uh yeah, I mean, to have all of this fanfare around it and the money involved, it costs she was like, I shaved my head for this. Like I did all of the things she did everything, and you know it Leail tries apps never does anything half-assed. And so to try this hard and still have it not happen and have all of this like wrapped up in it, I just we just wish her the best. Hopefully she's gonna be able to do that.

SPEAKER_03 13:59

Just send the homie a lot of love.

SPEAKER_01 14:00

Yeah, hopefully she's recovering, and when we see her again, nothing but love.

SPEAKER_03 14:05

And I know she'll try this again. Yeah. This is just, you know, information that she's processed to to do it again. And I think that some of the best lessons we can learn is failing.

SPEAKER_01 14:18

Failing, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 14:19

And failing to mother nature is to me not necessarily failing because you ain't never gonna win with the earth mother. She decides.

SPEAKER_01 14:28

Yeah, even if it did cool down for the next part of her journey, like the the stress uh on your body of of r trying to ride 240 miles a day and heat like that, like it lingers. You know, that would come back to the case.

SPEAKER_03 14:41

And because the mileage was a little bit behind, she was a little bit because she had to catch up.

SPEAKER_01 14:46

Like this is not a great position to be in.

SPEAKER_03 14:48

I'm glad that her team and her made this decision. I was very worried.

SPEAKER_01 14:53

Now, since this alt bike now, there's been a little bit of we gotta talk about the the scuttle butt that's bel that was below the surface with other endurance athletes saying that, oh, you can't talk about climate change when you're out fly doing such a climate-intensive record-breaking attempt where you're having to fly between all of the continents and have someone drive next to you and all this other stuff. Okay. What do you say about that? Aaron Ross Powell, Jr.

SPEAKER_03 15:20

Being climate change activist throughout my 20s and into my 30s, I would say, that is pointing the arrows at the wrong people. I mean, you're talking about one bomb exploding in Iran, and that is the CO2 like output of Lail for a thousand like attempts like this, you know. Math is probably not, but like think about think about that.

SPEAKER_02 15:48

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 15:49

Like the private planes that these the super rich have, that is also a huge like you're just not going to be able to leave like a carbon footprint, which is kind of a made-up term by the fossil fuel industry. But anyway, like pointing the arrows at the wrong people, I think, is a waste of your time, and you just kind of become the Debbie Downer. Like, well, every time you exhale, you're like, so you're not gonna breathe, you're not gonna. I just there are solutions and it needs to come from larger systems. You cannot blame individuals and individual choices. The first thing was like, oh, don't drink out of plastic water bottles. Get these reusable water bottles. How many reusable water bottles are there in the world?

SPEAKER_01 16:38

In this house.

SPEAKER_03 16:39

In this house alone.

SPEAKER_01 16:40

I mean, that got me.

SPEAKER_03 16:41

I I love these water bottles, and yet I'm not drinking water regularly. Like, it's not on the individual people, it's on systems. We gotta think about systems.

SPEAKER_01 16:51

What are you gonna do? Drink out of the toilet, folks?

SPEAKER_03 16:53

Yeah. What am I, a golden retriever?

SPEAKER_01 16:56

That's me.

SPEAKER_03 16:59

Anyway, that's my little spiel. I just I don't think I don't think there's any kind of like argument there that's left anymore. And people who make those arguments, I just think that they're looking for an argument. They're looking for an argument, and they maybe just learned about this stuff. And you know, they just need to go through the motions of learning more. So they're because it is hard to predict climate change stuff. It we I mean, it's we called it climate chaos because that's what it kind of feels like. It's kind of unpredictable. The heat wave here, uh cold spell there.

SPEAKER_01 17:36

Uh yeah, all bike now, folks, addressing the scuttle butt so you don't have to.

SPEAKER_03 17:41

Yeah, just tell them to point their arrows up. Always point your arrows up. We've got a trillionaire in this world and a lot of starving children who are dying. So it's pretty ridiculous to point our arrows down.

SPEAKER_01 17:53

But we've got bikes, folks.

SPEAKER_03 17:55

And bike events. Bike events. To make us a little less lonely. I just was very pleased to see that this bike shop in one of our Paris, one of our chuettes.

SPEAKER_01 18:09

Yeah, I guess in in the EU proper, our only dealer for Iran's bike's gear.

SPEAKER_03 18:14

Oh, yeah, because the woods isn't. The woods. The woods cycler is not EU. No, yeah, that's the same. They had Mexic. That's when Meghan Markle left. Megan Markle. Oh, okay. Oh, it's called Mexit. Anyway, glad she's in the US. Um The Friends at La Chouette are hosting uh camping and riding event called the Alt Duez. Isn't that clever?

SPEAKER_01 18:43

What a fun play on words. That's what really grabbed out of us. We were, I think, just perusing the headlines and then we saw Alt Duez.

SPEAKER_03 18:49

Alt. Instead of Alt Duez. It looks stunning. It's from July 22nd to 26, according to their website. Go check it out. It looks really fun. Late July.

SPEAKER_01 19:00

That's one of my former favorite chip companies.

SPEAKER_03 19:04

He brings it up a lot, folks.

SPEAKER_01 19:05

I changed the recipe.

SPEAKER_03 19:07

Still mad about it five years later. You get attached to a chip, you know.

SPEAKER_01 19:13

It was a great chip. And it reminded me of the time of year being the greatest time of year because my birthday is July 29th.

SPEAKER_00 19:21

Right.

SPEAKER_01 19:21

Late July. It was it I felt connected to this chip company, folks, and it no longer fights for me. It's no longer in my corner.

SPEAKER_03 19:28

I'm so sorry, sweetie. Yeah. I did love hearing you crunch on those chips.

SPEAKER_01 19:33

They were thin enough that they would that they didn't hurt my teeth, and they would just kind of the the the crunch and crumble was just I mean, you just can't find that anywhere else to this day. Okay. Well, alt dues. What does it entail?

SPEAKER_03 19:47

Alt dues.

SPEAKER_01 19:48

Probably not great chips.

SPEAKER_03 19:50

It's not. It's not gonna be great chips. But yeah, we're they're still confirming the routes.

SPEAKER_01 20:01

Are they going on the out actual Alp Duez?

SPEAKER_03 20:04

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 20:04

So they ride up the mountain?

SPEAKER_03 20:07

They have a lot of different routes that are gonna be available.

SPEAKER_01 20:10

Okay. This coincides with the Tour de France. The upcoming Tour de France. Can you believe that that is starting on July 4th?

SPEAKER_03 20:16

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 20:16

We won't talk too much about procycling right here. That's for the end of the show. But yeah, it's uh crazy that that time is coming. It's coming up quick.

SPEAKER_03 20:24

It is there, they're saying, come join us in the French Alps for a long weekend of camping, riding, good food, and slowing things down enough to appreciate the mountains, the people around you. Ugh, this is this is this is it. This is alt.

SPEAKER_01 20:40

Sounds good.

SPEAKER_03 20:40

They've got a really cute poster.

SPEAKER_01 20:42

And there's a discussion. You can get on a Discord for more information.

SPEAKER_03 20:46

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 20:46

Uh we have us here, we have no idea what Discord is. But I hear it a lot. I hear it a lot. I hear about it a lot. No idea what Discord is. I think it's something.

SPEAKER_03 20:56

Is Discord debt chord that is plugged into the kitchen?

SPEAKER_00 21:00

Cute kitchen phone.

SPEAKER_03 21:05

That's longer.

SPEAKER_00 21:06

Whose chord this?

SPEAKER_03 21:09

Discord or debt phone? We don't know. Please help us young people.

SPEAKER_01 21:15

So you know there you go. Yeah. So you got your your Alt Duez. It looks like camping and riding in Alt Duez, the French Alps, during the Tour de France. So make sure you check out lachuetteparis.com. I have no idea how you spell La Chouette, but I do know how to say it, and I'm proud of that.

SPEAKER_03 21:31

Yeah, because he used to say La Chouie.

SPEAKER_01 21:34

Did I?

SPEAKER_03 21:34

Yep.

SPEAKER_01 21:34

Or La Chute. So yeah, that looks fun. I it's cool to see a lot of this stuff popping up. Well, we have there's a lot more, you know, not just Euro meetups, but you know, around the world meetups for folks like us.

