Hello and good day to you from episode 25 of our podcast series Project Breakaway. A metaphorical and literal time in the day when we here at Predator cycling take some time away from working in the back shop to come and share with our listeners what we're doing, how we're doing it, what it takes to do it, our ideas, our innovative success stories and even our missteps and failures. If you find yourself with an interest in bicycles, composite manufacturing, out of the box design, or even curiosities beyond, I encourage you to stick with us. Settle in and learn a little. I'm Courtney B, co-owner and project manager of Predator cycling. I'm here with my partner Arm Goan, the other co-owner, CEO, lead designer and engineer and Tour de France backup of the backup of the backup of the substitute at Predator cycling. How's it going, Arm? It's going great. I think that's an official title. Uh, yeah, it sounds good enough to me. I'll take, I'll take a backup. Backup. Oh, I'll take a hundredth backup. That's fine. I'll take that. I don't even know team. You're just a backup. Just the backup. The backup. Just that's it. Uh, no, it's awesome. I'm doing great. It's it's the tour, so. Um, it's the best time of the year. It it is for, yeah. I remember as a child, I was very into uh soap operas. Uh-huh. And it always aired on NBC, like legit NBC back then. And it always interrupted my days of our lives. Like for a week. Yeah. It was bad. I was upset because it was a tour. Which I think is like what, a week and a half, two weeks? Uh, two weeks, yeah. And it literally backed up to Wimbledon. I know, three weeks. I know, three weeks. There's a whole month without my programming. Yeah. My shows. Oh my gosh, what did you do? Because it's usually like 20 minutes. I watched it. No, I I mean I didn't watch it like intently, but I actually watched it. Yeah, it's I mean it's a three-week bike race. It's awesome. It's so cool. I I love it. I love the tour. Yeah, so um, it's uh uh stage five, six? Yeah, we're stage five today. Five today. There uh, have been lots of crashes. There's it's been crazy. It's been a crazy tour. All sorts of news. Yeah. The lady who has fled the country. Oh, yes, I think she's Sherman, right? Yeah. Stage one. Yes. That was. Holding a sign that translated to like, you know, hi grandma and grandpa. Yeah. Uh, caused the massive one day first day crash. Yeah, that was a big crash. Yeah. Uh, is uh. Poor poor Tony Martin. That guy is never, he just doesn't get a break. Yeah. He is just what did he crashed a couple years ago in the yellow jersey? And like the final kilometers, like lost the yellow jersey because of it. Like. Yeah, well, this they said could potentially change. Outcome, I guess. Anyway. Well, it's. But they said they're going to sue. I don't know who's going to sue, but the the tour itself. Or maybe the writers, I don't know. Yeah. Yes, yes. There was I I heard something about it. They have to find her because she has fled the country. They think she's back in Germany. But they said that witness of witnesses have come forward. Obviously someone knows her. Probably. I mean, you wouldn't. Also, I was thinking if that was me, I'd probably flee the country too. Yeah. I'd get a I'd dye my hair. I'd cut it. Yeah. I just. It would it's not. Nothing. and good is going to happen. But like it's it's sad. It's super sad to like. And like people, you know, it's for the racers too. This is their livelihood, this is what they've been training. All year for their careers for. Is like this opportunity in the tour. And like to go out with like. I I don't think anyone crashed out of the tour because of it. I I don't think. I'm not sure. But I mean it definitely hurt a lot of GC riders. There were like two or three GC riders that got caught up in that crash. I've always thought that the spectators. I don't understand why they're so close. I mean they can touch you. Yes, they can. And then some of them are holding like smoke bomb things. And like. They get a little crazy. It's silly. I think it's silly. Yeah, I mean it's it's they get overly excited. And um there's been a handful of accidents over the years. That have happened. But especially this. I mean like remember Mark Cavendish. What was it? Five years ago. He slid his arm, got his arm slit. I think it was Mark Cavendish who got his arm slit. From a because they used to have those big hands. The the green hands. We have one in the bathroom. We do. Um when I was when I got to go to the tour. It's our bathroom decor. It is. So. Um but yeah. That actually slit somebody's arm. I thought it was Cavendish. Maybe it wasn't Cavendish. It was somebody else. But it slit somebody's arm. So they banned them the following day. And then they haven't been back. So. Well, you're you're talking about Cavendish. He won the yellow yesterday. He won the stage. Yes. Amazing. I mean. He was crying. He should. Well, I mean Cavendish is been. He's probably one of the most decorated sprinters in all of cycling history. I mean he's an amazing