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Full Spectrum Cycling
Weekly Dose of Fat – 8-29-14 – with Joe Graham – Show #19
Aug 29, 2014
Weekly Dose of Fat – 8-29-14 – with Joe Graham – Show #19
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Transcript
0:03
Places, everybody. Places. [claps] Places, everyone. Weekly Dose of Fat, show number 19 for Friday, August 29th, 2014.
0:17
[upbeat music] From the still-under-construction fatbike.com studios, this is your Weekly Dose of Fat with your hosts Sven and Gomez. [laughs] Bienvenidos, amigos.
0:34
Yo soy Gomez. Hello, everybody. Welcome to the show. Joining us in the studio today is JK Livin. [laughs] And we have the Fat Bike Radio Orchestra, today conducted by Sir Christopher Daisy. Zion Cyclery.
0:53
This show is sponsored by the Surly Junk Strap because, I mean, who doesn't like to have their junk strapped down tight? Learn more all about, all, all about, all of about the Surly stuff at surlybikes.com.
1:07
They'll appreciate that if you go check out their website. Hey, before we get the show started today, I just wanna give a shout-out to my old man. Today would've been his 83rd birthday if he'd taken the ride this far.
1:19
I do miss you, Pop. And this week we're gonna toast Alan Smith. With? With- [laughs]... some Abbot Ale. I went to the fancy, uh, grocery-a and beer place there in Burlington and, uh, bought a beer.
1:36
You know, I walked up and down the aisles and stared at a l- lot of labels. And I- Were you a beer stoner in that place? [laughs] I was. There's so much beauty in that store.
1:46
[laughs] Till I saw the naughty vicar looking back at me from this label on the Abbot Ale. It's a tall can of British long-cooked beer. A true- [laughs] It's a true pint-sized beer. Yeah.
2:03
So when they say you're having a pint, you really are. I mean, what kind of beer is this exactly? They said it's a English, English bitter ale. I get the bitter part. Well, here we go. [can opens] Ah. Oh.
2:19
It's from Suffolk. Cheers, cheers, boys. A bitter. You know what? It's from Suffolk, England. Suffolk? That sounds dirty. Yeah. Well, I'm, I'm, I'm doing a pronunciation like it'd be Norfolk, Virginia, but Suffolk.
2:33
Suff- Suffolk. Suffolk. Yeah, I said it right. That's n- that's maybe got a little twang to it. I don't know. It's, are, is it bitter like all British people are?
2:41
[laughs] Well, a lot of times when they have the ESB-style, style beers, they're not that bitter. It's more caramely to me. Yeah. But where's Colin when you need him? Yeah. Mm-hmm. [laughs] It's a beer.
2:54
So basically- It's f- it's from England. [laughs] It's an irresistible ale. This style beer is called a, a, an amber ale. [laughs] We're just doing our best Colin imitation.
3:03
Hey, you know, Colin did break his foot, so we gotta- Yeah... we have to give him a little shout-out and- Yeah... hope you feel better, Colin, kind of a thing. Heal up fast.
3:10
All of my Jedi healing powers are now focused on your metatarsals, dude. Yep, and you can pour this beer right on there and speed it up. Ah.
3:18
So basically, our 9:00, 10:00 in the morning beer buzz is sponsored by Abbot Ale. [laughs] So, uh, we'll be right back with Joe Graham from Graham Cycles right after this.
3:33
[upbeat music] When it comes to fat bikes, Zion Cyclery in Zion, Illinois has you covered. They stock fatties from Surly, Salsa, 907, Borealis, and Trek, as well as everything from 45NRTH.
3:51
The staff is friendly, the mechanics are top-notch, and they stock the largest selection of fat bikes in the Chicago-Milwaukee area.
3:58
There's a mountain bike park and some great beach riding in Zion, so come, make a day of it. Call 847-746-2200 or visit zioncyclery.com.
4:14
You're listening to Fat Bike Radio. Hey, welcome back to the show. We're getting Joe from Graham Cycles on the horn here in just a second. Hey, let us do our little technology thing.
4:31
We'll just make that happen for you. So today, our special guest on the Weekly Dose of Fat is Joe Graham from Graham Cycles out in New Hampshire. How's it going there, Joe? Hi, Joe.
4:44
Oh, it's doing, it's going, uh, it's going great today, guys. Thank you so much for having me. L- living out in the shire there, does your shop have a round door on it like the hobbits do? Oh.
4:54
[laughs] Um, actually, it's very interesting.
