Bikes & Big Ideas

Vaea Verbeeck has had a very impressive and varied mountain bike career as a racer (across a wide range of disciplines), a freerider, and a whole lot more. And so just before she headed off to this year’s iteration of Proving Grounds , we sat down to hear her story about the wild early days of her mountain biking odyssey in Bromont, Quebec; the tragedy that got her to refocus and commit to being a...

Dillon Osleger is a man who wears many hats — he’s a professional mountain biker, the head of the Sage Trails Alliance, a climate scientist, a founding member of the Protect Our Winters Bike Alliance, and more. So we sat down with him to talk about all of that, and along the way, we get into how the mountain bike community is growing and evolving for the better; how cool historic trails can b...

We’ve been testing a ton of bikes, suspension, brakes, and other gear, so Dylan Wood and I sat down to chat about a whole bunch of it, including the Pivot Shadowcat, Intense Tracer 279, Canfield Jedi 29, multiple versions of the Manitou Dorado, plus a whole lot more — and we tease a very big upcoming project that is going to be of interest to a whole lot of folks. TOPICS & TIMES: David’s musta...

Reynolds is one of the biggest names in steel and titanium bike frame tubing, and they’ve just released a very interesting report on the environmental impact of their various product lines . So we sat down with their General Manager, Martin Shepherd, to talk about why Reynolds went through the effort to produce the study and what they hoped to learn from it; what Reynolds is doing to curb their ow...

Dillon Flinders has some very lofty goals for himself — both on a bike and on skis — so we sat down to talk about them, and how he’s arranging his life to chase both at once. Along the way, we get into the differing cultures of both sports; how a mindset change improved Dylan’s DH race performance; mentorship and fostering the next generation of American DH racers; & much more. TOPICS & TI...

Rae Morrison has been at the pointy end of the EWS circuit for the better part of the series’ existence, and we caught up with her shortly before the upcoming Whistler EWS race to talk about how the series has evolved over the years, and what Rae would do differently if she were in charge; the injury and recovery that spurred her to pursue a career as a pro racer in the first place; her bike setup...

Crestline Bikes has been teasing some extremely interesting-looking prototypes — especially their high-pivot VPP DH bike — but details on the project have been scarce. So we sat down with founder Troydon Murison and suspension designer Jimmy Davis (of Cascade Components) to talk about the project, including a whole lot of details on their upcoming lineup; founding the company & involving some...

We sat down with Troy, Paul, Pierce, and Jonah from Over The Edge — our Blister Recommended Shop in Fruita, CO; Hurricane, UT; Todos Santos, Mexico; and Melrose, Australia — to talk about the unique history of OTE; building trails in the early days of mountain biking; the development of mountain bike towns; travel & MTB destinations; servicing bikes at Rampage; and a whole lot more. TOPICS &am...

Racing the EWS for the first time is a daunting prospect, but Eric Olsen decided to spice things up by bike touring between the first three rounds to boot. So right after his return from Europe, we sat down with Eric to talk about where the idea came from and what his goals were for the trip; how things went, including encountering golf-ball-sized hail & (almost) running over a bunch of school...

Trinity MTB’s V2 high-pivot prototype can serve dual-duty as an Enduro or DH bike, with or without a gearbox — to say nothing of the 3D printed construction, or any of the other fascinating design details. So we sat down with Trinity’s Chase Warner and Mic Williams to hear all about what is one of the most interesting bikes out there; learn the story behind its development; and get some teasers ab...

We’ve got a ton of bikes in for testing right now, so David Golay and Dylan Wood sat down to talk about a bunch of the stuff they’ve been spending time on across the travel spectrum, including the new Santa Cruz Hightower and Megatower; some shorter-travel options from Niner and Rocky Mountain; and a couple more Enduro bikes from Kavenz and Pivot. TOPICS & TIMES: Niner JET 9 RDO (2:05) Rocky M...

Betty Birrell picked up mountain biking nearly 30 years ago and at 73, she’s still riding serious trails on the North Shore. So David Golay and Kara Williard sat down with Betty to talk about her trajectory as a mountain biker; motherhood; how the sport has (and hasn’t) changed; and the North Shore Betty documentary short that Patagonia released recently. Along the way, Betty shares some great ins...

