Postcards and closing thoughts

Dentist in Dulledge, GP in Greenwich, consultant in Canada Water. Does your healthcare fill a bit all over the place? Booper Healthcare Canary Wharf is your brand new all-in-one health centre with dentists, GPs, and consultants all under the You'll leave with answers, not more questions. You don't have to be a BOOPA member either. You can self-pay, use another insurer or your employee benefits scheme. Keep your health together, search Booper Healthcare Canary Wharf. We all have busy lives, and knowing when to train and to rest is what leads to better quality, more consistent riding. I ain't got no time for burnout, guys. I'm busy. Data helps take the guesswork out of training, which is why today's episode is supported by Garmin, who are legends when it comes to data. Pairing a Garmin Edge head unit with a rally power meter gives you metrics like power, cadence, and left-right balance. And with heart rate data from your watch or heart rate monitor, you can calculate your recovery and train in readiness. That means smarter sessions and fewer blow-ups halfway through the climb. Thanks to Garmin for supporting the show from varia radar taillights and camera headlights to edge bike computers, tax trainers, rally power meter pedals, Garmin cover performance and safety from every angle. One other piece of news, Garmin Rideout is back, and we're all gonna be there. Yep. Yeah. We had a lot of fun last year. I'm looking forward to it. Reunited again. It's a lovely 80K ride around the new forest, which is in southern England. It's an aid of action medical research, and the route is fantastic. There's also an event village with talks from people. It's a great day out. So maybe see you there. 30th of May. So we'll put a link in the description if you want to sign up. And if you are there, make sure you say hello. It's the Wild Ones, it's the Wild Ones. I had to go scrambling down a cliff yesterday. Why? Like you know, I got the a new drone, but it's like a teeny tiny little one and it tracks you and I have had it three weeks and I I've crashed it or it's crashed itself ten times probably. It's not a good track record is it? It's not going well. But because it's so tiny and small, it crashes and it's sort of fine. Unless it goes down a cliff, in which case I have to go and retrieve it. It was quite far down. It was it was worrying. It's kind of like part of being a drony person, isn't it? Is that you're gonna crash them and then you're gonna have to climb down a cliff. The tracking's getting quite good, but until you like you're riding a bike and you change direction . And then it's doesn't track. No, but it's like a big like a hairpin. It was a full change of direction, then it really is like, what are you what are you doing, man? And it just goes like fast and smashes into a bush and then catapults everywhere. Um I did it on a closed road, closed road, safe place, zero people, always. And it's light enough that you're allowed to fly it. Uh here's a question. If it was zero people, what are you? A cyclist. They don't count as people, that's why people run us over, isn't it? It's good. It's good that I rate that. We're seen as we're seen as subhuman . Very good. Very good. Really get into the hard hitting issues on this podcast, aren't we? Yeah, yeah. Straight in bang. Well uh g thanks for that story. I think that's our fluff up of the week covered already. Oh good. Yeah, thanks. My lifestyle fluff up . Welcome back to the Wild Ones podcast, the show where we chat about bike stuff. I am Jimmy. This is Francis. Hey. This is producer Emily. Hello. And thanks to Garmin for supporting the show. What else have you guys been up to? The Rose Shave and Shave FF video dropped. Yes, they are bikes. They are bikes? Yeah. Not razor blades. What do you think of the name shave? Um Well I guess it's like shaving seconds off of your time. It's a it's a five out of ten. It just reminds me of shaving your legs. It's probably not where they're going for, but that's what I think of. That's what my brain jumps to. Mine as well. For context, we should say this is a bike that kind of comes in two geometries, doesn't it? It's that they're both called the rose shave. There's just the shave and the FF and also the FFX or something. But but ultimately, it's the it's the ethos of like one bike in two geometries, a sort of racy one and a more endurance-ish racy one. And we actually talked about it on this podcast and we liked the idea. So we called it in. No spoilers, but we gave our opinion on whether we thought they did that well. It achieved what they set out to achieve. Exactly that. So go and watch the video and find out if they did. I have a question for the audience which might which definitely contains spoilers, but actually we didn't talk about it too much in the video because I think it's a bigger topic. Ask the question for the audience: Do you care if your top tube on a carbon bike is squishy or soft ? A lot of carbon bikes have this, and is the reason you're not supposed to sit on your top tube, which everyone does. But these after filming, we noticed they are like extremely soft. What do you think about this? Well, I would first like to say how did we find out that they were extremely soft, Jimmy? Uh just that on the top tube. We have a bike rack, which uh every single bike that gets covered on our channel will inevitably be on if it's shot in the UK and as part of clamping the top tube, which is not hard. I've done literally hundreds well, not hundreds, but literally tens of bikes. Tens, tens or singles of We're purposefully very careful with it because it's like you it's got like a ratchet strap, hasn't it? So if you just kept going like that you would just squeeze it to destruction. Well I don't think you would. I think you just it would just be too hard. But anyway , it was I was doing it and not even tight, and I heard a and I was like, oh, that's uh that's not a nike sound. So I so I had a closer look and I was like, well, this is squidgy, this is a bit soft, and then you know, messaged message you guys Francis had a chat with um a a carbon access Rob the Carbon man it was Rob the Carbon Man was it um and apparently this is how lots of bike brands are now shav say shaving, saving weight on their bikes is by having the the other three sides of the top tube very rigid and stiff, which they are, and then the top one just a bit squidgy. So his advice was don't sit on the top tube. Or squish them. Or squish them, yeah. So obviously I went around my garage squishing every bike that I had just to see. It's like when a a waiter brings you a plate and says it's hot, don't touch the plate, and then you go to test it. You have to test you have to test it. And what did you find? No squishes whatsoever, but all my bikes are old. I really hope he had said, well the plate was hot . Yeah . As if they lied to you as well. Sorry, so I cut you off there, Francis. Your question was, is that something that matters to our audience. Yeah. Is it a thing, is it is it appropriate for consumers to like well, there's personal responsibility, isn't it? There's people should know to do certain things. That could be one opinion. And they should be reading their instruction manuals and the the warnings. But as we know, people buy bikes, throw away the instruction manual, and like should these products exist that are borderline ike Well, it's it's not very good for a user experience because I think most people do sit on their top tubes. Anecdotally, the people I know sit on their top tubes. I sit on my top tubes. I do and always will. Yeah. And I and and for that reason I