We Share Our Unpopular MTB Opinions | Dirt Shed Show 507

Welcome to this week's Dirt Shed Show with myself, Martyn Ashton, and... The bike nerd. How's it going? Nerding. Nerding, nerding well. You are in something of trouble this week. I'm in trouble? Well, you've created the topic this week, because we're going to be talking about some unpopular opinions in mountain biking. And I've done that. And some of these things may trigger you. They may upset you. That's kind of where we're going with it. Because some of us have got kind of small views that aren't part of the core of mountain biking these days. And you brought it up. You're looking at me? Well, your gravel bike video, Owen. Yeah. You loved it. Yeah. You loved gravel biking. And I do. They're great bikes. They're like mountain bikes. Right, now we're getting into tricky territory. First unpopular opinion, right? Owen thinks gravel biking is good mountain biking. It is, yeah. You said that with such conviction. But it is. I don't have to have conviction when it's like a fact. It's like, go on, yeah. So, they're similar to old mountain bikes in a really good way. Yes. They open the door and realms to other ways of biking from your door. And the idea that you need to have a certain bike to do certain mountain bike, to be mountain biking. Well, like a flat bar gravel bike, that's a brilliant mountain bike. It's loads of fun. You could do adventures, which is still mountain biking. Because if we go on the name of mountain biking, we're not all mountain biking on mountains, are we? So that's where gravel bikes are really good. Just got to re-associate what they are. Don't you think they're brilliant? Or are you saying that we've actually been, you know, mountain biking's been around forever and gravel biking's just a twist on what we were already doing? That is a much more succinct way of saying what I was trying to say. Yeah, but I'm not agreeing with you. You just have. No. Brilliantly, thank you. Yeah. That was clever. Right, next unpopular opinion. This is coming from me. Trials is a fundamental skill of mountain biking. Mountain bikers should be practicing trials. Oh, for a minute I thought you meant we all had to get like a 20 inch and start doing like trials. No, you can do it on your mountain bike. And then I agree with you. Because I think that's really valid. Can you? I'll urge again. I know I agree with you. Because we are practicing like skids and wheelies. Balancing, track stance, small figure eights, hopping the front, hopping the back. Doing those endos where you can take your feet off. It's like Hans Ray. All good things. You found a one useless trick in trials. Oh. Right there. You don't need that one. But all the other ones are fundamental skills and you do need them. Agreed, yeah. Next, really triggering unpopular opinion. Okay, I'm ready. E-bikes are mountain bikes. How is that triggering? They are. E-bikers are mountain bikers. We are all the same. Yeah. It's fine. Yeah. If an E-bike passes you on the climb, be cool about it. Yeah, but I, well, yeah. I think that's that thing of kind of like people going, oh, gravel bike's rubbish. Well, yeah, some gravel riders, a bit like some mountain bikers, a bit like some E-bikers. We can put labels on them. How did we get back to gravel? Aren't stellar. Don't know what you mean. And that interaction with people on the trail. If everyone's like friendly and cheering, like this trail's great, let's all enjoy it. All good. I personally think E-bikes are mountain bikes. Oh, they are? I just think from the outside, if you're not a mountain biker, looking in, it's just another mountain bike. It's got a bit of tech on it that you just wouldn't even notice if you didn't know what you're looking at. But there are people out there, I can't wait to hear from you in the comments, who are going to say no. Yeah, I feel like they might be quite a few. It's different, you're cheating. Yeah. It's not cheating, because that links to, you've got another one here, which is earn your turns. Yeah. Where like climbing is worth it. I really enjoy climbing, full stop. Yeah, yeah. It's great. And actually, I did a video with James here where he did loads of tech climbing, and I'm like, this is awesome. Yes. And the e-bike opened up more climbing. So I'm like, yeah, climbing is mountain biking. Yeah, that's a good way to look at it, because some people think climbing, and that almost excludes the e-bike, but climbing on an e-bike really is a banger way to use it. Yeah. So yeah, I think we're on the same page on that one. This one, you dropped this into the script, I noticed. Okay, right. Fat bikes are fun. Yeah, they are. Again, right terrain, right trails, they're