Do Dream Bikes Still Exist Dirt Shed Show 566

Hello and welcome to the Dirt Shed Show. Look who we have. You're back. Oh, it's so good. I feel warm and fuzzy. You look warm and fuzzy. How are you? I'm well mate, I'm well. Happy New Year and all of those things. Are we still saying that? I am, but I'm old. I don't know if that's what old people do. They forget time. Longer than normal people. I always think it's like the week after I think is acceptable and after that it's like, we've had enough, move on. I guess I just haven't had anyone to say it to. I've just been lonely. It's my first interaction with humans since Christmas. I haven't seen you for a little while to be fair. Oh, it's so good to be back and see everyone. Christmas and New Year got me thinking actually about dream bikes. Are they still a thing? Are they still relevant? Do people still have them? I remember back in the day I'd be like, wow, I'd never get a whole bike for Christmas. That would be an actual dream, but save it up and you'd be looking through the magazines. Do people still have that? Is that still a thing? Well, we're going to be talking about dream bills now, dream bikes. I'm going to tell you how to win one in a minute, so keep that in your mind as we talk about this. The thing that I think is quite important, when we were talking about this earlier on, you said about owning a Yeti. Back in the day, to own a Yeti, and when I say back in the day, I mean like the 90s or early 2000s. Owning a Yeti, there wasn't many of them and you needed to have some serious budget. There wasn't literally many of them, but now you can own a Yeti quite easily. You don't need to be a billionaire to own a Yeti anymore. You can own a truly amazing dream bike Yeti, but you can just own a Yeti. You can. But it's not that much money, so maybe dream bikes don't exist. Maybe I'm lying about that one you could win. Maybe it's not even there. It is, by the way. So much information right there. I'm not really sure where to go. You are right. Now, why do we think that is, though, Mark? For me, I was thinking about it. There are just so many good bikes nowadays. Obviously, we have our personal preferences and we'll be like, the Yeti is an example. Intense was one back in my day. Like an Intense M1 downhill bike, oh my God, I loved one. They were always cool, weren't they? They were, because they were ridden by so many people. Even teams who had downhill bikes, teams would still ride a rebadged M1. They were that good. That's true, actually. They did. So many. I remember jeering that on Muddy Fox. Imagine that now. That would be so nuts. That would be bonkers. It wouldn't happen. So nuts. They were that good. The problem is the crap bikes are good bikes. Exactly. They are, aren't they? It's not really a crap. Even if you went crazy cheap on a bike, it would still be a very good bike. The problem is, I think in the bike world, our perception of crazy cheap has also changed. Entry-level bikes are not entry-level money like they used to be. Not really. No. No, they're not. You used to be able to say, if 300 quid, that would get you in a mountain bike. That probably wouldn't do it now. Get you a pair of shoes or something. Yes, that probably wouldn't do it now, especially with the cost of living. Yes. That's accelerated. What would you have to spend to get into a good mountain bike now? I'm going to open my, the keyboard will light up, but I think if you spent a grand, I reckon you could get a really, and you don't have to, but I think £1,000 will get you a very good mountain bike and helmet and a few basic bits of kit and get you out rolling safely and properly. That being said, I do think it can be done cheaper, especially if you look secondhand. To be fair, a £1,000 mountain bike would be some people's dream bike. Yes. I know that sounds like a very high figure. If you're spending that kind of money, you are getting a very good bike and they can get way, way more expensive, but they're not necessarily way, way, way better. They're just indulgently bougie a bit. Yes, like different carbon layups or something, which is mad. I put another one down as affordability here, is a little note I put down. What I mean by this is that the Yeti is a great example. I'm not clued up on all the Yetis, but they do the Turk, I believe it's called, which is the super top-end model or layup of the frame and the weight and stuff like that. I can't remember what other bits it was, but then they do a cheaper version, which I can't remember what that one's called. Yes, but it is still the best. Oh, it's still expensive, mind, but it means that you can have that turquoise bike for less than what you're for, or like propane, great example, actually. Ties, spin drifts, they make nice, real fancy carbon versions, but they make alloy versions, so you can have that same bike for less, same angles. In fact, I think the one I rode at Bike Park Wales, I think that's metal. Yes, it was nothing wrong with it, amazing. That bike has changed my plans in terms of two-wheel bike riding. Has it? It was a good day, wasn't it? Oh, my God, it was so good because I've never done bucket biking with