AARON GWIN – New Bike, New Tires, Injury Update, World Champs and More

Thanks to @MaxxisTiresUSA , @FOXFACTORY and @jensonusabicycles for supporting The Inside Line MTB podcast!

With the 2024 UCI Mountain Bike World Cup Downhill season fast approaching, we talk with @GwinnerTube about his move to Crestline Bikes, how his 2023 injury is healing, why he has like 497 different jobs, including being owner of @thewindrockbikepark, and how he thinks he’ll handle racing this year.

0:00 – Intro, Move to Crestline Bikes
3:05 – Did Aaron Spend Personal Money for the New Team?
4:27 – Why Did the News Take So Long?
5:57 – How’d He Keep the Team Rumor Secret?
9:10 – From Vee Tires to e.13 Tires – Is There Really a Difference?
11:42 – The Day He Realized He We Would Be Off Intense
16:17 – Did Aaron Try to Be a Part of Big Brand?
21:36 – Does the Frame’s Suspension Platform Matter Any More?
24:55 – Gwin’s Crestline DH Bike Weight
26:56 – Does He Still Run Firm Suspension?
32:32 – Dakotah Norton
35:51 – Are There Enough Crestline Frames for the 2024 Season?
41:39 – Windrock for World Cup DH Training and Making Trails Harder
45:32 – What Goes on at a Red Bull Athlete Camp?
53:39 – World Cup Snow DH, Cool or Lame?
54:18 – Aaron Gwin’s 2023 Injury in Detail
1:07:02 – World Champs is Gwin’s 2024 Goal and He Thinks He Can Win
1:09:35 – Does a Winning DH Run Have to Be Out of Control?
1:12:27 – Jackson Goldstone and How to Compete Against Him?
1:17:43 – Gwin Racing at the World Cups
1:20:17 – Aaron Gwin Has like 53 Different Jobs
1:26:55 – The Future of Windrock Bike Park – Host a World Cup? Get a Chairlift?
1:32:31 – Favorite Bike He’s Ridden in the Past? YouTube Habits and Life Outside of California

a big shout out goes to Max’s Tires
Jensen USA and fox shocks for supporting
the inside line welcome mountain bikers
dude yeah Erin thanks so much for being
on how’s your workout uh the workout was
good it was um it’s nice to be working
out with a little less pain on the old
elbow recently so nice yeah finally
making some progress so thanks for
waiting up for me yeah no problem yeah I
want to talk to you about the the injury
here in a little bit but before we go
too far and this is probably the most
important question so I’ll start with it
first if you’re with Crestline and you
come out with a new bike model and you
call it the Trinidad do I get some
royalties on that the Trinidad yeah I
know local joke
there for sure yeah I know that would be
funny all right that’s what everybody
knows that is now if you know you know
if you know you know that’s right and
now we’re telling everyone so
um all right the news is out it’s been
out for a week or so that you GW racing
your team you’re riding Crestline bikes
now that a week or so is behind you are
there any misconceptions or things
floating around that need clearing up
you know since you first made the News
public um I don’t know I don’t nothing
crazy that sticks out to me I don’t
think I think um um I think a lot of
people thought that I had ownership and
intents um that was one and and I never
did we talked about it early on when I
first signed with intense it was
potentially going to be part of our deal
okay um but we kind of just decided you
know at that stage in my career with
where I was and with where they were it
was like I I was kind of like let’s just
focus on on trying to win races and and
get this bike where we want to be and
and you know for me I was still you know
when I first signed with intense it was
uh you know I was like the guy at that
time still you know I had an injury the
year before but it was like just
Championship mode so I was like let’s
just give it a couple years and if
there’s an opportunity to partner on the
business side down the road we can re
explore it then so um yeah but I I did
know the owners well and with like dunie
and some of those other guys that were
invested um hanging out with them I I
don’t know that rumor went around but
yeah I never had any ownership there and
then um I didn’t buy into Crestline
either I’ve seen a few people thinking
like oh he just spent a bunch of money
to buy in so there wasn’t any money
involved um my ownership in the brand
will just come as we hit certain markers
with sales and stuff um but it’s
basically there um just because of the
value I provide as you know a brand
ambassador and the feedback and all the
things that I kind of can bring to the
brand uh moving forward and my
involvement there so that’s that’s
what’s that that’s there for but yeah
outside of those two things I think um
not much man been pretty transparent
about everything okay cool those were
some of the things I had down was like
people thought you were part owner of
intents but you’re not and then yeah
just kind of how it works that you have
ownership like is and you know if this
is too personal fine like you can tell
me to beat it but like is any of your
personal money going into funding the
team or does that all come out of of
Crestline you know um so there’s a lot
of different things with the team I will
be personally funding um a section of
the team this year or a portion I should
say um I didn’t want to wait for
everything to finalize before we decided
you know like for example with Seth and
Mikey the other two Riders on the team I
didn’t want them to have to wait you
know deep into the offseason and be like
hey you you guys are on the team if I
can find the funding and if you’re and
you’re not if I can’t kind of thing so
um I committed you know once I had an
idea we were going to be pretty close as
far as getting the budget to run the
program um and so I was like okay
whatever’s left I’m willing to to throw
a bit in just to make it work so we can
kind of you know give these guys a rod
make sure that we’re functioning as a
program start booking hotels because a
lot of the stuff had to happen you know
months ago as far as like if you’re
going to go to the races you really need
to be locking stuff in you know sooner
than now so um yeah so it’ll be kind of
a group effort I’m putting in a little
bit but mostly it will be sponsor funded
between Crestline and all of our
co-sponsors as well it’s good to know
um and to dispel a myth was
it wasn’t to be dramatic that you waited
so long to announce the news no for sure
not no um yeah we it was funny because
it was like it seemed like I was the
last one to hold out on the news but we
were I was just really patient with
putting this deal together with cresline
like I was and we’ll dig into the
details of how everything came together
I’m sure but long story short um I was
just in the fortunate position I didn’t
need to rush to like just to make
something happen like I said we Comm
commed to our guys on the team and and
knew we would have a functioning program
um months ago and we had the the base of
all of our sponsors locked in the frame
brand was the last one to kind of figure
out and because I was kind of hoping for
something unique like this um these
deals don’t you know it’s it’s not just
like hey we’ll pay you this much if you
go race like this was a way more you
know if you’re talking about having a
third ownership of a brand or equal
parts ownership um there’s a lot of
things that need to be sorted through
there to make sure everybody’s aligned
and on the same page so um that just
took a little bit of time um we still
actually did it relatively like uh you
know it didn’t take a lot of times all a
lot of time all things considered um but
yeah we were just patient about doing it
so I wasn’t trying to hold off for the
announcement it was just you know we
were slowly putting the pieces in place
and then once everything was done done
then we I was like we’ll just announce
it then all right as well first of all
how do you manage to keep it secret
because it seems like nothing like this
there are so many people especially like
some insiders that are just like whoa
didn’t see that one coming so like you
did a pretty good job keeping it on
lockdown totally yeah we were we were
really quiet about this one um I think a
lot of that happened because you know a
lot of times if you’re signing with a
traditional brand you know like Intense
or Specialized or something like that um
a lot of times there’s there’s other
brands kind of involved you know like
for example e13 or trp or some of the
component Brands will be like okay who’s
the brand you’re rotting for and
sometimes there’s a bit of Leverage and
like okay we’ll pay the team a little
bit more for Budget if you guys will
stock this on the OE side or whatever so
there’s there’s just a lot more people
that usually need to know before a deal
is finalized um but since I’m you know
I’m continuing to run my program the the
intense program was mine but it wasn’t
run under my umbrella it was run under
intenses so it was like with Gwyn racing
when I decide just to do it myself and I
knew that I would fund whatever if there
was a you know a budget amount remaining
that we needed to fill that we could do
it um I was just like okay I’m I’m doing
this regardless of whether you know
who’s going to help me or not basically
like we’re we’re all in on this so um I
didn’t really need to tell very many
people and I I honestly just wanted to
figure out what was best um and keep it
really tight so even some of my sponsors
um you know not everybody even knew
before I announced it like it was kind
of I just wanted to get the deal done
and it wasn’t because I was trying to be
secretive or anything it was just um we
were in business mode what you’re doing
right yeah exactly we wanted to make
sure everything was really done right so
um and thankfully I’ve got such good
supporters you know they were stoked
with whatever I did so um yeah honestly
dude there was just only a handful of
people that actually knew about it yeah
okay
awesome all right as of a week or so or
launch at least like you hadn’t ridden
the bike yet has that changed no I still
haven’t ridden it um my race frame
actually just got sent out a few days
ago so it should be at the Knoxville
house built up now so I’ll be back at
Windrock um on Monday and I will
probably jump on that thing next week
I’m still kind of I just started rotting
about two weeks ago like real easy on a
trail bike with my elbow and um it’s
dude it’s finally I feel like I can ride
and I’m not having a lot of pain I’ve
obviously got to take it easy um but
just been really easing into things so
yeah plan is to get back on the downhill
bike um next week but I’ve still got
probably a couple of months before I can
ride you know really hard and and not
have anything kind of flare up again so
um yeah just having to be very patient
so the boys spent um a lot of time on
the bike last week uh Seth and Mikey
both flew out from BC and spent the week
at wrock with us and we did a lot of
Baseline testing with them and got them
set up and they were super happy um
which was good and then I’ll kind of
start my my road back here shortly we’ll
dig into the the injury a little bit but
um like you you haven’t really talked
much about the tire switch yet have you
yeah we haven’t really talked about it
much just so you’re going from V to now
e13 but can you you know discuss what
that entails and how it’s kind of not
that different yeah yeah so um the e13
thing on the tires I mean we’ve been
I’ve been with e13 for man I don’t know
since uh
2016 or something I think like I’ve been
on e13 a lot longer than that with the
chain guides but we’ve been on the
wheels and we were on cranks for a long
times and cassettes and all that kind of
stuff now we we’ve switched over to trp
on a few things but I’ve been with e13
forever um and e13 tires are actually
made by v um V basically like if you’re
familiar with Maxis I think all their
stuff’s made at a factory called CST I
believe um there’s only really a couple
of big uh Tire factories that basically
make everybody’s tires um so e13 tires
are made at V so um yeah we were on V
the last couple of years and we made
some really good progress though those
tires the casing and The Compound on
those tires were amazing like the best
I’ve ever had um they were really good
with where we got like I was able to run
less pressure and pretty much like when
we had the finalized casings like
they’re just really durable they felt
really good I didn’t need to run inserts
or anything like that like we were
really happy with those but we struggled
a little bit with really getting the
tread patterns right um you know the
spacing of the knobs and the height of
the knobs and all that kind of stuff
there was just a lot of back and forth
and so um anyways it kind of worked out
well because I already have such a good
relationship with E3
um V makes e13 tires so it was kind of
like the deal that just made sense for V
and for e13 like I still have a great
relationship with the guys at V I’ll
still be talking to them a lot as we
develop tires in the future for e13 um
but I felt like the team at e13 with
Joel and those guys like the tires that
they already have right now the the tire
patterns are are really good and we’re
we’re already working on some new ones
um and I knew that I would have the
casing and the compound that I had at v
um on these new TIR so for me it was
kind of The Best of Both Worlds so um
dude I’m I’m actually I’m really excited
about these tires I think we’re going to
