Hello and good day to you from episode 35 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. 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 toddler cycling coach. How's it going, Arm? Going great and enjoying being a toddler cycling coach. Yeah. So the little guy, he's almost four now. We made his bike actually a year ago. The Easter Bunny brought his bike. Mhm. Well, we made it, Easter Bunny delivered it. Yes. Uh, last year and I think maybe he was just a little too small. On the small side for the frame. Yeah, he also just. Quite wasn't into it. He didn't, yeah, he wasn't, he wasn't. Anyway, in these last couple weeks, he's just been taking off. Yes, he's I can barely keep up with him now. So he is the only almost four-year-old that we know with a carbon fiber monocoque stay and fork. Yeah, and a little tiny pair of Predator major handlebars. Yes, cuz why not? So he is just, he's he he likes to say, I'm fast. I'm the fastest on this bike. And I know that inside you're just like melting. It's amazing. I love it. Uh, it's cool, we've had a bunch of riders and stuff rock our gear, but I think the coolest one is building a bike for your kid and letting them rock it and yeah. So, um, and he's even calling out certain riders that ride our bars and he tells us, he tells me he's faster than them. So it's pretty hilarious. I love it. And he's doing uh figure eights now. In the street. He's doing figure eights. He was just funny, he was telling you, daddy, daddy, do this trick. And then do a figure eight and then you'd have to do it and follow him. Yeah, it was pretty awesome. I I enjoyed it. He yeah, he's full of tricks. Yeah. So that's cool. So now we have to you have to start planning his next bike. Yeah, that's my goal. My goal is to make all the bikes for the boys. Um. Um. With pedals. Now with pedals and brakes. So. Cool. Yeah. So that's fun. Um, and let's just dive right in. Yep. Let's do it. So last episode, we talked about the Aero bar extensions that you had been manufacturing and testing. And you then you sent them out for real race real race testing. Yep. Um, so now since the last episode, we've made some social media posts. And we've said, you know, who using them and where they were used. So let's talk about it. Yeah, let's do it. So your buddy Corey Williams, race them at what race? Uh, Valley of the Sun stage race. That is that in? That's in Arizona. Arizona. Okay. And what's the stage race? Uh, Valley of the Sun. No, what is a stage race? Oh, what is a stage race? A stage race is a multi-day race. Um, where you have. Like the tour? Yes, it's a mini tour to France. Oh, okay. Um, yeah. So each day is like a different thing. And these were used in a time trial. Yes, the opening stage on this race is a time trial and which is many stage races. The time trial is the opening. Um. But wait, and I know in the Tour de France, the time trial is like in the middle somewhere, right? Yeah, there's some a lot of times there used to be a prologue. Which was like a five minute, 10 minute time trial in the beginning before the first stage. Mm. So, and also the the Tour de France. It's special, it's 21 days. There's only. What? Three grand tours, which is the Tour de France, the Vuelta. And the Giro d'Italia. That are the big 20 day, 19 to 22 day stage races. So they can just do whatever they want. Yeah, it's the tour. Okay. They can do whatever they want. So he used them at the Valley of the Sun. And Corey races for Legion of Los Angeles. Yep. Which is a UCI Continental cycling team. It was started in 2019 by the Williams Brothers. And you go way back with Justin Corey and CJ. Yes. That's that's an understatement. But yes. Let me tell let me say what Legion is and then you can talk about. Your history with them. So Legion, according to their website and all across social media because they're killing it on social media. Um, is all about increasing diversity and inclusion in cycling. So, you know, they have cyclists from because I guess cycling is kind of like always been like, you know, dominant white sport, like when I was golf with golf. Well, also that. I mean, it's also, I mean, at the pro at the pro level, it's been a very, um, white European sport. Yeah. So. So not only do they have inclusion of all races. They they have a lot of women too. Which. They have a whole women's team, which is it's not very common for teams to have both a women's and men's team. It's becoming more common nowadays. But in, um, it they're they're doing it. They're they're doing a really good job. And I saw this weekend or next weekend or something on social, they're doing a a free clinic for kids. Juniors. I just see that. That's super cool. Well, Justin's always been. I mean, they both, all three of them came up through the junior ranks. So. Um. Yeah, so let's talk about that. With you. So, I'm you've always I I know CJ the best. Because he worked at Predator. Yes, he did. He was for a long time. Yeah. And we just bonded over Rihanna and his love life. 10 