Final Thoughts and Episode Wrap

This episode is brought to you by Sum Up. Now, if you're self employed or a sole trader and like me, the whole making tax digital thing melts your brain, then fear not. Sum up can help. Yes, Francis, you're not exactly known for your paperwork skills, are you? I th I think that is pretty generous. I've seen his spreadsheets. I'd say they are more like abstract art. That's why I have you, Jimmy. My finance yoda, but not everyone has a Jimmy. And that's where Sumup comes in. They've built a great free piece of software to help sole traders get ready for making tax digital. It's all built into the Sumup app. There's no monthly fees and it helps you stay on top of things without the stress. So you can spend less time panicking about taxes and more time doing what you're actually good at. Getting started is easy, just search Sum Up MTD Online. That's Sum Up MTD. Trust me. If I can get my head around it, you'll be absolutely fine. 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That means smarter sessions and fewer blow-ups halfway through the climb. Thanks to Garmin for supporting the show. From variable radar taillights and camera headlights to edge bike computers, tax trainers, rally power meter pedals, Garmin cover performance and safety from every angle. It's the wild ones, it's the wild on es. I'm still knacked from the weekend if I'm honest. I think we're all struggling today, aren't we? We'll see how this plays out, I guess. Energy, energy. Welcome to the Wild Ones Podcast, the show where we chat about bike stuff. I am Jimmy, and this week, in the studio, I am joined by the wonderful producer Emily. Hello. And the slightly less wonderful Francis Cade. Uh yes. Yes? Yes. Yes. And thanks the Garmin for supporting this show. Oh, we're knackered. Why are we knackered? Jimmy seems like he's full of energy. No. That was the best he's ever been on camera. I've just saved it for that moment. I've been storing that for the last three days. Fair play. So it's about to all dissipate now. The energy's gonna come down and we're gonna move into late night love hour with Jimmy Nichols. What's late night love hour? Oh you're too young for radio, aren't you? That was basically every radio station in the late night well probably from the seventies, from like ten o'clock at night there,'d be late night love hour where we play all the love tunes for you and your other half. Exactly. Stop before you get a cra copyright strike. I know why Jimmy has a spring in his step. Because he had a little downtime in the office on his own. Yes. That's a much better reason. Um for context, Jimmy decided to buy Francis and Benny some ridiculous bikes and send them on a little journey up to Edinburgh so that he could have some quiet time. And I I heard you were very productive. Oh it was lovely. I had a great time. I did so much work. I uh drank some non-alcoholic champagne out of a bidden . I put some cucumbers on my eyes and had a lovely relaxation spa. So this was a part of a video called I Hate These Bikes. So we bought one. So we bought it. Or something like that, yes. You, Francis, you have a very um distinct ability to be able to make r what would be quite rubbish situations look like fun. You're very positive. Oh, it was fun. It was fun. It's a gift. It is a gift. It was fun. Yeah. Oh, we laughed the whole way. Francis was on a beach cruiser. Benny was on a Royal Mail delivery bike that a company they elephant bike. Elephant bike, they get them and they restore them, don't they? And then they they give the money to charity or something. World's heaviest bike. I don't actually know what they do. Okay. But I bought it from Recycle Bike. Yeah. So at least there was some charitable stuff involved in it. This is also why last week uh Francis was complaining that his bum hurt as well. Well, I've always maintained that beach cruisers give you a sore ass So I I tested the theory, I suppose. Jimmy made me test the theory. And the conclusion is they give you a sore bikes, only bad bums. Correct. He did route you to the beach though, to be fair. Well, yeah, but it was 150k away. And we climbed Mont Vontou. Why are you complaining? You already said you had a good time. Yeah. It was fun. I I'll I'll be honest, getting those bikes was a nightmare. It was so much so much work went into the pre production of that video. It is absurd. Like absolutely absurd. The the one so the beach cruiser m so many online 'cause you can't you can't just buy a beach cruiser. So there was lots of second hand in England. Yeah, like in like a new one. Just kind of like there's a beach cruiser, buy it. Yeah. Um so loads of scouring of secondhand stuff. Eventually found one that wasn't too far away. Um, picked it up from a guy in Sunderland , took it to recycle bike thinking that right, okay, this needs a once over, took loads of bits off it, like mud guards and fenders and kickstands, and then put a kickstand back on weirdly. Put some like tassels and things on it. to Had do an emergency run to the other recycle shop in Biker to get the um shifting bit. What's the what is even the shifting thing called on that bike? Well it's a hub gear. It's one of the Shimano ones, isn't it? It's so it's there's basically the grip shift. Yeah. So ba basically there's like a piece of shifter thingy maj iggy that sticks onto the end of the rear axle, which controls the gear the the the shift pull. It's honestly it's such a bonkers system, but it works really well. But ultimately the one that I bought was broken, so I had to go to biker and find a replacement for it. Um the elephant biker is it a Nexus? I think it was a Nexus. Yes, it was a Nexus. And only two of the gears worked. And then the elephant bike was easy because Recycle Bike were already selling it and it was already ready to go. But I did, I gave them a chance. I removed a lot of metal from both of the bikes. So I probably reduced them by about half their weight. But why was the fork covered in tinfoil? I don't know. Ask the guy that sold it to me. I don't want to. Maybe you were scared of aliens. That would protect you. Yeah. Like my hat that I have. I think that is possible to be honest. Um we also went to ride out. Oh that was classman. The most wonderful time of the year. It actually is. I know it's sponsored, but so but can't you can't trust us It's really fun. Um it's one of the few occasions we actually all get to just ride together and enjoy riding bikes. My bum's still hurt from the other ride . I actually think I'm I'm full of be ans because I enjoyed rideout so much. It was good. And it's not because of riding bikes with you guys actually. It's because of riding bikes with loads of people. Well, the audience. You you guys, not you guys . Um, and it was just so nice to chat to people and I like I I'm not a very emotional person. I'm arguably a sociopath, but there was various moments where it was emotional because there's so many people telling me stories about them