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Full Spectrum Cycling
Weekly Dose of Fat – Show #103 – Bruce Matheson AKA The CoastKid
May 20, 2016
Weekly Dose of Fat – Show #103 – Bruce Matheson AKA The CoastKid
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0:00
The Occasional Dose of Fat, show number 103 for Friday, May 20th, 2016.
0:06
[upbeat music] Yes, only The Occasional Dose of Fat can give you all that kind of joy right there.
0:27
Mm. Make a joyful noise until the gnome. I wanna put your hands together and welcome to, to the stage, big rounds of applause for Fatbike.com's very own Mr. Sven and Gomez. Yes, Sven and Gomez.
0:43
[clapping] [laughs] I love those guys. Well, good to be back, ladies and gentlemen. [laughs] Hey, uh, hey kudos to Dave for claiming that new show name as his creation.
0:53
He, he likes to get credit for the creative mind juice flowing he has. Creative director for tonight's show is Mr. Dave Lomas- [laughs]... of davelomas.com.
1:03
Hey, welcome to the Gnome Forum, where we talk about, uh, how gnomes have... Oh, wait. No, this is the weekly occasional imaginary dose of fat. Please say hello to
1:18
last of the great American playboys, JK Living. Ah. [laughs] Ding, ding, ding, ding. Beep, beep, beep, beep. The Occasional Dose of Fat is brought to you by the Surly Long Haul Trucker.
1:30
Learn more about bikes and freedom at surlybikes.com. Hey, JK. What's on this week's- What's on this week's-... show?... show? Blah, blah, blah. Well, [laughs] ladies, we welcome Bruth Mathe-...
1:44
Well, yeah, well, you go ahead. [laughs] Oh, girls, girls, girls, you got me all flummoxed. We welcome Bruth, Bruce [laughs] Good Lord.
1:54
[laughs] We welcome Bruce Matheson, the famous Coastkid, back to the program this evening. We check in with the Fatty Farm field report, brought to you by Quiring Cycles.
2:06
The Quiring Triple B is the fattest ride on two wheels, featuring the new generation of 5.05-inch tires. Visit quiringcycles.net to see the next level of bicycle exploration. We'll take calls from our listener.
2:21
Our third caller will receive a new Surly Rally sports package. Vroom, vroom. Plus every caller gets a sample t-... It's a [laughs] sample t- [laughs]
2:33
His Lordship's brain is so small, the slightest thing will dislodge it. [laughs] Uh, plus every caller will get a sample tin of Uncle Dick's Speed Slip.
2:47
And in this evening's special segment, we profile one of our new breed of bike black ribbon test pilot, Mr. Dustin Thor- [laughs] Luxury yacht. Luxury yacht. R. Carlson. R. Carlson.
3:02
We didn't, uh- [bottles clinking] Did we? Oh, we did. We got to the top of the hill. Top of the hill. Top of the hill. Top of the hill. Need one? Oh, sure. Piber if you got one. Piber.
3:11
I'll take some wet if there's something in there. There's agua. Plus some, some- There's some, uh- Seltzer... seltzer water. Oh, a seltzer. Those seltzers are bad. Make 'em ass. [bottle thuds] New York seltzer water.
3:22
Yeah, Time Machine Seltzers. Mm-hmm. Remember that? Like, "Oh, my God, they have them in the store. I can get them now." Yeah. Yeah. Those were, uh, those were free with an 18-pack of Pabst Blue Ribbon.
3:32
[laughs] I'm, uh, I have a flashback- Or maybe it was a 30-pack... to, like, uh, Saturday Night Live or something. [laughs] Right on. Cheers? Cheers. Clink. More beers. Oh, that's super delicious.
3:43
And, uh, why don't we take a break right here, and when we come back we're gonna talk to Bruce, the Coastkid. Bruce.
3:50
[upbeat music] Chumba USA builds innovative, technically superior bicycles that are race-ready, ride-driven, and tested to withstand the harshest conditions and tackle the toughest and roughest terrain.
4:06
Learn more about Chumba's American-made Ursa Major at chumbausa.com. [upbeat music] You're tuned to Fat Bike Radio.
4:22
Hey, we're back and we have Bruce Matheson, the Coastkid, here on the telephone line. Welcome to the show, Bruce. Welcome to the show. Evening, guys. How you doing? Good to hear from yous again.
4:35
Yeah, yeah, it's always good to hear somebody from across the pond there. Absolutely. After seeing all those pictures of you guys having fun, we thought we had to call you. Right. You know what I noticed- Yes...
4:46
about their, uh, their beaches over there? They still have beaches. Yeah, we, we've got coastline. [laughs] Yeah, we don't have much coastline anymore. Our lake is up four feet from a couple years ago, so- I-...
4:56
our coastline has dwindled... okay. I found a spot, though. Oh, good. All right. Well, we may have a spot then. No submarines, though. Yes. They were kind of the highlight of the Saturday ride.
5:06
Um, but we had a, we had a great Four Fat this year. Um, it was quite good. We've had a pretty crap winter. We've had a lot of rain, a lot of cloudy weather, no snow, hardly any frost.
5:16
So we've had quite a dry sort of last few weeks, and then we had a week of rain before Four Fat and I'm thinking, "Oh, man, the weather's- [laughs]... turning crap again."
5:24
And then the weekend it was really cold with an east wind straight off the North Sea, but the skies cleared, got the huge, big skies again, and really showed off the coast at its best, and I think everyone had a good time.
