Is XC In Trouble? | Dirt Shed Show 505

Welcome to this week's Dirt Shed Show with me, Martyn Ashton, and Owen, the bike nerd. The bike nerd. How are you, bike nerd? Good. Just getting over a bit of a lurgy. A bit of those pre-winter colds. I wish you'd told me that before you came in the shed. Anyway, let's move on. We have got a bit of a dilemma to talk about this week because in cross-country, something quite dramatic is happening. We're in a pivotal moment again. Current world champion in XCO and World Cup overall champion, Alan Averley, is leaving cross-country and mountain biking in general and going over to road. He's going to go ride for the Jayco Allure team. Riding road. They use giant bikes. He will do some cross-country mountain biking next year, but on a giant then, rather than a Cannondale, he's been riding for, obviously, and winning world championships for, but he's leaving. That's a shame. That's sad, isn't it? Yes, it is a real shame. I don't like that. Do you want me to make it worse? Worse? Yes, hold tight. Hold tight. Pauline Fran Prevot, she's always heard going, isn't she? Oh, PFP. She announced earlier this year that this would be our last year. The current Olympic champion and 2023 world champion, she's gone road. They both want to do the Tour de France. Obviously, she's doing the female Tour de France, so he wants to do the Tour de France. Big lifelong challenge that he's always wanted to do. They're going. Do you remember Cadel Evans? Yes. He was amazing. Tell the people about Cadel Evans. He lived in lots of different parts of Australia. He got kicked in the head by a horse to the point where they're like, oh, might not wake up the same as he was. They think that's why he has different emotions and different values for the people. Should we tell them about his bike riding? Oh, right. Yes. Sorry. Right. Cool. Yes. Road mountain bikes, incredibly well to the point why that's why we've got five people on a podium. We had a bit of a chat about that previously. It's because he was a junior at Cairns World Cup, I think in 94, 95, and did so well that he was fifth and all the elite men were like, you know what? He was incredible. Let's stick him on the podium. That's why we've got five people. Yes. 98 and 99 overall World Cup champion. On a Cannondale. On a Cannondale. Then tried out and did the Giro on a Cannondale. Short story version is he won the Tour de France. That was the short story. He went over to road for a mountain bike in 2001. That's a much better short story. In 2000, I think it was 2007, 2008, both years, he came second in the Tour de France. Then in 2011, I want to say, he won the Tour de France. First Australian to do it. He won World Champs on the road too. Yes, he was World Champs on BMC. Now, the point I want to get across is that once they go, these riders, they don't come back. No. We've lost them. This year, we thought it was going to be the last year of Nino Schurter. He's going to do one more year, at least. Okay. Thanks, Nino. 2025, he's carrying on, which we weren't sure he was going to do, but he's potentially the greatest cross-country rider of all time. If he isn't, Pauline Franprevaux is, and she's gone. Nino, this is our last glimmer of hope with him. Is cross-country in big trouble, Owen? Can it survive this loss of talent? Just briefly, on the greatest of all time. You say briefly, but I've got a feeling you won't be brief. No, no. I'm going to be really brief. I don't think you will be. Julie Furtado raced on the road. You've already gone back to 1990. Yes, but she's an absolute legend who's still got the record of number of wins of almost like World Cups, but not World Cups. She also won DH and XC, but she raced on the road first, smoked pretty much everyone, then went, actually, mountain bike's more fun, and I'm going to do that because she's cool. Owen, that isn't happening, is it? No one's leaving road to come and do cross-country. No, and it's sad. That's a shame. This is going to be happening with gravel next. We're going to have top talent leaving to go and do gravel. I would say in America, that's already happened. Oh, stop it. No, really. Stop it. Right. My big question is, can it survive? Do you want me to bring some hope? Yes. Right. Only last week, I put a video out, quite a controversial. Oh, right. The top 40 most stylish mountain bikers. Oh, it's good. I like that. Myself and a big crew in the office, we all talked about who should be on this list. Then we let you guys vote on the list and positioned them. Some riders didn't make the list for good and bad reasons, some of it. That annoyed a few people. Can't please everyone. A