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Fresh Goods Friday Podcast Episode the 7th: New Dawn For BC, Engaged i9 Wheels
Mar 24, 2025
Benji & Hannah talk dirty to each other about British Cycling, i9 Wheels, Press Launch crashes and Hannah tells the longest (possibly also the worst) Whale joke in the world (post credits).
Check out the full Fresh Goods Friday story here https://singletrackworld.com
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0:06
[Music]
0:21
hello and welcome to this week's single
0:22
track World podcast I'm Hannah Dobson
0:25
managing editor and here is Benjamin
0:27
howth technical editor single magazine
0:32
magazine and this week big news big news
0:36
is that I've got a sore eye because I
0:39
got mud in my eye as I was riding at the
0:42
weekend Oh I was riding along and I
0:44
could see all this mud spraying off my
0:47
tire and I was like oh I hope I don't
0:49
get any of that in my eye uhoh you have
0:51
a mud guard on I didn't no cuz I just
0:53
picked it up new test bike and I haven't
0:55
got to spend m going on at the moment
0:57
send me mud guards please peeps uh and
1:00
yeah so it went in in the air and then
1:05
pop right in behind my glasses over the
1:07
top right into my ey under no over the
1:10
top and I remember thinking oh no yeah
1:14
and now sure enough I've got a sore eye
1:16
wow what you do about it I've got some
1:19
eye drops to put in oh they got CAU eye
1:22
patch oh I could do yeah although it
1:25
would still hurt an itch but you'd look
1:29
dangerous
1:31
pirate um I was going to tell my whale
1:33
joke then but then I realized it's
1:35
really long and it will sound really
1:37
weird on a podcast yeah so we won't I'll
1:41
tell you that afterwards yeah okay
1:44
anyway
1:45
mud you wanted to talk about mud and
1:49
stones and rock and geology didn't you
1:54
yes why because I think it's Poss
2:01
the essence sounds really obvious
2:04
doesn't it this the essence of ATB of
2:08
allterrain
2:10
biking what's under your tees okay yeah
2:14
what's your preferred
2:16
surface very dark brown
2:19
soil that's quite loose but not too
2:22
loose LOM LOM if you want to call it
2:25
that but not really is it I like that
2:28
sort of stuff for some Roots okay things
2:31
like that trees mhm so yeah so you're
2:34
looking for like high organic content
2:37
type soil then yes right I think that is
2:40
LOM well the okay then what's it called
2:43
high organic content I reckon right
2:45
that's could be a new strap line well so
2:47
I would agree I like something for my
2:50
tires to dig into yeah um so I've
2:53
obviously just recently come back from
2:55
Moab where the sand best ignored by
2:59
everyone I think and there's be
3:03
Rock
3:05
and it freaks me out a bit there's bear
3:07
Rock cuz it's hard with your land on it
3:10
tends to remove skin as well and I can't
3:15
get my head around the idea that it is
3:18
grippy oh right okay very grippy is it
3:21
it is grippy right but so my husband
3:24
will walk around on it and ride around
3:26
on it and he's just like as if he's
3:29
walking down the street right and I'm
3:31
like oh my God I'm going to fall over
3:33
I'm going to
3:35
slide and so but he's like used to it so
3:38
he knows how it's going to behave so I
3:39
think it's about knowing what ground
3:42
undie is going to do different types of
3:45
stone different types of mud isn't there
3:48
well there Limestone Limestone and
3:50
there's clay both of those are to be
3:52
avoided I think and there's like
3:54
different like Sandy orange kind of dirt
3:59
is a bit of
4:00
anathema to me don't really know what
4:03
not used to it orang dirt yeah like I
4:06
try where there is some sudden Bank kind
4:09
of area got some do the stuff yeah and
4:12
is that CU it's a bit sandier so it just
4:14
moves a little bit more it does really
4:17
make a difference so obviously we go on
4:19
press trips from time to time and you
4:21
just find
4:23
yourself in whatever landscape you're in
4:26
yeah on a bike that you've never ridden
4:29
before for yeah and then down a trail
4:32
that you've never seen before yeah and
4:36
it it it can be quite disorientating
4:38
when you're like well I don't know what
4:39
that Rock's going to do when my tires
4:42
touch it yeah whether that soil is going
4:44
to like slide and then stop y I think
4:48
that's the the the lomy stuff that
4:50
you're talking about that you like it
4:53
kind of slides to a point and then it
4:56
kind of piles up and grips doesn't
4:58
it where whereas the sandy stuff that