athlete. And uh last year he didn't make the tour team. Um maybe the year before and the year before that. Like he crashed out early in the race. And you know, he's had a rough. He's had a I mean it was a couple years ago when it started in the UK. He crashed out. He's had a rough couple years. Um and he's getting older. Um but he's got form. He came back. I mean I was super excited to see him. Win the stage. I mean that was amazing. Like I'm I'm I've always been a Cavendish fan. Um but that was that was pretty cool. Like that was that was. And it was not like. I mean it was a it was a hard sprint. I mean it was a craft. I mean he came. He didn't have the full lead out. He didn't get dropped off perfectly. I mean his team did a great job. But like. I mean that was not a hand. They didn't hand him the sprint. Like. He had to work for it. So um that was pretty impressive. And then today's your uh uh um time trial. Yeah. Today's time trial. Uh which should be good. So I love the time trials. So. I love the tour. Yeah. What we wanted to talk about on episode. Uh obviously the the tour and what was going on. But also um bike tech. Yeah. Bike tech at the tour. And there's all sorts of companies doing secret component releases. And you just kind I guess you have to kind of just spy it on a bike. Yeah. And sometimes, you know. especially with COVID being last year. And we'll still we're still trying to recover from COVID. There's been a lot of weird product launches. And like, you know, no big events. and things. So, um, a lot of things that got announced are now kind of sneaking their way into the tour. Yeah. Um, so it's kind of cool to see. So, I just wanted to discuss uh bike tech and perhaps uh dive into what it means for the future of like design and maybe how it relates to what we're doing or what we, you know, want to do or Yeah. Anyway, so, uh, basically, I just wanted to start out, um, there are, um, rules to bike. Yes, there are rules to bikes. Yeah. There are rules. Um, so in 2000, the UCI, the cycling governing body, imposed a minimum weight limit for a bike at 6.8 kg, which roughly translates to um 14.99 pounds, 15 pounds. Yeah. And that and that's the built bike. That is a complete bike, that's the complete bike weighing in to go out on the ride, so. And each component from each different company weighs their own weight. Right. So you kind of have to build, who's the guy who has to sit there and build the bike and weigh it? Well, so like the teams do that way, I mean, they, I mean, it's pretty much specked out way in advance. Um, like what the bikes are going to go and like, you know, a lot of times like that's why like the frame weights aren't super important. Most of the time because with wheels and components, you can get the bike light enough. Um, that it doesn't matter and obviously rotating mass is way more important to be light than um non-rotating mass. So, um, you know, that's a big consideration that happens. So they put this weight limit uh in place because they uh didn't want to cut uh restrictions for uh safety restrictions. Yeah, and also to give um teams like not an unfair advantage because of budgets, like teams that had massive budgets couldn't just out perform everybody by having a six pound lighter bike. So a lot of manufacturers focus on improving the, excuse me, the aerodynamics and the drive train and etc. Yeah, so I mean you you could pretty much. make the lightest bike in the world and just put a really heavy battery in. I guess I guess you could do that too. Um, yeah, so like I mean it was pretty much in like the mid 2000s, they pretty pretty much hit the weight limit without a problem. And so bikes at that point were just kind of like focusing like you said exactly on aerodynamics. What is a predator frame weigh roughly? Um, well, the predator frames, I mean, the RF 20s, I mean, we're just sitting around 1,000 grams for the frame. Um, so it's very easily complete bike, you're sub 15 pounds. I mean, it's below the legal limit. Um, pretty easily. We didn't on the RF 20, we didn't really focus on the weight. We just. Right, because we eliminated so much of the internal mass because of how we mold and some of our mandrel systems, we just inherently made the bike lighter. But if you want to race, you could just add heavy wheels. Yeah, or you just, you know, you don't need to put in the lightest components in the world, the lightest, you know, handlebar system in the world. You can put in, you know, more um standard, you know, parts. And um, yeah. You could easily make the restriction. Okay. So I've uh scoured the interwebs and uh found some uh topics to talk about. Yes. Um for. the bikes. Yeah. So let's talk disc brakes versus rim brakes. That's a good, that's a good one. First of all, explain to me a disc brake versus a rim brake. A rim brake is like a old school bike with like you hit the brake and then the thingy closes on it and it stops. Exactly, the wheel spins, the thingy goes around it, you clamp it. Disc brake, there's no