6 Bike Industry Trends with TJ Tollakson

TriDot Podcast Episode 168

6 Bike Industry Trends with TJ Tollakson

Announcer: This is the TriDot podcast. TriDot uses your training data and genetic profile combined with predictive analytics and artificial intelligence to optimize your training, giving you better results in less time with fewer injuries. Our podcast is here to educate, inspire and entertain. We'll talk all things triathlon with expert coaches and special guests. Join the conversation and let's improve together.

Andrew Harley: Hey folks, welcome to the show. Now bikes are fun to ride, they're fun to look at and they are fun to talk about. Today it's a bike episode and we have industry leading knowledge talking us through six current trends in the tri bike industry. Our bike industry insider joining us for this conversation is TJ Tollakson from Dimond Bikes. TJ is the owner of Dimond Bicycles and the founder and CEO of Rooster Sports. He raced in the Pro field for 16 years and has two Ironman victories, one North America championship title and many more pro podium finishes on his resume. He studied industrial engineering at the University of Iowa and now brings his love of triathlon and engineering prowess into creating the most advanced bikes on the planet. TJ, welcome to the TriDot podcast.

TJ Tollakson: Awesome. Thank you Andrew. I am stoked to be here today and talk bikes.

Andrew Harley: Also joining us today is TriDot coach John Mayfield. John is a USAT Level 2 and Ironman youth certified coach who leads TriDot's Athlete Services, Ambassador and coaching programs. He has coached hundreds of athletes ranging from first timers to Kona qualifiers and professional triathletes. John has been using TriDot since 2010 and coaching with TriDot since 2012. John, I would say you're pretty okay at bikes. Are you ready to talk about them today?

John Mayfield: Ready to talk? Yeah. It's very relative term, you know. Compared to TJ, not pretty. Less okay. But I can get from A to B.

Andrew Harley: I'm Andrew, the average triathlete, voice of the people and captain of the middle of the pack. As always, we'll roll through our warmup question, settle in for our main set conversation and then wind things down with our cooldown. Before we get too deep into the show today, I want to give a shout out to our good friends at UCAN. Here at TriDot, we are huge believers in using UCAN to fuel our training and racing in the crowded field of nutrition companies. What separates UCAN from the pack is the science behind Live Steady, the key ingredient in UCAN products. While most energy powders are filled with sugar or stimulants that cause a spike and crash, UCAN energy powders powered by LiveSteady deliver a steady release of complex carbs to give you stable blood sugar and provide long lasting energy. I personally fuel many of my workouts with the orange flavored edge gel and the unflavored UCAN Energy. But between their energy mix, their energy bars, their almond butter and more, there is definitely a LiveSteady product that you will love. So head to their website and use the code TriDot to save 20% on your entire order. That's UCAN.co promo code TriDot.

Warm Up Question: Favorite Multisport Car Decals

Andrew Harley: Roll into the parking lot of a local triathlon and you'll see a wide range of triathlon bumper stickers and window decals on the vehicles sitting there. Many triathletes, cyclists and runners love to flash their endurance sport personality on their vehicles as they drive around town. Now, John, TJ, for our warm up question today, what is your favorite multisport related car decal that you have seen and what do you personally have on your own vehicle? TJ, kicking this over to you.

TJ Tollakson: All right, so my favorite sticker is actually a Tony De Boom sticker. Tony De Boom owns a company called Endurance Conspiracy. He does T-shirts, stickers, posters, and he's got one that says "the fit shall inherit the earth." And that's my favorite one because I think it's like, it's just awesomely relevant to every triathlete out there. So I love that decal. I think it's really cool. Personally, I've got two vehicles. I've got an 18 year old, no sorry, 19 year old Mazda 6 that I bought straight out of college. It's actually old enough to vote now. I'm not sure how it would have voted in the recent election, but it's a voting age. And that's got a Star Wars sticker on it that says "may the force be with you." So like Tony at Endurance Conspiracy, I'm a big Star Wars fan. And then my minivan. My minivan is my daily driver. I'm a dad van man. All right, so I drive the minivan and I've got a Dimond bike sticker on the back. And then on my Kuat bike rack I've got a Dimond bike sticker. And then I've got a Swedish company called Wicked. They make motocross and BMX apparel and they have this sticker that just says "Wicked Family." And so that's on my bike rack and not because I'm a loyalist to their brand by any means. I do like their stuff. But that's what the van and the bikes and all that represents. That's wicked family.

Andrew Harley: John Mayfield, what do you have on your car and what have you seen around town that you just really like?

John Mayfield: I don't have it on mine, but the "how about a threesome" is always a fun one. That's one of those things like strippers and crack pipes that are kind of unique to triathlon or have our own little meaning. Those of us on the inside understand why we talk about threesomes and crack pipes and strippers, or at least most people, or some people do. But yeah, those are kind of unique terms to triathlon or triathlon has their own meaning for those things. So kind of fun with that. For me, I don't have any stickers, any decals on mine. I have over the years, but kind of like TJ, company man. I actually have the TriDot license plate. Years ago, they were they had this deal and I always thought it was cool to have one of the kind of vanity plates, but more so I was in it for Texas has a whole bunch of different license plates that you can choose from. And one of them is the "come and take it" flag, which has kind of been repurposed in more recent years, but originally goes back to Texas Independence. And I wanted that license plate and had the opportunity to pick six letters that spoke to me. So what do you know was what I went with. And so six letters ended up with the TriDot license plates. So I figure kind of again, those that know, know and those that don't, maybe they wonder.

Andrew Harley: Yeah, I'm sure. So I love just ironically, when I see people put the 0.0 sticker on their cars because they are not an endurance athlete of some sort. But they want to brag about the fact that they're not an endurance athlete. Obviously, the Marathon 26.2, the Ironman 140.6, those are probably the most common ones that you see on cars because people want to brag about that accomplishment. It's a great accomplishment, but I just always laugh out loud if I'm driving down the road and I see a vehicle in front of me and it's got the 0.0. Yeah. Well done. Very, very funny. I always enjoy seeing those. I personally, I don't have anything on my car. I do have a TriDot decal and an M-dot window decal that I keep meaning to put on the car. I just keep waiting for me to take the car to the car wash and get those windows cleaned and dried and then stick them on. And I just haven't gotten around to it. They're both red, white and black. The university I went to, our mascot was the Fire. And so my Southeastern University Fire, I have a little window decal for my university that is also red and black. And so everything I have that I keep meaning to put on my car window is the same color palette. It's gonna look great together on the back window. I just haven't in my ADD-ness stopped to take the time to put it all on there. So that's this answer for me. Guys, we're gonna kick this question out to you, our TriDot audience, as we always do the Monday this show comes out. Make sure you're a part of the I Am TriDot Facebook group. We're going to throw this question out to you, our audience. What stickers, what decals, what bumper stickers do you just find really entertaining? And then what do you have on your car yourself? We'd love to see some pictures of what you guys have done with your vehicles.

