Vital Mtb - Speaking Of Mountain Biking

Chris Cocalis has a deeply rooted history in the sport of mountain biking. Coming from a BMX background, he combined his love of riding bikes and improving on broken parts into a lifelong career in MTB. From days as a racer and shop employee, he learned how to weld and started making bikes at an early age out of pure passion. That passion led Chris to create Titus cycles in the 90's and ultimately lead him on the journey to start Pivot Cycles ten years ago. Enjoy his inspiring story as we talk about his past as well as the present and future of Pivot Cycles and our sport in general.

The Inside Line podcast sits down with Jack Moir, Charlie Harrison and Dean Luca, the athletes of Intense Factory Racing. These successful downhillers have been progressing and climbing through the ranks and are anxious to kick off the 2018 World Cup DH season. This fun and serious interview is full of insight and some incredible stories about keeping their prototype Intense M29 bikes rolling in 2017. Team Manager, Bernat Guardia, Technical Director, Chappy Fiene and team photographer, Nathan Hughes all weigh in during this podcast. Enjoy!

Gee Atherton needs very little in the way of an introduction. As one of the fastest humans on a mountain bike, he's always been a personal favorite of mine on World Cup race day. His 2017 season was impacted by a severe hip dislocation at a local Fort William race and he was off the bike for months. He eventually returned to racing at the Lenzerheide World Cup DH, significantly earlier than expected. With the 2018 World Cup downhill season just a few weeks a way, I was stoked to get Gee on The Inside Line to discuss the upcoming season, racing in general and what makes him tick. -gordo

Welcome mountain bikers. Mike Ferrentino, today's guest, has been a mentor and inspiration of mine and is one of my favorite humans. Whenever we cross paths, I always feel lucky that mountain biking has given me the chance to meet people like him. He's passionate, funny, crusty, opinionated but transparent and real. I hope you enjoy his stories and insight on bikes and life as much as I did. -gordo

It's incredible to think that the Enduro World Series is just over five years old. While the format of enduro mountain bike racing has existed for years, the EWS, still in its infancy, has become the global force by which all other enduro events are now measured. One of the hearts and brains behind the Enduro World Series is Chris Ball. A former downhill racer and UCI official, Chris and some close peers decided mountain bike racing needed a change, and the rest is history. Vital friend and contributor, Lee Trumpore, met with Chris in Scotland a few weeks back. What was supposed to be a 10-minute interview turned a passionate and enlightening conversation about all things enduro. After all, that's what happens when mountain biking superfans get together.

It's an honor and a pleasure to kick off our 2018 Inside line podcast with one of America's most dedicated gravity racers, Curtis Keene. This Northern California native turned a passion for riding bikes into a full-time racing career. While working as an electrician, he raced downhill for a decade, working his way up to the Elite World Cup ranks before finding himself as a podium contender on the Enduro World Series stage. We discuss his love for bikes and racing, his strong work ethic, the ups and downs of competing in the EWS and hit on some of his bike set-up preferences. Enjoy our interview with Curtis Keene, who we lovingly call, the American Dream.

When the Santa Cruz Syndicate gives you a couple hours of their time during an off-season evening, you jump on the chance to meet them. Greg Minnaar, Loris Vergier and Luca Shaw were in Southern California making the rounds, visiting sponsors and enjoying weather. Thankfully, they agreed to sit down for a fun and candid interview for The Inside Line. Enjoy some quality time with one of downhilling's most fun and exciting teams.

Nope, it's not Wednesday. This week we're dropping the podcast early to coincide with the big news around Intense and today's guest, Jeff Steber. Intense has made the decision to offer their bikes directly to the rider through online sales. They have a unique sales model, however, that keeps their dealers involved in the process. I had a great time speaking with Jeff the other day about his history, the changing faces of Intense over the years and this new direction they've decided to take. Here's to some great discussion with one of mountain biking's most influential, inspirational and creative men, Jeff Steber of Intense.

I'm extremely honored to introduce today's guest of The Inside Line, Kathy Sessler. The first thing I want to say is that I feel like I was way off in our interview intro when I call her the "Den Mother" of the Santa Cruz Syndicate. While I meant that to be endearing, I realized, after our interview, that the term doesn't convey the complexity and responsibility that comes with being Syndicate team manager. My perceptions of what she does with arguably downhilling's most exciting team were completely changed after the interview. I hope the conversation we had gets you get stoked on Kathy's extremely deep history with bikes and racing, as well as with what she does for our sport today. Enjoy the show! -gordo