would probably would now avoid buying a bike with a squishy top tube. Unless it's a sloping slightly sloping top tube, because then you end up Oh, the other bike I'm I've got that test in for test at the moment, compact frame. Yeah. Is the most annoying thing in the world. Can't s it can't sit anywhere. Your bum just sort of slides into the little like gap underneath the the saddle and the tub tube. Outright. You gotta climb out. Try and do it like the aero super tuck and you go Yeah, I didn't know that was a a thing, squishy top tube. Squishy top tube. Well neither did I until carbon expert Rob explained that actually loads of manufacturers are doing it. I think he said he's only seen it with this is the first time he's seen a smaller brand doing it, but then I guess how small are Rose? They're probably actually massive in Germany, aren't they? Probably secretly massive, yeah. Yeah. Well I guess the conclusion is pass it off to the audience. Let us know what you think. Should we have a look at what's happening in the news? Oh let's first up a new canyon is coming, and it's not at all what we expected. So back in November, Matthew Vanderpoel was spotted riding a mysterious new aeroframe at a training camp, and lots of people thought it might be the new air road or a revamped ultimate because it's got pretty flat tubing. It looked like a race bike. But we noticed the wording on the frame that looked like it said endure race. And we thought Canyon might be trolling us. Anyway, some of the Alberson team have now started rocking up to races on this bike. So we've seen more pictures. And the general consensus is it is an endure race after all . Is the endure race no longer an endurance bike? Was it before? I have actually like I've been fiddling around with a geometry tool online because I'm sad. And um one of the I was comparing the the Pearson endurance bike to other endurance bikes and one of them was the Endurase . And it's not the it's not it's not that tall. So I can see why they can get away with riding it in a race. And if people are if the pros are doing funny stuff with higher front ends, I can see why it wouldn't be a problem . I I'm a bit concerned. So e either it's gonna be possibly the coolest endurance bike ever made , or they've made an endurance bike, a race bike . And what concerns me the most is of the pros that we've seen using it, all of them, that I've seen anyway, correct me if I'm wrong, have got spaces under the bars, which makes me think they want an even higher stack height, which is a bit worrying. Because you would expect it to have a high stack height and them have to go really negative. Unless the pro bars are actually relatively negative ones and they're just kind of balancing it out. You can see it's not that relaxed. Well, yeah, it looks like it doesn't. You can tell. Like you can pretty you w the shave and the shave FF. I can tell in zero point one of a second which one's which. Yes, aggressive. Right, you can tell a bike if a bike is aggressive or not very quickly. Um it looks like a less aero aeroed. Uh yeah. Well aerodynamics is a funny thing, Jimmy. Maybe it's more it's more The fork doesn't match. That's weird, doesn't it? They've like slapped a different fork on. What what I was kind of hoping we were gonna see was, you know, Aero is hot right now. It's hot right now.. It's so hot So taking the the endurase, which was based on more traditional aesthetics of roundness and making that endurance bike, you know, arrowy looking totally made sense, especially because there's this trend for higher stack heights in pro racing or pro races. So effectively they would have the air road as the slammed one, and they would have the endure race as the if they want to raise the stack, but it still looks and is actually Aero. Whereas my concern is they're actually just making another in aeroed . Have they just merged two models into one. But endur ance sounds like endurance race . I th in their marketing they've always said it's uh it's uh in between the two. It's not quite a full endurance bike. Hmm. I can't believe that you would say that this might be the coolest endurance bike ever, because this morning I said to you, if I was to sell my Canyon Frame, would you buy it? And you said oh I would have if it wasn't a canyon. We want it to be it it it look sorry back to Jimmy's point about it being a cool endurance bike. We want cool endurance bikes. So I don't know anything about the geometry of the bike. We haven't seen the geometry. But if they're marketing it like this, purposefully putting bike races on it, um, and in an attempt to because but bike there's loads of good endurance bikes out there. We're not at a shortage of endurance bik es. They're just not marketed in the right way . Like they're not made to look cool. And that's why this might be the coolest endurance bike ever. But I don't want one because it's a canyon. Because big claim. You know, it it's it's it's that point. It's if it's actually endurance geometry, which it's almost certainly not going to be based on what we're looking at, and it just looks like a cool race bike, but isn't. That's that's the goal . Cause like I said, Aero is hot right now. Do you not just get the worst of both worlds then though? You don't satisfy the people who need more a upright bike and you don't satisfy the people who want a really aggressive racer thing. No, the point is you have your aggressive racery thing and then you have your endurance geometry bike that still looks like a race b ike but isn't so the geometry is actually relaxed like properly relaxed but it's got big fat carbon wheels and it's got cool this and it's got cool that and it and you you're rocking around in it you, go, Oh, I feel I feel cool. you And see it. The old analogy which we use all the time, especially Francis, of you walk in, you know, it's in your hallway at the bottom of your stairs, you walk past it and you go, Do you know what? I'm not gonna sit on the sofa. I'm going out on my bike, because that bike is sick. Sofa's pretty good though. I think it's gonna be somewhere in between. I think it will be it slightly more relaxed. But I don't care about that as much as it being small enough. And I let's find out if it's really, really long or not . Which is really the limiting factor for most people. I do have a theory on the bikes that we are seeing that they might be massively downsizing it so that they're able to get their saddle over the B B position that they want, but then because it's so much, you know, like two sizes smaller than they would normally ride, they're then having to lift the saddle. Who's they? The pros. Oh, yeah, yeah. The ones that we're actually seeing. Right, because we've seen Alberson riding it. So you're talking about the bikes that they're riding, the ones that we're seeing currently. Yeah, I wonder if they're actually downsizing double to get the uh B B angle or the seat post angle that they want. They're their pelvis position in relation to the B B that they want, and then it's bringing it much further closer, so they're then having to raise up the front end and push it out. But I don't know, we'll see. Put a 140 mil stim on. I'm assuming with it being shown so much in media at the minute, it is coming very, very soon. Next, thieves tried to steal Visma Lisa Bikes team bikes from the top of their team car in the middle of a bike race. Someone in a car behind caught the whole thing on video. Team car was stopped, and a man literally climbed on top of the car and started pulling at one of the bikes. His pal then started punching the driver's window. Apparently, they were drunk