Today we tap into Justin’s knowledge and expertise as a professional gear reviewer and leverage his years of experience in adventure and in journalism to play a little game called Overrated, Underrated Or Properly Rated?
During the episode Colin throws three items at Justin who has to decide if that item is over, under or properly rated. And there is a lot at stake here because Justin's decision is definitive! What are the items? You'll have to listen to find out but just know that there can be no debate after Gear & Beer's lead reviewer and Cicerone makes his call.
And speaking of our Cicerone, today the boys each bring a different beer to the table that they believe is also either underrated, overrated or simply, properly rated.
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Gear & Beer is part of the Rock Fight podcast network. Be sure to check out THE ROCK FIGHT for the best outdoor industry commentary on Apple or Spotify.
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Want to see your favorite piece of gear or favorite beer featured on a future episode? Send your feedback and suggestions to myrockfight@gmail.com or send a message on Instagram or Threads.
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Episode Transcript
Colin (00:01):
Welcome to Gear and Beer, the podcast for Gearheads beer buffs and adventurers with discerning taste and the latest edition to the Rock Fight Podcast Network. I'm Colin True. I work for brands and makers in the outdoor industry for over 20 years.
Justin (00:15):
I am Justin Housman, senior editor at Adventure Journal, professional Gear Reviewer and Certified Cone, which we all know by now as a beer expert. Everyone should know that by now, right?
Colin (00:24):
Yeah.
Justin (00:25):
It is a special episode today though. Oh, like
Colin (00:29):
Afterschool special episode? Yeah, it's like the spinny special presentation logo. Fly in.
Justin (00:34):
Yeah. Is this something bad has happened? We have to talk about it episode
Colin (00:38):
As the Cone. Would you? What beer do you pair on someone's birthday?
Justin (00:45):
Oh wow. It's not my birthday. Is it your birthday call? It's my birthday today. I didn't know that. Anything, buddy. I didn't tell you. This is, why is this why you're not wearing a hat for the first time in your entire life?
Colin (00:57):
No, actually my hair short enough that I'm like, I don't have to worry about my hair. Oh
Justin (01:01):
Yeah. Oh, well. Happy birthday, man.
Colin (01:04):
I'm so excited to crack a beer and talk beer with you on my birthday, buddy. This is going to
Justin (01:07):
Be fun. I don't know. I guess it's a good question though. What do you pair on? I mean, whatever your favorite beer, I guess. Whatever
Colin (01:11):
Your favorite beer is, right? Yeah,
Justin (01:13):
Yeah. There's not really a birthday beer.
Colin (01:15):
That's a good point.
Justin (01:15):
Yeah, that's great.
Colin (01:16):
You're drinking the wrong beer on your birthday. Yeah, man. What is that? A logger fuck off idiot. Well, today we're going to tap into Justin's knowledge and expertise like we usually do as a professional gear reviewer and leverage his years of experience in adventure and journalism as we play a little game called overrated, underrated, or properly rated, not really an original game. Everybody's done this, but whatever
Justin (01:38):
I feel like properly rated needs a better overrated and underrated is nice. It's one word
Colin (01:43):
I know, right? It's a good point.
Justin (01:44):
Yeah.
Colin (01:45):
We should workshop that.
Justin (01:46):
Yeah.
Colin (01:47):
So I'm going to name a piece of outdoor gear or a category of gear, and Justin is going to have to determine, and this is for all time,
(01:53):
For all time that gear, there's no going back from here that if the category is overrated, underrated, or the yet to be workshopped, properly rated, and why he's making that determination. Outdoor gear manufacturers everywhere are currently sitting on the edge of their seats waiting for what Justin is going to say. We have a live stream of the CEOs of many notable gear brands listening in. They want to hear a lot of people wondering, oh, thank God they didn't talk about mine today. They're going to go away relieved. They're off the chopping block. So we'll see how it all goes. But before we get to that, we got a couple of,
Justin (02:25):
Before we get to what we're about to get to, just throwing it out there that this segment, if we continue it, which we probably should, it's up for a sponsorship if anybody
Colin (02:35):
Else
Justin (02:35):
Is listening.
