Riley Amos won overall Under 23 World Cup titles in both short track and cross-country this year and finished seventh in the Paris Olympics, the highest an American has ever placed in the event. He is a member of the Trek Factory Racing Team and lives and trains in Durango, Colorado. Going into the 2024 season did you expect to win the overall U23 titles in short track and cross-country? Do you plan to change your race training or strategy when you move up to Elite next year? How much...

Lennard Zinn is a bike designer and frame builder based in Louisville, Colorado. His shop, Zinn Cycles, offers "a full line of semi-custom and off the shelf bikes for riders from very small to very tall and everyone in-between." He’s also the author of Zinn and the Art of Mountain Bike Maintenance, one of the world’s best-selling guides to mountain bike repair. In this first-half of our podcast discussion, Zinn talks about drivetrain maintenance, focusing on chains and lubrication. Later in...

Craig Calfee is an innovative bike builder and the founder of Calfee Design. Calfee was an early adopter of carbon fiber for bike frames in 1987, and brand's ​​Tetra road bike is said to have been in production longer than any other carbon bike. You might also recognize his work with Bamboo bike frames, which he began in 1995. How did you get your start building bikes? What did people think about the carbon bike frame you debuted at Interbike in 1989? Were there concerns that carbon...

in bike excursions and craft beer tastings, among other activities. The couple has lived on the road in an RV since 2018, sampling trails and beer not just in the US but around the world. They also host a podcast called Craft Beer Travel & Adventure. Why did you decide to move into your recreational vehicle and hit the road full time? Is RV life different from Van life? Is it difficult to find community while living on the road? How did Camp Carpe Diem get its start? What is Camp...

Wes Holland is the owner of Bullmoose Softgoods where he designs and produces one-of-a-kind bags for cycling and adventuring. Bullmoose is based in Summerville, Massachusetts and currently offers handlebar and frame bags plus hip packs and accessories. What came first for you: bikes or bags?  What kind of riding do you like to do? What is the riding scene like in Boston? There are a lot of hip packs and handlebar bags out there, so why make your own? What types of materials are you...

Greg Mazu is the self-described "Chief Dreamer" behind Backslope Tools, a company that designs and sells tools for trail building and forest maintenance. He's also the founder of Singletrack Trails, a trail building company that recently finished its last project after 20 years in the business. When did you build your first trail?  How did you get into professional trail building? What motivated you to start Tools for Trails, and later Backslope tools? Where are Backslope tools...

Hannah Otto recently became the fastest known woman to ride the 137-mile-long Kokopelli's trail from Moab, Utah to Loma, Colorado, besting the previous fastest known time by over an hour. In addition to racing gravel and mountain bikes, she's also a certified athletic trainer.  How do you feel now that you can finally talk about your accomplishment? Were you worried someone else would make an FKT attempt between then and now? In October you made your first attempt, but it didn't work out....

Chuck Teixeira is a Senior Advanced Concept Engineer at Specialized where he's been involved in countless projects from mountain to road, and from bikes to components. Prior to joining Specialized in 2011, Chuck spent 28 years at Easton-Bell where he was the director of R&D. How did you end up in the bike industry? How does the Smartweld tech used on the new Specialized Chisel mountain bike frame work, and what makes it different from traditional aluminum frame welding? Why haven't we...

Colin Ryan is a Senior Development Engineer at Norco and was involved in the design of the latest Norco Optic trail bike which features a high-pivot design. Prior to joining Norco he worked at General Kinetics testing and developing shock absorbers for military and construction equipment.  At a basic level, what problem does a high pivot design solve? Is there a certain type of riding that benefits from having a high pivot? What are the drawbacks to the design? Does a high pivot design...

Sara Hunter is a Licensed Clinical Mental Health Counselor in the state of North Carolina and a PMBIA Level 1 Mountain Bike Instructor. Her practice includes individual and couples counseling services plus mountain bike therapy and counseling for athletes and outdoor instructors. She's also a Specialized USA Ambassador. What led you to get into counseling? Does everyone benefit from spending time outdoors, or do you think some of us are just wired that way?  What is Adventure Therapy?...

Alex Larson is a registered dietitian and multi-sport athlete who helps endurance athletes optimize nutrition and performance. She's written multiple nutrition guides and offers customized nutrition coaching services to athletes around the world. Do athleticism and nutrition go hand in hand? Are athletes generally healthy eaters by nature? What is a "flexible eating style"? Are restrictive diets sometimes harmful? How does pre-race fueling work?  Is nutrition drastically different for...

Amanda Carey is the President of NICA, the National Interscholastic Cycling Association, a non-profit that develops mountain biking programs for student athletes across the United States. Prior to joining NICA, Amanda served as the executive director of Mountain Bike the Tetons and as a mountain bike coach. What drew you to mountain biking initially? What's kept you so engaged over the years?  What do you think has kept mountain biking from growing more than it has over the past couple of...

