Latest / Full Spectrum Cycling / Weekly Dose of Fat – 5-24-14 – with Adam Blake – Show #5

Transcript

Weekly Dose of Fat – 5-24-14 – with Adam Blake – Show #5 · Full Spectrum Cycling

• 0:00
  This is your Weekly Dose of Fat for Saturday, May 24th, 2014. Show number cinco.
• 0:08
  [upbeat music] Fatbike.com, the world's number one resource for information on fat bike products, event and race coverage, interviews, and living the fat bike lifestyle presents Fat Bike Radio with your hosts, Sven and Gomez.
• 0:35
  [upbeat music] This is Sven coming at you from the fatbike.com radio studio. And this is your cross-dominant Uncle Gomez, and this is the Weekly Dose of Fat Radio Show. This week's show is sponsored by Surly.
• 0:50
  There's a bit of anti-disestablishmentarianism in every spoonful of Surly bikes. That is a long word. Check them out at surlybikes.com. You can find all of our shows at fatbike.com/radio.
• 1:07
  Radio. And look for us on the Facebook and Twitter. We've packed a lot of fun into our show today. Sven's got some site enhancements to talk about.
• 1:19
  We'll have Adam Blake, AKA Fatty Lumpkin from Boo Bikes as a special telephone guest. Sven and I have vacation plans that includes fat biking.
• 1:28
  We've got a couple of new rigs in the test kitchen, including the Surly Ice Cream Truck we introduced last week, and Borealis' new Echo with boingy Bluto action. Boingy. Boingy. And of course, beer. And of course, beer.
• 1:42
  Let's get started with that. Good idea. You may remember last week when we had Milwaukee's own Colin Ford on the show, we introduced a new segment where we talked a bit about beer, so let's continue the tradition.
• 1:54
  What kind of beer did you bring today, vato? Today we're drinking Lakefront Brewery's Riverwest Stein. I had one of those at Doc Hopper's last night. What made you choose that flavor? Well, a couple of reasons.
• 2:07
  Uh, it is a Milwaukee brewery, and we do like our Milwaukee beers. It also got its start right down the street from our studio, just a couple blocks away, in a neighborhood called Riverwest, hence the name Riverwest.
• 2:20
  There's a lot of Riverwest pride going on right now. Riverwest pride. Stein has always been my go-to beer, especially when I get to a pub with overwhelming beer choices.
• 2:28
  You see the 50 tappers, I never know what to, to choose, so I'll often just go right in for a Stein while I peruse the list for choice number two.
• 2:37
  And since we had Colin on the show last week, and he works at Lakefront making said beer, seemed like a good tie-in. That's good advice for you kids out there.
• 2:45
  You know, pick a beer, and then order it, and then go to the list, you know? I like it. So let's, uh, let's give these babies a taste. All righty. Fresh out of the cooler.
• 2:57
  I got my, uh, Paul Components 25 Year of Nice Parts bottle opener here. I'm using a Borealis Fat Bikes, uh, little flashlight, uh, chachki here to open my beer. Yep. Oh. They both work just fine. All right. Cheers, bro.
• 3:12
  Cheers. [glasses clink] Ah. Yep, good stuff. Mm, that's, that's sweet, brownish beer. You know, I'm not really a beer connoisseur, but I can tell you that Riverwest Stein is a German-style lager.
• 3:25
  It's got a bit of sweetness. It's got some maltiness to it. Uh, it's about 5.6% alcohol by volume. And like I mentioned before, it's basically just one of my favorites. It's my go-to beer.
• 3:35
  Yeah, that bull's-eyes my, my flavor pleasure center there, about 25 IBUs. Nice, sweet, brown beer. Brown beer. So let's get this party started. What's new with the site, my man?
• 3:49
  For starters, this here Weekly Dose of Fat Show is now on iTunes. You can simply open up the iTunes store and search for Fat Bike. We pop in at number one already.
• 3:59
  We'd love it if you'd subscribe to get all the newest episodes of our show delivered right into your computing device. There'll be a link directly to that iTunes store in the show notes. Right on.
• 4:11
  And if you've, uh, visited the site recently, we'd, we'd, we would appreciate that. Uh, we do appreciate you coming to the site.
