SPEAKER_04 0:00

Someone that was older than me was just telling me, they're like, no, what you hit a certain age, you fucking don't care about your credit. It was Don Davis. So I'm at the point where like the best, oh, your credit's well, I have great credit, but I was like, fuck you, I don't care about my credit. I'm not buying into your shitty products. Right.

SPEAKER_06 0:14

We need a new house. I guess when you're 75, your credit is not really your concern anymore. Yeah. Yeah. When you max out like a 900, you're like, I don't care. I don't want anything anymore. Yeah. What about 57?

SPEAKER_04 0:25

Can I let my credit go down the toilet? Sure. Good luck. Good luck in those kids for college. College. You guys go to All Street. You'll be fine. I mean, really, they will. Go to All Street, get good grades. They're smart.

SPEAKER_03 0:35

They'll be fine.

SPEAKER_04 0:36

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 0:38

All right, Jeff.

SPEAKER_04 0:40

Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 0:41

Oh, yeah. Wait, this was me this morning. Wait. Everything I moved. Yeah, we got a lot to talk about.

SPEAKER_04 0:49

We gotta hit on the rock the ridge right away.

SPEAKER_05 0:56

All right, here we go. Good morning, everybody. Woo! We're heading off the waste. Up the hill we go. We dive in the washing. We swim across the wasteing. We're going up the mountain. And then we're gonna be in Skytop.

SPEAKER_04 1:12

Whoa. Had to start the day with Howard Dean. Howard Dean brings it in. So listen, anyway, good morning, everybody. We have two great guests in the house. We just gotta take care of some business. Two? Well, yeah. What? Two great guests? Yeah, well, one at a time. Oh, okay. And great guests.

SPEAKER_03 1:31

Oh, as we get through this morning.

SPEAKER_04 1:32

Yes. Yes, yes. But I want to take care of some business first. First off, Tom, I'm sorry that he stepped into some dog shit. Yes. That's how I started my day. It's all right. We've all been gonna go up from here.

SPEAKER_03 1:45

The dog allegedly pooped on the floor in the basement.

SPEAKER_04 1:48

But listen, Tom was here. Tom was here by himself. And there's dog shit. And I came down. Reggie can't talk.

SPEAKER_06 1:54

There's poop on the floor.

SPEAKER_04 1:55

He's upstairs talking to presses. I can think Tom blamed that on me.

SPEAKER_06 1:59

Again. I can tell it's wedding food he's doing.

SPEAKER_04 2:02

Who blamed it on you? That guy that carried all the shit in the basement. I did. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 2:06

I did.

SPEAKER_04 2:07

And then Jeff did a leg of Rock the Ridge yesterday. Congratulations. Yeah, man. You look, buddy.

SPEAKER_03 2:11

Thanks, pal.

SPEAKER_04 2:12

Cranking out. You look solid coming in, smiling.

SPEAKER_03 2:15

Yeah, I felt good coming in.

SPEAKER_04 2:16

Yeah, you look great.

SPEAKER_03 2:17

I mean, it was all downhill, so it's hard to not really.

SPEAKER_04 2:21

You ran the first five. No, the down the the end. Which is actually more painful.

SPEAKER_03 2:26

Yeah, you know what's I surprisingly felt okay running down Lenni there. I was nervous. I was like, I think I'm gonna power walk it. And then I was running it and I was trying to really hammer it all the way that last that whole last four miles.

SPEAKER_04 2:38

You know what I really was thinking of doing? I was gonna drive my gravel bike up to right where you popped out from Oakwood. Was it Oakwood you popped out on? Yep. I was like, Jeff, get on my no, no, forest. Forest. Forest, right? Come together. Get on my handlebars. And then we just bomb down the mountain. I'm like, get the fuck out of the way.

SPEAKER_06 2:55

Yeah, that's exactly what I was thinking. Just like E.T. I got a sheet over my head.

SPEAKER_04 3:00

I get Jeff to the transition, like, you're out, Jeff. The whole team is to you. I would have been worth it. Yeah, well, congrats, Jeff. Thanks, man. Without further ado, let's get right to our guests.

SPEAKER_03 3:10

Let's do it.

SPEAKER_04 3:10

Yeah, go ahead.

SPEAKER_03 3:11

So, folks, um, super excited about our guest here. Me too. A little nervous. Um, but at the end, you you won't feel any nervous. No. Um, so we're gonna hear the whole story, but we've got uh world class, world champ downhill cycling at some point in his life, um, still riding like a madman out there, um, owner, operator of uh Da Hanger, um, which which we're gonna hear about uh bike, bike stands and and bike hangers. Um which I own one. We we both own one. Yeah, yeah, different different styles, which is cool. Different styles. Um uh well without further ado, Jurgen Benickey.

SPEAKER_05 3:56

Hi Jurgen, welcome.

SPEAKER_02 3:58

How's it going now?

SPEAKER_03 3:59

Oh, it's going great.

SPEAKER_02 4:00

I'm outnumbered. It's all right. No, I've been on podcast with two. Now it's a three. Oh, okay. Yeah, yeah. That seems to be what was your other podcast? Uh it's mostly like German podcasts. Oh, cool. Yeah, yeah. So, you know, over the internet these days, it's yeah, right. You know, they never sound that great, you know. There's always something lost. This is a nicer.

SPEAKER_04 4:19

This is a nice setup. This is a started setup. We started that way. I like the output. You know, we started that way. It sounded pretty sketched with Zoom.

SPEAKER_06 4:25

We were doing Zoom. Yeah, with like with like Apple.

SPEAKER_04 4:28

You guys sound really good. Nice, thank you. We get people that are like, hey, can you guys go back on Zoom? I'm like, why? Like, so we can see you guys.

SPEAKER_02 4:37

There's nothing to see. Well, I didn't shave this morning because I figured it's a podcast. Yeah, I know podcasts.

SPEAKER_06 4:41

Well, the big thing they're adding now is video. I don't know why, but most people listen to it in the car. That's what I mean. I don't understand the video portion.

SPEAKER_02 4:47

Look at us. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 4:49

This is what you see. It's just people sitting around talking.

SPEAKER_01 4:52

I know.

SPEAKER_04 4:53

People ask that though. They're like, are we gonna be videoed? Should I trip? Like, no, no video.

SPEAKER_01 4:57

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 4:57

They ask a lot. Yeah, no video.

SPEAKER_03 5:00

Some guests come here in their pajamas still.

SPEAKER_04 5:02

Yeah. Or they do like uh the weird thing when they're like half dressed. They got like a suit jacket on and like their panties on. I'm like, what are you doing?

SPEAKER_06 5:13

We we had a talk with Jeff. He's dressing now, all right?

SPEAKER_04 5:16

I wore my pants today. This went down the this went downhill fast.

SPEAKER_02 5:20

Yeah, most of the podcasts have been cycling related. Yeah, yeah. You know, and then nationwide, US, some of them, and then Germany, like in German.

SPEAKER_04 5:30

Sweet. So that we actually have some dedicated listeners from Germany.

SPEAKER_02 5:33

Oh, we're gonna have a lot more.

SPEAKER_04 5:35

We are gonna have a lot more. Oh, yeah. So we do we've done, you know, climbers and whatnot. So we get the demographics of like new cities you pick up, it's subscribers, and we have some.

SPEAKER_02 5:44

Yeah, get to see the analytics where stuff.

SPEAKER_04 5:47

We have people that will listen in Germany on a regular basis.

SPEAKER_02 5:49

Uh, Bundaba.

SPEAKER_04 5:50

Probably climbers, I think. Like listen to Russ Klun. Uh, because remember Russ said he did the trip out through Germany to climb?

SPEAKER_06 5:57

We have 24. 2% is Germany right now. Yeah, I'm gonna have to look that up to the city. That's our second. USA first, and then it's Germany next, then it's Canada. It's 24 people. Hey, listen.

SPEAKER_04 6:13

Hey, what's our biggest city other than New Paul's at Pine Bush or Brooklyn?

SPEAKER_06 6:17

I would have to look, let me look at this right now.

SPEAKER_02 6:18

There's a lot of pine bush flies. I need to get to stats like like when this airs, like a week later. I'm very curious. Yeah, we'll pull a list.

SPEAKER_03 6:25

We'll give you stats. Yeah. Um, so tell us a we we let's get into it, all right? Let's get into tell us a little bit about um yourself, um, how you uh we want to get into your biking history, but also just how did you land in uh the Hudson Valley? How did you land here in New Polts or Gardner where you're living? Um tell us the whole tell us the whole story.

SPEAKER_02 6:49

The whole apart. Like I'm I'll give you the cliff notes and then like literally like you've listened to this podcast before. I have done a couple.

SPEAKER_03 6:56

Yeah, so you know we're gonna go. You know where we're gonna just go down the rabbit hole.

SPEAKER_02 7:00

So, like, you know, born raised in Germany.

SPEAKER_03 7:02

Yep, whereabouts in Germany.

SPEAKER_02 7:03

Uh uh when we moved around four times within Germany because my dad was a chef. Okay. So I did the hotel thing. Yeah, we actually moved to Egypt almost once. Okay. Wow. My mom changed from Germany to Egypt. Yeah, my mom not happy with this. Yeah, she's like done. We're done. We're all done here. Yeah, yeah. Um, and then uh so started racing bikes when I was 12. In Germany. Mm-hmm. Okay, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 7:25

Start racing road, road, road, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 7:28

Big every every little dinky little town has a club. Every town. And there were races back then, a little bit less now, but there were races every weekend within like 30 minutes. Yeah. And you could race and you know, you get a little prize money, this and that. That's right.

SPEAKER_04 7:42

You know, age 12. This is the European cycling culture.

SPEAKER_02 7:45

Everybody's riding, and everything is club, nothing is shops. Yeah, there's no team shops, it's it's it's it's towns, it's very based on location, not on, you know, because sometimes you have two or three shops in a town, it doesn't make a difference. It's the it's the the town has the club.

SPEAKER_03 8:01

Now, is it a thing where just that's just what you do as a as a young kid? You're just you're just riding with the town club.

SPEAKER_02 8:08

Well, no, it's whatever sport you but the structures are the same for soccer or hockey because I actually played hockey. I actually played soccer first, then hockey, and then uh into cycling. We kind of moved because we moved around. So wherever we I lived in Oberstorf, which is a big ski town, right? They had the ski jumping and everything. So I was uh in the hockey team there. And then we moved from there to Freiburg, which is like close to Switzerland and France, right in the corner, southwest.

SPEAKER_04 8:33

Nice, and uh this is West Germany, yeah. Okay, exactly. Uh and then uh And it's still West Germany the time you're growing up.

SPEAKER_02 8:39

Yes, yeah, but the hockey team uh actually went through bankruptcy as I was moving there, so it was really a shit show over there, and I was like, uh, you know, and I had a hard time. My mom had just passed away, I was 12 years old. It was a real hard time of my life. My dad, like, really you know, was looking for something for me to do. Yeah, and at 12, he's like, You like riding bikes? He's like, Cool. You brought me to the shop. He's like, What do we do? He's like, Well, you should sign up for the club, which is the town, and then uh we give you a bike, and then they had a meeting point, which is really unique, and I think most clubs in Germany had it then. Is like every there was a specific time every day that was a meeting point, like five o'clock at this parking lot. Like a ride every day, people would be there. That's yeah, so it'd be always like different kind, but almost the same core group would be there, so you'd always have a place to go to every day to go ride.

SPEAKER_04 9:32

And there was people of your ability there.

