The Rodeo Adventure Labs Podcast is made to tell the stories of the the people and places that make us who we are.
You can find our podcast embedded in each of the following archive posts or at the following links:
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- Podcast: Wove Be Gone – Inside the Choices of the Wildest Trail Donkey of them All
If there is one thing that you should know about Rodeo, it is that you get to make it your way. Nick from Wove took that to heart and cooked up a bike that really pushed the limits of what is possible. The build was launched and was written up on Escape Collective with contributions from Nick, Steve the Intern and the rest of… Read more: Podcast: Wove Be Gone – Inside the Choices of the Wildest Trail Donkey of them All - Podcast: (De)Classified – A deep dive on the new TRP Vistar groupset
The Classified Powershift Hub, with its internal gearing that makes a 1x chainring work like a 2x, has always been a point of curiosity around the Lab. However, without a full groupset to give the shifting a proper home, there has always been hesitation. That is, until Logan got his hands on the brand new collaboration between the Belgian company and the brake specialists… Read more: Podcast: (De)Classified – A deep dive on the new TRP Vistar groupset - Podcast with The Endurance Studio
Right before taking on (and winning) the Pinyons and Pines bikepacking race in Arizona last month, our founder Stephen Fitzgerald had the opportunity to sit down with organizers Dylan and Dana on the Endurance Studio Podcast. They talked about Rodeo’s origins, the bike industry and how it operates, the status of Show Pony and Project Denver, and many many more things. Have a listen… Read more: Podcast with The Endurance Studio - Podcast: Athlete, influencer, or other? Dissecting sponsorship in the social media age
Sponsorship in cycling is a moving target. In all aspects of the sport, sponsorship is a crucial marketing tool, but it is often economically inefficient. What’s more, those two outcomes are difficult to track, adding to the complexity of the topic. While the importance of sponsorship is integral to a wide range of elements of the cycling business, it is so difficult to discuss… Read more: Podcast: Athlete, influencer, or other? Dissecting sponsorship in the social media age - Podcast: Rodeo Rider Profile – Jeff Chapman
We are back with another Rodeo rider episode! This time we sat down with Jeff Chapman. Jeff is from Kansas City, Missouri, and is new to Rodeo Labs this year as he has waded further into the gravel thicket. Jeff started his journey into cycling around the pandemic and is now a two-time participant of Unbound. The race in Kansas has taken on extra… Read more: Podcast: Rodeo Rider Profile – Jeff Chapman - Podcast: Ride, XPLOR, Create?
This week, we are back in the Lab to consider the new SRAM RED XPLR AXS (so many capital letters!) and its use of the UDH (moar capital letters! moar!). While we jest at the branding, the tech is serious business. The new 1×13 groupset leans into the SRAM Transmission style rear derailleur and brings it to drop bar bikes, with the UDH hanger… Read more: Podcast: Ride, XPLOR, Create? - Iceland by Skis. Iceland By Bike.