5:37
Um, yeah, John and, uh, Alex of Surly, have you met they two, John Flack? Oh, yeah.
5:42
And Alex, Croatian Bear, they came over and I think they were, just took away a few memories they'll keep for a few years, I think, from a good weekend.
5:50
Uh- There's a rumor that I am actually Croatian myself, a Croatian American. Okay. Did you start the rumor? [laughs] I think it was my parents. We were told not to feed him after midnight by Charlie Bitemonger, so,
6:07
um, because he turns into a bit of a wild animal, but he, he seemed to behave himself, so. [laughs] Yeah, we, we love running into him at Interbike. He's usually, usually here with the Surly guys.
6:17
I've seen Charlie- Yeah... actually transform before our eyes into a wild monster, and then back. [laughs] Yeah, he's some machine, Charlie.
6:27
Oh, he w- he was supposed to come up this year, but he's got his gravel ride, so he was out recceing that. Um, and he, he did moan it was too far a journey
6:37
from down the south coast, but we did get a guy from Dorset who came up, Ken, so it's not impossible to do.
6:43
Um- Yeah, you guys- But you have 80, 90 meters and- I, I always, I always like it when you guys are like, "Oh, we have to do this huge long drive home," and it's like, what, three or four hours? And we're like- [laughs]
6:56
"What? Three or four hours? I don't... I'm in the middle of Iowa," which is, you know- Yeah...
7:01
basically somewhere where- Like, six hours you can drive from where we are in the southeast corner to the northwest corner of Scotland, but you've got to remember it's not big straight roads.
7:10
It's all crazy windy roads, so it's maybe only 300-odd miles, but by the time you do it, you're kind of knacker 'cause it's just finger trap- Oh, yeah...
7:18
roads a lot of the time, and, um, but it's a small, wee country, but it packs a lot in, definitely. Yeah. So our, uh, our test pilot, Jeff Price, he, he went to Fourth Vet, and he did a video. Yeah.
7:31
And sounded like he had a great time. Yeah, Jeff came up on the Thursday night, um, so it was good to see Jeff again. And, um, he brought up his pal, John. He done a video as well. Um,
7:43
but they got pretty blootered in the pub, I think, on the Thursday night later on. [laughs] And they looked a bit rough on the Friday morning when I arrived at the campsite.
7:51
[laughs] There was quite a bit of drinking this year, but not in the sort of, um... Basically, the cold weather meant we weren't really gonna be standing around outside tents up at the campsite- Yeah...
8:00
so we kind of headed to the pub earlier. Mm-hmm. Um, Surly, they were, had a bar tab this year, like in the past with Tyler and Eric. The first year we all went a bit crazy, I think.
8:12
[laughs] Um, so, [laughs] uh, that was when we kind of introduced Eric to Scottish whiskeys. Oh, sounds like- Oh, it's, it's cool...
8:21
well, uh, you know, part of the prerequisite of becoming a test pilot for us is that, you know, you can, uh, you can hold your own at the pub. That's why. Oh, Jeff can do that. I can see that, yeah.
8:33
[laughs] Good, good, Jeff. That's good. Good, Jeff. Yeah, it's, uh, there's the, there's the Bike Black Ribbon test pilot report right there. He just passed.
8:40
He might've just got, like, another feather in his wings or something, whatever that might be. [laughs] So, uh- Oh, he's rested...
8:48
you, you've been, uh, you've been doing your, your blog a lot again, always, lately, and I noticed that you, um, recently refitted what, your old Pug with a, an Alfine eight-speed internally geared hub. Yeah.
9:01
Um, how did, how does that thing fare on the coast, you know, being- It's, it's good. I mean, I had one originally, um, well, when I got the Pugsley built, um, oh, God, nine years ago now nearly.
9:14
It had gears, and then I put an Alfine on it, and it worked perfect until I did a few saltwater, um, reversions you could say. Mm-hmm. Drowned it a few times. But what was amazing was it stopped, um,
9:30
freewheeling, so it became an eight-speed fixie- Mm-hmm... which was quite interesting. [laughs] So it still got me home, you know? [laughs] Nice. Didn't fail. No. Just failed.
9:38
No, it never failed, and they're 150 pound to buy in the UK, so compared to buying a Rohloff, obviously, it's a lot cheaper. Oh, yeah.
9:47
Um, and I was actually talking to the Surly guys, 'cause we were threatening them to not drop the Pugsley, and they promised it's not gonna get dropped. It's gonna get a revamp. Right.
9:57
Um, and they were quite surprised at how many Pugsleys have actually been sold just in the last few months in the UK, where the, we had the price drop a bit later than the Americans had them. Mm-hmm.
10:08
And they were doing the Pugsleys for, like, 900 pounds, 1,000 pounds, so there was a lot of them sold, a lot of ops as well sold.
10:17
And I think it's the one thing that the Pugs have still got going for it is you can put a 135 rear hub in it, so you can Alfine it if you want to. Sure. Yeah. Um, so.
10:27
And so did you rebuild it once it, it kind of died yourself, and, uh, get it running again?
10:32
Well, I couldn't, I couldn't get the bits for it to replace it, so I gave it to a friend who took it to bits and kind of gave up with, so I just scrapped it and went back to gears. But we're having two Pugsleys.
10:42
I've got my original one, and then I just bought a new Pugsley frame last year.
