Latest / Full Spectrum Cycling / Weekly Dose of Fat – Show #105 – Cracked Carbon with The Carbon Doctor – Richard Palmer

Transcript

Weekly Dose of Fat – Show #105 – Cracked Carbon with The Carbon Doctor – Richard Palmer · Full Spectrum Cycling

• 0:00
  The Occasional Dose of Fat, show number 105 for Friday, July 1st, 2016.
• 0:06
  [gentle music] Riding,
• 0:27
  sweating, hurting. It's all I wanna do. Ripping around on every trail in town. Hammering down, riding like I'm somewhere new.
• 0:49
  Man, this frame ain't playing no games. Light as insane, I pedal right up to you. One of these rides will be very long. You'll pick up to me, but baby I'll be gone.
• 1:09
  Someone cue the garden gnomes. Fat bikes are so much fun. Fat bikes are so much fun. Fat bikes are so much fun, yeah.
• 1:33
  Let's start the show. All righty. Good evening, everybody. Got Sven Gomez and who's that guy?
• 1:41
  [gentle music] Well, filling in for JK Living this week is our musical director, and not only is he an incredible horn player, he's also third generation bicycle industry professional.
• 1:53
  Give it up for a man that loves a good quality pair of dress slacks, Chris Daisy, ladies and gentlemen. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. None of those statements are true. Absolutely.
• 2:04
  [laughs] Hey, the Weekly Dose of Fat is brought to you by Surly Ride Pants, because ninjas don't wear shorts. It's the all pants, slacks, and trouser, uh, version of the Occasional Dose of Fat.
• 2:20
  Learn more about bikes and ninjas at surlybikes.com. My theory is that we have a fine show lined up this evening. Fine. What's on the show this week, Crispy? This week, Crispy?
• 2:32
  We start off the show with the event of the week, Summerfest? We welcome special guest Richard Palmer, the Carbon Doctor, to the program this evening.
• 2:42
  We check in with the Fatty Farm Field Report, brought to you by Quiring Cycles. The Quiring Triple B is the fattest ride on two wheels, featuring the new generation of 5.05 inch tires.
• 2:55
  Visit quiringcycles.net to see the next level of bicycle exploration, exploration. We'll take calls from our listener. Our third caller will receive a new Surly Rally sports package.
• 3:07
  Plus, every caller gets a sample tin of Uncle Dick's Bead Slip, bead slip, slip. We talk about forks and knives. And in this evening's special segment, we introduce a new series called Gnome-Proof Gear.
• 3:23
  It's time for the freaking event of the week. The event of the week this week is, uh, not a bike event specifically- But you-... but I would say that it's the best way to get to the event- Yeah... by far.
• 3:36
  They've got free bike parking and a guarded area where people watch over your gear, and Summerfest is the world's largest music festival here in Milwaukee. It's the reason why JK's not here. He's down there seeing Mr.
• 3:48
  Kris Kristofferson and, uh, and Willie Nelson. Willie Nelson. Willie Nelson. Yeah. Uh, we'll give him a little bit here. He should call in here in a couple of minutes. But, uh, in the meantime- In the meantime-...
• 3:59
  it's the Top of the Hill boys. Top of the Hill. Hey, Chris. Yeah? Get me, get me one of those, uh, pinners out of there, please. One second. Right on, right on.
• 4:08
  [beer cans opening] A little toasty in the old studio today. We'll have to put the AC in by next time. Cheers, lads. Cheers. [beer cans opening] And beers.
• 4:18
  So if any of you, uh, guessed show number 105, that the show 100 beer, uh, cache would run out, and we are- [laughs]... moving on down, down the road. I would say it's gonna be somewhere [laughs] in the teens.
• 4:35
  Did you, uh, did you see the tub out there? Yeah, I saw the... Is that it? I, that's what's left in the tub. Oh. So I thought maybe- Oh... you wanna take that to Dirt Church or something- Ooh...
• 4:42
  if you're going to have a- So maybe, yeah. And besides that, I want that tub out of here. [laughs] That is my tub. Yeah, it's your tub, and- Well, it's the Gnomefest tub... and it's now- So who really owns Gnomefest?
• 4:53
  So there's still some- No one... still some in that tub from our friends at, um, Oscar Blues there. All right. So maybe w- it is 105. If, if I take those to Dirt Church, then- Well, you know they'll be gone that day.
• 5:06
  Yeah. All right. Well, I think that Summerfest is gonna have to live on its own volition. Hey, let's take a break, and when we come back, we will have today's special guest, the Carbon Doctor, Mr. Richard Palmer.
• 5:18
  [upbeat music] Chumba USA builds innovative, technically superior bicycles that are race ready, ride driven, and tested to withstand the harshest conditions and tackle the toughest and roughest terrain.
• 5:51
  Learn more about Chumba's American-made Ursa Major at chumbausa.com. [upbeat music] You're tuned to Fat Bike Radio. Hey, welcome back to the radio program.
• 6:10
  With us on the, uh, the telly is Mr. Richard Palmer, who's the owner of The Carbon Doctor. Uh, welcome to the show, Richard.
• 6:18
  Hi, I'm happy to be here and to talk to you about, um, a few of my passions, um, you know, car- uh, carbon fiber and bikes. Fantastic. So let me do just a little bit of filling in the blanks here.
• 6:34
  I've known Richard, uh, for about 20 years, way back when we were national mountain bike patrollers, and I have great memories of Pedro Fest and trail building at the Southern Kettles.
• 6:46
  Uh, Richard has a long, uh, history with experience in composites and, uh, I know that he started his, uh, journey in, uh, sailing and Olympic yachting. Richard was on... a member of the Canadian Olympic squad. So, uh,
• 7:05
  is there anything else that I... Did I miss anything there, Richard, that, uh, tell us about- Well, I think- Was your- How, how long have you got? How long have you got? I don't want- [laughs]
• 7:14
  Well- I mean, it, it, it's been a long journey, but, uh, suffice it to say, I guess I started, I, you know, I, I, I learned how to sail as a kid, but I, um, I ended up immigrating to Canada to work for a company making the Tornado catamaran, and, uh, that was kinda like my, uh, entry into, uh, I think it was high performance composites, but back then,
• 7:38
  um, we didn't have carbon fiber or, you know, so it was a different kind of technology. But a- you know, as my life and career progressed, I have, um, you know, stayed with high performance sails.
• 7:54
  Well, high performance sailboats were kind of part of, pretty much part of my initial, you know, 15 years of composites. Um, I ended up, uh, moving to California.
• 8:09
  Um, I ended up starting a business down there, uh, where I built custom racing yachts, um, including, uh, you know, America's Cup.
• 8:19
  I didn't build America's Cup yachts, but I did, um, a lot of components for America's Cup. And, um, and I, and I built a b- a bunch of different sailboats, uh, that were very succe- successful racing internationally
• 8:35
  and that kind of thing. Leaving California, um, I came to Wisconsin about 20 years ago, I guess now, nearly, and, um, worked again in, in boats for about another six years.
• 8:48
  And then I actually went off into kind of the broader aspects of, uh, of composites, working for material suppliers and being, you know, like a technical resource and, uh, you know, interjecting my
• 9:03
  ideas and, and this kind of thing. And, um- 'Cause you worked for, uh, Owens Corning. Cor- [laughs] Corning. [laughs] Corning for a while, right, at other divisions? Yeah. Yeah, that's... Yeah, Owens Corning, yes.
• 9:16
  You know, so I, I was exposed to a lot of different things. You know, I, I did a lot of work with automotive and, uh, wind energy and, uh, on that kind of thing.
