Latest / Full Spectrum Cycling / Full Spectrum Cycling 331 – Part 1 – Jeremy Prach – Fat Biking Culture – Electric Conversions – and The Milwaukee Scene

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Full Spectrum Cycling 331 – Part 1 – Jeremy Prach – Fat Biking Culture – Electric Conversions – and The Milwaukee Scene · Full Spectrum Cycling

• 0:02
  [heavy metal music] Whoa. [laughs] Oh, everybody knows what that theme song means.
• 0:20
  This is Full Spectrum Cycling. Today is show number 331. Yeah, Aurora, Illinois, home of Wayne and Garth. Oh. Wayne's World. Party on, Wayne. Party on, Garth. [laughs] I did not know that. Well.
• 0:35
  Today we celebrate the triumphant return of Michael, even though, 'cause we're not doing this weekly anymore, I don't think anybody knew you were gone. Exactly. It was, [laughs] it was between the [laughs]
• 0:44
  -- West Coast- Just gotta keep it between the ditches, bitches... West Side. [laughs] This is JK, ladies and gentlemen. Hello. [laughs] That's Tony Burger. You remember that guy.
• 0:53
  And today joining us for the third time, he's a three-peat, this is Jeremy Prock. Oh, yeah. Thanks for having me. Kind of like a two-peat, but three time recording. I don't remember, I don't remember the second one.
• 1:02
  Well, the second one would've been your 50th- Your birthday... birthday party at Falcon Point. That explains why you don't remember it. It wasn't, it wasn't technically on the show, but it was- We recorded something?
• 1:10
  Oh, yeah. Yeah, I interviewed you out on the patio. How did I do? [laughs] Well, I, I- All right. Did you listen to it? Do you- Yeah... we listened to it today. I listened to it. You're all right. All right.
• 1:17
  You can listen to it again. And then we listened, well, I did anyway, your first time on was 2019, right before the River West 24- Okay. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I remember that... at the, at the old shop. Mm-hmm.
• 1:28
  At which time you- The old, old shop... old, old shop. Old, old, old shop. Old shop. Yeah. Three ti- three timer. [laughs] Three times old. Uh, at which time you were the bonus check point guy, I believe. Yeah, yeah.
• 1:41
  So we'll get into a little River West 24 lore a little bit later, but, uh- Yeah... that, that's who we're talking to here. I mean, there's, there's a lot- Yeah, thanks, thanks for having me...
• 1:48
  there's a lot more that Jeremy does- Thanks for coming... besides, uh, just that, so. I, I'm really impressed with e- with everything. I'm a little overwhelmed. [laughs] That introduction really had me on my heels.
• 1:56
  You'll be fine. You'll be fine. I'm here. I mean, I mean the, I mean the music and the- Oh, that's loud... the quality. That would be my- This is, this is no, uh, no River West Podcast.
• 2:06
  [laughs] So, so, so to give props to the band that did the song, obviously it's a cover of Queen, but it was my buddy's band called Problem Child.
• 2:15
  And I've run that thing through the copyright gizmo and it doesn't know what the hell that song is, so we're, we're fine.
• 2:20
  [laughs] It just, they were the f- they were the quintessential football choir metal band where it's like when you hear the, the chorus it's like 80 people. Mm-hmm, mm-hmm. Which is, like, four people dubbed a bunch.
• 2:33
  Just, yeah. But, um, they were s- they were, they were a little past their time, but they were a great band. Cool. Uh, anyway, so I don't know.
• 2:42
  Uh, it seemed when we don't do this every week, I don't re- I don't remember- It's always a free-for-all... I don't remember what we talked about last time. Yeah. Gotta get back in the- We'll see... saddle again...
• 2:50
  300 episodes? 331 apparently, according to the number thingy here. And that's how many years? We started- Years...
• 2:57
  yeah, we started in 2017 at the, when we- At the- When I opened the shop, I think we started a couple months later. Yep, yep. Mm-hmm. And it was basically we just did it while we were open. Yep.
• 3:07
  And every, every once in a while somebody'd wander in, Tony'd go talk to them or they'd bring them over and we'd jab, jabber, jabber. Take some pictures and, yeah. Yeah. Mm-hmm.
• 3:14
  So it was just sort of something to do so we had an excuse to be there until 8:00 at night. And drink beer. And drink beer.
• 3:20
  You, you guys also have a, just from my initial introduction here, or intro, intro, re-introduction- Introductory... yeah, re-introduction I suppose, but the three of you have a good energy. You know?
• 3:30
  You guys compliment each other. Sometimes three hosting a podcast can be too much. And we fight. Well, I never compliment him. Yeah, no, don't ever compliment me.
• 3:37
  [laughs] Other than the fact that I have hair and I'm old. Well, JK does, is the only one of us that has actual previous radio experience. Yep. Oh, yeah? That's true. Oh, yes, yes, yes. 102.1.
• 3:49
  Yeah, known as Shakespeare on New Rock. 102.1 with Justice and Friends in the morning. Really? Yep. [laughs] He's got a good radio voice. You do have a good radio voice.
• 3:56
  He does have a- I was gonna say that before you even said anything. He, he definitely has a face for radio. Yeah. Yeah, he's got the best face for radio. [laughs] Exactly.
• 4:03
  Well, especially when I went to, uh, well, I was part of the promotions department as well at New Rock, and, um,
• 4:11
  I had to take a bunch of people out to Madison for a Badger game, and then get back into town for the GWAR show at, uh, the Rave.
• 4:20
  And so I got back for that, and I had freshly shaved head, and I got right into the, right into the fake blood. Mm-hmm, mm-hmm. And it stains. [laughs] Oh, really? [laughs] Oh, it stains. It was like a week and a half.
• 4:33
  Yeah, it's like a color. And I was blotch red. Yeah. Like, and I was like, "Oh, well, good thing I'm working in radio- Since we're-... so I don't have to go into the- Since we're on-...
• 4:41
  the full dance of- Since we're on GWAR, have you seen, and you should see it, not just listen to it, their cover of Pink Pony Club? I ha- I haven't seen it. Fucking awesome. Definitely have.
• 4:53
  That's one of the few I haven't seen, I think. Oh, it's so good. It's so good. [laughs] So for the, uh, Fatbike.com website, because there's no more Gnome Bastard there- [laughs]...
• 5:03
  and there's no m- [laughs] there's no more Gnome Rating System, I instituted a Pink Pony Rating System. I like it. So it's up to five pink ponies. It can either be, you know,.5 up to 5.
• 5:15
  Almost everything's between four and five. So- We can't really-... yeah... can't really... You know, stuff is so good these days, you can't really hack on most of it. Yeah.
• 5:22
  Because we're getting- I'm just thinking about livin'- leaving Tennessee. Yeah. Uh, yeah.
• 5:28
  Well, when you, uh, before, earlier, off-camera, off whatever, when you asked me, "Oh, have you ever had a bad beer at a craft brewery?" And I was ta- again, I was taken aback, and I'm like, "No, I don't think so."
• 5:43
  But then I thought about it, and the l- closest I could come to was Ballast Point before they got bought out and whatever. Is that San Francisco or something? I think so. Mm-hmm.