10:46
Um, and I've done it see the point of having two bikes the same, so I might as well have one with gears and one with Alfine hub, and it's got Nates on it, and it's really gonna be, like, my, my winter bike, my sort of mud plugger, what I call my dirty bike, which just come home and go straight in the shed.
11:01
Yeah. Um, 'cause the good bikes are kept in the house as they should be.
11:05
Uh, so obviously you want to clean, cleaning them every time you use them and bring them in the house and all that, so I thought, I'll kind of move to having new bikes and old bikes now.
11:14
Um, so that's kind of where I went. Very good. And I've got the Wednesday now as well, um, and that's proving to be a really good bike. I really like it. You're like a, a talking advertisement for Surly bikes over there.
11:27
Yeah, I'm getting a bit of a Surly hoarder, I have to admit. I'm up to six bikes now. [laughs] The tattoo, the tattoo is what, what you need. That's, that's what we'll know. So- Yeah.
11:37
[laughs] So Bruce, you are, uh, you are world famous for putting up beautiful pictures of Scottish beach riding and trail riding, and we're kind of, uh, well, we're infamous for taking other people's pictures from around the world and, uh, putting them up on the internets for people to look at.
11:57
And I hope that, I hope that you look at some of our pictures or the internets. Yeah, yeah. So my question is to you, sir, is-
12:05
Any place other than your backyard that your fairy fat mother comes to you and says, "Bruce, here's a first class plane ticket and shipping cost for the bike of your choice to anywhere in the world," where would you go to?
12:21
Wow. Um, funny enough, not as much for the coast, but, well, better both would be Baja, California, I think. Oh. Oh, yeah. It's, um- Yeah, that would be a, that'd be a on the bucket list. Yeah.
12:35
I mean, I've, I've read quite a few things on Baja from the motorbike stuff way back when I was younger, um, to, um, Vic Mangual where he did his Baja stuff on his old Vic Approved blog. Mm-hmm.
12:49
And he did it on a Pugsley, actually, Alpine Pugsley, and I just thought that was... I kinda like the sort of Wild West sort of Baja towns with the fireworks.
12:57
You see all that going on, and I'd love to see the Baja race as well- Mm-hmm... going through, the desert race. Mm, cool. The pro trucks and stuff.
13:05
So maybe combine a, a bike tour with watching some of the Baja racing, I think would be pretty cool to do. Get him a ride in Andy's, uh, Toyota. Super truck. Yeah. Yeah.
13:13
One of our test pilots ran a, ran a, uh, truck program for a company there for, like, seven years. So we have friends- Wow. That'd be cool... who have done the race and, and, uh, been all around it.
13:25
And, uh, one of our original test pilots, Cale, he did a, quite a nice tour down there. That is, that is... I wanted, I wanted a, a,
13:33
a viewpoint of someone who doesn't live in the US, and I had hoped that you would, uh, venture into the New World with your choice, so that's, that's kinda cool. I, uh- Yeah.
13:44
I think, uh, I think myself, I, uh, the pictures I see of Mongolia, uh, there's a guy- Oh, yeah... on, uh, Instagram, While Out Riding, that posts that. That would be nice spot. Yeah, I, I'll read that. Yeah, it's good.
13:59
All right. Well, uh, how about... Here's, here's another question. It's, um, for my own personal [laughs] It's like, what's your favorite beach tire right now, and have you ridden five-inch Nards?
14:11
I've not had five-inch Nards yet, but now I've got the Wednesday. Sadly, I had to sell the Moonlander last year- Mm...
14:16
to my work colleague to keep my car on the road, but I've got a kind of first buy back, so I'm planning to try and get that back. So I could try five-inch Nards on my Wednesday, but I've got Jumbo Jims on it just now.
14:28
Mm-hmm. And a lot of folk in UK seem to mump about Jumbo Jims on the front end for mud, but I can't really knock them. I find they roll like hell, so I do like them. Um, definitely way better than the Big Fat Larrys,
14:44
definitely. Well, that's good to know. Nice. I just, I just put those on my beach bike, like, two days ago and haven't really got it out yet. Yeah.
14:50
But I noticed it's quite a bit wider than the Big Fat Larry at the knob because it barely fits in my frame. [laughs] Mm-hmm. It's like I have, like, a millimeter on either side. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, they're quite big. Yep.
15:01
I mean, um, Pat from ISE, when he seen that I was putting 4.8 Jumbo Jims on the Wednesday, he thought, "You'll never fit them in. It's for 4.6." But, or it can take 4.6, but I can't actually find any tires that are 4.6.
15:15
[laughs] They all seem to be 4.8. So I've got it on the Wednesday. I've had to take a cog out the back, 11 speed. Mm-hmm. Like what you used to do with the 10s, and I've added a spacer on the front with a SRAM X5 crank.
15:29
It's working, just, but probably too close for mud, but for the beach it'll be fine. Um- Very good. That's, that's where mine's going- But yeah, Jum-... to the beach...
15:37
Jumbo Jims definitely I think are a good tire, yeah. Oh, nice. I'm running Barbagazzis now, right now, the Bontrager five-inch tire. Oh, yeah? Uh-huh. And they seem to work, they, they work fine.
15:50
I just wonder if there isn't too much knob to them, and we've heard from our friend Crozito that those five-inch Nards are just the, the best beach tire, so I wanna give those a try, so. Yeah.
16:04
I might have to try a set of them sometime then. Yeah. I just, uh, I just talked to our friends at Surly about, uh, maybe doing some sort of trip across the top of Lake Michigan this summer, bike packing on the beach.
