Women’s Weekend: A Welcoming Space for Marginalized Communities to Explore Mountain Biking. W/ Angi Weston of Radical Roots MTB

Angi Weston Owner and Head Coach at Radical Roots MTB is my guest.

Radical Roots MTB trains people to ride mountain bikes safely and to have fun!

Based in Bellingham Washington Radical Roots MTB provides events like Transition Women’s Weekend, training for mountain bike coaches, and has a youth girls MTB racing team as well as another racing team for women.

If you have ever thought you wanted to ride a mountain bike Angi will inspire you to get out there and ride!

Angi Weston Radical Roots MTB Episode Transcript

Angi Weston [00:00:00]:

And I worked at Fair Haven.

Scott Cowan [00:00:01]:

Can I just make fun of you? Yes, please do, because your parents must have been so proud. College degree, working in a bike shop.

Welcome to the Exploring Washington State podcast. Here’s your host, Scott Cowan. Welcome back to this episode of the Exploring Washington State Podcast. My guest today is Angie Weston. Angie is the founder of Radical Roots MTB, a mountain bike instruction company out of the Bellingham area. ANGI, you told me earlier that you started the company in 2018. Why don’t you tell our audience the backstory here? How did you start a mountain bike training company?

Angi Weston [00:00:59]:

Yeah, so I could start the story with how I discovered mountain biking. If you want a little longer version of it, they are pretty intertwined stories.

Scott Cowan [00:01:10]:

Okay.

Angi Weston [00:01:13]:

I was a sophomore at Western Washington University here in Bellingham and I needed two more credits to get my financial aid check that quarter. And I didn’t really want to take an extra class with homework and workload, so I scurried the first day class and found a two credit PE class titled Beginning Bicycling. And the only requirements were that you had a bike and a helmet, which I did have. When I left for college, my dad got me this rigid schwinn cruiser bike like, lady stepped through frame rigid, meaning it has no suspension, not technically a mountain bike. It was very much just a bike to go get groceries on and whatnot. So I was like, sweet, a two credit PE class, sign me up, take my bike and helmet for a state of class. And the instructor is like, this is actually going to be beginning mountain biking because I’m a mountain biker and I literally was just like, what’s? Mountain biking? I had never heard of this sport. And I’m here, I’m like 1920 years old, just like mountain biking. Okay. And so, yeah, the instructor took us through that quarter on trails around Bellingham. We went out like the inner urban to Arroyo Park, down to Larabee State Park, Cornwall Park, and the class culminated with a ride on Galbris Mountain, which is our local riding zone, closest to town and huge network of trails. And, yeah, I remember coming back from one of those early mountain bike classes covered in mud and sweat, maybe even a little blood, and telling my roommates like, y’all, I just rode my bike off road, like over roots and in the dirt. It was amazing. And they thought I was crazy. But, yeah, I really enjoyed just discovering more outdoor space in Bellingham. Right. I’d already lived here for a year or two and this was back in 2001. So, yeah, I was pretty interested after that class. And then that was in the fall. There was no class offered in the winter and then my birthday is in the spring. And I remember asking all my friends and family like, hey, if you’re going to get me a birthday present. Will you all just chip in so I can get a mountain bike? And so saved up all the money I could and bought this, like, $500 hardtail mountain bike, and it had front suspension and knobby tires, and I was like, I’m going to take this class again now I have a mountain bike, and took the class, signed up for the class again in the spring. It was the same instructor, John Hansen, he’s still a good friend of mine till this day. And he was just like, oh, Angie, why don’t you show the class how to ride these switchback corners or show him how to get over this log? And he just used me as someone to demo because he knew I kind of knew from the first class I’d taken from him. And one thing leads to another, and John is getting ready to graduate. And he recommended me and another friend to take on the beginning mountain biking class for the PE. Department at Western. So I literally learned how to mountain bike in 2001. And then I think in 2002, I started teaching beginning bicycling at Western Washington University as a PE class. Basically, I was like, you all are going to pay me to take people out on these awesome trails, like, sign me up. I had no idea what I was doing, but fake it so you make it right.

Scott Cowan [00:04:44]:

All right, so I have questions. Now, first off, I have a vision of this bike that you’re describing as having, like, one of those woven plastic baskets in the front and a bell on it. I don’t know. Sorry, that’s probably not accurate at all. But that’s the vision I have as somebody’s ringing the bell as they’re going down a switchback. Number two, you said to you all a couple of times, where were you raised?

Angi Weston [00:05:13]:

I’m actually born and raised here in Washington.

Scott Cowan [00:05:16]:

Really? Okay, you threw me with the you all so maybe like, Vancouver or Walla Wallace, southern Washington.

Angi Weston [00:05:25]:

Where did you get my family did have a short stint in Texas. My parents lived in Texas for a little while. They both were also born and raised in Washington, but spent some time in Texas. I was maybe from like, the ages two to five. I lived in Texas. Well, those were your important verbal verbal formative years. But, yeah, honestly, you all came from we used to joke a lot in my family, like, pretending we were like, had picked up all this slang from Texas, and we would say, y’all is like a joke. But as the years have worn on, I found I was calling everybody guys, right? It’s such a habit in our language to refer to groups of people as guys. And as we’ll get into my career, I coach a lot of female mountain bikers, a lot of junior girls, and I felt awkward a lot of times I would be standing in front of them like, okay, guys. And I’m like, I’m literally addressing, like, 14 year old girls. Why am I calling them guys? And then you all just kind of became the preferred term to refer to groups of people. And yeah, people make fun of me all the time. Like, you’re from the south. I’m like, no federal way.

Scott Cowan [00:06:40]:

Well, south of Bellingham. All right.

Angi Weston [00:06:42]:

We’re south of the border to Canadians, right?

Scott Cowan [00:06:44]:

Well, that’s right. Exactly. So I get a kick out of that. You take your class in fall using a cruiser bike, and then spring, you retake the class. Well, first off, what I didn’t give you a hard time is you took the class so you could get your financial aid check. So you take the class to get the financial aid requirements, and then it’s turned into this thing, and you never know when opportunities are going to present themselves in life. But let me see if I got this right. You take the class in fall using a cruiser. You survived. There was a little blood, which we’ll probably come talk about in a little bit later in the episode, you come back to your roommates and you say, hey, guys, that was before you said you all, I’m taking this thing off road. Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Okay, so spring quarter comes, you have a birthday. You do the whole crowdsourcing, if you will. You buy a bike. The instructor uses you as the lab rat, if you will. And then the next fall, you’re teaching a class. You’re literally one paragraph ahead of your students in knowledge, which is awesome. It’s awesome. All right. Did you enjoy and I think I know the answer to this, but did you enjoy teaching the class from the very beginning?

Angi Weston [00:08:06]:

Absolutely. Yeah. I was hooked.

Scott Cowan [00:08:12]:

And what were you majoring in in college? Because it wasn’t mountain bike training or did Western offer that program? I don’t know.

Angi Weston [00:08:19]:

They probably do now. No. At the time I took on teaching this class, I was undecided. I knew I loved turtles. I’m a big biology nerd, so I figured I would go into biology. But right around that time, I was teaching them out by class. I was getting really sick of looking into microscopes because it’s a lot of chem and bio requirements to get to where I wanted to be working with, like, sea turtles and such. So I switched gears a couple of years in and ended up graduating with my Bachelor of Science degree in community health. So health education, health promotion.

Scott Cowan [00:08:59]:

Well, that kind of loosely ties into what you’re doing because it’s an exercise activity. All right.

Angi Weston [00:09:03]:

Yeah. And I was like, honestly, going through the biology degree, I was like, I need people. I need interaction with humans. So I feel like this was the most sciency way to actually still interact with people without going straight on to be a doctor nurse or something.

Scott Cowan [00:09:17]:

Okay.

Angi Weston [00:09:18]:

Yeah.

Scott Cowan [00:09:19]:

So you’re teaching for western. So how long did you teach? We’ll call it PE 101.

