Bikes & Big Ideas

Maxxis’ new High Roller doesn’t look much like High Rollers of old, and Maxxis is talking a very big game about how widely their DH racers are using it. So we sat down with the Manager of their Bike division, Aaron Chamberlain, to talk about the impetus to update the High Roller; hear the story behind its development; peel back the curtain on how Maxxis manages their product line; and a whole bunch more.RELATED LINKS:BLISTER+ MembershipThis Week’s Gear GiveawayTOPICS & TIMES:The concept for the new High Roller (3:12)Maxxis’ tire development and testing process (10:04)Adding new tires & balancing options vs. simplicity in the lineup (14:45)The High Roller name (27:58)Upcoming High Roller variants (31:26)OUR OTHER PODCASTSBlister CinematicCRAFTEDGEAR:30Blister PodcastOff The Couch

Mike Ferrentino is back behind the microphone in this episode of Reviewing the News, and Mike and Simon get right into what happened in the bike industry in August. They recap the exciting UCI MTB World Championships in Andorra; Mike gives his take on the interesting Specialized and Frameworks partnership; and they both agree that cross-country mountain bike courses should be longer. Simon puts Mike on the spot about his racing history, and they wonder if the bike retail landscape is ever going to return to ‘normal’, and lots more.RELATED LINKS:BLISTER+ MembershipBLISTER+ Real World TestimonialsBlister LabsThis Week’s Gear GiveawayBlister Mountain Bike Buyer’s GuideTOPICS & TIMES:The Breck Epic (1:49)Howard Grotts’ Crash (4:02)MTB World Championships (10:58) Mike’s Microphone Looking Safe 24:58)Spot Bikes vs Gates Lawsuit (25:57)Scott’s Two CEOs (30:35)Specialized/Frameworks Partnership (34:18)Lifetime Events and Races Doing Well (41:10)Mike’s Racing History & the Leadville 100 (43:21)Amazon Accountability (57:33)

More and more women are riding mountain bikes, so why are there so few women-specific bike brands out there? It’s not just about making bikes for everyone — though that’s important, too.  Kara Williard and David Golay sat down with Ludi Scholz, the Off-Road Category Manager at Liv, to hear all about it.RELATED LINKS:BLISTER+ MembershipThis Week’s Gear GiveawayTOPICS & TIMESLudi’s Background & Role at Liv (2:53)Women-Specific Bikes (7:14)Why This Matters (11:31)Frame Design / R&D (15:14)Suspension Tuning (21:09)Liv’s Lineup (25:40)Pique & Intrigue X (29:12)What’s Next for Liv (32:02)The Industry at Large (32:43) OUR OTHER PODCASTS:Blister CinematicCRAFTEDGEAR:30Blister PodcastOff The Couch

Gearboxes have some clear advantages for more gravity-oriented mountain bikes — less unsprung weight, the ability to shift while not pedaling, no derailleur to damage, and more — but have yet to reach widespread adoption. Zerode is perhaps the company best known for making gearbox mountain bikes, and we sat down with founder Rob Metz and Ali Quinn of Zerode to hear the story of Rob founding the company, and the homemade gearbox that kicked it all off; why they’re fans of gearboxes; their new World Cup DH race team; and a whole lot more.RELATED LINKS:BLISTER+ MembershipThis Week’s Gear GiveawayTOPICS & TIMES:Zerode’s backstory & history (3:46)Why gearboxes? (6:29)Early production bikes (12:58)Ali’s introduction to the company (17:01)Pinion vs. Effigear (25:01)Standard Pinion vs. Smart Shift? (28:50)Selling gearboxes to the public (35:33)The G3 & the DH team (43:01)Future direction and new products? (45:58)OUR OTHER PODCASTS:Blister CinematicCRAFTEDGEAR:30Blister PodcastOff The Couch