Colin (02:36):
Yeah, this will be, if this is a regular occurrence, this will absolutely be a sponsorable segment. So please all the brands listening in on the live stream, throw your money on the table. Let's go coaching.
Justin (02:46):
Yeah,
Colin (02:47):
So we do have a couple of things. For your four hour listeners, be sure while you're listening to this episode, follow and rate gear and beer, wherever you're listening, clicking follow, that means you're subscribing to gear and beer. That is awesome, and leaving that five star rating, it really helps us out. Be sure to check out our other show on the Rock Fight podcast network called The Rock Fight. We talk about adventure topics, outdoor industry topics, and you can find it wherever you're listening to this podcast. And Justin, right now, he's going to tell you where you can reach out to the show if you would like to contact us.
Justin (03:15):
Well, if you're Chris who lives in Marin, you can see me at Split Rock Tapping Wheel, which is pretty much an everyday occurrence for us. How you doing, Chris? But if you're not Chris, you can email us. You can send your emails to My Rock fight@gmail.com. You can follow along on Instagram where our handle is Rock Fight co, and you can sign up and you should sign up for our newsletter or the Rock fights newsletter, I should say about heading to rock fight.co. Clicking right there where it says, join the mailing list.
Colin (03:41):
We should get Chris like Marin's number one rock fight fan.
Justin (03:45):
You
Colin (03:45):
Can ride around. Actually, I should send you some stickers that you can give to Chris.
Justin (03:47):
Definitely should. Unless
Colin (03:48):
You have
Justin (03:49):
Any, I might have some. Yeah, that's a good idea. I dunno if he's a sticker guy, but he strikes me as point someone who probably isn't. He's very clean, very clean cut. Oh, well,
Colin (03:57):
No stickers for you, Chris.
Justin (03:59):
Sorry. Sorry.
Colin (04:00):
Well, before we get to the main event, we can't play gear games without wetting our whistles, so shall we open a beer?
Justin (04:07):
It's afternoon, right?
Colin (04:08):
It is, yeah.
Justin (04:09):
Yeah,
Colin (04:09):
We timed this perfectly.
Justin (04:10):
Let's do her.
Colin (04:11):
So what are we doing today?
Justin (04:13):
Well, I know what I'm doing. I'm going with a scrimshaw from North Coast Brewing Company. They might be my favorite brewer, I guess, which is a super weird pick. They're up in, I dunno
Colin (04:25):
If I've ever heard you say that before, what your favorite is.
Justin (04:28):
Yeah, they're up in Mendocino. Their beers are all very good. They don't make anything weird. Well, they make a couple interesting beers. They make a great cison that I love, which is called La Merle. They make a really good, super strong Belgian called Thelonious Monk that I really love, and one of my favorite stouts, which is Old Rasputin. So anyway, but yeah, they're just a good solid kind of blue collar feeling brewery up in Mendo. You go to their tap room brew house thing, and it's like old, not in a pleasant way. It's just like dirty carpets. I love that. The bar's fine. It's just the food's great. The beer's really good. Scrimshaw is their pilsner, and it's just a classic kind of do anything pilsner, which is kind of why I picked it about as good of an American pilsner as you're going to find anywhere. And I thought it'd be a good one. We could talk about whether or not this is beer. Is this kind of pilsner is overrated or underrated?
Colin (05:31):
Well, is that, I was going to say, do you find this beard? Because it can be overrated and it could still be good. Right? Would you given your affinity for that, is that a common sentiment where you live with this beer, or is it still a little bit of unknown? No,
Justin (05:44):
People love this beer. I mean, you see this, oh, good. They have scrimshaw, but I'm going to go into it with, I need to rate this beer side mindset, so
Colin (05:54):
All. All right. Well, I went with also a local beer and Ale Smith, which is a San Diego brewing company called the 3 94 Pale Ale, which was developed with Tony Gwyn. This is a tough day to talk about the Padres for you. Sorry. We had the triple play to end the game last
Justin (06:09):
Night was That was pretty sick though. That was unreal. I mean, I didn't expect, well, actually, I don't, daughters do come back a lot. They've had a lot of comeback victories and apparently the before that, yeah, pirate pads closer is crap too, dude, I was just like, I honestly, and Miguel Rojas, who hit him with the triple play has been such a joy this year. He's just been really pleasant surprise, but show Hey is coming up next and I was just like, just get on, get to show. Hey,
Colin (06:38):
He'll take care of everything. Well, so the ELs Smith though, this was developed with Tony Gwynn's family, or I believe with Tony Gwynn before he passed away, but it is a San Diego style Pale ale. A Golden Pale Ale that six 6% A BV, and then it's a 3 94 to note Tony Gwynn's 1994 season, I believe when he hit 3 94, something like that when we flirted with four. Oh oh
(07:00):
Yeah.
