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Full Spectrum Cycling
Weekly Dose of Fat – Travis Brown – Show #31 – 11-21-14
Nov 21, 2014
Weekly Dose of Fat – Travis Brown – Show #31 – 11-21-14
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0:00
This is the Weekly Dose of Fat, show number 31 for November 21st, 2014.
0:07
[instrumental music plays] There's a fifth dimension beyond that which is known to man. It is a dimension as vast as space, as timeless as infinity.
0:25
It is a middle ground between snow and sand, between mountain bikes and monster trucks, and it lies in the psst of man's fears and the summit of his knowledge. This is the dimension of fun.
0:39
It is an area we call the Weekly Dose of Fat. Hey, welcome to the show, everybody. Hey, guys. Joining us- Welcome to the show. [laughs] Joining us in the studio today is Mr. JK Living. Yeah, hello, everybody.
0:55
Our show is sponsored by the new Surly canvas riding jacket that features waxed cotton canvas on the outside with a 100% Merino wool liner. It's a jacket well-appointed for life on a bike.
1:07
Learn more about life and bikes at surlybikes.com. So JK, what's on the fabulous radio program this week? Well, tonight we have beer with our registered beer dietician, julio.com.
1:20
We chat with Olympian and mountain bike hall-of-famer, Travis Brown.
1:25
Sven is going to pump [slams] you up with air and what some folks from West Texas call hooey, plus links that'll make you wanna stab somebody in the neck. But first, Sven has a plug. Butt plug.
1:40
[laughs] Well, before we crack our first beer, I'd just like to give Jaren Rudd a shout-out for his thoughtful comment about our humble show.
1:52
Jaren said, and I quote, I'm, I'm not putting words in his mouth, I'm just reading what he wrote, "Love the site and especially the podcast. Listen to it every Friday as soon as it drops.
2:01
I just wish there was more of it, and I can't wait to hear Fat Bike Radio today." Thanks for making us feel wanted, Jaren. Yeah, Jaren, thanks for the kind words. But seriously, dude, seek professional help.
2:13
[laughs] There's still time. Oh, yeah, and I wanna give a shout-out, too, to, to Igor from Savona, Italy. He was generous enough to hit the donate button and throw a few shekels our way.
2:24
Shekels, that's like, that's like money in prison, right? Eh, it's just a word that to me always meant cash in some way or another.
2:31
Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome to the show our own personal beer pharmacist, julio.com. [claps] [claps] Well, boys, did we all recover from last week's beer? Maybe. Maybe.
2:47
[laughs] Stricken me. After fashion. Thursday was rough. Thursday was a, a fun day. Well, this week I decided to dial it back just a little bit.
2:56
This week's fat-bike.com radio beer of the week is Founder's Breakfast Stout. This is an 8.3% ABV double chocolate coffee oatmeal stout. It's a mouthful. Yeah, it is.
3:09
It has a Beer Advocate score of 100 with a whopping 12,783 ratings. That's pretty impressive, especially for a beer that's pretty widely available. I can go into my local grocery store during the season and pick this up.
3:21
This is no whale, cellar whale. Where is Founder's? Uh, in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Oh, yes. So- We had this at, uh, breakfast for a Gaylord race or something up there. Really?
3:32
Yeah, I think I- Yeah, they sponsor a lot of mountain bike stuff in, in Michigan. Yeah. Yeah. Well, it's a good idea 'cause mountain bikes and beer go together like- That's what I've heard... fat bikes and beer.
3:40
[laughs] Almost 13,000 people said this was, rated this a perfect beer. I'm not sure how Beer Advocate does their ratings, but yeah, this is, this is a pretty highly regarded beer by a whole lot of people.
3:52
That's a shit ton of ratings, and I'm counting on my hands- [laughs]... both of them, and I have to do this like 1,300 times, so- That's like a metric shit ton... I'm trying to paint the word picture for everybody.