awesome. I've ridden one on really rocky, gnarly terrain. Yeah. Where, so it was like a hire bike, and if you had to hire a bike, it'd have to be like a five-inch travel trail bike. But they're like, no, we're just going to use fat bikes, because it sort of works. They're lower maintenance. And you want it to look stupid. Yeah, but, okay, that links to another question of is mountain biking cool, which we'll loop back on. Whoa! Because if you're saying that fat bikes aren't cool, in the right terrain, they're awesome, because you're kind of like making. The right terrain being? Sand, snow, rocky terrain, mountain, snow. Sand and snow, and snow and sand. And they happen rarely. What, no, well, if you live in Finland, snow happens a lot. It's a good question, though. Is mountain biking not cool anymore? When you arrive at the cafe on your mountain bike, and you want to go have a quick muffin, like you do, and you walk in in all your mountain bike gear, do you feel cool? I mean, I'm in some GMBN kit, so I feel especially cool. Clever way. Black Friday sale's on, by the way. Yeah, it is, exactly. We'll get to that. I feel pretty cool, yeah. It's not like I'm a roadie, like clip-clopping around like a duck. They do clip-clop. Yeah, they do, and it's just, it's very unflattering. You're right, roadies are stupid. Yeah, no, but it is, that is really unflattering, so we've got a big advantage. Let us know in the comments down below. Is mountain biking cool? Are e-bikers mountain bikers? Is gravel worth talking about? I mean. You just talked about it. Just let us know in the comments. This one's all about what you've got to say about it, so give us an unpopular opinion down below in the comments. I cannot wait to hear from you. It's going to be a banger, but for now, let's go to the news with Tom. What's his unpopular opinion? What's up, everyone? Enduro live streams? I identify as an enduroist. Personally, there's no way I dedicate seven hours of my hard-earned summertime weekend to watch a live stream of an enduro race, even if it was possible, because I'm out riding. Anyway, that's my other unpopular opinion. Out of the way, let's crack on with the news. A new addition to the Aston bike's subtractive range has landed. The S150 uses the same bonded alloy tubes as the 170, but with shorter travel for a more nimble feel and slightly tighter geometry for lighter duties. Not that light, though, as that 7075 alloy tubes are still super strong, so it's rated for enduro uses and bike park, too. Builds start from 4,499 UK pounds. Good news if you're a little ripper. Transition have redesigned the Ripcord with 130mm travel front and rear, 24-inch wheels, a dropper post. It comes in raw paint job with ergonomically designed youth-specific components, too. New Capra's from YT as well. The frame remains the same, but there are some nice touches added in there, like size-specific bar rises as standard, 30mm on small and medium, 40mm on large to XL. Continental KryptoTiles are now the standard on all models, and stopping power is increased to 220 rotors up front where possible. Core 1 and 4 builds are available in alloy or their ultra-mod carbon. Core 2 and 3 builds standard carbon or alloy. There are component choices galore with SRAM, Shimano, Mozoki, Fox, Rockshox, Ohlins, Sun, Cane Creek, TRP, Crankbrothers, and more showing up on builds. Best check out their website for exactly how that's all distributed across the range. It's that suspension time of year with a flurry of releases in the sprung world, starting with EXT, who have released the Via fork, named after a storm which blew through their Italian valley. The Via is an inverted dual-crown fork for gravity riding with between 170 and 200 mil of travel. It's got titanium hardware, a proprietary stem which offers two offset options, but most importantly, floating bushings, which EXT say ensures zero stiction and low friction even under high side loading. They sure look pretty cool as well, a touch over three kilos in weight and two kilos in money. Next up, suspension-wise, we've got the second generation of Cane Creek Kitsuma shocks, both coil and high-volume air cans available for gravity riders here, three-position climb switches, lots of adjustment across both high and low-speed compression and rebound, and a two-year warranty on them as well. The air can retails at 700 US dollars, and the coil is 650 before the spring. Last but not least for those boutique lovers out there, Intend released some new additions to their Blackline range, all inverted forks too. The Hero, Edge, and Flash are the three models ascending in rank of stiffness, travel, weight, and price, with the Flash topping out at 2,249 euros. Intend have also