SPEAKER_03 21:48

Very cool. 50 tickets at 350 Euros for three nights 40 years. That's pretty good. That's a pretty good deal for I mean, I would love to get taken around. I I would do this. And it's a s it's a group that's like small enough where it can be intimate and you get all that.

SPEAKER_01 22:06

You get camping access stored for your bikes and gear, free breakfast breakfast buffet you know, daily pasta buffet. A lot of coiff. A lot of coiff.

SPEAKER_03 22:15

Anyway, that sounds awesome. We wish we could go.

SPEAKER_01 22:19

Someday, maybe.

SPEAKER_03 22:21

Someday. Another a thing that I was just stoked about that I saw on my on my Instagram feeds and otherwise was the World Cup tourists coming to the US. Have you been getting anything like this on yours? Maybe it's just me being a cultural anthropologist.

SPEAKER_01 22:40

Yeah, yeah, cultural. I don't appreciate it. I don't understand soccer or football, like they call it. I love European stuff, Euro stuff, but and never, you know, they didn't have soccer in Connecticut here when I was growing up. I swear there was like soccer was not a thing.

SPEAKER_03 22:55

It really wasn't. It was baseball during the early 90s.

SPEAKER_01 22:59

So I'm into, you know, the U a lot of US stuff makes me cringe, but I love I don't watch any sports other than cycling these days. But baseball has a special place in my heart because of the the classic Americana of it. I don't I think I don't follow it now because their pants are too loose and they don't do like the regulation sock, like the tall socks with the stirrups and everything, like the classic baseball outfit of the 80s and 90s is not there anymore.

SPEAKER_02 23:22

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 23:22

They're all wearing like they look it just the aesthetic is not there for me.

SPEAKER_02 23:26

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 23:27

So I don't watch. Same thing with basketball. The shorts are too big, and they all get to wear those like like spandex, like half arms, and you know what I'm talking about? They're all wearing like these strange, like it just nothing's. I don't know if it's everyone's just getting like too optimized in these classic sports. And it's just the aesthetic is ruined. Yeah. So for me, it's gotta look, it's gotta look right for me to actually be interested. And I'm sure other people out there are like that.

SPEAKER_03 23:54

But yeah, I like to see humans doing superhuman things, which is what those athletes resembled, and now they kind of look bionic, you know, with the socks on their arms.

SPEAKER_01 24:06

Yeah, what the heck? You're like anyway.

SPEAKER_03 24:07

Give me some text chat, give me something natural.

SPEAKER_01 24:09

Yeah, just give me Dennis Rodman.

SPEAKER_03 24:12

Oh, okay. That's natural.

SPEAKER_01 24:14

Give me the one, you know, he had his tiny ass shorts on, you know, funky hair, whatever, you know, hanging out with hanging out with Pearl Jam.

SPEAKER_02 24:25

And then later Madonna Kim Jong.

SPEAKER_00 24:29

Yeah, right. There you go.

SPEAKER_03 24:31

So we just don't get icons like that anymore. Anyway, it was it was nice to see that there is still global appreciation for the US. Mostly people were talking about how much they love ranch dressing, which is Ron's favorite liquid meal.

SPEAKER_01 24:50

Don't even put me in the same sentence as ranch dressing. Oh, good good.

SPEAKER_03 24:54

He just loves it. He'll put it all over.

SPEAKER_00 24:59

He'll put it all over his please which is his other favorite thing.

SPEAKER_03 25:06

No, people are loving the U.S. for our friendliness. You know, some Japanese tourist was talking about how the chips and salsa came out at a Mexican restaurant. It was just cute, you know. It made me it made me happy.

SPEAKER_01 25:20

That is to see that kind of in the you do go to some Mexican restaurants where they don't keep the chips coming, and you're like, As an American. As an American, you gotta be like this is our God-given right.

SPEAKER_03 25:31

250 years of freedom for no chips and salsa.

SPEAKER_01 25:37

Yeah, if I'm not feeling if I'm not completely spoiling my appetite on chips and salsa before the meal comes, then it's not America.

SPEAKER_03 25:45

I know, I know. I mean, and the Japanese were like, we didn't earn the chips and salsa. That's so sweet. But you know, I just love cross-cultural exchanges like this, you know, in uh we are living in climate change reality, and that is going to bring about a lot more climate refugees, and it is imperative that we start forming pluralistic societies based on appreciation like this today.

SPEAKER_01 26:09

We want to see Japanese people eating Mexican food in the United States.

SPEAKER_03 26:13

Yes.

SPEAKER_01 26:14

We want that that's is that plurality?

SPEAKER_03 26:16

Yes, absolutely. We want to see the Scottish coming to Boston and out drinking the Irish.

SPEAKER_01 26:25

The Irish of Boston.

SPEAKER_03 26:27

Yeah, like they the the bars in Boston are saying that like they drank three times as much as St. Patrick's Day, like for when the whole car was there. And it is gorgeous. I just I love to see it. I love to see cross-cultural exchanges and appreciation.

SPEAKER_01 26:46

I really like let's face it, you love the Scots.

SPEAKER_03 26:49

And I do love the Scots, great style.

SPEAKER_01 26:52

Style on the soccer field.

SPEAKER_03 26:55

Great style in general.

SPEAKER_01 26:57

So you like kilts.

SPEAKER_03 26:57

Absolutely, I like kilts. I like bagpipes, I like kilts, I like a little bit of an attitude. Not a big fan of haggis.

SPEAKER_01 27:05

I like the word more, yeah. Yeah, yeah. Okay, well.

SPEAKER_03 27:09

Can you haggis?

SPEAKER_01 27:13

Can you haggis? Does that mean can you hang with this?

SPEAKER_03 27:17

Um, so that's it for headlines. We'll save the race news after what's in the bike stand. Um moving on to real life reportbacks. This is a real life report back. Thank you, Jenny.

SPEAKER_01 27:32

Well, we went bike touring. Uh, as I think a lot of people did, this could also fit in the headlines. It was the summer solstice this past weekend. So, uh, of course, Swift Campout, you probably saw that a lot on your Instagram feeds.

SPEAKER_02 27:47

Yep.

SPEAKER_01 27:48

And we went camping the day before the solstice. So for our friend Troy Halley Bones on Instagram, shout-out. I think this is maybe his fifth shout-out on this podcast. We talked about him every time every single episode. It was his birthday, and we always, I I, you know, historically, we have always uh celebrated Troy's birthday for like a week because this is the kickoff to summer. This is the official start of summer, and for me, this is yeah, this is I mean, this is when it starts feeling like summer around here and had lime also. And so we our friend, other friend Joe Cruz, has who we hadn't seen in a while, proposed a route up in the up in the in the tri-state. Oh, yeah, we are calling it the three colonies tour. So we had Connecticut, Massachusetts, and Rhode Island all covered in this 80-mile loop.

SPEAKER_03 28:40

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 28:40

And so we started Joe is an expert route.

SPEAKER_03 28:43

Amazing route builder. I was just gaffawed the whole time. Jaws on the ground.

SPEAKER_01 28:49

His website, I mean, he doesn't update his blog that much anymore, but for those of you who He's been everywhere. Yeah, for those of you not read up on Joe Cruz, he is the chair of the of the philosophy department at Williams College and a a cyclist since the a mountain off-road cyclist since the 90s. And he takes his sabbaticals and his summers off to travel everywhere and has been doing so. I mean, this is one of the OG bikepackers out there. He's been pretty much everywhere, and he is he won't tell you about it unless you ask him. So that's a rarity, also. So, or look at his blog or his Stravas.

SPEAKER_03 29:30

JoeCruz.com. If you want to be inspired.

SPEAKER_01 29:33

Yeah, headed to Mongolia in three weeks. Amazing.

SPEAKER_03 29:36

So, anyway, anyway, let's talk about how it was Nam's rides again. Arya's riding again.

SPEAKER_01 29:42

Also, Nam's rides again.

SPEAKER_03 29:43

Promises were made, promises were starting to get kept.

SPEAKER_01 29:47

Beginning to be kept. What is a promise, anyway? You know, it it's it's it's something that kind of blossoms over time. And I think this promise is actually blossoming right now.

SPEAKER_03 30:01

Yeah, it's pro mice.

SPEAKER_01 30:02

Yeah, pro pro mice.

SPEAKER_03 30:04

Promise.

SPEAKER_01 30:06

This route was going to be just an overnight or Friday night, and we had not been bike camping since going to Sea Otter last year. I think it's together. Together.

SPEAKER_03 30:16

I did a bike tour in February.