Sara Bresnick is a former professional mountain biker, cycling coach and founder of Pedal Power Training Solutions which offers customized training plans plus advice on nutrition, race strategy, and technique.   What are some fitness goals your clients have beyond racing? For example, does it make sense for a rider to work with a coach before a big weeklong mountain bike trip?  Do older athletes need more time to recover between intense workouts? What happens if you miss a day, or two,...

Claudio Caluori is a seven-time Swiss National Champion and founder of Velosolutions, "a global network of professionals with profound knowledge in cycling, action sports, tourism and urban development." He's also a popular YouTube personality, delivering entertaining course previews and ride-alongs with top athletes. In addition to building pump tracks around the world, Velosolutions recently helped with construction of the XC race course for the 2024 Paris Olympics and is working on an...

In this episode of the Singletracks podcast, Matt and Jeff discuss the current trends around mountain bike weights. Are bikes too heavy, or are they where they should be given how durable and capable they are today? This discussion covers: Examples of specific bikes and their weights Why bike weights might be increasing The benefits to lightweight -- and heavy -- mountain bikes Areas where mountain bikes might be able to cut weight This is Matt's last episode with the Singletracks...

Will Hart is Product Marketing Manager at Cane Creek, a western North Carolina based maker of suspension and bike components. Besides looking cool, what are some advantages of a coil shock? Are certain styles of riding better suited to a coil shock than others? What makes some FS mountain bikes coil compatible, and others not? How does compression damping work on a coil shock? Is there any air involved? Tell us about the Cane Creek Tigon. What's the idea behind combining a coil with an...

Sean Leader is the founder of Windrock Bike Park and Southern Gravity, a Tennessee-based company that builds ramps and shuttle vehicles for bike parks. Not only that, Southern Gravity recently released a prototype steel DH mountain bike that's being tested by top elite and junior DH riders. You've worn many hats in the mountain bike world. When was the moment you realized you could make a living in the sport? How did Windrock Bike Park get started?  What were some of the challenges you...

Joel Smith is the Brand Leader for Reserve, a Santa Cruz, CA brand that designs and markets wheels for everything from downhill to road biking. Steel Wisdom-Wilhelmsson is engineering lab technician responsible for lab-conditions wheel testing.  In this episode we ask: How are MTB wheels assembled? For high-end wheels, is most of it done by hand? How does rim construction contribute to ride feel? Is a shallower rim better than a deep rim for ride feel? What are the advantages of a high...

Carol Baldwin is the founder of Flownetic MTB Skills and is a PMBIA Level 3  certified mountain bike skills instructor. She's also a Singletracks contributor and product tester.  In this podcast we ask Carol: Have you alway mountain biked with flat pedals? Was it difficult to switch from clipless to flat pedals? Why? What are the advantages of flat pedals compared to clipless? What are the disadvantages of flats compared to clipless pedals? Are bigger and/or wider pedal platforms...

Tom Prochazka is a co-founder and director at Gravity Logic, a bike park design and development company based in Whistler, British Columbia. He served as the manager of the Whistler Bike Park from 2001 to 2007 and designed the iconic Top of the World Trail which opened in 2011. Since then he's worked on bike parks all over the world from the western US to Europe and South America. In this podcast interview we ask Tom: How did you get involved in mountain bike trail building? What do you...

Rhett Jones is a high school mountain biker living in the Austin, Texas area. He's the founder of Station Bike Park, a new private park he developed on 150 acres of former ranchland northwest of Austin. Singletracks first shared Jones' story in a November feature article on our website; this interview adds more detail and dives into the economic and operational aspects of running a for-profit, private mountain bike park. How long have you been riding mountain bikes?  Tell us about the...

Jeff and Matt look back at some of the best bikes and mountain bike gear tested in 2023, and talk about some of the most interesting new releases this year. Along the way we'll also hit on some of the trends we're following and highlight some of the reviews you might have missed. Listen to our conversation as a podcast, or read a tightly edited transcript and find photos at singletracks.com. --Keep up with the latest in mountain biking at Singletracks.com and on Instagram @singletracks...

John Calendrille has spent decades designing and patenting everything from derailleurs and shifters to dropper posts and brake levers. He's consulted for industry brands including TRP and Box, and now he’s got his own company, Vivo, that sells a customizable 12-speed shifter, the Vivo F3. How did you first get into designing bike components? What are some of the limitations of existing mechanic mountain biker shifters? What makes the Vivo F3 an improvement? Have you found that many...

Kurt Refsnider is a cycling coach and the founder of Bikepacking Roots, an organization that advocates for bikepacking and the environment. He's the only person to have won all three events in the Triple Crown of Bikepacking, and he recently became one of only a few people to have biked the entire Continental Divide Trail (CDT), a 3,300-mile route stretching from Canada to Mexico.   Are you glad to be off the trail after three months of riding? How is the Continental Divide Route...