• 5:52
  It was like a, one of those b- they sold out for, like, a billion dollars- Mm-hmm... and said, "Bye." Cool. Yeah. They had one- Somebody bought it... and it was like a Thai, Thai chili-... pineapple- Mm-hmm...
• 6:04
  something. Yeah That was- Stout... it was so spicy. It was like- That sounds- It was undrinkable... so horrible It was so undrinkable. It was like drinking hot sauce. Well, but that was a- You know?...
• 6:13
  bad beer at a good brewery. Have you ever been to a bad brewery? Was my, I guess- Oh, okay. Comry. I've been to m- I've been to mediocre breweries. Actually, not Comry, but another- Miller...
• 6:23
  before Comry Well, are, are we gonna t- [laughs] are we gonna talk about the brewery tour?
• 6:27
  'Cause the brewery tour of Miller was like, "Hey, stand here while we [laughs] put a projection screen in front of you, and here, watch this promotional video." [laughs] It did used to be a lot better, to be fair.
• 6:40
  All right. Well, not when I went. The tour of Miller was, is, is great in its quantity, in its macroness, right? Of the- By distance, yeah. The amount you can drink after the tour?
• 6:49
  Well, the amount- No, distance of walking... the amount of beer that they produce a day. Hmm. Per minute, per second, however many kegs they do. For sure, for sure. Yeah, they do a, they do a lot.
• 6:58
  Well, how, where, how did we... Now how are we going? How are we doing on this? Are we- Well, we're... So because we've been talking about Miller, I guess we're in the Milwaukee minute or five right now. Kind of.
• 7:06
  Cou- couple of quick things on this, because I, Mike Godowski has been pushing the idea of Urban Jungle Cross again. Nice. He- And- He's someone that should- And- And he's retired... are you o- He should work that...
• 7:17
  yeah, so he is out scoping out new potential areas to do it, and has, like, four or five. One of them was the Goat Palace, uh, Yard, and then I'm like, "You should see what the Goat Palace Yard looks like."
• 7:30
  But if all those piles have rows between them, maybe we could... Right. Right. It's just not big enough for a one-mile course, I don't think. No.
• 7:40
  But- But, uh, there's a couple of good candidates, and I guess next weekend maybe. Is that the idea? Are you, are you- To go scope some more? The- I have no idea what you're- I think- Let me know, I'll come...
• 7:48
  I think JK, JK, you should be on the, on the, uh- Smiling and nodding. What, what, what? Well, I mean, so- Yeah, I'd love to be. I, I mean, yeah. I mean, it, it, yeah, it has been kind of just underneath...
• 7:58
  Well, it's just been underneath the, uh, Marquette Interchange- Right... for the past few years, but- And it wasn't- Which is such a killer damn venue too... it wasn't last year, but this started- Yeah...
• 8:07
  the, so Urban Jungle Cross is a Chris Zito production kind of deal. Yeah, that's what I, that's what I thought. And, uh, the original ones- You know Chris Zito? Yeah. I'm sorry. [laughs] Yeah.
• 8:16
  The original ones were the best. They were at- Yeah... the old Solvay Coke plant site. Dolce Kick Dash. The one by Sprecher? Which is where... No, it's where, um- No, Komatsu... Komatsu is now, down on the river.
• 8:26
  Right by Allen Bradley, basically. Before they built the niceness. You had to ride over a burnt-out box spring... Walker's Point. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It was like this, like the, the cool playground- Yeah...
• 8:35
  where you're just going- It was a, it was a wasteland. It was a post-apocalyptic wasteland. Oh, it was totally- Yes. Yeah, exactly... great way to describe that. That was the, that was the joy of it, going like- Yeah.
• 8:42
  I've, there's a good photos. I- I remember going there before that, going, looking over there, going like, "Ah." The nine-year-old me just aching to get over there. And then- The dude living in the bush...
• 8:51
  fast-forward like two more years, I'm, like, riding my bike through there going, "This is great." [laughs] Yeah. That was a, that was a good time. Good time of life. I've got a lot of photos from then.
• 9:00
  I don't think we did much in the way of video, though. That would've been a great- I have a ton of photos... yeah, I got a lot of photos, but... So Jungle Cross is not a regular thing.
• 9:07
  You're just saying like, "Hey, so and so promoter- It-... is, is thinking about doing it again." It, it was traditionally the Saturday after Thanksgiving, is when it was usually run.
• 9:17
  And you're not gonna believe this, but it's an excuse to get together and ride bikes and drink beer. And eat chicken. I did it. I did it twice, I think. And eat chicken. Chicken legs. Oh, you have done it?
• 9:27
  Uh, I did it as a, just, I h- I knew Chris was doing it and I helped him out. Mm-hmm. Yeah. I think I was on the top of Whiskey Mountain. Is that what it was? Oh. Oh, yeah.
• 9:34
  Yeah, okay, then you w- you have been part of it. Lat- later, later renamed Rehorst Rise. Okay. Yeah. Uh- Because the KK Whiskey- I haven't thought about Whiskey Mountain in a long time...
• 9:42
  yeah, KK Whiskey, uh, bottles- Yeah. So, and then it-... had to appear up there, so... then it was under the freeway by, uh, Home Depot in- Yeah, that's the one I did. Okay. Okay. Oh, yeah.
• 9:51
  Oh, that was a muddy as shit, man. And they did have a rise there. Yeah, that was a, that was a muddy one. Oh, yeah. Oh. I lost a great pair of gloves. Eh. Kenny d- destroyed his derailleur there.
• 10:00
  Oh, man, that was so funny. All right.
• 10:02
  Just, just listening to you, I mean, I'm not into bikes with the passion that you are, but I'm certainly into the organizing, into the, and the, uh, that the fact that this still happens at a non-corporate level, at a non, uh, organized, associated level, I thought that by now there'd be a Jungle Cross Association- [laughs]...
• 10:17
  with a buy a membership to it. And, right? And it was a re-sponsored by everything. We're, we're, we're not nearly that organized. And that's a great thing. You shouldn't be.
• 10:24
  Well, Lifetime has not come knocking on our door yet saying, "We need to replicate this in every junkyard around the country." Yeah. Well, then is, is, is Jungle Crossing a Milwaukee thing?
• 10:35
  I think the Urban Jungle Cross idea, I don't know if it started in Minneapolis, but- I don't know. I just- It, it must have been either- I always was part of it... well, I was gonna say, let me put it this way.
• 10:42
  If it was Zito, it was either Australia or Minneapolis. [laughs] Just by default. Well, you gotta say all of them- I love you, buddy... in the same sentence, right? What the...
• 10:49
  Um, but he was- On a long, a short enough timeline, it comes to that... yeah, he was obviously the person in the local area that, that definitely pushed it and, and made it happen. I worked many hours getting...
• 10:59
  He had all these ideas. We had to dig tons of stuff up and just make weird drops and course stuff and, you know, kinda make it semi-safe, but not safe enough where people would not be kind of afraid of parts of it.
• 11:09
  Yeah, that great photo of one of you with a, like, machete. [laughs] One with a mask. It's like- Oh, yeah... it's the best photo I've ever taken of you. That's, oh yeah. The album cover photo?
