084 – Inside the Bike Industry's Big Brands with Former Giant and Specialized Sales Rep. (Carlos Quintero) - Mountain Cog

Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Josh (00:00):
Yeah, I just remembered that Carlos hasn't listened to
any of our episodes.
Yeah, it's probably the firsttime you've heard this music.

Dane (00:11):
I don't know, he probably won't even listen to this one.
I don't think he will.
Maybe oh, I just lost my phone.

Josh (00:17):
I got poison ivy and it sucks.

Dane (00:20):
So yeah, I didn't even know there was poison ivy in
Arizona.

Josh (00:24):
Yeah Well, apparently on the top of Mount Graham at the
Arcadia Trail, at the wet canyoncrossing there is a significant
amount of poison ivy.

Dane (00:31):
I'm knocking on wood because I have not gotten poison
ivy before.
Yeah, well don't.

Josh (00:37):
It sucks.
Willie was telling me that whenhe was a kid he got it and he
came home and didn't realize hewas in it and he took a leak.
And so a kid, he got it and hecame home he didn't realize he
was in it and he took a leak.
And so if you know anythingabout poison ivy, it's the oil
from the leaves that is whatcauses the allergic reaction,
and as soon as that oil getswashed off your skin, it's no
longer contagious.
So, like the rash itself is notcontagious, okay, but if you
have that oil on you and youhave it on your hands and then

(00:59):
you go, put it somewhere else,so he's like dude I had it on my
junk.

Carlos (01:03):
Oh my God.

Josh (01:06):
So I guess, I didn't do that.

Dane (01:08):
So I got a story about my grandma.

Josh (01:11):
Oh, wow.

Dane (01:11):
So I got her.

Josh (01:12):
I haven't seen her in a while How's she doing?

Dane (01:14):
She's good, she's good, I got her riding a bike.
How tall is she?
Now?
She's four foot, and then she'sjust four foot.

Josh (01:27):
Just straight four foot.
She's a shorty.

Dane (01:29):
But she's been doing 10 miles a day on this bike and I
can't find her because it's been10 days so I have no idea where
she's at.

Carlos (01:39):
Fuck, is that a joke, that's the dad joke?

Dane (01:41):
I don't get it Okay.
Is that a joke?
That's the dad joke.
I don't get it Okay.

Ben (01:44):
So let me read it verbatim.
I was trying to make it a story.
Yeah, because it didn't work.

Dane (01:47):
So my granny, my grandma's , dead, by the way, just to make
you all feel like crap.

Ben (01:52):
Rest in peace.
Yeah, exactly Rest in peace.

Dane (01:55):
My granny started cycling at 97 years old.

Josh (02:07):
She has been doing 10 miles per day, and now we don't
really know where she is.
So is that bad?
It's you want me to do anotherone?
Pick that one.
I mean, honestly, there's likea thousand bad ones.

Dane (02:11):
That one was uniquely bad these are all bad, okay, dad
jokes, uh should we just get onwith the podcast, well.
So there, I got one more okay,is it gonna be equally bad?
So it's just a hill, get overit, that's weak, I'll look for a

(02:33):
better one.

Josh (02:34):
You don't have to, we can do it next episode, we'll get
some better ones.

Dane (02:38):
This says by the way, I typed in just to give myself a
little credit what is the best?
It said the best bike dad jokesever, ever, yeah, and so it's
kind of like we're the ninthbest mountain bike bike mountain
bike.
Are we ninth now?
I thought we were tenth nine.

Josh (02:54):
I say top ten because I don't want to show off, but okay
and nice.

Dane (02:57):
Yes, yeah, that's, that's pretty good all right.

Josh (02:59):
Today our guest is carlos quintero.
How to do with thepronunciation?
Uh, not good, but um say it'sactually charlie last name.
Say your last name.
Yeah, so I know I got thecarlos part right no, it's
actually carlos quinteroquintero, carlos quintero.

Carlos (03:13):
Yeah, okay, carlos quintero, charles quintero I
thought it was charlie charlieyou called me char yeah our big
baller Keen.
You got to like Keen.

Josh (03:24):
Wah Carlos has been in the bike industry over 15 years,
Started out in 2010 when you ranor was a store manager for
Bicycle Warehouse in San Diego.
Yep Was an inside accountexecutive and sales rep with
Giant for four years.
Sales specialist withSpecialized.
Yep specialist with Specialized.
Today he is the SouthwestMarket Manager for Enzo Sales

(03:48):
Group, which reps bike brandslike POC or Mavic.

Carlos (03:56):
He's also a specialist here at Guru Bikes.
How are you doing today, carlos?
I'm doing pretty good, justchilling hard here with the two
main ballers of the podcast.

Dane (04:03):
I'm in top 10.

Josh (04:06):
You mean?

Carlos (04:07):
top 9.

Josh (04:08):
Carlos doesn't even know this, because he doesn't
actually listen to the podcastbut we reference you in every
episode.

Carlos (04:14):
Yeah, every time I hear the references.

Josh (04:19):
Wait, so you actually have listened to the podcast.

Carlos (04:20):
Well, everybody tells me about the references.
After they usually hear thereferences, everybody wants to
go and get a burrito at Nico's.

Josh (04:30):
So I know the inside joke there.

Carlos (04:32):
That's funny.

Josh (04:34):
Who is it, Justin, that his dad joke at?
He actually made a dad joke upon the fly about Carlos.

Carlos (04:39):
Was it the one about not pulling out?
No, it was not.

Josh (04:46):
We're live right now.
We are definitely live rightnow.
It is now.

Carlos (04:49):
Yes, yes, yes, yes, shout outs to Beats by Dre for
providing all the soundequipment.

Josh (04:53):
Right, who did your makeup , by the way?

Carlos (04:56):
So there's a really good makeup artist.
I think she's an ambassador forPaul Mitchell.

Dane (05:02):
Yeah.

Carlos (05:03):
Her name is Sharon.

Dane (05:07):
I can't remember her last name.

Carlos (05:08):
It's some weird last name osborne.

Josh (05:10):
Yeah, yeah, I think so she had that same like british
accent but you know you can tellmy eyeliner looks fucking fire
right yeah, it might besurprising to our listeners that
we get makeup done for ourguests on this episode.
Yeah, yeah, there's no video.
Yeah, exactly, dude, it'sawesome, the vip treatment.

Ben (05:23):
you know the the hot towel was nice wasn't it, Dude the hot
towels, the massage the freecologne, the free iPods.

Dane (05:29):
Oh yeah, so sick.
The green room is dope.

Carlos (05:33):
I know I just forgot all the questions.

Dane (05:37):
We actually have an intern .
Go and separate all the M&Msinto different color bowls.

Josh (05:42):
Or like one M&M's into different color bowls.
Some of our guests only wantyellow.

Dane (05:45):
Or green.

Carlos (05:46):
Or everybody always wants a specific Swisher sweet,
so they can cut it open and makea big fat blunt with that great
Arizona weed.

Josh (05:56):
By the way, for the record , I've gotten a lot of comments
on this.
I am not actually smoking weedon the podcast.
When you hear me make the ballsound, it's actually just me
slurping whiskey typically so solike have the comments been?

Dane (06:09):
like, I can't believe you've done that.

Josh (06:10):
Well, I have a security clearance I haven't had, so I
haven't smoked weed since 1997people at work are like hey,
josh, uh, it's different now,yeah, everyone keeps telling me
that it's different now.
Yeah and uh that be careful,because it's been now.
Yeah and uh that be careful,cause it's been you know what
Almost 30 years since I smokeweed.

Dane (06:27):
Yeah.

Josh (06:27):
But the day I retire, you're smoking.

Carlos (06:30):
There you go, there you go yeah.
Doing some dabs.
Yeah, is that what it is?

Josh (06:34):
Or the day that it becomes legal federally Cause.
Right now it's still illegallevel employees.
Yeah, yeah.
What are you going to do?
Yeah, what are you going to do,carlos, we got some questions
for you.
Sure Shoot Do.

Dane (06:47):
I do, I get to go first.
You go first.
Buddy Sweet.
Um, okay, so this is a legitquestion.
Josh wrote a bunch of questions.
I'm just going to give adisclaimer.
Okay, some of.
So, if you hear me, stutter,it's because I'm reading it
going.
This is dumb, but some of themare awesome and this is a real
one that I have and it'sbasically can you tell us so,

(07:15):
like, what do you do in yourrole at Enzo as a sales rep and
how does that affect the supplychain that we live in?

Carlos (07:19):
So, like the bike shop supply chain in general, like
you know, the bike shop supplychain in general, so I mean, I'm
still pretty, you know, new tothis role, but basically my job
is to, you know, basically likereach out to retailers.
You know, like just check inwith them.
You know it's not just showingup and showing new product right
, it's like checking in withthem, you know, make sure

(07:40):
they're doing good financially.
You know, make sure, like whatthey want to order, the product
that they want to carry, is inline with with their store.
You know, not, not just tryingto get retailers just to order,
just to order, you know, causeI've, I've, you know, I've seen
that you know it won't, it won'tsell.
then no, yeah, and the thing isall you're doing is, you know
you're just doing a quick cashout.

(08:01):
If you do things that way, thewhole idea behind this is to and
my role is going to be more ofdoing clinics with retailers, so
it's not just talking about thefeatures and benefits of the
product, it's also about helpingretailers sell apparel
protection accessories, becausebike shops were super focused on

(08:27):
the bike and which is natural,and.
But sometimes there's certainthings like you know helmets and
you know eyewear andaccessories that sometimes us as
shop people we, you know weforget, and so sometimes it
becomes kind of awkward for forsome people to sell that stuff.
So my role is also to help youknow again, the retailer and
staff feel comfortable likeeducate, yeah, when they're

(08:49):
talking about the product, wherethey don't sound like they're
just reading like hi, welcome touh, this is it has yes, it has,
a carbon.
You know like the whole idea is, so they feel comfortable so
they can talk about it yeahexactly so aren't the margins
better on accessories than theyare on bikes?

Josh (09:04):
Oh, for the shops, yeah.

Dane (09:05):
Mostly yeah.
So I mean it's you can't quotespecific numbers, but I mean
it's not even that.
It's like you know, remember,I'm 29 years old, so I haven't
been around that long, but oh myGod, I'm 17.
So you're letting me drink.
But back, there was highermargins in, and so at some point
they started slimming them, andso but today you make a higher

(09:29):
margin on a accessory than youdo on a bike.
Yeah, the bikes have a muchlower margin than people think.

