Show #239 – March 28, 2015

Guests: Titanium frame builder Kent Eriksen; Mountain Bike Hall of Famer Ned Overend

For this last week of March I’ve chosen two of the industry’s favorite sons – Kent Eriksen and Ned Overend.

Kent started the brand Moots, moved on to his own company – Eriksen Cycles – and is one of the early adopters of titanium as the “material of choice”.

He calls himself a “seat of the pants” engineer and grew up riding and working in bike shops in his Wisconsin home.

He talks about his years of living in a tree house and today, he works in a very interesting facility in Steamboat Springs.  Earlier this month, Kent won “Best TIG Welded Frame” at NAHBS.  He still loves to ride and ski and spends a lot of his time, just as I’ve found most builders, IN his shop!

We discuss a bit about fit, technology, and of course my usual question for all builders these days – his opinion on road disc brakes! You might be surprised by his answer; but, seems that he understands the market as well as anyone with whom I’ve spoken.

Our conversation is fun and interesting.

After our news break, we head on out to San Diego to catch up with mountain bike legend Ned Overend. Growing up the son of a U.S. diplomat and living all over the world with his family, Ned talks about his childhood, his early racing days, and takes us right up to the present with an article he wrote last week for Bicycling.

Ned is a Mountain Bike Hall of Famer, has appeared in dozens of mountain bike videos, still loves to ride and race, and is the tech product guy at Specialized.

Our conversation runs the gamut from the early days of mountain biking to his most recent article in Bicycling titled “Ned Overend’s Secrets to Riding Forever”.