• 11:21
  Yeah, that, uh- That was the thing, the trail building of that- Like that-... was just- It's so good... so much fun. Yeah. It was like, "Okay, let's just, okay, well..." Well, let, let me ask you something- "...
• 11:30
  see what you... Oh, no, take some of that bramble, throw it there, and then we can put like three hubcaps in a row. And that will be a bridge over that little shitty creek right there." Yeah. Well, well, so two things.
• 11:39
  I, I, wasn't Stupercross, was that a thing? Is that- That's a M- Yeah... Milwaukee thing... Minneapolis thing. But isn't that, isn't that kind of a predecessor to Jungle Crossing? Probably.
• 11:47
  Jungle Cross- It would not surprise me. Okay. And then, uh- It's like Animal Crossing... going into, into this- Jungle Cross... Stuper Bowl, by the way. It's called Stuper Bowl. What did I call it?
• 11:55
  Supercross Oh, Superbowl Superbowl Sorry Superbowl Okay, so I'm a... My, I have to dust off my vocabulary. [laughs] But, uh, but still, this is all done without waivers, right? Mm. Without insurance, without permits.
• 12:07
  Hey, you're outside, it's your own fucking problem. Yeah. [laughs] You know, and, and I really appreciate it, 'cause it's really hard to maintain that pocket. Do you guys have- Holy shit... have waivers for the 24?
• 12:15
  We do now. [laughs] Yeah. And do you, do you have insurance too? We have insurance protecting us- Yeah... not protecting- Them... you- Okay. [laughs]... as a part, you know, as a- Right... participant.
• 12:25
  Well, I mean, like, even doing, um, you know, local race events, there's, y- it costs a couple bucks per rider to insure people at an event. What, what- So it's not a small amount of money...
• 12:34
  well, what is that, and what is that, what are you- But that's in a closed course environment, not a open city environment. Probably with an ambulance? Yeah, I don't know that we ever had to have ambulances- But that-...
• 12:43
  per se. So you, you, this is what I think is neat, is this, is we're zooming in on something that maybe people don't appreciate.
• 12:50
  Maybe they go to Zito's Jungle Cross like, "Oh, that sucked," without any idea or understanding what it takes to organize anything- Yeah... l- to this scale. Sure. Yeah.
• 12:58
  A- and so yeah, your, your question was, do we have insurance, just, just real quick.
• 13:02
  I, I, I, from what I understand, it's just to protect us as h- as humans against our house, to, you know, to lose our, to lose our home or in case of a serious accident, we're protected that way.
• 13:12
  I, I don't exactly know what it would means if we were to charge the per rider. That's an interesting... Not sure that it really... Because who would underwrite it? I don't know.
• 13:21
  Yeah, that's what we're trying to stay- [laughs]... we're trying to, like, maintain an altitude just below 30,000, right? Yep. So that, since we're on the subject- [laughs]... that brings me- Every day...
• 13:32
  to an afternoon where you and I drank semi-warm beers- Okay... in your side yard. Okay. May have been after an event, I don't know what that event was. Might've been the River West 24. Yes.
• 13:46
  And I had just purchased the, the house that I can throw a football at your house with. Yeah. And you questioned, when I bought that house, why I did it because
• 13:58
  I'm never gonna make money off of it because of it being in River West. I said that? Yeah. Okay. And now it's 2026- Okay... and people are dumb at what they pay for houses in River West.
• 14:14
  I, I, I do wanna preface- I'm shocked... that anything I've ever said to anybody in any bar- [laughs]... or anything- This was not a bar... my- This was your side yard...
• 14:20
  anytime I've ever been drinking, isn't- We were drinking warm beer... isn't, I, I, I've even, I've even asked you questions e- even here today, uh, my question isn't to challenge. It's, it's to get a truthful answer.
• 14:32
  Oh, and I, and- An answer of which I'm searching for myself... well, and you and I were both like, how long have you lived at your place? A, a long time, at least 30 years. See, I'm on- Wow... 32 in River West. Yep.
• 14:42
  And, you know, a couple of other houses, and h- I'll be quite honest with you, and it's been s- spoken on previous podcasts, is I'm ready to get the fuck out. Okay, whoa, hang on, hold on to that. Hang on. Okay.
• 14:55
  That's a bold statement in the s- So-... line in the sand. [laughs] You know, the situation is- Tony, Tony- [laughs]... Tony's been getting increasingly, uh, uh- I'm, I'm aggro with my neighborhood right now... aggro.
• 15:04
  I, I see it. I see it. Um, but when I bought that place, I didn't expect the neighborhood to get stupid. Gentrified? Well, it, it's more than gentrified.
• 15:18
  Like, I'm, I'm getting text messages from people saying, "Do you wanna sell your house?" And I'm responding back with, "Can I have your first child?" [laughs] Well, okay, so hang on.
• 15:28
  What does, what does stupid mean in this context? It's getting stupid. Price. Price-wise. Yes. Yes. Price. So going back to my original question was, because I had thought we were at the- Me too...
• 15:39
  that was probably like- Me too... eight, eight years ago. Yeah. I, I mean, just- Yeah, I bought in 2018, so- I paid 14.2 for my home, for example, 14,200, um, which you couldn't buy a Yaris for that. Right.
• 15:50
  [laughs] Yeah. You're, you're, yeah, and you've done, I mean, obviously we both have a ton of sweat equity into the places. Sure, but the house, forget the equity, just, and I'm not even bragging or anything.
• 16:01
  My house, I paid 14.2. It's worth probably 280. No. Yeah. Your house is worth 450, guarantee it. Okay, that's stupid. Yeah. [laughs] I know. I know, dude. That's, that's- That's why I'm saying this...
• 16:11
  start, start taking the equity out now while you can. [laughs] That's why I'm saying this. It's dumb what people are paying for property in River West right now.
• 16:20
  Because just- Jessica just sold her place for over 400 grand on Booth. Well, c- correct me if I'm wrong. I, I, I think I've, I've always used it. Are you guys homeowners too? Yep. Yes? I am. Nope. 20, 27 years.
• 16:30
  Well, as, as, as a renter too, if you will, the, the price of the home, your, your, your mortgage with taxes ru- is roughly 1% the assessed value of the home. Does that make sense? Mm-hmm, mm-hmm.
• 16:40
  A $2,000 home or a $200,000 home is $2,000 a month. Not, not in my case. [laughs] Is, is that a close ballpark? It, it's, well- Mine's, mine's like half that... it's changed quite a bit.
• 16:50
  I do, I used to go by that math too, but with taxes and such, it's gone a little bit higher now. But anyway, go on. But it's higher. Okay. Yeah. You think? I don't know.
• 16:58
  So it's, my point is if, if I had a, a duplex for 400,000, then that's 2, 2,000 a month- Each... flat for, for rent. Right, right. Per, per rent. Per rent, yep.
• 17:09
  And that's what's pricing things out and making things difficult. Exactly. Yeah. Exactly.
• 17:13
  The homeownership is another problem in, uh, of gentrification, if you will, in that I'm just talking about living here and preserving the weirdness that we have- Mm...
• 17:21
  is gonna get harder to maintain with prices like that. I'm gonna state that that's nearly gone now, unfortunately- Well, it's-... the weirdness... that's why I come here and hang out in River West all day.