Angi Weston [00:09:28]:

Basically. Yeah, I taught it until I graduated in 2005. So any spring and fall quarter that I could make it work in my schedule, I taught it. And, yeah, honestly, you said I was like, a paragraph ahead of my students, and that’s not even the case. A lot of people would take beginning bicycling to get their two credits or whatever, and there were fully accomplished mountain bikers. Okay, yeah, sometimes my students definitely knew more than me, but they were willing to go on rides with me because they were getting credit for it. And I was stoked because I was getting paid for it. But, yeah, I basically just regurgitated how I had learned. At that point, I was just reusing John’s lesson plan, roughly. And then I was partnered with this guy Bobby, who actually knew bike mechanics and such. So we’d have one day’s class. Like, if the weather was really bad, we would choose that to be the day we worked on how to change a flat and break a chain. And Bobby would kind of lead that stuff more. So, yeah, we tag team did. I wasn’t flying out there solo, but I did enjoy it. I did have speaking of bound bike injuries, I did take my students out one day in a windstorm, and luckily we were stopped sessioning. This little section sessioning just means, like, you’re practicing a section of trail or a feature or something. Everyone’s off their bikes. We were doing this really hard climb, and the wind started to really whip, and we heard branches breaking overhead. And so the group was kind of, like, in front of me, blocking the trail, and I was like, let’s get out of the woods, you guys. Go, go. And just then, this huge branch breaks and lands on one of my students. Luckily, she was off her bike and wearing her helmet. So it landed on her helmet. It knocked her to the ground. She got startled from it, but was totally okay. But I was like, that was pretty traumatizing to have a branch fall on a student. And I just remember we called class, then we pedaled back to campus, and I had to do, like, an incident report with my boss at the PE department, and I just broke down in tears. And I think that’s when I really realized so this is probably my fifth or 6th class with these students under my watch. And that’s when I realized, like, wow, people’s safety is in my hands. This is a pretty major thing. I’ve kind of just been like, oh, I’m teaching bound biking, whatever. And after that point, from that point forward, I think I took it a lot more serious because I realized the injury that could be involved in such a sport.

Scott Cowan [00:11:59]:

Okay, so you graduate from Western, and it says here on your bio, it’s like you’ve been coaching mountain biking skills since 2002, which we now know as Western. And that was beginning bicycling and is level three certified through the Bicycle Instructor Certification Program. What does that now in English for those of us that don’t understand that? What does that actually mean?

Angi Weston [00:12:23]:

Yeah, so there’s organizations that certify instructors. So BICP or the Bicycle Instructor Certification Program is this entity, this organization that sets out to give certifications, basically just helping to uphold the level of instruction that’s happening. So a pro mountain biker, let’s say somebody who has been a professional athlete, they’re racing at a World Cup or national level, they’ve got sponsorships. A lot of folks would be like, oh, great, you’re so good at this. Why don’t you teach me how to do it? But the reality is, they might not actually be very good at teaching mountain biking. They might be really good at doing it themselves. But being good at mountain biking and being good at coaching mountain biking are interrelated, but they are two different things. So the instruction to get certified is really focused on how do you parlay these complex techniques and strategies to someone learning, or how do you help somebody who’s already been a mountain biker further improve their riding? So it’s air detection correction. It’s breaking down progressions, explaining things. So there’s whole curriculums written similar to, like, ski and snowboard, right? If you were a brand new skier snowboarder, you would go up to the mountain. If you were feeling adventurous, you would probably sign up for a lesson first and kind of figure out how to navigate the hill, operate the equipment, et cetera. And so ski and snowboard instruction has been around a long time, hundreds of years. And side note, while I was in college, I also did snowboard instruction up at Mount Baker. I taught snowboarding up at Baker. So I was like, oh, I kind of like teaching these sports I love. Yeah, I got into instruction, actually formally through snowboard instruction, and then at the same time started this mountain bike class started teaching this mountain bike class at Western. And when I graduated from Western, I started working in a bike shop, and I worked at Fair Haven.

Scott Cowan [00:14:25]:

Can I just make fun of you? Yeah, please do, because your parents must have been so proud. College degree, working in a bike shop. Sorry, I just couldn’t let that one go.

Angi Weston [00:14:33]:

No, I’m glad you pointed that out. Yeah. You know, it’s funny. I graduated when I graduated from college, I applied to jobs all over the country. I was like, sure, I could live in Kansas or wherever. I wanted to be a college health educator. So my internship and stuff through college was with the Prevention and Wellness Department. So I was queued up to be this work on a university campus, help students navigate making healthy choices in their early adulthood years, which seemed like very formative years for me and my health decision. So I was on that track, and turns out they don’t really hire people with zero experience to do these big fancy university jobs. So I got a job at the bike shop to just pay my rent while I was looking for other jobs. And I had never worked retail before. I’d never worked wholesale. Like, industry side of things, it was a bike shop and a ski and snowboard shop. So I got this job to pay my rent and ended up totally falling in love with the industry. I was like, oh, these are my people. I’m learning so much about the gear I love to use and these sports I love. Yeah, well, it wasn’t necessarily the job I was heading to. I think my parents saw how much I loved it, so they were proud.

Scott Cowan [00:15:50]:

Oh, yeah, I’m totally kidding. I went to Central, and I dropped out before graduating because I got offered a really good job, and I lasted exactly 89 days because of the 90 day probationary period. And then, so I found myself out of college and in Seattle and unemployed, and I asked my dad for help company that he worked for, he was in sales, and I said, well, they need people in the warehouse. Can’t I just work in the warehouse this summer, make some money, and I’ll find a job while I’m working in the warehouse? No, you don’t want to do that. No, dad, I need I’ll pay your rent for a couple of months. So here you are, a college dropout with 89 days of job experience. That’s even tougher than a college degree and going into the health field.

Angi Weston [00:16:38]:

Totally.

Scott Cowan [00:16:39]:

Long story short, my dad made an introduction, and then seven years later, I ended up leaving that warehouse job. So I spent seven years doing this job that was not the journey might think my parents were planning on my college my college experience to do. So I tease, but it’s only because it reminds me of my life. So you graduate, you said, in five, right?

Angi Weston [00:17:06]:

Yes.

Scott Cowan [00:17:07]:

Okay. And you opened radical roots MTV in 18. You said you were working in a bike store and then ski and snowboard store. Did you do that for the whole 13 years here? Okay, so what else did you do?

Angi Weston [00:17:23]:

Yeah, that job at the bike shop led me to, well, one discover, like, I was pretty into that industry and that line of work, but then also it got me to meet more mountain bikers in my community, including a crew that worked there’s, a couple of bike companies here in town. And so I ended up at a job opening at Kona Bikes, and so I ended up applying to be a receptionist at Kona Bikes. And I actually took a pay cut from the bike shop to go be a receptionist at Kona Bikes as a wholesaler. And within a year of that job, actually, within three months of that job, I was inside sales support, and then within a year, I had my own sales territory and became a sales rep for Kona Bikes. And that job lasted a little over a decade.

Scott Cowan [00:18:09]:

Okay. And that bike company is in Bellingham?

Angi Weston [00:18:12]:

Yes.

Scott Cowan [00:18:13]:

Because with a name like Kona, I would think Hawaii.

Angi Weston [00:18:16]:

They did name themselves after the Hawaiian Islands, but they have no real relation to it. I think just yeah, four letter word is a great brand name.

Scott Cowan [00:18:27]:

Right, right. Okay. What led you to go away from sales into this training institution?

Angi Weston [00:18:38]:

Yeah, so through doing my job in sales, I actually had sales. My sales territory changed over the years, but initially it started with a lot of states in the Midwest. So I was on the phone one day with a shop in the middle of Indiana, and the service manager there was like, hey, you should talk to my wife. She puts on the Midwest Women’s Mountain Bike Clinic, which is the country’s largest clinic for females to attend to learn how to mountain bike. And I was like, that sounds awesome. So I called up Tanya Julia Red, and I was like, hey, Tanya, I’m the Kona Rep, and I’d love to come to your event. She’s like, great. Do you know how to teach mountain biking? I could use more instructors. And I was like, totally. I taught at Western Washington University. Right. I was a bona fide mountain bike instructor in my mind. So traveled out this was probably 2007 or eight ish. Yeah, somewhere in there. I traveled out probably 2008, I traveled out to Brown County, Indiana, which actually has some great mountain biking outside of Bloomington, Indiana. And luckily, Tanya partnered me with an actual certified mountain bike instructor for that weekend event, and I got to see their method, and I was like, OOH, that’s cool. They’re really effective. They know their stuff. I was like, there is more method to this madness than I was giving it credit for. And it’s so funny to think back now. I was, like, working on my snowboard certs to not realize that you could also do that in mountain biking. I really needed to see it to make that connection. And after seeing this certified coach just crush it over the weekend, I was like, okay, yeah, this is what I want. I want to pursue my cert.

Scott Cowan [00:20:15]:

Okay.