spectators. Uh, this happened on stage four of Italian road race, copi i batali, and they didn't get away with any bikes, but it was still pretty odd. And uh the strange thing I keep I kept seeing this being posted online and the people being referred to as fans yeah like drunk fans doing this you ain't fans you ain't fans man you ain't fans man I don't think even are they even spectators? Uh in a sense of they have eyes and they saw bike a bike race happen. Everyone's a spectator. They had eyes and they saw an opportunity to get some bikes by the looks of it. They were spectate in theft. Yeah. Um did you see something similar to this happen to a British domestic team? I did, yeah. It's a couple of weeks ago, wasn't it? They got their team bike stolen by some morphed boys. And uh the video went viral. It was a team called Jackaroo Hansling. Their bikes were locked to the team manager's car roof rack. It was parked up on a residential street in South London. These guys with masks. Classic London moped theft Brigade. Pulled up, attempted to rip the bike off the rack, absolutely obliterated one of the frames, managed to get the other, although presumably that also took a lot of damage as well because it was clamped around a thing. Clamp. Yeah. Um team manager says they confronted them and was threatened with a big knife. And they got it that one of their neighbours caught it on video . Annoying. Violence. I've I've had a bit of a revelation. 'Cause you know, we had our in our road rage incident last week. Mm-hmm. And at the time, well, for quite a while afterwards, I was just like, oh, you know, like I wanna dees I would have liked I'm glad it de it got it was de-escalated. But at the end of the day, if you have to defend yourself, you have to defend yourself. But then I uh started recently following channel four documentaries on Instagram as uh inspiration for stuff to watch, and I saw a clip of um an attack in a supermarket in Cobbham, Surrey. Um, and I watched it in more detail, and it made me realize that as I know, you know, I never I never want to have a conflict, but you really have to just not ever you just have to just get away from it. So like the team manager, if someone's trying to steal bikes from your car, you just have to let them. Mm-hmm You really it's it's what you know when people go, oh, there's someone stealing a bike or they're they're angle grinding a bike. Stop them. No, don't let just let them have it. That's probably not a person to be messed with. In the documentary, am I right in saying there was some sort of confli ct? A guy left, he then came back later because he forgot his wallet and the guy he was having the conflict with then like started whacking him with a baseball bat because he saw he'd come back essentially. He had a baseball bat and his son had a machete. Yeah. And it was just like the the the the interaction that they had in the shop was so minor subtle that there's no there's no even obvious like conflict. It would have just been a couple of words said and that, was enough for a baseball back machete attack. It's not it's just none of it's worth it. What? It's not worth it. Things can go ru you were I obviously it's unlikely, but mad stuff can happen. There was a uh guy I watched an interview with who'd got into a fight outside a pub and he punched a guy and the guy died. And it's like ruined his whole life just because of us one one stupid decision. And you never know when that could well, if I punch someone he probably wouldn't die. But you know, these things happen. You do know how to though. He punches through people's heads. Yeah, yeah. Well I haven't practiced yet. I might go and practice on some people outside. Okay . Don't do it. So what's the conclusion? Be a lover not a fire? Yeah. No well No, it's not. It's not be a lover not a fire. It's just let let scumbags be scumbags. Lesson one of fighting is not punch through someone's head. Lesson one is run away. Yes. First. First thing. Avoid it. Avoid it in the first place. It's like when you're playing a video game. It's all it is always easier to hide and run away. Metal Gear Solid. Yeah. I don't know. I don't know. Yeah, I don't know what that means. I don't know what that means. It means it means Emily, what you if you get into an altercation in real life, all you have to do is get your cardboard box out and you just put it on. Oh, is it? And then you just sit there. I forgot about that. And then no one can see you after that. Yeah. As long as they don't see you doing it, run round a corner, carbo box, and then you're fine. Yeah. In other news, Francis, I think you might have cursed Tom Pidcock. Ow. Last week you were talking about his amazing bike handling skills. This week, unfortunately, he fell into a ravine at 60 kilometers an hour. Very scary for him, I'm sure . Unfortunately, he did have to DNF from the voltage Catalunia with a knee injury. Um, wishing him a speedy recovery, obviously. Get well soon, Tom. Yeah. Um apparently he was drinking as he was descending and overshot a corner. You you stacked it uh nearly at on the weekend, didn't you? Oh yes. I saved it though. There's like one section of a ride that I do frequently where I always know hand without fail. You know how you like get these like little routines in your head and you have to do it. Between between this part and this part, you have to do the thing that you that's called O C D. Okay. Well I was doing my little routine of this section I know hand and it happens to be like right in front of a cafe um and I was doing it fine and then all of a sudden a massive gust of side wind came and I was like waving all over the place and almost stacked it but managed to catch my bars and save myself. So actu ally, fine. One less life. Well it doesn't kill you, it makes you stronger. I've like plus to two more bike skill points, I think. You know, uh do a handstand while so no handing. Probably. Upside down handstand. While we're talking about racing, also, shout out to Karis Lloyd from Movistar. She is 19 years old. She's British and she just took her first world tour win at the Tour of Bruges. Nice. Awesome performance. Smashed it and beat some of the best sprinters in the world. We met her last year, didn't we? Yes, she was on the Garmin ride out ride. Ride out ride. Ride out ride. She was riding out. Yes, with Garmin last year. Um and I remember them saying at the point she was the youngest rider in either of the world tour Pelotons at the time. So a bright future, I think. Do you know her team's in trouble now? In what sense? They promised her that they would take her to the Lego shop and buy her anything she wanted if she won just before the race. Is this true? I can't tell if this is a joke. My mechanic was like, Oh I'll take you to the Lego store and you can buy anything if you win. Um as a joke, but now actually I turn around and was like, Oh p sorry. Why are they gonna go bankrupt? Well 'cause she's gonna choose the Death Star. That's expensive, Jimmy. It's mo it's Movi Star . They're like one of the biggest tele telephone companies in the world. You're underestimating the price of Lego these days. The British women's Pro Peloton is absolutely flying right now. And I hadn't actually clicked until we um started talking about this. But it's actually Movistar, isn't it? So they've got Karis Lloyd, but then they also have Kat Ferguson, who's only a couple of years older and an absolute monster on a bike as well. So I see I see good things for British cycling in the future. Not no, not the organization British cycling, but British representative cycl . We get it. I'm not doing well on this one, am