few. Oh. Right. Maybe rightly so. In that list, this is the most stylish riders. A decade ago, we would not have been including cross-country riders in the most stylish mountain bikers list. No. Check out these riders though. My favorite, Bjorn Reilly. Yes. Love this guy. He's so good on a bike. It's not many times you see a potential future world cross-country champion who can do all of the bike park skills he's got. And really smooth. Just with flow. So good. No offense to Nino, his table is a bit whipped. Oh, he's on another level today. Nino's got nothing compared to this guy. Nothing. I really feel like that guy, I'd put a pin in him, not actually, but I'd put a pin in his name because I think he's a future world cross-country champion. Yes. And he's going to make it look sick. Christopher Blevins. Yes. He was on the list. Yes. Fantastic rider. Really, really great. Someone who didn't make the list, and I feel bad, but it was rampant, but I think she's a huge talent for cross-country, and you could pin the sport on her a little bit, Evie Richards. Yes. What a talent. Yes, she's incredible. She's got all the lifestyle stuff on the Instagram stuff. She's making it look fun and great. Agreed. Charlie Aldridge as well. He's out. Is he Cannondale's number one now, really? I think he had a second at XCC, didn't he? World Champs. Right. Yes. He is a fantastic rider. All those people were on that most stylish list. It's a hopeful future, I think. Did you see the most stylish video? I did get some stick for it, okay? Did you? That's overly harsh. Why? Tell them who was missing. Go on. Danny. Danny McCaskill didn't make the list. No, well, I mean, well. Yes, he didn't make the list. He didn't make the list. The thing is, the problem is, right, he just didn't get mentioned when we were putting the list together because a few of us in the group who were putting the list together are trials riders, okay? This is a horrible defense of my position, but I'm going to try. Yes, okay. And as a trials rider, you can really appreciate Danny's skills as trial skills. I don't think any of us can even comprehend his creativity skills and his imagination. He's beyond brilliant, right? In terms of a trials rider, I can see his skills are structural. They are techniques that he's not necessarily full of flow and style as a trials rider. No, he gets the trick done. Yes, but I mean, an incredible tricks. Tricks that some people can't even do. If it was who's the best mountain biker, I'd be saying Danny's one of the best riders I've ever seen. The other person who didn't make the most stylish list, I can't understand why I didn't put him on there because I love him, Sam Pilgrim. People were furious. You were furious. You're one of them. Yes, because Sam Pilgrim wasn't on there. He is a fantastic rider. He's one of the best bike riders. He really is one of the best bike riders I've ever met. Honest to God, I've been around him a lot when he's riding. He's truly great, but that great, a great rider, but stylish. I want to admit the mistake I made. I want to get it out there, okay? I want to call myself out. I think the mistake I made is Danny didn't make the list because if you put Danny on that list, he's going to be in the top three, but he isn't in the top three most stylish riders. It was right he wasn't on the list because he can't be really said to be one of the most stylish riders, but I think you could say the same thing about Fabio Wibmer. He won it. He beat Brandon Semenuk into the second place. The stylish. Yes. It was a vote though, wasn't it? It's not just you. No, it wasn't just me. I think what happened is that I put a couple of riders, Matt Jones and Fabio Wibmer, who were very popular and aren't necessarily the most stylish, and they did much better than I thought they were going to do in terms of style. In fact, they were both in the top five. I feel like I shouldn't have had them in the list. The popularity contest should have been removed from the list, but we'll come back to the list. I think there's always going to be debate about the stylishness. That's good. That's why mountain biking is always changing. We can update the top 40 another time, I feel like. Well, I think we're going to get to that. Let's do it again. Something else I want to call myself out on while I'm doing it is just look at this little clip of a vid I did with Rich the other day. With the iconic Greg Minnaar on board winning World Cups, backed by his teammates. He had some good ones back in the day. Brendan Fairclough, Matt Elykinen, the Honda G-Cross setup was groundbreaking, buddy. Notice anything? I didn't know you could throw your