Transcript 0:00 [upbeat music] All right. 0:29 Hey, it's the Danger Gnome, and we're talking about how to summerize your, uh, your fat bike. Not how to make a summary out of it, but how to do the opposite of winterize it. I just made-- I just came up with that. 0:47 And we have Adam Blake with us. Mi hermano, what's up? Hey, buddy. How are you doing? I am so good. It's, uh, it's springtime, planning camping trips and ride my bike. 1:02 I just came back from a-- yesterday, uh, riding the beach on Lake Michigan and actually getting-- put in like a two and a half hour ride with [laughs] 1:16 with only some leg-numbing, uh, wades into the lake. [laughs] Oh, nice. 1:24 Yeah, and when you, uh, talked about, uh, kind of converting the fat bike back to summer, it was pretty, pretty keen in my eyes 'cause I just got back from Unbound Gravel down in Emporia, and of course they have a fat bike two hundred mile, uh, gravel race. 1:39 So, uh, those guys have definitely tailored a bike from what they would need in a winter race to now a gravel event or maybe even mountain events 'cause I think there's two different- Sure... kind of tracks you can go. 1:52 Yeah. Yeah, yeah. And this year's, uh, was-- this year's race was super muddy, right? Super muddy, pretty technical race. So, uh, fat bikes was probably not a bad choice [laughs] to get this year. 2:06 I saw some of the mud-caked combatants. Crazy. Absolutely. So yeah, the, uh, the question is like what would you do? What, what modifications do you make to your Bear Grease? 2:22 Does your, does your Bear Grease have a na- Oh, yeah, Buzz Lightyear. I knew that. Buzz Lightyear. It seems like that's become its name. Yeah. So what do you do to Buzz to make him summary? 2:33 Well, so I think like, uh, to, to just blanket statement, everyone is just gonna look at like wheels and tires, right? Mm-hmm. And that's fine. Um, sure. 2:45 But I think actually some other things are where, you know, the real tailoring, the less obvious stuff that I think is different. Things like, you know, I'll even run different grips. 2:56 You know, maybe something like a Wolf Tooth Fat Paw in the winter for a big cushiony, foamy grip. 3:02 But then, you know, when I'm gonna start riding more trail, I'll put back maybe my Ergon GE1s that I like to ride on my mountain bike. Sure. Um, I think that, that kind of stuff, even positional things. 3:14 I know in the past, in the winter, I'll maybe adjust the height of my handlebars for the winter, you know, because I'm sitting and I'm rolling through snow a little bit. 3:25 So really the-- I think setting up for summer depends on how much you alter it for winter too, right? Right. Quite right. Yeah. How specialized- Uh-huh... 3:36 and, and what you-- what kind of winter riding you do-- you're doing, um- Absolutely, you know- Like-... studded tires, kind of an obvious one like I was saying. Yeah. 3:44 You know, that's a-- I don't really call that summerizing. I just call it being sensible. Yeah. [laughs] But you could run your studded tires all summer, uh, and drive people crazy. You absolutely could. 3:58 You could run them on the dirt. You could run them on the concrete. You'd just wear them out, but- Right... yeah. I, I mean, I think it's- Those things are expensive... other-- Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. 4:06 Not something I'd just want to plow into the concrete. Yeah. You know, I've, I've actually 4:12 changed my bar stem from in-- on 10 beers, you know, twenty-six inch wheels, I would switch to a twenty-seven point five by fifty millimeter and run three point eight inch fat bike tires on that, and I would switch from a sixteen degree Sweet 16 bar to a ten degree more mountain riser, a Renthal carbon bar, eight hundred and thirty millimeters wide, um- Right... 4:40 you know, to try and get a more aggressive mountain bike stance. And the-- I'm telling you, the-- I really swear by those fifty millimeter wide. 4:51 The plus bike rim with the fat bike tire on it is like, oh, it's kind of a sweet spot for me. Yeah. It's a cool, um, gap-filling tire in shape and size. 5:03 Not to say that it's any better than a twenty-nine plus set [laughs] of wheels on your fat bike. It's kind of similar, but different. Yeah. I think that's why I kind of stray from... 5:12 You know, there's so many ways that people can adapt the wheels and the tires nowadays- Uh-huh... 5:16 that I really think that's more you need to find out what, what size you like as a summer wheel set, and certain frames handle wheel sizes, conversions a little better or worse. Yeah. Um- I find- But even... 5:29 Oh, go ahead. I, I find myself in the, uh, very small variety of twenty-seven point five by three point eight to four point o tires. You know, I have a ton of those Maxxis tires. Right. 5:44 And just a couple of other choices that, oh man, we need a twenty-seven point five by four point o moderately knobbed, like a Dillinger, Hoosker Doo. 5:56 Or a Cake Eater from Terrene you-- uh, I think that'd kinda fill that, that niche kinda for me on the Bear Grease. Yeah. I just don't have any of those. Right. 6:06 I have, I have so many four point fives.And there's- Right... and there are all-- most of the bikes that we're getting in to test are coming with 4.5-inch tires. So I'm, uh- 6:18 Yeah, I think, uh, I think back to like things that I consider, you know, one thing we didn't talk about that I know a lot of people switch is suspension of any type versus a rigid fork. Right. 