The Pinkbike Podcast: Episode 34 - Grilling Levy About Field Test Trail Bikes (and His Bonspiel)

 We will never forgive you the Aprit 1st Grim Donut joke

 A trail bike for me is something that I can pump rollers, pop off a root just because its fun, wiggle though the rock garden and take the wide line to roost the dead leaves. Then climb the twisty climbing trail for fun. An enduro bike is something that I can gap those rollers, pick the fastest line without having to think about that root, smash through the middle of the rock garden and nail that corner with the fastest line. Then spin back up the forest road.

 This was the best PB Podcast yet. Thanks for discussing the HP suspension designs in particular.

 Forgetting labels, is there really an advantage to having a bike with a 33+ lbs 64° HTA and a 160mm fork with only 135-140mm of travel in the rear? Does it actually pedal significantly better than a 160/160mm bike?

 King of Kong is definitely one of the best documentaries of all time, strongly agree! Literally one of the best real world villains captured on camera in the most ABSOLUTELY absurd sense.

 @brianpark Isn't a more "customizable" headset the solution to bikes that use the same front triangle? If manufactures stopped integrating the bearing race then they could press in cups that let them change headtube angle length.

Shorter travel, lets steepen up the angle by 1-1.5 degrees and add a lower cup with 10-15mm of stack. Longer travel, remove the extra stack and slack it out.

This would keep the reach, seat tube angle, and BB drop much closer between models, and give more aftermarket customization options by the riders who what to play around.

 Kaz was onto something talking about trail vs enduro bike classification. Is it possible that it is acceptable to call anything 120-160mm of travel a trail bike is fine and what trails the rider is on most influences what travel they choose? Not every trail bike needs to be the “Squamish trail bike,” the category should be a bit more fluid than that. I think the enduro category is much smaller as it really only encompasses what is comfortable to race on, ie specialized enduro, Rocky altitude, etc.

 Desserts: 1. When Brian said strawberry rhubarb crumble I was alone in my car and yelled "NO"

2: @mikelevy those bananas are the tits! Pro tip, Light it on fire and let it burn until it goes out.... a little char and some extra caramelized chemicals.... #heaven

 New marketing claim for Specialized. "Lighter than a couple of @mikelevy's shits!"

 @mikelevy: Where did everyone get an idea that S-Works SJ frame weights 1240g with the shock and all hardware? My S3 is 2456g with just the shock and 2507g with the shock, axle and seat clamp. Fanatik weights them without shock and numbers are similar. Maybe Pinkbike can reach out to Specialized for clarification? Please save us weight weenies from heart attack!

 Scooters are by far the worst thing to drop in at the skatepark. I thought this was common knowledge?

 I have a question: what’s Pinkbike’s take on sewer rat and the pinkers that want you guys to give him free stuff for a couple so/so entertaining comments? I didn’t see any responses from moderators to any of the giveaways and at a bear minimum can you tell us why pink bike doesn’t want to answer this question or respond to the giveaway thread?

 Question for the next podcast:

Do you guys change your suspension settings when riding in the cold? I went for my first colder ride of the season this week and I noticed the suspension felt much more harsh vs when the air temperature warmed up about 15 degrees by the end of my ride.

 I hope Levy has some Curling tips...

 What's so wrong with travel adjust forks @mikekazimer @mikelevy? I just got into mountain biking a couple of years ago so I missed them but a friend has a talas and the idea of having a full Enduro fork reduced to 140mm with the angles steepening seems ideal to me. What am I missing and why did they go away?

 GCN made that joke of the "lightest bike from specialized and its under a grand!"
and if I had a kid I'd get them one 100% lol idc

 How much weight do you think that Dangerholm could get off that specialized carbon balance bike?

 Question for @mikelevy and @mikekazimer: when you are testing not yet released bikes, how do you prevent the keen-eyed trail spotters from seeing - and possibly posting about embargoed bikes?

 I enjoyed this discussion. I think a follow up to the field test is a best of the best shootout. Take all the bikes you'd recommend to people (regardless of price or travel/category) and then ride them on a variety of trails and see how it turns out.

 Great episode as usual. Nice to have Levy back: the mix of everyone seems to make this podcast great, and when one is missing it's just not quite as much fun.

But one thing that I'd like to complain about even though I understand the cause: it was super fun to see Levy ride the bikes in his videos, but a bummer not to get to see Kazimer ride them in his! I know it's not important, but in the bigger picture...anyway, as part of the bike reviews it's just really fun to get to see the actual reviewer riding the bikes. I know y'all can't cross the border and the bikes can, but it would have been really rad to have gotten some kind of video from the south of the border testing. End of pointless complaint.

