Wrapping up a year of riding and podcasting

We are marking the end of a year of riding, and our first year of podcasting – reviewing the rides that were, as well as some of our goals for 2026.

Transcript

Kristin: 0:04

This is Kristin.

Steve: 0:06

And this is Steve, and you are listening to Cycling Together, a podcast about all things bikes, riding, and riding together.

Kristin: 0:12

Our last episode.

Steve: 0:13

Last episode of 2025.

Kristin: 0:16

And this week, we're gonna be recapping the rides that we did throughout last year because our first episode, we talked about planning our schedule, and our friend Chris was like, you should talk about how it went.

Steve: 0:32

How it went, huh? Okay. I really like it. That is crazy that it didn't seem that long ago that we were talking about what we're gonna do in 2025. And here we are talking about how it went in 2025.

Kristin: 0:44

Anyway, all right, but first, on our last episode, we talked about the worst gifts for cyclists. So my question for you is Christmas is over, gifts have been handed out. What's the best bike-related gift you got?

Steve: 1:03

The best one I got?

Kristin: 1:04

Yeah. I don't know if it was the best one. You could also talk about the biggest one you got.

Steve: 1:09

So, yeah, I did get a Garmin. Funny enough. This is a this is a funny one. Um yes, I got a Garmin 1050.

Kristin: 1:18

From your dad. From my dad. It was so nice.

Steve: 1:21

Super surprising. I have actually personally never owned one of their flagship units. Right. And um, uh yeah, I'm very excited about this.

Kristin: 1:32

It's huge. I'm so close to stealing it.

Steve: 1:36

Because you were like, I could see it ending up on your bike.

Kristin: 1:39

I was like, you're like, well, I'll give you mine. And I was like, but yours is little, mine is bigger. It's the thing is massive. Yeah, that was a really that was a surprise. I have to say. It was a bold choice. Done well. I think uh mine was you, you got crafty. I like a crafty gift.

Steve: 1:58

Oh, I did get crafty.

Kristin: 2:00

I'm gonna say I like a gift with some. I always say about gifts, I don't actually want you just buying any old gift. I mean, let's face it, I want some stocking stuff, whatever. But what I really like is a gift that makes you go, I'm so excited for you to open it, right? Like I love a gift like that. And so you made us a new headboard for the van. We'll post some pictures after you install it, but it's very pretty and very decorative. And it it is funny. I was on the Zwift and I was like, something smells funny down here. And so I think I could smell the paint. But other than that, I think it was a good year. I do have to confess, we gave we gave a water bottle to somebody.

Steve: 2:40

We did. We broke all the rules. One of our new water bottles.

Kristin: 2:43

We broke all the rules, but my papa, my papa, my dad, the kid's papa, has owned one of the original Steve the Bike guy, Velo Studio bottles, which is over 10 years old, and he has used it religiously, and it finally succumbed to time and cracked and dishwasher use, and dishwasher use. It held up really well. But yes, so let me get this straight. We broke all the rules. We got tech, we gave a bottles. Yep. And it's also uh zwifting time.

Steve: 3:16

It is zwifting time. You know, I looked we we are definitely uh bad weather zwifters, right? Where because once it gets nice out, forget Zwift.

Kristin: 3:29

Yeah, right?

Steve: 3:31

We were always choosing outside before we choose inside.

Kristin: 3:34

Although we do keep paying for it because we like the tour defemme of a Zwift and we want to support that amongst the stuff.

Steve: 3:41

Yeah, we do that, and occasionally I will use it in the summer because you you can't necessarily beat the the true training uh physicality that Zwift gives you.

Kristin: 3:54

Well, any training device, but that's very difficult to replicate outside. Spin class too, right? Like I remember many years ago when I was taking spin and you were an aggressive outdoor rider, and my spin instructor telling you during one like two-hour class, don't try to keep up with her because it's a different kind of fitness. And you're right, you can be more intentional about it. But I did I did get my Zwift wrap-up for the year, and I was like, this is not impressive because we're not on it for so many, many months. Now, that said, I did learn two things this as I got back on the bike. This year I decided to start doing workouts versus just usually I just get on the bike and find a ride and hammer away at it. There's no strategery to my working out. But this year I've decided to do some workouts, some planned workouts, right? And they have a bunch of them gravel grinders, mountain biking, off-season fitness, whatever.

Steve: 4:59

Oh, those kind of workouts. So not just an individual, here's what you're gonna do for the next hour. It's more of like, here's a course and a and a bunch of different workouts you're gonna do over the series of this.

Kristin: 5:10

Yeah.

Steve: 5:11

Okay.

Kristin: 5:11

Let's talk about erg mode.

Steve: 5:13

Yeah, I hate erg mode on the trainer in Zwift.

Kristin: 5:17

So, what is erg mode for those who maybe have no idea what I'm about what I'm talking about?

Steve: 5:21

Well, it basically is inducing the power output into the resistance of your trainer.

Kristin: 5:28

So if Zwift thinks your bike is supposed to be going uphill, the trainer adjusts to make it harder ish.

Steve: 5:38

I am forever because I I hate it. And occasionally I'll get people come into the shop and they'll ask about it, and they'll say, you know, I was on Zwift and then I was doing this one particular thing, and I couldn't turn the pedals. I went to my easiest gear and I could still barely turn the pedals. And that's like, oh yeah, you're in erg mode. Get rid of that silliness and get turn that off.