• 17:30
  Right, and- But I don't-... you live in Whitefish Bay... I don't sleep here anymore. I mean, I am- I was, I was East Side born and raised, so...
• 17:35
  it was funny, 'cause when you told me that, wh- when we were in your yard and you're like, "What are you gonna do considering you're investing all this money for a property that you're never gonna make the money back on?"
• 17:46
  I'm like, "I love the neighborhood." Yeah. Now I hate the neighborhood- [laughs]... and I'm gonna make a lot of money. Let's put a pin in that. Okay What does that mean?
• 17:55
  Top of the hill This is not the real estate show, Tony What does... Does that mean that when, when Tony talks too long- It's a rehorse show...
• 17:59
  or anybody talks too long- Well, we talked, we talked about rehorse rides, and so now we are on the top of the hill. Top of the hill. Which is- Which is when you stop to have a beer...
• 18:05
  which is, you know, on your bicycle ride- And we discuss-... you stop at the top of the hill... the beer we're having at the top of the hill. And, uh- Well-...
• 18:10
  J- JK from his recent trip out west came with Firehouse Brewing Company. Tell us a little bit about that beer, JK. It's from Firehouse Brewing Company. In Rapid- [laughs] Do I open this or it's already open? Oh, yeah.
• 18:22
  I didn't even ask. No, no, no, of course. Uh, no, was on road trip and made it into Rapid City, South Dakota.
• 18:32
  Have to say it like James Mason in North by Northwest because he actually says the words, "And then you stay at the Shelton in Rapid City, South Dakota." So this is the watch. It's an American India pale ale.
• 18:47
  It's very strange that you, like- An American Indian pale ale? I know. I was like, I, like you have to kinda- From South Dakota... you have to, kinda hits the- [laughs] It's, it's a little different...
• 18:53
  yeah, yeah, kinda has to hit the, yeah, you have to- There's so many people-... kinda hit the brakes-... back to school... a little bit going like, "Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. Dude, I..." It's an American India pale ale.
• 19:02
  That being said- American IPA. There we go... that, that being said, can I pet this dog? Yeah, you can pet, you can- It's a, it's a good-looking dog... you can pet my dog if you want.
• 19:08
  Tony, Tony- Well, well if this is the beer segment of the show, Indian pale ale, right, would, uh, traditionally high in alcohol, high in hops for the British soldiers in India, right?
• 19:16
  I, I'm not getting any deeper than that. No, you are, you are definitely hitting the spot on. But, but in, in an American pale ale, like American has this, like arrogance of how hoppy we can make things. Sure. Right?
• 19:25
  Yeah, yeah. So like a, like a American pale or a California pale ale is usually- A West Coast IPA 'cause it's-... a West Coast, could be hoppy... hazy... I'm not saying this because I'm educating you.
• 19:33
  I'm saying this 'cause I'm reading your face as if, as if I'm wrong or not. [laughs] So, so an American, an American Indian pale ale's gonna be kind of a, a, a pale ale, American pale ale and an IPA together. Yes.
• 19:45
  Is, that's the idea, right? I mean, I hate to- Yes... I hate to talk s- like I'm surely s- not as smart. I'm gonna drink it and find out. [laughs] Yep.
• 19:50
  I just ate some cheese, so I washed out that swill- Oh, that cheese is good... for the next door to Morphic. Oh, it's terrible beer next to Morphic. Those guys should go out of business.
• 19:57
  At 6.5% is a decent amount of- Yeah... fun. Yeah. Alcohol, you see. It, yeah, it's not over the top and it's not like, ooh.
• 20:04
  That, like, uh, it's like, ooh, when you're nudging on the seven, that always gets me a little nervous. And let's face it, if you're driving home in a Yaris, no one's gonna- [laughs]...
• 20:13
  like assume you had a, like a dozen beers. And if it's Milwaukee and you're doing this, that, and this, that, it's, you're avoiding the potholes. [laughs] You're, you're driving your bottles.
• 20:20
  [laughs] You're just avoiding the potholes. If you're driving through the potholes, that's when they pull you over. Well, l- let me say one more thing about this beer- [laughs]...
• 20:26
  if I can, that this Firehouse, I, I know this brewery. We had mentioned- Yes... because they have old fire trucks, like just like Wall Drug. Mm-hmm. They've monitored, or they, they've copied their advertising.
• 20:34
  You guys know- Yes... what I'm talking about? Yes. You guys ever driven out west where it's- Been to Wall Drug about 230 times... 200, 200 more miles of Wall Drug. Yeah. Yeah.
• 20:40
  And, uh, Br- Firehouse has done that same thing. Exactly. Right? And that, it, and it worked because- That was like- I was like- And that's why, and that's why we have this beer here today... that's why we have it.
• 20:48
  It was, this is- Yes... truth in working advertising on that. 'Cause I was like, oh, shit, it's right there. That's, do they still have the Burma- We might as well... do they still have the Burma-Shave signs out there?
• 20:57
  And they, you know, they have a lot of good beer. It was- Burma- Don't know... Burma-Shave, those were all over the place back in the olden times. Obviously never used any of them. In the '70s.
• 21:06
  Yeah, there's still- It was different... I don't know, there may be a few restored ones just for posterity sake. No, but the- All right. Well-...
• 21:12
  the Wall Drug, I did, I stopped at the Wall Drug for a minute because they were closing. It was perfect time to land there. It was like, "Oh, you're closing. Great." Did you- "I'm here.
• 21:21
  I got-" [laughs] You know, I, I bought one thing and got the free damn sticker. Was it a jackalope? I'm like, "And I'm off. Woo." Because you can buy jackalopes there. No. They got jackalopes all over the place.
• 21:30
  They don't matter. That's one of the most heavily populated- I made this very-... jackalope areas in the country... efficient, awesome road trip, babe.
• 21:36
  [laughs] But yes, Rapid City, South Dakota is- It's actually pretty good... not bad... yeah. That's my first sip. It's not bad at all. It's drinkable. Yeah. It's okay. What kind of alcohol is it you're looking at there?
• 21:46
  Very sweet. 6.5 or? 6.5. Nice. It's very sweet. It is sweet. I was gonna say that. It- Yeah, it's got a definite sweetness to it. It- And it's got a dog on it, so it can't be that bad.
• 21:53
  It's pineapple, grapefruit, passion fruit- Well, now that we're on our bikes-... peach, mango, orange... allow me, allow me to just- Jesus... shove a little bike- Pine resin... stuff in here just for curiosity's sake.
• 22:04
  Okay. Had Carolyn's bike in for the Gen 1 CYC motor, new sprag clutch, blah, blah, blah. It works great. Oh, yeah. Instead of it giving you grief? Well, now- And you just help me... I just ordered two Gen 2s.
• 22:16
  You should see the difference in how repairable and what wonderfulness there.
• 22:20
  We'll look at it after the show, but there's a Hospino or something tandem where the guy at, on the back sits up, but the person on the front's kinda recumbenty-ish- Interesting... for his wife and he to ride.
• 22:33
  [siren blaring] Uh-oh. Uh- Emergency alert. Tornado warning in this area until 7:15. Take shelter. Are we sheltered? I, this is a concrete block building. [laughs] I, yeah, I think we're okay.
