Vital Mtb - Speaking Of Mountain Biking

The journey of today's Inside Line guest is inspiring. Joe Graney just happens to be CEO of Santa Cruz Bicycles, but he never had the goal of being the man in charge of such a highly influential bike brand. The Bostonian followed his passion for riding bikes, tinkering with bikes, machining and engineering. Mix in a little RV life and low and behold, after designing some of mountain biking's most popular rigs, he's running the show at Santa Cruz. Not surprising, however, he's as down to earth as the first time I met him, some 7 or 8 years ago. I enjoyed getting to know more of Joe's story, hearing about the struggles and success of Santa Cruz, discussing the Syndicate and what the future holds for MTB. I hope you enjoy the interview.

Josh Carlson popped onto the world enduro scene unknown, but he left his mark early on. Always ready to go for it, Josh had some big tumbles and serious injuries before figuring out how to channel his inner sender and develop the kind of consistency required to feature on page one of the results sheet. We had the opportunity to meet Josh at the recent launch of the new Giant Reign, and we sat down with the affable Aussie for an informal but very informative chat about all things enduro. Hit play and join the party!

If it weren't for Hans Rey's VHS videos, I'm not sure I would have found the same love for mountain biking that I have now. Without that love for mountain biking found in the mid-90's, there's a great chance that I would not be where I am in mountain bike media today. My story about the impact, direct or indirect, that Hans Rey has had on my mountain biking experience is just one of thousands out there. Exposed to the first days of the new sport of bicycle trials, Hans rose through the competitive trials ranks to earn multiple World Championship victories. His trials skills took him to California where he was introduced to mountain biking and the rest is history. From VHS videos to riding Kilimanjaro to his wheels4life.org charity, Hans wrote the book on what it means to be a professional mountain biker through competition or non-competitive adventures. It was a pleasure and honor to interview one of my early MTB heroes and I hope you enjoy the interview. Visit www.wheels4life.org to

It's hard to believe that NSMB.com is almost 20 years old. Cam McRae and two friends saw a void in mountain biking content that reflected their aggressive riding styles and instead of starting a print magazine, decided that the internet was the most effective way of sharing the gospel of MTB. Fast-forward to today and NSMB is a highly respected editorial outlet sharing the authentic mountain biking experience. Cam trusts his instincts and follows his soul with the content that he and NSMB produces. From Dangerous Dan to Digger to the modern enduro bike, Cam has seen it all. Learn more about his history and his passion for our great sport. -spomer

Eliot Jackson is a professional downhill racer on the Giant Factory Off-Road Racing team. The long-time American pinner has roots in motocross and is no stranger to high-performance racing. He discusses how telemetry and data acquisition has impacted his mountain bike race training and preparation with some eye-opening results.Visit http://www.vitalmtb.com/features/TECH-TALK-Giant-Factory-Off-Roads-Eliot-Jackson-on-Data-Acquisition-and-Bike-Set-Up,1852 for photos and more details about this high-tech data gatherting system.

Dave Garland is a bike wizard. The Giant Factory Off-Road mechanic uses his latest piece of tech to help refine his World Cup DH racers' set-ups and bring to light feel versus reality on course. Bike nerds rejoice!

Brandon Sloan is a long-time Specialized employee who has worked his way up through the ranks, landing as the director in charge of all things bike. While he avoids disclosing an official title and says he's never had a "real job," Brandon is responsible for the development of some influential products over the years like the Big Hit with 24-inch rear wheel, the Demo, the Enduro, including the Enduro 29, and plenty more. We discuss a fondness for Dr. Pepper, working with Sam Hill and Aaron Gwin on the Demo's development, Specialized's product testing procedures, direct-to-consumer sales and what the future may look like for mountain biking. I had a great time learning about this legend of modern mountain bike development and I hope you do to.

We put Brendog on the spot to talk about movies, racing, and where you should travel to ride your bike next. Uncut and straight off the cuff!