voice. Canuck Chuck says, I love the fact that Martin is reading along with Rich's parts. You're not supposed to notice. Is Martin a ventriloquist? When Rich talks, Martin's lips are moving. Someone else said, you don't know where his hand is. Let's do it. Next part. The next part is news. Let's not jump off there because I want to ask you guys a question. Is XC in trouble? We want to know in the comments down below. That's a definite question for you guys. Also, this top 40, shall we do an alternate top 40? If we can get enough names, we'll do an alternate top 40. Who are the riders who didn't make the list that should make the list? Like it? I like it. Like that. In the comments, let's name names. Let's just take it that Danny and Sam are in the list. They've made it. Who else? We need 38 of our riders. Get busy in the comments, please. Go. What's up, everyone? As the guys have been chatting about already, our first bit of team news for 2025 has come around nice and early with Alan Haverly being allowed to exit his contract with Cannondale Factory Racing early to head to Jaco Alula for a mixed mountain and road schedule. I won't dwell on that too much. Instead, continuing with the news that Crankbrothers have launched Club CB, their digital community for Crankbrothers enthusiasts. It's free to join. Exclusive rewards and member benefits are on offer. We'll drop a link to it in the description below. There are updates to Yeti's line of SB120 models. The dedicated trail bike has a super compact link, better sealing on the Switch Infinity, UDH compatibility, and the new GripX damper as standard on all T and C Series models. A new color also joins the lineup. I think it's the first time we've seen this lichen green for Yetis. It looks spot on, in my opinion. Enduro 2, the pairs-format enduro race, which has been held in Meribel, France for the past couple of years, is adding a Swiss stop to the roster as it arrives in Verbier for 2025. Slated for the 5th to the 7th of July, riders will face three days of blind racing, onsighting red and black trails across 15 huge stages, 70% of which are single track. Since it's pairs-format racing, you get the thrill of riding with a buddy and your total team time is logged. The classic round in Meribel is still later on in the year, 23rd to the 25th of August for that one. Registration for the Enduro 2 races opens in December this year. Now, good news if you're viewing from the States. PT's have launched dedicated US warehousing and website, meaning you can grab PT's products with fast mainland delivery and hassle-free customs. There's free shipping over $60 per basket total. Alongside our giveaway, which the guys will tell you about, you can also enter GMBN20 as a discount code for 20% off of non-discounted products on any of the PT sites. That code is valid for three months until the February 13th. We'll keep in the descriptions of our videos for safekeeping as well. With that, I'll hand you back to the guys in the shed. Competition time. This is a great contest because everyone's a winner. Everyone's a winner. Yes, I'll get to that. Tell them what you can win first. There's two bundles which are up to £200 worth of PT stuff on the PT's website, so you get a vantry-type thing and you can go wild on all of the PT stuff. Love it. Which we've got here, lots of clean products, but don't forget they do amazing valves too. Absolutely massive bundle of stuff, actually. They do the wrap thing where you can put all your little bits and bobs. So much stuff. You can win yourself a great bundle of PT stuff. You can go down into the description down below the video and follow the link, answer the question, and you could be in for a win. You've got between the 12th and the 22nd of November to do it, so good luck on that. I said everyone's a winner. We've got a code for the website that gets you 20% off of PT's products on their new website right now if you want. It's there for the next three months. The code is, imaginatively, GMBN20. Oh, that's great. No one else is going to figure that one out. It's a secret code. But you can use that code. 20% off, that's ace. Yes, off things that haven't already been discounted. Obviously. Who could really clean up? Yes, so that is a fantastic little offer for everybody and that goes until the 13th of February 2025. Well done, PT's. Love that. Good luck in the contest. GMBN shop, Christmas gifting happening. It's that period, isn't it? Yes, very true. Really appreciate it if you head into the shop and get some merch for Christmas presents. Of course, it's Black Friday coming up, so there'll be some incredible deals. I mean, there's some good deals