Tag: Outside Online

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Show #649 – April 23, 2024

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Guests: Ian Dille; Tomas Castrillon

The world of bike racing, from the high school through pro levels, has been predominantly male and predominantly white, so when I saw Ian Dille’s article in Outside Online about the Richmond Cycling Corps – the kids from Cool lane, I wanted to know more.

Founded by pro-racer Craig Dawson in 2010, The Richmond Cycling Corps is not just about bike racing – it’s about community and education and giving young disadvantaged youth a perspective that expands their horizons through cycling.

Ian Dille is a journalist, writer, and producer and learned about the Richmond Cycling Corps some time ago.  When he had the opportunity to embed himself into the group in May of 2022, he did just that and wrote about it in his article for Outside “The Kids From Cool Lane Just Want To Ride Bikes.”

In the second half of the show, we head to Bogota, Colombia to speak with touring company owner Tomas Castrillon. 

Tomas’ company is Arriba! – and its meaning refers to both heights to which you can ride and a place to which you can ascend in the sense of consciousness in the picturesque surroundings of the Colombian landscape.

We talk about the country – and the safety of riding there.  We talk about coffee, and flowers, and gold mines, and food. 

His tight-knit team of 7 provides a fully supported experience in his two signature tours, Bogota to Medellin and a tour in the coffee region of the country.

He also offers non-riding partners an equally exciting experience.

It may be a bucket list tour you haven’t considered and perhaps after our conversation, you will.

April 23_Transcript

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Show #538 – January 23, 2021

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Guests: Kalene Griffith &Aimee Ross; Chris Carmichael; Joe Lindsey

 

We start out this week’s episode in Bentonville, Arkansas. Yes, it’s the home of Wal-Mart and the Walton family. And, it’s recently been billed as the mountain bike capital of the world.

With events such as Big Sugar, which is a new event from Life Time  and which sold out almost immediately upon opening registration, and hundreds of miles of great trails that expand into other parts of the state from Bentonville, I wanted to know more about the City and what else it had to offer.

From a new airport that’s almost like a living museum to a downtown that acts like a trailhead to spread out onto the many paved and unpaved trails, Bentonville is a ride-365-days-a-year place. CEO and Director of Visit Bentonville, Kalene Griffith and the Aimee Ross, director of Bike Bentonville are over-the-moon excited about bicycling and what the city has to offer visitors.

We’ll have part three of our four part series with head coach and founder of CTS training systems, Chris Carmichael. And, this week’s tips are about something near and dear to all of us – FOOD.

I learned the hard way that certain foods and I don’t get along when I’m riding; and, I guess we all have to figure some of that our for ourselves. But, it’s nice to have some guidance and Chris Carmichael is ready to give us some tips.

Our last guest for this week is journalist Joe Lindsey. Joe writes about outdoor sports, health and fitness, and science and technology, for consumer publications and commercial clients.

2020 was such a strange and in many ways, a disappointing year for so many of us. But, we also know that bicycling was a bright spot and the question is whether all of those who turned to the bicycle – whether for recreation, transportation, and even indoor riding when in lock-down as many countries even forbade outdoor activity, will stay with it giving bicycling an expanded population going forward.

In his January 21, 2021 article for Outside Online titled “The Pandemic Bike Boom Is Here To Stay,” Joe gives us facts and figures about why that might be true.

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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 #447 – April 6, 2019

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Guests: Joe Lindsey; Larry Pizzi, Happy Freedman

Three guests – three topics.

First, it’s a controversy! Everyone loves a good he said – she said; only in this case it’s WaveCel vs. MIPS helmet technology.

On March, 19th Matt Phillips published the following headline in Bicycling Magazine “Bontrager Says Its New Helmets Can Prevent Concussions 99 out of 100 times.”

And, it didn’t take long for those who developed the MIPS technology to refute Bontrager’s claims, citing an inability to replicate the testing.

Reading the article reminds me so much of just how the bike industry makes its claims – one company reports its sales in dollars while another reports in units. And, the same is true in this article. Case in point?
The article states: The company says that a helmet with Wavecel will prevent a concussion 99 out of 100 times. A standard foam helmet, for comparison, can only prevent a concussion 42 percent of the time. See what I mean?

So… rather than trying to sort it out myself, I turned to freelance journalist Joe Lindsey. Joe breaks down the controversy and puts some thoughtful ideas into what you might do if your head DOES hit the ground in his April 2nd article for Outside Online titled: Trek’s WaveCel Helmet Technology Is Causing Controversy”

Joe ALWAYS does his homework and that is true in this case. He’s my first guest.

Then, we head out to L.A. to speak with Larry Pizzi, the president of Accell North America. The last time we spoke with him back in 2013, he was with iZIP, an electric bike brand; and today, while iZip is STILL a brand in the stable, Larry oversees several other eBike brands.

Today, we talk about how eBikes are faring in the world of cycling – their growth, who is riding them, and how regulations around the use of eBikes is being developed and implemented.

Finally, it’s a discussion with one of the #1 bike fitters in the country, if not on the planet. Soft spoken and serious, Happy Freedman has decades of experience coupled with the use of the Leon Root, MD Motion Analysis Lab a state-of-the-art testing facility at the Hospital for Special Surgery in NY City.

Yet, with all the fancy-schmancy equipment at his disposal, Happy has a straightforward and relatively simple way of making the adjustments needed – and they aren’t what you