16:17
So maybe we'll, uh, we'll try and entice you to come over here and, uh, we'll, we'll teach you about, uh, I don't know, New World vodka. [laughs] Right, dude. [laughs] We'll teach you about fruity vodka drinks.
16:34
Get Jeff over as well. He'd love to come. [laughs] But, uh, one other one, do you have any other questions for, for Mr. Bruce? Well, this one's, this would be for my personal knowledge, too.
16:44
Um, and, uh, what, what's your favorite lube for using on the coast there that, when you're getting wet all the time, what do you like to, to put on the chain lube- Chain lube. On the chain lube?
16:52
[laughs] Well, we can't find it this... [laughs] Um, best lube for bikes, okay. Right. [laughs] Uh, right. Squirt dry lube, usually. Um, do you get Squirt lube in U- in US? You will, won't you? Yeah, we do. Yep. I do.
17:06
We have, we have- I, I, I use Squirt lube... um, I, I find
17:10
it, it dries on pretty quick, so sometimes if I'm, if you're using a lot, like, if you're doing a lot of rock pools and stuff where you're getting it washed clean and you stop just for 10 minutes, quickly re-lube the chain and it will dry on quite quickly.
17:22
Mm-hmm. Um, we get that from a company called Into Dust, uh, which is run by Carl Hutchins. I don't know if you know Carl's name. He's an ex-IditaBike rider- Uh-huh... um, who did a slideshow this year,
17:38
um, for Steampunk on the, at Steampunk Cafe on the Friday evening. He did the IditaBike, I think it was 2003, '04, and '05. Um, and he did the full thousand miles. Um, but anyway, um, the, that was a good...
17:54
I wanted to actually just mention that, that his slideshow was a real eye-opener to, like, folk in this country how far a thousand miles in winter conditions is. Right. Yeah. Um- That's amazing.
18:06
And also he was doing it way back with his Wildfire bike before even the Pugsleys had been conceived
18:12
Um, but yeah, but he sells the Squirt Lube, so he brings usually a big bag of freebie stuff up to Fourth Fat and, um, most folk want to start using it. You've really got to get the chain really well degreased, though,
18:25
and then it seems to get a right hold on the chain, and then I think if you try and do it when there's still a grease in the chain, the stuff doesn't really hold on as well. Mm-hmm. Yeah.
18:35
Um- I think I've noticed that as well. Yeah, so I usually put my chains in paraffin and scrub them with that, and then I put them back on the bike.
18:45
Then I run, like, I've got, like, a sort of, um, caustic soda-based truck wash. It's like a power washer soap. Mm-hmm. I put that in my bike cleaner, my chain cleaner.
18:55
I run that through the chain, and it gets a lot of the stuff off. A full degrease. And then you towel it dry and then re-lube it. And I never, ever really ever use a chain cleaner again on my bikes.
19:05
I just rinse the whole bike off and then just re-dry lube it once it's dried off with a towel. Um, I've actually got a... It's half-written.
19:14
I've got an article on prepping a bike for beach riding, um, that I'll need to get sent to yous once I get finished. Yeah, that would be great. Um. Because, uh, the one you did it- Give you a wee read for that...
19:22
in the past was definitely a lot of good knowledge, for sure. Yeah. It's just a sort of mark two improvement on what I've learned from the first one I did, and I did it when I went, when I built the Wednesday. I just...
19:35
I mean, the whole bike's copper-greased and marine-greased. Every bearing's opened up, et cetera.
19:40
And it's just hopefully something that might save some folk a bit of money, which has cost me a few quid in the past during season and stuff, you know? But- Sure.
19:50
That would be- It proved that bikes, everybody said bikes would rot in half on the beaches and all that, and the old Pugsley's got, like, 12,000 miles on it and it's nine years old, and the frame's...
20:00
I don't know how thin the metal is inside, but it's [laughs] still going. Um- [laughs] It'll probably go for, uh, for multiple generations. Yeah, I think it's chromoly. I mean, I think it'll be all right. Very good.
20:15
Yeah. Well, fantastic. Yeah, we look forward to hearing that, 'cause we know what we do, but we have beach light because really freshwater and sand is nothing compared to the corrosive power of the sea. Right, for sure.
20:28
You know, that's, that salt and all the other minerals just wreck havoc on, on metal, so.
20:34
Yeah, you know, in the, in the winter here on our roads around the city, they definitely salt the heck out of it, so we get a little bit of that, uh, in the winter. Uh-huh. But, uh, not at our beaches.
20:44
Maybe that actually helps by washing it off when you go on the lake. Could be. Yeah. I, I, we, I have a- Yeah, maybe. Yeah [laughs]... I have a West Coast friend, uh, Ward Whitmire, that rides on the beach. Yeah, Ward.
20:55
Yeah. Right? You know Ward. Yeah. And he swears by post-ride WD-40, which is a cleaning, not necessarily lubricating spray petroleum product. Petroleum product. Yeah.
21:10
That's pretty popular here for just general house- That's what we get. We get it here, 'cause WD stands for water displacement on it, doesn't it? Oh. Yeah. Well, I never knew that. [laughs] Damn.
21:21
Yeah, WD water displacement. Dropping the knowledge on us. Okay. Well, and, and that, that kind of makes sense that, that that's what he sprays on there, and then he wipes that clean and then he goes back to, um,
21:31
a wet lube. I forget what one that he, that he uses, but that's one of the reasons why it's such... Uh, we live in such a great time where we can
21:41
share knowledge and, and talk to the experts and talk to the people who are doing the things and get that information out over this fabulous internet thingy we do. Thingy. It's kind of cool. Yeah.
