The Paceline Cycling Podcast

This week Selene takes on a couple of training questions, and prepares Patrick for some of the hard work he's going to need to do as he gets ready for this year's Dirty Kanza. She discusses the usefulness of group rides and intervals, even for a rider planning to do a double century (whether on the road or off of it). Researchers in Australia released a study regarding the opinions of drivers abou...

No. 22 is a newcomer on the custom bike scene. The company was founded in 2012 by Bryce Gracey and Mike Smith on the idea that titanium just rides better. After working with a couple of different contract shops that produced prototypes for them, they settled on Saratoga Frameworks—the operation that rose from the ashes of Serotta Competition Cycles—for their production. Just one problem: the opera...

We're gratified to report that we've been hearing from listeners who have been getting health issues checked out as a result of Mark Weir and Jess Cera's stories. Selene just did the Hell of Hunterdon and it sounds like she says the first word in the event's name was well-earned. It brought to mind some recent work by training expert Hunter Allen; he has quantified what it means to burn a match. T...

This week my guest is frame builder Nick Crumpton. We may be in the golden age of frame building thanks to the fact that some of the finest steel frames ever produced are being built today. That didn’t stop Nick Crumpton from deciding he wanted to apply his knowledge to carbon fiber. Crumpton is one of a handful of builders who works with carbon fiber. Mostly, it is a material used by much larger...

Before Lance and LeMond, and 7-11 and Motorola, there was a group of cyclists paving the way for American racing on the International level. They were the Raleigh Boys of the 60s and 70s. The Raleigh Boys set the benchmark as the first fully sponsored American Cycling Team competing abroad internationally. My guest this week is one of those “Raleigh Boys:” Bill Humphreys. Bill Humphreys was a hipp...

Chef and racer Jess Cerra is the brain behind one of the newest bars on the market, JoJé Bar. With her knowledge of nutrition, the needs of elite racers and her understanding of food as a chef, she decided to formulate a new bar with less carbohydrate, more fat and no preservatives to address gut rot and other concerns of athletes. She also shares how she got into cycling as well as a touching sto...

The UCI has announced the first-ever eMTB world championships. There will be multiple categories for both men and women and the prize money will be equal. Of course, there are people who think that this should be sanctioned by the American Motorcycle Association, not the Union Cycliste Internationale. And then there are questions about how hard it can be to ride a 55-lb. bike into a rock garden at...

To hear Aaron Barcheck tell it, he wasn't even planning to be a frame builder when he went to UBI to take their titanium frame building class. He definitely wasn't thinking of starting a brand. But after finishing the class and working for Dean Titanium, well, one thing let to another and now Mosaic Cycles is turning 10 years old. Since the launch of Mosaic, Barcheck has built the company from jus...

It may be February and she may live in Pennsylvania, but Selene has started her season with the first of the season's races. It was cold and reasonably wet, but she says all in all, this year's edition was more pleasant than last year's. Patrick takes on another listener question, this time on the placement of pads in bibs and shorts. A listener has a problem with a pair of bibs; the pad is too fa...

In the annals of the North American Handmade Bicycle Show few builders have been as celebrated as Curtis Inglis, the man behind Inglis Cycles and Retrotec. Inglis has taken awards home more than a half dozen times from the show, due in no small part to the artful curves of his Retrotec frames. Inglis is likely also the only builder on the planet to build frames under two different brands. His Ingl...

Again, we take on some listener questions this week (you guys are killing it!). Selene takes a look at night riding and how to get past the fear of not being able to see all that much, even with the addition of lights. She also takes on a question about how to order her post-work workout and eating, while still maintaining a reasonable bedtime. We received an email from a listener who is wrestling...

My history with Brad Devaney goes back more than 30 years to Memphis, Tennessee, when we were both students at the University of Memphis and working as wrenches for the Peddler Bike Shop. Even then, Brad was impressive. His work was as thorough as it was efficient. After I moved away, he went back home to Chattanooga and changed his major to engineering. As fate would have it, he went to work for...