Kristin: 6:02

I don't mind erg mode. I mean, I think it's it's always interesting before I had a smart trainer when I just had a dumb trainer. You're just the power output is calculated, your guy is slowing down. It it did a pretty good job of psychologically making you pedal faster because your guy was going slower. The problem with erg mode and a workout is the workouts don't happen on a flat course. So it could be telling you the workout could be telling you to sprint, but erg mode thinks you're going uphill. So those two things do not do not uh uh work out well together. And so I did want to look. Can you turn off erg mode permanently? Or as a preference to say during workouts, don't use erg mode?

Steve: 6:53

Since I don't have it on that I'm aware of, we should look into that. But yes, I don't think I don't think you can just have it permanently off. Now, this is not to say that it won't get a little harder going up a hill and that kind of thing. I also have my trainer set on a very low realism setting so that I actually can just use the big ring all the time. Now, the thing about the thing that people don't realize is that doesn't mean you're outputting less. Watts is watts. So you're putting in

Kristin: 7:24

or watts are watts.

Steve: 7:25

Right. Watts are watts. So you're whatever you're putting in is a is a true wattage of what you're putting into the pedals. You're not cheating somehow. And I've actually heard that a lot of pros use the low realism setting as well. But it just allows me, I don't have to shift as much. So when I'm going up a steep hill, I might have to shift into my easiest gear in the back, but I can stay in the big ring. You know, so I in fact I could probably just get rid of my small ring on my trainer.

Kristin: 7:53

Do you know what this face means?

Steve: 7:55

I don't know what you're saying.

Kristin: 7:58

Why why have settings like this not been uh implemented on the bike next door to yours?

Steve: 8:04

Oh yeah.

Kristin: 8:07

What are you talking about? Wait a minute. So I what I'm hearing now is I'm on erg mode, you're not. Uh-huh. Conscious choice.

Steve: 8:13

Yes.

Kristin: 8:14

You're on a different realism setting, which I didn't even know was a thing.

Steve: 8:17

Yes.

Kristin: 8:18

And and I'm just so I'm just sweating next to you, and you're like, man, that sucks for her. She's working really hard.

Steve: 8:25

Well, no, I am working just as hard, not as hard as I want to be. But yeah, okay. So we're gonna take a look. We're this evening, we're gonna take a look at your trainer settings and we're gonna do some adjustments.

Kristin: 8:37

So the other big adjustment that I made is I dropped my monitor intentionally, not not on the floor. Yeah, so you So we have had for and the funny thing is this setup has been this way since 2020.

Steve: 8:52

COVID.

Kristin: 8:52

Where we have, and I'll post pictures and I've shared them before. We have these two large screens, side by TVs, side by side with Apple TVs. And I don't know, maybe I'm just older and less tolerant of it, but I was riding and I was like, I my neck really hurts. Like I my neck really hurts. And I realized I couldn't even see like the top of the screen very easily. If I put a baseball hat on to catch sweat, forget it. Like I couldn't see anything.

Steve: 9:21

Yeah, so you asked to lower the TVs, so I lowered them down.

Kristin: 9:25

Yes.

Steve: 9:26

And then I came down after you worked out. Did you find that was better?

Kristin: 9:30

Because you you lowered yours too.

Steve: 9:32

I lowered mine too. I lowered both of the same, the same height, and I did find it was better. But I came down after you worked out to find yours basically propped on the floor, angled up towards the trainer. It's very classy, but I'm so much more comfortable. I can actually see, I can actually see how you like that better. How it's more natural.

Kristin: 9:55

It's more natural for my neck, like a natural riding position. I do have uh what I call texting bars on my bike.

Steve: 10:02

Yeah, you can't. Which I don't usually use.

Kristin: 10:05

I usually use those out in the world. But it's more natural where I'm looking now at the middle of the screen. I am much happier, but it's it is interesting.

Steve: 10:14

This almost makes me think we look at your position on the bike on the trainer.

Kristin: 10:18

I think it's a combination of just how close the screens are to the bikes and what you would normally how you would be normally like looking down the road. Right. And and so you're just kind of I'm trying to picture myself looking through the TV.

Steve: 10:36

Yep.

Kristin: 10:36

You never would be like looking at a horizon of a television, so it's still very mechanical, yeah. But that's what I've been trying to replicate. And I have on occasion said, look, look, do I look like I'm in the right position? And you're like, I don't know, and you leave.

Steve: 10:52

Yeah, so we have some things to do. We have we have trainer settings to to go through. Yeah, and I think what we'll probably do is take a look at your gravel bike, which you like the setup of, and me and see where your trainer bike is set up. So because our trainer bikes are basically old, old uh beater.

Kristin: 11:11

Mine is an old K2 triathlon bike, and she is so pretty.

Steve: 11:15

Yeah, mine's an original Klein frame with broken mounts and all kinds of stuff. It's perfect for a trainer.

Kristin: 11:24

It is it is very luxurious to be able to put have that bike where she just sits there all year and doesn't have to do any other task but be my trainer bike.

Steve: 11:37

Oh, yeah. I I highly recommend just taking old parts, and as long as you can get your setup in the right position, then just doesn't really matter what too much about.

Kristin: 11:50

My goal is I this is the time of year around November. My cycling crashes, just with a combination of all our events are over, the holidays, it's cold, it's dark. It's eating time, it's eating time, it's lounging time, and so it always tanks in November, and then by the end of December, I'm like, I really gotta get back on the bike. So my goal for December, January, February is three times, minimum three times a week. Well, Torta Zwift always comes up in January. Torta Zwift helps. The PMC has a the PMC has a group of people that go on Zwift who handily kicked my ass the weekend before last. I mean, it wasn't even I was like, good job, boys. So I'm fine with that. Got me on the bike. So that's my goal. Three times a week. I just hate it. I I really I don't I like Zwift of all the things. I just don't like it. It's dark.

