Tag: Charlie Kelly

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Show #566 – July 31, 2021

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Guest: Chris Kelly

This week, the show is taking a different road – out to California to speak with just one guest in  great conversation – frame builder Chris Kelly.

Last week, in some banter on FB, I inadvertently mixed up Chris Kelly and Charlie Kelly… shame on me!  They are both amazing people and,  since I had Charlie on the show back in 2015, it was high time Chris joined me.

Chris Kelly has a great story – starting out racing back in the day, going to school for architecture, having a big bike building gig, and ending up back in his own shop, building his own brand of frames and forks, and just as happy as a clam.

Chris believes that the bike industry has a “lack of vision,” and today, a lot of what he tried and succeeded in having work years ago, is standard stuff. It’s just another example of how custom builders can and often do influence the market.

Chris also has done a radio gig and his Tom Petty Tribute Band, Petty Luv – that love as in L U V, just had its first public gig since COVID began last weekend.

I’d say Chris is pretty well-rounded, well-grounded, and well-informed.

I want to preface the conversation with an addendum to what you will hear – I ask Chris about his FAQ’a – which are excellent – but what I should have also have asked him was about his tech questions because they are fabulous.

So – when you go to his website, kellybike.com, make sure you click on the tech tab at the top and read through his tech questions!

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Show #332 – January 28, 2017

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Guests: Denise Mueller; Brian Jenks; Gerolf Meyer

Welcome to this week’s show!

The January 7th and 8th weekend edition of the Wall Street Journal had a front page story about our first guest, Denise Mueller.

Now holding the title of the “fastest Woman on Two Wheels”, Denise, at the age of 43 rode a specially built bike behind a Range Rover and pedaled at 147.72 miles per hour to set her record back in September.

Denise is no stranger to cycling having won many, many titles as a teenager; then, life got in the way as it often does. Now, she has her sights set on breaking the OVERALL speed record next year.

It’s a great conversation – especially if you like speed!

Then, I’ve asked Brian to join me in the studio to chat with me in what I hope will become an ongoing feature of the show.

I don’t know anyone who is more thoughtful about the subject of bicycles from a wide range of perspectives and I’ve asked him to share some of that knowledge and expertise with us.

This week, he’s talking about cold weather riding and what to do with your bike. We are also opening up our FaceBook page and Twitter account to you to suggest topics you’d like covered in the future.

Then, we’re jumping the pond to Europe to catch up with someone I met at NAHBS in Denver a few years ago.

Gerolf Meyer is a cycling enthusiast – he’s a geographer – he’s also the host and producer of, wait for it…. a bicycle podcast in Germany! His monthly program Antritt, does a lot of what we do here and our conversation is fun. He’ll tell you the story of how we met and about the event he helps put together. (There are three shows in English in his podcast list – 2 with Charlie Kelly and one with Joe Breeze).

So, buckle up sunshine – let’s head on out to Carlsbad, California and talk with the “fastest woman on two wheels!”

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Show #263 – September 12, 2015

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Special Guest: Mountain Bike Guru Charlie Kelly

Tonight we welcome one of the least well known and yet probably the most influential figure in the mountain bike world – Charlie Kelly.

Along with his pals Gary Fisher (AKA Spidey back in the day), Tom Ritchey, and still one of his closest friends Joe Breeze, Charlie was the force behind Repack – the race course that everyone rode and no one knew about (there’s a reason for that) and the one who chronicled the era – from the equipment and riders to the eventual formation of a sanctioning body.

There isn’t enough time in just one show to hear what there is to know about Charlie and his story; but, he’s beautifully made the entire era available in his new book Fat Tire Flyer: Repack and the Birth of Mountain Biking.

Sure to be one of the most popular coffee table books of the 2015 gift giving season, Fat Tire Flyer is replete with photographs, stories, flyers, and documentation.

Charlie’s wish? To have the story made into a movie… he even knows who he wants to play whom!

I hope you enjoy this conversation as much as I did!