everything stripped off it. Chain off, motor off, it was all gone. It made it so brilliant. I loved it. I absolutely loved it, so I'm a big fan of that bike. Yes, well, we'll get onto that in a moment. Call your jets, Batman. Back to the topic of do dream bikes still exist? Are they still as desirable? I think they are, but I think the goalposts on how we get them and how we can get to them has changed because things like finance, you would never finance. Financing a bike back in the day, imagine if you go, I'm just going to finance a bike. It's not that much. Go on, say it. Well, to finance, it makes it achievable. Yes, that's the thing, so that's it. It makes it achievable. If you just really want a mountain bike, you can get it on finance. Is that less dreamy, though, because you can't just get it? I don't know if I would buy a bike on finance. Would you buy a bike on finance? Would you, Nick? No, no. Would you? No. If it were a dream bike? That's a lot of finance. Yes, no, I don't know if I would. It does mean it's another route that makes it possible to get that. I think the problem there with the finance, what triggered in my mind is, is it really your dream bike if you're buying it on finance? It's a little bit like, well, I could have a Porsche, but I don't know how much I'd enjoy it when I was paying the finance every month. We have not even delved into running and servicing and maintenance. Yes, I feel like I wouldn't love the Porsche. I'm saying Porsche like I would. Is that still the cool car to have? I don't know. Which one did you drive in today? I'm not a car guy. I don't really know cars that well. Yes. Before we throw it out there, what was your dream bike back in the day? My dream bike back in the day was, well, I was lucky enough to get my dream bike through my sponsorship. That really was my dream bike. That was an M800 Cannondale. That's what I wanted. It was the coolest ridges bike back then. I think now if I had a dream, I really feel like that spin drift, sorry to go on about it, but I really feel like that spin drift was right now, if I'm not riding my bowhead, which has got three wheels and it's like independence packaged, it's perfect. It's hard to improve on that bike. If I go back onto two wheels, which is a very weird scenario because it's actually not a very independent way to ride. Oh, gosh. It's a team of two needed, isn't it? It's a team event. Which is the fun of it. Yes, it's really good. When I'm on that, that bike really was like a wow bike. It felt unbelievable. I had high-rise bars on it that made it feel better than the last one I'd ridden. It had all of the chain taken off and the derailleur was all gone. It was mega quiet. When we adjust the suspension, it actually made a difference. Yes, we did. Yes, we spent a bit of time with it. It was like actually went the wrong way, which is funny. It went all bouncy and I was just so excited. We experimented a lot, didn't we, that day? It was good. I feel like I've had my dream bike experience recently. Okay, that's cool. I don't know how I'd improve on that at the moment. All right. I just want that one again. Is it still downstairs? Can I borrow it a minute? Oh. Can I borrow you to help me get on there? Could you come along to push me? Catch him at the end. Yes, can we get a few more people on board? We need a van. Well, mine was an intense M1. Mine still is intense because I just think they're cool. Cool paint jobs. It might be a little trickier to get hold of them now, given their current state. I might never own one, which makes it even dreamier for me, actually. Yes, that makes it even more dreamy. Oh, my God. The unobtainable. It's horrible when these brands disappear. I know. I know. All right. Well, let us know in the comments down below. Do you think dream bikes still exist and what would yours be? Yes. Can I just go straight in right now to tell you how to win one because that would be- You're going to win a dream bike? Well- Go on. Go on. I know you've been dying to do this bit. Actually, yesterday, I launched Rideable Now's website, the platform that I've been working on for quite a while. The idea is to grow, promote, and fund adaptive bike riding because I ride adaptive bikes, as I've been saying, and I know that they transform lives. They transformed my life. They're really important to the people who need them. I know through my experience of being supported by mountain biking as a whole, like all you guys out there through my experience, that we can help them. I've created this platform where we can help people buy adaptive bikes. It's a really inspiring place for adaptive riders to go, but of course, I need support from the mountain biking industry and community widely. I've got to make it interesting for you guys out there to go. You're dangling a carrot. I need to turn your passion for mountain biking into a purpose. You've got to get something out of it. How about one of these dream-built bikes? Can you tell us what it is? Oh, yes. I'm filming it tomorrow. We're going to build the bike so the video of it being built, actual bike is going to be up at the beginning of the next week, but we're filming it