being at really, really horrible points of their life and actually listening to us just talk absolute junk is is a bit of a release and a bit of relief from the stresses and pressures of life. And I didn't realize that we had that m that effect on that many people. And that makes me incredibly happy and incredibly proud. And I refuse to stop doing it. I've got I just it it shocks me every time that all those people in the that little comment people are real. And they're bigs, normal normal size. They're not just bots. Crazy. Boxes. Boxes. Bots. Bots. B-O-T-S. Bots. I've got one more point. It spawned probably a t-shirt I'm gonna have to make, which is love the wild ones, comma, even Jimmy. There were so many people which shouted that amazing. That's your new name. Yeah. Fortunately it's become a thing. You you you'd like it though, right? It's not bullying. Okay . I have realiz ed though that event like that, everyone looks the same in cycling kit anyway. And then you go to an event where everyone gets the same jersey and it becomes like where's Wally . So I went up to uh a man that I thought was Tom, who is the co- host of a football podcast with Ben Foster, and I sort of jokingly stormed up to him and went, I've got a bone to pick with you. I got served a clip where at the beginning of the season you were saying Sunderland were gonna go down, I want an apology because they end up finishing seventh. They did very well. Uh and this guy just looked blankly back at me and went, I don't have a podcast. Who are you? So uh Who was it? Um I'm not sure. We also bumped into Craig, who is the guy behind the YouTube channel Second Life Bikes at a local bike shop. Yes, and he had a very interesting bike with him, didn't he? Super cool. So th so he's working with Ste yer , which is a East London based steel bike maker, and they've created a cargo bike convers ion kit for retro bikes. And what does that mean? So if you've got like a 90s mountain bike, you can basically buy a thing that attaches to where the fork would be that two Yeah, it's very cool. He also made a video about him making this bike. I'll link it below. He was just a very nice guy as well. He's awesome, man. He's so cool. You meet people from who are into cycling and are so passionate about it and so enthusiastic that that sort of rubs off on you, doesn't it? And and and like, you know, he represents a space in the market that I absolutely love, which is people that just ride bikes because riding bikes is good for you. Whether that be transport, whether that be holiday, whether that be fitness, just all of the good stuff, you know, you wear whatever you want, ride whatever you want, just ride. Um he's classman, I love him. It looks like a purpose built cargo bike, doesn't it? Well it's you wouldn't know. Unless you wait you'd be if it rode if it rode past I did well if someone rode past on it, if it was riding on its own, weird . You'd be like, oh, and car ago bike. Yeah, you would. But it's a big botch job. And with a custom full suspension fork. Well, a custom suspension fork. Really small. Little tiny suspension fork on the little tiny front wheel. Super, super cool. How did you get that photo, Emily? I took it of it and I said, Can I take a p photo of your bike? Oh did you? Yes. Oh right. I didn't be on this show. Spoiler! Because it's weird, because I'm looking at that photo, I'm like, wait there, that's my mental that is my mental memory of that moment. And somehow there's a photo of it. So it I guess it makes sense that you took a photo of it. Right. Before we move on, I actually have some business to attend to. This is a message for anyone who listens to this podcast on Spotify or Apple or basically anywhere else that is not YouTube . From next week, the podcast release time is changing. So currently the YouTube version goes live at 1 p.m. UK time, and that is now going to be the case for all of the platforms. They will all go live at the same time, which is the YouTube time. And I know this is going to disappoint uh particularly some of the Brits who wake up on a Thursday morning and like to listen to it on their morning commute. But uh I am sad ly it it's just something that needs to happen because Francis moved away, and that means that we had to uh I lost kind of half a day between recording and publishing time. Then Spotify has recently introduced video, which has created a lot more work for me to do on that upload. So I'm basically spending like 12 to 14 hours every Wednesday doing all of the work and it's just not practical or sustainable. My back hurts a bit and my brain is gone before the work is done. So I just I just need to create a little bit more time for myself. Please, please. Please understand. This is I'm I'm disappointed for our audience, Emily. I try to keep it going for so long. Francis moved and I was like, I can do this, and then Spotify introduced the video and I was like, I can't do this anymore. Emily, your mental and physical health is more important than that upload time. Yes. So it's like six hours different. People would just wake up in the morning and listen to it the next day. Yes, exactly. It's six hours different. It'll be out at lunchtime. You can listen to it on your lunch break or that evening or the next day. It'll be okay. You'll make it through. So yes. To reiterate all podcasts audio or vid video will now go live at one pm GMT Thursdays. Yeah currently BST I believe because we're on British summer time. B ButS yTes,. that's why I say UK time. It's just like you'll you'll figure it out. It'll be fine. Still manage to knack it up. Okay. News time. Okay, what is going on at the women's zero? SD works rider, Lorena Vieber's the best sprinter in the Pelot on and favourite to win the points jersey, got kicked out of the race after winning stage one. Because her bike, Atarmak SL eight, was twenty grams below the UCI's six point eight kilogram lower weight limit.enty Tw grams. As you'd expect, her team are fuming. They claim the judges weighed Lorena's bike twice after the stage and there was a 50 gram difference between the first and second weighing. They must be using the same scales that we use . When the team weighed the bike indoors without wind, it was above without wind. Six point eight three kilograms. It was also a bike she's ridden multiple times this season, apparently always set up the same way . And every time it's been measured before in those races, it's been well above the threshold, according to the team. They say the decision is incredibly severe and are contesting it, but it's a bit late because the race has already rolled on without her. Oh, what a loss. Like that's that it's huge. I mean, she is she is a massive hitter. She's in both of our fantasy leagues, and that's gone to most importantly that's not now and all where she's gonna be in Lords because it's just like she's so dominant in the in the sprint field . It I've put in the team's version of the story. We haven't heard