Is The Bike Industry Reacting? | Dirt Shed Show 475 [Sea Otter Special]

Welcome to this week's Dirt Shed Show where I am here at the Sea Otter Classic in California. Someone pulled the short straw. It wasn't me. Whilst Martin is back in Bath and I'll be taking a look at some of the coolest new bikes down in that tech zone and doing a live bike vault to see what is nice and super nice. Stick around for that one. I'm here soaking up the sun in lovely Monterey. Whilst I'll be here at the Sea Otter Classic, I'll be taking a look at some of the most amazing bike kit on the market at the moment. All the brands bring their nicest kit, their total high-end stuff, things with custom paint jobs. We'll see some amazing kit whilst we're here. Actually, it got me thinking. Just this week, I did a video on how to save money. We do get a lot of comments if we ever do something about the newest kit that is super expensive. Lots of people comment, of course, about the cost of mountain biking and how crazy it seems to have gotten the last few years. There's been some really great comments on that video on how to save money as well. One in particular I thought was good from Chris Cowan, who says, money-saving tip from Canada. Wait until the end of the season to pick up deals on more costly items that you want but may not necessarily need. Things like helmets, goggles, cassettes, et cetera. Definitely some really useful comments in that video. Check out if you haven't done already. People write these, shoot us down every so often for those higher-end videos with those really expensive £10,000-plus bikes. What I think is actually really interesting, in the last couple of weeks, we've seen some releases from some of the biggest bike brands out there on definitely the more lower end of the market. People like Shimano, who already have their Q's groupset, have brought out this Essa groupset. It's a 1x8. It really simplifies their offering on this end of the market. It's more of a urban end but also great for those hardtails, for beginner mountain bikers. For under $160, you can get a full 1x drive train. Also, interestingly from RockShox, they brought out a couple of that budget market fork, the Silo. I don't know if people remember that name. I definitely do. I had some of those in the past, the U-Turn, making it a just travel. That RockShox Silo Gold comes in 140 to 160mm offerings. It's priced at $539 or £580. Also, there's a RockShox Domain. That's a 150 to 180 fork. Both these forks are available in 27.5 or 29. The Domain is $579 or £620. That really got me wondering if the market, so people like RockShox and Shimano, are waking up to not just the pressures. Obviously, we've seen a lot of the talk recently about bike shops really struggling to sell off bikes and consumers really keeping hold of their pounds and their dollars. Has the bike industry had to listen to that? I think they definitely have. Although, the bike industry works in these cycles that are a bit further down the line. They may not have foreseen this quite coming as it has done. It's really interesting to see these really good offerings from these big brands. Actually, I think it's perfect timing for a lot of the people that are probably watching this that are thinking about upgrading their bikes but they don't want to be spending loads of money. I think it's probably a better time than ever to actually get hold of that cheap stuff. Of course, there is that super high stuff that will always be. Let me know. Jump into the comments. Do you think these are reasonable price things? If you're looking at that Shimano Essa groupset, that sounds good to me. What about these new RockShox forks? Do you think they're going to be popular? I think it's perfect timing from what I'm hearing from the public, from in the comments, and even from people at Sea Otter that people are dying to get cheaper bike parts. Anyway, let's head back over the Atlantic to the UK for some news from Tom. We'll kick off with the UCI racing, which in the elite racing, it was Sam Gaze and Evie Richards in the XTC, Chris Blevins and Jenny Rissveds in the XTO. I believe this marks Jenny's first XTO win since 2019. So many second places in that gap, so it must feel super good. First podium for Sevilla Blanc who came second in the women's race and Specialized Factory Racing looking strong in the men's first, second, and fifth on the podium for them. Another spate of releases from the Fox Group now, an update to their transfer seatpost first. Adjustable air pressure, adjustable in five mil of increments with a larger range of sizes than ever before. The new Race Face Era chainring uses all three materials in bikes, steel teeth, carbon body, and alloy spindle. 