• 22:42
  I don't think we're going anywhere. 7:15 on a Tuesday. Well, this, this moment will be marked for posterity in case- Yeah... it does- [laughs] Right... come tear ass through here. [laughs] I have a tornado warning.
• 22:54
  Um- That's the black- There's a- You were admiring the black box before. Yeah. Move the weight. [laughs] It was, [laughs] yeah. It's like- Check the black box- I, I think-... as our bodies are in the trees.
• 23:03
  [laughs] Got that? I think that w- I think the wind profile of that's small enough it wouldn't get picked up. [laughs] Uh, so w- we got that- [laughs]...
• 23:11
  and then I'm, I'm doing, because we can't get omniums anymore, thank you very much, Tariff Trump. [laughs] Uh, I'm doing a Schlick Cycles X. I saw it. It's cool.
• 23:22
  State Bicycles collab with the cargo fork and a, a CYC Gen 2 motor, so fun stuff we should have to talk about next month. Uh, just real quick, I, I, are you talking about electric bikes? Yeah. Yep. Okay.
• 23:35
  See, that's, that's those- Yeah, we occasionally do electric bikes too. Okay. I appreciate that.
• 23:38
  And to be fair, I think, I don't know if I mentioned this when we pre-showed over at the next door area of Morphic, but being a normal bike shop, especially as a small independent, is pretty hard these days without kinda specializing in something nobody else wants to touch.
• 23:54
  So our kind of thing is fat bikes, adventure bikes, like bike packing stuff, and electric bikes, mostly conversions from a bike that you really, really like But either you're getting older, you wanna go further, you wanna carry more shit, and you want to electrify it.
• 24:09
  Mm-hmm. So- Mm-hmm... that's kind of where our little niche is. And to be fair, all it does, hopefully in the end, is pay for that room over there that has all the crap in it.
• 24:19
  I don't, we're not, I'm not making money at it right now. I'm really good at not making money at a lot of really good ideas.
• 24:24
  [laughs] Th- thankfully, my- For me- My, thankfully my very patient wife is a teacher, and she, she kinda takes care of the bread and butter, and the nuts and bolts, and all the stuff that makes it possible for me to take flyers.
• 24:36
  And every once in a while something works. Mm-hmm. We had a really good five years right before COVID. If COVID hadn't happened, we'd be living in Costa Rica or Portugal or something right now, for sure.
• 24:47
  But COVID did happen, and I had to pivot, and now we're, you know, we're doing what we're doing. Mm-hmm. But, but you, you don't have to sell me. I think we're of the same generation.
• 24:55
  A- and we, this has come up in the- He's way older than me... this has, this has come up in subtle- 10 years older... in our- Almost to the day...
• 25:00
  in our brief conversation, o- of we have an ethos of not selling out our homes. Uh, it, it came up in another theme, but certainly in this. You don't have to justify to me. Uh, your means are pure here of w- [laughs]...
• 25:13
  of doing what you love- Us... and not being a sellout. Of spending all my money. This is DIY. This is punk rock. This is the ethos that I love about our neighborhood, or loved about our neighborhood.
• 25:24
  I, like, I, I think I- And I appreciate your story... I think I mentioned when we came in downstairs that I've been in this... I was the third person in this building.
• 25:31
  The guy that was building out everything, his name was Tom, I think he lives up in Rhinelander now. He was the drywall guy that did all of the, the sectioning off. Michael Davidson of- Yeah... The Davidsons- Yeah...
• 25:43
  was on the third floor. And then I- He knows those people. You know those people. I do. Um, and then I was on this floor.
• 25:51
  I've been, I've been in, I've been in this room, and I left this room, and I came back to this room. And I- You know what was here? Present Music. Yeah. Well, before that I was here. Yeah. That's crazy.
• 25:59
  And then they were here for five years, and then I came back because long- That's Present Music... long story. Uh- That's crazy... but I've been in, at like five different rooms on this floor over the years.
• 26:09
  And, uh, it's just, it's like home. A, the guy that owns the building got it very reasonably priced a long time ago. Mm-hmm. And he doesn't rake people over the coals. Mm-hmm. It's half the price of next door.
• 26:23
  You know, if you do your square foot- Steve's? Yeah, he's- Oh... a little bit on the high side for a warehouse. It was Steve. But hey, what was his, uh- Jack White. What?
• 26:31
  [laughs] No, just seeing if Jack- Jack White's brother... Sawyer was there. No, his, his, uh- Sawyer's the, uh-... it's his cousin. His cousin Randy, that's the guy with the hair. Yeah, that's it, Randy.
• 26:39
  [laughs] That's right. Um, so anyway, uh, yeah, so that's that thing. Uh, here's something. Do you guys ever hear of gravel? Gravel biking? You ever hear about riding bikes on gravel? Yeah.
• 26:49
  I think it's, it's a new thing. That's just riding bikes. Don't get me started. It has to be on gravel though. And I, and I still can't- Has to be on gravel... I can't bike. Unless you're on gravel...
• 26:54
  unless somebody really, like- Gotta be on gravel... talks to me like a five-year-old- At least if I can picture this... I, I'm just like, "Wha?" I just, I just can't picture this. The same running joke, right?
• 27:02
  [laughs] But wait. But wait. So there is now, and this is based out of Wausau, because they really do- Wausau? Wausau. Okay. Right. W-A-U-S- S-A-U... Wausau? Wausau. Wausau.
• 27:11
  To be fair, the dairy industry in Wisconsin has pays, paved almost every goat path and, and cow pasture that you can pave to get stuff going. Iowa, not so much. Great gravel.
• 27:22
  Around Wausau though, there is a pretty good s- there's 1,000 miles of gravel there, if you wanna do your gravel thing. So now there's wisconsingravel.org, which is like a network of all the trails.
• 27:33
  If you wanna do the gravel thing, that'd be a place to check it out. Okay. Do you wanna- Can I ride on a regular bike? No, you gotta have a gravel bike. Maybe a mountain bike. Gotta have a gravel bike.
• 27:42
  Maybe a mountain bike. You can only get the- Maybe a fat bike... you can only get those from Trek or Specialized. Yeah. Can't get them anywhere else.
• 27:47
  The funny thing is, and I think I've mentioned this before, because- [laughs] Marketing... [laughs] well, my, the guy that used to build our frames, Tom Teasdale, was based in West Branch, Iowa. R- R.I.P.
• 27:56
  That would be the, uh, presidential library of Herbert Hoover, I believe, there in West Branch, Iowa. In case you need a little history lesson. But Tom was making bikes that we called all-road bikes that would take a 38
• 28:10
  in the '70s. It's not like it's new to ride bikes on gravel. It's brand new, dude. [laughs] We haven't even gotten into 32-inch wheels yet. Oh, don't get me started. That's next show.
• 28:20
  We're not gonna, we're not gonna open that can of worms right now. I rode one. It was really fun. The Corker? I rode the, from, from, uh- Chewy? Uh, [clears throat] Chewy. Yeah. Yeah. No.
• 28:30
  That's not a thir- He stole my bike and let me ride it. Yeah, that's- That was a 36, wasn't it? That's not a 32. It d- yeah. It was a 36 where- We'll talk about this next show- It was a Corker...