on there at the moment already, to be fair. There are, yes. Have you seen our new emojis? Oh, I've shown Rich these amazing new emojis. If you become part of our YouTube membership, you get these custom emojis. I'm well into them. I'm loving the GMBN globe. Yes, we've got the new tools emoji. We've got a little love hearts one. We've got the GMBN globe, little water bowl, hacks and bodges. Love it. Custom emojis, all part of the YouTube memberships. Got the trail crew, trail boss. You get discount in the store. You get your loyalty badge next to your name, which really signals you out as pro in the comments. I quite like that. We appreciate all of that kind of support. It's really meaningful. Of course, like I said, Christmas bundles, get your presents ready for the big day. Love it. Exciting. Right. Shall we do some hacks and bodges? Hacks and bodges. Not that hacks and bodges. Not that hack. You sort of bodged it. Not hacks and bodges. Yes. Wonderful selection here. This one's from Arthur Bates. I love this. Yes, this is one of those ones where you wouldn't think it would work, but would that be all right? Would it not damage the bike? Would it, doing that? I guess it would damage the bit of wood. It could damage the bike. You get custom geometry. You can change your- Essentially, for those listening versus viewing, we've replaced our shock with a bit of wood. Yes, it feels fine on the road. Yes, but a bit wooden off the road. Yes. I heard he got a promotion as well. He's now a branch manager. Oh, right. Yes, it's very good of him. Very, very good. You're in the chance with winning a stunt mug. Next up is Adrian Manapil, and he says, oh, it's an unused inner tube on this suspension linkage. That is a very pro finish. That's quite neat, actually, isn't it? It's very neat. Gluing it on tight like that. It's very, very good. Yes. I like that. And it'll flex, but it's not going to allow the muck to fire through to that main pivot. It looks like he's done it on this mini bike, doesn't it? That's actually like a little shot zoomed in on this bike. Essentially, it is that bike. Five steps later. Yes. I like that. It's very pro-looking. Next up, we've got, I love this one. This is from Adam Skinner. Look, he's got to true the wheel, basically, a spoke broke. He's got to true the wheel, but he's using a really old-school bike rack upside down to create a wheel jig, and then he's created this contortion of clamps to create a truing device next to the rim itself. It's really brilliant. It's ugly as sin. To say it's a bodge, but I bet it works perfectly. He's got a roller, like a dial gauge there. It's not just a visual gauge. He's also got effectively a visual gauge with his ruler on the table. The table also looks pretty interesting. It feels like it's not his first DIY construction. I like that a lot. That's good. Owen, as the nerd, I think you should choose the best hack or bodge. Do you like being called a nerd? Yes. I mean, you are one. Yes, I am. Why not fight that? Do you know what I mean? Why not embrace that? Embrace the nerd. Did you look in the mirror one day and went, I guess I'm a nerd? I don't think so. I think it was basically always. That was such a mean thing to say. I can't believe what he said. Showing his true colors there. That was so mean. It's not that mean. It's not that mean. No, you do look like a nerd. No, but even it's in the bibble. It's in the good book. You had to be a nerd or a scientist. You had to be one or the other. Yes. I can't spell scientist, so that's that out of the window, isn't it? Well, we're doing a show. Yes, we are. Right, the winner is for me. Well, it's Hacks or Bodges. Adrian, I'm sorry, yours is too professional. It looks just too good. There's not a miscut zip tie or anything. That looks pro, so that's out. The wooden shock, I wouldn't think it would work. We've done some great puns off that. For me, the winner is Adam Skinner. Adam Skinner with a super jig. You don't do anything short or quickly. Thanks. Nice. Oh, I'm not going to throw it. It's not the new table. I better not throw it. Stunt mug on its way. Imagine it that way and it comes back. There we are, stunt mug safe. I nearly hit the camera last week, Louis, and I don't want to do it. It's just so nervous. Not with a new one. It was so close. It was so close. Don't do that. Stunt mug on its way to you, sir, Adam. That's a great opportunity to give a little bit of promotion to the uploader. It's there for the hacks and bodges you want to send us, but of course, bike vault, sends, fails, all of that stuff. That might get you on our social media, but also get you in the show next week. You could be winning