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Full Spectrum Cycling #97 – Milwaukee Transplant Dan Sipin Calls in From Anchorage · Full Spectrum Cycling

• 0:00
  [upbeat rock music] Good day,
• 0:19
  Full Spectrum Cycling listener. Good day. It's show number 97 here from the- Oh, W-... River West Studio at Everyday Cycles- 97... semi-permanent location. S- W- uh, what is it, WP- what was it, WLPX? What was it?
• 0:35
  90, 97.5 or something- Three... such. Three? Yeah. Yeah. And then it turned into B97. Yeah. Yeah. Okay, I'm crawl out of that rabbit hole. WLPX was a good thing. Yep.
• 0:46
  Tony's gonna shock himself over there 'cause he's- [laughs]... taking apart an- Yeah, if you hear a-... e-bike battery... if you hear a [pop] [laughs] That's me. [laughs] I'm gone. That's me hitting the wall.
• 0:57
  [laughs] You gone. Hey, guess what? We got some freaking snow this week. Oh, it- Finally. Oh, and I gotta tell you, if you don't think electric fat bikes are fun, we're not friends anymore.
• 1:13
  [laughs] 'Cause Jesus Christ on a crutch are they fun. [laughs] And I spent 11 miles and a good hour plus just going through the fluff, 'cause nobody had plowed anything yet and...
• 1:26
  And I went through mash and mush and- Yeah, later in the day the salt mixed- It, it just-... with the snow and it got very slimy It was, it was so much fun.
• 1:36
  Well, that long tail fat bike seems to be pretty stable in the crap. Yeah. So. That was, that was fun, too. We have to just do a little bit of repair on it- Little bit a-... and put it back on the road...
• 1:46
  little bit of a pit stop maintenance on the old drive system there. Yeah. Somebody screwed up. Somebody's wearing a blue shirt tonight. [laughs] That would be not me. Not me. That's me. I didn't do it.
• 1:59
  [laughs] Wasn't me. Oh, Mike has fuzz on today. I, yes. Yes, I'm JK fuzz. JK fuzz. Uh, uh, uh, longer screw. By the way, J- oh, for... JK and, uh, JK and Tony are here in the studio. Oh, yeah. That's right. Hi.
• 2:09
  You can probably- Hi... probably figure that out, eh? Eh? [laughs] Unless, yeah, unless we've aped our voices completely. If we're so freaking lucky, maybe we'll get Dan to call in tonight from Anchorage.
• 2:18
  Anchoring down in Anchorage. If, if he doesn't have a ton of customers up there at the old Trek store in Anchorage, yeah. Turning them away 'cause he ain't got no fat bikes. Give us a shout there, Daniel. Yeah.
• 2:28
  Um- I heard he can see Russia from his house. Eh? He has to stand on Sarah Palin's shoulders, though, I think. One time. One time? Oh, yeah. I gotta go do that one time. Couple of- Yeah... couple or two, three times, eh?
• 2:40
  [laughs] Oh, is it? Is it. Yeah, I, I, I thought we talked about this last week, but it's on the show notes for this week, so maybe we didn't. Um, Great Lakes ice cover is at an all-time low.
• 2:53
  [sighs] 3.6% of the Great Lakes are frozen over right now. Holy crap, in January? That is the lowest ever. The le- the next lowest time was, um, 2000-like 6 or 7,
• 3:07
  and it was 5% then, and in 2012 we had the lake level at the lowest. So I'm hoping this is a portent, port... This is, this is...
• 3:15
  [laughs] I hope this is a thing that's predicting that we'll have, uh, uh, a little bit lower lake levels coming up. Little more evaporation,
• 3:24
  little less precipitation, 'cause we haven't gotten- Little more conversation... we haven't gotten squat for snow this year. A little more action. Right. Except for the, what did we get? Eight inches maybe? Maybe.
• 3:33
  [laughs] Maybe. I, uh- It was good, though... so they didn't plow the oak leaf, you know, very quickly, and I was on it with a very fresh six to eight inches on the, on the, uh, Bore 604... What is that?
• 3:46
  Surface 604 Bore- Surface 604 Bore... fat bike. Uh, 24 miles an hour in the snow. [laughs] It was almost like being one of those jet fighters that's down on the water when stuff is just like- Jet fighters never die...
• 3:58
  flying off the, the tail of it, just doing the, the rooster tail and the... 'Cause they're so low. [laughs] There's a rooster tail of snow coming out of there. It was, uh, seriously fun. Um,
• 4:10
  it goes places where you would not expect it to go. I guess it's kinda like being like Colin Ford. Having, having the power of Colin Ford, but being me. [laughs] There you go. A great way to describe it.
• 4:21
  [laughs] That is so true. I was riding that thing last night, and I'm like, I came up to a pretty big snow hill where the plow had come through. I'm like, "You know what? I have a throttle.
• 4:32
  I will be Colin Ford right now." And I just bash right over it, and I, I literally, I laughed. I'm like, "This is just, it's like being a kid again." Yeah. Good stuff. Um,
• 4:47
  that said, normal fat bikes are still good for riding in the snow. Uh, you, y'all can have fun on them. I rode mine here tonight. Tony rode his here tonight.
• 4:56
  If you wanna ride yours this weekend, there's a couple of things you can do tomorrow. Like what, Greg? What? Like what? Well, we went to, uh, davelunz.com, and I went to Madison to pick up a pair of Surly Black Floyds.