I? Hey, did you hear about the new guy on Bill's team? Ye ah, the clients love him. Right? So who is he? It's Plaud. And Plaud isn't the new guy. Plaud is my AI work companion for all my important meetings. It lets me stay present so I focus without missing key details. I just push a button and Plaud captures the conversation for me. It's way more effective than using my phone, because I can revisit summaries and action items without digging through the whole recording. Plaud can also label different speakers automatically. Wow, this Plaud guy sounds great. Do you know if he happens to be Again Kate? Plaud is my AI work companion. Not a person. See why Plaud is trusted by over milli on2 professionals globally. Visit uk.plaud. ai/slash pod and for a limited time use promo code UK10 for 10% off any new Plaud Note Pro or Note Pin S. Offer expires May thirty one. That's UK.pl A U D dot AI slash pod and use code UK ten . Next, Zwift is telling its users to go outside and touch cross according to bike Rarad. It's all part of an update to their personalized recommendations feature. It's a new thing that suggests your next activity when you load the app. And apparently it could soon give outdoor recommendations too. The platforms also' launching in game challenges that will reward Zwifters for indoor and outdoor progress. It's also teased an expansion to the Paris map and a new gravel focused world . I was thinking about this and I was like, why surely by the point you you're loading the app, you're already committed to you've got your your indoor kit on and you're committed to doing your indoor ride. So then if it went, Oh, go outside, I'd be like, No, I'm here now. I guess they're just trying to give people more reason to use it during the summer, even or more incentive to not cancel your subscription over summer. They definitely started giving I don't know if they're still like this, but they started giving people experience points or drops, whatever you earn in the game for outdoor rides. And that was I think I feel like we covered it on a podcast, which is why we've all forgotten about it. Um so they definitely they're trying to Yeah, how do they stop people from just cancelling every summer? Well, presumably what this is is the foundation of them becoming a full-on training platform rather than just a indoor training platform. Maybe. Especially when you look at things like Whoop, who now have a ten point five billion dollar valuation. They want a bit of that. It's mad, isn't it? Big one yeah And finally a bit of bike upcycling, that's right up our alley. There's a guy on Instagram called Omri Pico Khan, and he turns old bike frames into armchairs. For listeners, imagine a metal chair frame, but you're resting your arms on two metal top tubes instead. This is where the squishy carbon top tubes would be great. It's comfort upgrade. They the you have to spend more for that one. W when I first heard about this, I assumed it was just gonna be absolute horrible cycling tat . But it is actually like proper like bougie high-end designer chair style. I'm not a huge fan of the different colourway of the each side of the the chair. No that makes it good. That makes it look upcycled. Well matching. Yeah, that you wouldn't you because of that, you wouldn't put it in your living room. What I do know for certain is if you took the bike frames out of those chairs and replaced it with just nice metal, you would have some really nice chairs. Boring. But the the as far as cycling based uh interior design goes, it's the best I've seen ever . Time for some unpopular opinions. The first one is from Max, who says, I've worked at a local bike shop in the UK for six years, and I'd still earn more if I went and worked at Tesco. But I do it because I absolutely love the sport and community. The longer I've worked in the industry, the less valued I think local bike shops are. But without them, I don't see how the sport survives. So here's my unpopular opinion. The cycling industry would be better off without venture capital ist funding, products are updated too quickly, and there's too many online retailers discounting products by thirty to fifty percent just to make five percent profit margins. The industry can't survive with companies like Rafa saying it's a good year after losing fifteen point six million pounds. Support your local bike shop and we'll support you. We will do our best to help out on prices, but we need to actually earn money to survive. This feels like a symptom of a larger problem. It's not a bike only problem, is it? It's that independent retailers and high street bricks and mortar stores can't compete with massive companies that are online first. Like I imagine if you looked in any other industry, they'd say Amazon are killing us or it doesn't even need to be online first. It's just scale. I mean an example is the one funnily enough, the company that he's referenced, Tesco, are a great example of it. They are not an online store, but they have destroyed small independent but chers, green grocers, the the old fashioned high street, um, because they just demanded cheaper prices from all of the, you know, uh dairies and whatever, because they could just go, well, we will we'll buy all of the milk that you produce, but we're gonna buy it at this price and and we'll do it for the next five years. I do think though, plain devil's advocate, there is um there's a gap in the market or perhaps there's an opportunity for bike shops to they don't need all of the customers. You know, if you've got three mechanics in your store, you only have so many hours a day that you can be doing work. So you don't need every customer. You need a solid base of customers. And I feel like there's an opportunity for local bike shops to reaffirm what they do offer. Cause I feel like every time we have, you know, when Nick the Mechanic used to come on this show, he used to kind of say stuff similar. And he is a an example of a good bike shop. And I also think he's an example of a bike shop not trying to be for everyone. He's found a niche. And that niche is in higher end customers. And he's fine with that. Um, but the feedback we always used to get from viewers was and listeners was: my local bike shop isn't like that, or my local bike shop is unfriendly, or you go in and you ask them to for this, and they you know, look down their nose at you 'cause they don't want to do the work or whatever and But that's also next bike shop. Yeah, exactly well I guess so, yeah, true. Yeah, I guess so. But I I do think that for a and maybe it's a small but noisy minority, they have had bad experiences at at bike shops. And maybe that's something that needs to be readdressed even in like bike shops marketing. If you are a bike shop, how can you prove that uh you are going to be friendly and helpful and offer people a service that they aren't gonna get online. Maybe. I I agree with this guy, by the way. I'm just also just mooting of is the is there a silver lining ? Is there an opportunity? So so some of what he's talking about will come from the idea of you need a new cassette, it's 40 pounds, and then they go, Yeah, but I can buy it online, which trist historically would have been Wiggle, but I can buy it on Wiggle for eighteen quid. And they go, Well Fit yourself then. It's cheaper than we get it for. Yeah. Well what what can't be replaced by online is the uh expert ise and mechanical help servicing . I think we'll see service centers, you know, like uh traveling mechanics or one-man band. Because what Nick has done is he's yes, he's focusing on high-end, but that's only one piece of the puzzle . He's also