“It’s still a really hard sport to cover without massive resources”

“Warner Bros Discovery is hardly a mom and pop shop.”

Covering it well, to the standard people want,and doing it profitably is probably a different matter though. Even more so in a challenged trading environment where there’s less sponsorship dollars to offset costs.

Re: athletes’ pay from governing bodies. FIFA don’t pay Lionel Messi – his agent leverages the image, reach and exposure global football gives him and turns that into endorsement deals.

Mountain biking is pretty backwards when it comes to athlete & team sponsorships TBH, it might be a controversial view to some, but I think the sport needs more agents to represent athletes & teams, and sell their endorsement rights/reach to sponsors outside the bike industry. Also, see teams running as proper businesses (just like in the pro peloton) rather than a mostly factory run marketing cost centre.

@weeksy they were probably already made 2 years ago and awaiting parts. Quite a lot of brands in that position apparently, and then demand fell off a cliff.

The problem there is firstly condistency of delivery, and secondly, for every person that thinks youtube live or similar is great, there’ll be 100 complaining pinkbike forum users moaning it’s not Hollywood standard broadcast.

And as we know, there’s sadly a vocal group who refuse to pay but want more output, to hell with wages, costs, logistics or any of the real life factors that impact the viability of broadcasting a difficult sport.

That must be why it’s passed me by – I visit here, pinkbike, nsmb and vital, and a few others. If it’s not on those sites, I don’t hear about it!

Must admit I’d be really interested to hear various media outlets’ take on why they’ve not run with coverage like previous years, but then run stories about the decline of the sport & coverage.

Is it a resistance to publishing/promoting a ‘competitor’ content or something else?

Not that I know of, or else MoiMoi TV etc wouldn’t exist?

There’s at least the same amount of video coverage of enduro on the official channels, but for some reason a lot of the MTB media aren’t sharing it this year. I wonder if that’s because they perceive Discovery as a media competitor?

Enduro playlist with previews, highlights, interviews etc:

https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PL5W-TcQwJltJMDXEQDdHeeqyQiAycA_7x&si=_xwOYrkiqjeYqMgJ

Free to view DH highlights, juniors racing, semis, qualis etc:

https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PL5W-TcQwJltK6ZNqd1scJeegqa_MQmHs1&si=iPPp7al0natmui5s

I’d not be surprised to see more non-bike team/athlete sponsors next year, once all view stats, proof of concept from a marketing perspective is out there.

My red bull question was 100% genuine and the answers *might* be an insight into why they didn’t fight to retain it. After all, a marketing endeavour can only be tolerated so long if it’s not generating a return 🤷‍♂️

@weeksy you raise good questions re: money.

I’d say that being a proper televised sport will improve the odds of teams & athletes selling sponsorships to non-bike brands. Most professional sports (inc. road cycling) see teams and athletes make the lions share of their money from sponsorship and endorsements, rather than prize money.

It might be we need more agents/commercial teams within team structures to help make that happen 🤔

I always ask the question of thise saying they preferred the free Red Bull setup:

How much per year did you spend on cans of Red Bull as a result of them marketing to you through MTB?

They didn’t do it for altruism.

And of course, let’s not forget plenty of mountain bikers (just check any trail centre or bike park car park) are self employed in construction, so may well buy/lease a bike friendly pickup for/through the business.

So it may well be a masterstroke of good audience profiling here.

Either way, looking entirely dispassionately – STW needs £X to operate it, who is in the market with that figure to spend within the time frame? Easy to get sanctimonious without remembering there’s bills to pay and that cash has to come from somewhere.

The Ride Companion podcast had a really good episode about the BC/Shell thing where Olly Wilkins looked at exactly this in a pragmatic way, one of their best ones I thought because it actually dived into the “who’s got the budget, desire and ability” better than anywhere else I saw.

Not in the market for a pickup at the moment, but fair play to STW for landing this deal. Open marketplace digital ad revenues are stupidly low at the moment, it’s no secret lots of bike brands are struggling so have cut budgets, so keeping STW running by sourcing alternative, demographically relevant (and historically better paying) advertorial incomes from the motor industry is a good move.

Easy to get all upset based on personal opinions, but if the choice is either diversify advertising or go under/lay people off, or at best barely struggle along, then fair play.

I’ve used black nail polish with decent success several times. This one seems to work well:

Gelly Hi Shine Nail Paint | Black Forest

SWMBO tells me there’s a difference between brands in terms of how hard & durable they are after curing.

I did good slow prep using 800 grit, painted on, left to air harden indoors for 48 hours then very, very gently wet sanded back with 1200 grit, water & washing up liquid.

@theotherjonv fair play to both those young lads. First one has clearly done his job brilliantly, daughter’s bf learning at the coal face and whatever he goes into long term after uni, I guarantee he’ll look back at his time cold calling with fondness when he realises what he’s learned on the job about work ethic, self reliance and just cracking on, even when it’s tough. I know I do.

