The Rodeo Labs Podcast

Cullen Perkey is a U23 mountain biker and a new member of the Rodeo Labs Family after he got his Trail Donkey 4.0 this past summer. Cullen's baby blue Trail Donkey is what he describes as "the most aerodynamic mountain bike ever," and trail mode is his standard operating procedure: big tires, short cranks, and lots of steez. In this conversation, Cullen and I dove into his roots as a rider and a racer, what brought him to get a Rodeo, and what he has done thus far as a mountain biker with a new drop bar habit. Host: Logan Jones-Wilkins Guest: Cullen Perkey Producer: Logan Jones-Wilkins

This week, we are back in the Lab to consider the new SRAM RED XPLR AXS (so many capital letters!) and its use of the UDH (moar capital letters! moar!). While we jest at the branding, the tech is serious business. The new 1x13 groupset leans into the SRAM Transmission style rear derailleur and brings it to drop bar bikes, with the UDH hanger instead of the previous convention of specific hangers for specific frames.We delve into some of the specifics, but the majority of the conversation is about how these big standard shifts in the bike industry affect small-frame brands. Along the way, we also find a few tangents to discuss some of the nuances of groupsets in this day and age of cycling. In this conversation, Stephen and Logan talk shop at first, before the Intern passes the baton to Drew Van Kampen and Cameron Lindberg to get into the weeds. Then, it's back to Stephen and Logan to bring it all around. Host: Logan Jones-WilkinsGuests: Stephen Fitzgerald, Drew van Kampen, and Cameron "Coco" Lindberg Producer: Logan Jones-Wilkins

This is the first installment of a podcast series that we are calling the Rodeo Rider Files where we will sit down with extended members of the Rodeo Labs community. First up is Conor Dancy. Conor lives in Northern Virginia, amongst the historic gravel roads of Loudoun County, and is a pilot in his free time. He is a real matter-of-fact presence and someone who loves cycling, the little things, and Big Dumb Rides—all things we can get behind. Host: Logan Jones-WilkinsGuest: Conor DancyProducer: Logan Jones-Wilkins

Cody Cirillo and Matthew Tufts approached us early this year with an inspiring pitch: They wanted to spend a couple of human-powered months riding the outer perimeter of Iceland on Rodeo Labs bikes, all the while carrying their skis, and peeling off to notch seemingly innumerable ski descents along the way. We get plenty of project pitches at Rodeo, but this one stood out because it combined a world that we know a lot about with a world that we know very little about, all in a land that we very much want to explore ourselves someday.Sit back as our hosts Logan Jones-Wilkins and Steve The Intern discuss the adventure all the way from it's "why", to the preparations, the endless headwinds, the long days on the bike, the line between skier and cyclist, the impacts of adventure travel, and more.Stay tuned for the cinematic release of this story in fall / winter 2025, and in select ski publications.

We are back with another round table conversation, this time focusing on the 2024 Tour Divide and, in particular, the two Rodeo Lab-affiliated riders who took on the challenge this June. Both Cade and Edyn had a massively successful outing with Cade arriving in Antelope Wells as the fourth finisher and Edyn finishing a few days later as the youngest-ever finisher of the Tour at just 15 years old. Nevertheless, on the Continental Divide success is still filled with many ups and downs that come with some of the highest, wildest terrain in the United States. Stephen and Logan dug into it all with the pair of intrepid athletes, recounting the run-ins with lightning, mud, wind, and technical choices that went into the effort.

Carbs Fuel has come on the scene this year as a simple, cost-effective gel that delivers 50 grams of carbohydrates in a neat $2.00 package. Stephen and Logan have both felt a shift in their fueling ability and understanding of on the bike nutrition after adding these gels to their pockets for training and racing, so it seemed like an easy choice to have the creators of this new endurance elixir on the podcast. To learn more about the company we invited Gabe Multer, the founder and CEO of Carbs Fuel, and Laini Ritsch, the CFO of the brand, into the Lab's podcast studio for a wide-ranging conversation on starting the company and why Carbs Fuel gels are the way they are. From the jump, we also would like to stress from the get go that neither Stephen, Logan, or this episode is sponsored by Carbs Fuel. We buy our gels at full price and we wanted to look at the company since there are aspects of the company that are unique in ways that fit what we are doing at the Lab. Hosts: Logan Jones-Wilkins and Stephen Fitzgerald Guests: Gabe Multer and Laini RitschProducer: Logan Jones-Wilkins

On this second of three episodes about out Traka Adventure, we switch up formats a bit and bring you along on an audio adventure. Mixing audio that we recorded on the trip with recollections from back home, we hope to create a bit more of an immersive experience, something more like it was to be there yourself. One thing is for sure: Nothing about this trip happened as we imagined, and every step of the way we had to adapt and improvise to keep the adventure alive.

The Traka is the biggest gravel race in Europe and it offers a wide range of distances including 200km, 360km and 560km. The Rodeo Labs gang were set on the big one: 560km, or 348 miles, of Spanish gravel.Nevertheless, the rain had other ideas, with torrential downpours causing the race organizers to cancel the 560km distance. The Rodeo crew were gutted, but are still determined to make the most of the trip and have set-off for their own version of the race, because that's Rodeo! That is what we do.Here is our conversation from before the race when rain was still only a rumor. Come back later for a report from Spain, but for now let's delve into the Traka and the ins and outs of this type of bike race.Host and producer: Logan Jones-WilkinsGuests: Stephen Fitzgerald, Cade Reichenberger, Nick Gilroy and Luke Hall