It's reader questions once again this week. Selene was asked how to structure a training plan so that a racer can maintain a high level of fitness year around, especially if there are six "A" events spaced throughout the season. Most training plans start from zero, and honestly, how many of us are starting from zero? Another reader says his wife is an injured runner and he's trying to get her into...

This week I’ve got a twofer for you. I’m interviewing two people responsible for creating new clothing for Pearl Izumi. Cory Hibbard is an apparel designer who has worked on a variety of products, from their BikeStyle line of casual but cycling-functional apparel to new jersey designs hitting bike shops this spring. She likes to call her work “adventure-powered design.” My other guest is Cory’s co...

Selene was recently a guest for Lovingthebike's Bike School. She was asked a number of questions, but two memorable ones were: what is the lowest temperature you will ride in? How cold can you take it? Another was what your favorite ride distance is. How long does a ride need to be for you to feel like you've been for a good ride? So whatever happened to all those cool brands that got bought up by...

This week, my guest is Steve Hampsten, the man behind Hampsten Cycles. While Hampsten Cycles may draw its fame from Steve’s brother Andy, the only American winner of the Giro d’Italia and Tour de Suisse, Steve has been in the bike industry for more than 30 years. He has worked in and around framebuilding for at least 20 years. While Andy’s role in the company has been to help conceive of models an...

This week we take on a veritable buffet of reader questions. Selene opens with oval chainrings, moves on to whether or not frame material matters, why there aren't more Clydesdale categories in races and winds up with the age-old question of whether or not your choice of chain lube matters (hint: it does). Patrick's pull also takes on a reader question: where would you want to go in the world and...

In the second part of my conversation with photographer Brian Vernor, we talk about storytelling through photography as well as photography when it is in service to a written feature. We also discuss the difference between commercial work and editorial work and how storytelling is a more compelling way to reach people than just marketing a product. Prior to flying to Japan to work on the "88 Templ...

You'd think eating is easy. We've all been doing it longer than we can remember. But eating on the bike while pedaling hard enough to make people miss the couch isn't easy. If it was, we wouldn't be getting listeners asking about how best to execute so they don't bonk. Bonking, after all, is a thing. But not our favorite thing. Selene addresses strategies to make sure you get everything down, keep...

On this week’s show, my guest is photographer, writer and filmmaker Brian Vernor. For many cycling aficionados, Brian Vernor came to prominence as a result of his work with Rapha here in the U.S. His photography seemed to capture the experience of being a cyclist and doing the hard miles to be fit in a way almost no one else had. To this day, his work often has a sense of the viewer being a protag...

This week Selene veers into gymnastics. Don't worry, she's got a good reason. Perhaps you've seen the video of UCLA gymnast Katelyn Ohashi's perfect-10 performance. Selene muses on body image, what it means to be supported and guided, and ways in which we evaluate our bodies that don't do us any good. Paceline listener Romany is going to race the Breck Epic this year. And she's thinking of replaci...

In the second part of my interview with veteran framebuilder Dave Kirk, we talk about the last phase of his career with Serotta, and then his move west to Bozeman, Montana, where he opened his own shop. This interview takes a really deep dive into fillet brazing and the finer points of one framebuilding's most under-appreciated techniques. We begin with a discussion of the patented DKS suspension...

On this week’s show, my guest is Dave Kirk, the man behind Kirk Frameworks. The path to becoming a skilled framebuilder isn't set. I've met masters who apprenticed under legends. I've met geniuses who chafed under menial tasks at big productions houses and left to figure it out for themselves. I've met stars who took a class at UBI. Any of those routes can work. However, if I was to write the fict...

This week Patrick and Selene take on two reader requests. First up is an explanation of flow states; Patrick begins with a definition of what constitutes flow and how to identify the experience as well as an explanation of why it feels so incredible. He also goes into the neuroscience behind it and how that proves that it's not just a cute name of an upbeat mood, but a real physiological experienc...

It's the new year and it's a time to establish what the next 12 months will bring. Selene took a look at her year-end summary from Strava and was amazed by her totals. Nearly 8500 miles ridden, more than 600 hours spent on the bike and enough climbing to Everest 20 times. What's it all mean? Is it worthwhile to look back? And if you do, how does that information guide future choices? Patrick is lo...