Angi Weston [00:20:16]:

Back then, BICP was the international mountain bike. It was like, I can’t even remember the acronym now, but it was an international mountain bike certification program. It’s gone through a few iterations since this time, but, yeah, it’s all the same. The curriculum has been updated, but it’s all pretty much the same base of work and each dose of teaching. So, yeah, I started seeking getting certifications just because I thought it was cool, and I was like, I don’t know. I feel like I love teaching and I love mountain biking, and I love my job as a sales rep, but I’m just going to kind of do this for fun and get better at it. So in 2010 is when I got my level three Cert. And yeah, it’s just kind of what I did as a side gig or like Moonlighting. I used to always say my job as a sales rep paid my rent, but my job as a coach paid my heart and soul. Like, it really gave my nine to five grind at the desk kind of a little bit more meaning because now I could oh, I was the rep for West Virginia, and West Virginia has this incredible mountain bike park, snowshoe bike park. And my first trip to Snowshoe, I found one, two women to ride with in my first weekend of Snowshoe, and I was like, how would you all feel about doing a women’s weekend here? And they were like, let’s do it. So, yeah, in 2009, I started the Snowshoe Women’s Downhill Clinic and ran that event for twelve years before I passed it on to some East Coast coaches that now run it. But I would basically just turn my sales trips into or I would plan my sales trips for Kona around events I wanted to put on or coach at in the country. So yeah, through the Midwest and mid Atlantic, I ended up kind of piggybacking my sales trips with fun coaching events. Or I’d have a really great bike shop, a great account of mine, and I’d be like, hey, is there anything I can do extra for you all? Do you want to hold a women’s weekend event? So I would just go to a bike shop, they would help me organize and I would just train women at the shop, women in the area, on mountain bike skills. And it was cool because my clients loved it. The bike shops that I worked with would really appreciate that. I kind of had this little extra something to give their clients and their community. So I kind of just started to turn into this thing I did as a side hustle, which essentially meant my three weeks of paid vacation from Kona. I never actually went on vacation, I just would work events in that time off. So I was kind of burning the candle at both ends for a few years in there. And there just got to a point where my energy arc for coaching was still on a climb on an ascent, and my energy arc for being a sales rep and doing that whole rigma role was on a decline. And I got to this point in 2017 where I was working so hard and all these extra hours and I was really good at being a sales rep. Anyone I would meet and I would be like, oh, I’m a sales rep for Coda. They’re like, that’s my dream job. I was like, gosh, I have this job that people dream of and I’m, like, getting really burnt out on it. In August of 2017, I basically proposed to the owners of the company, like, hey, here’s this idea I have on how I can evolve my job here and transition out of sales and maybe more into marketing. Maybe we can put on these women’s clinics, or I can build up these female ambassadors so we can really start to grow the sports. Like, being a female mountain biker in the early 2000s was not a very common thing. I would definitely end up at Trailheads or up at Whistler Bike Park or like Snowshoe Bike Park and be one of very few females that I would see on the trails or in the lift lines. So I just started to grow this real passion in making the sport more accessible, especially to women or anyone experiencing a barrier to get into it, into the sport. So I had this big proposal I gave the owners, and I was like, there’s no way they can say no to this. And then they were like, oh, we just really want you out your desk selling bikes. And I get that right, that’s the job I was hired for. And I just couldn’t take that answer any longer. I just knew I was just kind of showing up to do my job and not really feeling motivated. Like I needed to be to be happy with what I was spending my time and my life doing. So, yeah, that didn’t work out. The evolution of my job didn’t work out. So I was like, well, if you don’t want me to do it for you all, I guess I’m going to find someone else to do it for. So I put in my two weeks and quit my job in August of 2017 and actually had a bunch of coaching gigs lined up through the fall. So I just coached and sort of recovered from being such an overworker for so many years and hit the reset button pretty hard that fall and winter and got busy building my website and my business plan and getting advice and getting insurance and LLC and all the things lined up. And then in February of 2018 is when I actually launched my new business. Oh, yeah, I forgot to mention that pretty much immediately after I quit my job at Kona, another bike company here in town, Transition Bikes, they approached me to ride for them. They were like, we love what you’re doing. Can we bring you onto the team? And I was like, let me try one of your bikes first and make sure I like them. So hopped on a demo bike, fell in love with it. I was like, oh yeah, these bikes are awesome, and this company is great. And it’s so funny. I think back to that meeting I had with Lars, the team manager at Transition, and I had been so used to selling my ideas around coaching and events and how I can offer brands this value. And so I sat down with Lars, and I had this whole slideshow of, like, here’s all the things I could bring to Transition. And he just sat there and listened to my proposal. He was like, this is awesome, Angie, but I think we just want to sponsor you for what you’re already doing and who you already are. You can do all this stuff if you want, but no pressure. Let’s just bring you on the team. What do you need? Okay.

Scott Cowan [00:26:25]:

Wow. Okay.

Angi Weston [00:26:25]:

Yeah. Cool.

Scott Cowan [00:26:29]:

This is going to be the fun part of the conversation. So from quitting your job to opening Radical Roots MTV, you navigated opening a business. Yeah, and I can summarize it like this. It went flawlessly. Everything was super easy, and all the paperwork that you had to fill out was so simple that you couldn’t imagine why nobody else opens businesses. Right. Is that pretty much the story? So we skipped through all the reality of the show, and you open up in February of 2018. How did you go about introducing the world to your idea?

Angi Weston [00:27:13]:

Instagram.

Scott Cowan [00:27:16]:

Okay. And was it received quickly, and was it received well?

Angi Weston [00:27:23]:

Yeah, 100%.

Scott Cowan [00:27:25]:

Okay.

Angi Weston [00:27:25]:

Yeah. I launched, and fortunately, I’m in a community that really embraced me and the work I do. And so I had already been coaching for so many years and had honestly already coached quite a few mountain bikers in Bellingham. So when I launched my new business, so many community members advocated for me and shared and spread the word. And Transition launched this big video project called Transition Characters Piece, and they highlighted me and the work I do and promoted my business. That certainly helped. They have transition has a much louder microphone than I do or megaphone than I do. So, yeah, it was a combination of Transition and my other sponsors promoting me, community members promoting and advocating and recommending me. And then yeah, just my own social media posts to launch it.

Scott Cowan [00:28:27]:

Let’s talk about training specifically, because this is what I’m envisioning. You basically tell your students to pedal faster, faster, faster. Hit the brakes.

Angi Weston [00:28:39]:

No brakes.

Scott Cowan [00:28:40]:

Pick yourself up off.

Angi Weston [00:28:41]:

Yeah, no brakes.

Scott Cowan [00:28:42]:

No breaks. No brakes.

Angi Weston [00:28:42]:

Pull up. Yeah. That’s just all I tell them.

Scott Cowan [00:28:46]:

Now. I’m a level three.

Angi Weston [00:28:47]:

You know how to mobile.

Scott Cowan [00:28:49]:

Okay.

Angi Weston [00:28:50]:

Do you want to join the team?

Scott Cowan [00:28:53]:

Yeah. I don’t think you want me anywhere near your students, because that tree branch story, that would be the least of our words. So you launched using social media, your existing network, and you had the bike brand throw their marketing weight behind you a little bit. What the first year look like? How many students did you train? Now, give me kind of an overview of what Radical Roots looked like then to kind of what it looks like today. Has it changed much?

Angi Weston [00:29:29]:

It has, yeah. There’s definitely been evolution. So when I launched. It was all like, get customized private lessons with Angie Weston. And it was like, I really was big on these customizable private lessons because most of what you see offered in mountain bike lessons are group lessons or events. So you can sign up for Beginner Mountain Biking 101, or Foundations of Wheel Lifts or Intro to Cornering or something that you kind of sign up for these group classes in the Seattle area, Vancouver area, obviously, Whistler Bike Park, you can be taking classes up there to learn the ropes. And so a lot of instructors at the time in the area were offering group offerings, and I was like, man, people want this one on one interaction, something specific that they want to focus on. So I didn’t go with Angie Weston coaching because I knew the potential for growth existed. So even though I was my brand at the time, I was Radical Roots Bound by Constructors only instructor. I was like, let’s just so, yeah, if you saw my old website, it was definitely more about like, private lessons with me. It was my bio on there, it’s my accolades and stuff, right? And now if you go to my website, you see I have a whole team of coaches, I have a whole slew of programs and events, and I do group lessons, I do programs for juniors. I still do private lessons. I have coaches that work for me that teach private lessons also. So, yeah, it’s definitely grown in what we offer and in who is executing these things. Yeah. Did that answer your question?