SPEAKER_01 30:19

We did go in February with 11 Asian stuff. Something that we uh something that used to be our identity, and it's just since the pandemic, we just haven't done it much anymore.

SPEAKER_02 30:28

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 30:28

So I need a I again, I think in the pandemic pandemic, we started living in the woods full time. So the places that we would ride out to, we ended up living and we have a swim hole and like all this other stuff. So it's like, eh, you know, we'll just invite our friends over to camp at our place. No, it's really nice.

SPEAKER_03 30:44

It's really nice and quiet.

SPEAKER_01 30:46

It's nice and quiet. It's a nice spot. So, but it is nice. I mean, I reminded every time we do do this that it is nice to just put the bags on and head out and sleep in a new place. I always sleep better when I'm camping.

SPEAKER_02 30:58

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 30:59

I had, you know, so I guess let's just get into this little report. You know, you could see on my Strava, we got like 50 photos up from the overnight episode.

SPEAKER_03 31:08

Nice, nice. So on the tour were we said Joe, we said Troy, we had our friend Alex, Alexander Dyson.

SPEAKER_00 31:17

Local pervert, Alexander.

SPEAKER_03 31:18

Local perv. Sorry.

SPEAKER_01 31:22

I shouldn't say for the the he's a per he's perverted for bike parts, folks. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 31:27

And he's very much in on the joke. So we're not making fun of you, Alexander. And then Ballsey, our favorite balls, Troy's partner, Toy's sweetheart.

SPEAKER_00 31:37

Yeah, that's true.

SPEAKER_03 31:38

And then, like, we camped great great interactions with locals. We went to this tavern that said bikers welcome. I think they mean the other kind of bikers, but they welcomed us too.

SPEAKER_01 31:52

An authentic biker bar.

SPEAKER_03 31:53

It was awesome. They were playing classic biker. I don't go, I don't go into bikes.

SPEAKER_01 31:56

I never go into bars. Like, I've probably can count how many bars I've been in on I on one hand in my lifetime.

SPEAKER_03 32:02

And I love them.

SPEAKER_01 32:03

But this one felt very authentic.

SPEAKER_03 32:05

It was really nice.

SPEAKER_01 32:06

This is this is in the in the woods on some lake in Rhode Island. It was, I think the bar was bit had been open. It was a tavern, had been open since like 1850 or so. So it was an old building. And on the inside it had like the checkerboard floors and just a jukebox, and everyone inside were real like bar flies playing playing on the jukebox, nothing but classic rack.

SPEAKER_03 32:30

Classic rack.

SPEAKER_01 32:32

Classic rack.

SPEAKER_03 32:33

We were loving every tune that was being put.

SPEAKER_01 32:35

And you guys ordered up a bunch of fried foods that that I just had little tastes of because of my waistline.

SPEAKER_03 32:42

Fried foods.

SPEAKER_01 32:43

Yeah. And it was the best.

SPEAKER_03 32:45

I mean, Troy was like, I was I love jalapeno poppers. And before we were discussing whether or not yes, all right, let's go. Troy was like, I love jalapeno poppers because I was like, I love mozzarella steaks. And we manifested Caddy's Tavern. It was awesome.

SPEAKER_01 33:07

Yeah. So yeah, after a nice, after a nice fried meal of fried foods and light beers there, we uh we basically just like right out of that tavern, like hit the trail again.

SPEAKER_02 33:18

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 33:18

Like right off road again. And then we It's great. Then we just kind of while the sun was on one of the longest days of the year, was on its way down, we just kind of cruised through this like jeep road area that was super chunky but flowy and a little bit downhill, and we went over like a hidden uh covered bridge that was on one of these jeep roads, like a Rhode Island covered bridge, which you don't hear about much. Gorgeous. And and as we as the sun was going down, we came upon this giant lake, and it just seemed perfect. And so we set up camp, and there were a bunch of jeepers and like dirt bikers out there mudding. Yeah, and they were trying maybe trying to like to like they were friendly, they mess around with us a little bit, but then Joe approached them and made friends immediately, and then these jeepers were just like all about us. Yeah, right. They were obsessed with us. And luckily, luckily all the jeeps and everything stopped coming through there at like 3 a.m. we through we slept we slept through that one though, thankfully. And uh yeah, woke up the next morning, some nice camps, some nice I had some roly poly instant coffee that was hit the spot perfectly.

SPEAKER_03 34:33

And uh I had tea, honey, and oatmeal that you had brought in.

SPEAKER_01 34:36

We had brought in some pretty good stuff. I think we I think the night before I ate some beans and avocado and a few other things. We were just we were packing pretty light. And yeah. And then in the morning, Brian's Chapman Cycles and his crew showed up to others. They rode with us for a little bit and then we went to the high point of Rhode Island, which is 817 feet, Jeremoth Hill.

SPEAKER_03 34:59

Yep.

SPEAKER_01 35:00

And it was great because as we were there, all of these sarcastic New Englanders came through and were like, Yep, needn't need uh needed our oxygen tank to get all the way up here. And be like, yeah, don't don't look too hard, you might miss it.

SPEAKER_03 35:12

Yeah. It is it is really nice to take these like super chill, because everyone was in on that joke. Like every single person we saw was making that same joke, which I found really sweet and endearing.

SPEAKER_01 35:23

Hardly a hill.

SPEAKER_03 35:24

It's hardly a hill. Like we just we're just connected by a trial of humor.

SPEAKER_01 35:29

You know, like a high point in some of the western states is gonna be like this beautiful spanning vista, and you're gonna be like, wow, we're so high up here. But in Rhode Island, everything is bigger. That was a theme. We were like, so you know, that was it was really cool to and then with Chapman's crew the next day we got into some really chunky trails for touring bike for loaded touring bikes. What was the what was your what was your bike setup?

SPEAKER_03 35:58

What do you mean?

SPEAKER_01 35:59

What bike were you on?

SPEAKER_03 36:00

Oh, I was on the Lil Romeo, which is the Crest Romance here.

SPEAKER_01 36:05

Which was a I think a prototype.

SPEAKER_03 36:07

It was incredible. And I still have it after all of these years. I still ride the same like three bikes every day.

SPEAKER_01 36:19

People your size are never gonna wear out bikes. Like that's a that's a that's a nice thing about being around 100 pounds.

SPEAKER_03 36:27

Small.

SPEAKER_01 36:27

Yeah, like you're like a bike for you will last like the rest of your life.

SPEAKER_03 36:31

That's cool because I ride it so seldomly as it is. I ride it hard and then seldom. But what was really nice about this tour is like, you know, we've been covering the tour divide, which is this huge attempt with these huge expansive views and big climbs and gorgeous mountain views, and then you have something like this bike tour, which wasn't which wasn't an easy one because it was like chunky. Right.

SPEAKER_01 36:56

It's still 40 miles a day in Rhode Island.

SPEAKER_03 36:58

Still 40 miles a day in Rhode Island, and it felt fun and adventurous. It was like really what was your what was your bag set up? My bag set up was uh the mini chest in the front.

SPEAKER_01 37:10

Uh-huh.

SPEAKER_03 37:11

I had my Tibetan flag frame bag.

SPEAKER_01 37:13

So what did you have in the mini chest in the front?

SPEAKER_03 37:15

In the mini chest, I had my sleeping bag.

SPEAKER_01 37:18

Okay. I had the tarp, and I had or like the ground cloth and my sleep pad, and a couple of your sleeping bag and the sleeping pad all fit in the front? Yes. Wow.

SPEAKER_03 37:34

It did, it did. And I had a really warm bag too, because you know I get cold. You had a 30-degree uh enlightened equipment quilt.

SPEAKER_01 37:41

Enlightened designed quilt. You were enlightened.

SPEAKER_03 37:44

I was. I I was very warm, actually.

SPEAKER_01 37:47

Thermorest Neo Air.

SPEAKER_03 37:49

Yeah, which was slowly losing air throughout the night. And in the morning, I pretty much just woke up on the ground. But we always pick kind of soft, like pine needles. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 38:00

Um then in the frame bag, what do you have?

SPEAKER_03 38:02

In the frame bag, I had a sort of three-liter bat bladder. I had my like tool kit generally on the other side, and then I had a little cook kit and avocado and a full bottle of Cholula hot sauce.

SPEAKER_01 38:20

Guilty. I'd think uh that was my idea.