SPEAKER_02 9:33

This was like literally no drop rides, and it's also I think the ride culture, the group ride culture is different than here. Yeah, like they're not dropping anybody. Like, why would you meet for a group ride and then I'll drop you? That's the point, you know. Right because they were all racers, because they're like, if you want to go fast, go do it on Sunday. Don't do it here. Yeah, no, dude, I love that. That's cool.

SPEAKER_04 9:54

We should instill that here.

SPEAKER_02 9:55

Oh, good luck with that.

SPEAKER_04 9:56

Yeah, I get it. Here it's like they don't even label the ride correctly. It's like it's a B ride. I'm like, I don't know, the A B they're not a B ride.

SPEAKER_02 10:03

Oh, the A-B and all that stuff is bananas. It's like I don't like any of it. Yeah, I have a hard time with group rides. I mean, I do them sometimes, but I just it's a mixed bag. It's a mixed bag because most of them are not racers. And I think because when you do have a group ride whether everybody's a racer, it's a different animal, you know, because everybody is just toning it down because why we're meeting up if we're not hanging out together and riding together. Right. You know, and then I mean my big I got I got this is why I'm worried about ner nervous about this podcast because I have strong opinions about certain things. We love us, we love to do it. I I find mountain bike group rides completely overrated and I don't like them.

SPEAKER_01 10:41

Okay. Ouch. Ouch. I don't know. I know though.

SPEAKER_03 10:45

I'll say I don't think that's that bad because there's there's mountain bike, which I honestly that's a tough thing to do because you're behind each other on a single track. You can't really be together.

SPEAKER_02 10:54

I'm not hard to have a conversation. You do want to be together, you're waiting for the guy that's waiting, like usually the technical worst riders are back, and there's big spreads, usually. Yeah, a lot of the times.

SPEAKER_04 11:07

I'm 100% with you.

SPEAKER_02 11:09

So like I like a good I like no more than four, I would say. I've I have had it where it was we were up in uh Burke um was that Kingdom Trails. Yeah, and it was like Dan Harper, uh a couple other guys. Uh I think we were like six or seven guys, and we're all kind of racers, cyclocal racers, and we're all about the same speed. And that was the first time I actually went on like real group rides. It was like seven guys, and we're like all the same pace, and it was fun. Yeah, but we all kind of also knew what to do, and that's rare, you know. Yeah, that's not your typical mountain bike group ride.

SPEAKER_03 11:44

No, I'll I'll tell a fun quick story about Dan Harper, um, Wyatt, and Brian Roberts, and the four of us went for a ride, and we were in Jockey Hill. Love it, and um yeah, talk about uh they were great, right? They're my friends, and they they didn't mean to drop me. They were your friends. It was impossible for you. It was impossible not to drop me because like meanwhile, they're like, let's let's drop chat. They're so fast, quietly bringing it. They're they're so fast and skilled, and I just wasn't. And uh they could they were cool. I would I would basically ride alone.

SPEAKER_02 12:21

Was Ben Williams involved in this too?

SPEAKER_03 12:23

No. No, and then I Ben Williams, a young kid? No, okay, and I'd catch up with them, and then anyway, at the end, at the end, we were riding for like two hours and and we stopped, and someone was like, So when are we gonna start this ride? Yeah, like we had just gotten to where they were gonna start the ride, and I was like, I'm I'm out, I'm gonna ride out of here and ride home.

SPEAKER_02 12:42

Yeah, Dan's not the greatest group rider either. Let's just call it that.

SPEAKER_04 12:47

He's a great he's he's got his schedule, his program, got somewhere to be, and you gotta you know conform to his which honestly for me goes against the whole almost ethos of cycling, which the best part about is like, dude, I'm out there, I'm doing my thing. I'm I'm I'm out. Yeah, maybe I'm home in two hours, maybe not. Right. So all of a sudden you're on somebody else's schedule, it's like okay, dude.

SPEAKER_02 13:11

See, it used to be kind of scary. I used to go mountain biking a lot by myself, night rides, whatever, and all the stuff. Before you had a phone technology, I'm like, uh, if I you know hit a tree, fall in a ditch, nobody will know where I am. Yeah. Now I got like a companion app. Like literally, or like my wife has the same thing. I was like, go ride in the woods. I don't really care. I'll find you. Like I can look. I'll find you. I'll find you tomorrow, but I'll find you. No, no, no, that's not true because I can see if she's not moving. Oh, you can literally see the speed. What is the companion app? Uh, it's like this one's life 360 or something like that. It's okay. Maybe I should. If you want to cheat on your wife, it's a bad idea. Just so you know. Gotcha. Not that I'm planning on doing it. I'm not even gonna joke about that. I know. No, because you can see it, like sometimes I'm like, she's like, I'm almost home. I was like, Are you? I was like, Yeah, you are.

SPEAKER_06 13:57

It's like no, listen. I think this is the first time he and he has brought up a topic where you two froze for a minute.

SPEAKER_04 14:03

So speaking of this, so this is like 1995, 90. I'm teaching, and like I'm teaching with a bunch of these old guys that are like 30 years in. So they start teaching in like the early 60s. They're reminiscing about JFK's assassination, like six period lunch. I'm like, drink in like Friday. So I come in with a cell phone. A couple guys come in with a phone and they look at it and they're like, I don't even know how you guys cheat on your wives. That was what they had to say. Wow. And they're like, You want to be home at like 6 p.m. I gotta stop off at work and do some things. Yeah. Like, I guess you did.

SPEAKER_02 14:39

See, the only reason why I I I know a lot of weird things like that is because I had a you like I still have a YouTube channel where I tested products, so I did give advice on certain things to do and how to ride and what to like just cycling advice. How many hits do you get on that channel? Because it's a cool channel. I have like the hit the videos can be absolute duds, and I don't care because sometimes I'm like, this is the video I want to make and I don't care, right? So I'll just put it out there because I want to do it.

SPEAKER_03 15:05

Yeah, but you have some really funny stuff.

SPEAKER_02 15:09

Like I have some good ones when I know I kind of I I kind of figured out how to play the system, yeah, but it's not fun. Chasing the analytics and doing a thing that works, and I was like, ugh, it's a little cringe. You know what I mean? I did like I knew that like how to get on a bicycle, how just to mount a bicycle would get a lot of views. So I'm like, all right, I'm doing it, right? And that worked, yeah, yeah. Right. But it's not what I want to do. But I did a video about um, you know, like people like people want to murder you, but when you know, like the driver car thing and all that stuff, or like I had one short I made which was really revealing, the comments are revealing. That's what gives me an insight into the public, and sometimes you don't want to know what the public says, but I do read it. And I was like, I I don't I don't engage, but I look at it once in a while. I did a it was like a funny thing, it was like get off my lawn kind of, you know, like plain eastward. There was like uh it was um a short where I ask uh for five feet of your front yard for a bike path in imminent domain. I'm like all for it. Take my you know, five feet of my front yard if I can get a bike path.

SPEAKER_04 16:18

Dude, I want someone to take my entire yard.

SPEAKER_02 16:20

Oh my god. People were like up in arms, like five feet of their front yard to get a bike path in.

SPEAKER_04 16:26

For what, dude? So you could sit there on your mower drinking beer. I paid for my land.

SPEAKER_02 16:31

I was like, that's imminent first. You're gonna get some money back because they will pay you equivalent for your first fee, you know, five feet. You know, so you got a lot of craziness.

SPEAKER_04 16:40

I bet that got a lot of craziness.

SPEAKER_00 16:42

That gets ugly.

SPEAKER_04 16:43

Yeah, that that actually played out here when they put the Empire Trail in up Henry W. Du Bois. Took a Yeah, took about that. At least that people raised chaining themselves to trees, I'm getting lawyers, you're terrible.

SPEAKER_02 16:56

Now they walk around on a shopping like I'm not gonna say who said this now, but somebody told me once they were trying to do a bike path through Woodstock and get rid of the parking in front of the build you know, businesses. Yeah, it makes complete sense to me. And the businesses were up in arms. Because why you you have like three cars in front of your store.

SPEAKER_03 17:17

Meanwhile, they get more traffic from people in their stores off of freaking bikes or riding bikes.

SPEAKER_02 17:22

Right. So they never they didn't get it through.

SPEAKER_03 17:24

Half those people are parking in Woodstock to go somewhere to walk somewhere else. I know they can far away behind the shops there.

SPEAKER_04 17:32

Yeah, yeah. You still do the Woodstock Christmas? Yeah, man. Yeah, I've been there a bunch. It's cool. Love Woodstock.

SPEAKER_03 17:38

So let's get back to you're in Germany. You're cycling.

SPEAKER_04 17:40

I'm stuck at 12. Hockey, age 12. Hockey thing is stuck.

SPEAKER_03 17:45

End the podcast and you'll be 12 years old. You're cycling.

SPEAKER_02 17:48

Um, okay, so then uh became a tool and die maker because you have to have a job, right, before you do anything else in Germany, you know, those are the rules. So I did that. It's a good rule though. It's a good rule. You know, before you start a professional career, we need that rule here. Athletic career. So I at age 16, I'd well, you know, finished my school, which was I don't even know what that is the equivalent of. There's like just you finished like a high school. Something like that. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. And then went to trade school. Yep. Uh and then I had to serve a year in the military, which is also one mandatory.

SPEAKER_04 18:19

How was that? It's fun. Where were you stationed?

SPEAKER_02 18:21

Uh I was in the Black Forest. Ooh, that's nice. With the athletic division, which is basically I did my basic training and then what year is it? Road bikes. Mountain bikes. No, it was mountain bikes. Yeah, cool.

SPEAKER_03 18:32

That's how you did your patrol.

SPEAKER_02 18:33

Uh no, actually, uh that was part of the service, is representing Germany around the world. Oh, okay. I was a national team member.

SPEAKER_04 18:41

What year is are we talking of? We're talking 1993. Okay, so the wall the walls down.

SPEAKER_02 18:46

Walls down, yeah, exactly, which is also an exciting, yeah, right. Yeah, doubled our competition, you know what I mean? Yeah. Which is like people don't think about that. No, as a West German, we're all of a sudden like we're on like we were still divided in uh in the athletic aspect, right? Because you wanted to be on the national team. And they were all doped up, right? All of a sudden, you may not be on the national team anymore based on new reunification. Right, exactly. All of a sudden there was a lot of strong athletes coming over.

SPEAKER_04 19:16

They were strong athletes, right?

SPEAKER_02 19:17

Exactly. And you'd be like, okay, now I'm not in the national team, right? Great, that's awesome. So there was a lot of that. But um, yeah, so military service. Uh then so 12. I was oh, started racing mountain bikes just around 1992, I think.

SPEAKER_04 19:35

So this is early mountain bike racing.

SPEAKER_02 19:36

Yeah, yeah. I think 92 was the first one I raced. Uh 93, I did win the overall World Cup. World two. So it worked out alright.

SPEAKER_04 19:46

Yeah, you did well. I did well pretty quick.

SPEAKER_02 19:48

And then 94 was pretty so where was that? This was uh well, the World Cup was all over the like was a series. Series.

SPEAKER_03 19:54

Yeah, but where did you win it? Like, where was that race?

SPEAKER_02 19:57

Um, again, multiple races over time.

SPEAKER_03 20:00

And then you you won the the I got you.

SPEAKER_02 20:03

Yeah, it's like ski world cups, you know. You won the whole World Cup.

SPEAKER_03 20:05

It's okay.

SPEAKER_02 20:06

It's like you had to go, I think there was because two and there was one in Mount St. Ann, Canada. There was one in Vale, I believe. There was some Mammoth.

SPEAKER_04 20:16

There's one cool video clip on YouTube that always comes up. That's what I was gonna do.

