Much of the attention on the Right to Repair movement in cycling has been concentrated on hard goods, like bikes, wheels, components, and so on. But it’s also important to remember that you can often fix clothing and bags at a nominal cost after a crash or even just due to wear and tear. Why throw it away when you can bring it back to life? In this week’s episode, we chat with two brands – Velocolour and Ortlieb – who are doing just that.
Nov 09, 2022•58 min
The Nerd Alert podcast had an unplanned week off, but rest assured we’re now back on schedule. In this episode, Senior tech editor Dave Rome chats with No.22’s co-founder Bryce Gracey. For those unfamiliar with No.22, let’s just say they’re often one of our first stops at the USA-based custom bike shows they attend. This episode has a varied chat: including a deep-dive on the updates that No.22 revealed at the Philly Bike Expo, geometry concepts, stealthy travel bikes, and more. Enjoy!...
Nov 04, 2022•1 hr 2 min
One fun fact came out during our discussions with Specialized engineering mastermind Chris D’Aluisio: much of his testing of the company’s new Diverge STR fully suspended gravel bike has been on tarmac with a full complement of road components. In his words? “It’s awesome!” That got us thinking, especially given D’Aluisio’s background in Moto GP racing: if full suspension is good for gravel, then might it also make sense on the road, too? Give this one a listen before you pick up the pitchfork....
Oct 20, 2022•39 min
This week's episode is all about aerodynamics, efficiency, Filippo Ganna, and how Dan Bigham engineered two hour records.
Oct 15, 2022•51 min
With the news that Pinarello's new Bolide F HR 3D track bike is the first UCI-approved 3D printed bike, Ronan visited Metron Dimitris Katsanis and find out how a bike is 3D printed and why.
Oct 12, 2022•1 hr 6 min
We’re back in the studio for a group show after a whirlwind of activity at the recent UCI world championships, and we’re wasting no time with the heated debates. Do dropper posts (or even suspension posts) have a place on gravel bikes? What about Meta’s tease that it’s entering the virtual reality world for indoor cycling? Do our opinions even matter?? Either way, the Nerds really did do their homework this time, sharing their thoughts on the ideal setup for hidden cable routing – frame designer...
Sep 29, 2022•1 hr 16 min
Welcome back to the Nerd Alert podcast! This week sees Dave Rome and Caley Fretz together in Wollongong, Australia for the 2022 Road World Championships. And along with VeloClub community manager Andy van Bergen, this episode circles the topic of the big event. Things start with a few new things in the world of tech. The talk then turns to those dropped chains plaguing the past week of racing. And then we wrap up this relatively brief episode with a chat about the logistics involved in racing on...
Sep 23, 2022•47 min
Welcome back to the CyclingTips Nerd Alert podcast! This week senior tech editor, Dave Rome, gets to cover something that has become a personal hobby of his – 3D printing. Joining Dave is Brian Park , the editor-in-chief at Pinkbike and Chris Heerschap , an engineer, bike mechanic, Veloclub member and 3D print extraordinaire. These two tinkerers have both created, designed and manufactured their own saleable 3D-printed products ( such as a few covered on Pinkbike this week ). From the basics of ...
Sep 16, 2022•1 hr 16 min
Do bike companies conspire to release a whole bunch of new bikes at once? It sure felt like it this week, as we saw the announcement of the new Trek Domane, the new Canyon Ultimate, and the new BMC Kaius all in the past few days. The Nerds discuss the salient features of each one — pros and cons — as well as a big industry indicator that the market really is cooling off big-time. Prices might finally be coming down for some stuff, but other items are still super hard to come by.
Sep 09, 2022•1 hr 11 min
This week’s episode of the Nerd Alert podcast is certainly a special one. Dave Rome and Ronan Mc Laughlin chat with the newly crowned Hour World Record Holder, Dan Bigham . Prior to besting Victor Campanaerts' 2019 World Record, the British track cyclist was best known for his work in aerodynamic engineering. He’s worked with Mercedes F1, Canyon-SRAM, Team KGF/ HUUB-Wattbike, and Jumbo-Visma, and is currently a performance engineer with the Ineos Grenadiers. He also happens to be the brains behi...
