Geek Warning

Welcome to a new year of Geek Warning, the cycling tech-focused podcast from Escape Collective.

This week, Ronan and Dave get back into the swing of things by covering some fresh products from Cane Creek, SRAM, BBB, and more.

It seems Ronan and Dave both had PSAs on their minds, so we have two this week. One is about watching wear on what are common wear items. The other is about how to perform a basic safety check on any bike.

Unfortunately, we hit audio issues with the member-only Ask a Wrench that only showed up during editing. For some reason, the recording device decided to give Dave a lisp and mute him off-and-on. Sorry.

Time stamps:

4:00 - Cane Creek answered Dave’s wish
15:30 - BBB’s CoreCap
19:20 - SRAM goes shorter in cranks
22:30 - Tailfin’s bottle cage mount where you want it
24:30 - Garbaruk breaks SRAM’s rules
28:00 - RIP Joe Montgomery
29:00 - Mechanic crystal balling is on Dave’s Mind
38:30 - A basic safety check procedure
43:00 - Ask a Wrench with Brad Copeland (Members Only, with some audio issues, sorry!)
43:30 - SRAM eTap rim brake shifters
50:30 - Draining a bike and warding off corrosion
1:04:30 - Can 3D printing save me from a new Wahoo speed sensor?
1:08:00 - How to make toe spikes last longer

Welcome back to Geek Warning. We’re feeling well-rested from a couple of weeks off, despite the world of bicycle tech not waiting.

To kick off the New Year we’re bringing you a special episode, one with someone who should be a familiar face. Calvin Jones has been the public face of Park Tool’s education resources and programs for 29 years, and this week he announced his upcoming retirement from the role.

Dave Rome sat down with Calvin to talk through a variety of topics, including a number of throwback moments, a chat about the current state of professional bicycle education, how some modern tech changes may be driven by a lack of that education, some life tips for all, and so much more.

This is a wholesale listen to kick off the new year, and so we’ve left it open to all. Hope you enjoy it.

The red carpet is out and dozens of interesting cycling products are strutting their way down it.

In this final episode of Geek Warning for 2025, the full cast of geeks assembles for the GWAs. What’s the GWAs you ask? What’s the GWAs?! It’s only the most prestigious and hard fought nonsense in all of cycling tech!

As always with Geek Warning, there are interesting and informative tangents around every corner. If you’re keen on those time stamps in order to jump through the sections, then you’re truly missing the point of this podcast.

Much of this episode is free to all, but only members of Escape Collective are invited to the afterparty. And as is often the case, it’s the afterparty where things get said and friendships are broken. If you haven't already, it's never too late to join.

We had fun putting this one together and we hope you have fun listening to it.

Time stamps:

2:30 - The about time reward
4:30 - Best new drivetrain
10:00 - The coolest bike of the year
18:30 - Our favourite products (one each)
32:00 - Our most read tech articles
38:00 - The biggest industry story and the word of the year
41:30 - We didn’t see that coming
46:00 - Most overrated new trend
56:00 - The Members Only after party
57:00 - The buyer’s remorse badge
1:08:00 - The ‘Wait, What?!’ Award
1:11:30 - Media Beef of the year
1:24:00 - The reoccurring news award
1:27:00 - The messiest situation (shituation?)
1:32:30 - The Grumpies
1:34:00 - Most anticipated new thing

Geek Warning time! Factor’s new One aero road bike, SRM’s non-power pedals, and whether riding bikes ever feels like work are all things Dave and Ronan discuss this week.
There’s a bit of happy news for Spotify users, with our member-only channels now available on the green app. If you’ve been missing out on the Ask a Wrench segment (this week with Brad Copeland) because you’re loyal to Spotify, then now is the time to jump in.
Time stamps:
3:00 - Factor’s new One
14:00 - New non-power pedals from SRM
23:00 - Cube’s recall
25:30 - Do we ever get sick of bikes?
37:30 - PSA for the bearings on your bike
40:15 - Ask a Wrench (Members Only)
41:00 - When to replace a punctured tubeless tyre
49:00 - How much of a difference do a few millimetres make?
57:00 - Pressures for winter tyres

In this episode, we finally dig into the tyre-testing project that quietly consumed most of my year.
Nine months, six tyre widths, hundreds of test runs, three road surfaces, four identical wheelsets, and far too many cold late-night tests than any sane person should attempt. But it was worth it.
Today, Ronan is joined by John Buckley the founder of Streamlines Aero, the company behind the hardware and technical support so crucial to this testing. Together, we break down how the test protocol worked, why it’s different, and why those differences matter. We also unpack the major findings: why pressure mattered more than width in this dataset, why some long-held assumptions didn’t hold up in the real world, and how tyre temperature turned out to be one of the biggest and least appreciated variables affecting performance.
This is just the beginning. Later in the episode we explain where our tyre testing goes from here and what to expect in the new year.