year ago. But um. Uh. I've always said that the Williams brothers just have a raw talent for racing and an innate ability to just ride their hearts out and win. Yes. They just somehow find the finish line, I don't know how they do it all the time. But they just like it's like a magnet or something. For them. Okay. So talk about your history with them and why you chose to give Corey the extensions. Well, so, I mean, it's a long story, but I mean, I started racing as a junior, um, on Major Motion is where I kind of, I mean, I spent the majority of my junior life. Um, and that was the same team that like, um, Arson Mahadi came up on. He was a couple years ahead of me. Um, and um, and Justin was a competitive junior, I think he was a 13, 14, I think he was 13, 14 he was racing when I was in the 17, 18s and um, leaving juniors. Um, and I don't know, we just kind of clicked. We just, we got along, we we like to hang out with each other. We'd ride together and I mean at that age when he was 14, I mean his natural ability was just ridiculous. I mean, you knew he was going to be fast. Um, and he just got getting faster. So, um, we kind of just, I don't know, we just bonded. Um, became friends. Um, and then we kind of always just stayed in touch. I mean, he used to come with me when we used to I used to go get bikes and pick stuff up and go to powder coaters and painters and I don't know, we just always hung out and um, we're just really good friends. Um, he designed some of our old kits and helped with some of our uh, um, testing of some of our early bikes, he raced our first, um, what we called at the time, the Aero 2. Um, which was a super cool track bike we built. He took that to his first junior worlds. Um, he's ridden, I think pretty much every version model of a bike that we've ever made. Justin has had and ridden and raced. So, Um, yeah, I mean, I don't know. We just we go way back. Um, and then CJ, I I mean, I always knew CJ and Corey because I mean they're his younger brothers. Um, but CJ used to harass me. I mean, I'm going to say harass because that's probably the right word. Um, to give him a job when we had our bike shop and on Abby Kenny, he wanted a job in high school. Um, and I finally said yes. I said, okay, fine. Come after school. And then he's like, well, I have to come after school. And I can only come for two hours. I was like, okay, fine. Just do it. Let's just come and see it. And he did really well. He's he learned to be, I mean, he came with, I mean, his dad was like, you know, a good mechanic. Uh, works on cars, works on bikes, works on everything. Um, and so he had a lot of just natural ability and kind of knew what he was doing a little bit. And he came and became like a pro mechanic. Um, at the shop. Um, he worked on everybody, worked on all the bikes and did composite work, repair work and was like, you know, relevant to this episode, he was one of the the big guys behind the the major bars. That was he was one of the ones that built a lot of them and helped me build a lot of that. All the high-end stuff that we made in composites. Up until, you know, what is it, 20, 2015, 2016. I mean, CJ was the guy. So, and then Corey was one of the first guys to test our major road bars. Um, and probably the most active writer we've ever had on the bars. I mean, he's been a huge supporter of ours and rocked. less gear, so Um, yeah. I mean, he rode them, I think for three or four years, seasons. He raced on those major bars. Mhm. So, it was awesome. So you gave Corey the arrow bar extensions last week, two weeks ago. Yeah. Yeah, he got his, he got his bars, we've been working on it with him since, I think December, November, December, no, maybe October. October, November, we started working on it. The concept. Mhm. with him, I've been working for a while, but the the workflow of how to make them and what we needed and like characteristics was kind of um. So you had a design in your head. You had a design in your head. And you need, so these are custom. Yes. For each rider. Yes, yes. So we're in Nashville, he's in Los Angeles, explain the process on how to make something custom for someone not in front of you. Well, it's it's difficult. So I mean, we well, I mean, it kind of goes back to like we've been doing this process of like remote custom work. I mean, for 10 years, 15 years now. Um, we came out with our first um pilot that that we call the the aerodynamic goes, which are the first full carbon um custom arrow bars. Um that we used to make. Um and we used to back in the day, the old school way was like we had like a spec sheet. And you'd fill out the spec sheet and we'd make it to that spec. Um, we now do it much differently. So, um, we work a lot with um known geometries. So like he had a um specialized shiv, um time trial frame. So we knew a lot of the geometry points on that to start with. And then we knew his bike fit. Cuz he gave us pictures and gave us some data points. And then we would collaboratively build the bike, the bars