rubber thingy. Uh, there is a rubber thingy. Um, but it's different. So, um, a standard caliper system. You break on the rim. So, um, you're you have a brake pad that is driven by a usually a dual pivot caliper that basically forces um the pads against the rim. And you get your braking force, which is what most people are familiar with. Um, disc brakes are a little different. There's a small tiny disc at the bottom of the wheel, the center of the wheel. Um, anywhere from 140 mm up to about 180, 160 on road bikes. Um, and uh, and you break against that. So it's um, it's been around in mountain biking for quite a while. Uh, it just kind of made its way into road bikes recently. In the last couple years. It's been kind of controversial if it's better, if it's worse. Why? What's the matter? Well, so it matters quite a bit. Um, at first the UCI banned it because they said they were too dangerous. Because you have basically these spinning. So you're stopping the rotation of the disc from the center. As opposed to the rim on the outside. Yes. I just wanted to visualize it in my head. Yes, yes, and you're hinting towards a really big downfall of disc brakes. But the main issue the UCI banned it originally was because they said it was too dangerous. Because you had these rotors that get really, really hot when you use them. And they're like, I mean, they're very thin. So they're like kind of like knives, not quite, but like a lot of accidents happen. And some people got hurt. So if you break too quickly, it like what shreds it or something? No, it's just when a crash happens and the bikes get piled up, there's these rotors that are spinning pretty fast. They're hot because they've been breaking and they basically cut into. They cut people's legs. Like a couple races that happened. It's like physical uh damage to your body, not the bike itself malfunctioning. No, no, no. So that was originally happened and then they they kind of changed the shape of the rotors a little bit and help prevent that from happening. It seems like everyone's wearing uh riding disc brakes. Everyone is not. A lot of people are. Ineos is not running disc brakes. They are running all. Which used to be. The big team. Yeah, the sky. The big UK team. Yeah, they're still a very well budgeted big team. Um, I I don't know if they have as much of a budget now that they're not sky anymore. But they don't run disc brakes, they run um rim calipers. But like one of the big advantages. I think I read an article that said they finally switched. Or maybe it's wrong. Do you read this back? I I read a couple articles that said they were going to. Oh. But I I just I to triple check. I just looked on their Instagram feed. And they are running at least the pictures that I've seen and some of the live feeds that I've seen. I have not seen any of them using disc brakes. Maybe one or two of them are. But the majority. seem to be running. They don't have to ride the same thing. Well, no. Like on a team. But on the team, they typically, they typically will all run the same because they need backup gear, so if you get a flat and you need a quick wheel change. Oh. You want to have the same gear. But the thing, the argument with disc brake is, is that because you're breaking in the center of the wheel. You don't get as much leverage as you do if you break on the outside of the rim. So, there's been an argument of which one actually has better breaking force. Disc brakes typically are known to have better breaking force even though they're centered because they're hydraulically controlled, so there's more force being applied. Also, it's nice to have a disc brake because the disc brake's purpose is only to break. So you're basically trying to convert that energy to heat. Is basically what you're doing. And you can have a purpose built object to do that. What do you ride on your bike? You don't have to do it in the brake rim. On my personal bike. Your dream bike in your head, yes, your personal bike. My personal bike, I have. I have two, I have three predator bikes. One doesn't have brakes because it's a track bike. My other two both have rim brakes. And then the RF 20 prototype that I was riding was a disc brake. And the new RF 20 is all disc brake. So yeah, disc brake does have now better braking force because it's hydraulically controlled. Is there a weight difference between the two? Hydraulic is heavier. Disc brakes, disc brakes are heavier. But then why would people want disc brakes if they're heavier? Well, so here goes back to this whole thing I mentioned earlier. It's rotating mass, you can make a a disc brake rim for the wheel lighter because you don't have to worry about the braking forces being applied by the calipers. Yeah. So you can make a lighter rim if it's disc brake only. But it is heavier, I don't think you can get around the fact that it's heavier. I mean it's hydraulics, it's not a cable. The fork mounting, frame mounting positions are thicker, beefier. You have the added benefit of a disc. You're adding