SPEAKER_03 38:22

It was well, I decided to take it because I was like, I'm not not gonna have hot sauce.

SPEAKER_01 38:26

You can find those Cholula packets, you know, at the gas at the gas stations and stuff. You don't think so? Yeah, the you can. You can, but the bottle is a is a is a promo. You can you can really break out the bottle and start dumping that at people like you got a bottle of hot sauce in there?

SPEAKER_03 38:39

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 38:39

Yes, I do. Yes, I do.

SPEAKER_03 38:41

So I had that, and then in the back I had that little tiny Akatanga butt rocket. Buttrocket, which I had, I think, just my like sleep sweater and my sleep pants, which I did not need. I ended up depanting.

SPEAKER_01 38:57

Yeah, it was warm enough.

SPEAKER_03 38:58

What did you have on your bike?

SPEAKER_01 38:59

I had my I was gonna bring my Alimax 2 because it's fun to load that bike up lightweight, but I've been messing around with it a lot as far as the shifting goes, because I just haven't been able to decide on what like brake levers and shifting and all the stuff. I just mess with my bikes way too much. Not way too much, maybe just enough, but it was out of commission, so I already had a that was not a fart, that was me moving on the seat. Oh my gosh. Vinyl seat, folks. Vinyl seat. So yeah, I brought my Rivendell Atlantis is basically all always set up to and ready to go camping. And I had just redone the shifting on my Atlantis, actually. I had put on the, I think I talked about this a few episodes ago. I had put on the what was it? I had put on the new Rivendell Silver OM1 rear derailer, the Rapid Rise.

SPEAKER_02 39:52

Oh wow.

SPEAKER_01 39:53

And I had not tried Rapid Rise since the uh index, since Germano brought it out for a few years and its inception in the early 2000s, indexed. And it was like, oh like, ah, whatever. This is hardly uh innovation. But as Grant, I'll gotta give him credit. Once again, as Grant has said, rapid rise really comes to life when you use it friction. And I'm not using it just friction, I'm using I'm using simplex retro friction shifters, SLJs. So these things are that's the nicest shifter you could use if you get them in good shape and matched with this rapid rise derail derailer. I'm telling you, I was shifting with my pinky. And I could pedal as hard as I could be in the wrong gear, like up a climb, you know, where otherwise I would suck my chain into every crevice into my bike, you know, and I'm able to shift under load, folks, with this rapid rise derail because it it sits, it wants to bring the it wants to bring the chain up to the biggest cogs with the city.

SPEAKER_03 40:51

I like the sound of it. The cachou.

SPEAKER_01 40:55

You like that kind of clunk. But this one doesn't clunk. So you would lose that. This one just you just this one doesn't bring back the clunk. Like it is so smooth. The best shifting experience of my entire life. So I'm gonna I'll I'll talk about this more, but I mean I was shifting so much that I broke my shift cable. True, folks. It's true. Luckily it was towards the end, but even breaking my shift cable, it brought my instead of having my gear be the hardest gear, because you know, with an ordinary derailer, it just goes down to the smallest cog. But the the this derailleur starts at your largest cog. So my it just brought it up to the 32-tooth in the rear, and I had still had three chain rings in the front, so I was able to use those three chainrings.

SPEAKER_03 41:43

All right, save your derailleur rant.

SPEAKER_01 41:45

Oh my god, I'm sorry. That's my derailer rant.

SPEAKER_03 41:48

Or tell them why you're mad. Yes. I want to know about your generic. We went from what bike were you red? Do you see what I mean when I ask a direct question and I get a meandering answer through space, time, and bike technology of the 80s, 90s, and today?

SPEAKER_01 42:06

My setup was on this. And I had a mini chest in the front mounted to my ortho bar.

SPEAKER_03 42:17

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 42:18

And inside that mini chest is that's where I carried the food. So I guess most of our food. Uh and uh tortillas, tortillas, like I carried the avocados. I had some noodles, I had some like some ramen noodles, some oh a bunch of bars, chocolate, cheese, cheddar cheese.

SPEAKER_03 42:38

Did you have a frame bag?

SPEAKER_01 42:39

No, I don't do frame bags.

SPEAKER_03 42:41

That's right.

SPEAKER_01 42:41

I don't do frame bags, folks, because I know that they're classic. I know people have been using frame bags for over a hundred years, and I know how practical they are because they center the weight of your, you know, they center the weight between the wheels, but I just don't like the way they look, so I don't use them.

SPEAKER_03 42:56

You don't like how they mess up lines on the bike.

SPEAKER_01 42:58

They ruin the lines of the bike. And they never fit right. And you know, it's just like it just doesn't look right. Give me some water bottles. So I had some my water bottles in the middle.

SPEAKER_03 43:07

You had three. Three water bottles.

SPEAKER_01 43:10

And then I had in the rear, I had a small chest resting a mini rack that my friend Hubert had made me specifically for the Atlantis years ago. So in that rear bag, I had my sleep system. We used a uh our hyperlight Mountain Gear inner pyramid bug net.

SPEAKER_03 43:27

Yeah, which we definitely needed.

SPEAKER_01 43:28

Yeah, it was buggy.

SPEAKER_03 43:29

Holy out.

SPEAKER_01 43:30

And I we love setting that up because we just kind of yeah, it's just very nice, light, and airy. It doesn't pack down real great because it's the Dynema bottom. And Dynema, folks, it's the lightest, really light material out there, not the most packable. So don't let that fool you. It's bulky.

SPEAKER_03 43:44

I feel like if you folded it the right way, fold it just the right way, you can get it really small.

SPEAKER_00 43:48

But we're not folders. No, we're not folders. That's why we mean pilers. Stuffers. Stuffers, duck tours.

SPEAKER_01 43:55

So in that rear bag, I had that. I had my sleep, my 45 degree. Enlightened design quilt and a I I use just like wool long johns and a wool top to sleep in. It keeps my keeps my legs from like sticking together when you don't get to. Although I did dunk into the into the the uh Blake right before bed, which helps a lot. And yeah, and there I guess that's what I had. I don't think I had much of else. We didn't really need a we didn't really need extra layers because it was warm. Which is a nice thing about camping this time of year, especially in New England, as opposed to outwest. Out west, you probably still have to bring a uh down jacket or something. Yeah, something because it gets cool at night. But you know, camping in New England in the summertime, your nighttime lower. Overnighter, nighttime lows 65. You really, I think Troy just Troy came out with a silk, just a silk liner. He's a greasy gorilla. He's he oftentimes overheats, but he was a little cold because we had some wind.

SPEAKER_02 44:55

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 44:55

But but yeah, you know, so uh really uh it was the setup felt great. It was uh I mean our second day especially was vastly off-road on like hiking trails.

SPEAKER_02 45:06

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 45:07

Um, and I was trying to ride everything I could because it's nice. The one thing about riding a loaded bike in these situations is you have really good traction. Because you're you've got automatically have weight cantilevered over the both ends of the bike.

SPEAKER_03 45:22

So But then you also have the weight to carry over all of that.

SPEAKER_01 45:26

But then once you uh yeah, once you have to put your foot down, you gotta carry your bike. Yeah, so I mean, overall, I think it it's really, really fun for us to get out on these camp trips.

SPEAKER_03 45:36

Yeah, I'm excited to do more.

SPEAKER_01 45:38

But we were also like, man, I would love to be out riding this chunky stuff on an if we had maybe we're like, oh, we can do this 80-mile ride in one day, you know, unloaded, you know, and and and fly through it and have maybe you know, but the pace of bike touring is really cool where you're just it's like a all-day hangout with your friends. I know, and then an upstream.

SPEAKER_03 45:59

We like gorgeous weather too.

SPEAKER_01 46:00

And we just no one's trying to hammer it, it's just a very cruzy pace. And check in with your friends, check in with your friends, chats, and laughs, lots of little picnics, lots of L's. Yeah, so I mean that that's really what it's all about, I guess. And you don't get that when you're trying to blast through something. Well, you know, you you do, but it's in a different way, it's not nearly as nourishing.

SPEAKER_03 46:24

Yeah, we need it all. That concludes our real life report backs. I hope y'all get out for some summer riding as well.

SPEAKER_01 46:33

Yeah, I hope everyone had sure a lot of y'all went out camping over the solstice weekend because it it is such a perfect weekend to celebrate the kickoff of summer. So I hope everyone out there had really, really nice Swift camp outs, whether you called it that or not.

