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Full Spectrum Cycling
Weekly Dose of Fat – 8-8-14 – with Neil from Cycle Monkey – Show #16
Aug 8, 2014
Weekly Dose of Fat – 8-8-14 – with Neil from Cycle Monkey – Show #16
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0:00
This is your weekly dose of fat for Friday, August 8th, 2014, show number 16.
0:07
[upbeat music] From the Fat Bike Studios in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, the place with more gnomes per capita than the average city,
0:34
it's Fat Bike Radio with your hosts, Sven and Gomez. [upbeat music] Gomez noticed that eight plus eight equals 16. We're, like, at a numerological juxtaposition.
0:53
My name is Gomez, and I like fat bikes. Guys, my name is Gomez. I'm a gnomez. Uh, you got Sven here, and also in the studio is JK Livin. He's actually an active participant. [whistles] Hey, hey. Hello, everyone.
1:09
You know, every week our friends at Surly sponsor this show, and we'd like to give them a shout-out and ask that you go ahead and check out surlybikes.com. Indeed, Surly, they're our friends.
1:22
They make some, they make some really cool clothing and some really cool bikes, and they're just good people all around. Yeah, I ride a Cross Check and a, a, a Pugsley. You don't just ride fat bikes, Gomez?
1:32
I mean, sometimes. Everybody should be issued a Surly Cross Check at the age of, like, whenever they can get over the top tube. If you can pedal it, then here, here's your bike.
1:43
What's the, what's the smallest one they make, like a 46 or something? They make some really small frames. Yeah. So you could probably find one that fits your svelte and tiny figure.
1:52
Yeah, and you just ride that everywhere. And then in the wintertime, then you're gonna need a fat bike. And now there's a kids' fat bike by Brave Bikes.
2:00
And Surly's one of the 72 makers of fat bikes that's currently available. Right. Sorry, I, I mentioned another bike company- [laughs]... in the middle of a Surly ad. Whoopsie.
2:10
[laughs] Hey, you know, they're just- We're Switzerland now... they're just the kind of guys that would forgive us, though, so that's good. Uh, you know, we, you do a beer segment at the beginning of the show.
2:20
Normally, we got Colin Ford in here. We're practicing now for losing Colin 'cause he's actually gonna be moving to Denver. You can smash that on the porch. [laughs] Freshly waxed. [laughs] Give it a roll. Give it a roll.
2:33
Well, Colin decided that it was more important to go ahead and head up to Single Speed USA in the company of, uh, Chad and Dave, p- our friend Puck. I don't know if he's gonna make it unscathed.
2:44
But we took the task of, uh, beer procurement and put it on JK Livin, and he came up with... I came up with Green Belt Premium from fine Minnesota. That is an awesome beer. Let's, uh...
2:57
Oh, thanks for opening that one for me, Sven. Uh, this is, I believe, is one of Spinner's favorites. Uh, we used to drink this at, uh, Under the Bridge in Decorah regularly. I'll do my Colin impression.
3:10
This beer, uh, is an American light lager. Uh, well, I'm just- Comes from France. No, wait. [laughs] Minnesota.
3:23
I, I'm not well-versed, so I'm just gonna read the label myself because it just says "The Friendly Beer" all over it. [laughs] It's, uh, kind of says everything about the beer. It's, it's pretty friendly and drinkable.
3:33
It is. This is one of those things you could do ragbrai on and do 30 of these in a day and not feel real bad at the end of the day. It's the kind of beer that sends you a nice postcard on Arbor Day.
3:44
[laughs] So we're gonna just take a second here, [bottles clink] and... [burps] Oh, mm. [burps] Yeah. Cheers, Gomez. My practice beer was quite burpy. [laughs] So I wonder if this one's gonna be just as fizzy. It's...
4:01
[laughs] I don't know. Maybe it got dumbed down a little bit in the warming. [laughs] This is one of those beers, frankly, I think you want to drink this as cold as possible. I'm a big fan of very cold, very cheap beer.