4:05
Uh, you, you guys heard it right. This is, uh, lot of ratings, a lot of people like this beer, um, and, and pretty much lives up to the hype. This is one of the better stouts you're gonna find out there.
4:13
Um, so hopefully after last week you, I didn't kill too many of your brain cells and you remember what I taught you. Uh, we're gonna build like wizard staffs out of the bottles? You're gonna stab Sven in the neck?
4:25
No, cretins. We're pouring these into glasses. Correctamundo. Let's pour. JK wins the- I win... wins the- I, I learned. [laughs] Which end of the bottle opener do you... What's this for?
4:37
Why can't I make the bottle opener work? [laughs] Probably not pouring it properly either, huh? [laughs] No, you're good. These glasses will work. Oh.
4:45
So the first thing you notice is how absolutely dark this beer- Yeah... as well as the nice like brown sugar colored head. The next thing you're gonna get is that smell of dark chocolate, coffee.
4:55
Can't even see through it, it's so dark. [laughs] Little touch of booziness. Hmm. I'm sniffing. Sm- it smells good? Just like a bicycle seat, baby. [laughs] So cheers, boys. Clink. Clinkies.
5:07
[glasses clink] So just like the smell, lots of dark chocolate, coffee, little bit of alcohol. In the background you start to pick up some oatmeal, toasted oatmeal, maybe a little bit of hoppiness.
5:19
I don't know if there are no apricots. No apricots. No. If they're in there, they're very masked. Not in this one. [laughs] Not in this one. They're, they're well-masked. Yes.
5:27
[laughs] And this is another one that changes quite a bit as it, as it warms up. This one's best at maybe cellar temperature, maybe a little bit cooler.
5:33
But, you know, as, as it warms up, you really get a lot more of that chocolate coming out. The coffee's really gonna get in there and then, and then some more of that oatmeal.
5:40
Yeah, I taste some coffee right off the bat there. Oh, I'm diggin' it. I don't catch any oatmeal, but- I don't even know what I'm-... I, I wouldn't even know what I'm really looking, tasting for...
5:47
the booziness kind of, the booziness kind of takes over that. Right. And around the back of your tongue, especially once you swallow, get a little booziness, a little dryness on the tongue.
5:55
Uh, but really the chocolate and the, chocolate and the coffee are the stars of this. That's why it's called a breakfast stout.
6:00
Um, and, and I've had break- like everybody, I like breakfast for dinner, and if I have one of these in the fridge, it, it's coming out. How many calories does it have? I'm gonna stab you in the neck with a pen.
6:11
[laughs] It has a lot. Probably, but- It's like food in a c- glass. So what's the- Well- What's the verdict this week? It's good. I could drink this. Yeah, it's tasty, for sure.
6:20
It'll have a, I have a built-in alcohol How can we argue with 12,783 Beer Advocate experts? [laughs] If you can still- Obviously my answer is one word, perfect. The internet makes everybody an expert. Yeah.
6:34
[laughs] Plus I think I broke my tongue a long time ago in a tragic tongue foo accident. [laughs] That's not what your wife told me. [laughs] We'll be right back with Travis Brown.
6:49
You're tuned to Fat Bike Radio. Hey, everybody. This is Wayne Chapman from Dirtworks Australia, purveyors of fine goods like salted bikes and nice bicycle tow parts.
7:02
When I'm not molesting kangaroos, I, I always listen to fatbike.com. Hi, I'm Adam. And I'm Steve. And we're the guys that bring you Borealis Fat Bikes. Borealis is the industry leader in carbon fat frames and components.
7:14
And we designed our new Borealis Echo frame to work perfectly with the RockShox Bluto fork, and we hope you get to try one soon. Check us out and all of our products at borealisbikes.com.
7:23
And please visit us at one of our upcoming demo events for free rides and to drink some beer. Please welcome to the show Olympian and Mountain Bike Hall of Fame racer, Mr. Travis Brown. Hey, Travis. Hi, guys.