• 5:12
  Ah. Ah. Thank you, everyone, for giving us the link. Thank you, show listener JP- Yeah... and also, uh, other show listener Patrick- Patrick... for letting us know that there was a- A set of-...
• 5:21
  set of Skinwall Black Floyds for sale over there in the Mad Town area, which are going on the, the 24 bike to make it more better again. More better.
• 5:31
  You know, even though we have one set, it's not like we can't have more sets of those. Yeah. That's why I sent you the link to the set- Yeah, but-... [laughs] that I got from Patrick. I'm like, "Hey." It's the same set.
• 5:39
  Oh, damn. It's the same set. [laughs] But, uh, yeah, so, uh, we had lunch with JP, and he's putting on a race at, forget what the golf course is called over there. Norsk. The Norsk Golf Club in- The Norsk...
• 5:55
  in Mount Horeb. What are you, what are you hooking up there now? Tony's doing something. I think he's- Nothing. I found another wire that was pinched between a, a bolt.
• 6:04
  Well, the, whoever assembled this battery pack was a- [laughs] Diodes all over... lunatic. I'm s- I want a better robot, dude. I'm surprised- Yes... the thing didn't start on fire. RG- I am, too... leads on the nipples.
• 6:15
  We- [laughs] So, uh, the, in Mount Horeb, Wisconsin, they have a thing called Skanderhoovian or some such. It's a, it's a festival they do over three days. Uh, he's doing this event at the Norsk Golf Club as a ride.
• 6:28
  It will not be an official Huff and Puff race. But, uh, it's... I went to the course last year, and it, it's fun. It's, it's rolling, it's golfing I thought you were saying it was a good time. Yeah.
• 6:39
  I had to deliver a bike over there anyways, so I'm like, "I might as well do that." What's, what's kind of, uh, I don't know, vying for my attention this week though is the, uh, Snow Crown Series race at Road America.
• 6:52
  It, I, I gotta know what they're gonna do at Road America, 'cause there's- Mm-hmm... 640 acres of fun at Road America. And- Mm-hmm... I imagine they can do a whole race without- In the middle of fucking snow...
• 7:00
  ever even seeing the racetrack, you know? Probably don't even have to- No... notice it. But who knows? I don't know. That would be an interesting thing, though, and it's a good venue.
• 7:09
  You've, you've raced Road America, right? In an automobile. Yeah, me too. Automobile. Never- And whenever I go to a race there, I take my bike, and it's just the- Uh-huh... greatest way to get around that track- Yeah...
• 7:18
  'cause it's four and a half miles around the thing. Automobile. Automobile. Automobile. Yeah, yeah. You park your automobile, and you get your bike. [imitates car sound] And then you can go wherever you want. Boom.
• 7:28
  I've seen that happen more than once there. Long duck, long duck dong. Yeah. Yeah, good stuff. Deep. So, uh, Snow Crown Series, I think this is the third race in the series. So- Yeah. Road America, tomorrow, February...
• 7:42
  Oh, no, so that's, it's not tomorrow. It's the next weekend, damn it. February 6th for both of these events, folks. Yeah. Getting my dates mixed up.
• 7:49
  So a week from tomorrow, February 6th, you can do one of those two fine- The day before the-... events there in-... Super Bowl. Mm, mm-hmm. Oh, the Stuper Bowl. Mm-hmm. Thank God the Packers aren't in it.
• 8:01
  Yeah, vying for my attention. [laughs] What a stupid call. All of them. Well- Yeah. Most of them. The one that lost them the game, I think, was the- [laughs]... the fourth down call, so. Mm. Mm-hmm, mm-hmm.
• 8:17
  You know, when you're- I'm good... when you're playing to be in the Super Bowl, I don't think you play conservative like, not against the likes of that Mr. Brady character. Yeah, it was all scripted already.
• 8:26
  I mean- [laughs] Well, you know, home- Possible... yeah, Tampa, home venue, plus you have the, uh, the ageless blah, blah, blah, Tom Brady. It wouldn't be the last conspiracy theory this year. No, no, no, no.
• 8:38
  [laughs] I mean, I have to keep it in my- The last? I have to keep- Part of- I have to keep my tinfoil hat- Wasn't the start what wouldn't be the first either... in stride. Yeah. Yeah, for sure. So yeah.
• 8:48
  Oh, uh, things are ma- making moves over on that bicycle. I don't know if the poltergeist- Oh, maybe the handlebar fell down or something. Something. I don't know. Something happened on the bike on the stand.
• 8:57
  Something happened on the field. Uh, I thought that- Is that, is that yet another bike to be e-electrified? Oh, yeah. That's another e-electric bike- All right... conversion.
• 9:07
  I thought that was, uh, all those flashing lights, I th- "What's he doing out there?"
• 9:10
  [laughs] I thought that was that jerk with the snowplow coming by again, 'cause I had just gotten done shoveling the walk in front of the shop. Snowplow again?
• 9:15
  And here comes this guy, like, eh, you know, 30 miles an hour in the big city snowplow truck. And I had to step inside the door so I did not get pummeled by the wave of slop coming over- Mm...
• 9:27
  onto the, [laughs] onto the sidewalk. Thank you very much, Mr. City of Milwaukee- Yeah... snowplow driver. I had to just, uh, push it back off again then. Like it. Again. Back in the street again.
• 9:37
  Which I had just done 30 seconds before. Earlier in the day, I got blasted by a oncoming plow splash- Oh... on my windshield where I... Thankfully I was driving at that one.