4:57
So the place where I live is, um, is part of an outdoor education center, and while my house is a regular-looking home, they have, um, what they call some tree houses here, and the kids affectionately refer to them as hobbit houses.
5:11
And they are buildings totally covered in earth, um, with small wooden doors that are about the perfect size for a 10 to 13-year-old.
5:19
And, uh, so while I do not live in a hobbit house, I live near a shire-like, uh, place. That sounds idyllic. Man, that's crazy.
5:28
We, you know, I don't know if you know this, but I kinda have a gnome fetish, so if you could take a picture of one of your fancy bikes in front of one of those crazy houses, I can pretty much guarantee it'll get on, [laughs] get on our site.
5:42
That's pretty neat, that. I will, uh, I will make that happen this afternoon. All right. Right on. So today we have Joe on the show because he put together a, uh, cargo fat bike that's called the Chubby Pony, right, Joe?
5:57
That is correct, yep. It is, uh, my, my personal fat utility cycle truck. Nice. So, uh, how'd the name Chubby Pony come, or is that completely X-rated and we'll have to bleep out a bunch of stuff?
6:12
[laughs] Uh, the Chubby Pony name was actually inspired by, uh, the horse at the farm, um, that we live on.
6:19
So as I said before, it's an outdoor education center and, uh, they have a small, you know, a small farm operation so that the kids can see... You know, they can work with animals, they can work in a garden.
6:30
And, uh, one of the animals we have is, um, some, some breed of a Norwegian pony that's basically a chubby pony.
6:38
And, uh, just watching the horse kinda, you know, go to work and the things that, that the horse is used for sort of inspired the idea of this bike, of it being kind of a workhorse bike. Cool. Yeah. Awesome. Nice.
6:50
So, uh, this blue and yellow, uh, bike, is it a... What's it made out of, the frame?
6:56
Uh, the frame is, is a combination of, you know, US-produced 4130 steel and some tubing from Tru-Temper, um, which is, again, is also 4130.
7:06
Uh, the Tru-Temper tubing is used for the main triangle, um, because it, it's lighter butted tubing, and then most of the rack and the fork and the rear end is, is constructed from straight gauge 4130. Hmm. Cool.
7:19
So the integral racks and a truss fork. Does this have a truss fork on it? It does have a truss fork on it, yep. That's, uh, that's some pretty- Um-... delicate welding.
7:30
How many hours of fabrication do you have in on this thing? Um, you just said how many hours of construction time? Right, yeah. You know, I don't know. Most, lo-
7:40
most of the bikes I build, you know, can be anywhere from, uh, one week to two weeks of construction. Uh, this was a little more extensive project because, you know, the frame and a fork and, and the integrated racks.
7:52
You know, I, I probably spent on and off maybe three weeks to a month doing it.
7:56
Um, it was, you know, so it's a side project for me, so I did it in, in a lot of my extra time and, you know, kinda like my Friday afternoon time. What, what kinda drivetrain does it have on it, Joe?
8:07
Um, I've got it set up with, uh, a one by 10 using, uh, Wolf Tooth components, 42-tooth giant cog on the rear and, uh, a Race Face 34-tooth narrow wide ring on the front.
8:20
Um, I think I may have to switch to a slightly smaller ring in the front. Um, but so far I've been able to pedal up some pretty significant grades, you know, even with a passenger on the back.
8:32
I think if I was riding up, like, extended kinda long uphills with a lot of load though, I would need something a little lower than what I have right now. So what kinda tires and wheels is, are you running on that?
8:43
Uh, tires and wheels were set up with, uh, Surly Mog Lite rims. Um, and we've got, I've got a set of black Floyds, uh, the nice 120 TPIs for the tires.
8:54
And you know, a lot of people have asked me, "Hey, why is this a fat bike?" Um, because, you know, certainly there's plenty of utility bikes out there that aren't fat.
9:01
And, uh, my skew on it was kind of, you know, I, I want it to be a fat bike because I thought that the extra volume of the tires would be nice when you really put some weight on it and load it up, that it would, it would have a good ride.
9:13
Um, and I thought that, you know, like, it almost, it almost has handling characteristics like a motorcycle. Um- Hmm...
9:19
because it's a longer wheel base and with the combination of the fat tires, um, you can really lean it over in the corner and feel like you've got tons of traction and tons of stability.
9:29
What, what kinda trips do you typically do on it, Joe? What kinda... Did you say what kinda trips do I typically take it on? Right. Right, yeah. How do you use it?