5:01
you don't like and Clay they just sort
5:04
of keep moving I think lose some not
5:07
like super loose I'm not a big fan of
5:09
like um Shale and things like that Rocky
5:12
loose
5:13
things all the all the Americans and the
5:17
some of the Canadians talk about super
5:19
Tac which is like when it's rained bit
5:24
so all their dirts got a bit of moisture
5:26
in it so it's really
5:28
grippy and I think that this is alien to
5:31
us because we basically have some sort
5:34
of tack at all times yeah it's always
5:38
dump you way occasionally gets Mega dry
5:41
and you just have big crashes oh God
5:44
everything's rock
5:45
hard no give or you get that little like
5:48
Dusty marble effect on the top it's good
5:51
I'm surprised you're not more into like
5:53
testing out different tires like it's
5:56
dry quick get that particular comat
5:59
pound Tire out let's test it so I got to
6:02
go for the first time once on my first
6:05
press
6:06
trip which was a lapier launch yep and
6:11
they decided to do it uh reasonably near
6:16
the lapier factory in some Vineyards
6:20
Vineyards y uh and the soil was Clay and
6:27
The Rock was limestone yeah and it had
6:30
rained yep and there were quite a few
6:33
one of the bikes was a sort of cross
6:34
country thing with tires that are barely
6:37
there yeah and um and yeah so this is my
6:42
first press trip so I'm riding all these
6:43
different bikes there was like ebikes
6:45
there was women's bikes there was gravel
6:47
bikes was cross country thing it was
6:50
like all happening I was I was riding
6:52
like three bikes a day and stuff it was
6:54
crazy yeah um and I
6:57
remember coming down this trail that I'd
7:02
previously uh nearly taken out Nico vo
7:06
on cuz and come down something fallen
7:10
off slithered like landed on
7:13
him and then the rest of the root group
7:15
had got a bit further ahead down Trail
7:18
and i' come down all this steep stuff
7:19
and I thought yes look now I can catch
7:21
up with them it's just flat just over
7:23
there yeah and and then the flat over
7:26
there turned out to just be like an ice
7:29
rink of wet clay with roots
7:34
on and I didn't realize I didn't realize
7:37
how it was going to behave and I sort of
7:40
sped up and everyone ahead was looking
7:43
back at me in
7:45
like and then sure enough I realized
7:48
what I was on I was like don't touch the
7:50
brakes don't fall off don't just keep
7:52
going you might make it and I didn't
7:54
make it and I flew off and like in
7:57
dramatic fashion and everybody else went
7:59
oh
8:01
yeah had to stand up go I'm fine I'm
8:03
fine honestly I'm fine oh God the Press
8:05
launchers to to avoid are the ones that
8:08
are uh XC oh well it was everything it
8:12
was ebikes and XC it was it was
8:14
everything in one be
8:16
beware beware also take your it does
8:20
happen to much anymore though used to
8:21
take quite a lot of spare stuff used to
8:24
take a front tire us to take a stem
8:27
uhhuh um you can't do that when you go
8:30
hand luggage only
8:32
onl yeah because you know I just
8:34
sometimes refuse to ride it I have asked
8:37
for front tires to be swapped out into
8:39
something less terrifying I've done that
8:42
uh in the past year in their interest
8:44
people flying around out of
8:46
control it like I did it did hurt it
8:51
really hurt and I had to pretend tried
8:54
to cram a lot in didn't they bet someone
8:55
got in trouble for that no they gave us
8:58
really good food right it was one of
9:00
those where the tourist board had
9:02
something to do with it and every every
9:05
single meal on it was like if you're on
9:09
your honeymoon and you go out for one
9:10
really expensive both budget meal y
9:13
every meal was like that some of the
9:15
best food I've ever eaten used to do um
9:19
call my opion on the B going to uh
9:22
mitchellan launches are good for that
9:24
because they obviously often tie in with
9:26
Mitchell in Star places do they m oh
9:30
okay I'll have to look out for one of
9:32
them although one of the other best
9:35
culinary experiences I've had on a bike
9:39
launch was a cona one where they just
9:41
made a big picnic in the middle of the
9:42
woods yep we rode along for ages ages
9:46
and ages until everybody was a bit bonky
9:48
Yeah and somebody had fallen off and
9:50
hurt themselves and had blood coming out
9:52
their head and that kind of thing and um
9:54
and then we sort of turned up in this
9:57
Forest Clearing and there was hummus and
10:00
watermelon and things all chopped up and