• 9:28
  I mean, just got a, a huge exposure to all the different aspects of, of composites. You know, I, I, uh, I had a, uh, a job with a UK company after that, that, uh, was a leading
• 9:43
  provider of both technology and materials to the, uh, to various industries, um, automotive and, um, uh, wind energy and, and, and marine. So again, there I, I gathered a lot more experience.
• 9:59
  So I'm, I, I consider myself to be a pretty, um, expert on, on, on composites. You might even call yourself a doctor. The Carbon Doctor. Yeah. There you go. Yeah. Of course.
• 10:12
  [laughs] So yeah, obviously tons of experience. What led you to get into repairing plastic bike frames? Well, um, since I going to came to Wisconsin, I got pretty hooked on, well, first of all, mountain biking
• 10:28
  and, um, you know, thus my, you know, getting involved with the bike patrol and that kind of thing, and actually ended up racing bikes in the WAR series and being reasonably successful at that.
• 10:42
  As things progressed, though, I've, I, I kinda started to move a little bit to the road side for the social aspect of that, and riding with a group out of Kettle Moraine, uh, in the Kettle Moraine State Forest area.
• 10:56
  I, uh, one of the, one of the folks that was, uh, you know, riding in the group broke his frame and s- you know, kind of s- asked me to say, "You're in the, uh, y- you know, you're into carbon. You know carbon fiber.
• 11:11
  Can you fix my frame?" And I, I basically looked at him and said, "Yes, I probably could. Uh, give me a try at it." And I... Obviously, that was successful.
• 11:20
  And then, you know, some time later, another person came along and it grew from there, and that was about eight years ago. What, what do you figure, you know, how many have you done, do you think, in that time period?
• 11:34
  Well, since I started? Yeah, just curious how many people need your services. Oh, gosh, I don't know. I guess since I started, probably...
• 11:45
  Well, I, for four or five years I was just doing it on the side, you know, so I was probably only doing, uh, one or two a month. Right.
• 11:52
  So it's only in the last, um, you know, three years, let's say, that it, it's become a full-time thing. Mm-hmm.
• 12:00
  So I don't know, maybe about 500 different- [laughs] Uh, it, it's, uh, I haven't actually- Yeah, that's a, that's a big number... pulled the total down, but- Absolutely. That's a big number.
• 12:08
  So, you know, having worked on that many- Yeah... on that many, uh, on that many bikes, w- what do you think the most common repair you do on, like, a carbon mountain bike frame or fat bike frame is?
• 12:18
  Well, uh, if you talk about fat bikes, I, for some reason, I guess the b- the most common repair on a fat bike is a top tube. I don't know why particularly, but, um, you know, from, uh, uh- Bike strikes...
• 12:32
  probably crashing, the handlebars hitting it. Yeah, probably. That kind of thing. But in, uh, you know, on ro- road frames, it is more, the most common is seat stays. Mm-hmm.
• 12:44
  And, um, you know, chain stays and, and top tubes and, and, and then there's, you know, they can be, you know, left on the roof of the car and driven into a garage. Ugh. [laughs] Usually- Been there [laughs]...
• 12:57
  uh, ends up multiple, multiple issues.
• 13:02
  But, um, there's the, the, uh, on the fat bike side, I think it's more, um, I think the t- you know, as the carbon fiber fat bikes have, you know, have been developed, they are, you know, to be able to make, uh, them with
• 13:20
  as light as they are, they're actually cutting the corner a little bit more than the average mountain bike. So I, I would consider a fat bike to be a little bit more fragile than a regular mountain bike. Hmm. Right.
• 13:33
  But, um, you know, uh, so yeah. So w- is most of the damage crash oriented, or is it like something, a bike falling off the roof of a car or hitting your aforementioned garage roof?
• 13:48
  Um, you know, is it, I- is, is the failure usually a result of some previous damage, or is, are they like catastrophic failures? Well, well, they're usually, uh, you know, usually from crashing. Mm-hmm.
• 14:00
  Uh, or, or, you know, from impact, you know, like a bike falls over and hits a, an iron railing or something like that. With a carbon fiber bicycle, um, you know, uh, as they are today, very highly engineered,
• 14:16
  uh, uh, pieces of sporting equipment, um, they are, you know, designed with, you know, finite element analysis and, um, you know, all, all of the carbon fiber is sort of laid out within the frame
• 14:34
  specifically to all of the loads and stresses that are, are, are in that frame. So, yeah, I've forgot my train of thought here. Sorry. [laughs] That's all right. [laughs] That's all right.
• 14:46
  So I have, I have a question, if I can bring us back to, um, the, the most common repair on a, on a fat bike. So you said it was the top tube. So I have my, I have my,
• 14:59
  my carbon bike and my brake lever has put a nice gouge in my top tube, and I bring that to you. What do you think that that's gonna, uh... What do you think the price would be to fix that, approximately?
• 15:14
  Um, well, a lot of times it depends on, um, a number of factors. Obviously, it's the extent of the damage, uh, the shape of the top tube, um, and I'll get back to that in a minute. But the,
• 15:30
  um, aver- I mean, the perhaps, the way I end up estimating is I break down the structural repair, which is kind of making the, the bike s- whole again- Mm-hmm...
• 15:46
  and then the cosmetic because, um, you know, s- some of the graphics, you know, it, it's all dependent upon the customer- Sure...
• 15:55
  deciding kinda how much we want to restore it back to as new and, you know, that obviously adds, you know, certain, you know, extra steps. Um, to be- Sure.
• 16:05
  So, so you could do a, you could do a serviceable repair that would return the bike to active duty without, uh, you know, making it look like brand new, is what you're saying. Right, paint and- Yeah...
• 16:17
  paint and clear coat. Right. Well, um, I, I, I could, but I, I, uh, I generally don't want to do that because it's such a poor a- advertisement of my- Right. Sure, sure, sure... exactly... uh, my work. Yeah. Sure.
• 16:30
  I mean, a, a proper carbon repair is not gonna be particularly attractive, just kind of there. And, uh,
• 16:42
  you know, 'cause I, I'm, I'm, I'm putting, you know, multiple plies of unidirectional carbon and, you know, it, it, it isn't as...
• 16:52
  You know, w- when they make the frame, they're working from the outside in on the mold, so they can put a, they can put a, you know, nice finish carbon layer against the mold surface, but I'm going the other way. Right.
• 17:05
  So it's not as attractive. So, you know, I like, I generally, uh, you know, want to, want to put some kind of paint, you know, a base coat, clear coat on. So if, if people have a- And, um-...
• 17:19
  have a repair or have a damaged carbon frame, they can take pictures of it and send it to you, and you'll let them know what it's gonna take to fix it, right? Yeah.
• 17:32
  Yes, that's, uh, that's basically how, uh, uh, th- this, this process proceeds. Yes, I normally, uh, get some photographs of the repair, of the damage, I mean. And, um,
• 17:46
  and, you know, then I can, you know, with the experience I have, I, I get pretty close with my estimates. I very rarely do I, do I have to vary, uh, once I actually get the frame and inspect it. Sure. So
• 18:00
  you and I are old mountain bikers, and you've been around long enough to hear the phrase, "Steel is real."
• 18:09
  And you know that, you know, those curmudgeons that, uh, you know, are probably the most fearful and know the least about carbon bikes. So
• 18:20
  how do you feel about the question, are, are carbon bikes as repairable as a steel frame? Well, I would probably say more so, um,
• 18:33
  because quite compli- complex, uh, uh, geometry can be repaired with a composite frame, a carbon fiber frame. Um, things like where the,
• 18:48
  you know, in the joint areas, um, which would be the lugs on a metal frame- Mm-hmm... uh, can be, can be repaired, which I, you know, would, w- which I think would be rather difficult with a, with a steel frame.