be I think we could like have an
advantage on tires like not just try to
be breaking even with everybody so I’m
stoked do you remember the day when you
realized you weren’t going to be riding
the intents anymore and that you had to
give up on another design you’ve been
working on for a while and move on to
something else like was that a clear day
where you’re just like no all this work
and now I’m going somewhere
else yeah I
uh I don’t remember what day it is but I
remember the phone call um and I was
just like it’s tough right it it wasn’t
just tough for me it was tough for
intense like nobody wanted that
relationship to end um they were just as
bummed as I was you know we we put in a
lot of work um and time and money the
last five years with the race program
you know and we went through a lot
together from from covid to injuries to
you know the big ups and downs swings of
the the bike Market the last five years
so um and I’m still tight with all those
guys over there you know my mechanic
John that I’ve been with forever he
still works there um until I can
convince him to move to
Tennessee and I still got a lot of
friends there so it was uh you know it
wasn’t what any of us wanted but just
the this situation it just was what it
was you know there wasn’t an opportunity
to to stay there so um yeah it was
definitely a bummer it was hard because
we you know we spent a lot of years
working on the bike and getting things
right and I feel like we were finally
there this year where I felt like Dakota
and myself were like legit you know
winning we’re capable of winning World
Cups at the same time like two winning
Riders on a team if we had the right you
know if a day went really good um and
then obviously I got hurt Dakota had a
really good season and it felt like all
right we’re here now and you know a lot
of other parts and things were coming
around so um it was definitely hard to
to have to end that after all the years
of of hard work but dude that’s that’s
life and that’s the industry sometimes
you know so yeah it was definitely a
bummer um but you know I’m I wish them
nothing but the best and I know that
they’ll you know they’re supporting me
the same way so it was like all right
time to time to figure it out again yeah
like how did that process start did you
have a a short list of you know bikes
you wanted to try or like did I mean was
did you have any plan at all yeah kind
of I think um we were discussing some
some other business things with intense
towards the end of the contract because
what I’ve always wanted is to either
start my own bike brand or to be a part
of a bike brand at a bigger level um you
know I i’ I’ve been a part of I’ve been
fortunate to be a part of so many great
Brands and see how you know things go
and and been able to learn a lot with
each brand I’ve ridden for um and I just
like I love riding my bike so much and
everything about it and I’ve put in so
much work I feel like for a lot of
Brands and they put in a lot of work for
me as well but you know you kind of get
to a point where you’re like man it
would be awesome to have a part of this
like to be able to work on something
that you know you don’t need to
renegotiate every two years and uh be
able to see it through long term so
that’s really what I was I was hoping
for you know with this contract
regardless of whether I stayed with an
intense or not um and so you know that
those opportunities aren’t obviously
available with certain big Brands you
know you’re not going to come into a
Specialized or track and they’re going
to give you a third of their company
it’s like they’re going to be
traditional style sponsorships and I
think for me the way I’ve approached
this next phase of of Partnerships is
more in like a strategic partnership
type of model rather than a traditional
sponsorship type of model um
you know I’m again just fortunate to be
in the position I am right now where I
don’t need to kind of say hey will you
guys sponsor me so that I can go do this
it’s like hey I’m gonna go do this if
we’re aligned and you want to be a part
of it and it makes sense for everybody
then let’s have that discussion you know
what I mean so I think for me like I was
really looking for some some more longer
term Partnerships I’ve got a lot of
business projects and things that we’re
working on right now and so having good
brand alignment long term was was more
important than than anything so that’s
kind of what I was looking for and
that’s why you know it just took a
little longer than maybe other deals
would take because it you know I would
like to not have to do this again in two
years if possible and so uh yeah
fortunately I feel like I found the
perfect fit so it worked out good in the
end cool did did you go to any of those
big Brands and kind of pitch you know
what you’re thinking or did you just
avoid that and go to you know the size
of a brand that might have something
like this work out yeah we um I chatt
with a lot of Brands I mean I’m still
tight with you know I’m still pretty
close with all the brands I’ve ridden
for in the in the past for the most part
um and I and I know a lot of the owners
of those companies too like on a you
know I can just send them a text anytime
and oftentimes like I still do chat with
some of those brand owners you know like
once a year or something just to say hey
because we’re still buddies um so yeah I
mean I I did kind kind of talk around to
a lot of people cuz like I said we we
have some different business things some
that people already know about and some
that haven’t been announced yet um that
we’ll be chatting about here in the next
couple of of months and so it was like
really just trying to find the right fit
you know what I mean like hey like
here’s kind of what I’m thinking this is
what I want to do in the future and just
kind of like just trying to see if there
was good alignment more than anybody
more than anything so um yeah I chatted
with quite a few few Brands um and there
was a few Brands where we were we were
pretty far down the road of kind of
talking to um and yeah just kind of was
slowly figuring things out so that’s
kind of how it how it came together but
yeah it was
um yeah it was good it I I guess we’ll
just say like I’m I’m really happy with
where I landed the way it all came
together and you know when you talk to a
lot of people and some brands are strong
here and they want to support this but
they don’t really want to support this
or or whatever like when I started
talking with Troy and it crest sign it
was like H like this is what we’ve been
looking for like they really believed in
the overall vision and I feel like we
have very much the same vision on a lot
of things we want to do so it was um
yeah it worked out really well okay if
you were gonna make a Crestline bike
tomorrow you’re you have carp launch to
do whatever you want what bike would you
make uh first I’d probably make more
downhill bikes because I love downhill
bikes they actually the last run of
downhill bikes they only made uh I think
50 of them plus obviously like
warranties and Spares and stuff y so the
race team has enough bikes to get
through um and the the plan is to
obviously do some good testing on this
bike and kind of see how it goes I I
think we’re as far as kinematically and
a lot of things um I think we’re going
to be able to get it pretty close on
paper to what what I’ve been used to the
last year or two y um but obviously like
we’re kind of in a cool position where
we’re going to need to make another mold
with cresline here in the next six
months or a year um so if we’re going to
make changes like it’s the perfect time
to do that so we’ll just kind of see um
how it goes but yeah the plan is
definitely to to keep the downhill bike
going get some new molds on those and uh
keep ripping on those but um yeah I mean
they got a pretty awesome ebike right
now and I think the next step logically
would probably be some type of a trail
bike so um yeah we’re kind of having
those conversations now and and figuring
out kind of you know what’s the priority
where do we want to go the cool thing
with cresline is um the business model
and just kind of the way they look at
things is a little different than I feel
like a lot of companies the goal is not
just to sell as absolute many bikes as
as possible and just more more more it’s
like what whatever we do we just want it
to be really quality uh we want to
really believe in it and and do it right
and have like the best customer service
and you know really have things dialed
in so um it’s definitely more of a
quality over quantity type of thing so
if we you know when we start to add
these other bikes to the range they’ll
be uh very well thought out and we’re
just kind of fortunately in a position
where we don’t feel like we need to rush
it you know we just do what what’s going
to make sense but at the same time um
lots of expansion plans in the future
for sure do you notice Crestline use
like it’s my understanding that you can
cut kind of like a a short production
run mold out of aluminum versus like an
expensive one out of steel is is that
what you guys would plan on doing is
just going kind of more short run to
start um I think with the numbers we’re
going to be doing now I think we’ll
we’ll have to switch more into these
permanent molds okay uh the downhill
bike was uh a prototype mold so yeah the
material is a little different um you
can get them done a little bit quicker I
think that’s what really drove that
decision too is like when they the
downhill bike I believe was the first
bike that cresline made y um and it was
like during Co when every bike
manufacturer you know every frame
company or whatever um the companies
that build the frames they were like
wide open trying to make as many bikes
as possible so trying to get in line I
think the lead time was just a lot
shorter on the Prototype frame um and
obviously it was their first frame so
they were like cool let’s just launch
with 50 like super sick limited frames
and see how it goes so that’s what they
did and they all sold out but um yeah
from here moving forward the numbers
that they’re doing now and what we’re
forecasting and what we want to do it’ll
be worth just going ahead and like doing
a proper mold um that you can keep you
know for a couple years yep cool so you
know you talked about like you think you
can get the bike pretty close on paper
like obviously since you haven’t ridden
it but how important do you
feel a suspension platform like you know
VPP or hor or whatever how important do
you think that is compared to getting
the kinematics you want because I mean
you’ve kind of ridden almost everything
over the course of the years you know
like do you feel like any design you can
pull it off if you get the numbers right
yeah I think so I think I think the
numbers are are far more important than
the suspension platform if that makes
sense yeah like I would I would
definitely rather have numbers that are
like the same than a suspension platform
with numbers that are jacked up um but
yeah I mean I’m going to be I’m kind of
curious you know honestly like just to
be completely honest like we never
really got that intense with the VPP
where we wanted it yeah but we didn’t
have there was a certain way of thinking
that came with that bike at intense that
I struggled with you know like um with
what I want in a bike versus I think
what intense was used to sort of doing
with bikes that was harder than the
actual suspension platform itself so
what we learned through the process of
going to that four bar bike that I did
really well on and then ultimately to
this this like six bar bike that they
have now and where we landed I learned a
lot in that process with the engineer we
had hired that um I feel like if I would
have had that on the VPP bike before I
think it would have been very
interesting to give it a shot you know
what I mean I think at the time it was
kind of like well I know that this works
and if we’re just trying to get there as
quick as possible like you know and Jeff
had this idea for the six bar bike years
ago to try to get all the numbers to
line up right and then when we hired
Devon on he really filled in a lot of
the gaps for me um so yeah we’ll see
Devon and I are still super tight um and
he’s you know helping me along with
Jimmy at Cascade components like we got
a good crew now working on this new bike
so um yeah our goal to start out with
with this race bike um thankfully like
with the VPP between the upper and the
lower link and the rear dropouts you can
change a lot of things uh kinematically
with those three points so our goal is
to
basically get the numbers which they’re
already decently close in ways um you
know like start to do some testing and
just refine this thing as close as we
can get it um there are some advantages
I feel like with this bike over the
intense bike that we had um so I would
really like to keep those advantages and
then
you yeah like right now the bike the way
it Corners um even the way it pumps and
like gets up to speed is like really
good it’s a really Snappy bike that
intense bike was definitely um it was
pretty agile but it was it was
definitely still a bit of a plow bike
like pretty stuck to the ground um and
it was you know especially on that four
bar bike something we struggled with you
know time wise on the clock I knew we