uh I haven't seen any sort of UCI official statement other than them's the rules you broke them kind of thing and then that's all they're saying. They must be pretty confident to make such a race alter ing decision. The thing is though, this has become so massive now. I've seen it in the cycling press, I've seen it seen it in the mainstream press. It would be great to see a statement from the UCI , maybe even some additional evidence to support the decision. I mean, they might argue we don't need to provide that, you know , rules as rules and it's not a public thing, but I don't know, maybe from a maybe even from a good PR perspective on their side, just show your workings out a little bit. Some of the biggest races in the year. Like you the we should start weighing bikes and taking an average, we did weighing them five times and taking an average. Because it really does vary massively with the scales that we have, which are like the park tall ones. I wonder what scales they were using. I mean you would imagine at a minimum they would be calibrated and they would have calibration certificates and all of that kind of stuff. Yeah. Well that hopefully they're using something better than the consumer ones. You would assume so. You know what they should actually have is just like a six point eight kilogram dummy weight just there available that they can show their scales is calibrated to and if teams want to test the bikes or contest anything they get to test on their scales and calibrate it to the weight, like have this like publicly available for anyone to use and and and check against. They commonly use the Kern CH15K20 digital hanging scale similar to fishing or luggage scales that is a sixty quid scale you can buy on Amazon. How how confident are you that's their scale? Cycling news has reported. Okay. Okay . I saw stuff online saying that she was using a one by setup, whereas sometimes she races two by and you know, like the idea of like less chain rings is less weight, but all I can see from the team statements is them saying that sh it's it's the same setup that she has raced in race as before and it's been weighed and it's not been a problem. So because the weight is so marginal to boot her out of the race is absolutely shameful. But boot her down to last place for that stage and go, look, you're underweight, don't let it happen again. So she's gained nothing from her position in that apart from she's lost energy and it hasn't then destroyed the competition for the rest of the race. It's interesting, isn't it? Yeah, if if we if we say that yes, it was six point seven eight kilos and and there isn't a w a discrepancy with the scales, the the debate has been whether it is a proportional pun ishment to disqualify her. It was a flat stage. She came first . Was she gaining that much of an advantage? Who knows? I did some digging on whether this has happened before and what the punishment has been. And actually there's there's few documented cases. Fabiana Luper ini, she was disqualified from stage six of the twenty thirteen Giro because her bike was below the minimum weight. Neave Bradbury, it also happened to her at the New Zealand national champs in 2019. So it's not only a very rare technical penalty to happen in pro cycling, it's a very it's one of the harshest documented sanctions as well to a to a very high profile athlete. And m you know, maybe that doesn't matter. We need to treat all people the same. Otherwise you end up getting, you know, people let let off and leniencies for to protect the image of the sport. But um it's surprising. It's very surprising. I I feel like if they weighed it and they're like, mate, your bike's six kilos, you're eight hundred grams under, that is out of order, you're out. But twenty grams. So bike radar have also reported that the Kern CH is the uh Kern C H one five K two zero is the weighing scale that the UCI have approved to use for weighing bikes. Right. And the do you want some performance stats of the Kern C H? Go for it . It's plus or minus 40 grams linearity and repeatability of 20 grams. Yes, accuracy tolerance is plus or minus 40 grams. And it has a 10 minutes, it has a warm-up time of 10 minutes for at maximum accuracy. How weird is that? I guess it's maybe if you're changing going into a different environment with different temperature. Should we commit to buying some and even testing it out just for this podcast. Yeah. Uh how much do they cost for well stop how much they cost first? Can we splurge that amount for the interest of science? Oh, sorry. Yes, absolutely. I 100% think that that is a good use of money and I will thoroughly enjoy um showing how inaccurate those scales are. I would like to double I would like to doubly doubly doubly check that the these are still the scales they're using though. Because obviously that was twenty twenty five. We don't know if what if they changed them last week. We will have a look into that. We will not thoroughly enjoy disproving it. What we will do is go in as objective as possible and test our findings. I will thoroughly enjoy testing our findings. Yes. Correct. Measuring it accurately as possible. Classic science coming up. Also a friend of the channel, bite mechanic Nick, c laims to have found the solution to her problems. He sent me a post from Facebook, a very tongue-in-cheek one, that jokes that if she had only been using valve caps, she would have been safe because apparently, according to this person on Facebook, two val caps is twenty grams. It's not, is it? I don't know. I said to him, Is two val caps twenty grams? And he said, Um, don't let facts get in the way of a good story. That is a very Nick Fiery thing to say. Take of that what you will . Anyway, while we're on the topic of Giro 's, we're gonna give a quick shout out to the winner of the Cade Giro Fantasy League for the men's competition. The winner was Sir Volaz the Third. Well done, Sir Volaz. Well done. He had lots of good people in his team. Maybe one of the shrewdest signings was Afonso Ulalio , who uh he's a he's a young, low-rated rider on Velo Games as uh fantasy league, and very much one of the breakout stars of the of the tour this year. It cost six percent of the fantasy league budget but brought in thirteen percent of the points. Thirteen percent of his winning points. Yes. Afonso is only 24. It's his second Giro . He was meant to be a support rider for Santiago Bitrago, but Petrago went out on a crash on stage two, so the team was kind of given a little bit of free rein. And as a result, Alfonso ended up spending a week in the pink jersey. He came sixth overall in the GC and he took the best young riders jersey. Incredible result there, isn't it? Really, really good. Well done. Well done Alfonso and well done Cervol as. Yes. And well done to uh the rest of the podium, second and third also. Oh yeah. Do you want us should we Oh, who came second? Oh look. Emily Zero team, whoever that is. I don't know how y I actually