10:02
laid out on a big picnic
10:04
bench anyway uh oh happy times
10:09
well let's let's uh go in a completely
10:14
different uh attack after this
10:20
break no picnics here uh instead we're
10:24
going to talk about the British cycling
10:27
strategy that was published this
10:29
week go on boil it down so they say it's
10:34
going to be the dawn of a new era
10:38
okay uh they're going to address the
10:41
inequalities in participation and access
10:45
to cycling and so okay they're still
10:49
going to do all the racing stuff
10:52
apparently but they're also talking
10:56
about doing the access best cycling
11:00
stuff
11:01
okay
11:03
and the previous like budget spend yeah
11:10
has been sort of 10 million quid on the
11:15
British cycling team which is all your
11:18
yeah Elite stuff yep and then another 8
11:23
million quid
11:27
on more things that might be mostly kind
11:31
of competitive and racing as far as I
11:33
can tell okay so of that 8 million quid
11:39
there's a just under half a million that
11:42
is definitely on recreational cycling
11:44
and then there a little bit more that
11:46
some of it might be their go ride stuff
11:48
and their Breeze rides and that kind of
11:50
thing okay but basically most of that 8
11:55
million quid appears to be things like
11:58
clubs and Regional development and
12:02
coaches and um people with clipboards
12:06
that kind of thing so I reckon that
12:10
previously they spel spent that 10
12:13
million on Elite Stuff
12:16
Plus at least six million on other
12:20
things that would be
12:21
considered okay organized racing it's
12:24
not just people poling around a park
12:26
kind of right yeah
12:29
what are they going to do well that's it
12:33
I've been asking them right about what's
12:37
your budget going to look like how are
12:39
how's it all going to be funded right
12:41
because if previously they were spending
12:44
about 16 million quid on things going
12:47
fast and less than half a million quid
12:50
on recreational stuff
12:52
right what doesn't cycling UK do
12:55
Recreation I always thought that was the
12:57
the split well they're not so be though
13:00
that's just cycling UK is a charity yeah
13:03
and British cycling is the governing
13:06
body and it attracts funding from UK
13:09
sport right um which you know UK sport
13:14
also does things like football and
13:17
Athletics yeah um so you know your kids
13:20
playing football in the park is
13:25
ultimately funded somewhere by UK Sport
13:28
and probably a bit of a premier ship
13:32
team doing their bit of Grassroots give
13:34
back or something like that so they're
13:36
going to do like park run on wheels or
13:38
something maybe I don't know sort of
13:40
thing suppose that's sort of what some
13:42
of the go ride and the breeze stuff is
13:44
but then it's very Club orientated still
13:47
yeah yeah so I have not been able to
13:50
find out from them how it's going to be
13:52
funded because they haven't come back to
13:54
me um but they are launching a
13:58
foundation
14:00
which will be headed up by Ed Clancy
14:03
that bit is going to be the charitable
14:05
arm that's focused on this closing the
14:09
inequality Gap and then they'll have
14:12
another arm which will be the commercial
14:14
events arm which will do all the big
14:19
events know
14:21
racing get the crowds in stuff okay and
14:25
then in the middle of that sits the
14:27
govering body bit call me
14:29
skeptical as I often am when it comes to
14:32
British
14:34
cycling yeah but it would be nice you
14:36
know if they genuinely did get in about
14:39
it with some advocacy and access and you
14:44
know infastructure for kids to ride
14:46
school and things yeah but the cynic in
14:49
me thinks we'll see a bunch of shiny
14:50
bike
14:51
libraries so from that let us move on to
14:55
wheels that definitely go around and
14:59
work you've got some pink wheels you
15:01
forgot I've only brought one with me
15:03
because it's the one that makes the best
15:05
noise okay and if you have two wheels
15:09
together it's just a cacophonous
15:14
hellscape much like my garage just Dang
15:17
Dang Dang God's sake sensory overload
15:21
yeah well so uh look at that on the
15:24
radio
15:25
Okay Benji is is holding up a black
15:29
rimmed carbon no no is this one not
15:33
carbon oh no it's sh Ally okay Benji is
15:37
holding up a black Lim alloy wheel yep
15:41
with pink spokes aluminum
15:46
spokes they're very pink straight no J
15:49
Ben machined aluminium spoke was
15:53
mad and then and then silver Hub and