4:13
Here is- I would drink this all day long. [laughs] Hey, look, I'm double fisting. [laughs] On your mama's front porch, or your mama's back porch. If I can track down these in cans, I'll be very happy about it. Yeah.
4:26
Transportability while- It makes it much easier to carry on the-... going on shenanigans... when you're rolling down the hill- Yes. [laughs]... bruising your ribs and all. [laughs] You want a beer that's in a can.
4:34
[burps] Yeah. [laughs] There's that. There it is. Yep, second beer just as burpy as the first, but magically delicious. All right. Next up on the show we've got Neil Flock from Cycle Monkey out in Berkeley, California.
4:48
These guys do a lot of Rohloff belt drive bikes, and he's gonna talk to us about fat Rohloff belted bikes. [hooting] You're tuned to Fat Bike Radio.
5:09
[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.
5:25
The staff is friendly, the mechanics are top-notch, and they stock the largest selection of fat bikes in the Chicago-Milwaukee area.
5:32
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.
5:45
[upbeat music] This is Brett Mattes from Fat Fat Bikes in Anchorage, and I'm here with Sven and Gomez with Fat Bike Radio.
5:55
If you're looking to breathe some new life into your relationship, pick up one of our new Carson Corbetts. We guarantee you've never ridden anything like it. All right, folks. Welcome back to the show.
6:07
We've got Neil Block on the line from Cycle Monkey out in Berkeley, California. I know there's a lot of monkeys in Berkeley, California. How did Cycle Monkey get going out there, Neil? [laughs] I don't know. What's that?
6:19
How did Cycle Monkey get started in, uh, in Berkeley? So I moved out here from Colorado and, uh, was working at a shop that was outsourcing suspension service.
6:29
Uh, all the shops I had experienced in Colorado did that in-house, so, uh, we were having issues with lead times, and I started taking the shocks home and working on 'em at the garage.
6:40
And added wheel building 'cause the shop was-- liked to push the, the pre-built wheel systems. I, I preferred hand-built wheels, and they, they held up better in my experience.
6:52
Eventually, we started distributing some products, uh, mainly the Rohloff Speed hubs, uh, which is an internal gear hub with 14 speeds, and then we built custom spokes, which- I, I know 'em and love them well.
7:03
What's that? I said I know Rohloffs and love them well. [laughs] Yeah, it's a great drivetrain.
7:09
I'm, I'm coming up on 11 years of pedaling bikes with those hubs and, uh, I've seen all sorts of terrain and scenery and had awesome rides along the way. Hey, Neil, this is Gomez. Uh, I have a question. How- Hi, Gomez...
7:24
how did Cycle Monkey become the US service center for the German company Rohloff? How did that all transpire?
7:33
So there used to be a, a small US office for Rohloff that was actually based in Berkeley, and, um, I was working there for a little while from beginning of 2007 through summer of 2009.
7:50
That ended up closing, and I was doing all the tech support and a lot of the sales for the Rohloff stuff.
7:57
So when that office closed, Rohloff still was interested in having me be involved with taking care of the product in the US.
8:05
So that's really how Cycle Monkey picked up, um, both the service center designation as well as, uh, the distribution. It sounds like you are the man in America for Rohloff internally geared hubs.
8:21
Yeah, uh, pretty much. Uh, I've got some guys on staff that have got a-- know quite a bit about the hubs now as well. Um, but Cycle Monkey as a whole is
8:32
the place that e-everybody comes to, uh, get information on the hubs and buy them, get them fixed, uh, get replacement parts- Yeah... anything you need related to the Rohloff system.
8:43
Well, we follow your blog pretty regularly, and, uh, you guys put up a bunch of stories about fat bikes that have been converted to Rohloffs and, you know, we've had a bunch of fat bikes through here with internally geared hubs too, and I'll tell you that I don't think there's, uh, not a better internally geared hub for a fat bike than a Rohloff.