in 3D and show it to him. And with references, um, The extensions. Oh, quickly explain what is an arrow bar extension. So an arrow bar extension is when you see those guys, they're kind of like in a praying mantis type position when their arms are supported by the elbows and their hands are out in front of the bars. Um that arrow bar, so there's an arrow bar, which is the whole system, and the arrow bar extension is the part where your elbow goes and your hand goes, holds it. So picture a handlebar and then picture these two little like pieces shooting up from the top. Yeah, basically. Um, and, you know, if you think just, I mean, real quick physics, uh, flows. Real quick physics with arm. All right, I'm going to try. Okay, I mean, the basic thing is is like, there's there's a couple things in aerodynamics that are really, really important. Just kidding. Take a nap, everyone that doesn't is not interested, take a 30 second nap. Um, okay. I mean, you're talking about frontal surface area. You want to try and reduce the frontal surface area and reduce the separation of air. So that it makes um you don't get a lot of turbulence. And so, um, one of the easiest ways to decrease drag on a bicycle or anything is to decrease the frontal surface area and to keep the wind laminar, so smooth. Not not in turbulence. Um, and so, um, changing your hands, which is the very pretty much the front most thing of the bicycle frame. Um, especially your body. in an optimal position is very beneficial. Oh, that's it. That's it, just to give you an idea of like why arrow bars are so expensive. Put your hands in the front. Like when you're swimming, like when you dive in. Yes, or like look at like, you know, think about like a downhill skiing. where they tuck up their arms and put it right in front of their face to go super, super fast. It's kind of an intuitive thing to like make yourself small. Tuck your hands in, make a line, hope you're fast. Yes, diving, swimming, any of those things. So the extension is somewhere to put your hand. Somewhere to put your hand and you want to put it. Okay. So now you used his geometry, used his measurements. And then you threw it in your software. Yep. So we also do a couple. So there we can we can do quite a bit of things. So we can actually take in like if he had, he didn't at the time, have scan data. But we can take 3D scan data and turn those meshes into sub D models and then modify them and put them into our software. and run CFD analysis on it and optimize the position. We can also use photogrammetry to get mesh data in from him. We can also use given points and data points. I mean, the benefit for me is is that. on especially Corey and and Justin and I mean even CJ. The amount of data points that I have on their fits and positions and bikes. I mean, I have so much data going back years. Um, that it's relatively easy. Um, but for any cyclist, we can get in a lot of that data in different ways to build the arrow bar extensions correctly. And what makes your arrow bar extensions different? From someone else's arrow bar extensions. Um, so we have a couple different, well, there's there's a fundamental approach. which is different. Um, which is we're not going off of just a positional. So we look at a couple different things. The bars we're looking at are to achieve a balance between the optimal efficiency. in to to achieve the optimal efficiency. which is a balancing act between how much drag you're creating. and how much power you can generate. Um, and there's a very fine line between that. And and most people that are making um, all cart like style arrow bar extensions. Um, it's difficult to analyze that in a quantitative manner that can be done remotely. Um, and we have the ability to do that quite a bit. Um, we also the way we're manufacturing them is very unique. It's our it's our hybrid manufacturing approach. we've talked about before. where we're talking about a 3D printed skeleton and a a carbon fiber exoskeleton. Um, and that process gives a lot of benefits. There's a lot of benefits to that workflow. Um, so that's another benefit. And um, I think, you know, we've talked about this countless times before. At Predator, we really talk about optimal efficiency. So threading that needle between, you know, the optimal aerodynamic position. as well as the most optimal power output. The whole point is to make you go fast. Let's break records, win bike races and go fast. Like that's the point. Um, and I think we do that very well. We've made a name for ourselves for doing it. almost 20 years. Well, I mean, even a three and a half year old knows that he's the fastest on his predator. Done. I close my I rest my case. Okay, so the arrow bar extensions are a place to put your hands. Now let's talk about where do you put your elbows? Yes. So we actually designed a carbon fiber um cup, arm cup, arm rest support, um that mounts to the arrow bar extension system itself. And we focused quite a bit of time on making sure, well, I