The Inside Line Podcast - Vital MTB

Eliot Jackson is a professional downhill racer on the Giant Factory Off-Road Racing team. The long-time American pinner has roots in motocross and is no stranger to high-performance racing. He discusses how telemetry and data acquisition has impacted his mountain bike race training and preparation with some eye-opening results. Visit http://www.vitalmtb.com/features/TECH-TALK-Giant-Factory-Off-Roa...

Dave Garland is a bike wizard. The Giant Factory Off-Road mechanic uses his latest piece of tech to help refine his World Cup DH racers' set-ups and bring to light feel versus reality on course. Bike nerds rejoice!

Brandon Sloan is a long-time Specialized employee who has worked his way up through the ranks, landing as the director in charge of all things bike. While he avoids disclosing an official title and says he's never had a "real job," Brandon is responsible for the development of some influential products over the years like the Big Hit with 24-inch rear wheel, the Demo, the Enduro, in...

We put Brendog on the spot to talk about movies, racing, and where you should travel to ride your bike next. Uncut and straight off the cuff!

Chris Hilton, a long-time mountain bike industry figure, left his Alabama home in the 90's to pursue mountain bike racing. When he realized he wasn't cut out for competitive XC racing, he found his way into the business side of our sport, eventually landing at SRAM some 10 years ago. Getting his feet wet with SRAM XX 2x10 drivetrain development, he's a big reason why 1x drivetrains...

Chris Cocalis has a deeply rooted history in the sport of mountain biking. Coming from a BMX background, he combined his love of riding bikes and improving on broken parts into a lifelong career in MTB. From days as a racer and shop employee, he learned how to weld and started making bikes at an early age out of pure passion. That passion led Chris to create Titus cycles in the 90's and ultim...

I am honored to share an interview with The Inside Line's first female guest, Elayna Caldwell. Elayna is Brand Director of Mountain Biking at SRAM. She has a long history in our sport, starting out as a hobbyist racer and eventually finding her way into the industry by way of a an entry-level marketing position at RockShox back when it was based in Northern California. We discuss some of her...

One is a master on the bike, the other is a master behind the camera. I had the pleasure of sitting down with two friends and superstars of the mountain bike world this week at the Sea Otter Classic; Brendan Fairclough and Clay Porter. I set up a mobile, outdoor podcaststudio at Vital's Sea Otter campsite and we conducted the interview under an oak tree near the venue. Brendan and Clay have p...

Jose Gonzalez has been involved with mountain bikes and mountain bike suspension almost as long as the products have existed. Coming from an extensive motocross background with Kawasaki, Jose found a love for mountain biking and suspension development in the early years of Manitou. He and his team developed some of the most important suspension products of the era, which helped turned mountain bik...

Quinton Spaulding is a man dedicated to downhill racing. The South African native moved to Las Vegas, Nevada with his family and first rode a mountain bike in 1998. Shortly thereafter, he answered a magazine ad about a grassroots sponsorship with KHS Bicycles and has been with the brand ever since. "Q" as he's often called is 49, still races Pro downhill and runs the KHS Factory Rac...

Aaron Gwin needs no introduction. He's one of the greatest downhill mountain bike racers of all time and he's in the prime of his career. I sat down with Aaron at his home in Murrieta, California, and we discussed things from diet and training, his shelf-life as a downhill racer, his desire to motivate and inspire kids and even a love he has for singing. I hope you enjoy this episode wit...

Welcome mountain bikers to Vital MTB's The Inside Line Podcast Back in early December of 2016, I met with Duncan Riffle. I've known Duncan for years and had shot photos with him when he was a pro downhill racer, competing on the World Cup circuit in the early and mid 2000's. Since then he's become a staple of SRAM's marketing department. What's funny is that I think o...

I had known of Bryson Martin for a long time. I knew he was a long-time mountain bike industry heavy-weight, involved in Marzocchi throughout the years, eventually creating DVO Suspension in 2012. It wasn't until December of 2016 that I first had the chance to sit down and get to know his story and background. Bryson is the reason Marzocchi considered entering the mountain bike market. He&apo...

Welcome mountain bikers! It’s been a long two weeks. I’m glad you’re back for our third episode of Vital MTB’s The Inside Line podcast. My guest this week is Craig Glaspell, but most of you probably know him as Stikman. Stik has a LONG history in our sport as a mechanic, team manager, husband to Leigh Donovan, rumor and gossip mill instigator, marketing guru, but most importantly, he’s possibly mo...

Hello mountain bikers! Welcome to episode 2 of Vital MTB's The Inside Line. We're overwhelmed by the reception and the kind words you all had for episode 1 with Eliot Jackson. We really appreciate the support and excitement for what we're doing. We are excited to bring you episode 2. I sat down with Brian Lopes last week and we had a great discussion about some of his history, the h...

Welcome to Vital MTB's The Inside line, a podcast about the personalities in our great sport of mountain biking. We're excited to kick things off with an episode featuring American downhill racer, Eliot Jackson. On December 1st, we met up with Eliot in a quiet, distraction-free house near Santa Barbara, California. He was staying there to focus on training for the 2017 World Cup season....