Joey Klein has been involved in mountain bike trail design for more than 30 years, and has worked for the International Mountain Bike Association (IMBA) longer than anyone else. This year he's being inducted into the mountain bike hall of fame in recognition of his contributions to the sport. How did you first get involved in trail design? What it like to be a part of the Subaru-IMBA Trail Care Crew program for three years in the late 90s/early 2000s? Do you think a program like that would be ef...
Jun 17, 2025•1 hr 10 min•Ep. 408
Jack Pittens is the co-founder 9point8, an Ontario-based bicycle component brand known for its dropper posts and other innovative products. How did 9point8 get its start? What is your background? For dropper posts, is there an advantage to using a sealed cartridge vs. one that's tunable, or another design? How do you make a dropper post lightweight? Do today's buyers even care about the weight of a dropper post? Why do you assemble 9point8 dropper posts in house vs. outsourcing production to Asi...
May 13, 2025•1 hr 15 min•Ep. 407
Lee McCormack is a mountain bike skills instructor and coach, and he's the author of nearly a dozen books, including the NICA Skills Training Manual. He's written extensively on bike fitting and fitness training, and just last year he launched his own bike brand, Mistress Cycles. How have mountain biking techniques changed over the years? What's the difference between a good mountain bike racer, and a good mountain bike coach? Is pedal cadence important for mountain biking? How do you know if yo...
Apr 29, 2025•1 hr 10 min•Ep. 406
In this episode of the Singletracks podcast we're going to be discussing some of the latest news and trends from the world of mountain bike trail development. We discuss: A recent meta-analysis of mountain bike tourism by IMBA and the Trust for Public Land The use of private land for trail development Threats to existing trail systems What's happening in Arkansas What to expect in 2025 and beyond Visit Singletracks.com for a complete transcript, --Keep up with the latest in mountain biking at Si...
Apr 15, 2025•52 min•Ep. 405
David Folch is the founder and CEO of Dirty Sixer, a boutique bike builder focused on fitting tall riders with big wheel bikes. The Dirty Sixer line currently features gravel, all-road, and electric bikes, and will soon include a mountain bike with 32" wheels. How did your brand Dirty Sixer get started? How tall do you have to be for a 32er to make sense? What are some of the MTB geometry challenges involved in designing around 32" wheels? Does anything get easier in terms of fitting tall riders...
Mar 25, 2025•49 min•Ep. 404
Thomas Schoen is the CEO of First Journey Trails, a trail building company based in British Columbia. He's also the Director for the Williams Lake Cycling Club, the Aboriginal Youth Mountain Bike Program and is the President of the Cariboo Mountain Bike Consortium. How long have you been building mountain bike trails professionally? How did you get started? Which aspects of a trail build do you enjoy the most? Is everything on track to get the First Blood trail officially opened this season? Wha...
Mar 11, 2025•56 min•Ep. 403
Cory Wallace is the reigning, six-time World Solo 24 Hour Mountain Bike Champion and the Head Organizer for the Rockies 24 race in Canmore, Alberta. His mountain bike adventures have taken him all over the world, inspiring riders and raising funds for various humanitarian causes along the way. How did you get interested in endurance mountain bike racing, and 24 solo racing? What happened to 24-hour racing? Is it making a comeback in terms of interest and participation? The race you organize, Roc...
Feb 25, 2025•48 min•Ep. 402
Chris Canfield's company, Suspension Formulas, develops and licenses mountain bike suspension designs used by brands including Revel and Canfield Bikes. Now he's launching his own bike brand, Vampire Bikes while also continuing to race DH at the Masters level. In 2019 you won the UCI Masters World Championship at Mont St. Anne when you were in your 40s. What's allowed you to be so fast for so long? How much of DH racing is about equipment vs. rider? Did you get involved in building bikes out of ...
Feb 11, 2025•1 hr 5 min•Ep. 401
Miranda Miller is a downhill mountain bike World Champion and three time Canadian National downhill champion from Squamish, British Columbia. Her video series, Here, There, Everywhere regularly features inspiring riders and mountain bike destinations around the world as Miranda takes on new cycling challenges ranging from gravel biking to gravity racing. How did you get introduced to downhill mountain bike racing at such an early age? What was the biggest difference between racing DH and enduro ...
Jan 28, 2025•41 min•Ep. 400
Lance Canfield is a mechanical engineer and former professional mountain bike racer who drew his first mountain bike design in 1996. Today his bike brand, Canfield Bikes, sells mountain bikes and components designed and tested in Poncha Springs, Colorado. What were downhill bikes like when you began racing in 1994? What did you want to improve about your bike? Your first bike design in 1999, the Big Fat Fatty Fat, had 12 inches of travel front and rear. How did that work? You competed on some of...
