From Chainless Feeling to SRAM Acquisition: The OChain Story
Downtime - The Mountain Bike Podcast
Downtime MTB
4.9 • 628 Ratings
🗓️ 8 July 2025
⏱️ 66 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
From the spark of an idea in an engineer’s mind to becoming one of the most talked about innovations in mountain biking, this is the story of OChain. Today, we go behind the scenes with Fabrizio Dragoni, the creator of the OChain system, and James Alberts, MTB Category Director from SRAM, to find out how this radical concept became a reality and why SRAM saw enough potential to bring it under their wing. This is about passion, persistence, and pushing the boundaries of what a bike can feel like. So sit back, hit play, and enjoy this conversation with Fabrizio Dragoni and James Alberts.
You can also watch this episode on YouTube here.
You can find out more about OChain at ochain.bike.
Podcast Stuff
Supporting Partners
Listener Offers
Downtime listeners can now get 10% off of Stashed Space Rails. Stashed is the ultimate way to sort your bike storage. Their clever design means you can get way more bikes into the same space and easily access whichever one you want to ride that day. If you have 2 or more bikes in your garage, they are definitely worth checking out. Just head to stashedproducts.com/downtime and use the code DOWNTIME at the checkout for 10% off your entire order. And just so you know, we get 10% of the sale too, so it’s a win win.
Patreon
I would love it if you were able to support the podcast via a regular Patreon donation. Donations start from as little as £3 per month. That’s less than £1 per episode and less than the price of a take away coffee. Every little counts and these donations will really help me keep the podcast going and hopefully take it to the next level. To help out, head here.
Merch
If you want to support the podcast and represent, then my webstore is the place to head. All products are 100% organic, shipped without plastics, and made with a supply chain that’s using renewable energy. We now also have local manufacture for most products in the US as well as the UK. So check it out now over at downtimepodcast.com/shop.
Newsletter
If you want a bit more Downtime in your life, then you can join my newsletter where I’ll provide you with a bit of behind the scenes info on the podcast, interesting bits and pieces from around the mountain bike world, some mini-reviews of products that I’ve been using and like, partner offers and more. You can do that over at downtimepodcast.com/newsletter.
Follow Us
Give us a follow on Instagram @downtimepodcast or Facebook @downtimepodcast to keep up to date and chat in the comments.
For everything video, including riding videos, bike checks and more, subscribe over at youtube.com/downtimemountainbikepodcast.
Are you enjoying the podcast? If so, then don’t forget to follow it. Episodes will get delivered to your device as soon as it’s available and it’s totally free. You’ll find all the links you need at downtimepodcast.com/follow. You can find us on Apple Podcast, Spotify, Google and most of the podcast apps out there.
Our back catalogue of amazing episodes is available at downtimepodcast.com/episodes
Photo – Sven Martin
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | Hey everyone, I'm Chris Hall and this is the downtime podcast, the podcast for the true fans of gravity mountain biking, taking you deeper into the sport than anywhere else. |
| 0:11.8 | Make sure you never miss an episode of the show by following the podcast. Just hit the follow button in your podcast app now or there's dedicated buttons for all the major platforms at downtimepodcast.com for slash follow. You can also keep up to date with what's going on by following us on |
| 0:24.5 | Instagram, Facebook or TikTok where we're at downtime podcast. And if you're hungry for more |
| 0:28.9 | downtime, then you can join the newsletter at downtimepodcast.com forward slash newsletter. |
| 0:34.3 | That and all the links I've mentioned will be in the show notes for this episode on the website downtime downtime podcast.com. Before we get into this week's episode, I just want to say a huge thank you to Westbourne Professional in Sheffield. Last year, the podcast outgrew being carted around in the family car and I needed a van. The team at Westbourne Professional really came through. Not only that they helped me find exactly what I needed, but they also went above and beyond when a couple of small issues came up early on. So if you're in the north of the UK and you're looking for a van, head over to wbpro.com.com or just Google Westbourne Professional and let them help you find the perfect van. All right, this episode is supported by SRAM and we're going to be bringing you the story of O-Chain. |
| 1:11.5 | From the spark of an idea in an engineer's mind to becoming one of the most talked about innovations in mountain biking, this is the story of O-Chane. |
| 1:18.5 | Today, we go behind the scenes with Fabrizio Dragoni, the creator of the O-Chane system and James Albert's mountain-bike category de Greptor for SRAM to find out how this radical concept became a reality and why SRAM saw enough potential to bring it under their wing. |
| 1:31.9 | This is about passion, persistence and pushing the boundaries of what a bike can feel like. |
| 1:36.5 | So without further ado, here's Fabrizio Dragoni and James Albertsio and James. |
| 1:44.9 | Fabrizio and James, welcome to the podcast on a lovely morning here in LaTwill in the Italian |
| 1:51.1 | Alps, World Cup ready, and we've got some exciting news being dropped this week about |
| 1:56.4 | Ochain and Sram coming together, which is really cool. |
| 2:00.4 | We're joined by Fabrizio and James to chat all about it. |
| 2:03.8 | First off, guys, just briefly give us a quick introduction to who you are and what you do. |
| 2:07.4 | We'll start with you for Britsia. |
| 2:09.4 | Hi, guys. |
| 2:12.0 | Hi, Chris. |
| 2:14.4 | I'm super good. |
| 2:15.7 | Thank you. |
| 2:18.3 | I'm very good. Thank you. I am very excited because I wait along for this weekend and this week in general. |
| 2:27.8 | And I am the chain founder. |
| 2:33.3 | I worked on this project in the last eight years of my life. |
... |
Please login to see the full transcript.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Downtime MTB, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of Downtime MTB and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2026.