(07:00):
And I do think when we talked about the overrated, underrated aspect, I'm like, I do feel like Tony Gwynn probably becoming a little underrated.
Justin (07:08):
He totally underrated, I think.
Colin (07:09):
Yeah, he probably was underrated even he was still playing.
Justin (07:13):
I think he was the kind of player where everybody was like, oh, Tony Gwynn's really great. But there were still contact hitters back then. Yeah, right. He and Wayne Bob. Yeah, exactly. He was obviously great and was a huge star, but I think as the years have gone by, he's getting a lot more love than I think he used to, which is great because I would definitely say Tony Gwen is an underrated player. I mean, to me, the best hitter I've ever seen. And he's basically Greg Maddox in hitter form.
Colin (07:44):
But yeah, so that was my choice is one of my favorite beers down here. So what with that,
Justin (07:48):
I think it's a good, well, I dunno, I've never had it. I know out.
Colin (07:51):
We'll have to do a beer swap on one of these at some point.
Justin (07:52):
I wish we could just do that just through the screen, just like let's open these though.
Colin (07:56):
All right, let's do it.
Justin (07:57):
You got a can.
Colin (07:58):
I got a can. Yeah, yeah. You ready?
Justin (08:00):
Yeah. Three, two, one, one cheer buddy. Happy birthday man.
Colin (08:06):
Thanks, man.
Justin (08:07):
You did such a good job of not talking about it nonstop in the days leading up to this. That's really good.
Colin (08:17):
It's kind of fun to do one of these where I know I'm going to like the beer,
Justin (08:20):
You know what I mean? You can get this probably down there. North Coast is a fairly big-ish brewery.
Colin (08:27):
That'd be because I want to try that stout you're talking about. That sounds, this
Justin (08:30):
Is perfect. Really this, this beer is so fucking good.
Colin (08:33):
It's good. Alright, let's talk some gear. So first up in our game is something that I've definitely owned, but I never really thought to do anything with. I mean, I probably have one of these in the house right now. I couldn't tell you where, but I'm sure that it exists. And it's something that is a gear shop staple that's consistently referenced and featured in gear related photo spreads. I honestly can't think of single time I've ever seen anyone, not even just me actually use these, except for maybe very specific reasons. So Justin, are binoculars, underrated? Overrated, properly rated?
Justin (09:04):
Hugely, hugely underrated. At least amongst folks who you don't think about them.
Colin (09:11):
The Knox people on the call just applauded. They're very excited about this ruling.
Justin (09:14):
Well, Knox are great, by the way. Okay, so you said you probably own a couple pair, right?
Colin (09:22):
Yeah, I mean I
Justin (09:23):
Was Did you buy them?
Colin (09:24):
No.
Justin (09:24):
Yeah, exactly. So I bought a pair of binoculars like five years ago. I don't even remember what prompted it, and I realized as I did it, wow, I've never bought binoculars before. They just always seem to show up somehow. There's some little flimsy, shitty binoculars in the glove compartment of every vehicle I have ever owned, and I had never bought a pair until the other day. You get 'em as a gift, I guess. Some cheap, yeah, I
Colin (09:52):
Probably use a stocking stuffer or something
Justin (09:54):
Like that. Or those, I don't know. You're at somebody's house and like, Hey, do you want these? Sure. I don't know. But I've always had a pair of rickety crappy binoculars. I mean, for surfers they're pretty important. Depending on where you live, you use 'em a lot. Is that way breaking whatever?