tomorrow. Shall I drumroll? If you go on, I don't know if a drumroll seems a bit weird. Let's do a drumroll. No, but not just randomly. Why don't you tell them what the bike is? I mean, if you go on to RideWorld now, you can join, become a member. Then your support through being a member, you pay £5 a month, enters you automatically into our factory builds competition, which this bike is part of. Also, every single month, there's a bundle of kit that someone can win. That's amazing. You remember the tech show? They used to go, you can win this, and this, and this. Well, we're going to do that every month. Can you also win a house in the Cotswolds? You can't, but it isn't dissimilar to what we're doing. Every month, you can win MTB gear, which is absolutely incredible. Some really cool stuff in there. Then every other month, you can win one of these factory builds bikes. The first bike we're building, drumroll, is a Hope HB916. Wow. Really bougie. That is a fancy bike for a first one. That's the level, right? That is what these bikes are going to be. Every other month, you can win a £10,000 plus bike if you come and support Rideable Now. It's that simple. We've got some incredible MTB Pro Ambassadors. I've actually got an ambassador to announce every single week for the first year of Rideable Now. No way. Yes. I've actually, in the background, already got them signed up. I know who they are, but I want to drip feed them out and also utilize their social power. We've got some great ones. There's some in the room right now, but we're not going to announce him yet. If you go to rideablenow.com, you can see who we've launched with. We've got a little core group that we've launched with as ambassadors. They're already pretty impressive lineup of people, I've got to say. I wanted to announce it all on the Dirt Shed Show, because you're first to hear that it's live. We can go for it now. The first 100 members of Rideable Now get a mudguard. I wondered why you'd been having that around so much. Not this mudguard, weirdly, but it's a mudguard like this. Hook It Products are making it. There it is on screen. That's the design. I've only got the design at the moment, but you guys will be getting the mudguard with that design on, the first 100 members. Surely, through this show, we could get that done, couldn't we? I reckon. 100 mudguards, they're waiting for you. Go over to rideablenow.com. I should know what it's called. You really should be able to say it. Rideablenow.com, I'm just over excited. I can tell. I'm so excited because I've been planning it for ages. Go over there, join up, and we can do something really amazing in mountain biking. Adaptive bikes are transformational. They could be the most, they could make mountain biking the most accessible sport in the world. That's remarkable. That's remarkable. Let's make that happen. Wow. Mark's very inspirational Rideable Now stuff, but it is now time for hacks and bodges. Hacks and bodges. Hacks and bodges. What are we doing? What are we doing? We're singing together. I love it. I love it. We've got some beauties. Have a look at this one first from David Gutierrez. It's a bell. It's a bell. It's a bell. David says, I left my bear bell on my other bike. That's annoying. Do you know what though? We did a show on this once and a bear bell was actually a very good idea because the reason most cyclists get eaten by bears is because they arrive upon said bear without the bear realizing. This is true, dude. I know. I know. Without them realizing they're coming. Walkers very rarely get killed by bears because there's lots of opportunity there to go, who's that? Oh, I'm going, but a bike rider just arrives. They're like, oh, I'm going to kill you and they rip their head off or something similar, but a bear bell is a good idea. Good. That's not a bodge. That's a hack. All right, David. Thank you. That's a life hack right there. Next up from Robert Aspinall. It's a rubber chicken. Yes, but rubber chickens can make a noise. They're squeaky and they could save you from bears. Robert says, went for a trail ride down South Downs, a very non-bear place in the UK, I should add. Yes, badgers. From Winchester, found this head at the end of the ride and put it on my pump. Makes me giggle if I get a puncture. Are we still giving away £50 worth? We are, yes. Up to £50 worth of merch. Well, I was going to get up to that at the end. The rubber chicken can't get in, all right? Makes him chuckle. Then finally from, oh, this one's got no name. Oh, this looks good. This one's got no name, but it says, I have the old Evoque bike bag and wanted to make it easier to travel, so I added three swivel wheels, two at the front and one at the middle. So much easier now as I don't have to carry the weight and pulling it. That is quite a good hack. That is good. That's actually, I feel like this is what Hacks and Bodges was actually made for. Not rubber chicken heads. Bear bells. But bear bells, life-saving. Me and Blake rode through a grizzly warning zone on a ride once. We sung to each other. That's a good idea. We just sung to each other whilst we were riding. Going down the trail in the bear spot. Hacks