released a nicely-machined crankset, 165 mil in length, with an optional extra of some stainless steel crank boots, and also a stem, 25 mil reach, two-bolt bar clamp, and integrated top cap for 139 euros for that one. All right, that's all from me this week. Let's catch up with Toph for the Sickest Thing. Right, this week's Sickest Thing has to be this new video part from Paul Genovese and Ride or Die called Fool's Errand. He's not been pro for a year, so this was all filmed on his days off working as a laborer, which makes it all the more amazing. Paul Genovese is one of the best at putting video parts together, from his trick selection, his iconic and steezy riding style, and he just understands the vibes on how to creatively produce the sickest video parts. Like, I genuinely wish so many other riders would just take a look and learn how to do it properly. Because he's one of the riders that proves it's not what you can do, it's how you do it. That's where the magic is. My favorite clips have to be that huge no-foot can drop, the North Shore shark fin to one-foot can, just because it's perfect, and the water fakie on the tree. Obviously, that's so sick. And the backflip Superman seat grab. It's definitely worth checking this one out. Right, that's my Sickest Thing this week. Time to go back to the shed. Okay, thank you, Tom. Next thing we want to talk about, this is important for all of you out there, Black Friday sale is on in the GMBN shop. There is discounts across our kit, casuals, and accessories. It's on now. But you've got to keep your eye on the store, because I know there's better deals coming as we get towards Black Friday itself. Oh, clever. Yeah, okay. It really is biggest sale of the year, so you've got to keep your eyes on it. There's things like GMBN Archive Camo, like the orange and blue one. Oh, the OG one? Yeah, yeah, yeah. 15.99. Yeah, kids' t-shirts from 8.99. Christmas socks, perfect little stocking filler, 5.99. Right. It's a banger sale, it really is. Can't stress that enough. I might have to go and do some shopping. Look at some of this stuff. Look, what would you pick out of all of this? I tell you what, the Keep Cup, reusable glass cup. Right, I'll get one of them. I didn't even know we did that. No, but I'll get one. Yeah, that's in there. I've just been using this great bottle for ages, but now there's a Keep Cup. I can keep my coffee. Very warm. Black Friday sale, get involved with that. Also, Black Friday, over on P.E. Of course, we have got the GMBN 20 code for a 20% discount up until the 29th where their Black Friday sale starts, and you get 30% off across the store on P.E. 30% off. Yes. Shivers. So there's two places you've got to go this week, GMBN shop and P.E.'s. Don't miss out on an opportunity. No. Great stuff. I love this time of year. It's all the sales. It's great. There's some real good bargains out there. Right, time for Hacks and Bodges. Bogs and hatches. It's a hug. Hacks and bodges? Oh, right, not bogs and hatches. Right, gotcha. Cool, okay. Bogs and hatches. Yeah, bogs and hatches, no? That's a different show. Oh. First up in this week's Hacks and Bodges is from Sam. Now this is incredible, right, because he was about to go on a race. It was 6.30 a.m., got on his bike, saw that he had a broken derailleur cage. Found this pen, zip-tied it to the derailleur cage, and then did a 45 kilometer ride on it. And he said it shifted fine. It's perfect for the whole ride. Good pen. It's a good pen. Did the pen, could you still ride with after? I mean, it's a bodge of massive scale, but hey, it worked. Yeah, that, I'm just speechless. At the end of the day, a bodge just needs to work. Yeah, no, it does, yeah. What does that do to you, someone like yourself, you know, like a pro mechanic, you're like looking at like. I mean, I have got sweaty hands from, I thought it was some kind of like piston. I'm like, wow, he's like hacked on a adjustment. File it in your mind, you're going to pick the best one in a minute. Oh, right, okay, right. Remember, you're giving away a GMBN top, right? So GMBN race top to the best one. Okay, right. Okay, so next one from Scott French. This is pretty cool, so this is a motorcycle lock. He's fitted onto his mountain bike, e-bike actually, so expensive bike, and he's managed to make it safe just putting this grip lock on, which basically locks onto your grip and then pulls the front brake on. It's for motorcycles, but he's made it work on a mountain bike. Great, quick, easy lock, isn't it? I mean, they could still run off with a bike, but e-bikes are heavy. They are, but they're not as heavy as a motorbike, are they? No. I mean, this with an additional lock, great. I mean, the more problems you