Don’t worry TJ, I’m fully ahead of GDPR from both an EU and post-Brexit standpoint, having delivered training on it to sales teams straddling B2B and B2C. Getting the opt in on consumer side isn’t hard if the right nudge processes (usually incentivisation or gamification) are applied and the consumer feels a value. At which point, drop off rates are way below benchmark.

For B2B direct marketing it’s a case of building solid target groups, robust methods and being absolutely shit hot with prequalification so as not to waste anyone’s time, along with an awful lot of practice.

Sadly there’s a dearth of training in a lot of the ‘first contact’ space, hence the perceptions like yours based on poor experience.

@Cougar all depends if a run on Sales Nav and Apollo suggests you’re the right person to contact….. 😉

TJ I’m pretty certain GDPR isn’t there to preclude businesses from trying to contact potential clients and drum up business. You can’t ban outbound sales because you have a visceral dislike for cold calls (of course not all cold calls and cold callers are equal).

And just to add, not once in 15+ years of business development have I ever been asked “where did you get my number” “take me off your list” etc etc. 99% of the time, they’ve been perfectly OK with receiving a sales call.

Matt OAA – that’ll be from LinkedIn Sales Nav plugins, Zoominfo, Apollo, or any number of sales contact capture tools. And as COO, you’ll be higher rated as a decision maker on all these tools, so more visible to potential suppliers.

The other thing is of course “cold call” might actually be “warm list of relevant leads”, like “mobile contracts approaching renewal date”, “homes of a certain age in an area where a certain construction method was used”, “SMEs in X business sector in City Y with turnover up to Z”. Just because you’re not expecting the call, doesn’t mean it’s “cold” per se.

And yes, I’ve sold a lot from warm, relevant B2B leads (self gen) but calling outbound first point of contact.

TJ I know you’ve got a hard line on this and probably won’t want to listen to or consider an alternative viewpoint, but I can say there definitely IS a legitimate reason and value for cold calling – from both a consumer and business perspective.

Where we live now, the houses were built in the 50s. There’s actually 2 different energy efficiency/insulation schemes (and apparently soon solar again too) that properties in the area are eligible for. If people didn’t know there was such a scheme in existence to even know to look for it, especially if not Internet savvy, how might they find out about said schemes? Ah yes, someone from a call centre representing a business operating under said scheme. Customers insulate their houses at reduced/subsidised cost, businesses make money, everyone wins.

I had a call from one provider not long after having completed the works with another under the same scheme. Politely told them this, no harm done.

As others have said, there’s a massive difference between a UK call centre, calling to generate leads for double glazing, insulation, gutter cleaning, solar panels etc, and the foreign scam calls that pretend to be fraud prevention for Microsoft etc.

Back in the day, I actually did almost a year of evening shifts cold calling for double glazing to supplement my day job as I’d just rented my first flat and needed the extra cash. It was bloody hard work, you had to hit various KPIs every shift (volume of calls, effective calls, appointments set), working from a provided list of numbers. If I remember correctly (20 years ago), you had to achieve 100 dials per shift – fail a KPI  sweep and you’d not be booked for your next shift. It was brutal, but the people there (a mix of young working class lads, and young mums, presumably all fitting it in around commitments whether eork or childcare related) were all decent people just trying to make ends meet, and knowing if they deviated off plan, there was no more work for them.

So yeah, maybe treat them with a bit of dignity & decency, they don’t make the rules and you don’t know the “why” they’re there.

Theotherjohnv – one big thing I’ll say is that the time I spent cold calling has stood me in bloody good stead ever since, certainly had to not be afraid of picking up the phone (a major hurdle employers are facing with young workers now) and strong work ethic, as well as understanding the whole fact success is a numbers game. Fair play to the lad – it’s character building in every sense 👍👍

Asked the wife about this (she works in a residential home for acute mental illness – schizophrenia, voice controlled disorders etc). They fairly regularly deal with neighbours who have suffered property damage at the hands of residents (some are on semi free to roam/supported living arrangements) and what they do is reimburse victim losses then add the bill to the client account. This protects both local relationships with the community but also insulates the residents from legal action, as theoretically, you could now pass on the old woman’s details to your insurers and they could pursue her for reimbursement plus costs.

So while the home may not (as TJ says) have a legal responsibility, it may be you can apply pressure on them to cover your losses and recoup, rather than have someone in their care face the stress of being pursued by an insurance company with a load of extra costs added on for legal process etc.

I’d suggest go along to the care home, ask to dpeak to management. Tell them you have proof and you want either the home/accommodation or her family to  cover all your costs to repair your car to original standard (i.e. proper repair, not dome cheap fix) rather than you go down “official” route which may be overly stressful for the old woman. Make it their problem, and make it very clear that their failure to act will result in her facing a lot of stress as a result of that failure. Do they want that on them?

Interesting point there Northwind – maybe the vendor added the branding to hopefully make them easier to move on and recoup their losses? Wouldn’t seem like too big a stretch I don’t think.