SPEAKER_06 20:25

Yeah, they talk about how you wrecked one year or something, you were down, you were I think it was later.

SPEAKER_02 20:30

One video has like a lot of hits. Yeah, there's a couple of those. Yeah, yeah. I the one video the one the one video that doesn't have a lot of hits, is the one where I beat John Tomack and Mammoth. Because it was like everybody was cheering as Johnny T's, you know, Johnny T crossing the line, he has the fastest time, and then this German, like, it's me, right, coming through, and everybody's just like, oh, you know, oh it's like so sad. I didn't hear it, yeah. I only saw it later in the TV footage, you know, because in my eyes, I only saw my teammates and my mechanic celebrating. We were all doing our own celebration, you know, way back there. So I didn't know what the the crowd reaction didn't land.

SPEAKER_04 21:07

Deflated.

SPEAKER_03 21:08

I do say that was that was really cool to watch because they're saying your name, right? Like we know you, and like you know, you're you're it's like an Olympic thing, right? And they're like the announcers, like, oh, and he's coming around the corner and he's saying your name and all this cool stuff, and you're bombing this hill on a on a 1995 mountain bike that you know, you look at that today, like kids are riding those bikes now. You know what I mean? That's like the style of bike you get your little kid. Uh the equipment difference is huge. Yeah, you know, when you look at downhill cycling now, racing. Um So what are your take what's your take on that? Like how much if you were riding that but a bike like today, then Oh, it's we'd be crushing it. Yeah. A hundred percent. But the quite how much faster you think you would have gone?

SPEAKER_02 21:54

Not that much faster because the course has changed with it. Uh the bikes and the courses both Change. So you would take a like a good downhill bike from now and put it on a walk-up course from nineteen ninety-three. You'd have a hard time because you'd have to pedal your butt off. Oh. Because they weren't quite as steep. There were a little bit more pedaling sections. And so that wouldn't pedal as well.

SPEAKER_03 22:15

You are pedaling your ass off in that one video.

SPEAKER_02 22:16

I do notice that. And there's a lot of times there were like sharp corners and you had to accelerate. Accelerating these bikes now, today is a lot of more work than you know the old bikes.

SPEAKER_04 22:27

So that's a trade-off. Great point. Never put that thing, never thought about that. Yeah, me neither.

SPEAKER_02 22:32

You couldn't. Yeah, uh at certain points I I would it would be a toss.

SPEAKER_03 22:37

So you could like talk. Even while some of the drops are bigger because you've got better suspension and whatnot, but now you've got that the longer pedaling sections and the turns that you might have to do.

SPEAKER_02 22:47

The hand on hand angles are so slack on these downhill bikes now. If you actually take that bike into a moderate slope, it handles like garbage.

SPEAKER_04 22:56

You'd like to talk to the guys winning today, be like, you guys don't even pedal your bikes, man. They don't even pedal.

SPEAKER_02 23:02

They don't.

SPEAKER_04 23:02

Right.

SPEAKER_02 23:03

No. No. I mean, there's been cases, what is it? Joe Malale. Didn't he get like a top did he win or did he get a L without a chain? Without a chain, yeah. He snapped this chain out of the gate and he got like a podium to uh and a World Cup. That's amazing. Yeah. Because of the the grade and the steepness. Yeah. That's possible. That's crazy.

SPEAKER_03 23:24

I guess you don't even need it. Right. You don't need it then.

SPEAKER_02 23:27

The last world championship I raced was in uh Italy. Trying to remember what time it was. It doesn't matter. It in Italy it was so steep. I mean, it was literally like it was all about braking. And that's what it is. It's all about braking and where and how late. And it's it's more like car racing that way. You know?

SPEAKER_04 23:45

Sounds terrifying.

SPEAKER_02 23:46

Yeah, it is terrifying. That was my last.

SPEAKER_04 23:47

I don't even I'm not a big descender. I'm coming down from Mohawk on my brakes. Like looking at 35 miles an hour.

SPEAKER_08 23:55

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 23:56

So and then uh 94, I met my wife. She was a mountain bike racer too, Stacey, born and raised in Queens. Uh so that was kind of you know, that's when it started with the US. You know, like I got a sponsor, it was Barracuda Bicycles back then, which was also a bad choice because they went bankrupt like a year later. I had a three-year deal with them and then went back after year one. Yeah. So I was kind of you know stuck in limbo there just before a season, and then uh Schwin picked me up, and they were based out of Boulder. So I moved to the US in 1995, and I lived in uh 1995? Yeah, 1995. Uh lived in Riverdale in the Bronx.

SPEAKER_04 24:35

Oh right. For a year. Kind of a cool place, Riverdale.

SPEAKER_02 24:39

It's cool. Actually, mountain biking, Van Cortland Park, they were like I mean, not anymore, but back then there was some like you know, yeah, decent cross-country in there.

SPEAKER_04 24:48

Yeah, it was fun. Yeah, kind of its own little enclave like Riverdale.

SPEAKER_02 24:51

Yeah, so and then uh signed a deal with Swin, and I figured I moved to Boulder, be closer to them, and seemed also to be like kind of central for the US to travel. Um, so and I stuck out uh three years I was out there, you know. Bought my first real estate, which was a double byte trailer.

SPEAKER_03 25:12

Nice, it's gotta start somewhere.

SPEAKER_02 25:14

Well, no, you know what it is when you're racing bikes. You uh I was trying, I mean, you make money, but you don't, you know, it's not like football or hockey. You don't make a lot of money. You make money, but like what electrician money or something, like plumber's money, right? Yeah, good money.

SPEAKER_03 25:28

Still pretty good.

SPEAKER_02 25:29

Look up, not bad, but you gotta make sure that you kind of keep that money for yourself somehow. So I figured I was traveling a lot. Uh I didn't want to waste the money on rent, and I didn't really care what kind of house it is. I just wanted to live rent-free. Yeah. More or less. And I figured there was like, I think I paid like $20,000 for a double-way trailer in like Lafayette, just outside the boulder. And I was like, okay, do the math, stay there for years, whatever, two years, and then sell it for the same amount, live rent-free, fine. Sure. So that was kind of the first dip into it. It only lasted a year, and then I sold it and I bought a house, and then started the renovation craze every off-season. I know, I got into that because I'm like, oh, value going up. Yeah, yeah. Put work in in the off-season. So I can basically make money racing all year round, and then off-season I can work on my house and improve that equity and make money that way eventually, and then sell that every two. I sold my house every two years. I like doing another. Right, because I I found out that you don't have to pay any capital gains taxes on your primary prior primary property after two years, which seemed like a like a German person that seemed like ludicrous. Like I was like, why is not everybody doing this? Yeah, crazy.

SPEAKER_08 26:42

Right.

SPEAKER_02 26:42

So I started doing that in 1995, basically. I bought that in a year 96. I bought the first house. So from 96, 98, and then I did you're still racing now during that time. Yeah, I'm just racing.

SPEAKER_03 26:55

Are you going now with when you're going all over the world?

SPEAKER_02 26:58

Yep. Yep. Yeah. But they're still in a good off-season chunk. Yeah. You know, I mean, we had Winter X games that threw that in there for the fun of it, see if it has any traction, like ESPN, which it did for a second, and then it didn't. They're like, we love it. We don't. We don't. No, they had the speed event in Crestabute where we're just going straight down, which is I I remember seeing some of that. It was kind of fun, but also dumb at the same time. Because they did that in skiing.

SPEAKER_04 27:25

Like down like how to do it.

SPEAKER_02 27:27

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 27:29

Yeah, and like how fast you can hit. And some of those guys it's coming down a crib, steep hill 100 miles an hour.

SPEAKER_02 27:34

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 27:35

Right.

SPEAKER_02 27:35

Yeah. Um so that was, you know, fun while it lasted. It was good money, you know, ESPN. You know, I mean, you I think it was like four or five thousand dollars to win it or so. It's a good paycheck.

SPEAKER_04 27:47

Yeah. Yeah. So how long did you stay racing for?

SPEAKER_02 27:52

Um paid. See, this is the thing. Professional in my eyes means paid. Paid. Yeah. Yeah. Well, here is, you know, there's a lot of people that are like, I'm pro racing.

SPEAKER_04 28:02

I race pro, but I'm pro and I get water bottles and like a sweatshirt.

SPEAKER_02 28:06

Yeah, I get you know, granola bars or something. Exactly. Free granola bars. So pro professionally, I got paid. I think I got paid two years to race road. I raced against Lance and all this stuff.

SPEAKER_04 28:16

On the Continental Tour, before Lance.

SPEAKER_02 28:18

Uh before World Championship Lance. Okay. Like bigger Lance. Yeah. You know what I mean? Yeah. This was like I was like 18, 90. This is be prior mountain bike, right? And then I raced mountain bikes from I hear he was a real dick back then, too.

SPEAKER_04 28:31

I never talked to him really. A lot of the guys that ride write about him, and I've read a lot of cycling stuff. Like Lance, like the swimmer Lance, transitioning into cyclists. Yeah. When he was young, he was a real jerk. Was like angry at people beating him. Yeah. Yeah. Not surprising.

SPEAKER_02 28:49

He didn't win that race that I was in. Nice. So it's great. I hope he's listening, Lance. Yeah, Lance. He's my I I think he's my age, right? Or a year older, maybe. I think it might be one year older. How old are you? 54?

SPEAKER_04 29:02

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 29:02

I think he's 55. He might be about that. Somewhere around there. Yeah. But um and then I raced from 92 to like 2001-ish. Okay. Yeah, it fiddled out. It fizzled out a little bit. Um there wasn't enough money to get another deal. And I was like, you know, maybe it's you know, you heard yourself. Yeah. It's pretty dangerous.

SPEAKER_03 29:25

Yeah, for sure.

SPEAKER_02 29:26

So you want to get compensated for the possibility of injury and what could happen. And you know, at a certain I think I I had like a the only offer that year I had like $50,000 for the season. I was like, I'm just pass.

SPEAKER_03 29:39

Wow.

SPEAKER_02 29:39

I mean, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 29:40

Yeah. So what kind of pressures is there when you're a sponsor to to do whatever they tell you to do? Is that just the deal? You gotta race whatever they are. Can you say no? Terrifying and like harassing you to do better.

SPEAKER_02 29:50

No, it you'd put I think everybody puts more pressure on no, you don't need anybody else to put pressure on you. Yeah, you're doing it. You're doing it to yourself. But there were times when people I mean, I did. I had a heart wreck, a crash, I mean, probably concussion, you know, 100% concussion, and trying to get back on the bike or broken wrist, you know what I mean? I was like, yeah, that'll be like three, four weeks and I'll try it again, you know, just way too early to go back in.

SPEAKER_08 30:14

You know what I mean?

SPEAKER_02 30:15

I mean, that's why the goal is always to get a two or three year deal.

SPEAKER_08 30:18

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 30:18

Because then you like have a little calmness where you like, you know, plus the calmness will allow you to take some risk and the risk will allow you to get better results, right? Yeah, yeah. So it's kind of like, uh, it's always a gamble. And then if you have like an end year, like you're not having another deal yet, and you have to risk to get good results, to get a new contract, yeah, and you're having a shitty year, then you really, you know. And there's always new people coming in.

SPEAKER_04 30:41

Yeah, you're always young ones being with all these young guys who were just like reckless. Right, right, right, right. So it's a tough life.

SPEAKER_02 30:48

It was fun in the beginning, and then it turned into a little bit of a it was stressful, I would say.

SPEAKER_04 30:55

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 30:56

Making a living at it, like making that pay the bill.

SPEAKER_04 30:58

And it's not fun anymore. When it's that stressful, right?