• 19:02
  You can do the tubes in between, but to, you know, remake a, uh, a bottom bracket, let's say, or, or a steer a tube- So those, those tight areas- I've done repairs on bikes where-... are difficult to re-weld...
• 19:17
  the steer tube is, is being com- you know, is, is kind of partially ripped away from the down tube. Um, you know, and I think that would be something that would be difficult to do with steel.
• 19:29
  So i- is there anything on a carbon frame, given, you know, an unlimited budget or anything, that you cannot fix? Well, one of the things about composites, and carbon fiber in particular, is it's very repairable.
• 19:43
  It does come down, though, to what makes sense, you know, cost-wise, and the value of the frame and this kind of thing. Most of the time, I, you know,
• 19:56
  a, a, a repair, you know, even one that ends up being $500 or $600, it's still half the price or more of a, of a, you know, crash replacement frame. You know, and if that's a,
• 20:12
  uh, you know, a newer, a newer frame, um, you know, when you, when people have frames that are eight years old, you know, the,
• 20:21
  the, the scenario for repairing them becomes, you know, a little bit more, "Well, how much do I want to spend on this old frame?" Sure.
• 20:28
  But, uh- 'Cause you might, 'cause you might wanna go to a one-by drivetrain, and all the, all the things that, that have gone on in the eight years that surround the other parts of the bike.
• 20:40
  So we have, we have a- Right... we have a carbon fat bike frame here that is broken at the seat tube, the chain stay, and where else? And the top tube. And the top tube. [laughs] Just, just cracked.
• 20:56
  So you think that- Right... that you could repair that bike and, and it, and it could be ridden again? I mean, that's, I mean, aside I've seen, yeah, I mean, I, I would say, I would say very, very likely.
• 21:08
  Um, if it's all still in one piece- Oh, yeah... and it isn't in two- Yeah... separate pieces.
• 21:14
  And not, it's- Well, just, I mean, I know you're a busy guy, but just as kind of an exercise so we kinda see how this goes, could we send you pictures of it and you would say, "Yeah, I can do that"? Oh, I think, yeah.
• 21:23
  And, you know, you don't waste a bunch of time on it, but give us an idea what it would cost to get this puppy back into, uh, service. Yeah. It, yeah, it, it wouldn't take me very long at all- Right on...
• 21:34
  to give the estimate. It, the, that's the easy part. It's the, it's the, it's the fixing of it that takes the time.
• 21:39
  [laughs] I'm just curious, 'cause this was a, this was a, a guy that was heavier than the frame was designed for and ended up, uh, having a problem with it breaking, so, um- It's only sheared in four places. Yeah.
• 21:52
  So that should be fine. Yeah. [laughs] So yeah, I'll take some photos and send them up to you. And it wasn't me. Yeah, it wasn't you. It wasn't me. It wasn't Govitz. Um, well, cool. [laughs] And is...
• 22:01
  So let's just say we're not talking about this one, but let's just say I crack my chain stay on, on my carbon mountain bike. When you fix it, is it as strong as the day it came out of the factory,
• 22:17
  or is it always gonna have- Well, yeah, it, w- Go ahead... what I strive to do, and I, I, I strive to, uh, repair a frame in the manner it was built. So I approach it with removing all of the damaged material,
• 22:34
  um, and replacing it layer by layer. I don't do a Band-Aid fix. I don't take a, a wrap and wrap it around a broken piece of carbon. Mm-hmm. Like I say, I remove all of the damaged material. I taper the,
• 22:52
  uh, you know, existing solid material out, away from the, the a- the, uh, the repair.
• 22:58
  There's usually a hole because carbon fiber, when it's impacted, it, uh, it, it tends to, well, it delaminates and spreads from the impact area.
• 23:11
  So, um, I have a method for creating a form that goes inside and, um, what I, uh, w- what I can see when I've, when I, uh, uh, you know, have cleaned all of the damaged material off, I can actually now start to-- I can actually see the layers of carbon that I've put in there.
• 23:33
  Hmm. I can see the orientations. But as I, as I've tapered out the laminate, uh, uh, of, of carbon,
• 23:40
  um, I can see that, and I'll end up making te- individual templates for each layer I'm going to replace, you know, starting with the smallest one, which goes on in the center, and it gets bigger and bigger until it, until I've replaced all those layers.
• 23:55
  Hmm. I use, um, uh, you know, a variety of different, uh, materials, but my primary mat- primary material is a, is a one ounce, or a 50 gram per square meter unidirectional, which is only 3,000th of an inch thick.
• 24:12
  Mm-hmm. So I can build up a, uh, uh, a multiple ply laminate, as they call it, uh, in the same way in which the bike was made. Mm-hmm. I also use a technique-
• 24:30
  Which, uh, I can apply pressure when the actual repair is being done that consolidates the laminate, um, with the equivalent pressure that the original frame was made. So
• 24:47
  I b- I believe I, I'm doing a, a proper repair, not a Band-Aid fix. Well, very cool. So I- So the, the-... doing it like that, I-
• 24:57
  S- so you could ride with confidence once the, once the, a frame has been repaired, you can, you know, you don't have to, you don't have to baby it- Mm-hmm... for the, for the rest of the life of it Yeah...
• 25:09
  you can- Absolutely... you can give it a proper thrashing. So I'd like just to, to- Oh, yeah. Absolutely... Chris here sent a note from the control room- He, he passed the note under the table...
• 25:19
  yeah, he said, "Isn't Richard's Revenge named after him at Kettle?" So this is true, this is- One of my favorite stretches of Kettle Moraine trail... this, this is the Richard. That is true, yes. Yeah.
• 25:29
  So, uh- That is, that is true... hats off. I, I cannot think of, like, any better cred than that right there- [laughs] Right...
• 25:36
  'cause that is one kick-ass section of trail, so, uh, I really appreciate you coming on the show, Richard, and giving us so much information. We'll have a link to your website on our show notes and, uh- Okay...
• 25:49
  maybe this is something we can, uh, you know, we'll have, uh, talk to the Carbon Doctor, uh, once every, he's now and again on our show and we can- Of course... have you on as a guest again. Yeah, sure.
• 26:01
  I'd be ha- I'd be happy to do that. Great. Thanks a lot. Perhaps you could, uh, also indicate, um, a lot of the postings I do, you know, or work that I'm doing, it g- it ends up going to...
• 26:14
  I use Facebook because it's a little bit simpler to post a pic- picture of, of repairs or refinishing jobs, um- Sure... and that kind of thing. So- We'll put your Facebook page on there too...
• 26:27
  perhaps you could, uh, put Yeah, what is, what is that, uh, what is that Facebook page? It's Carbon Doctor. Sorry? The Facebook page is, is it Carbon Doctor? Yeah, it's The Carbon Doctor. With a the? We'll find it.
• 26:39
  I'll put the link in the show notes. Yeah, you'll, you'll find it. Right on. And, you know, I guess maybe my email address as well. All right. Just so people can contact me. You got it.
• 26:50
  Although, actually, if you go to the, if you go to any of the other places, you'll find it. [laughs] Very good. Hey, thanks again for being on the show and, uh, we'll catch up with you down the trail. Great.
• 27:00
  Well, I look forward to it. All right, see you later. [upbeat music] All right, everybody, let's take a quick break here after talking to Mr. Richard, and we'll be back with the Fatty Farm Field Report.
• 27:20
  And Travis, or Kevin, or Greg. [upbeat music] So I heard you need a fat bike.
• 27:37
  Come to Zion Cyclery in Zion, Illinois. We have all brands: Trek, Borealis, Salsa, Felt, Surly, and more. Yo, we have all the cold weather gears by 45 NRTH and Bunduga.