Steve: 12:51

Anyway.

Kristin: 12:52

All right.

Steve: 12:53

You mean this time of year?

Kristin: 12:54

Yeah, and cold. And I don't like being in the basement. All right, well, that's enough about that. Let's talk about the rides we did. Let's talk about what the rides we did last year. And here's the plan. Okay. Okay. I put together a schedule that looked through all my stravas, put together the calendar starting in apparently we don't do much January, February, March, keeping with what we just talked about, of the paid events we went to.

Steve: 13:18

Right.

Kristin: 13:19

We did a lot of rides, but I wanted to talk about the events that we paid to go to. And we're gonna go through that list with a yes, we're doing it again, no, we're not, maybe. Okay, okay. Are you ready?

Steve: 13:35

I am ready. Fire away.

Kristin: 13:38

In May was Everwild Hale's celebration of International Women's Mountain Bike Day.

Steve: 13:45

That's a mouthful.

Kristin: 13:46

It is a mouthful. And this year, it's going to be two days. I mean overnight. This is a hell yes for me.

Steve: 13:55

Yeah, you love this event. I went to this, right? I set up a tent.

Kristin: 14:00

You closed and you set up a tent. We actually slept. We slept there the night before. Oh, yes. And so you have to come because they're doing camping and you drive the van. So, no, this is a great event. I love it. Hell to the S on this one. Okay. All right. Then June.

Steve: 14:20

Mm-hmm.

Kristin: 14:20

P to P.

Steve: 14:22

P2P, yes. This is Plymouth the Province Town ride. It's about 85 miles.

Kristin: 14:27

Yes.

Steve: 14:27

So yeah, usually it's, you know, you're taking the day off of work and you're starting off at about 6 a.m.

Kristin: 14:33

Okay. We're gonna, we're not recapping all of them. We did shows on all of them. The question is, okay, are we doing it again?

Steve: 14:42

I don't think we are. I think we're gonna take a I think we're gonna take a year off, right? Is or is this a is this a maybe when we get the email that says registration's coming up, we're gonna Yes.

Kristin: 14:52

I I'll put it in the maybe category. Every year I think that was good, and I don't need to do that next year. And it's it's a rough one for me training-wise. I'm not quite at the 90-mile training. I mean, I crossed the line every time, but but it was a little painful this year.

Steve: 15:11

Yeah, so does that mean it's really good as a kick in the butt training ride?

Kristin: 15:16

Hasn't kicked me in the butt yet. I mean, it just kicks it kicks me in the ass, but I need it to like, as my friend would say, I need things that fill me with fear so that I'm going to train for them, and it clearly doesn't fill me with enough fear.

Steve: 15:29

Fear I mean, does the P2P itself give the miles and the give you the mileage in your legs that you need to keep going down the summer?

Kristin: 15:39

No, I don't think it works that way.

Steve: 15:42

Yeah, I do. I I think it does.

Kristin: 15:44

Of course you do. All right, Raid Rockingham. Gravel bike ride in New York.

Steve: 15:51

I really did like that event, but I'm gonna say probably not. We've done it two years in a row. Yep. I think we're gonna look around this year. Okay. Yes.

Kristin: 16:00

Are you backing going back to Iceland for the rift in July?

Steve: 16:04

Ah, July was the rift. I am not going back to Iceland. Now, there is talking about going to the truck uh in Spain, I believe. Uh no, I'm not gonna do any overseas epic rides by myself by myself this year.

Kristin: 16:23

Okay, but that was worth the ride. I mean, that was definitely worth it.

Steve: 16:26

Oh, yeah. Awesome. Oh, just yeah.

Kristin: 16:30

Yeah. All right. July, we went up to Flow State. Again, this was our second year. This was a mountain bike festival in Vermont.

Steve: 16:39

Yes. Yep, our second year. Yeah, and that's gonna be a no.

Kristin: 16:43

Yeah, that's a no. I I really liked it. Yeah, I'm glad we went a second time for redemption because the first year was so bad. But I think that is another one that I'd like to see what else there is. I liked it, but I uh yeah, I think it's a good one.

Steve: 16:58

Yeah, but Sunday rained, we really didn't get is I didn't think we got actually as good of quality rides. No. So um it's it's more of just I think there's other stuff for us to do this year.

Kristin: 17:11

Cool. All right, August.

Steve: 17:14

Oh, D2R2. So that was our first D2R2 after having wanting to do it forever, right? Finally getting out there and doing it. I'm a this is an expensive ride. So that factors in, yeah, at least it does in my frugal brain.

Kristin: 17:31

So it should. I think it was worth it, and uh, I do think we're a two-year type of couple. Like I think we like to go back a second year because the first year you try it, and then the second year you do it better, you at least have a better idea of what you signed up for. So I'm gonna put D2R2 in the yes category. Now the question will be what we do route-wise if we sign up for the 100k again, and then but it was nice to know you had that halfway option that we took. That one may fill me with fear for training.

Steve: 18:10

That's true. We actually did our essentially our own route, basically by by getting to the lunch stop and then taking another route back, which only ended up saving us, I think, three miles total.

Kristin: 18:24

Yes, but it saved us so much climbing.

Steve: 18:26

I think about 2,000 feet of climbing. Yeah, yeah.

Kristin: 18:29

That was definitely the most aggressive of the climbing that we did last year, and it does have the chance to fill me with fear for training, but it's also really hard to train for a ride like that that has that much climbing. Right? Like we have hills around here, but one of the mottos around here is you know, welcome to Ashland, all hills, no frills, but nothing like that. I'd have to go do Green Street like a hundred times. Right. So, but I'm gonna put that in a strong maybe like yes.