9:02
What, what are you seeing with, uh, your people who are asking for 'em on fat bikes? So the hub works great on a fat bike.
9:09
Um, uh, the, the worse the riding conditions, I, I think the more the hub shines, um, because it's-- you know, you don't have these shifting parts that are exposed to the elements and, and, and getting fouled by elements.
9:24
Also, if you're taking your fat bike and heading out on a, a, an expedition, self-supported adventure somewhere where you're quite a way to your next support, uh, if something goes wrong, uh, the Speed hub gives you that confidence in your drivetrain that you're gonna be able to finish your, your adventure, uh, reliably.
9:44
We have people running 'em, uh, obviously in the snow, uh, like where fat bikes started, but then, uh, also people that are running 'em in, uh, sand and, and like mucky, uh, rainforest type conditions.
10:00
I get a few customers that have called me and said, "You know, my-- It's springtime, the snow's melting, the local trails are flooded, and I just spent an hour riding through a river that's on top of my normal trail ride.
10:17
Should I be concerned about my hub?" And I'm like, "Well, you probably wanna crack it open and make sure you want-- no water got in there just to, to be safe." But, uh, I always like those types of stories.
10:28
They're like... It's totally-- You know, I think that's a really great test for the, the Rohloff hub. It, it goes through that, that type of submersion ride and, uh, comes out unscathed.
10:39
So yeah, we've, we, we've done the conversions on lots of different bikes that have gone out on various adventures.
10:46
Also, um, shipped out wheels or, or just hubs that somebody else builds into a wheel that, um, go on these bikes and the, the stories we get back are pretty cool. Very good.
10:58
I know when we talked on the phone the other day setting this up, we'd-- we talked about your first experience with a Rohloff fat bike from a well-known US titanium frame manufacturer. Yeah.
11:10
What are you ride-- What are you riding, uh, these days for your fat or plus bike adventure? So the fattest bike I have right now is a Rohloff, uh, equipped Krampus.
11:21
Um, we got a belt drive, uh, tube splitter installed, and it's got a suspension fork and a dropper post. I am predominantly a, a mountain bike trail rider, and, uh,
11:35
the three-inch tire on that twenty-nine plus platform is, is great for traction, um, especially when you're in a softer surface.
11:44
Uh, my previous experience on the, the fat bike was similar, you know, with the, the improved traction. I always missed the suspension fork, though. This was four or five years ago.
11:56
The, the Bluto certainly wasn't out, and the battleslide down fork that you see with various brand decals on it, um, al-also wasn't out. So-
12:07
The, the big tires worked great for the small to maybe medium stuff, but when it start...
12:13
I'd forget and, and start pushing the bike hard and then smash into a rock or drop off something and it would- Yeah, you've got some-... very clearly remind me it was rigid...
12:22
y- you've got some different trail conditions out there than we do here in the Midwest, that's for sure. There's a lot of big hit stuff out that way. Yeah, and lots of, uh, vertical change.
12:32
And, and coming from Colorado, that's what I love. Um, you know, the hour, hour-plus climbs that give you a good 20, 30-minute descent. And we also don't get snow, so, um,
12:46
I had my other fat bike once, uh, out around Vail, Colorado. I did one snow ride, and
12:52
foolishly went on a, what I would consider a normal trail ride, and, uh, found myself flying on my side more times than I'd like to, uh, because I, I'd push it into a corner thinking, "I'm on a fat bike, it should dig right in," and fresh snow doesn't have any grip.
13:09
[laughs] Yeah, vertical is fun, isn't it? And so it started sliding. It's great to have you on the show. Uh, thanks very much, Neil. We'll talk to you again at Inter- Sure. Thanks for having me.
13:20
We'll talk to you at Interbike.
13:21
I know that, uh, you had said that you'll have a couple bikes there that we can check out, and, uh, maybe before we leave, you could give us just a little rundown on those that w- that you're gonna have out there.