• 27:53
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• 28:12
  You're tuned to Fat Bike Radio. Hey. Welcome back, everybody. Before we slip and slide into the Fatty Farm Field Report, we do have a caller from the 907. Welcome to the radio program. Who do we have on the line?
• 28:30
  Good evening, gentlemen. Travis. How you guys doing? Good, good, good. Y- I see you called in and caught quite a bit of the, uh, Richard Palmer, Carbon Doctor section of the show. Yeah. Who is that rock star, man?
• 28:44
  That guy is awesome. Well, if you got a carbon bike problem, that's probably where you're gonna wanna turn. Call the Carbon Doctor. We actually interviewed, we, uh, it, it's an actual cottage industry.
• 28:56
  We, we talked, I talked to three carbon, uh, repair people and, uh, Richard and I went back pretty far, and he was available at the time and, but, uh,
• 29:08
  the other two cats, Sean Small from, uh, what are, what is that, uh... Oh, what's his, what's his company called? Good question. Yeah. [laughs] And the dude, uh, from, that made that Trek time trial fatty bike,
• 29:24
  uh, out there in Iowa. Some people got a lot of time on their hands. Uh, so we may have, we...
• 29:32
  Hey, Chewy, if you're listening to this, we may have all those people [laughs] on- We, we could, we could give them to the guys at, at fat camp... the all-carbon fiber. We could saturate fat camp with carbon, too.
• 29:42
  So Travis, my brother from another mother. What's up? Oh, man, just enjoying a beautiful Alaska summer. One of us. Just got back from a nice little 10-mile loop on the fat bike
• 29:57
  and, uh, getting ready to head off this weekend, I think, and do Resurrection Pass on my first, uh, fat bike, fat biking trip. Oh, killer. Yeah, I know that you were, uh- Got to go lay down-...
• 30:06
  stocking up and getting all of your bags and all your doodads and, uh- Whatnots and gazintos and things... yeah, if you get lost, I'll send you a get lost, uh, merit badge. [laughs] It's, it's a real thing. Yeah, buddy.
• 30:23
  So, uh- I'll just, uh- I think you're calling- Yeah, you can't get lost on this trail, but, uh- Yeah. Uh-...
• 30:30
  yeah, it's, looking at a, uh, Resurrection Trail, a little 40 mile traverse, and, uh, most people shoot it in a day, but I was thinking, yeah, load up the fat, you know, go test the gear and- Spend the night in the woods...
• 30:41
  yeller. Sounds like fun. What's the wea- what's the weather like up there- Yeah... these days? Oh, man, roasting, like 74 degrees. Almost 24 hour a day sunlight. Yeah, yeah.
• 30:54
  We've had a good mix of rain and sunshine, so the fire danger's been down. Supposed to have a little deluge here tonight and tomorrow, and then, uh, hopefully clearing out over the weekend. Sweet.
• 31:06
  You got any plans for the 4th? To celebrate my birthday. [laughs] Yeah, wife's gone, so. Oh, yeah. Yeah. It's Sven's freaking birthday, too. What? Yeah, 4th of July, Sven's birthday. Born on the 4th of July. Oh, man.
• 31:18
  Uh, you- Yeah, I'm gonna celebrate that. The Johnnie Walker Blue's gonna get broke out. Oh, dear. [laughs] That sounds tasty. So is, uh, what's going on up there fat bike-wise beside your own trips?
• 31:30
  Are there any kind of, uh, tours going on or events or what's happening in the fat bike scene in the summer in the AK? You know, there was the Salty Bottom first ever Homer Beach race with the, uh, the 20 and 50 Ks.
• 31:46
  [horn blaring] [laughs] Did you hear that? Exactly. It sounded like a moose. I did. Or an elk. That's fun. That's not even me fucking around. [laughs] [laughs] I'm just sitting here playing with my bottle cap.
• 32:03
  [laughs] Oh, man. So did you, uh, did... you would... Tell me a story about a Bluto fork, your, your stock carbon forkage versus Das Bluto. Sing me a few bars of that. This is Das Bluto.
• 32:21
  Okay. Love the Bluto, absolutely love that thing. It's not necessary in winter and, you know, I just...
• 32:33
  we've had such crappy winters for the last three years, uh, that running the Bluto year-round has been absolutely awesome. We just didn't have much snow, much base.
• 32:43
  If you're in a place where you're, you know, you're riding on a lot of snow and a good base, uh, I don't think it'd be necessary. Uh, and in fact, I'm looking for a new fork, my s- uh, replacement here,
• 32:56
  another carbon fiber fork so I can go back to rigid during the winter if we ever have snow again. Did you, did you ditch your, uh- But the Bluto has been awesome... did you ditch your, uh, specialized carbon fork?
• 33:08
  Or did you sell that? No, actually, I'm, I'm staring at it, man. It's sitting over on top of my generator. [laughs] I need to sell that thing. Did you- All right... did you turn it into a bong yet? [laughs] No.
• 33:20
  No, I haven't turned it into a bong yet. Hey, that's a good idea. Really. Hey, speaking of good ideas- Yeah, it is... I, I just wanted to give you props for using that, uh, that Bordeaux Sentie- that Sentium box.
• 33:30
  Uh, thank you. Thank you very much. It's, it's now being properly utilized. [laughs] Oh, yeah. I don't think- Yeah... you're supposed to smoke out of carbon fiber, just FYI. [laughs] Oh, yeah. Yeah.
• 33:41
  Titanium's much better, more inert metal like that. Excellent point. Yeah. Well, we could get sued for telling people to use carbon for anything but, uh, I don't know, picking their teeth with.
• 33:51
  Approved, uh, processes and, uh, applications. All right. So Bluto is thumbs up-erino. Yes. I did blow my seals, though. [laughs] And the funny thing was- Leave it to the last- He wants him to say that... to say that.
• 34:06
  [laughs] Yeah, I wanna throw that out there. You know, when I was shopping for a Bluto, I went to every bike shop in this town and I asked the question, "Should I just go with the Turnagain seal now?"
• 34:16
  And every shop told me, "Oh, no, we hardly ever see them blowing." [laughs] Well, like three months into owning it, you know, 10-degree day, blew the seals.
• 34:25
  Took it back to the shop and went to the Turnagain seals, and I, I haven't had a problem since. See, there's- But, uh-... there's a happy ending right there. There, there's a story that- Yeah...
• 34:35
  that our listener can, can learn something. Thank you, T-Bone. Yeah. Yeah. You brought, you brought [bottle cap clattering] a certain level of sophistication and edumication to the show that we seldom achieve.
• 34:49
  [laughs] And that's why maybe- Absolutely... should we spill the beans on your fabulous new version of The Price is Right? Hey- I mean-... but before we do- [laughs]... but before we do that, folks- Yeah...
• 35:02
  let, let's, let's just, let's just quickly- Oh, no. You're not gonna put me on the spot like that, go man. You got- All right...
• 35:06
  you got time to think 'cause we're gonna quickly take a little, uh, sidebar here and, uh, check in at the event of the week with Mr. JK Living. Hey, it's JK Living in the event of week. What's up, JK? Hey, hey.
• 35:17
  [laughs] I have to run away to a place I can actually hear things. Who... Is Kristofferson on now? Loud noises. [laughs] I have loud noises. I'm trying to get away from the big, loud noises.
• 35:32
  [laughs] Summerfest, everybody. Summerfest. Everybody should go do it. Good Lord. How much- All right. So Summerfest's working out very loudly. [laughs] How much does the beer cost that you have in your hand? $6.50.
• 35:49
  Oh, why do they do the 50 cent thing? Uh, finally. Yeah. That's just, that... quick- Don't wanna carry around- $6.50... a pocket full of change. Oh, right on. Watching- $6.66 with tip. If you're watching.