7:36
Welcome to the show. Thank you. I'm happy to be on the show. Right on. So let's get right into the interview.
7:45
You told me that you spend a lot of time, uh, looking at fat bikes from a product end, at least for Trek, uh, headquartered right here in beautiful Wisconsin, where Sven and I are at.
7:57
Where do you feel that fat bike, fat mountain bikes are going? That, yeah, that is kind of my focus now is more on the product end of things, um, than, than the racing end of things.
8:10
And I moved into the product department off the race team a few years ago. Um, it's a good question that I think a lot of us are asking, you know, where is this, where is all this momentum in fat bikes going?
8:24
And it's pretty clear it's, it's going in a lot of places and, um, figuring out which ones are gonna be niches and which ones are gonna be kind of big blockbuster categories is what we're trying to figure out.
8:38
Obviously, you know, front suspension has, has made its way in.
8:42
You know, you guys, you know, it's not, it's not just a winter bike, so there's lots of people that probably justify buying them for a winter bike, and then they like the traction, uh, and the stability and then ride them all year round.
8:55
So that's probably one of the first places is a divergence between kind of four season bikes and winter specific bikes.
9:04
Obviously there's a few companies, uh, that already have production full suspension bikes, and that's I think a unique animal as well.
9:11
So it's going a lot of ways, but one thing that's fun about this product category is a lot of that's yet to be defined. Yeah.
9:19
You're right at, you're right at the forefront of it, working with a big company with a lot of resources. Have you spent any time on any of the 29 plus bikes? Um, well, I have.
9:30
Um, over the last two years we've spent quite a bit of time developing the Chicopah tire. Um, and so I had a, a test mule built for that project.
9:41
You know, it's a 29 by three-inch tire that we've just released, and I think it's available to consumers in a couple months. Right.
9:50
Um, so I've spent some time on that, and that was on a, a regular mountain bike, although I did have some testers that were riding it, uh, on their fat bikes, you know, fat hubs laced to 29-inch rims, and they rode them that way.
10:04
How do you think that 29 plus platform compares to a more traditional 26 by four or five fat bike? Well, it really, it's terrain dependent, I would say. Um,
10:16
you know, comparing a, you know, three point or almost a four-inch tire to a three-inch tire, still probably have a little more traction on a 26 by four-inch tire,
10:28
but we did a lot of testing on snow, and the difference is not as much as you would think, and so it really depends on the snow conditions. You know, that's another thing as far as, you know, where fat bikes are going.
10:41
I know like the preference in the Midwest is, 'cause you have really cold snow and dense snow, is maybe not for the largest rim and largest tire, where in the Rocky Mountains we have a lot more snow volume and the snow's a lot warmer, so it's softer.
10:57
So almost the biggest you can get is what's good in those conditions. Maybe share a little bit about, uh, your local favorite winter ride in Durango or your favorite group ride. Let's see.
11:10
I did a really cool adventure last winter and, um, it's a ride over Bolam Pass from Purgatory Ski Resort to Rico, and it's a pretty normal summer ride, but it goes over a pass that's almost 12,000 feet. Wow. Wow.
11:27
And so in the winter, um, it gets groomed by snowmobile clubs partway up on each side, and then the middle just gets ridden in by snowmobiles. So we had to pick a pretty...
11:39
We had to pick a day when we hadn't had a ton of fresh snow and the sleds had been over it a few times. Mm-hmm.
11:45
Um, and that's a pretty, it's a pretty neat high country experience in the summer, and it's like five times as remote feeling in the winter. [laughs] So that was special. All right. Cool. Yeah, it sounds great.
11:56
Is that the same basic pass they use for the, uh, the race, the, when they race the train? No, the train, the train race- Ambos?... is open year round. It doesn't close in winter like this pass does.