Announcer: On to the main set. Going in 3, 2, 1.

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Andrew Harley: Now, TJ, something I love about the origin story of Dimond bikes is that it closely is intertwined with your career as a pro triathlete. Tell us how your own prep for Ironman Lake Placid in 2011 led to the founding of Dimond.

TJ Tollakson: Yeah, thanks, Andrew. That's great. So at the end of 2010, the end of the year, I was stuck without a bike sponsor. I'd entered a long term bike sponsor relationship and I was having a discussion with my wife about what I should do. I couldn't find the right thing. And she told me, you know, why don't you just go out and buy whatever bike you think is fastest and race it? You don't need a free bike. You don't need the sponsor money from it. Just go buy it and if it's going to help you race faster, great. So at the time, I was on the Zipp test rider program with Jordan Rapp and David Thompson, and we were doing all the testing on their wheels. And we were also part of the wind tunnel testing Zipp was doing. And in one of these particular wind tunnel tests, they took this Zipp 2001 frame, which was manufactured in 1996, to the wind tunnel to compare it against the Cervelo P3 carbon, which at the time was the standard test bike Zipp was using. And during that wind tunnel test, that Zipp bike actually tested faster than the Cervelo P3 carbon at every angle except for zero. And I was privy to this. And so I told my wife that I wanted to buy a Zipp 2001. And she was like, Zipp doesn't make bikes. I don't know what you're talking about.

Andrew Harley: Because this is the year 2011.

TJ Tollakson: Yeah, 2011. Right. And I said, no. In the 90s, they made this awesome bike and it was really fast and guys like Greg Welch rode it. And she's like, you want to buy a 15 year old bike and race it? She's like, you're crazy. But she already knew that about me. So I did it. I paid $1,200. I bought a Zipp 2001 from an employee at Zipp. I did a bunch of modifications to it with the help of Zipp employees and started racing on it. And after I won my first Ironman at Lake Placid on a 15 year old beam bike, I called the guys at Zipp, begged them to start making the bike again, to modernize it, to put it out there. And they said, hey, look, our top customers are bicycle manufacturers and we don't want to be in that market. But if you're interested in doing this, we have in particular two guys at the company that are super passionate about this, that we would allow them outside of their work time to work with you to bring this back to life. And being young and naive and overly ambitious, I said, yeah, sure, let's do it. Let's start a bike company. And then that's how the company started.

Andrew Harley: Yep. So as a competitive male pro, and then on top of that, you were an industrial engineer by trade, so you certainly were the right man to launch your own bike brand. Here at TriDot, we love what you're doing with Dimond. I always admire a good Dimond bike when it goes past me on the race course. And we saw your bikes all over the Queen K prepping for Kona a month or so ago. Just kind of take us behind the scenes into the engineering of a modern carbon bike. I mean, what all goes into designing and producing this level of bikes?

TJ Tollakson: Yeah, so, you know, we start everything starts in CAD, right. So we use SolidWorks, it's a popular CAD software. And the design phase starts there. But even during that process, we're still using engineering paper. Right. So you'd think of it as back of the napkin, but it's a little more official. We're using graph paper with grids on it to kind of sketch these things out. And so it all starts with this. And there's this other huge component to what we're doing, and those are NACA airfoil profiles. NACA is a giant list of every airfoil that's out there. And airfoils are basically airplane wings. We looked at all these different airfoil profiles and said, hey, which of these are best for low speed applications? Low speed meaning bicycle speed. Because most NACA airfoils are for like the stealth bomber and stuff like that. And we don't need to go Mach 2. You know, we're just looking at going, you know, somewhere between 20 and 30 miles per hour as efficiently as possible. So we use those airfoil profiles. And Cervelo was the first company that really used those airfoils in their bike design. And we took all of those and said, every shape on the bike is an airfoil and they all need to interact well together. So we take a stab at it. We design it in CAD. And then we have a giant 3D printer. So we print a full bike frame, and we can't actually ride it, but we can test that in the wind tunnel. And we designed the bike so that we can add or detract features from the 3D prints very easily. We use a lot of aluminum foil tape in the wind tunnel to tape things on and take it off. And so that starts the design process and the prototyping phase. And then from there, we'll actually 3D print some carbon molds to make the first prototypes of the bike. And once we have the first prototypes done and we can test it out, then we'll actually go in and we'll cut molds. And one of the cool things about the molding process that we do is we actually use aluminum for molds. I worked for Alcoa Aluminum straight out of college. I'm big into the benefits of aluminum. And so we're still molding with aluminum molds, whereas most of the industry is doing steel molds. And the disadvantage with the aluminum molds is you don't get as many pulls out of each one. It's a softer material. The advantage is aluminum heats so much better than steel. It heats faster and it heats more evenly, so you can get a really great surface finish on it as well. And so these are great benefits of aluminum. And that's what we're using to mold our bikes. And we'll make actual production models. And then when we have production models out, they'll stay. Those will be tested. And then once we send those through the testing phase so they're ISO approved, then we're ready to start selling bikes. And it's a process that I'd say the large bike companies probably spend three years on. And it takes us 12 to 18 months per model to kind of go through that phase and be ready to launch.

John Mayfield: So we'll talk more about this. But one thing that I've always really admired about Dimond is knowing and understanding how much engineering goes into it, but also something that I think speaks to us. We're a software company. Dimond is a bike company. But we also have a very high value on community. And largely that exists outside of that initial product or that primary product. But it's also very much ingrained within it. So for us, we're a software company that highly values community and builds community. And that was something that really caught my attention several years ago. I remember the first time it really struck me. I was hanging out, listening to an Ironman briefing, and there was a Dimond tent there. And it was just one after another after another. There were cyclists coming in, bringing their bikes in to that Dimond tent. And they were getting tune ups and those last minute adjustments, cleanings. But everybody knew each other. And I thought that was really cool. And it was kind of envious of like, man, I don't have a tent where I can go and take my bike and they know me and they know where I'm from and they've seen my bike before. It was kind of like, you know, like a mechanic that knows your car.

