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Show #466 – August 17, 2019

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Guests: Jason Mutchler; Graham Watson

I discovered Jason Mutchler’s story on the Zwift.com site and after reading it, I wanted to talk with him. I had to wait until he returned from RAGBRAI, but I think the wait was well worth it.

Jason, who is retired from the Air Force after a 22 year career and a horrific incident that forced that retirement, is a member of the Zwift DIRT team – a worldwide group of Dads Riding Indoor Trainers.

After our break, we head to Colorado, which is NOT where our guest lives; and, he just happened to be in the States for a vacation. Luckily for me, and I think for you, he made some time to chat.

Graham Watson is arguably the most famous cycling photographer, and one to capture some of the most amazing cycling images over his 40-year career.

Retiring at the end of the 2017 racing season, Graham chats with me about his career and what life on the road as a photographer is like.

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Show #465 – August 10, 2019

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Guests: Dr. Jonathan Hersch; Luke Edwardes-Evans

This week, we have two very different conversations for you – one about a book, but not really all about a book, and another with our friend Dr. Jonathan Hersch, but not really about orthopedic matters.

Cryptic enough?

Okay, let’s start with Dr. Hersch. We had already decided we were going to discuss what happens in crashes and emergency-type treatments when he had an incident last Sunday that really disturbed him; and, he wanted to discuss it.

Fortunately, he wasn’t injured and he didn’t crash – but, what MIGHT have happened has spurred him to take on an advocacy role in the his home state of Florida – which touts the depressing statistic of being the deadliest state in the U.S. in which to ride your bike. We’ll get to that conversation in a moment.

After a break, including some cycling news, we’ll head to the U.K. for a long-awaited chat with Luke Edwardes-Evans about his new book, The Official Tour de France Bike Maintenance Book.

Luke isn’t a mechanic, he’s a journalist; and, I couldn’t remember where I’d seen his name, besides on the cover of the book.

But, as we started talking I realized – he had been editor of Winning Magazine and a past editor of Cycle Sport!
Luke and I cover a lot of territory in our lively conversation- including some of his roles in the cycling world and, oh yes, we talk about the book too!

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Show #464 – August 3, 2019

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Guests: Jon Stacks; Andrew P. Sykes

My first guest is Jon Stacks, the STEM and science liaison for the Specialized Foundation.

Founded by Specialized’s Mike Sinyard, the organization was founded to bring cycling to middle school children – especially those suffering from ADHD.

Jon, who comes from a science background, will fill us in on what current research is telling us about the effects that riding a bicycle have on children, especially those diagnosed with ADHD and other similar issues. These findings came as nothing new to Mike Sinyard as he experienced the effects of ADHD pretty much his entire life and then saw them arise in his son Anthony.

Recently, the foundation has undergone a rebranding – now being called Outride.org. – and Jon will tell us why and what the hopes are for the future.

Then, we’ll take a trip across the pond to talk with long distance cyclist Andrew P. Sykes. Back in 2010, Andrew was a French teacher with a summer break ahead of him and decided to take a bike trip with Reggie, the name he gave his Ridgeback bicycle.

That first trip and some encouragement he received from someone who was vicariously following along while awaiting the birth of her daughter by reading his blog each day, has since turned into three trips, three books, a blog, a podcast, videos, speaking engagements, and … listen in for a great conversation!

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Show #463 – July 27, 2019

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Guests: Shane Niemeyer; Alex Meade

Five years ago, we spoke with Shane Niemeyer. Shane’s story, which up until five years ago was documented in his book The Hurt Artist, told of a young man who went from a troubled youth to jail. While in jail, he tried to hang himself and, when the rope broke and he fell, breaking both of his feet and fracturing some vertebrae, something else happened to him mentally and emotionally.

Now, Shane is married, has two kids, has completed dozens and dozens of both 1/2 and full Ironman competitions, and is launching his new project, The Helm – a fitness app with a very different approach.

We head for Cape Cod for a conversation with frame builder Alex Meade.

Discovering early that he didn’t want to make a living in either music or physics, Alex decided instead on a mechanical engineering degree. Then, he headed from NE Ohio out to California to Stanford for a masters in product design. He spent time with IBM and its subsidiary Lexmark and eventually found his way back east where, for the past 20 years, he’s established himself as a craftsman of fine bicycles, makes frame building tools, and teaches frame building. He still plays music in a local orchestra and apparently loves maple syrup!

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Show #462 – July 20, 2019

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Guests: Jeff Woolf; Paul Robison, Tracy & Peter Flucke; Leah Flickinger

As promised, I had a conversation with Jeff Woolf, who is the CEO and inventor of the Morpher folding helmet. You may remember that Consumer Reports gave the Morpher a thumbs down and that I wanted to give Jeff a chance to defend his company and his product.

I also invited the CEO of the children’s Woom helmet, which also received a do-not-buy rating, to offer his story, but he hadn’t gotten back to me by the time this show was being put together. The offer is, of course, still there.

While we are in the U.K. – which is where Jeff Woolf happens to be – we’ll check in with Paul Robison. Paul is the CEO of Bikeability and the Bikeability Trust. The organization which is funded by the government in the UK, along with many community partners, is a 3-part cycle training program, mostly for children and taught in school, that teaches practical skills and understanding for cycling on the roads today.

After our mid-show break, we’ll take a few minutes to catch up with Peter and Tracy Flucke for our July call. Unfortunately, it will be our last for this trip as they abandoned at 1456 miles. Still a lot of riding; but, we’ll find out what happened and why are back home.