parts to it. I mean it's going to be heavier. But then again it comes back to the weight limit. You can completely get hydraulic disc brakes to come into the UCI weight limit. Yeah. Okay, let's move on to the next topic for things. Tubular versus tubeless versus clincher. Yes, this is another controversial. Okay, tubular. Obviously, there's a tube inside. Tubeless, it's just like what blowing air in there. It's already done for you. I don't know what a clincher is. So, um. We're talking about tires, by the way. We're talking about tires. So tubular tire is a old school tire, which has been used forever. And it's still probably one of the best handling tires. Um. In the world. So. A a tubular is a. So a tire is made up of a casing. So you have this casing and a tubular, the casing is basically stitched together, so it makes a a perfect circle. And then that is glued onto the rim itself. So the rim of the of the wheel does not hold the pressure of the tire. It's all held within the tire and then that is glued onto the rim. So there's a lot of advantages to tubulars. Um, a a clincher is basically how a car tire works. So there's basically like a bead on the bottom of the tire and it kind of like locks into the rim. And then there's a tube inside. Yeah, plus the. Okay, I want to that kind of makes me want to skip ahead. But we we. There's still tubular. Oh, wait. Tubeless. Tubeless. So tubeless has no tube and basically it has a sealant system inside. So you have a larger internal mass. That's what you have. Right? I have I have a I have a tubeless system. Um, and then my old race wheels were all tubulars. But if you get in a uh if you pop your tire on a ride and you have tubeless, you're kind of like. No, you can actually just put a tube in it. So you can run a tubeless rim will run a clincher tire. They run clincher tires, but they have special sealant on the inside. So they're sealed. Um, it's. It's basically. The un. Well, there's a lot of tests that have been done. But basically, as of right now, the fastest rolling tires are considered to be tubeless tires. Clincher tubeless tires are the fastest. They have a larger internal mass. And the connection between the wheel and the tire can be perfectly matched. So there's a really nice transition, so you can get a really fast aero flow going over it. Um, and they have very low rotating mass because of um there's no um space between the air and the and the tire itself. Anyways, it they're fast. All right, I wanted to skip ahead. I had this somewhere else later, but then the shape. Shapes of the wheel. Is it shapes of the wheels? Or the shapes of the tires? I'm talking about Ineos. Yeah. They're using a prac 4550 wheel from Princeton Carbon Works. Yeah. And it it uses a V-shape rather than the common U-shape. U-shapes are more blunt and proven to be faster aerodynamically. So why are we using a V-shape one? So it. Well, this gets into something that's more complicated. Because they basically have a similar design to what the zip. I think it was called. Uh, saw saw horse. Saw. Shark tooth. Ah, what was that? They had a. Anyways, they have a zip has a wheel that looks like um the ends of a circular saw blade. It's like these like nubs that come out where the spokes are. And it basically disrupts the air flow. Well, it's a V, right? So the V, the cross section is a V, but then the bottom of that V where the nipples are connected to the spokes. They have like a little divot that comes down. It kind of looks like a um a saw blade. Um, and that divot disrupts the air flow and creates a um it creates a little bit of turbulence. Which allows the air flow to hit that turbulence and flow faster over the wheel. Um, and you get. So you go faster with a V, but then U-shape you can corner better. Now? Yes. So, okay. So like this it gets really complicated really quick. So, there's a lot of different things that happen. Well, let's just do the the. So the the basic. Cliff notes. The cliff notes are. that in in typically the U-shaped rims that they're referring to is more of this like. hourglass shape, U-shape. And that opens up at the rim to allow for a bigger seat for the tire. So either a tubular or a tubeless tire can sit wider and get better contact with the tire and get better contact on the roads. They corner a little bit better. Um, they also typically have been said to have a better flow. So that the the the the air that travels over the rim and hits the tire has a better guided path so that you get more laminar air flow coming off the back of the wheel. Now, um, with a V-shaped rim, typically what happens is is the rim was smaller than the tire, so you'd get this flow going over the rim and then it'd hit the tire and create a lot of turbulence. Um. with the carbon works rims. and the the zip. I forget what the name of the zip wheel is. that the version that they made. Um. Um. those rims are designed to disrupt the air flow before it hits the tire and while it goes over the rim and it changes the game a little bit. So. Um, yeah, they're