• 36:02
  [laughs] JK Living, everybody, the best in the business. I am... [laughs] If you, if you would be watching me walking, serpentining through the crowd here trying to find a, uh, soft area that I actually
• 36:18
  hear words that are coming through you instead of pops and buzzes- Pop... it'd be amazing. Buzz. [laughs] Dude, we hear you fine. Yeah, yeah. You're, you're coming through five by- Oh, that's awesome.
• 36:29
  You're coming through five by five, man. I know. I probably sound very frantic right now. This is Thunderbird 2, International Rescue. Oh, god, I just made it. I just made it. Oh, I think I just found a solid. Nice.
• 36:41
  There's a... it's a... like they have a lot of like Stevie Nicks-... scarves and stuff- [laughs]... from the marketplace. Are, are you rubbing them upon your face right now? So, uh, had, is the- Oh, no, I-...
• 36:54
  opening act done, and, uh, is Willie on stage? Uh- Uh, Kirsker Soferson is on stage. Ah, okay. 80 years, newly 80. Newly 80, uh, yeah. Welcome to the morning. It's gonna be good stuff. That's amazing.
• 37:10
  All right, uh, have the Quaaludes started to kick in yet? [laughs] Or what? The what whose? [laughs] Have the meta, meta, medication-ation-ation. [laughs] Oh, I ran into, uh, Kenny Nielsen.
• 37:28
  Oh. Right on. Uncle Tickles. I, I was going- Yeah... to grab him for this, uh, yappery, but he kept crushing closer to the stage. Oh, damn. Well, he's also gonna be holding- So I thought-...
• 37:39
  our Third of July fireworks spot for us down there at Veterans Park on July 3rd. Indeed. Thank you, Kenny Nielsen. Very good. Uncle Tickles- Very good...
• 37:48
  all you have to do is bring him beer and you'll have a spot on his blanket. And fire- Yeah, he's good for hold- Well, fireworks. He's good for holding position, has a good place. Good place. It's worth going to that.
• 38:00
  Right on, man. I will sadly and amazingly not be in town. [laughs] [laughs] All right. Well, yeah. So, uh, so- [laughs] That's psycho JK Livin'.
• 38:14
  So Mike, do you have a, uh, do you have a spot down there that's, uh, easily findable, or are you just wandering aimlessly? Just wandering aimlessly. Right on.
• 38:23
  Well, I'm gonna probably roll down there after the show, so- Uh, it, it's pretty mu- I'll, I'll ping ya... yeah, it's pretty much like- This is now-... it's pretty packed up, so you're-... mandating-...
• 38:30
  you're dealing with that. [laughs] Between that and the Rebel stage- One of one... where Colin is at. [laughs] Giggle. And Joan Jett's over at, uh, Joan Jett's at 10 over at, uh, the Brake Straight stage. Right on. So.
• 38:44
  Joan Jett. All right, well, we've got some important- If you get, if you're sick of fans-... people on the phone here from, uh, Alaska. We're gonna- All right.
• 38:49
  Get, get, get- We're gonna- Why is it somebody important got to find me, silly? We're gonna call, talk to them. [laughs] Bye, JK. Have fun. Thanks for checking in, JK. See you later. Bye. Fa fa, so long. [laughs] Yikes.
• 39:02
  [laughs] And, and he's got a- That's awesome. So Travis, we've got a, we've got a fellow Alaskan joining us right now on the radio program. Welcome to the show. Howdy, fellas. How's it going? It's Kevin. It's Kevin.
• 39:17
  Kevin Bridenback. How's it going? We got Tr- Yep... Travis listening in as well, Kevin, so you know, do, do your Alaska thing. [laughs] Hey, what's up, Kevin? How's it going, Travis? We're just gonna- Doing good...
• 39:29
  play you guys some, uh, some elk music. [horn blaring] The call of the wild. I c- I could've gone- That- Welcome- That calmed me.
• 39:44
  [laughs] So why'd, why'd you have Kevin come on the show? We're talking about forks or something, right? We're, we have, we, uh, we have, uh, what is it called? Tableware? Table- Silverware? Flatware.
• 39:56
  Flatware, uh, on, on the brain, and Kevin, I was hoping that he was gonna call 'cause he just, uh, spent some time on the Loif fork. He didn't even wanna give it back. Well, he might not have. [laughs] There you go.
• 40:11
  [laughs] I, I, I still have it. It's still here. It's not going anywhere until you guys, uh, take it. So dude- I'll do that... talk to us about forks.
• 40:20
  You've ridden a, uh, a, uh, an aluminum fork, a titanium fork, probably a steel fork, and now a carbon Loify, Loify fork. What say you? I don't think I've ridden a titanium fork. No?
• 40:35
  Um, which, which I've, I've always wanted to. I've always wondered about those, but they seem to make noises. I don't know. Titanium makes noise. Um, but, uh, mostly I've ridden carbon forks and, um,
• 40:50
  now this, now the, the, the Lauf. How do, how do you even pronounce it properly? I think they say Loif. Yeah. Uh, actually I believe it means leaf. It means leaf. But they say Loif. It does l- I just like Lauf.
• 41:01
  That's how, that's how- Lauf, you know? It's, it's American. Like- Say it American like that. But that's it. Right, right. I mean, I, I- That's the cool thing about being from Alaska... I don't mind.
• 41:09
  Hey, hey, don't froof it up there, Frenchie. 'Cause you're from Alaska- [laughs]... you can do whatever the fuck you want. You can be like, "Yeah, in Alaska this- Yeah... this is how we say it."
• 41:17
  Another show we earn our explicit ratings. Thank you. [laughs] So- All right. Well, I gotta go. That's it. That's- [laughs] How do you like that Lauf fork, Loif? Loif. Larf. I, I liked it. It was...
• 41:31
  It kinda, um, I liked it quite a bit. I didn't like it for everything, but I sure liked it, um, overall. And, uh, it- You said on berms when you really lean into it, it, it, it- It-... it slows you down.
• 41:45
  Well, it- It gets unstable. It- I know what, I know what he's talking about 'cause I read the story, and it does on really, like, weird side load stuff, it doesn't s- it doesn't stay square to the fork.
• 41:58
  It does have a tendency to compress more on one side than the other, which is kind of a weird feeling just a little bit, but that's pretty rare that you run into that circumstance. It is. Yeah.
• 42:09
  It's kind of pushing its limits towards, like, to me sometimes what I think is, like, the lame end of riding a fat bike anyway. Like, I'd just rather be on a different bike then. You know, like- The- Uh-...
• 42:19
  the lame end of- Sometimes I, I- Well, you've, you heard it here first, folks. Fat bikes are lame. [laughs] Hey, hey. Or just one end of them. [laughs] [laughs] I- Just like a- I just say, I, I-...
• 42:31
  just like an IndyCar would be horrible- We are not riding fat bikes-... to go grocery shopping in. [laughs] Right? I wouldn't want to do it. I don't ride my fat bike so often. There's no place to put the groceries.
• 42:42
  Thanks, guys. So just ran into a couple things. All right. The, the guy that called in with important stuff to say isn't getting a word in edgewise here. [laughs] [laughs] I gotta- Am I talking too much again?
• 42:53
  I'm just, I'm just waiting for the giggle fest to end. [laughs] Yes. Yes. Oh, my God. So- It's good... we can't make JK blow chunks today, 'cause he's- I know... he's down there at Summerfest. I was making myself laugh.
• 43:05
  All right, so life, still, um, you know what I loved about it was just the small bump compliance is so good when you're going on something that's like a consistent washboard-y thing or something. Mm-hmm.