don't know how you pulled that off. That is class. Thanks. So for clarity, if that wasn't clear, the top three in the Cade League, which which has what, how many do we say, like 90 odd people in it or something? Around 100 people. There's about 100 people in it. Emily came second, and then third was Keto and Enjoyer. Thank you for not saying what I came. I'm assuming it wasn't very good. No, it was alright. Average. Middle of the road. Yep. This episode is sponsored by Saley , the easy eSIM app with affordable data plans for travelling abroad. Having phone signal when you land can genuinely save you a lot of stress. I learned this the hard way in India when I landed with no signal, couldn't get directions to my hotel and ended up in a scam taxi. What was the scam? A guy approached us in the airport, gave us a good price for getting to our hostel. He then drove us a long time into the city. We have no idea where we are because we don't have any phone signal. He then ends up at a road where there's a protest going on, and shouts at a guy out the window going, What's going on? Can we get down this road? The guy tells him something in a language, I do not speak. He then says to us , There is no way to get down this road, there's no routes around, the protest is stopping everything. We'll have to take you to the travel centre. We arrive at what looks like a legitimate travel centre. We enter, the guy takes the phone number of our hostel to ring them, boop, boop, boop, boop, puts it in the phone, hands me the phone. I then speak to the hostel who say basically no one can get to the hostel. We're cancelling all the bookings. Do you want to cancel? I say, Yeah, we'll just have to find another hotel, which the travel place then sought for us. Oh, convenient. How convenient. We end up in a weird, weird hotel in the middle of a bad part of town. Uh as as we're handing the passports over, I'm like, that this is wrong. And we managed to connect to their Wi-Fi and escape. I don't know what would have happened after that, but we were in it w it wasn't good. Alarm bells were ringing. They're purposely diverting you to a different place saying your hotel is booked so that they can book you into somewhere else and take more money off you. If I'd had data, all of that would have been avoided. So Salie gives you a local data plan straight to your phone so you can avoid all of those crazy roaming fees that you get. And because it's an app, there's no faffin round swapping physical SIM cards. You can set everything up before your trip and then you have your maps, you have your messages as soon as you land, so you can check in with family and friends. So Francis, you are currently visiting us in the United Kingdom from America and you are using Sal ie because your American sim somehow doesn't have data in UK, which is weird. But there we go. How are you getting on with it? Really good . I've used a lot of eSIMs in the past when I'm traveling in other places, like when you're in Asia, South Africa, and you don't have your data. And the Saley setup has been the easiest I've ever used. You just download the app, buy a plan, install the eSIM on The connection was solid, it was surprisingly affordable, and you only pay for what you need. You do really small plans. It covers over 200 destinations and you can even earn credit back on plans that you buy. To get started, download the SAI app and use code Wild Ones at checkout for 15% off your first purchase. That's Wild ones.. All one word We'll pop a link in the description too. Cheers . Let the distractions fade in the rearview mirror . And live life in the black lane . Find your focus to and from the airport. The hum of inspiration. The hush of everything else . Blacklane, the global chauffeur Sericev. In London and over 500 other cities. Book now at Blacklane.com or download the app. Okay, can we talk about Unbound and how absolutely Again I think I I last time I rode it it was basically like this where the mud is so thick, it's like clay. So it doesn't just build up on your bike, but it just stays, and you cannot like you they give you give you they give you little scrapers to scrape the mud off uh in your starter pack. And even then it's hard to get the mud off. So your bike completely seizes up. There'll be the people there with full suspension mountain bikes and stuff with loads of clearance, fat bikes getting completely gummed up, and then you just have to hike. Yep. Uh so some people just do loads and loads of hiking. Didn't Maddie Nutt say in her she came second in British rider. Came second in the XL. Yes. Had to do five hours of walking. Oh . She was like the other competitors could like carry their bikes, she couldn't lift it up, so she's just like struggling with it. Still gave seconds. There were at least a lot of swimming pools along the route for people to wash off in. And by that I mean just massive puddles. I saw footage on their Instagram channel just of people trying to go full steam through this puddles and just absolutely decking it. But coming out much cleaner on the other side. So every cloud and all that. I it as long as it's not cold, I do quite like biblical weather. Like when you're out riding and it's absolutely hooning it down, it is kind of fun. Yeah, if you're not shivering. Yeah. If it's just like once you are fully soaked, yeah. I'm into this. Yeah. Even the unbound was good. The walking was was that as well. When we got we were like ten minutes into the walking, we were like, you know what? This is actually kind of cool and weird. It's like, why is everyone walking? You look back and it's like thousands of people with your footage from that event is amazing. The shots of everyone walking. I'll put I'll add a link if people want to watch it. Again, this is a demonstration of Francis's gift to find the joy in everything. Everything. Yeah. Yeah, well I but maybe I would have been upset if I'd have paid to go to the event. Which I didn't. And then just destroyed my bike. And it was never the s it's still not the same. It's never been the same since that day. I should probably say for those who don't know, Unbound is a gravel race that takes place in Texas. It's Kansas. Did I what did I say? Texas. Oh same, same. No, it I'm joking. No , I don't know. It's pretty big on the gravel scene, which is the the gravel racing scene is just expanding and therefore all of the events that so uh are associated to it. I saw that Roman Bardet was participating this year. Is it the real world champs? 