Andrew Harley: Making my bike.

John Mayfield: Yeah, yeah. And it was kind of like fingerprints all over it. And I was like, yeah, you know, nobody knows me. No one knows my bike. But I thought that was really cool, TJ, how there was that. It's a bike, it's a very tangible hard product. But there was that community as well. And I see that out on the road. You know, it's like my son drives a Jeep and every time I jump in the Jeep, you know, I get waved at by other Jeeps and I see that with Dimond bikes out on the road as well. So I think the fact that you guys have a really cool, unique product in a space where everything is largely homogeneous and the same, I think is really cool. But I really appreciate the community that you guys have built as well around that among the owners and the company and all of that. So I think that's props for that. I think that's super cool as well.

TJ Tollakson: Yeah, thanks a lot, John. I appreciate that. I think it's one of the biggest benefits. It was a little more difficult while I was racing full time and trying to run the company. But certainly now people don't buy a bike unless they've had some sort of communication with me. And so that's really cool. And you know, all my customers for sure have my email address, but almost all of them, and if they don't, they can have it. They can have my personal cell phone number. Right. So they can get in touch with me whenever they need anything. And I think that's a really cool part about the company, what we're doing. And you know, we're small. We're not doing, you know, 100,000 bicycles a year. Right. We're in the hundreds. Right. So that's a it's a different type of company. It's way more personal and intimate. And that type of relationship is just, it's cool to have and it is, it's great when we go to events and see our customers face to face and know that we are part of this team with them and we're helping them achieve their dreams and goals.

Andrew Harley: And on top of that, the bikes look just ridiculously awesome. If you go follow Dimond bikes on Instagram, you will want one within 24 hours, I guarantee you. They're a quality follow. All right, as promised, we're going to have John and TJ talk to us about six of the hottest trends in the bike industry right now.

Trend #1: Disc Brakes

Andrew Harley: And bike trend number one that I want to hear about is disc brakes. More and more bikes are hitting the course with disc brakes over clinchers. TJ, are disc brakes better for triathlon than clinchers?

TJ Tollakson: Yeah. Well, we'll start like disc brakes versus rim brakes, right? And so clinchers is actually a type of tire, and we can put it on either one. Right. But disc brakes, that's right. It's what we're going to talk about. Right? So a traditional bike wheel for 100 years, right, used a brake that squeezed the rim, okay, to make it stop. And this is fine. Like, it works. It was functional. It was easy to put on a bike and install. And now we have this thing called disc brakes. And the way it works is it's very much like your car. You put a disc rotor on the hub of the wheel, and you then have calipers that are mechanical, hydraulic, or hybrid hydraulic. And those calipers then squeeze the rotor at the hub to stop the wheel. The advantage of this is, obviously, we can have much improved stopping capacity because you're stopping it at the hub instead of the outside of the wheel. The technology has been around for a long time. It's finally now in triathlon, and it's really, it's an improvement in stopping power. Now, was it necessary for tri bikes? Probably not. But is it nice to have? Yes. And one of the biggest things that came with the disc brakes to the triathlon market was the thru axle, right? So before when we had rim brake wheels, there was just a quick release skewer, which was really easy for taking wheels on and off, but it also allowed some slop in the frame and the tolerances and just not as stiff. So when we went to disc brakes, we also went to the standard 12 millimeter thru axle. And for those who don't know what a thru axle is, it's like it sounds. So it's an axle that runs from one side of the frame to the other, it threads into the frame itself and goes right through the middle of the hub. And so you're not clamping anything on there, you're threading from one side of the frame to the other. And that's what the wheel's based around. So especially on a bike like a Dimond that doesn't have seat stays or a seat tube, it's nice because it increases the rear stiffness of the bike. And then it's also nice to have just because it creates more stiffness when you're stopping. So as you're squeezing that hub, there's a lot more force that gets applied to the fork of the bike as well as the back end of the bike, the chain stays and seat stays, if you have them. And so those forces need to be accounted for in the engineering of the bike. Like it or hate it, disc brakes are here to stay. They are taking over the industry and it's not going to be long before you're not going to be able to find a rim brake bicycle out there. And so personally, I was a little reluctant to make the jump headfirst into disc brakes, but now that I have them, I love them. It took a long time to kind of get used to the nuances of maintaining and switching. And there's still some things I miss about rim brakes, like quick release skewers. They're so easy to use, but these are growing pains that you just kind of get used to and adapt. And here we are, and I'm using disc brakes on all my bikes and I haven't looked back.

John Mayfield: This was something I had on my wish list for a new bike as well, which I got about a year ago. And yeah, you can really feel that difference just in the response that you get, the reactiveness of that. So yeah, it's a better brake. In triathlon, we try to minimize the amount of braking that we do, but when we do want to brake, you want to make sure that it works well, then you can continue that inertia thereafter. But for me, it's one thing that I've appreciated is just the maintenance side of it. For me, they're just kind of easier, lower maintenance. I struggled for years and years with those rim brakes rubbing the tires. They would shift around real easy. And I had races where, you know, why was I pushing these watts and going so slow? Oh, well, my rear brake shifted and was rubbing.

Andrew Harley: Yeah.

John Mayfield: And that can obviously happen with the disc as well, but it just, it felt like those rim brakes were so easy to move. And then the last bike I rode for a number of years had the integrated brakes down at the bottom bracket. And just where everything flowed, the rain, the sweat, the Gatorade, everything ended up down there. Just got them all gummed up. And so I feel like just kind of the maintenance side of it is easier now. Kind of like TJ, I'm still learning, which feels weird because, like, I felt like I knew everything about bikes, and then all of a sudden I get this new disc brake bike, and it's like, well, how do I don't even know how to adjust the brakes. I feel like, you know, it's like I'm going back to first grade on my bike maintenance. But fortunately, they're pretty low maintenance, and I've really enjoyed the switch.

TJ Tollakson: Yeah. So what I'll add to this, I think the biggest benefit to riding disc brakes are when you ride in inclement weather. So if you're riding in cold weather or you're riding in rain in particular, especially if you have carbon wheels, the braking is just so much improved. And so it adds that much more security to what you're doing. But also if you're ever in an emergency situation where you need to stop very quickly, disc brakes are great. And so from that standpoint, I think they save lives and I think they're a great invention. With that being said, I've got a couple tech tips for those listening who are making the switch to disc brakes.