6:30 Um, you know, which I also think is, uh, uh, from a service standpoint is a great thing to at least check going into the summer 'cause that headset gets exposed to so much stuff in the winter that when you're pulling a fork, you really a lot of times can mitigate future problems seeing that condition of those bearings and, you know, a place that you don't really get into too often unless you need to as a home, uh, rider, you know? 6:54 Right. Yeah. 6:54 We-- A couple of the people had talked a little bit about preventive maintenance going from se- from winter to summer and I, [laughs] I, I kinda thought about that and I was like, well, I probably am more a reactive [laughs] maintenance 7:12 mindset. Well, I'd say probably most people are. But the, the poi- the fact of it is, is if you can be proactive, you miss less times riding because your bike is broken, you know? Yeah. 7:23 This is probably a good point to remind everyone [laughs] to take their seat post out and relube it. Right. Exactly. 7:31 That's what I was just gonna go is like, this is a great time even, you know, in the past, um, before chainring or before cassettes got so much range and things, you know, I would change maybe a 32-tooth chainring to a 28- Yeah... 7:45 in the winter to the summer. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. Um, because here in Iowa, a 28 is probably too small on my fat bike for mountain riding, uh, but a 32 could, you know, could be too much here- Sure... in the winter. Yeah. 7:58 Um- But now we have 12 speed... and that's the time that I spin my cranks, you know, and check my bottom bracket and all those things. Yeah. Well, and the other- And I would still do that now... 8:08 the other thing- If I was gonna ride gravel- Yeah... I would still change chainrings. 28 tooth or 30 tooth on a chainring is just not a... 8:15 You know, speaking of Unbound, you got a lot of guys that are trying to ride 34s and 36s there. Yeah. And still people-- a lot of people running one-bys instead of two-bys? Almost everyone one-by and fat bikes. 8:29 I think just because most companies don't-- Because of the shaping of frames and stuff now, front derailleurs have just been hard to even spec on bikes. Right. Well, the other thing that has like thrown my whole 8:45 ideas of what I do from winter to summer on my fat bike is that I have a Framed Montana full suspension fat bike with a dropper post and a Wren, uh, upgraded air fork on it 9:03 with a kind of a, a 70/50, uh, motocross mullet set up with fat bike tires on there, 4.0s. So I've got a full suspension fat bike that's nice and slack and 9:17 getting to the progressive geometry of the other bike that I have right now in for testing, which is a Rocky Mountain Blizzard Carbon 50, 66 degree head tube, 75 degree seat tube, 9:31 rigid bike that is-- with a dropper that is just blowing my mind. Yikes. Yeah. I think dropper... You know, even droppers, like anything... 9:45 I think summer to me, more than performance, it's a bit of tailoring of performance when I change my bike seasonally, my fat bikes. But really a lot of times for me it's, it's more just a conglomeration of, 10:01 you know, checking this, checking that, tweaking this, tweaking that, you know? Um, I've never been one... I, I don't have a problem, uh, in any way. 10:13 I think it's cool that people, you know, fork, uh, wheel, uh, like a whole different bike, right? Uh, by the time you switch everything over from summer to winter and how it performs and how it rides. Yeah. 10:26 And I think that's... 10:28 It-- You know, again, like we said a little earlier, how, you know, how much do you want your fat bike to be your fat bike that you ride on trails, or how much do you want it to be kind of a new concept of a trail bike for you? 10:39 Right. Yeah. Or- Not everybody has the budget to have the N plus one, and we could obviously be like, "Oh, well, I ride my mountain bike," or, "I ride my single speed." 10:48 We do all of those things, but if you wanna ride your fat bike in the summer and optimize it, like what are those things that you're gonna do? 10:58 Obviously you're gonna take your biggest, fattest tire, wheel, slim that down to whatever you're comfortable with or whatever fits the terrain that you ride. Like people in Michigan 11:12 can't really ride those two-inch tires. You know, in the lower part of Michigan, there's a lot of sand. Yeah. And you know, I ride a Van Helga all year round nowadays. Yeah. I don't even switch tires. 11:27 I sometimes will switch a wheel set- Uh-huh... um, more mountainy performance wheel set or a different rim width, but, uh, as we've talked about multiple times, I find that sometimes knob height and fat bike, 11:43 you know, merch in my eyes. So here's-- I'm gonna change the subject and ask you another question that's plaguing my brain now, which is I have this new progressive geometry bike. We've ridden together. 11:57 You've watched me ride that bike. Um, it's that Rocky Mountain Blizzard. And, uh, it rips up single track and is just a pl- super pleasure to ride at speed. Just fantastic feeling bike. 12:11 And-My question is, is how do you think that geometry's gonna do on snow? Reduce speeds. And it depends on what kind of snow. I think it'll be great on groomed snow. 12:26 I think it'll be-- 'cause sometimes on groomed snow you have better traction than you do on dirt. Like, it's magic. But in the loose, slower, trumpy stuff, I worry about whether it's gonna be... [phone beeping] Uh-oh. 12:57 Uh-oh, I lost you there, didn't I? Oh, standby. Should be on now. Okay. There we go. Sorry about that. Great. Nah, no, it's no problem. 