Chris Hilton, a long-time mountain bike industry figure, left his Alabama home in the 90's to pursue mountain bike racing. When he realized he wasn't cut out for competitive XC racing, he found his way into the business side of our sport, eventually landing at SRAM some 10 years ago. Getting his feet wet with SRAM XX 2x10 drivetrain development, he's a big reason why 1x drivetrains are so successful today. Chris would dig through the boxes of random products that SRAM engineers had collected over the years, questioning if these unused technologies could be used on mountain bikes. Chris and his team pushed the development of wide-range 1x drivetrains into production as riders and racers were already running cobbled-together 1x drivetrains on their own. From XX1 through Eagle (which he originally didn't embrace), Chris has been there for some MTB's most important drivetrain refinements. Enjoy the past, the present and the future of drivetrains and bike development with a passionate ride

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.

I am honored to share an interview with The Inside Line's first female guest, Elayna Caldwell. Elayna is Brand Director of Mountain Biking at SRAM. She has a long history in our sport, starting out as a hobbyist racer and eventually finding her way into the industry by way of a an entry-level marketing position at RockShox back when it was based in Northern California. We discuss some of her journey in the sport, how she arrived at the top of the SRAM food chain, women's racing and the women's market in mountain biking, as well as, triumphs and challenges of her career. Elayna is a candid woman who won't hesitate to share her opinion, and her genuine passion for mountain biking shines through. I hope you learn something, laugh and enjoy the interview as much as I enjoyed conducting it. -spomer

One is a master on the bike, the other is a master behind the camera. I had the pleasure of sitting down with two friends and superstars of the mountain bike world this week at the Sea Otter Classic; Brendan Fairclough and Clay Porter. I set up a mobile, outdoor podcaststudio at Vital's Sea Otter campsite and we conducted the interview under an oak tree near the venue.Brendan and Clay have partneredup to create Deathgrip, a movie that showcases the riding talent of Brendan and select athletes like Brandon Semenuk, Josh Bryceland, Andreu Lacondeguy,Sam Reynolds, Ryan Howard, Nico Vink, Andrew Neethling, Kyle Jameson and Olly Wilkins. We discuss the vision for the full-length movie, the strugglesand the achievements made while filming. Discussions turn to the Lourdes World Cup that is just hours away and Brendan's approach to the 2017 raceseason, 29-inch wheels in downhill and his future in mountain biking.I hope you enjoy the interview as much as I did.Learn more about the movie at www.deathgripmovie

Jose Gonzalez has been involved with mountain bikes and mountain bike suspension almost as long as the products have existed. Coming from an extensive motocross background with Kawasaki, Jose found a love for mountain biking and suspension development in the early years of Manitou. He and his team developed some of the most important suspension products of the era, which helped turned mountain biking and world-class MTB competition into a true performance sport. Since 2006, Jose has worked with Trek Bicycles as Director of Suspension Development at his small-but-efficient laboratory in Valencia, California. There and his team work with the Trek bike designers in Waterloo, Wisconsin, to engineer high-performing full-suspension mountain bikes like the Remedy and the Slash. Jose has a knowledge of suspension and passion for mountain biking that runs deep. We discuss past product development, working with riders like John Tomac, and the future of mountain biking with topics like 29-inch wheels in downhill applica

Quinton Spaulding is a man dedicated to downhill racing. The South African native moved to Las Vegas, Nevada with his family and first rode a mountain bike in 1998. Shortly thereafter, he answered a magazine ad about a grassroots sponsorship with KHS Bicycles and has been with the brand ever since. "Q" as he's often called is 49, still races Pro downhill and runs the KHS Factory Racing downhill team. In this interview, we discuss his loyalty to downhilling, KHS as a brand, the future of American downhill racing and where he sees his team in the future. Q's dedication to our sport is contagious. Enjoy the interview. Learn more about KHS Factory racing at www.khsfactoryracing.com

Aaron Gwin needs no introduction. He's one of the greatest downhill mountain bike racers of all time and he's in the prime of his career. I sat down with Aaron at his home in Murrieta, California, and we discussed things from diet and training, his shelf-life as a downhill racer, his desire to motivate and inspire kids and even a love he has for singing. I hope you enjoy this episode with a truly world-class athlete. If you like our podcasts, don't forget to rate us on iTunes and spread the word about them to your fellow mountain bikers.