yourself a stunt mug. Good luck. Things we like this week? Some things. Some things? Many things. I want to start with the Rider Resilience film. This is awesome. I would say that because I'm narrating a bit of it, but it is genuinely awesome. Immediately, you're going to make something better. I feel that dented it, but it's great despite me being featured. Rider Resilience film, obviously, promoting Rider Resilience, a charity started by Niels Ammelinckx, who sadly passed away, but he is featured in this video. There's three riders telling some amazing stories of how they use cycling to help them through challenges in life. It's a remarkable film. It premieres at the Kendall Mountain Festival. How amazing. Let me check when that is. That's on the 21st to 24th of November. It's a brilliant video. I can't wait to see it out there, and you guys will see it. You had a quick look earlier on. Do you like it? Yes. I just saw a little trailer of it. Having known Niels before and also seen what Rider Resilience has done as a charity, it's just awesome. Amazing guy. He really made an impact on me, actually. He came in the shed. We had a great show with him involved. Great guy. Rachel's also just a wonderful human. Lots of love for that. It'll be good. Of course. That's definitely worth watching when you can see it. What do you think about this? Two-wheel drive. As a nerd, you're going to love this. Two-wheel drive mountain bike. Well, bike. Well, we have had these before. Have you? Yes, we have. There was a brand that was doing a couple of- Have you ridden one? Have you ridden? No. There's a brand that was doing a couple of different ones. Full suspension one and a regular one. Like a hardtail. I mean, it's very mechanical, but I wonder what it's like. Yes. I feel like they've had them in motocross as well and they've really not succeeded. I can't imagine it working with an engine because you'd just be pulling on it. Yes. Maybe it won't work. I feel like it does the same. Like he's pulling it through the mud. Anyway, that's quite interesting. Definitely love this hardtail downhill. Yes. Yes. This looks awesome. I love it. I love it. I feel like this is a whole scene in itself and I don't know why this hasn't happened. Downhill hardtail racing or hardtail downhill racing. There has been. HDDH. There is a class. There used to be a class. I remember reading about it in a magazine. Actually, the frame is actually pretty versatile. The fact that, okay, it's got wild monster T's on at the moment, but you could put a 29er and a 150 fork on and that would be sort of normalish riding bike. Admittedly, only with one gear. That's normal or not normal. It's very versatile, but I think set up like that, it just looks sick. I really love it. Yes. Agreed. Love it. This, ramp rucksack. Ramp rucksack. I feel like someone went into my mind 10 years ago and nicked this idea from me. I've literally spent time thinking about, I wonder if you could make a ramp a rucksack and then be able to just take it wherever you want to go riding and put a ramp down. These guys have done it. It's absolutely brilliant. That is amazing. I love how it folds out. It's pretty cool how it folds out, but I guess it might slide. You want to lean it against something, don't you? Yes. For RC cars, it would be sick as well. It would be, yes. I knew you was coming on the show, so I found a little bit of tech that I thought you'd love and have something to say about. I really think this is kind of beautiful. 3D-printed bar stem. Yes. From Dangerholm. We saw this at the Aura bike and, A, Mr. Dangerholm. I thought his online persona is that he's quite alpha. No. Wonderful human. Very, very interesting. Really nerdy. That bit is probably not that surprising. The bar was designed with his mechanic-ness in mind in terms of it's easier to work on. Yes, love this. Internal cable rooms, but nicer in terms of- It's very beautiful. Very beautiful bit. I put that in just for you. There's a piggy on me. Yes, I knew you'd like it. Caption contest. Yes. Yes. Great photo here, Braden Brinkhurst and our own Blake Sampson out in Utah, looking at each other lovingly, I'd say. Yes, that's good. Yes. First one from Jamie Rides Bikes, Blake Backmountain. Oh, and he brawls novel. Love that. Great reference. Love novels. Love a bit of literature. Could do a whole section on literature. Very good. Should we not, though? Should we not? In the comments, if you want us to have a little novella section, you know, we could dive into that. We could. Yes, we could. So, YJ Mechanic, you know what they say? What happens in the desert stays in the desert. That's a good one. Yes, it took me