Josh (09:35):
Can you give me a percentage of like?
What's the like?
Don't tell me the exact numbers, but what's the difference
between is it a 10% differenceor 20%?

Dane (09:41):
difference in margin.
Like accessories you can almostdo, probably another.
It's almost double the marginthat a bike has.
Okay, so and so, but you knowthat accessory may be 25 bucks.

Josh (09:54):
Yeah, so it's the volume, it's the size of the sale.

Dane (09:57):
Yeah, and so selling bikes , a lot of people think, oh, we
just get rich selling bikes.
And I'm like, no, no, theamount of money you make on a
bike is much smaller margin.
And then you hope for theaccessories and the extras and
things like that to keepyourself going.

Josh (10:11):
So, um, and then uh, so, so that you know.
So.
So we asked about enzospecifically.
But you've worked in this kindof role with both giant and
specialized in the past.
I mean, like, can you likemaybe highlight some differences
between these three groups thatyou've worked with as to like
what is the, you know, objectiveof the sales rep course?

Carlos (10:33):
yeah.
So like, um, that's actually apretty good question because
it's like each brand that I'veworked for, like each role has
kind of changed over time, you,you know.
So originally when I was withGiant I was an inside rep and
this was like right before COVIDstarted.
Before COVID it was kind ofmore like you show up, show the
product, talk about it.

(10:54):
You know, I feel like afterCOVID and you know, roles just
started to change because youknow there were certain reps
that couldn't travel.
So you have this weird positionwhere somebody that's sitting
at a desk behind the phone issometimes doing the same job as
the person that's driving.

Dane (11:14):
Supposed to be driving?
Yeah, they're supposed to.

Carlos (11:17):
And again, there's always different circumstances
why it can't always happen.
But after that I feel likethings did change, you know so
yeah, I mean, consumers got usedto buying online as well.

Josh (11:28):
Brands got used to ordering online.
There was probably lessface-to-face interaction and
more online.
So like what's the role liketoday?

Carlos (11:35):
So it was funny Cause, like so right when COVID started
, like I was, you know, jokewith with everybody.
Um that, like you know, whenCOVID started, when I was at
giant, my job became pretty easy.
I mean, it sounds shitty to sayit, but it became pretty easy
because well, like bikes wereflying off the shelves too,
right yeah?

(11:55):
Because?
Because retailers were justlike dude, don't call me, just
ship me whatever's in my back.
Yeah, you know.
So that's, you know, literallyyou know what was happening.
And then from there there's atransition to where it's like oh
, now you can start going tostores.

Dane (12:08):
Yep.

Carlos (12:09):
So from there, like a lot of I feel like a lot of um
reps had to kind of transitionback into that.
So then from there, uh, when Idid leave giant and went to work
with specialized, when Istarted they, they literally was
like we're going direct toconsumer, like they, you know,
they gave me the heads up likethis is gonna happen, so you

(12:30):
know, and so how'd?

Josh (12:33):
you feel about that?

Carlos (12:34):
honestly it's I'm in between because you know I, I
totally get it.
You know obviously from workingat bike shops, you know I, I, I
understand both sides of itbecause, the thing?
The thing now is that consumersjust buy.
You know they.
They buy things how they want toyou know, I mean you can buy a

(12:56):
car from a dealership online,you know.
So it's like get out of avending machine, pretty much.
You know like, yeah, so it'slike if it's like if somebody
can buy a car to them, they'relike, well, I can just buy a
bike, you know, and, but it'sthe same thing with it's still
part of retail, right, it's likeyou can buy, you know, pair of
vans or Nikes at like fivedifferent stores that are next

(13:19):
door to each other, right, andyou can even order it from 20
different online stores.
And so I think that transitionit's a combination of things.
I think what it is is, overtime, there were bike shops that
maybe didn't provide the bestcustomer service.
And think about it, somebodythat's new, that wants to do a

(13:42):
new sport activity, you know youfeel intimidated.
Yeah Right, like I've, I've,like I, you know I kind of look
at that way, like like, trygoing to to get into a new
activity or sport, and you knowyou're going to still feel a
little intimidated when you walkinto that.
That you know sports store,whatever it is, right, like if I

(14:02):
wanted to start to learn how toplay golf, I would feel really
awkward walking into a golf shop, you know cause?
I would just feel like I I wantto do this, but I have no clue.
Yeah, you know.
So.
Then you have sometimes youknow that customer service where
you know they're elitist, youknow they're like what are you
doing here?
So that's where I can see thatside of things, where why you

(14:27):
know consumers do the onlinestuff.
The downside about that isbecause a few retailers and in
good do good customer service.
I feel like the rest of theindustry has to kind of you know
so bike shops basically have todifferentiate themselves with
good service.

Dane (14:40):
Yeah, to compete with well , they should have been direct
to consumer and then brandslikeized or whoever that sell
both.
I think bike shops should bedoing that from the get-go.
One of my degrees is in retailscience literally like a degree.

Ben (14:54):
They don't ever say it's not a fake degree, it's not a
fake degree no yeah.

Dane (15:00):
They teach you how to.
I mean, customer service ishuge, and there's a lot of
people that don't go to school.
They teach you you know how to.
I mean, customer service ishuge, you know, and and um, you
know the there's a lot of peoplethat don't go to school.
Uh, don't get a degree, don'tget a business degree, anything
like that, and they open up abike shop and there's nothing
wrong with that.
You don't have to go to collegebut they don't necessarily get
into the business, uh, to be abusiness person.

(15:23):
They get into the businessbecause they love bikes and so
they don't have any kind oftraining on how to deal with
people, how to treat people andhow to cultivate that customer
service mentality that should bethere, and so they kind of just
get running because they canfix a bike or they love bikes or
what have you.
And then that's one of thethings that I see with the bike

(15:44):
industry that seems to get themost frustrated customers.
Or they they go into that shopwhere they're like probably all
those guys are awesome mechanicsand great on a bike, but they
just they're assholes, butthey're yeah, yeah, they don't,
they don't have that customerservice kind of you know cool,
just be cool yeah, it's and it's, it's something that I mean I I

(16:05):
feel like of you know, just becool.
Yeah, it's, and it's, it'ssomething that I mean I I feel
like at guru, you know, we don'tdo that, we are actually
separate yourself.

Josh (16:11):
I mean, I've come in here several times to record podcasts
or whatever and I've kind ofjust sat and watched how you
guys seen lots of employees comein and like you know someone
and we went over all this in thedirect to consumer episode but
like someone walks in the door,you guys greet them immediately.
You know, like I went intoanother big shop in town, stood
there for 20 minutes beforeanyone said anything to me and
they lost me as a customerforever because they they just

(16:34):
looked at me and said that fatguy over there doesn't, is not,
is not deserving of my time.
Yeah, super old fat guy.

Dane (16:42):
Yeah, I'm not that old.

Josh (16:43):
I'm younger than you.
Sucker what.

Dane (16:45):
You're 28?
.

Carlos (16:50):
What I always try to, um , you know, try to bring up with
.
You know people are trying, youknow, just to kind of get them
more familiar with actualcustomer service.
How I, how I kind of look at it, it's like okay, name the last
place that you went to to shopwhere, as soon as you walked in,
they greeted you.
You know they, they gave youthe time of the day, you know
they, they showed you otheroptions of what you had.

(17:11):
So that's why I tell everybody,think about those times.
So you, whether you're going toStarbucks, you're going to ACE,
true value.

Josh (17:19):
Yeah, shout out, I love it , dude you can't walk 15 feet
without someone being like hey,can I help you?
Yeah, you walk 10 feet andthey're like can I help you?
Can I help you, Can I help youand I need it?
Yeah, and.

Carlos (17:31):
I feel like, even like their services is it's real,
it's not just like they'rereading something you know like
okay you need this.

Josh (17:40):
It's like they're real guys that are trying to help you
figure it out.
Yeah.

Carlos (17:43):
Like, I mean straight up , like again, I know you know
there's, there's, you know bikeshop guys that maybe don't go to
the mall or don't go to retailstores, and which is fine, but
if you can step into one, youknow.
That way you kind of get theidea, because every person
that's coming into a store or toa bike shop, you know that,

(18:04):
whether you know them or not,you know you want to still
provide the same service.
So if you're used to going to arestaurant, a retail store, and
you're used to that, this is aretail store.

Dane (18:14):
Yeah.

Carlos (18:14):
This bike shop is a retail store.
Yeah, it's just we selldifferent things, but it's like
it should be the same type ofservice.
We sell fun, yeah.

Josh (18:22):
So, yeah, I mean, I remember coming in here and I'm
like I got a frame off theinternet I want to buy.
I want to buy a dirt jump bike,I want to build a dirt jump
bike and I have no fucking cluelike all the specs and
components and everything that Ineed that are going to work
with this frame and your shopsat here and spent probably
three hours with me as we like,researched everything, ordered

(18:43):
every part, part.
You got a couple of grand worthof business from me on that,
but like I couldn't have donethat, would it taken me a week
or longer?

Dane (18:50):
Yeah, it's but that's part of the job and that's why we're
here and then and we love doingthat and okay, so I got a
question back to and it's arelationships.
Yes, yeah, right, so I got.
I got two, one that josh wrote,which is a good one.
I do want to know about this.
But first, before we get onthat, to touch on the um

(19:10):
specialized giant and now a repum.
So a lot of times when I hearfrom one of our suppliers that
they're going consumer direct,they are saying, well, there's
some guy who doesn't have a shopnear him and we want to be able
to get it to them.
So is that bullshit?
From what you've heard?
Like I feel like it's bullshit.

(19:31):
I feel like what they're doingis they're going into a market
and they're trying to soft sellme on it and not make me feel
bad or like that they're cuttingme out.

Carlos (19:41):
I mean I don't know.
I mean like there's, you know,obviously I feel like there's
always that part of it you knowlike cause you know you're
trying to make everybody happy.
Yeah, yeah, um, I think again.
I think just what it is andwhat's?
What's really weird is justlike, just again, everybody got

(20:01):
so comfortable just purchasingonline.

Dane (20:04):
Yeah.