Vermont Mountain Bike Association is one of the leading organizations in the country in the assessment, funding, and building of adaptive trails —  and in collaboration with Vermont Adaptive Ski and Sports, they are creating an inspiring network of adaptive accessible trails. We sat down with Kenzie Brunner from VMBA, and Jeff Alexander from Vermont Adaptive Ski and Sports to get the story on what they’ve been up to. RELATED LINKS:BLISTER+ MembershipThis Week’s Gear GiveawayTOPICS & TIMES:What is VMBA? (2:23)How VMBA is Structured (4:53)Vermont Adaptive Ski And Sports Overview (10:00)Adaptive Trail Access In Vermont (12:30)The Kelly Brush Foundation (15:11)ADA Compliant vs Adaptive Accessible (17:36) Adaptive Trail Assessment (20:33)Adaptive eMTB-friendly trails (30:06)Biggest Challenges (35:28)What Does the Future of Adaptive Trails Look Like? (40:47)Adaptive Tourism (42:48)Non Adaptive and Adaptive Riders Riding Together (45:29)How to Plan an Adaptive MTB trip to Vermont (48:18)OUR OTHER PODCASTSBlister CinematicCRAFTEDGEAR:30Blister PodcastOff The Couch

In this month's episode of Reviewing the News on our Bikes & Big Ideas Podcast, Simon welcomes freeride legend Wade Simmons as his guest co-host. Wade gives a recap of Crankworx Whistler and claims he can’t do tricks, then Wade and Simon try to sort out why they keep crashing, and the unfortunate reality of not being as fast as they once were. They get into the wild Les Gets World Cup and XC Mountain Bike racing at the Olympics, Wade’s spat with Rémy Métailler and Yoann Barelli over who rode the gnarliest lines first, and Wade gives an education on chain lube, plus a whole lot more.RELATED LINKS:BLISTER+ MembershipBLISTER+ Real World TestimonialsBlister LabsThis Week’s Gear GiveawayBlister Mountain Bike Buyer’s GuideTOPICS & TIMES:Crankworx Whistler recap (2:10)Women competing in slopestyle (3:40)Big-ring wheelies (7:31)Getting old and crashing (9:44)Machine built trails (16:35)Checks and balances (19:33)Wade’s spat with Rémy Méttailer and Yoann Barelli (29:09)Shimano’s huge trail building donation (35:32)Les Gets World Cup DH (44:30)Amuary Pierron’s winning run (46:19)Olympic mountain bike races (50:29)Singletrack-eating bikes (57:47)OUR OTHER PODCASTSBlister CinematicCRAFTEDGEAR:30Blister PodcastOff The Couch

Hannah Otto’s obliteration of the Whole Enchilada FKT a couple of years ago was already hugely impressive, but she went much bigger — double the elevation and well over double the mileage — in her follow-up pursuit of the Kokopelli Trail FKT. She came painfully close to pulling it off on her first attempt, despite horrific weather and trail conditions, before finally getting redemption with her second attempt this spring. So we sat down with Hannah to chat about what inspired her to choose the Kokopelli Trail for her next FKT attempt; hear the story of her brutal first go-round; discuss going back for her ultimately-successful second attempt this spring; and much more.RELATED LINKS:BLISTER+ MembershipThis Week’s Gear GiveawayTOPICS & TIMES:Chasing the Kokopelli FKTWhy Kokopelli?Hannah’s prep for her first attemptThe cold, snowy first attemptRegrouping & the second attemptGear selectionManaging fearTraining for long-distance FKTs vs. racingOUR OTHER PODCASTSBlister CinematicCRAFTEDGEAR:30Blister PodcastOff The Couch

The first production batch of the Frameworks DH bike is sold out, but they’ll soon be opening preorders for the Enduro version. So we brought Neko Mulally back onto the show to tell us all about the new bike; the variants of the DH bike he’s been testing; the expanded Frameworks race team with Angel Suarez and Asa Vermette; and a bunch more.RELATED LINKS:BLISTER+ MembershipThis Week’s Gear GiveawayTOPICS & TIMES:Recapping the 2024 race season to date (2:16)The expanded Frameworks team (6:20)Tuning the DH bike for different racers (11:56)Frame materials & testing other variants (20:14)The Enduro bike (34:13)Balancing racing with team management / mentorship & Neko’s evolving role (57:29)OUR OTHER PODCASTSBlister CinematicCRAFTEDGEAR:30Blister PodcastOff The Couch