Geek Warning

Latest Episodes:

750D wheels and questionable cockpits Aug 25, 2023

Show notes

This week’s Geek Warning episode sees James and Dave hanging out in a hotel room together with plenty to talk about and not enough sleep to do it professionally.

The MADE show is on the horizon, and James and Dave touch on some of the things they expect to see. There's a good conversation about the restraints that modern road design is forcing on consumers. And of course, much more.

Enjoy!

Timestamps:

2:35 – Driven raising equity.

4:15 – Moots teases a new wheel size.

9:48 – Trek’s Madone gets a slightly cheaper choice.

16:13 – New things from Wolf Tooth.

20:49 – Leap Components doing cool things and wobbly derailleur pivots.

25:45 – Still thinking about the woes of certain internally cabled bikes, proprietary cockpits, and fit limitations.

34:43 – James goes on an AliExpress shopping spree.

41:59 - A PSA to keep those freehub internals fresh.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Ask a handful of Wrenches Aug 16, 2023

Show notes

This week's Geek Warning episode is a little different. With James off racing bikes, and Dave travelling (for work), the Geeks instead gathered to answer a bucket full of tech questions from Escape Collective members. Joining James and Dave are former MTB World Cup mechanic Brad Copeland and dream bike builder Zach (of Boulder Grupetto).

Don't worry, the regular weekly show will return soon! In the meantime, enjoy and please let us know what you think of this format.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Speed Sniffers, Classified things, and too much choice Aug 11, 2023

Show notes

James, Dave, and builder of dreams Zach are back and cover a broad spectrum of geeky topics. Specialized has a new iteration of the Tarmac. Ridley has a new bike with Fast in its name. Lezyne has even more products and Velocio clothing expands into mountain bike.

We also summarise our thoughts on the Classified two-speed hub system. And so much more geeking.

4:36 – A quick corrections corner, oops

6:36 – A speed sniffing bike from Specialized

23:00 – Ridley’s new TT bike and Ronan isn’t here

28:49 – A torque wrench for News Tools Day

31:04 – Lezyne and a lot of (too much?) choice

36:15 – Velocio goes mountain

39:45 – It’s Classified, but our thoughts are not

55:22 – Too many logos are on Dave’s mind

1:02:20 – Crazy track bikes from everyone

1:03:44 – MVDP, crashing, and Boas

1:08:55 – A PSA on cleats

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

More MTB-like gravel bikes, a sharper Microshift, and hookless blow-offs Aug 02, 2023

Show notes

Santa Cruz has revamped its popular Stigmata gravel bike with a new MTB-inspired personality, Allied modernizes its Alfa road bike, Microshift’s new Sword gravel groupset looks extremely promising, and you’ll soon be able to track your bike with Apple’s Find My function without an AirTag. And what the heck is up with that hookless tire blow-off video that’s been going around?

The Geeks have questions.

1:50 — Santa Cruz has a new MTB-like Stigmata gravel bike

12:31 — There’s a new Alfa road bike from Allied

22:50 — Microshift’s new Sword gravel groupset looks fantastic

29:57 — Got a 4iiii power meter? Track your bike without an Apple AirTag

34:27 — Hookless road tires generally don’t just blow off the rim

44:47 — Dave is back to his tool-buying ways

45:18 — Tires are stupidly expensive

48:13 — Maybe suspension stems aren’t dorky after all

54:54 — The hot setup for Leadville 100

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Is Mavic coming back to the United States? Jul 27, 2023

Show notes

Legendary French wheel brand Mavic is rumored to be gearing up to come back to the US market – but is the US market ready for them to come back?

The Geek Warning crew also had a mountain of new gear to discuss this week, including new bikes from Orbea, GT, and Polygon, stunning road wheels from Syncros, and updated cross-country suspension from RockShox. And what’s up with this giant pile of new go-fast gear the UCI just revealed? Ronan did some digging.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Dissecting the Tour TT and aero advancements with Marc Graveline Jul 24, 2023

Show notes

As Dave and James recover from illness and injury, Ronan sits down with EscapeCollective member Marc Graveline to make sense of Jonas Vingagaard's stage 16 time trial performance. Marc was a data engineer before early retirement allowed him the time to moving into cycling and develop the Notio Konect, the first consumer available aero sensor on the market.

Marc is now a consultant to World Tour teams and counts time trial modelling and analysis among his favourite hobbies, not to mention aero testing some of the world's best riders. Finally, we wrap the conversation with a discussion on what the other World Tour teams can do to narrow the gap to Jumbo-Visma.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

A climbing bike too light for the pros, but carbon inspection for everyone Jul 14, 2023

Show notes

Factor’s new O2 VAM sounds like quite the climbing bike: light, stiff, comfy, and newly aero. But is it too light for the pros? Maybe. There doesn’t seem to be any debate about wider tires at the Tour, though, as even 28 mm doesn’t seem like enough.