• 4:18
  Uh, you'll notice that we have a send voicemail tab on there, and, uh, all you have to do is click on that. Maybe next week you and your comments, hopefully you're well-lubricated.
• 4:31
  We, we'd like you to have a few drinks and then leave us a message, and then maybe we'll put it on the show next week. Maybe. Hey, remember that contest we announced a couple of weeks ago?
• 4:41
  With this new functionality on the site, I think this would be an easier way to get entries than to try to get people to record on their own devices.
• 4:48
  Yeah, now that we've made it easy for you to record message, let's resurrect this Fat Bike Radio promo contest.
• 4:55
  All you have to do is utilize that new voicemail feature and record a Fat Bike Radio promo, and it could go something just like this.
• 5:05
  Hey, this is Adam Blake, AKA Fatty Lumpkin from Boo Bicycles, and I listen to Gomez and Sven on Fat Bike Radio. We'll pick a winner from all of the entries, and that winner's promo will get aired on next week's show.
• 5:18
  Cool. So let's do it again. What do we have for prizes?
• 5:22
  Well, the winner gets two of our new black ops patches, a custom-made cycling cap with the fatbike.com logo embroidered on their temple, and this cool, uh, Wolf Tooth Components bottle opener, brake rotor tuning doodad.
• 5:38
  Very good. One entry per person, folks. The most creative entry has the best chance to win. Our special guest today is Adam Blake from, uh, Boo Bicycles. Welcome to the show, Adam. Hey, guys. Hey, Adam. Good to have you.
• 5:54
  That's Sven. It's good to be here. [laughs] This is Sven.
• 5:57
  So dude, we've been talking about your new bike, and, uh, we thought we'd get you on the show so we could, uh, share with everyone else what, uh, bike executives are driving today.
• 6:09
  What frame are you gonna start out with? All right, uh, I am gonna currently build one of our new, uh, Alubuya frames. Uh, it's a blend of aluminum and bamboo.
• 6:21
  In fact, part of a, uh, the first aluminum bamboo line of bikes that, uh, as far as I know, has ever been out. Cool. Yeah, we tested one of those and, uh- Sweet bike... you mentioned maybe a little custom paint job?
• 6:34
  Yeah, a little, little flair. Uh, we've got a, a local hot rod painter out at, uh, Nostalgia is the name of the place. Does some really hot, uh, paint fleck, glittery stuff.
• 6:47
  He does really good pin stripping as well, and, uh, he and I have kind of been in the works, uh, to unleash something onto the world that, uh, is gonna really set this bike apart. We saw a custom painted bike at Inter...
• 7:00
  Oh, no, Interbike? Hand Built. Hand Built Bike Show, that's where it was. Uh- Yep... I think that was, I think that's the guy, right? That was some fantastic paint he did, some really cool stuff.
• 7:09
  Yeah, he did our, our previous tiger paint job. He also did one, uh, for himself that had some like ghost graphics in it that were, are really cool.
• 7:18
  Kinda hard to spot from a ways away, but when you look at it up close, there's, uh, a lot of r- really intricate details.
• 7:24
  Is that something that, uh, an average customer off the street could get as a, an add-on to their Alubu purchase? That is.
• 7:32
  Uh, we do about five different, uh, stock paint jobs that he hand paints every one of them, and anything else custom, he's game to do just about everything.
• 7:43
  Uh, right now we're looking into doing one to mock up one of the orange and blue golf race cars. Oh, cool. Excellent. So you wanna share with our readers, well, the color choice?
• 7:55
  I know you and I have talked on the phone a couple of times. I think I recall something about a regal purple metallic, metal flake. Yeah.
• 8:05
  Uh, right now we're kinda looking at, uh, a darker purple with maybe an orange kind of glitter fleck into it. Awesome. Something that's really gonna catch the sun, but not be too bright. Gotta keep it a little dark.
• 8:19
  Nice. What fork you think you're gonna run on your, uh, on your dream bike? Uh, I'm gonna run one of our alloy Alubu forks.
• 8:27
  Uh, it'll be custom painted to match, uh, which is something that, you know, I think really sets a frame set off.
• 8:34
  And our Alubu fork has the anything dropouts or anything braze ons and, and can accommodate basically everything I want. Very cool. What other, uh, components have you chosen? Drivetrain, that type of thing. Yeah.
