Was Mountain Biking Better 10 Years Ago? | The Dirt Shed Show 552

Today on the GMBN Dirt Shed Show, Martyn Ashton joins Rich Payne and Fergus Ryan to break down the big question: Was mountain biking better 10 years ago? They dive into the different bikes and equipment, along with the presence of social media, making an impact on different aspects of riding. in the news, we have the release of the new Crank Brothers Mallet DH pedals and also the new Pirreli XC tyres, which are only available for 29’ tyres.

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⏱ Timestamps ⏱
00:00 Was MTB better 10 years ago?
10:42 News
17:54 Giveaway
19:12 Hacks And Bodges
23:04 Things We Liked This Week
26:29 Giveaway winner
27:11 Caption Contest
29:59 Bike Vault
33:37 On The Channel

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Welcome to the Dirt Shed Show. I’m back, lads. I’m back. How you doing? Yes. Um, welcome. This week we have got a great topic because I saw a video last week that has given me pause for thought. Was mountain biking better 10 years ago? Has it gone downhill? See what I did there? I like it. All coming up on the Dirt Sh. [Music] Right. Nice to be back, lads. Yeah. I thought I thought you took your fob away. Me and Ferg have got a system. I can get in around the back. I can get in around the back. Um, let’s get into it. This week, I mean, James did a video the other day. I watched it. I was at home in my kitchen and I watched him riding this beautiful Cannondell. Isn’t it beautiful? That Cannondale. Oh, Cannondale is beautiful. I’m not sure about the bullbars on the side there. The horns. You don’t know what you’re talking about, right? It made me think that bike, doesn’t it look different? Very much so. For a start, it’s a lefty. The bars are about as wide as that. They’re tiny. What about the tires as well? Tires are that wheels are also tiny. Yeah. And the geo. Yeah. The geometry, the silhouette of a mountain bike has absolutely transformed, doesn’t it? Massively. It doesn’t. It actually doesn’t look like the same thing. But I remember back then, I mean, obviously it was better then for me for other reasons, but back then, ignoring my issues, right, it I’m not sure if it’s got better, has it? So, you think about that biking was peaking 10 years ago? It was definitely simpler. I would say like, you know, back in the day, you just got out on your bike. I had a 26 in Sar Mist DH. It had like 413 mil like reach. It was tiny. But it was amazing. I knew nothing different. I pushed up a hill because enduro bikes had 10 to 30 six tooth. So I was like, well, I might as well push a downhill bike up the hill. And I used to hit four corners in Surrey Hills and it was mint. Like what? It’s true. You’re right. I mean, similar to yourself, I look back 10 years ago. I did my first EWS. Yeah. And I looked at the bike I was riding. It was a Lapiier Zesty AM527. Nice. Yeah. There you go. Catching. Yeah, I know. It rolls off in some. And like folks said, had a 1036 and we used to run a 36 two up front. So like a 1:1 ratio. Yeah. Um and it was incredibly high. 27 and 1/2 in wheels all around and it was great fun and it was just simpler, but it was I don’t think it was as good as the bikes we ride now. But wait, that that was your first that was your first That was in my first EWS race because I mean that’s 27.5. Yeah. I mean, I feel like we need to go back just a couple years more cuz the 26 is where it really starts to look different. I mean, it looks like the bike’s all wrong with the 26 now. And I remember back then, right, when someone said we were going to change the wheel size to 20 from 26 and go up, it sounded like absolute madness. It was everyone thought like anyone talking about a 29in wheel was just a total dork. You’re like, what are you a dork? Like what are you even thinking? Right. And then we all got on one and had a go and went that’s different. Well, the first thing I rode was a 29. I I rode a charge. I went from a 26 to a charge 29 rigid and it was amazing. It was amazing cuz it just rolled over stuff that you just usually would go through. It was so crazy good. The jump from 26 to 29 granted is massive. But what I noticed, I I sort of dug through the archives and found the geometry of this Lapia SD AM527 and uh the head angle on it was 67°. Now, some XC bikes nowadays are slacker than that. The C tube angle