mean, one, those cups and parts are made to UCI regulations. Um, but so that's you kind of limited there on what you can do. So we we made sure that we complied to those UCI regs. Um, and then we went ahead and actually designed a molded pad. Which I'm very proud of. Um, so it's a a uh thermoplastic um uh pad and we mold them in house and they're very optimized in their shape and their um their cross section so that it offers a lot of support. Um, so that, you know, your your elbows, your forearms there don't get exhausted. I mean, because I remember when I was racing and the pad would basically just kind of move slowly throughout the race and get shorter and smaller and smaller and then eventually your arm was just resting on the metal pad, like that arm cup. But the pads are made out of just fabric. Are they fabric? They're usually made of fabric and they're stitched fabric. Or like fabric with like a gel in it. They don't usually use a gel, they use a foam because it's there's a very fine line of threading the needle between weight. So there we have a slight wet weight penalty. I say, I feel like ours are kind of heavy. They they're they're heavier. I'm working on the I'm refining. We've gotten a lot of feedback from Corey, which is really important. We're trying to get a lot of race feedback, um, and we've been testing out some other parts. Um, processes and how everything works, um, so with his feedback now. We're we're going to start going at taking off some weight and optimizing the bars. The whole system. So we're going to take down the weight by about 40%. On the pods now. Um, uh with a little redesign. Um, so that should be helpful. And it's still super comfortable. And also, um, they're it's kind of funny, but you can actually wash them in the dishwasher. Which is cool. You throw the pads. The pads come off. The the um the production versions will have a very cool little detaching system. So you can pop them off. We should test that first. Um, we've already tested the I mean, we've tested the temperature range. But I mean like throw it in a dishwasher. Let's do it. I'm down. Because I'm all I I, you know, me and like, you know, physics. I don't believe until I see it. Well, I'm just, I mean, they're actually molded over temperature, higher temperatures. Then what you would get in the dishwasher. So I have no fears. But. Okay. Um, and they're completely chemically. Chemically they're great. But I am a, you know, pessimist. At heart, so I. Let's do it. You're going to throw the thing in the dishwasher. And I'll report to you. Um, yeah. So the cool the concept for that is just because you get really disgusting and grimy and sweaty. And gross. And they just get gross. Because I mean, you're just you're you're drenched in sweat and salt. And just it's just disgusting. And those pods get the worst of it. So, being able to pop those off and hand wash them too, you know? You could. You could. You just hand wash them, I mean they they wash very easily is my point. And you could even just throw them in the dishwasher to just sanitize them. Like it just it's cool. Like. Um that's a cool feature. So you uh have learned a lot from his feedback. Yep. And you're going to do some tweaks and some redesign, not a lot of redesign on the actual air bar extension. No, it's just. To be honest, it's just. My whole concept is we simulate, obviously you guys know how much we simulate, simulate, simulate and test. Um, but. You know, I basically designed the part to adhere to whatever regulations we need and like the the the the strength characteristics. And then for especially prototypes. I basically bump everything up 20 or 30% stronger than what it has to be. Um, just because it's a prototype and I just rather it be heavy and strong than not. Um, based on his feedback, we definitely have um a lot of space where we can remove mass. We can make them quite a bit lighter. Mhm. So the focus is going to be getting them lighter, getting the process a little more refined, get the manufacturing workflow just a little bit more dialed in. Um, and also the prototyping, like how we actually uh the workflow for some of the bars, just getting some of that done. And then get final tooling made for the cups and the um arm pads. Okay. So these are all custom, these are not stock. Yes. Bars. So if you want them, you need to reach out and you need to work with us to get them made. Yes. Yeah, so we're going to have, I mean we don't have it up yet, but we'll have like a basic form system. Just to kind of answer some basic questions. Um, and then once you order the bars, we'll basically do a consult. So we'll go over all of your requirements and what you need, um, exactly in detail. And then we'll start getting information and data from you. Um, you'll see the initial prototypes of the renders. And then we'll actually be sending you a 3D printed um part that you can actually put on your bike and test the position to make sure it's good before we actually make the final ones. And then