were giving away time because it I mean
if you could point the thing straight
down and smash through bumps it was
amazing but if you’re trying to like
carry speed on flat straightaways and
accelerate it it was it was Heavy um
this Crestline bike is almost five
pounds lighter than my intense race bike
was which is a massive yeah so yeah so
the Crestline right now fully built up
with aluminum bars aluminum cranks uh
has Carbon wheels um pretty heavy tires
because that’s kind of what I’m
preferring right now because you don’t
have to run inserts and all that and a
coil shock is just barely over 38 pounds
oh really yeah so if we put like carbon
bars and carbon cranks in air like dude
you give a 36lb bike and it’s not a
small bike like it’s yeah you know it’s
got a
four what is it a 480 reach on it I
think stock so it’s it’s not small y um
so it’s super light it’s really well
built it’s really smooth like the way
the bike went together and everything
like dude they’re the Crestline bikes
are really nice like we built it up and
I was like wow like that’s probably the
nicest bike I’ve ever seen like it’s
they’re sick um so yeah I mean the bike
is way lighter my intense race bike we
were weighing it up um it was a
prototype right and um it was maybe a
little overbuilt in a couple of ways
just because it was a prototype but that
bike was um was like almost 43 pounds so
it was it was pretty heavy it’s a big
boy so yep so that’s cool um yeah some
of the kinematics on the bike just and
I’m just kind of going off of Seth’s
feedback on what he was telling me
because I obviously haven’t ridden it
but he really liked how the bike
cornered how playful it was um it was a
easier to get the thing to like move
around on the trail and be a little bit
more lively um and he still felt like it
was really good in the big bumps so yeah
I’d like to keep keep a bike that’s a
little a little snappier and and then
kind of work in some of the other
strengths we found to be good at the
same time so um yeah we’ll see I mean
we’re not stuck to this suspension
design but obviously um I’m pretty
confident we’re going to be able to make
it work with the people we have now and
if we can then that would be the goal is
to to keep it as is
okay you know kind of diving into
kinematics and you know how you want
your suspension to feel and stuff like
you used to be the firm guy you know
like whoa you can’t even squish aon’s
Fork that guy that’s changed over the
years but like where do you feel like
you are now and I know it’s been pushing
a year since you’ve you know you’ve
raced but like how how things changed
for you yeah for me um I think just I
was chatting about this recently but the
bikes have gotten so much better and so
many things have changed I mean like the
wheel size alone from a 26in front wheel
to a 29in front wheel like you can just
smash into stuff with that bigger wheel
so much better than you could with a 26
in front wheel so between the wheel size
is changing the bikes have gotten a
bigger reach wise in the last 10 years
um your bars have gotten wider like your
brakes are better your tires are better
uh the suspension is way better than it
used to be so with all of those
improvements obviously I feel like we’re
going faster down we’re hitting stuff
even harder because the bikes are better
but because of the tunability and the
improvements and the equipment you don’t
have to run a bike so stiff anymore just
to get it to hold up um I felt like back
like when I was on track for example
when I ran my stuff really stiff um you
kind of you had to make a decision sort
of like either you wanted your bike to
work in the small bumps and like have
good feel and track the ground good um
but it wasn’t going to hold up in the
big hits or you’re just going to like
lock that thing out like I did and just
make sure you could smash into the
biggest stuff possible without slowing
down and then just be strong enough and
sort of skilled enough to like hold it
on the track and in all the other areas
um but now just the suspension alone
like I mean you can kind of have both
you know they have really good Small
Bump compliance good mid stroke support
and can really smash a big G out hard so
um yeah the improvements in the
equipment have have allowed me to run a
more reasonable setup I think as I get
up to raise pressures and raise speed I
still lean on the stiffer side than most
Riders probably um but it’s it’s not
like it’s ridiculous you know the bike
doesn’t feel horrible if you want to go
ride it in the bike park or something
like it’s it’s
reasonable all right it was basically a
year ago to the day almost that we’re
down in Lagoona and we had John Hall
over for a rideal podcast and we went
down the wheel tuning spoke tension
rabbit hole with him and he had some
pretty interesting things to say like is
there any development on that end with
what you’re doing are you still messing
with spoke tension and you know things
like that and again I know you’ve been
you’ve been sidelined for a bit but you
know you’ve got Seth you’ve got the
other Riders like you were working with
Dax still last year so is is that still
something you’re going to mess with yeah
for sure I think um
uh I can’t say too much because we’re
working on a few new things I can’t talk
about yet but yes we’re looking to get
good compliance out of the wheels Spokes
and hubs okay um the e13 stuff that I’ve
raced and ridden forever the lg1 carbon
stuff um I believe they’re called the
grappler race wheels now um they’ve
they’ve gone through a couple of new
iterations and those things are like so
bulletproof like for us they’ve been so
good for a World Cup carbon wheel um but
they are a little bit on the stiffer
side so we’ve messed with some tension
stuff I know Dakota dug into it a little
bit this last year um and we have some
new stuff we’re working on now that
really adds a lot more compliance into
the wheel setup um so yeah that’s
somewhere we’re going but I think when
we get some of these new things um we’re
not really going to be messing with
tension a lot it’s just the overall
package is going to be kind of what
we’re looking for okay cool good to know
do you know who your mechanic will be
this year yeah uh James mallister he was
actually on our program last year he was
Dakota’s mechanic last year okay so yeah
James is awesome he’s been on our
program now basically since Dakota got
on the program so he was with us for two
years um super awesome dude um we’ve
grown to be really close with him so
when Dakota changed teams he didn’t have
the opportunity to take James um they
had a mechanic I believe over in Spain
or something a race mechanic that he was
going to use and I didn’t have the
opportunity to keep John because he’s
got a good gig going at intense right
now and um you know like with us living
in in Tennessee now and him being in
California like I I tried hard to
convince him to move him move out here
and uh I’m still trying and they’re
considering it they have some family
stuff that that doesn’t allow them to
get out of California right now sure um
but yeah so we James will be my mechanic
moving forward for this year he’s also
um we have two mechanics basically him
and Matteo is a new guy that we just
hired out of Italy that a lot of people
are probably familiar with used to work
for uh Jerome Clement okay and some of
those guys so um I met him briefly in
France last year seems like a really
cool positive guy he’s been awesome to
communicate with um so far so they’ll be
the two mechanics so James will kind of
um I think I’ll probably miss the first
couple of World Cups um I think and so
if that happens you know Mikey and Seth
basically each have one of the mechanics
and then when I come back James will
primarily work on my stuff and the mat
will work on the boy stuff you and Dak
are obviously in the same area like are
you riding with him do you think you’ll
ride with him at the World Cups to train
you just G to do your own thing
like no we for sure will still be riding
and hanging a lot we still go get dinner
with him and Freda um when we’re back in
Wind Rock like he’s been just about as
busy as I’ve been yeah um but I still
still see him when we’re both home at
least once a week when we’re around so
yeah Dakota and I are still definitely
really tight uh we still chat quite a
bit on the phone and in person at the
bike park and um when I’m back on the
bike yeah we’ll we’ll train together and
ride together and I’ll imagine uh we had
a really good thing going at the World
Cups like practicing and everything
together so I imagine we’ll we’ll be on
a similar program um same with Seth my
other teammate so yeah all is good there
I know we both wanted to keep working
together as well well um but he had a
really good deal at M drer and and he
had a pretty small window of time early
in the offseason that he kind of need to
either take it or leave it type of thing
and so when intense pulled out um you
know I just couldn’t see clear enough
with where I was going to like hey dude
hold off for four months until I figure
this out and you know it was like you
know we chatted about a bit and it was
like dude that’s a that’s a good deal
like you should you should take it so um
yeah so we’re all good there but yeah
for sure plan on riding together a lot
once I’m back on the bike nice Ken like
I know Seth was on intense with you but
don’t know much about Mikey like can you
tell us about him a little bit like how
you found him and all that yeah so Mikey
I actually met him pretty randomly at a
world Champs in Le
2022 I guess that would have been so
yeah about a year and a half ago um and
just like awesome kid man like every
everything I look for and and guys that
are on our program especially young and
up incoming Riders he reminds me a lot
of Seth when Seth was a junior like just
the happiest most stoked kid um super
levelhead like really excited and happy
and positive but also pretty chill for a
17-year-old which is good like he’s not
this wild and crazy out of control kid
um and just yeah he has a really good
head on his shoulders he I’ve been
working with him already for about a
year like just kind of helping mentor
him um he I got him hooked up with Todd
show like a performax on the training
program um and he just committed to it
like hard like he’s been putting on size
like he’s just so dialed with his
training and so I talk to Todd and you
know I obviously kind of keep tabs on
him because I feel like he’s a really
talented Rider with a lot of potential
here in the next you know two to three
years um and he’s like man Mikey’s
working hard like he’s he never misses a
workout he communicates really well like
he just does all the things that we look
for in a young Rider he’s just a good
kid so um yeah there was kind of an
opportunity this year where it was like
all right I still want to have at least
two guys on the team um the budgets are
going to be a little bit lower and it
was like who would I want to work with
that I feel like could be a really good
fit and I do like working with these
younger upand cominging Riders like we
did with Seth and um so yeah Mikey was
just kind of in the perfect position it
worked out really well cool all right
you you know you hinted at this a little
bit ago about the number of frames but
you know when you mentioned that you’re
on Crest line I was kind of doing the
math of like all right there’s three of
you racing World Cups are there enough
downhill frames to keep you guys sorted
for the year just because they didn’t
seem like a massive brand but you said
that’s covered yep yeah all good so yeah
it was funny I was chatting with troan a
couple days ago and we were just kind of
laughing because like the things that
kind of came together at the times they
did for this deal to like sort of line
up perfect where it was possible and
like all the pieces were in place like
he literally I think uh I don’t know
when it was a few months ago the the the
frames are made by VIP in
um I can’t remember not the China office
the other one but anyways they had
called and said hey this mold is still
in really good shape if you guys want to
make like another 20 frames we we can do
it basically before we scrap the mold
and uh troen was like well we’ve sold
out of the 50 we made you know and and
they have obviously spares for
warranties and stuff like that that they
keep um and so he was like sure why not
like let’s make another 20 like we we’ll
figure something out cool we’ll sell
them or we’ll ride them or we’ll you
know do custom colors or whatever so he
ordered an additional 20 frames that
were never planned because the mold was
in good shape and they could do it and
then yeah so we basically have 20 more
frames coming so so we’re well sorted
yeah that’s awesome but I mean if that
wouldn’t happened then like the deal
would have been perfect but he would
have been like d we don’t have any bikes
for you guys to
race it worked out pretty good yeah dud
okay good yeah those was one of the
first things I’m like dude they got
enough frames to ride for the World Cup
but yeah for sure yeah we definitely
don’t need 20 frames between the three
of us to get through a year but you know
you definitely need a race bike and a
couple spares so yeah we’ll uh yeah
we’re we’re good and and you mentioned
and it seemed pretty obvious based on