12:07
Um, and that goes over two passes, Molas and Coal Bank Pass between Durango and Silverton. But- It does go right by where this ride I was talking about starts. Oh, cool.
12:20
Well, we're about to enter the lightning round of the interview. So please answer the following five questions in rapid succession. Beard or balaclava? Well, I'm gonna have to say beard since I'm wearing a beard.
12:34
Tubes or tubeless? Tubeless. [laughs] Fast and hard or slow and casual? Fast and hard. She-Ra or Wonder Woman? Both. [laughs] Yeah. And, and the final question, what kind of toast would you like with that?
12:54
Uh, I'm gonna toast to She-Ra and Wonder Woman. [laughs] Well, muchos gracias for coming on the show, Travis. You've been an awesome guest. Really appreciate you coming on the show. Yeah, thanks very much, Travis.
13:06
Thank you guys. It was fun. Right on. Take care. You're tuned to Fat Bike Radio. Hey, this is Kevin Breakingback from Fairbanks, Alaska. I ride bike fat and I listen to Fat Bike Radio with Sven and Gomez. Welcome back.
13:23
Here's Sven with the world premiere episode of Ask Samsquanch. We handle a lot of general fat bike questions each week.
13:34
Some are pretty basic, but there are a l- a lot of new folks coming into the fat bike game, so I thought we'd share some of them here in a little segment we like to call Ask Samsquanch.
13:45
This week's question is, what is a good pump for carrying along on your fat bike? Well, I use the Lezyne Micro High Volume. Um, there's two versions of that pump, the HP and the HV.
13:59
High pressure for roadies, high volume for fat bikers. It just moves more air. Uh, that's my, that's my pump. I have, I have the other one, the, uh, Mountain Morph Topeak.
14:09
Mostly because I could never pronounced Lezyne, or was Lenzy or Lez- Lez- Leznenzy or Lyzine. I- But tonight we all learn something new- I-... it is Lezyne...
14:22
thanks to the power of the internet So, uh, I know somebody- It's amazing... here at the table though that has actually knows how many pumps it takes to get to the, the center of a Tootsie Pop, and that is Julio, a.k.a.
14:35
I didn't conduct some, such testing. It turns out at the time there were really only two main pumps that everyone was using. That was the Lezyne, Lezyne, whatever it is, and the Topeak, which probably still holds true.
14:46
If I remember correctly, the Lezyne took about 190 strokes from flat to 10 PSI and beat the Mountain Morph by about 30 strokes. For reference, a Park floor pump was, I think, around like 90 strokes.
14:58
Uh, so of course you're not gonna get, you know, these mini pumps aren't gonna compete with a f- a f- a floor pump. Um, but still, it, it, it was, it's not that bad.
15:06
Did you use those saved 30 strokes for a wristy while you were doing the testing? [laughs] Who brings you more strokes on the radio than Fat Bike Radio?
15:13
[laughs] But with that said, um, I also have a Lezyne, and I agree it's a great trail pump. I like it so much I bought their floor pump.
15:19
Uh, but the only thing you have to watch out for is that because of the way the pump head attaches, it can cause the cores of your valve stems to unscrew if they're removable.
15:27
Yeah, a lot of early tubes, the cores were really loose then. There's a Stans tool that does both Schrader and Presta pretty easy to tighten those up or at least carry one along with you.
15:37
Yeah, 'cause if not, it sucks and that thing pops out on the trail. Yep. And- It goes... [whooshing] [laughs] When you plug it and then you're like- Well, now it's gushing out... well, now what do I do?
15:45
Well, it's gushing- Where's the valve core? It's all over. Well, it's gushing out, you gotta unscrew the valve core out of the, the chuck head. Right, right. Chuck head. Well, I, and, uh- [laughs]...
15:53
you know, besides putting air into your tire, uh, these pumps both have hoses on them, which I think is important for a fat bike pump.