13:14 And you were saying- That, uh- Oh, how's it gonna handle? So- Yeah... yeah. I, you know, I think that, um, i-in my history there's-- I have two opinions on this. 13:24 So my Beargrease, I've ridden a lot of Beargreases, um, obviously Salsa started to propose it more of their groomed all, you know, and all-season trail bike. 13:36 Um, it-- I would change the stem quite a bit, uh, to kind of mitigate the steering because definitely those more progressive bikes like to hold more speed and they like to loop things and, at least in the Midwest, many of the trails, uh, that we get groomed are not that. 13:54 They are tight, twisty, and, uh, slower speed spinning, uh, especially in snow conditions. 14:00 So I think, you know, part of the summerizing of things is how does your bike handle in two different conditions and what do you like when you change the handling aspects? 14:11 As you mentioned, bar, stem, things of that nature. Um, the other aspect is, you know, that's why I think as it's great that bikes become more 14:22 specific in their intent and can do certain things better, there obviously has to be a fold to everything. 14:29 And, uh, you know, again, I just always reference Salsa because it's where most of my knowledge came, uh, in that and historically, that's the Mukluk versus Beargrease differentiation. Mm-hmm. Uh, can they both do stuff? 14:42 Absolutely. You know, uh, but you can't expect everything to do everything. Now, with that Rocky in 27.5/45, I think that does also... You know, all these things are trying to mitigate the Venn diagram, right? 14:55 Bring that crossover closer so that it's more of what flavor of fat bike do you like, and how do you like to ride in either snow, sand, or dirt? And then this-- these bikes kind of are being made for that now actually. 15:12 Right. Well- You know, like-... it's a, it's a very subtle difference, but I, I think the, the biggest difference for me is the dropper at this point. 15:20 I'm, I'm finally figuring out how to ride with a dropper, and this bike is ultimately set up for going fast. Right. And that's, you know, some of that is evolutionary too. 15:35 Say we had a dropper 15 years ago, well a dropper on the El Mariachi of yours that I ride doesn't really give you the same luxury [chuckles], you know what I mean? Just 'cause I drop- Right. 15:45 It doesn't put your body in the same position... that seat, that front end is not changing, you know? [laughs] Um, so part of it is the conglomeration of all these things, right? 15:53 You know, you've got a little slack up front end, so now when you can drop, you can squat in a corner. Um, and, and that's probably am- uh, amplified by fat bike tire traction. Yeah. 16:08 Uh, you know, and where we were riding at Levis is a, a great place for fat bikes to ride anyway, so, you know, I, I think it's-- I'll be interested to hear your perspectives when the going gets a little slower and a little more pickier. 16:21 Yeah. But, uh- Yeah... 16:23 you know, I feel like the same thing you do, whereas nowadays when people are grooming really educatedly, sometimes I ride trails groomed faster than I ride them on dirt because, like we talked about with speed, that mitigates some undulations and it really can smooth out a whole trail, honestly. 16:38 Indeed. Yeah. I just, uh, that bike just broke a PR that was set in a January situation at one of the loops at Kettle, so. Sure. But it did it on dirt. And that's-- th-that bike is just-- 16:54 that's the thing that I can't really argue with. Super fun to ride, and it seems to go faster [laughs]. Yeah, it's crazy. But also, there's so many other variables. Could be my fitness is a little better now. 17:09 I don't know. So. Right. And geographically, you know, people have, um-- Look, I think to address all that, it's nice that we can even talk about 17:19 opportunities to convert your bike from winter to summer to add value to a fat bike, to give yourself a whole new, you know, plus one, sub one bike, you know, that does something totally different. 17:32 Uh, that's, that's cool that, you know, through everything fat bike has still kept-- people have still kept pushing certain things so that we can continue to tailor these bikes and ride them and be like, "Holy cow, I haven't ever ridden a fat bike that rode like this in this situation," you know? 17:50 And it's, it's, you know, how many, 13, 14 years later. Indeed. I still think that I'm just c- maybe I'm just catching up with a lot of other bikes that have been out there that I just hadn't spent time on. 18:06 Like a Bear- I feel like that too... like a Beargrease or a Fatback Skookum, uh, or a Kona Whoa. These are all bikes that- Or an Okso, Boytac. Yeah. There you go. Um, you know, so-It's all, uh... 18:21 You only know and can compare what you've actually ridden, so. That's right. And we can't ride everything. Well, hopefully we can eventually. Eventually. All right. Well, any, uh, any thoughts? 18:36 I- do you have anything, uh, coming up on your podcast? 'Cause Adam, of course, is the host of the, uh, spelled different every other time, Gnu Podcast. Well, it's a new spelling every time, I promise. 