Geek Warning: Our favorite handlebar tapes, and what we look for in them
Spin Cycle
Escape Collective
4.9 • 1.1K Ratings
🗓️ 5 January 2024
⏱️ 50 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Geek Warning is back for the new year! In this week’s episode, Dave and James chat about some mysterious Boa dial failures and how some pros are using gravel bikes this cyclocross season, how 3D-printing is becoming just as much a marketing tool as a manufacturing one, and what we look for in our favorite handlebar tapes.
You might also just want to head out to the shed and check your disc brake rotor thicknesses, and the story of a lost bike in Colorado may help restore your faith in humanity.
Timestamps:
5:01 – What’s going on with Boa dial failures this cyclocross season?
11:54 – Even the pros don’t think gravel bikes are all that different from cyclocross bikes
16:35 – Everything that can be 3D-printed is being 3D-printed
20:40 – Pick One! Our favorite handlebar tapes, and what we look for in them
35:45 – PSA: Disc brake rotors don’t last forever
40:04 – A lost bike, and restoring your faith in humanity
44:30 – Rotor’s got a new dual-sided power meter for Shimano crankarms
45:45 – Look, ma, no ears! Kask has a mysterious new aero road helmet
46:30 – Bora-Hansgrohe has officially confirmed they’re on SRAM and Hammerhead this year
46:40 – Chris King has added a new Microspline freehub body option for its R45 hubs
Transcript
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| 0:14.0 | Hello everyone welcome back to the first Geek Warning episode of 2024 show where we filter through all the latest happenings in the bicycle tech world so |
| 0:17.4 | you know what's junk and what's not |
| 0:19.5 | i'm james hong and i'm here today in our virtual studio with my fellow tech editor and resident tool guru Dave Rome. |
| 0:25.0 | Hi Dave. |
| 0:26.0 | Hello James. |
| 0:27.0 | Ronan, unfortunately, |
| 0:28.0 | he's dealing with some sort of rogue sickness |
| 0:30.0 | in the McLaughlin family, |
| 0:31.0 | so pretty sure he's not joining us today. |
| 0:33.7 | Uh, Ronin, hope you get better soon. |
| 0:35.8 | On today's show, however, we are going to be talking about Boa's tough time this |
| 0:39.6 | cyclic cross season and why Wout Van Aert might be racing on a gravel bike instead of a |
| 0:44.3 | cross bike. We're going to talk about the merits of 3D printed mountain bike |
| 0:48.2 | grips assuming there are any. We're going to reveal our personal picks for our |
| 0:51.9 | favorite handlebar tapes too. |
| 0:53.4 | Dave's also got a good PSA to share today for everyone running disc brakes. |
| 0:57.6 | And I've got a nice little feel-good story that I want to share today that I ran across, |
| 1:01.5 | involving a little bike found in the middle of nowhere in Colorado |
| 1:04.4 | first it's a it's been a little while Dave since you and I have chatted how's everything going |
| 1:08.8 | yeah new year new tools it's going well feeling good about the new year and lots of new tools to |
| 1:16.8 | acquire which is probably why I'm feeling good about it you you went all of what like |
| 1:21.6 | three days or something without with that receiving a new tool in the mail over the holidays is that correct? |
... |
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