13:32
Yeah, definitely. Um, we're gonna have some, couple of cool bikes there. If you're not familiar with Reeve, they're a, um, fairly new company out of the Denver area, um, offshoot of Oskar Blues Brewery.
13:46
They make, uh, steel bikes with true temp tubing. Tim was a guest on the, on the show early on. Yeah, we had, we had Tim on the show. Yeah. They're... It's a great company, for sure. We had, had those guys on the show.
13:55
Oh, great. So they've got a new, uh, model coming out, um, 170 spacing, belt drive compatible around, uh, we'll have one built up with Rohloff's new, uh, XL fat bike version of the speed hub.
14:09
We'll also have, uh, a new 29-plus bike coming from Ventana. If you've seen their El Gordo fat bike, um,
14:19
it'll, it'll look very similar to that, but it'll have a 135 spacing on the back and a standard 73 millimeter bottom bracket shell.
14:28
So we've prepped up the Reeve more than- Yeah, we tested the El Gordo fat bike for Two Bikes earlier this spring. Yeah. That was a good bike. I, I would expect that this 29-plus one will be a good one, too.
14:38
I- is the one that you're gonna have at the show, uh, I mean, it's Rohloff equipped there as well, correct? Yeah, absolutely. Um, Rohloff belt drive.
14:46
We'll, we'll set the 29-plus up as a trail bike with suspension and dropper post, then we'll set the Reeve up as a more touring, off-road adventure type bike with, uh, a rigid fork and probably some bags to, you know, expedition type setup.
15:02
Cool. Well, we look forward to seeing you out there, and, uh, we'll talk to you in, uh, about a month. Thanks, Neil. Okay. Sounds great. Thanks for joining us on the show. Thanks for having me. Your Fat Bike Radio.
15:19
Hi, this is Eric from Surly. Bean bag chairs, lava lamps, pintos. Those things and more on Fat Bike Radio with Gomez instead. Next up on the show, we've got your weekly dose with information from around the interwebs.
15:32
Weekly dose, dose, dose. [laughs] Well, first up, uh, our friend Joe Boo is one of the most prolific writers, along with our friend on the list, Bruce from the coast in Scotland.
15:48
He had, uh, several stories this week again. He did a 75-mile ride on the Mesabi Trail Tour with a bunch of fat bike friends. You can see some pictures from that in a link that we're gonna have in the show notes.
16:00
And then he just spends a bunch of time with his small kids on fat bikes, and it's gotta be one of the coolest things I've seen is a dad and his kids on fat bikes. Yeah. We'll have- It's heartwarming. Yeah.
16:11
We're- Where... Is he from the... He's from the- Iron, Iron Range- Right... up there in Minne-so-ta, whereby our beer is coming from. [laughs] That's right.
16:20
Show number 16 is brought to you by- The Belches [laughs] The Belches of-... the land of sky blue waters, Minnesota, the land of a thousand lakes. You remember- Something like that...
16:28
do you remember the beer Gettleman back in the olden days? No. Get Get Gettleman. [laughs] That was my, that was my dad's, uh- No... that w- when he was in advertising, that was his brainstorm, Get Get Gettleman.
16:39
Get Get Gettleman. [laughs] And that's their jingle. All right. You got some, you got some interesting stuff from the, um- The land of Wisconsin. So Trek World. Trek World. World, world, world, world.
16:52
Is underway, and the ominous Trek Death Star is double parked in the skies above Waterloo, Wisconsin. Bothan agents saw what we already knew when they looked at the blueprints of the Death Star.
17:04
The Farley this year gets two trim levels. The, like, the high end gets a Bluto. Mm. And then it's, it's very much like last year's bike, except for the doodads attached perhaps.
17:15
They had a little more time to deck it out with Bontrager stuff. So, uh,
17:22
we noticed that there was an increase in 29-plus Insurgents groups chatter on the interwebs, mostly relating to a new Bontrager 29-plus tire, code name Chupacabra. Chupacabra. Chupacabra. You see Chupacabra.