Andrew Harley: Yeah, hit them.

TJ Tollakson: One is clean your disc brakes with rubbing alcohol. So not the actual brake pads, but clean the rotors. Okay, so clean the rotors with rubbing alcohol or isopropyl alcohol, either one. So if you spilled, got mud on it, whatever, clean that with alcohol. And the second thing is the pads. You can pull the pads out and just rub them with some sandpaper, blow them dry, and then put the pads back in. And then you should stop the squeaking on your disc brakes. But that is somewhat annoying if you have squeaky disc brakes. They are way louder than squeaky rim brakes. And so you want to know kind of how to do that. And then my last tip is going to be if your pad is rubbing your rotor, the easiest thing to do is to loosen the bolts that are connecting the caliper to the frame or fork, squeeze the brake really hard, and then tighten those bolts back from the caliper onto the frame. And that should help recenter your brake pads. So that's a really important tip to people who might be like, I don't know, I just put the wheel in and all of a sudden it's rubbing. That's a quick, easy tip to get back and not have the pads rub the rotor.

Trend #2: One-By Front Chainrings

Andrew Harley: Bike trend number two is the one-by front chainrings. Now, which basically this is instead of having a big ring and a little ring with kind of double the gears, with a one-by, you just have that big ring in the front and thus you only have half the gears you get in a two-by chainring. Now, TJ, you and I have talked about this because to me, losing half of my gears sounds terrifying. I want all those gears when I hit a hill. So tell us, why are we seeing more pros and more experienced, really age groupers of all abilities move to a one-by system?

TJ Tollakson: Sure. So the primary concern for me as a bike manufacturer with one-by systems is it cleans up the aerodynamics of the bike. Right. Removing the front derailleur makes the bike more aerodynamic. And so I love that standpoint of it. Okay. The fear that you have is very real. We talked about it, right? I mean, all of a sudden it's like, hey, I have two chainrings. So I got 11 speeds or 12 speeds in the back and two chainrings. If I get rid of one, I'm going to lose half my gearing and all my range. It's not exactly true. So you have to remember that a whole bunch of your gears on the two chainrings are going to be redundant. So that means that if you're in the small ring or the big ring and 18 tooth versus 12 tooth, it could be the exact same gear just in two different rings. Okay, so they're not really all individual gears. The second thing is, especially in triathlon, a 10% gear change is something that's very manageable. Okay, so if you're racing in a crit and you're trying to accelerate and match speeds and cadence change, you might want 2, 3, 4% changes in your gears. In triathlon, we don't need as much precision in our gear differences. Right. You can just look at it and say, hey, I'm okay. And so even if you look at the difference between a 10 tooth cog and an 11 tooth cog, that's 10%. Okay, so you can't go anywhere else besides that 10% jump. Well, what you're doing with the one-by system is you're kind of spreading it out with 10% jumps all up the gear range. But you can have this huge range. So now SRAM makes these cassettes that are 10-44. So you have a 10 tooth small cog, 44 big cog. So you have this huge range. And so you just don't need as much. And so if you look at a traditional 53-39 with an 11-28 cassette and compare that to a 48 tooth front ring with a 10-44, which one has more range? The 48 with the 10-44. That's a huge amount of range that you're not getting in the two-by system. And what you're giving up are those redundant shifts as well as some of these small 3, 4% changes in gears. And I would just tell you most triathletes don't need that. They like the simplicity. Having one derailleur is really nice. You don't have to worry about the front. We got to be honest, most of the time someone's dropping a chain, it's because their front derailleur was shifted too fast or improperly. And so you get rid of that. No more dropped chains when you're racing. I love it. I think it's a great innovation and I'm running one-by on almost all my bikes now.

John Mayfield: So I think there's a little bit of that preconceived notion or just misconception that it's not that you take your 53-39 and just pull that off and you leave your 11-23 on the back and run with that. Unless you're just on a pancake flat surface. You know, there's more to it. It's not just about removing that front derailleur and that small ring. It's about really re-engineering that whole drivetrain. Right TJ? It's basically just kind of redoing the math on it to actually improve your aerodynamics and maintain or even improve the availability of gear ratios.

TJ Tollakson: Yeah, I think it's great. And I think the problem was, you know, the two-by system was designed really well for road racing, for especially like crit and you know, Tour de France type racing where you know, minor accelerations mean a huge amount. And modern day drivetrains, the one-by drivetrain is really engineered for triathletes and how we ride and you know, high cadence, low cadence, that doesn't matter. It's just like you're out there trying to maximize your velocity all the time. And that's what a one-by drivetrain is really trying to accomplish.

Andrew Harley: Yeah, I know TriDot coach and podcast regular Jeff Raines has now switched to a one-by system. And he has raced in Galveston where it was flat. He's raced in St. George where it's hilly. He just did Ironman California, where it's relatively flat. And to my knowledge, he's had a great experience switching to that one-by. So good kind of in the family TriDot endorsement for the one-by system there. And you just heard it from TJ, the expert on what you're getting out of it and really not really giving up a whole lot to move to that system.

Trend #3: Electronic Shifting

Andrew Harley: Bike trend number three is electronic shifting. Now, electronic shifting is certainly not a new thing, but the price point keeps coming down. Wireless shifting keeps getting better and better, and I think more athletes are starting to pay that little bit extra to have wireless shifting, especially on a tri bike. Guys, other than just the super satisfying whirring noise that happens when you shift, which is the best, right? I love shifting on electronic. It's just what is the benefit just to a triathlete in terms of performance and bike performance from going to electronic shifting?

TJ Tollakson: So when the first electronic shifting came out, the Shimano Di2, I was actually living with Craig Alexander in Boulder, and I wanted to try it and I rode his bike and I was like, yeah, I like this. I want this. I don't think I need it.

Andrew Harley: Yeah, okay.

