Bikes & Big Ideas

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

Geometron arguably did more than any other bike brand to kick off the geometry revolution of the late 2010s, but they weren’t content to leave their longstanding G1 alone — even though its geometry still looks pretty up to date five years after it first launched. So we sat down with Sam Robson and Marcel Lauxtermann from Geometron to talk about the development of the new G1, their goals for the updated bike, the testing that informed the updates they made, and a whole lot more.RELATED LINKS:Geometron G1BLISTER+ MembershipThis Week’s Gear GiveawayTOPICS & TIMES:Introducing Sam and Marcel (3:29)Updating the G1 (6:32)Refining geometry (9:04)“Loading patterns” and bike setup for customers (13:57)The new G1 (18:11)David’s bike setup preferences (25:52)Headtube angles and front wheel loading (30:47)Stem lengths and steering feel (37:29)Bottom bracket drop and geometry adjustability (41:31)Other updates (43:25)Suspension kinematics (47:39)Sam & Marcel’s personal bike setups (51:42)OUR OTHER PODCASTSBlister CinematicCRAFTEDGEAR:30Blister PodcastOff The Couch

We’ve been testing a big spectrum of bikes from the XC-race-derived Specialized Epic Evo to big Enduro sleds including the RAAW Madonna V3 and Marin Alpine Trail, so David Golay and Zack Henderson sat down to chat about a whole bunch of them, and along the way we take a deep dive into tire design & a variety of options we’ve been testing; discuss the wide variety of mid-travel high-pivot bikes on the market, and a bunch more.RELATED LINKS:BLISTER+ MembershipThis Week’s Gear GiveawayTOPICS & TIMES:Deviate Highlander II (2:00)RAAW Madonna (11:14)Specialized Epic Evo (21:38)Marin Alpine Trail (27:44)Schwalbe Tacky Chan (37:48Michelin Wild Enduro and DH (45:19)OUR OTHER PODCASTSBlister CinematicCRAFTEDGEAR:30Blister PodcastOff The Couch

Bryan Hance is a bike enthusiast and web developer who combined those two interests in co-founding Bike Index, a database that tracks ownership to help recover bikes that end up stolen. Through that work, Bryan uncovered a sprawling bike theft and trafficking operation, which he traced back to one man, operating out of Jalisco, Mexico — and the story only gets crazier from there. So we sat down with Bryan and Chris Solomon, who wrote a piece for Wired on Bryan’s work, to hear all about it. RELATED LINKS:Bag BalmBLISTER+ MembershipThis Week’s Gear GiveawayTOPICS & TIMES:Bike Index & Bryan’s interest in bike theft (2:14)Constru-Bikes’s operation (7:46)What did this network look like? (13:41)How Bryan uncovered Constru’s trafficking (22:20)Arrests in the US (29:11)How to shut this down? (34:56)OUR OTHER PODCASTSBlister CinematicCRAFTEDGEAR:30Blister PodcastOff The Couch

Bike companies file a lot of wild patents, spanning from “nearly released product” to “outrageous pie-in-the-sky idea.” Dan Bacon of Wheelbased chronicles many of the more interesting ones, and we brought him back on the show to talk about some recent highlights, from Bilstein’s proposed fork damper to Shimano’s multiple electronic brake concepts, a carbon fiber cooler from Yeti (the BIKE company), and a whole bunch more.RELATED LINKS:Bag BalmBLISTER+ MembershipThis Week’s Gear GiveawayTOPICS & TIMES:Bilstein’s wild fork damper (2:28)SRAM’s gravel linkage fork (7:48)Fox’s new Live Valve (17:04)Shimano’s piezoelectric shifters (25:10)Shimano’s electronic brake (31:11)Yeti (the bike company) making a cooler?? (38:45)Dan’s Big Idea (43:48)OUR OTHER PODCASTSBlister CinematicCRAFTEDGEAR:30Blister PodcastOff The Couch