and Bodges. Hacks and Bodges. He knew we were coming. Yes, bears and tigers. Bears and tigers. Where are you riding? The zoo. Is there a place where bears and tigers live together? Probably not. Panda bears and tigers? Panda bears and, yes, panda bears in China. Oh, yes. Yes, yes, yes. Panda bears aren't that aggressive. No, no. They're trying to run away and trip over their own feet. The winner is, who did the bear bell? The bear bell was from David Gutierrez. Congratulations. You win a prize up to the value of 50 pounds from the GMBN shop. Do slide into our DMs to let us know. David's saving lives right there. He certainly is. Right, moving on. Some things that we liked this week, Martin. Now, Strathpuffer was on at the weekend. Just go on. You love it. I do. I hate it at the same time. For those who don't know, Strathpuffer is a 24-hour endurance mountain bike race in the highlands of Scotland. It's one of the most brutal races in the world. It's horrendous. Yes, that is really, really tough. Kyle Beattie won it again. He's won it a few times now, 21 laps in the sub-zero conditions. He's just a double hard. Oh, he's hard as nails. Yes, he's good. Hardest thing you've ever done? Physically-wise, yes, and mentally, actually, pretty hard. Except for that one in the desert where you nearly died. Yes, except for that one. Oh, yes, that one too. Fair play. Thank you. Thank you, mate. Yes, Strathpuffer, just Google it, do a little Insta search. It's pretty cool. Kyle, congratulations on winning. Anything else you like this weekend? A bit of moto now because A1, Anaheim 1 was on. It was good. First round of Supercross. Tomac took the win. Eli Tomac, son of? John Tomac. We had a funny conversation earlier on. Is John Tomac the legend of mountain biking? Is he now just Eli Tomac's dad? So, therefore, making Eli the bigger legend? I think so. See, I don't. John Tomac is literally the biggest name who's ever existed in mountain biking. Eli's up there in moto though because he is insane. We've already definitely talked about moto too long in this Dirt Shed Show. Tomac on your team, KTM took the win. It was really amazing. Go on, Mark, what have you got to talk about? What do you like? I tell you what, I'd just like to mention this small thing that happened this week, the launch of Rideable Now. What is it? I've never heard of it. Where you can win amazing bikes, you can win amazing MTB gear and discount codes. I forgot to mention, members get discounts from all of our brand partners. This thing pays for itself. Those are some things we like this week. Should we go straight into caption contest? What? With no cut or anything? Absolute anarchy. So pro. Damn it. Let's do it. Last week was this comical picture of Owen looking a bit like a minion. Just give us a comment for this weird-looking guy. He looked like a minion. He had his hood up. Owen's looking like, that's just me. That's what I see in the mirror every day. People are like, look at this. That's a person. He's got feelings. He's not even pulling a face. Oh, it's me, but fine. The captions work. O-1 Fozzy S, Owen spying on the roadie section at work because he was all hood up incognito. Yes, I've seen him do that as well in the office. He does spy. Yes, he does. He's always looking at their scripts and stuff. Yes, he's sneaky. He's really sneaky. Owen, he's not a nice guy. We're really calling him out. He's one of those people that you go on the screen and he's all like, that was really nice. Then you meet him out back and he's like, what do you want? He did try to punch you, didn't he, once? He did hit me a couple of times, actually, yes. I saw him trying to push you down the stairs. He won't talk to Rich. No, he won't. GCZY2XK, oh, I missed the Maxis part when you asked for a minion. That's pretty good. It's good, actually, yes. That's pretty good. Daniel, nice to you when Rich asks someone to join him on the tandem downhill bike. I've not even been on the tandem downhill bike. This year, I am still going to be on GMBN doing some videos. The first video we are going to do in 2026, I can officially say now because we've all been talking about it, is that me and Rich are going on the random tandem. We are. It's going to be amazing. We haven't actually decided where yet, so in the comments, let us know where we should go on the random tandem. Please, like a soft play center. Do you want to know the one place I do really want to go on it? I feel like you're such a double-Rd bastard. What you could do is, I want to go to them slate mines in North Wales. Yes, boy, yes. And ride down that big chute. Yes. Fast. High five. Yes, we should definitely do that. That's going to be one of the GMBN videos I do this year for sure. Do you know what we should do before that? Yes. Pick a winner of caption contest. Who can win a prize up to the value of £50 from the GMBN shop? Please slide into our DMs to claim your prize. The winner is? Who said that Owen was horrible the most? You. Oh, I just want to point out that Owen is not. He's literally the nicest guy. He's a disclaimer. He literally is the nicest guy you can ever meet. That in itself is sickening. He's so easy, lovely, lovely