can create, the better. Yeah, yeah, so yeah. I think that's a bit of a hack. Bit of a hack. Yeah, I think so, yeah. I like that. Well done, Scott. Next one from Gordon Walmsley. Oh, here we go. A nice bike rack made out in the garden from his daughter's old swing. He's basically just hammered on a bit of wood and turned it into a pro bike rack. It actually looks pretty good. Looks really good, yeah, and still functional as a sort of pull-up bar or swing bar, so that's quite practical, really. Pull-ups in between maintenance. Yeah. You've got to pick your favorite one this week, and you've got to pick a good one because we really want people to send their hacks and bodges into the GMBN Uploader, so we've got to make them king. What's your favorite? I'm going to go with Sam because that is very impressive, as much as it makes my hands sweaty in terms of like, oh, I don't really like that, but it worked, and it worked for the whole thing, so yeah. Fam, race top on its way to you. Well done, and that is proof that a bodge can win. Exactly. A bodge can win, and you've all done a bodge. Just send it into the GMBN Uploader. Let's take a look at some things we liked this week, and I'm going to start us off with a friend of mine, Seth Stevens. Okay. Great trials rider. Right, yeah. Absolutely nuts what he's doing here. Okay. What is he thinking? Oh. Yeah. Oh. At Rampage. No. Send it. He's not. Yeah. Look. I mean, he's bonkers, isn't he? He's got a video on his YouTube channel. It's worth going and checking it out. Him riding this recumbent, basically, down the Red Bull Rampage lines. What a lunatic. That's mad. What a lunatic. Here's a really great topic for another day, but I just like how this is developing. Okay, yeah. Developing news. Brayden Brighurst, friend of the channel, has brought a whole new discipline to mountain biking, and I really think this could take off. Right. Hard MTB. Bit like hard enduro. Oh. But hard MTB. Distilling all of the skills down into a much more condensed event. It looks brilliant. The test event has just happened. I think this could be the future. I think we'll be talking about this on the show more. Raw slalom. That's pretty cool. I like that. Tech slalom. I'm not. I mean, these are his original drawings. Oh, right. It's all developed. No, but that's really fun. Interesting. It'd be good to see how that grows. Also, just the UCI World Cup Indoor Trials round has just happened. Great wins for Borja Canojes, Virabaron, and Charlie Rolls. Oh, very good. Great wins, and they are now, all three of them who took that win are leading World Cup championships. Well done. And a Christmas present idea here from Trailscapes. Now, wouldn't this be a great present for a mountain biker out there? Ooh, to build your own trails. Build your own trails. Special tools that they've devised. I like this. Pretty trendy, isn't it? That's very cool. Yeah, yeah. Is it a Pulaski? I feel like that's the name of one of these tools. Oh, I don't know. Yeah. Please correct me. I'm probably saying it wrong. Yeah. Those look great, though. Yeah, some things we like this week. Right, it is time for the caption contest. Here's last week's photo of Blake. This is like one of the creators has got pretty fancy with this one. I like it. Is this some kind of vision, or is this? It sort of looks like a Blake nightmare, doesn't it? We've got some great captions from it. And the winner is going to get themselves a stunt mug. This is the original stunt mug. Oh, gee. This one here, yeah. Now a nail was contained. Right, don't stunt mug that. Yeah. He's retired, essentially. Oh, okay, phew. I thought there was going to be a sort of nails fired across there. No, he's retired. Sepster58, he says, look for GMBN's new Blake Christmas ornament in the GMBN shop this season. Can we get that? Unfortunately not. Oh, sorry, it's a caption. That's a shame, that'd be quite good. But that would be good. Like a bauble, a Blake bauble. Yeah, not Blake's baubles, but yeah. No. Next one. Right, Blake is starting Christmas early with his Noddy Holder impression. Very good. He does look like Noddy Holder. Yeah, no, that's very good. It's Christmas! Yeah, that is a good one. And Darren C. Shaw says, oh, look, the sun baby from Teletubbies is all grown up. So that's exactly what it looks like. It does, yeah. Darren, definitely the winner. Yeah, easily, yeah, very good. Oh my God, how disappointing. That beautiful little baby grew up. No. It's full of stories and characters. Yuck. Well done, Darren. That's a great caption. Stunt mug on its way to you. Not this one. Right, here's this week's caption contest photo. There you go. Give us your captions for that in the comments down below, along with all