Matt Thompson may be the biggest reason for the existence of Vital MTB. As one of my best friends, back in 2009, he suggested I contact Vital Media Network to see if they were interested in starting a mountain bike website. They had Vital MX and Vital BMX running successfully and I ran Littermag at the time. The rest is history. Matt is a staple fixture of the Colorado mountain biking community and has taken a life dedicated to downhill racing and turned it into a career as a trail builder with his company, Momentum Trail Concepts. We talk about his personal history, the Colorado race scene, developing municipal trail systems, head injury and DH superfandom in this special interview. -gordo 

One of America's fastest downhillers is also one of America's greatest hopes for the survival and growth of #USDH

Jeff Lenosky is a household name for any long-time mountain biker. The diversely talented rider started skating and riding BMX as a youngster and pointed those skills at a mountain bike in high school. At 6'4", the BMX bikes were always small for him, so mountain bikes were a perfect fit. Finding his way into a cross country race, he realized that trials existed and was a progression of the street riding he was doing at home. While working at a machine shop, he built his own triple clamp trials fork, created his own pre-V-brakes and chased his passion to become a professional mountain biker using every opportunity he could. Once he had 75 sponsors on his jersey because he thought the more the better, but Jeff, who has plenty of natural business sense, quickly learned the best strategies and angles for being a long-time professional mountain biker. Enjoy the stories and experiences of one of mountain biking's finest. 

All of your questions answered! We discuss one of the hottest tech topics in mountain biking with the guys making rear shocks for a living. See the full story at http://www.vitalmtb.com/features/TECH-TALK-Air-Shocks-Versus-Coil-Shocks-Whats-Better,2065

Welcome mountain bikers! We have an extremely special guest on The Inside Line. Few in out sport have such a storied career as Toby Henderson. He began racing BMX bikes some 40 years ago and turned that desire to race bikes and avoid "a real job" into one of the most varied and successful careers in both BMX and mountain biking. I remember seeing Toby in BMX magazines as a kid and then in mountain bike magazines when I first caught wind of the sport and knew he was a good rider, but didn't realize he had such a passion for product development. I thought the success of the infamous T.H.E. fender was a fluke, but it clearly wasn't. Toby is determined, focused and driven to succeed with his product business, despite the challenges that arise. Through BOX components he's challenging the two monsters of drivetrain with an alternative. Why would anyone take on that fight? Learn why in our interview. 

Cesar Rojo of Cero Design and the man behind UNNO bikes dropped in on us at Whistler during Crankworx. He was riding and showing off his exotic carbon downhill bike to the droves of curious, drooling on-lookers. The talented Spaniard has a World Cup DH pedigree as he was part of the original Global Racing squad in the early 2000's. Combining his riding skill with a passion for engineering, Cesar, through his company Cero Design, is likely the reason that your head angle is comfortably slack and your reach measurements are roomy. Enjoy some history and philosophy as we discuss the past, present and future of mountain biking and his exotic UNNO bikes.

Arguably the gnarliest downhill race on the planet, Red Bull Hardline whittles down a heavy field of riders to a select few. Enjoy interviews with the race winner, Craig Evans and his fellow competitors.

As one of mountain biking's greatest photographers and storytellers, Sven Martin's name should ring out to anyone who's been on Vital MTB or picked up a magazine in the last 10 years. His images and interviews capture the atmosphere and emotion of the World Cup and Enduro World Series in a way that only those of a true mountain biking superfan can. The South African's immersion and investment in our sport started by chance after his wife Anka picked up a bike while they were living in Southern California. Through riding, racing and photography, he has carved out the dream life; traveling the world, riding bikes and taking photos of his adventures. His success, however, comes from passion, hustle and hard work that many don't get to see. Sven is a friend of mine, but I still look at him as the greatest storyteller in mountain biking right now, and he's a huge reason for Vital's success throughout the years. Our interview is long, but it's full of inspiration, information

The 2017 UCI Mountain Bike DH World Championships are in the books with Loic Bruni and Miranda Miller earning the rainbow stripes in Cairns, Australia. Vital's main man on the ground, Sven Martin, speaks with the winners, their mechanics and also Myriam Nicole and Mick and Tracey Hannah in this special for our podcast channel. Stay tuned for the race day slideshow and the return of The Inside Line podcast this week.

You may know him as Fitzy, but Mark Fitzsimmons took a passion for two-wheeled thrills combined with disassembling things and turned it into a career. As Race Program Director for FOX, he's involved in product development for the consumer market which can only get there through the rigors of world-class racing and competition. Besides being a slayer on two wheels (with or without motors), Fitzy has worked with the best riders on the planet and knows what it takes to get the highest performing suspension products in to the hands of every-day mountain bikers. He speaks on his history, his career with FOX, collaborating with world's fastest racers, 29er DH fork development, what racers and average riders need, as well as the future of mountain bike suspension. It was a privilege to be able to pick his brain for an hour and I hope you enjoy the podcast. -spomer

Corner the best downhill mountain biker of all time, force him into his car and see what kind of questions he'll answer.