bloke. I feel awful for saying horrible things about him. He's a what? You can pick a winner. The first guy. Oh, God. O1FozzyS, Owen spying on the roadie section at work. Thank you. Do get in touch. And here is this week's caption contest picture. More arguments in the office. Uh-oh. Right. Let us know in the comments down below. Fault. Bike fault. That was like the best we've ever done. That was a pretty good one, wasn't it? Oh, let's go. I haven't done a bike vault for so long. I've got some gems for you. Kicking it off with Shelly Routledge? Routledge? Routledge. Would you go for a route, not a route? I don't think we should do that to Shelly. I know, very true. Shelly, beautiful Norco site at Hampsteadley Forest. It's pretty brand new in this picture, but it's now at a good few parties down Danny Hart tracks. Glentress, but now all over the place. It's quite nice, isn't it? That's got an idler. Well, is that a good or a bad thing in your view? Well, I want to say bad, but the Hope HB916 you can win on rideablenow.com has got an idler also, so I love them. Super nice. Oh, my God. You're a mare of warriors. Thank you for sending that in, by the way. Next on a nice, from Zero Logic. I like that. That makes no sense. I've not seen that bike wedged in the snow photo. No, that's because a nice winter ride in Norway, minus 18 degrees. Oh, my God. Degrees C as well. That is, that is. I mean, that's a cool picture though, right? It's sort of drive side. You can't see much of the bike. You can't give it a super nice dip, you can't. All the standards in this place have gone. Well, we have had you back on. Next up, we have from Gethin, another snowy picture. I feel bad about the other one we didn't super nice now. Oh, God. Retrospective. Okay. Now, this is in Mid Wales, not Norway like the last one. Sorry, it's not drive side. He's even put that in the description. It's such a good picture. It's a good picture. It's not, I mean- No, don't you dare. Blake would come back here and go nuts. He really would. Well, Blake ain't here. Well, he ain't here. No, it's non-drive side. Guys, come. Yes. Let's do what we like. We can. Very nice. Thank you for sending that one in. Right. Now, we've got this. A little propane. Suppose a little propane. Tyee from 2016 at Berglesteiner, say. I feel like I've got to give that a big super nice because I've already bigged up propane so much. Super nice. That's pretty cool. Thanks to the GMBN team to make such great videos. Oh, that's very kind of him. Not you. You're not part of it anymore. And he hopes his picture will be in our videos. Well, it is. Thank you very much. I can't see a name though. Could you see a name on there, Mark? Don't know. Super nice bike though. Super nice. Thank you for sending that one in. Oh, a colorful Trek. Look at that. I love a hardtail. Don't love the rear mudguard, got to be honest. It's nice to see a hardtail out on the trails. And that's a really good example of what we were talking about at the top of the show. Yes. That is exactly what we're talking about. If you bought that bike, it would not be that expensive, but it would do a bloody good job. And look where it's taken him. So yes, super nice. George, thank you. Bought a few years ago to help his recovery from a broken leg from moto. I hope it's not Justin Marcia. No, I hope not. Jeepers. Hey, it's getting about. That's amazing. That's what we like to see. Right. Look at this next bike, Mark. That's fancy, right? That is a lovely- That is a- Are they Sparks? I think it's a Scott Spark. I'd give that a surprise. Yes. Even the rigid, negative rise stem. No name. I'm missing the name, unfortunately. Maybe I just haven't- I can't see it anyway. If it's yours, you're lucky. Yes. Real cool though. I like that. One degree in feet. We're about to drop off, but still a great ride on a great bike. All right. Lastly, then, is this Orbea Rallon or Rayon? It's a good shot. Rayon. It's a good shot. Seaside shot. It doesn't say where, but it says Fox 29 suspension. Fox 29 suspension. That's a new one. 29 with Fox suspension. A ding-a-donger? I reckon. No name. I can't see a name again, but maybe I need to double-check my uploader. That's a great picture to end on, whoever you are for sending that one in. Thank you very much. I bloody missed the bike vault, man. That was fun. It's cool, isn't it? That was really good. It's cool. Do you know what else you'll miss? Go on. But you could look forward to some cool things coming up this week. Go on, tell me. I have got a video where I've got five things that could make your riding better. Genuinely, five things that I do and have learned over the years that I think could fast-track people's riding to making it better. It's sort of weird that you're doing five things that could make your riding better and you haven't thought for you to do them. It's sort of ironic. But why wouldn't you do them? You're saying to the world, do them, but you're not doing them. Everyone, it's been an absolute pleasure. Martin, we've had you on as well. Thank you very much for watching, everybody. It has been good to have you on. Until next time, everybody, see you. See you later.