• 9:48
  If I were- You weren't in your, you, you weren't in your automobile? No, no, no. But it wa- it took up the entire fricking windshield.
• 9:56
  I would've blasted into the damn car, sidewalk, wherever the hell I was at if I got [laughs] on this automobile and that shit. Yeah, that's- Uh-uh. They, they move right along. They don't, uh- Mm-mm.
• 10:06
  They get a lot, they get a lot of work to do. Yeah. Oh. When they drop their blades, it always seems like they drop them not good for me.
• 10:14
  [laughs] Do see an awful lot of snow trucks driving around with their blades up when... If you're going somewhere with your snowplow, why don't you just have your blade down and push some stuff around? Yeah, just, yeah.
• 10:21
  Yeah. Even if you're not a city employee, just push stuff. Yeah. Don't worry about it. Just get the show away. You know, help, help a brother out. Hm. Clean the city up for him. Please. Yeah. You going through the alley?
• 10:30
  Just, just drop your plow. They actually have- Help us out... uh, somebody was trying to hire somebody private to do the alley. Uh, we used to, for years, we paid to have a private person plow our alley.
• 10:39
  And you just do, you can do, you don't have to be down and digging, you know? No, it's just for us to get out. Just be like the, yeah- Yeah...
• 10:43
  be like the lazy shoveler who just like- What did, what did you guys find in the alley?... just kind of glides over the top. Uh, we had a guy that he wanted, um,
• 10:52
  it, it was something, one year it was like, "Pay me $1,500 and I'll do the entire alley whenever it snows." And we got hosed 'cause it snows- Right.
• 11:00
  Yeah, you never do the- [laughs] Most, most snow- And, and- Most private snowplow drivers are crackheads- Yeah... and they just spend that money. You know, and another, the other guy was, you know, like, I,
• 11:11
  as a neighborhood, it never cost us more than, 'cause we had a duplex, it was, like, maybe 100 bucks a season. Hm. It's pretty cheap.
• 11:18
  And now I found some, some, I have to tell you, there's some young kids that have been riding motorcycles all summer through my, up and down my street. Like, two stroke.
• 11:27
  One kid's, like, 14 years old, the other one's, like, nine, and they're ripping up and down the street all night. And I'm like, "You son of a bitch and little kids, knock it off."
• 11:36
  And then I remember, "Hey, when I was 12, I was ripping up and down the street [laughs] on a two-stroke motorcycle."
• 11:43
  [laughs] So I happen to be coming back from work, and I see this kid on Center Street in a four-wheeler with a snowplow.
• 11:52
  And last night I go over to shovel the house we're in the process of trying to eventually move to, and my entire sidewalk has been shoveled. The entire block has been plowed. Damn.
• 12:05
  So next time I see these kids this summer riding their bikes, I'm gonna stop them. I'm gonna give them 20 bucks- [laughs]...
• 12:10
  and thank them for the gas because [laughs] they've did the entire 50-foot wide, 50-foot long sidewalk I have at my house that I don't wanna do. Nice. Yeah.
• 12:21
  Well, if I had a four-wheeler, I'd probably just blast around pushing snow too. Why not? You know, it's a fun thing to do. You're out there having fun. Your neighbors will love it.
• 12:27
  Yeah, I mean, you're win- you're winning points, man. Little heavy to do wheelies with the plow on the front, but- Eh, Sam. [laughs] So, uh- Ride the endo...
• 12:37
  JK, did you put this plan released for 6.7 mile 30th Street Trail? Yeah, yeah. I ran across that- Mm-hmm... just before I left. So, so- So it looks like it's, like, from, what was it? Silver Spring and Sherman-ish- Yep.
• 12:49
  Mm-hmm... down to the Hank. Yeah. What's interesting about that is I was just out that way the other day and I was thinking of a location for another urban jumble, jumble- Jumble Cross... Jumble Cross. We're jumbling.
• 13:00
  Jumble Cross. And I was right by that- We do jumbling... Century City area on 35th and Capital. Yeah, yeah. And this is kinda part of that, isn't it? I think so. Yeah.
• 13:08
  Yeah, I, 'cause I think it is that, that, that, that bridge that goes where there's Century City and- Yep... then there's, uh- Possibly that- That you go under the tracks- Right, right... and then you pop out to Sherman.
• 13:19
  I think that's what the corridor, I think that is. Well, that's- There were too many words for me to, as I was walking out the door to actually read them all. This is what I think Milwaukee needs to become a more,
• 13:30
  you know, bike, not just bike friendly, but a, a- Integrated... a real biking city is something that makes it possible to get from the east side to the west side in more spots. Right.
• 13:41
  We gotta, we gotta be able to make that, you know, jump across the whole, you have to be able to cross the city, and right now it's hard to do 'cause a lot of the streets just suck. But, uh, yeah, it's interesting.
• 13:51
  We'll have to look at that. Keep that up. From Silver Spring and Sherman to the Hank. Yeah. Six point some miles, 6.7. I saw they're doing some work at the old Urban Jungle Cross spot by Home Depot on Port too. Really?
• 14:05
  Yeah, west of there, going past the cemetery and over Green Bay and all that stuff. Oh. So. Gotcha. Yeah, yeah. Other things are, things are afoot. Milwaukee can become a cycling mecca if it wants to. By cracky.