an extremely small setup in like a teeny tiny workshop where he just services stuff. And he charges for that. Instead of being a giant store with loads of s product. Yeah, he's he's quite interesting that he doesn't stock stuff. And like bike brands will go, Oh yeah, you've got to buy in X number of frames. And the others go, No . Because otherwise all of your capital goes into just um dusty shelves of stuff. Of stuff that very shortly after, as uh Max is referencing, um, they then go, Oh, this is the new one. Do you want to buy the next ones? Well, no, we still got the old ones. Well, w you can't be one of our dealers there. Yeah, and I and I think actually these bike brands uh benefit from having a physical place to display it's like a showroom, isn't it? So maybe it actually needs to be flipped on its head and no bike brand, you pay for this space to display your stuff. And if you do sell it, then I will give you I don't know 80% and I'll keep 20% or whatever the arrangement is rather than buying in there's there are there's definitely stuff going on at the minute. Like we know Pearson are doing the they're they're technically direct to consumer, but they're creating little hubs around the UK so that if you buy a bike from them, it's then goes through that shop and that shop makes money, they make money and you've got this point of contact. Um and there's there's definitely some bike brands that are approaching things differently. But um I agree with lots and lots and lots of what Max is saying, you're obviously never going to get rid of the VC boys because if there's an opportunity, they're going to sling money at it. That's literally the model of VC. Um and if it fails, they go, well, you know, one in ten works, we're good. We're golden if one in ten comes off good . Um but um go go with Emily's point. Look look at how you can niche down on stuff. I can understand as well though, while you know, uh going back to my point I was saying some people feel that they're not welcome, maybe the reason they feel like they're not welcome is what you said is that they've come in going, What's wrong with my bike? The mechanics spent time and looked at it, put li put free labor into diagnostics and then going, you need a new cassette. And they've gone, okay, well, I'm not getting it here and then leave. Or they go, I want to buy I want to build a bike. Can I use your expertise? Um, and then go and buy the parts. It's like it's there's there's a lack of respect or value for the expertise. Yeah. And I it's massively underva undervalued and underappreciated. And and it's like it's the little the little bits and pieces. When you're if you've ever if you are someone that has built a bike , you will know that there will always be something that you don't have. And it'll be like a weird little spacer or or you'll put a screw on that comes with it and it'll go, well, it's just too long. And you need a smaller one. But then you go, well, where is the smaller one? What's the right size? How do I find it? If you go, you'll go into certain bike shops, Nick's is a great example of it. You'll open a drawer and it will just have thousands of little bits and pieces and that have been collected over decades of knowledge and experience and knowing what you need. And it's it's those little things that actually physically don't have much value , but they clearly do if you don't have it. And don't know which one it is. Knowledge is power. Yeah, yeah. But we i I I think a lot of people don't give it the um respect that um well it deserves. Bikes are inherently simple. The industry wants to make them more and more complicated. Um so maybe there is a space for more bike shops to exist. For example, everything we're seeing now is coming with hydraulic brakes, which are manageable yourself if you if you know what you're doing, you buy the right tools. Tubeless wheels, again, manageable yourself if you're happy to make a bit of a mess and work out what you need. Um, but most notably the integrated bit of things, and that's where things start to get more complicated. But how often are people actually changing their headset bearings, they're probably just riding them into the ground and then eventually go, Well, I guess I should do something about it. I'll sell the bike and buy a new one. I do think as well, even like away from like the the sales and buying stuff. I think if you aren't supporting your local bike shop, sometimes you're just missing out no, it's sometimes you're just missing out on like quite a nice little bit of the community. You know, like think of like the people we've met in the bike shops and also like the rides that they put on, and you know, usually they'll have a cafe stop. So, you know, if you're someone who's like, I'm new to cycling, how do I make friends? Then go and hanging around a bike shop and having a coffee and getting them, you know, having a chat and getting your bike service and stuff like that is you will be brought into a community that way, you know? Yeah. Yeah. Scratch their back, they will scratch yours. There will be a mutual, it will become a mutual relationship. Mm-hmm. Used to work in a bike shop, Francis. Yeah, a few. Did you used to talk to customers? No, I just used the thread bottom brackets in the wrong way and round off bolts and stuff. Downstairs. Oh, nothing's changed then . Yeah. I was filling around with a free hub yesterday and literally exploded like it pulled it. It was very good. It was very good. But it meant I had to assemble it back to like put it all back together. So um it was learning. It was good. It's good. I can generally fix stuff once I've broken it, but I do break a lot of things in the first place. That's the uh that is the issue. Don't give me your bikes. I'll squeeze the top tubes. How do you fix a uh threaded bolt ? Or or a rounded bolt? A new bolt. Oh, okay. Well if you can't get it out. Drill. He really has done this before. Yeah. If you're rounded off, cut a slot. Screwdriver. True. It takes ages. Re cut it really like I say that is a pain in the ass. When that happens, that is a that is annoying. Spent hours just being paid minimum wage to fix my own problems . So last week we had an unpopular opinion that race categories shouldn't be based on age. They should be based on how many kids you have at home to look after. This week a listener called Chris says cycling categories shouldn't be age-related , they should be weight-rel ated. He says, I'm tall, generally fit human, more than double the weight of some competitors at events and constantly get dropped on climbs. Like fighting, weight, in my opinion, is a much bigger predictor of performance and actually is a far more fair mechanism of performance. On hilly courses, light riders win, and on flat courses, bigger riders win. Weight, not age. I actually really like this. He's got a point, hasn't he? It would turn everything into a time trial though, wouldn't it, essentially? This is why grand tours are so good, because you have to be good at everything. Well, except for sprinting, maybe. But the the G C guys are very, very light, of course, because they have to be good at climbing, but they are still winning the T Ts. Like it's This would be boring. Sorry. But this isn't pros. This is for normal people. Yeah, this is for people who are age going into races like that are age categorized. Ah then it's just a real mixed bag, isn't it? Because there's always some guy who's massive who still can climb. Because the just everything's it's it's a way more of a mixed bag of talent in the lower end races. Different skills, different that's what makes bike racing