was 70 74, which is really slack. It was tiny in the reach. And I look back at this picture of me sort of celebrating my finishing my first CWS and the bike looks minuscule. So, I mean, that’s basically a difference, isn’t it? is now the the head tube on your bike you’ve just said was this and then a seat tube with that and effectively it’s done this exactly it’s such a weird change that you’d never have predicted but it but it makes complete sense like when you think about when you think about it now when we talk about it makes more sense to be set up right you’re putting more power through the through the pedals and things like that but like I looked again similar to you my downhill bike was 63 12° head angle which is the same as our bikes now like our enduro bikes 63 which is why I think you know the birth that that’s what caused the birth of endur because the bikes were so capable of doing the same sort of descents that you previously did on like your 26 in downhill bike but this time you could pedal up and that’s I mean that’s huge. So on that note, between sort of 10 years ago and now, what would you say is the most important or your favorite innovation in the last 10 years? Like favorite thing that’s been added? Droppers. Oh, see dropper. Always the dropper. No, no, it’s not there. The dropper was already there cuz the dropper was already there. It’s already there. That that had been around. So for me, I think the not necessarily 12speed, but like wider ratio cassettes cuz like I said, I was rocking a 36 36. Now you’re running a 34 with like a 50 or 52 potentially out back or something and still a 10 or maybe a nine depending what you’re running. And I think that has opened up the type of riding that you can do and like how how you ride your bike just the access to the trails like you can just access peaks and things like that you never would have been pushing up anymore cuz you can cruise on up nicely. I tell you what I think right it’ be amazing to hear what you guys think in the comments. So definitely before I give my thoughts on it right just have a think what you’re going to write in the comments because I’m going to be totally honest with you guys. Right. I don’t think it was better. You don’t think biking was better? I think it’s so good now. The bikes are so good. And we are really spoiled. If you’re spending, you know, decent money on a mountain bike now, you are buying something absolutely incredible, right? And let’s all be honest. I like that Cannondale. But would you want to ride it tomorrow of what’s available? No. No, you wouldn’t. And I think James made that quite apparent in the video. I think I think it would like there’s something I don’t know, something fun about how sort of mechanical it would be. There would be something fun. You would never be able to go as fast or do as crazy as stuff, but it’s the same concept of like riding a like under biking yourself down a downhill, right? It’s the same concept. I think it would there’ be something so much fun about riding a 26 in down bike. I’d love to know you, right? How good you boys are on a bike. You’d have 10 minutes on that thing and be like, “This thing’s and you would not either in 10 minutes. You too damn bored. You’d be You’d be like, “This thing is absolutely awful.” Yeah. I probably would be like, “I’m sure James got to the end of the video, keep the canyon.” Yeah. And it would be broken. It would be very broken. That is true. That is true. All right. That’s what I think. So, here’s another thing that I think’s changed the landscape of mountain biking just over the last 10 years and why it may be better earlier on is the presence and we’re part of this of social media and cameras and kind of the the Instagram generation if you like and we’re all getting like we’re guilty of it here. Yeah. Yeah, for sure. Not me. Oh, yeah. I am. No, you 100% are. But like you got a great story from where you were riding just at the weekend of these kids, right? Yeah. Yeah. So on Sunday I went up to to Pentress which is like a local local riding spot and it was amazing to see so many kids up there like riding ripping their bikes but they were getting shuttles up and you know if I was back in the day if I got lucky enough to get a shuttle day I’d be like right I’m just going to do as many laps as I can go as fast I can full runs because that’s the opportunity but