Featuring a quick look and talk about the new Lauf full suspension, all carbon trail machine. Plus Benji switches to the dark side of gravel - maybe. Hannah tells of her travels in Moab and a load of other stuff too.
For the full FGF experience check out the full story here at https://singletrackworld.com
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0:06
[Music]
0:21
hello I'm Hannah managing editor at
0:23
single track world and here is Benji
0:26
howth technical editor at the same
0:29
establishment there we go we're back cuz
0:32
I've been away and so we've not been
0:34
here for a couple of weeks well correct
0:36
I've not been here for a couple weeks
0:37
the podcast was the week before I think
0:40
oh yeah it's a secret thing wasn't
0:42
anywhere no we shall talk about that cuz
0:46
all secret alante airport oh was it yeah
0:52
oh it going to work out not work out it
0:54
was Juan Hernandez or someone I want to
0:56
know who it was but I haven't found that
0:57
out yet what a footballer no that's the
1:00
name of the airport it's named after
1:02
some oh Spanish Gea I don't know okay
1:07
can't help you there uh so
1:10
profile so the news while I was away uh
1:15
I basically missed the UK bike industry
1:18
while I was away CU it was core bike was
1:20
it oh yes yeah I did that the on uh
1:23
Tuesday went down there in a day quite
1:26
nice actually admire the carpet cor bike
1:29
for for those who haven't been which is
1:32
basically anyone that's not actually in
1:33
the UK bike industry is is in a hotel
1:37
near silverston and it's like the most
1:40
massive sprawling Maze of a yes
1:44
conference golfing hotel isn't it is it
1:46
a conference I don't know conferencing
1:49
golfing golfing and conferences that's
1:51
the same thing isn't it like we don't
1:52
even go in the golf building which is on
1:54
the left you know you grow in in park
1:56
everything's on the right there's think
1:57
on the left if you want to play golf
2:00
and it's and it's quite exhausting as
2:03
lots of trade shows are like there's
2:05
just a lot of chat and indoor stuff the
2:09
carpet at cor oh yeah is the thing that
2:13
everybody fears I think like it's sort
2:16
of
2:17
swirly yeah just like the carpet you
2:20
grew up with it's like the carpet sh
2:22
when you're growing up
2:23
in
2:25
bananas just like so
2:28
patented but not like like Paisley not
2:31
like 70s geometric like weird'
2:34
80s I don't know anyway apart from the
2:38
carpet did you see anything exciting at
2:41
cike cike show my favorite and most and
2:45
most exciting thing was in the ice and
2:48
distribution room oh yeah uh there was
2:53
something also there's a few things that
2:55
were exciting that I'm not allowed to
2:58
talk about yet what what was in the ice
3:01
on room that was exciting then manitu
3:05
oh nice manitu suspension product silver
3:10
decals silver fork silver arches they
3:13
very similar the ones they had on yes
3:15
yeah um lower like dark gray I don't say
3:20
they black and um Banner 2 is written
3:23
vertically isn't it in like a widel
3:24
legged squarey font that they used to
3:27
use right why have I not bothered about
3:29
that and uh the crowns were really cool
3:31
cuz the silver look like they always
3:34
have done with the arch on the back and
3:36
so are you excited because they look
3:38
cool or because of some other factor I
3:42
really like I've not used every Mana 2
3:45
fork and I would say that I've not been
3:49
that
3:51
historically bothered about their short
3:53
travel ones not because I don't do short
3:55
travel just think other people did it
3:57
better but there are ones where they got
3:58
more travel on them
4:00
are exceptional usually okay the mat and
4:03
the Meesa I've never really had a proper
4:05
go on it so that's good to get those
4:06
back wow and we'll get a Dorado in we
4:09
won't but we might just get it in to
4:11
look at it because it's upside down and
4:12
therefore rad yeah and it's still looks
4:16
the same still look got like sea Palmer
4:18
era decals on it like white and red nice
4:22
now just before core bike the other
4:24
thing I missed was Ice Bike oh yes that
4:28