Carlos (20:11):
And so again, it's this weird, weird part where it's
like you know you're trying to,you know you want to provide,
you know for the person thatwants to, you know purchase that
bike, but at the same time,it's like you know they want
that thing, right then.

Dane (20:24):
and there, do you so like we?
Just this week we had twopeople come in that have bought
consumer direct bikes.
One one bought an e-bike,that's what brand?
Canyon canyon yeah and it's endup being heavier than he wanted
and it's for his wife and uh,heavier than he wanted.
He didn't know what wasavailable, but he bought it

(20:46):
online, good price, good price.
And we even told him just take,send it back, you know, like
you can send it back, likethat's one of their things, you
know.

Josh (20:56):
But then he felt so he was unhappy with the purchase
basically.

Dane (20:59):
He didn't realize there was other options that were
better.
And that's one of the thingsthat I'm always fearful of with
Consumer Direct is that you'renot really getting the full
story.
You don't have somebodyadvocating for you and you're
kind of.
You know you're just a slave tomarketing.
And marketing can be good, likeyou see your favorite
influencer on TV riding trailson a particular bike telling you

(21:22):
how you should get it, andthey're just doing these awesome
things on this bike and thenyou get it and it's a heavy,
awful pig you know, but that guywrote it, so why can't I write
it like he can?
And and you don't?
You don't put two and twotogether.
That that it's.
I don't want to call it a snowjob, but that's marketing.
That is what marketing is.
They give you the best view ofsomething and tell you how

(21:45):
amazing it is and that you'lllove it.
They don't tell you the bad.
Yeah, you know, yeah, and Ithink I feel like at the bike
shop you get that.
You get a little bit of likehey, this is maybe not the best
product for you, maybe this is,you know, or another option, or
here's an equivalent and here'swhy one's good and one's good,
and and they may not have thesame goods.

Carlos (22:06):
Yeah, and and and the downside right, like it's like
once you, you know, run throughall those things with with that
person you know, they realizelike oh shit, yeah, this, you
know, like it looked cool.

Dane (22:19):
You know cheap is is one of the things that I hear all
the time, which is I totally getit Cause, like if you think
about it, right.

Carlos (22:26):
So so I look at at, like you know, consumerism, right,
Like there's certain things thatwe purchase every day and we're
like I'm not going to fuckingspend full dollar on that, I'm
going to get the cheapest shit.
Yeah, people, that that's howthey look at other activities
right to them.
They're like this is fun, thisis a cool bike, but, like

(22:46):
whatever, you know, like I'm notfully, fully into it.
Yeah, you know so.
So you know, I, I totally getthat side of things, you know,
because, again, you see afucking nice, flashy bike you
know for like, okay, I can getit for half the price.
It has all the same parts asthis other bike that I looked at
.
Yep, like I saw the videos.

Dane (23:04):
I don't understand why it's been more.
You know exactly.

Carlos (23:07):
So, so I I get that side of things, but the downside is,
like you said, once thatpurchase happens, there's a lot
more to it.
Right?
The bike's not the right size.
The bike's not designed forwhat they wanted to, you know,
to use it for Cause.
Again, they saw that videosomebody just bombing down this
hill and Whistler made it lookamazing.

Dane (23:28):
Yeah, but they live here and they live here in Tucson,
right?

Josh (23:32):
You know that happens, you don't need a Whistler bike in
Tucson, exactly.

Carlos (23:35):
Yeah, no, exactly Right, like that.
That happens all the time.
So once they do so, again thedownside to them they already
spent that money right.
But if you notice most of thosepeople, they end up showing up
at a bike shop because they'relike.
I just got this bike Like thisliterally happened yesterday

(23:56):
from somebody that we even did abike fit.
She's like I just bought thisbike, got it out of the box.
This is weird.
This I'm like, oh yeah, it wasjust simple adjustments, right,
I spot this bike, got it out ofthe box.
This is weird.
This I'm like, oh yeah, yeah,it was just, you know, simple
adjustments, right, yeah.
But again it's one of thosethings they start to realize
where, like, oh fuck, like thisprobably wasn't what I needed,
yeah, but it looks cool.

Dane (24:16):
Or it doesn't fit you.
Yeah, exactly it doesn't fityou.
It looks cool it.

Carlos (24:20):
you know the name, brand stuff and everything but but
online it fit me.
Yeah, exactly.
But but the cool thing is, like, you know, once they come to
the shop, you know how I look atit.
It's like I don't think weshould like, when somebody does
buy a direct to consumer brand,I don't think we should, you
know, make them feel bad becauseagain there's a reason why they

(24:40):
bought it, right.
Like just ride a bike man?
Yeah, no exactly.
You know there's a reason whythey got it Right.
There's multiple reasons.
So I think, like our job, youknow, in the industry, when
somebody you know does makethose purchases, just, you know,
just fully embrace it, justlike dude, I'm so stoked you got
this bike, glad you're on abike.
Yeah, here, let me show you,you know, you know what you can

(25:02):
eventually do, you know, or whatyou're gonna step into, like I
mean, look at, like devin, yeahyeah bought a canyon yep, rode
the shit out of it, uh-huh, youknow.
And then he got, you know, thatpivot firebird yep, and he just
realized like like oh my.

Josh (25:15):
God, this bike is so much better.

Carlos (25:17):
Yeah, exactly so that is kind of cool, right.
Let the people kind of havethat decision.

Josh (25:23):
He won't buy another direct-to-consumer bike.

Carlos (25:25):
Well, yeah.

Dane (25:26):
And that is cool.
It is fun to see somebody'sface light up when they're like,
oh my God, I had no idea howcool this stuff is Exactly, and
so I think I get a little bitterand I think I'm allowed to be a
little bitter with just some ofthe marketing snow that's out
there, and I get a littlefrustrated.
I was watching.

Carlos (25:48):
Jeff Kendall Weed.
Oh, the Trail 429?
No, he just put a video outabout the Trail 429.
Yeah, just in general.

Dane (25:55):
And I'm just like you know he's getting better Like these
again.
I've been exploring YouTube,right.
You know, I kind of bagged onYouTube the first time that we
started talking on on thepodcast with, uh Josh telling
him that I get frustrated withit cause there's a lot of bad
information.

Josh (26:10):
Yeah, and it's only good information.
On the mountain cog podcast yes, that's absolutely, but but
really you know?

Dane (26:17):
you, you start to realize that you know some of these
people's motivations, and that'sbeen forever.
You know, you know.

Josh (26:23):
I mean shout out to Jeff man.
I mean he always kind of says,listen, I'm sponsored by this
guy.

Dane (26:28):
Yes, and I've heard him.
That's where he's gotten better.
I've heard him bag on productsthat he's sponsored by.
He's like I don't really likethis, I don't really like that,
so I gotta give him kudos forthat.
Well, he's also integrated insome disclaimers like hey for
where I ride.
The last uh video I think I waswatching.
He's in squamish or something,right, yeah, he's up in the
north pnw type area and he's umdoing steep bellingham or yeah,

(26:51):
yeah, and so he's.
He's kind.
You know.
We were talking about hisreview on a pivot shuttle and
how he had to alter it to makeit work for him.
Yeah, he's realized now thatthat's a different.
He's a different rider in adifferent place and there's
nothing wrong with that.

Josh (27:06):
I don't know a single person that rides like Jeff
Kendall Weed.
He's a badass rider.

Dane (27:12):
There's a lot Like.
I want to try and meet Remy.

Josh (27:15):
Dylan's going to.
Ronnie said he can get Remy onthe podcast.
That'd be cool.
I'm not going to throw out anypromises.

Carlos (27:24):
No promises.

Dane (27:25):
When we go to Whistler next year I'm going to actually
try and reach out and see if Ican.
Just because he rides DVO.
I find that hilarious.
I don't know who he is.
You don't know who Remy isRemember, I'm not a YouTube guy,
but you're a mountain bike guy.

Josh (27:41):
How do you not know who the best freerider is in the
industry?
And he rides.

Dane (27:45):
DVO.
I know that's why I thought itwas funny, because I'm like this
guy's cool and he rides hazebrakes too.
Yes, exactly, yes, yeah, solike we got a lot in common, I'd
love to meet the guy, so, uh,and have him drop me like a bad
habit at Whistler.

Josh (28:00):
So let's, let's bring it back to this sales rep thing.
I got another question for you.
So just just curious, like as aas a like Carlos, you probably
don't know this about me and my,my day job.
I'm always interested in theeconomics of how things work,
and this is like a five-partquestion or something, but it
starts with you've worked kindof in the sales world, the sales

(28:22):
rep world, for a while.
Is the compensation model forthe sales reps commission-based
or salary?

Carlos (28:29):
So if you're working for the big boys, it's a
combination of both.

Josh (28:36):
So base salary and then commission on combination of
both.
So base salary and thencommission on top of that, or
bonuses.

Carlos (28:41):
Obviously the commissions change because
they're already on salary.
Usually a lot of the biggerbrands, their reps even get
compensated monthly for carmaintenance.
Yeah, your travel expenses andstuff like that.
All those things their reps,you know, even get like you know
compensated monthly for.

Josh (28:56):
You know car maintenance.
You know, yeah, you know Travelexpenses and stuff like that,
yeah, exactly All those thingsyou know.

Carlos (29:00):
So and the difference, being an independent rep, you
know it varies from you knowdifferent brands, but it's
basically just commission-based.
You know.
A lot of times expenses areeither you know on you, you know
, or there's a certain amountwhere you know everything's, you
know, covered, you know.
So it, yeah it.
It just kind of depends.
But for the smaller brands.

Josh (29:19):
It's more salary based.
Um, no, no no.
So so for everybody, it's it'scommission and salary.

Carlos (29:25):
Uh, yeah.
So like, for instance, likeyeah, if you're, you know,
probably working for you know,the bigger brands like you know
specialized giant CannondaleTrek.
You know you're probably likeon on.

Josh (29:36):
You know salary and in commission Okay, and then the
smaller brands is what?

Carlos (29:45):
Yeah, it just depends.
But usually a lot of smallerbands are are brands are just
going to be, just, you know,commission based pretty much.

Josh (29:47):
So commission based for a small brand.
So so which model, thiscombination of salary and
commission for the bigger brandsversus, you know, straight
commission, which model do youthink is more effective for the
from the brand's perspective?