Steve: 19:03

Yeah, I think that's probably a yes.

Kristin: 19:05

Okay. Speaking of climbing and gravel, unpaved.

Steve: 19:10

The Pan Mass Challenge, unpaved gravel ride. So this was end of September.

Kristin: 19:14

Yes.

Steve: 19:15

Do we know this year's date?

Kristin: 19:17

Yes, we do know this year's date. But the problem is we don't know when UMass homecoming is. And we did promise our daughter that we would go to homecoming. Yes, she will be a senior. So that's she is senior, and she is they tend to be around the same time. Every time. They've been the same time every time. Ah we just we just never did homecoming. So unfortunately, I would put that in the yes category right away, but that is a maybe date pending, and I don't I the problem is I don't even know when homecoming gets announced. It's really late.

Steve: 19:54

Yeah. And then to to inject one more ride from twenty twenty four. That would be the Mountain Bike World Cup in Lake Placid. So I'm going to insert that in here because if it's again, we have an unpaved conflict many times, and maybe a homecoming conflict.

Kristin: 20:12

I was going to say, but it's like third on the list.

Steve: 20:15

Miraculous reason, because this is probably going to be the last year at Lake Placid. It's going to be the third and probably the final year.

Kristin: 20:21

Right.

Steve: 20:22

I want to go back to that if by some miraculous reason it does not conflict with anything.

Kristin: 20:28

Okay. Well, it's not going to, because I think we already know it conflicts with unpaved. The question for you would be what's the order of priority? Homecoming. Homecoming. Right. So let's take homecoming off the list. Imagine that's another weekend, which feels like a miracle. Unpaved or UCI mountain bike crisis. That's a tough one. We had in October the Sherburne 50K mountain bike ride.

Steve: 20:59

Yep.

Kristin: 20:59

Which is really a local event that you've done many years. This was my first year. I didn't do all 50K. I'm going to put this on a yes. Oh, this is always a yes. This is such a fun.

Steve: 21:14

I have to close the shop down because it's on a Saturday, but this is always this is always a yes.

Kristin: 21:19

Yeah. Yep. I'd like to get a bigger group of women together.

Steve: 21:24

And I think that's possible this year.

Kristin: 21:26

Absolutely possible. And I it also will depend on the route. This year's route was really nice because there were a lot of places people could cut off to give it very compact. It was very compact. I know in the past it's been like big. Last year it was really spread far. I'm done. So all right. November we did an unexpected one. We threw one in last minute.

Steve: 22:00

Yeah, the number, the Rhode Island number Lincoln Fun ride.

Kristin: 22:03

It was like the Lincoln Woods, I think. I think that's the one. Yeah, the Lincoln Woods. Lincoln Woods. Yep. We went down because of the intense dealer was meeting us. And the great lesson on that one is do more of those. Because I don't remember it costing very much. Nope. It was really well organized. It was an area I hadn't been to. Um, so maybe leave the state more. Right? Yeah. Or those little so Nemba has something called the Adventure Ride series. They do. And that is like the best damn ride, which is uh the Blackstone Valley chapter does, and the Turkey Afterburner, those are all part of that. There are definitely some on that we have never done, and I I would like to. Like there's one in Barrie, and there's so more of those little ones.

Steve: 23:00

Yeah, more of those.

Kristin: 23:01

Great. And then our last one.

Steve: 23:03

Oh, and Nemba Fest may be back next year, right? Something like that.

Kristin: 23:06

You know, I feel like they say that every year. I don't want to be spreading rumors because who knows anything about anything, but I do feel like every year there's like whispers. Maybe this year Nemba Fest will be back. And that would be spectacular. All right. And then our last big event was Turkey Afterburner.

Steve: 23:25

I mean, that's another well, there's nothing going on that time of year, so you're always going to do that.

Kristin: 23:29

That's a yes, unless we're away. Like unless you suddenly said we have to go visit your family in North Carolina. That's a yes. Because it's always just a great party. Southeast Nebba does a really nice job.

Steve: 23:41

Very nice job.

Kristin: 23:42

All right. So as you look back on the year, those are the ones we paid for.

Steve: 23:46

Yeah.

Kristin: 23:46

Right. Are there other highlights in your mind from the last year of your riding?

Steve: 23:56

You know, one very simple highlight was that myself and two friends, Jeff and Dave, went on a training ride for before Iceland.

Kristin: 24:07

Oh, that's right.

Steve: 24:09

Yeah. And we went out to Central Mass and did a gravel ride. Um, I don't think I've ridden gravel in that area. It was spectacular. I mean, I mean, like so spectacular. We should do that more. And meat? Yeah, yes. Or even you and me, or even small groups.

Kristin: 24:30

Gravel or mixed terrain?

Steve: 24:32

No. Well. No, actually, you know what? While yes, mixed terrain is what we call it around here. I'm gonna say, I'm gonna say this is gravel. Okay. All right. Some mixed terrain thrown in. Okay. But mainly gravel. And you know, I am I am not a long distance rider, generally.

Kristin: 24:54

They're they're just not you're not a person who wants to do like eight to ten hours on your No, I don't seek that out.

Steve: 25:01

There's a lot of a lot of the people I know, a lot of the riser I know will do 70, 80 miles just on a general weekend ride. And I don't I don't do that. It's gotta be an event for me to do this. Yep. Okay. So this is a this is a typic, un atypically big ride for me. And and it was great. We just had a great day on the bike.