TJ Tollakson: And you know, at the time, I was sponsored by SRAM, so I didn't have a choice. Right. It wasn't available. So I was really trying to take a stand, like, hey, this isn't necessary. And it's weird. He's got these kind of clunky batteries hanging off his bike in weird places and stuff. And but then, you know, fast forward to the first time that I actually rode my own bike with electronic shifting. And from that moment on, I was like, I can't go back. Right? Like, it's so much better. The shifting is so precise. It's so reliable. It has a computer and a brain in it, so it knows what it's doing. If you crash and you need a derailleur reset, you can do that on the bike automatically. It just works. And it works better than cable shifting. You have fewer problems with it. It's super fast. You can program it to do crazy things if you want. You have the ability to do synchro shift, which, if you have two chainrings, automatically finds the next hardest or easier gear. You can program your buttons to do other things. You can see your battery status on your Garmin. I mean there're just cool things. And now like with the SRAM AXS app, like it will tell you your shift performance. It'll tell you how many shifts you've made over the life of your bike. It will tell you what gear you ride in most of the time, how much time you spend riding in each gear. The analytics are just amazing. It's more than you would ever need. And I would just say, yeah, I mean if you haven't tried it, try it because once you do, you will realize how much better it is. And you also realize like this technology is here to stay. And I can't imagine I ever rode a bike without it.

John Mayfield: Yeah, I 100% agree with all those things that TJ said. I think for me just the maintenance side of it is great. Finally I got really good at tuning and replacing cables and then got the Di2 and I have not missed having to replace or tune a shifter cable in the years since. That was always the biggest pain, just the micro adjustments and getting that, especially when changing wheels because you can, you know, it just self indexes and you can find all those shift points. You don't have to worry about setting it. You know, before, we would swap on our tubular race tires and just, you know, different cassette and it was just, you know, you had to mess with it or then inevitably during the race it wouldn't quite catch. It's so cool. Now just on the fly, you tell it, it runs through the gears, it finds them all. But I would say probably my biggest favorite aspect of the electronic shifting is the ability to shift from the base bar. You know, you still every once in a while, you know, riding a hill with somebody who has just the mechanical bar end shifters and they're having to take their hand off the base bar to shift and you know, we have those buttons there on the base bar. I think that's huge. It's a safety thing. So yeah, if you're trying to convince the significant other or the budget controller, if you need this, you do. It's a safety thing 100%. You're going to be safer with your electronic shifting. So pitch it that way and yeah, just, you know, just the ability to shift while out of the aero position, you know, especially while climbing is huge in and of itself.

Andrew Harley: Yeah. When I moved from my first road bike to my first TT bike, I did decide to spring the extra money for Di2, and I didn't regret it. And what really just reaffirmed for me, John, that that was the right decision before I had a bike travel case, I flew to Florida and did a sprint triathlon in Florida with my dad. And so I rented a bike in Florida and it was manual. It was the first time I was riding a manual TT bike. And oh my goodness, was that an eye opener to just how much better life can be on the bike when you have the capability of shifting in both places when you don't have to. I just found it difficult. I kept accidentally shifting like two or three gears at once on the manual. Whereas that Di2, or whether you're on SRAM, you just hit a button, you're in the right gear, and you keep rocking and rolling. So I think it's absolutely worth it on a tri bike, especially as the prices come down. I know Shimano, I think, just actually brought electronic shifting down to the 105 level, which is new. SRAM has come a long way as well. So both great options if you can swing it within your budget.

Trend #4: Power Meters

Andrew Harley: Bike trend number four is power meters. Now, this is kind of like electronic shifting. Power meters are not new, but they are much trendier now than they used to be. As again, the prices have come down, availability has gone up. TJ, John, should we all have power meters by now? And does it matter really which type of power meter we buy versus the pedals, versus the rotors, versus the hub systems? TJ, what are your thoughts here?

TJ Tollakson: Yes, everyone should have a power meter on their bike. I'll go back to my own experience. This has taken it back a long ways. I bought my first power meter in 2003. It was a PowerTap hub. And that was my first foray into carbon fiber manufacturing. Actually, I made a product that was a carbon fiber disc wheel cover for a PowerTap hub over a Mavic Open Pro wheel. And so I made that whole product because I believe so much in power meters and racing and training with the power meter every day. So since then, I can tell you I can count on probably my fingers and toes the number of rides I've done without a power meter. I've got a power meter on every bike that I own. And I look at it and I just say, now we're at the point when the price is so affordable, we should all have one. And I say this, that PowerTap hub at that time was something like $1,200 or $1,300, which was a fraction of the price of the gold standard at the time, which was SRM. I could tell you 10 years ago I was selling SRM power meters for $3,400, okay? And SRM power meter was a $3,400 upgrade on a bike. And people were buying them because the tool was that useful. Now you can buy a power meter and I'm kidding you not, SRAM makes a power meter. Quarq has a power meter on their Rival crank set. It's $285.

Andrew Harley: Yeah.

TJ Tollakson: And so I look at this price and I think, like, how could you not have a power meter on your bike for this kind of price? And the tool that it gives you and the data that it gives you, the insight as far as your coaching. So if you're talking about uploading your workouts to TriDot so we can use the AI to help you become better, a power meter is what helps you become better. And we take it one step further. When I race now, I use the site bestbikesplit.com to break my race up into 100 different small chunks. It will tell me my goal power for each of those segments of the race. And it puts it up on my computer in front of me during the race. It says goal power, actual power. And I can tell you that when I race and I have those next to each other, I will probably do as good a job as anybody ever, because I'm so into power meters, so into pacing, so into the whole aspect of it, that I will have very little variance from what my goal power is to my actual power. And how accurate that can predict the race is absolutely incredible. So if you're not using a power meter, you're really missing out on a huge performance metric to help you become better.

John Mayfield: Yeah, I had a very similar experience decade plus ago. Yeah, my first was a Quarq. But even still, it was $1,300, $1,400 at the time. But yeah, the only alternative was that SRM that was wired and it had its own head unit and you had all these wires running up and down the bike. So it was kind of a big clunky thing and it was, yeah, it was super expensive. And when you said, I think you said $3,400, I was thinking $3,500 for that SRM. And they eventually came out with a wireless and I think it was even more. But yeah, just the price that has come down. That's one of those examples where competition has driven down price and kind of made it available to the masses. So absolutely no reason not to. If you don't, then, you know, Christmas is coming up. Do it. It's going to make a huge impact. It's kind of one of those things that you're just really, you're leaving fitness on the table.

Andrew Harley: You're leaving race execution on the table. And like TJ said, it's, you know, it's a 70.3 race entry fee now, and it'll last, you know, five to 10 years, easy.