15:55
silver Hub in the middle industry Line
15:58
hub now then
15:59
you're going you're going to have to
16:00
give it a spin however we discovered
16:03
this that um some of the sound editing
16:08
stuff just okay yeah just
16:11
like it thinks it's a noise edits it out
16:14
and then possibly replaces it with
16:16
secret messages as well when you used to
16:19
play a cassette backwards in the '90s oh
16:22
like uh Queen well any of them they all
16:26
had satanic messages if you play all of
16:28
them backwards it's fun to smoke
16:30
marijuana that was if you another one
16:32
bites the dust backwards was it no but
16:35
if you went like if you tried to hear it
16:38
it might sound that or that especially
16:40
if you'd already smoked some well yeah
16:42
not somebody who needed to smoke some
16:44
probably right go on give it a give it a
16:47
bu I work right hang on I can't do it
16:57
now there we go it is now it's actually
17:00
quieter than previous iterations of so
17:05
it is definitely right my one my one
17:09
hiker bike experience I carried a bike
17:13
up a hill with an 9 Hub on and it was
17:17
like spinning
17:18
around all right okay it was really loud
17:21
in my ear yeah it's uh the new Hydra
17:26
2 which sounds like I don't know still
17:28
own film from 19 late ' 80s Hydra 2
17:32
Hydra 2 yeah oh no I think you need to
17:34
go further back slow engagement is the
17:37
crime Hydra 2 is the
17:40
cure I was thinking more like like a
17:43
Spartacus era all right no I'm thinking
17:46
VHS rental from Spa era no I'm thinking
17:50
definitely like those films that had
17:52
like really early special effects on um
17:56
all based on Greek myths of course Harry
17:59
how and things yeah Jason the arod
18:02
exactly oh that was a classet still G on
18:05
forever so this a lot of Industry n well
18:09
industry n rear hubs free hubs are all
18:13
about not all about predominantly about
18:15
how quick they engage when they put the
18:18
pedals forward it's just bananas
18:21
fast normal decent quality
18:26
Hub DT Swiss whatever Shimano would be
18:30
four or five degrees of turn before it
18:34
engages what's this from the from
18:36
disengaged to
18:38
engaged um this is not.
18:43
41 I think right which is that mean your
18:46
legs let's say it's 10 times faster I'm
18:48
not whether those Mass work or not but
18:50
there you go does that mean your legs
18:52
get more tires because they're pedaling
18:54
all the time with no
18:56
rest yes
19:00
no
19:01
it's people really if you want fast
19:04
engaging hubs this they say the fastest
19:08
I'm pretty sure it's the fastest I'm
19:10
aware of if you want that kind of stamp
19:12
and go
19:14
Vibe right um what have they changed
19:17
it's got a little bit quicker used to be
19:20
0.52 still well fasten it um
19:24
better ceiling thicker
19:27
axle and different way
19:30
of oh the washes are somehow different I
19:33
can't remember off top of my head that's
19:35
right but
19:36
yeah but Mega engineered yeah very
19:39
engineered in uh Asheville North
19:42
Carolina okay so these are these are
19:45
made in
19:46
America and Spain oh okay so we have
19:50
options for either side of the Tariff
19:52
wall correct they're building in the
19:54
middle of the Atlantic right now yep
19:58
well it don't matter to us does it
20:00
doesn't affect us the cost of their
20:02
stuff still the same isn't it is that'll
20:04
be retaliatory things or something
20:06
American things are going to get more
20:08
expensive right well I don't know
20:10
actually because we're not in Europe are
20:12
we so we might oh God GL anyway those
20:17
those are made in Asheville or Spain I
20:19
think I think I think things are
20:20
fabricated in North Carolina there might
20:22
be some assembly done in Spain I would
20:24
guess and probably some of the pre-made
20:26
Wheel sets will be these will be uh put
20:28
together over at the uh
20:33
Atlantic do you like it or not the
20:36
colorway I went with I think well I was
20:38
asked to choose something that would be
20:41
displaying of options you want can't get
20:44
off the shelf from other things right so
20:47
you went for the pink yeah well you do
20:50
quite often go for pink so that will
20:52
coordinate with your other pink things
20:55
it really does
20:57
not it Just and hence I've gone for a
21:00
different plan to begin with it's going
21:02
with something that isn't pink what
21:04
other options are there though that's SP
21:06
Colors oh gosh there rainbow so a whole
21:11