• 8:48
  So general drivetrain for me is gonna be, uh, an XT 2x group with XT brake levers. I'm gonna run one of the Race Face turbine cranks, uh, with a 24/36 gearing and then an 11/36 in the back. Decided to go with a 2x
• 9:05
  for a little bit more, uh, I use my fat bike for just about everything, so it gives me a little bit more versatility. Yep, right on. I like a 2x still myself. Yeah, me too.
• 9:15
  You live in the mountains too, so you need- Yeah... lots of gear. I gotta get those granny gears. [laughs] Absolutely. What about rider components? You know, the rider controls, what kind of bars- Yeah... seat post?
• 9:27
  Yeah. It's gonna be a, a complete Thompson setup, so Thompson Elite seat post, uh, Thompson X4 stem, and then one of Thompson's aluminum trail bars. It's a 750 width initially.
• 9:41
  I think I'm gonna cut it to a 740, but, uh, I tend to ride an aluminum bar for more of the, when I'm riding around town, hopping off rocks, up and down staircases, things like that.
• 9:52
  Yeah, I remember you had a carbon bar issue a couple of years ago. [laughs] I have had carbon bar issues in the past. [laughs] All right, man. Um, other, other little facets, though, uh, gonna do, uh, Ergon saddle.
• 10:06
  Uh, I'm really sold on the Ergon saddles with the tie rails. They are really comfortable, um, in riding rigid and riding a lot of things. It, it just fits my bum. Uh, I'm gonna match that with some GS2 grips. Oh.
• 10:20
  So small bar ends, just another hand position for longer rides. And I'm kinda old school, bar ends are still cool. Yep. Right on. I got 'em on my bike. Even, even on a wide bar. [laughs] Yep. Nice. How about tires?
• 10:33
  Tires, uh, gonna be a 45 North Husker Dude Ultralight. I think it's probably the most versatile tire out on the market still. Yep, my favorite as well.
• 10:42
  Uh, I've had customers put thousands of miles on 'em with really good results and, uh, you know, uh, coming in the winter I may look at something that's maybe a little more aggressive for deep snow, things like that.
• 10:53
  But, uh, out here we don't get the same winters as the Midwest, so gonna go with something that's a little more all around. Killer.
• 11:01
  And I know you're, uh, you're one of the first guys that I know that went tubeless, so you'll probably be running those tubeless. Of course. Yeah. Running those tubeless on actually for right now some Marchlight rims.
• 11:12
  Sticking with the aluminum rim for right now.
• 11:15
  Again, staircases, things like that, uh, when we're in town kind of r- being rowdy, I just, uh, gonna wait and see what, uh, wait and let some other people break a few carbon rims.
• 11:27
  Although for the winter there's a very good chance that I'll pick up one from either Lamayer or, uh, Sarma. Yeah, we've got, Jim's been banging those around daily, the Sarma rim. It seems really strong.
• 11:38
  That's, uh, a very nice one. Yeah. I've heard, I've heard really good things about it, and I've actually been in contact with them.
• 11:43
  Uh, both companies that I mentioned are really easy to deal with, uh, really easy to talk to, and, and are very knowledgeable about the product. Uh, for right now, though, we're just gonna stick tried and true I think.
• 11:56
  Sounds good. All right, sir. Those are gonna get laced with some Sapim race spokes, uh, Sapim's double butted spoke, and then to, uh, Industry Nine hubs. Very nice.
• 12:07
  Yep, we know you got a busy day, so- It's great that you can take the time to- Yeah... give us a shout. Well, we're staying busy out here nowadays, which is a good thing. Yeah, us too. It's, uh, it's pretty amazing.
• 12:18
  I think we're gonna see a ton of new rims come interbike time, so your plans might change for, for the wintertime. There might be 10 different carbon rims by the, uh, by the time winter comes. Yeah, I look forward to it.
• 12:33
  I know, uh, I know in the talks with, with the people that I've been talking to, without, uh, giving out too much information, of course, everybody that's already in the game is continuing to work on other things as well, you know?
• 12:45
  So, uh, we'll see beads and, uh, especially in the tubeless world, I won't be surprised if we see quite a few tubeless tires come out. That's coming down the pike. Well, thanks, Adam. Rock on, dude. Yeah, thank you guys.