Sep 01, 2022•1 hr 9 min
Remember the Superstrata? That wacky looking 3D-printed custom carbon fiber bike that blew up Indiegogo a couple of years ago? Well, it turns out that the bike isn’t vaporware — and in fact, we now have one on hand to check out for ourselves. In this week’s episode, James also sits down with Superstrata CEO Sonny Vu for a chat on what makes the Superstrata different, why you may (or may not) care, and how the company’s ambitions extend far beyond cycling in general.
Aug 25, 2022•51 min
The Nerds are back with another group episode, this time with Ronan doing his best Aussie impersonation since Dave is away on holiday. On tap this week is a detailed introduction of Giant’s new Propel aero road bike — and its wild Cadex 50 Ultra Disc carbon fiber wheels — along with a frank discussion of what’s going on with Wahoo’s revamped Speedplay pedals. And as always, we wrap up with a round of Ask a Mechanic, including a little incident Caley himself had with a little hydraulic fluid....
Aug 19, 2022•1 hr 7 min
Welcome back to the CyclingTips Nerd Alert podcast! This week tech editor Dave Rome chats about the things to know with Shimano’s new Di2 12-speed shifting and how it differs from previous generations. And what better guest to speak to about common issues, limitations, fun features, and things to look out for than the Di2 nerd himself, Terry Seidler of BetterShifting.com .
Aug 12, 2022•51 min
We finally have our full crew of Nerds back on this week’s episode, and boy, was there a lot to discuss. There’s a new custom bike show in the works for 2023 called Made, which will be based in Portland, Oregon, and will be held outdoors. No one will ever complain about another opportunity to see beautiful custom bikes in person, but are they just eye candy, or should more people actually consider buying one instead of a stock machine? Upstart brand Aerosensor also has a new portable device that...
Aug 04, 2022•1 hr 3 min
The Nerds are back with a long overdue group show, and they’ve got a lot to talk about! James recaps some of the highlights from the recent Eurobike show in Frankfurt, Dave chats about the pitfalls of modern e-commerce with Silca’s Josh Poertner, we chat about two new road bikes — the Cervelo S5 and the Enve Melee — and debate how much it matters where a bike is manufactured. And finally, after a long hiatus, it’s another round of Ask a Mechanic!
Jul 28, 2022•1 hr 6 min
Computational fluid dynamics (CFD) and wind tunnels have long been the primary tools used by wheel engineers and aerodynamicists. However useful they are, though, they’re still based on laminar airflow — those picture-perfect parallel lines you see in illustrations — that doesn’t necessarily reflect real-world conditions. So what happens if you introduce a degree of turbulence to the R&D process? Do things change? Can the wheels get better? And what might this mean for bikes and other gear i...
Jul 22, 2022•56 min
We’re a little late with this week’s Nerd Alert episode and for good reason – the Wi-Fi at the Tour de France is terrible. That’s right, Caley Fretz and Ronan Mc Laughlin are in France and chat about all things Tour de France tech. From prep for the cobbles to bikes with hidden motors (just kidding!), Ronan and Caley catch up with a number of pro riders to hear what they’re riding and why.
Jul 12, 2022•44 min
The bike industry may have shifted entirely to disc brakes, but there are millions of happy rim-brake users out there with bikes that still have years — or even decades — of life left in them. Mainstream brands have already stopped spending money on anything related to rim brakes, and while that’s a bummer in one sense, it’s also created an opportunity for smaller brands to fill the void.
Jun 30, 2022•32 min
This week’s episode comes to you live from Steamboat Springs, Colorado, where we’ve assembled four testers and a video team to evaluate ten different bikes. We’ve split them into six gravel and four road models this time around, with a focus on lower-priced options. The full reveal will come a bit later once we’re all done with testing, but let’s just say some of the bikes have already genuinely surprised us with how good they are, while others have made some unforgivable missteps.
Jun 23, 2022•40 min
If you’ve got a decent chunk of change and are looking for a higher-end carbon drop-bar bike, there’s certainly no shortage of good options -- and probably too many of them, in fact. So why on earth would someone think it’s a good idea to start yet another one given this hyper-competitive environment? Well, that’s just what the folks at Bridge Bike Works are doing in Toronto, Canada. The company’s first bike sounds interesting enough, but the story behind the brand is arguably more compelling....