your unpopular ideas. Coming up this week. Yeah, go on, what's first? We've got how to ride any drop-off on your mountain bike. Oh, that's rich. Ooh, that'll be good, that will. Yeah, he's got some skills. We've also got how to make climbing easier with one simple trick. Get really fit. Yeah, that might be it. That might be rich as well. Well, he is really fit. Yeah, but one simple trick, apparently, is going to make you better at climbing, so it's definitely worth knowing. And also, the Malta Urban Enduro's coming, where Rich Payne did quite well. Won't say any more. No, don't say any more. I feel like we've said too much, but yeah, you can look forward to that coming. Big rich week. A lot of rich. Yeah, not a bad thing. Rich, rich. Rich and rich. We're rich and rich. Yeah, we're enriched with rich. Let's do the bike vault. First bike this week is from Rob Coffin. It is a Norco, Muddy Norco Fluid FS. The dirt jumps, it's got factory Fox 36 on there, X-Fusion 130 mil rear shock. NS road rear hub, yes. Almost we can spin over that, because the bloke behind him is doing a really stylish sort of like, sort of move on the jump. Yes. It's too short to describe it. It's not really a table, is it? Bit of a whip going on. Yeah. We are going to, I'm going to give, that's a super nice. Yeah, isn't it super nice? With a trick in the background, actually. Super nice, well done. Michael Cox has got a Nukeproof Scout, fully customized. Blake's favorite. Yeah, they are very, were very nice. So he's got Spank wheels. He's got a Bomber Z1 on there, 160 mil of travel. Spank Vibrocore bars as well. He's gone all in on the Spank components. SRAM Guide brakes as well. And Hope F20 pedals. He says it's the best hardtail he's ever had. It probably, almost certainly is. It is super nice. Well done. Next up, Eric Knight with, this is in South Park, Pennsylvania. It's his GT Force, Fox suspension, Hydra hubs, Stan's Flow S2 front, and EX3 rear race face effect. I'm just going to go super nice. Yeah, I like the snow setting. It's quite cool. Almost be good for a fat bike. Oh, stop it. Go on, what's next? Bailey Ronald, he has got, yeah, very cool. He's got a Marin, not Marin as we say here, Marin Rift Zone 1. And effectively he's upgraded, well, look at the description, he's taken everything off and put new stuff on. And located in the beautiful Swiss Alps. I think that is, that is one of, I'm going to say it out loud, I think that's one of the best bike vault photos I've seen. I managed to position it in an original way, stuck in the snow there, pedals three o'clock. It's just super nice in and out. All going on. Now we've got an amazing bike. This is a 1992 Ozone CO2. So we've got elevated chainstays, which are this weird thing that happened, just to make, there was this obsession with short back ends and mud clearance for triples, so we had to do something that made the back end of the bike really flexy and wobbly. It's quite bizarre. I tell you what, though, I really wanted one of these in a small. I really wanted one of these bikes in a small. I remember wanting one of those. Very cool, it's from Unrefined Traveler. Yeah, from 1992, it's definitely a super nice. Yeah, super nice, easily, yep. Powell Kudas, who's got a first sort of snow ride in Poland, zero degrees, but lots of traction, lots of ideal friction. Specialized Evo, Epic Evo, sorry, but with new suspension, new brakes, new wheels, new drivetrain. But I think it's a super nice, and snow. Doing well this week, doing really well this week. Could be a full set. From It's a Hard Trail Life, love this. Lapierre Zesty, AM 7.9, CF, built on a budget, riding in Morzine, put a cheeky bid on eBay for the frame, not expecting to win, but he got it, and he is using it. He is using it. Look at that, I love seeing a muddy bike. Yeah, super nice, easy. For sure, easy, good reactions. I crashed the belt. Oh, Climb Mantra, oh, you're teasing me with this. Upgraded with XTR M950, oh, you tease here. That is from 1998. Yeah, dropper post. I think that's the carbon framed one. Let us know in the comments. It's that carbon big mass. I mean, it's an incredible bike, because it's absolutely horrible, but cool. It's such a weird thing to look at, because it's wrong, but it's right. And it rode kind of interestingly. Let's leave it at that. Super nice, it's a super nice. And that is it for the Bike Vault, and the show this week, all about unpopular opinions. I cannot wait to hear what you guys have got to say out there. Go for it. Join the debate, it'll be healthy and fun. Trigger us, is mountain biking cool? Gravel bikes, fat bikes, e-bikes, dare I say it. Let us know in the comments. But for now, that's all from us. We'll see you next week.