21:54
I mean, it's good that you can pull information now that... Well, it saves you money in the long term, doesn't it, 'cause you're not wearing out your, your bikes as much and stuff. It's good.
22:02
Right, and your bikes work better. I mean, uh- Yeah... I know I've been caught out where I'm just getting chain suck, chain suck, chain suck because- Mm-hmm...
22:12
of my own poor bike maintenance and lack of lubage, et cetera. So, yeah. You'll learn, you'll learn yourself something there. Something. Yeah, W- wa- WD-40, water displacement. Water displacement. Damn. There you go.
22:26
Yeah. [laughs] All right. Well- Well, I'm glad we got smarter talking to Bruce. No doubt. Well, thanks for- [laughs]... thanks for returning to the show and being such a good guest, Bruce. Yeah.
22:36
Hope you're feeling better. Yeah, it's good to hear from yous, definitely. Maybe we'll catch up with you again before the winter season starts. Yeah, I'll give you a phone.
22:44
I'll maybe actually do you a dual phone with Jeff, because he's gonna be coming back up here, um, around the harvest time again when the combines and stuff are out, so. Two for the price of one.
22:54
Um, I need to actually, I need to get down to Wales, actually, and ride all these slate quarries with him, 'cause he keeps inviting me down and- You should go. I, I'm- Yeah.
23:03
Yeah, I need to stop buying bike parts every month when I get paid and put the petrol in the car instead and go down. [laughs] Well, all right. Thanks for being on the show, Bruce. Thank you. Okay. Take care, guys.
23:17
Have a good summer. Yep. Talk to you again. Take care. See ya. Okay. Cheers. Bye. Cheers. Bye. All right. Bruce Matheson. That was Bruce- Ladies and gentlemen... on the phone from Scotland.
23:29
From Scotland, and a, a guy that, you know, that we look to for advice for what's good on the fat bike side, for sure. That guy just kills it. Right on. Rides a lot. Well, let's take a quick break here
23:46
before we get into the, uh, fatty farm field report there. [singing] So I heard you need a fat bike. Come to Zion Cyclery in Zion, Illinois. We have all brands: Trek, Borealis, Salsa, Felt, Surly, and more.
24:03
Yo, we have all the cold weather gears by 45NRTH and Bund Trigger. Keep those fingers and toes nice and toasty. We fix bikes also, so you have any problem, brakes, gears, suspension, we have the best mechanics in town.
24:20
So yeah, visit us at zioncyclery.com. [upbeat music]You're tuned to Fat Bike Radio Hey, welcome back everybody.
24:35
We're, uh, slipping and sliding into the Fatty Farm Field Report. This week the Fatty Farm Field Report is brought to you by Quiring Cycles.
24:46
The Quiring Triple B is the fattest ride on two wheels, featuring the new generation of 5.05 inch tires. Visit quiringcycles.net to see the next level of bicycle exploration.
25:01
[imitates siren] [laughs] Wow. Simultaneously wawa pedaled. [laughs] So, uh, yeah, what, what's, what's going on in the Fatty Farm Field Report this week? Well, it's a good question.
25:13
I mean, I pulled this thing out of Bicycle Retailer 'cause it was kinda interesting about, uh, who wins in these vendors consumer sales events, but I'm not really sure [laughs] we should get into it all.
25:23
It's like, basically is it worth the, the dealers' time for these guys to come through and do their sales, big events that the manufacturers put on. Mm-hmm. Is it worth it for the dealer?
25:35
It's kind of from that perspective and, and in some cases maybe not. And I think it's good for the brands because they get a lot more, uh, exposure, but is it good for the dealer? I'm curious.
25:47
Hey, bike shop friends out there, give us a call, 818-918-2453, and, uh, chat us up, man. So, uh, uh, hey, Olav is back. Where'd Olav go? Uh, he was, uh, riding around in the winter in Swedish Lapland.
26:02
It's a, a lengthy, uh, post on his like whole 2016 winter riding scenario scene. So e-fat bikes and e-mountain bikes are a thing.
26:14
Freaking the big, the organized, uh, the syndicate of shifting, that American shifting company SRAM [laughs] came out with a whole new grupo- They got a s- spank and everything... specifically made for e-mountain bikes.
26:31
Ugh. And hey, we got some links here. E-fat cargo bike which looks super funky, and then we got this Tron bike- I think it's cool... which basically I just wanna hang on my wall.
26:41
[sings] Do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do. Or maybe, maybe- [laughs] It looks a little more like a motorcycle... I'll get, I'll drive around in my Porsche- The light cycle from Tron.
26:52
[laughs] Yeah. So yeah. Yeah, that's, that's, that's- And there was a company from Italy that contacted us, had a, already had a bike that could run the 505 tires with, with a throttle twist and e-motor on it.
27:08
Throttle twistin'. They wouldn't send us one. I was like, "Yes, send me one of those." [laughs] "It's a little t- too expensive to send it from Italy.
27:16
Plus we don't really have one right now 'cause we're making them as we speak. You know, we have a picture. Put it up on your site." That, that was, that was my Italian accent. It kind of went into Swedish there. Sort of.
27:29
[laughs] Uh, yeah. Uh, we talked a little bit before about Bruce's updating his pog. He's got a pretty lengthy article, and he shows, I don't know what Remy's using, it might be, uh, a Marge. Yeah.
