In this month's episode of Reviewing the News on our Bikes & Big Ideas Podcast, Simon welcomes freeride legend Wade Simmons as his guest co-host. Wade gives a recap of Crankworx Whistler and claims he can’t do tricks, then Wade and Simon try to sort out why they keep crashing, and the unfortunate reality of not being as fast as they once were. They get into the wild Les Gets World Cup and XC Mountain Bike racing at the Olympics, Wade’s spat with Rémy Métailler and Yoann Barelli over who rode the gnarliest lines first, and Wade gives an education on chain lube, plus a whole lot more.

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TOPICS & TIMES:

Crankworx Whistler recap (2:10)

Women competing in slopestyle (3:40)

Big-ring wheelies (7:31)

Getting old and crashing (9:44)

Machine built trails (16:35)

Checks and balances (19:33)

Wade’s spat with Rémy Méttailer and Yoann Barelli (29:09)

Shimano’s huge trail building donation (35:32)

Les Gets World Cup DH (44:30)

Amuary Pierron’s winning run (46:19)

Olympic mountain bike races (50:29)

Singletrack-eating bikes (57:47)

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Hannah Otto’s obliteration of the Whole Enchilada FKT a couple of years ago was already hugely impressive, but she went much bigger — double the elevation and well over double the mileage — in her follow-up pursuit of the Kokopelli Trail FKT.

She came painfully close to pulling it off on her first attempt, despite horrific weather and trail conditions, before finally getting redemption with her second attempt this spring. So we sat down with Hannah to chat about what inspired her to choose the Kokopelli Trail for her next FKT attempt; hear the story of her brutal first go-round; discuss going back for her ultimately-successful second attempt this spring; and much more.

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TOPICS & TIMES:

Chasing the Kokopelli FKT

Why Kokopelli?

Hannah’s prep for her first attempt

The cold, snowy first attempt

Regrouping & the second attempt

Gear selection

Managing fear

Training for long-distance FKTs vs. racing

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The first production batch of the Frameworks DH bike is sold out, but they’ll soon be opening preorders for the Enduro version. So we brought Neko Mulally back onto the show to tell us all about the new bike; the variants of the DH bike he’s been testing; the expanded Frameworks race team with Angel Suarez and Asa Vermette; and a bunch more.

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TOPICS & TIMES:

Recapping the 2024 race season to date (2:16)

The expanded Frameworks team (6:20)

Tuning the DH bike for different racers (11:56)

Frame materials & testing other variants (20:14)

The Enduro bike (34:13)

Balancing racing with team management / mentorship & Neko’s evolving role (57:29)

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