Carlos (29:59):
I mean honestly, like one way or another, it's going
to be more effective when you'reon salary and commission,
because the thing is too like ifyou're on salary right, you do
have somebody like yo, you gotto step up your goals, you know.
So.
There's also, like you knowthat, that motivation.

Josh (30:16):
So that way too, you're, but you attract better talent
with a with a compensation modelthat's got some kind of
fundamental like protection withthe salary.
Is that where you're comingfrom?

Carlos (30:26):
yeah, because you know at the same time, too right,
there's, depending on theterritory that you have, there
might be seasons where it justsucks.

Josh (30:34):
you know it's just summer in Tucson yeah.

Carlos (30:38):
You know, so like um, you know, I think obviously you
know salary and commission, youknow kind of keeps you again
just dedicated to.
You know what your role isevery day.
You know, um, you know versus,you know sometimes being
independent.
You know you have multiplebrands, you know that you have
to kind of deal with, so youhave to kind of figure out.

(30:58):
You know when's the.
You know what brand's going towork better at each store.
You know different seasonsversus when you're just working
for just one brand, justliterally just rolling up, just
talking about that lineup.

Dane (31:12):
Gotcha, yeah, all right.
Right, so I got one of myquestions.
So if money was not an object,I will not make out with you,
dane, I told my wife I'm like Imean, it depends on the dollar.
Wait, you just changed.

Carlos (31:29):
So what you're saying is there's a chance.
Yeah, yeah, a million to one.

Ben (31:34):
I've got a bunch of cash on me right now.

Josh (31:37):
How much would it cost?

Dane (31:38):
for you to make out with Dave I mean I can hear you Is a
hundred bucks enough.
But who gets the money, Carlos?

Carlos (31:43):
Oh, Carlos gets it.

Josh (31:48):
Because I know you would make out with him for free.

Carlos (31:51):
That's probably true.
All right, nobody will know,it's a secret.

Dane (31:54):
Does Carrie listen to this ?
Yeah, she does.

Josh (31:57):
Don't tell Carrie or Tara.

Carlos (31:58):
Tara, if you're listening.

Josh (32:01):
I can attest.

Dane (32:01):
Trust me, they're both laughing at us.

Josh (32:04):
Professionally, it wasn't, it was a professional kiss.

Carlos (32:07):
Yeah, there's no feeling , it's like acting, we just
tongue-tied.

Josh (32:11):
It's just like acting.
It's just like acting.
I mean, this is a production,yeah exactly.

Dane (32:15):
All right, all right.
So if money wasn't an object nobrand affiliation, you don't
work for anybody what bike wouldyou buy?
That's actually a really goodquestion.
So I want to clear this upbecause I don't want to hear
some canned answer because youwork for one company.
I'd be a derosa and I'd havemavic wheels on it, but like,

(32:38):
like actually that's a reallygood question if you could go
out and just be like, uh,somebody said, hey, whatever you
pick, I will get you g millerdream bike.

Josh (32:46):
What's your dream?
Yeah, like what is what is your?

Dane (32:48):
what is the bike that you would pick?

Josh (32:50):
are we?
Are we specifying a specificdiscipline and why no, I'll
leave it open.
Okay, leave it open and why.

Dane (32:55):
And that's because you know.
I want to know your reason.

Carlos (32:58):
Does it have to be just one, or can it at least be two?

Josh (33:02):
Two bikes?
Yeah, two bikes yeah, let's go.
Are they two different bikes?
Yeah.

Carlos (33:10):
Well, just so I can give you a reason why bike oh, no,
no, no okay, I'm just saying no,I'm just saying, like like
brands, like like like, say okaytwo brands, okay.

Dane (33:17):
So if it was, I swear to god, if you say specialized and
giant, I'll be so mad have youever heard of giantalized?
No, no so so, uh, you mean aspying spying special, special,
special lion.
Yeah, so you know.
So I I actually started riding.

Carlos (33:34):
Spiant Special Iant.

Josh (33:34):
Special Iant.
Special Iant.

Carlos (33:37):
So I actually started riding mountain bikes.
It was about 94.
So I really got intocross-country mountain biking.
So this was when I was livingdown in San Felipe, mexico.
So I did that for I want to sayabout four years, did state and
national championships.
So I subscribed to say aboutlike four years, did like state
national championships.
So I was like I like Isubscribed to mountain bike

(33:58):
action, right, so every time Iget that fucking magazine you
know like I would get it andlike just go through everything
and memorize it yeah, like, yeah, like I cause it was a month,
so you got another one.
Exactly yeah.

Josh (34:10):
I don't even look at my magazines anymore.
I keep subscribing because Ifeel bad, but like I'm, like I
digest so much content online,Keep it.

Carlos (34:19):
All the last, like mountain bike action magazines I
got.
I would just take them from thegiant bathroom you know,
because I just go into like, oh,they got the latest edition.
Yeah, no, like I think.
Okay, so back in the day Ialways wanted a Yeti, okay, you
know, and this is like 94, 95.
You know, like when, like Idon't know.

Dane (34:39):
Yeah.

Carlos (34:40):
So, like I don't know, I've always had a thing, I've
never ridden one.
I don't know how they ride Like.

Josh (34:46):
I don't know.
You're really going to pick abike you've never ridden?

Ben (34:51):
Yeah, no.

Dane (34:51):
Again.
So, I think that's more pureright, Because he's doing it off
of like whatever.

Josh (34:56):
So which Yeti would you get?

Carlos (34:57):
SB-160?
.

Dane (34:59):
Or would it be in the 90s Yeti?

Carlos (35:03):
Well, that's what I'm saying Because I always remember
the Yeti arc.
The yellow and blue had, likethe Easton carbon.
You know, trispo.
Yeah, like that was the shit.

Josh (35:12):
Like the stuff that Missy Gio was like no-transcript.

Carlos (35:42):
Had it or I wanted it back then we couldn't get it
exactly yeah, so now you gotlike 40 of them yeah, 50 of them
looking around I would say likeas an older, you know
traditional brand, you know,definitely like a Yeti.
I would say on the newer brandsomething kind of a little bit
weirder or you know something alittle bit more.

(36:03):
I guess you could sayunderground.
I think the Alchemy bikes werepretty sick.

Dane (36:08):
The newer bikes.

Carlos (36:09):
Yeah, so they use a.

Josh (36:10):
Yeti design.
Alchemy is like a hardtail.
No no no.

Carlos (36:14):
They make some sick yeah full suspension.

Dane (36:16):
So they kind of adopted the old Yeti design when Yeti
switched to the new SwitchInfinity.

Carlos (36:22):
Yeah, yeah, exactly.

Dane (36:24):
And they're cool bikes.
They actually are really cool.

Carlos (36:26):
Yeah, I think those, and even like the Rebels, are also
pretty sick.
Again, they remind me of thatkind of style bike, you know.
All right, let's put our answernext.
Dude, I set this up.

Josh (36:38):
I put it on the tee Perfect for him to just hit a
home run.
I knew he was going to sayspecialized and he didn't.

Carlos (36:45):
No, you have completely disappointed me.
You thought it was going to belike.
Yeah, you know, net over in.

Dane (36:51):
He's like I always want to be like net.
Specialized cross country andgiant free ride, that's what I'd
ride With the Mavic wheels.

Carlos (37:00):
I mean the only thing that was kind of sick, like when
I was at Giant, like in thefitness room they had a bunch of
like the older bikes there sosick.
They had Tomac's bike.

Dane (37:10):
Yeah, yeah.
And then they had one of Ithink it was like they have the
tomac, uh intense.
Yep, no way they had the tomacintense that was painted giant.

Carlos (37:19):
No way, that's cool yeah so it's kind of cool like every
day, like walking through thereto talk with my homies, like
you just look and you're like,oh shit, I remember that bike.

Dane (37:26):
Yeah, that was the one I wanted, you know that's kind of
where that question comes from,because back in the day, you
know, when giant didn't have adownhill bike and they had
sponsored riders, they're like,well, what the hell do we do?
And those guys are like, I wantthis bike.
And then they just painted itGiant or Mongoose.
You know Eric Carter wasMongoose Intense, I mean, they
were the fabricators that madethe coolest shit they really did

(37:46):
, and so it's kind of cool,because there was a time when
even pros got to actually picktheir bikes.

Carlos (37:55):
Yeah, got to actually pick their bikes.

Dane (37:56):
Yeah, exactly, and it was so cool because you're like
that's not that brand, that's anintense yes, exactly.

Carlos (37:58):
You're like I saw Chainsmoke.

Dane (38:00):
I know it's the same bike that Sean Palmer's riding.
Shout out to Sean Palmer thatdude is crazy.
Oh yeah, he's probably high ashell right now.

Carlos (38:06):
Yeah, hopefully I'm not but he is All right.

Ben (38:11):
It's story time.
Okay, carlos.

Josh (38:13):
Okay, so you know you've been in the industry for 15
years.
Yep, what is the best likeweird, odd or funny story you
can tell us?
You know, obviously related tobikes.
Okay, In your time in theindustry.

Carlos (38:29):
So I think.
So I have a couple of weirdones Go for it.
So I'm not going to mention thebrand.
It's definitely not specialized.
Okay, definitely notnon-specialized.
Yeah, because it couldn't be.
No, no, I'll let each person totheir imagination.
I think the weirdest thing wasmoving from San Diego up to

(38:54):
Newberry Park.
Not talking about the brandsmoving from San Diego up to um
very park.

Dane (38:57):
Uh, not talking about the brands.

Carlos (38:58):
Uh, no again shout out to everybody at a giant that are
still homies.
Like you know they're, you knowthey're the friends, but like
um, I had a he's picking hiswords.

Dane (39:10):
Nobody can see the dancing .
Yeah, I know he's totally likehe's uncomfortable.

Carlos (39:15):
Because the funny thing is, like all my friends and
everybody that I still know atGiant, they probably know this
story, so okay.
So the first few weeks.

Josh (39:22):
So we've established the company now.

Carlos (39:23):
So the first few weeks, exactly, like you heard me.
Whatever, fuck it.

Josh (39:26):
So, a couple.

Dane (39:27):
I say this All you have to do is say no offense, and then
tell the story.

Josh (39:33):
Everything's good with the no offense You've absolved
yourself, you're so indemnified,so I'm just going to just tell.