Kristin: 25:23

So I think I mean one of the lessons anytime I have a day like that, like I would put on my highlight reel the day I spent on Cuddy Hunk with Doug and some other friends, was those just to say yes. Right? Like the laundry will wait, the yard will wait, whatever. Like I it when I'm on my deathbed, I'm not gonna be like, gosh, I wish I got more laundry done. It's always gonna be thinking about the rides I, you know, the the memories of life, and like I think that's right. That puts it out there, and you did it to train for something too, but again, just the idea that you should just just go ride.

Steve: 26:07

Yeah, just I mean, you you think about all the rides. It's just every little tiny whatever ride you did this year. So many of those I I can't recall. I have no memory of whatsoever. Right. Right? But, you know, like that kind of ride with Jeff and Dave. I remember it.

Kristin: 26:24

Yeah. I mean, speaking of Jeff, I would say I always remember the Friday morning rides when I have managed to make an appearance on those. And I would like to do more. I say that, I say it all the time, but I'm also not a morning person, so I really struggle.

Steve: 26:41

The 5 45 a.m. Friday morning ride is fantastic.

Kristin: 26:46

Yeah.

Steve: 26:46

Um, it is a lesson in showing a hard five minutes of getting up and getting yourself going. And then it is wow, this was so awesome that I got up and did this.

Kristin: 26:57

Well, and as we've talked about in the past, I would much rather start a ride in the dark and have it end in the light than start a ride in the light and have it end in the dark.

Steve: 27:08

Yeah, but once you feel April time, then exactly. It's just light and light. It's just light.

Kristin: 27:14

Exactly. So the other one for me that is always a high highlight of the series is our women's ride series. So we did six women's mountain bike rides. We had some new people show up, we had women show up who then, you know, really knew nothing about equipment, about riding, and they got it done. So I think this will be our fifth year this summer. Wow. Doing it. So I would say that's a that's a yes that we're gonna be doing that series again. And I just love, I'll take credit, I love seeing all the other women's rides in the area that have taken off since then. That I think has seen that that that that can work.

Steve: 28:00

Yep.

Kristin: 28:01

Right? And they have taken that ball and they have run with it. In particular, Southeast Numba has done an amazing job with their women's rides. So uh that is that will always be a highlight for me. Just fills me with happy joy. And then speaking of riding in those woods.

Steve: 28:17

Oh, well, the Friday night rides, yeah.

Kristin: 28:19

So you ride almost every Friday night in the summer.

Steve: 28:24

Certainly try to.

Kristin: 28:25

The mountain bike boys of Sherborn.

Steve: 28:27

Yeah, so we we do up an evening Friday night ride, yeah. Basically every week that it's that it's I guess, you know, not raining.

Kristin: 28:37

Yes. I love the camaraderie of it. I definitely struggle with you know the the pace of it, and but I think when they break into two, it's spectacular into group two groups. So yeah, I think that's a lesson. Show up, ride, call your friends. There were a couple of comments on one of our reels where we were talking about a rider's friend being a jerk, and people were like, Whoa, you have friends to ride with? And I was like, I hope you're being sarcastic and that you don't actually have anybody to ride with because that would make me really sad.

Steve: 29:14

Well, you know, I mean, I was just talking about how there's like all like all these rides I did all year, and a lot of them I can't remember whatsoever. Those are typically the ones I rode by myself, right? But the ones that you ride with friends are the ones that you tend to make more memories of.

Kristin: 29:28

Oh, absolutely. We went out with some couples, we went out. I mean, if I really put my thinking cap on, I can remember a lot of the rides or rides where you know, a friend of mine and I will just say, We need some time to to chat. Let's get on our bikes. You know, I haven't seen you in a while. So, yay bikes. Now that we've now that we've talked about all of our rides, we have also articles that keep hitting our feed.

Steve: 30:02

The seen while scrolling stuff.

Kristin: 30:03

Yes, one that really hit me, it it captured my attention to such an extent that I paid for a subscription to the Boston Globe.

Steve: 30:14

Are you serious to read it?

Kristin: 30:16

Okay, because it just kept coming up, this this headline, which is which was Am I Too Old to Do This Anymore?

Steve: 30:26

These types of articles, similar headline, drive me nuts.

Kristin: 30:32

Well, hold on, hold on, hold on. I thought it was gonna drive me nuts. I was gonna say, thought it was gonna drive me nuts. That's why I had to read it. And the crux of it was it was the author, I think she's in her 70s, and she has just always ridden a bike. I'm not gonna say, I don't think she rides it competitively or aggressively. She just rides a bike on wreck paths, very safe. She she talks a little bit about what she does to protect herself. And it's more about the unconscious age bias that she has been running into. Meaning she went to see her doctor, and her doctor said, Oh, it's so good that you're still doing that. And she goes, she was like, Wait, did I hit my expiration date on cycling and I didn't realize it? So it really wasn't that. I mean, a little bit was people saying to her, should you still be riding a bike? Is that okay? You might hurt yourself. And I do remember, we've talked about this, a woman coming to your shop a couple of years ago. I think she was in her 70s, and she said, It's my friends say I shouldn't ride my bike, but of course I'm not stopping because I feel fast and I feel free and I feel happy. And again, she's just she's on a little cruiser bike on the wreck path. Anyway, it was a really interesting article, and it did, you know, we're at that age where nobody's saying that to us yet, but I definitely can see it. No, this is where um start.

Steve: 32:03

This is where I'm going with this, though. That's I do see articles like this because you look, you, you, you get these, these things that even us in our 50s, like you see things about um the stuff that I do on a mountain bike. I shouldn't be doing that anymore. You know, oh yeah. Really? And then you should translates though into certain customers you cut that come in. And and they're like, oh, you know, I am I am I'm too old to do that now, or you know, I'm I'm uh well, I'm this age, so I really shouldn't be doing this. Right like what is that mindset? I I just don't like and that's why it makes you there's yeah, there's something that's obviously infiltrated into people's brains about this.