SPEAKER_02 31:01

A little bit. Yeah, it takes the fun out. Yeah. Exactly.

SPEAKER_04 31:03

It's still fun because that's your passion, but it's like, okay, I'm not working.

SPEAKER_02 31:06

Right. I mean, it's obviously fun. I'm still doing it. You're still doing it. Exactly. I mean, I'm not doing the only thing I don't do, I don't race any gravity events. If it starts at the top and finishes at the bottom, I'm not, I'm out. I'm done. Yeah. Not doing nose anymore. Because I did those still for fun afterwards, but it was always about who can beat me, which is like I don't I I still know how to go fast. So it's like kind of like I got trapped into this whole like competition. I can't stop it. So I had to literally I now broke my back and Alp Duez, broke two vertebrates. I was kind of screwed.

SPEAKER_04 31:38

On Alp Duez? Yeah. On a mountain bike event.

SPEAKER_02 31:42

Yeah, yeah, it was the one that started from the glacier all the way down. It's about a it's about fifth, that's an hour almost descend. Literally, you know, like you know the top of Alp Duez? Yeah where the stage race finishes, yeah, with a hotel on the way up. That's halfway point, you know that, right?

SPEAKER_04 31:58

Yeah. That's half. So you're at the top. We're at the glacier.

SPEAKER_02 32:02

We're starting on snow.

SPEAKER_04 32:03

What's the elevation of that?

SPEAKER_02 32:04

I don't know. Is it like it's above treeline, way above? It must be like 2,500 meters. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 32:11

I don't know. So that's that's a good amount right there. 2,500. You're like something like nine up there. 8,000, 8,500.

SPEAKER_02 32:17

Yeah. So that was kind of the end of my gravity racing, you know, plans. I was like, I'm not doing that anymore. So I just figured I just do cycle anything that starts on like the same elevation, cyclocross, road. Bro, would also I kind of pulled back a little bit because there's just the crashes that happen on the road are I would say 90% not your fault, right? You're just proximity of some clown or the proximity of somebody hooking bars, not even their fault either. Yeah, shit happens. So I was like, I wanted to rule that out. I want us like if I'm crashing, I just want to be mad at myself. No, but not anybody else. So mountain biking is great, cyclocross is great, you know, those those things are great.

SPEAKER_03 32:59

You know, did you race some cyclocross or just do it for fun?

SPEAKER_02 33:02

Yeah, uh, I did a lot. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 33:04

All right.

SPEAKER_02 33:04

Not the last two years, but the years you know, prior, we did like national championships and everything. So that's good. Cyclocross.

SPEAKER_03 33:10

Yeah, kind of so now you're you're doing all this racing, it's like 2001-ish, and you're you're you're kind of not racing anymore at that professional level. You're doing racing though just because it's your thing.

SPEAKER_02 33:24

Yeah. And my wife is a hair and makeup artist from Queens, and we're living in Colorado. Right? Enough said. Where are we going to move? Yeah. You know, I'm phasing out my racing career, right?

SPEAKER_03 33:38

Let me guess.

SPEAKER_02 33:39

New York.

SPEAKER_03 33:40

Yeah, what a guess.

SPEAKER_02 33:41

And then also I I did go to New Paul's the first very first time I rode up in uh uh in the gunks was in '95. Early on in the gun. Yeah, in 95, and when the carriage roads were like rough.

SPEAKER_04 33:53

Rough.

SPEAKER_02 33:53

They were great.

SPEAKER_04 33:54

There was like technical skills were they were all like the backside of a wasteing was like two years ago. Oh, yeah. Right, right. Yeah, they were really like no one was riding on them. Slabs everywhere, slab, slab, slab, slab.

unknown 34:05

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 34:06

Not like today.

SPEAKER_02 34:06

No, and then Larson's loop back then. We did a bunch. The Larson loop. Yeah, it was great. And then um, I don't know, Dave Seeger. Does that make sour? It was a it's a funny, it was a different cycling community back then. It was very loops was big, like as far as the underground, you know, like little illegal kind of rides up into Mohank.

SPEAKER_04 34:29

They had the illegal rides, the illegal run, the Yeah, we don't do those anymore.

SPEAKER_02 34:34

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 34:35

Now everything's like, hey, we're gonna charge you a huge fee to do that. Yeah, I know.

SPEAKER_02 34:39

Well, we did a couple of uh moonlight night rides up in Mohk. Yeah. Those were great. No lights. No lights.

SPEAKER_04 34:47

There's still some there's still some bootleg.

SPEAKER_02 34:51

Not recommended.

SPEAKER_04 34:52

No, but there's still allegedly I've not participated in any of these moonlight nights across the waste or the bike rides with no lights on. You know.

SPEAKER_02 35:03

Yeah, different times.

SPEAKER_04 35:04

I read an article.

SPEAKER_02 35:05

I mean, also I bought a house on Springtown Road, not far from here, for $90,000.

SPEAKER_04 35:10

Yeah. Yeah. Flood zone, but yeah, that's our floor. Yeah, besides the flooding. It's great.

SPEAKER_02 35:15

But it's $90,000. If it floods away, what do I care? Let a flood away.

SPEAKER_04 35:20

I have a friend bought a house right on Springtown Road, and he's a hundred-year floodplain, and he's pinning me down. He's like, Well, there was a flood there like every year. Hurricane Sandy, he's like 100 years, should get me 93 years. I'm like, that's not how it works.

SPEAKER_02 35:31

That's not how it works.

SPEAKER_03 35:32

That's not what it means exactly.

SPEAKER_02 35:33

But that flood is never gonna rip your house away anyway. No. It's just such a slow.

SPEAKER_04 35:37

They just like they just put everybody put their house like after the last floods.

SPEAKER_03 35:41

It's not like a torrent. No. Right. Yeah, put your hurricane flooding.

SPEAKER_02 35:45

Boiler on blocks and whatever, like the last flood line you see in the basement. Right, go above. You're good. Yeah, right. I had two acres and then I know it flooded once, and I had no acres. Exactly.

SPEAKER_04 35:56

I just how far up Spring today, a couple miles?

SPEAKER_02 35:59

Um, you know, we're going from New Paul's to Rosendale, yeah, past the rail trail. Yep. There's that left bend. I know where it is. The right the house, the ranch on the right. I know exactly the house is.

SPEAKER_04 36:09

I know who lives there now.

SPEAKER_02 36:10

Okay. She's a realtor too, by the way. Yeah. Yeah. Because I talked to her. I was like, hey, how's it going? You want to sell your house? And I go, No, I'm a realtor. I was like, uh it's fine. Um that house has a telephone pole, like in that corner. In the corner. You know which one I do. I know the exact pole gets hit all the time. And it got hit while I was living there too. Oh, okay. And there's a transformer that falls right onto your hood then. And it's classic, yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 36:34

Don't move the hood, Sandra Hudson. Yeah, it's like don't move the house. Don't move that pole.

SPEAKER_02 36:38

Yeah, yeah. So, yeah. That was the first house. And then and when was that? I bought that in 2000, I believe. Okay. 90,000. I fixed it up again, two years, and then sold it for like, I don't know, 200 or something. I have no idea. Something like that. Two years later.

SPEAKER_04 36:53

Now that house probably going for like 600.

SPEAKER_02 36:55

Probably, but flood insurance is really killing those places. Yeah. You know, I know I had to have flood insurance because I believe it or not, $9,000. I still had a mortgage. And flood insurance, I think back then was like five or six hundred dollars a year.

SPEAKER_04 37:08

And listen. This is pre-Katrina and that place floods out like after a good size rain and like a flood, spring flood, they have the kayaks pulled up to the front door. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 37:17

I kayak all underwater. I kayaked from a garage into you know the wall kill all the way just out of the garage. Yeah. You know, it was great. Yeah. But it wasn't great because I was like, No, it sucks. Yeah, it's great. Oh, that's my house. Yeah, I know. It's a bit of a problem. I know. Uh and then we moved from there, started moving to I went to Lapla Road, uh Lamontville.

SPEAKER_04 37:40

So it's like I ride my bike by there all the time.

SPEAKER_02 37:43

So it's a ro sh uh shoken reservoir. Because I you know one thing about being a cyclist is you know all the good roads.

SPEAKER_04 37:50

You that that is a serious thoroughfare for riders right up there.

SPEAKER_02 37:54

Yeah, yeah. Uh Shokan Road, Lapla Road, all those. Canary Hill, all these loops off of Hurley Mountain Road. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, yeah. The bad path.

SPEAKER_04 38:03

The van wagon and what's great.

SPEAKER_02 38:06

Um, so we moved over there, Lapla, and then two years later again, moved to Quarry Road further up, you know. And then Cory Road, I stuck around for a while. That was a good house.

SPEAKER_04 38:17

Now you're up by the res. You're up by pretty much spillway.

SPEAKER_02 38:20

Spillway road. Yeah. I could hear the spillway at night when it was. That's nice. Cool. It's a nice area. Also, I could hear uh the Accord Speedway from up there. Oh wow, which is like 10 miles away or something like that. It's so loud. The wind blows, I was like, ooh, Friday night racing. Yeah. By the way, I loved it. I used to go there watch all the.

SPEAKER_04 38:38

I have not been there in years, but I had friends in high school that raced there and we would go, and it's it's fun.

SPEAKER_02 38:43

If I had friends from Germany, that was like one of my first things. I would take them to the Accord Speedway basing. They're just like, oh my God, this is amazing. It's all dust. It's the most American thing ever. Birds flying in your face. I was like, don't wear your nice clothes. Let's just go to Africa.

SPEAKER_04 38:55

So my sister, my sister's like, she has I have two nephews, they're like 13 12-year-old boys, Buddy and Wilson. So she's like, maybe we should take him to Speedway. I'm like, listen, those kids from Southern California, this is right up their alley. They're gonna be so they can't say I burned wrapping paper in the fire pit. They're like thinking it's like a citywide band. I'm like, uh so I'm like, listen, we'll all go up to Agway or Accord. I'm like, but you leave your political philosophy at home. I'm like, I don't need you up there like spouting off about that we're going up there to enjoy the race. Just shut there, everyone's gonna be able to get it. Leave your white sneakers at home. Yeah, just be done.

unknown 39:34

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 39:35

And they're just California, right? They have white sneakers. She was like, I don't know if I could do that. I'm like, I'm not taking your kids up there to get in arguments with people because you're telling them how they're stupid hicks. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, whatever. Bad idea. Stay here. I'll watch TV. Did you go? No. You didn't go. I drew the line. I'm like, I don't trust you. I don't want you coming with us.

SPEAKER_02 39:53

See, this is the thing, you know. I when you but this is like kind of out the window, unfortunately, in the last couple of years because the political scene is kind of sucks right now. And the PR America's PR campaign is real shit.

SPEAKER_04 40:03

No, it's it's worse than shit.

SPEAKER_02 40:05

And I talk to Germans, right? My people are like, you know, like, what are you doing over there? It's not that like everything's great over there either, but it's not it's not not here. It's not it's not great. But I I wanna I want to get along with my neighbors, I want to get along with everybody, right? So I kind of try to I mean, you try to avoid those I don't almost don't want to know.

SPEAKER_04 40:26

Yeah, you don't want to know when it's like if someone starts talking to a certain thing, I don't care.

SPEAKER_03 40:31

No, you know, as far as like I know what you're saying, and not knowing is probably better because if you're just talking to someone that's your neighbor or lives on your street, yeah, that's what you're talking about. Yeah. It's hard to ignore the flags somewhere. It's hard to ignore the flags. Flags are over the top. You can if yes, but if you can move past the flags and focus on the person and you focus it on like, hey, how's your garden going? Or I don't know, you got a lot of did you did you have a hard time plowing or shoveling this winter? Talk about life.