Colin (10:11):
I think birding, I think of it, of course, bird,
Justin (10:15):
You're right, you need a specific use case. If you're just like a general, I'm going to go outside and have fun, you probably don't really need them that much. But the reason that even if you aren't a surfer or aren't a birder, I think they're underrated is because if you actually think to bring them with you, it depends on what you're doing. Of course, they have no use for the mountain biking, but for the most part, if you're doing anything else outside and you're just spending time outside, it is such a freaking joy to use binoculars to look at stuff, to look at what's that tree down the way? What's that bird doing over there? If you're camping and the moon is out, the moon is incredible through a good pair of binoculars. I mean, it's like a or telescope. And you can get, depending on what kind of binoculars you have, they make binoculars that are kind of just for star gazing. But even a pair of decent, not totally shitty, but a pair of decent real binoculars, look at star, looking at stars at them is amazing. Looking at little star clusters and stuff, it's absolutely incredible. I wouldn't even think of going camping without binoculars. I would turn around halfway on the way, on a four hour drive to go home and get 'em that important to me now when I'm outdoors. All
Colin (11:18):
Right. Especially if
Justin (11:20):
You're doing a a big long hike, you'd be surprised how often it's you're taking a break and you just scan the trees of occu. You see cool shit you want to see. Is that a trail way off in the distance now? I know a few years back, Steven Kasmir and I were traipsing around southern Utah poking into some ruins from the pueblo kind of people, and you'd kind of sit and just kind look and see if you could see little grainery or storehouses across in the next canyon over. There's just so many uses for 'em. Or even just, yeah, you'd be surprised. But at this point now, I always have one pair in the truck. Always. I love NOx. NOx also makes a really cool monocular. So it's just a tube and with just usually one eye that thing's awesome is even lighter. And it's actually pretty useful. And you
Colin (12:16):
Can pretend you're a
Justin (12:17):
Pirate hiking and you do pretend you're a pirate. And also when you buy it, you can order a magnifying cap that goes in the bottom so it turns into a little miniature microscope. So you capture a bug, you can look at it real close. All that's cool, pretty cool.
Colin (12:32):
You can make the case that even a cheap, private, whatever, the gift cheap pair I have sitting up in my closet upstairs.
Justin (12:37):
Even that, that's fine. Right, right. Yeah. I mean there's a world of difference between shitty binoculars and good binoculars. But yeah, even shitty oculars are fun. So you can get their littlest ones eight by 20 fives for a hundred bucks.
Colin (12:49):
Okay. Alright. So we are going underrated on binoculars. Big time so much, frankly, you talk to me into it. It's a good point. As you're talking, all of a sudden you,
Justin (12:58):
Well, how can you be down on 'em? Well, that's what I mean.
Colin (13:01):
And this isn't a gear where I'm like, oh, I'm down on having these, it's just, I never once also thought when I get back from a hike or something like, oh man, I wish I had had my binoculars. I wasn't really, I do all the time now. Well now the way you've explained it. Yeah, now I really get it. Right.
Justin (13:15):
I don't know. It's funny, when I got mine, I would talk to other people. I'd be like, have you ever bought a pair of binoculars? And everybody would be like, no, you're right. I've never bought them. As soon as you said, that's so strange. Yeah, I really couldn't tell you. I purchased one pair, still just purchased
Colin (13:27):
The one pair maybe on a birthday or a Christmas gift, or maybe it was just my wife just buying shit at REI one day. Yeah, I'll grab these. I have no idea how these even got into our house.
Justin (13:39):
They're super easy to geek out on. Once you get one, you are like, Ooh. And if you're really, I have a friend who took some pretty incredible photos of, I think it was an Osprey flying around Point Reyes, and he put his phone in front of the binocular lens or whatever. So if you're talented, you can take pictures of whatever the magnification of what you're looking at.
Colin (14:03):
Alright, so for number two, we may be going Number two. I have a feeling this piece of gear is something that many people don't think they need or want. I mean, it might be someone with binoculars in that kind of way, but maybe if they tried it, they would find it to be then essential going forward.
Justin (14:19):
Justin? Indispensable, indispensable. I would say
Colin (14:21):
Our portable toilets. Underrated, overrated, properly rated.
Justin (14:24):
So underrated. So underrated. I mean to the point where I would probably say if you're planning on building a camp, get from scratch tent, sleeping bag, sleeping pad, portable toilet.