18:50 [laughs] I thought we were really 100% consistent in our inconsistency, so our- Yeah, it's-... inconsistency is off the charts. Yeah, it's perfect. A bat in the thousand. Yeah. Um, yeah. 19:02 At Down at Unbound I got to chat with a couple people, uh, I got to spend time with, uh, Amy Head, uh, who runs Head Wheels, um, who you've talked to in various things, but I'd never got a chance to sit down, and we actually got to sit and have some coffee together just off, you know- Nice... 19:20 just hanging out and- She's a great- She's a great person... she's, she's- Delight... interesting person to talk to, for sure. Yes. It, it, it was a delight. 19:27 So I look forward to getting some of those connections, uh, from Unbound, uh, coming forward in the next few months. Cool. Well, all right, my man. We, uh... 19:37 I'm planning a trip to, uh, figure out this Levis bikepacking thing that's, uh, going down, so. Ooh, that's like a teaser. Don't say too much. I know, right? So- That's right... 19:50 keep, keep your, uh, keep your weekend after, after Labor Day open for something. Yeah. Hold that, hold tight for us. We got stuff working. Yeah. All right, dude. All right, man. Uh- Thanks for the call. 20:03 Get on the fat bike and, uh, you know, keep, uh, keep tweaking stuff. That's what the fun... 20:09 If you find any place you like to ride and it's not quite there, even in the state of, uh, availability, there's a lot of ways you can keep making your bike, you know, tweaking it and tailoring it to the way you wanna rock and roll. 20:21 Hells yeah. Hells yeah. All right, my man. All right, brother. Up next we got somebody else talking about- You bet... how to summarize their fat bike. All right, that's next. Thanks, brother. 20:36 [upbeat music] It's Danger Gnome. Hey, and we have Ernesto, King of the Gnomes, with us. 20:51 [laughs] My crown is actually pretty small if I'm the King of the Gnomes. [laughs] Arch Duke of Gnomelandia. [laughs] That's you. And the Viceroy of the Eastern Colony of- Ooh... Gnomelandia. I love viceroy. 21:08 I, I like- Yeah... to think of myself as the Viceroy of Azttlan. Yes. Uh, didn't, didn't they used to make cigarettes called Viceroys? Yeah. Yeah, dude. My pops smoked the hell- I wonder if they still are... 21:20 out of those things. Yeah. Made him feel like a viceroy. [laughs] He was royalty. Yeah. Yeah. Well, royal pain in my ass. [laughs] At times. But then he taught me-- 21:35 He gave me-- He was my sensei of sarcasm and [laughs] There you go. There you go. And the dark arts. [laughs] The dark... Um- Or the dork arts... like a, like a novice mastermind in the occult. Mm-hmm. 21:53 If you hear that dog it's because there, there's a dog behind me. Like a Sith Lord. Yeah. Yeah, a down ranked Sith Lord [laughs] whose duty is to clean Darth Vader's bathroom. 22:06 [laughs] With the f- with the dark side of the Force. Like- Yeah... lightning, lightning. That would be a cool way to clean the old toilet. Yeah. [electricity crackling] You never see the janitors. 22:17 [laughs] The toilet whimpers. [laughs] Yeah, let me light up my lightsaber mop. [laughs] Ooh. I would-- Ah, so much good, so much good comes out of every time I talk to you, dude. 22:31 [laughs] Next time I mop I'm gonna be like [mimicking lightsaber]. He's like, "What the hell did this-- What, what, what the hell did this guy eat? Did he like hang out with Yoda? 22:40 'Cause, oh, Yoda smells like, like garbage, I thought." Yeah. You know? Here's all I have to say about Yoda, Lucasfilms- Yeah, he... is- He-- Yeah... Yo- Yoda and Grover from Sesame Street, same voice. 22:57 [laughs] Also Miss Piggy. [laughs] Just picture that. Next time you see Empire Strikes Back and, and Yoda is dying, it's, [laughs] it's Miss Piggy. [laughs] Oh, dude. So, uh, 23:16 you, you ride a fat bike. You got beaches. You're in Chicago. Yeah. That is true, yep. Y- I bet you ride the beaches in Chicago in the summertime. Yes, I do. Yes, I do. 23:29 Do you ever find anything interesting, uh, flotsam and jetsam that just happens to wash up on, uh, on the city beaches? Uh, I've seen huge carp wash up. Yeah. Delicious. There's a lot of them down here. 23:46 Especially the heads. Mm, carp heads. Oh. [laughs] Just squeeze a carp over my face. [laughs] Some Lake Michigan caviar. Mm, mm. [laughs] Down with some, with a Tallboy. Mm, mm, mm. 24:02 I'm just surprised that you don't see like guns wash up. That's probably in the river. If you go magnet fishing around here, I'm sure you can find some interesting things. 24:12 [laughs] But on the, on the, on the beaches here- Yeah... uh, the thing that we see and, and we don't like to see wash up are-... Kevlar or Mylar balloons. Oh, yeah, yeah. Yeah. 24:24 Those are when people go out and partying on the boats and all that and, "Oh, the balloon just... Oh, no." And then you see it like a year later. [laughs] Yeah. Suck the helium- But, uh-... 24:34 out of those Mylar balloons, people. Talk funny. Yeah, they do. 24:38 [laughs] You know, say some lines from, from your favorite Star Wars movie, uh, with the helium, and then put those in the, I don't know, recycling or trash, wherever they- Yeah... wherever is appropriate. Uh- 'Cause-... 