exciting, because you've got oh this section here, there's a flat bit which is really cross-windy, so I probably need a big guy with me. Ideally, we get this guy in the breakaway. I'm smaller so I can sit on his wheel. Then there's a climb. I'm going to attack him there. That's where the tactics come in. That's what makes bike racing exciting. Not all the same. But but a small rider can hold on with a big rider. Like it's everyone it's it's that's what makes it good. That's what makes it good. But that can still exist. It's just you wouldn't be you could you you would still be in the same race, presumably. But you would be weight adjusted. Weight adjusted. Yeah. That never worked. That becomes chaos, Jimmy. That becomes a real chaos. Yeah, the problem is that all of this is a nightmare in practice. What are they doing? Are they weighing everyone when they turn up? Are they go- is it like a fight where you turn up a week before and get weighed in? Well they're getting aged, so why can't they be weighed? Because your age is on like your passport and it doesn't change for a year. Yeah. Your weight could fluctuate. You could like do what my my age changes by the second. Okay. Well okay. But I mean will you agree there is a standard unit of measurement for age. And there's also standard unit of measurement for weight. Yes, but it fluctuates though, doesn't it? So does age. No. Is it bodybuilders who do weigns? Who does weights and they and they cut they they just like dehydrate themselves massively. Well the well bodybuilders do the dehydration thing as well. Yeah, I feel like I f follow different reasons. I feel like I follow a female bodybuilder and she was talking about all the toxicity in that world and basically that they'll like drink pints of wine the night before. So that incredibly like dehydrated to then have some sort of weigh-in or something. Well it's not so much for the weigh-in, it's for the pose. So the bodybuilders do it for posing because they want veins. They want to be as vasodilated as they possibly can be. So they need to be dehydrated for all their veins and everything to be I feel like people would find a way to make it unhealthy. Oh, actually that that is actually no toxic. You've hit the nail on the head, that's the issue, isn't it Ye?ah. Because then you go, well, if I if I neck my bottle of wine and dehydrate, you'd cut for the weigh-in. Yes, exactly. And then and then bulk for the day. Yeah. So if it's like a a week before. Or if if you're cutting like and getting weird an hour before the race, you dehydrate to f and then you Yeah, sorry Chris, this doesn't work because people are I was gonna say idiots, but it's not even that. It's just people are willing to do horrible things themselves for success. And they would it would be bad. People can't have nice things. They can't. . S Sororryry. Does. A quick break to tell you about our favorite VPN service, Nord VPN, one of today's sponsors. If you're into Pro Racing, then you might already be familiar with it. Yes, because one of the reasons that NordVPN is great is that you can use it to stream your sports and entertainment subscriptions wherever you are in the world. So for example, Jimmy and I are about to go on holiday. Which I'm very much looking forward to. Yes, and we can use NordVPN to keep watching our streaming services. That is one of the I you know, I like going on a holiday, but I legitimately find it annoying when you're halfway through a box set or like you know well uh what what do you even call it these days? A series. And then you get there and you can't watch it. Yeah, because God forbid we would want to unplug and actually enjoy the surroundings. So no now we don't have to. We can unplug from the world and each other. So we recently talked about Emily's dad getting caught by a AI crypto website scam. And had we known that NordVPN had all of these pri online privacy tools. Well, I wish he'd had it sooner, but. Yeah, it could have potentially helped. So yeah, it helps you increase your privacy online, it keeps your data safe, protects your bank details, your passwords, protects you if you're using public Wi-Fi. It can alert you to dodgy websites. My dad, in this scam, potentially exposed some of his passwords, and let's just say they weren't the most secure. He definitely needs a little bit of extra help keeping his details safe online. Hindsight is a wonderful thing, but now we can set him up on Nord . They have a password manager tool, which I think will really help because that's one of the difficulties people go, Oh, how do I remember all my passwords? And one Nord VPN account can be used on up to ten devices so you can actually protect your whole household. Yes, you can protect yourself, you protect your family, watch your sports, it's a win-win. Yeah, with the classics now in full swing and the grand tours on the horizon, it's a great time to have a VPN and Nord is one of the best. We got a deal, don't we? Oh yes, we do. If you click the link in the description, you will get four extra months on a two year Nord VPN plan. So that is the equivalent of now until the end of July, aka peak Tour de France season for free. Nord offers a thirty-day money-back guarantee, so there is no risk. There's a link in the description of the podcast. Do it . Must remember do not forget . Remind me to bring photo ID. Reminder. Set. Babe, can you make sure I don't forget my photo ID when I vote? All right, love. However you remember, you'll need photo ID to vote in the elec Next up, Tom says I think too many cyclists treat bikes as toys that are somewhat disposable. I've been in this trap, and when I first started cycling I bought a new bike every year. They were only mid to upper range Planet X bikes, but still two to two and a half thousand pounds per bike by the time you upgraded a few bits. In twenty twenty five, it was clear that I was fully in the cycling bubble, and I decided to treat myself to a forever bike. Instead of a high end carbon, I went for titanium Riley Fusion. It took me ages to decide, and a tipping point was being able to go to the factory, meet the owner, shake hands with the team, and the care and diligence that went into the whole process. I consider that bike to be a long term investment, and while the cost was three to four times the cost of my historic purchases, I expect it to last for years more than those entry level carbon frames. I suppose what I'm trying to say is you should buy a bike with a long term outlook that allows you to justify the cost over a significant period. If there's visibility of the brand's environmental, social and governance standards even better, and definitely something more people should consider. Keep up the great work, Tom. Are people buying new bikes every year? I feel like I can't comment because I'm on a I haven't been in a situation where I'm not on test test bikes or a bike racer where there's you ride a bike for a season, the team lends it to you and then you send it back and then they replace it with in whatever new one and then you only ride it for a bit. So it's always refreshed. I guess if you like had cycle to work scheme with work, you might just use that to buy a bike every year. Which kind of makes sense. Sort of. It's very wasteful. But I am all for what he is doing here. Metal bike. Well done, 1010. Buying a bike that will last for many years is better than one that you're buying for a year. Yeah, the I guess the only I I agree with the principle. The only thing I would challenge is those mid to upper range Planet X bikes that were two and a half K , what about them wouldn't last for more than a year? Like if he's