Colin (14:37):
So are they underrated or are they properly rated? Cause it's, is it just underrated because people don't even think now?
Justin (14:42):
I guess. I mean, that's a good point. But I would say I think by nature, underrated rarely encounter people using them. So No, that's a good point. Think people probably, if you're dispersed camping, I think there's still an issue with people using digging cat holes. It probably seems like an unnecessary expense. Why would I, I can just dig a hole you to bury it. But the thing is, they're super useful in regular campgrounds too. Don't, unless it's a nice campground with flushing toilets. I don't want to use a vault toilet if I, oh, that
Colin (15:13):
Gets so gross. Especially a hot day in the summertime or whatever,
Justin (15:16):
And you got to wait maybe in line or whatever. And depending on your camping setup, if you have a little coverage and you can just throw it down your er toilet. But there's a million different kinds you can get. I, whatever reason, I've just bought into the, I think the brand is called reliable, their ecosystem. And so I have the little foldable, it's just like a foldable toilet seat, and then you lift up part of it and then you put the double bagged like poop bag into it and it cinch down all nice. It's very easy to deal with. It's not messy. The only downside at all is if you're tall like me, the portable toilets are pretty short, so getting on and off can be a little bit finicky, but I will never dig a hole unless I have to again. I mean, you realize it's just so much cleaner. It's just so much easier. We know now that it's because humans are gross. We're turning a lot of popular dispersed campgrounds into latrines basically because of all the poop. And it's just easy. It seems kind of gross and weird until you've done it once. You're like, oh, this is way more sanitary. Way more sanitary.
Colin (16:18):
We have a weird thing with that.
Justin (16:20):
The bags seal perfectly, totally, perfectly. So we talked, I think it was last week, maybe the week before, where I talked about how I'll just throw 'em in the back of my truck and it's like, yeah, yeah, okay. There's some silver bags of poop rolling around the back of my truck, but I can't, they're perfectly sealed and I'll find a trash can when I'm driving around.
Colin (16:39):
No, we go have a weird thing with this, and I think you're right with underrated because my only real experience using something like this is just using groovers on river trips.
(16:48):
And look, I get when you're not that conditioned to go, if you're not a backpacker or if you're spending, if you're camping in a place for the first time where there isn't even a pit toilet or whatever, yeah, it's a little weird. You don't want to think about, your inclination might be, I'm just going to hold it to the end. I understand why people have a tough time with us. We have a weird relationship to the privacy we need and wanting to have running water. I get all of that. But if you just sort of give yourself over to the task, and I remember my first river trip with guides and they would set the groovers up in these incredible spots where every day you're sitting there looking at some amazing canyon or along the river that you're out and you're just like, this is the best place I've ever taken a shit in my entire life.
Justin (17:27):
Right? Yeah. I mean it's like having an outhouse with you anywhere you go, as long as you have some, and that's the other thing too. A lot of tent brands make basically tent outhouses, so they're getting more and more common. They're not really added on. They're usually standalone, but it's like a porta, it's tent material.
Colin (17:46):
Oh, I thought you meant as a part of other, yeah, I've seen those where they have literally a popup. They use 'em a lot at ultra marathons, at aid stations where there's no, or I'm sure
Justin (17:55):
Race too actually, where they don't want to have a built Yeah, there's no
Colin (17:57):
Toilet here so it can pop up. Right, right. Yeah.
Justin (18:01):
I mean, it sounds so dumb. Why would that elevate the camping experience? But it really does. I mean, especially for someone like you who doesn't necessarily love the idea of camping, it adds just an element of elegance or civilization or something to the experience and
Colin (18:15):
Just the person who's going to maybe have a tough time with it already and then you say, Hey, go into that shit splattered toilet over there. That's, that's harder, I feel like, than to be, especially if you have that sort of covering like you described, then just be like, no man, just go right here. No one's bugging you. It's cool.
Justin (18:30):
We've also talked about hope. I think on the air, on the air, on this show, you never know who might be hiding in a pit toilet. We talk about it. Yeah, that's right. So that, that's probably not an issue with your,
Colin (18:41):
That's one of the weirdest things. That's story.
