Maxxis’ new High Roller doesn’t look much like High Rollers of old, and Maxxis is talking a very big game about how widely their DH racers are using it. So we sat down with the Manager of their Bike division, Aaron Chamberlain, to talk about the impetus to update the High Roller; hear the story behind its development; peel back the curtain on how M…

Mike Ferrentino is back behind the microphone in this episode of Reviewing the News, and Mike and Simon get right into what happened in the bike industry in August. They recap the exciting UCI MTB World Championships in Andorra; Mike gives his take on the interesting Specialized and Frameworks partnership; and they both agree that cross-country mou…

Today on the podcast, the guys discuss Liam and Trevor's absolutely epic MTB trip to Mexico City and some sweet new Tech from Fox before jumping into some classic listener questions ranging from if there's anything more to life than MTBing to tire pressure puzzing and everything in between. Tune in!Our YouTube channel: www.youtube.com/channel/UCczl…

We’re hard at work testing a huge range of bikes and other gear, as always, and David Golay sat down with Zack Henderson to talk about a whole bunch of it, from the Trek Top Fuel to the Marin Alpine Trail, the Forbidden Druid V2 to the Trek Slash+, and a whole bunch more. Plus we get off in the weeds about bike geometry, and wrap things up by issui…

More and more women are riding mountain bikes, so why are there so few women-specific bike brands out there? It’s not just about making bikes for everyone — though that’s important, too. Kara Williard and David Golay sat down with Ludi Scholz, the Off-Road Category Manager at Liv, to hear all about it. RELATED LINKS: BLISTER+ Membership This Week’s…

Today on the podcast, the guys discuss some epic recent trips and rides they've been getting into as well as some new exotic suspension that Trevor has been trying out before diving into a diverse array of listener questions ranging from if our lives were movies to which XC tire insert to run, DH drivetrain decisions, suspension setup apps and ever…

Gearboxes have some clear advantages for more gravity-oriented mountain bikes — less unsprung weight, the ability to shift while not pedaling, no derailleur to damage, and more — but have yet to reach widespread adoption. Zerode is perhaps the company best known for making gearbox mountain bikes, and we sat down with founder Rob Metz and Ali Quinn …

Vermont Mountain Bike Association is one of the leading organizations in the country in the assessment, funding, and building of adaptive trails — and in collaboration with Vermont Adaptive Ski and Sports, they are creating an inspiring network of adaptive accessible trails. We sat down with Kenzie Brunner from VMBA, and Jeff Alexander from Vermont…

In this month's episode of Reviewing the News on our Bikes & Big Ideas Podcast, Simon welcomes freeride legend Wade Simmons as his guest co-host. Wade gives a recap of Crankworx Whistler and claims he can’t do tricks, then Wade and Simon try to sort out why they keep crashing, and the unfortunate reality of not being as fast as they once were. They…

Today on the podcast, the guys discuss Jeff's insane adventure race and Liam's Downieville race recap as well as their recent trip to Mammoth and a new tire from Maxxis before jumping into a classic array of listener questions ranging from if Jeff is totally blind to the best time to replace your cassette and chainring and everything in between. Tu…

Hannah Otto’s obliteration of the Whole Enchilada FKT a couple of years ago was already hugely impressive, but she went much bigger — double the elevation and well over double the mileage — in her follow-up pursuit of the Kokopelli Trail FKT. She came painfully close to pulling it off on her first attempt, despite horrific weather and trail conditi…

The first production batch of the Frameworks DH bike is sold out, but they’ll soon be opening preorders for the Enduro version. So we brought Neko Mulally back onto the show to tell us all about the new bike; the variants of the DH bike he’s been testing; the expanded Frameworks race team with Angel Suarez and Asa Vermette; and a bunch more. RELATE…

Geometron arguably did more than any other bike brand to kick off the geometry revolution of the late 2010s, but they weren’t content to leave their longstanding G1 alone — even though its geometry still looks pretty up to date five years after it first launched. So we sat down with Sam Robson and Marcel Lauxtermann from Geometron to talk about the…

Today on the podcast, the guys discuss some interesting new products and epic recent rides before jumping into a stellar set of listener questions ranging from if you should store your bike upside down to the weirdest thing we've ever seen on the trail and everything in between. Tune in!Our YouTube channel: www.youtube.com/channel/UCczlFdoHUMcFJuHU…

In this month's episode of Reviewing the News on our Bikes & Big Ideas Podcast, Mike Ferrentino and Simon Stewart debate the polarizing topic of bikes in Wilderness areas. There's plenty of bike racing to talk about — including the biggest one in the world, the Tour de France. And they’re excited to talk about Red Bull Rampage including a women’s c…