10 to 12 speed, 10 to 34 teeth. From SRAM, the time pedal lineup is revamped. Both the Special 12 and 8 are now available in two sizes, large for gravity and small for trail. New bikes now, there's a reworked Rocky Mountain Altitude. It's pretty slack, 160 mil of frame travel, 29-inch wheels but can work mixed, down tube storage, and a big range of build kits. Plenty of adjustability with the Ride4 flip chip system in there too. There's a new raw jib. The V2 is 130 mil frame, but it's now available as an LT option with 141 mil of travel too. All the usual good stuff from raw, giant bearings, overbuilt aluminum, and external cables built to last with options of a standard or UDH compatible chainstay. New Nollie Fugitive 2, 125 mil or 140 mil through the frame, straight top tube, modern updates with geometry. DVO have released the next generation of Diamond Fork, a redesigned crown, new air spring and damper, and a 3D machining process to reduce the friction through the stroke by getting tighter tolerances. There's a new film from Backcountry. The latest in their Venture Beyond series stars pro riders Perkin Costain and Remy Metallier as they explore how Montana's legacy bike park came to be and the impact it's having on the local community. If you live outside the EU, you can watch that on the Backcountry website now. Okay, that's all for me this week. Over to Toph for the Sickest Thing. Toph 2 Right, this week's Sickest Thing has to be this new full-length film from In The Hills Gang called Hillbomb. In The Hills Gang is the sickest underground freeride crew and it's so good to see a proper full length with so much backcountry riding. Now, obviously, there's loads of gnarly clips in here, but in my mind, the gnarliest one has to be Aiden Parrish sending this massive cliffhanger down Cam's Inc.'s Red Bull Rampage 60-foot step down. Now, I'm not going to lie, I think cliffhangers suck, but you cannot put respect on this. This is one of the gnarliest clips I've ever seen. My personal favorite clips is just anyone carving the ground, pal. It's always so sick, isn't it? Right, that's my Sickest Thing this week. Time to go back to the shed. I feel like we've lost control of the Dirt Shed Show. Neil's gone rogue. Neil's taken over. But it does look cool out there, doesn't it? This is our moment to say welcome to the Dirt Shed Show, although that seems to have happened already. Cheers, Neil. No, thank you, Neil. It's great. Oh, I'm jealousy. It looks amazing out there. It does look so good. I've never been. Yes, but thank you, Tom and Toph. We should fix that. We should send you. Yes, go on. First class. Next year, all right. Hang on. Can't we just send you? Why does it have to be first class? Let's have this conversation later. We did a poll on our community tab on YouTube. You can see our polls and things like that, which sounds very fun. Did you? I did too. The poll was, how many bikes do you own? Which sounds like such a simple question. I was actually quite surprised by the result because I thought it would be predominantly, quite massively led by one bike. I've got a bike. A bike, yes, but it isn't. The options are zero, one, two, three, or four or more. I know what you were. You were in the very low percentage of 19% who had four or more. You could have 10 or more. Joey, how many bikes you got? Minus two. Wow, that's not an option. He had bikes and no longer does. Martin, what are you in? I was the one bike. Get on. You've got more than one. No, I've only got one bike at the moment. RX, Bowhead RX, the greatest adaptive weapon ever made. Amazing. Good, all right? It's good. Still going around it. It's good. It was quite interesting. 30% equal to the 30% that have one bike, 30% two bikes. The next question I wanted to ask was, how many of those people with two bikes have got one bike and one EMBN bike? You mean an e-bike? I always think of them as EMBN bikes. EMBN bikes, okay. Because they're for the EMBN people like Steven Jones. Jones ain't got a normal bike. He's got loads of bikes, but we've lost them in the grass in his garden. They're gone. Great poll. Glad you got involved. It's a great opportunity for me to say, next week's show, we're going to be talking about things. It's a question. Do we really need, for example, do we need electronic gears over cable gears? Things do we really need? Our poll is going to be aimed at getting to know you and what we really need for next week's show. Answer that and it will help us discuss next week's topic of things that I'm not sure we really need or we really do need. We don't know yet. We haven't discussed. The poll will tell. The poll will help. Get involved with that. It's going to be up as this show has gone live, so you can probably do it right now. Let's get on with the show. We would usually, at this point, sing the Hacks and Bodges song. Oh, I did a deep breath. But we're not because this week is hands and beagles, hands and beagles, hands and beagles. You know this one. Hounds and beagles. Not into it. Not into it. Let me see if I