• 28:38
  'cause I didn't wanna get into this this time. It's, it's so dumb- Let, let me-... that I can't even get into it right now... let me ask one, one quick question real quick.
• 28:42
  Is it, 'cause again, l- I love the vocabulary you guys are throwing out. I love it, 'cause it, it r- it very much rel- relates. It's almost like acronyms- I don't know what you're saying-... but it's not...
• 28:49
  but I know exactly what you're saying. [laughs] 36 is just- I know exactly what you're saying-... inches, the size of the wheel... but I have no idea specifically.
• 28:56
  It's like riding- But let me, let me put it in perspective for you. It's like you've modified your Harley- [laughs]... with a 36-inch front wheel. No, I get it. You get it? I mean, it's like- No... you see those guys.
• 29:07
  Why would anybody do that? But here's, but here's my question. Going back to organizing an org- an organizer, if you will. Uh, Ride Wisconsin Gravel. So a, a, a local- Wis- yeah, wisconsingravel.org...
• 29:16
  a, a, a local municipality is supporting, or someone pitched them this idea of fat bike and gra- gravel riding, and the local municipality bought into it and threw a little- Right... a little bit of money behind it. Yep.
• 29:28
  Yeah. That's, that I find to be fascinating. That they were, I guess, open-minded enough to, to invest- Sure... in, in, in the gravel riding. Yeah. What's it...
• 29:36
  So the guy, so the guy- Well, hopefully being all nice and, you know- So to be fair-... pragmatic and-... the guy that's doing this-...
• 29:42
  benevolent thought about it, not like, [laughs] "Oh, yeah, let's- Well, they're, they're looking for tourism... just wait for it. Wait for it."
• 29:47
  They, well, directly, because the guy that's doing this is tim@visitwausau.com. Okay. Sure. Oh. Yeah. So it's, it's a, it's a, it's a- And that, and that, and that's not bad. I'm not saying that as a bad thing. No.
• 29:55
  It's great. No, he may have gotten hired by the, the tourism people to do this. To, yeah, to make Wausau a more bike-friendly community. Yeah. Yep. Which it already is a pretty decent place.
• 30:04
  They've got Nine Mile Forest there, which is awesome. Pretty good. I've ridden that there. They've got the Ringley trails there, which are super badass. And they have a really cool gravity park.
• 30:13
  Which I took Garrett to last time- Sand Dunes, right?... we were out there. Yeah, you, so you, there's like four or five downhill trails, and then there's the long slog up It's at Granite, Granite Peak?
• 30:22
  Uh- At the Rib Mountain there? It's... No, it's not on Rib Mo- It's in the general area, though. But where you take a, you can take a left- It's called, it's called-... back to the top...
• 30:29
  it's called Sil- This one you can't. You have to ride your ass back up. [laughs] Okay. [laughs] It's called Sylvan something, Sylvan Woods, Sylvan, Sylvan something. Sylvan Esso. Sylvan Esso. Sylvan Esso.
• 30:38
  That could be it. [laughs] Have to, like, beat me to it. Um, but anyway, I just think- Put the nee- put the, put the needle on the record... I just think this is, I mean, this is the buzzword.
• 30:46
  Like, in five years nobody will even remember what a gravel bike was. They'll just call it a bike you ride- Agreed. Agreed... on gravel. That's like, you're right. Again, yeah. I know. I'm waiting, yes.
• 30:52
  I'm so tired of the marketing. Well, well, let me lose a minute just, just on that. Is a, a fat bike's a gravel bike, no? Any bike's a gravel bike- Yeah, if you ride it on gravel... if you ride it on gravel.
• 31:00
  Well, a fixed gear, thin- Ride it on the fucking gravel, it's a gravel bike. Ta-da. But you can't ride it on the gravel. Yes, you can. Sure you can if you're a man- Haven't you, have you ever seen-...
• 31:08
  or a woman who likes to be, or other, that likes to ride a fixed gear bike on gravel. Have you ever seen fixiecross? It's in the wind, man. Okay. That's right. True. Doing a cyclocross on a fixie.
• 31:18
  Okay, I appreciate you being patient with, patient with me. [laughs] I mean, it's, it's all marketing, Jeremy. It's all marketing. Yeah, but you're not wrong. How can we sell more bikes?
• 31:27
  But- We're gonna call them gravel bikes... but here's one thing about your vocabulary. It's a little bit like Taco Bell. There's only, like, five things, and you've just, you're just- We just keep mixing them...
• 31:34
  interchanging them. That's an exact... That's the greatest way to describe that. What's a chalupa? Right? Yeah.
• 31:39
  It's just a different way to add meat, cheese, and- You have a skinny tire, a fat tire, a, a fixed gear and a, and a non-fixed gear, and then you just- Yeah... you kinda, like a- And then you ride it... fashion plates.
• 31:46
  To be fair, while you can ride a fat bike on anything, including we won team A on a fat bike in 2013. Was it- '14... '14? We won... '13 we took third. '13 we were third, '14, yeah, I got off- Didn't The Reverse 24?
• 32:01
  I got, yeah, I got off the team, and then they won. [laughs] The boat anchor left the team. That was all, just for the record- Yeah... I don't want to talk about The Reverse 24. You won it, won it? That's all...
• 32:10
  We won it on the fat bike, and that was all- Yeah... because of Jake- I remember that. I remember that... Newborn. Yeah. 'Cause he was like- He's a stud... "There's no way you're gonna beat us." I'm like- Yeah...
• 32:16
  "Oh, we're gonna fuckin' beat you." Oh, oh, he, so he wasn't on your team. Oh, no, no, he talked smack the whole time. No, he was the fi- the smoke.
• 32:21
  No, and that, that was the year that Colin Ford on a fat bike beat Jake- Yeah... around the first lap. The first lap. And came skidding into the thing in front of Jake, because he blast, he blasted over a yard.
• 32:32
  He did a couple shortcuts- Yeah. [laughs]... and he ended up just totally owning Jake- Love you, Colin... on that lap. Love you, Colin Do, do you, do you normally kick Jake kind of around, like, in a loving way?
• 32:40
  Oh, I love kicking Jake around. [laughs] Yeah, in a loving way. Okay. As much as we love him, we like to kick him when he's- I'm the one, him and I are the reason that we started that stupid sleeping in the park. Okay.
• 32:50
  Should never have done that. That was great when you, when you did it, and I could join you and bring you beer. Yeah. The park- Or Gordon, Gordon Park? No, right next to The Public House, initially. Oh, that's right.
• 33:02
  That's right. In Wautoma, Wautoma Park. Wautoma Park. Yes. Th- th- let me g- uh, quickly, uh, go through that. You, we used to do a signup. You'd walk up.
• 33:10
  It was first come, first serve, and you, it started as one day, and two day, and I think once we got to the third night of sleeping, then we- That was me... changed the format of- That was me.
• 33:19
  [laughs] This is all my fault, dudes... it's all Tony's fault. That's totally my fault, and I r- I, I, I feel bad. [laughs] I waited 52 hours- I want to say-... in line to ride a 24 hour bike race...