both doing some pretty impressive stuff. Specifically. at any of. They're going against their sponsor. Right. Because they're Shimano. They're Shimano, they're Shimano sponsored. I'd like to know how that works. Like. You pay a fee. You pay a fee. You pay a fee if you don't use the sponsored component. You pay you pay some sort of penalty. That's what actually back in the day, that's what Lance did when he rode the lightweights, the German lightweight wheels. Which like Orick used to run and and Lance and even used to use when they were sky. So you were saying someone had wheels shipped in today for the time trial. Yeah, a couple. It sounds like a couple people have got some wheels. Actually from carbon works. They got a set of wheels, a couple people got wheels brought in day of for the time trial today. Hmm. Hmm. So. Uh, okay. There were some other things I wanted to talk about. I was going to talk about there was a new bike from Lapierre with more aggressive geometry. But I think I'm going to skip over that because we wanted to talk about two other important things. The new Dura Ace group set from Shimano. Yeah, that's the new. They're new. What's that? When I say group set, what am I saying? You're saying the shifters, the levers, the shifters, the brakes, um, the rear derailer, cassette, chain. And why is this? Why is this important? So Dura Ace, it should be their 9200 series component group. And it's they've made a. None of this is official. This is all rumor rumor spec stuff. We have no inside info on anything. Well, they said they spotted it first on team DSM at the Belgium tour. Yeah. to see it on more frames here. Jiro also has. We spotted on the Jiro, I think spotted it. Um, but yeah, it's basically wireless from the front levers to the rear. Um, and then the rear derailer and front derailer are both connected by a wire to the battery. Um, so it's very similar, it's the same basic platform that, um, or platform's the wrong word. It's the same layout that what FSA has been using, which is what I've been rocking on the RF 20. Um, which is wireless from the levers to the back derailer system. And then, um, And that's just to eliminate the cables. The cables. Yeah, because I mean it gets it gets quite a bit of cables there. Now, Sram went all wireless. So all their their entire system is wireless. So each device has its own independent battery. Now, the the problem with that is you have a battery in each of these systems. So your rear derailer and your front derailer are pretty bulky because you have to have battery. Um, but it's completely wireless. Um, Sram, I'm sorry, Shimano and FSA both with a system where the battery connects to the front. The rear derailer is a simple cable. But you can lean out, um, the the size of the components because they're there's no battery. Mhm. Um, and there's also no delay between the two. So there's no communication delay. So this is kind of like the cool thing that's out right now. Yeah, and then and the rear derailer looks pretty cool. It it looks like a really cool system. So it's exciting. Yeah. And then I wanted to talk about something, um, more on our end of the spectrum. And sort of design and 3D printing. Pinarella's new Dogma F, it's an asymmetric design, um, frame. Partnered with German 3D printing company materialize. Um, and they've lightened their frame set using titanium 3D printed hardware. Yeah. Um, so let's talk about that. Yeah. So that's pretty cool. Um, they also, um, are using uh, one of the higher end new Tore carbons. System to get to to also lighten up their bike quite a bit. I think it's rumored to be something around 300 gram reduction in frame weight. Um, but Dogmas have kind of always been notorious for being heavy. Um, so they've definitely stepped up their game big time. Um, and it's hard with hardware. I mean, we've had a lot of discussions here on how, um, on the RF 20, we spent so much time on our design work on hardware and how the hardware integrates and making it effective. Um, it's difficult. We've discussed uh, 3D printing titanium, but it's it's like. It's very expensive. Expensive option. It's a very expensive way to do it. Uh, we opted to not do 3D printed titanium hardware. It was something that we thought about. Um, on small hardware and inserts, it it can scale better than on big pieces. Um, so we opted to not go down that path and we opted to do an internal we do our mandrel molding system. Which allows us to get a lot of that internal details in our molding and not in the component structure. And the components that are metal parts that go in become far simpler. Um, but yeah, it's super cool, I mean, and titanium works great in composites. Because you don't have. the galvanic corrosion problems where you get the electrons transferring across and get corrosion. So that solves that problem. But it's cool, it's cool to see companies stepping it up and, you know, evolving. It's always the Germans. I'm sorry. It's always the Germans. Germans do cool stuff and and the