'Cause the gravel world champs, the gravel racers don't consider to be the real world champs. They're just like this. Basically Strada Bianca. Maybe. Yeah. Unfortunately Bardet did not finish. I think he got uh just caught up in mud or something like that. Um the organizers have started doing quite an impressive live stream now, right? On YouTube. Yeah, I stumbled on that and it was very high quality and there were two feeds and you could see everything that was going on and it was on YouTube and free. How bike racing should be. Yeah. Well done. You did exactly the minimum. No, no, they did really well. But why isn't all bike racing like that? Well I think what as a result of that we will see it cut to continue to grow in popularity. It's only a good thing. Yeah. And uh lastly, I'm gonna mention a very sad story that a lot of you wrote to us about this week. There was a very tragic event that happened in New York. It was a head on collision between a cyclist and a high powered e-scooter, which were both riding on a bike path that was going over a bridge in New York City. Tragically, both of them died. It's not clear how fast either of them are going. Actually, there's there's very little detail, but according to ABC News, the e-scooter was illegal because it was capable of reaching speeds of uh more than 50 miles an hour. I saw some footage of the bike. It was a factor and it was hard viewing. It was literally smashed into lots of pieces . Really, really tough viewing. And I think it's probably shaken a lot of people. It's interesting, isn't it? Um, we obviously don't know what the situation was or who was to blame. It it made me think back though to when we were in New York and on that trip we had a lot of messages from people saying, What do you think about the the amount of illegal e-bikes that are around that are going really high speeds in the in the bike paths. It seems to be all cities, big cities, doesn't it? Like even London, there's illegal bikes absolutely everywhere. Um I I do distinctly remember we were riding back from Central Park and we went over Brooklyn Bridge to Brooklyn and there's that cycle path down the middle which we were on and then a scooter, not like a stand-on scooter, a sit on scooter that actually looks like a motorbike, but an electric one just was absolutely hammering it towards us on the wrong way down a cycle path. And I'm not at all suggesting that's what happened here. Um, but there are obviously well , it's the same with anything. There's a small proportion of people which make things unpleasant for everyone else. Yeah. I I do I do wonder and I do suspect that there will probably be some crackdown uh as a result of this case because I think it's it's got a lot of attention and I think it's that genuinely shocked and upset a lot of people. So I think I'm optimistic that there will be some positive change as a result of what is essentially a a very unnecessary tragedy. Well, hopefully any changes doesn't make it harder for e bikes to exist. Yeah. Because them as as a thing are incredibly enabling for people. Agreed. In terms of transport. Well, uh on a lighter note, shall we do some fluff up of the week? I feel like I've had a a nightmare the last couple of weeks. Everything's been going wrong. I've been spilling glasses. How many times have I spilt a drink over the last glasses? Yeah, everything everything's breaking. around you Yeah, it is, isn't it? Yeah. I broke your kettle. Breaking you guys down. You broke my kettle. Oh, I fixed it down. Yeah, yeah. So the fluff up of note was I had a busy day. Morning in the studio, afternoon filming some bikes for a video which hasn't yet gone out . Thought all my stuff was at the studio, came in, did the things I needed to do, loaded up the car, realized that my cycling shoes were not at the studio, so I had to get them from home. So then I missioned from the studio back to my house to pick up the shoes, met Benny at the shoot location, started kitting up, reedalis I'd still managed to go to my house to pick up things and forgot my shoes. And I think it was because one of you were there and we started talking about other work stuff, and then I then work distracted me from work. So then I had to then go back from the shoot location, back to the house to pick up the shoes again and by by the time I finished I think I got home at about eight o'clock at night. Yeah, you were out late. But and it was still broad daylight because we're in the north east. And yes, daylight at the minute until about ten something. It's very weird. So yeah, that was fluff up. Long day. No shoes. Okay, we're gonna do some unpopular opinions next. But before we do, friend of the channel, mechanic Nick will be with Jimmy and I on the next sho w. I know we had some questions for him the last time he was on, so I'm gonna look back through some of those and we're gonna try and get through some more of those. But if you have any new questions for him or concerns or dilemmas or beef you wanna get out the way with them, you can email us on Wild Onespodcast at cademedia.co.uk or WhatsApp us on plus four four seven eight six oh eight six oh two one three and we will answer Now here's an unpopular opinion from Douglas in Scotland. Hi guys, um please excuse my appearance. I'm currently bike packing on the west coast of Scotland. My unpopular opinion is that sleeping on the ground is vastly overrated and I think that what all bikepackers should do, instead of having a sad one man tent or a bivvy, is get them selves a hammock because you can just sit here and swing and watch the wildlife and you've got like a clothes line that you can um hang your your hang your clothes on Very, very comfortable. The only downside is that if you're in a place with beavers like this this lock that I'm looking out on now, um there's a slight risk that um there's a a sharp drop in the middle of the night which is I'm I'm anticipating it will be a little bit anxiety inducing, especially if I hear a crunching. I am in levels of comfort that I promise you it is not possible to be when you're on the ground. Douglas later confirmed though he was not chopped down in the night by beavers and he also sent this message. Love the show and I'm particularly grateful for Mr. D motivator Jimmy. I've been watching the channel for years and the podcast since the start, and I've changed from being a student with all the time in the world to ride to being a proper adult with a full-time job. So sad. The show has helped me not feel guilty that in the last few years I've logged far less kilometres. So thank you for that, Douglas. XO. Is that the gossip girl thing? X O. Yeah. Yeah, maybe he's Gossip Girl. Um I I did want to say though that, is also feedback that we got a lot at Rideout. Definitely people came up to me and said how amazing you were, Jimmy. And even Jimmy. Lots of people shouted out, love the channel, Eve and Jimmy, but I think they actually mean it. And one very, very nice man came up and said to Jimmy, I just want to let you know that for every one mean comment on that of for Jimmy on that mean comments video, there are 10 people that really love what you do. It's not really that many still. Oh. Well I thought that was very nice and compassionate and then he just left. He did, yeah. How rude of him to just walk away. But I thought Jimmy, you deserved some flowers this week because sometimes you get a hard time. It's all right. I uh I'm I'm