two reads, to be fair. Being dyslexic, I thought he was talking about dessert and I got very confused, but I think that's what's happening in the next one, isn't it? This is from ZDroid, this one. Blake's reaction when he's asked if you wanted to try the chute. Is that the dessert? Is it? No, I think they're insinuating something else. I like that middle one. I like that middle one from YJ Mechanic. You know what happens in a desert stays in a dessert. Yes, perfect. Well done. Like that one. You have got yourself a stunt mug. Hang on a minute. Didn't we give a stunt mug out earlier on? Oh, gee. We were supposed to give out a race top. Oh, do you want a race top instead? No, you can't do that. Guys, earlier on, Adam, you're getting a race top, all right? For his hacks and bodges. YJ Mechanic, stunt mug. Congratulations. All clear. Perfect. It's like I've never done this show before. Coming up this week on GMBN. Yes, we've got some great videos. Three skills that will take you from average Joe to pro and how. I need that. How to have good rides in bad weather. I love a ride in the pouring rain. That's definitely worth a watch. Last one, blind test on air shock versus coil shock. Is coil really an upgrade? I like that. I love blind tests as well. Like that one you did with Rich with the older tuned mass damper. Tuned mass damper. TMD. It's easy. Yes, good. Very cool vids coming up. Make sure you don't miss them. We appreciate your eyeballs on them. Dis do the bike vault. Dis do the bike vault. Let's do the bike vault. First bike this week on the bike vault is from Chris Smart. Is that a Yeti? Beautiful color. It is. That's a spendy build. That is. Look at that. Matchy, matchy, everything. Wow. Flats on a hardtail. You don't see that very often. I don't know who said it last week, but about getting rid of clip pedals. I feel like it was a mechanic. Going to flats, banning clips. I like that idea. I feel like that's a whole video there. I like what they've done on this bike putting flats on. There you go. I'm going to give it super nice. Next up, John S. Super nice. Yes, exactly. That's it. Super nice. Well done, John. Love the Scout. Mr. Lucid. Mr. Lucid. Look at this. This is a Mayo build. It is. And he's gone with a sick color. What is that? Galactic rainbow color. Wow. That is amazing. That is. Love that. Well done. Next up, Max King. Picture of his NS. Ontario. We like that. 180 zebs. 170 rig. Travel. I like that a lot. I'd say the bike's quite, there could be more bike in this photo. Yes, but look, you can see this wonderful terrain. Secondary to the view. The place looks super nice. The bike, it's a bit too far away. I can't tell. But it's nice. Don't get me wrong. William Temple. This is his Polygon Siskiyou. That's very nice looking, isn't it? Yes, it's got a clever floating. What do you think? What do you think? Well, if you're going to slide off the last one. There's your bell. No, if you don't like the last one because it's got too much scenery. That's got too much scenery because it's got trees. I can see how this has gone. Right, Owen Cameron. There's another Owen. I mean, I was biased because it's another Owen. Top of Big Boar in Innerleithen. Golfy. I've never ridden there. I've never ridden in that whole area. Is it good? No, I really haven't. Right, well, potentially add that to your hashtag. We need Martin here. Yes, because everyone goes on about it there. That's where Pagey lives and everything, isn't it? Yes, Pagey does live there now. Yes, it's very cool. Didn't used to live there. Because it filled my mind with thoughts. Super nice. Next up, Carlo Augusto. Nice, rigid trek. Yes. Very nice. Oh, yes. Wow. Hardtails are good. More hardtails. JC, custom Dartmoor. Dartmoor. Yes, lots of people like a Dartmoor, don't they? They do. I'm going to let you judge this one, Owen. I'm not sure. Really, do you just ring the bell if you've got the opportunity? No, I had opportunities to ring the bell. Yes, and you took them. Yes, I did. Great bikes in the bike vault this week. Thank you for sending them in. Like I said, the uploader is down in the description down below. Send in your bike vaults and all the sends and all the fails. Of course, your hacks and bodges too. Really appreciate that. Owen, it's all we've got time for this week. To me, that felt very short. Yes, it goes quick when you're having fun, doesn't it? It goes quick when you're having fun. Have a think about those comments. Let us know about the riders we missed off of the top 40 most stylish, and of course, is XC in trouble? Can it survive? I mean, I hope so, really. Look forward to seeing in the comments. Goodbye from me. And me.