Scott Cowan [00:31:12]:

Yeah, it did. In what way, if any, did the Pandemic impact what you were doing?

Angi Weston [00:31:19]:

Yeah, it turns out a global pandemic is actually great for mountain bike industry, I think for all outdoor sports. Got a boost in the pandemic. So initially it took a big plummet. I had events that had already sold out for the season that had to be refunded. And so, yeah, my bank account had this big, huge plunge to it because of that, and I didn’t take on any private lessons or new clients, probably from like March until June ish when it became safe to do things distanced and masked and whatnot, and outdoor things were promoted as being a little safer. So, yeah, I got busy on doing offering lessons again and stuff with just a lot of precaution and procedure in place. And I run a junior program. I’m sure we’ll talk about that a little bit more, but the Radical Rippers is my program for junior girls ages ten to 18. And I had already had my spring season set up to start in April, and so in March I had to cancel that, but had a really great team of coaches who’d been helping me, who helped me execute the Radical Rippers, and together we just brainstormed this way to pivot. And we did these virtual classes, so we had weekly Zoom meetings with our riders, and we covered things about nutrition and we did a book club, and we talked about all kinds of repairs and taking care of your bike. And we just kind of still had this educational component that we could try to offer virtually since we couldn’t do anything in person. Okay, so, yeah, things pivoted and changed. It was a little awkward, very stressful for a little bit there. But then as the world started to open up again, yeah, there was huge influx of new writers coming to me for lessons. So for like the second half of 2020, well into 2021, radical Roots MTB handled more private lessons than ever before. That was definitely like a peak for one on one or small group coaching. And then late 2021 is when I offered my first event again. I do an event called Transition Women’s Weekend. We offered one of those in October. It sold out immediately. People were so hungry for a group event again. This year, I’m seeing it kind of like mellow out a little bit. Like it’s definitely tapering. People have a lot more events and things to pick from in general. So it’s not quite the frenzy that it was last year, but definitely still an uptick in riders. And the whole scare about don’t get injured and the hospitals are clogged, like, don’t send yourself to the hospital, I think really also helped increase interest in getting lessons. So, yeah, it was weird times, but also pretty all right for business once we figured out how to do it safely.

Scott Cowan [00:34:11]:

So you mentioned the transition women’s weekend. What does that entail? Yeah, it’s for women and it’s for the weekend. Okay, I got that.

Angi Weston [00:34:23]:

It’s a group training event. We meet up on Friday night for a little meet and greet at the Transition Outpost, which is Transitions Bike Shop in town. It’s right at the base of the trails, Galbrith Mountain and gets a nice little meet and greet to calm nerves and meet each other. Let the coaches mingle with the participants, and the participants can kind of ask questions, whatever they want. And it’s Women’s Weekend, but we’re really open to anyone that self identifies as a woman. But also if you’re non binary or gender nonconforming, we’re really welcoming space. It’s basically just not for CIS men. So we’re welcoming space, which I think when you look at a sport like mountain biking, it can be pretty intimidating. There’s risk of physical injury. There’s a lot of lingo and slang that might alienate people or not make them feel like they’re part of the club. Bike shops can kind of cause sometimes bike shops don’t necessarily nail it. They can kind of cause their own little layer of a barrier to entry into the Scott for minority or less. Just somebody that’s somebody you don’t see in the sport is often marginalized communities. They don’t always nail it. Some of them do. And then just the equipment navigating trails. Being out in the woods, there’s kind of a lot to it. So I just try to yeah, this weekend is all about just kind of bringing folks in to get them comfortable with the sport. Or if you’re already a mountain biker, a lot of times you just like working on your skills amongst other riders that kind of look like you. And so, yeah, we bring the women together. We do the meet and greet Friday night, and then we meet up Saturday morning and we go through what we call skills and drills. Or in our grass room. Right. We use really like, a grassy field, a really safe space, minimize some of the consequences of practicing some of these skills at Radical roots. MCB we have what we call progression props. So, like, fake routes and ramps and things like actually adding obstacles to the grass to start to learn timing and execution of pretty critical moves. Breaking wheels.

Scott Cowan [00:36:34]:

You said earlier no breaking. You said no breaking earlier.

Angi Weston [00:36:38]:

It is a joke. But the mountain biker that Maisie isn’t a coach often gives the advice to newer riders, just like, you need to use your brakes less or just, like, go faster, because in some situations, momentum is your friend. But obviously, if you don’t know what to do with that momentum, it can be very dangerous. So we definitely teach proper braking. We even teach classes on how to bail. I’ve got these gymnastics maps I pull out in the grass, and I’m teaching adults how to tuck and roll out of things because as an adult, you really, like, spend most of your life avoiding hitting the ground. So mountain biking is an inherently dangerous sport. So if I can teach you how to properly fall, I might be able to reduce your risk of injury. So, yeah, go ahead.

Scott Cowan [00:37:23]:

I want to interrupt you. We’re going to go back to that fall quarter in Bellingham on the Cruiser Book. Did you take a fall?

Angi Weston [00:37:32]:

Oh, yeah.

Scott Cowan [00:37:34]:

Okay, so how long into the class before you took your first fall?

Angi Weston [00:37:41]:

Oh, I don’t remember what ride that was. Probably pretty one of the earlier rides. I was crossing a wet wooden bridge, like a bridge over a stream, and I think I pedaled or braked hard on the bridge, and my tires just slid right out and I fell off the bridge.

Scott Cowan [00:37:58]:

Off the bridge?

Angi Weston [00:37:58]:

Into the into the yeah, but it really wasn’t that far off the ground or anything.

Scott Cowan [00:38:04]:

Okay, so early on, you were exposed to the accident. What’s the word? I’m struggling for kind of the reality that this sport is going to you’re going to end up on the ground at some point in this sport that your bike is going to not cooperate. It’s always the bike’s fault, and you’re going to end up on the ground in some capacity. Okay, so now we’re going to go back to you have gymnastic mats, and you’re teaching adults how to fall off their bikes. I want to make fun of that so bad, but I just do. But explain to me, because, are you having them, like, pedal towards the mats or how does one learn to fall off of a bicycle?

Angi Weston [00:38:57]:

Yeah, just like any skill, we teach it in layers. So we start with just if you’re intimidated to throw your body down to the ground, understandably? So we’ll start you on your knees. So you’re just kneeling, and you tuck and roll onto the mat. So we’re learning how to land on our shoulder. Basically, think of, like, your arms and shoulders making a big hula hoop, and you’re trying to disperse the impact through that hoop. So you’re not hitting your head, you’re not putting your hand out, causing a foosh, right? I coach a lot of nurses and doctors, er docs and stuff come to me for lessons because they’re smart, they don’t want to get hurt. They see all the injuries on their end. So I learned a foosh is a fall on an outstretched hand, right? It’s an acronym for fall on Outstretched hand. So that’s a very common injury in mountain biking. A lot of broken collar bones, dislocated shoulders, broken wrists, things of that nature. So if you can tuck and roll and disperse that energy, you’re a lot less likely to hurt yourself. So I teach proper tuck and roll. It’s kind of this idea of like, yeah, if you crash on your bike, things happen. It might happen so quickly, you have no time to respond. However, if you don’t ever practice the tuck and roll, your body doesn’t realize this is an option for you. So by practicing it, you’re just kind of giving yourself the chance to maybe use it in the heat of the moment, should you need it. But nothing’s guaranteed, right? So start from your knees, tuck and roll onto the mat. Get a feel for, like, okay, that doesn’t really hurt. I get the idea of the motion. Here what I’m aiming for. Then you do it from your feet. And then I have this technique we call the stab and roll, where you do ride up to the side of the mat on your bike. You lower yourself with your foot so you’re not actually crashing. Like, we do it’s as safely as possible, but you’re getting practice at actually letting the handlebar jab the ground and take the impact. And then you turn that into your tuck and roll. So it’s pretty amazing how simple it sounds. And even when I demo it to people, they’re like, oh, yeah, I got it. And then as soon as their bike starts to go down, they stick their hand out, they try to grab the ground with their hands. It’s like, no, you got to redo it. So letting the bar take the impact is a great strategy for helping reduce fooshes. So we go over all that.

Scott Cowan [00:41:05]:

Okay, and any sport that has a foosh, that’s just a cool when we talked on the phone before recording this, right? When you said foosh, I just I gotta figure out how to work that into this conversation. That was my one thing I wanted to work in. And you’ve done that. So you got them on the grassy, relatively safe place that’s Saturday morning. How’s the rest of the weekend then?