they were literally just lapping small sections of track following this filmer around be like can I have clips have you got clips and they’re like all getting clips to each other which you’re like you’re missing this whole point. You’ve got this shuttle up from your dad like use it to get the lift down instead of the dad’s just sat there waiting on the phone while they’re all getting their clips up and down thing. And I just think there’s a part of me that thinks oh like you know you just need to be getting out put the phone away your bike. And there was something like blissful about es like that escapism of just being able to get on your bike and not have your phone with you. But equally when you watch like it’s you I’ve seen so many really cool Instagram res and things insane to anybody. Right. Exactly. Like I mean you know I mean the access to inspiration is brilliant but what that is not as good. That’s like that’s a shame that’s happening from the moment. Yeah. And I’m just picturing in that in that scenario these kids dad sat in the car looking at his phone. They’re in front of him doing clips for their Instagram and he’s looking at the clips of the Instagram on his phone rather than looking out the windshield of his car where the kids are actually riding doing the thing. I mean, it’s Oh, that’s painful to think about and it’s not really what mountain biking was. No, we we never But then it does inspire us. Only 10 years ago, you you didn’t go on every ride with a GoPro attached to you or a phone getting clips. Did you have you seen any of the clips they did on Instagram? I have. Yeah. And of course and I’ve watched it and I’ve gone that’s so cool. And like so there’s that thing of saying yeah on one hand obviously you just think oh just get on your bike and ride it. But at the same time they’ve gone and there was a gap and I tried it and there is a clip of me casing it very badly. But they’ve gone up and tried that and they know it’s a gap because they’ve seen an Instagram and then they’re inspired. They’re like I’m going to go and try that. But if they hadn’t seen that clip, they wouldn’t have, you know, thought that it is a double-edged sword, isn’t it? For sure. You know what we call this in trials, guys? Oh, pointless, uninspiring, unattended, doesn’t matter. Ancient history. Great one. Thank God for rich pay. We call it balance. It’s a balance. It’s a balance. Um, let us know in the comments down below. Is mountain biking better now than 10 years ago? Or was it better 10 years ago than it is now? Do that whichever way you want, but let us know in the comments down below. Um, we’re going to continue arguing and then we’ll be back in a moment with the rest of the show. Welcome back. It’s time for the news. We have new pedals from Crank Brothers. We have a new Mallet DH, but this is Lurk Brun’s new signature. So, as you guys would have seen before, he had a super Brun pedal. He now has a new one which is a bit of it looks kind of gold but it it’s not gold. It’s bronze but it looks very very shiny. It’s crucially the same pedal as the Mallet current Mallet DH but it has eight adjustable pins for side grip and it is ribbed for better traction when unclipped. So yeah, pretty good. You can’t say it. We can have one. Can’t say it. Can’t say it without thinking it. So, next up, it has a 57 mil Q factor for stability at speed, foursided entry for superior mud shedding, and it comes in at a price of £189.99. And not gold. And not gold. Bronze. Bronze. Bronze. Lovely. Right. Uh, Crank Works has announced a new venue adding to sort of Crank Works series that seems to be sort of forming. Mont an legendary World Cup venue in Canada. Amazing. It’s good. Have you been? Have you? I’ve never actually been to Oh, cool. I thought you had it. I’ve always wanted to ride there. Yeah, me too. The Rock Gardens. I’ve none of us been. None of us have been. I thought you had I been. No, I’ve never been there. Well, it is now on the calendar for 2026 going from the 3rd to the 7th of September next year. Obviously, multi- disciplines that Crank Works is famous for from slope style to dual swirl to pump track to downhill, everything in between. There will be pro and amateur categories and will host the finals of the king and queen of crank works. So, interestingly, Monsan has been announced crank works. Whistler crank works hasn’t watched this