Bikes & Big Ideas BLISTER

Hannah Otto’s obliteration of the Whole Enchilada FKT a couple of years ago was already hugely impressive, but she went much bigger — double the elevation and well over double the mileage — in her follow-up pursuit of the Kokopelli Trail FKT. 
She came painfully close to pulling it off on her first attempt, despite horrific weather and trail conditions, before finally getting redemption with her second attempt this spring. So we sat down with Hannah to chat about what inspired her to choose the Kokopelli Trail for her next FKT attempt; hear the story of her brutal first go-round; discuss going back for her ultimately-successful second attempt this spring; and much more.
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TOPICS & TIMES:
Chasing the Kokopelli FKT
Why Kokopelli?
Hannah’s prep for her first attempt
The cold, snowy first attempt
Regrouping & the second attempt
Gear selection
Managing fear
Training for long-distance FKTs vs. racing
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The first production batch of the Frameworks DH bike is sold out, but they’ll soon be opening preorders for the Enduro version. So we brought Neko Mulally back onto the show to tell us all about the new bike; the variants of the DH bike he’s been testing; the expanded Frameworks race team with Angel Suarez and Asa Vermette; and a bunch more.
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TOPICS & TIMES:
Recapping the 2024 race season to date (2:16)
The expanded Frameworks team (6:20)
Tuning the DH bike for different racers (11:56)
Frame materials & testing other variants (20:14)
The Enduro bike (34:13)
Balancing racing with team management / mentorship & Neko’s evolving role (57:29)
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Geometron arguably did more than any other bike brand to kick off the geometry revolution of the late 2010s, but they weren’t content to leave their longstanding G1 alone — even though its geometry still looks pretty up to date five years after it first launched. So we sat down with Sam Robson and Marcel Lauxtermann from Geometron to talk about the development of the new G1, their goals for the updated bike, the testing that informed the updates they made, and a whole lot more.
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Geometron G1
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TOPICS & TIMES:
Introducing Sam and Marcel (3:29)
Updating the G1 (6:32)
Refining geometry (9:04)
“Loading patterns” and bike setup for customers (13:57)
The new G1 (18:11)
David’s bike setup preferences (25:52)
Headtube angles and front wheel loading (30:47)
Stem lengths and steering feel (37:29)
Bottom bracket drop and geometry adjustability (41:31)
Other updates (43:25)
Suspension kinematics (47:39)
Sam & Marcel’s personal bike setups (51:42)
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In this month's episode of Reviewing the News on our Bikes & Big Ideas Podcast, Mike Ferrentino and Simon Stewart debate the polarizing topic of bikes in Wilderness areas. There's plenty of bike racing to talk about — including the biggest one in the world, the Tour de France. And they’re excited to talk about Red Bull Rampage including a women’s category, Simon winds Mike up about a new tire valve standard, plus a whole lot more.
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Blister Mountain Bike Buyer’s Guide
TOPICS & TIMES:
Simon’s recent crash (0:53)
Bikes in wilderness areas (7:30)
Women’s competition at RedBull Rampage (18:41)
World Cup DH racing in June recap (22:15)
Nino Schurter wins his 36th XCO (29:18)
Tour de France (30:32)
The great bike valve debate (42:10)
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We’ve been testing a big spectrum of bikes from the XC-race-derived Specialized Epic Evo to big Enduro sleds including the RAAW Madonna V3 and Marin Alpine Trail, so David Golay and Zack Henderson sat down to chat about a whole bunch of them, and along the way we take a deep dive into tire design & a variety of options we’ve been testing; discuss the wide variety of mid-travel high-pivot bikes on the market, and a bunch more.
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TOPICS & TIMES:
Deviate Highlander II (2:00)
RAAW Madonna (11:14)
Specialized Epic Evo (21:38)
Marin Alpine Trail (27:44)
Schwalbe Tacky Chan (37:48
Michelin Wild Enduro and DH (45:19)
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Bryan Hance is a bike enthusiast and web developer who combined those two interests in co-founding Bike Index, a database that tracks ownership to help recover bikes that end up stolen. Through that work, Bryan uncovered a sprawling bike theft and trafficking operation, which he traced back to one man, operating out of Jalisco, Mexico — and the story only gets crazier from there. So we sat down with Bryan and Chris Solomon, who wrote a piece for Wired on Bryan’s work, to hear all about it. 
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Bag Balm
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TOPICS & TIMES:
Bike Index & Bryan’s interest in bike theft (2:14)
Constru-Bikes’s operation (7:46)
What did this network look like? (13:41)
How Bryan uncovered Constru’s trafficking (22:20)
Arrests in the US (29:11)
How to shut this down? (34:56)
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