Let us bow our heads in silence... the demise of MTB Podcast

I am so bummed that @Jonathan is no longer doing the MTB podcast. There is nothing out there that compares to it. And now TrainerRoad is no longer doing MTB topics. They have switched to road and triathlon. I wish TrainerRoad would sponsor MTB podcast and devote a few hours a week of Jonathan’s time to it (ahem @Nate_Pearson) . Seems like an efficient use of resources and high ROI for TrainerRoad. They would have the whole podcast of cycling locked up!!

In an MTB podcast, I want to hear racing news, new tech news, racing analysis and tips! I don’t want to hear another hour long interview Q&A of some new cyclist in the industry and their life story (sorry!). Yes, we all rode BMX, then stopped, then found, then started and now we love mountain biking again.

I probably have about 25 mtb/cycling podcasts in Overcast here. I am a podcast junkie. The only ones I can really listen to are:

Velonews Fast Talk: No, not MTB, but the best other podcast on getting faster, except for:
Faster - FLO (once a month, some good ones, though)
FasCat -

MTB specific
BikeRadar: started in earnest in Sep 19. Some good ones in this group and some good hardware tech analysis.
SingleTracks: Hit and miss, mostly for beginners, too many hour long blah blah histories.

I could go on, but it only goes downhill from here…

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I agree. It sucks hearing only about crits and tri 24/7 on the podcast. But at the end of the day it’s a business and they have to discuss what they feel the most people want to hear.

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Agree completely. I miss that podcast. Still like Just Riding Along but most the others on Mountain Bike Radio fill time vs look forward to listening to. Come on hook us fat tire dirt junkies up. How we going to know the accurate stuff prepping for Cape Epic or Iron Horse or some other chance to get mud on our face?

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I miss it too, but I understand why it has stopped. Steven is now living the nomad life (have you seen his freaking trailer?!) and it seems like he probably doesn’t have a lot of spare time anymore. Jonathan has a lot on his plate too between TR, family and a new house. Maybe some day the stars will align and it will come back but I understand why it isn’t currently being produced. They mentioned a long time ago that they would rather not put out anything than put out substandard episodes.

Now, if we could just get Joe Rogan into MTB we’d be in business as far as a backup podcast!

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Ehhemm!! Cape Epic!

MTB race this Sunday with analysis from Jonathan.

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Mtb podcast was great (did Steven ever manage to meet Jolanda Neff? We need answers…) but they both are super busy with life at the moment so I completely get why they stopped. Hopefully it will make a return at some point.

Check out the Downtime Podcast for another great mtb listen, the host is an engineer by trade so they cover tech stuff and a lot of mtb specific fitness topics too.

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MTBpodcast was great. @TheStevenLewis and @Jonathan did a great job discussing equipment and tech. Picked up many great tips including applying ceramic sealant to frames, something I have gone on to share with other cyclists.

I never got the sense that MTB topics won’t be discussed on the TrainerRoad podcast. If good quality questions are sent in I suspect @Jonathan and @Nate_Pearson will cover. @Jonathan has mentioned using tire inserts recently, so hopefully we’ll hear more about that during the season. I also suspect he’ll talk about things during the run up to Nationals.

From @Nate_Pearson, as he gets more miles in on his Pivot Mach 4 with Live Valve, I’d love to hear more regarding how well it is functioning, comparisons to the Brain, and comparisons to a well dialed non-electronic suspension.

Finally, I really hope @Jonathan gets a chance to put some miles on the new Trek Supercaliber. It’s such a different design from what is out there, it would really interesting to hear from someone who really understands suspension and set up well to provide some feedback on it.

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Great post Kuttermax. I’d love to hear all those topics covered.

I really liked when Jonathan would discuss “this bike vs. that bike”.

I tend to MTB solo because I enjoy the “being in nature” side of things more than being in big groups. I learned a lot from listening to these guys talk that I wouldn’t have learned any other way.

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Ditto the love for the MTB Podcast. Thanks to @TheStevenLewis and @Jonathan I know more about MTB suspension, geometry, and frame protectors than any roadie should know. If it comes back, awesome, but you can’t have a podcast by genuine folks sharing their knowledge without accepting that they have other priorities in life. As they should.

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Have you tried the relatively new GMBN podcast? I’ve only listened to a couple, but they do a lot of pro racing coverage and discussions.

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I have cush core on my big travel bike. They’re great. Im not sure I’d install on my xc race bike however.

Being primarily a mountain biker, totally understand! I listen to many of the same that you mentioned (occasionally mountain bike radio… but not so into that one the last year), and I tend to re-listen to the MTB specific TR content that has been on.

There’s a ton of MTB/gravel content on the 2017 podcasts: Carson City Off-Road, Singletrack 6, Lost & Found - many of the podcasts discuss the planning/training for those events, the lead up, race analysis, and post race thoughts.

2019 good listens are: 24h old pueblo prep, lots of good athlete interviews (I always listen and re-listen when Keegan Swenson talks), Sophia Gomez Villafane, Rose Grant, and more.
There’s a ton of learnings from Nate mixed in as he started getting more into MTB, the Lee McCormack ones, and Jonathan always fitting in some MTB talk.

With the Olympics, this year would be cool to cover more of the MTB races somewhere - along with the XCO racing, short track races/prep, analysis with power data, etc.

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I didn’t know about this podcast until this post, I guess I have some listening to do now, thanks! As far as the lack of MTB content on TR lately, I do agree but I also acknowledge that we are likely the minority of listeners so any effort to include off road content is appreciated.

I’d like to know more about specific outside workouts and how that can be applied to an outdoor mountain ride. What does it take to compete at the Cat 1 level, is nationals still Jonathon’s main focus? How much base training matters for someone like me who focuses on 1.5 hour XC races? Any thing Lee McCormick, just a few things I took from the last podcast I’ve applied and amazed at the small change leading to better riding. Keep the Cape Epic plans coming. More guest appearances from some national caliber XC racers and their take on training for 1.5 hour races, then transitioning to those longer events.

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I miss MTB podcast as well. It had the combination of great production quality, talented and experience hosts, and great information/content (no endless rambling or bs’ing). I haven’t found anything that is on the same level or mountain biking.

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I loved the podcast to! The mtb podcast is what drove me to trainer road! @Jonathan @Nate_Pearson

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@cyclingaway, same here! I ride mountain bikes and came across MTB Podcast while traveling. After countless shameless pitches and realizing I had plateaued just riding around, I decided to give TR a try.

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Big fan. Sad, but thanks for the content provided to date.

I caught the MTBpodcast later in the game, so got to binge for awhile. My favorite thing was to listen to it while riding and getting ready for races. It will be missed.

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That’s where I got Larry the Stanimal from. Steven named his stanimals…

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where are these podcasts? I looked at https://www.mtbpodcast.com/ but it only lists 2 last one in all distribution platforms but itunes (which I don’t have access to).