SPEAKER_03 46:48

Yeah. Go Homo sapiens. We made it.

SPEAKER_00 46:59

We made it.

SPEAKER_03 47:01

So from positive to maybe a little bit of aggression since you already started this. Tell them your man! Tell them your man, Ronnie. Because we've been we've been not doing this for a while. So I'm sure you've been letting this kettle.

SPEAKER_01 47:20

Oh my god, this kettle is boiling over. You know when you're cooking oats in the morning, folks, and it's that real thick viscous foam coming over the top of the pot. That's me right now. I just can't wait to dig into this one.

SPEAKER_03 47:31

Okay. You have been mad about derailers?

SPEAKER_01 47:35

I've been mad about derailers for a long time.

SPEAKER_03 47:37

Since 96, probably. Trying to think of when all good music ended, according to when everything good ended.

SPEAKER_01 47:44

You know, derailers, rear derailers, folks. Let's get right into this.

SPEAKER_03 47:48

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 47:49

I I thought about having all of these things, all of these derailers set up in front of me so I could just pick them apart. But that would be an entire episode. That would be an entire episode. I wanted to talk about the size of derail. I mean, it's really the size of what bugs me most these days, but as most of you know, the XTR M950, M952 are my two most favorite derailers, and I've oftentimes find them at bike co-ops and on eBay, and I use them on my personal builds and customer builds. And it's just a great derailer. I think it it I think probably more of these derailers were made than any other derailer in the history of derailers because this was made at the peak of the mountain bike boom, and that's a peak that we have not seen. We're maybe seeing what year is that? That's like the peak of the mountain bike boom would probably be like 1994 to 1998 or so.

SPEAKER_03 48:42

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 48:42

And this is you could compare this to gravel nowadays, like this is how big it was. Um so the the industry hasn't had like a new push like that in a long time. And and it as we've touched on before in this podcast, gravel today is, with the exception of drop bars, is exactly what that terrain was that we were riding these types of bikes on. So probably the through line to the derailer I'm speaking of to today's derailer would be it pains me at the TRX.

SPEAKER_03 49:14

Oh, he's crying. There are actual tears.

SPEAKER_01 49:18

Shimano dropped the ball harder than any other bike. I mean, they survived the pandemic, the best out of all the big component manufacturers, because they have adhered uh other stuff. Fishing, also mainly fishing is what makes them money, but they aren't trying to grow as fast as some of these other companies, so they didn't over-order, they didn't overproduce during the pandemic. But they did come out with uh, in my opinion, might be the most heinous group ever produced GRX. Their gravel specific group. Um, and it is one of the ugliest groups in the history of ugly, and which is a long history, folks. Ugly. It's a long history. Derailers uh of yesteryear were designed for doubles and or triples, and that's how you got your gear range. So you really only needed like 34 max teeth in the rear. And so you could shift a range like that with a you know, with a a derailer that would look normal, so to speak. I don't know what looks normal today. The deraillers are oftentimes triple the size.

SPEAKER_03 50:28

I'm not that mad at it.

SPEAKER_01 50:29

It's because it's I mean, you gotta see the whole thing together.

SPEAKER_03 50:32

The back, like cassette just ends up looking more and more dinner plate and it's a lot of things.

SPEAKER_01 50:36

Yeah, it's the dinner, it's the dinner plate cassettes. It's one by I that's why it's the one by you know, people think, you know, how SRAM helicopter outside our house, I was looking at us, you know, because I'm I've because I've been openly critical of SRAM.

SPEAKER_03 50:51

Uh huh.

SPEAKER_01 50:52

They don't like that.

SPEAKER_03 50:53

Right.

SPEAKER_01 50:54

And so they've been tapping our phones.

unknown 50:57

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 50:58

Cointel Pro is full investigation. Like driving by our mailbox each morning, checking the mail. You know? Those are my Victoria's Secrets catalogs. And so, you know, it's it's SRAM pushed the one by, and SRAM made the derailer what it is today, which is something that needs to shift a 52, 54, to whatever, tooth in the rear and one by up front. Terrible chain lines. Okay. Not only that, but they pushed the crank sets out further and further and further to deal with those, to make those chain lines even worse because they have to, they're trying, they don't use square taper bottom brackets anymore. So it's a one-size-fit-all solution for your crank sets. So you have one spindle to choose from, or maybe two, and both of them put your feet like way out like Donald Duck. So you're quacking the Q factor is not even considered anymore because of this one by move. Okay.

SPEAKER_03 51:55

So Abomination.

SPEAKER_01 51:57

Shimano, to their credit, still does make two-by systems. Saram probably does two, but not for gravel. GRX does come in a two-by, but that doesn't mean that derailer's looking any better. So, you know, in this last year, I tried with my Alimax 2 build, and you could check that out on my YouTube. I think it was the last video I released. Uh pretty long time ago, like in February. I tried a 1x system because of the Garbrook cranks. They had like a special like 1x arrow chain ring, and I just thought it looked cool, like retro featurist. And so I wanted to use this crank set, and that meant that I had to use a giant rear derailer to make it all work, you know. And so I started with a campy eckhart because everyone knows that campingolo is the best thing that ever happened to bikes. Not everyone knows that, but yeah.

SPEAKER_03 52:48

But the ones who do really know it.

SPEAKER_01 52:53

And so, you know, I I started with a campy eckhart direct rear derailer, which was slightly larger than you know what I'm used to using. And I tried to shift a 11-speed 1152 with that, and it just didn't like it. They really only like to go up to 48. So I had to. So I was out in Arizona when this was all happening, and I really wanted this bike to work well because I was, you know, I was out riding graph. And I I put on that crank set and I kept on circle cycling through all of these derailers. First, I tried a Shimano XT Dynasys, then I tried a Shimano XT post-dynasys, whatever the hell all that means. I was using a uh bar end shifter because you know, you can't get nice shifters these days. Like you can't, like the hoods get all misshapen, the gummy, gummy, the levers just look ugly as hell, they feel cheap. So, you know, I I I wanted to use a bar end shifter, so I used a micro shift 11-speed bar end shifter and tried to match all this stuff up. And I would put on these these two XT derailers and step back and look at the bike. And even if they worked, I didn't even take a single pedal stroke because I just couldn't look at it. And I put it back to the put it back to the campy eck art because I can't look and ride a bike, can't look at or ride a bike that just doesn't fit my aesthetic, and this just wasn't happening for me. So these derailleurs, you look at them, you weigh them, they're like double the weight, they're double the size, sometimes triple the size, the pulley wheels are all huge. The I don't know what they're trying to do. You can't adjust them correctly, they're just fucking ugly. You gotta get like they want you to get like a universal derailleur hanger for this stuff. It's just I I understand that one-by systems are easier for beginners to use. I understand the appeal of simplicity with all this stuff. I mean, Charlie Cunningham had a one-by on his 1978 prototype, but it you know what the derailer look like though. The drailer was tiny. It was like I don't even remember what the drailer was, but it was, you know, it wasn't shifting a huge range. I think it was a 34 or 38-tooth range. And but you know, it's it's just uh he would never have he would have never have used one of these newer derailers, they just simply way too much. Okay, folks, Shimano XT, that used to be a high quality piece of gear. Okay. If you like look at these derailers now, they're like stamped. Like the machine, like the machining is all off. It's just like ugly. You could tell, even though they were made in Japan, these things are budget basement. Like it's just garbage.

SPEAKER_03 55:38

It's like one of those Barbie dolls where the eyes are just like a little bit off. Yeah, you know, they just like put that so it looks a little funny.

SPEAKER_01 55:44

Yeah, yeah. Precisely. So this is real trash. And a GRX derailer is basically just like a shooshed up XT. So also looking gnarly. The way they have the logos on there, just ugly, ugly, ugly. I mean, this is this ugly, this is objectively ugly, ugly objectively and subjective.

SPEAKER_03 56:04

Coyote ugly.

SPEAKER_01 56:05

These are ugly, this is ugly shit. Like no one could look at this and be like, oh, that is beautiful.

SPEAKER_03 56:10

And the thing that really gets you mad about it is because it keeps people away from bikes because we want aesthetics.

SPEAKER_01 56:17

Yeah, you want aesthetics and you you you don't want to like, you don't want to, you know, just be dreaming up your dream ride that's gonna bring you that's gonna bring you spiritual enlightenment that the bicycle doesn't.

SPEAKER_03 56:28

Take you through the hero's journey.