SPEAKER_02 41:00

Maybe my my realtors spin on this.

SPEAKER_03 41:01

Yeah. Like, yeah, okay.

SPEAKER_02 41:03

Like your property value depends on flags too.

SPEAKER_03 41:07

Yeah, I can see that.

SPEAKER_02 41:08

It really does. I can see that. You're selling a house and the flags pretty close by not great. And I don't know if that matters which flags, but I feel like it does.

SPEAKER_03 41:17

You know what though? I'll say this. I I bought a house and in in 2020, and very, very, very close were many, many flags. Yeah, more flags in one property than I think I've ever seen flags. And I was like, wow, okay. Um but that individual and the the people that live there, I have no problems with them. Flags aside, they're great, they're great neighbors, solid neighbors, solid people. They stop and say hi, they know my kid's name, listen and I feel safe that they're there. Because like my daughter's riding around, she's by herself, someone's gonna see and be like, what are you doing?

SPEAKER_04 41:54

I think it's here's my problem with flags. I don't care what I have friends that are Republican, Democrats, I could care less. They're great people. If you're a good person, you're a good person. Yeah right? The flags. I taught world history for 30 plus years. Take your flag down. You have a Trump flag, freaking Trump, Stalin, Hitler, E D you mean. Only guys with flags. Enough already. It's bullshit.

SPEAKER_02 42:17

That's put it down. Cycling.

SPEAKER_04 42:20

Anyway, that's the rant.

SPEAKER_02 42:21

I had to give my wrong. I just gave it like my I know I started. Sorry if that was too much for everybody.

SPEAKER_04 42:26

It's my fault. Jeff, are you okay with my old man rant? It's gonna happen. Yeah, I could care less. Fucking jerk. Don't give comments to the podcast. Go fuck yourself. You need sound bites for the clip.

SPEAKER_03 42:36

Easy, easy, pal. All right, easy.

SPEAKER_02 42:38

We need our listeners here. Quick bait, sound bites. All right. We all know.

SPEAKER_03 42:41

Let's get back to Jurgen here.

SPEAKER_02 42:43

Enough. Let's get back to the back.

SPEAKER_04 42:44

Jurgen, I apologize.

SPEAKER_02 42:45

No, I I started it. So you did, Jurgen. Nice work. I know.

SPEAKER_03 42:50

So I told you. Jurgen, I you know, we I met you through um the Woodstock shop, the bike shop, and on some group rides, as a matter of fact. Um, some of them being like those Saturday morning rides.

SPEAKER_04 43:01

So you would just roll into the bike shop at Billy's shop, and like you guys are riding.

SPEAKER_03 43:05

He would have a an organized Saturday morning ride. Then Jurgen would show up. Jurgen was there. A lot excited. People were there. And um, yeah, it was road ride.

SPEAKER_02 43:14

It was like nine in the morning, right? Saturday and nine in the morning.

SPEAKER_03 43:16

Saturday and nine in the morning. We'd ride, do a do a ride, um, a a good, a fairly good no-drop ride for the most part. People stuck together on those for the most part.

SPEAKER_02 43:26

Like 10 minutes or so.

SPEAKER_03 43:27

Yeah. And uh halfway up overlook, you're done. Well, but it was cool because then we'd come back to the shop and there'd be coffee and like Danishes. That's my kind of group ride. And we'd all hang out for a little bit.

SPEAKER_02 43:37

That's when he still had the couch in the shop.

SPEAKER_03 43:39

I know the couch was in there, it was beautiful.

SPEAKER_02 43:41

My God, the couch.

SPEAKER_03 43:41

That beat up old couch. Couch is out?

SPEAKER_02 43:43

Couch was out.

SPEAKER_03 43:44

Well, he's got the new shop now. Didn't bring the couch, didn't make the cut. No. No.

SPEAKER_02 43:49

Nope.

SPEAKER_03 43:49

No.

SPEAKER_02 43:50

Sad day when the couch left, I'm telling you.

SPEAKER_03 43:52

Um so when did you start riding with those guys? How'd you meet all them?

SPEAKER_02 43:56

Hmm. It's a good question. I don't know. A few I feel like I was lonely and I wanted to like meet people. Yeah. And I went to like, hey, stace, let's go ride. There was also a moment in time when I really took off from cycling a bit, especially after breaking my back. It was two years out. It was like, you know, I had to kind of get back into it, you know. And groups is a good way of meeting people and just getting back sucked into the community. And like it's a commitment of like people calling you out to go on the rides, you know, because you know, it's a little bit of like you're committing to a certain day a week to go ride with your friends. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 44:30

You know, it's kind of cool. Like you so you roll in, don't really know anybody, you want to meet some people. Yeah. And you're like, yeah, I'm world champ. No, I don't ever. I didn't even know that.

SPEAKER_02 44:40

No, I didn't know that. I didn't know that until recently. I don't really like talking about it. Yeah, no, I'm sure. It's a past.

SPEAKER_03 44:45

I knew you from this. That's what we talked about one time. Can we yeah, let's talk about the hanger. So talk about the hanger a little bit. Because that's how the website you had was always cool.

SPEAKER_04 44:55

You had cool stuff that when you were reviewing these stuff on the website. Right. I love that.

SPEAKER_03 44:59

That's when I one when I first met you, that or one of the right around that time is when you were doing that first iteration. The shelf feed uh the shelfie. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And and I remember you talking about it, and you're like, I'm building this thing, you're talking all about it. Oh, it's great. What's he building?

SPEAKER_04 45:15

Helmet in there.

SPEAKER_03 45:15

Um so talk, let's let's share a little bit about the hangar and how you got started with that, right? What it was, what it became, and what it is now.

SPEAKER_02 45:23

All right, really quick on how I got there. So after cycling, I worked in construction for a while. Actually, uh Jordan Mills, you probably know him, right?

SPEAKER_04 45:32

I know the name.

SPEAKER_02 45:33

Yeah, climber. Um did construction, then I started my own little remodeling gig, tinted plaster, then 2008 housing crisis, nobody wanted to fix the housing because they all hated the houses. So I started building furniture, cycling furniture. It's like, okay, how can I actually I was trying, I was building some really cool tables, floating tables, nightstand stuff. And I actually did the city tour of furniture stores. I'm trying to sell them, and they're all like, we love it, but we're not taking it because I had no name, no reputation, and it's all about that.

SPEAKER_04 46:06

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 46:06

I was like, you can make the nicest stuff out there in the world if you don't know the right people, they're not gonna take it. It doesn't matter. So I'm like, great, this kind of sucks. I'm good at what I'm doing, I just don't have an audience to sell to because I'm nobody, right? So I'm like, well, I'm somebody in this other audience because there's a cycling world. So I was like, let's make the carpentry furniture skills into something that works for that. So I was like, okay, I'll make a bike rack. And I kind of threw out all the ideas of how to make a bike rack, and I was how would I make a bike rack? I looked at in my garage and I was like, oh, my bike's all hanging by the seat on like a bar. It's like, okay, that's cool, but it's kind of inconvenient because you're kind of looking at it like it was always pointing at you.

SPEAKER_01 46:51

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 46:52

Like you couldn't make it along a wall, make it look nice. So that's when I decided to make a wall hanger that hangs the bike by the seat. Also left some storage open for a helmet. And uh, this was a Kickstarter phase back in the you know, the internet was still like fun.

SPEAKER_08 47:09

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 47:10

So I did a fundraiser on uh Kickstarter for that bike hanger. It was shelfy and got immediately a seasoned assist or something from like a company and like whatever. I I trademarked the name. I got hammered. Like I literally welcome to corporate America. Here's a lawsuit. Wow. I had it all done. They just I'm people that have money or corporations that have money can sue anybody for anything. Like you realize really quickly, as a small, small company, it's almost impossible to win any argument. I mean, luckily I had the CEO. Oh, was the CEO of uh what company was he working back then? Uh big uh you know uh cycling uh management guy, basically. I I had advice. I could talk to somebody. It was like listen, uh I have this trade trademark, my lawyer's telling me I can win this. He's like, How long have you been in business? Like, I was like, Well, they were like five weeks, like, change your name. Who cares? Literally, just like, okay, that's five thousand dollars for the trademark and redoing and all that. Like, he's like, No, change your name, it doesn't matter. Doesn't like it's who cares. You know, the lawyer thought I was losing my marbles because I was like, I don't care, I'll give it up. They can have it, you know what I mean? Because realizing the lawyer is making money on it, exactly.

SPEAKER_04 48:32

Yeah, I know. So I'm like, You want to fight that for 10 years. I know.

SPEAKER_02 48:35

He's like, You can win this. I was like, Oh, you can win this. I'm not, yeah. You know, so I took the advice from my friend who's in the in the cycling world, and he was like, So that's how the hanger came out. Then I actually talked to Billy about this because the original name was Shelfi, right? From Shelf, Shelfie, Selfie. It was like, that's kind of hokey, but the hanger's better. The hanger's better. But he said you have to make it German somehow, Germanized.

SPEAKER_03 48:57

You got the umla over the A there.

SPEAKER_02 48:58

So the hanger was the hanger, and then we got the. You guys did a great job. So I'm like, that's a good name. We'll do that, and nobody's gonna steal it because it's so dumb. Nobody wants it. So changed the trademark, gave that trademark to them, like you can have it. They never did anything with it. Yeah, by the way.

SPEAKER_03 49:13

Of course, they just want to own it.

SPEAKER_02 49:15

No, they actually wanted access to the product, they wanted to license the product and sell it on their site. So it was a bunch of bullshit, you know. So um, so started that and then became the manufacturing nightmare that is making the thing, which took two years, a long time, to get the tooling done.

SPEAKER_04 49:36

You know, I mean the tooling you had a background in the tool, die and tooling tool and dye making, exactly.

SPEAKER_02 49:40

But nobody wanted to listen to me. That's really hard, it's frustrating, you know, because I was like, they were doing we were doing injection molding, which I was like, there's a chance it could work. There's always a chance it doesn't.

SPEAKER_04 49:53

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 49:53

But uh it wasn't the way it wasn't working. We kept uh cracking the core, but the the mold kept failing, and I was like, okay. So we had to shift over to rotational molding, which is a different process, more of the way kayaks are made. Yeah. And then we had to uh foam fill them with like uh high density polyurethane to get the rigidity out of it. It was a real process, yeah. I bet wow I mean so we had to shift how how we make them.

SPEAKER_04 50:20

Now you're making both at this point, you're making the the sh the shelf with the helmet and the little men that are on the wall.

SPEAKER_02 50:27

And that was kind of like that's after you abandoned the shelfie product. When I bought the never abandoned it.

SPEAKER_03 50:31

Oh no, okay. Yeah, I made it. No, I have two of them. Yeah. But I thought you moved on, and then those became the other thing.

SPEAKER_04 50:37

Oh no, Jeff had the shelf. Oh yeah.

SPEAKER_03 50:40

Right.

SPEAKER_04 50:41

So then I saw them, yeah, and we were talking, and you told me, like, oh, I know this guy. He lives up at Woodstock, he makes it stop. So I checked out the website, and then at that point, I saw the other guys, little men. Dan? Yeah, I'm like, I like at that point.

SPEAKER_03 50:56

And those are after Dan Harper, right?

SPEAKER_04 50:57

Yes. Yeah, you're putting the mustove.