9:35
What's kind of a typical day on a f- on a longtail fat bike? Yeah. Well, so far I use it getting around the camp here. You know, I'll throw tools in the front.
9:45
Um, I occasionally will throw some things in, in, in the totes that I've made for the back. Uh, ideally, when I first envisioned the bike I was living in Syracuse, New York, and so, um, I was close to everything.
9:57
I mean, I, right now I live about 15 to 17 miles from the nearest town. I used to live a few blocks from the nearest grocery store.
10:03
So initially when the bike was conceived, you know, I was gonna use it for grocery runs, if I needed to run to the hardware store, all those things.
10:11
Now that I've moved further away from a city, it's not always possible to take all the time to bike down there, but I hope to, you know, I hope to use it for some of those things.
10:19
Days when I have time, it would be often going down to the grocery store and just toss stuff in the totes or, you know, if I'm running down to town and I need, you know, I need to pick up some supplies.
10:28
So the, uh, the box on the front is actually perfectly sized to hold, uh, a case of beer. Um, and so that's gonna be a key transportation need for the bike, I believe. [laughs] Absolutely.
10:41
Always important to be able to protect those precious bottles of beer. Exactly. So you told us before we went on the air that you, uh, that you sold your car and that this is going to take the place of, of your car.
10:57
So we look forward to hearing more about it. Um, we'll have pictures of Joe's Chubby Pony on the show notes. And, uh, it's been great having you on the show. We, uh, hope to talk to you again real soon. Awesome.
11:14
Thank you guys so much for having me. All right, man. Have a good one. You're tuned to Fat Bike Radio.
11:23
This is Wyatt Ritka with Wyatt Bicycle Company and when I'm not building bikes, I listen to Simon Gomez on Fat Bike Radio. Hey, quit playing with yourself. It's the weekly dose of fat. All right.
11:36
Welcome back to the radio program. This is your weekly dose of fat. I know Gomez was trading emails with Mike Kyriak. What'd you, what'd you learn from Mike, Gomez? Well, Mike was, uh...
11:48
I contacted Mike 'cause I'm finally gonna go, uh, tubeless on my, uh, on my fat back. And, uh, he sent me a link to, uh, a, a really nice shot of his gorgeous new Erickson-...
12:04
fatty that is- he's running 29 plus I think we saw that bike at, uh, NABS. I think it was under construction, and Brad was pointing it out and very proud they were making a bike for Mike.
12:15
Yeah, Mike has owned some of the most beautiful and innovative, unique Ti expedition bikes.
12:24
Uh, the one that comes to mind is the Moots bike that had, uh, that had stove fuel storage in the forks, and he's still running on this Erickson, a, a bar that can hold fluid in, uh, in its, uh, center.
12:37
So- He's got some good ideas... there's a, there's a link to click if you, uh, if you love the Ti bling, check it out. Erickson's welds are as good as anyone in the- You know those-... on the planet...
12:51
you know those guys, both Kent and Brad, came from Moots- Yeah... so they've, they've got the chops. Absolutely.
12:58
This is the final piece of the puzzle for the secret word facet of our Dog Days of Summer contest that we've been running all month. This week's secret word is fun. Fun. Fun. There is [laughs] - Fun? Fun?
13:13
Michael popped his head up over there at that word. I like fun. There is a link in the show notes all about the contest. If you didn't hear about it yet, you still got time to enter. Lots of ways to do it.
13:23
Just check it out. Yeah, you can, uh, put all the words together, send us a video or photo. We've been, uh, getting quite a few entries. Awesome.
13:35
We have a pretty awesome prize package of, uh, Surly products, and 45NRTH has, uh, some of those sweet Merino tees for each of the winners. Oh, I love my Merino tee. That's one of my favorite shirts.
13:48
So the, uh, IMBA summit was last week. Representatives from around the country met to discuss all aspects of mountain bike advocacy.
13:56
IMBA tweeted about positive news from the BLM for mountain bike access and mentioned that they are, uh, having discussions about setting their policy on e-bikes on mountain bike trails.
14:07
Well, I'll bet that opened a can of worms right there. Yeah, our readers definitely always react to anything that we put up in the e-bike realm. Yeah, I think there's a lot of people that, you know, the...
14:16
One of the guys that I, when I read that story, uh, is one of the IMBA founders.
14:21
He's 71 years old and doesn't mountain bike much anymore because he's 71 years old, but he had said that the e-bike opens up some stuff for him that he would not normally be able to do.