Andrew Harley: Yeah. And to TJ's point, I mean, your bike has to have a crank set. And so if you can buy the crank set that for an extra $200 and change gets you power as well, there's no reason not to go with that crankset. And if you already have a crank set and you're looking to, like John said, I mean, at the time this episode's coming out, last week was our episode with our coaches giving their own Christmas holiday shopping guide to kind of a triathlete's guide to making a Christmas list. And power meters was certainly something we talked about. There are some other options with everybody has their own version of a pedal. There's other ways you can buy power and add power to your bike if you already have a perfectly good crank set. It's to the point it's trendy because it's so available right now and so powerful. John, it sounds like we need to introduce TJ to Race X, which we believe to be our own more advanced version of bestbikesplit.com.

John Mayfield: But there's a podcast for that.

TJ Tollakson: All right, well, sorry, I'm not trying to pump any competitors out there for you, but I would, I love new tech. I'm into it, so I would love to see Race X. Yeah, we'll give you a demo.

Trend #5: Road Tubeless Tires

Andrew Harley: Bike trend number five to keep this conversation going is road tubeless tires. For a while, the debate was, do I run tubular or do I run something with tubes? And tubeless tires came along and shook this market up really quick. The first I heard of this was during the Kona coverage in 2019, and tubeless tires have only gotten more popular since then. TJ, explain to us how tubeless tires work and who should be running them.

TJ Tollakson: Yeah, so I'm not a like, I'll jump back here first. We'll talk about tubeless versus regular clinchers with a tube. So a tubular tire is one that's handmade. It has typically a latex inner tube sewn into the actual tire, and that's glued onto a rim. And then if you have a flat or you need to change the tire because the tread's worn out, you have to rip that off the tire, clean the carbon rim, and mount a new tire on with glue. It's a kind of a painful process. For the longest time, the only way you could run carbon wheels was with a tubular tire. And then they started pushing the boundaries, and they had these clincher tires with aluminum brake surfaces, right? So you could get a carbon wheel with an aluminum brake surface and use a clincher tire. And a clincher tire was a way better tire technology because of how it mounted to the wheel system. It had a hook in it, and the clincher would push out, and you would put an inner tube, and it would blow up and hold. And you could get really fast, way faster tires and way more aerodynamic tires because they were made in molds instead of handmade. And so the technology improved, but the wheel technology wasn't there. Fast forward, now we've got hookless, tubeless technology, which is just crazy to even think about. But they took the hooks out of the carbon rims, so the tire is just pushing out against carbon sidewalls and being held in place by the air pressure, which is incredible. You need to run lower PSI when you do that. But tubeless tires, they're absolutely amazing. Your chance of getting a flat tire running a tubeless is way less. So if you're running a tire with a tube in a race, it should probably be a race tire with a latex tube in it. If you're running a tubeless tire, you should also have a race tubeless tire. And then you should put a sealant in it. And these are latex sealants. You can use Stan's, Orange Seal, Muc-Off, Silca. A whole bunch of different brands make sealant, but you should put sealant in the tire. And then what happens is, let's say you run over a nail or a staple or something in the road, it punctures that tire, that sealant then automatically goes to that spot, clogs the hole, and you just keep riding. You don't even know you had a flat tire. Awesome technology, saves a huge amount of time. There is a little bit of a learning curve because you have to have tape on the inside of your carbon rim that seals all the air holes off. Okay. You also must have a tubeless valve stem that does the same thing that makes an airtight seal inside the rim. And then the other big kicker is that you either need an air compressor or you need a pump primer, special kind of pump that releases a fast amount of air very quickly to seat the tire on the rim. So there are some technology challenges with tubeless tires, but I've switched to tubeless on all my bikes. I absolutely love it.

The only reason you wouldn't run a tubeless tire is if you were trying to do a time trial on very nice roads where you knew the chance of having a flat was very minimal. Then you might look at using some of these paper thin race tires that are available with a latex tube because you could still get those lighter. But any chance where you might have a flat tire, it's just pointing towards tubeless because you don't have to stop in a triathlon. If you had a flat tire in a triathlon, the chances of it blowing the whole tire out are very minimal. And so for the average triathlete out there, tubeless is the way to go. Because let's say you're going down to Ironman Arizona and you're going to race and you're on the Beeline. There's thorns and glass and all kinds of stuff. You run over that stuff in your tubeless tire, the chance of having a flat, almost zero. And so that's what you should do. Put a race tubeless tire on with good quality sealant and you're not going to flat. That's the biggest benefit to it.

Andrew Harley: And I've always been curious about it ever since I started hearing about it. And my understanding is that at this point, a majority of the pros are now running tubeless. And I just, I had never heard a I knew there was some extra steps to it, and I just haven't taken the time to sit down and learn those extra steps to mount and maintain a tubeless tire. And so hearing that, it's motivated me a little bit to brush up on that. Watch a couple YouTube videos. I'm sure you have some out there, TJ, that I can learn from. And yeah, sounds like a good quality thing that all of us can be and should be switching to.

TJ Tollakson: It's coming whether you want it or not. All the tire manufacturers are switching to tubeless tires. So are the wheel manufacturers. And it's not like disc brakes where you can't interchange them. You have to remember that with a tubeless tire, if you do have a flat that is not repaired, you can still put an inner tube in the tubeless tire and ride. Like that's allowed. So your backup is sealant, because that's what most people's backup is with a tubeless. Your backup to your backup is an inner tube that you're carrying that you're going to put in there, and the tire will still run.

Trend #6: Integrated Storage

Andrew Harley: Very interesting. Bike trend number six, we're trucking through these. This is all great stuff, guys. The sixth trend is integrated storage. Many clever bike designers like TJ Tollakson have figured out that all these deep carbon tubes can double as storage. I mean, with many working to help athletes store food, some are designed in spots to help athletes store tools. Sometimes hydration storage is built into the frame of the bike itself. And I got to say, this is something that I have envied for years. I like my bike and all, but when I watch someone pack a few gels in their top tube and then, boom, they're ready to rock and roll, I get real jealous real fast. So, TJ, how are you finding this to help out the athletes that are buying your bikes?