space. Yeah, just saying it’s very exciting. And on that note, obviously Whistler getting a World Cup next year, we can move on to World Cup results from this weekend. So, we had no way. So, we had Lake Placid, a new venue for this year, and the tracks were insane. Like, he likes that downhill. It looked unbelievable. Yeah. So, soft. So rough. And so, insane racing across both the XC and downhill. In the women’s XCO, Jenny Rized absolutely smashed it. Evie Richards in second and Samara Maxwell in third. the elite men’s exo. Christopher Blevens won and also won the overall. So, he secured the overall around to spare. Yeah, with a round to spare. Not bad. Adrien Bosious. I’m probably I’m probably ab Yeah, I’ve absolutely uh ruined that one, but yeah, Matthysse Aaro in third. So, and then moving on to the under 23 women’s Vida Lopez de San Roman. Yes, he’s doing good. I’m doing all right. This is watching Blake do racing. I don’t do XC. Come on, give me a break. I’m trying hard here. And then the under 23 men’s Finn Trudler. So close on that one. Yeah, I like it. Moving on to downhill. I’m slightly more comfortable. Valley Hole won the race and she again secured the women’s overall around early and as she said in her post race interview, she is the cheapest going fourtime overall winner cuz she currently doesn’t have any sponsor. What a scenario to be in. What a scenario for a team literally to collapse around her and then win her first World Cup of the year cuz she hasn’t won a World Cup of the year. First one of the year and secure the overall and then as she referred to it, this is her version of a holiday. So, she’s going on the final round of the year for holidays, but she seems like she’s been struggling all season in terms of like mentally struggling, but she is world champion and world cup champ. Can you blame her with everything that’s clearly been going on behind the scenes? I mean, like, you know, you can imagine when we hear about it, it’s one thing, but that’s clearly been going on behind the scenes where we haven’t heard about it. Sorry, we’re digressing. I felt bad for Cole, who was new to the team as well. I know. Join first year and then boom, gone. See you later. Hard times. But they’ve all had amazing seasons, fortunately. and through their own Exactly. So, through their own hard work, you know, they’ve got some really good results and I’m sure we’ll see them on some fresh exciting new teams next year. But anyway, moving on back to the results, we had Miriam Nicole getting second place and Sasha Nest, which is amazing. She’s a first year elite, so for her to get a podium. Yeah. Factory racing. Miriam Nicole getting second in a World Cup. Still, she just got It’s unreal that woman. Yeah. Again, she was saying there was talk of her retiring, but next year is her 20th year racing and it’s the Jay WS to finish it out. So, you know, she said she can’t can’t possibly retire. Exactly. Uh into the elite men. Now, this was such an exciting race and it was wicked to see cuz you and I would have raced against him. Luke Myers Smith winning his first ever downhill and it was an insane thing. So emotional for him and his little his little brother. Tears, isn’t he? Yeah, literally. And his little brother, who’s also a factory racer, running for pivot, straight there, got a fine, $200 fine for basically jumping into the paddock and really Yeah. Yeah. And then Win Masters and some guys have come through and said they’re going to sort it out cuz it was released. But it’s like crazy to be getting a fine to go and celebrate your brother winning a race. Seems mad. But then you had Luke Shaw again, local favorite. And he had a storm of run but just messed up that first split. So, bit of a shame on that one. Henry Kefir having possibly the greatest first year season of anyone. Really good. Yeah. Yeah. Pretty insane. A new new up and isn’t it? Yeah. So, third for him. Moving on to the junior women. We had Alisa Olenard. I believe that’s probably wrong again, but uh pretty good. She won the race with Matilda Melton and Alina Hollesenbos in third. So yeah, they were all flying and there’s a lot of nervousness about all those coming into the elite times not far off, you know, top five. All of all of the juniors this year have just been flying. They’re just great these days. And then finally, junior men’s again, as we were saying, Max Alan