Angi Weston [00:41:29]:

Transition feeds us all lunch. We do a big sandwich bar, like build your own sandwich we’ve got one of the things I’m most excited about is our DIY trail mix bar. So we got a little bar with all the different trail mix ingredients you could ever want, and you get to scoop them into your baggie and the portions you want, zip it up, take it out on the trail with you. So after lunch, we go on a trail ride and actually start to practice on trail session, get some real life attempts at these new skills we worked on in the grass. And an important note before the weekend happens, I send an intake survey to all the participants. And so prior to you showing up, I’ve sorted the riders based on expectations, experience, goals, things like that. So there might be 40 women at this event, but you’re in a group of like, six of them that are really similarly matched to you, and you have a coach and an assistant coach with that group. So you’re working on your progressions with your group, you’re going out on your trail ride with your group. But then we’re doing our lunches and meals and stuff together as a big crew.

Scott Cowan [00:42:31]:

Yeah, because if you’re a relative novice, it would be, in my opinion, very intimidating to be paired up with a semi pro, fearless writer who’s yeah.

Angi Weston [00:42:43]:

And if you’re one of our groupies and you’ve come to six transition women’s weekend events, you’ve learned a lot at that point, you’re ready to move on beyond the basics, so you can get in a group that maybe has a little higher pace and gets to some more complex skills if you’re ready for it.

Scott Cowan [00:42:58]:

How often do you run this event? Yeah, once a year.

Angi Weston [00:43:01]:

A couple of times a year? Yeah. I guess we’ll finish. So after we ride trail Saturday, we come back to Transition headquarters. We do some more like, education chats. I’ll teach Demystifying your suspension. So mountain bikes are suspend riders right there’s, front and often rear shocks. There’s a lot of set up to those, and it can be pretty overwhelming, complicated, intimidating. So I do a little class on setting up suspension. I’ve got one of my favorite body workers, this gallantown Caroline, who is an old Pilates teacher and acupuncturist and just genius about fine tuning the body. And she does exercises on like, hips and shoulders and mindset and all this. So you kind of choose your little afternoon session off the bike to learn more. And then Transition feeds us all dinner. So we all get together at the employee lounge upstairs at Transition headquarters and have dinner and social time and drinks together. And one of my biggest missions with Transition Women’s Weekend and with my big events is to grow this community of cyclists so we can do that on the bike, on rides. But it is really nice to have off the bike time to chat and socialize and get to know each other and just kind of find your people. And then Sunday, we do it all over again. We do the skills and drills in the grass, lunch, afternoon ride, and then it’s high fives and farewells and exchanging phone numbers and such. So that’s kind of what the weekend looks like. I do a few of these a year, obviously. I started with a couple in 2019. They went awesome. I even did one in Vermont that year. Transition women’s weekend. East. Then the pandemic hit, and then I got one in 2021 in the fall. And then this year I’ve hosted one out in North Carolina already and one here in Bellingham. And actually this morning, I just opened Reg for our October event in Bellingham. So if this sounds like something you’re into, I don’t know when this podcast will go out, but if it’s not sold out by then, you can sign up for Transition Women’s Weekend, happening October 8 and 9th here in Bellingham.

Scott Cowan [00:45:03]:

Awesome. So I have a question. So you’re in North Carolina. Are you shipping a bike from Bellingham to North Carolina, or do you get a bike there?

Angi Weston [00:45:12]:

How does that work?

Scott Cowan [00:45:13]:

Because bikes don’t go on airplanes.

Angi Weston [00:45:15]:

Yeah, I fly with my bike all the time. They make special bike bags. So you take the wheels off and twist the handlebars and zip tie everything down or velcro everything in place. So I fly with my bike when I go do those events. And then another great perk of the Transition Women’s Weekend event is that we have a fleet of demo bikes for participants to try. So if you want to throw your leg over a new bike for the weekend, you can do that. You don’t have to, by all means. Whatever bike you show up on is totally cool, assuming it is safe and works and fits you. Yeah, so there’s vans full of demo bikes around the country, and so I work with the folks that Transition to make sure I have a van of bikes available. So at the North Carolina event, I actually had a big Transition van full of demo bikes, plus my own personal bike I’d flown out with.

Scott Cowan [00:46:08]:

Okay, oversimplifying this. You just become a brand ambassador for Transition, but you’re also an ambassador to women, to the sport.

Angi Weston [00:46:21]:

Yeah, I like to think of myself as that. I like to call myself a number one hype girl. Transition hype girl. Mountain biking hype girl. I’ll be your hype girl. Scott, you are crushing it. I love your podcast.

Scott Cowan [00:46:34]:

Awesome. Checks in the mail. Okay, so I’m reading here. So you’ve got your radical racing team and the famous radical Rippers junior development program. Let’s talk about the famous radical Rippers Junior development program. That’s a mouthful. Why are they famous? Because you’re the Hype girl, and you’ve made them famous. Why are you calling them famous?

Angi Weston [00:46:56]:

It’s just kind of something that has taken a life of its own. So I think people hear of radical rippers. Aside from knowing Radical Roots, MTB or Knowing me, transition has made a video about us. So people around the country learned about Radical Rippers through Transitions promotion of it. And, yeah, I get people reach out to me all the time. They’re like, can you start a Radical Rippers chapter in Phoenix, Arizona, or whatever? I’m like, no, but you can.

Scott Cowan [00:47:25]:

Okay.

Angi Weston [00:47:31]:

Why not call my program famous?

Scott Cowan [00:47:34]:

No, that’s fine. So what is this? This teaches junior girls how to ride?

Angi Weston [00:47:39]:

Yes.

Scott Cowan [00:47:39]:

Is this competitive?

Angi Weston [00:47:41]:

It’s both. Yeah. It was born out of the popularity of after school riding program. So a lot of the elementary, junior high, high schools here in town have parent volunteers. They go through our local advocacy group, which is the WBC Waka Mountain Bike Coalition. They’re kind of our trail stewards here in town. They have an educational branch, and they help volunteers in the community, parents, et cetera, hold these after school riding groups. And one of the owners of Transition, it’s owned by two guys, kevin and Kyle, and their wives and Kyle’s wife, Carrie. Well, Kyle and Carrie have a daughter that was in an after school ride program, and she was just like, there aren’t any girls showing up to these rides, and I would just so much rather ride with girls. So Carrie was like, let’s start an all girls after school riding program. So Carrie started this group called the Flying Squirrels, and every season, there’s 80 to 100 elementary age girls that ride with the Flying Squirrels. So it’s an after school riding program that doesn’t matter what school you go to. So it kind of brings girls from all the schools in the area together to ride after school together. And it uses parent volunteers, community members. They’re basically ride leaders. So that’s kind of the first certification you get in that mountain bike certification we talked about earlier, right? Like, there’s ride leaders, the base. Then you level one, level two, level three, and then you become an instructor trainer. That’s kind of the latter. Carrie helps people get their ride leader cert. The WBC helps people get their ride leader cert. They take these girls out as a way to just get them used to riding Galbrith, riding in groups, just spending time on their bikes with friends, outdoors. And Carrie, a year or two into that program, she approached me. It’s like, hey, do you want to come coach a little bit? Like just I’ll have you show up to a practice, and we can have it be a little instruction from you. I was like, absolutely. I would love that. So I started showing up to some Flags Girls practices to give some coaching to the riders, and then Carrie was like, you know, some of these girls are now getting into middle school. They don’t want to ride with second graders. They kind of want more coaching. They’re ready to do things that me and my team can’t necessarily train them on. So she really was a big part in me starting Radical Rippers, because she basically was like, I’ll deal with all the parent communications. You just got to do the coaching aspect. And I was like, okay, how do I say no to this, right? As a little girl, I would have loved an opportunity like this. So I just kind of felt like even though I wasn’t sure I could do it, I just had to start and figure it out. And luckily, I’d carry and transition bikes, really holding space for me to be able to explore that and work out the kinks. At first, we called ourselves Flying Squirrels also. It was just like, oh, are you a flying squirrel on Tuesdays or Wednesdays? And it got a little confusing. But these older riders who had been flying squirrels for a couple of years were ready to push it more. And so I just went the first season, I had that layer of more advanced flying squirrels. I just went to them, and I was like, do you all want to name this program? I feel like it’s a little confusing to be Flying Squirrels also. So they came up with we did a whole naming contest, and the favorite amongst them was Radical Rebels. And I just didn’t really sit with me, right. I was like, I don’t feel like girls on mountain bikes are necessarily rebellious. Like, let’s normalize this a little bit. And the word rippers had come up at some point. I love a good alliteration. So, yeah, radical Rippers was born. And that first year, I think we had 14 girls in the program, and I had maybe four or five other coaches helping me. Just women in the community who had their certifications, don’t have time to do coaching as a full time gig, but love the reward they get doing it when they can. So I had a group of adult women who were willing to help me with it, and Carrie willing to help me with it. So, yeah, we started Radical Rippers, and now I think that was in 2019, and yeah, this season, I guess I’m in the middle of selling fall registration right now. But this past spring, we had about 60 girls in the program. So, yeah, we regularly have about 60 girls that come ride with us, ages that’s ten to 18. And again, we intake survey. We send them intake survey beforehand. We split them into groups based on age is a little bit more prominent at this point in their lives. Like, if you’re an 8th grader, you don’t really want to be with fourth and fifth graders, necessarily. So I do kind of divide age range, experience, expectation goals. Also what day of the week, because there are 60 of them. We spread practices out Monday, Wednesdays and Fridays. So you kind of pick what day of the week, what group you go in, and then yeah, you spend eight weeks riding for 2 hours after school, one day a week with your group. And we explore Galbris. We do some local pump tracks in town. We ride at Lake Paddon. We do the progression props in the grass and hit the ramps. And yeah, it’s a whole thing. It’s pretty exciting to see the level of riders that are coming out of the program. I mean, obviously not just from our coaching, but just from their sheer determination in the sport. So a lot of these riders are now racing at a national level and getting accolades of their own. And it’s just because they’ve really just kind of gotten in their groove in the sport and they ride a ton and they’ve had some really excellent training and yeah, it’s pretty cool.