was the gosh like as I was packing my
4:31
suitcase basically yeah so so what did
4:34
you see at ice bik that was years ago I
4:38
know um my favorite um thing was Genesis
4:45
Vagabond um don't know what kind of bike
4:48
you want to call that takes 29 in/ 700
4:52
see wheels does it have drop bars or
4:55
flat bar bolts all over
4:57
it what is Ice Bike I why is it called
5:00
Ice Bike it's medison fre Wheels used UK
5:03
distributor the biggest ones so
5:06
Freewheel is an online bike shop but
5:11
they're also that's like the online
5:13
public arm of Madison who's the UK
5:17
distributor yeah one of the biggest ones
5:20
if not the biggest one yeah I think so
5:22
distribut Shimano and then obviously
5:24
Madison and Genesis y um and a whole
5:28
bunch of other stuff so they have their
5:30
own trade show yeah whereas cike is a
5:33
whole number of Brands yeah but it's
5:36
like 20 OD different brands or distri go
5:40
there
5:41
yeah so okay so this this bike does it
5:44
have what do you call it the vagab bond
5:47
vagab Bond I think it's called yeah flat
5:49
bars or truck bars as usual either oh
5:54
how many widgets does it have on it to
5:57
attach things to your bike all all all
6:00
of them a lot of bosses but it wasn't
6:02
ridiculous it wasn't to the point where
6:05
if I remember correctly wherever you put
6:06
a boss you can't have very thin
6:08
tubing so when you see bikes are covered
6:11
in bosses it means it's basically gas
6:15
pipe so
6:17
beware unless it's carbon um there we go
6:21
okay so that's it's a nice color I'll be
6:23
quite shallow about it we'll talk about
6:25
this in a future episode of this it was
6:27
just look really good it's off to a
6:30
winner isn't it yeah but it can only be
6:34
good
6:37
okay well let's move on from news and
6:40
product news uh to Forum stuff now I
6:45
have no idea what is in the Forum in
6:49
terms of chatter because I've been on
6:52
holiday and so I've been to look at all
6:54
that but I do know that there is a whole
6:55
new Forum there like it's new look
7:00
there's new there are new elves in the
7:02
background making the words appear on
7:05
your screen whatever screen you are
7:07
looking
7:08
at so um and our piano
7:12
Reeves is he an elf no but he was in a
7:15
kind of he powered things in the
7:16
background didn't he all right and a pod
7:18
filled with pink okay goo so if you want
7:22
to trat about bikes or pink goo or k
7:26
Reeves or bikes you can go to the single
7:29
track World forum and chat and now it
7:32
looks different and there're still our
7:34
Tech folks our Tech elves are still
7:37
poking things and and make yeah ironing
7:40
making things work yeah smoothing
7:43
rasping is that we used to do in CDT
7:46
rasp
7:47
files smoo in the corners that kind of
7:50
thing but but yeah go and have a look
7:53
because it's there and there's all sorts
7:55
of chat in there it's very busy so don't
7:58
just go in one once a week cuz she'll be
8:00
totally flipping
8:02
lost going at least once a
8:05
morning so and then let's uh talk about
8:09
something that got delivered this week
8:12
the the
8:13
L
8:15
Elijah is what it is
8:18
Eli oh I don't know actually is it not
8:20
is it asked I went through Iceland on
8:23
the way L is it e LJ is there I in it as
8:26
well God I thought Icelandic oh it's not
8:29
the Elijah no El God was right for that
8:34
yeah but it's probably not pronounced
8:37
eler is it like yeah true something like
8:41
that yeah just like youve had something
8:43
fermented with fish so that that arrived
8:47
yesterday today or something but it had
8:49
been in the UK apparently for about two
8:53
weeks or something okay while uh Customs
8:56
were looking at it because it was so
8:58
interesting
9:00
they were like whoa what's this what's
9:02
this a carbon fiber bike from the land
9:05
of whatever it used to be called of like
9:09
199 sort of it's like both from the past
9:12
and the future it's single pivot it's a
9:15
laugh single pivot which is what LSP
9:17
stands for right which is written on the
9:19
frame I thought it was going to be leaf
9:20
spring projection or something techno
9:23
but it's not and it doesn't have the