winning, Asa second, and Tyler third. And all of those guys Oh, brilliant. You’ve done well. Oh, great. Absolutely flying. So that rounds out the race and I can’t wait to see Monsan. Yeah. And of course we’ve got the the Brun Rooney Jackson Goldston showdown to come because those two are playing the roles, aren’t they? Max actually would have come second in elite men’s just insane. That is nuts. That is nuts. Great racing and it’s all starting again. Yeah. Well, they’ll be practicing on Thursday. Yeah. Next week. This is the final week and Brun is in a rush because he has a little one on the way. So he does. He’s got it all going on trying to get it done. Just quick cuz cuz that’s still open and yet to be decided. Who do you think’s going to win? Brun or Goldston? Brunie. Who do you think’s going to win? The Sultan of Brunie. Yeah, I I sort of agree. Yeah. What do you think? Let us know in the comments. Yeah. Competition time. Right now, we’re going to announce our Urggon competition winners. Yeah. In a moment, we’re going to tease you on that one. But just to keep you interested, right, how about I announce a new competition? I love this one. tow peak competition where you can win one of their pro bottles Z model Z cage Z cage that’s just a real fancy carbon bottle cage it’s really really nice but this is a bundle and we’ve got three of these bundles available because the other part of the bundle right let me say it right it is the torque stick pro 420 newton meters right the name don’t roll off but look at it look at this thing beautiful who doesn’t love these toig tools I’ I’ve lit as well. Yeah, it’s really nice. Don’t you just love it when it like clicks off as well? Like something so satisfying about it. Look, look. I love it. I carry my my Topi tool racket set with me everywhere I go. This is like the best prize. It’s really good. If you want to enter and get one of those bundles, there’s only three of them with a bottle cage and a lovely little ratchet set, right? You can enter the competition in the link down below. Did I do that right? Is that right? That was correct. Got through it. But we got the Urggon competition winners coming up. So hang in there. It might be you. Right. It is now time for Yes. Love it. I’m glad to be back in this. That was a good sing. Now this first one is from Linda Williams. It’s a bucket handle. Yes. Yeah. But hang on a second. Hang on a second. That’s not just any old bucket handle. She’s thought about the grip. She’s thought about how it works with a bike and she’s thickened that grip up and now it feels sick when she rides that bucket. Yeah, bodgege. Definitely a bodgege. Thank you. Don’t matter. It don’t matter how you sell it. It was a bodgege. It’s a bodgege. Who we got next? A urine sample. A urine sample. What’s he doing with that? So, Simon Penfold with Yeah, I mean it looks a bit dodgy there, but he has said all you need is an airtight bag and some silica gel packs. That was it in the description. Oh, the other the other comment says, “All you need is uh methamphetamine and a urine sample.” What is in the bag? I want to know what’s in the bag. That was what was written. What? It’s memphampetamine and No, you didn’t write that part. I I mean, it’s mineral, isn’t it? Some kind of brake fluid that then they keep Keeping dry electro a weird bottle like that, buddy. Is that how you do it? The the I mean to say the standard is low this week. It’s a bodgege. What I love about this is the best bit about hacks and bodges and what it’s what we should all celebrate, right? There’s £50 worth of merch on the line here and we’ve had someone show us how to put a handle on a bucket and someone else how to transport illicit materials. Keep them dry. Is that a thing? Well, things are only going to get better as this beauty from Stuart Rustl is an absolute mess of zip ties. Oh my god. I mean, sometimes zip ties aren’t the solution. So, yeah. Go on. Have you got this one? Yeah. So, he said, “As a parent of two Groms who like to break bikes and struggle to fix their whips fast enough, this was the result of a rushed late night chain ring swap whilst apparently being a bit tired. I now realize I didn’t tighten the chain ring bolts properly and three out of the four worked their way out on the next ride. So essentially zip tied his chain ring on. Zip tied the chain ring on his kids chain ring on and