SPEAKER_01 56:29

Take you through the hero's journey. You don't want to be looking down at that GRX or XT Ridrailer. I mean XTR even looks terrible. On and on and on and on. I hate to say it, folks, but SRAM has the best looking shit now.

SPEAKER_03 56:42

Oh yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 56:43

And I thought I'd never say that. I mean, well, the new campy stuff is awesome. The the butt you know, people aren't really it's a very small part of the market share. It's gonna be coming back, but between Shimano and SRAM, gotta give it to SRAM. So maybe Shimano's gonna be tapping our phones now. You know, you just can't get a break. I'm using on on some bikes that are in the stand right now. I am using the Madrone rearrailers.

SPEAKER_03 57:08

Yeah. Are you wrapped up on your madness? Can we go into what's in the bike stand?

SPEAKER_01 57:14

What's in the bike stand? So onto what's in the bike stand, I've got Fred's uh Oh, you've done a really good job keeping calm throughout that. I saw a couple of times where your face went really red and the brows were furrowed, but well, it's nice to it's nice to harp on harp on these bigger companies because I mean I don't feel like do better. Yeah, exactly.

SPEAKER_03 57:35

Do better Shimano.

SPEAKER_01 57:36

Do better Shimano. And so, you know, we've got this. I've got a bike in the stand right now that is a one-by, another Garbruck. I wanted to use like all orange Garbrook stuff on there. Garbrook is a Polish company, folks, uh that make lightweight cool shit.

SPEAKER_03 57:52

Yep. And so I love that build that you did for the build is hot.

SPEAKER_01 57:56

I finished it after like five months of fucking around, uh, folks.

SPEAKER_03 58:00

Well, there was a lot of there was a lot of raund tinkering stuff. Yeah, a lot of rawn tinkering. Whenever I make a some oven cleaners to take to the seat posts.

SPEAKER_01 58:08

This is the second bike I've made for this customer. Uh the first one was the the ice blue max Alumax that I did a few years ago.

SPEAKER_02 58:16

And now you're going warm tone.

SPEAKER_01 58:18

So now I'm going warm tone. I don't know. That uh I like making bikes for this guy. He just really appreciates it and lets like all the customers, they just kind of let me do my thing.

SPEAKER_03 58:26

And it lives up the road.

SPEAKER_01 58:28

Yeah. So this one is a EVU, so my our two niner mountain bike, aluminum mountain bike, maybe by Frank the welder. And I had he sent me a photo of his of his surfboard and said, make me a bike like this. But so I used that, all oranges, mango, and I finally got it all together this week. The the thing that was holding me back was I needed PNW components, doesn't make their 27-2 silver dropper anymore. I know, I know. I'm not a dropper post guy.

SPEAKER_03 58:58

I love them.

SPEAKER_01 58:58

You love them. I learned to mountain bike with a saddle directly in my junk.

SPEAKER_03 59:04

And when it's not clear-ly in the recty.

SPEAKER_01 59:06

Yeah, directy in the recti. And without that direct connection to the bike, saddle and rectum, I lose track of where my bike is. So I I um and I've made myself very flexible at getting behind the bike saddle over 30 years of doing so. It is true. I don't need to I don't need to drop a post.

SPEAKER_03 59:27

Riding behind you and watching you navigate some of those descents on your Atlantis just this past weekend was Yeah, stuff I like to do. Yeah. And very elegant.

SPEAKER_01 59:39

Thank you.

SPEAKER_03 59:39

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 59:40

So I'd rather have a lot more lightweight, flexible seat post.

SPEAKER_03 59:44

But what about me and my elegance? Yeah, what do you think? Hello.

SPEAKER_01 59:47

Your elegance is off the charts. You off you you also body elegance. Yes, yeah. Folks, for not riding that much in the past two years or so, you have retained all of your handling characteristics. Like people don't ride like you.

SPEAKER_03 1:00:06

I love this. Go on.

SPEAKER_01 1:00:07

That you know, you have such a natural ability to look so not only so good on the bike, but handle your bike so well. And you're not scared, you're not like intimidated by drops or like or going down too fast. Or if you are, you don't like it. You are screaming, you are this is a new thing, the screaming.

SPEAKER_03 1:00:27

Well, it's because I'm scared, but um I know my body can do it, so I'm just screaming through it.

SPEAKER_01 1:00:33

You're excellent at descending in particular and climbing up things, keeping traction. You just have good body awareness. You're a natural athlete, you know it. Things things like this come easy too.

SPEAKER_03 1:00:43

At the climbing gym. So thank you.

SPEAKER_01 1:00:46

Yeah, things like that come easy. Sometimes it's hard to keep it going. Keep it going because you're like, I don't have to. I could just come off the couch and do a bike tour like this with my friends and outperform them going.

SPEAKER_03 1:00:57

I did definitely did not outperform anybody. I was DFL the whole time. But thank you for this compliment break.

SPEAKER_01 1:01:04

It's really nice. And you like dropper posts.

SPEAKER_03 1:01:07

I do. I do.

SPEAKER_01 1:01:08

Although we don't have a bike with a dropper post with you on it right now.

SPEAKER_03 1:01:11

I don't, but for the last Tour Divide attempt 2023, I keep bringing this up because it's in memory right now. I had that the the quick release. Oh, the height right. The height right.

SPEAKER_02 1:01:22

The old-fashioned quick release.

SPEAKER_03 1:01:24

It was awesome on one of those Fleecea Ridge, like down into Eureka descents, because I popped that thing down and noticed that I had some bests. Yeah. Yeah, On Strava. I had I had some bests. I was second in 2023 for Fleecea Ridge Down. Really? Right behind Lale. Yep.

SPEAKER_00 1:01:47

Really? Yeah. On Strava?

SPEAKER_03 1:01:49

On Strava.

SPEAKER_00 1:01:50

No kidding.

SPEAKER_03 1:01:51

Yeah, yeah. I screenshotted it because I was like so close to the qualm that I was I was like, I gotta get this.

SPEAKER_01 1:01:57

The Fleecea Ridge DH, you're second, you think right now?

SPEAKER_03 1:02:00

I don't know about right now, but I was in 2023.

SPEAKER_01 1:02:03

I'm gonna continue looking on I'm gonna continue talking about what's in the stand. Would you would you look up let me go confirm? Yeah, go confirm.

SPEAKER_03 1:02:10

Please talk about Fred's bike. Specifically talk about what you did with the saddle all. Yeah, so that was really cute.

SPEAKER_01 1:02:17

So yeah, the saddle, the whole saddle area. Yeah, first I had so I had to get a Fox Transfer SL post. It is the lightest dropper post you can get. It's also like I don't know, $450. And it came in 27-2, but I had I could I put it on there uh black, and I was like, everything on this bike is silver and orange. Nothing, I can't put a black seat post, even though it has the the gold Kashima coating on the on the top of it. So I I you know I followed Bradivis' instructions when John was stripping his seat posts. And uh you could look that up if you're curious on their website and followed the instructions, and John was only using like 15 minutes. Well, I had to use 90 minutes, 90 minutes of of oven cleaner on this seat post to get the black off. So that's what I did. Came out pretty well. So nice and silver. I polished it up a little bit with mothers afterwards, and then sitting on top of this seat post, I did I had to really scour the internet for a natural colored Brooks Cambium. I don't know why they don't have more colors offered with all this stuff, but I found a nice natural colored Brooks Cambium and got those little, you know, the rivets on the Brooks Cambium are easily taken off. I was really impressed by how easily I could access the rails and click off all those little uh rivets on top. And I replaced them with anodized orange rivets. So I'm gonna bring everything in. I'm working on an actual YouTube video on this build, so I should have that out next week or so, as soon as the customer comes up and I get to size them for their dropper. So that is a really beautiful bike. I think it came out really well. I'm very proud of it, so I can't wait for you to see it on the uh YouTube uh when the time comes. The other bike that I have in the stand was a personal bike this week, was as Arya calls it, the Duskline.

SPEAKER_03 1:04:13

Dusk Line.

SPEAKER_01 1:04:14

She's over there peeing.

SPEAKER_03 1:04:16

Dusk Line.