9:26
leaf spring fork on it does it no it's
9:28
got
9:30
Pike with
9:32
130 or 40 mil I'm not sure actually but
9:34
it'll be at least 130 back 120 Mill I
9:37
think travel and so we're doing a sort
9:40
of audio visual mash up here because
9:42
some people will be listening to this
9:43
with their ears yeah and some people
9:45
will be using this on YouTube which
9:48
involves eyes as well and they might get
9:49
to see a popup picture imagine if an
9:53
Ibis M with an orange and an Ellsworth
9:57
it's not Ellsworth it's all there no
9:58
Machining on it it's not four bar it's
10:01
not covered in heavy metal Thunder it's
10:03
like melty kind of swoopy I don't
10:06
remember elth from when they were
10:08
aluminium no
10:11
maybe yeah oh yeah that's that's more
10:13
IIs though isn't it these days both yeah
10:16
okay anyway visually whatever I'm not
10:20
that interested in debating the visual
10:22
but I think I like the cut of that
10:24
bike's jib okay in terms of you just
10:26
like it cuz it's pink no I don't
10:28
actually I just think it's a a good is
10:30
different for a star which makes my life
10:32
easier I think it's going
10:35
to be Prejudice about it I think it's
10:38
got it uh I don't know try think of more
10:40
of cliches I can use it's got its ducks
10:42
in a row okay I think it looks good I
10:46
think it's a lot to be said for doing
10:47
something without loads of
10:48
pivots okay it looks really easy to
10:51
clean as well that's the other thing is
10:52
my age showed but that's easy to clean
10:56
smooth glossy nothing too cranny
11:01
covered in
11:02
batteries which it doesn't have to be
11:04
that's just the house of
11:05
sham version with flly attendant techno
11:09
and up and Downy Wireless saddle and Zip
11:13
Zap gears
11:15
okay three batteries on
11:18
it four including the button B oh God no
11:20
I but none of those are it's not an
11:23
ebike it's it's not a pedal assist no
11:26
battery no cool and it should be no not
11:31
it should be I think we probably will
11:33
put rather large volumous tires on CU
11:36
one of the things that I'm not en
11:39
entirely sure I agree with for around
11:42
here or me be the you can put massive
11:45
volume tires on it like 29 sorry 29 by 3
11:49
in right because which makes a lot of
11:52
sense in Iceland possibly yeah where
11:55
it's all gruly and soft and sunny and
11:58
snowy and that kind of thing so I don't
12:00
know what ties it came with downstairs
12:03
some goody year things that look quite
12:04
voluminous 2.6s maybe we'll try all
12:07
sorts of things on them right so you are
12:09
going to ride the not Elijah the ELA I'm
12:14
not no nope oh I will be present you're
12:18
going to supervise the writing of the
12:20
TVC TVH surprise oh okay right well
12:26
you're you're going to watch somebody
12:28
riding that h and right now we're going
12:30
to have a short
12:32
break we're going to segue
12:35
neatly yeah super slickly and neatly
12:38
through Iceland yes which is where LA is
12:41
from and I had a brief pause in there on
12:44
my way to my
12:46
holiday and then I had another brief
12:48
pause in Seattle on my way to my holiday
12:52
yeah and then I had a slightly longer
12:55
pause in Salt Lake City which involved
12:58
broken down cars and rental cars with
13:01
Bal tires if you rent a car folks check
13:05
your tires wow uh a blizzard yeah and
13:10
then eventually I made it to Moab it's
13:14
so like City where you're not allowed
13:16
very strong beer or something is that
13:18
somewhere else all of Utah there
13:21
are no but they've made it higher now so
13:24
okay
13:25
weirdly you can the one place you can
13:28
rely ably by beer of the weaker variety
13:32
and I think they've put it up to like 5%
13:35
now is the garage right okay yeah in
13:38
fact one day I didn't we we've been for
13:41
a ride and I went into the garage as or
13:44
the gas station as they call it and I
13:47
could only see two kinds of beer on the
13:49
Shelf I was like oh okay I'll choose
13:52
that one but it's moderately cheaper
13:55
went and bought it went back the next
13:57
day and realized that beside the shelf