the photos but Cascade link will be
there helping you guys tweak stuff as
needed yeah yeah Jimmy at cascad is the
guy I’ve been chatting with so far um we
already have a couple different linkage
options that um they’ve been developing
Sam blankin soft was on the bikes last
year he had a link that he was running
um so we’ve already kind of got three
different options right now depending on
kind of how you want the bike to to feel
um or the course or whatever so we’ve
already got quite a bit of stuff like
options we can play with um and then
obviously we’re kind of working on you
know if we do need another one what will
that look like but right now I feel like
we’ve got a really good range of where
we can get it I just need to get on the
bike and and start testing through them
okay and was it easy to line up with
with Fox suspension on this like I
assume they can just kind of tune the
shock however you need it and make sure
it’s set up right yeah for sure I mean
as long as you have a bike that that
works really well and the numbers aren’t
like so far off in left field like the
suspension works really good if you’ve
backed yourself into a corner where like
you need a specific suspension company
with like a very specific setup or the
bike doesn’t work your your frame is not
right so yeah so yeah it won’t be a big
deal um I was really happy because Seth
as Seth has gotten older and more
experienced and faster the last couple
years he’s starting to develop a good
sense for how a bike feels and and where
it’s at you know he was like Mikey when
he first came on where like you I would
just set his bike up for him and be like
here go ride this and he’s like
everything felt amazing it was the best
thing he’s ever ridden type of thing and
so but now Seth is definitely more more
tuned in to what he feels and everything
so I I’m happy because just after his
comfort on the bike straight away like
within like literally two runs a lot of
times if you jump on a bike sometimes
you’re like man this thing just feels at
home really really quick it doesn’t do
anything weird it doesn’t have anything
strange going on um and but sometimes
you get on a bike and you’re like wow
this is this is going to take a little
bit of adjusting you know what I mean
like you’re going to have to adjust your
rotting style to fit a certain bike a
little bit so Seth basically was like
dude you know I asked him basically
after a couple runs like how do you feel
and he’s like I feel like I could I can
go just as fast on it as I did my
intents and I was like wow like all
right like that’s good so we did do some
some tuning and um you know we started
dialing and suspension and messing with
stuff but he said the Comfort on the
bike pretty much straight away was just
it’s a naturally easy comfortable bike
to ride which is really good cuz I
usually like bikes that are just kind of
in the middle like really well-rounded
not like too extreme in any direction um
and then yeah we started fine-tuning
from there so based off of his feedback
um it it sounds like he’s already really
close to basically being like 100% happy
with where he’s at so um so that
definitely made me happy and just
looking at the numbers too I mean the
intense m29 for example um that was a
VPP bike but the numbers were were
really extreme like they they were you
know really good in some situations but
honestly like are you talking about like
progression and Annie Squad Annie rise
all that stuff yeah a lot of that stuff
yeah like there was a few things with
the m29 that we just couldn’t tune
around um for an average Rider it was a
really stable like pretty good bike but
at a World Cup level like it it was it
was just tough to hang on to um so this
bike the numbers are are definitely R in
the range where I think they need to be
so I don’t anticipate like
massive changes in any direction I think
it’ll maybe just will be a little
fine-tuning here or there but we’ll see
like I said I Seth already seems like
he’s pretty much ready to go to a World
Cup and race tomorrow if he had to so um
yeah I’m just excited to kind of dig
into it I’m going to jump a little bit
here like do you guys have a specific
lap that you test at wind rock on that
gives you the you know what you think is
like a World Cup base setting yeah
there’s a couple um basically like Trail
one and middle finger middle finger is
the racetrack at Windrock like where we
race the Tennessee national and stuff um
those are kind of the two main Trails we
test there’s um another Trail called
caveman that we test a bit um if you’re
testing bike setup specifically in
suspension it’s really like trail trail
one and middle finger they’re the
roughest kind of biggest impact Trails
um one thing that I’m super excited
about is now that we own wendrock um I
can build whatever I want so you better
you better believe we’re building the
ultimate test track right nowwe so no
more of this like do your testing and
then go to the World Cup and instantly
have to crank all your compression in
further so we’re the new Tennessee
national track we’ve been working on is
going to be like basically an all new
track like it kind of follows the same
general route that it’s followed in the
past but like very different a lot of
new fresh sections and the existing
sections we’re we’re really building it
to to make it feel like a World Cup
track as far as your bike so we have
really good tracks there to test now I
mean they were already I feel like some
of the absolute best stuff in the US to
test on but uh they will be better now
so yeah I think we’re definitely good on
the test tracks can can you say what
what was missing from what existed to
going to a World Cup like what kind of
sections is it speed is it just the raw
routin it’s that stuff that uh you just
kind of hate to ride like just build the
biggest grossest G out that just wants
to like like Dakota and I were joking
because I I took Dakota down the
Tennessee national track a few weeks ago
and I was like hey dude here’s the
changes here’s what I’m want to do like
I wanted to get his feedback and we were
chatting about some other changes and we
just laugh because it’s like yeah can
you just like make this jump land in
like a full-on uphill like if it’s like
trying to make you do a front flip and
you’re just your whole goal is to keep
your face from bouncing off the stem
like World Cup you’re ready yeah so
that’s uh that’s really what it’s been
missing I mean Windrock is rough like
the RAC tracks have always been rough um
like really hard on your hands and
everything but it’s a lot of that like
mid bump like just repetitive rough
stuff you really the thing that World
Cups get you give you is like with the
steepness of the tracks and how how many
riders are on them like how G out they
get like you really get this like Bam
Bam like big repetitive
um where the bike is just working
through all the travel like repeatedly
in like a short space so that’s really
the thing you know like you you get a
bike at Windrock and you be like a the
setup’s really good it’s super rough but
there’s not those like big hits you know
where you’re botting them out you know
five six times a lap type of thing you
know at Windrock you’d be like oh
there’s one spot where you really get
the thing to slam hard and the rest of
its mid bump so um yeah we have changed
that so basically not funer ride at all
not fun to ride if
you’re if your bike isn’t working good
and you’re going our speed if your
bike’s working good it’s great yeah
that’s sick so yeah just more of that
real big impact stuff but doing it in a
way where it’s not sketchy you know what
I mean like you you can build stuff
that’s big and gnarly like that that
isn’t highrisk so you can really do
repetitive laps you know when you’re
testing and you want to do a lot of laps
you want to be able to get the bike to
really work hard without rotting some
super sketchy Trail that’s goingon to be
hard to just repeat something you know
50 times in a row over a week of riding
type of thing oh cool that’s
exciting you’d mentioned like just to me
when we were trying to set this up that
you were at a Red Bull Camp um this week
is that something you can talk about and
explain kind of what goes on there like
I think there’s a lot of people are kind
of curious as to what it means to be a
Red Bull athlete and then you know you
said yeah I’m going to a Red Bull camp
like what’s that mean you know is it is
it you know more than that like can you
talk about that stuff yeah for sure um
they’re all a little different like I’ve
I’ve been with Red Bull now since 2012 I
think so a little over 10 years they’ve
been a huge supporter of mine um been
been lucky to go to a few athlete
Summits and different camps and they’re
all a little different sometimes it’s
literally like we just want to get all
of our athletes together and do
something awesome so for example a
couple years ago um Red Bull threw like
a massive athlete Summit in Texas and
they basically just invited all the Red
Bull athletes from every sport out and
it was like a three four day camp they
actually rented out Willie Nelson’s
property just outside of Austin Texas so
we so we landed at the airport they
drove us there’s a a really big outdoor
like Surf Wave Pool in Texas like super
fun yeah it was epic so they drove us
there we surfed for like half a day
after we landed and then they picked
picked us up in a helicopter and flew us
to Willie Nelson’s Ranch and then we
basically were there they rented like
RVS on the ranch so each RV had like
four athletes in it okay and I think
there was like 10 a 10 RVs or something
like that okay so it was dude it was
like once in a lifetime experience um
I’m a big music and guitar guy yeah and
Willie’s son Lucas Nelson played like a
private show for us on his property
where he grew up dude like the coolest
it was it was insane and uh I’ve been a
huge fan of his ever since so we did
that and then we had a couple days of
like just different activities like fun
stuff and then we went to that big Music
Festival that was there so sometimes
it’s literally like hey guys we just
want to get everybody together and have
a great time and celebrate Sport and
just being an awesome team and being a
Red Bull athlete um this Camp was
basically a lot smaller it was just
right here in Nashville their uh
headquarters for the Delta Region they
call it which is basically the southeast
around here um it’s right here in
Nashville and so they just had all their
athletes from this region which I think
there’s only about five of us okay um
like couple BMXers skateboarder and a
kayaker all like awesome dudes that I
hadn’t actually gotten to know or hadn’t
met before um so this Camp was a little
more first day was kind of a little bit
of product training um because they’re
they do they do have new products that
kind of come in and out you know more
than just flavors I guess and they also
you know and it was actually kind of
cool to do because I think everybody
knows Red Bull is like a an energy drink
um but even for me like it was fairly
educational and I mean I drink the
drinks and I’ve been on the company for
a long time but they kind of line it up
against other competitors and it’s like
hey like you know for example a can of
Red Bull of original Red Bull has about
the same amount of caffeine as a regular
cup of coffee would have and they’re
showing you other energy drinks and
things that are marketed as like healthy
and they have like six cups of coffee
worth of caffeine and like certain
things and reading through the
ingredients so there is a little bit of
like hey here’s our not that you guys
don’t know it but like here’s our
product here’s some of our new product
here’s the ingredients that are in it
why we put it in it and you know with
Red Bull their big thing is like we want
this to be a specific drink that you
drink for specific moments you know if
you’re going to the gym if you’re you
you want to be at your absolute best
like this is when you drink it type of
thing and and so anyways there was a
little bit of like just chatting about
product and upcoming things they had and
then most of the the this Camp was kind
of based around media okay um so they
brought in a big-time media team that
kind of analyzed all of our social media
channels and kind of talked about like
hey here’s some things you could do or
here’s how we could help or here’s you
know whatever um and then honestly most
of the camp and this is like typical
awesome Red Bull style was like we just
want to talk through the craziest ideas
you guys have ever had and always
dreamed of doing for like a whole day so
show up with like three to five ideas
and let’s just Round Table it with the
group so basically the five of us
athletes each each got to like one at a
time be like well I’ve always wanted to
ride a mountain bike down the side of a
volcano and I want it to look like this
and I want it to whatever and they’re
like perfect love it what does that look
like and then all the other athletes are
like that would be cool what if you did
it like this or what if you know what I
mean so it was like kind of this iation
session where it was like you know
they’re always just like what’s the next
awesome thing that we can do and how you
know how would we make some dream you
guys have had forever come to reality in