27:40
Large Marge maybe, but it's, it's how he turns it tubeless which involves taping and some foam and some ghetto, uh, uh, inner tube. But he goes through it in pretty, you know, pretty extensive detail, so.
27:52
How does she take your clans flannel plod? [laughs] Yeah, uh, so our friend, uh, Steve, he's, he's figured out how to sell bikes cheaper in Canada. Yeah, he has. So- Our buddy Steve over there at Borealis Bikes...
28:07
he's a smart guy. So all you Canadians can now have the luxury, beautiful, fabulous, super sexy carbon bike, dude, for like what? Less money and stuff. Hey, I, I was, uh, waiting for Dustin to call in- Yeah...
28:21
'cause he's, he's gonna be on the show here [laughs] in a second. I- And you hung up on him? No, I gave him the wrong phone number. [laughs] So, um, hey, here's, here's my idea. Remember I had that old Turner, uh,
28:36
XCE that can run really fat 26-inch tires. Uh-huh. A pair of, I'm going 26 fat on that bike I think. That, it'll fit in there on your Turner? Oh, yeah. Sure it will. Yeah. Yeah.
28:49
On, on a 50 millimeter rim, maybe even those freaking, uh, Rogueroo tires, I could get something that big in there. How about I, I give a, I give a shout at, uh, us calling Dustin. All right. Let's give that a try. Cool.
29:06
Since we're, we're outgoing call show today. Yeah. Um- Let's just call people. Play us out. [laughs] Let's get George W. Bush on the phone and get him up here to ride some beach with us.
29:16
[phone beeping] I just wanna ride, ride with Secret Service people that have Uzis. Excuse me, is that an Uzi? [laughs] Why, yes it is. [laughs] Can we shoot, can we shoot s- some, some salmon?
29:31
[laughs] Remember that beach ride we went on when, uh, [phone beeping] there was a salmon that was pacing us just a few feet off shore? This is a true story too. It sounds so weird. And we [laughs]
29:44
all threw rocks at the salmon. We actually did it. Oh, no, I remember that, yeah. Yeah. That's, bye-bye.
29:48
So, you know, hey- Hey, we, we got a, we got a caller on the line finally somehow through the magic of giving him the right number. [laughs] In our special segment this evening- Welcome to the radio bike ride [laughs]...
29:58
Bike Black Ribbon test pilot Dustin Carlson in this corner. In that corner, Gomez 100 Madonna de Love. [laughs] Sorry about that. I, uh- I'm over here typing furiously trying to get the right phone number. Yeah.
30:11
I just got off the phone with, uh- Hear me. Hear me... with who knows who. Well, right on. I'm, I'm glad we figured that out in, in internet real time. Yeah. That's right, yeah.
30:21
The magics of email and text and all kinds of stuff were going back and forth. Right on. So, uh, welcome to the show, Dustin. You, he's one of our newer Bike Black Ribbon test pilots. Absolutely.
30:33
We've barely- That's right... we've barely rubbed the shine off of him. He's so new. That's right, yeah. So, uh, welcome to the show. Um, why don't we just get a little background on your experience riding.
30:45
Tell our, tell our listener, you know, all about it. And we should probably, we should probably make an appointment to rub some more of that shine off of you. So, uh, after, yeah. Okay, yeah.
30:53
We'll, we'll, we'll work on that. I, I look forward to coming to the mid, Midwest. Uh, I, I am your listener, so this is awkward, uh- [laughs]... that I'm on the show. Oh, that's good.
31:06
So I don't know who's gonna listen to it. I guess my parents. We'll pick up two people there. I'll, I'll try to get my wife to listen, so we're growing. That's good. [laughs] Um, but I am in Utah.
31:17
Uh, it's a desert out here, but we get snow, uh, which, which makes me uniquely able to test all the different aspects of these fat bikes that you guys love so much, and I'm growing to love by the day.
31:32
Uh, you know, I'm, I live what you would call in a high desert, so we only get snow, you know, every two or three years, but this particular year, uh, we got a lot, which, which forced me into the loving hands of fat bikes.
31:49
Yeah, so El Nino- And, uh, never been happier... must be a good year for you. It was. Very good year. The lawn is very green right now, and I've got a brand-new fat bike under my, in my garage, so couldn't be happier.
32:01
Yeah. Well, yeah, what, we just sent you, uh, a framed Marquette. It's their new B+ bike. In fact, I don't, we haven't even actually seen it in the flesh yet.
32:10
[laughs] It, I saw, I put up a picture that, that Dustin sent. Yeah. It's carbon black. Yeah. It's got- Well, I've seen pictures of it, but I just haven't thrown a leg over one yet...
32:18
it's got one of those rock shocks on the front. Oh. And a drop- does it have a dropper post? It does not. Uh, and you know, it's, it's got a lot of, uh, internal routing for lots of different stuff. Uh, drop- Mm-hmm...
32:30
or a dropper post is not one of them. That was one thing I noticed right off the top.
32:35
But in my initial kind of thoughts about it was it's kind of an, an XC bike, uh, you know, being a hard tail and pretty light and whatnot, but so maybe that's why there's no dropper, but that was something I noticed.
32:49
How you gonna shred the gnar, dude, without a dropper? Uh, I'm gonna take my sweet time. [laughs] I, I actually, they have, uh-
32:59
All right s- Well, you watch, you watch all the, uh, XC riders, and they straight leg it, right? Mm-hmm. With the, with their, uh, six-inch long, uh, stems on the front. Mm-hmm. So they...