the chain guides also up like not doing much. So it’s a hell of a It’s got to be a bodgege, isn’t it? Yeah, but it Well, it is a bodgege. No more than that. He’s hacked. He’s even trimmed them down. I I admire the fact that he brought the zip ties to fix it. Box tick. That’s a box tick. But that is a body. He hasn’t even cut them. I think that’s good. He’s kept a chain ring and a bike running. Imagine the noise it makes as you pedal to win that prize of of the value up to 50 quid. Yeah. Hang on. Hang on. Before you You’re choosing this before you get This is essentially It would feel like you’ve got an O chain on. I mean, it would stretch and think it’s Oh my god. That’s what I realized. I think it would be like an over. It would be like an over one, wouldn’t it? It was the winner. Congratulations, Stuart. Don’t forget to send us your details to claim your prize. And as always, we do love to see your hacks and Rodes real money on the line there. Send them in. We love seeing them. And it doesn’t matter how bad they are. They’re all good, fun to look at. And if Stuart’s taught us anything, take your zip ties. Anything can win. or or take your zip ties out on the trail and silker gel packs as well to dry out your merchandise. Yeah. Or whatever else that was. Anyway, uh send them in to the uploader. We would love to see them. Right. Let’s keep going the show. Right. That brings us into things we like this week. And Rich, I am going to kick you off with an absolute belter. See you. So, this one is skiing on a bike trail. And in this from Flow Rider. It is unbelievable. Look how fast. That’s some pace in it. Look how fast he’s going. Oh my goodness. It’s like Oh, I wish I could ride a bike that fast downhill, let alone ski. Oh my gosh. Yeah, he is. Look at him. Oh, and it’s really rocky as well. There’s like added ste points as well. Like just the way he’s riding it. It’s pretty cool. Flats out, isn’t it? Yeah. Fair play from Flow Rider there. Very fast. Now Mark, this one’s a bit of you. This one, isn’t it? I love this. I Well, yeah. I mean, I was more just admiring the moment. This is fantastic. This is just an amazing story. Trek bike. Uh, it’s cool, isn’t it? Basically purchased this bike for one of their employees who needs an adaptive bike. And look, Bowhead have put this amazing custom build together. Um, it’s something I really love because I’m hopefully going to be doing some things similar to that in the 2026 time frame because, uh, Ridable Now, which is what I’ve left GMBBN to go and work on, which is my own little passion project. Uh, basically, we’re going to hopefully be helping people get out on the trails who need adaptive bikes, but also keeping them riding once they’re out on adaptive bikes because it costs a fortune to move these things around. Um, the cost level for an adaptive rider is slightly higher, can you believe, than a normal mountain bike. And we all know, we all know how. Sorry, I was just looking for another plug for you. Just keep plugging. Yeah. Look, look, I mean, I’ve got to take this opportunity while I can. No, you can’t. And just and just give plug. It’s called Rable now. It’s a fant all you can do at the moment is sign up at the uh website, but if you want to do that, you can. Um, we’ve got lots going on in the background. And it does include some fantastic content that we’re going to be putting on GMBBN as well that these guys are involved in even though they’re being all koi about in a very but but that that track by buy purchase of that bowhead RX was a great little reminder of what we could do if we all just pulled together people. Okay, it’s my turn and motocross. Of course it is. Of course it is. Yeah, motocross of Nations Desations was on at the weekend. Iron Man in the US of A. Do you know who took the win? I’m going to guess. I don’t know, but I’ll guess cuz I know a lot about motorbikes, but I’m going to guess it was it was the United States of America cuz they always win motocross donations. They’re like Spain in the trials donations. They always win. It’s always the same. Incorrect on so many levels. No, they didn’t win. You are incorrect on so many levels. On all levels, apparently. All levels. All levels. No, it went to Australia. Yeah. I mean, they had a great team. The Lawrence brothers. Yeah, carried it quite well but you know Carl Webster very good rider and stuff. America was