• 14:20
  Our bike boulevard is done over here- That's fun... o- over here on the Fratney Street. On the Fratney Street.
• 14:26
  Just- And the right Which I noticed too, that, you know, I think the, the city plows are taking the liberty to not plow it very much. Which made me think- [laughs]... why plow it at all?
• 14:36
  Wouldn't it be great to build some berms and stuff in there for- [laughs] There are, but it was... like, okay. [laughs] I mean, why not, right? Yeah.
• 14:43
  I mean, if you, if you're parked on that street and you need to get your car out, well, we'll work on that, but otherwise, let's have some berms. Yeah. Let's have some jumps. [laughs] Hold that thought, Tony. Huh?
• 14:52
  Tony, hold that thought. I clicked on the button. Welcome to the radio program caller. Yep. Who do we have on the line? Hey, this is Dan Sippin calling from Alaska. Hey, Dan. Hey, man. Come on. Awesome.
• 15:06
  I'm glad that you had time to give us a shout. And now I know how- Yeah... to properly pronounce your last name. Yep, like sippin on gin and juice. I was- [laughs] It was Sapin to me, so now I know- Way back... Mr.
• 15:20
  Sippin. So- Welcome... so Dan is a- [laughs]... Dan is a, is, is a past, uh, Milwaukee resident, and recently, uh, moved to Anchorage.
• 15:29
  Uh, why don't you give us a little background on, A, why you did that, 'cause it sounds cool as hell, but, uh, what sort of precipitated the move? Okay. So, so it, it actually kinda stemmed through Wheel & Sprocket.
• 15:42
  I was, uh, working at the shop in Fox Point, and this was, like, four years ago, and a friend of mine came into the shop with a girl that he knew from, that he worked with at, I think, like, REI in Ohio.
• 15:56
  And I met her and we became Facebook friends.
• 15:58
  And she, after meeting her in Milwaukee, she went back and she ended up moving to Anchorage, and I, I would see her Facebook posts all the time, and she's into gravity biking, road riding, um, fat biking, skiing.
• 16:11
  So I kept seeing these pictures of her in Anchorage, uh, you know, a lot of, lot of, like, epic rides and just awesome scenery, and I would comment it all the time.
• 16:21
  And, um, this last spring or late winter going into spring with COVID and everything, you know, I was home a lot more and I was, I saw pictures of her at Alyeska Ski Resort where, um, it's, it starts at the ocean and it's, uh, you know, like, 45 minutes outside of Anchorage.
• 16:40
  You start at the ocean, you go up, I don't know, maybe 5,000 feet or something. So it, it's a lot of skiable terrain, but you're looking at the water basically as you're skiing down this. Oh.
• 16:51
  So there's a picture of her and you could see the sun and then the hill and then the ocean at the bottom, and I just, I sent the message and I was like, "That's the, the most epic ski picture I've seen."
• 17:03
  And she's like... We started talking. She's like, "You should come visit." So I did. I got here in July, and I, I brought a bike with me.
• 17:12
  I brought a, a Rosco, like, like, a plus 27.5, you know, mid-fat or whatever, and I got here and I was blown away by the trail system. Um, so you guys were talking about, uh, getting across town. We've got...
• 17:26
  E- so Anchorage is a city, uh, 300,000, so about half the size population-wise of Milwaukee. But the trail system here, there is, on the side of all the roads, they don't have bike lanes on the roads.
• 17:39
  You'd get demolished by diesel trucks. But just off the side there is, like, a multipurpose path on both sides of the road on, on all the busy roads.
• 17:49
  Um, so it's a little bit bigger than a sidewalk, but there's people running a- and riding everywhere.
• 17:54
  And then they've got a trail system that's used for, in the, in winter, cross-country skiing, fat biking, and then there's a dog sled trail system.
• 18:03
  Um, and in the summer it's all, those are all gravel trails that you can walk or run or, or ride on. And then they have two major trails going through town.
• 18:13
  One is called the Chester Creek Trail, and it's cool because that's paved, but in the winter they groom it like, um, a cross-country ski trail. They groom the snow so you see people using...
• 18:25
  It'd be like if you saw tons of people on the, uh, Oak Leaf or Interurban On, on skate skis. Oh, wow. Sweet. And you've got people riding their fat bikes and, and you've got people just skiing by or running by, and the
• 18:39
  amount of people on the trails, and of course everything's a little askew because of COVID, but the amount of people on the, the trails, going to trails and at the trails, whether it was, um, you know, I, I...
• 18:52
  This has gotta be the, the fat bike capital of the world, and just the amount of people on bikes and, and running and, and of course you have the ocean on one side of Anchorage, and you drive across town and, you know, you're, the mountains are right there.
• 19:08
  Um, so it's just visually stunning all the time, and visiting in June, you've got what you call midnight sun, so you can be,
• 19:17
  um, we're at a, a restaurant that's The 49th State, and we're, you know, rooftop dining at 11:30, and you're looking at the sun. [laughs] Wow. Wow. You know? So-
• 19:26
  So- So my thought is, you know, working at a bike shop all these years in summer, and you get customers that come in at 7:00, and they're, you're fitting 'em for this bike, and all of a sudden it's 8:30, and maybe you get home at 9:00 at night.
• 19:40
  And yeah, it's warm and, and riding in the city is great, but if I get out at 8:00 at night here and I wanna go trail ride, all I need is some sunglasses and some bear spray. [laughs] And it's a, it, you know? Yeah.