saying, you know, I consider i Israeli's cost more money and therefore he considers it a long-term invest ment rather than entry-level carbon frames. Why would those frames not last longer? Like if you're a person who can't afford to buy a Riley, but you have one bike, like it's not it's not gonna break after a year, is it? Well, I think he's more talking about not specifically those bikes not lasting a year. I think he's ultimately talking about the um the um The idea in your head that buy what you can afford right now and then just buy another one and buy another one and rather than just thinking, let me outlay more than I want to right now, but keep it as a long-term purchase. Yeah, he's probably in a position where he can afford to drop two grand on a bike a year, and it's nice having something to go to be excited about. It's always nice to have that kind of like, oh you know, yes, this this thing is nice, and I get excited about riding bikes again. It's ultimately why I end up stripping and rebuilding my bike so often, because it's just an excuse to like them again. Not well, not like them again, but it's it's an excuse to be excited about them again. Um but you know it's it's it's ultimately unnecessary. I there's nothing wrong with those bikes. Just maybe wasn't excited by them. Yeah, I mean, I like the idea that it's it's it's not a toy and it has more I I have such sentimental value about things that I'm like the opposite of early cyclist version one, Tom, in that I'm so stubborn and tight that I will just stick to the first thing that I buy, even if it is even if there are better options. I bought a car which I absolutely love and you tell me it's a piece of junk every single day. That's not true. You do. You you refuse to drive it because you think it's so bad. It is horrible. Uh and I love it because it's my car. I have a road bike and a gravel bike, which I bought seven years ago now and I I love them both. I'm in the process of getting rid of them because I have accepted that I need a different I'm not uncomfortable on them. Howe ver, I love them. Like still right now, I love them. And I'm trying I'm trying to get you to have one of them so don't actually have to get rid of it. Yeah, Francis, Emily was basically trying to sell me her Canyon this morning so that it could just stay in the house. Oh, I see. Yeah. I love it. I think it's the perfect bike. I feel like you're you're we both do the same thing, Emily. We're not very good at buying new things. No . Or getting rid of old ones . I think the important like I like tinkering with bikes. Same with all my other hobbies. All of them. Guitar guitar on bikes. There's only two real what real ones that I focus on. Um but the most exciting bit when you do buy a new piece of bike is when it's on the way and you can see it's about to be delivered. So maybe buying stuff that which is cheaper and you still get, you know, use out of and not be wasteful, extremely wasteful , is just buying smaller things more often. Perhaps that's the solution. So basically you're saying what Tom has done is ridiculous and he should go back, he should sell his much more expensive titanium And keep buying two thousand pound Planet X bikes every year. Buy the tit keep the titanium one, but also you're gonna still buy new bikes. And you could buy lots of little things for the the Riley and make it better every time. Like Star Wars themed . I was just thinking Look. I don't know how good the camera is if we can see describe it for our listeners. It's a uh is he a clone trooper? Clone trooper. Valve cap. I I'm actually the most settled, even though I'm about to change everything. I feel like I'm the most settled with bikes than I ever have been. And I and I feel like I'm I'm finally at a point where I just want to ride them rather than tinker with them. Yes, that should be it. But I think bikes are the least exciting thing about cycling. What's the most exciting bit? The actual riding. No hands. Almost crashing. Almost crashing. Oh, andm alost crashing is actually really , isn't it? Yeah, yeah. That's why gravel's better. Because you almost crash more often. Yeah, yeah. And the drone. It's novel, novel experiences. It creates novel experiences which don't often happen, like if you go for a walk, yeah, gonna see a cool dog, maybe. But bike riding always. There's always something that happens, like a s a snake attack or some some sh it. I have a way to make walks more novel. There's an app called Merlin Bird ID. I think it's run by Cornell University. And it will if you if you turn the sound on, it will live record all the birds it can hear around and live identify them. So it'll tell you all the birds that are around you. Buzzards, we have a lot. Owls. Owl. Owls, yeah, we get owl in the garden constantly. Tawny owl. Owl. Tell me that's not good. But I guess the novel experiences thing, maybe that's why our brains crave the the buying stuff, because it's like that it's a dopamine hit, isn't it? Yeah, yeah. We just go in a circle of like we sit around we're we're satisfied. Well it's a circle so it doesn't start anywhere but we like we're just gonna sit around, get bored, want something, get it, get bored of the thing, want something sit around bored, get something, want it again. And it just goes round and round like that. So really you just want to figure out what's not the uh a really Merlin Bird ID. Tinkering tinkering with stuff. Or at least it is for me, is that like making a thing gives me that like endorphin buzz, but it but your output is just a thing rather than um waste, arguably. Especially when it's music. Because it's like, oh, I've made a thing and I get a buzz out of it. And it was just music. Yes, I use some electricity, but not very much. Yeah. Well, if you've got an unpopular opinion, you can send it to Wild ones podcast at kedmedia.co.uk or WhatsApp us on plus four four seven eight six oh eight six oh two one three and you might feature on a future episode. You can also send us stories, dilemmas, and comments for listeners take over. First question comes from Nout in the Netherlands, and it's one many people want to know. Where did Francis and Giles end up sleeping at the end of the cycling for the biggest burrito part one video. Because this ended on a clip cliffhanger, didn't it? No, didn't it? It ended us it ended on us going to sleep on a sofa. And that's what you're maintaining, is it? That's where you slept? Well, that's what I saw when I watched the video back. Me too. That's what I saw. Okay. That's what I saw. Okay, fine. Well, moving on. Last week we were talking about ways of jogging with babies. And uh Ray has messaged in with another great I have three kids. They're all grown now, but when they were little, I often had two of them either in a jogging stroller on a bike. And I always wanted to make a triathlon for parents where they had to swim with their kids and then ride with them on the bike and then put them in a jogger and there had to be a requirement of a minimum amount of diaper changes and bottle feedings along the way. By the way, two of my ad ult kids are trans , and uh I'm riding as an ally for them and the rest of the queer and trans community from Florida to Maine this summer, trans americaride.org. Anyway, have a good day. Love the show. Thanks. Bye. I'm Google Maps seeing where Maine is. Oh, I've been to Maine. It's up the top. Oh, gee, that's a long that's a long way. That's a really long way. Good for you, Ray. Yeah, awesome . How and this is maybe parents can tell us in the comments, but if there is a baby that requires dia per and feed bottle feed stops, how are you