14:33
So I know there's, there, there's these kind of things where, well, it'd be nice for him to be able to do it, but is some crazy guy going 30 miles an hour up a hill trying to beat your Strava time, is that guy, is he, should he be able to do it?
14:43
So- Right... there's all these, you know, tons of arguments, obviously. Well, you can always keep up with all of the IMBA news at www.imba.com.
14:54
And, uh, there's a, uh, story on the Salsa blog that I found pretty interesting.
14:59
Uh, a guy named Steve Yore discusses doing the Leadville 100 on a Salsa Bear Grease, and how m- fat bikes have changed even in just the last couple of years from 38-pound behemoths to these, you know, sub-24-pound race bikes that are legitimately capable of doing a race like that with a guy with some power.
15:19
And, uh, his goal was to earn the belt buckle, which you have to do that whole race in under nine hours. Basically, the, the story goes through how he managed to do that, and he did indeed earn the buckle.
15:30
There'll be a link in the show notes. Yeah, woot. Woot. Congratulations there, Steve. Woot, woot, woot. We give him, like, a serious, "Huzzah." Yeah, that's a awesome accomplishment.
15:40
And, uh, he was not the only fat bike in the Leadville 100 this year.
15:44
So in that kinda conditions, you know, he said, uh, one of the things he mentioned was that, you know, you obviously lose a little bit on the, uh, faster paved portions of that or the, the fire road portions, but that he was able to get traction in a lot of spots going up those long climbs like Columbine, where other people were not getting traction on their traditional mountain bikes.
16:04
So, uh, take a read on the story, and, uh, if you have more interest in what Salsa's doing, they updated their website to include all of the new 2015 models that we saw at Saddle Ramon Drive a few weeks back.
16:15
They got the Bucksaw on there. They've got my favorite bike from Saddle Ramon Drive, the Blackbourough.
16:20
There's a couple links in the show notes, one to Salsa Cycles and one to the story we did from Saddle Ramon Drive that explains why they would name a bike Blackbourough. Or why they wouldn't name it Gomez.
16:31
[laughs] He will- So-... have a bike named after him sooner or later. [laughs] It's just a matter of time. He, he's just collecting up enough money to pay somebody to actually, you know, name it The Gomez, El Gomez.
16:44
El Gomez. So from Eurobike, we, uh, now have all of the facts and figures on the Schwalbe Jumbo Jim. Yay, Schwalbe. Yeah, so, uh, the German tire maker Schwalbe is going to make two widths, a 4.0 or a 4.8.
17:02
Good on you, man. And both sizes can be had in either a SnakeSkin or a LightSkin sidewall. Uh, th- they say it can be run tubeless quite easily, and, uh, they have the legendary...
17:16
Now, again, this is, like, the legend of the sub 1,000 gram fat bike tire. With knobs. So, uh, yeah, send us a sample there, Schwalbe. Yeah, I, I- Let us, let us weigh it and rail on those things...
17:29
I'm looking forward to Schwalbe doing a fat bike tire because, uh, I ride their tires on, on some commuter bikes and whatnot, and they roll really well.
17:37
I'm hoping they can take some of that low rolling resistance, um, genius that they have and they apply it to a fat bike tire. That would be sweet. Absolutely.
17:45
So our friends at Pinkbike got the scoop over there at Eurobike, and the link is in the show notes. They've got a, they've got a bigger budget than we do for travel. [laughs] Yeah, you know, someday we'll go to Eurobike.
17:55
We will. We will have a- I'll make sure to have some ironic facial hair and wear a man bun... Are they ever gonna move it to Norway? 'Cause if they move it to Norway, I'd go there for sure. Oh, well.
18:04
S- uh, move it to, move Eurobike to Norway, and we'll show up. All right. [laughs] Do you hear that out there, Eurobike cats? Yeah, yeah. Do it anyway. Norway. Do it. If you wa- if you wanna see us at your event[laughs]
18:14
Which I'm sure they do. Oh, yes. Uh, oh, the guys from over at Fat Bike Brigade did a recent sub 24 overnight in the Strawberry Narrows. I think that's in Idaho. It's like three brothers from Idaho, right?
18:28
Idaho, I believe, yeah. So it looked like a pretty interesting trip, and, uh, talking about fat packing on fat bikes doing a, a 24-hour overnight trip. Uh, link to that in the show notes. Very cool.