Kristin: 32:50

I think there always is, as you get older, there's always concern. First of all, this is not medical advice, right? The first thing to do, if you have any concerns that you might hurt yourself crashing, right? If you have osteoporosis, you should be talking to your doctor before you decide to take up mountain biking. On the other hand, of all the sports, I think cycling is one of the ones that you can do well into your 70s and and beyond, we've seen it, right? Because it's it's a gentle sport in many ways, unless you're jumping over your friends on your mountain bike. Um, but I think there's just we're just the more risk averse you are, I think it can seem um scary. And if you're not a cyclist, yeah, that's true.

Steve: 33:42

I guess if you're risk-averse.

Kristin: 33:43

Yeah, and if you're not a cyclist, eats into your psyche. It can seem scary. But if you're someone who has always cycled, then it's very natural. Yeah. Right. And it's always hard to start a sport as you get older. But I remember during the pandemic talking to a friend because she wasn't riding much because she didn't want to, the ERs were busy, right? And she didn't want to necessarily hurt herself and end up in the ER, which I totally understood and respected. On the other hand, I was going to lose my mind if I didn't ride my bike, you know? So, and and and there was no guarantee I was gonna get hurt. And I think just the year before I had a uh a client shatter her elbow when she fainted in her kitchen, right? There's no guarantees in life or that you're gonna get hurt, but I do think it's on physicians and others to check those biases, right? Because you can have someone like this author who's going, well, maybe I maybe I shouldn't be riding my bike. There's so much good about riding a bike. Again, maybe not through Tuckerman's Ravine or whatever, right? Like it's you can everything can be adjusted, but I do think you're right. There's there's just getting older, you know. You see the pictures of like the golden girls at 53 and Jennifer Lopez at Jen at 53. Like, we're not aging the way we stay.

Steve: 35:15

Bea Arthur at 53, and yes.

Kristin: 35:19

So I think there's a little bit of that too. Like, I don't look in the mirror at 53 and think, gosh, yeah, this is what I thought that was gonna look like.

Steve: 35:26

I think there's a generational gap between 70 or and 80 year olds now in what because what the physicality that they were doing at our age and younger and coming up through as they uh reach that age.

Kristin: 35:39

I think we're more aware that we needed to be physical. Like I don't think I ever saw my grandmother exercise. Right. Right? Right when she was 60, I was fairly sure she was 80. So, or the exercising I saw was very gentle. It certainly wasn't what we're doing. I do think the body ages, it doesn't age um incrementally, it ages like in big chunks. Like I turned, you know, I turned 53 and I swear I aged five years for a minute. Like things just hurt, and I was just uncomfortable, and I was like, Oh, this is what happens. Like you're just and then you go get the help you need, you get your physical therapy, you get your and you you try to get through it, and now you feel great. But yeah, I do think I think it's a lot of it is that unconscious bias that our physicians are pushing at us that we need to be cognizant of, right? Or if your friends are like, Are you nuts? It's kind of like you know, the joke where somebody like, oh, can I, you know, after my hand is fixed, will I be able to play the piano? And the doctor says, Were you able to play the piano before you broke your hand? Again, I don't know if you want to take up cycling at 75, but right, I'm not giving it up. I don't know, so as I said, I hope to I hope to never age out of cycling. The equipment may change, but that was my comment on it finally after I read it a couple times. I was like, my goal is to carry me out on my bicycle. What is on your uh your list?

Steve: 37:12

Oh, I had a couple of things that stood out this past couple weeks as I was scrolling through cycling news. Um, the first one was uh $200 brake pads, and so yeah, yeah, go ahead and cough. Uh Center, not to be confused with Sinterred as I type a brake pad. Center is the brand. Oh they are made in Europe, and they're one of my favorite brands of brake pads. Okay, they're exceptional, but they decided to come out with this $200 Halo set. Um, probably just because if something's the most expensive, people will buy it. It's gotta be good. It's gotta be gooder.

Kristin: 37:58

What are they made? What is it for a specific kind of bike?

Steve: 38:02

It has titanium backing plates, but Shimano has a set of titanium backed uh pads that are only 35 bucks. So um there. So and then, and I believe then sort of the most powerful oh, and they're I guess they're guaranteed to not fade whatsoever. Which is a big thing if you live in a mountainous, heavy brake bike paddle.

Kristin: 38:24

Okay, I have a couple of questions.

Steve: 38:26

Yeah.

Kristin: 38:26

When it comes to brake pads, are brake pads bike specific? Like are these mountain bike pads or is it just any just what are these?

Steve: 38:34

Oh, they probably make them for different well, pads are specific to the model of brake.

Kristin: 38:39

Okay. And are these mountain bike?

Steve: 38:42

I think they probably make them for many different types.

Kristin: 38:44

Okay, and when you say they don't fade, what does that mean?

Steve: 38:48

Well, as a brake pad heats up, so as the as the pad heats up, it basically fades in terms of the braking power power. So you will have reduced power, um the whole system gets hot, uh, you can heat up the fluid and so forth, which I don't know.

Kristin: 39:10

If you're if you're riding your brakes, it can be different than it just wearing down.

Steve: 39:14

Yes, I don't mean wearing down. Yes, I mean that the braking power will not fade even if you're just dragging your brakes.

Kristin: 39:22

Okay. Yeah. So that do they last any longer? Am I gonna get more time out of my 200 bucks? How much are brake pads normally?