fully prepared for it. Okay, fine. Anyway, enough Enough of that compassion. Let's get back to hammocks. So camp ing for a start is without a doubt the most overrated thing in history. I have always wanted a hammock. However, I want it in my garden so that I can just relax. Glass of wine, nice book on a quiet afternoon, just swinging away, not being disturbed. When we rode across the USA , obviously we were staying in motels because all out all being outdoors after you've been outdoors all day is overrated. Sorry, everybody. Horrible. Do I want to hear that wild No, I want to see wildlife. I want to be tucked up in a Premier Inn with Lenny Henry. You know, a picture of him on a little card on the end of the room . There was a motel we stayed at where the Google reviews, the man was like, One star , I'm scared to sleep in the bed, so I put my hammock up and there's a photo there of a hammock up in the room because it was safer than touching any of the surfaces. Because there's like blood and different uh different stains of different liquids uh in some of the motels. What's that? There was a sign. Um it was quite a funny sign at reception. Did you see it? No. It's the opposite of every COVID sign I've ever seen. There's just little bits of blood all over the toilet, all over the bath, like your towel and skin marks on it. Apparently not from you. But that was about the point where we were only a few days in and it was like, okay, now we're good only gonna choose premier well, holiday in or above. That was the base, no no cheaper, which is why we ended up spending twenty-five thousand pounds. You should look at the reviews now that for that hotel that you stayed with where Justin inadvertently brought in a load of locusts on his hands. Oh, and see if there people . So there was a day when Justin, who uses a handbike and a wheelchair, he did not realize that his legs were covered in locusts until they were inside the hotel room I was taking my clothes off and then I just suddenly saw stuff moving around and I was like, what the f<unk> that? And then my trousers were just filled with loc us . That f definitely alive. Well yeah. Oh there's another one over here. Do you reckon they've been on me since the motel? It was the first day where nothing weird had happened. And we were got to the end and we were literally filming a scene like, oh, isn't so weird? Like weird stuff has happened every day. Crazy stuff. We finally had a completely calm day and then Justin's like Can you do it in Justin's voice though? I can't do it. It sounds more biblical then, doesn't it? No. What's that? What's that? Terrible. What's that? Anyway. I like the idea of a hammock, but I don't know whether it would be horrible in practice. I've seen it. I've seen the the the out like people get spun around. You get stuck forever. They don't I so I've tried bikepacking, like proper bikepacking loads of times. All of them with Emily. Well actually no, one with Francis as well. And I've tried so many things to make it enjoyable and it never is. No. I maybe I need to that's it. A hammock. That'll solve it. All of a sudden. It won't. A motel will. I'm giving you the solution. And we have tried it. And guess what? That's the solution. I do love the romance of sleeping outdoors, but it's someone else's idea of fun. And sometimes you have to accept that your idea of fun is not someone else's idea of fun and that's fine. But I I think it's actually like it's Instagram fun fun, isn't it? You see it and you go, that should be amazing. Like the amount of cars I see driving around with tent boxes on on their roofs, how many of them actually use them after the first time and go, wow, this is actually a really bad idea. What a waste of a couple of grand and I get five miles to the gallon because I've got this big box on the my on my roof. Like no one's getting getting more than a couple of uses out of them apart from the very few anomalies. Francis is right . But enjoy your trip. Got an unpopular opinion? Send it to Wild One Pod'scast at CADMedia.co. uk or WhatsApp us on plus four four seven eight six oh eight six oh two one three. You can also send us your questions, your comments, your dilemmas, your credit card details to listen ers takeover, which is the next section. Did you just say credit card details? No. We are talking cycling themed movies again. Carl sent us this while out on a birthday ride in Rotterdam, Netherlands. Play video. Hello, wild ones . Regarding cycling movies . I don't ever ever see or hear any mention of the absolute 80s classic American Flyers starring Kevin Costner. I think this should be a prerequisite for anybody cycling. I've only really been cycling for about eight months now and I saw that movie I don't know back when I was 12, 15, I don't know, but an absolute banger. Love you guys. Even Jimmy. Do it. There it is. I haven't seen American Flyers. I've I've only ever seen one clip of it do the rounds on social at various like every couple of years, and it's Kevin Costner and whoever the other person is in it, basically racing each other with then this massive pit bull or something or other coming out of a garden and chasing after them. And they're just like, ah , so much fun. Like, no, it's a pit bull, it's gonna catch you, it's gonna eat you. My experience of American cycling as well. We called it Dogland. Dogland. Yeah. So we avoided going through Dogland and went on the freeway instead because it was safer. Ah right. Texas is full of dogland. Specifically Texas, because they have a rule where you don't have to tie up your dog. So odd. Yeah, one time we got chased by not a pit bull, but a very sweet little what's the dog with like a squished up face ? Pug? Maybe a pug, yeah. Maybe a French bull French. French bulldog. Maybe the more French Bulldog, but really small. And he started chasing us and he chased us for too long. I don't know if he ever got home. But it wasn't half what could we do? But he was still angry, so it was a bit scary to start with. Then we're like, oh hang on, he's just kind of like he doesn't pose a threat, but now we've come too far. What are we gonna do? Like ride, pick him up? Nah. He'll get home. They'll like smell a vision, don't they, or something. Have you never seen the film Homeward Bound? Nope. Didn't get home from Really Far Away. That's what I learned. Oh I think it's a documentary. This whole section feels like a fever dream. What is going on? American Flyers. We were going to watch it last night after we watched Carl's video and then um we j we just forgot. I went for a curry. Sorry guys. I thought you guys were gonna watch it and just you could have given me this the summary. I I I am gonna watch it though. I think we'll I'll watch it o between now and the next pod for sure. Francis, you had some other films, very good bike films. Yeah, there's a couple. Uh one which always reminds me of my dad, who's like, Oh yeah, watch this, watch it. And it was it is a funny film, but it's quite dated. 