Cody Cirillo and Matthew Tufts approached us early this year with an inspiring pitch: They wanted to spend a couple of human-powered months riding the outer perimeter of Iceland on Rodeo Labs bikes, all the while carrying their skis, and peeling off to notch seemingly innumerable ski descents along the way. We get plenty of project pitches at Rodeo, but this one stood out… Read more: Iceland by Skis. Iceland By Bike. - The Rodeo Podcast: Tour Divide Recap
We sat down with two Rodeo athletes, Edyn Teitge and Cade Reichenberger, who both completed the 2,700 mile 2024 Tour Divide with class, and both in with their unique style. Cade rode to a 4th place overall finish in 15 days on his Rodeo Labs TD4, an incredible achievement on it’s own, but even more so considering that this was Cade’s first go at… Read more: The Rodeo Podcast: Tour Divide Recap - Podcast: From Waffles to GRVL
Welcome to the Rodeo Labs Race Director Round Up! Over the next few weeks, as the gravel race “season” gets underway, we have decided to take on a mini-series focusing on gravel racing through the collective eyes of gravel race directors from across the country. Race directors are both the tastemakers and the police of the nebulous concept of “the spirit of gravel.” While… Read more: Podcast: From Waffles to GRVL - Podcast: The Race Director Round Up — Part One
Welcome to the Rodeo Labs Race Director Round Up! Over the next few weeks, as the gravel race “season” gets underway, we have decided to take on a mini-series focusing on gravel racing through the collective eyes of gravel race directors from across the country. Race directors are both the tastemakers and the police of the nucleus concept of “the spirit of gravel.” While… Read more: Podcast: The Race Director Round Up — Part One - Podcast: Adventure Guidance
Adventuring on dirt is what brings everyone to Rodeo Labs. Yes, there are other contributing factors, but if your intention is not to adventure on bikes, on dirt, you might want to find a different bike company. With that ethos at our core, Logan wanted to do a bit of a deep dive into a fellow dirt adventure based cycling company: The Gravel Adventure… Read more: Podcast: Adventure Guidance - Podcast: The Atlas Mountain Race with Ashley Carelock
The Atlas Mountain Race sets off for its third edition next week. In anticipation of the bike packing race, we brought in Ashley Carelock to look back at her Moroccan experiences in last year’s October edition of the race, while Stephen Fitzgerald dropped into the chat to add his own perspective from his outing to Africa in 2020. If you are interested in following… Read more: Podcast: The Atlas Mountain Race with Ashley Carelock - Rodeo Podcast: Ascend Armenia
Rodeo Labs has been supporting the development of a new bikepacking event in Armenia for two years now, and the race is set to have its first edition on June 25, 2023. In this episode of the Rodeo Podcast, Stephen talks with Tom, Tatev, and Jay P about the work done thus far, the “why” of the event, and what the goals are for… Read more: Rodeo Podcast: Ascend Armenia - The Rodeo Podcast: A field recording with Bobby Wintle
and Drew at Rodeo Labs talks about launching the Show Pony Part one of the podcast picks up with Logan Jones-Wilkins rambling through the middle of America. After leaving the muddy grass field at the Rule of Three in Bentonville, Arkansas, Logan was on his way to Emporia, Kansas to race Unbound Gravel. With time to spare and capitalizing on his proximity to Stillwater,… Read more: The Rodeo Podcast: A field recording with Bobby Wintle - The Rodeo Podcast: Ben Delaney on Cycling Media
Ben has a storied career of over twenty years working in the cycling and media industries. His tenure includes multiple well known outfits– VeloNews, Specialized, BikeRadar, Roll Massif, and Outside Interactive. When Stephen and I got an opportunity to sit down with Ben we grabbed the chance. By chance, Logan, a former guest on the podcast and journalism student happened to be in town,… Read more: The Rodeo Podcast: Ben Delaney on Cycling Media - The New Normal: Take Two
Andrew Maher first invited Stephen onto his New Normal podcast in 2021 and it was a great opportunity to talk about a wide range of topics, philosophies, and what we do here on Rodeo. Now, almost a year later, Andrew invited Stephen on for a second time to get an update on how things are going at Rodeo, and also to to deliver some… Read more: The New Normal: Take Two - The Rodeo Podcast: Daniel Connell on the 2022 Tour Divide