Steve: 39:31

Oh, anywhere from let's say 20 up to 50 is a typical, your typical range.

Kristin: 39:39

Yeah.

Steve: 39:40

So, anyway, that's a little crazy.

Kristin: 39:42

That is crazy.

Steve: 39:43

Uh, and the next one's this one's an interesting one. So, Factor, the the brand, has this new road bike called the one.

Kristin: 39:51

And it's a bold statement.

Steve: 39:53

Is the factor one, yeah. It may completely change road bikes. Road bikes. In terms of competitive road bikes, I should say. This is not uh it does it certainly does not look like a comfortable bike to ride unless you're a very limber competitive cyclist.

Kristin: 40:14

Now I have to go look it up.

Steve: 40:15

Yeah, and it's but it's a complete design change. It has been approved by the UCI, and it does have the it does have this the uh potential to really change the whole industry in terms of their designs.

Kristin: 40:29

So I was just listening to because apparently this is who I am now. It's called Speaking of Bikes with Peter Abram and Mark Reedy. They're both like industry people, marketing industry people. Anyway, they had James Hong on from Apple's one. They were talking about road bikes and they were talking about how aggressive some of these profiles are that the average rider can't necessarily hold this position. Correct. And then whether or not people really need these bikes, who needs this bike. Are people people buying my I think I took away from it too? Like, are people buying this bike just because somebody fast, some pro is riding it fast? Yeah, so they must need it.

Steve: 41:12

That's the very reason why many people buy the bike. Okay, yeah.

Kristin: 41:15

So, so and it's factor that is a very uncomfortable looking bike.

Steve: 41:20

That is it is. I mean, it's a it's a huge drop to the bars. Um so the main difference is that it's it has a very wide fork and a very wide rear, and it's just complete and a much steeper head angle. It's just changing your position, changing the aerodynamics of a bicycle. And so it does have a potential to really sort of change the industry.

Kristin: 41:44

And they start at $8,000, $7,500 starting at for a full bike or just the frame? It's just one from the I didn't know it's not. Is that are they direct to consumer?

Steve: 41:57

Factor? No. Okay, no, you can get those in shops.

Kristin: 42:00

Okay. And who do we think these are for?

Steve: 42:04

Well, that's a that's a professional road racer bike. Okay. Right? Or if you want to emulate a professional road racer.

Kristin: 42:11

So not for me. Right. That'll be interesting. I I never I don't know. I just find it hard to believe it's that there's that much innovation that you can put into a road bike, but they keep doing it. You know what I'm saying? Like just like a bike is at some point. Yeah. A bike has to look like a bike.

Steve: 42:31

They've they've put some more innovation into the shapes a little bit.

Kristin: 42:37

Yeah.

Steve: 42:37

In many cases, though, a lot of brands are not putting innovation, they're doing something design gimmicky to make their stand out.

Kristin: 42:46

Okay.

Steve: 42:47

So they'll do little jut-outs or humps or you know, cutouts or whatever. All that's just a gimmick to make their bike stand out. Right? There really, there really isn't a lot of difference there.

Kristin: 42:59

So what is this?

Steve: 43:00

And and and of course, a lot of them are limited by the UCI rules. So that that affected it for a while.

Kristin: 43:06

Right.

Steve: 43:07

And this is just a it is a big departure from what we've seen recently in terms of design.

Kristin: 43:16

And does it comply with the UCI rules?

Steve: 43:19

Apparently they're gonna they've approved this, yeah. Wow.

Kristin: 43:22

Okay. Well, there you go.

Steve: 43:23

So I think it did not, and I think now it's they've Oh, do you think the UCI adapted rules for it?

Kristin: 43:31

No. Or they adapted it to the rules after they came up with the design. Again, it's just it's one of those. You ever see ever see some of those videos where they ask people to draw a bike and you realize that and then I think we saw one where they actually then tried to build the bike that these people had drawn, and you're like, that's not how bikes work. Like there's just a fundamental way that bikes work. Yeah, I don't care how you innovated, it still needs to have some very specific things to make the bike actually go. Never mind, be comfortable. All right, well, before we wrap up, okay, as we said, this is our last episode of 2025. 2025, and our last episode of our first year of podcasting. So I thought we could just hit a couple of the highlights and questions. First of all, this is our 32nd episode.

Steve: 44:24

Wow.

Kristin: 44:25

Pretty good. We did more than two a month. I think we'll probably stick to the two-month schedule, though it seems to work well for us. Yes. Okay. What episode do you think was the most downloaded? Ooh. Now, this is just Buzz Sprout. I didn't look at like Apple or all the other plays. I mean, not um, I didn't look at YouTube to see what was the most viewed. Oh it was just Buzz Sprout, which is Apple Podcasts and all the other. Which episode do you think was the most downloaded? Ooh, boy.

Steve: 44:57

Uh I think I need to see an episode list,

Kristin: 44:59

but I just showed it to you.

Steve: 45:01

I know. I will say the frame material one.

Kristin: 45:11

You're adorable. By the way, the short about you being hot for rifled steel, the least viewed short of all of the one that I posted. I think it's been seen 12 times. Okay. So uh no, it was actually the Rift show.

Steve: 45:29

Oh, the Rift show.

Kristin: 45:30

Yeah, it just eked out some others. But yeah, the Rift show ended up being for a long time, it was us, like how we had started cycling. Um, and they're not none of them are particularly runaways from everyone else, but the Rift leads the way. What would you say of all the countries in the world is the second most downloaded country, or the country from which the second most episodes have been downloaded? Number one is the United States.