Justin (18:44):
But yeah, sure. Find a way to eliminate that possibility.
Colin (18:48):
Alright, well before we get onto our third item, it's time for the second sip, and today's second sip is brought to you by Pacific AdventureWorks and their hideaway sleeping platform. As seen, we should get as seen on gear and beer stickers, even though it's an audio podcast.
Justin (19:02):
Oh, we surely should. Looking like the scene on TV logo?
Colin (19:05):
Yeah. Yeah. Scene on gear A, scene on G and B.
Justin (19:07):
Yes.
Colin (19:08):
I like that. But hey man, cheers. For the second sip, you and I were texting about a beer to have on air. I was like, something about an American pale LI can't remember. I know this is not probably technically an American Pale L, but there's something about the, it's not an IPA. It's got a little bit of the hop, but it's smooth. It's lighter. Yeah. It's not just an easy drinking Budweiser or Coors or anything like that. There's a little more body to it, but it's still just, you could just drink it and it's delicious.
Justin (19:36):
6%. It's strong ish.
Colin (19:39):
This is a little stronger than usually you'd find in a beer like I'm describing, I guess. But I really like this be,
Justin (19:43):
What do they call it? They call it a paleo,
Colin (19:45):
The three ninety four Pale Ale.
Justin (19:46):
Yeah. I mean that's my favorite kind of beer. Yeah, you should see the canned folks. It's like old school pod. Well, is that old school Padres or is that the new look? Old of
Colin (19:54):
Think its the old because they don't, the new one is more just the yellow and the brown, right? They don't really get into the orange. I guess it's more old school.
Justin (20:00):
Yeah, it looks great.
Colin (20:02):
Sleeping in your car truck is all the rage with outdoorsy folks these days. But let's face it, there are decisions that have to be made. Do you want to buy a van to crash in too expensive? Do you want to build a platform in the back of your truck too big and heavy to move? Do you want to sleep on a backpacking pad in your Subaru? Come on now. What the hell are we doing? Enter the Hideaway platform from Pacific AdventureWorks, the first adjustable sleeping platform. Perfect for wherever you want to put it. Put it in your SUV. Yep. Better than a cot. The back of your hatchback hell. And the legs are telescoping, so you'll sleep flat every night. How about the back of your truck? Not only will it fit, but you can store your gear underneath and easily remove the platform, roll it up and stow it when you're not using it. And the best part, these things are modular and can always be fitted to accommodate whatever vehicle you drive in the future. Save yourself the headaches and sleep better at camp tonight with the Hideaway platform from Pacific AdventureWorks. Head to pacific adventureworks.com to get yours today. So the first contestants in our game, were more on the classic outdoor camping and hiking side of the outdoor spectrum. So we're going to switch things up for today's final contestant. The CEO's on this livestream.
Justin (21:13):
I don't like change, Colin. I'm terrified of change. They're
Colin (21:15):
Getting a little nervous over there. They're getting a little nervous. They don't know where we're going with this one. So this last piece of gear is more of a subcategory than a singular item. And this contestant is maybe one of the more divisive items I feel like we're ever going to talk about here on gear and beer because you and I are definitely biased. One way on this. So Justin, are modern bike components underrated, overrated, or properly rated?
Justin (21:37):
Well, let's get specific now. I don't care to give a shit about road bikes, so I'm going to specifically
Colin (21:44):
Yeah. Off the table.
Justin (21:45):
Even though the ones that we're about to talk about are on both. But if
Colin (21:48):
Right, you're a to France racer, you need every advantage that you can get. Right?
Justin (21:52):
Right, sure.
Colin (21:54):
Properly rated for you.
Justin (21:55):
Yeah, fine. So this is a mountain bike. This is a mountain bike discussion. And when we first started talking about this, I was sort of not necessarily complaining, but maybe a little bit complaining about a bi testing out that has RAs axis, like wireless shifting with the GX transmission, which is their new fancy wireless derailer. And I just don't see the point. I mean, I'm just going to be blunt. I just don't see the point. I've ridden bikes with electric shifting before or wireless shifting before and there's a little bit of Oh, that's neat, but that's all it is to me. That's that moment of, oh, that's neat. That's it.