SPEAKER_01 1:04:17

She's back. Okay, yeah, the Dusk Klein. Probably remember my chubby road bike build. I love old aluminum. I mean, all Kleins are aluminum. I love aluminum, so obviously I love Kleins. This is a Klein pinnacle. It's got like a teal, they call that a teal green paint job. I put a uh a Bontragger switchblade fork on there with the the bolt-on fork legs. It's got it's got a ringlay wheel set, ringlay hubs laced to uh some 517 rims, and I've got you know a three by eight shifting, and it's got uh I took a Thompson seat post, and Thompson seat posts don't look great with Brooks saddles, in my opinion, but it isn't the seat post, folks. It's the logo, it's just the Thompson logo, it doesn't look right with a classic saddle. So modern font. Yeah, so I just colored it in and left elite.

unknown 1:05:12

What?

SPEAKER_01 1:05:12

Oh, Patrick is calling me. Not yet, Pat. Um, and so I uh I I colored it in and just left elite. So it usually says Thompson. I just left elite because that's what really matters, folks. Is it elite or is it not? And then up front to make it more rideable, it I had a really like a reverse rise stem on it with drop bars earlier in its inception, and then I moved up to albatross bars and it just didn't look right. I think I rode it once. It felt right, it just didn't look right. And then this time around, I put on a Tyoga T bone positive 25 degree rise stem, jacked those handlebars up there. A lot of people don't realize that when you're drop barring a 26, Inch mountain bike, like those handlebars have got to be up way higher than you think they gotta be because these bikes, especially for larger people, are very compact. Like this bike looks like a bike Friday, honestly. Cool. In my size, because it's it's a 26-inch mountain bike and we're on to 32s already. So it's uh I it's it's really fun to put in the canoe to paddle across to Chester because it's such a tiny bike, it just fits right in the canoe. It rides really, really great. I've got the our Ultra Dynamico Kava JFF 26 inch by 2.1 tires on there, so it's nice and speedy. I've got some purple pole candies on there. Yeah, it's just a cool bike. I flared the handlebars out even more, so it's even more of a dirt drop in the bench vise. So, yeah, I'll probably have some photos. I'm still kind of dialing in in. I got some some some vintage uh Chinelli rainbow cork tape that I'm gonna be wrapping on there. I'm kind of like thinking uh more in the lines of the Tomac Raleigh days where he was riding that uh riding that dirt drop mountain bike to victory all over the place. Blah, blah, blah. It's got a tomac feel to it. It's got a, you know, it's a it's a dirt drop mountain bike that rides like a modern day alt bike. It just feels right, feels really good. So more on that to come. Pictures and all on Ronsbikesblog.com once I get it all once I get it all ripped in. So right now I'm looking over and I'm looking at Ariustrava. So downhill from the past.

SPEAKER_03 1:07:32

Downhill from the past, the ride segment from Lake Kukanyusa, Canada. That is what I had the second in.

SPEAKER_02 1:07:40

Uh-huh.

SPEAKER_03 1:07:41

I had the eighth on Fleeceridge descent as my trophy.

SPEAKER_00 1:07:46

Currently.

SPEAKER_03 1:07:47

No, in 2023. I don't even have the second on this anymore because now it is Megan, obviously.

SPEAKER_01 1:07:56

Um everything's getting so much quicker.

SPEAKER_03 1:07:58

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:07:59

It's it's we just understand so much more about these.

SPEAKER_03 1:08:03

But it was this descent where I popped down that.

SPEAKER_01 1:08:06

What tires were you were on Mars?

SPEAKER_03 1:08:08

I was on Mars, I believe.

SPEAKER_01 1:08:11

650B, it's 27.5 by 2.2 ultra dynamical Mars both years. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 1:08:17

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:08:17

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 1:08:18

Really pretty bike. I had.

SPEAKER_01 1:08:21

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 1:08:22

So I had the eighth on the Fleecer Ridge descent that year, which was crazy. I wasn't really trying.

SPEAKER_01 1:08:32

But that's that's an Amdol for you, everyone. That is somebody who, I mean, these things come naturally. You're a natural athlete.

SPEAKER_03 1:08:40

I guess I'm Himalayan. Got Venice and jeans in me.

SPEAKER_01 1:08:45

So that's what's in the stand, folks. Shall we get on to some pro cycling gossip as as advertised?

SPEAKER_03 1:08:51

That's right. So tune out if you don't like racing as a part of the alt scene because we do. Right now, especially. So the Tour de Suisse just ended for the men's and women's. It was a five-day stage race of the men's. Tade Pagaccia just kind of swept the floor. He looked a little bored, honestly, just took all of it. One three out of the five stages.

SPEAKER_01 1:09:16

Yeah, yeah, yeah. And I think uh Nervaya's won one of the other ones called UAE sweet. Yeah, pretty much. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 1:09:23

Pretty much. On the women's side, Marlon Roser, a Swiss writer herself with the number one pinned to her back this year, won again. Sedrine Carball from EF was second. And our Akasha Nuidoma Finney, Homegirl was third, but they were like within tenths of a second to each other.

SPEAKER_02 1:09:46

Really?

SPEAKER_03 1:09:46

And the more the speaking of tenths of seconds, it was exciting to see Tade's time trial.

SPEAKER_01 1:09:54

Time trial during the Tory Suisse. Matthew Vanderpol. We had Vanderpol on the Vanderpool, not necessarily known for his time trials, but he put in an he put in an exceptionally good time trial early on because he's as time trials go, they put the wherever you stand in the GC, that's how they they put you last if you're up high in the GC. So Van So Vanderpol, not very high in the GC, being not a GC contender, did his time trial early on. And so was in the hot seat, literal hot seat, because it was like 90 plus degrees on this particular day in Europe, in Switzerland. So as the glaciers melt, Vanderpol is sitting there in the hot seat with his skin suit pulled down to expose his upper body. And I remember walking into the room, you were watching it, and I and I would be like, rewind it, rewind it. She's like, No, they're showing plenty of Matthew Vanderpol's bod shirtless bod. And lo and behold, I got I got to peep at it a few other times. As expected, six-pack abs.

SPEAKER_03 1:10:52

Yeah, he's an athlete.

SPEAKER_01 1:10:54

Pretty skinny otherwise, but you know, he looked he looked good.

SPEAKER_03 1:10:57

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:10:58

But he may have looked good in our eyes, but in the eyes of the UCI.

SPEAKER_02 1:11:03

Ugh.

SPEAKER_01 1:11:03

Because okay, well he had to sit there for a few years. The UCIs did not like it. The UCIs did not like it. Tade and did end up winning, but by uh like three-tenths of a second.

SPEAKER_02 1:11:13

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:11:14

Crazy. And so Vanderpool at the end, shirtless and all, is like, oh, of course, of course, I'll get down. And then to add insult to injury, the UCI fines Vanderpol, I don't know how much, but for being shirtless on TV, essentially. So yeah, you know, it's tradition is great on one hand, but it's not great on many hands at this point right now. Can we be holding on to tradition in the modern world? Everything is changing. Just we just need these elements.

SPEAKER_03 1:11:46

We need craft and pleasure.

SPEAKER_01 1:11:47

We need these elderlies to just we don't need go away and let us run our sports. Please. These are young people.

SPEAKER_03 1:11:56

And people who want to be shirtless when it's hot as fuck outside.

SPEAKER_01 1:12:00

Or shirtless whenever.

SPEAKER_03 1:12:02

Fine.

SPEAKER_01 1:12:02

I mean, come on. This is these are things that are good for the sport.

SPEAKER_03 1:12:06

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:12:07

You know? And you're gonna find Vanderpol for showing off his hot bot on national television. You know, people were just tuning in because once word got around that Vanderpol had his shirt off, we all want to see that.

SPEAKER_03 1:12:20

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:12:21

You know?

SPEAKER_03 1:12:21

And second episode of Love Island. I gotta stop watching that shit.

SPEAKER_01 1:12:31

So, you know, as it goes.

SPEAKER_03 1:12:34

So there's that. Um, it does look like the Tour Divide Records gonna be beat by another French Frenchman.

SPEAKER_01 1:12:45

24-year-old Frenchman.

SPEAKER_03 1:12:46

He's 24. Wow, he does look he does look really bad. Uh Rides for Factor.

SPEAKER_02 1:12:51

What's his name?

SPEAKER_03 1:12:52

His name is Victor Bossoni. He is going to be beating Robin Van Parl Robin Gunparl's record because at 11 days, he is only he's like less than 100 miles.

SPEAKER_01 1:13:08

Yeah, live right now. We're 11 days into the tour divide.

SPEAKER_03 1:13:12

It's so wild.