14:01
that only had two kinds of beer on it
14:03
there was a big glass door into a giant
14:05
walk-in fridge and had completely missed
14:08
that that was a glass door and not a
14:10
poster for beer and inside there were
14:13
like hundreds of kinds of beer I wasn't
14:15
really expecting like go to the garage
14:17
and buy be you had like Fosters actually
14:20
no well there was a choice of like
14:22
basically Fosters or nice stuff but it
14:24
was much more expensive my God so so
14:27
yeah uh restrictions on buying alcohol
14:30
is a thing right but they're weird CU
14:34
yeah drive drive to buy alcohol that
14:37
makes sense
14:40
well well I drive to Tesco and buy
14:43
alcohol yeah I do go home first usually
14:48
just to park on the drive I don't get
14:50
don't go in the home just just sit on
14:53
your drive open on the uh
14:56
outside so so yeah and then why while I
14:59
was there I did do some mountain biking
15:02
I did do a day of mountain biking but I
15:04
did more gravel
15:08
riding so Benji is staring at the
15:14
camera that's big
15:16
sigh you've been before though haven't
15:18
you oh yeah actually I haven't that's
15:21
the first time that I've ridden a trail
15:24
in Moab on a mountain bike
15:27
usually bik yeah passing through and had
15:30
kids and whatever else like
15:32
busy yeah so I did I borrowed a moots
15:36
route
15:38
ybb which was the perfect tool for the
15:40
job actually it's got the little soft
15:42
tail suspension thingy in the
15:45
back um it's an interesting version of
15:48
perfect well it was for for what we were
15:52
riding right so like every ride in Moab
15:55
what does ybb stand
15:57
for is it why bed that's why be beat oh
16:01
maybe I don't be beat up
16:04
okay I think well whether you riding on
16:08
a mountain bike or gravel bike every
16:11
ride in Moab starts with an hour of
16:14
climbing unless you do a shuttle okay so
16:18
you do like an hour on quite a nice
16:21
traffic free bike path in my instance
16:24
okay on a grael bike and then around the
16:26
back and into archers National Park and
16:29
it's all like wash boardy stuff wasn't
16:32
no it's fine it's like before it gets
16:35
hot okay so you can actually go gravel
16:38
riding all day long because you won't
16:40
die of heat
16:42
exhaustion um but it wasn't actually
16:45
snowing most of the time that I was
16:47
there how much liquid did you have on it
16:49
on your person or your bicycle not not
16:52
just a bottle actually could have died
16:55
could have well so yeah later in the
16:57
year you would need that but yeah this
17:01
time of year was bit nippy not being
17:03
Moab not being to Moab
17:06
no it's got good rvel riding right good
17:10
I have ridden gravel for the first time
17:12
well not really for the first time ever
17:14
but pretty much the other this week I
17:17
think and you all clipped shoes yeah CLI
17:20
back in which is fine so he didn't fall
17:22
off no well done
17:25
mhm I didn't fall off but it was it was
17:29
like um I don't know just something else
17:34
to think about is it being clipped in
17:36
bit of advance planning yeah doesn't
17:38
really add a great deal it might do
17:41
that's what we'll find
17:42
out was all right graveling yeah better
17:47
than walking there you go that's the
17:48
adver advertis better than
17:52
walking yeah well it was interesting
17:55
I've been out for the previous hour in a
17:57
bit on an ebike with a million watts of
18:01
power and I thought I'd get on the
18:03
gravel bike and um it wasn't and your
18:06
own leggings felt like they had a
18:08
milli yeah so so it has its it has its
18:13
place does gravel cover the ground yeah
18:15
what it made me think about was like
18:17
they of phrase or it's good to feel
18:18
what's happening under you or something
18:20
or I like I need to know what I like to
18:23
feel what's happening underneath
18:25
me to a degree uhhuh trying to think of
18:29
the analogy of audio it's like you could
18:32
either listen to something very
18:35
specifically or have loads of cacophony
18:37
coming at you where you can't really
18:39
tell what's going on but in a feel in a
18:43
[Music]