Last and certainly not least, we talk with Leach Flickinger. Leah was the editor-in-chief of Bicycling Magazine and is now the director of content creation at the Hearst Enthusiast Group which owns not only Bicycling, but also Runner’s World and Popular Mechanics.

We chat about a wide variety of topics including the recent Bicycling Magazine survey that resulted in an article titled “Hey, Bike Shops: Stop Treating Customers Like Garbage.

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Show #461 – July 13, 2019

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Guests: Steve Frothingham; Rob Sulaski

First up is a conversation about the safety of three helmets from three different manufacturers.

I’m not sure how much I faith I put in Consumer Reports, but I do know that a lot of people look to the organization for assurance that they are making a good choice about a purchase.

So, when an article titled, “Who should you trust? Helmet makers dispute Consumer Reports findings” I get curious.
Three helmets were called out for alleged safety problems and issued “do not buy” warnings.

Steve Frothingham, editor in chief of Bicycle Retailer and Industry News as well as BicycleRetailer.com wrote that article and offers us a deeper look into how these helmets failed CR’s testing, what the makers of these helmets had to say, and what we might want to do if we have one.

We have some news this week, including a sighting of what one journalist is calling the coolest bike at the Tour de France, and then we speak with Rob Sulaski who is working for two companies this summer – Strong Towns, which we know really well from conversations with its founder Chuck Marohn – and Urban3 a geo-analytics company – we’ll tell you what that means when we speak with him.

Rob details the two articles that attracted my attention, one titled “The Lake Effect” which is NOT about snow storms off of Lake Erie; and the other about Palm Bay, a town in Florida that has miles of roads, lots of infrastructure, and almost no residents.

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Show #460 – July 6, 2019

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Guests: Aaron Gordon; (encore presentation with)Phil Liggett

Last week, we reported on the death of Robyn Hightman, a 20 year old messenger, bicycle ambassador, and evidently an up-and-coming competitive cyclist in NYC.

Then, 3 more cyclists were killed in rapid succession in NY and that brought the total for 2019 to 15. In all of 2018, there were 10 cycling deaths in the City.

Interestingly enough, NYC has a Vision Zero program on the books and a fairly large number of laws that seem to go unenforced; or, at least that is what you would be led to believe when the NYPD published a notice that said .they would enforce the traffic laws for three weeks beginning July 1st and ending July 21st.

Does that sound as ludicrous to you as it did to me? IF the laws are on the books why aren’t they enforced ALL THE TIME?

Why does it take multiple deaths to decide to enforce already in place laws? And, why do the police take the opportunity, immediately after a high-profile incident such as Robyn’s to begin ticketing cyclists in the area of the crash?

I actually have some answers… well, I spoke with someone who has SOME of the answers and understands the situation pretty well, including being one of those cyclists who was ticketed for an “infraction”.
Aaron Gordon is a senior investigative reporter for jalopnik – yes, it’s a car centered organization. Yet, he thinks that the work he’s doing now helps to inform his reporting on the many sides of transportation.

Then, as the Tour de France kicks off today in Brussels, and with the untimely loss of Paul Sherwen, I thought it might be appropriate to bring you an encore presentation of my 2014 conversation with the “voice of the Tour” Phil Liggett.

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Show #459 – June 29, 2019

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Guests: Christine Byrne; Gary Fisher; Dan Thornton

When LeBron James says it, Portugal does it, and Trek puts money where its mouth is, perhaps “more kids on bikes” will become a reality.

This week, we will explore this with two great guests – Gary Fisher – that mountain bike legend guy, who will fill us in on what Trek has committed to with not only NICA, but with a far-reaching plan for children. Gary’s mind thinks faster than he can aciculate all the ideas he has – and with his huge and expansive vision, Gary Fisher sees a big picture that captures so many many possibilities to bring kids back into cycling.

Then, there is the laser focused and contrasting vision of bike shop owner Dan Thornton. Owner of the three Free-Flite stores in Georgia, Dan jumped into NICA with both feet and has seen the growth of the chapter go from a fledgling handful to over 1,000 kids.

First though, we are going to talk about something every cyclist knows well… FOOD!

Christine Byrne is a freelance journalist who writes about food and nutrition. In her recent article for Outside Online, she dangled the question – are eggs good for you? And, being the curious person I am, I bit!

While we may not get the answer we thought we would, we do learn a lot about how these claims are made and how we can learn something about ourselves and our way of looking at food that might just change the way you eat – forever.

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Show #458 – June 22, 2019

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Guests: Eli Griffen; Molly Hurford; Dan Wuori

An item that came across my desk prompted me to get in touch with Rails-to-Trails and with Eli Griffen, the Manager for Trail Development Resources.

The topic is rail banking and I wanted to know more about it. Rail banking isn’t a new phenomenon; and, in fact, hundreds if not thousands of our rail-trails are due to the practice. Eli will explain it when we talk with him in a moment. He’ll also fill us in on some of the progress of the Great American Bike Trail.

We’ll have a quick chat with writer, coach, endurance athlete, and the proud author of Shred Girls – Lindsay’s Joy Ride. The much anticipated book was just published by Random House Kids and is the first in the Shred Girls series.
Last and always interesting, fun, and informative is our pre-Tour de France chat with Velo News’ Dan Wuori. With Chris Froome’s untimely crash at the Dauphine and a so-far lack luster spring for 2018 yellow jersey holder Thomas Geraint, it just might be anybody’s guess as to who will stand atop the podium in Paris this year.