Carlos (39:39):
I do have a couple of stories I'm just going to tell.
The one is a little bit moreappropriate, cause I don't want
to get anybody in trouble.
So when I first, you know,again moved from San Diego up to
Newberry parks, literally aboutlike three hours Right, and so
my third week there at giant,you know they knew I spoke
Spanish.
Yeah, so I'm there.
And then, um, one of the, like,you know, lobby secretary, you

(40:04):
know people that were workingthere.
So they go up to my cubicle andthey're like hey um so um you
speak Spanish, right, and I'mlike yeah, you know, you know
only on weekends, you know no.

Ben (40:17):
So so I'm like yeah, yeah, like you know what's up.

Carlos (40:20):
You know again like I just started there.
So I'm like you know, yeahwhatever you need me to do.

Dane (40:38):
So can you tell the gardener if he can just not cut
this one tree down?
Yeah, sure.

Carlos (40:42):
Okay, so we walk outside , you know, and it's like me and
two other people.

Dane (40:49):
You're out on Giant's lawn .

Josh (40:50):
It took two executives from Giant.

Dane (40:52):
What do we do?

Josh (40:54):
Someone find Carlos.

Carlos (40:57):
So I go outside, I'm like, yeah, okay, yeah, you know
, I'm like, of course they justneed me to translate something.
We're totally fine, I get it.
So I go out there and then youknow like they're like, hey, can
you tell him just leave thistree up here, but not this one?
I'm like, okay, so, like youknow, start.
You know like, hey, si puedesnada mas cortas este arbol y el
otro no.
And the dude just looks at melike what the fuck did you say

(41:20):
he doesn't speak Spanish, hespoke Portuguese.
Oh shit.

Josh (41:25):
So I'm like isn't Portuguese and Spanish pretty
close no not at all.

Dane (41:29):
Well are they not, they're not even related.

Josh (41:31):
They're both romance languages.
Come on.

Carlos (41:34):
So it was kind of funny.
I'm like, yeah, I don't speakPortuguese, and they kind of
looked at me like what I'm likeyeah, totally different language
, totally different language,totally different, totally
different.

Josh (41:50):
So you go inside and they're like does anyone speak
Portuguese in the company?
Pretty much.

Carlos (41:56):
But the funny thing is like the next day I was wearing
a Brazil jersey.
No, I'm just kidding.
You got any other ones?

Dane (42:02):
that are like more incriminating that you can like
not tell yeah that was tame,that was pretty tame, that was
good, but your voice was good.

Josh (42:08):
Just don't tell me like keep any details out of names or
specifics.

Dane (42:11):
Yeah, yeah, exactly.
Or change out of names orspecifics yeah, yeah, or change
them.

Carlos (42:19):
You could be like felipe , so craig, no, yeah, I mean
like this guy named fernando.
What was what was pretty funnyis, um, like it was fun.
It was like interacting withdifferent like retailers, like
when I was a giant that wouldcome and, you know, visit, you
know, like visit the store.
So we'd always like usually goout with with everybody.
Yep and um, there was one of myretailers that came out, um,
they were from the Massachusettsarea, it was South, I think it

(42:42):
was South cities.

Dane (42:44):
I is this pertinent Cause you're narrowing it down?

Carlos (42:46):
Yeah, Somebody's going to know who it is.
Oh no, no, they're they,they're, they're they're East
coast bike shop.

Dane (42:52):
Yeah, no, there's super on the corner of fourth and third.

Carlos (42:57):
No, they're like super, super cool people.
Um so they came out to you know, newberry park and um so what I
did is, since they were, youknow, part of, like my, my, my
territory, I was like dude, so Iliterally took him around
Ventura, took him to all thebars, took him to a few taco

(43:17):
shops down there.

Josh (43:18):
Yeah, is that like taco shops?
Is that like code for somethingelse?

Carlos (43:24):
It depends, it could be no.
No, I literally took him to ataco shop, I mean he lived in
Tijuana.

Dane (43:29):
I thought that was like.

Josh (43:30):
California slang for strip club.

Dane (43:32):
It could be?
That would be nice.

Carlos (43:34):
No, the slang for strip club in Tijuana is Hong Kong
Hong.

Ben (43:38):
Kong, what Really?

Carlos (43:39):
Yeah, it's either Hong Kong or Comida, china, that's
what they call it.

Josh (43:42):
We used to call it the ballet ¿Cómo se dice Comida
China en español or en inglés?

Carlos (43:47):
Chinese food.

Josh (43:47):
Okay.

Carlos (43:48):
So the reason Chinese food.

Ben (43:50):
That.

Carlos (43:50):
That's a translation so the reason is so in Tijuana
there's like a it's a strip clubcalled Hong Kong.
A lot of Chinese women there.
No, no, no no.
So well, the funny thing islike it's kind of more of a joke
with everybody that like livesin San Diego or in Tijuana.
So there's always a joke thatthat when you know somebody is
going to go down to like thestrip clubs, they're like, oh,

(44:12):
I'm gonna go and get comidachina, you know I'm gonna go get
chinese food, but they'rementioning they're going to hong
kong yeah, okay, so you nevergot to the taco shop or the taco
yeah no, so what was cool aboutit is like um, so you know, I
took them around there inventura, went to like a couple
bars, um and dude, they had likethe best time ever.

(44:34):
So the following day we werestill supposed to have, like you
know, meetings because theywere you know they're there for
a reason yeah, I've never seen acrew so hung over, like so hung
over like it's like I, I got towork and you know I'm.
It's not like I was like,feeling you know 100, you know I
was 99.
Yeah, work hard, play, feelingyou know a hundred percent you
know, I was 99%, yeah, work hard, play hard.

(44:55):
Yeah, you know, I'm just tryingto keep it real and so like, uh
, I can remember rolling in andI was like dude, you guys look
fucked up.

Ben (45:04):
You know, I was kind of like you guys need some coffee
or anything.

Josh (45:07):
Maybe you went too hard last night.

Carlos (45:08):
But, but no, they, they had an amazing time.
Um, like it, amazing time.
It's funny because thefollowing week when I called him
, they have that Boston accent.

Josh (45:16):
Oh, Carlos, this is the best time we've ever had.
Oh my God, that is the worstBoston accent I've ever heard.
I know I should have been.
That's like New Orleans orsomething right there, I know.

Carlos (45:25):
Well, that's my Mexican Boston accent.

Dane (45:28):
It's just basically New York accent.

Carlos (45:30):
Like hey, hey.

Josh (45:34):
God, I wish this was on video.
We wasted all that money onmakeup.
I know.

Carlos (45:40):
I know, dude, look at how shiny my skin is right now.

Josh (45:42):
You look so good though.
You look so good, yeah, yeah.

Carlos (45:44):
Dude shout out to Calvin Klein for providing the perfume
.

Dane (45:47):
That's awesome, ck1.
Ck1, baby CKB doc Got thatblack CKB bottle.
Okay so Josh wrote a questionthat's awful.
It's a great question.
I don't even want to read it.

Carlos (46:01):
I already told you guys about making out.

Ben (46:02):
Yeah, so like basically he wants to know why Specialized is
the best bike in the world.

Dane (46:12):
It's just a horrible question.
I knew you guys were going todo that, yeah.
So what I'd like going to do ityeah.
So what I'd like you to do istell me what drivetrain do you
prefer?

Carlos (46:21):
Oh, okay, god damn.

Ben (46:25):
Yeah, Schrammer, Shimano buddy.

Josh (46:26):
AC.

Carlos (46:27):
Delco, take a side, pick a side.

Josh (46:31):
He's going to say micro shift, okay.

Dane (46:32):
Don't even I like the mic that's on the kids micro shift.
Okay, Don't even I like the micthat's on the kids bikes.

Josh (46:35):
We can agree on something.

Carlos (46:36):
Yeah, high five, hey, but you guys don't have macro
shift.

Dane (46:42):
I don't know Um what's on your bike.

Carlos (46:46):
On my bike, my bike um on my bike.
I have a SRAM transmission.
Yeah, so transmission.

Dane (46:53):
And it's because you got that free that you put it on
there.

Carlos (46:56):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, Like they hooked me up.
No, just kidding.
Paid full pop.
No, I mean honestly, like Ithink you know both brands,
Shimano and SRAM like they makereally good stuff.

Josh (47:12):
Seriously, you're going to give us the political answer.
You're not going to pick a side.

Dane (47:15):
You kind of have to If you work in a bike shop, Because in
a week Chris is going to behere, our Shimano rep.
He's going to be like I heard.

Josh (47:22):
Yeah, he is going to be.
I'm going to send him thispodcast, I know.

Ben (47:25):
I know.

Dane (47:25):
And then Jimmy's going to call me a week later and by the
way Shimano's got new stuffcoming out, campy dude, I'm all
about that, campy Campy.

Carlos (47:39):
Have they ever?

Dane (47:40):
done a mountain bike group .
Yeah, they did a while ago.

Josh (47:43):
That must have been when I was like four.
I think it was called Dampy.

Dane (47:46):
No, it was Dampy, that's.

Carlos (47:53):
If you got it to work, You're like damn but um I don't
know, I I have been digging thesram stuff in the last couple
years, but, um, you know, Ithink I don't know, like, again,
every brand is always trying toone-up each other.
Yep, you know so.
So I am pretty excited, likeonce the shawana stuff comes out
.

Dane (48:11):
You know like, I I'm amazed in the shop it's pretty,
even split you know, like as faras like uh, customers,
employees, everything likeeverybody.

Josh (48:20):
It's pretty even like there's really no, I definitely
prefer your employees that areon shimano, like willie's one of
my favorite guys, that's butthat's the thing is like when he
uses the sram chain I'm tryingto think so.

Carlos (48:31):
No, I'm just kidding.

Dane (48:33):
Brian's on SRAM, no, brian's on XTR.
Oh yeah, that's right.
So Brian's on XTR, willie's onXTR.
They actually sprung for thenice stuff.

Carlos (48:42):
Yeah, yeah, they got the XTR Like yeah.
Not like the cues.

Dane (48:46):
Yeah, I don't get the XTR was on my way.
Josh is on like dior.
He's like look, I am.
Yeah, I got no problem withdior rocks it's great, I got
cues.