24:51 every time that I've gone sailing, uh, with a sailing group- Mm-hmm... uh, we make a point of picking up garbage out the water. And, uh- Really?... we have... Yeah, we have picked up... 25:01 We have a, a, a long hook, the type of hook that Moby Dick probably was hooked with. [laughs] Oh, my God. And, uh, we've picked up coolers, uh, a huge, um, like, uh, uh... what do you call it? 25:17 A, a pad, you know- Mm-hmm... for kids to play on. Mm-hmm. Uh, bottles, uh, Mylar balloons, beach balls, uh, and, uh- Dude, we have a, we have a guy down in South America that, uh, or 25:31 South Africa that rides his fat bike on the beach and all he does is collect plastic and, and stuff. Uh- Yeah... we did a little story on it and- Oh, cool... 25:40 it's, it's pretty amazing what he carries in this somewhat modified, uh, fat bike. So dude, what do you m- what do you change on your fat bike for summer when you ride the beach? Um, let's see. Nothing really. Yes. Uh, 25:59 I, I do end up doing- You, you win the prize 'cause- Oh. [laughs]... uh, that was... I think that's, [laughs] I think that's the right answer. [laughs] I don't need to. 26:06 You know, and the funny thing is that when, when Heather and I are riding the fat bikes from one beach to another- Mm-hmm... we have to ride on the bike path. Yeah. So you got those tires, you got the min- the... 26:16 We have, um, uh, Maxxis Minions. Sure. And, uh, I have the Minions. Oh, and I also have the, on my bike, I have, um, the Gnarlials. Oh, that's a- And, uh-... big knobby tire... and y- Yeah... 26:33 and when you hear us coming down the path, [laughs] people always turn like, "Oh, look at those fat bikes. Oh, I want a bike like that." 26:39 And there's been times wh- where I stop and I go to the guy with a family, you know, tourists- Mm-hmm... "You wanna touch it?" [laughs] $5, five American dollars. Yep. Every time I hear it, I'll... And exactly. 26:52 Every time I hear, "Oh, look at those bikes," or whatever, those tires, I always still think, like, "Gosh, if we would charge for every time we hear that." 27:00 But, uh, we don't, we don't change anything on our, on our bikes at all. Um- That's pretty awesome. And so- 'Cause, you know, if you lived in, if you lived in Alaska, you might- Yeah... 27:09 have to completely repack your hubs with different grease because they ride in 30 to 60 below, so they put a really thin low temperature grease in their hubs and their bottom bracket. 27:25 So they'd probably switch out to a whole different [laughs] bike. What a pain in the ass that would be to, like, have to rebuild everything from the bearing surfaces up. Like, that would s- Well, yeah. 27:36 I mean, if you live up there and you have to repack grease, might as well just use, like, polar bear fat. [laughs] Because that stuff doesn't go bad. [laughs] And it's biodegradable. 27:50 I'll have to ask, I'll have to ask, uh- Yeah... Jeff, Jeff Gilmore- And, and-... 'cause that's how I learn stuff... and I mean, and I know... And, and, and polar bears are dwindling, so just use a beluga, you know? 28:00 [laughs] Just go out on the, on the sea with your buddies and- They're super greasy. They just look like white lithium grease, belugas. [laughs] They just look like- Like they're just standing- Yeah, yeah... 28:12 and they're, they don't have flesh. They just have, like, gooey grease in there. Right? Yes. 28:16 And, uh, one, one day I did, I did the comment to somebody, to a tourist, that, uh, every night at the Shedd Aquarium the belugas come home. [laughs] They let 'em out after a show so they can stretch their fins. 28:30 [laughs] They're like, "Are you serious?" "Yeah, and I'm trying to keep a straight face." Yeah. Yeah. You know, "Are you ser-?" Yeah, they know. 28:36 They, they, they're trained to come in through a tunnel in the water and they go back into their enclosures. They're like, "Wow, I di- I didn't know that." So, and then I'm just... 28:45 I, I al- I always throw the, "I'm just kidding. They wouldn't survive." Ah, don't worry about it. [laughs] Don't worry. They put Vaseline on 'em to keep 'em wet. [laughs] Oh, the Vaseline guy, he loves his job, I bet. 29:00 [laughs] Like slicking down the belugas. Yeah. "Go to Walgreens. We just ran out of Vaseline." "Okay, I'll be right back." [laughs] It puts the lotion on the skin. Uh- Yeah... so yeah, I... 29:13 You're in a park somewhere in, uh, beautiful Chicago and, uh, on the lakefront there maybe. And I heard a- Uh, no, I'm about... Yeah. I heard a crow, dude. Yeah. Yeah, we have 'em here and, uh- [laughs]... 29:28 for some reason they like to hang out, they like to hang out, um, over by, um, a church across the street. Yeah. I don't know if it's a good omen or a bad omen, but I avoid that church. 29:39 It's a Catholic church and I avoid it because every time I walk in there, the holy water boils. And yeah. 29:45 Dude, I swear every time I'm out riding my bike, two crows are always watching me, always following me, always flying over, cawing at me. 29:57 I caw back, then, then they disappear, and then next thing I know they're, like, sitting in a tree a quarter mile away just watching me. Just watching, yeah. 30:07 Well, good thing it's crows and not, like, two very delicious plump chickens. [laughs] I wonder what crow tastes like. 30:15 Ooh, that's like what they say, though, eat crow when you ha- like, you have to, like, admit that you were wrong, which- Oh... story of my life. [laughs] I'm sure it's very- Oh, no... uh, yuckYou know? 30:30 So you- It's like eating seagulls probably. Ooh. [laughs] Seagulls would taste like french fries probably, if they eat a lot of french fries. [laughs] Yeah. 30:41 Have you ever seen the video of the guy, uh, that put a french fry in his mouth and he wanted to tease the seagulls, and the, a seagull actually pooped in his face? Oh, no. I thought he was... 30:51 I thought you were gonna tell you like, like I said [laughs] you were gonna say that it took his eye instead. [laughs] Caw. So speaking of- All over the seagulls... speak- speaking of seagulls, 31:05 Destro and I just did a kickass beach ride out of Belgium, and we went north to, uh, Amsterdam, uh, this is in Wisconsin on Lake Michigan. So- Oh, nice... 31:16 it was, it was pretty good, and we didn't have to walk too much in the lake. Um, there were a couple of sections, but it was pretty good. That's very, very cool. 31:28 So- Yeah, I haven't done a long beach ride in since, I don't remember. But, uh, one of, one of those rides- You don't talk of those sometimes, right? Every once in a blue moon. Uh, the last time we went, 31:41 uh, went with his brother-in-law, and, um, it was that time of, uh, year where the, the weather is either okay or not okay. And then, uh, normally we'd go to eat tacos after the beach ride. Sure. 31:58 But the Mexican restaurant was closed, so we had to go to some lame bar and not have tacos- Oh... 