When Daniel graduated from UC Santa Barbara, the Tour Divide was not on his radar. However, shortly after Daniel discovered a new passion– bicycle touring. His first bicycle tour was to Columbia, it was a crash course on touring and how to maintain a bike over a six month trip. Daniel has not stopped touring. When Daniel discovered the Tour Divide, he was hooked.… Read more: The Rodeo Podcast: Daniel Connell on the 2022 Tour Divide - The Rodeo Podcast: Scotti Lechuga on Ultra-endurance Racing
What do you do when someone tells you that you are not mentally tough enough? Scotti’s answer was to sign up for the 2019 Silk Road Mountain Race as a pair with my husband Ernie, and take home the win. Since then she has set multiple FKT at Arkansas High Country, has unfinished business with the Atlas Mountain Race and it hot of a… Read more: The Rodeo Podcast: Scotti Lechuga on Ultra-endurance Racing - What’s Working Podcast w Cam Marston
Radio host and podcaster Cam Marston recently invited Rodeo founder Stephen Fitzgerald onto his show to talk about the behind the scenes of Rodeo, how it came into existence, and what it was like transitioning out of a more traditional career and into running a bike company and community. Check it out via the embed here or search for What’s Working With Cam Marston… Read more: What’s Working Podcast w Cam Marston - The New Normal Podcast
Andrew Maher, an avid cyclist an technology podcaster stopped by last month for a sit down talk about what Rodeo Labs is up to in regards to social media and communicating with customers. It was a fast paced conversation, and Andrew may or may not have added to that by speeding up the speech a bit. That allowed us to cover a lot of… Read more: The New Normal Podcast - The Rodeo Podcast: Sam Martin on the Tour Divide
How do you compare and contrast an effort, especially when one is by foot and the other by bike? That wasn’t the driving question when Stephen and I sat down with Sam Martin, but we couldn’t help ourselves and asked anyway. Sam is fresh off of the Tour Divide. From the outside looking in, he was unfazed by the preparation and inevitable supply chain… Read more: The Rodeo Podcast: Sam Martin on the Tour Divide - The Rodeo Podcast: Sitting down with Paper Trail Gravel Travel
If you have been following the Rodeo Labs stories on Instagram you’ll likely have caught onto a theme. Every week stories get posted of smiling faces on Flaanimal’s. Better yet with captions noting you, yes you, can demo the Flaanimal 5.0 directly from Paper Trail Bike Cafe. While Stephen has met both Paul and Mark, I had some catching up to do. Therefore it… Read more: The Rodeo Podcast: Sitting down with Paper Trail Gravel Travel - The Atlas Mountain Race miniseries – Episode 2
The last time we heard from the miniseries, Stephen and I introduced the crew heading to the Atlas Mountain Race. With roughly three months until the race kicks off we knew we needed an update. So we caught up with Ashley and David to hear how they are feeling. The conversation that followed is a good reminder that the road to Morocco (or any… Read more: The Atlas Mountain Race miniseries – Episode 2 - The Rodeo Podcast: Jay Petervary’s Tour Divide
Photo credit Eddie Clark. As bike enthusiasts or even, dare I say, bike nerds, we obsess over bikes, gear, weight, suspension (or lack thereof), geometry, and tires. We can’t help but keep track of what are the the latest trends and tech. So when bikepacking.com releases their the famous list of participants bikes and photos tackling an event, we can’t help but ogle at… Read more: The Rodeo Podcast: Jay Petervary’s Tour Divide - The Atlas Mountain Race miniseries
Much like a release of any thrilling docuseries on Netflix, the opening episode sets the stage– a cast of characters introduced, various pathways illuminated, but not yet explored. Similarities to the Netflix model diverge immediately. Unfortunately this miniseries will not be binge-able until much, much later… We are building the ship while sailing it, we don’t know if there is a satisfying conclusion to… Read more: The Atlas Mountain Race miniseries - The Leadville 100 Podcast: TD3 vs LT100
The hosts of the Leadville 100 podcasts were super kind to invite Stephen Fitzgerald onto their show to discuss a question they’ve been hearing more and more from their audience: Can a gravel bike be raced successfully at the Leadville 100 mountain bike race? And even if it CAN be raced, SHOULD it? - The Rodeo Podcast: Bike Industry 2021 / Shortages and Opportunities