the arrow bar extensions go on all handlebars? Some. Well, they go on time trial bikes, tri bikes and track bikes for pursuit, pursuit event type bikes. Um, so yeah, they go on most, I mean they don't go on road bikes or like, you know, gravel bikes. No, but I meant like. Yeah. Brands. Yes, yes, yes, yes. It fits on any brand. And so if we don't have the mounting hardware designed for your particular bike. Um, no problem. Just send us, we'll send us if we get the data points, we can absolutely make it for that. We'll figure it out, that's what we do best. We will make, yeah, we're not, we are not, um, we will make it for any bar. Okay. And timeline on these to make it on the website. So these bars will probably, I'm going to call them in full production in the next couple weeks here. I'm just finalizing the small little bits and pieces. Um, the the arrow bar extensions themselves will be done in the next probably two weeks. Um, the arm pads, final tooling molds will be a week or two after that. Um, and it will be more information will be on the site in the coming weeks. I would say being able to be ordered, which is what everyone's been asking us, is in the next uh four to six weeks. weeks. Okay. to be conservative. Cool. Hopefully sooner. Okay. But if you are interested in the bars, just please just shoot us an email, message us. We have a list of people that have been interested. Um, happy to engage in conversations now before we actually start accepting orders. Mhm. Um, and get the ball rolling. Yep. info@partnercycling.com. Yeah. Okay. So we wanted to talk um about a quick um follow-up to these extensions. Yes. on the manufacturing line. Yeah. And that is the newly updated and revised pilot track handlebars. Yep. Um, so we launched the original handlebars back in 2016-ish. Yep. And um, you've always made the one-piece major handlebars. Yep. But the pilots were track specific. Yeah. And they were newer and crazier and more angular. Um, and then we realized they realized that they needed some loving and the process of manufacturing was not super efficient, so they were kind of paused or tired and now they are coming back. Yes, that's a really good explanation of the whole process. Yeah, so, um, yeah, the original majors we built, I think we started in 20, I want to say 2010 is when it all started and I think in like 2011, 2012 is when we started making track specific ones, um, which made it very popular in the six-day races and all the, you know, the mass start stuff, um, which evolved to the pilots and now we're working on the the update to that pilot. Um, and the UCI changed, changed some of the rules on how they interpret the touch points of a bike and whatnot. So that's kind of changing the designs of our pilots. You know what we don't need during a pandemic, the UCI to change rules on us. Can we just all race how we raced? No. Oh, I guess. I don't know. I mean, as a manufacturer, coming from that point of having to redesign, because if the UCI changes rules, that's not just us having to change everything. That's every bike brand having to change. It's not. Especially when supplies are hard to find. Okay, so like it's yes, I I completely understand where you're coming from. But the thing is they didn't really change the rule. Enforcing. When is it a good time to start enforcing things? Well, it's when everything's chaotic. and haywire. It's it's a good point. You make a valid point. I'm not I'm not disagreeing with you. I bet I'm not the only person angry. I bet all sorts of bike brands. Yes. They product out there and now they have to redesign it. Yeah. Um, well, it's not so much they have to redesign it, it's the fact of how riders have to use it has changed. Right. So the new the rule we're talking about is you cannot support in a mass start event, you're not allowed to use your forearms as a support point for um writing. So you can't rest your, you know, your arms on your the tops of your bars anymore. That's the only way I ride. I would love to see you ride a bike like that. Oh, but it's also a flat bar. Um, the the point is that you can so this this has changed the way people use the bars. And the way the original majors were designed. So we made the new design of the majors, the major pilot. But this is just for track or for This is also for the rule. This is also for the rule. The rule applies to road. Because when I watch the tour, everyone's resting their hands on the bar. They're just chilling when they're doing the. If you watch Perry Nice, it in Perry Nice it did not. No one was there. Did anyone do it? Did anyone get kicked out? Someone I forget who it is, but someone was actually. Do you just forget after years and years and years of doing it? And then you're just like, I need a break. And then you're just like, oh no. Did they see me? Oh my God. Um. Or can you call out another racer? No, an official has to see it. It has to be seen by an official. I don't know what the rules are. But if you want to be a if you want to be