Carlos (48:58):
I mean, what's what?
Is interesting too.
I mean, I know it doesn'tmatter to us everyday, you know
lemon bikers yeah lames.
Uh, lame, you know well, like,you know, like just watching,
like the olympics, some of thepeople were on shimano oh, yeah,
yeah, cable you know they wereplaying.
You know they had the guitar,strings, guitar strings attached
to their derailleur.

Josh (49:16):
There's nothing wrong with a guitar string.

Carlos (49:17):
Ernie Ball.

Josh (49:18):
Shout out to Ernie Ball.

Carlos (49:20):
Ernie.

Josh (49:20):
Ball.
Listen to this guy.

Carlos (49:23):
Do you play guitar.
No, no, I just went to a lot ofWarped tours when I was a kid
there you go Perfect.
I would always get free shit.

Josh (49:38):
I shifter cable and it never fit through the housing.
It was way too short.
Yeah, it's the shortest shiftcable I've ever seen.
Is this for ants?
Oh, I totally want to try it.
What do you call?

Dane (49:43):
the brake.
Um uh the brake, uh, wedge,it's like it's way too thin,
it's way too thin, and why is it?

Carlos (49:49):
triangle shape like every time I'd shift.
Be like boom, be all boom boom,boom, all right.

Josh (49:54):
So, since you work for both Giant and Specialized, can
you tell us anything about thedifferences that you experienced
between them?
Maybe it's around productdevelopment or how they go to
market, or the culture.
What were the big differencesyou saw between Giant and
Specialized when you worked forthem?

Carlos (50:12):
I mean honestly the big difference I noticed from Giant
and Specialized.
It's like like it again, itsounds weird, but it's like like
being at the like, the salesmeetings and everything.
It's like it's.
It almost felt weird, like youknow, cause I, I like, I think
one of the first um salesmeetings that I was, uh, that I

(50:33):
participated in, was, um, Ithink, like Jason Momoa was
there.

Josh (50:37):
Oh, no way this is this is , this is what specialized yeah.

Carlos (50:39):
Like I didn't I didn't see him in person, but it was
just like you know, like he wasthere and then and it was funny
cause, like, um, you know, whenthey did the cells thing, they
even like, had a video of likeHarrison for like.
Hey everybody is specializedThanks, you know like.

Dane (50:53):
Indiana Jones, you know last crusader.

Carlos (50:56):
But um so it, you know it, it did you know and it did
have this like feel more.
Hollywood.
Yeah, yeah, I mean it.
It kind of did because it'slike, um, you know, and again
you can tell it cause it'sthey're on a different level.
So, it was always funny when Iwas at giant, cause I know the
person that's running giant usedto work for a specialized.
So there's this internal clashyou know, in between, but the

(51:21):
funny thing is like Specializedis just on this other level.
Yeah, you know where it's like.
So imagine if you're like youhave your own local AXS TV show
and you're the one that fuckingeverybody knows.
And then you have the personthat hosts the Tonight Show.

Dane (51:37):
Those are the two different Pretty much.

Carlos (51:38):
Yeah, when you're just like oh yeah, yeah, I gotta wait
over here so I can talk to you.
So giant is excess.
Yeah, giant is like.
Uh, yeah, it's like the wb,it's like the wb.

Dane (51:54):
Oh my god dude, jesus, that's probably the most
inflammatory thing you've said.
The wb I mean again.

Carlos (52:01):
They thought I spoke Spanish.

Josh (52:03):
You do speak Spanish, you just don't speak Portuguese.
I don't speak PortugueseSpanish.
Ask him the mountain cogquestion.

Dane (52:14):
Is this mine or yours?

Josh (52:15):
Go for it man Shit.

Dane (52:18):
I've got to read it because I don't have it
memorized.
It's a paragraph.

Carlos (52:21):
Do you want?

Dane (52:21):
me to do it.

Carlos (52:23):
Do you want the answer in Spanish?
So, here's what Josh wrote.
I saw him writing it.

Dane (52:31):
So he's letting you know that Mountain Cog, by the way,
which is top 10 in the world.

Josh (52:35):
In the world.
Top 9 in the world.

Dane (52:37):
We'll just go with Mountain biking.
We don't want to be bragging,not overall Mountain biking
podcast Top ten mountain bikingpodcast in the world.

Carlos (52:44):
You guys are like right there, right tied with Joe
Rogan's podcast.

Josh (52:48):
We're so close.
If you were at Joe Rogan'spodcast, we would not be working
at a bike shop.

Dane (52:54):
Everybody listening, just tell one more person to listen
and Joe Rogan's done yeah he'sdone, done, yeah, he's done.

Carlos (53:02):
we're gonna put him out of business put him out of
business.

Dane (53:03):
You're done, son.
So knowing that, um, why areyou not an avid listener?

Josh (53:09):
okay, like why don't you listen?
Why even you listen to oneepisode?

Dane (53:12):
okay like we even call you out.

Josh (53:14):
I know I get you to listen , I think this was a ploy for us
to call yeah so I mean to be.

Carlos (53:20):
I don't listen to any other bike podcast.
Okay, so like, the only podcastI listen to is just comedy
podcast.
What do you?

Dane (53:26):
think this is.

Carlos (53:28):
True, it's not a comedy podcast.

Dane (53:30):
Somebody looked it up.
I actually showed it to the guyand somebody looked was it Eric
?
I showed it to Eric and it wasunder comedy.
I kid you not no?

Josh (53:39):
I have us listed as these comedies.
That's what I mean.
No, and this is awesome.

Carlos (53:44):
So like there you go.

Dane (53:45):
There's your loophole.

Carlos (53:47):
No, again, it's awesome because it's funner to like talk
with you guys.

Dane (53:50):
Like you know, just to have fun and talk shit.

Carlos (53:53):
Like, honestly, like I don't listen to any.
Like there's even, like youknow, I have like super close
friends that have, like you know, bmx podcasts.
I don't listen to them are theytop 10 in the world.
Yeah, okay yeah, yeah, no.
And again it's like, it's no,because the thing is like, like
we're saying that in just.

Josh (54:09):
I mean, we really are top 10, but we're saying that in
just right, it's a very smallpool.

Dane (54:13):
Yeah, we're.
Yeah.
Yeah, there's like 17 peopleactually there's like 100 people
.

Josh (54:19):
No, there's more than that maybe more.

Dane (54:20):
Well, there's more than that, maybe more, there's
probably 117.

Carlos (54:24):
If you look later at your followers.
You'll see 20,000 followersjust because of me.
Yeah.

Ben (54:28):
That's why we brought.

Josh (54:30):
Carlos on yeah, I mean, you know it like really hurt my
feelings.
No, so again, again, I don't,he couldn't even like just give
me like a cursory, like just acourtesy.
He'll take people out to tacobars and strip clubs and get
them blitzed, but he won'tlisten to our podcast.
He won't listen to one podcastin the way home.
What the fuck.

Carlos (54:50):
What I should do is take somebody down there Now that
you're a rep.

Dane (54:52):
You have to drive around and listen to these.

Carlos (54:54):
What I should do is take somebody down to Tijuana and be
like all right, we're doingthis live for for mountain.
Uh, mountain cog podcast, uh,you know.
Um, no like, so this probablysounds funny, but like listening
being here like at guru.

Josh (55:08):
Yeah, hearing about bikes all day yeah, conversations, you
don't want to hear about bikeswhen you get home yes, I but I
can accept that, but but not notin this, like I'm fucking over
it.

Carlos (55:18):
It's just more of like I need to just kind of chain
chain it up.

Josh (55:20):
It's like I don't want to hear about, I don't want to hear
about missiles when I log offof my work.
No, no, exactly.
Yeah, I'm with you.

Carlos (55:25):
So it's like a lot of the podcasts I listen to is just
always like it's obviouslymainly it's comedy or it's like
music.

Josh (55:31):
Yeah, so like I that is probably the only acceptable
answer that you could have givenme carlos and you, just once
again, once again.

Dane (55:41):
We call that sidestepping.

Ben (55:42):
Sidestep.
No, no, you once again shut medown.

Dane (55:47):
So the guys were talking today about this podcast and Ben
wanted to call in.

Carlos (55:52):
Yeah, we were going to.

Dane (55:54):
Can we yeah?
Okay, here.

Carlos (55:55):
I'm going to have him give us a call.
Should we call?

Josh (55:59):
Ben?
Yeah, let's call him.
How do you pipe it in?
Give me a call.
Should we call Ben?
Yeah, let's call him.
How do you pipe it in?
Give me a second.
Let me see if I can figure thisout.

Dane (56:04):
It's been a minute, keep talking.
Oh, you can do Bluetooth, okay,and we'll make Ben feel very
uncomfortable.
So, hey, you know what?
We should talk about some ofyour stuff that you sell, while
Pretty much, yeah, okay, yeah,Whenever you're ready, we've got
to put in Ben's number, oh nice.
So on the Mavic front, what isthe newest, coolest thing that

(56:29):
you've seen?

Josh (56:31):
Wait, mavic is still a company, so we've talked
extensively about this.
They were badass back in theday, but I haven't heard from
them in a while.
What's going on?
I haven't heard from them in awhile.

Dane (56:41):
What's going on?
I don't know what happened tothem, but in the US they pulled
out for a little while, muchlike a teenager.
Don't pull out, don't they dothe opposite.
I don't know.
Looking at teen pregnancies ohmy God, they were bought by
somebody else.
That company then bought Envy.

Carlos (57:01):
And then they sold Mavic right.
Yeah.

Ben (57:04):
Is that right?

Dane (57:05):
Like so they're like nevermind, we got a good one.

Josh (57:07):
This is like some, some South.
You know, I'm not even going tomake a South, I'm going to keep
it, yeah.

Carlos (57:12):
So I mean so basically like kind of back into the not
not the same hands, but it'slike now back into like um, so
it's a family I can't remembertheir, their last name, but it's
a family that basically I guessthey own a bunch of different
like car dealerships on franceand they're like really into

(57:34):
cycling, so they're, I guess youcould kind of say they're kind
of like the, the waltons youknow of, uh, right on you know.
So they're kind of like like,like like that, and so you know
it's one of those brands whereit has, you know, this history.
You know like I think it's like135 years of like just been you
know making wheels.

Josh (57:53):
So so you got something like you got some.
So it was a brand with a deephistory, had some, had some kind
of sketchy ownership over theyears and now it's back into an
ownership that really believesin bikes.

