Show Notes
It feels like now more than ever it is important to find sources of information and reporting that are trustworthy. It used to be fairly easy: subscribe to a credible outlet and trust that said newspaper or magazine would have guardrails in place to get it right and to exercise fairness. As the internet and social media became the predominant sources we rely on, a lot of those guardrails were knocked down. It could be argued that the system in place now is more democratic. More wide open. More voices. But along the way the trust factor has taken a blow. That's why we wanted to talk to Ben Delaney. Ben came from the old school ways of cycling reporting. He got a degree in journalism. He got a job at a magazine. He did the work and made his way up. Like a lot of his colleagues, he also took his lumps as traditional outlets succumbed to the pressures of lower ad revenues and tighter budgets. After being let go more than once by Velo, Ben decided to go solo. These days you can find Ben making videos for his gravel focused "The Ride" YouTube channel. It's one of Josh's favorites, so much so that Silca supports the channel. "The Ride" is a great place to check the latest in dropbar, offroad tech and trends. But this interview is less about gear and much more about the landscape of cycling media. How it got to where it is and what it needs to keep its credibility.
More from Marginal Gains Cycling Podcast, Presented by Silca
Josh has often spoke of the people in cycling he most admires. Rob Gitelis is a name he mentions frequently. Rob is the head of Factor Bikes. Rob's company is coming up on its tenth anniversary. The rise to prominence has been quick. Barely a year after Rob took over Factor, its bikes were on the start line at the Tour De France. Factor bikes have been ridden to three stage victories at the Tour. Factor has also celebrated wins at the Tour Down Under and a Gold Medal on the Track at the 2024 Olympics. Rob's credo is similar to Josh's: performance and quality first. If it costs a few bucks more to make the best, Rob -- like Josh -- can live with that. Nowhere in the Factor lineup is that more evident than the Factor One. The bike has been labeled the fastest in the world. A super aero machine that now has a partner in Factor's Gravel lineup: The Elara. These two bikes represent Rob's pursuit of high performance. The bike world has taken notice.
We believe in staying in touch with the history of bicycles. Knowing where we've been can often tell us where we are going. That idea has been frequently used when discussing the emergence of the 32 inch wheel. "It's like when we went from 26er to 29er" they say. But what was it really like to be in the trenches through the birth of the Mountain Bike? The struggle to find parts. The original wheel size dilema. The passion to push the industry in a new direction. Gary Fisher know what it was like. Gary -- as you probably know -- is a Mountain Bike OG: Pioneer. Thinker. Doer. He helped bring a new style of riding and the new bikes to ride on into the world of cycling. He is a part of bicycle history. Josh and Hottie talk to Gary about what it took to see a vision become reality. From hanging out with the Greatful Dead to bombing down Marin County's Repack Trail. Gary has a million stories that somehow are stored in one amazing cycling mind.
Hottie and Fatty pepper Josh with tire questions. Specifically what is and is not a radial casing and how his team was able to move towards a radial ply angle without disrupting tire stability. Josh also explains how they arrived at Protocol's knob shapes and patterns.
The Leadville 100 Mountain Bike Race has long been grounds for equipment tinkering and experimentation with the hopes of shaving minutes .. even seconds off finish times. Drop bars on mountain bikes at Leadville may seem recent but actually it was first tried by a pro in 2009. Travis Brown showed us by putting road bars on his Trek Full Suspension 26 inch mountain bike that anything can and should be considered when setting up a Leadville race bike. Drop bars, aero bars, and bar ends mounted inboard are now banned. But the experimentation and tinkering continues. We went to ten-thousand feet to find out how some of the fastest riders were planning to cheat the wind and reduce rolling resistance over the 100 miles plus of Rocky Mountain pain and suffering. Due to a nearby wildfire, the course was changed. Less climbing and more road was on the plate. Riders were making adjustments in both tactics and tech. In this episode we take a look at the common threads as riders headed for the start line. Paige Onweller gives us an inside look at dialing a bike for this unique race. We also get some feedback on how 32 inch wheels perform when placings and prize money are at stake. Two pros – Zach Calton and Emma Langley – share their thoughts on riding big wheels on big climbs. And we get a full recap from the front of the men's race from a guy who has been there a lot. John Gaston details the attacks and alliances that defined the 2026 Leadville 100. Plus we hear about the tech he used and rejected for this year's edition of the LT100 MTB Race.
If Bike sales were purely based on a beauty contest, Baum Cycles would be at the top of the charts. Baums are stunning, Titanium machines. Most of them are custom built by an out-of-the-box thinker in Geelong, Victoria, Australia: Darren Baum. But what motivates us to choose one bike over another is more than just looks. A bicycle -- especially a performance bike -- has to deliver where and when it matters. Darren is dialed into that as well. Darren has obsessed over geometry, center of gravity, and chainstay lengths for more than two decades. His mission is to not only make bikes look good on paper and in photos, but to make them accelerate, turn and climb like no other. In this interview we get a refreshing look at what it takes to build a custom, performance bicycle. Some things are just a tweak but other approaches by Darren are revolutionary.