This lokks like one of those no brainer upgrades next time you need a new DU bush on a trunnion, clevis or any other shock:

https://dhsign.it/en/14-fixshox

It can’t hurt to fit donething like either a spherical bearing on the eyelet end if you’ve got enough material to open it out to 16mm, or one of the DHSign Shockfix units instead.

Running a trunnion shock on a very long, slack, long travel steel frame (as I had the shock already so designed round it) with a spherical bearing on the eyelet, zero problems at all.

New Mattoc Pro looks really good – decent video of it here https://youtu.be/LXzJ6dliYFo

For ease, has anyone got a link to the podcast please? Sounds like an interesting listen 👍

I thought this was an excellent insight into both the mindset of “toxic wealth” that can drive risky behaviour when people get wealthy quickly, and the predatory way these people can be “sold” to. Jason Calacanis has a couple of different podcasts, and I always think he’s got a great ability to see the bigger picture. Really interesting to hear his insights and self awareness as a tech billionaire (not just on this issue but in general):

See if this picture works!

https://ibb.co/QMKcTPz

Geo is pretty wild on mine:

490 reach

440 CS

430 ST

62 HA

82 SA

120 HT, ZS44/ZS56 tapered

Mullet, 180 F&R, 225×70 coil shock (co-designed the trunnion mount with Marino as I already had the shock), spherical bearing on the eyelet end.

I never weighed the frame, but complete build is only 600g or so heavier than the Stumpy Evo build, and only difference is longer DHX2 shock vs MRP Hazzard. So I’m guessing c500g heavier than whatever an alloy Stumpy Evo S3 weighs.

Mine’s the standard 4130 double butted rather than anything fancy.

I’ve got one – quality is bang on, process was decent if a little disjointed at times thanks to timezone/language differences and the fact Peru had a pretty bad Covid spike while I was ordering.

Best advice I can give is to be really sure of your geometry – the ordering process pretty much forces that which is a good thing IMO. If you’re building around progressive geometry, it’s also worth getting spherical bearings or the DHSign Shockfix bushes to mitigate natural flex and keep things nice and friction free.

How does it ride? 6 months into ownership, almost 46 years old and just over long covid and I’m smashing PBs up and down, even getting a few KOMs too. I’m under no illusions that it’s down to me 🤣🤣

No idea how to add pictures or I’d post them here!

Incredible isn’t it? Just don’t make the mistake I did and watch it on the big telly after a few cans 🤣🤣🤣 left me feeling quite all over the place!

When we say “salaries are huge” – what are we talking, what roles, and what % uplift vs average for that role in the UK?

Another recommendation for the DHSign FixShock. If I remember correctly, there’s a video showing an Orbea with one and the difference it makes.

When I built my Marino FS last year, I hand reamed the DHX2 to 16mm to take a spherical bearing as I expected a long, slack steel frame to have some flex and sideloading – it’s noticeable how much more active the bike feels in fast corners compared to the Stumpy Evo it replaced, and I’ve had no shock leaks either.

I’m using Magura MDR-P floating rotors (2mm thick) on mine, with the sintered pads. Hoping the Uberbike race matrix reappear in stock soon.

Good solution to the barb/llive situation is to use Uberbike fittings as they’re all reusable:

https://www.uberbikecomponents.com/category/436/Hydraulic-Replacement-Fittings

@thenorthwind it was just used as a threat for the 24 hour deadline if not met, and not actioned as the response came sooner.

Sad that we have to use threats like this and escalate to the top (LinkedIn Pro and a few other tools great for finding direct contacts) to force action when it’s clear they’d be happier just turning a blind eye to theft in the network.

Had a situation latd last year where a frame I sold went AWOL and nobody at RM wanted to help.

Went for the nuclear option and it worked:

– Tweeted RM saying “your staff have stolen my parcel, you have 24 hours to resolve”

– Simultaneously emailed CEO and director of customer service (on same email) with link to tweet, details of what’s happened, and leaned hard into “your staff have stolen my parcel”. Gave 1 working day dealine for response before logging with police, my MP and sharing theft story to media.

I got no reply from either director, but did get a call a matter of hours later saying the frame had been found. Recipient sent me pics showing box had been opened and retaped, so I assuming the plan was to “lose” it then divert the contents.

If you’d like the contacts I used, PM me and I’ll be happy to help. Sadly it seems you need to threaten hard to get a result.

Short and full highlights will be on new GMBN racing channel, free to watch according yo this:

2 – 180/180 custom Marino enduro FS that’s my do it all MTB (I’ve got dual ply tyres on as standard but do have some lighter ones for any XC type events I might have a crack at in spring/summer), and steel gravel/commuter rat bike (1x, Spank gravel bars, 650b with 2.25 Rapid Rob up front and a 47mm WTB out back, 180mm rotors) that’s actually a joy to ride to work twice a week on our shitty country roads between home and the office.

I can’t honestly see any benefit for me in having more – both have been set up (and in the case if the Marino, designed from ground up) to be low maintenance, fit nicely and versatile.