swimming with it ? I think I know the answer to this. Go on. I think they have waterproof diapers. No, no, I don't I mean like logistically, like a baby that young can't swim. So how how are you putting it in a pool and then doing a swim with a unless they're really young, Emily. They swim Yeah yeah they just they know and they can breathe underwater and everything. Gil's, all of that stuff, shh underwater. Breathing. Yeah. Okay. If you've not seen Waterworld, that's a documentary. I I do like the uh the idea of this. It does sound like hell though. Yeah, triathlon. It does it sounds like transitions in a tra ffic . Is this the same Ray who are who I was arguing with about music? It might be. It might be, yes. I feel like I recognise the voice . Oh Sammy were still friends. Yeah, I think so. Oh okay. Yeah. Good. Well remembered. Thank you. I thought about it for w for weeks afterwards. Just replaying his voice notes four o'clock in the morning. It it he must have been because as we know, none of us remember anything apart well, Emily does 'cause she obviously has to spend hours editing it, but me and Francis don't remember anything that we've said immediately afterwards. So for him to recognize that, it really highlights how much thought you put into it. Dude, I thought about it for ages. Not the not the topic, more just like upsetting him . Just felt too bad. Okay, well um thank you for that again, Ray, and good luck on your bike ride. I'm gonna finish this off with some postcards. Thank you to I hope I'm pronouncing this correctly. Kajell in Seattle, currently enjoying doing coffeeering challenge that one of our listeners suggested. Do you remember the coffineering thing? No . Neither do I. I know the word. I read this earlier on the docker. I was like I know this word. It was it was like visiting seven different coffee sho or thirty different coffee shops or doing a ride with a coffee shop for thirty days. I can't remember it. I should have looked this up before we started the section. Ride your bike seven times to at least six different places. You can repeat one. At least two miles round trip every time, maximum two rides per week. Drink seven total cups of coffee. Awesome. This is this is novel. Yes, exactly. Novel exp it's new. It's interesting. Oh, I like stuff like this. One of the things that I love is um how great our listeners are at suggesting things and then that we benefit from and others other listeners best benefit from. Good community. Like it. Um, thank you for that one. We also have two postcards from Chandler in North Carolina. He is a photographer, and he sent us these two postcards that he made himself. From Boone and Pilot Mountain. And finally, Charlotte and Tink sent us this one from the road. They are on a road trip of South Africa. You've seen which Charlotte is, have you not? Oh. It's our Charlotte. Oh, it's Charlotte from Hot Chili. I didn't realize that at all. Oh amazing. Hi Charlotte. Love you, Charlotte. And Tink. That's all for this week. If you like what we do, make sure you subscribe so you don't miss out on the next one. And until then. Goodbye. Bye . That's sad. I was enjoying that. We talked a lot about um Lego this week. Who's your favourite Batman? Favorite Batman. Sorry, what? That's not related. What just happened then? In my brain it made sense because m the my favourite Batman is Lego Batman. Who's your favourite person who's ever played Batman? Lego Batman . Will Arnett, Lego Batman . Outrageous. Lego Batman is plastic. Oh man. I thought I wouldn't like the Robert Pattinson. Patterson. I don't know his name. I thought I wasn't gonna like it and I did. I know I've watched it, but I remembered none of it. You said you I said I didn't think he was a very good Batman, but I also haven't watched many Batman films, but I thought he seemed like a bit of a drip and you said, no, that's what Batman's meant to be. What a drip. Yeah, just like sad. Yeah. Because he's not a superhero, is he? He's just a guy with uh uh cause and money. Yeah, he's not a superhero. Batman is not a superhero. He's a human. He's a symbol, actually. With lots of money. Yeah, Batman is a symbol, yeah. The the modern the the that film, the Patinson, Pat whatever, is like the old Batman comics where hi it was all um investigative, like a film noir detective vibe. And I think it was very different from the other ones, the Christian Bell ones. It was good, worth watching. Long though. It's a lot of him standing looking like Batman. All the Batmans are long though. We were gonna rewatch like The Dark Knight and stuff. Long. Hmm. Underrated first film as well. No one watches that one. It's why I don't understand. Why I don't understand why that first one isn't r even really considered part of it when it's so part of it. It's written you need to watch it. Yeah. I don't get it. And it it it feels a little bit different from it, but you still have to watch it. Yeah. Lower budget, perhaps? It was just a smaller deal. Yeah, that's what it feels like. It feels it feels like they did it and they were, Oh right, yeah, this did well. They did the next one and then they've gone, Oh , whoa. Yeah, this is this is big time now. Um but you still have to watch it, it's essenti al. Me and Danny are halfway through the Sam Raimi Spider Man films, and it's reminded me how good f films used to be. Which which Spider Man superhero films, the the Toby Maguire ones. Uh okay. Yeah. Which was just Spider Man, Spider Man Two, Spider Man Three, I think they were called. Uh great films. Really great films. And then they just decided to remake it in exactly the same way with Andrew Garfield. Weird. That's odd. It's just it's just that they've done the same thing with Harry Potter. Have you seen the new trailer for Harry Potter? Yeah. It looks like it's so similar, but it just looks like an AI like generate an AI generated trailer of the original films where everything's just a bit weird. You think has it been long enough? Is this just what happens when you get old? No, because things are being re it's like live action Mo Moanaana. Like came out like five years ago or something, didn't it and live action Lilo and Stitch. I watched it and that's the point, isn't it? They want you to watch it, but did we need it? I don't know. Moana came out a decade ago. Did it? Wow. Great film. So good. I've never seen that. I've never seen the I don't know I don't know what it is. Good film. All of the Rail know. Oh no, his ad he's got adult children. He might not know. All the people with younger children. When's the live action one come out? Don't know but it's also got the rock in it. They're even just recasting the same people. Yeah, that's class. I read it. Oh, and the same with Mean Girls as well. They made a Mean Girls that was just a musical version and it had the same teachers in. Yeah. I I I I I like think it's like we little easily. We did watch it though, didn't we? We did we did like it, so yeah . Where the problem? Okay, can we stop this now? Bye. See ya . You gonna say bye? Oh bye. Do you belong here? Next to me, about to jump into the sea on an army coastering expedition. What's your gut saying? Walk away from the edge or jump in and join a team that'll be by your side for life. Still listening? You belong here. Army. Recruiting now. Search Army jobs. Selling your van can be super simple. If you choose we buy any van. They're on average 11 minutes away so you can get it all sorted in under an hour. If only they could make keeping your van clean simpler . And spotless. for crying out loud . We buy any van. Selling made simple. 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