• 12:58
  All right, Adam. Good to talk to you. You guys take it easy. I'll, uh, I'll see you when I'm back around, maybe Gnomefest time. Sounds good, man. Right on. Bye-bye. All right, we'll see ya. Yep. Bye, Adam. Bye-bye.
• 13:09
  Next on the agenda, vacation plans right after this from one of our sponsors. [upbeat rock music] When it comes to fat bikes, Zion Cyclery in Zion, Illinois, has you covered.
• 13:26
  They stock fatties from Surly, Salsa, 907, Borealis, and Trek, as well as everything from 45NRTH.
• 13:35
  The staff is friendly, the mechanics are top-notch, and they stock the largest selection of fat bikes in the Chicago-Milwaukee area. There's a mountain bike park and some great beach riding in Zion.
• 13:46
  So come, make a day of it. Call 847-746-2200 or visit zioncyclery.com.
• 13:55
  [upbeat music] Summertime, and the living's easy. And it's also vacation time.
• 14:12
  Sven and I have a few trips planned. Yep, I've definitely got a couple plans this summer that will include fat biking, family stuff too, but definitely fat biking. So where are you headed first?
• 14:24
  Well, coming up here pretty quick in mid to late June, it's off to Virginia with my family, and then we're going on to Cape Cod.
• 14:30
  So, uh, if you're, if you're a listener and you're on Cape Cod and you have some local knowledge of the beaches out that way, I'd sure appreciate hearing about it. Shoot me a note to sven@fat-bike.com.
• 14:42
  Now, that sounds like a good one. You should, uh, check in with, was it Derek- Derek... from Cycle-Haven. Cycle-Haven, Derek. Yeah, up in Long Island, so I betcha those guys know about the Cape. Yep, I think they do.
• 14:54
  That's a good, good call. I'll give those guys a shout. So after the, after I return, be back in town for a couple weeks, then I'm heading out west through Iowa, South Dakota, Wyoming, and Colorado.
• 15:07
  I'll be stopping to visit a bunch of friends and scope out some of the companies that are into fat biking along the way.
• 15:12
  My final destination is the SaddleDrive event in Utah to check out the latest from the Q mothership and to report to all you folks on that stuff. So you'll be stopping in, seeing our amigo,
• 15:24
  Fatty Lumpkin, and- Just, just heard from Fatty. Yeah, definitely stopping to see him in Fort Collins there. Maybe, uh, John Sivo- Sivo... get to ride one of those Puffins. Get to ride some new stuff out that way.
• 15:34
  Yeah, there's quite a, quite a group of companies on the Front Range out there that we'll be hitting up. I probably have a list on the site when we make some final arrangements.
• 15:42
  So that's kinda my big plans for the summer. What have you got planned? Well, I just got back from North Carolina, and if I could, uh, put a plug in- Plug...
• 15:51
  for my three-part series that just published on the site about riding in the Outer Banks and the Core Banks, man. That was just the, uh, the coolest. That's a great area out there. I love it on the, on the Outer Banks.
• 16:04
  The, uh, big trip for the summer for me is to go to the World Singlespeed Championships up there in Anchorage. Uh, I, I would really like to spend maybe the whole month of July in Alaska- Couldn't go wrong...
• 16:18
  riding Homer and riding my fat bike- Summer-... and hanging out... summer fat biking in a state known for doing it in the winter, that sounds like a great idea. Right on.
• 16:26
  And then, uh, maybe stay till, uh, till the beginning of August, where maybe the family and I will go on a vacation, maybe Maine, maybe the UP. The shores of Superior are definitely calling me back. Cool.
• 16:40
  And then I never miss Gnomefest. This year it's in, uh, Plattekie. One of, one of our Bike Black Ribbon test pilots, Spinner Ryerson, the one and only Spinner Ryerson- The one and only Spinner...
• 16:51
  will be, uh, taking the role of mayor of Gnome City and, uh, running the 11th Burning Bike version of Gnomefest. That's, uh, Labor Day weekend? That's the week after Labor Day. Week after Labor Day this year, folks.
• 17:06
  Well, boy, that should get weird out there at Gnomefest. I've gone to, uh, actually I think I only went to one, but boy, [laughs] I had my world turned upside down at that thing. [laughs] We like it weird.