Jun 16, 2022•1 hr 24 min
June is turning out to be an exceptionally hot month in terms of new bike releases, and Ronan joins James and Dave as a special guest to help us talk through them all. Although we don't have official information just yet, we know a new Trek Madone, Giant Propel, Canyon Ultimate, and Scott Foil are all likely to be announced within the next few weeks -- and thanks to revamped UCI technical regulations, there's once again some legitimately unique thinking going on in terms of design features. We a...
Jun 09, 2022•1 hr 17 min
Modern bikes are marvellous creations that continually push engineering boundaries with a continued focus on lighter, faster, and sleeker. However, that raises a big question, is the bicycle industry flying a little close to the sun when it comes to safety? It’s exactly this concern that this week’s Nerd Alert deep dive episode covers. Join James and Dave, as they speak with world-renowned carbon fibre repair, testing, and inspection expert Raoul Luescher of Melbourne-based Luescher Teknik. The ...
Jun 03, 2022•1 hr 10 min
Riders commonly complain that they can’t find cycling shoes that are wide enough, but when was the last time you heard someone say their shoes are too wide? Maybe that’s a sign cycling footwear should be wider in general. We also chat about the utility of bike-mounted cameras (and radar), what Goodr still needs to do to really shake up the cycling sunglass market, and where to draw the line between buying tools and paying for labor.
May 25, 2022•1 hr 7 min
Roval has finally cleared the air on why its earlier Rapide CLX and Alpinist CLX wheels weren’t tubeless-compatible when they launched in 2020, and while the final outcome is positive, it would’ve been nice if it hadn’t also come with a healthy dose of obfuscation for the past two years. We also give Wilco Kelderman a lesson in how bikes work, speculate about Campagnolo’s mysterious new wheels spotted at the Giro, discuss some new hardware developments at Zwift (or lack thereof, as the case may ...
May 19, 2022•1 hr 5 min
Welcome back to the Nerd Alert podcast! This week we have a deep dive episode about something that’ll likely bring positive change to the helmets we all wear. Our guest is Peter Haldin, the Chief Science Officer and a Co-Founder of MIPS. However, in this interview, Peter is wearing another hat (helmet?) and speaks about his role as the Convener of the Working Group 11 (WG11). In short, WG11 is working to bring rotational-based testing to helmet safety standards, and the goal is to help reduce th...
May 12, 2022•43 min
So much to talk about this week! Colnago's new C68 is more modern-looking than any C-model that came before it, but it's also lost much of what made its predecessors unique. Headset bearings are still a pain to service on modern bikes, though at least they're lasting longer. And what's going on at Wahoo? Caley unfortunately had to skip out for this week's Ask a Mechanic segment, but that's ok; none of the answers required hammers, anyway.
May 04, 2022•1 hr 12 min
The topic of sustainability and carbon fiber has long been a black eye on the bike industry, but one company in Tennessee — called Carbon Fiber Recycling, of all things — is seemingly turning that around. Old broken frames? Random components? Scrap uncured pre-preg? It’s all good, according to CFR: just stick it all in its magic machine, and usable raw material comes out the other end. Best of all, the process is supposedly quite economical for everyone involved, there’s almost no waste product ...
Apr 28, 2022•46 min
This year’s Paris-Roubaix was all about tubeless tires and foam inserts — so much so that it’s easier to talk about who wasn’t on them than who was. But the best part of modern Paris-Roubaix tech? The fact that it’s all so normal. The Nerds also bring on the owner of a small brick-and-mortar shop to talk about the state of retail in the bike industry, and then he joins us as a guest wrench on a super fun segment of Ask a Mechanic.
Apr 21, 2022•1 hr 17 min
Caley promised to be more prepared for our second Sea Otter episode, but his list of neat new stuff that he found at the show was a little… questionable. Luckily for him, we had a special guest on hand: Orucase co-founder Isaac Howe. Isaac gave us plenty of detail on the magical folding full-size travel case Orucase has in development, shared with us a bunch of tips on how to pack your bike for a trip, and described how he sees the future of traveling with your bike in general now that most of t...
Apr 19, 2022•40 min
The Sea Otter Classic trade show is back for 2022, and the Nerds are on site with a special episode, recorded right on the expo floor! James, Dave, and Caley talk about the coolest things we saw at the show on day one — like lower-priced 3D-printed saddles and one seriously sweet garage door opener, of all things — and then we chat gravel tire trends with Vittoria’s VP of product development, Ken Avery.
Apr 11, 2022•53 min