second with a very good team although they had a few dropouts at the last minute in where would Belgium cuz Belgium used to be the big team in the donations. I don’t know but France got third actually on joint points with team America. It was really good racing really good. Tomas was like Captain America masterass masterass from the Lawrenes. Not John. I love John Tomas. Yeah I know about John Toma. Yeah. And that is some things we liked this week. All right. Now, Martin teased it earlier. The Urggon competition that we’ve been running has come to a close, but there are two bundles or were two bundles up for grabs, including a set of H2s, some GDH Valley hole signature edition grips, and an SM downhill valleyhole signature edition saddle. Nice. Nice pack. And I can confirm the winners are drum roll please Miriam Nect and Paul Clarkson. Congratulations. That was pretty good. You have won those bundles. Please get in touch. Uh and those will be winging their way to you. Absolutely. And don’t forget the top peak competition. If you are still feeling like you could be a winner, right, caption contest. So the picture was this of Rich and James. Cheers. Cheers. Nice. Nice. So, let’s read some captions. First up, we have Jason True. When you finally make the top of a climb and find out this is all you have left. Yeah. Yeah. A I mean, I’d take a class on the top of a climb. Yeah. Next one from Pure Filth. Uh, when you train all day for the ride, but the real competition is who packed the better snack. Yeah, I think James did cuz he had a chocolate. Everyone does do that contest a little bit, don’t you? All right. Be like, “What you got? What you got?” Remember when I brought them eggs? You got them boiled eggs. Yeah. Oh, they keep your hands warm, don’t they? Well, these ones just made us feel sick. Oh, you’re meant to boil an egg. Keeps your hands warm for 7 hours. They stay warm for 7 hours, supposedly. Well, you walk around. Yeah. Cameraman trick once. I saw cameraman had eggs in his pockets. Very bizarre. Anyway, I personally am a Haribo guy, but uh for keeping your hands warm. No, for uh listen to him. Listen to him. Anyway, Cameron S523 says, “James practices an ancient form of divination, reading the baguette to determine which trail to take.” I call that one. Yeah, I like that one. I like that one cuz of the word divination. Have you ever tried it? No, it actually works. No. Do you know what I do? Turn the tap on. Honest to God, it works. Divination. What is divination? Well, basically, you hold either like two loose sticks in an L shape or or two loose rods of brass and then you walk around and then when you get to water, they cross. It’s freaky. Yeah, it’s freaky. I mean, have we not got mains? Isn’t that youngsters? Honestly. Oh, hang on. Wait. Actually, I’ve got water. Me? Not even I’m not even that old that they didn’t have taps. Bloody hell. Oh, fresh running water. Yeah, you have what? Right. We do need a winner for that prize of the Martin. You can choose. Um, I’m giving it to Divination just for the conversation. Yeah, Cameron, you have won yourself unbelievably £50 worth up to the value up to the value of £50 worth from the GMBBN merch store. That’s a great prize. The good news is it comes in black and white. So, you know, you can get that. His prizes, they can be in black and white. It’s perfect. Well, that makes no difference to Martin cuz that’s all he sees there. Martin just going around in black and white. The abuse. The abuse is unbelievable. Right, let’s give you a a caption contest photo for next week. Here it is. What you doing there, mate? What you doing there, buddy? Nice. Nice. Give us a caption for that in the comments section down below. And up to £50 worth of merch could be yours next week. Get involved. It’s time for the bike vault. Let’s get into it straight away with this one from Hannis Eagle. What’s that? That’s a specialized enduro. I had one of those. They were uh pretty had the little Y cross. It looked like an X-wing out of Star Wars. Yeah. 2017 that as well. I mean, lovely locations. I’ve I’ve got a script all about that bike that me and Doy wrote, you know, asking the question, is it the greatest mountain bike of all time because it was kind of like he was telling me it’s like the first real enduro bike. Yeah. Agrees. So, for that very reason, Hannis, makes sense to me. Next up then, Noah