17:37
These Chupacabras are rumored to be based on the 2015 Hodag fat bike tire. We also received satellite imagery of the Hodag
17:47
on a carbon wheel that has all the spokes lined up in the center ridge that runs down the middle of the rim. And, oh, somebody just handed me a note. Yep. These, these are Bontrager Jackalope carbon rims.
18:03
Do you think- Jackalope... do you think Keith signed off on that design? It's the Bontrager Jackalope. It's a lot of syllables, people. Speak directly. Speak directly into the camera.
18:11
What kind of wheels are on Bontrager Jackalope? With a whole bun, take a chap below, with a whole day With a whole day. Gnome saying That kind of flows off the tongue a little bit.
18:19
So there are no links on this because it's very secret, and we don't need any visits from the Trek secret police. Gnome saying.
18:33
If, if you do want some links in your, uh, show notes, we've got a couple more from Bruce the Coast Kid over there in Scotland. Once again, Bruce gets out and rides his fat bikes just like I'm sure all you people do.
18:44
Check out what he's been up to. And if you write about fat biking on the web, we'd sure like to hear about it, so go ahead and shoot me an email to
[email protected]
, and we just might mention your exploits on the show.
18:58
And we're gonna invite Bruce to the show every show until- We've invited Bruce to the show [laughs] Until- He just, he just hasn't responded [laughs] Until you show up. That's it. Every show, Bruce.
19:10
Bruce [laughs] Hey, come on down. You know, the accent- Play the Price is Right... the accent is worth the price of admission. Absolutely. We'll, we'll, uh, we'll email you a beer or something, or a cider.
19:22
[laughs] Or a cider. Or I'll owe you a long, lingering, uncomfortable man hug. And we can talk about how you like to cut grass. Groundskeeper Bruce. He's, he's a big fat biker, that guy.
19:37
So another one of our friends, Joe Cruz, went fat packing in Africa, and that's something that just freaks me out. Since I saw that video of an antelope completely wiping a guy off, it's- Oh, I remember that one...
19:52
that was from South Africa. I don't know what part of Africa this is from, but the pictures are awesome, and, uh, Joe is a past photo contest winner at fatbike.com and a world traveler. Oh.
20:01
He's been to the Andes, and now he's in Africa. He's a... He likes to dabble in the Southern Hemisphere. Yeah, only about half of Africa's even in... There's all sorts of stuff going on there, it's- Yeah.
20:14
The, you know, the 907 folks just did that Namibia trip where they went all along Western Africa beach and riding a, riding belt drive Rohloff 907s. Very cool.
20:27
So maybe we'll, uh, maybe we'll put that on the link notes as well. How many months of expenses is that? 'Cause I'd like to go to Africa [laughs]
20:35
I always think about all the shots you'd have to get, and getting shot in the balls with an AK-47. So speaking of AK-47s, I was talking to Steve over at Sarma USA, and he shared that they have every size- [clears throat]
20:52
I, excuse me... and standard of fat bike hub ready to ship. 135, 150, 170, 190. If it's a standard, how come there's four of them? Because that's what- [laughs] That's the whole beauty, is it's like four-wheel drive.
21:05
Uh, these- Each tire is different- Yeah... on your four-wheel drive vehicle [laughs] It sounds wonky, but it's totally tits. I- It's great. Those guys are doing a good job of getting stuff that people need at Sarma USA.
21:20
Right on. That, it's an aluminum body hub, imported, sealed cartridge bearings, so down the road you can totally rebuild these things. Um, it's a very important thing with fat bikes.
21:30
If you beach ride, they take a beating, so. They take a licking, and they keep on ticking. Oh. [coughs] Cough button. Gomez just touched his balls, and he coughed. [laughs] He did, and look left, too.
21:43
[laughs] So they have an XX1 freehub that goes on these hubs. Oh, that's nice. And, well, there's an upcharge for that, of course.