• 19:56
  But the mountain biking here is epic. There is, inside of Anchorage we have Kincaid, and it is, it's, it's maintained by the city. Um,
• 20:07
  and there are, there's k- they run, it's directional trails, and odd days they run the trail one way, even days they'll run the trail the other way. Ah. So you get to bike all the trails backwards.
• 20:20
  Um, it's berms, it's rollers, there's, they've got, um, features built in. The trails are built very well. You know, there's not a lot of erosion.
• 20:29
  Um, um, even things like the, the little, the, the trail going through town, Chester Creek, um, I was...
• 20:37
  It goes Chester Creek, and it goes all the way through the city, and then it ends at the coastal trail, which of course goes up and down the coast. You're riding down and there's pump tracks built into the side. Nice.
• 20:47
  Somebody will have just a flowy, like, pump track just built off, so you're riding and you see this.
• 20:52
  And so I, I, I visited and at, at the end of two weeks, um, the girl I was with, she's like, "Would you consider moving here?"
• 21:01
  And you know, I love River West and, and my, my heart is there, and I'm like, "No, that's crazy. I'm not gonna move." [laughs] But I got home and there was nothing going on.
• 21:10
  There was really nothing going on a- and I'm like, you know what? I, I emailed the Trek store and, and we own Sprocket, a, you know, huge Trek dealer. They're using the same computers. They're selling the same stuff.
• 21:21
  Um, I'd be doing the same thing, so I, I emailed the, the store here in Anchorage and I mentioned we own Sprocket, and they're like, "Yeah, Trek world, we know who Chris Cagle is." They're like, "We'd love to have you."
• 21:33
  So I was just like, well, there's nothing going on right now 'cause of COVID, right? You know, all my favorite restaurants are closed. There's no place to see music.
• 21:41
  I might as well go to the mountains and give it a shot, so I ended up here and, uh, came, moved out in November. Nice.
• 21:48
  They, they had epic snow conditions, trails out and groomed everywhere, um, you know, and we'd, we would go, it's dark, you know. I mean, you get the opposite of the midnight sun.
• 22:00
  It would be, you know, sunrises in the, you know, in the, would be at, like, 10:45 AM it would finally start to get light out. [laughs] Um, and it would be dark, dark again by 3:00. Yeah. Yeah.
• 22:12
  So, but the cool thing is you don't have to worry about bears, and you don't need a very strong light with all the snow. So every night we're w- you know, taking dogs out and cruising these trails on the multi-use.
• 22:25
  There's so much more single track.
• 22:27
  If you look on Trailforks, um, in the winter here and look at the, the, the rideable trails and then look at Trailforks in the summer, the trail system doubles because now there's areas of swamp and, um, lakes that are frozen out to glaciers.
• 22:42
  And- [laughs]... um, the, there's a Facebook Anchorage Fat Bike Facebook site, and people are posting all the new trails that come out. They're popping on Trailforks. Um, super fun things like
• 22:53
  people will do these, like, pop-up Christmas trees on the trails- Uh... and hang, like, bottles of Fireball on 'em or gift cards. [laughs] Oh, yeah.
• 23:01
  [laughs] Or, so it's, it's turned into, like, there's one Whiskey Island and people ditch bottles of whiskey. Yes. [laughs] And you, you know, they'll, they'll, like, put a little post on Instagram or Facebook.
• 23:10
  So I've been getting to, um, to, to ride those trails all, all the time. And then the other really epic thing about riding, commuting here in winter,
• 23:21
  um, so I'm about three miles away from the shop, and you can't ride on the roads here. Like I said, it's, it's all the trucks and diesel and they, they'll coal roll you or whatever.
• 23:32
  But they, the city plows the sidewalks, and they've got these weird little, like, ride-on, basically like a snowblower 'cause it's still, like, a rotary-type thing where it shoots the snow off to the side.
• 23:43
  It leaves about an inch of hard-packed snow on the ground. Ooh, I see. And their sidewalks are super wide. And then there is some plowing, and then from the, the, the clearing of the, there is just
• 23:58
  a big snowbank between, so you're on these ultimate protected fat bike bike lanes 'cause you can... You know, everybody here runs studs
• 24:09
  because a lot of years there's a lot of thaw and refreeze, but there hasn't been that this year. And so you're on this, like, hard-packed snow road, and you can just fly. You can corner. Um,
• 24:23
  it's, it's probably the most, most fun riding I've had on a fat bike, and I'll, I'll leave for work in the morning and I'll see, like, four other people on fat bikes cruising around.
• 24:33
  And you know, we've got Fatback 9007- You know, I mean, of course there's so much fat bike stuff going on here. Um, the clientele I see coming into the shop, um, it's, it's a lot of older people on it, you know?
• 24:48
  I think I see... I mean, because- Got to be old... 907 or Fatback's had, you know, I, I see a lot of 60-year-olds on their fat bikes cruising around and there's, it's, um,
• 24:58
  I think it's, it's even, even doing things like the shoe desk and I get to see all these people on a, on a regular basis with all their bikes. Um,
• 25:08
  it's like that almost every time I go to the trails, I, there'll be car- It's like there's always an, it almost seems like there's a fat bike event going on, like every day here, which is kind of cool. Nice. Um.
• 25:19
  Now, you, you- The only, the only odd thing with the, the commuting is the, there's moose. Yeah. And the moose here are like raccoons in Milwaukee.