95% Rotten Tomatoes. Ooh. Breaking a way. And it's a story of a young boy who lives in small town America and then gets into cycling a lot and starts like speaking in an Italian accent. And goes, you know, where's a cycling? Yeah, yeah. He's like shaving his legs and his dad's like, what are you doing? His mate's wondering what he's doing. Speaking of the thing. Yeah, yeah. It's good. Uh the other one, very different. Uh I think it's a French film. Belleville Rendezvous, otherwise known as Le Triplets de Belleville. So Belleville Triplets. Um also extremely good and really cool visual style. You don't need to know anything about cycling to enjoy either of these films, but you probably do because you're listening to a cycling podcast. I've seen that one and it's absolutely crazy. Incredible, right? So good. Like really, really amazing. Oh no, Emily won't like it. It's got it's like a guy training for the it escalates, doesn't it? But the start he's training for to be a pro. And his his m grandma or someone like trains him and he's riding up a steep hill and she's just on a bike as well, like whipped like whipping him or something. It's like shouting at him. Well I would invite our audience if you want to leave in the comments your favourite cycling or mildly bike-based films, you can. We actually had one from listener Josh, who said speaking of whiplash and Miles Teller , who we were talking about last week, he is set to star as legendary Italian cyclist and World War II hero Gino Bartalli. Bartalli is a Giro and Tour de France winner who, during World War II, us heed his cyc ling career as a cover to aid in the rescue of Jews and cycled far distances to deliver false identity cards and secret documents. Very cool. What a legend. I also have a bit of information. So listener Keith gave us an in-person takeover whilst we were at Rideout, and he says, and I thought it was very good, on the topic of Einstein's saddle, which was up for auction, we discussed it, he said, if you sit on it , does that make you a smart ass ? Very good. Proper dad joke, that isn't it's good one though. But I did enjoy it. Yes, me too. I still do. Finally, Andy in BC calendar says I'm currently reading the midlife cyclist. said You calendar . Calendar. Calendar . And finally, Andy in BC Canada says, I'm currently reading The Midlife Cyclist by Phil Cavell. And there's a section where he says that clipless ped als are only really meant to keep your feet in the correct position on the pedals, not for pulling up on the upstroke. His argument is that we don't have the muscle groups to generate meaningful power by pulling up, and that all of our focus should be on pushing down through the pedals. I've always ridden with the mindset of both pushing down and pulling up through the pedal stroke, so I'm curious to hear your thoughts on this. Has the thinking around pedal technique changed or is there still a benefit to consciously pulling up? On a lighter note, I had a special visitor while riding Zwift this week and watching your podcast, and he sent us a video of him looking at a massive bear in his garden. Can I touch that dog? Um Oh, look at it. It actually looks very sweet. Oh what? He's literally just lounging in his garden, scratching his bum. I do have to say though, as a Brit, from a country with no significant large predators, North Americans are just built differently, I think. Like my uncle emigrated to Canada and when we saw him, he told us to come and visit him, bring our bikes, and he said, uh, and I said, What doesn't isn't there bears and stuff? He said, No, no, no, it's fine. I will drive behind you in the car with my bear spray. Yeah. And I went, No, thank you. Bears aren't dangerous. Is that true? Yeah, the ears. If if an animal has cute little fluffy ears, then they're not dangerous. Yeah, yeah. Right, okay, to his point. I'll be honest. I've never really thought about pulling up on the pedals. Is that true? I thought you told me that that y that's what you do. You think about making circles or like pulling up to the bars. Yeah, that's different though. My my my old coach, triathlon coach, used to say, think about putting your knee into the handlebar. But as a result of that, are you not pulling up? I don't know. I just put my knee into the handlebar, but you can't. I've been still been trying to do it for the last ten years. I've never been able to do it . If I wasn't in, I'd be able to do do the instructions and knee the handlebar. I remember there was a study when we were racing and that's the conclusion was something along the lines of there's no benefit to putting up on the pedals. It was like American track team or something they did a study on. Uh from what I understand it's you shouldn't worry about it. The general consensus is along the lines of Phil Cavell, who who wrote this book. I asked James Jobber, who is a coach and an active elite racer? No, one up. Technically I don't UK elite license. You have to do a lot of UK races to have that or you get given one. But he's uh Conti. Continent continental level. Okay. He's actively racing a uh uh UCI level. Yes. And he he said yeah, it the the consensus is that, you know, uh it's not going to m magically transform your efficiency if you really focus on pulling up. He but he also said, I wouldn't say all of your focus on one aspect of the pedal stroke is good advice either, as in always just pushing down. He said, There's an art to pedaling and it comes from trial and error really. I think yeah I I I massively agree with that. Because I do think I my pedal stroke will uh will change depending on what I'm doing and how I'm feeling and there will be times probably when I'm climbing out the saddle, most of all, that I pull up a bit more just to kind of adjust how my legs are being used and feel. But I think the reality is for me in all of this: there's no rules, just rides. Just don't even stop, don't overthink it. Just just ride your bike. You can use flats if you want, and you'll still have a great time. There was a guy I used to support Chris Hall when he used to do the national twenty-four-hour time trial, and there was a guy there every single year that would often podium and he would just be wearing flats and and shoes. Mm-hmm. Like if he can do a twenty-four hour time trial and hit over five hundred kilometers in twenty four hours without clipless, you don't need to worry about your pedal efficiency. So what would you say to people who are now listening to this going, okay, so they're admitting that you don't really need to pull up, do what you want, you can podium with it. Why why are we all still riding clipless? Everyone puts their feet in the wrong place. It stops you from putting your feet in the wrong place. Or it makes you put your foot in the wrong place. Based on most people's bike fits . Because that's what bec it is presented to us as being acceptable. We don't need Clipless. For me, I always feel like I'm gonna slip off the