Marginal Gains Cycling Podcast, Presented By Silca

What if CDA measuring were brought to the masses via some sort of attachable device? Michael Liberzon—an engineer and triathlete coach—has field tested an aerometer and researched several others. In this episode, we talk with Michael to get an overview of where we are with aerometers and whether real-time CDA will ever become a thing.

Putting 50 years of Tom Ritchey's history and knowledge would be nearly impossible, so for this conversation, we focus on some of Tom’s game-changing ideas and innovations, as well as how he got there. You’ll also hear some great stories, a little family history, and how this pioneer's ethos turned into one of the world's most-respected bike brands.

Hopefully you've seen Ashton’s gutsy world record effort and his killer performance for the rainbow jersey. Now Josh gets the inside scoop on what it took to succeed at both, even as his partner is working on going to outer space.

If you're looking for something to make you feel good about something happening in the world right now, you have found the right episode. Josh talks with Dan Craven — Olympian and owner of Onguza Bikes (onguza.com): beautiful steel bikes, handmade in Namibia and shipping across the world. This is an inspiring episode of Marginal Gains you will not want to miss.

Silca has a new tubeless tire sealant out, and Hottie and Fatty have some questions about it. A whole hour's-worth of questions, in fact. From the recycling aspect of it to setup strategies to keeping carbon fiber from clogging your valve stem, this is the episode that shows what happens when Josh starts thinking about plugging up holes.

Part 2 of our chat with Andy Hampsten picks up right where we left off in part 1: With Hampsten in the Maglia Rosa. Andy finishes this incredible story, and from there we get into a wide range of topics with this iconic cyclist: Cinghiale Tours, Titanium bikes, Eddy Merckx, "Huffy" bikes, and much more. Don't miss this issue of Marginal Gains!

Amity Rockwell is not afraid to speak her mind, which makes for a fast, fun, and thoughtful conversation with this Unbound champ. We talk diversity, equity, social media and most recently, plans for a Gravel Hall of Fame. You will not want to miss this episode!  

The Bike club has been operating under the same model for years -- decades. Bike Club NFT seeks to change that by turning memberships into digital assets. Some things under the old model are still true but as Josh finds out, Bike Club NFT has some new twists too.

Possibly the nicest living cycling legend, the one and only Andy Hampsten joins Josh to talk both about the early days of his career and to give an account of what is easily one of the most extraordinary performances ever in cycling: Andy's unbelievable day on the Gavia in the 1988 Giro D' Italia.

If you saw Paris Roubaix this year, there’s a good chance you saw our guest — Candadian Road Champ Guillaume Boivin — in action. And thanks to the laws of supply and demand (Guillaume needed a chain, and Hottie had a Silca Hot-Waxed Chain available), we were able to nab this interview with this road star about how "G" (as his Istrael StartUp Nation teammates call him) started biking, his fixation on bike tech, and his very intense day at Paris Roubaix.

If you are a student of cycling — and the fact that you listen to this show means you are — you have no doubt read a fair amount of Lennard Zinn’s work, from books to being the tech editor at VeloNews, Zinn has written thousands of pages about cycling. And in this episode, he joins Josh to talk about his days as a skier, how he got talked into writing books, Hopf Bifurcation and bike shimmy, rolling resistance and Lennard's latest venture: E-bikes. We guarantee you’re going to love this thinking cyclists’ conversation.

 A wheel builder wants Josh's thoughts on the difference between road and track rims. A soon-to-be-worldtour-racing pro wants to know whether the sluggishness he senses in tubeless tires is all in his head. A gravel racer wants to know how to justify the purchase of a second set of wheels to his wife. And of course, the saga of hypotheticals continues as a listener asks what Josh would do if he were suddenly the Tech Director of the UCI. As always, it's a wide-ranging episode of Marginal Gains...and you will not want to miss it.

There was a time when weight was thought of as the most important — if not only — consideration for more speed. That's obviously no longer the case, but weight does still matter. In this episode, we look at when, where, and how much weight matters. If you've ever hoisted a bike to get a sense of how much it weighs (yes, that's all of you), you will not want to miss this episode of Marginal Gains.

It's a rainy, muddy, sloppy, gritty day at the Paris-Roubaix, and you're a pro team's race director. What chain treatment do you go with? You have the option to swap bikes on the course; are the watts you gain with a clean drivetrain worth the cost in time lost in bike transfer? What's the tire pressure you should run...and should you tell the truth if anyone asks? We get into all this, more, and the ways bikes will change 50 years from now, as we Ask Josh Anything in the Marginal Gains Podcast.

Allen Lim is best known for his Skratch drink mix. It has hydrated countless riders and been in the bottles of top cyclists around the world. But the road to becoming one of the most well known people in sports nutrition was crooked and bumpy. Allen tells Josh how the Secret Drink mix almost never made it. How he used the ideas of compassion and caring to steer athletes away from doping. And how his use of a rice cooker was turned against him in an ugly way.

Shimano Road Brand Manager Nick Legan and Road and Gravel Product Manager Dave Lawrence join the Marginal Gains crew to dig into what the what the new road groupsets are, how they're different, and — natch — where you'll find marginal gains in Shimano's new drivetrains, brakes, and wheels.

The 2021 Olympics are behind us, and Marginal Gains thinking was  evident in practically every sport. Josh, Hottie, and Fatty take a look at some of the key events and moments during the games — kinesiology tape, anyone? — and how technology has impacted (and will continue to impact) record-breaking achievements by the greatest athletes in the world.

It's a strange time to be a cyclist, a bike shop, or in the bike industry. Pro teams are scrounging for components. New frames are difficult to come by. Bike shops, swamped with extraordinary demand, are closing due to lack of supply. As an innovator in the bike industry to talks to bike shops and pro teams every day, Josh has practical insight into making the best of a problematic pipeline.  We also talk about how Silca goes about greenlighting a new product, marginal gains on gravel, and what Josh really wants marginal gainers to think about when we're on our bikes.

If Josh is obsessed with something, well...you can bet that there's some "there" there. And Josh has been obsessed enough with Titanium printing for long enough that Fatty and Hottie have been badgering him to talk on the podcast about why for months. And now, with the release of Silca's Mensola computer mount, Josh can get into the weeds on why 3D printing is a big deal, the work that's goes into installation, engineering, and production, and what opportunities and constraints this technology brings to the bike industry.

Drivetrains, aero tweaks, and wheels have emerged as the sweet spot for where listeners can achieve marginal gains on their current bike setups, and this episode will really scratch that itch. We do a deep dive into the why, how, and what of Silca's new diamond-polished chains,  how properly-lubed chains affect cog and chainring wear and tear, and whether you really need to replace that quick link after each chain connect/disconnect cycle. We also get to the best ways to locate your hydration on long rides and the question of whether — wheelwise — deeper is always better.