can talk you into it. Here we go. Hounds and beagles. We've done that bit, mate. A bit late. Yes. Let's start with hounds and beagles this week, trail dogs that we love to see. These are cute. This is Bill and Ben. I've met Bill and Ben. I was out for a roll in Porthcawl the other day at the seafront, and Bill and Ben and their owners, whose names, unfortunately, I didn't get, yeah, sent me this picture. Here they are. Great to see you guys down in Porthcawl. They look very proud dogs of their bikes. They were lovely and they felt amazing. You can't get an idea of- The dogs. The dogs? Well, I should have felt the dogs, shouldn't I? Now you say that, I see why they were upset. There's a lawsuit somewhere there. Yes. That makes sense now. Yes. Did the police come? Yes. Look at this guy in his full-face helmet. And he looks cute. Oh, my God. This is from Callum in Newbury. Oh, from Newbury? Sorry, Carol. Cool. It's all about you. My dog, Dolly, ready for the trails in his full face. That's so cute. I love it. I love it. Next up, this is an amazing- This is about you as well? No, it's not. I love it. This is from Ash. The bike is a Collie. Look, he's chomping at the bit to get going. This is Whiz. I wonder why it's called Whiz. Yes. It's literally- Oh, my God. We should have called it 360. Look at- 360, 360, 360, 360. It's never-ending. You know when you play a computer game and match the pad and it just keeps doing the same move over and over. Look at that. Ash couldn't even keep up. That was fantastic. And then we've got a brilliant little riding edit from Tim. This is great. Unfortunately, I haven't got the dog's name, but he's a boy. He's a little boy. Getting ready to jump with my boy. Look at this. Comes into a landing. Send it. Look at this little- He's got a rucksack on. The dog's got a rucksack. Oh, yes. Is that so he doesn't have to carry his spares? Genius. Genius. It's a slave dog. Oh, my God. Look at that. He's got a little- It's like Planet of the Apes. Yes, a little bum bag. That's cool though. There's some quality submissions. Hounds and Beagles works, doesn't it? It does. I think it does. We might do some Hacks and Bodges next week, or we might stick with Hounds and Beagles. Who knows? Depends what you get. Send us anything you can. You can either do it via our uploader, which might be still being updated. If you can't get it through on our uploader, you can send stuff, DMs on our social medias, Instagram, or- Post. Send a Polaroid in via post. Polaroid. That sounds grubby these days, isn't it? A Polaroid. Look, I've got a Polaroid of it. It does when you say it like that, you weirdo. I guess if you said it different, it wouldn't sound that bad, would it? Yes, send a Polaroid in. There you go. Yes, you're right. That doesn't sound weird. Oh, send a Polaroid in a bit. Shop shout-outs. Let's talk about our spring trails essential gear. Get out on the trails in springtime, Rich. Well, then you are going to need- There's nothing more springy than you, actually, is there? We should have you for sale on the GMBN shop. Tigger. You are quite Tigger-like. Oh, thank you. Do you ever get that? That's exactly what someone who was Tigger-like would say. What? Oh, thank you. They're all like positively. Head over to the shop. We have got some amazing deals on some great gear. Obviously, we do love our shop. We're quite passionate about it, aren't we, Mark? Absolutely. Yes, we've got some good deals on for you. Head on over. Link is in the description down below. Yes, bundles are my favorite. He's in a bad mood today. Am I? Martin, some things that we liked this week. Yes. I tell you what, I like this. Not only was I a massive fan of Manon Carpenter when she was racing, I'm still a fan now. She's helping promote Earth Day. That's pretty cool. Yes, which is on the 22nd, Monday. On Sunday, the 21st, Manon and many others from Trash-Free Trails are going out on the trails and clearing them up to celebrate Earth Day. Spring cleaning. Head over to Trash-Free Trails and see where there's one near you. Clean up the trails of litter. That's great, isn't it? It is great. I like that this week. I like it a lot. Now, keeping with the women, Jenny Rizvets won. Oh, so good to see this. The UCI Mountain Bike World Cup XCO. I was rooting for her in that race. Yes, it was, wasn't it? It's been a while. I mean, 2019 since she last won. Obviously, when she stopped winning a few years back, there was a spell where she was just completely dominant and she had a bit of awful time with mental health and stuff like that. Now, she's back winning. I just hope this is the sign of things to come this season for Jenny Rizvets. I'm calling it now, Watch Out Olympics. Oh, yes. It's an Olympic year. Watch out, watch out. I hope so. I hope so. That's great. Something else I noticed this week, which I think is fabulous news, Fabio Wibmer, massively popular mountain