SPEAKER_01 1:13:13

And we're looking at this dot, and I guess probably finishing today.

SPEAKER_03 1:13:18

Yeah, he's he's actually gonna finish in just a few hours.

SPEAKER_01 1:13:24

I was tuning into bikepacking.com to get some more information on the race report. I don't know if I'm just looking in the wrong places. I guess you really have to follow along with these people. These people these people's individual Instagrams.

SPEAKER_03 1:13:36

Or you follow us for um updated news on this because I mean just in 11 days finishing is pretty pretty wild.

SPEAKER_01 1:13:46

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 1:13:47

The French are coming and they are taking on the city.

SPEAKER_01 1:13:51

They are the French cyclists, you know. You have Paul Meignier and and and Paul Sexas. We've got in the upcoming tour, we've got some real contention. And then and the tour divide, you know, they're coming at us too.

SPEAKER_03 1:14:03

They're coming for their records, and uh, we can do nothing but look and uh you try to ride faster and keep going. It is quite the challenge. It's hard to say.

SPEAKER_01 1:14:15

That was good.

SPEAKER_03 1:14:16

It's hard to say that the women will also beat these. Uh okay, now I've gone to another person. Um it also looks like Megan will likely beat Austin Killips' record as well because she is further up at the moment.

SPEAKER_01 1:14:34

There are two records about to be broken on the tour divide this year. They must have had pretty good weather. This last week. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. And yeah, packed roads, just really good conditions.

SPEAKER_03 1:14:44

Amazing.

SPEAKER_01 1:14:45

So also in pro cycling gossip, we've got the two. So moving going forward to the Tour de France, we're having we had some well, between now and the Tour de France, well, I guess this past weekend we had the U.S. national road races. So to see who would be the U.S. national champions going into the Tour de France. And once again, we've got Ted Nugent. Ted Nugent, aka coincidence. For his his third national title in a row. Granted. You know, Brendan McNulty was in the Tour de Suisse. Was in the Tour de Suisse. And Br has Brendan McNulty been the the US champ before?

SPEAKER_03 1:15:27

I think so. Yeah. I've seen the club.

SPEAKER_01 1:15:29

So for a third time, it's cool. I I mean, personally, it is Quinn Simmons does have like a really American look, like a wrestler. He's doing like the pro wrestling thing pretty well, which is uniquely American.

SPEAKER_03 1:15:43

Hulk Hollywood Hogan.

SPEAKER_01 1:15:44

Hulk, yeah, precisely. He's got the Hulk mustache, he's got the long hair, the sideburns, he wears the Pirelli trucker hat because he's sponsored by Pirelli tires, you know, on the podium. And yeah, he's there again. He's gonna be in that Stars and Stripes Captain America outfit in the Tour de France, no doubt, attacking at the front and then being caught right before the line.

SPEAKER_02 1:16:04

Yep.

SPEAKER_01 1:16:05

But for an American cyclist, like I feel like if you're gonna be a character, like it's a pretty good look.

SPEAKER_03 1:16:12

Yep.

SPEAKER_01 1:16:13

Regardless of the politics, it's a pretty good look. And then for the women's, who's the who won the the I forgot her name.

SPEAKER_03 1:16:24

It's in here. My bad, y'all. I guess I'm also out of like the the news for the US racing.

SPEAKER_01 1:16:38

We could say an American has won the American national champions.

SPEAKER_03 1:16:42

It's Kate Courtney.

SPEAKER_01 1:16:43

Kate Courtney, of course. That's a that's a K Courtney is a big name. So some familiar faces in the stars and bars once again. We've got That's it. No, you wanted to talk about it.

SPEAKER_03 1:16:56

I wanted to talk about Priam Less Road Glitch's character arc because he went from like juicy darling to kind of a villain when he had his like his goatee. Villain goatee. And now like maybe he did like an ayahuasca journey or something. He's like super chill and like funny and make jokes.

SPEAKER_01 1:17:17

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 1:17:18

So just love seeing just love seeing those characters.

SPEAKER_01 1:17:22

He's of little consequence. No one really is like scared of him winning.

SPEAKER_03 1:17:27

I think he likes that.

SPEAKER_01 1:17:28

I think he has got a lot doesn't have a lot of pressure on him anymore.

SPEAKER_03 1:17:32

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:17:33

Um he's on he's living out his final seasons on Boro.

SPEAKER_03 1:17:36

Exactly, exactly. We were we caught the end of Peter Sagin's career in road racing when he was like, Yeah, so you guys don't like bother me all the time anymore. I had fun race.

SPEAKER_00 1:17:50

Yeah, that was really good.

SPEAKER_03 1:17:52

Oh yeah, you don't bother me.

SPEAKER_01 1:17:54

It's great that we don't have to we and we don't have to pay for these quotes because you could just recreate that. Yeah, I can't. Yeah, that's really great. So um, yeah, so salons again.

SPEAKER_03 1:18:05

Salon to the Tour de Suisse Women's and looking forward to the women's racing ahead.

SPEAKER_01 1:18:12

So when so the so the Tour de France went Femmes, is that I'm sorry, Tour de France Femmes Avig's Wift. Does that come after the men's tour?

SPEAKER_03 1:18:21

That's a really good question.

SPEAKER_01 1:18:24

Because the Tour de France starts, the Grand Depart is in Barcelona. Sorry, Barcelona.

SPEAKER_03 1:18:29

It starts August 1st.

SPEAKER_01 1:18:30

No, no, oh, for the women's. Because the men's starts July 4th. Okay, so it's the next month.

SPEAKER_03 1:18:35

Yeah. Which is good because I do think that they need a separate thing. Um it's a completely different product, so it needs a separate thing.

SPEAKER_01 1:18:44

Yeah. I I mean it's gonna be hot no matter what, I can imagine. Um yeah. Well, we are at an hour and 21 minutes.

SPEAKER_03 1:18:54

We're brutal.

SPEAKER_01 1:18:54

Do we got anything else to talk about before we say goodbye to these kind folks?

SPEAKER_03 1:18:58

We are saying goodbye to that.

SPEAKER_01 1:18:59

And we forgot to give our shout-outs to new supporters.

SPEAKER_03 1:19:02

Oh my gosh, we do have some new supporters. Did we shout out Ben O'Brien? Because Ben is a gem.

SPEAKER_01 1:19:09

Man, I'm sorry, Ben, you're getting a shout-out after ProCycling News. If anyone's still listening here.

SPEAKER_03 1:19:16

Thank you, Ben O'Brien, you the best, and you know it.

SPEAKER_02 1:19:20

Uh-huh.

SPEAKER_03 1:19:21

There is Nihar, Bot. There is Sarah, Ann, and Kevin Candelaria.

SPEAKER_01 1:19:30

Was Sean Clark in there?

SPEAKER_03 1:19:32

Thank you so much. I think I did Sean Clark.

SPEAKER_01 1:19:34

You did Sean Clark last week. Yeah, after the John, the other John Watson. So yeah.

SPEAKER_03 1:19:39

Nihar, Ben, Sarah, and Kevin.

SPEAKER_01 1:19:41

So wow. Are you we have $90 monthly recurring revenue before the 15% is taken out.

SPEAKER_03 1:19:49

$90.

SPEAKER_01 1:19:50

So, folks, we're gonna go ahead and eat that extra ice cream this Friday.

SPEAKER_03 1:19:53

We're gonna do it. We're gonna do it.

SPEAKER_01 1:19:56

Uh well, sweetie, it's awfully nice to have you back here in the studio.

SPEAKER_03 1:20:01

It's good to be back.

SPEAKER_01 1:20:03

Missed you while you were gone. I miss you every day when you're not right here in front of me to hug and hold and kiss.

SPEAKER_03 1:20:10

He's as obsessed with me as Shimano is with tapping our phone lines.

SPEAKER_01 1:20:14

Oh my god, we should check in on that. So hopefully, yeah, hopefully, Shimano and Sram don't make this podcast unavailable to you.

SPEAKER_03 1:20:23

Or take bats to our kneecaps. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:20:26

You know, folks, it's only $90 a month. We need those kneecaps. It's $90 a month. We're not going to be able to afford the security service though. So, folks. Thanks for tuning in. Thanks for tuning in to WKY Jelly on your AMFM dial. I'm Ronnie Romance.

SPEAKER_03 1:20:44

I'm Arya Home.

SPEAKER_01 1:20:45

And I hope you all have a fantastic first week of summer. Bye.