Steve: 45:59

Yeah, sure, sure.

Kristin: 46:00

Okay. What would you say in second? Taiwan.

Steve: 46:04

Taiwan.

Kristin: 46:05

Yeah, they seem to have come out of nowhere, especially you know who listened to to the materials one a lot? Taiwan did. Oh, interesting. Not a lot, but you know, enough that I heard it. Okay, this is more of an opinion. Yes. What would you say is your favorite episode of the list I showed you?

Steve: 46:26

Uh you know, I liked when we were on location in Duxsbury with Jason and Alex.

Kristin: 46:31

Those are some of my favorite. So I think they're hard when on their dining room table. Yes, they're hard when you have so much history of someone and you're like, tell me how you started cycling, and they're like, way back in the day. Right. Um, I would say for me, uh buying your wife the better bike. Oh, I always be one of my favorites just from us an important standpoint. And we've gotten some really nice feedback from it too. So that's one I I particularly liked, but I do love all of our interviews. What would you say was our hardest interview, our hardest episode to get through or produce?

Steve: 47:16

It was probably the cyclocross one. And the funny thing is, is that like the amount of cyclocross in me that I could just blurt out is so much, and I think that's in part what made it hard. I think we had to like even redo that one. We had to redo that one. There's there's so much to say, and it's just chaos in how to come out with it in what order and which thing, and what do you really say? Is that getting too much in the weeds?

Kristin: 47:45

Sometimes you get sometimes you get ang, you get irritated or frustrated when I try to wrangle you too much. Yeah. Where I'm trying to like, where I'm trying to have order to the flood of information, and then there have been a couple times, yeah, we've just that's not the only one we've had to re-record at least a part of where we had to put the iPads down and walk away. I mean, um, mountain bike etiquette was the first one where we actually got into an argument and we had to redo that one too. Because I was like, wow, we sound like we hate each other because it was so hard. I mean, we couldn't decide, we couldn't agree on uphill or downhill rider right of way, right off the bat. We were off to a bad start. But yeah, we've had a couple um really a couple rough ones. Yes, and the dumbest thing that's happened while we've been podcasting is probably me, not once but twice forgetting to hit record on this recorder and us doing an entire podcast.

Steve: 48:51

Yes. So now we have this double check here. I have to make sure that the the lights are on, the uh counter is is counting up and all that to make sure it's a double check that we're recording.

Kristin: 49:02

Yeah, I mean, if a little behind the scenes, we actually record this in two places. So we're recording the video. Fortunately, the video did catch audio of those two episodes, and I was able to run them through Adobe podcast, and they could levelate them, but they sound weird. They're there are times you're like, we sound a little mechanical, but we record it in two places. We record the video and then we record the audio separately. And this audio recorder has too many red lights on it for things that are off, yeah, right? Like these two buttons right here, which say mute to mute, you turn the red light on. It's but and then it's just a teeny tiny one. So those are the dumbest. But I I feel like I've done podcasting for so many years where I've had to re-record them, and it's been an adjustment for you because I'm like, Yeah, yeah, yeah, sucks. Like we ran out of storage and we ran out of battery. That stinks. So what? All right, so looking ahead, number one, uh, we're still doing this.

Steve: 50:02

We are still going.

Kristin: 50:03

We're gonna do it again. Um, what would you like to see us do next year?

Steve: 50:12

For the podcast?

Kristin: 50:12

Yeah. Do you have anything that you'd like to see us do more of or better?

Steve: 50:17

Or that's hard to say. You know, we always say, what are we gonna do for the next podcast? And then whatever reason, uh a topic comes up, it pops up in our heads, and I think that's probably what's gonna happen next year.

Kristin: 50:30

This is why you can't. I always I love the people who can um get a couple recorded in the in the in the can. Like I hear this advice all the time. Like record a couple and have them so you're a couple of weeks ahead. But so much of what we talk about is timely. Either it's a ride we did or something in the news. I've never successfully been able to do that. I've also had people say you should do more interviews, and you are right.

Steve: 50:53

We did, I did get a but they are hard. They are hard.

Kristin: 50:57

It's not that they're hard, they're hard to coordinate, especially when you're like, oh crap, we should record today.

Steve: 51:03

But we do have interviews coming up on the new year.

Kristin: 51:04

We do. No, we're very excited. We're we are gonna do more interviews, but I will be the first to say I thought we'd do more.

Steve: 51:11

Yes, I do, I did too.

Kristin: 51:13

And part of it is we have been pretty good, we've been very good about in-person only. In fact, we're talking to someone now who's willing to drive to me for the interview, even though I offered Zoom, and I do think they're better, but that does add a level of logistics that I don't think I like. I know, I know because I've tried it before, and you're like, oh, interviews are hard, they're hard to coordinate. So that would be my I hope we can do more like, oh, you just started you just started writing. Tell me, tell me your story. Anyway, well, congratulations, honey. It's been a year.

Steve: 51:50

Fantastic.

Kristin: 51:51

We didn't end up recording the dissolution of our marriage.

Steve: 51:57

We made we made it through this.

Kristin: 51:59

So all right, and for one last time of 2025, cycling together with Kristin and Steve is a production of Steve the Bike Guy, an independent bicycle shop in eastern Massachusetts and Sundin Marketing.

Steve: 52:10

If you like the show, please leave a review, leave a review or share with a friend for show notes, links, or to leave a comment, question, or topic suggestion, please visit cycling together.bike.

Kristin: 52:20

You can follow the shop on Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, and TikTok at SteveTheBike Guy.

Steve: 52:26

Alright, we'll see you next time. Thanks.

Kristin: 52:28

Thank you.