biker. I've heard of him. He's a massively popular influencer because Forbes did their 30 under 30 list in the EU and- He made the cut. That's mad. We're talking like all the celebrities, TV stars, other sports stars. Yes. Fabio Wibmer, the trial- A mountain biker, yes. No, don't claim him now. He's ours. He's a trials guy, not a mountain bike guy. He's a trial. He would probably say he's a mountain biker, but we had him first. All right, I'll give you that. You just took him afterwards. No, it is an incredible achievement, that as well. Yes, trials in the 30 under 30 list. Yes. Go trials, savior of mountain bike once again. Caption contest. Now, last week, whoever was doing the Dirt Shed Show forgot to do a caption contest. Rude. That was me. Was it you? Yes, it was you. I was going to say. I'm not going to forget it this week. I'm sorry I missed out last week. I got so caught up in all my graphs and drawings that I actually forgot to do it. This week, this is the caption contest photo. It's brilliant. Love that. I think that's Owen. I'm not sure. Give us your caption for that. That's a good photo. It's a good one. Give us your caption for that. You could be winning yourself a stunt mug like this one here. Have a closer look. Wow, that is a stunty mug. Looks good, doesn't it? You will never catch it when I'm around. You always catch it first. Okay, coming up on the channel this week, it's a busy one. We've got Turning Pro at 50. I think that's me. That's not you yet. Oh, not again. I did that once. Look out when. No comment. Moving on, Rockstar Pro to Businessman. The Petey story. That's pretty interesting actually. All about Steve Pete for his riding career and beyond. We've got Best Mountain Bike Trails for Beginners. Here's one for you, Joey. Yes. Nice one. Ways for new riders to level up. Good one for you, Mark. Yes. Is this the UK's best adventure ride? I've seen some rushes from that and I think it might be. Great stuff. All coming up on the channel this week. It's a busy one, so make sure you don't miss out. And actually, that's all we can actually input on the show this week, right? Because Neil's going to do us a special live bike vault over in Sea Otter. Oh, I bet there's some gems. So go on, fruit him. Fruit him. Go on. Go on, fruit him. No, go to the camera. It's like presenting. Do it down the barrel. To you, Neil. All right, so it's setup day here at Sea Otter. There's not that much going on, except for people setting things up, of course. But tomorrow and the day after, there'll be daily videos on GMBN Tech, checking out all the cool new bikes and kit, and one over on EMBN as well. So make sure you're hanging around to see the coolest new bikes. But I think whilst I'm here, I should have a quick look around and do a live bike vault at the Bosch stand. Obviously, there's lots of e-bikes, lots of very cool ones going on. I've not seen this before. This is a fat e-bike, a Foes, called the Fatty, of course. That is nice. Check out this Specialized S-Works Stumpy. Very cool on the back of the truck, ready for adventuring with a jerry can on there, but very custom. That's custom-painted fork, frame. Look at the polished links on it as well. Five-dev cranks, gold bolts. Of course, it's super nice. I've got a retro bike here. It's a Bianchi Sass, a steel mountain bike, fully rigid, of course, 26-wheeled, single speed. I love the basket up front. It says your bike sucks. Doesn't, thank you very much, but that is a super nice. 20-inch cargo bike, I guess you'd call that. I actually like that, like chrome fenders. I think that's super nice. New Transition Spire, fully all black. Black is a new black, I'm sure you'll agree. My bike is all black as well. I've got to give that a super nice. You have to tilt your head on the side to take a good look at it, but yes, super nice. I'm cheating slightly because this is my bike. This is a Canyon Spectral, brand spanking new. Actually, I've ridden it a couple of times, but it's the new model with the KIS, so stabilize your steering. I've got some carbon Reynolds wheels. As you can tell, there's very little color on this bike except for the gold valves and the silver crank by the stamp pedals. I love it. Suits my personality. Super nice. Look at this. If you're a regular viewer of GMBN, you'll know that I love a titanium hardtail. I've sniffed one out. This is from Sage Bikes, all titanium. This is their Powerline. Obviously, a hardtail, and it is a downcountry setup, a 134 cup front. It's got this anodized, amazing, sort of, I want to call it paint job. Obviously, it's not, but the design on there. It's actually 3D-printed chainstay. I think this is super nice. There you go. There's just a few of the random bikes I've spotted whilst at Sea Otter. Check out the videos over on GMBN Tech if you want to see the very nice, slightly pricey kit as well. Martin, I'll see you next week.