33:10
I'm gonna have to learn how to do that, I guess, or, uh, I might have to just get off with my little tool and, uh, drop it when I'm getting ready to shred the gnar, as you say.
33:21
Or you could just have slow, prudent shredding of the gnar. I think that that maybe is the tattoo for, [laughs] for my tramp stamp. [laughs] That's what it should say. [laughs] Slow and prudent- Well, I'll-...
33:33
shredding of the gnar- I'll tell you what-... in some sort of crest... uh, on a personal bike, I probably would, uh, prudently shred, but, uh, this is somebody else's bike. I'm gonna ride the hell out of it.
33:45
That's the, our advice is ride it like you stole it, but- Yeah... uh, return it when we ask. [laughs] Yes. Please.
33:54
So we, so good, um, basic first impressions, we're gonna have a little bit of a story, uh, next week, uh, all about that. Um, get, get some- We're calling, we're, we're calling them previews now- Previews...
34:04
because this is on the plus bike sites. We could call them whatever we want. Yeah. We could call them s- rainbow unicorn viewin', gnome vision, whatever- We could... we want. Yeah. But probably preview is fine. So cool.
34:18
Well, that'll, that'll be coming- I-... sometime...
34:20
I'm sitting in front of my computer right now with my, uh, rainbow unicorn first impression, and, you know, uh, I, I put it together and, and honestly, my first impressions are, you know, it's, it's a professionally packed bike.
34:35
They sent it in a timely manner, no, no dings or scratches. Went together fine. Uh, you know, no adjustments were needed with the rear derailleur or the shock or the, you know, anything like that.
34:46
So that, I was happily surprised with that 'cause I've received bikes before that, you know, nothing was right, and you've gotta spend the first two days, you know, tweaking it, but this one went right together and with absolutely no problem.
34:58
So I'm happy there. I have spent a little bit of time on it so far, and it, uh, the Reba is, is a nice shock. I've never actually been on one, but, uh, I'm pleasantly surprised with that. Hmm. Nice.
35:12
And you got the 120 version of it? I th- I believe it's 100 mil. Okay. Uh, so it's a little more cross country-ish, but uh,
35:22
I, I've got the, I believe the right PSI in there now, so I'm, I'm ready to really put it through its paces. So those are also the, uh, the, you're, you're the first person on, uh, those framed
35:36
B+ tires, so that could be a little, uh- A little sidebar... a little sidebar. By the way, here's these framed tires, which their house brand tires has, have, uh, have been good. Yeah.
35:49
Yeah, so, uh, we'll be interested to hear about that. What kind of wheels are on that bike? Are they carbon wheels, or are they, is it an aluminum wheel?
35:58
It's, it's an aluminum wheel, and it's, I believe that, uh, it's... I'm drawing a blank right this second. Uh, oh, Alaska? 'Cause, and that's their brand. Yeah. But, uh, one thing about it is, is they are truly wide.
36:13
Now, I've seen a couple 650 Bs in, uh, in shop- Mm-hmm... and what was weird about them is that they have regular rims and then this huge tire. You know?
36:25
So it's like a, a bubble coming out of that rim 'cause the tire's so big, you know? Mm-hmm. Uh, which, which always looks odd. Now, these are, in fact, very wide rims. Hmm, cool- You know why?...
36:36
'cause I would think that 45 to 55 millimeters wide would be- That's kind of the sweet spot it seems like to me... for three-inch tires- Hmm... 3.25-inch tires.
36:45
Yeah, we've got, uh, that- Right, 'cause I mean- Is it say we-... uh, you want the patch to actually hit the ground, right? You know, instead of just rolling on kind of a balloon tire is what it would look like.
36:55
But, uh, so yeah, I think they've done a good job with that. Cool. Well, we'll look for the, we'll look for the report down the road. Um, yeah. What else you got?
37:05
[laughs] Yeah, what are you doing this weekend there in Price, Utah? You got, you got a square dance or a hoedown ready? Uh, well, I'm, I'm actually working.
37:17
I'm one of those sorry bastards with a day job, which, uh, isn't all bad, though. It makes, it makes it so I can afford to buy a new bike all the time, so- Testify, brother [laughs]
37:30
So what, what do you ha- what do you ride for personal rigs when you're not riding something somebody else gave you to check out?
37:35
Well, uh, my newest, most beautiful bike is, uh, it's a specialized Fat Boy, which has got me into touch with you guys. Mm-hmm. It's a rigid, fully rigid, so it, it's very nice little bike.
37:49
Uh, and I've been riding that almost exclusively lately, but I've got a full squish, uh, Nomad, a Santa Cruz Nomad that- Nice... I ride, uh, up in the, up in the mountains, so.
38:01
But, uh, I've even got a road bike, and don't judge me, but- [laughs]... I've got one of those, too. Hey, everybody's got a road bike. Yeah, everybody needs a road bike. Yeah. As long as you ride it on gravel.
38:14
[laughs] My, my, my road bike has 45 size tires on it, so it's kind of a fat road bike.
38:20
Are you just as likely to have your life threatened by someone in a pickup truck out there in Utah as, as, as it is here in [laughs]...
38:29
Well, really any car will kill you for any reason here in Wisconsin, 'cause l- we have a lot of people from Ill- our friendly brothers and sisters from Illinois come up here and drive and try and kill us, and- [laughs]...