your sport so it was really cool man
because it’s you know everybody’s have
has these crazy ideas and things that
they would love to do but as athletes
when you can get together and talk about
those things too like everybody has
something to add in a different
perspective and so these ideas like kind
of escalate pretty quickly and then they
literally like take all the ideas and
the next day are like all right here’s
the ones we’re going to start working on
like right now and figure wow that quick
yeah yeah so I mean they’re literally
like what do you guys want to do and you
come up with some crazy idea and they’re
like great let’s figure out if we can do
that so okay um that was a lot of the
camp was just kind of getting everybody
together enjoying SP in time together
and just kind of like how can we support
you guys in some sort of crazy thing you
want to do so um yeah that was kind of
this Camp so it’s pretty cool okay
interesting who was the
skater um oh shoot now you’re putting me
on the spot and I’m totally Jake uh
what’s Jake’s last name I’m forgetting
his last name he’s right here in tenness
Tennessee right in gallon close to us
yeah I actually met him at the uh Red
Bull did like a F1 event in downtown
Nashville with uh Daniel cardo like a
month or two ago and so I met him there
for the first time so we’ve kind of
become become buddies and then
um uh Terry Adams the Flatland BMX guy
oh yeah uhuh he was there and dude I’ve
been a fan of Terry like I you know
obviously grew up riding BMX and so
Terry’s been the man for like I don’t
even know like years and uh so he was
awesome spent some time with him um
Brock I’m spacing on their last names
now he’s another BMX kid I think he won
like simple sessions a year or two ago
he’s coming off a knee injury but just a
total Savage on like BMX park riding um
he was there and then a kayaker that’s
like Dude the craziest stuff you’ve ever
seen off waterer crazy yeah yeah I think
it’s Dane Dane I believe is his name um
yeah I now that I’m on the spot I’m
forgetting but yeah it just cool man
like it’s I’ve done a couple of these
projects with Red Bull we did one in
Pittsburgh a couple years ago was called
like Red Bull like steepest street or
something so they found like the
steepest street in America which is
basic I guess this this street in
Pittsburgh and literally it’s like
straight down yeah it looked crazy they
yeah and we did like an Audi commercial
on it too so they like brought in snow
machines and like snow blowers and
covered the whole street with snow so it
was like they showed the car like
ripping up this Steep Street in the snow
and then like me and a skier and a
snowboarder and everybody like coming
down the hill and like all so it’s like
it’s just cool because you get to meet
athletes and other sports and especially
when it’s a type group like that like
four or five guys and you have three
days together like it’s pretty rad like
we you always have a good time make some
cool memories and you end up leaving
with like some cool friends that you
stay in touch with yeah cool all right
you just brought up snow so what do you
think about that whole thing snow Bike
snowbike World
ch um I mean if people are stoked and
they get people to show up and it’s rad
then I say heck yeah go for it but from
me watching it personally as a mountain
biker I was like I I could definitely I
could probably miss that one yeah yeah
but I hear you not to say there’s maybe
not something there in the future if you
built the courses different but I don’t
know yeah I’ll I prefer dirt all right
sounds good that wasn’t even on the list
so that’s all we need to talk about with
that
one all right so you know not quite a
year ago
the first World Cup vital raw clip of
2023 was you exploding yourself in those
rocks at lenser hide and that was not
something anyone wanted to
see you’re still recovering from it can
you kind of walk us through everything
basically from then to now like give us
a cliffnotes version
but going face first at a th miles an
hour into those rocks like couldn’t
yeah yeah it it sucked dude like
it sometimes like all the worst possible
things line up in like the right kind of
way and it’s just like yeah I mean
pretty much like I mean as I’ve talked
about a lot like the goal last year was
to be in a position to fight for a World
Cup overall championship and a world
championship like those were my goals
was to try to win those two things yep
um I podiumed like three of the last
four races coming out of 2022 we had
this new bike like I had an amazing off
season I felt better stronger than I
kind of ever had coming into the season
um I felt like I was really smart like I
I crashed like two times I think in all
of 2022 like like really like went like
seven World Cup races in a row without
even crashing like I was really trying
to do things smart and safe not that you
can ever guarantee that because it’s
Mound biking but um I had a really good
off season for six six months like I
don’t think I had any really crashes
like just was building up nice and slow
just checking the boxes we were right on
Pace and then yeah went to Switzerland
um I think it was my third practice run
we got a the track started dry that
morning and it was really hard pack and
then it rained for like an hour so it
got that like real slippery like greasy
layer on top but it wasn’t muddy like
the track was still fast because it was
hard pack but it rained just enough to
like slime up the top layer so I was
like I remember just kind of taking it
easy and was like yeah it’s just
practice day let’s just get in some runs
and get familiar with the track and you
know be smart about it um Amry had a
really big crash that morning that
basically took him out for the season I
believe um and I yeah I was kind of
coming through this rock section and the
the Rocks were just a little bit
slippery and there’s this this weird
little like wiggle in the track that all
the Riders have basically complained
about for years but you basically have
like a tree and then like a big big
Square Rock and there’s like tree and
rock and you have to go like right
between the two and you’re going through
rocks before you do it and your pedals
probably clear by like this much on both
sides like it literally forces you to
wiggle and they’re like they’re big you
know they’re probably a foot and a half
that rock is like pretty big so you kind
of come in sideways over some stuff and
then you got to like thread the needle
and then right after that there’s like a
5ot drop into some rocks and so I just
kind of came
in decent speed um I don’t actually I
don’t honestly really know what happened
um like the bike just skipped out just a
little bit um and because you’re so
close to those rocks like it skipped out
literally like a couple inches and I
think my frame like the rear part of my
like rear triangle or whatever like hit
the rock on the side and kind of hooked
up and pitched and if it would have been
anywhere else on the track I just would
have like taken a foot off and kind of
like gotten squirly and like yeah
skitted maybe out through the tape and I
would have been fine but because there
was that 5 foot drop like right there
like there was nowhere to try to save it
so I had to kind of like eject off the
bike which might have been okay too but
that rock wall had like a bunch of
Boulders in it and one of those Boulders
had basically come loose and they had
just pushed it like a foot outside of
the co tape like they didn’t further out
so like I jumped off the bike and then
basically like I would have slammed
pretty hard but I landed if you slow-mo
the video like I landed my leg like
right in front of that big rock so my
leg like I was pretty lucky not to break
my leg with how it like my leg was sore
for weeks um but the thing kind of like
caught me and then like just like
whiplashed me into the ground extra hard
so it was kind of just like all these
little things just kind of lined up like
just right to make a a very small
mistake turn into like very high
consequence um so yeah just slam the
ground hard I could feel my arm like
pretty much as soon as I hit the ground
I was like man that like that hurt my
leg was honestly hurting a little bit
worse um but I I don’t know you know
sometimes you you smack the ground hard
and things hurt and then a few minutes
later you’re like I think we’re okay so
I was just trying to be positive because
I was like I can’t believe that that
just happened on the third run um but I
I went to like lift my arm and I’ve
broken bones before there’s like a
certain feeling when you break a bone
that people can relate to like you get
it into the right position and it’s just
like oh like whoa like something’s not
like it’s not connected almost like and
there’s a sharp pain so it was kind of
doing that and I I knew when I I pick my
bike up and I I sat on the bike and I
grabbed the bars and that’s usually my
test after I crash I’ll kind of pull and
push on the bars if something’s hurting
and when I went to pull on the bar I
could tell like it something was not not
right I had like no strength like it was
like a light switch like boom like nope
it’s not there and so I um that luckily
there was a road like 50 feet from where
I crashed so I I pushed the bike over
the road and I just rode down the hill
one-handed and uh got back to the pits
and long story short you know like we
went to the hospital and I was like well
maybe it’s not broken maybe I just like
really like zinged it pretty hard and we
got x-rays and they’re like no it’s
broken and I was like H and I was like
well maybe it’s not bad enough that you
need surgery because I broke bones
before and they just heal on their own
and we got them some more follow-up
images and they’re like nope it’s going
to need surgery and I was like so then
you know it was like okay do we fly back
to Nashville and get surgery or do I
stay in Europe um and get surgery there
so I was chatting with Red Bull um they
were awesome they made a bunch of calls
to like their Top Doctors over in um
Munich and and we we had surgery
scheduled there but after talking to
some of my doctors here they were like
hey dude like that’s kind of a gnarly
bone to Brak the way you did it and
they’re probably going to have to mess
with the ligaments a little bit it’s not
going to be a fun week or two after
surgery like you probably want to come
home for this one because I wanted to
stay and support the team and I was like
you know we had an off week I think so I
was like maybe I can get surgery and
then I’ll go to Leo gang and at least
help the boys out and uh we were
supposed to do like a vacation with my
wife and and her mom and so we kind of
ended up canceling everything and um and
I came home and got the surgery here and
I’m I’m really happy I did because it
was a gnarly one like I’ve had a couple
surgeries before and and sometimes
you’re like a bit nauseous for like a
day from the medicine or whatever and
then you’re like you’re just kind of
chilling like I’m not one I never take
like the hard pain pills I’ll just ipren
for a few days and then just deal with
it but this one was like a couple weeks
of like miserable pain like really had a
hard time sleeping there was like no
position where it was comfortable um so
I had to wait a couple weeks for the
swelling to kind of go down before I
could get surgery and then I had surgery
and then it was like it was it was like
a rough month but definitely the first
two weeks sucked um so anyway is it your
your elbow like part of your arm where
was it yeah so it was the um radial head
like it’s basically like the socket in
your elbow that like mov moves and so I
broke that the head into like three
pieces with some little bonus things
hanging off and you think that an impact
into the rock or was it the way your arm
bent I don’t know like I I can’t
remember really how I landed like I had
a big elbow pad on and everything like I
always ride with so it wasn’t it was
just like the force when the I guess
it’s like a fairly common injury for you
know big crashes like that like the
force of the head slamming into the
joint is hard enough to break break the
head so it’s not actually from like the
impact I think it was somewhere else is
where I took the slam but it just like
jammed it in there so hard that broke it
y so yeah the bone wasn’t honestly too
big of a deal they just put three like
really small screws in it and the screws
like counter SN into the bone so the
bone heals around the outside and then
it’s like nice and smooth and they
they’re pretty small um when they got in
there it was like a little worse than
the images look so they had to clean a
few things up but the thing that sucked
is like the the last screw that they
went to put in to get it at the perfect
angle to make sure that that bone
spacing was perfect and tight because if
you don’t get the the head like
perfectly smooth and like in the right
spot it will grind in that capsule or
whatever and then you’ll have issues
down the road so it was really important
that they got the spacing and everything
like just perfect on that so that I’ll
never have issues um but to do that they
they ended up having to like detach part
of the tendon on the forearm and then
they had like pull everything over to
get that screw in and then reattach it