 We've just ordered a Trek Slash frameset for my wife. I'm the kind of person that researches every purchase, but there is next to nothing online review wise on the aluminum frame. At least it should have the same suspension performance and geo. But, if you were in the market for a new stumpjumper you have a similar problem, but the suspension is completely different (same as last year?).

I'd love to see more back to back comparisons of the same bike with different frame materials. Is it just weight (a few hundred frames can be saved elsewhere on the bike for much less than the difference between alu and carbon frames)? Or does the bike ride differently?

I don't think it's particularly fair to the consumer for brands to just send out their top end bikes to "inform" the consumer that can't afford a $10k bike, looking lower down the range.

 @mikelevy @mikekazimer I know it's hard for you to talk about something you haven't experienced first hand while testing. But why don't you include known issues like trek's thru shaft shocks, pole's customer service and frame failures, free bushings for your Santa Cruz bike or availability and serviceability into your reviews. I think this kind of information would be one of the most usefulf ones for readers/buyers. Things that are known but not told in reviews are kind of misleading. I really appreciate your reviews and I see that you are including some information on cable routing etc. But telling how a bike rides is not everything I need to know when buying a new bike. Tell us about brands that have the reputation of lasting forever/breaking all the time. Tell us how companies treat you when things go wrong.

 Question:
Who is riding the enduro bikes on the Video? Because it doesn’t seems to be Kazimer. The guy is on the same trails as Levy was with the trail bikes, and he is running the front brake on the right.
Did Kaz rode the bikes home to review? Then shipped them to bc for someone to ride them and get filmed? Or did he finish the underground tunnel to BC and made it across? ????????

 I have a question for you guys:
Which bike parts benefit the most from Carbon technology?
*Cranks?
* Handlebars
* Complete frame, front triangle or rear triangle? (will we ever see an aluminum front with carbon rear?)
* wheels?
what do you guys think? (I have nothing carbon on my bikes)

 @mikekazimer would you pick the Meta TR as your trail bike if you were still in Conn?

 A pudding is filling encased in suet A pie is filling fully encased in pastry, if it doesn't have pastry sides and a base it is just a stew wearing a hat.

 The most difficult thing to drop into a skatepark is an impossible wheel, aka a BC wheel (after the comic strip). Actually an impossible wheel is the most difficult thing to ride anywhere.

 So, 135mm travel bike with Enduro like geometry... Is it extra downcountry? Downcountry plus? Down trail?

 Since @mikelevy asked Kazimer about the knee pads he reviewed, what did you think of Dianese ones you were using during the Field Test? They look snazzy and pedally

 Can we choose a metric or imperial system and stick to it.
Measuring frame weights in 000's of grams over kg seems silly and then regarding the whole bike in lbs is hard to keep up with.
We've settled on metric as the standard for length can we choose a weight standard also?

 @mikekazimer @mikelevy A company should put live-valve on either a conventional horst link bike (notorious for pedal bob) or even a long travel VPP bike (i.e long travel Santa Cruz) to see how well it improves those bikes.

 @mikekazimer - How do the Chromag knee past from this years knee pad review compare to the 7idp project knee pads from last year?

@mikelevy - How would you say the Pole Stamina 140 fares compared to the S-Works Stumpjumper?

 Why did Kaz do the enduro bikes and Levy do the trail bikes? I’ve been to Squamish and bellingham and would want longer travel in Squamish. Is levy just better at absorbing bumps?

 Check out shifterbikes on insta. He made his own carbon strider for his kid in April. Pretty darn close to the Spesh and fully pimped

 So, i'm the guy who said you cheated with the Giant.. first, thanks for clearing up wether or not climb switches were used.
Second, the live valve, come oooon, are we reeaally getting that lazy?? "doing the thinking for us" ?? Its not like it has sensors reading the terrain in front of the bike and adjusting compression valving in advance.. its really only just electronic low speed compression control. And i still believe that uphill any of the other bikes would have had better times if climb switches were used.. just as it was used automatically on the Giant.
Realistically, the Giant would be a much better performer downhill with a proper high quality shock, and would still be as fast uphill using a climb switch.. which is hardly a problem to use especially if it has a remote.
As for the comment on the live valve on flatter terrain, same applies. And thats why the Giant is a big miss. Unfortunately it seems they're charging a premium for something that just isnt up to par. But by all means, if someone is willing to pay for it, be my guest...

 OMFG those foam bananas

 "You're taking Donkey Kong over Duck hunt?"

"... Have you WATCHED King of Kong??"

 Which version of the Knolly are you getting? Long travel or the "shorter" travel

 @mike levy - Do you need any front end curlers to fill up a curling rink for your next bonspiel?

 Please do an episode on your favorite trails -- local and destination rides!

 The privateer series we want but don't deserve

 Great episode guys, thanks

 Snorefest is over, @mikelevy is back!!! \m/