Colin (22:39):
What was neat? Was it just like, oh, that's cool that that happened because it was wireless.
Justin (22:43):
I mean you're like, oh, there's one less cable and it makes kind of a neat noise and it shifts a little bit faster. But I mean, have you ever once complained about how fast index shifting works? It's just never, if you're like some sort of KOM lunatic and hundredths of a second matter, I guess maybe that would be important to you. But there's an article that I encourage everybody to read in the New Yorker about the guy that founded Rivendale. It's amazing. I forget, did you read it?
Colin (23:16):
Yeah.
Justin (23:16):
I forget what it's called. Something
Colin (23:17):
Like this. I was thinking it was about you most of the time. Is this about Justin?
Justin (23:20):
It's something about why slow is good or something like that. And it's Grant Peterson,
Colin (23:28):
The guy, the art of taking it slow.
Justin (23:29):
There we go. And the guy that founded Rivendale Bikes, which is a handmade steel frame, kind of do anything bike here in the Bay area. And I read that article, loved every second of it, and then went out to ride this e mountain bike I'm testing out. And I felt like kind of a tool. It's like lighting up. There's electronic gizmos on it and that is just not something I'm interested in doing. And again, it's a neat piece of equipment, but he talks about this a lot where it feels like we're at the point now where these companies are just inventing things just to have something to sell. I mean, truthfully, don't see how it could possibly improve your biking experience to have wireless shifting. I really don't. I agree. At least not to the point of spending the extra money on it. I mean, whatever you had on your bike before was fine. And if you want to play that game, it's like you constantly have to chase this shit. And it's like bikes are timeless, bikes are old. They do the same thing they've done forever and it's wireless shifting today and what is it tomorrow you're going to have to ditch for something else that's faster or better or mind control shifting and then what? You're not having more fun on the bike because of it. It just doesn't make any sense to me. Exactly.
Colin (24:43):
You've described yourself especially over on the rock fight as being a Luddite and I think both of us have probably, and I think the thing about technology is sometimes it is so overwhelmingly good that you can't deny it.
Justin (24:55):
Well, suspension is badass.
Colin (24:57):
Suspension is badass.
Justin (24:58):
I know that you're sort of agnostic about it, but I mean there are things that are like, well, but I get it. This legitimately opens up parts of things I couldn't ride otherwise. Absolutely. I mean e-bikes themselves I am fine with because of the same thing. I still would rather not, but yesterday I had about 45 minutes to, that was all I really had for a ride and I used the E-bike. It was like that was enough on my regular bike. I wouldn't have had time to do this loop. And so there are reasons that I'm not anti all advancements. I'm anti ones that don't seem to really serve much of a function. I do think there's probably an argument to be made that they are. I mean we're really mostly just talking about wireless shifting that is actually in some ways less maintenance and less work. If you're riding through sand or horrible mud, there's less moving parts. Your cable can't get fucked. But right now I'm going, I'm already concerned about whether or not I plugged in the e-bike. I don't think I plugged it in. And I also have to think about whether I plugged in the shifter and it's just like, that's just insane to me. The only thing I ever think about at all with my other bike is, oh let's good. The tires a little squeeze. That's it. I'm good. Go
Colin (26:07):
Now. I guess it's just the devil's advocate has got to, because you and I knew you and I would be aligned on this, but is this the tip of the iceberg or whatever, where you could see where this could evolve to be, oh wow, it really is that much better. I mean, is there an evolution here that could take place?
Justin (26:23):
I don't think so. I think the real evolution would just come without, if we somehow figure out some super lightweight to super lightweight transmission inside the hub where you don't need to shift at all
Colin (26:32):
Like a priority but better kind
Justin (26:34):
Of opinion style. But I think that one's kind of heavy. But I mean something like that to where you basically just have one like a CVT on a car where you basically have one gear. It's just like
Colin (26:46):
I
Justin (26:46):
Could see that being because it would be cool to not have to shift. I mean that's why we like single speeds. I'd love to not have a shifter at all,
(26:53):
So if it went down that road, sure. But I think I'm not nearly as much of a bike expert as I am a surf expert, but I'd riding bikes long enough to understand the history of it and how we got to where we are. And I feel like there's a little bit happening. I mean you can make the same argument with cars too, but there was, people invented surfboards and they're basically the same for a really long time. And then we figured out a couple pretty important technological changes at a certain point. And then ever since then it's been little itty bitty iterative changes. Like the tiniest little, I've written tons of articles about this. It's massive changes from wood to fiberglass. That's huge. Like a nine foot board to a six foot board, that's a major change. Different fin placements to how many you have. Great. All those really radically changed how surfing was done and all that sort of stuff. But now it's like surfboards. The shape might be slightly different but from one shape to the next. But for the most part we're not making big radical changes anymore.