SPEAKER_02 50:58

Well, first of all, I was like, nobody That's so cool. Like, because I'm like, okay, I'm making a hanger that looks like a little guy. You know what I mean? It's like, so I'm gonna give him a name. So because it's really hard to hate Dan. You know what I mean? It's like you're gonna shit on us. Like, it's Dan. How are you gonna do that? Yeah, I love it. So I was like trying to make the indoor bike storing uh storage like world not boring and fun, you know what I mean.

SPEAKER_04 51:20

Some people are like cool.

SPEAKER_02 51:21

Some people are like just childish, it's like oh, make it once you make it a big chain where it's like, good idea, I'll make one. So I made that too. You know, actually, if you listen to the audience, they will tell you what they want and then you do it, and then like just take it to, you know, everybody loves them.

SPEAKER_04 51:35

My wife's the eyes on them.

SPEAKER_02 51:37

Yeah, yeah, googly eyes. Yeah, so many people love them.

SPEAKER_04 51:39

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 51:40

They were like the best seller, and that was saved the company. It really did save it, you know what I mean. Um, I had a good really good supplier in Pennsylvania, decent numbers, like good volume, and did wholesale to like performance bicycles and a lot of oh wow resellers.

SPEAKER_04 51:59

We did we did get it's spectacular, and I've hung some serious heavy bikes, like old school mountain bikes on there. So I knew the product was awesome when it showed up in a box, and like I bent down and picked it up, and I had three in the package. I was like, holy shit. It was I'm like, these are serious.

SPEAKER_02 52:15

Yeah, three three in a box, 16 pounds.

SPEAKER_04 52:17

Yeah, yeah. I was like, this is a nice product.

SPEAKER_02 52:20

7x12 box, by the way. I know I've shipped so many of them. I know. I know.

SPEAKER_04 52:25

Now, what's up with the company now? We talked a bit about upstairs.

SPEAKER_02 52:28

Uh, company is right now on ice. It's basically I closed it down. Yeah, there's a couple of reasons why. Uh, I mean, the projectory was like basically it was a bit of a slow start getting the manufacturing figured out, then it was straight up. Uh, I did everything, including Amazon, which probably was a mistake, maybe not. It was unavoidable, more or less. Uh, got a got a phone call from Amazon, and uh they basically said, We love what you're doing, you have really good reviews. We would like to make this whatever product available through like FBO, like uh fulfillment by Amazon, all these things, and we do dynamic some pricing bullshit. And I was like, What are you talking about? And he's like, Well, we're gonna decide the price based on demand. So I was like, That sounds like horseshit. Yeah, and I told him that I cannot shoot my bike shops in the back uh and then have it cheaper on Amazon. Like that's the point, right? Right, so they're like, you know, well, this is how you're gonna grow, this is the volume, da-da-da. And I was like, you know, I I politely declined on Amazon and I basically said no. And then maybe like two months later, there was the first knockoff, right? So then there were knockoffs, not just only in product, but also in marketing. They were actually using our images, they were basically using my wife hanging bikes. I love that Photoshop, their thing, like it was insane. There's absolute it's insane.

SPEAKER_04 54:02

Like the amount of uh that was your wife in the video, and they walk in and put all the bikes in the rock.

SPEAKER_02 54:06

That's cool. Yeah, the amount of takedown notices I had to send, fill out, you know, because of you know, copyright infringement. It was just exhausting. It was over, it is so overwhelming when that happens to you when you get knocked off. You cannot, you cannot fight that. And it's almost like it's I actually made made videos about I bought the product, tested it, it was cheaper, it was shittier, it was bending. It was like, oh, I understand why you're cheaper because it's garbage. Got it. Right. So it was just a lose lose, and then you read the customer uh reviews, and you're like, oh, I am going to lose this battle 100% because people just buy cheaper. They don't care, they don't care, they don't care where it's made, they don't care who made it, they don't care how long it lasts. So it's just like, oh, this isn't not gonna go well, right? So then I was like, okay, I'm gonna make another product, I'm not putting it on Amazon, and I'm gonna make it even better. And that was like a big chain ring, called it the big ring, and it was adjustable, adjustable shelves. So you can like, okay, now we're talking like if you want to go from a 650B to 29er, you can just slide the shelves, or you have like a yeah, you know, bigger crankset or something, you can just slide it or wider handleboard so you can slide it out. So all three parts were adjustable. I was like, great, is there anything on this like this on the world market? No, I'm first great patent. No, I'm not doing that anymore either because I've done a patent before and I got ripped off anyway. Yeah, so I'm just gonna say patent pending, lie like the Chinese, yeah, and just see what happens, right? That lasted maybe six months, and then it showed up on Amazon. Wow, so they were on my website, they were on my website looking at evil empire. Well, I don't know if it's Chinese suppliers, you know, because you end up getting a lot of like, hey, get your stuff made in China. It's like, and I got quotes actually out of Taiwan, and uh honestly, it would have would have been like a break-even-ish kind of because the way I make them are pretty heavy to ship them there and all the stuff. But I was like, you know what? No, I want to make it here. I want to do the thing that's I thought was right, which ended up killing the business in the long run because about what eight years ago we had the first uh steel tariffs, and not being politically, yeah, yeah, yeah. Because Trump, Biden, the steel tariffs stayed. They stayed, it was not about what party, and I'm almost not disagreeing with it that we needed them. I feel like it but what it did wrecked everything. My supplier, it is shit to bed, basically, in Pennsylvania. He's like, we gotta double the price. I was like, Great. If you double the price, that kills my wholesale. I gotta go only direct consumer. I can never raise my prices. I'm like, all right, let's see how long this goes for.

SPEAKER_04 56:42

Well, speaking of the speed, the tariffs that happened years ago, I've come realized, and I think you guys would agree, in a lot, not always, but there's a lot of anger over the person, whether whoever that person is, not the policy. I'm clearly it's a policy.

SPEAKER_02 56:59

I can separate person from policy. And I understand most Americans can't. I can. And I also to this point, I'm still mad that they haven't fixed the last mile delivery uh issue I have, that you could ship uh like stuff cheaper from China to a door than me across a street. Yeah. This pisses me off to this day. Seriously, yeah. You order something straight from China and it's like seven dollars to shipping, right? And I'm like, yeah, that's what it costs me to go across the street because it's that last mile delivery. Yep. And it's a it's an easy fix they could do.

SPEAKER_04 57:32

You kind of like when they found Purdue shipping, they were taking all their chickens, shipping them to China, they'd be butchered and packaged and shipped here and bring them back cheaper than they could be shipped from here to the house the stores. I'm like, how's that possible?

SPEAKER_02 57:48

Yeah, it's substantial.

SPEAKER_04 57:50

How can you put 6,000 miles in the way and it's shorter?

SPEAKER_02 57:52

Yeah, yeah. So that was uh kind of like the first little nudge on like I don't know if this is gonna end up, you know, and end well this movie, right? Um, but I mean I can give you numbers now, and that's probably interesting to the audience, or maybe not. Um like the best month I've ever had was like 40,000 a month.

SPEAKER_05 58:11

That's a lot.

SPEAKER_02 58:12

Damn. Well, to keep the doors open for an online business, right, with liability insurance. And again, I had like I had I had pictures of bikes hanging over Ferraris, and I'm like, I'm like, thank God I've insurance.

SPEAKER_03 58:27

Yeah, that thing fails.

SPEAKER_02 58:28

And I'm like, oh god. I'm sure the Chinese competitors, I mean, who are you gonna sue? Nobody, right? Nobody, yeah. But if that thing falls under Ferrari, who are you gonna sue?

SPEAKER_04 58:36

Me? They have 12-year-old kids in the exactly. How many people were working for you?

SPEAKER_02 58:41

Uh, me.

SPEAKER_04 58:42

Okay, so you were your guy.

SPEAKER_02 58:44

I'm it. I never so I had this brief moment where I was doing like this 35, 40 a month where I'm like, I have to rent storage. I have to, I actually went down south. I took a powder coating class because I was like, I'm gonna have to, I'm gonna want to bring stuff in. I wanted to start a the factory part. Yeah, because I'm gonna bring stuff in-house because I was too small for some of the big manufacturers. They were like, I would order 5,000 sets. They're like, that's not enough, you gotta order 20,000 units. I was like, I can't order whatever $60,000 worth of inventory right now. I don't feel comfortable with that, right? Yeah, but then I was too big for the small guys. I bring 4,000 units to the powder coater in Kingston. He would flip out. He was like, I can't do this. I was like, well, get with it. So I was in between, I was really stuck in between. I was not big enough to play with the big boys, and I was too big for the small guys. Okay.

SPEAKER_03 59:37

And it wasn't something you could bring it all in house because then it's just I was going to, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 59:41

And unluckily, I didn't. Right. I took the powder coating course, I knew what it was. I I I priced out how much it is to do a powder coating booth and all this stuff, you know, get a line going and like figured it all out. And then I saw the copycats and I was like, ooh, hold on, wait. You know, I just pulled back based on what I saw, like, how could this go? And I was like, I'm just gonna wait. And then I saw the numbers start turning downwards. And I was like, well, if it's turning downwards, I don't know if I can turn the ship around. So I'm not gonna invest people and money and sign leases. I'm not doing that. So then it was just a constant like struggle to kind of keep it there, and then it was starting to like literally get down. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 1:00:21

So how much product do you have hanging out, like somewhere in your house? Do you have any dans left?

SPEAKER_02 1:00:26

I got dan's left. I don't have a lot of shelves left. I have a lot of thick rings, I got sprockets left. So you have dans left? I have some left.

SPEAKER_04 1:00:34

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 1:00:34

If somebody emails me, I was like, I can, you know, just figure some out.

SPEAKER_03 1:00:38

Well, it's trying to get another dan.

SPEAKER_04 1:00:39

I'm gonna get I want another dan. I know. I don't know. I'm gonna put a couple dans down here, and I'm just like, okay, I'm just gonna put them right in the concrete. So you come down because I got a bike sitting here, I got a bike over this gonna hang them up.

SPEAKER_02 1:00:51

But have you seen the big ring? The big ring, too. Yeah, yeah. It's cool.

SPEAKER_04 1:00:54

Those are cool too. Very cool. Yeah. That would be actually the big ring would be cool because I have the Christmas party down here. Yeah. So people come down here. I put all the dessert down here. I have a lot of people upstairs. And a lot of the people that come here are cyclists. Yeah. So they would love it. They'd be down here checking it out. I might do that.

SPEAKER_02 1:01:10

And I used to have some at Billy's always at the bike shop, you know, like a box or two. Yep. You know.

SPEAKER_04 1:01:15

Is there anything still up there?

SPEAKER_02 1:01:16

No, not really. I mean, I'm not officially in business anymore. Yeah, yeah. You know, not official.

SPEAKER_04 1:01:20

But if I come email in or something, I could get one.

SPEAKER_02 1:01:23

I might find some.

SPEAKER_04 1:01:24

Okay. Glenn. Looking for an angle.

SPEAKER_02 1:01:27

I'll pay for it. No, I don't know. Um it's yeah, no, I'm not I'm not doing that right now. I just shifted into real estate fully now, which is fun.

SPEAKER_04 1:01:36

Yeah, yeah, for sure.

SPEAKER_03 1:01:37

Well, for for what it's worth, obviously Glenn loves the Dan. It's a great product. I've got the old one, the shelf. Actually, now it's even more I love them. We've got two of them in our garage. The put our bike stuff in there. The the shoes go in, the helmet sits on top, a couple other things in there. Now it's great. I love it.

SPEAKER_04 1:01:55

Now that's a better story because people could come in and be like, oh, look at that. I love that. Like, can't get it. That world champion Yerrigan design that made that. I got some. You can't ever get it. Yeah. No, that's true. Maybe if I reached out to him for you, I could, but I'm not. All right, let's go.