21:52
Steve also shared that Sarma's 100 millimeter wide carbon Nuran rims are shipping, and- On the way to your garage? [laughs]...
22:01
we should have a set of wheels that we'll strap on a test bike that I'm very familiar with later on in the week, so. Is that Otis? Otis.
22:11
Otis the test- Otis is maybe gonna change his paint job or- Otis is a test bike, y'all... testing. So, uh, the other thing, another question I have is when I say KTM, you say? Erotic toys.
22:25
[laughs] Do they make vibrators? Well, when I think KTM, I think Austria, 'cause it's an Austrian company. Oh. I had a KTM when I was a youth. And it was probably- It was a motocross motorcycle. P- praa...
22:38
probably orange, right? It was, uh, yes, it was. Orange or red. It had orange components. Somehow I think of chainsaws as well, and now, dot dot dot. Erotic toys. [laughs] No, fat bikes. Oh, fat bikes.
22:51
[laughs] How silly of you to say that when this is a fat bike-oriented show, sir. So- Sorry, I got caught in the ditch...
22:56
we have a, uh, we have a link in the show notes, uh, from Bike Advisor about the KTM Press Camp and KTM's new Fat Rad, and wait for it, kids, electronic fat e-bike, as opposed to the nuclear fat e-bike [laughs]
23:14
I'm sensing development. I want a, I want a hydrogen fuel cell fat bike myself. [laughs] I want one that just goes on my mental feeling of wellbeing [laughs]
23:23
I- With zero pedaling [laughs] So the five minutes a week you have a feeling of wellbeing- Yeah... you could get really far. Exactly. [laughs] That's why I have to pedal a lot.
23:32
[laughs] Speaking of hydrogen and mental health- [laughs]... have you heard about the Dog Days of Summer photo video secret word contest? Well, this week's secret word is spindle, like the axle in your pedal, or-
23:49
Spindle. Fold- Fold s- what is it? [laughs] Fold, spindle- Fold, spindle... or mutilate... spindle, or mutilate. Uh- So spindling is just simply the act of twisting the paper. Is that what spindling is?
24:03
When- I don't know. Spindling... I, I just, I know fold, and I know mutilate. [laughs] I know mutilate really well.
24:08
[laughs] You just ask all the- Perhaps it's putting it on a bike and then- Just ask all the dogs and cats buried in my backyard. I know mutilate. I know what masticate means. [laughs]That comes later [laughs]
24:19
Yeah, that's true. So for the next couple of weeks, I'm going up to the Northwoods and, uh, to the pristine beaches of the UP. So we say adios to Gomez.
24:29
I will be sending in some remote reports from the field for the next few broadcasts. But don't worry, Sven's gonna be here. He's gonna have links for you.
24:39
We're- He's gonna slap dat ass [laughs] We got some guests coming into the studio. We got Gomez live and in person on the teleprompter. Hologram. So felices caminos, amigos. That means goodbye to Gomez? I don't know.
24:54
What does it mean? Something about your mother? Uh, it's happy trails, my brother. Ah, very good. Very good. And that about wraps it up for this week, folks.
25:03
Uh, gonna go ahead and say thanks again to Surly Bikes for being the sponsor of the show. You can check out all the things Surly at surlybikes.com. Check out that wool- those wool goods. They make awesome wool jerseys.
25:16
This is time-tested stuff we bought with our own money. Yes, I, I've, I've had one for a long time, and it's my go-to. You know, that thing works in stuff from as cold as it gets with a shell over it to 60 degrees.
25:29
It's comfortable in every condition. It- it's awesome. I just love my Merino wool Surly hoodie. All right. Later, dudes. Uh- Bye bye... we'll be back next week. [burps] Thank you.
25:46
You've been listening to Fat Bike Radio's Weekly Dose of Fat. Find us on the web at fat-bike.com/radio. We'll see you next time.
26:00
[outtro music]
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