TJ Tollakson: Yeah, well, Andrew, this is something you're going to enjoy here real quickly. As soon as you start riding your own Dimond, and then your jealousy will subside. But this is something that we knew right away. I mean, when I started racing, it was very common. You watched all these athletes roll into transition with 12 gels taped to their top tube. Right. And it's like, yeah, okay, that works, you know, but it's also detracting from the aerodynamics. It makes a mess on your bike. Like, we just knew, like, bike designs keep evolving and it's like, hey, let's evolve it to the needs of the athletes. So we have very clever hydration storage, nutrition storage. It's been done in a bunch of different ways. It's so slick, it's so easy. It makes the bike look very clean when you check it in. I think back to my first Kona race and what my bike looked like at check-in versus what my bike looks like at check-in now. It's a lot cleaner, it's a lot faster. And so that's what it translates to, right? When you're racing, your bike is going to be a lot faster. And it's also nice just to have these storage compartments. Right. So not only is that nice to have a place for your gels at the start of the race, but let's say you need an extra gel at an aid station. You've got a place where you can put it very quickly.

Andrew Harley: True.

TJ Tollakson: And a place to keep it as well as if you need it for your trash. You got a place to store your trash in the meantime, too. Right. Because you don't want to get a penalty for throwing your gel wrapper on the ground in the race. So, yeah, it's awesome. It will continue to advance. You're going to see smarter and smarter integration in the bike, and we hope to continue to be a part of that at Dimond.

Andrew Harley: Now, John, you have this on your bike, correct? Have you been enjoying that upgrade?

John Mayfield: Yeah. So I used to have a saddlebag on the back of my saddle. I had my tools, tubes, that sort of thing. And yeah, my bike now has a compartment that's down around the bottom bracket. It actually has a bag that was specific to the shape of the down tube. And so it just slides right into the down tube. And yeah, it takes advantage of that open space. So super cool feature with that. Then also has great storage up on top of the top tube, which one thing I kind of found out, I guess the hard way is I was in a race, wasn't going to be using it, so I was like, well, I'll just take it off. And then I went to take it off, and when I removed it, what I didn't realize is there's a big hole in the top tube. So it actually drops down. It doesn't just end at the top tube. It actually takes advantage of that space as well. So I was like, oh, I didn't realize that without that storage piece in there, there's just a great big gaping hole in the top tube. So I went ahead and put it back.

Andrew Harley: That's not the case with the way TJ has designed it on his Dimond bike. You just lift a lid and boom, the top beam. TJ, how many gels do you reckon an athlete can get in the top beam of a Dimond bike?

TJ Tollakson: Pretty, you know, depending on how big the gels and that. I'd say 8 to 12 gels in there.

Andrew Harley: Wow.

John Mayfield: Enough.

Andrew Harley: And see, that frees up your pockets. That's less times you're reaching around back to dig something out of your pocket or put trash in your pocket. So, yeah, all about it. Just to kind of close down our main set, I mean, I want to circle back to just what you're building at Dimond. John was very kind and pointing out some of the reasons we here at TriDot really like Dimond. And we've gotten to know you a little bit at the races over the years, most recently in Kona. I know TriDot coach Alex Hamlow is a Dimond rider, and he will not shut up about how much he likes his Dimond bike. And he put us in touch with you to get you on the podcast. And so, anyway, so just plenty of positive words from me and John about Dimond bikes. But in your own words, I mean, just what makes Dimond unique and why should any of our athletes listening who are thinking about a bike upgrade, why should they consider that bike upgrade to be a Dimond bike?

TJ Tollakson: Well, it starts with the fastest bike. I say this and I'm 100% confident. I make the fastest bikes in the world. And I did it with purpose and intent, and I did it as an athlete to design the best bike for myself. And I study everything when I do this. So I make the fastest bikes. But outside of having the fastest bike out there, I will tell you that you can have a bike that's customized just for you in terms of your paint job or at least your paint colors, really radical designs, so you can put your personal fingerprint on it, make it yours, have that identity. And the last thing is going to be the customer service. Like I said, my customers know me. They have my contact information, and I'm here. And when I have a customer who's investing in a Dimond bike, then I'm turning around and investing in their career as an athlete. And so I have a lifelong interest in keeping everybody who once had a Dimond always riding a Dimond. And I will make that commitment to them. And so if you are interested in buying a bike, I would love for you to join my family and let me show you how I can help get you on a Dimond bike, make you faster, achieve your dreams, and have you riding a Dimond bike happily for the rest of your life.

Cooldown:

Announcer: Great set, everyone. Let's cool down.

Vanessa Ronksley: Today on the podcast, I am pleased to present to you a TriDot athlete and coach who is full of courage and who is a true inspiration to so many people. He has been involved in the sport of triathlon for over 30 years, and during that time, he has touched the lives of so many people in a multitude of ways. Alex Hamlow, welcome to the show.

Alex Hamlow: Hey, Vanessa. Really an honor to be here with you today. I love talking about our sport, TriDot, and just serving this community.

Vanessa Ronksley: So here we are. Alex, I feel so lucky to be connecting with you today and I think that we could actually sit here and chat for hours. But because we only have a few minutes, I'm going to jump right in and ask you what led you to coaching with TriDot?

Alex Hamlow: Oh yeah, thanks Vanessa. Well, I had been coaching. Cycling is where my background is. I've been coaching since 2008. That led to actually starting to coach ultra running and triathlon from cyclists moving on to other things. But honestly I kept it as just a fun sideline for me, just handling a few athletes while I was working full time professionally. I met John Mayfield actually as a TriDot athlete at Ironman Santa Rosa in 2018 and I hit it off with him and over the next year he kind of prodded me. I got my Ironman youth certification and although the pandemic delayed me a bit, I formally started coaching with TriDot a little over a year ago.

Vanessa Ronksley: Yeah, coaching is so rewarding as the coach. Like most people would just think that as an athlete it's rewarding to have a coach, but man, it's just so cool to watch someone achieve their goals and to achieve things that they didn't even think were possible. And that's just so great that coaches get to support their athletes in that way. And speaking of it, seems like you have quite the connection with your TriDot coach, Jen Reinhart. So how did you get connected with her?

Alex Hamlow: Well, like every coach, if they really are honest, first you have to swallow some pride because as a coach you're supposed to know this stuff cold, right? But actually coaches need coaches the most and that's just simply because whether we like it or not, we all have blind spots. So for me I had various coaches before I started coaching, but I was actually self-coached for a while. But I talked to Cindy, I talked to some other coaches and ultimately got connected with some five minute consults with some other coaches. And after five minutes with Jen, I knew I had found somebody special. And it's been a relationship that has truly renewed my belief in what's possible. Even for me, even after 30 plus years in the sport, I know that the future is bright.