'cause they didn't have tacos. Man. They had, they had- So the taco, taqueria next to Zion Cyclery is not there anymore? 32:13 Gone. Gone. Ah, damn you, COVID. Gone. No, I don't know if it was that. I think the guy just owed money to the cartel. [laughs] They had good tacos there. They, they- Yeah, they did... 32:26 one of the best chorizo tacos that I can remember. I had a chorizo taco out of a, out of a taco truck? The... Oh, I think they made, made it out of chicken. It's supposed to be made out of pork. 32:39 That is, that's not right. That- Pork, man... that's not even Christian. Exactly. [laughs] It's like, all right, this tastes like spicy chicken, but I'm just gonna eat it. [laughs] Oh, it would taste like wet spiders. 32:58 Ugh. [laughs] So, uh, so yeah, uh, I, we don't change anything on our bikes. We like them the way they are. Nice. 33:10 The only thing I did was install a dropper post on mine, which is very handy. Um- Oh, which isn't necessarily just for summer. I would recommend a dropper post summer, winter, all the time. Um- Oh, yeah... 33:27 and that's, that's funny, like most, most of everyone that I've talked to, like thing... always starts their statement about what they change as, "Oh, I only do this." 33:39 [laughs] But a dropper post is kind of a game changer, especially if you wanna ride that fat bike on single track. You will have... 33:48 I, I don't know if you'll go faster, but you will have so much more fun because you will just brake less and rally corners, like- Yeah. Yeah. True. And, uh- Like Johnny Tomac... I actually have a... 34:01 [laughs] John Tomac, holy smokes. That guy was a classic. [laughs] Like he saw a squirrel, and calm down, calm down, doggy. Oh, you had the dog with you. City squirrels. 34:14 Yeah, took him for a walk, but he just saw a squirrel down the... It's a city squirrel, so they have like grills in their mouth and, and they're like spray painted different colors, and they have mohawks. 34:24 Like a 1980s villain. [laughs] Their favorite movie is Warriors, the squirrel version. Yeah, just like that. Yeah. Yeah. This little squirrel has a little switchblade with it. 34:38 [laughs] Squirrels literally have claws that are like full on curled. Like imagine if you could climb straight up a tree, what your hands would look like. Well, yeah, like full on hooks. Don't fuck with a squirrel. Wow. 34:55 No wonder squirrels wouldn't wipe their ass because- [laughs] Sick... they would have, uh, just like scarf all over their butt. No doubt. Yeah. Squirrels, plus they have huge incisors, those choppy teeth. Yeah. Yeah. 35:12 No, I was gonna say that, um, I have a full suspension mountain bike, um, and, uh, it feels really tall- Uh-huh... because it's a 29er. Uh-huh. But I do need to install a dropper post on it. Yes. 35:27 I, I had that bike, yeah. I, I crashed a couple of times because of its height. Yeah. I mean, it's the same height as all my other bikes, but just because it just makes sense, you know? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. 35:37 And, and you'll... That suspension works even better, you know? Yeah. You just become... You so... Your weight of your body becomes so much centered, better centered in the bike. Your center of gravity is lowered. Yeah. 35:55 It feels so good. Yeah. It's all about the physics, man. Or something, or gnome magic. Yeah. It's all the math. Yeah. Gnome magic? Yeah. Gnome magic. [laughs] Or no magic. 36:08 [laughs] So, oh, would you ask me what PSI I run in the city? Oh, sure. Yeah. Okay. 36:16 So, um, somewhere around 10 to 15 because, uh, we do have to ride on asphalt to get to the beaches, but once we're at the beach, we ride, uh, right along the water, the water line. Yeah. 36:30 And where, you know, the hard packed, uh, I was gonna say snow, the hard packed sand. Sure. Um, but, um-I did have an incident with a police one time while riding my fat bike on the beach. 36:44 I was, uh, by myself at Ohio Street Beach. It's full of people, full of people jo- enjoying themselves and having fun and tossing the ball and witty banter and all that. And there were three cops with ATVs on the sand. 37:01 Mm-hmm. There is, there is no sign anywhere on the beach that I cannot have a bicycle on said beach. Mm-hmm. 37:08 Well, I start riding on the beach, and I'm going around some people just to make it to the, to the waterline where, um, you know, it's, it's, it's more hardpack. Right. And this guy, I hear behind me a motor revving. 37:21 I look behind me and, um, he's still a w- a, a ways away. He's going around people, revving his motor, uh, spitting sand everywhere just to come over and tell me to leave the beach because bicycles are not allowed. 