• 17:17
  You would do best, if you can, to attend the fest. If I make it back in time from, uh, some trips, I'd definitely be going there myself. Now it's time to make a visit to the Test Kitchen.
• 17:28
  All of us except Colin and the ice cream truck took a, uh- [laughs] That's why we-... took a beach ride on Sunday. That's why we put that ride together was to get Colin out there on the ice cream. I know.
• 17:38
  Eh, well, we'll get him out again. I got some time in on the new Atlas pedal, pedal and the new Bulldozer rear tire. That's a Vee Tire Bulldozer? Yeah. Cool. We also saw a prototype of the Sun Mulefoot 80 millimeter rim.
• 17:53
  We did an introductory story on that rim on the site last week. If you wanna go refer back to that, there'll be a link in the show notes.
• 18:00
  We received the new Borealis Echo in, and I took it to the folks at Zion Cyclery and had them use their crack service department to make sure that it was all put together correctly by yours truly because we are sponsoring a four-person Fast Guy race team at, uh, tomorrow's 80-mile race, used to be known as a 12-hour race- Okay...
• 18:27
  at, uh, the Kettle Moraine. Yeah, those are some great trails out there. Who do we have on that team?
• 18:32
  Uh, it's going to be last week's guest, Colin Ford, Spinner Ryerson, Flyin' Brian Ferman, and one of our, uh, best test pilots, Angry Andy Olsen. That guy does, like, 200-mile single-speed fat bike rides. I know. Crazy.
• 18:47
  So- [laughs] True... they're all gonna be riding the same bike. The Echo comes with a, uh, remote-controlled seat dropper seat post, so four different size guys can ride one bike.
• 19:00
  And, uh, I'm looking forward to going out there and seeing them really rail on this thing. Really rail.
• 19:06
  We'll be out there, both of us actually, also doing a little race support and shooting some photos so we can show you what that's all about on the site with a story next week. Right on. Right on.
• 19:18
  So I continue to put in time on the Sarma Hoboy carbon fork. Not a lot to say about a fork, but it does what a fork should. It's nice and light. It looks awesome. Every time I'm riding that fork- That is a-...
• 19:30
  people say-... cool-looking fork... "That thing looks awesome." So what's not to like? Can check out Sarma Bike's new US website. We'll have a link in the show notes.
• 19:40
  Well, I actually executed my sub-24 overnight plan from last week. I know you got some planning in on that. [laughs] But now you actually got to do it. Absolutely.
• 19:50
  Uh, went right from home, and, uh, found the perfect little campsite. And it's pretty amazing how lucky we are. I got to test new 45NRTH Dillinger 5.0 front tire. Is that, like, the only one in existence?
• 20:04
  It's probably the only one in the US right now. How'd you wrangle that? Oh, you know, that's, that's the power of the Gomez. Power of the Gomez. Uh, three new Apidura bags, Apidura bags.
• 20:15
  Saw, I saw those on the beach ride last week. You had them in the truck. Those are really well-made, got some neat features about them.
• 20:21
  And I'm also testing out a, uh, Paul Components stem cap high-rise light mount that rises, that rises your handlebar light above the handlebar bag when you're bike packing.
• 20:36
  Uh, so we'll be putting that up on the site real soon too. Oh, yeah, sounds like a good idea. How much does that raise the light up off the stem? It's about inch and a half, two inches, somewhere around there. Cool.
• 20:47
  So- It's a good idea, and it's a thing that you, uh, need on your bike anyway, a cap to hold all that headset action together. Mm-hmm. All right, well- Well, that's our show this week...
• 20:57
  that's our show this week already. Thanks again to Surly for sponsoring this show. Go over there to surlybikes.com and see what they've got that you need. And if you'd like to be a guest on Fat Bike Radio, let us know.
• 21:08
  We'll try and make that happen. Email gomez@fatbike.com and let us know what you got, man. Well, thanks for listening. Las bicis gordas para siempre, amigos. What he said. Adios. Adios, muchachos.
• 21:24
  [upbeat music] You've been listening to Fat Bike Radio's Weekly Dose of Fat. Find us on the web at fat-bike.com/radio. We'll see you next time.
• 21:40
  [upbeat music]