a third, can you call out another racer? Like in golf. Because that's how I relate. Yeah. Like I if if a girl in high school, if a girl cursed, I could report her for cursing because you can't curse on a golf course. And she could either get a penalty or just kicked out. Like you can, you know, rat on people. If that rule applied in cycling. I mean, it would chase, it would change the GC in all races. Well, now they have people miked and stuff, right? So you can't really. Yeah, they have race I I I don't know how the I I don't know the rules on how it applies to like video footage of events and. Because people rat each other out in racing anyway, don't they sometimes they're like, hey. They might have a they might have a. Electric thing in their bike. You should from the last tour to France. Yes, there was rumors about noises coming from certain teams. You should go into their hotel room and destroy everything. You see look Charlie's with me, he's growling. He doesn't like it either. So I okay, this is the top I'm not an expert. I'm not an expert on UCI rule enforcement. Well, I got off of that, but anyway. But this is an interesting it's an interesting conversation. I'm just not an expert in the category. So our pilots are UCI legal. Yeah, they are you they adhere to all the UCI regulations. Okay. Um as what they do currently. Um and um. They are it is by far the new pilots are the most radical bar that we have ever. And they look vastly different from the ones that came out in 2016, right? They're like narrower. I remember they were pretty wide. Well, we always made them like four because well. Oh no, that was specific to your size. Well, because it was specific to what riders had wanted. And a lot of back in the original pilots were really popular in the six-day racing. We made a bunch of six-day bars for those. And they all wanted 40 and 42 width bars. Is that large? That's normal, medium, small. I mean, like a small road bar is a 40. Um it's probably big on the track. But it's it's normal on the road. But six-day guys wanted that because of the hand positions they used. Um in the trend has become to go smaller and smaller as down as as low as, you know, 32. So are these pilot handlebars that are we offering different? Are we offering one with? So the the way we're doing it currently is the unless we get a major request. So the new the new pilots are going to be built custom. They're custom built bars. Um and I say custom built, the idea is the custom part is the stem and mounting system is custom. The actual bar width and bar design themselves was planned to keep stock. But if we get a. request for a wider bar. We can make it. But the CFD and the optimization has been made this width. So, you know, kind of take it how you want. But it is basically about a 35 width at the base bar and about a 30 width at the tops where kind of the hook. It's much smaller. Yes, it's smaller. They're definitely smaller and they're definitely more. They're not as narrow. Am I putting a picture of this up? Uh, yeah, I'll put a picture up. Okay, I'll put a not a picture, a render. Yeah, a render. Okay. And then you can decide for yourself. Excuse me. Um. Yes, you say narrow. They're not as narrow. Like the tubing part, like the the this part. Oh, the cross section. No one can see my hands right now. No. That's the cross section. Yeah. Narrow. The other ones were wide. They they are a little narrower in that perspective. Yes, you're right. That has a lot to do with because of the fact that the tops are so much shorter. Mm. Um. It. It's funny, we've shown a couple of the people that originally wrote our our major our major bar systems. And they got really excited because they it was exciting for me. Is they saw it and they immediately saw the hand position options. And they're like, oh, you can use it like this, like this, like this. I'm like, yes. Like that's the point. Yes, we did that. We took a. I mean, we have, I mean, going back, I mean, we're going back 10 years here of racers that have ridden our bars. And even some of the guys that had bars 10 years ago are still using the bars today. Mhm. So the amount of feedback that we've gotten is insane. And so we we have. tried really hard to take all of that feedback and put it into the new bars. And I think we kind of thread that needle pretty well. Um, and now with the ability to make them for any style bike, so if you have a look, um, and you want it to integrate directly into the look mount. We can make that happen. If you have a TK1, we can mount directly to a TK1. Um, any of those bikes that are out there. Um, if we don't have a mount designed for it, like on our arrow bars. Just get us the data points, give us a model a knuckle to the stem that you use, the mount point that you use, and we will make a custom mount for it. No problem. Okay. Um, and that's the beauty of this new bar. Because that whole system is now one piece. So right now it's another custom product that you need to reach out to us at