Carlos (58:04):
Yeah, because I mean, again, it's like, I guess, how I
look at it, it's like if therewas like a I don't know like a
car brand, that kind of phasedout for a little bit.
But you've always known aboutthem, you know their history,
you know their background.

Dane (58:21):
Yugo, yugo, yugo comes, I can.
You've always known about them,you like.
You know their history, youknow their background.
You go, you go, you go comes on.

Carlos (58:27):
I can't wait till you goes.
Come back, no you go no, you go, no, you go Is that, like Nova,
are they really coming back?

Dane (58:32):
No, Okay, like usually, if something fades away they don,
and like a phoenix yeah, well.

Carlos (58:39):
So the funny thing is like it's funny like when I talk
with people like because?
Because I think the issue for awhile was because they're
proprietary stuff, right, yeahum that killed them in like the
late 90s, early 2000s yeah,again replacement stuff, but
it's like everything isproprietary.
Now are they still doing that?

Josh (58:55):
I mean, those wheels, right there, are proprietary
that he's pointing to a set ofbird wheels.
For the record, yes, so so youknow.

Carlos (59:01):
So that's a funny thing.
We, you know, when I have thoseconversations with, with, with
people it's like, whoa, whatabout this?
I'm like, yeah, even anindustry nine spoke a nipple is
proprietary to, that will setbecause it's a system.
Yeah, right.
So it's like if you're tryingto build just a rim and hub,
yeah you're gonna, you're notgonna use those specific items,
you know.
So, um, you know how I kind oflook at it.

(59:21):
Like I, I rode the their wheelswhen I was like at bicycle
warehouse, we carried mavic, Irode their wheels I've had good.

Josh (59:28):
I've had good.

Carlos (59:28):
I mean, back in the day I had really good luck with
mavics, like I probably had themon every bike I had yeah, I
mean like, if you think about it, like when you ask anybody that
has that has had mavic wheels,there's never been like oh, they
sucked.
It's always usually mechanicsof why couldn't get their parts,
you know it's.

Dane (59:44):
A lot of times is that and then I get it.

Carlos (59:46):
I totally understand it, but it's like, but for like the
, the user or the consumer tothem are like dude.
I don't care, this feels good.
I want this Like you fix it.

Dane (59:58):
Yeah, are we calling Ben or no?

Carlos (59:59):
Yes, I'm going to get his number.
Put his number in.
You got it right there, yeah.

Josh (01:00:04):
There you go here.
Just type it in that way.
We don't have to say it on theair, Although it would be funny
if we said it on the air.

Dane (01:00:10):
You just put a 555.
Seriously, I'm not even joking.
So you do 1-555.

Carlos (01:00:19):
It says Benedict right, 555.
Five, five, five.
So it's.

Dane (01:00:22):
Benedict right Five, five, five, five, five, five.

Josh (01:00:25):
It's been a minute since we Actually the only podcast
episode that we have that hasmultiple phone calls in it was
Is the secret one.
Is the secret one.

Dane (01:00:34):
Oh no, Did you crank call New Zealand?

Josh (01:00:36):
No, we called oh, for fuck's sake.

Dane (01:00:38):
Dude, you got to put it in again.
What, oh, oh, for fuck's sake.

Carlos (01:00:40):
Dude, you got to put it in again.
What?
Oh no, never mind, okay, herewe go.
So this is Benedict, this isBen Benedict.

Dane (01:00:45):
Ben, this is so cool.
I didn't know we could do this.
We can do this.
This is so sick.
This is awesome.

Ben (01:00:51):
Hello, hello.
You are on the air right nowyes.

Carlos (01:01:05):
You are live on, so are you are you dressed?

Ben (01:01:07):
long time listener, first time caller yeah, are you.
Are you dressed?
Yeah, I have to comment rightnow that the audio quality of
getting through my phone yes uh,it's absolutely terrible oh is
it really?

Carlos (01:01:16):
it's not because we're live.
We're live right now totallylive.

Josh (01:01:19):
yeah, sorry that the audio is terrible, didn't know that.

Dane (01:01:22):
But it sounds good, you sound good, it sounds good in
our end, which really is allthat matters.

Carlos (01:01:27):
It sounds like ASMR.

Ben (01:01:31):
Ben, have you had that second beer yet?
No, not yet.
I'm actually just about tostart a video chat with a friend
to help them on a project, butI got a moment to chat.

Carlos (01:01:40):
What's the project about ?

Ben (01:01:45):
It's really boring.
She's trying to get a job.

Carlos (01:01:47):
Okay, let's move on to the next thing.

Ben (01:01:48):
It's not for him access or DI2.
I gotta say that.
What did he say?

Josh (01:01:55):
It's not DI2.
Oh man.

Carlos (01:01:58):
It's DI hashtag.

Dane (01:02:00):
Alright, so we called you for a question.

Josh (01:02:02):
What's the question that we're going to ask Ben?
No, he's supposed to ask us aquestion.

Dane (01:02:05):
Oh, he's supposed to ask us a question, just a random
question.

Josh (01:02:07):
Yes, and Carlos is our guest, so we'll address the
question.
Yeah, charles, charles, yes,quintero, quintero, quintero.

Dane (01:02:15):
Willie Quinoa.

Ben (01:02:17):
So my question okay, so I'm asking it to Carlos.

Carlos (01:02:21):
Yes, go for it.
Okay, but in a question, canyou?

Dane (01:02:25):
do it in the form of a question yeah, obviously Okay.

Ben (01:02:32):
so, Carlos, quick question, dude you ready.

Carlos (01:02:34):
Yeah, wait, wait, wait, wait.
Okay, now I'm ready.

Ben (01:02:38):
All right, could you do me a favor?
Sure, okay, that's it.

Josh (01:02:42):
Okay.

Ben (01:02:43):
Pleasure talking to you.

Josh (01:02:44):
Love you All.
Right, talk to you later, babe.
Toodles Cheers.

Carlos (01:02:47):
Love you.

Ben (01:02:47):
No, I actually I don't have any good questions on my mind
because I kind of just phasedout of bike mode.

Carlos (01:02:52):
Just ask a bad question A bad question.

Josh (01:02:59):
Okay, well, how great Specialized and Shemar.

Dane (01:03:01):
No, that's not a Shemar call.

Carlos (01:03:04):
Dane and I made out.

Dane (01:03:05):
Yes, we did, josh gave me $100.

Josh (01:03:07):
We recorded it.

Dane (01:03:11):
You can hear the audio.
It's just audio.
Oh, we just did it again.
There you go.

Ben (01:03:14):
Does it sound like two rubber balloons just squeaking
against each other?

Josh (01:03:17):
Pretty much.

Dane (01:03:19):
You nailed it.

Carlos (01:03:21):
You should see the hickeys, oh God.

Josh (01:03:25):
All right.

Carlos (01:03:25):
They look like little heart shapes.

Dane (01:03:26):
This is going to end up being a secret episode.
How do you do that?
Is it the collagen in the lips?
Yeah, from the makeover, If younotice.

Carlos (01:03:32):
I do the yeah, because you know we got a makeup artist
With the Botox Bot.
It's Botox in.

Ben (01:03:39):
Texas called Botox it sounds to me like you guys are
recording a bike podcast and nottalking about bikes like at all
no, we're on bikes, we aretalking about?

Josh (01:03:51):
yeah, this isn't about bikes.

Dane (01:03:52):
We just ride bikes while we do it.
Let's ask Ben.

Josh (01:03:55):
Since we bothered him, let's ask Ben a question what is
your favorite bike that you ownat the moment, and why?

Carlos (01:04:01):
that's a good question the favorite bike that I own yes
, sir it's down to three bikethat you own at the moment and
why?

Ben (01:04:06):
Ooh, that's a good question .

Carlos (01:04:07):
The favorite bike that I own.
Yeah, yes, sir, now that youuse.

Ben (01:04:10):
Okay, so right now it's down to three.
Oh no, no, I had, yeah, for awhile like there was one part of
my life where I had like fiveor six, and like when I moved
here it was down to two.
Okay, and now I have threebikes, okay.
It's really difficult becausethey all do different things
very well and I have a good timeriding all three.

Dane (01:04:26):
Okay.

Ben (01:04:28):
So how do you do that?
Well, you don't.
You plan different rides, sothat way, you ride one bike at a
time.
Um, but I'd have to say, likemy favorite bike that I own,
it's gotta be my light touringbike, because I've had it Like
it's been the bike I've ownedthe longest of my life.

Josh (01:04:45):
Is that the Elephant?
What kind of bike is it?

Ben (01:04:48):
It's by Elephant Bikes, it's National Forest Explorer.
I've had it for nine years nowWait so you own an Elephant.

Carlos (01:04:56):
Wait, what do you feed?

Ben (01:04:57):
that thing, the caloric requirements alone are insane,
but it's worth it, hopefully itstill has its tusks right.
Yeah, that elephant has morepersonality than I do is what I
would argue, could you?

Dane (01:05:13):
imagine picking up poop, elephant poop, yeah, elephant
poop.
Dude, we are all over the placetoday.

Josh (01:05:19):
It's got to be the size of your head or more.
I think the beer I brought wastoo strong.

Ben (01:05:24):
So hanging out with Dumbo.
So about the elephant?
So I think the thing whenyou're trying to decide how long
to hang on to a bike, at leastthe more committal aspect of it,
is like what are you doing withit and what's it doing for you
and what is it not doing for you, which is why I have three
bikes.

(01:05:44):
ultimately, like all bike nerdshave like more than one thing
yeah, and it's because they all,they all do different kind of
riding in different sort ofsituations differently, and I I
firmly believe that a bike isthe best when it's designed for
a specific purpose and you useit for that purpose yeah but on
the flip side of the coin is Ihave this nfe because, yeah, it
kind of does a lot of reallything, a lot of like a lot of

(01:06:07):
different things, pretty damngood and I would argue that it's
better at cycling than my bodyis by a lot.

Josh (01:06:15):
I think we all are there with you.

Dane (01:06:17):
Every bike I've ever owned so this is, this is a like a.
Is it a gravel bike?
It's the gravel bike, or that'swhat you're saying.

Ben (01:06:25):
It's multifaceted.
It's multifaceted.
It's kind of like from thatethos of design.
Before gravel, bikes were likea marketing term and like you
gotta keep in mind that likebicycles predate paved roads.

Dane (01:06:38):
Yeah.