Dec 17, 2024•1 hr 4 min•Ep. 399
Riley Amos won overall Under 23 World Cup titles in both short track and cross-country this year and finished seventh in the Paris Olympics, the highest an American has ever placed in the event. He is a member of the Trek Factory Racing Team and lives and trains in Durango, Colorado . Going into the 2024 season did you expect to win the overall U23 titles in short track and cross-country? Do you plan to change your race training or strategy when you move up to Elite next year? How much do you fo...
Nov 19, 2024•49 min•Ep. 398
Lennard Zinn is a bike designer and frame builder based in Louisville, Colorado. His shop, Zinn Cycles, offers "a full line of semi-custom and off the shelf bikes for riders from very small to very tall and everyone in-between." He’s also the author of Zinn and the Art of Mountain Bike Maintenance, one of the world’s best-selling guides to mountain bike repair. In this first-half of our podcast discussion, Zinn talks about drivetrain maintenance, focusing on chains and lubrication. Later in the ...
Oct 01, 2024•1 hr 14 min•Ep. 397
Craig Calfee is an innovative bike builder and the founder of Calfee Design. Calfee was an early adopter of carbon fiber for bike frames in 1987, and brand's Tetra road bike is said to have been in production longer than any other carbon bike. You might also recognize his work with Bamboo bike frames, which he began in 1995. How did you get your start building bikes? What did people think about the carbon bike frame you debuted at Interbike in 1989? Were there concerns that carbon frames were ...
Sep 17, 2024•44 min•Ep. 396
Wes Holland is the owner of Bullmoose Softgoods where he designs and produces one-of-a-kind bags for cycling and adventuring. Bullmoose is based in Summerville, Massachusetts and currently offers handlebar and frame bags plus hip packs and accessories. What came first for you: bikes or bags? What kind of riding do you like to do? What is the riding scene like in Boston? There are a lot of hip packs and handlebar bags out there, so why make your own? What types of materials are you working with? ...
Aug 20, 2024•43 min•Ep. 394
Greg Mazu is the self-described "Chief Dreamer" behind Backslope Tools, a company that designs and sells tools for trail building and forest maintenance. He's also the founder of Singletrack Trails, a trail building company that recently finished its last project after 20 years in the business. When did you build your first trail? How did you get into professional trail building? What motivated you to start Tools for Trails, and later Backslope tools? Where are Backslope tools manufactured? If y...
Jul 23, 2024•1 hr 4 min•Ep. 393
Hannah Otto recently became the fastest known woman to ride the 137-mile-long Kokopelli's trail from Moab, Utah to Loma, Colorado, besting the previous fastest known time by over an hour. In addition to racing gravel and mountain bikes, she's also a certified athletic trainer. How do you feel now that you can finally talk about your accomplishment? Were you worried someone else would make an FKT attempt between then and now? In October you made your first attempt, but it didn't work out. What ha...
Jul 16, 2024•55 min•Ep. 392
Chuck Teixeira is a Senior Advanced Concept Engineer at Specialized where he's been involved in countless projects from mountain to road, and from bikes to components. Prior to joining Specialized in 2011, Chuck spent 28 years at Easton-Bell where he was the director of R&D. How did you end up in the bike industry? How does the Smartweld tech used on the new Specialized Chisel mountain bike frame work, and what makes it different from traditional aluminum frame welding? Why haven't we seen t...
Jul 09, 2024•1 hr 1 min•Ep. 391
Colin Ryan is a Senior Development Engineer at Norco and was involved in the design of the latest Norco Optic trail bike which features a high-pivot design. Prior to joining Norco he worked at General Kinetics testing and developing shock absorbers for military and construction equipment. At a basic level, what problem does a high pivot design solve? Is there a certain type of riding that benefits from having a high pivot? What are the drawbacks to the design? Does a high pivot design improve lo...
Jun 18, 2024•41 min•Ep. 390
Sara Hunter is a Licensed Clinical Mental Health Counselor in the state of North Carolina and a PMBIA Level 1 Mountain Bike Instructor. Her practice includes individual and couples counseling services plus mountain bike therapy and counseling for athletes and outdoor instructors. She's also a Specialized USA Ambassador. What led you to get into counseling? Does everyone benefit from spending time outdoors, or do you think some of us are just wired that way? What is Adventure Therapy? What is the...
Jun 11, 2024•37 min•Ep. 389
Alex Larson is a registered dietitian and multi-sport athlete who helps endurance athletes optimize nutrition and performance. She's written multiple nutrition guides and offers customized nutrition coaching services to athletes around the world. Do athleticism and nutrition go hand in hand? Are athletes generally healthy eaters by nature? What is a "flexible eating style"? Are restrictive diets sometimes harmful? How does pre-race fueling work? Is nutrition drastically different for training vs...