info@pridersycling.com. Yeah. With questions. We should be putting it up on the site soon. That was my next question, when do you think that'd be available? Um, I'm hoping to put we should have we have we have 3D printed samples and we're working on carbon samples right now. Um, and hoping at the by the end of the month to have fully functional prototypes. That's kind of my goal. So like end of spring versus summer. When is track season? Track season's. It's already, I mean, the world, I mean, it's already mostly over. The track season for it's it's off season for the cycling. But um. We should have we we should have information on our website in the next couple weeks and we should the process okay, so like the big thing is is that the manufacturing platform that we're using is the same as the airbar extensions. Um, so the data travels between the two products very seamlessly. Um, we have a couple small custom machine parts that we're just waiting on. Um, and then as soon as those parts are here, the clamp systems, um, for the the mounting screws, we have to get custom made. Um, those are being made and then once that's available, um, we can start making prototypes quickly. So, Yeah. Awesome. Yeah. So those are the um track pilot pilot track class. Yeah. Uh and eventually that will lead to the major road bar redesign, but we're not going to talk about that today. We'll talk about that another time. Yes, and I want to talk about that. Okay. So, things to mention. Arm, you are going to be a presenter at Nvidia's GTC 2022 again. You'll be discussing how Predator utilizes Omniverse platform, which we covered extensively in episodes 20 and 21 on this podcast. Again, Omniverse is an interconnected 3D design simulation and virtual reality ecosystem that offers a multitude of solutions for multitude of problems. Mhm. Don't we all have problems? And our use case, we use it to digitize workflows within our bicycle design process as well as creating a virtual twin of our real life manufacturing floor processes. It's all very techy. Very intense. And if you stuck with us that long, you should sign up. Yes. For Nvidia's GTC GPU Technology conference. That's what it stands for. Yeah. Um, and I'm doing two classes. I'm I'm on two different talks. Well, you're doing a class and the panel. You have been upgraded to panelist. Yeah, it's cool. So who else is on this panelist panel? Um, there is I I'm not there's one there's a person that's coming from um Lockheed. is on there. Lockheed Martin. Yeah. Lockheed. Lockheed Martin. Yeah. Duns. Yeah. Well, they also do like airplanes. Airplanes. Oh, I have no idea. They do all kinds of stuff. Okay. They're staying. Anyways. Like cool stuff. Yeah. Yeah, really. I mean. And maybe some from auto. There's a. No. There's an. Architectural consulting team. I forget the name now. But I looked them up and they make some really cool skyscrapers and like lattice structured like craziness. It looks cool. I'm excited. And it's also hosted by our very good friend Mike Hire. Oh, he's hosting it. Yes. He's the one that's mediating it. Okay. We'll see if he can handle the mediation. So you have skyscrapers, uh, uh, possibly military, but also you said aerospace. Yeah. And bicycles. Yeah. Oh, we always throw in the bicycles. Yeah, I'm I'm I'm honored to be in the the company of uh such crazy. Well, you know what, not everyone has a skyscraper, but everyone has a bicycle. This is true. Most everyone. Everyone should. Um, I also wanted to mention that as the season starts, we are starting to get questions about the pro custom cleat adapters, the 3D printed adapters. We've talked incessantly about. Um, always feel free to reach out to us. info at Predator cycling. com and we can make uh 3D prints and custom ones and sizes and alleviate pedal stroke issues, knee pain, etc. Um and it also eliminate you having to stack wedges. Yeah. And too. Also, if you have any 3D print, you know, additive parts for bicycles when it comes like plastic accessory type parts, reach out. Like we make a lot of stuff. So. Yeah. He's a 3D print cycling guru. Anyway, uh it's getting sunny again. So get out there, get some fresh air. Yep. And as uh, you know, my three and a half year old says, ride a predator. It's the fastest bike in the world. Okay, so 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.
EpisodeMar 14, 2022 · 34:00
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Project Breakaway with Predator Cycling
35: "I'm So Fast on My Predator" Aero Extensions & Track Bars, EP. 35
In this episode, the Predator Cycling team shares a heartwarming update on co-owner Arm's young son, who proudly exclaims "I'm so fast on my Predator" while riding his custom carbon bike. They then dive into the real-world race testing of their Aero Bar extensions, put to the test by Corey Williams of Legion of Los Angeles at the Valley of the Sun stage race, showcasing their commitment to innovation and deep community ties.
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