37:34 [laughs] And, um, I was like, uh, "All right, Mr. Officer, I will, I will leave, uh, because I don't wanna, I don't wanna get handcuffed, and then I, I, I don't wanna be not seen again, you know?" 37:47 [laughs] But I'm like, "Oh, well, you know, just sometimes, sometimes you have to obey orders from the police." 37:53 Well, that wasn't just the only time that you've been hassled [laughs] by the police on the beach because you and I [laughs] - Oh, my God... 38:02 were detained, were detained not once, but twice in the same incident, but released, and, uh- Yeah, yeah... we were tailors. That was interesting. Yeah. That was interesting. Yeah. 38:14 Uh, 'cause I was afraid that they were gonna find the body I was hiding in the trunk that night. [laughs] That was... That wa- That cop was like, "I smell fear." 38:24 And I'm like, "Oh, man, I hope they don't ask me to, to, uh, open the trunk." [laughs] Well, that's a good place to, uh, to close this segment of The Danger Gnome. Uh- Just like closing the trunk. Clunk. 38:38 [laughs] It's the last light you ever see. Yeah. All right, dude. Thanks for being on the show. All right. No problem. Thank you. All right. Next up- I'll talk to you later... 38:48 we-- next up, we have your buddy, Tony Grande, with a little message- Oh, nice... about what he changes on his fat bike for summer. Nice. Nice. All right. Thank you, Gomo. Later, dude. [laughs] Take care. Bye. Bye. 39:03 We did a little something different with this show. We, uh, sent out this question to our, uh, product testers, and some of them we talked to on the phone live and some of them sent us voice memos. 39:16 So here's one from our amigo, Tony Grande. You may know him as Irv Spanks on the interwebs. Howdy, everyone. BBR test pilot, Tony G., here to let you in on the evolution of my springtime fat bike routine. 39:31 Though I do have a few other Surlys in the stable, my Ice Cream Truck is my year-round go-to. My first spring was a run what you brung situation. Just kept the stock Nates on and ripped. 39:43 The following year, I picked up a pair of studded Wazias for wintertime shenanigans. Side note, I now run a studded Johnny Five up front and a Wazia out back. It's a sweet combo in the snow. 39:54 I would then swap to a pair of Maxxis 4.8s for the rest of the year. That was my routine until a few years back. I built myself up a new pair of wheels as a Christmas gift for my studs that winter. Then, 40:07 as that spring came closer, I somehow got my wife, who is awesome by the way, to look the other way while I built up a set of 27.5 wheels, complete with Van Helgas. 40:18 So them beauts are now my three-season single track to beach and back wheels. I'm always tweaking something on my truck to suit my needs, but the only constant springtime change is going from studs to the 27.5s. Cheers. 40:33 [upbeat music] Hey, we've got, uh, Greg Gentle. He's our apparel editor. And this show, uh, we're gonna explore the question: What modifications do you make to your fat bike for summer? 40:51 Go, Greg. Yes. Well, thank you for the, uh, for the nod and in- uh, introduction, Gomez. What do I do to prepare my fat bike for the off-winter [laughs] season? That is the question. 41:07 So I ride a Fat Boy from Specialized, and typically I run a Dillinger 5 studded tire pretty much as soon as the sun or the snow starts to fall, because regionally, we get lots of snow, lots of ice, 41:27 and that's how I like to roll come wintertime. That's a great all-around tire for winter riding, for sure. Yeah, I... It is. It is indeed. So now that the, uh, the sun has 41:38 melted away that, that frosty, cool, white stuff that hits the ground around here, I roll over to a totally different tire setup and run with the... 41:53 Oh, my God, it's jumping out of my head as we speak. Hard edit while I recover [laughs] my brain. [laughs] What do I run? Uh, Husker Du's? No, it's not the Husker Du's. It's the Schwalbe. 42:11 Oh, uh, Jumbo Jims. The Jumbo Jim. Nice. And why was that so hard? I've only been rolling on these things for, like, five years. [laughs] Oh, they have all those rhymey Nobby Nick racing rides. 42:21 [laughs] Yeah, I, and I'm, I'm literally, like, in that, and I'm, and I'm setting up my, my mountain bike wheels right now, so I've got a pair of, uh, Vittorias that I'm thinking through, and I've got another pair of, uh... 42:34 I do have a pair of Rocket Rons and a pair of Nobby Nicks. I got all these different brand names bouncing- Yeah... around in my feeble brain on aUnnourished, uh, Wednesday afternoon [laughing] So- Yeah Pop quiz. 42:48 So pop quiz. What's on your bike, dummy? Um, yeah, that is, that is it. That is truly the setup for s- for summer riding. It's a low profile tire and it gets me where I need to go. 43:04 You know, I, in all candor, my fat bike does get, you know, kind of like the red-headed stepchild treatment in the summertime because there's so many cool, um, other options of-- for riding around here from gravel to mountain bikes. 43:22 But what I have done and love to do is not only swap out my tires and, and run with a lower profile, um, tire for, for summer riding, but start the setup for bike packing. Oh, yeah. I've got a Ski Polk. Mm-hmm. 43:36 I've got a Ski Polk that I, that I pull around for ice fishing and general winter adventuring, so that comes off of course and I attach some everyday mounts to my fork. I've got bags from our friends up in, uh... 43:54 What's it, what's that? Is it Two Harbors? Is that where Sidero are? Two Harbors, yeah. Yeah. Yep. So I got bags from, from Sidero that I set up and I'll just do quick overnights up and down the St. Croix River. 