Jun 04, 2024•46 min•Ep. 388
Amanda Carey is the President of NICA, the National Interscholastic Cycling Association , a non-profit that develops mountain biking programs for student athletes across the United States. Prior to joining NICA, Amanda served as the executive director of Mountain Bike the Tetons and as a mountain bike coach. What drew you to mountain biking initially? What's kept you so engaged over the years? What do you think has kept mountain biking from growing more than it has over the past couple of decade...
May 14, 2024•57 min•Ep. 387
Sara Bresnick is a former professional mountain biker, cycling coach and founder of Pedal Power Training Solutions which offers customized training plans plus advice on nutrition, race strategy, and technique. What are some fitness goals your clients have beyond racing? For example, does it make sense for a rider to work with a coach before a big weeklong mountain bike trip? Do older athletes need more time to recover between intense workouts? What happens if you miss a day, or two, in a trainin...
Apr 09, 2024•50 min•Ep. 386
Claudio Caluori is a seven-time Swiss National Champion and founder of Velosolutions, "a global network of professionals with profound knowledge in cycling, action sports, tourism and urban development." He's also a popular YouTube personality, delivering entertaining course previews and ride-alongs with top athletes. In addition to building pump tracks around the world, Velosolutions recently helped with construction of the XC race course for the 2024 Paris Olympics and is working on an ultra a...
Apr 02, 2024•40 min•Ep. 385
In this episode of the Singletracks podcast, Matt and Jeff discuss the current trends around mountain bike weights. Are bikes too heavy, or are they where they should be given how durable and capable they are today? This discussion covers: Examples of specific bikes and their weights Why bike weights might be increasing The benefits to lightweight -- and heavy -- mountain bikes Areas where mountain bikes might be able to cut weight This is Matt's last episode with the Singletracks podcast so to ...
Mar 26, 2024•47 min•Ep. 384
Will Hart is Product Marketing Manager at Cane Creek, a western North Carolina based maker of suspension and bike components. Besides looking cool, what are some advantages of a coil shock? Are certain styles of riding better suited to a coil shock than others? What makes some FS mountain bikes coil compatible, and others not? How does compression damping work on a coil shock? Is there any air involved? Tell us about the Cane Creek Tigon. What's the idea behind combining a coil with an air sprin...
Mar 18, 2024•1 hr 8 min•Ep. 383
Sean Leader is the founder of Windrock Bike Park and Southern Gravity, a Tennessee-based company that builds ramps and shuttle vehicles for bike parks. Not only that, Southern Gravity recently released a prototype steel DH mountain bike that's being tested by top elite and junior DH riders. You've worn many hats in the mountain bike world. When was the moment you realized you could make a living in the sport? How did Windrock Bike Park get started? What were some of the challenges you faced as a...
Mar 05, 2024•52 min•Ep. 382
Joel Smith is the Brand Leader for Reserve, a Santa Cruz, CA brand that designs and markets wheels for everything from downhill to road biking. Steel Wisdom-Wilhelmsson is engineering lab technician responsible for lab-conditions wheel testing. In this episode we ask: How are MTB wheels assembled? For high-end wheels, is most of it done by hand? How does rim construction contribute to ride feel? Is a shallower rim better than a deep rim for ride feel? What are the advantages of a high engagement...
Feb 20, 2024•52 min•Ep. 381
Carol Baldwin is the founder of Flownetic MTB Skills and is a PMBIA Level 3 certified mountain bike skills instructor. She's also a Singletracks contributor and product tester. In this podcast we ask Carol: Have you alway mountain biked with flat pedals? Was it difficult to switch from clipless to flat pedals ? Why? What are the advantages of flat pedals compared to clipless? What are the disadvantages of flats compared to clipless pedals ? Are bigger and/or wider pedal platforms better? What's ...
Feb 06, 2024•1 hr 7 min•Ep. 380
Tom Prochazka is a co-founder and director at Gravity Logic, a bike park design and development company based in Whistler, British Columbia. He served as the manager of the Whistler Bike Park from 2001 to 2007 and designed the iconic Top of the World Trail which opened in 2011. Since then he's worked on bike parks all over the world from the western US to Europe and South America. In this podcast interview we ask Tom: How did you get involved in mountain bike trail building? What do you think ma...
Jan 23, 2024•54 min•Ep. 379
Rhett Jones is a high school mountain biker living in the Austin, Texas area. He's the founder of Station Bike Park, a new private park he developed on 150 acres of former ranchland northwest of Austin. Singletracks first shared Jones' story in a November feature article on our website; this interview adds more detail and dives into the economic and operational aspects of running a for-profit, private mountain bike park. How long have you been riding mountain bikes? Tell us about the free bike, ...
Dec 26, 2023•24 min•Ep. 378
