The Pinkbike Podcast: Episode 200 - Troy Brosnan on Bike Development, Teammates & the Problem with Consistency

 Free Levy

 Not Henry or Kaz but I used to contribute to PB for travel-writing related materials and still contribute to other publications. I don't get compensated for these but they are my personal biases fwiw from living in North Van and Whistler

If you come to BC don't spread yourself too thin. There's literally 200+ trails between Vancouver, Squamish, Whistler in EACH region. You can spend 10 days in each locale and not go wrong
Prices drop off and tourism numbers drop off between peak months of June, July, Aug to September. IMO September is the best month for BC. Less heat, usually some moisture (unlike the UK locales BC often gets prolonged dry spells in July/August). Far less chances of smoke disrupting travel.

If you're into bike parts towards the early part of September the Whistler bike park is less busy, you'll still get full lift service and get lift-served alpine riding. Next year the Fitz chair will also be running so cross fingers the lift capacity will be accretive.

In both Squamish and North Van and Whistler there are guiding and shuttle services. It's never a terrible idea to group-pool for a familiarization first day tour or so in each locale to get the hang of the place. Having said that if you just find local groups (PB, social etc) you'll find people to ride with.

I don't particularly want to spam so if you want recommendations for resources then reply. If you don't and won't mind doing the legwork yourself then you can search here in the forums or on social and the resources are named. All of this is well within your budget for $ 3k GBP each.

I know this should all be within an article but that takes time and effort and none of us contributors (present or otherwise) have put our minds to it

"As an alternative considering it would probably cost us £3k ish is there anywhere else you would recommend for a great 10 day riding holiday that could top BC for roughly the same budget?"

Spain via BasqueMTB. It's got the best alpine and subalpine singletrack bar none we've experienced. Second but close choice is Suedtirol via any number of the various regional Bike Hotels

 @leelau: thanks so much for this reply. Really great info. We have ridden all over Europe with the exception of basque (and plenty of other companies still) so basque was definitely high on our list already.
No need for further info as we can work it out but many thanks.

 @allmountainrider81: Doug of BasqueMTB is on here so you can ping him via @DougBasqueMTB or via their site and you'll get lots of info and choices. Highly recommend High Pyrenees trip. Top notch trails, food, culture etc

 I mean, I'll take the feedback for sure. At the same time, Levy is a unique and wonderfully eccentric person - I think trying to replicate his style will be a slippery slope. I just try and ask genuine questions that I'm interested in and hope for the best.

 @henryquinney: yea I definitely don’t want to give the impression that I’m unimpressed with the current style, but there are times when I miss the crazy off topic conversations

 @henryquinney: and you definitely did a great job on this one.

Thanks a million for bringing up the wheels, stiffness and idler gear question. Was always curious on that.

 expensive steel bikes are usually better tubing, which usually means a better strength to weight ratio on a frame. Doesn't always mean it will be designed to outpace alu bikes. Plus generally it comes down to supporting a small manufacturer and paying more for something with lesser efficiency of scale.

 I don't have much information that I can give you, as quite simply I can't just go sprouting or speculating about somebody's private life (whether it's good, bad or whatever). He shares as much as he likes and if that means sharing nothing then that's just something you will have to accept. It's not as I'd like it, and I just want everyone to be happy and enjoying themselves - and I mean that both in terms of PB staff and PB readers - but it's not up to me to try and connect the two groups. I hope you can understand.

 @henryquinney: Totally understand, thanks for the reply Henry.

 This is publicly available information. Per the Grim Donut 2.0 video, he has been demoted to Mike Kazimer's unpaid intern.

 I understand Henry's frustration in always having to answer this question... but between the absolute radio silence and these cryptic comment answers people are going to keep asking until Pinkbike officially puts something out on his absence. Its honestly kinda weird they haven't. Even an article/statement as simple as "He's taking time away and may or may not come back" would quell people's curiosity.

 @kookseverywhere: Where's Sarah Moore? Where's Daniel Sapp? Where are any number people whose names were frequently in bylines but we haven't seen in a while? Did they get an article? This has been litigated in so many articles so many times. It hasn't been radio silence at all.

As someone who comes to the comments for hopefully thoughtfull discussion about the articles' contents, it's getting quite tedious.

 @pmhobson: Sarah made it public that she was taking leave for a year to take on her new role as Mum and while Daniel is someone I personally miss, he's also made it public that he's moved on from Pinkbike.
Levy has a huge fanbase, whether he likes it or not haha and people do miss him and genuinely care - so I think in this case it wouldn't hurt to hear something official but then again, I'm not saying it's actually owed or necessary either.

 @Jonosaan: Levy replied a number of podcasts ago. He reaffirmed he was taking time away. That's all we know. Honestly, that's all we need to know. Privacy is the last best thing in this world and it's dwindling. I hope he's living his best life and that we'll see him again.

 If Jackson is 60 cm tall, he looks WAY taller on video. He looks more like 160 cm to me.