Italians make it look good. The Germans do cool stuff or they hold signs and knock everyone down. Or they there's there's one German that's done that too. Actually, I think the photographer back in the day was like the 98 tour, no. No, maybe it was like 2001, 2002 tour, there was a photographer that knocked over one of the. Like the ones on the bicycles. No, like a like a side. A guy on the side. I think he was German too. I think he and he actually knocked over a Deutsche Telecom rider. Oh, I forget his name. He was it was the year uh uh Bolrick retired, didn't do the tour. And he wrote free. And anyways. It was on the final stage, mountain top finish and photographer stepped out to take a picture and the guy ran into him. I don't. I think he was German too. I knew that these people were coming like within a mile of me, I'd be like, okay, I'm going to go stand over here. Oh, and the the the the devil that jumps up and down on all the the Alps. Huh? There's a devil that's famous, like he's on the he's dresses up as a devil. And why? And he's up on the mountains on on the out, I think it's mostly the out stages he goes on. And he's always you always see him on the sides, this old guy in full devil gear with the. That's a stick. Yeah, just stick, but he's German. Um, so the Germans are notorious for uh. Being crazy. Uh, for spectators, enthusiastic spectators. Yeah. Um, and then you want to talk more about 3D printed, you're talking about 3D print saddle. Yeah, so Shimano. Which is not anything new, right? Well, it's it's I mean it's relatively new, so they're actually um both physique and specialized both at pretty much at the same time came out with their version of a 3D printed saddle cushion. The cushion part and like the cover. The cushion part is 3D printed. Yeah, so it's made from it's I believe they're using the carbon carbon 3D printer. How is that cushiony? It's so they're using an elastomer. I've had that hard. They're well, it's not printed from carbon. The printer's called carbon. Um, but it's not printed from carbon fiber. It's printed using an elastomer, so it's like a rubber, like a silicone rubbery type material. That's actually 3D printed. And it's comes in this like um hexagoc mesh looking thing. That's pretty cool. Like your generative type. I I don't know how they're using it, it doesn't seem to be from from what the looks of it are. It doesn't seem to be generative, it looks like it's like some sort of STL mesh. That they've remeshed and using. What's the point of a 3D printed saddle? So you can make the. You can make them super light. But you could also, depending on how crazy you get into the design process, you could actually make sections of it um more or less dense and and have more or less cushion or have very progressive um. A progressive ramp to the amount of compression. similar to what Adidas did with their their shoes, they did the shoe system and I think Under Armor also did one. I could never get under the 15 lb weight limit on my personal bike because I would have the cushiest cushion ever. My seat, my saddle would be 5 pounds. Yeah, well, actually heavy saddles don't always aren't don't always make the most comfortable saddles. Does anyone ride e-bike saddle in the tour? Oh my gosh. Uh, no, because it would cause all kinds of other problems. Um, just like fit and and geometry to like when you're riding, you know, in a racing position, you can't have a saddle that big. It would cause problems. No. No. Wouldn't work. Okay. Yeah. But it's cool, though. I guess I'll never be in the tour. Uh, sorry. Speaking of, there's also, I don't want to eliminate this detail. There's like a women's tour going on as well. Yeah, I think it's I haven't seen it in the news, but I know it's happening. Yeah, I think it's, but I think it's like the last week. Is it? They only get like seven days or something. Yeah, I think it's the last week. They've done in the last couple, I mean, when I was a kid, I remember there was also a women's tour. I at least I thought I heard of a women's tour. I never saw it, but like there was a women's tour. And then I think it got eliminated. And then the last couple years they've done like the last day, they've done a women's race ahead of the tour. They're saying like the last three years or something. I don't know, I didn't I should have. So. We've watched it, and we've watched, we've watched the the the finish of it. There's that guy too. I don't know who he is, he says he's riding all the stages like in his own separate, but he's like actually kitted out in someone's in someone's brand. There's like some guy, some racer who didn't quite make the team, but he's still riding for them. And he's riding the whole tour by himself. Oh, that's cool. I read that too on cycling news. Oh. I don't know who it was. But he's on like a team. Oh, okay. It's kind of like you, the backup of the backup of the backup. But who's actually like a real bike racer? Oh yeah. Yeah. No, I I I I don't I should follow. I haven't followed all of the news of everything. I've watched some of the tech stuff. And I've been trying to just follow the tour itself. Yeah. Um, we're kind of also busy. Yeah. Speaking of, so what's something that we could dream up here at Predator that would stand as a testament in the tour? Like what would you what would you like to enter in the tour? Like a frame or a component? Everything. A rider. Or. Well, I'm not going to do it. I'd submit you. Courtney. I put Courtney in the Tour de France for a opening prologue. 