44:05 It was just Mike Cruickshank's birthday. Happy birthday, Mike [laughs]. Oh, yeah. Happy birthday, Mike. So that's pretty much my setup, you know. Uh, lower profile tires, set it up for some, some overnight adventuring. 44:20 Um, love to do bike packing on-- in the Sand Barrens just north of St. Croix Falls. Yeah, right on. It's just this expansive, this expansive, um, kind of wilderness area that you can disappear for days if you choose. 44:32 It all runs along the St. Croix River. There's campsites that are part of the National Park Service, so you can roll up there and pitch a tent, bivvy it, hammock [laughs], however you roll. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. 44:46 But that's, uh- That's cool... that's how I kind of set up my, my, my fat bike for summer fun. Well, right on. 44:51 Jumbo Jims are a great choice, um, and, uh, I wish they made them in twenty-seven point five, but maybe someday. Maybe someday. You know, as, as things roll on. Yeah. 45:01 I think you're the only tester that we have that has a Fat Boy and I'm telling you, I, I call the, uh, the specialized M series, uh, Fat Boy 45:17 just the-- the-- I think that's, that's [laughs] it's like in the, uh, Mad Max movies. It's the last of the big block V8 Interceptors, man. I, I really think- Yeah. [laughs]... I really dig that bike all black. I do too. 45:30 Blackness. It's, uh, it's, it's, uh, it's got the Factor Carbon layup similar to what their S-Works frame is, the, the frame that I have, um- Right. Yeah, that's the term that I-... it's super, super lightweight... 45:42 I used, I used the M series like it's a BMW or something or like an 80s mountain bike. Right. But it's the, uh, S-Works version of that bike. Yep. It-- But it's not the S-Works 'cause they did make an S-Works Fat Boy. 45:54 This one that I picked up is the, uh, the notch right below it. Oh, yeah. But it, it features, it features almost the exact same frame and, man, I just-- I love the fit. 46:06 Um, I've, I've been riding on this thing for five years. I have other people like, "Hey, if you wanna sell that, let me know." I'm like, "No way, man. I love this thing. I'm keeping it [laughs]." Yeah. 46:16 I, I rode one for, uh, for a spring and then summer, um, and it was super good. I loved that bike. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Yep. All my bags fit. I got my, uh, the Sidero top tube frame pack. 46:33 Um- I'm, uh, I, I, I'm riding a Rocky Mountain Blizzard right now- It's really-... in carbon. That is- Yeah, I've seen it. I, I'm telling you, it's a shame you're too tall to ride this bike, but it's really- Mm. 46:47 It's really turning a page for me geometry-wise and I [laughs] am just like, uh, in some of these rides, I just am flipped out by how fast this bike can go and how you just do not have to give a damn about your line so much and I'm jumping- Really? 47:06 ... off stuff [laughs] that, that I generally would ride around just because- Mm-hmm... it's going so fast and you can sit so far back. 47:15 You're so in the middle of this bike to begin with and then you can drop the post and get so low, get your weight so low. It's just like really... 47:27 It, it's blowing my-- all of my, uh, PRs away on, on all the segments that I repeat, right? That you like to ride on. Excellent. Cool. 47:35 Well, I'd, I'd love to check that out in person someday and our, our, our paths have yet to cross this season and- It'll happen... we're due. For sure. We are due. All right, my dude. 47:47 Thanks for participating in the, uh, Danger Nome, uh, question of the month. So- Always a pleasure, Gomez. All right, dude. We'll see you later. Always a pleasure. All right. Over and out [laughs]. 47:59 Next up, we've got Jeff Price with a voice memo about what he changes for summertime fat bike fun. Here's Jeff. [birds chirping] Hi, Gomez. Summit Toppler here from the UK. 48:14 [birds chirping] Uh, to answer your question of what modifications do you make to your fat bike for the summer, well, for me it's very little, to be honest, because of, uh, the temperature variations in Wales from winter to summer isn't that great, to be fair, not like some of your, uh, regions in the US. 48:36 [smacks lips] So the modifications are fairly, fairly basic. Um, [inhales] I changed the, uh, Surly Edna tires over to, uh, some worn out Jumbo Jims, um, obviously 'cause it rolls better and, um, 48:54 yeah, there's less, uh, there's less gloop, less mud on the ground. [smacks lips] Uh, during the, during the winter, uh, some of the tracks up here holds a lot of water so, um, 49:06 the, the, uh, the Merckx that I use mostly through the, through the winter will get a service. [smacks lips] And then just a different type of lube, really. I'll use the dry lube 49:17 in the spring and summer and the wet lube in the winter due to all the holding water and wet weather we get. [smacks lips] Anyway, hope that helps. Catch you later. Ride on. Well, that's our show. 49:32 I, uh, doggedly went after this question of what folks are doing to summerize their fat bike, mostly because 49:41 I think endlessly on this subject right now with, uh, all the choices I have in my head and in the bike shed. So I hope this, uh, little bike nerdery 49:58 made some, uh, ears happy and, uh, time to go ride the bikes now. Check us out on Instagram @fatbiketimer. So I'll talk to you again someday. 50:09 [outro music]