38:40
it's all very nice. It's all very polite. Ab- So-... absolutely. Now, uh, we're unique in that this is kind of, uh, again, don't judge me, but I'm in a, kind of a coal town. Uh-huh.
38:52
Uh, there's lots of coal mines around us. Mm-hmm.
38:55
Which means that all the long, uh, climb, climby type roads that you would find yourself on a road bike on are littered with, you know, double and triple trailer, uh, coal trucks, which- Right...
39:07
makes it very interesting. You gotta keep your head on a swivel. Yeah, yeah, those things make a lot of wind when they blow by, too. Absolutely. All right.
39:16
So d- d- Halliburton and fracking and man camps and, man, it's like a wild west. Do you, do you ever- Oh, it is very wild out here... do you have a six, do you have a six shooter on right now? [laughs] Pa-twang.
39:30
Well, it, it's a five, but yeah, I'd say it's similar. Very nice. Five, five and a half, whatever it takes. Yeah. All right, Dustin, you- Well, it's, uh, it's carbon fiber, you know?
39:42
[laughs] Gotta save on the weight and stuff. I think the titanium would make a fine, like, fine handgun, make it nice and light. Yeah. Cool. Well, Dustin, thanks for calling in. Appreciate to ha- having you on the show.
39:55
I'm sure we'll, we'll have you, uh, talk again sometime. Yeah, you, uh- Absolutely... you're gonna have to go on a search and destroy mission with, uh, David Glover and God knows what else.
40:07
Let's, let's, you, d- here's the plan. Let's meet, you, me, Troy Rarick, Glover, let's go to Great Sand Dunes National Monument in Colorado, and, uh, let's hard boil some eggs and make some Easter eggs or something.
40:24
I agree. Old David, he's pretty busy.
40:27
I, I try to, uh, meet up with him as much as possible down there in good old Moab, 'cause that's one nice thing about where I live, and, and you have, uh, talked about, you know, when we've talked over the phone.
40:38
But, uh, you know, I'm five minutes away from pine trees. I'm 20 minutes away from sand dunes. I'm an hour away from Moab, and an hour and a half away from, you know, uh, lift-assisted ski resorts.
40:53
So I could, uh, I could do pretty much any kind of mountain biking- We should move out there... you could think of. It sounds like a great place. Yeah, what's the holdup? [laughs] I know. I looked at St.
41:03
George a long time ago. My, uh, my family actually founded Utah back in the olden days, so I have an affinity for the place since- Thank you... I've been out there, yeah.
41:12
Yeah, they kinda came across there on wagons and whatnot and- [laughs]... yeah. Fuck the Paiutes. Yeah, no. That wasn't- It was the Smiths. [laughs] Yeah, that wasn't, that wasn't Utah.
41:22
Uh, they had some other name for it. Yeah. It's funny, there, there's, there's the Utes and the Paiutes. It's kinda like the, the Sneetches with stars on thars. [laughs] The Sneetches without stars on thars.
41:35
[laughs] And then, yeah, uh- And then the, then the Mericans came. Yeah. So yeah. I do get out there pretty often, so I'm sure we'll, we'll run across you sometime, probably this summer.
41:48
I got this sweet, I got- Yeah, that sounds great... this sweet tent that goes on my car now, so I can just go wherever and roam the nation. Plus, I'm on a mission. Yeah, I'd fuck- Ty Webb, I'm gunning for you.
41:58
I'd vote for that, for that. [laughs] Cool. You, if you're as good as you say you are, you have to play Dr. Pepper at, uh... No. So anyway. Hey, you know what?
42:10
Uh, let's come out here and let's, uh, see what you've got, and we'll make a little video for you guys, you know, super slow-mo and all kinds of fun stuff. Ah. Well, it's gonna have to be slow-mo if I'm riding.
42:20
[laughs] Yeah, geriatric shredding the gnar. Right. Chug, chug, chug, chug, chug.
42:27
Everything looks good in slow-mo, though, and even if it's built in slow-mo, if you're going slow, but everything looks better in slow-mo, I think. That's killer. Cool. All right. Well, thanks again, Dustin.
42:38
We'll, we'll catch up with you down the trail. Sounds good. Thank you very much. All right, bye. See you, dude. Our show this evening has been brought to you by the bikes, parts, and chaos of Surly Bikes.
42:50
Learn more At surlybikes.com You can call us at 818-918-2453 anytime day or night and leave us a message.
43:03
Hey, Gomez reminded me to tell y'all that we have, uh, T-shirts and hats and stuff available in our online store now. Uh, we got quite a few up there now, but there's more to come. Nice.
43:14
And, uh, the cool thing is these are, um, these are on demand, so people can order them and they'll actually get them. We don't have to, they don't have to rely on me to ship them out. There you go.
43:23
So wham, bam, thank you, ma'am. And now we j- we just saw the, uh, the samples of the hats. Well, I just saw them. Yeah. You saw them before. Yeah. And, uh, I'm wearing one on my jock right now.
43:33
Yeah, they're, uh, they're embroidered. They're nice. You can check that out at shop.fatbike.com. There's a link on the site. There'll be a link in the show notes.
43:40
We're gonna have links all over the place, 'cause this is what helps keep the, uh, the website actually moving along in a forward direction. Indeed.
43:47
So join us next time for more hijinks and hyperbole from the seedy underbelly of what we like to refer to as- The occasional dose of fat. Till then. Over.
44:04
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.
44:18
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