so that’s where my complications have
come from have been from the tendon not
the phone so um yeah that was a probably
a
long-winded no way
answer so that was the surgery and then
long story short basically I was hoping
I would be back in three to four months
like and they were you know the doctor
was like Hey dude like it’s probably
going to be at least a year before you
feel like you don’t really notice this
thing like and I was like really like
dang because I’ve had full shoulder
reconstruction surgeries and stuff like
that and in four months I’m back on the
bike feeling like pretty good um and
he’s like yeah I mean we’ll we’ll try
everything we can he’s like but this
isn’t one of those injuries that you can
Rush he’s like a lot of people that have
elbow injuries if you push it too hard
too soon and you don’t get full range
back they’ll tighten up and literally
like lock in bent and like you’ll never
get get that range back he’s like so
you’re going to need to be really smart
and patient on this one um so anyways
like I I was training like super hard
right out of surgery like as far as like
I was in PT like every day I was in the
gym I was doing cardo like I was really
trying to keep myself in tiptop shape to
come back and race those last couple
World Cups um because I think we had
like four months until they they were
happening or five months um so pretty
much went hard for like three four
months and then realized like we’re not
even going to be close crazy so yeah we
just stayed on the PT I’ve still been
doing it now um and then yeah I think
when the bone kind of healed I got
fairly strong especially like holding
stuff not pushing but like pulling and
so we were at the bike park and we were
doing a bunch of rock work around the
bike shop and stuff and I was doing my
PT and I was starting to ride and it was
definitely really weak and I had to ride
really easy but it wasn’t really painful
um and then I think just between the gym
work I was doing and like picking up you
know baseball siiz rocks at the bike
park I kind of fired up that tendon a
bit and so that thing got like I kind of
got tendonitis in like three spots of my
elbow and like just from the surgery and
everything like it was just dude it was
like pissed off for months so it kind of
went backwards for a few months and um I
had to like stop riding stop doing like
any kind of repetitive work and like
really be detailed for the last couple
of months and now I feel like now I’ve
got full range back I’m in the gym I’m
starting to ride without pain and it’s
like there’s a light at the end of the
tunnel but dude it’s been rough I’ve
never had an injury that’s been usually
you know it’s like it starts to get
better and then you’re like cool a few
more months like it’ll be perfect like
this thing is like you have to work on
it almost every day but if you overwork
it just a little bit it like goes
backwards a week and it’s like or two
weeks or a month so anyways I think
we’re pretty much past a lot of that now
like it feels really good um I’m getting
strong in the gym I can start riding
it’s it’s coming along but dude it’s
been eight months plus so it’s it’s been
hard yeah dude that’s a long time okay
and so you know at the start of the show
you kind of mentioned you seem to think
that the first couple World Cups might
not happen just if you take your time is
I mean like is world’s really your goal
this year yeah yeah 100% that has basic
basically been my
goal uh kind of from the last two or
three months when I kind of realized
like all right dude you’re not going to
be able to just like strongman your way
through this injury and like tough it
out like you’re going to need to be
really smart and take your time and
don’t come back until it’s really ready
um so that’s basically been the goal if
I can be back on the bike 100% strong
and healthy um by the beginning of July
is my goal okay um I’ll have almost two
months from that time to do like US
national champs probably crank Works
Whistler some good prep races and then
come back for worlds if I can get back
sooner than that I will like Le is right
on the front end of that um but I’m just
kind of at the point where you know I I
don’t want to just go roll around like I
want to if I’m Inna race I want to be
you know competing for podiums and win
so um that’s the plan yeah my goal and
pretty much whole aim is to is to really
be ripping at Worlds it’s at Andor this
year um it’s probably my favorite track
or second favorite track on the circuit
if there’s one that I think I could come
back on and I don’t want to say dusty
SoCal style to some degree right yeah
exactly yeah I don’t want to use the
word easy because it for sure would not
be easy to win but that would be an
easier track for me to come back at than
probably any other track on the circuit
um so the goal is to be ripping for that
race and then to finish the season from
there but we’ll see because I think
depending on how this goes I could be
pretty solid in another like two months
or so so if it if it’s sooner than that
then I’ll I’ll rise sooner okay and so
like if you feel like you’re 100%
healthy and you’ve got the bike doing
what you want it to do like you feel
like a win is is possible even
considering like how garly the field
seems to be this day these days yeah for
sure I mean I just got to go on past
experience right like last time I raced
Andor I felt like I I definitely could
have won the race and if I’m healthy and
the bike’s good and I’ve got enough time
to get comfortable it’s like I don’t
know I always believe that if I’m if my
equipment’s good and I’m good that I
could always win yeah that’s uh that’s
what I want to do for sure I mean I
guess you can kind of analyze it over
your career but like does a winning race
run does it have to be outside of like
control and comfort these days like do
you have to be taking risks you normally
wouldn’t want to
take uh I don’t think so i’ I’ve never
ridden like that I’ve never I you need
to ride right at that edge from the
Stargate to the finish line but I don’t
think you need to go over it to win or
at least I don’t feel like I need to um
I think that if I’m if I’m getting beat
and you know say I get beat by two or
three seconds or four seconds or
whatever it is I would look at okay
where do you need to be better you know
what I mean like all right you need to
be a little stronger here you need to be
a little faster here your bike needs to
be a little better here I would never
think like dude you’re absolutely at
least so far I haven’t gotten to the
point where I’m like I’m absolutely
tapped like I can’t go any faster than
that and everything is absolutely
perfect so now I need to ride over my
head thankfully I haven’t gotten there
yet usually you know even you know I
podiumed a lot of those races on the
back half of
2022 and all of them like I I would know
when I cross the finish line like yep I
know how much time I left left on the
track and if somebody goes and gets that
the winning time is going to be right
here and I know why I’ve I’ve lost it
not that it’s easy to go get it but yeah
for me I if if I need to ride over my
head to win then I will probably stop
racing do you have any idea I mean it’s
just a guess here but like our top
consistent Riders do you think they’re
the same way like can you not be a top
Rider and be consistent by riding over
your head all the time yeah I don’t I
don’t think you can I mean you got a lot
of guys that’ll you know have some
flashes of Brilliance as we call them
and maybe even win a race but they’re on
the ground a bunch you know there’s
those championship guys like uh bruny
and some of these other guys that just
can consistently not that they haven’t
had crashes as well but um you know
they’re always up there and I think
nowadays you have to factor that in too
you know consistency plays a large role
so sometimes it’s like okay I’m willing
to you know you know potentially give up
a second or two here or there and maybe
even a win occasionally because it’s not
worth the risk to go get it because you
want to win the title so I think it’s
different for everybody and some guys I
think are more willing to take the risk
than others and and there’s always an
element of risk and downhill that you
just can’t control you know what I mean
I didn’t feel like I was riding over my
head at all when I crashed but it’s just
sometimes you’re wrong place wrong time
or something works out just right where
you have a huge crash so that’s kind of
downhill but yeah for me personally I I
definitely like try to ride within my
limits and be pretty smart about stuff
okay interesting all right
so what are your thoughts on competing
against someone like Jackson Goldstone
like we’ve heard Greg and lock like kind
of imply that they need to adjust their
riding style or even their body type to
be more like Jackson’s after seeing what
he’s doing do you have any thoughts on
that like do you feel like you have to
match what he’s like to compete with
someone like him and I know he’s still
young and like he’s starting to show his
his form
but I thought it was super interesting
to hear Greg and lock talk that way yeah
I think
um I i’ for me personally I would
disagree with that I don’t think I think
you have to ride to your strengths I
don’t think you’re going to completely
change your rotting style and I think
trying to ride like somebody else is not
going to make things better but if you
can learn if some body’s doing something
better um then obviously it would be
dumb not to to pick up on those things
you know but I think I think um yeah I I
think Jackson will continue to improve
as well I think he’s gonna get bigger
and taller and stronger and a lot of
those things as he gets older I would
imagine um you know I think for Jackson
like he just he’s been riding for so
long he has so much natural skill and
Talent on a bike um the way he does
things he’s um he’s just he’s very
efficient kind of naturally because he’s
so skilled you know so he doesn’t need
to be like the strongest guy in the
field or the you know whatever so um I
don’t know man like I don’t
honestly I’ve been really impressed
watching him ride um but I’ve been kind
of so focused on trying to get myself
healthy and like the things I’m doing
that like I’m I when I get back on the
bike I’m definitely not going to be like
or how do I go ride like Jackson I’m
gonna be like how do I get back to doing
what I do you know what I mean and go
from there but I think anytime somebody
comes in with that level of of talent um
you know he does see the track I’ve
noticed the things that I’ve picked up
more than his rotting style or technique
even though I believe he does have some
of the best technique I’ve seen um he he
views a track a little different I kind
of came in like that like where I was
doing different lines and different
things that a lot of people weren’t
doing I’m noticing some of the same
things out of him like sometimes he does
something you’re like whoa I would have
never thought to like maybe double that
thing over there go you know whatever so
there is some create creativity and as
the level rises it’s like you start to
look at the track a little different you
know everybody’s like H like maybe you
could do that or maybe whatever you know
what I mean so and the young kids are
always more down to take risk for sure
so that’ll be the thing you with the
young kids it’s like can they stay
healthy can they do it consistently you
know keep the confidence up but I think
with Jackson like yeah I mean he has
everything it takes to maybe be the the
greatest the sport is scene so we’ll see
do you have much insight as to what
World Cups will look like next year
because it sounds like we’ve got qual
and semis on the same day which seems
cool to me and then you’ve got Junior
and Elite finals the next day is that
that’s how it’s going yeah I think so um
I was really involved with this a couple
months ago when they were trying to
figure it out not that I have a say but
you know I was trying to help advise on
some things um with the Riders group
that I help with and all that um but
yeah quales and semis will be on the day
before the race now which will be cool I
I know a lot of the athletes pretty much
just want to get rid of semis completely
um and I kind of agree and I think the
plan is to go that way next year and
2025 I think there’ll be some bigger
changes um but I also understand the
opposite side where if you just come in
and Implement all these changes
overnight in the first year I mean
qualifying a full pack down to 30 and
one qualifier is pretty gnarly like
there’s there’s a lot of people that are
going to go home that are spending a lot
of money and if you don’t have another
way to support those Riders somehow or
make the level still seem reasonable to
get to a finals um you know it’s just a
big cut in one year so um for me the big
thing that I really wanted was you know
like most Riders is to keep race day
race day like race day in downhill is
special because it’s race day there’s
one run and to see who’s going to be the
fastest for the weekend you don’t feel
like you’ve got like finals number one
and then finals number two like you just
watched it course conditions are the
same everything’s kind of the same and
you just like repeat the process I felt
like semi kind of watered down the final