SRAM has also brought its innovative Transmission mountain bike drivetrain technology down to the GX level, an Australian company wants to bring high-tech carbon fiber inspection to the bike shop level, and James gripes about water bottles.

4:15 — A roundtable on the new Factor O2 VAM climbing bike

16:25 — Even Tour racers have adopted big tires in a big way

27:00 — GX is now the least expensive Transmission version, and it might be the best one

35:55 — Is ultrasonic carbon fiber testing coming to bike shops?

49:26 — Zach has some thoughts on ever-widening cranks

59:15 — Water, water, everywhere, and too many leftover drops to drink

1:01:05 — Check your chain wear, folks!

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Racing, schmacing: Let’s talk about tech at the Tour Jul 06, 2023

Show notes

The Tour de France can’t be that big of a deal. After all, they couldn’t even sign up 200 participants! But despite the low turnout, there’s quite the disproportionate amount of new tech to discover there, including a mysterious new Ridley aero all-rounder road racer, new tires and saddles from Specialized, a hint that a new SRAM Red groupset may be pending, new aero helmets, comfy-looking shoes, and upsized wheels from Campagnolo.

We also discuss Pinarello and Tune recently changing hands, how everything new in the MTB world seems to be designed for e-bikes, the return of CNC machining, and why your suspension fork is probably feeling sadly neglected.

3:50 — A sneak peek at Ridley’s new semi-aero all-rounder

7:09 — Specialized now has road tires just for wet conditions

15:50 — Yet another 3D-printed saddle model from Specialized

21:16 — Is a new SRAM Red groupset coming soon?

27:15 — Some funky new shoes from Q36.5

29:13 — Ekoi’s got a new aero road helmet

30:31 — Campagnolo is going wide with its new Bora Ultra WTO 45 wheels

32:31 — Mmm, built-in satellite shifters

36:34 — Pinarello has a new owner

42:40 — Lightweight has purchased Tune to create a German weight-weenie powerhouse

45:35 — Garbaruk has a new CNC-machined road and gravel crankset

49:30 — CNC machining is back in a big way

56:21 — UDH isn’t coming for road bikes; it’s already here

1:05:35 — MTB R&D seems mostly aimed at e-bikes these days

1:13:49 – Your suspension fork probably isn’t working as well as you think it is

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The Eurobike show! Jun 29, 2023

Show notes

James and Ronan attended the Eurobike trade show last week, and oh boy, did they come back with a lot to talk about. E-bikes were definitely a major theme at this year’s show – again – but there was also a bunch of high-performance goodies, tons of electronic doodads, and as always, cargo bikes galore.

Also: Dave secretly wants to become a firefighter.

7:18 – A convenient way to measure saddle position

9:10 – Ronan likes the looks of the new Look

12:09 – 3T goes fully internal

13:08 – An unlikely new line of bikes from Marcel Kittel and Tony Martin

19:26 – So many amazing kid bikes

22:58 – Who said electronic shifting has to be expensive?

30:10 – Shimano’s 105 mechanical road groupset goes 12-speed

33:53 – There’s a revolution in tires coming, courtesy of Schwalbe

37:20 – Look, ma, no valve stems!

42:15 – A truly promising rethink of the rear derailleur

46:30 – Gearboxes and motors go together like peanut butter and jelly

54:01 – Cargo bikes galore

1:01:30 – NFCs are not the same as NFTs

1:03:15 – Cheap e-bike batteries can be very, very sketchy

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The next frontier of XC race tech Jun 22, 2023

Show notes

For this week’s Geek Warning, James and Ronan were en-route to Eurobike, and so Dave was left talking to himself. After he submitted a three-hour rambling episode about his colour-coding preferences for hex keys, the team suggested that he record a new episode with Brad Copeland.

In the episode, Dave and Brad chat about a lust-worthy new tool from Abbey Bike Tools, Wolf Tooth’s new LoneWolf 1x Road chainguide, and the next frontier of XC race tech. Of course, Brad and Dave also share what’s on their mind, and there’s a PSA that’s likely relevant to many.

3:38 - The biggest things at E-urobike

10:03 - Abbey’s biggest tool yet

19:23 – 1x chain guides for road

26:30 - Bike selection and other tech at the World Cup in Leogang

43:30 - What’s on Brad’s mind? Road Tubeless.

51:30 - What’s on Dave’s mind? You can probably guess.

57:42 – PSA to check those cables!

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.