16:00
If you're gonna be using that many strokes to get your tire up to pressure, you don't wanna be wiggling the valve back and forth, or you'll have a valve stem in your hand. Indeed. Not fun.
16:09
That's worse than the valve core coming out, 'cause you really can't repair that trail side very easily. Yeah, you're screwed.
16:14
So Blackburn just came out with a new high volume pump marketed directly at the fat bike segment, and they also just included a, introduced a, a fork-mounted cargo cage, much like the product from Salsa.
16:26
Uh, Ernesto from Mars is testing those for us right now. Does it use the same three-bolt mount system? I don't know. I don't either. Maybe Ernesto will let us know. Yeah, it looked very similar. Had built-in straps, too.
16:39
That's a good call, 'cause I've used that cage and not had straps and went like, "Well, what the hell? Where's my straps?" Nobody wants to be without a strap. On.
16:48
If you have a burning question you'd like to ask Samsquanch, just email your question to
[email protected]
. That's S-A-M-S-Q-U-A-N-T-C-H @fatbike.com, and we'll read your question on the show.
17:05
We'll get you some rad stickers or a lock of Sven's luxurious hair. Mm, the flowing locks of Sven. [laughs] Thank you. Thank you very much. That came out creepy. [laughs] That is, that is creepy.
17:18
That is a creepy kind of thing that we're gonna bring back, so- Locks of hair... to all of our listeners. You get a tuft of Gomez hair there. Locks of love. Uh, we keep getting more and more links.
17:28
There's a whole slew of them on, uh, on the show notes. Like, you, you like this Mike Kuriak link so much you put it in this week's show, and it was in, like, two weeks ago show.
17:37
Yeah, you know, sometimes you pop up with links from different, uh, sources, and, uh- Anything-... doesn't mean it's not-... that has the words Bob Tregenza colob in it. Bob Tregenza colob.
17:45
That's, so it's in the, uh, the newsfeed. And 42, you know, 42 backpacking tips. You know, don't forget the jammie butter. Uh, I know. First snow of the season. Yep, there's a Mukuk test report.
17:59
Coast Kid has some updates. There's a lot of stuff on there.
18:02
This is where we, uh, where we spread the love, and if you, if you have a link, if you have a blog, and you have a fat bike life and a fat bike lifestyle and maybe a fat wife, maybe a fat kid...
18:15
[laughs]You know, Specialized just came out apparently with a 24 and 20-inch tire. Yeah. And Julio's telling me that he saw- Complete bikes... that they had complete bikes.
18:27
That was kind of the, that was the idea, was that they introduced the tire, the bike can't be far behind. No, I saw the bike today. Super. On the interwebs? Mm-hmm. And that's why julio.com is our man on...
18:38
That's, that's why he's sitting on my lap right now. [laughs] Thanks again to Surly for sponsoring the radio portion of today's broadcast. Surly makes steel bikes and wool clothing for everyday people like you and me.
18:54
Learn more at surlybikes.com. Sonja Looney, if you're listening, this is julio.com. I want to be a Fatback ambassador. I wanna be a Fatback ambassador.
19:06
Join us next week when Brent from Twin Six swaddles us in Merino wool and talks to us about their new Fatstandard fat bike, sleek titanium race machine. Yeah, that thing looked good at Interbike.
19:19
I'm looking forward to talking to him about it. See y'all next week. See you. Sven, I know the listeners at home can't see you, but you're looking pretty sharp tonight. Gotta look sharp. [whistles] Sexy indeed.
19:32
Outrageously so. I bet Sven's wardrobe tod- today was provided by Club Ride. I feel like a game show host. Da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da. Da, da.
19:44
Ladies and gentlemen, we'll be back next week- Da, da, da, da, da, da... at the same fat time, fat channel. See you later. Fat time. Mwah. [laughs] Toodles- [laughs]... all you alls.
19:54
[upbeat music] 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.
20:10
[upbeat music]
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