SPEAKER_03 1:02:10

So let's take a quick shift though, back to cycling. Are you you're still riding and you're still doing like gravel rides? You gravel riding up here. Any of the crazy?

SPEAKER_01 1:02:18

What is it? The B2G2 yesterday.

SPEAKER_02 1:02:21

Maybe that was a ride yesterday. Yeah, it was good. It was cold. Yeah. Yeah, it was cold yesterday. Like 45 and like drizzly. Where was that here? Berkshire's. Oh, okay. Yeah. Like like Chatham, like adjacent that way.

SPEAKER_04 1:02:33

Okay. Uh riding the road still?

SPEAKER_02 1:02:36

I do, yeah. I do, I know where to go.

SPEAKER_04 1:02:39

You should come do the cabin challenge. I was that's where I was going. Okay. What's that? I put on a couple of cycling. You'd love the cabin challenge. I have uh it used to right now I start for the pandemic, we started running it out of here. Wait, can he get in? Yeah, of course he's in. He's on me. He's on me. Come on. And it's an invite? Yeah.

SPEAKER_08 1:02:55

Oh shit, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 1:02:56

So, Jeff, you have his email, right? Yeah. So send him the CC website and then attach me to it. Okay. So I have four rides. They go from 45 to 118. It's an out and back from here.

SPEAKER_02 1:03:09

Wait, up?

unknown 1:03:10

What?

SPEAKER_04 1:03:10

Well, the 108, basically the three big rides, the original, the full Monty, and the Full Monty with the death rattle extension. They leave from here, they go up to the reservoir, over Pikamoose, into Frost Valley, and back over Mohank, back to my house.

SPEAKER_02 1:03:26

On one day, right?

SPEAKER_04 1:03:27

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:03:28

And then I have a food truck, it's fully insured, swag. I've done it from my house. I've done that loop, Frost Valley loop from my house. Yeah. It was 128 about.

SPEAKER_04 1:03:39

Now I gotta have another ride next year. Like the death rattle, full Monty death rattle extension from Jurgens.

SPEAKER_02 1:03:46

You don't want to do that. I live uh I live off of 32.

SPEAKER_04 1:03:49

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 1:03:49

So it's not fun. So that's why I want to donate five feet off my front yard. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 1:03:54

So listen, Jeff's gonna send you this website. You should check it out. You should come to it. It's a great ride. Yeah. You'll know all the cyclists that come together. You'll know so many people here. Yeah. You'll know people, and they'll know you.

SPEAKER_02 1:04:02

Yeah. Um, is it group ride, like stand together group ride?

SPEAKER_04 1:04:06

No, you do it. I mean, people go together.

SPEAKER_02 1:04:08

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 1:04:08

But like basically, this the early I start them at 6 a.m., 7 30.

SPEAKER_03 1:04:12

Oh, it's do your own thing.

SPEAKER_04 1:04:13

Yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:04:14

Oh, cool.

SPEAKER_03 1:04:15

I mean, some people will be like, let's ride together. Like two, like you and some of the faster guys will be like, let's just go hammer it. And you'll know the fast guys. You'll know them. So you'll ride and they'll be with you.

SPEAKER_02 1:04:24

Dan Crandell. Yes, yes.

SPEAKER_04 1:04:26

And Ian McGrew.

SPEAKER_02 1:04:27

Yes, Ian.

SPEAKER_04 1:04:28

Yep, yep, yep. Stafford, Jim Stafford, Mike Backer.

SPEAKER_02 1:04:32

Dr. Mike.

SPEAKER_04 1:04:33

Dr. Mike, yep, yep. You'll know these guys.

SPEAKER_02 1:04:35

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 1:04:36

So it's such a do it do your own thing. I have some guys. It's a great party here at the end, too. Yeah, yeah. They're like, I'm so against riding the road. So they're basically like, I'm like, just do your thing. Next thing you know, they're like, they show up like six hours later, filthy with mud. It's not that where were you? Like, Sam's point.

unknown 1:04:56

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:04:56

No, I love road riding. I mean, that was my that's how I started cycling. You know what I mean?

SPEAKER_04 1:05:01

Listen, you do this ride, Jeff's gonna send it to you, then you tell email me if it works out, and I'm gonna sign you up. So it's on me. June 7th?

SPEAKER_02 1:05:08

Frost Valley is amazing. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 1:05:09

I love June 7th.

SPEAKER_02 1:05:11

Are you going to Slide Mountain, Frost Valley? You turn around before Slide Mountain.

SPEAKER_04 1:05:16

Turn around. The whole ride's called the Cabin Challenge. It's a ride out to my family cabin and back.

SPEAKER_02 1:05:21

Oh, you touch the cabin and go back?

SPEAKER_04 1:05:23

Ah, there's a yeti picture of Yeti in the mailbox. It used to touch the cabin. You used to hang out and go to the cabin for dinner. No. But then the ride got too big. It first started out with seven people, then it was seven, twelve.

SPEAKER_03 1:05:33

The cabin's like as big as this room. You can't have like fifty.

SPEAKER_04 1:05:36

And now I I saw I stop at like a hundred.

SPEAKER_01 1:05:39

That's big.

SPEAKER_04 1:05:40

Yeah. I don't let any like I the registration is closed now at ninety, but I still have there'll be people that bail out, and then there'll be people I let in, such as yourself and your wife. She wants to do it.

SPEAKER_03 1:05:49

Yeah, yeah. There's always a couple people who show up the day of the check. Glenn, can I get in?

SPEAKER_04 1:05:53

Guess who called me? Speaking of a check. Did he call you? He called me.

SPEAKER_02 1:05:58

My wife's riding an E gravel bike now. Which is great.

SPEAKER_04 1:06:01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:06:02

But her range is like 75 miles. So and I've done this now where from Kingston, we did from Kingston, uh went the 209 rail trail and then up Mohank, and we did all of Wasting back down, New Paul's. So it was like 80 some miles.

SPEAKER_04 1:06:17

80 mile gravel ride's pretty savage.

SPEAKER_02 1:06:19

She ran out of battery on her e-bike. Right. You know, like on the on the way back. Um the only incline on the way back between New Pauls and Rosendale, right? And Binwater, right? Where you're that's where, like right on that little climb. She ran out of steep. You know, exactly. It's a hard climb. They're like 60-pound bikes. Yeah, maybe. That's a terrible climb. I know. She did it like gearing down. That's kind of fun.

SPEAKER_04 1:06:45

Did she do it?

SPEAKER_02 1:06:45

Huh?

SPEAKER_04 1:06:46

Yeah, yeah. She hated it. I love when you ride that with some friends and you hear everybody's gears, it goes, right. I know.

SPEAKER_02 1:06:52

I know. But yeah, that that'll be a push for that e-bike. A bit too much, right?

SPEAKER_04 1:06:56

Well, I've got shorter rides. There's a 78-mile and there's a 45.

SPEAKER_03 1:07:03

She can come do the 45. I'm doing the 45 mile. Oh, yeah? Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 1:07:06

Listen, Jeff's gonna send you the email. You check it out. Then you let me know. Four different rides. Yeah. She could pick it up. And then you could go on who's registered on the bike ride. Like when you get it. Are you doing a bike ride? Is that on bike ride?

SPEAKER_03 1:07:16

And you just go to Cabin Challenge on bike ride, you'll find it.

SPEAKER_04 1:07:19

Just hit click it.

SPEAKER_02 1:07:20

You had race predictor on that too?

SPEAKER_03 1:07:21

I don't, but we should talk about this. Let's talk about it.

SPEAKER_04 1:07:24

We should talk about race predictors.

SPEAKER_03 1:07:25

Let's talk real quick. So before we move on, race predictor. We got this cool swag, some old school swag. There's a water bottle labeled with the hanger, and then there's it says race predictor, and it's like this wizard saying, You're going to suck, and then a cyclist slapping him across the face saying, Not today.

SPEAKER_04 1:07:44

Right up with Cabin Challenge. Because here's a race predictor, Cabin Challenge. I'm like, Yep, you're probably gonna get molested by a Yeti out there. Bigfoot's gonna get So what is race predictor?

SPEAKER_02 1:07:53

So race predictor is a software program. Uh I forgot the guy's name though, who invented it, but it got uh uh got bought out. Actually, Bike Reg bought it.

SPEAKER_03 1:08:03

Oh, cool.

SPEAKER_02 1:08:03

So it's a bike reg feature that uh I see it on bike reg all the time. You can click on bike like if it's an actual event, like a cyclocross race or a road race where there's point system involved, they will tell you how you're gonna finish the race before you race. Based on what? Based on your based on your previous matches to the other racers. It's an algorithm that is eerily great, really, but also frustrating as hell. And I made a whole video about this because I was basically arguing with the price predictor that I'm going to win this race, and he said you're gonna get fifth. And I was like, I'm not. So I was basically what happened? Uh I think I got fifth. Oh no, you know what happened in that race? No, you know what happened at that race? I did not finish. I actually proved them wrong. I did not finish. DNF. So you should say you're exactly.

SPEAKER_04 1:08:53

Yo, buddy, you said five, like DNF, all right.

SPEAKER_02 1:08:56

I would do it worse. Exactly.

SPEAKER_04 1:08:57

I see it on bike rides because I'm I have lots of events on bike rides, cycling events and some other shit. And I see race predictor. I'm like, oh, it just seems too advanced for me.

SPEAKER_02 1:09:06

I had somebody actually show up. You know how I made this like a wizard? Yeah, right? I had somebody show up looking just like this with the hat and the beard. Oh, that's giving out notes to racers. And it's going to be like it said, like, you're gonna get six, you're gonna suck. Oh, he basically write up the cabin channel. He gave out notes to racers before the race. I had a race.

SPEAKER_03 1:09:28

My race predictor was Ryan, right before he tried to get to the start and he missed it. And I got a text and I looked at my phone like as I was walking up Glory Hill and said, Good luck, Jeff. Don't suck. Yeah. Hey, that's a good prediction.

SPEAKER_04 1:09:40

And you wasn't far off. Listen, make sure I get Jurgen's email today. I will. I send out great emails. Nice. I like them.

SPEAKER_03 1:09:49

That's that's really cool. Um, but you have to, yeah, it sounds like you have to be have a point system to be dialed into that, right? For on uh your race has to be hooked up in that that manner.

SPEAKER_02 1:09:59

You have to be like the cabin challenge isn't really that one. No, no, no. It has to be a result, it's more of a it's more of a ride.

SPEAKER_04 1:10:05

Yeah. Yeah, yeah. No, this is like people can go as fast as they want or slow as you want.

SPEAKER_02 1:10:08

Yeah, if you race and road, cycle across a mountain bike, there's race predictors involved, 100%.

SPEAKER_04 1:10:12

Yeah, yeah. Jeff, let's get to these questions.

SPEAKER_03 1:10:14

Yeah, okay. Um, so Jurgen, we ask our guests some three questions at the end of every podcast, um, as we wrap up. But but I have one more question before that. Go ahead. That's not our our typical um wrap-up questions. You have a pretty solid social media presence on Instagram and YouTube. Um, some of the videos are like videos you've done that are really uh informative, and some are really funny. Like there's the one with the water bottle.

SPEAKER_02 1:10:46

Yeah. The longest, the longest water bottle.

SPEAKER_03 1:10:49

Because it's the there's that there's that video that other people have done about something getting bigger. Yeah, yeah. It's Anwar. And his are funny when he does them. Um so I do. I just thought I loved it. I said when I when I realized it and I heard the music and I saw what you were doing. Or is that like a PVC thing with uh plumbing pipe, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:11:06

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 1:11:06

So funny.