Ben (01:06:38):
So, like bike began as gravel bikes and they will end
as a gravel bikes.

Dane (01:06:42):
Nice.
So bikes began as gravel bikesand they will end as gravel
bikes.
Listen to this guy throwingdown the facts a little bit of
knowledge super deep.

Ben (01:06:50):
I think that's a good place to end with you and so this is
a bike I can strap a bunch ofshit to go camping, commute on
it, ride on pavement, ride it onfire roads and dirt roads and
derbos and just kind of likehave a blast at.
Like you know, there's uh, oneother bike vlog out there now.
I think they do more video thananything, but they have a a

(01:07:13):
phrase called party pace partyit's kind of like yeah, you go
and you have a good time they'recalled the pathless pedals and
that kind of idea is like theNFC, like yeah, you can pick it
up and make it move, but itshines best as a party pace.
Like have a good time whileriding without like the need to
suffer or get yourself beaten upon like hard Sonoran granite.

Carlos (01:07:37):
So that's ready for Cinco de Carlos, right.

Ben (01:07:40):
Absolutely.
It is a primo Cinco de Carlosright.
Absolutely, it is a primo Cincode Carlos bike.

Carlos (01:07:43):
There you go.
If nobody knows about the Cincode Carlos, all right, you've
got to look it up, right?

Ben (01:07:48):
And it's also it'd be good for Carlos del Cuatro as well.

Carlos (01:07:53):
That's right.
So it's a two-day event nextMay, so everybody's invited.

Dane (01:07:58):
So it's Cuatro de Mayo and then it's Cinco de Carlos.

Carlos (01:08:03):
So it's a two-day banger where we basically ride to
every awesome spot that we knowof and do shots at every single
bar, oh God.

Dane (01:08:15):
Oh yeah.

Josh (01:08:17):
My son's birthday is on Cinco de Mayo, so I don't know
if I can make it.
Well, for next year, know if Ican make it, that's definitely
got to be a social ride.

Ben (01:08:25):
For the next one, one station is going to be shots of
alcohol, the other one is goingto be a COVID vaccine.
The next one is going to befiring wrist rockets to have
Alina or whatever is in our way.
It's going to be all differentshots, beauty shots of them all.

Carlos (01:08:37):
And dressed up as mariachi, because we've got to
celebrate the Cinco Day orCuatro Day, you know.

Josh (01:08:44):
Hey, ben, yeah, exactly Ben.

Ben (01:08:49):
Thanks for answering buddy this random number that you
didn't know.
You got it.
Thanks for calling you.
Guys have been great tonight.

Carlos (01:08:53):
All right, man, take care, I love you.
You've been listening to thislive, right, yeah?

Ben (01:08:57):
Yeah, I got it streaming on real audio I'm a real player of
it.

Josh (01:09:02):
We don't stream live, by the way, for our listeners.
You're not missing anything.

Ben (01:09:07):
I think this is going to be a thing.
The Guru Bike's secretanniversary is going to be a
live podcast.

Dane (01:09:12):
Nice, that's a good idea.
We can do it yeah.

Ben (01:09:14):
I'm down, don't miss out.

Carlos (01:09:16):
Take care, guys, cheers.

Ben (01:09:24):
And only a coward would edit that out of the podcast.
Yes, he just called me a coward.
Yeah, yeah, don't forget aboutthat second beer, ben.

Dane (01:09:29):
Don't forget about that second beer.
Cheers.
Go pick up elephant poop, getit Okay.

Ben (01:09:33):
As always, Later guys.

Josh (01:09:34):
Okay bye, I just proved out that we can do that super
fast Phone in.
I like that.
That worked out nice, all right.

Dane (01:09:43):
Caller line two yeah, I feel all professional now we
could, we could do questions, weshould.
I always wonder how that works.
You listen to audio shows andthey're like, yeah, this
question from caller orsomething, blah, blah, blah.
And I'm like did you get thattwo weeks ago?
Like what's cool, is thatperson been waiting two weeks to

(01:10:09):
hear your answer?
I got it I got it.

Josh (01:10:10):
Well, look, I didn't ride for two weeks and now I know how
to change a flat.
All right, carlos, carlos,before we end, you know, tell us
what you're excited about, likenew products or whatever.
What you're excited about withmavic, with poc, any of the
companies that you represent.

Carlos (01:10:21):
What I am pretty excited .
I mean, first and foremost,like I love, you know, getting
out there being on the road,like I love, you know, stopping
in shops, just seeing thedifferent personalities of
different shops and just kind ofgetting you know an idea, like
you know how things are runBecause you know first being
here at Guru.
You know we're locked in, youknow we see what's happening

(01:10:44):
here, but it's alwaysinteresting to see what's
happening in different,different areas and different
territories.
Yeah, but what I am prettyexcited about a lot of the POC
stuff is their apparel lookspretty sick.
Yep, yeah, it looks pretty.
It's pretty simple, like nice.
Like you know, I feel likeright now riding apparel is kind
of past that, like 90s moto,you know, neon flashy you know,

(01:11:06):
stuff.
You know.
I think like now everything'sjust kind of a little bit more
kind of like low-key.
You know, yeah, or things likeyou know match, like look good.
You know, um, so there's a lotof really cool stuff you know,
coming out from poc, um, evenlike even I'm not a big fan of
you know, road cycling, but likethere's some pretty sick like
road helmets, yeah, um, and thenand then like the mavic stuff

(01:11:28):
does have some pretty cool stuffout.
You know, like there's um, forinstance, on the mountain side
they do have like their crosstrail.
You know carbon wheels thatjust came out pretty good price
they're like 1500 bucks, youknow carbon, carbon carbon, um,
and then again all the the mavicroad stuff too.
You know carbon, carbon, carbon,um, and then again all the the
Mavic road stuff too.
You know it's like you cannever, never go wrong.
You know so it's.

(01:11:48):
It's like anything, you know,it's just it's another option to
what's out there.
You know so it's like I feellike anybody that's stuck.
That's a firm, you know, abeliever in certain brands, like
they're going to always youknow, believe in that brand.

Dane (01:12:02):
So you know.

Carlos (01:12:03):
I feel like a lot of these brands are, you know,
brands that people who knowabout that.
That's what they're going tofollow.

Josh (01:12:12):
It's not really trying to convert people to.
You know different stuff I did.
I did go out to Virginia tech'swebsite which does all the
helmet testing for the bikecompanies and I did notice, out
of all the bikes they've testedor all the helmets they've
tested for for bicycling,there's five pock helmets on
there that all have really highratings, so yeah well, the whole
idea, like with, with pock,it's like they're the first, you
know, the first concept aboutthem is safety.

Carlos (01:12:32):
You know safety, performance and design.
You know.
So, if you look at like, youknow again, every brand has
their different motto, like whatthey're trying to achieve, what
, what they want to, you know,showcase, you know.
So there's some brands that youknow want to showcase somebody
that looks cool, which obviouslywe always want something that
looks cool.

Ben (01:12:48):
Right, right.

Carlos (01:12:49):
But then there's brands that want to focus on just the
protection and safety side ofthings you know.
So what I think is pretty?
It's a combination of both youknow, and again form and
function, yeah, and, and alsotoo, just like everything just
kind of looks a little moresimple.
You know, again, I feel likeall the brands are kind of going
you know that route, you know.

(01:13:10):
So you know, I'm, I'm, I'mpretty excited about all you
know, all the stuff that'scoming out.

Josh (01:13:14):
Right on, okay.
One final question.
All right, I want to knowwhat's up with the haircut
scissors you have tattooed onyour right arm.

Carlos (01:13:23):
So my mom used to be a hairstylist, so that was kind of
like.

Dane (01:13:27):
I know it sounds cheesy, right.

Carlos (01:13:29):
It's an honor Homage to your mother.
Yeah, exactly.

Josh (01:13:33):
Once again he like crushes my question and you can't argue
.

Carlos (01:13:38):
I can't argue with him, but no, like so I don't think
I've ever paid.
That's why my my tattoos orwhatever, like I've never paid
any like money for any of mytattoos.
It's always just been homiesLike hey, I learned how to
tattoo.

Dane (01:13:52):
I'm like all right, I practice on.
Yeah, it's like have.

Carlos (01:14:03):
I actually drew it myself um but like, but yeah,
it's just kind of just that.

Josh (01:14:05):
And then you know if anybody knows about mf doom.
I know about mf2.
Yeah, I don't know about mf2.
You got now.
You know it's because you're 75years old, that's true.
No, you're 29, 29, you're justtoo young to know about mf doom?
That's what I'm talking about.
He's got you man.
Do you have any final thoughtsfor our listeners, brother?

Carlos (01:14:20):
um, yeah, I would, you know, support your local shop.
You know, that's the main thing, you know, because what you
want to think about is likesupporting your local shop is
like supporting your localgrocery store, supporting your
local restaurant.
You know, I know sometimes, youknow, financially, sometimes
things don't align, you know,with you know different shops or

(01:14:41):
anything but it with with, uh,you know different shops or
anything but it's like I thinkeverybody just has to remember,
like you know, be a part of thecommunity, support it.
Um, you know if, if you did buya bike from a direct to consumer
, you know, I mean, I know somepeople might give you some shit,
but you know what I think iscool about it is like at least
those people are on bikes.

(01:15:02):
You know they're supporting theactual cause and you know,
again, just, I think, juststoking people out.
You know riding that I thinkthat's the main goal for
everybody Ride a fucking bike.
Yeah, yeah.

Josh (01:15:14):
Well, hey man, thanks a lot for joining us for some time
it's happening.
It was fun.

Carlos (01:15:17):
Now I will listen to this podcast Are you going to
listen to just this?
One.
No, no, no, I will listen tothe rest Fuck yeah, dude,
awesome.

Josh (01:15:22):
You don't say you're going to listen to the rest.
There's a lot of episodes outthere.

Carlos (01:15:26):
I probably won't listen to my own, because I feel weird
listening to my own shit Nowthat you're going to drive A lot
, exactly, take care, guys.
No, I really will.

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084 – Inside the Bike Industry's Big Brands with Former Giant and Specialized Sales Rep. (Carlos Quintero)

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.css-14f5ked{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:2;overflow:hidden;}084 – Inside the Bike Industry's Big Brands with Former Giant and Specialized Sales Rep. (Carlos Quintero)