• 33:29
  I, I went there to wait in line myself, uh, uh, uh, just to get part of the experience. Yeah. And we're like, "We're gonna hang out and kinda keep things calm, and- Mm-hmm...
• 33:37
  keep it under control so we don't get any bad press from this." And then, uh, [laughs] Wendy came back and was like, "Well, everyone was complaining about how loud it was," and it was us.
• 33:45
  It was Fonz, Chris Fonz and I- [laughs] I think, yeah, and you were like hanging by-... uh, we were partyin'... hanging by that, like, that crazy, uh- The only reason-... fire generator thing- Yes... on the- Yes.
• 33:55
  [laughs] The only reason- We were the ones making the problems... Andrew Zohn is on the team now is 'cause we saved his ass from walking into the middle of Locust Street drunk as fuck one day.
• 34:05
  [laughs] I'm like, "Dude, you can't do this." This, that was wild times. Yeah. It was. That was- We were young and- Wild, wild ones... dumb. Young? We were 40. Foolish. Wild, wild ones. 42.
• 34:15
  And I was- And speaking of the wild- If you're out of beer, there is more beer in the fridge- Yeah...
• 34:18
  just in case you need to- But there's- So I'm gonna- Somebody purchased The Watcher to- I'm gonna bring this back- I, I-... to hanging out in your yard... have The Watcher.
• 34:27
  I did, I would've, I should've brought it- And can I get you-... 'cause it's so badass... to talk about something that you don't remember at all, but what was your first muscle car?
• 34:34
  'Cause you and I talked about this a lot. Really? Was it a FoMo2? Did I have a Duster? I think it was your Duster. I think I had a Duster. And I had a, and I had a Chevelle. Okay.
• 34:43
  And you and I had some great conversations. I must've really had a lot of, a lot of these IPAs that day. No, I think you had a lot of really shitty lukewarm Pabst. Yeah. Is that right? That's my pocket.
• 34:55
  We were, we were sitting there. Check out that thing. Hey, pick it up and smell it. Smell it. Smell it, Tony. Smell that thing. Oh, it smells... Oh, this is good. That's a beautiful print.
• 35:03
  It smells like freshly- Yeah, smell it. It's, it's freshly s- Oh, it's a, that's a nice- Are you, are you part, is this part of your thing, Tony? Just- Oh, I wish. No, this is, this is- Oh, that's a nice smelling press.
• 35:12
  Mm-hmm. Fresh press. So- This is when Cog Magazine looked like this. Yeah. [laughs] This is, this is a- 80... so this is bikepacking.com's Bikepacking Journal. This is printed in Germany.
• 35:22
  Uh, but there is a- [phone rings] Is this me? What's that? Oh. There, this is a, there is a story. There's actually- Oh, that smells so good... because normally it's fat, it, it's bikepacking, which is, you know...
• 35:33
  Page through there and just look at the photos- Mm-hmm... dude. There's just, like- I, I'm impressed with just the texture, the texture of it. Yeah. Right? Does... Who doesn't love a good piece of printed material?
• 35:42
  And, and the, and the mute, the muted tone of- Oh, the smell, though. [sniffs] And, and this is one photographer, or many? I mean- No, no, this is multiple stories... my favorite seat. Uh, one of my favorite seats.
• 35:51
  Which is what I was gonna kinda get at, is that this is a Bikepacking Journal, which is more, uh, adventure bikes, but there is a story about fat biking in here, the largest glacier in Europe in Iceland. Nice.
• 36:06
  And the pictures are phenomenal. Is this a couple times a year, once a month?
• 36:09
  It, so if you're a member of their collective, which is called the Bike Passing, Bike Passing, [laughs] Bikepacking Collective- I think right now it's 68 bucks a year.
• 36:17
  It just went up, and it just renewed for me and I was like, "Oh, fuck. I don't really need, really need to spend that money." What'd you get? But you get two of these a year. Mm.
• 36:23
  And then you get a bunch of discounts at places that sponsor the site.
• 36:28
  So you get 20% off whatever, whatever, and they do several drops a year where they get stuff from their sponsors, and they will pick somebody out of the hat and send them free shit.
• 36:39
  So basically what you're doing is you're funding the production of this magazine, it's most of it- Mm-hmm... and the, the running of the website. Cool. But yeah. I just, you don't get print like that anymore, I think.
• 36:50
  No. And- It's mesmerizing. Yeah. [laughs] Yeah, so that's bikepacking, folks, um- And again, I don't know exactly-... dot com... you know, of course, I don't know these, the players.
• 36:58
  I don't know their names That's Kazakhstan or somewhere right there. I mean, w- where do you get Kazakhstan in any magazine in the United States? But this is...
• 37:04
  I, I've seen this, and there is, there is motorcycle print the same. It's the same trajectory. Yeah.
• 37:11
  This is maybe a little well done, but- Let me, let me see the one just- But the packing and the travel- Be- because some of the- Mm... yeah, I know what you mean...
• 37:17
  and the guy, the guy rolling his own cigarette, drinking a coffee on the side of the road. Right. [laughs] It, it's, it's a lot of the same ethos, I think. Right here. Like- [laughs] Look at that spread right there.
• 37:28
  Yeah. That's some glacier in somewhere in, uh, Iceland. Yeah. And the, there's, the stories, I read that story, pretty much skimmed through it mostly, but I'll read it fully.
• 37:38
  They're talking about a guy in the middle of nowhere that has, like, tons of land, and he's a farmer.
• 37:43
  And he was, like, the nicest guy because he never sees anybody, and they bought, they brought him a couple cases of whatever the Icelandic version of Busch Light is, and he was all happy with them [laughs] and stuff.
• 37:52
  That's nice. So, um, but- I'm, I'm sure there's also social media that have players that do this. It has to be. That you follow. I, yeah- People that maybe- But there are.
• 38:02
  And if you wanna be Instagram famous, you know, you can do that. Mm-hmm. See? I am trying to get- This man... a way... is riding on gravel. It's, it's- It's a gravel bike... are you sure that's not slate?
• 38:15
  Now we have to define- Jesus Christ. Now we're defining slate... now we're defining gravel. I need a slate bike. [laughs] Yeah, I need an el- Oh yeah, that's it... I need a full element breakdown.
• 38:23
  That's a- Oh, you have a gravel bike. You can't ride slate. No, that's a new- No, I need a core sample before anything- That's a new ca- that's a new category I just, I just made up tonight... goes slate.
• 38:29
  Uh, so- Oh, you wanna cross water? You don't have a water bike? Wait a minute. No, you're fucked. Slate bike trademark. S- yeah. FullSpectrumCyclingShow.com. Slate bike. Yeah.
• 38:40
  I want an autonomous bike that I don't have to do anything and it will just roll me around [laughs] without me doing anything. Ah. [laughs] You might get drunk and just- Dude...
• 38:47
  fall asleep and then just show up in the next destination. Yeah. Sign me up. My, my Clunker is kind of that way. [laughs] I mean, [laughs] it's- You're not wrong... it's like, no.
• 38:56
  I mean, it's coaster brakes, single speed. Uh, just be f- Baby fatty... before we [laughs]... you know, just like, d- does it, hey, all right.