Scott Cowan [00:53:24]:

That’s very cool. And then the radical racing team, is that adult? Adult women?

Angi Weston [00:53:30]:

Those are junior girls also. So from the Radical Rippers, I had a group of riders that were really keen on racing. There’s regional events, national events, as well as like, the WBC I was telling you about, our local trail advocacy group. They hold a Wednesday night race series called the Wacom World Cup Races. And they’re not actually world Cups, right, that’s just what we call them. But the local race series really, a couple of years ago, hardly had any girls showing up to it. So the more experienced Radical Rippers came to me and were like, we want to start radical race. We want to be on a race team together. And they cornered me one day at practice, and they were like, ANGI, we have to do this. And I was like, okay, I’ve never run a race team before. I’ve barely even been on a race team. But okay, let’s figure it out. So there’s this real rad racer in town, Courtney McFadden. She’s raced professionally for over a decade. She’s traveled the world racing her Cyclocross and XC bike. And so I partnered with Courtney and a couple of other women in the community, and we started a race team. So radical Racing started last year, basically because they forced me to. Obviously, I love the idea of supporting these girls with whatever they need to grow in the sport, and there’s a real interest for racing. And if I can foster any kind of team environment, progression, intentional practice, goal setting, all of that stuff, I’m into it. And the race team seemed like a really great way to be able to do that.

Scott Cowan [00:55:10]:

Now that does sound it sounds very cool. These shows don’t have any set length of time, but we could talk for a long, long time here. So let’s transition to, though, something that you said. Well, I’m slowly moving around your website today. I’m looking at your you got a headline here that says our radical Approach. And I see two women seemingly facing off on bicycles, like they’re going to joust or something here. This is this very the woman that I can see facing me kind of got this intense look at the other person. Is that other person you, by the way?

Angi Weston [00:55:56]:

I don’t know.

Scott Cowan [00:55:59]:

That person has long hair, so it might be you. There’s a placard that says Linda on it.

Angi Weston [00:56:07]:

Linda, she’s great. Yeah. So that’s Linda’s on her bike, and I am the rider with my back to you. I’m just standing on the ground holding Linda’s handlebar.

Scott Cowan [00:56:23]:

Do you see how at first glance, though, this looks like you’re facing I love that.

Angi Weston [00:56:28]:

Seeing this through my eyes. Obviously, I was there, so I know it was happening. But yeah, seeing it through eyes that aren’t familiar, I can see what you’re.

Scott Cowan [00:56:35]:

Because you can’t quite tell. Our unique way of offering fun, safe, mega progression sessions. And then in very small print, like the disclaimer. Because progression doesn’t have to be painful or boring. We got you. That’s almost like that. Side effects may include small stuff. So walk me through what progression means in a training session for you.

Angi Weston [00:57:06]:

So just a little insight. There’s this kind of saying in mountain biking, right? They’re like, oh, if you’re not bleeding, you’re not trying hard enough. Or if you’re not crashing, you’re not trying hard enough. There’s this kind of, like, tough guy.

Scott Cowan [00:57:20]:

It’s just a flesh wound. As your forearm sticking out through the skin, you’re fine. Duct tape. Go.

Angi Weston [00:57:28]:

When I was learning about bike and I would crash, my buddies would look at it and like, okay, yeah, I’ve got like a big hematoma on my hip. They’re like, oh, that’s a two beer crash, or whatever. How many beers it would take to get over the pain was like a rating system they used. We don’t use that, though. That’s not so much art.

Scott Cowan [00:57:46]:

Okay. When you go to the doctor and it’s like, how much pain are you in? It’s got the smiley face to the frowny face. Do you have beer set up here? Totally. Okay. All right.

Angi Weston [00:57:57]:

Yeah. So I feel like there’s this kind of misconception that you have to crash or you have to hurt yourself to progress. And that’s just absolutely not true. You can do it, really. Like most women, they do it the smart way. They want to sign up and have the sign up for a lesson and have the progressions laid out to them in this digestible. Step by step, you’re building the next layer. Meticulously. Intentionally and the riders fueled by the successes, right?

Scott Cowan [00:58:29]:

Right.

Angi Weston [00:58:31]:

Yeah. So what I’m doing here in this picture is I’m holding Linda’s handlebars to help provide her a little balance. It’s what we call a static hold. So in this I don’t know what exactly we’re covering at this moment, but if I were to lean Linda’s bike to the right, it would kind of simulate what her bike would be doing in a right hand corner. And so then Linda could make adjustments to her body position to find balance in that right hand turn. So she’s building a little muscle memory in a way she can really feel it without there being trees and single track and speed and like all the.

Scott Cowan [00:59:03]:

Other in a very controlled way, very.

Angi Weston [00:59:06]:

Controlled way to build muscle memory into practice. And then also, I’m standing right there with my eyes on her, so I can be like, oh, pop your hip out a little bit more. Watch that shoulder. Let’s move this elbow up, right? I can be making minute adjustments, and it’s all the little things that add it to the big things. So when I can hold a student in a position like this and they can really get a feel for it, they’re so much more likely to replicate that feel out. So from a static hold, it would probably be cones going around, cones in the grass or on a dirt road or something. And then we would take it to a trail with not a huge steep grade. And then once you start to get the hang of it there, we can take you to faster, bigger corners, et cetera. So progression is just building each layer. Mountain biking is a very complex sport. You’ve got equipment that’s complex. You’ve got two wheels, two brakes, often two pieces of suspension. So there’s a lot to navigate just in the technology and the equipment alone. And then you add into that, we’ve got uphill skills, downhill skills, everything in between. There’s just a lot to it. And a lot of folks just look at biking as this hobby they had as a kid, like, oh, I know how to ride a bike. So they throw their leg over their bike, and then they go mountain biking, and soon enough, they get it over their head and either get really hurt and then seek instruction or get close to getting really hurt, see construction, or they just get frustrated. They’re like, gosh, all my riding buddies ride that rock roll, and I’ve never done it because it terrifies me. They can sign up for a lesson, and I’ll go back into their foundation and be like, oh, yeah, you’re afraid of this rock roll because you have no idea how to use your front brake properly, which a bad timed front brake on a rock roll could send you what we call OTB over the bars, right? Which would lead to a foosh, could lead to a foosh.

Scott Cowan [01:00:54]:

OTB to a foosh. Okay.

Angi Weston [01:00:56]:

So, yeah, this idea of progression is really just taking bite size pieces of this, right? I love the analogy. Like, how do you eat an elephant? It’s one bite at a time, and you can really look at mountain biking on technical terrain as this giant elephant, and you’re really not going to just sit down and piece on the whole thing in one sitting. So it’s like taking those little bites and making it digestible and understanding the foundational pieces to start to master before you can add the more complex and dangerous layers.

Scott Cowan [01:01:26]:

Let me go back to this photo with Linda. At the time that you guys were doing this or you all were doing this, how skilled of a rider was Linda?