Vanessa Ronksley: Yeah, I think that when you mentioned that you were a self-coached athlete, I actually joined TriDot thinking that I could manage my schedule and be the best that I could be just because someone had given me this amazing plan. And as soon as I teamed up with a coach, my performance just skyrocketed and I didn't think that I actually needed that, you know, mental support, but it's crazy how much I did. And one of the things that I love most about having a coach with TriDot is that, as you said, the coach isn't spending all of that time creating the program. So you're building a relationship with that coach, and it's so valuable and it turns often into a friendship. So what kind of relationship do you have with Jen?

Alex Hamlow: Yeah, well, that's a great point. And we're friends, and we're friends first at this point. And some of that is because we just have tremendous mutual respect for each other and ultimately we care for one another. So it's not a one way relationship. And that's the beauty of not having to spend that time as a coach, drilling into the plans and creating all these things and then trying to adhere to them. The good news here is that it's more like having a great dance partner or a leader, right, leading you on the dance floor or a crew member. Right. You're part of that crew in a kayak or something like that. And the key thing is you're committed to just being in sync. And that means even when there's tough conversations to be had, you're committed to making sure that the hard truth rules. But by having a deep relationship, by having a great friendship, you know, it comes from love and a passion to just serve, you know, the athlete. And that's what's so special about TriDot coaches versus many other platforms. Because there is a bit of a disconnect. I think when you have to put so much time and energy into just writing the plans and doing all that, here, you can really focus on the individual.

Vanessa Ronksley: Yeah, I agree. I got shivers when you were just saying all that. I love it so much. But we're gonna totally switch gears here, literally. So you must tell me about your beautiful bike. If you have not seen Alex's bike, you need to head over to Instagram and check out his page because it is gorgeous. And I want all of the details.

Alex Hamlow: Oh, my God. Oh, my gosh. Well, I love my Dimond Marquise. First of all, not only is it the coolest to look at with the amazing custom paint job, et cetera, it's lightning fast to ride, and more importantly, it's just really comfortable and it's elevated my performance. More importantly, running off the bike, which was truly the reason why I made the switch in brands and went to Dimond in the first place.

Vanessa Ronksley: Does your bike have a name? Have you named your bike?

Alex Hamlow: My bike does have a name, so it's been recently named Candy. You could actually call it a bit of candy corn with the lovely orange, yellow and green on it. So, yeah, she's Candy, she's fast, she's sweet and she is lovely.

Vanessa Ronksley: How did you get in touch with Dimond in the first place and get this whole process started?

Alex Hamlow: Sure. So I mentioned, you know, I switched brands, but I come from a cycling background, so I nerd out on the whole bike thing overall. But it's always been function versus hype. So it's not about ads you see, but it's about getting into the detail. And really the reason why I started looking at potential other brands from where I was, it was about seven years ago. I was prepping for going back to full Ironman. I'd been mostly doing 70.3s and other races and I had a really fast bike, but it just beat my body up. And so anything over a few hours on the bike and I just suffered. So I did my own research and I found Dimond through kind of my cycling network. And I called them just because I was able to actually see that they were at an Ironman expo, they're more involved, et cetera. But I just called them and I talked first to Eric Greenlee over there and then ultimately talked to TJ. They were just fabulous. They actually encouraged me just to get on one, even if it wasn't a new one from them direct, et cetera. Just to give it a try. They just had a passion for what they were producing and they really felt like it would work for me. It was never like a one and done or a hard push. It was just, hey, get on this bike. And we think you're going to love it. But either way, it's worth the experience. I did. I found one. I was comparing going new from them or finding secondhand, and I found a secondhand and it absolutely was a joy. I rode it for a bit and it just wasn't mine because it was somebody else's. The cool thing about Dimond, though, is they want to know how you're doing. So TJ reached out to me with no real reason other than I'd been on the bike for a couple of years and he just reached out to me with some of the developments they had made and asked if I'd be interested in doing an upgrade at a friend in the family kind of deal, which included custom paint and a really complete white glove process, which amazingly only took a few months. And I just sent it in and I got sent back my new Dimond with all my components that I'd sent in on it, transferred, done completely. I had a bike ready to race.

Vanessa Ronksley: Wow.

Alex Hamlow: And it was just a phenomenal process. It truly was.

Vanessa Ronksley: I think there is something really special about a company when a customer is talking to the head honcho of the company and they just call you up to see how you're doing, even if you didn't actually purchase a product from them, that really goes to show how passionate they are about their product and how they believe that it's going to make a difference in someone's racing.

Alex Hamlow: Yeah. And they keep getting better. Right. So the thing I really appreciate about them is they're not satisfied, right, with what they've done. They've done really well. But, you know, they released, I think a year and a half ago, the Mogul, which is the fastest bike ever tested in a wind tunnel. And I'm just hearing flash news here for anybody who doesn't know, they're just releasing a brand new model called the Icon, which is really going to kind of split the middle between that amazing aero for the best flat course you could find, but also be able to climb exceptionally well and do all the other things that the bike like mine, the Marquise, does. And they've launched gravel and aero road bikes. They're just doing phenomenally well because frankly, the stuff they're doing works and people love them.

Vanessa Ronksley: That's amazing. So as we're sitting here talking, it's like, oh, I have to go check out that Dimond website. I just want to go right now and see and build a bike or something.

Alex Hamlow: Just get ready to fall in love.

Vanessa Ronksley: Yeah, exactly. Yeah, that would be, that's exactly the course that I think I'll be taking as soon as I hit, as soon as we end this conversation, I'm heading straight over to the Dimond website.

Andrew Harley: That's it for today, folks. I want to thank TJ from Dimond Bikes and TriDot coach John Mayfield for joining us for today's bike conversation. To experience UCAN's LiveSteady products for yourself, head to their website UCAN.co and use the code TRIDOT to save 20% on your entire order. And to see just how impactful Delta G ketones can be for your recovery, head to deltagketones.com and use code TRIDOT20 for 20% off your order there. Thanks so much for listening. We'll have a new show coming your way soon. Until then, happy training.

Announcer: Thanks for joining us. Make sure to subscribe and share the TriDot podcast with your triathlon crew. For more great tri content and community, connect with us on Facebook, YouTube and Instagram. Ready to optimize your training? Head to TriDot.com and start your free trial today. TriDot, the obvious and automatic choice for triathlon training.

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