• 43:16
  It just really sucks up all that vibration that you would normally have to suck up your own damn self. Yeah. It smooths out everything.
• 43:26
  Um, for a while it, it got, I, I, I was trying to get used to not sitting on my saddle, 'cause it was, it smoothed out the front end and then you'd realize the rear still doesn't have suspension.
• 43:36
  But, um, it does 90, like it soaks up perfectly so much.
• 43:43
  And, um, like we were talking about when, you know, you get it sideways or whatever, it really feels like it's perfect until it reaches its limit, and then it's just not very good, um, in those situations.
• 43:54
  Or, like, if you,
• 43:55
  if you miscalculate something, I know it's, you know, like with having no rebound, um, if you miscalculate some roots and you're going and you're doing a run really fast and you hit some stuff harder than you expect, that can take you for a jolt.
• 44:07
  But- Boing... I mean, yeah, and, and it's just like, I mean, it just doesn't l- but, but really it was, it feels like a carbon fork up there. You don't feel like you have this l- Mm-hmm. Yeah...
• 44:20
  huge piece of hardware up there. Right, right. No, absolutely, versus something like a Bluto, which weighs twice as much pretty much. Yeah. I mean, it w- yeah, it weigh, what?
• 44:29
  It weighs 1,700 grams instead of 1,000 grams.
• 44:32
  And would you- So, you know, I, I would imagine that from my old carbon fork on my fat back, I don't know how much that thing weighs, but it's probably pretty close to, um, 1,000 grams on the old one.
• 44:43
  It's just amazing how light it still feels, and it's soaking stuff up and it, and there's nothing moving. It's the coolest shit in the world. And it's, it's- I just think it's awesome...
• 44:53
  completely maintenance free as well. Maintenance free, true. You know? Yep. You're gonna think twice about taking a Bluto out into an environment that routinely gets at 30 degrees below zero, AKA Fairbanks, right?
• 45:08
  In February. AKA, AK. AKA, AK, right? So, A, you know, it really- AKA. [laughs] You reali- like, you're relying on this thing to make a lot of motions in, like, really cold temperatures if you got a Bluto.
• 45:24
  Um, it just seems like it's bound to fail. Like- Right... I was running it with, um- A pneumatic and a-... Kevin Murphy and, and, and Tim Bernsten up here last winter. Uh-huh.
• 45:32
  And, and, uh, out at the Iditarod trail, and Kevin had a Bluto. Mm-hmm.
• 45:36
  And we're riding, and the second day we get out to ride, the first thing he does, and like everyone does this with a suspension fork, is like you lean on the front end.
• 45:44
  And like, we all looked at each other like, "Oh, hey, look at that, it still works." [laughs] And like that felt like the rev- the Bluto. Like, "Oh, holy shit, that thing still works."
• 45:52
  [laughs] Like, that's what you're doing when you're pushing on those things. You just, you just- You know what I mean? Like- You just described a kickass commercial for RockShox to run for Bluto. [laughs] Ugh.
• 46:05
  But I mean, it, it just, yeah, I mean- So did-... that's kind of what I think about it. W- with the, with the la- or whatever you wanna call it, the carbon era, it just, it's always a th- you never do that.
• 46:14
  You never, like, push on the front and be like, "Hey, is this still working?" Um- Yeah... it's just always a, it's just really cool.
• 46:19
  You're just sipping, you're just sipping a cappuccino over there in the corner while those guys are checking their fork and being like, "Oh, thank God, it still works," and you're just like, "Eh, no worries.
• 46:28
  I made this cappuccino in the time it take you to do that." [laughs] So are you- Ha ha ha ha. Are, are you- [laughs] Are you a paid sp- are you a paid spokesmodel for Life yet, Tev? [laughs] I don't, I don't think so.
• 46:42
  I don't think so. I think he should be. No. Yeah. I think he sh- you should be. You're, you're singing the virtues better- I mean, fuck it, I-... than a canary in a coal mine. Well, that's from our tests.
• 46:52
  I know, I, what's that? You know, that's, he, you know, he tested the fork. I know he did. So. Speaking of that- No, I did... I, I did, I did kinda forget one part of it.
• 47:01
  Uh, when you're, I, I probably know the answer, but what do you do with tire pressure when you're running that fork versus when you're just running a rigid fork?
• 47:09
  You know, that was, I wish I got a chance to ride it more on the snow, 'cause that's where I think it would be awesome. Um, and it changes a lot of things. Like, I just kept it normal.
• 47:19
  I, I probably had it at, you know, eight or 10. I'm not a Nazi with my air pressure. It just kinda, it goes. Um, so probably I, I, I, I would, I would keep it normal. One thing, like,
• 47:30
  that's cheesy and you forget in the winter season is you've got, like, these nice smooth trails, but then you've got, especially in the spring when trails start to deteriorate, you don't want that front wheel diving in.
• 47:41
  And just to soak up the inconsistencies, I was always used to just, I'd let air out of the front so it wouldn't plow into, you know, almost so you could stay up on step.
• 47:50
  And that's where I got so much use out of that thing. I know it's kinda weird, but it was just the time of year I had it, of just you never had to change air pressure. And, um,
• 48:01
  you could stay up on th- I did a lot of crust riding it seemed like this, this spring, so there was just a lot of it available. And, um- Crustafarian... man, it was perfect for that...
• 48:09
  just to, just, just to interrupt you while you really got a good thing going there. Yeah. I'd just like to say that I'd, I would like to be, like, more of a Dalai Lama of air pressure. How about you, Sven?
• 48:22
  [laughs] You know, I had one of those forks for a while, too, on a bike. Yeah.
• 48:25
  And I agree with pretty much everything you said, and I, I always thought that, man, I can't wait for them to somehow make a rear end of a bike in a similar fashion.
• 48:33
  [laughs] And I think it would just be the ultimate winter racing bike, just super light, just a little bit of squish. Um- First, first ride on it I thought, thought the same thing. Yeah. They need rear end on this thing.
• 48:43
  'Cause you feel it in the seat- They gotta make it a full bike... like you're saying. It's definitely like- I feel it... wow, the back end is really harsh now. [laughs] Sure. You've just blown Uncle Gomez's mind now.
• 48:51
  Yeah, it would look cool, wouldn't it? It would look badass. [laughs] It would look like a panther. I thought when he came to the Borealis- You know, like a black panther... that was the next thing coming. Right?
• 48:58
  Well, I, I mean, the seat stays on the things almost look like they could flex- Yeah, that's what I'm saying... if they weren't- Go the next step. Oh. Oh, that's scary. [laughs] Graminy. I think, I think maybe-
• 49:10
  We just came up with a, like a, a good idea You know what they should- We want royalties [laughs] Here's what they, here's what they should do, because as much as I love the Carbonara, if you're really worried about, um, rebound damping, remember the old Lowell Leader?
• 49:24
  Wasn't that a beautiful fork? I want a fat bike version of that fork. Mert Lowell's, it was a parallelogram front end with a shock on top of it- Yeah... and you were steer- Oh...
• 49:33
  it's just like the Carbonara, you were solidly connected to it. Yeah. I still have one, it's just not a fat bike fork. [laughs] Modifications.
• 49:40
  But the i- okay, so here's where I'm going with this story, is the way that that works in the front, the old GT LTS from 1995 had the same- There you go, in the back... rear end style- Mm-hmm...
• 49:50
  which is what you guys are talking about with the Carbonara and the rear end of a fat bike. Yep. Yeah. I think it would be sweet. Oh, yeah. I think we need charts and video. I'm now, I, I am now in 1995. It's perfect.
• 50:01
  I can take a picture of that bike. It has Paul's Love levers on it, it's badass. Fantastic. [laughs] Anyway.