so I’m really happy that race day will
just have all the hype and buildup of a
proper race day again cool um and then
yeah we’ll see kind of what happens in
the future future but it seems like
everybody’s on the same page and and
wanting to make the sport better and and
do the best that everybody can do and I
think next year will be very interesting
um with some of the plans and how that
looks I think it will be good overall
from what I’ve seen so far so uh this
year’s just kind of another step closer
to that from what I understand yeah I
think that that split seems like a good
idea to have qualities and semis on the
same day so okay how how does your team
fit into the World Cup because there are
different levels of Team based on kind
of how you register and pay and all that
are are you guys the highest level I
don’t know what the terms are off top of
my head yeah so there’s like a UCI dude
I don’t know I don’t know there’s two
levels of team I know that there’s
basically your your Elite teams which
you have to have a certain amount of
points as a team from the year before
okay and then I think there’s like one
or two additional spots that can be like
voted in um so you do pay a little bit
more money but you have like
priority pit space yeah like you park in
like the the more priority pit space I
think you might also get like a couple
more passes like for your team managers
and stuff like that from who has access
and there’s there’s a few other benefits
as well but um yeah there’s basically
only so many spots for an elite team and
then the rest of them are kind of your I
don’t know what they call them just your
regular trade teams or whatever so um
from the points with me being hurt last
year and the team changing with our
Riders we don’t have enough points to be
an elite team um and I would guess we
probably wouldn’t be voted in I haven’t
honestly paid attention but I think
we’ll just be like um just a regular
kind of UCI trade team this year okay
cool do you know what your pits are
going to look like you have that setup
figured out yet or anything yeah so
we’re basically sticking with uh what
we’ve done the last five seasons we had
uh like two big Sprinter vans and like
four really big tents we’ve kind of
decided travel a little lighter because
we don’t have like a big headquarters or
a base in Europe um and when we were
within tents they don’t really have one
either so having like a big semi Tru and
a driver over there and all that like
the budget is just so big to do that um
a lot of the big factories you know have
they’re either based in Europe or have
massive you know headquarters in Europe
which we don’t have so we’ve kind of run
a little more efficiently um so we’re
basically doing the same thing this year
but we’re going to downsize just a
little little bit because we have three
Riders instead of four now so we had a
pretty big big space before so um I
think we’re going to downsize to one
really big van and then we have all of
our support Vehicles like you know for
getting people to the airport and doing
all that kind of stuff um and then just
I think we’re going from 410 to like two
or three so we’re putting all that
together now but yeah essentially our
our pit up our pit setup will stay the
same it will just downsize a little bit
since we’re a little bit smaller of a
team all right our Forum
crew like all the awesome dudes on the
vital forums this one was spearheaded by
Dave Camp he kind of kicked it off and
then people added to it but they put
together your current responsibility
list so we’ve got you bike park owner
operator World Cup racer coming back
from injury race team owner operator B
company owner operator potential
announcer for races performx Camp
instructor husband sometimes
vlogger missing anything like property
manager like how do you juggle all this
stuff are we missing anything like
what’s a typical week like for you yeah
yeah there’s a few more things in there
um some like personal and uh yeah I mean
we have some real estate stuff we do
okay um I’ve got a a rental property in
North Carolina it’s called the Ridgeline
Retreat so you guys are ever going to
Pisa or Bard check it out Airbnb but
yeah we have a rental property out there
that we kind of dialed in as like a
mountain bike getaway so it’s got like
this sick garage with bike wash and bike
stands and pools and all that stuff and
it’s uh it’s in Mills River it’s it’s
right next to like Pisa and bravard okay
so we have that we have a couple other
investment properties that we have that
I’m I’m kind of I love real estate in a
lot of it whether it’s houses or land or
whatever so you know I’m always looking
at stuff and and you know I don’t know
doing deals or or considering things
like we’ve got a 110 acre property kind
of close to us right now that I’m
getting quotes on like getting utilities
to all the pads that are there and um
you know so we we’ve always got like I
I’m usually in involved in some sort of
land real estate thing and we we
actually just bought another house um
two days ago so we’re moving out of this
house like the appraiser was just here
today and we’ll be moving down south
this house was kind of meant to be like
a like a temporary two to three year
house when we first moved to Nashville
till we kind of vibed out the area we
had a lot of friends that moved out here
so kind of wanted to see where everybody
landed so anyways we’ve kind of found
our longer term home here so we just
closed on that a few days ago um I’ve
got a high performance facility in
Whistler that we’ll be kind of talking
about here in the future that I’ve
partnered with okay um it’s basically
right at the base of in Whistler Village
so it’ll be like a high performance
training facility we also partnered with
neuroc catch which is like a big it’s
like a brain scanning device basically
it’s like a portable device that can
measure uh head trauma like at on site
in like seven minutes um without having
any kind of Baseline tests you have to
do before so I’ve been chatting with um
the UCI and that whole team of trying to
implement this into the World Cup
medical stuff in the future because
right now our concussion protocol is is
it’s not it’s lacking in my opinion so
I’m really trying to push on that side
so we got a partnership with neurok
catch that we’re working on so they’ll
be kind of involved in the training
facility and hopefully we’re going to
work them into the races somehow even if
I just need to do it myself um so we’ve
got that going on and a few other things
um yeah we’ll be teaching some camps and
different things and uh and some other
projects as well but yeah we’re we’re
definitely busy like got hurt and uh
Lauren laughs because she’s like you got
hurt and you finally had time to just
chill and it was like one week after
surgery and I think I walked downstairs
one day and and I was like I think we
should take over wind Rock bik Park and
she’s like she’s like what and I’m like
cuz we’ve been talking to Sean about it
for probably almost a year okay and had
a bunch of meetings but I was trying to
figure out you know how we could make
the numbers work and I just with racing
and everything I was so busy it was hard
to sit down and go like all right what
would this really look like but since I
knew I was goingon to be out for four or
five months I was like I think we can
figure this out let’s figure it out so
um yeah but yeah we’ve been busy man
like really busy I think they sounds
like it the last two or three months
have probably been the most penned
months of my whole life as far as like
we pretty much wake up at 5:36 every
morning and we grind till we go to bed
like my wife and I both like we’re we’re
just in that phase of life you know
we’re establishing new businesses we’re
working on new projects so um in time
you know if we get it set up right with
the right team of people to manage those
things we can be a lot more hands off
but up front if you want want to set it
up there’s no other way like you got to
put in the work to get it going so um
but dude as much work as it is like it’s
a absolute dream come true for me like I
it’s crazy I mean since I could remember
at four years old when I started riding
bikes like I was building trails in the
backyard and whether I was racing
motocross or downhill or whatever like
having my own bike park or motocross
track or like I love building trails and
I feel like I have a unique eye for it
so the bike park thing is just like
being able to go out with that sort
of uh canvas and like create every day
is like so much fun um so that’s awesome
having my own bike brand or being
partnered with a bike brand like I’ve
I’ve been fortunate like we said earlier
to work with so many cool Brands so to
have something you can build longterm
now like with the alignment we have like
dude epic uh the race team I mean I
basically run the race I’ve had a race
program for over five years now it’s
just you know we had somebody else’s
name on it but I was the one that owned
and operated the whole thing um so it’s
just my name on it now so not a lot has
changed there minus the name um but
being able to basically just have kind
of full control of what we’re doing the
Riders everything like it’s it’s kind of
a I don’t want to say low pressure
because we definitely want to win and we
want to get great results but um there’s
kind of a bigger picture there now that
is is happening that it just has all
these things that I love sort of all
tied together like in this really cool
kind of way so um yeah man it’s been
very busy and a lot of work and we got a
lot more work left to do but um I’m
really excited about kind of where the
future will go with all of it yeah the
is it called nurx is that what you said
uh neuroc catch neuroc catch sorry that
sounds super interesting and yeah some
something’s needed so you can’t just
clap your Dome and tell everyone no I’m
good I’m going to drop in for race day
totally I know shine a flashlight in
your eye and they’re like yeah I think
you’re good yeah wow that’s cool yeah
yeah
um can you kind of give us any insight
as to where wind Rock will go like can
we host a World Cup there USA I would
love to yeah 100% I mean we can do
whatever we want there the cool thing
about Windrock is it’s all on private
land um so we have a lot of freedoms
that would be very difficult um
elsewhere like with you know the the
land company that we have our lease
through so um yeah plan with Windrock in
the near term we’ve doubled the acreage
of the park from like 540 acres to like
over I think we’re at around 1100 Acres
so like pretty much doubled it exactly
um we’re planning to move the shuttle
drop off a little further up the hill um
so that all the runs will get longer it
will also access this sort of new zone
of land um so tons of plans you know
over the next few years with the Trails
um I really want to make wind Rock
somewhere where like everybody can come
ride and enjoy right now it definitely
leans towards the more intermediate
expert crowd um you know we don’t have
like you know
like we have stuff that a beginner could
ride but it’s it’s definitely still
pretty serious yeah so we really want to
build like some real proper like blue
and green flow Trails as well like I
mean the trails are like our racetrack
for example is going to be as gnarly as
it’s ever been or more um so I want it
to be somewhere where like a World Cup
athlete can come and train and you could
host a World Cup but like I could also
go and ride there with my wife or you
know our friends that have little kids
and stuff like I wanted to be somewhere
where everybody can come ride and enjoy
so that’s the plan on the on the trails
we’re building out um like a 2600 squ
foot U bike shop retail space now that’s
that’s the cause of most of the stress
right now is trying to get that thing
completely built and open in three
months in time for the Tennessee
Nationals so we’ll see we’re three weeks
away and we’re drywalling on Monday so
we’re we’re burning the midnight oil
we’ll see if we get there um but yeah
new bike shop we’ll have like suspension
service center uh full workshops retail
space rental Fleet all that kind of
stuff um we want to have like all the
amenities at the bike park whether it’s
like food or like hangout zones we want
to put in like an asphalt pump track
like we want to like really make it like
the Hub to come and hang out and ride
kind of for everybody so um yeah big
plans on that this year event wise we
have the Tennessee national which is our
biggest event of the year it’s also the
only one that I’m responsible to run
directly so the first mountain bike race
I’ve ever run is going to be the biggest
one of the year which has really been
sweet to figure out quick um but we got
a good team and I and I’m confident
it’ll be it’ll be awesome event um we
have the big mountain uro race I think
the second round yeah in May and then we
have the downhill Southeast race in June
um as well as the guts XC and Enduro
race and then we have our race series
races and all that so yeah I would love
to have a World Cup someday um I’m
curious how the financials work out
because I know a lot of
resorts there’s tourism money that kind
of comes in to make that happen and a
lot of I think just to host a resort
like and I could be wrong but from what
I’ve heard even the amount of rooms that