Richards aboard. Now, just quickly ask yourself, guys, was it better 10 years ago? Ask yourself. That was That’s a giant trance. And that was my first mountain bike. It’s a giant Yukon before. What was that? More or less travel. I don’t know. I think that’s less. That looks very similar to what I rode as my first mountain bike. It’s pretty cool. It’s pure yuck. That’s what it is. It’s pure yuck. Let’s Let’s call that It’s nice. It’s nice. It’s nice. It’s nice. I like the blue grips. Matching pedals. More. You want to go more? It’s nice. Nice. Nice. Nice. Clash. Back to the future park free ride. Yeah. Oh, there you go. Straight away. No doubt. Look at it. Oh, this is a bit of James. This next one, this next one is a bit of James. I mean, that’s a nice looking bike, though. It’s a good silhouette. We forgot to say whose clash that was. Jeff Bundy’s Jeff. But yes, you’re right. This is a bit of James from Redman here, isn’t it? It’s a bit of you as well then. I wouldn’t say no. That’s a nice looking. It’s got scale, I believe. Tell you what, I reckon they got some spindles on them. Look at the size of that chain ring. That is a big chain ring. Oh, he’s got some gar cassette on it. That’s fancy. Yeah, that is very fancy. Ring this bell. I’m out of my ring. What’s the Can I just read this little bit you put on it? It says, “What’s the point of a gravel bike? You can have this.” Exactly. He’s not wrong. Exactly. Not wrong. What’s next? Oh, we have a common style meta from Richard Voicing. Can I just say guys, I really like this. Yeah. I mean, look how chrome the chrome the reds like it’s Yeah. I mean, instantly super nice. Surely got me. Yeah. I like it. That’s really nice. He’s got it all right. 160 Lyric 140 Super Deluxe. Absolute joy to ride. Uh the only thing he says he’d upgrade it with is a DJI motor. That would be red hot, wouldn’t it? Yeah. Yeah. Nice. Thank you for sending that in. Next one from Jeff. Subtle. Oh, bit of hard. Subtle. Subtle. Bit of hard tail action. Yeah. Tan Walls. I’m liking this. Oh, what are the bullbars? Yeah, those inner bars. They’re not That’s not That’s not for me. That I I I’m giving that super nice. Okay. Yeah, I like a hard tail. Yeah. But do you like riding like that? Little bit. Little bit. I’ve done some miles in my time over 10 or 15 miles one time. Big time gravel guy know. loves it. All right, Jeff. Well, congratulations. That’s a super nice uh right, William Hoffner. You can’t ring the bell as wicked a picture as this is cuz it’s non drive side. It’s not allowed. Looks amazing, though. Exactly. That’s the problem with it. It’s non drive side. I’ve got rules. It’s got to have some rules, mate. You got to live by something. You got to live by something. It is very nice. And then that is it. Oh, it’s a great bike vault. It’s a great bike. This is a good bike vault, isn’t there? are some really good bikes. Thank you very much for sending them in as always. Keep them coming. Link is in the description down below. Um, what you got coming up on the channel this week, guys? I can’t wait to watch. We have lots of new lots of new stuff. Firstly, we have James teaching us six ways to ride more like Tom Pitcock. So, I’ll be interested to see that because I mean surely just more power and you know maybe a few less cookies in the uh in your belly. Yeah. Get insanely fitter. Yeah. He’s a lot of money factory become more technically better. Tom Tom Pigcock has proved though that you can earn too much money because it was so much money no one could afford him anymore. He moved to Monaco though and that was perfect. He’s I mean he’s doing okay. We don’t. We don’t need to worry about him. And now you can learn to ride like him. Fantastic. Yeah, it is. And we’ve also got I’m just gonna tease this one out. A story. A massive feature story which has been months in the making and I’m going to leave it at that actually. Yeah, surprise. Let’s keep it as a surprise. It’s taken a lot of work in GMBBM Towers to bring this one to fruition and it’s hopefully going to be with you on Sunday. So, you’re going to have to stay tuned to find out what that is. But that sadly is the end of the show. But just before we go, remember ride.com. Head over. Can we unplug him? Like where is it? Subscribe with your email. You can be part of the course before it goes. Thank you very much for watching. Thank you for see you later. Bye.