Angi Weston [01:01:39]:

Yeah, Linda’s a great mountain biker. She’s been mount biking for a long time. She’s actually great community advocate and does a lot locally, volunteers a lot of her time and stuff. So, yeah, she’s super solid rider.

Scott Cowan [01:01:50]:

So this wasn’t like her first six months on a bike type thing. In this photograph, it’s a skilled rider that you’re trying to fine tune technique.

Angi Weston [01:02:07]:

Would that be yeah, that’s a great way to so, Linda, that was actually taken out of Transition Women’s Weekend event. That’s why she’s got the name plate on her bike. We’re all in the nameplates over number plates so we can meet each other.

Scott Cowan [01:02:17]:

I was waiting for those. Remember when you were a kid, you had the streamers that came out of the handlebars, too, that’s kind of putting a baseball card or something in the spokes click. Yes, that’s how I would show up.

Angi Weston [01:02:30]:

Yeah. So at that event Linda was at, there certainly were people who had been on a bike for six months or less, or maybe not even really mountain biked much before, and they would have been in one group and then the group linda was in my group. I’m the lead coach for the weekend, so Linda was in my group for finding her cornering. So, yeah, she obviously already knows how to navigate trails, but she’s just ready to take us to the next level and has come to more than one event because she’s smart.

Scott Cowan [01:02:59]:

Well, let me ask you, let’s talk about the Bellingham Watcom County area. There’s no place to ride.

Angi Weston [01:03:08]:

Yeah, no good riding here. You got to go straight to Canada.

Scott Cowan [01:03:15]:

If somebody were okay, put you on the spot. I understand this is an impossible question, or at least I think it’s going to be an impossible question for you. Where’s the best place to ride in Washington for you?

Angi Weston [01:03:33]:

Bellingham. Yeah.

Scott Cowan [01:03:37]:

Okay.

Angi Weston [01:03:37]:

Yeah. I love it. Why? Well, we have the perfect combination of awesome terrain, incredibly well built trails, and delicious food trucks and coffee shops to visit at the end of the ride or before the ride. Right. I know you’re a big fan of those. No, it is just honestly, we have a great variety of trails. We have a lot to pick from. We have outdoor spaces really close to town, so it’s really easy to get to. Like, I can leave my garage and pedal up to Galbrith Mountain and not have to get in a car to go there. I love that there’s other places in Washington, obviously, that offer that, too, but it is kind of a special. Our weather, our climate, our dirt, our terrain, the elevation, the steepness, all of the things, the giant trees, the ferns, it all kind of makes this great recipe for an awesome experience in the woods on your bike. And if you want to know what my favorite trail is, it’s the one I’m on.

Scott Cowan [01:04:37]:

Yes.

Angi Weston [01:04:38]:

The one I’m on.

Scott Cowan [01:04:40]:

I know that’s no fair. I fell for that. I have to let you slide with that. All right. How many months of the year do you ride?

Angi Weston [01:04:47]:

Twelve months out of the year.

Scott Cowan [01:04:50]:

Do you ride year round?

Angi Weston [01:04:51]:

Yeah, usually if it’s like a really heavy snow in town. Like, we had this last January, late December, January, we got the snow apocalypse here in Bellingham and that took us off our bikes for a little bit. But yeah, for the most part. I mean, honestly, like, really high speed winds, like the really windy days are kind of the only weather that keeps me from riding. When I was working at a desk nine to five, I only had the weekends or like, evenings in the summer to ride. I would just go out whenever just because I had to get a ride in. But now with my current gig, I kind of build my own schedule and spend a lot of time on my bike. So if it’s really rainy and crummy out, I just sometimes don’t go ride because I don’t have to. But you can.

Scott Cowan [01:05:37]:

Okay. Approximately how many miles do you think you’re riding a year?

Angi Weston [01:05:43]:

Thousands? I don’t know. Yeah, probably thousands.

Scott Cowan [01:05:47]:

You think? Thousands? Well, that wouldn’t be too hard. I mean, if you ride every day, if you do 6 miles a day, it’s thousand. Okay. All right.

Angi Weston [01:05:55]:

Or 1000. I don’t know. I’m not really great at tracking my rides.

Scott Cowan [01:06:01]:

Okay, well, what do you think? You just got done saying you don’t track them well, but okay. What do you think? Typical. Your last ride that you just completed?

Angi Weston [01:06:09]:

Yeah, I actually did log my last ride yesterday afternoon. I went for a twelve and a half mile ride with about 1500ft of elevation gain.

Scott Cowan [01:06:20]:

Okay. Is that typical or is that extreme?

Angi Weston [01:06:25]:

2 hours to pop out for a little ride for my house, peddled around Galbris and came home.

Scott Cowan [01:06:31]:

Okay. All right. For radical roots. MTB. What do you want the future to look like? What’s next?

Angi Weston [01:06:40]:

What’s next? I’ve been really working on building my team and getting other, especially women in my community who find great reward in doing this work of being a mountain bike coach. I want to give them more opportunity. And I really pride myself on having a business that can pay these women to do meaningful work in their communities. So for me, the growth is honestly just giving more people the opportunity to do this line of work and feel successful and effective at it. So I think of ANGI, the coach, Angie from 1015 years ago, and how I was traveling around the country to do these coaching gigs and getting this opportunity that is so rare. Like, a lot of people I know would not have that opportunity. So for me to have a coaching business here in town and allow that not only my community of riders to experience this coaching, but the next layer of actually giving coaches an opportunity to do this work and get better at it and feel really empowered in executing this job of being a coach. I just think that’s so cool and gives me so much pride. So, yeah, the future is just like, building my team, building my programs, reaching more people. I wouldn’t mind if it’s spread outside of Bellingham, but honestly, I don’t even think it needs to. Bellingham is such a mecca and attracts enough people from out of town. I have clients from all over the country that come to Bellingham to get training from me and my coaches. So I just want to be doing more of that. And, yeah, see radical racing really take off. It would be super cool to grow that team and just have another space for young girls to push themselves and gain some real life experience in a safe and supportive atmosphere to lead into these strong, independent women that we know the world needs more of.

Scott Cowan [01:08:42]:

Yeah, I’m on a page. The hero image says, fun, safe progression for mountain bikers. I think it’s your services page. And I’m fixated on this bike because, once again, the fact that I understand a bicycle has two wheels is about the extent of my knowledge of the sport. But this thing looks more like a BMX bike to me. It seems like a very radical frame. It’s blue. Is the fork red on it?

Angi Weston [01:09:20]:

Yes.

Scott Cowan [01:09:20]:

Okay. Is that a typical mountain bike these days?

Angi Weston [01:09:27]:

Yeah. So that is a transition patrol. So, yeah, it’s got 27 and a half inch wheels, whereas a BMX bike would have, like, 20 or 22 inch wheels. So BMX bikes have really small wheels. They usually have rigid fork and frame. So no suspension. Usually, like, taller handlebars. Like, they’ll have this big kind of, like, moto looking handlebar. But, yeah, this has bigger wheels. I’ve got front suspension, rear suspension.

Scott Cowan [01:09:56]:

That has rear suspension. How does that thing have a rear.

Angi Weston [01:09:58]:

It’S kind of hard to see, but if you zoom in kind of like, right under my right knee there, there’s.

Scott Cowan [01:10:04]:

Another little oh, is that you?

Angi Weston [01:10:05]:

Right, that’s me on the gold shorts.

Scott Cowan [01:10:08]:

Okay. Oh, that canister there that’s under my water bottle.

Angi Weston [01:10:12]:

You see my gray water bottle? That little canister in there, that’s a rear shock. So that’s helping suspend the rear wheel, whereas the red fork you pointed out, that’s suspending, like my arms or my front wheel.

Scott Cowan [01:10:25]:

Interesting. Okay. Yeah, that just looks like a very radical frame design to me. I think of mountain bikes not yeah, not like that. That’s really cool.

Angi Weston [01:10:37]:

BMX bikes don’t always have gears either. So if you see, like, behind my foot, they’ve got that big cassette of gears, big knobby tires.

Scott Cowan [01:10:46]:

How many gears does this bike have?

Angi Weston [01:10:47]:

Twelve. So the front is a single ring?

Scott Cowan [01:10:53]:

It’s a single with twelve in the back.

Angi Weston [01:10:55]:

Yeah.

Scott Cowan [01:10:56]:

It’s called eagle.

Angi Weston [01:10:57]:

Eagle. And that’s a carbon fiber frame from Transition. Yeah. This bike is one mountain bike of the year. Multiple times from big media outlets and stuff.