you need to supply to like the UCI and
the TV crew and all that like it’s
massive so a lot of resorts own their
own lodging so giving away rooms like
that is pretty easy we don’t have any of
that so if we had to buy hotel rooms for
like a hundred people like you know for
a week would be so I’m
sure you Fort Williams the same you know
we’re not the only venue in that
situation but I think we’ probably need
some help from like Knoxville tourism or
something to try to make that
financially make sense but if we could
do it like 100% yes I’d be all in on
having them and we could have an epic
World Cup there so for sure we got we
we’re talking about some other events
too that I can’t talk about yet but
we’ll see if we can pull them off but
big plans killer sounds good that’s rad
that the shuttle’s going
higher yeah yeah we’ll see we’re uh I
wouldn’t say even a ski lift is out of
the question in the future I was going
to say what about some lift access maybe
yeah see I mean it’s expensive
operational costs are expensive the
staff you need to run is expensive um
and right now honestly with where we are
at our shuttle truck system we can move
I think 30 people per shuttle truck and
trailer and I think the the time to get
from the bottom to the top is about
seven minutes and we have three trucks
so the turnaround time is probably 15 to
20 minutes per truck and we can move 30
at a time so I think we can move you
know a essentially 90 people every 20
minutes or so so it’s it’s really
efficient we we actually looked at a
study on if we did a lift and unless you
had like this insane high-speed Gondola
we can actually get people to the top of
the hill faster with the trucks right
now than we can with the lift but if we
were to go all the way to the top of the
hill um then that would obviously change
so so we’ll see right now plan is just
to add more elevation I mean the trails
are already going to be you know around
the four minute mark plus when we move
up to this new zone right now they’re
you know for you yeah exactly so like
they’re already plenty long enough but
it I mean dude it would be rad to have a
lift so we’ll see yeah okay wow cool all
right well we’ll wind it up with some
kind of less serious stuff but what’s a
favorite bike that you’re not sponsored
by anymore like if you had to pick one
like from back in the day what was your
favorite one over the course of the the
career so far
um I mean I I had a really good run on
that trk so yeah like that thing worked
good at the time like if you were to
tell me to go back and ride it now I’d
be like that thing’s trash compared to
what we’re on now probably but I mean
for what it was then that that bike was
really fast on the clock and I felt
really good on it it was I really like
that bike um honestly dude like I feel
like every brand I’ve written for and
I’m not just trying to say this to be
like politically correct or whatever but
like every B brand I’ve been on like
I’ve really loved at least one of the
bikes I was on I haven’t loved every
bike I’ve been on with every brand but
like with Yeti like those 303s were
awesome like I don’t feel like I ever
had a bike at Yeti I didn’t like but I
was also like brand new to mountain
biking and I think you could have put me
on anything and I would have been stoked
um the tracks were good you know
specialized I struggled a little bit
with that first year but by the time I
left specialized I love that bike um I
jumped on the YT and I was comfortable
straight away had really good results on
that bike um intense took a little bit
longer to get there but the last two
years I really like both of those race
bikes we raced um the one this year
specifically which was a bummer because
I didn’t get to race it so I don’t know
man like I I’ve liked bikes at all of
those places I guess you know what I
mean like yeah it’s really hard for me
to separate if you were to ask me like
visually what bike do I geek out on the
most and walk out in the garage and
stare at it would be the crest line I
have now all right that thing dude
legitimately in person is like a piece
of artwork like that thing is sick so
now I’m excited to ride it all right
sweet okay good answer um all right if
you’re cruising YouTube or Instagram or
whatever I don’t know how you would have
time to do this because you sound so
freaking busy but what are you watching
that would surprise us as far as like
subject matter like last year I got on
this kick of watching this dude that
goes and mows super overgrown abandoned
lots and then makes them super nice I’m
like just kind of like like oh I just
zone out to that for a half hour yeah so
watch that surprises you I think I’ve
seen that
um man I don’t know I’m trying to think
like Lauren would laugh at me because I
I really like watching GoPro footage
like all the time whether it’s Motocross
Supercross or downhill so I’ll literally
be in here in the morning like lately
not because I I just have no extra time
but I’ll just be sitting I’ll be like
you know whatever 7 o’clock in the
morning I’ll be drinking my coffee and
she’ll hear dirt bike sounds coming from
the computer and she’s like comes over
she’s like what are you watching and I’m
like a 2007 race GoPro of Carmichael and
Stewart and oh really old stuff too yeah
yeah yeah all of it like I can just go
down the GoPro Motocross downhill rabbit
hole all day long so all right um but
yeah I mean guitar videos when I’m in my
zone of playing guitars um I really I’m
always looking at real estate so pretty
much checking listings like every day
like I just I really like real estate so
but yeah I don’t know that’s probably
about it right now not time for much
okay did you uh I was looking at Zillow
the other day at Oliver Springs and
there’s that like 1900’s house with like
another house and like a garage in the
back that looks so cool have you seen
that I’ve seen it yep and uh there’s
another one there I already went and
looked at it but it’s uh yeah that would
be a project PR rough it’s old yeah even
some of it’s been remodeled but we were
in there looking at it and I was like
man and I dude I got lit up by the Gnar
mosquitoes in that yard that I think I
ever run into I was like whoa but I mean
that was back in the summer last year I
think or whatever but yeah yeah we’re
always we’re always on the hunt okay all
right so on that tip what
are well if any do you miss anything
about living in California and then what
are the pros and cons about living in
Tennessee and you can go quick on it
we’ve been talking for forever so yeah
sure um yeah California I mean dude
California was home for me I was born
and raised there um I was I grew up out
in the desert though in like a really
small town of like 3,000 people it’s
called Morango Valley like it’s in the
Hills above Palm Springs between Palm
Springs in yaka Valley so um I think a
lot of people are like oh you’re from
California I’m like yeah but like very
small desert Horse Town you know you
ride your dirt bike from your garage out
into the mountains and not ever see
anybody um so I missed that I I
definitely miss the desert like I love
the desert I have some really good
friends that still live out there that
every time I go home I I go and ride
mountain bikes out there and dirt bikes
and stuff with them um I mean dude
California is it’s really hard to beat
obviously right with weather and you can
be at the beach or in the mountains or
whatever within a day if you want to um
but I think for us like just just the
the amount of people and the traffic and
the hustle and the just so many things
about it it just kind of got to the
point where we were spending a lot of
time in Montana um we have a house there
that we we stay at a lot in the
summertime and the shoulder seasons and
then we bought a really small place that
we stay at right near Windrock as kind
of a training house because I wanted to
be at Windrock training more um and the
more we spent time in Montana and
Tennessee it was just you felt like you
breathed a little easier like you’re
just the people were awesome there was a
lot less of them um just felt like there
was more like freedom to kind of just
like move around and do what you wanted
to do and we would fly back to
California and it was just like like it
was like like I love it and I I still
love so much about it but um yeah for us
you know we just got to a point where
where we really enjoyed sort of the
slower pace of life and a little bit
more space out here and so um since
we’ve been here it’s it’s been awesome
man we love it I think CLA would be uh
you know like we just talked about some
of the bugs in the summer but honestly
like not that bad it’s not like Florida
um we definitely can you deal with the
humidity like was that a big adjustment
or anything no I don’t really have an
issue I mean I grew up in Palm Springs
basically so wasn’t humid but I mean
it’d be like 125 degrees like it was hot
was hot I’ve never had a hard time with
the heat I do pretty good um so yeah
that’s fun and honestly like I thought
it would be worse here we might have a
week or two a year in the Summer where
you’re like dude like it’s humid and
it’s hot you’re like this is pretty
brutal but it’s not like months at a
time like a lot of times you can go to
Windrock in the summer and like you
might be a little hot while you’re like
putting all your gear on the parking lot
in direct sun but when you start rotting
and you’re going up the shuttle truck
it’s like it’s fine like I’d rather ride
there than in the you know tomacula at
one o’clock in the afternoon yeah so um
yeah dude it’s been good I think the
things that are you know I actually
really enjoy the seasons out here like
it’s I like that there’s a fall and a
spring and a winter and a summer and you
got to get the weather changes with all
that um we’ve been working at Windrock a
lot and moving a lot of dirt the last
few months so we had a snow that set in
for a month or a week saw people like
skiing and snowboarding down the trails
dude usually if it snows here it melts
in like a day and it hung around for a
week and a half and it rained and that
was that was irritating for sure because
we were trying to work so I was like
really be nice if it would stop raining
but honestly I think it’s rain more in
California this off season than it has
here so yeah it’s it’s good living dude
we love it I really enjoy music and
being close to Nashville is like music
Mecca and so it’s been
cool two more pretty important Ones Will
you race in shorts this year Jason
really wants you to race in shorts
schroer with the shorts uh dude I could
be convinced I mean I felt like I was
you know I think Sam Hill was like one
of the first dudes that really committed
to pants for a long time and then when I
came in I was a moto kid so I never
wanted to wear shorts like I had to cuz
that’s all I had the option for and as
soon as I had an option to wear pants I
was like I’m wearing pants and that was
when everybody was wearing shorts so now
everybody’s on pants I think the pants
are getting way too tight now like some
of them I’m just like Bros like this is
like I get it they’re fast but I’m like
they’re so tight but uh I don’t know
maybe why not I feel like shorts are a
little different now so I rode in uh I
wrote in pants and a short sleeve shirt
for a photo shoot with Thor last year
and I was like this is kind of cool and
then I put shorts on for a while and I
was like maybe but the only thing that
gets a little weird is like I always
wear elbow pads when I wear downhill now
so I’m like do you want to be the guy in
like short sleeve shirt and pads like
racing out of World Cup like it’s pretty
militia but I don’t know man like I’m
getting kind of older now like I kind of
don’t care yeah all right that’s awesome
okay so we hear your ex- mechanic
Patrick has a deal with you that if you
win World Champs you get to dictate his
diet for a month does that still does
that still stand and if it does what are
you gonna make him eat I don’t know we
were just joking about it I was chatting
with him about a month ago and uh we
always had bets like a lot of my
mechanics we had bets I used to have
Bets with a monk dog because he’d drink
a lot of soda and uh and Patrick like
just trying to get the boys on the
health program where I’m like all right
if I win like you got to have a salad
with dinner every night or you gotta
like cut back to like one cook a day not
three like my mechanic James right now
like he’s a he’s pretty fit but he
drinks a lot of coke and so we’ve got
him on the sparkly Waters now and so
we’re we’re always working we’re just
you know we’re trying to be a little
better every day so I don’t know what
the bet would be I have to figure out
what what old Patrick is eating now but
I kind of lean heavier towards like meat
now like meat and fruit and stuff so
yeah I’d probably you know I would be I
wouldn’t be trying to make him eat a
salad with dinner every night i’ be like
all right you’re gonna have a steak for
dinner every night or something like
that nice
that’s awesome thanks so much appreciate
you being on and hope you keep healing
up and stoked to see how the team goes
and the new bike goes so thanks brother
appreciate it a big shout out goes to
Max’s Tires Jensen USA and fox shocks
for supporting the inside line welcome
mountain bikers