We’ve been testing a big spectrum of bikes from the XC-race-derived Specialized Epic Evo to big Enduro sleds including the RAAW Madonna V3 and Marin Alpine Trail, so David Golay and Zack Henderson sat down to chat about a whole bunch of them, and along the way we take a deep dive into tire design & a variety of options we’ve been testing; discuss t…

Today on the podcast, special guest SRAM CEO Ken Lousberg joins Jeff for an exclusive interview to talk all things MTB and more. From the perceived innovation plateau to supply chain issues and the future of bicycle drivetrains, no topic is off limits. Tune in! Our YouTube channel: www.youtube.com/channel/UCczlFdoHUMcFJuHUeZf9b_QWorldwide Cyclery Y…

Bryan Hance is a bike enthusiast and web developer who combined those two interests in co-founding Bike Index, a database that tracks ownership to help recover bikes that end up stolen. Through that work, Bryan uncovered a sprawling bike theft and trafficking operation, which he traced back to one man, operating out of Jalisco, Mexico — and the sto…

Bike companies file a lot of wild patents, spanning from “nearly released product” to “outrageous pie-in-the-sky idea.” Dan Bacon of Wheelbased chronicles many of the more interesting ones, and we brought him back on the show to talk about some recent highlights, from Bilstein’s proposed fork damper to Shimano’s multiple electronic brake concepts, …

Today on the podcast, the boys discuss some wild recent rides and races they have been getting into plus some content we've been cooking up before jumping into an all time array of listener questions ranging from who would win in an arm wrestling match to how bike geometry and sizing varies and everything in between.Our YouTube channel: www.youtube…

Mike Ferrentino is back again as co-host for this month’s iteration of Reviewing the News, and Simon is delighted to have him in the studio to help try and make sense of the Red Bull Hardline drama. There were two exciting DH World Cup races to talk about, as well as an XC World Cup in Nova Mesto to cover. And in a fun change of pace, they get into…

We’ve been very impressed with the EXT Storia V3 on a whole bunch of different bikes over the years, but EXT is launching a new V4 iteration soon, and they’ve found a lot to tweak. So we brought EXT founder, Franco Fratton, back to Bikes & Big Ideas to give us a rundown on the new Storia and Arma V4; talk about the potential for truly “active” susp…

When it comes to rear shocks for mountain bikes, there are tons of options for both air- and coil-sprung versions, but the Cane Creek Tigon is both — an “air-charged coil shock,” as Cane Creek describes it. So we sat down with Cane Creek’s Will Hart to get the rundown on the Tigon, including why Cane Creek decided to make it; what its pros and cons…

Today on the podcast, the boys are joined by good friend Phil Boorman, founder of the MTB tour company All Mountain Rides. We chat a little bit about what it was like for Phil to start his own MTB tour company and travel to dream locations to ride bikes before jumping into some classic listener questions ranging from MTB pickup lines to use on the …

We’ve been testing a huge variety of bikes, from the E-Gravel Scott Solace to a bunch of high-pivot Trail bikes (including the Deviate Highlander II), plus several new forks, some new tires, and a whole bunch more. So we sat down to chat about all of it; recap the World Cup DH season opener; recount being repeatedly heckled on the local trails; and…

Carbon fiber bike frames have become ubiquitous in the high-end world, but metal bikes are making a comeback — and the number of steel full-suspension bikes we’ve reviewed in the last few years is a testament to that. So we sat down with Daniel Yang and Nick Neuhaus of Neuhaus Metalworks to chat about the case for metal bikes; hear the story of the…

Today on the podcast, Jared, Liam and Trevor chat about their latest MTB escapades and adventures before discussing some fun new products and some epic listener questions ranging from if you need another bike to MTB time travel and everything in between. Tune in!Our YouTube channel: www.youtube.com/channel/UCczlFdoHUMcFJuHUeZf9b_QWorldwide Cyclery …

Simon welcomes guest co-host Mike Ferrentino to go over a busy, weird month in the bike world. Of course, they have to talk about what happened to Kona, which leads to a discussion about the negative effect Venture capital and investment companies seem to have on the bike industry. But there’s also fun stuff going on with companies like Gates, and …

The Norco Factory Team has a new DH race bike, and the story of its development is an interesting one. So we sat down with engineers Adrian Ward and Kirk McDowall to hear their take on the goals and design intent of the bike; what they learned from the development of the existing Enduro bike, the Range (and its modified DH version); the original te…