6K opening prologue stage. That's what I'm doing. No, I would I'd have like a hot dog stand on the side. Uh, no, I mean, I yeah, I've always dreamed, I mean, to be honest, we've we've I mean, we started Predator started because we wanted to make fast components and stuff. So, but you want to see like a frame and a I would dream of that. Team Predator. Yeah, well, I I don't think that's going to happen. But, um, but I don't think I have the budget for that one. No. But, uh, yeah, seeing any of our components. Really, I mean, to be honest, all of our stuff is inspired by performance. I mean, we've had stuff and, you know, world championships. I think if anything first, we would probably get him. handlebars. We've had a couple pro riders look at our handlebars, um, it always comes into the problem for the tour and stuff is sponsorships. Yeah. They have you have to make the, I mean, they have to take a a penalty for for riding gear like that. Um, you know, we don't have a budget where we're going to sponsor teams and stuff. So, um, But maybe we ship some to team Ios because they like to break their sponsorship, so they're right there. Yeah, yeah. We'll see. Anyway. Okay. Yeah, no, it'd be cool. It'd be cool to see any of our components in there. But yeah, the majors have always been popular for that kind of stuff. And a lot of our custom stuff that we do. Um, obviously the RF 20 is is built for something like the tour. But um, I don't think we're going to see it in the tour at least in the next couple years. Well, we can dream. For sure. Okay, uh, things to mention before we wrap up. You have designed our next 3D printed cleat adapter. Yep. Specifically for speed play cleats. Yep. Um, which include, I guess, the old speed play versions and speed play walkable. Which are all now one. Yeah. So like. Now that. Wahoo. took it over. They bought speed play. And they've released their pedals. We've been kind of waiting for them to release their cleat system. To see what they were going to do before we started designing something, so it is designed around the new cleat that they have, which is essentially the walkable cleat, um, and we're going to be releasing the custom version of the cleat adapter first, so, um, and then there'll be a stock version of just the the angle adapter by itself, um, and the angle and height adapter is the custom version, um, which I'm pretty proud of because it's actually integrating the base unit of the the um, the the cleat system, so you can pretty much do anything with it. We can pretty much adapt it to anything that somebody would want. Um, but yeah, we'll have a standard setup where you can do um, the four after adjustment. And we're going to have um, we have a couple versions right now, we're debating between a 15 mm four off and a 20 mm four off. Um, for the base. And then you'll be able to add um, leg extension and length and um, and angle um, to the cleat adapter. Um, and that'll mount directly to the standard cleat walkable. You know, they're standard, I think they call it the standard. Standard and then they have the easy access, which is like low release or something they call it. Um, both of them will work. Okay. And that'll be joining the already available uh look. Yeah, for the for the Shimano SL SL. So look for those in the next two to three weeks live on our website for ordering. Yep. And then you'll be following that up with your design for your custom Delta and Kio cleat adapters next. Yeah, and then the standard versions of those will be coming out quickly. Okay. Cool. Well, let's wrap it up. Uh, we thank you for choosing to take some time with us. And we look forward to future breakaways. Look for us on Instagram and LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, and in person here in Tennessee. We ask our listeners to please share, like, and subscribe. We're available on all major streaming platforms. Thanks for listening, have a good one and find some time to break away. I'm going to go with the first one. Okay. I'm going to go with. Okay. The first one.
EpisodeJun 30, 2021 · 33:16
← Podcast
Project Breakaway with Predator Cycling
25: The Tour and Tech, Ep. 25
In this episode, Courtney B and Arm Goan of Predator Cycling dive into the latest from the Tour de France, touching on recent crashes and Mark Cavendish's big win. They then shift gears to discuss the cutting-edge bike technology showcased at the Tour, including secret component releases and the UCI's 6.8 kg weight limit for competition bikes.
Loading player…