Hope has been making mountain bike disc brakes for longer than just about anybody, and earlier this year they launched their new Tech 4 lineup of brakes. So we sat down with Hope’s design engineer, Sam Gibbs, to talk about the new brakes & what changed from the prior Tech 3 models; how to choose the right brakes, rotors, and pads for you; and along the way we go pretty deep on the finer points...

Mountain bikes and beer are a classic combination, but there aren’t many bike companies that were literally founded in a brewery. REEB is one, though (the name is a clue there), and as you might expect from a bike company with as interesting an origin story as theirs, REEB does a lot of things differently. So we sat down with Jeff Lenosky and Adam Prosise to get the rundown on the company history;...

We’ve been busy testing a whole lot of new suspension from RockShox, as well as bikes across the whole spectrum, from XC to Enduro, so Jonathan Ellsworth and David Golay sat down in Blister HQ to talk about all of it, including the new Santa Cruz Megatower V2, the Rocky Mountain Element, and a whole lot more. TOPICS & TIMES: RockShox Flight Attendant (4:48) RockShox’s new 2023 lineup (12:38) Y...

Jess Blewitt first rode a mountain bike in 2018, but her list of accomplishments is already extensive — including being the two-time New Zealand DH National Champ and having earned a top-ten finish at World Championships — and she’s only 19. So we had Jess on to talk about how she’s put it all together so quickly and how her background as a ski racer helped; her career highlights to date; her brut...

Lots of mountain bikers have idly thought about designing their own frame, but actually doing it is an entirely different matter. But ex-pro racer Even Turpen took the leap, and his Contra Bikes prototype is nearing production readiness (and was perhaps the coolest thing we saw at Sea Otter this year). So we brought Evan on the show to talk about the bike design and what he wanted to accomplish wi...

Kavenz founder Giacomo Großehagenbrock got an early start in the mountain bike industry when he landed an internship at Nicolai when he was just 17. He followed that up by founding 77designz , making chainguides, stems, and more, but he still had the itch to design his own bike — so Kavenz and the VHP16 were born. But the story is a lot more complicated — and interesting — than that, so we sat dow...

We sat down with Rich Frough of Fanatik, our Blister Recommended Bike Shop in Bellingham, WA to talk about bike gear trends, the local mountain bike scene, and Fanatik’s amazing custom bike and wheel building programs. TOPICS & TIMES: Fanatik’s history (1:25) Rich’s role at Fanatik (3:11) The Fanatik customer (4:47) Bellingham’s mountain bike scene (7:13) Gear trends — locally and globally (9:...

A few years ago, Kitsbow undertook an incredibly ambitious plan to move to Old Fort, North Carolina, and bring all of their apparel production to the United States, after years of working with overseas factories. And not only did they do just that, but in doing so they trained an entirely new workforce and spearheaded the revitalization of their new hometown, which had been losing manufacturing jo...

Revel Bikes recently launched the new Rail 29 , so we sat down with their founder, Adam Miller, to get the rundown on the new bike and its development process; navigating COVID & the maturation of the bike industry; the rest of the Revel lineup; wheel sizes and mullet-skepticism; and a whole lot more. TOPICS & TIMES: Check-in since last time (Ep. 25) (2:10) Revel’s new Rail 29 (5:51) Growt...

Chelsea Kimball got a later start in MTB than a lot of pro riders, but she’s making up for lost time and is part of the inaugural class of women participating in Darkfest, among a whole lot of other huge accomplishments. So we sat down with her to talk about all of it, including her longtime commitment to van life, Freeride Fiesta and getting props from Yoann Barelli, the state and future of women...

Rotational impact protection in bike helmets has deservedly gotten a lot of attention in recent years, and MIPS has long been the pioneering technology in that space. But Lazer thought there was a lighter, more comfortable, more breathable way to accomplish the same goals, and developed KinetiCore to do just that. And so we sat down with Lazer’s Head of Marketing for North America, Chris Smith, to...

Lea Davison announced her retirement from international racing after the final World Cup of the 2021 season, but she’s definitely not walking away from bikes or racing. So we sat down with the two-time Olympian and 20-plus year XC pro to talk about the career that’s taken up her entire adult life to this point; the highs and the lows; the state of XC racing; mentorship & career evolution; what...

There are a lot of smart people working in bike suspension, but EXT founder Franco Fratton might have the most impressive resume — which includes working for the Ferrari and Lotus Formula One teams. And so we sat down with Franco to chat about his career and life story; his suspension design philosophy; how he went from focusing on motorsports to making some of the best bike suspension out there;...