18:40
And, uh, the last item on our list is, uh, we've been getting some events here that are fat bike events that are not in the winter. So, uh- You can ride your fat bike and it's not snowing out? It's, it's- Crazy talk...
18:55
apparently, apparently- It's crazy... there's some other crazy people out there in the world. And, uh, this particular event is the Wisconsin State Fat Bike Championships up in the suburbs of Green Bay.
19:06
It's in a place called Kewaunee. And it's kinda cool. They, they, they get it here. They...
19:11
Their description of the course is, "Single malt, single track, robust bench cut, smooth and flowing notes with an earthy finish." Now, that's, that's, that's an event that just screams, "Let's go do that.
19:25
Let's go- Yeah... have some fun." It's at a former ski hill, so it's got some elevation change and- Yeah. And it's gonna be- I, I think you just-... a serious race.
19:32
It's- Did you just walk up that hill or did they have a rope tow? 'Cause I don't think they had any chairlifts [laughs] there, but- I think it's a, a, a defunct- Yeah... ski hill. It's defunct.
19:40
And this is part of a, uh, of a, I don't know, 10, 11 race series called the WEMS series, the Wisconsin Endurance Mountain Bike Series. So, uh, it is a serious race.
19:50
And yeah, they're doing a whole fat bike portion with the other guys out there riding their normal, uh- Right, and it's-... mountain bikes...
19:58
and it's sponsored by our friends at Broken Spoke Cycles out there in Manitowoc. Ooh, go George. George Kapets. Hey, you know what happened- Yeah... you know what happened last year when I went to the WEMS race?
20:07
I was at the, uh, the, the fat bike championship last year, and, uh, George [laughs] went out on his lap and his hamburger disappeared into my stomach while he was out there racing.
20:15
And I didn't think he'd notice, but he's been holding me to owing him a hamburger for a year now, so- You should go up there and-... yeah, I probably ought to go up there and make good with my hamburger.
20:23
[laughs] You should go up there and cook hamburgers for, for those guys. Cook hamburgers for George. So, uh, if you would like your event
20:30
put in a event spotlight like we've done for this, uh, WEMS race, and next week we have a just a fun festival event in Italy, and I know that that's not the even the only, uh, fun rendezvous of fat bikes that's going on in those warmer months, uh, contact me,
[email protected]
with a hyphen in there, and, uh, or go onto our website and use our events, uh, event coordinator tool to put your event in there.
21:01
And then you'll... it'll just take a day or two for us to approve that. So get in there early, get your event put on our ca- on our, uh, calendar. And then send me, uh, a, a flyer. I love- Gomez loves flyers...
21:14
cool flyers. So if you, uh, if you have a nice flyer made up for your race and it's fun, and it has a real fat bike flare, send it to me and we'll get it up on the site.
21:25
Yeah, it doesn't have to be a fat bike only event as long as it has a fat bike component to- Right... the event. Right. Yeah. And then it will go on the calendar. Um, yeah.
21:33
And, uh, you know, if you write about or blog on the web about fat bikes and you'd like us to check out what you've got going, you can shoot me an e- email to
[email protected]
and we might just mention you on the show.
21:44
Yeah, we're really looking for a ladies aspect. You know, this is gonna sound corny. Here's your Gomez, "Hey, y'all- [laughs]... you great fat bikes out there, why don't you just- Let's get the vicar...
21:55
you know- Let's get the vicar in on this... just say Beetlejuice three times." [laughs] And, uh, well, we have a test bike that we're gonna get that we need, we need a lady to ride.
22:03
We need a lady's perspective on fat biking. So you can send your email to Greg. He loves the ladies too. Love the ladies. All right. [laughs] Thanks again to Surly for sponsoring the radio portion of today's broadcast.
22:15
Surly did have its ruts, English ruts about the nobility's behavior. Oh, did they now? Because it's like, oh, they're acting surly. I see. Oh, so you're being like the nobility. Arrogant and- Yes...
22:29
yes, we are arrogant, aren't we? The king- I like that... [laughs] of surliness. [laughs] The duke of surliness. Oh. The viceroy. All righty, all righty. Well, that's what we've got for y'all this week.
22:40
We'll see you next time. Adios, amigos. Ai, ai, ai. Ai. [laughs] That was loud. Yeah, it was. [singing] There we go. You've been listening to Fat Bike Radio's Weekly Dose of Fat.
22:57
Find us on the web at fat-bike.com/radio. We'll see you next time.
23:06
[upbeat music]
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