Across multiple industries, COVID-19 created an initial dip in demand as factories shut down, people quarantined. Global supply chains halted. Now supply while restarted cannot meet the demand. In the bicycle industry, COVID-19 is creating lasting changes and certainly repercussions to business operations. In the meantime, Stephen and I did not see a lot of discussion around what is happening. Some news articles discuss… Read more: The Rodeo Podcast: Bike Industry 2021 / Shortages and Opportunities - Rodeo Podcast EP10: Connor Ryan
On the same day that the capital was stormed while the House and Senate were certifying the 2020 election, Stephen and I were scheduled to link back up with Connor Ryan and hear about the Break The (BI)cycle ride. We were stunned. Wondering if we should we carry on with the podcast or reschedule? It is easy to freeze or doom scroll news and… Read more: Rodeo Podcast EP10: Connor Ryan - Rodeo Podcast EP9: Tom (t-rex) Miller
On the ninth episode of the podcast, Nik and Stephen catch up with Denver local legend Tom Miller. Tom used to be quite the football quarterback. Tom puts out a max of 32,000 watts in short bursts. Tom has a Hemi. Tom is larger than life. Tom is a regular at Denver group rides and he has been rocking Rodeo colors since 1.0. If… Read more: Rodeo Podcast EP9: Tom (t-rex) Miller - Rodeo Podcast EP8: Arkansas High Country Race
On the eighth episode of the podcast, Nik and Stephen virtually catch up with Ashley Carelock and Dr. Seth Wood. They both recently competed in the 2020 Arkansas High Country Race and both set Fastest Known Time(s) (FKT). Your hosts dig into the experience the only way they know how, excitedly asking questions about what happened, like gear choices, or in Seth’s case a single… Read more: Rodeo Podcast EP8: Arkansas High Country Race - Rodeo Podcast EP7: Mostapelli
On the seventh episode of the podcast, Nik and Stephen dig into which Star Wars movie was best. Just kidding! Rather they regale the trials and tribulations faced when attempting the iconic Kokopelli bike packing route from Fruita, CO to Moab, UT. We cover the motivations behind the trip, gear highlights as well as some choice meals. Most of the recap revolves around how… Read more: Rodeo Podcast EP7: Mostapelli - Rodeo Podcast EP6: Evan Christenson
On the sixth episode of the podcast, Nik and Stephen sit down with Evan Christenson. We talk about Evan’s multitude of bike touring trips, how he ended up getting his second choice pick of a custom bicycle–a Flaanimal 4.0– a bike he immediately took bike-packing in Morocco and Uganda. He seemingly hasn’t looked back, but if he isn’t out under the stars he has… Read more: Rodeo Podcast EP6: Evan Christenson - Rodeo Podcast EP5: Connor Ryan
On the fifth episode of the podcast, Nik and Stephen sit down with Connor Ryan, a Natives Outdoors athlete. We talk about Connor riding 1,000 miles at the Break the (BI)cycle. The focus of this ride is to break the silence around mental health for black and Indigenous men. For Connor, the ride starts on September 10th, and he is up for the long… Read more: Rodeo Podcast EP5: Connor Ryan - Rodeo Podcast EP4: Rodeo Adventure Posse
Rodeo Labs and friends sit down with the Rodeo Adventure Posse (Kimberly Nuffer and Kiya Kelly) and hear their origin story of how they created a space for women to empower other women regardless of what bike or kit you are wearing. - Rodeo Podcast EP3: Jones Pass / Logan Jones Wilkins
On the third episode of the Rodeo Podcast we first gather around to talk about big mountain adventures aboard drop bar bikes. Our recent ride up Jones Pass is a perfect case study of what this sort of riding is like so we use it as the main talking point. Should drop bar adventure bikes be up on these roads and trails that are… Read more: Rodeo Podcast EP3: Jones Pass / Logan Jones Wilkins - Rodeo Labs Podcast EP.2: The Corral
For the second episode of the Rodeo Labs Podcast we had a little huddle and talked about what’s been going on lately here at The Lab. One of our goals with this podcast is to give a bit of an unscripted peek behind the curtain and show more of the behind the scenes of what we do. - The Rodeo Labs Podcast. Episode 1: Cycling Photographer Natalie Starr
On episode 1 of our Rodeo Labs podcast we invite our guest Natalie Starr to share the story of how she got into both cycling and photography.