Colin (27:51):
And
Justin (27:51):
I kind of feel like that's probably the same case with bikes. I don't think people really think about the fact that the ultramodern world that we live in hasn't been around for a really long time, but it's been around long enough to make all the major changes already. And so it's like wireless shifting to me feels like the kind of thing where it's like, this feels like a development that we need to make because we feel like we need to make a development not because people were asking for it. We're calling it modern bike components.
Colin (28:18):
Overrated.
Justin (28:19):
We've got enough. The bikes are great and they should be cheaper. It doesn't need to be a car. I agree.
Colin (28:29):
Okay guys. Okay. If you really like it and you're mad at us right now, it's fine too. Send us an email, yell at us.
Justin (28:34):
Would you rather spend seven grand on a bike because it has a bunch of new technology that's expensive but still plastic and pretty fucking fragile or that much money because you're buying a handmade steel bike where all the lugs are made by an artist. You know what I mean? It's going to last you forever and it won't need to be upgraded or charged or anything like that. I'm going to lean that way all day long. Yeah, so overrated. Holy shit. Overrated.
Colin (29:03):
Well, there you go. Let's have some final sips and toast to our ratings. We had binoculars, underrated, portable toilets, underrated modern bike components. Overrated. We should do this again. This was good.
Justin (29:15):
We should only do this.
Colin (29:16):
Yeah, it's just every week, just three of these.
Justin (29:18):
It's actually a bad idea. It's great because it's like you either get to just celebrate shit you love or just shit on things you hate and those are my two favorite things to do in the world.
Colin (29:27):
That's right.
Justin (29:27):
We'll have my two daughters on.
Colin (29:29):
Oh yeah, which one's overrated? Their whole lives are black and white. It's just good, bad. There's nothing else
Justin (29:34):
To the final sip buddy. Cheers. Cheers. Oh man, I'm so stoked for you. It's your birthday. Fifty one hundred fifty, one hundred. You look amazing for 58 years old. You look really good.
Colin (29:45):
Well, we can wrap it up there. Any final gear, impressions, anything you want to tell people before we head out?
Justin (29:51):
Get some binoculars for God's sake
Colin (29:53):
And use them while you're sitting on your portable toilet.
Justin (29:57):
One thing I don't think we ever really bring up is like hit us up if you have questions about gear. I mean I've used everything for the most part. If you're trying to decide between this or that, hit us up. Send us an email.
Colin (30:09):
We'd happy. We should do what's like a mailbag or
Justin (30:11):
Something.
Colin (30:12):
Well definitely mailbag. What was the Dear Abby? We could do the gear. That's a
Justin (30:16):
Great idea. Yeah, I'm thinking about, well, we can do that with Shante. That would be great for the backpacking thing, but I am thinking about doing this. What do I need to bring?
Colin (30:25):
Yeah, I love that idea.
Justin (30:27):
Yeah.
Colin (30:27):
Alright, so send all your suggestions, your questions, your future mailbag, questions to my rock fight@gmail.com. Gear in Beer is a production of Rock Fight LLC for our guide Justin Hausman. I'm Colin. True and always he's here to take us out. It's the voice of the Rock Fight podcast Network Krista makes and he's going to perform the gear and beer theme song. We'll see you next time. 48
Chris DeMakes (30:51):
Minutes. We have experience lots of tails to tell. Just like you're with your pals out on the trail. We review outdoor adventure gear, pair it with the perfect beer. Now let the games begin. So glad that you're here at the break. The put the trailhead, we're going to crack open the by the beverage where we can celebrate our wins. Those losses we hold. So close line here is you'll get the That matter.
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