• 25:26
  Like, you'll be riding on these trails and you've got the big snow bank, and there's times you'll look up and there is a moose on the city sidewalk. And they're big. And you have to like army roll with your bike.
• 25:37
  They're huge. They're huge. It makes like- A lot, lot bigger than a raccoon... it makes... Oh, my God, yeah. I would say at least, at least double the size of a raccoon. [laughs] They're little moose. They're very...
• 25:48
  They're huge. And- So when we, uh, when we t- uh, texted back and forth a couple weeks back, you were saying that, uh, you can't, you can't get a fat bike up there.
• 25:59
  Well, I don't, you can't really get one down here either much. No. But, um, it, that seemed kinda odd since you're such a fat bike mecca up that way. Is that, is that getting any better? Right. Uh, no. No, not at all.
• 26:11
  It's, um, you know, I, every day we have people coming in, um, asking for them, and, and they've got a good rental system here. It's a pretty cool fat bike rental system and we've got, uh, uh,
• 26:23
  probably like 10 Farley 5s that we rent out, and they do really well with that. But every day, I'm gonna say at least three people come in wanting to buy a fat bike on the spot. And, and there's really two different
• 26:37
  part, parts of season for fat biking here because you get when the snow first comes, everybody wants to, um, get their fat bike and ride on the snowy trails, of course.
• 26:46
  But then the other part of it, and which I just learned about, is glacier season. Mm.
• 26:50
  So the rivers and stuff aren't frozen right away and the lakes, but as soon as they start to freeze up, then you can ride out to all these glaciers.
• 26:58
  And people will see that on social media and they'll say, "Hey, I wanna visit these glaciers." So there's a whole second, like, there's two seasons within the season for fat biking.
• 27:10
  There's your regular fat bikers that get out and wanna be on the trails, but then you get all the people that wanna get out and, and visit these glaciers. Right.
• 27:17
  Which in the summer, you know, you have to do a, a glacier stream crossing where it's fast flowing river. You have to, you put your feet in it and they go numb instantly.
• 27:26
  So you can't really get out to these glaciers in the summer, um, very safely.
• 27:30
  So in the winter being able to take a, a studded fat bike and bike over these, um, you know, frozen rivers or lakes and actually get out and, and see the blue ice and these, like, beautiful glaciers, it's a, it's a whole nother,
• 27:43
  um, facet of, of why people want fat bikes here. So how is the climate there compared to Midwest like Milwaukee? It, it's, it's a little colder in the winter- [laughs]...
• 27:52
  and a little cooler in the summer, but- No, you know. Well, because we're on the... Yeah. I mean, we're on the lake so it's a little- Ocean... I would say it's a little milder here.
• 28:02
  In the, we're, we're on the ocean so it's a little milder here in the winter. Oh, wow. Nice. Like, when you guys hit that cold snap it was like 34 degrees here and I was kind of freaking out.
• 28:10
  Now, today it's a little bit colder but, um, we don't get negative 17 with wind chill here. You know? Yeah. It just doesn't happen because the ocean always keeps the air. Right, right.
• 28:21
  Now, a really hot day here people are running air conditioners, air conditioners when it's like 70 degrees here. Sure. [laughs] They think that's like the desert. Wow.
• 28:30
  Um, but, but yeah, and, but the thing is, it's weird. It, it'll be like, it'll be like 28 degrees here and I see people wearing shorts. I mean, it's like the, you see that nuttiness in the Midwest- Mm-hmm...
• 28:43
  but it, it's a, it's a little bit, uh... I, I don't know. I, I think it, it's everybody's like, "Oh, you're crazy moving to Alaska in the winter." But I had the most active, um, uh,
• 28:55
  November I've, I think I've ever had just because, you know, it, it really lends itself. And granted, they said this, this winter we got a little bit better snow and less thaw than we normally have in winters. Mm.
• 29:07
  It's all because of you. So I was kind of lucky. But yeah, it's, it's been, you know, it was a little colder today but we, we will never see that like negative 20 stuff, which is- That's good... I, I appreciate that.
• 29:18
  Right on. Well, it's been, uh, awesome chatting, Dan. Yeah. I mean, I, there's a lot of other stuff we can talk about. I'd like to, uh, invite you to call back not too far down the road. Yeah.
• 29:28
  Um, I know you're at the- Like next Wednesday. Yeah. [laughs] I know you're at the Trek- Yeah... the Trek store there in, uh, in Anchorage. And that's, uh, Bill Fleming's joint too, right? Yeah.
• 29:38
  What a cool guy and, and what a history that guy has. You know, I didn't know any of the, I didn't know anything about Bill or 907 or Chain Reaction or, you know, I didn't know any of that stuff going into it.
• 29:49
  It doesn't say it on the website. He didn't really bring it up.
• 29:53
  Um, and it wasn't until I got here and then started talking to these guys and like, being like, "Wow, this guy's got a lot of history in the, in the fat bike world." You know? I mean, it's, uh, that's kinda cool.
• 30:04
  And some of the guys that work here would, um... Uh, one of the racers that's here and he's won like Anchorage Man.
• 30:12
  He's like this super triathlete, but he just, he's c- he's gone on to Wisconsin and he's won the Fatbike Birke twice. Um, Will Ross. Um, he's, you know, done, uh, IditaBike. He's, he's just fast.
• 30:26
  He won the Frosty Bottom here last week. But he worked at 907 and he said they would get these like motorcycle rims and they had to hand drill, you know, the, the weight relief holes in the rims. Yeah. Right on.