• 39:03
  I wanna get, uh, just a couple of quick housecleaning things out, and then we'll actually talk to Jeremy at some point. [laughs] Oh, yes. Thanks for having me.
• 39:08
  [laughs] Um, so I just did, I just did a server move of all 410 episodes of the Fat Bike Radio podcast, which is an, a different show than this one. And you run that, too? I did, and I still do, yeah.
• 39:21
  So I had to move the servers because, well, trying to save money because nobody's paying for advertising. Thank you very much. You can do that next year, though, if you want to. Dope. Dope.
• 39:29
  He's r- Yeah, is that a Da- is that a Dahan? I don't know if it's a Dahan or if it's a- Brompton? I'm gonna find out. I think it's a Brompton... it's gotta be a Brompton. It's gotta be a Brompton.
• 39:36
  It's got, it's a Riding a Brompton. All right. So when I was cleaning out the, the archives, w- w- during the heyday of fat biking, we had so many good guests on our show. Ned Overend was on our show. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
• 39:49
  The, like, the winningest mountain biker or whatever. But it's a fad, dude. Todd Lyons from SE. Fad. Awesome. Travis Brown, Tinker Juarez, Will Ross, Wyatt Rudka, Bill Fleming.
• 40:01
  The, just, it, the, Jeremy Proch's actually even in this list. Yes, you are here in the center. Right there. You are there. I see this.
• 40:06
  Um, I mean, all these guys are, oh, Mike Hurlinger owns Club Ride, Tim Krieger owns, um, blah, blah, blah, blah, uh, that bike company that he owns. Scott Quaring makes wicked-ass custom-built frames.
• 40:19
  Just on and on, and we had, during the heyday of fat biking, it was like everybody wanted to be, Ned wanted to be on our show. How, w- when was the last time Ned rode a fat bike?
• 40:30
  I'm gonna tell you, probably 2015 when he did the Fat Bike Birky. I don't think he's ridden a fat bike since then, but that's what Specialized wanted him to do, so he was on our show.
• 40:40
  Anyway, I, so I moved it and, uh, it's, it's on the new server, and that's good. I got links th- it's linked there now, but we also have two things- And they're connected links...
• 40:49
  and this goes with what Jeremy was saying about social media, just, and s- kind of what got me to thinking about this, is I don't wanna be on Facebook or Instagram or any of that shit.
• 40:58
  We have a community called Fat Bike Lab. Tony's part of it. JK's part of it. Um, and we're closing in on 100 people in a couple months that wanna be part of this thing where it's all people talking about fat biking,
• 41:10
  and there's no other algorithm or fluff or any other crap. It's just real people asking real questions, interacting with other people around the world. We got people in England. We got people in Iceland.
• 41:23
  We have people in Latvia. We have a, you know, bunch of- The cool people that eat-... every, a lot of states-... the cool people that eat poutine in Canada. Y- yeah, we got a couple Canadians- [laughs]... up there.
• 41:31
  Ahlen's in there. All right. Ahlen's in there. That's my, my guy. Uh, Mark Peterson's in there.
• 41:35
  You know, there's a lot of people that we've been having on the show for years that are part of this thing because they're still passionate about fat biking.
• 41:42
  And one of the things that I learned recently about this whole community is almost everybody that's in it is a full four-season fat biker. Mm-hmm. Uh, it's a lot, you know, a lot of people only do it in the winter.
• 41:54
  It's better than sitting indoors on your trainer. You get a fat bike, you ride in the snow, that's great. But four-season fat biking is better. I agree. So- 100%. 110%. Um, so the, so we have two things.
• 42:06
  We got FatBike.com/community is the, that, and then FatBike.com/newsletter is the weekly dose of fat, where I try to collect up whatever news in the week happened and feed you that, whatever information might be interesting about the fat bike community for that week
• 42:24
  No. No Fat, fat bike at its peak would've... 2015? I would say 2000 s- yeah, '16, '15, '16, '17 Yeah, it got, it got s- when the big corporation bikes- Yeah... started building 'em.
• 42:36
  Was, was there, was there, like, a something that happened? Like, maybe they were at the X Games or- [laughs]... they were at the Olympics. Was there something- No, it was money No. No. Was there a pinnacle event?
• 42:44
  Was there something- Well, what actually- Oh No, I think, I think it was just some- Well, probably the River West 24 when we won Pr- okay, okay [laughs] Oh, there you go... okay, okay. Oh, that wa- yeah.
• 42:51
  Oh, you served it up- I'm pretty sure that's what did it all... and knocked it out of the park. [laughs] Holy crap. So, so, so- I didn't even notice it...
• 42:54
  so what had happened was- Bicycling Magazine and- I was gonna answer it so earnestly, too. I'm like, "Hmm." To be, to be fair, I think- I'm like, "Oh, no. What am I doing?"...
• 43:01
  I think part of the demise of fat biking might be my fault. Oh. Because in tw- Bold statement... because in [laughs] Yeah...
• 43:07
  well, in 2017 I stepped away from the fatbike.com website to take a job in Las Vegas making insane amounts of money doing rigging for trade shows, and I did not have time, working 80 hours a week, to work on the site.
• 43:20
  So I handed it off to another guy, and over the subsequent five years until I took it back from him, he kinda plummeted the site.
• 43:27
  Now, to be fair, I think the site would've plummeted anyway due to algorithm changes at Google, due to market changes. People aren't buying fat bikes anymore. Sure.
• 43:36
  But I'm not saying it wouldn't have been a little better if I'd been there. In the heyday of our website, we were doing 250,000 visitors a month. Now we're doing 15,000. That's what happened to
• 43:51
  the people that are really into fat biking. And of those 15,000, I'll bet a lot of those people show up every day. Yeah, but, but maybe because you, you had a, a bit of a monopoly on the hub.
• 43:59
  Now maybe there's other fat bike communities that are communicating in other ways. Only on Facebook. There... I don't think there's any other websites right now.
• 44:06
  But yeah, Facebook has- I've not seen any, but- Well, our Face- so t- so here's an, a, a goofy thing. Our Facebook page has- It seems like all roads kinda come back into- Right...
• 44:15
  fat biking Our Facebook page has 38,000 people that like it. If I can get 10% of that into our community, we'll be in good shape.
• 44:23
  I feel like most of those people joined during the heyday and probably don't interact with it anymore anyway. And if you're... if you know how Facebook works, I put a post up, it's a good post.
• 44:33
  1,000 or 1,500 of my 38,000 followers see it, unless I pay to get it in front of them. Algorithms. Algorithms. Hey, guys. Sven here.
• 44:43
  I was just going through Full Spectrum Cycling episode number 331 and realized it's an hour and 30 minutes long.
• 44:51
  [laughs] We had a great conversation with Jeremy Proch, as you probably noticed in the first part of this show. Uh, I did split it in half almost right in the middle.
• 45:00
  There was a kind of a natural content break right there.
• 45:04
  So stay tuned next week for part two, where we delve a little deeper into what Jeremy's been up to in his various endeavors, River West 24, Flat Out Friday, his teaching career, et cetera.
• 45:16
  Just a lot of really interesting stuff from a really interesting guy. I hope you check it out next week, and thanks for watching this one.
• 45:25
  [rock music]