SPEAKER_02 1:11:08

Plumbing pipe.

SPEAKER_03 1:11:08

So what is your let's share with everyone just because people should go check it out, um, just for because it's fun and follow you.

SPEAKER_02 1:11:14

That's cycling skills on Instagram. Cycling skills, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 1:11:18

Cycling skills, okay. Yeah, it's a great it's I'm gonna subscribe. Subscribe and follow. It's really funny.

SPEAKER_02 1:11:23

Yeah. I haven't been doing that many funny things like that. Do you do your own social media? Yeah, it's all mine. Yeah, okay.

SPEAKER_03 1:11:28

It's all and then your other you have some informative stuff. Like there was that one video where like someone they're hiding something and you have to go find it.

SPEAKER_02 1:11:35

You want yeah, Joe Conqueror. I know he was doing these penguins everywhere. Okay. He made me a penguin drawing and then nailed it to some pole on the bike path. I was like, oh Jesus.

SPEAKER_03 1:11:44

And you had to go figure out where that was. Yes. And you went out at night.

SPEAKER_02 1:11:48

Yeah, I know. I couldn't find it. And then I did find it and I left it. I don't know if it's still there. So I think it might still be there.

SPEAKER_03 1:11:54

Okay. I know. All right.

SPEAKER_02 1:11:56

I know. Anyway, it's free. Somebody could take it.

SPEAKER_04 1:11:58

It's pretty cool.

SPEAKER_02 1:11:58

It's a penguin.

SPEAKER_04 1:11:59

Speaking of social media, you know what I got is gonna start doing mine? You wait, say that again. Social media. Yeah. Intern from SUNY, CC Endurance. You got one? I'm gonna get one every semester. Yeah, I do. Like, yeah, you're in. That's great. Like, it could be great for some kid. You'll write a nice recommendation for him. I'm like, yeah. Dad, you should totally do it. You ever see that Seinfeld episode with Darren?

SPEAKER_00 1:12:20

Yeah. Darren! Darren! That's what I need.

SPEAKER_02 1:12:23

It's like Kramer's world. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Cramerica, America, yeah. That's crazy.

SPEAKER_04 1:12:30

People are like, that's my kid's like, that's what dad's gonna have an intern. Cramer. Yelling at some kid. Darren! I need a sandwich.

SPEAKER_02 1:12:36

Yeah. Oh, and then can I do a shout-out for something else? Yeah, shout out.

SPEAKER_04 1:12:40

We'd love a shout out.

SPEAKER_02 1:12:41

For my own other new website thing that's catskillsnomad.com. Is for any cyclist or any outdoor enthusiast who thinks about moving here.

SPEAKER_00 1:12:49

Uh-huh.

SPEAKER_02 1:12:49

I'm basically just kind of threading a needle between you should move to a road that you can ride a bike on because it's probably a good place to live to ride a house on.

SPEAKER_04 1:13:00

And there's plenty of roads for and against that around here.

SPEAKER_02 1:13:03

Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. No. I actually live on a road that's not great for riding. But I live it's not too far to get off of it to go riding.

SPEAKER_04 1:13:11

You live on 32 north or south?

SPEAKER_02 1:13:13

Yeah, north, just by the Kingston Airport.

SPEAKER_04 1:13:15

Okay.

SPEAKER_03 1:13:16

Yeah. Oh, okay.

SPEAKER_02 1:13:19

I ended up getting that. I did like a 1031 exchange into a multifamily from one of the flips I did. And uh and then I moved into it. So it's actually one of the best deals you can do is like go live in a multifamily and take over a unit.

SPEAKER_03 1:13:33

Yep. Right.

SPEAKER_02 1:13:34

But nobody wants to do it. So I say it all the time. Nobody cares.

SPEAKER_03 1:13:38

Alright. So um well, thanks for sharing all that. Um so let's let's get to these questions. Um this might be an interesting answer, so I'm gonna switch it up a little bit. Usually we say, like, what what TV show did you watch religiously as a kid? But given that you were in Germany, we might not know that. So did you watch any American television?

SPEAKER_02 1:13:58

I would say half the shows were dubbed anyway.

SPEAKER_03 1:14:01

Okay. Like So what was like the thing you watched all the time?

SPEAKER_02 1:14:05

Depends on the age. I think Married with Children was pretty big. Nice. Married with Children was a Bundy.

SPEAKER_03 1:14:12

I'd love to see it.

SPEAKER_04 1:14:13

I'd love to see it. Sally Bundy.

SPEAKER_02 1:14:15

Yeah, yeah, yeah. You know what else was good? Uh uh. In Germany was called uh Colt Sievers um Fall Guy? Fall Guy? Dude!

SPEAKER_00 1:14:24

The Fall Guy, the greatest opening song of any television show.

SPEAKER_02 1:14:31

Fall Guy flying through the air and landing, and you could see it totally bending and was and then it draws a mini. I'm like, no.

SPEAKER_04 1:14:38

The Fall Guy is a top three TV theme. Yeah, Fall Guy, I I think is probably I love the show, and the movie that came out like two years ago was also spectacular. I didn't see that one. It was great. I saw it on Rented. Yeah, awesome.

SPEAKER_02 1:14:51

I feel like those were two different times of my childhood, Fall Guy and with children. Yep. Yeah, here we go.

SPEAKER_07 1:15:03

So far.

SPEAKER_00 1:15:04

Yes. I've been on let's go for my second time.

SPEAKER_07 1:15:11

Somehow they've just known the bed.

SPEAKER_03 1:15:22

All right, so do you have any um as far as music goes? Um jumped from the highest building. Do you do you have I don't remember that. Actually, I had a different thing.

SPEAKER_02 1:15:33

It was probably a little bit before your it wasn't Heather. What's the blonde chick? It wasn't Heather Lockleer, was it? Was it was a duck?

SPEAKER_04 1:15:39

Uh there was Heather Thomas.

SPEAKER_02 1:15:41

Heather Thomas.

SPEAKER_04 1:15:41

That's what Marky Post was in that show. I had a little thing for Marky Post, I'm not gonna lie.

SPEAKER_02 1:15:48

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 1:15:48

I could say it because you know Mel's not listening.

SPEAKER_02 1:15:50

But it was like a bounty hunter, right? Yes, stunt man, bounty hunter.

SPEAKER_04 1:15:53

He was a bounty hunter that was a stunt man.

SPEAKER_00 1:15:56

Correct.

SPEAKER_04 1:15:57

What else do you need?

SPEAKER_00 1:15:58

That's it. I'm set. Two beautiful girls, bounty hunter, come on. Pickup truck. Yes, and it was classic.

SPEAKER_03 1:16:06

Um amazing. I guess I'd I gotta like look it up again. So, all right, so as far as mu as music goes, um do you have a Jeff would be a good bounty hunter? Do you have a good yeah, uh do you have like a good guilty pleasure song that you like to listen to? Um you know, the kind of thing where you're in your car right now, and that's you don't want anyone hearing it.

SPEAKER_02 1:16:27

Almost a little bit because of my hockey team up in Sogadies. Uh it's um uh Bony M. Bony M, wait, Rasputin? Yes, of course.

SPEAKER_05 1:16:38

Oh my god, rah-rah, Rasputin.

SPEAKER_00 1:16:40

Oh, look at M. Disney. We stumped him. Ra rahutine, lover of the Russian queen. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 1:16:48

Well, of course, dude, that is a good Gilsey Pleasure song. Damn.

SPEAKER_02 1:16:51

Yeah, yeah. Josh, Josh from Underburg. Okay. That's who's going with. He basically is playing that in the locker room all the time. Underburgh hockey, by the way. I'm running an Instagram account. It's just as dumb as the other one. You know, they give me the key to all these Instagram accounts.

SPEAKER_04 1:17:09

I'm still stuck back on Boney M.

SPEAKER_02 1:17:11

Yeah, Boney M is great.

SPEAKER_04 1:17:12

Yeah, they've done many songs. This isn't That's it? This is it, rescue. Oh my god, throw it down right now. This is the remix. This is the remix. Love it. Love it. I got a better one. This is the room the kids all know.

SPEAKER_03 1:17:27

I know that's what the kids all know.

SPEAKER_04 1:17:28

Oh, this is the old school one. I check it up.

SPEAKER_03 1:17:31

Let's go old school.

SPEAKER_04 1:17:33

19 British British disco band. Yo, ODM.

SPEAKER_03 1:17:38

You like the remix one though. Yeah, okay.

SPEAKER_04 1:17:41

No. The year that's amazing. I would play this in my class all the time. That's O World History, and the prison would come by, and we're just in there all dancing to the Rasputin, and they would just freaking keep walking. The Russian love movie. Yeah. Oh those rah shit. There it is. Alright. Holy shit, Tom. Jurgen's coming out with answers. So he's got fall guys, got rah-rah, Rasputin.

SPEAKER_03 1:18:12

This might be the best like this next one. Okay. So, um, Jurgen, if you had a sandwich named after you, what would be on it?

SPEAKER_02 1:18:20

Well, first of all, nobody would order it because I couldn't pronounce my name. It's a terrible business decision to name it after the thing that everybody would be pointing at. I want the thing. I want that one right now. Nobody would say it. Um I would go with a thing that would only appeal to like 12-year-old me, which I'm not gonna do anymore.

SPEAKER_04 1:18:44

Let's hear it.

SPEAKER_02 1:18:44

Which is like fried bologna catch up on a hard roll.

SPEAKER_04 1:18:47

Fried bologna catch up on a hard roll. That's it.

SPEAKER_02 1:18:50

That's it.

SPEAKER_04 1:18:51

Listen, can we just quit talk about no cheese or anything else?

SPEAKER_02 1:18:55

No, that's that's like 12-year-old me, like like loving it. Fried bologna. That's we've had a fried bologna more bologna.

SPEAKER_04 1:19:03

You know, the rule of seven, you shouldn't eat bologna between seven and seventy-seven. You can eat it as all as you want after 77 or before you. Yeah, I did my bold. From eight to seventy-six, you're off bologna. Yeah, I know. But I'm actually like, you know, you see these videos of them cutting a thick slice bologna, they're frying it. Come on, that shit looks good.

SPEAKER_02 1:19:21

And German bread, German roll. Yeah. You can get dicing. Dicing's good.

SPEAKER_06 1:19:28

I saw a bologna cannoli. Ever seen those? Like bologna? And there's cheese stuffed in it. So it's like the bologna's the shell. Oh no. And then they use cheese as a filling, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:19:38

There's no bread involved.

SPEAKER_06 1:19:39

No bread involved. Why would there be bread involved? It's bologna and cheese.

SPEAKER_02 1:19:43

You don't need any bread.

SPEAKER_06 1:19:46

Bologna cannoli. Alex is all over that.

SPEAKER_04 1:19:48

Yeah. Bologna cannoli. He's on his way to dicing's right now. Bologna Sandley.

SPEAKER_02 1:19:52

Dicing's right. I love that place. It's great. Pretzel sticks.

SPEAKER_04 1:19:55

Yeah, yeah, yeah. But dicing quality.

SPEAKER_02 1:19:57

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 1:19:58

All right. Damn. Jurgen, thank you so much for coming on.

SPEAKER_04 1:20:02

We're gonna give an email for the cabin challenge. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 1:20:05

We'll take care of it right after we get off the off of the air.

SPEAKER_04 1:20:08

Yes. All right. Thank you. Thanks, pal. Thank you. Sorry about my rant, two boys. Oh no, it's crazy.