18:45
rumbling what's the word not tactile
18:49
feeling kind of sense there's too much
18:51
to be felt to do anything with it is
18:54
that supposed to do with this
18:54
information that's been battered into my
18:57
bones could really am I losing traction
19:00
am I gaining traction am I doing well am
19:01
I doing whatever or am I just fighting a
19:03
bicycle like I did in
19:06
1993 which is not what recycling is
19:10
fighting a bicycle it's not misery it's
19:12
not fighting it's not like being black
19:14
and white and sad it's me to be joyful
19:18
fun he all right okay I think we may yet
19:23
convert you
19:25
to at least appreciating gravel Bing the
19:28
other thing I thought was this is just a
19:30
road bike that's done work
19:34
properly well it's a road bike that
19:35
gives you Choice it's it's a road that
19:37
doesn't jack knife when you
19:40
sneeze and doesn't break your neck when
19:43
you're riding
19:44
along it's a road bike that has zero
19:47
nothing to do with professional road
19:48
racing thus is a good road
19:51
bike no I'm I'm not I'm not disagreeing
19:54
with you I think I have been preaching
19:56
this word yeah just glad you've Co up I
20:00
couldn't reach the breake levers very
20:03
well on the drops so I'm going to work
20:05
out how to wind those in I couldn't work
20:07
out how to do
20:08
it well um I'm trying to think what else
20:11
did I do my holid I bottom out my my
20:14
Fork I only used uh 30 mil of it 40 mil
20:18
of travel oh you had a suspension Fork I
20:20
did not have a suspension Fork on my
20:22
back and oh forgot on my holidays cuz I
20:27
was away there was a j Telly and I got
20:30
to watch braer oh
20:33
veic riding in
20:36
Alaska and then when I Alaska that
20:38
passed me by that I don't know but yeah
20:40
so he's riding in Alaska and then I got
20:42
back to discover he's going to be on our
20:43
next front cover and I had to interview
20:45
him yeah and he says much the same thing
20:48
as you about wanting to feel the bike he
20:50
doesn't like a bike to be too soft and
20:53
spongy and like cushioning he likes to
20:56
feel it yeah to a degree
21:00
he seems to like to feel it quite a
21:02
lot um to be fair but yeah makes them
21:07
feel alive right good I've not seen that
21:09
pig have I how many I've seen the cover
21:11
don't know well we haven't published it
21:14
out there yet it's like you're hearing
21:16
this here first in this podcast yeah
21:20
good so anyway lots of new products that
21:23
are totally not I say illegal then
21:25
totally um under un Bongo
21:29
okay secret things to come yeah from
21:31
very big players in Industry they're not
21:34
for ages yet so put those things to the
21:36
back of J month I think that yeah well
21:42
oh no and an m
21:44
month any and then a
21:48
2026 what you've seen a 2026 product
21:52
already oh God three oh yeah by then
21:57
have we not entered like full on uh
22:00
zombie apocalypse
22:02
mode what 2026 yeah I don't
22:05
know um well have we entered the Dark
22:08
Ages I don't know rare earth materials
22:10
aren't very
22:12
rare very common Rare Earth yeah
22:16
yeah why is it called rare Mark M why
22:19
are they called rare earth materials I
22:21
don't know because they're so hard to
22:23
extract and turn into something useful
22:25
that they end up being practically rare
22:27
but they abundance is not
22:30
rare
22:31
okay my radio works for my car
22:34
again radio four there you go oh so
22:38
that's what you've learned that's what I
22:39
learned this morning
22:41
yeah
22:43
radio okay well uh whether you've been
22:46
listening on your radio see segue after
22:49
segue or Wireless on your on your ears
22:53
or on the YouTubes thanks for being with
22:55
us today go and check out single track
22:59
world.com for some of the stories that
23:02
you've been talking about some of the
23:03
products yep and we'll be back next
23:08
weeko bye
23:11
[Music]
23:28
[Music]
23:34
so have you said you can get kiat like
23:37
chocolate bars I know that's not new but
23:39
like a slab of chocolate that's Kit Kat
23:42
branded no why
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