Welcome mountain bikers to Vital MTB's The Inside Line Podcast Back in early December of 2016, I met with Duncan Riffle. I've known Duncan for years and had shot photos with him when he was a pro downhill racer, competing on the World Cup circuit in the early and mid 2000's. Since then he's become a staple of SRAM's marketing department. What's funny is that I think of him as duncan riffle the american downhiller...the guy who won a Mt. Snow Vermont NORBA National in the rain. But he explained to me that most of his interaction today is with people who only know him as a SRAM guy. We go into his storied downhill career and how he successfully transitioned into an industry position - a transition that most ex-racers don't seem to make very well. if you've seen his Instagram posts, you know he has a TON of ink and he posts some heavy pieces of writing. We get into that a bit too. Duncan is a focused, driven personality of our sport and I hope you enjoy learning about his

I had known of Bryson Martin for a long time. I knew he was a long-time mountain bike industry heavy-weight, involved in Marzocchi throughout the years, eventually creating DVO Suspension in 2012. It wasn't until December of 2016 that I first had the chance to sit down and get to know his story and background. Bryson is the reason Marzocchi considered entering the mountain bike market. He's the man behind the infamous Bomber suspension products of freeriding's glory days, including the Monster T and Shiver, and he's a well-educated and calculated business man who thinks about the big picture and future of our sport. More importantly, however, he doesn't hesitate to have plenty of fun with his dedicated crew at DVO while pushing the business forward. I hope you enjoy the interview with Bryson that took place this past December, as he and I, joined by Vital's Product Editor, Brandon Turman, talk about mountain biking's past, present and future. -spomer

Welcome mountain bikers! It’s been a long two weeks. I’m glad you’re back for our third episode of Vital MTB’s The Inside Line podcast. My guest this week is Craig Glaspell, but most of you probably know him as Stikman. Stik has a LONG history in our sport as a mechanic, team manager, husband to Leigh Donovan, rumor and gossip mill instigator, marketing guru, but most importantly, he’s possibly mountain biking’s number one fan. When I was new to the sport, I remember hanging on every post of his MTB rumor blog stiksandstones.com, and then getting within a digital arm’s reach of his history through banter and battles on Ridemonkey back in the early 2000’s. His posts were always insightful, but man, he could really get under my skin and it’s safe to say I didn’t like him back then. My ignorance combined with his ability to troll me at the time is now a something I look back on fondly. Over the years, I’ve had the pleasure of spending some time with Stik, but this interview we had back on December 14, really sho

Hello mountain bikers! Welcome to episode 2 of Vital MTB's The Inside Line. We're overwhelmed by the reception and the kind words you all had for episode 1 with Eliot Jackson. We really appreciate the support and excitement for what we're doing. We are excited to bring you episode 2. I sat down with Brian Lopes last week and we had a great discussion about some of his history, the heyday of mountain biking, his move to Ellsworth bikes in 2017 and why it seems like some of you just love to hate him in the internet comments. We currently have four other interviews with MTB athletes and industry personalities that are waiting to be broadcast, but I felt like my talk with Brian needed to be bumped to the front of the queue due to some time-specific topics. Sit back, grab the popcorn and enjoy. I learned a lot about Brian that I didn't know before and I hope you do too. Every other Wednesday we will launch new episodes of The Inside Line. Please tune in while at work, on the trail or on the roa

Welcome to Vital MTB's The Inside line, a podcast about the personalities in our great sport of mountain biking. We're excited to kick things off with an episode featuring American downhill racer, Eliot Jackson. On December 1st, we met up with Eliot in a quiet, distraction-free house near Santa Barbara, California. He was staying there to focus on training for the 2017 World Cup season. I learned that Eliot happens to be a podcast fan and to my surprise really loves road riding. We discuss growing up racing motocross at a near-professional level with the likes of Ryan Villopoto, how he dropped out of full-time school in 7th grade to pursue racing, the fact he considers himself a nerd who loves reading, problem solving and statistics, his transition from the Pivot Cycles World Cup DH team to Giant Factory Racing for 2017 and just what makes calculated crusher tick. We hope you enjoy getting to know Eliot through this interview as much as we did.