• 30:38
  They'd set it up. And so he, so he's, there's, it's cool to talk to some of these people that have- Just cool fat bike history, um- Yeah. Will has some con- So yeah, I would love to give a call...
• 30:49
  Will has some connection to Milwaukee. I think his girlfriend's family is from here or something. Yes. 'Cause he, he's, he was- Yeah.
• 30:55
  So he and I- He's been on the show before, which is right on, at least the weekly dose of fat back in the old days. Oh, cool.
• 31:00
  Yeah, he- Yeah, it was, it was so cool 'cause I got here and he brought up Huge Ass races, and he's like, "Yeah, I did the Huge Ass race in Glendale, you know, like three years ago." And I'm like, "I ran that race."
• 31:10
  I mean, that was my- [laughs]... that was my race back, back then. So it was kind of fun to, to see all the ties. And there are, there are so many people from the Midwest here.
• 31:19
  I think most of the people I ask, they're, they're either from Wisconsin or Minneapolis. You know, I mean, that's kind of a, it's a really easy transition.
• 31:27
  We didn't get to talk about beer at all, but the breweries- [laughs] Yeah. It's like, yeah. It, it sounds like it's like- The breweries in there... wait a second. We, that sounds like a whole show right there.
• 31:35
  Bypass Austin and Vancouver. Yeah. It's like, no, to Anchorage. [laughs] Yeah. There, there is a, there is this one brewery, and, uh, it's King Street Brewery.
• 31:45
  And so I'm, I'm, I'm actually taking a little break 'cause I hit it pretty hard. My gods are just trying to get through all these beers.
• 31:52
  Um, King Street Brewery, they've got a pop top, and I don't know, maybe I'm just naive and I haven't seen this before, but instead of, you know, popping open a wide mouth or something, the whole top pulls off the can- Yeah, that's old school, bro...
• 32:06
  and it just makes it into a large glass. That's, that's the olden, olden times. Oh, the whole, the whole- You just, you just- Oh, the whole top comes off. Yeah.
• 32:12
  You just- Oh, that's even better than, uh- And I think they say what- Yeah... what once was old will soon be new again. Exactly. And so that was new to me, and, uh,
• 32:21
  you know, it actually, it, it c- it makes the cost of your beer consumption go because they go down so much faster that way. [laughs] It's all marketing, my friend. Yeah, they're clever.
• 32:30
  [laughs] That's why the straws are bigger at McDonald's too. Yeah. So, you know. Yeah. [laughs] Um, all right, Dan. Well, I mean, awesome. I mean, you made the show today. Thanks very much.
• 32:37
  You were a, a font of information, and I, it sounds like we got a lot more to talk about. So I'd, it'd be great if we could, uh, you know, have you on regularly. You can be our ambassador to- Yeah... uh, Alaska.
• 32:48
  Well, you know. Yeah, I'd love to. I'd love to... if, if you ever run across Travis, he's the fatbassador. You can be the ambassador or the, the bikebas- bike- Nice. I like that. Gotta come up with some version.
• 32:56
  Bikebassador. Bikebassador, there you go. There you go. Bikebassador. All right, man. [laughs] Very good to talk to you. I'm glad that you're doing great. All right. Talk to you guys. Have a great day. You too, sir.
• 33:03
  You too, buddy. All right, bye. All right, take care. Bye-bye. You know, over the- Awesome... uh, over the recording, he sounds just like Dave Schlabowski. [laughs] Does he? I had the same- Does that go at all?
• 33:17
  I could hear that Schlabowsky-esque- Maybe-... excitement about bike trails and- Yeah... yeah. I think if we, we get side by side them, and I bet you'd be really close. [laughs] Um- Great guy. Great frigging guy. Yeah.
• 33:30
  I, I used to see him a lot in, in the neighborhood here. He lived like two blocks away from the shop, and, uh, he's, he's just, he's just a s- He lived a half a block up the shop on the alley...
• 33:39
  yeah, he's a super psyc- Yeah... super psyched bike- Yeah... rider person. I don't know. We didn't do this before, but, and- We should do this... it's not quite what we were planning to do, but, uh- Uh, uh, well, yeah.
• 33:48
  Yeah. [laughs] Not the M&M boy. Just here. Yeah. Well, the M&M boy doesn't ring. Yeah. Top of, top of the hill, even though it took us a while to get here today. Yeah. It was a big hill.
• 33:57
  Tony, uh, Tony brought today's beer, even though, well, we'll, we'll do, uh, we'll do JK's beer next week. I think we... No, we won't. It'll be gone by then. Well, whatever. There's, we can get more. Yeah, exactly.
• 34:07
  I know where I got it. The Hopsecutioner. I think we've had this one before. Yeah, this is a Terrapin. This is- I see it from here. [laughs] Yeah, this is one of my favorite beers. This is a pretty darn good beer.
• 34:14
  Yeah, I think we had this, and- If you've never had the Hopsecutioner, you should go out and get yourself some. And it was part of the, uh, hempdemic, uh- Uh, 12 pack, right? Yeah... variety pack. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
• 34:24
  I can't re- can't remember what the- It's got all sorts of hops in it, Warrior, Chinook, Simcoe, Amarillo- Amarillo... Cascade, Centennial. It's, it's, it's- It's a, it's a good-... six varieties of hops up in there...