rainbow yeah see I'm not very good and
21:14
even the hubs can be different this is
21:15
silver cuz Silver's red yeah so I quite
21:18
like the silver Hub yeah and I like the
21:20
contrast between the pink and the silver
21:22
Hub mhm whether I would have gone with
21:25
the pink almost certainly not because
21:27
that would be like I'm a girl and I've
21:29
got pink oh suppose so I don't tend to
21:32
do that um but yeah I don't know I'm not
21:35
very good at choosing colors well pink
21:37
kind of became associated
21:39
with females like the Victorian era so
21:43
you could just pretend you those
21:44
victorians have got a lot to and it's
21:47
swapped up blue pink swapped over
21:49
probably because of some dim wit monik
21:52
did some I don't know Nutters so these
21:56
are going on a couple of bites begin
21:58
with one the first bike it's going on
22:00
you interested to know is uh satin
22:02
Indigo in
22:04
color might work is that is that blue
22:06
it's like lavender really but you can't
22:08
say why can't you say lavender because
22:10
it's not as cool saying satin Indigo
22:13
that's probably because men won't buy
22:15
anything called colored lavender but
22:17
indigo is like really
22:19
dark so I put satin in front and it
22:22
becomes lavender shiny and soft I don't
22:26
do become pale dilute Indigo and then
22:29
they will go on something that is Angel
22:31
Delight kind of glossy milky pink that's
22:34
going to look really
22:36
bad Angel Delight always looks really
22:39
bad it's not possible to make angel
22:43
Delight look good but if so what I would
22:46
choose probably I'd like a silver Hub
22:48
because that's a winner I'd go for like
22:50
uh charcoal Spokes and the uh black
22:54
rim well charcoal SP yeah not like black
22:58
like very dark Skool trails are gray
23:01
oh what you can
23:04
do have those got they haven't got spoke
23:07
nipples have
23:08
they there some nipple things going on
23:10
there like different colored direct
23:13
thread it's called so you see there's
23:15
like a square on this and
23:18
that so that's the thread in there so if
23:21
you want to change the tension of that
23:24
can which one you want to do that one or
23:26
that one so you but it means that you
23:28
can't choose to have little decorative
23:31
colored spoke nipples you correct Go
23:32
full spoke the spoke is the
23:35
nipple and vice
23:38
versa right and I can't choose a color
23:41
you can't spring color you don't have to
23:43
because that's more money and they're
23:44
already quite premium so you could just
23:46
get the
23:49
standard Hydra 2 nuro 300 is the
23:52
standard silver or black I actually
23:55
don't
23:56
know who remembers the myth that black
23:59
spokes were more
24:01
fragile no one okay what see did you
24:04
dream that no that's what he's talk
24:06
about can't think I got black smoke
24:08
black spokes they're more fragile more
24:11
prone to
24:12
Breaking is it not just paint on most of
24:16
them of course it is it was
24:19
balls any who oh come on unlike the myth
24:23
that tanal Tes are more fragile they
24:26
are okay so justify that then in science
24:30
personal
24:31
experience empirical evidence of two
24:35
instances no I don't know I think
24:37
there'll be some people out there in the
24:39
comments who are always correct will
24:42
confirm that they've had more bad luck
24:46
with tan walers than other ones
24:48
regardless of compounding
24:50
casing okay I don't know why well let's
24:53
let's go away and do
24:55
some now I don't know how much they are
24:57
have again yes you get two this is a
25:00
mixed wheel one as well this is a 275 do
25:02
you notice no I didn't there you go
25:05
let's put the do you know the price they
25:06
about 1,00 qu for a pair right there
25:11
right we're going to go and study
25:12
science then yep
25:15
maybe and uh be back next week which
25:19
we've already
25:21
recorded this week is next week and last
25:23
week was this week it's time time
25:27
science that we're going to study
25:29
correct yeah okay thanks for being with
25:32
us and we'll see you again in the future
25:35
bye bye for now
25:40
[Music]
25:52
[Music]
25:59
Rey you sitting on a spanner oh right
26:03
good
26:05
that's oh whale joke yeah two whales
26:08
walk into a
26:10
bar one of the whales
26:14
[Music]
26:20
[Music]
26:27
goes tell was
26:38
long
26:51
okay and the other world goes shut up
26:54
Kevin you're wasted
27:02
jeez
27:08
Louise is
27:10
terrible it's great
#Humor
#Cycling
#Other
#Mountain Bikes