flat pedals with slippy shoes. Maybe maybe I'm just wearing the wrong shoes. Mm-hmm. I've already got some some clippy in shoes. So It's funny when you're tuned into it, how you can't go the other way.. It is Even mount I thought um I did rented a mountain bike in uh somewhere, Verbier , I think. And the bike came with flat pedals and I ended up having to change them. I was like, I cannot ride this. Like I thought it would be easier because you'd feel more in control because you can take your foot off when you want. You don't have to unclip it, twist it. And it was the opposite effect. I definitely find my foot comes off a flat pedal now as well. So I there must be something in my stroke where where I do start to pull off or or maybe even just like release pressure on the downstroke at one point. And it it it I always get, oh it's not my foot's not connected to the pedal anymore. So you just become used to the system that you use. I don't know what I would do now as a new cyclist. Um, but we're locked in now. It's too late. We're past the point of no return. Well, uh yeah, yeah. I think it it all comes down to the type of riding you're doing. Is if w if I'm if it's going to be hilly, I'm going to ride clipless because I'm locked into that system and I feel really efficient riding clipless on Hilly stuff. Same if the terrain is something which means that I might get thrown around a little bit. I want to be glued into the bike. However, I commuted in London for the best part of a decade with flats and I had no issues with it and I thoroughly enjoyed it and it was just made it easier to just throw stuff around and pop into the shops and not be clipping around, clippy cloppy on on on your feet. Um it's the riding I do. I enjoy riding clipless. I don't need to, but you know, there's lots of people doing the exact same riding that I do up in the northeast, and they will just have trainers on. You don't need it. Don't overthink it. Do whatever you want to do. What was it like riding clipless on the beach cruiser, Francis. It made it doable. Did it? If I wrote right, I think if I'd ridden flats, that would have been an even worse day. For what reason? Locked in. It's that that's You can get out of the saddle and m move around the way you want to and manipulate the bike the way you want to. And the shoes fit me. Which is not the case for everybody. But the shoes fit me. And it's a nice stiff platform . Lots of different things. And I'm used to it. I I fe I feel like a large proportion of why we still ride us three all still ride clipless is you have that you feel really locked into the bike. And that actually gives us a sense of uh control . Yeah. I feel out of control when I ride your pedals which are not done up enough. Because pulling my foot out is a real possibility. And that screws me up. So I need my head all cranked up. I'm used I'm used to I did a few years of bike racing and then you're you're in, that's it. You can't change. But then but then I can train yourself to out of it. But but but well I think I think it's just um uh preference, yeah. So like SPDs because it's a mountain bike cleat, so your racing was like road racing, whereas at that point my bike racing was either time trial, in which case I'd be in a shoe which I didn't need to ever get out of, or cyclocross. And if you race across, you do everything to make sure you can get out because you are definitely going to be falling about 50 times. So you need to make sure that you can just like poof and you're out easy. Um but again that that's all part of the preference thing, isn't it? But yeah, don't don't worry about your pedal stroke, just ride your bike, enjoy it. Would you like to hear um the internet's summary of this debate. Oh yeah. The consensus hasn't become pulling up is impossible. It's become pulling up is usually inefficient. Most riders gain more by improving the downstroke and reducing dead weight on the upstroke than by trying to generate meaningful power with the lifting leg. I definitely in some situations where I'm like doing an effort or on someone in a in a pace line I'll start like relieving some muscles by doing a little bit of like f pushing all the way around, but ninety-nine percent of my riding I'm just stomping. Stomp. Definitely. Yeah. Maybe not stomping. Downstroke only. See th this is the thing. I think if you actually did a bike ride where you consciously thought about how you were pedaling, I think you'd be amazed how much you dip in and out of a like I think it is what Well probably the same way as we we we sit here, how many times do you move your legs and do th your body just does it? Yeah. And like I get out of the saddle without going, I am now getting out of the saddle. Like you just do. Mm-hmm. Because you get a little bit uncomfortable or you want to relieve a s a muscle. When you when you get out of the saddle, do you do a slight push through the pedal as well to get out of the saddle? Yeah. Which then means that your bike doesn't drop backwards. So then you're not gonna catch a wheel behind you and that stuff. Oh yes. Lovely. Okay. Would you like to round us off, Jimmy? Yeah. We're done. We're done. What? Wicked. Well done, guys. Well, I guess that's all for this week. Thank you very much for listening. We're gonna send Francis home now. Yeah, Francis is going home. Nick's here next week. Oh, I'm actually going to Portugal for a wedding.. Lovely Four days of wedding. Have fun. Enjoy. Be good . Goodbye. Yeah, but say it happy. Have fun, enjoy, be good, goodbye. Does that like a we the a weird jing le. Right, yeah. Goodbye. See you there . Say bye Francis. Oh bye, Francis . If you'd like to support our work, check out the merch store below this video or at weARheTwild ones.com . We got mugs, we got hats, we got shirts, we got backwards hats. We've overhauled the store, added loads of new products and made it very easy to shop whether you're in the US, UK or Europe. Thanks so much for supporting us. This episode is brought to you by Sum Up. Now, if you're self-employed or a sole trader and, like me, the whole making tax digital thing melts your brain, then fear not. Sum up can help. Yes, Francis. You're not exactly known for your paperwork skills, are you? I th I think that is pretty generous. I've seen his spreadsheets. I'd say they are more like abstract art. That's why I have you, Jimmy. My finance yoda . But not everyone has a Jimmy. And that's where Sumup comes in. They've built a great free piece of software to help sole traders get ready for making tax digital. It's all built into the Sumup app. There's no monthly fees and it helps you stay on top of things without the stress. So you can spend less time panicking about taxes and more time doing what you're actually good at. Getting started is easy, just search Sum UpMTD online . That's sum up MTD Trust me. If I can get my head around it, you'll be absolutely fine. Do you belong here? 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