• 50:07
  You gotta, you got, you'd have to figure out that lateral stiffness with a full bike with just the leaf springs. Uh, the, that'd be the thing. They did it in the front end. That's, I think that's the thing.
• 50:15
  They- Right... if they can figure that out, that stiffness- [clears throat]... 'cause like you were saying, 'cause it, they do move, it, it moves, like each side can move independently.
• 50:24
  Um, and you can feel that subtleness, and if they figure that out, uh, it's a total fork for the masses. Um, and that'd be rad. I'd just think that's cool. Right on. That's my- Well, cool. Yep. Thanks, Kevin.
• 50:37
  Thanks for your input. Yeah. Yes, I'm glad I got to call in. I should take my daughter to BMX. I'm gonna go rip. All right. All right, man. All right. We- we'll, we'll talk to Travis for more Alaska color. Thanks, man.
• 50:50
  [laughs] Thanks, man. A- all right. We'll see you. Travis, where are you up here? Anchorage, man. Oh, okay. All right, all right. You guys got a bunch of- I'm- He called in, he was our- I'm the armpit of Alaska...
• 51:01
  he was, uh, he- Is that... I don't know, uh, we're-... our Bluto story... I feel like North Pole is pretty close to the armpit of Alaska too, so, um, we're all there. Alaska's- All right... got a wide spread armpit.
• 51:12
  [laughs] [laughs] All right, we're saying bye to Kevin. We're gonna keep Travis on the horn for a second, though. Hi, Kevin. How are you? Hello. Are we firmly ensconced- You guys-...
• 51:22
  into the, uh, Fatty Farm Field Report? I don't know. I don't think we ever really stepped over the line. I don't think so. I think that, uh- Let's do that real quick-... we should do that...
• 51:29
  and then we'll talk to Travis for a little bit. The Fatty Farm Field Report is brought to you by Quiring Cycles.
• 51:34
  The Quiring Triple B is the fattest ride on two wheels, featuring the next generation of 5.05 inch tires, Gomez. [laughs] Visit QuiringCycles.net to see the next level of bicycle exploration. That's circumference.
• 51:50
  That's... Yeah, and we have to have... It, it's just big enough that we have to mention that.05 of an inch. [laughs] We can't say five inch. No,.05. No, because if it was 5.03, we would probably just say five inch.
• 52:02
  Is there gonna be a new hub standard now? [laughs] Uh- So, I, uh- We've already been talking about- NoU XXXXXXXL. Yes, baby... we've already been talking about cutlery. Oh, damn.
• 52:16
  Forks, I believe, is on the, uh, the agenda. Yeah, that's, that's, uh- Let's let Travis have his piece, and then we can, uh, finish up this bad Oscar. We're not gonna talk about stabbing you in the neck with a pen? Oh.
• 52:27
  [laughs] That's just a suggestion from our listener- I know... Joe, from Libertyville, Illinois- You know where Joe is now?... who says- I slammed- "I wanna stab Sven in the neck with a pen." I know. He says it.
• 52:42
  He has said it. [laughs] It's probably why he doesn't come up here anymore. So, uh, Travis, any other fork, fork lore, or, uh, anything else you wanna share with us here, down here in America?
• 52:55
  Uh, no, I think pretty much covered it. Yeah, you know, the, the, uh, Bluto's great, especially when there's no snow around. Saved my elbows, saved the wrists.
• 53:08
  Uh, yeah, I, I liken it back to 1992 when I got my first Manitou shock with, like, 40, 40 millimeters of travel on my, uh- Elastomers... Gary Fisher R7. [laughs] Those were nice. I had one of those. Yeah.
• 53:22
  I had a, I had a Manitou Mock 5. Yeah. Speed racer. With a Reggae headset. I had a Christine Reggae headset, and it was sweet.
• 53:31
  So, when are other, uh, fork companies gonna realize that, like, fat bikes are a thing, and maybe, you know, there'll be more than two?
• 53:37
  Oh, we sent- [laughs] Here's, here, we sent our RST Renegade test fork out to Hawaii. Ah. All right. So, uh- And there is-... that's our first, uh, test from Hawaii... there is the Ren upside down fork as well.
• 53:49
  Yeah, kind of. Which, which they, they have been, they've been working on that pretty hard. We had that 11.9 and we had a couple of the other versions of it. I think the Ren,
• 53:57
  they've got a guy that was with Cannondale Suspension, and he's tuned the thing pretty good. Hmm. So, I think- And we always forget, we got Olaf, man. We got that lefty, and that fork rode great, so. Yeah.
• 54:11
  Yeah, uh, just, it's hard- But, yeah, I think right now you have to buy the Cannondale to go with it, but. Yeah, it's hard to retrofit that new fork to an existing bike. Yeah. I don't know. It'd take some engineering.
• 54:23
  But, uh, I mean- The point being, I mean, there's enough fat bikes out there in the world, right? Box and Manitou, man. Yeah, I mean, come on.
• 54:29
  Those are the, those are the two other companies that- [laughs] Something with a straight steer tube, maybe we could retrofit some old, you know, we- RST, baby. Yeah. RST. RST Renegade straight steer tube. All right.
• 54:38
  Well, we shall see. Indeed. It is wide, too. That thing is way wide compared to the Bluto. Nice. You could, you could fit that 5.05 in there. I'd give you that extra.05. What about my 7.07s? That Gear Only G.
• 54:50
  [laughs] Damn it. Got 200 millimeter rims going on. No way. Did you see, uh- Yeah, those are yours... did you see Floyd Landis started a, a weed biz down there in Leadville, Colorado? Yeah, not just Floyd, though. Yeah.
• 55:03
  Who's his, who's his partner? His partner's another suspended, doping bike racer. It's, uh, uh, uh- Yeah.
• 55:12
  And then Cycling News had a picture of him, you know, in, in the yellow jersey where he looks completely baked, too [laughs] [laughs]
• 55:21
  Well, and you, I think your- I wonder if that's a filter you can just put onto any picture- [laughs]... and just, like, go from, like, regular to baked. Fakey filter. You mentioned he was, uh, opening in Leadville
• 55:31
  earlier. Right, like, the highest dispensary in Colorado. [laughs] It's called Floyd's of Leadville. Yeah. Um, yeah. That's in our, that's in our plus bikes links.
• 55:40
  Hey, I took a picture of my plus bike when I rode it yesterday. I rode Cam Rock, and that place is badass. Pretty nice. That's my new home trail. I don't know. Home slice.
• 55:49
  I saw somewhere where he had a, a partner that was also a racer that I, I don't know where it went. Hey, Floyd went, underwent hip replacement surgery in 2006, so he says the therapeutic uses for cannabis- No.
• 56:01
  Not that I've seen... can be ignored. Hmm. There's the- For years, I relied on opioid pain relievers to treat my hip pain. No good. No. With cannabis, I find I can manage my pain and have a better quality of life.
• 56:11
  True that. Hello, Floyd. Welcome to the 2000 and whatever-ing thing, thing, zings. Yeah, the new weed- Smoke-a-dopes is 19- The new weed economy... smoke-a-dopes is 1975. Thank you.
• 56:24
  [laughs] [laughs] So, uh, can I do a shout-out to Ricky DeLeos? He, uh- No... he had sent in a tire weight, and we updated our tire weight page. So put that in your pipe and smoke it.
• 56:39
  One of those- I think that's still one of the most im- one of the most popular pages on our site Based on the size tiara- The number of people that are trying to chank, chank the bazonga [laughs]...
• 56:49
  that that post wears, I absolutely agree. It's at least, gotta be top three, top seven, top... I don't know what You know what's gonna be number one, though, I'm pretty sure? What? Your new, your new thing.