• 34:34
  it's a nice beer. It's a nice beer. And it's a tasty beer. It's a tasty beer. And, you know, it's got a turtle on it, so you know. Turtle. It's got a turtle on there. Oh, God, I have to replace my turtle.
• 34:42
  My turtle broke. Oh, no. I know. My turtle broke. That's why everything is a little off kilter- What's that, man?... the past couple weeks, man.
• 34:50
  [laughs] So earlier you mentioned the, uh, potential new shop, and you and I went there on Tuesday night and went through a pretty gigantic facility that was very, very dark. Oh, yeah. That was pretty fun.
• 35:05
  Yeah, we did, we did a little urban spelunking- Yes, we did... so to speak. I did, so the one thing I did not wanna go to is the tornado shelter. It was- Yeah, uh-uh. I would, I did- Not going to that basement...
• 35:14
  I didn't know if there was chuds down there or something or- There could be anything- I don't know... going on down there. Yeah, this- Cannibalistic humanoid underground dwellers. Yes, exactly.
• 35:23
  Um, I, I think the building we were in was at least a block square, and it's just humongous. Oh, it's gotta be at least a block square. And there's nothing in it right now.
• 35:30
  It's, it's gonna be, it's gonna be warehousing in, in the not too distant future. And- Now that they have the, uh, the boiler working for that whole complex- Yes... oh, boy... which gives it an even eerier feel.
• 35:40
  Oh, man, is it warm in there. But that building is ginormous, and late at night, or actually that was what? 7:00 at night, it was pitch black. [laughs] Yeah. Yeah, it's good fun. I, I have sort of a photo up.
• 35:54
  I'll try and throw it in the show notes. Yeah. We w- we were originally planning on having a race around the outside of the place. I think we could just have a race inside the building, it's so huge. Or in and out.
• 36:04
  [laughs] In and out. In and out. In and out. That's for sure. Um, anything else we missed this week? Blah, blah, blah. Rails to Trails. All right. E-bikes on the big- We're building a lot of electric bikes.
• 36:13
  Hey, let's do Have a Shirt. Oh, uh, I got... Okay, so one thing I did get in for testing is these Endura Humvee waterproof socks. Oh. Which- Those look nice...
• 36:22
  um, what I've noticed so far, and I've only run them once 'cause they came a couple days ago, is that they are softer and more pliable than the Showers Pass ones I have, which remind me of a wetsuit.
• 36:32
  These are a little more- Sock-y... um, sock-like. Although they are still three layers, they are waterproof allegedly. Sock it to me.
• 36:39
  I did walk around in the snow and didn't get my feet wet after I got home the other night and- Really?... stuck them under the faucet in the shower just to- And didn't get wet? Didn't get wet.
• 36:48
  Well, the outside did, but you know, feet didn't. Right. Right. Um, so, uh- Even in the first wearing, I like them. They're not quite as thick and bulky as some of the other ones.
• 36:58
  Showers passes are, as I say, gloves for your feet. Yeah. Uh, they are very thick. That being said, once they're on, they're pretty comfortable.
• 37:07
  It's just a lot of them don't f- my- maybe I wear my shoes too tight, 'cause some of these don't fit. They're thick. Yeah, they're thick.
• 37:13
  And the GORE socks I have from the olden days, I just wear socks inside those 'cause they're so thin and they're just like a membrane. Right. But, uh, I'm so far s- I, I like them a lot. I took- Cool...
• 37:23
  them out on that, uh, our, on our ride the other night and- I'll be sure to let them know too... I will, uh, I will keep up with, uh, using them. Um, Endura, they're, uh, friends of the show now because- Right...
• 37:35
  we're gonna have a little, uh, little link in the show notes there.
• 37:38
  If you, if you click on an Endura thing, they'll, they'll help support the show a little bit by giving us a little commission if you buy something from those folks, so. And they make waterproof stuff.
• 37:45
  Let's check them out. They make a lot of good... I've, I've got tons of their stuff. Uh, pants. I've got a jacket. I've got their- Pumps... Humvee shorts. Yeah, I've seen, I've seen a couple of their jackets.
• 37:52
  You know, they're from- That's why I was trying to remember the name... they're from Scotland for crying out loud. Do, do you put them in your bag? I don't have a bag, bog. Bog. Bag. Uh, they're from Scotland.
• 38:01
  It's like if you want snow tires, go where it snows. Sweden. Get Haka Politis- Get Haka Politis... from Finland- Finland... because it snows 240 inches a year. Yeah.
• 38:08
  If you wanna buy rain gear, get it from somewhere where it rains. Makes sense. You know? Right. Scotland for f- you know. Yeah. Makes sense. For crying out loud. Makes sense. Anyway, check it out in the show notes.
• 38:17
  Probably be some kinda thing. Click on it. Help support the show. Um, notwithstanding that other stuff at, at, uh, fatbike.com doesn't make some people money, but it doesn't do anything for us.
• 38:27
  This show is all we got, so if you wanna support the show, buy some stuff from Endura. Thank you very much. Run it old JK. Thank you. All right. Picture picture. Okay. Hey, thanks to Dan.
• 38:38
  We have a nice show this week and, uh- Yeah... I, I'm sure we'll get him to call again. Dan. Yeah. That was great. And we'll get Bill on the show too, 'cause he's up there at the same location. Thanks everybody. Twofer.
• 38:48
  [upbeat music] Meow, meow, meow, meow, meow, meow, meow, meow, meow, meow, meow, meow, meow, meow, meow, meow, meow, meow