• 56:59
  Your gnome-proof gear. Oh, are we in the special segment now? I don't know. Are we? Yeah, we are. So we're, we're gonna do this new thing. We actually have one out there, gnome, gnome-proof gear.
• 57:11
  [piano music plays] And it's- Gnome gear. [laughs] Kinda sounds like that. Lemon gear. So, uh, it's not just gonna be gear that I test.
• 57:21
  It's the gear that the 20-odd bike testers that, uh, that- And they all are odd, by the way... uh, it's, it, because- And gnomes... yeah, exactly. Uh, so and it isn't necessarily stuff that we've been given to test.
• 57:34
  It's more, it's coming to, you know, we said it could be test gear, or it could be just gear that you've bought, but- Right... by and large,
• 57:43
  we have about 10 of these pieces in the editorial process right now, and it's stuff that people bought with their own money and really, really love and have laundered a bunch of times and worn the hell out of them and that they would buy them again.
• 57:58
  So gnome-proof gear seal of approval is, like, our best of or editor's pick or something like that. Mm-hmm.
• 58:05
  Uh, and we're gonna put them out over the summertime here, where you'll be able to see the gear that our testers wear and, uh, read about the best of the best of that stuff. Right on.
• 58:20
  Isn't that, like, uh, you know, like the movie with, uh, the dude and the plane and the thing and the- [laughs]... the cruise and the whatnot? [laughs] The best of the best. [laughs] Come on, Maverick. I'm lost.
• 58:31
  You're the best of the best, Mav. [laughs] You can do it. [laughs] That's, that's Top Gun, ladies and gentlemen. Like- That's my, uh, that's my Cridner version of Top Gun.
• 58:40
  [laughs] > Another cool thing about a lot of this gear- >...
• 58:45
  is that it's a year or two old, so you can go on the old interwebs and find this stuff for half of what we paid. Half. 'Cause we bought it new. Half.
• 58:57
  And now it, it's, like, you know, older stuff 'cause it's a season old. Yeah, yeah. But- No, that makes good sense. Like- Uh, and, you know, 'cause it was good last year, still good this year. Why not save some shekels?
• 59:08
  Exactly. So this is the time that we've put aside to hand it over to Chris Daisy. Hmm. Well- And, uh, he's gonna say a few words about Zion Cycling. Yeah.
• 59:26
  Well, exciting news, I guess you could say. I met with the Zion Park District today to finalize plans for the Beulah Park Boogie Bicycle Race. Oh, cool. Yeah, September 24th.
• 59:39
  Mark your calendars, uh, somewhere around 1:00 PM-ish. We don't have, uh, all the stuff set up quite yet as terms of, you know, links you can go to, but it's coming down the road, so watch for it.
• 59:49
  Gonna have a, gonna have a fat bike class, I assume. Uh, yes, sir. Of course. [laughs] I did snatch the URL, uh, beulahboogie.com, so eventually that will go somewhere. Uh- It's not the new band's name. Hmm, not yet.
• 1:00:03
  [laughs] Well, cool. Our show this evening has been brought to you by the bikes, parts, and chaos of Surly Bikes. Learn more about life, liberty, and the pursil- pursil of two-wheeled happiness at surlybikes.com.
• 1:00:20
  If you have any strange thoughts in your head, you can call us at 818-918-2453 anytime, day or night.
• 1:00:30
  Hey, if you aren't subscribed to our email newsletter, and you probably should be, so I'll put a link in the show notes, uh, we made an announcement that we have a new T-shirt in the shop.
• 1:00:38
  It's our astronaut on a moon lander. Right you are. Which I, it's been a very popular sticker, so- Right you are... it is now a T-shirt.
• 1:00:46
  We even have a color close to the NASA blue that they have on their fancy uniforms up there in space. So, uh, check that out at shop.fatbike.com. Sexy.
• 1:00:57
  Join us next time for the occasional dose of fat when we discuss the correct way to pronounce Chaguaramas. And fresh from the gnome test kitchens, we release details from Project Red Rocket and Blackjack Bikes.
• 1:01:13
  But wait, ladies and gentlemen, there's one more thing You know, fat bikes have been around for about, hmm, what, a dozen years?
• 1:01:24
  So maybe you've sold a fat bike, maybe you've given away a fat bike, traded it in, and what have you. But what would happen if your fat bike decided to break up with you?
• 1:01:36
  [singing] Your fat bike doesn't want you anymore. Golden days before they end
• 1:01:53
  whisper secrets to the wind. Your fat bike won't be near you anymore.
• 1:02:09
  Tender nights before they fly to falling stars that say goodbye. Your fat bike doesn't love you anymore.
• 1:02:28
  It's over. Good night, everybody. [laughs] Good night, everybody, except for Mr. Spinner Ryerson. [laughs] What's up, Spinner?
• 1:02:46
  [laughs] I miss the fork calling you? Oh, no. Well, you can do a little quick thing. We'll, uh, we'll talk about a fork, and then- This is like the occasional-...
• 1:02:53
  I'll just, uh, do a, do a, do, do a reversional thing where I put it before it happened. This is the occasional dose- Time swapping... dose of fat, uh, like, after hours- Oh, we could just do this...
• 1:03:04
  with Spinner Ryerson. And dig it for real, cats, we got Spinner Ryerson on the phone. He's called in to talk about fat wear and what he thinks about carbon fiber and your mama's panties.
• 1:03:18
  [laughs] So what, what is your, what is your fork experience? I was gonna say, I listened to that entire song. Yeah. [laughs] What do you think I'm gonna say? What do you think I would say about forks?
• 1:03:29
  Uh- Given the bikes I ride... Surly Steel Unicorn fork. Yeah. Nah, fuzzy fork offset. Love that shit. Well, you've broken a l- several frames in your time, but you've never broken a fork to my knowledge, have you?
• 1:03:46
  Uh, yeah, I hit a car with that a couple months ago. [laughs] Ah, yeah. But what would've happened if that fork had been carbon fiber? Um, splinters, I would assume. I like all them Braystone things on- I don't know.
• 1:04:00
  I've got, I have no carbon fiber experience, so. That's probably a good thing. Really? We haven't stuck you on one? Uh, we're gonna have to do that. You're gonna have to ride the red rocket. Yeah. I can do that.
• 1:04:10
  Uh, well. You s- you'll give it a go, won't ya? Spinner, I- Uh, we'll see. I- I might be allergic... I have to go pee, so we have to go. [laughs] Or at least I have to go.
• 1:04:24
  Well, at least I got to tune into the thing you were- These guys can talk to ya... so I'm good. Bye, Spinner. [laughs] All right, Spinner. Hey, thanks for calling in, man. Yep. Sorry I'm late. Bye. Bye. Bye.
• 1:04:36
  Travis, we're, we're outta here. [laughs] All right, man. You guys have a happy day, 4th of July. Right on. How did you, how did you like Chris' serenade? Not too safe.
• 1:04:45
  [laughs] How'd you, how'd you like that final serenade there? Wasn't that nice? That was awesome. [laughs] All right, Travis, talk to you next time, man.
• 1:04:51
  With a 50 off knowing, knowing that she doesn't love me, I just wanna go over and punch her right now. [laughs] [singing] It breaks your heart in two to know she's been untrue. But oh, what will you do
• 1:05:10
  when she says to you, "Go ride someone new. We're through." [laughs] [laughs] [singing] It's over. It's over.
• 1:05:29
  It's over. [laughs] And now the show's over. [laughs] Woo. Bye, Travis. You've been listening to Fat Bike Radio's Weekly Dose of Fat.
• 1:05:45
  Find us on the web at fat-bike.com/radio. We'll see you next time.
• 1:06:08
  [upbeat music]