Scott Cowan [01:11:10]:

Just to help me out here. What would a bike like that cost somebody?

Angi Weston [01:11:16]:

That bike is probably around seven grand, I would say, give or take. You can definitely get some. I mean, you can get mount bikes for $1,000 or more. Basic cartails or used bikes, you could probably get in the, like, under sub $2,000 range. But something like this, it’s carbon fiber. It’s actually got electronic shifting and what we call a dropper post. So my seat post, with the touch of a button, goes from beat all the way up where I can get good leg extension for climbing hills and pedaling. And then I just push a button and sit on it, and it drops and stays in the frame so I can move the bike through my legs and get behind the saddle and stuff for more technical riding, jumping, descending things. So the seat moves in and out of your way for so it’s got some bells and whistles on it that make this one a little bit more fancy, but you don’t need all that to get started, for sure.

Scott Cowan [01:12:06]:

It’s like the car that’s got the position. You hit driver button one for, like, I’m tall, so I hit that. You’d hit driver button two and move the seat for you. I had no idea. But I do have one question about carbon fiber. Does it handle the repeated pounding? I don’t want to say abuse, but you’re putting these bikes through a lot of stress and strain on them. Does carbon fiber hold up to that?

Angi Weston [01:12:40]:

Yeah, carbon fiber is actually really strong. So if I were to go mock turkey down a hill and run into a tree with my front wheel, like, that kind of an impact it’s not designed to take, so it could crumple the frame. But if that were hard enough to break my carbon, it certainly would have bent the aluminum frame, too, right? Yeah, there’s still weaknesses to aluminum bikes. Yeah, they’re kind of built at the standard to hold a certain amount of impact and abuse because absolutely, you are riding it down technical terrain, big impacts, harsh rocks are flying. It’s all things. So, yeah, they’ve got to be pretty tough.

Scott Cowan [01:13:18]:

Okay.

Angi Weston [01:13:18]:

And they are.

Scott Cowan [01:13:19]:

Well, we weren’t going to necessarily talk about this, but now I have to bring it up because we just use harsh terrain.

Angi Weston [01:13:25]:

Running into a tree.

Scott Cowan [01:13:27]:

Running into a tree, yeah. What you told me when we talked on the phone was that probably the most common injury is the broken collarbone. Right? Is that safe to is that correct? Okay. The foosh, which is the full outstretched arm, scraped abrasion. And that’s more of an abrasion right, where we’ve torn the skin off? Or do they include that if you’re breaking your wrist?

Angi Weston [01:14:01]:

Yeah, fuchsia is just a fall in an outstretched hand. So it’s really not just in mountain biking. A lot of sports end up with that’s. Just like a term they use, I think, in the Er, whatever, to describe how somebody was inflicted with injury. It’s broken fingers, wrists, elbows. It scrapes. You’re usually probably not going to the hospital if it’s just a minor scrape, but, yeah, you might need stitches.

Scott Cowan [01:14:25]:

Stitches are pretty common, right? Smarter scrapes, just a couple of beers. Yeah, exactly.

Angi Weston [01:14:32]:

Maybe like a mere flesh wound is like a one beer crash. But, yeah, if you actually need stitches, that’s probably more of like a two or three beer crash.

Scott Cowan [01:14:41]:

From a safety don’t drink your beer.

Angi Weston [01:14:43]:

Until after the ride.

Scott Cowan [01:14:47]:

There’s the safety tip that we were looking for. No, from a safety standpoint, okay, you’re moving downhill. You’re climbing uphill, you’re going through corners, you’re jumping, you’re doing all these things. Not that much different than, say, snowboarding or skiing because you’re moving downhill. So similar activities. Similar. In your opinion, what is a good safety technique that maybe people don’t think about? I mean, everyone’s wearing helmets these days. I’m old enough to remember when somebody wore a helmet, you laughed at them. Come on. Now. Everyone’s wearing these futuristic looking helmets, gloves. But what can people do? Is there something that is maybe under promoted as a safety method?

Angi Weston [01:15:51]:

Yeah, take a mountain bike lesson.

Scott Cowan [01:15:55]:

Okay, well, learning to fall on a gymnastic mat from your knees. You mentioned hula hoop earlier.

Angi Weston [01:16:03]:

Okay. I think people, like I said earlier, they take biking. It’s the toy. It’s this kid’s sport. It’s something they’ve done since they were a kid. So actually knowing how to ride a bike down the street is not easy, but it’s something that a lot of people kind of figure out on their own or with the help of a parent or friend or something. Right. Like, you figure out how to take those first few pedal strokes, you start to understand the foundation of balancing and pedaling, and then it’s like, boom. Okay, I know how to ride a bike. But riding a bike and then riding a bike off road on undulating terrain at breakneck speeds is kind of another layer to it. And I think people miss, they don’t put enough weight in the difference there. So riding your bike to your friend’s house down the street and your cul de sac or whatever, versus taking it on a black diamond trail with jumps and rocks and roots and high speed sections and trees and all these things, it’s like, yeah, there are these safety elements. So honestly, I think taking a mountain bike lesson is one way to really learn the ins and outs of all of these pieces of your bike and these techniques so that you build this really strong foundation. So, yeah, it’s kind of inevitable that you’re going to get in over your head when you’re mountain biking. It’s what you do then that can make or break you. Right?

Scott Cowan [01:17:24]:

Well, see, I’m looking at this bike that you’re in this picture. I’m still looking at the blue bike with the red fork. Okay. Yes. It’s different that if I were riding a bike from my house to my friend’s house versus taking a multi thousand dollars device out, I’m not going to take my insert name of consumer brand, say Schwinn. No disrespect to Schwinn, but my bike that I bought at Walmart versus a bike, that’s the price of a used car or higher. Right. I would think if I were investing this money into equipment that I would also want to know that I could get the most out of that equipment because I’m not going to take that multi thousand dollars bike to ride to my friend’s house. That just seems like taking a semi to 711 to go buy milk a little bit much. When you train people, are you seeing do many people come to you after they’ve had a fall and then realize this, or do more people come to you to prevent that first fall?

Angi Weston [01:18:37]:

Both yeah. I don’t know the breakdown exactly, but definitely both. Yeah. I’m getting riders that have had close calls or they’ve seen their friends crash, or they just know. Right. It’s not rocket science to know, like, I’m about to take my bike off road. This could be dangerous. Or they’ve learned how to skier, snowboard with a coach, an instructor, and they realize, like, that was super effective at keeping me safe and just helping fast track things. Right. Like, there’s a lot to figure out. So, yeah, you can go try and figure it out on your own. You can watch YouTube videos to help you and that might give you some pieces, but actually having a coach watch you and give you specific error, like detecting your specific errors and correcting those before they become bigger issues, I think people just recognize the value in that and come to me and then absolutely. I get riders who have had really bad crashes and they’re just getting back on the horse and they want to make sure they do it right. So they’re coming to me to get over just the mental blocks or the physical blocks that they have from their crash. When I started riding, I did have some instruction riders at that beginning bicycling class, but there were still a lot of things as I was pushing my riding that would make me crash. So with cornering, cornering is just a super. It’s not a sexy skill. People aren’t often reaching out to me to learn how to corner better, but when we start working on their skills, they’re like, oh, I really want to learn how to clear these jumps. And it’s like, okay, yeah, but you got to be able to carry speed through this corner before you could clear that jump. So I end up teaching cornering a lot. And yeah, for me, it was like as I was learning how to mountain bike, I just kind of guessed or figured out how to navigate corners enough, but I would have these real inconsistencies. So sometimes I would nail a corner, and sometimes I would totally just lay my bike over and donate skin to the ground, and I couldn’t figure out why. Oh, that got you.

Scott Cowan [01:20:32]:

Sorry. That was awesome.

Angi Weston [01:20:34]:

Just supermanning through dirt with my elbows, like, getting tore up. I’m like, what went wrong? I don’t understand. And yeah, it turns out I was just, like, not paying attention how I was shifting my hips and my weight. And so I’d hit corners at various amounts of speed with a various amount of a berm is like a catch to the corner. So big berm allows you to carry speed through the turn as opposed to, like, a flat turn where you might wash out, it might be easier to wash out or whatever. So, yeah, I had all this inconsistency in my cornering, and then as I was getting my certifications, I was improving my riding simultaneously, and that’s when I figured out I was cornering all wrong. And once I had a coach hold me in a static hold like I was for Linda in that photo and actually show me the nuanced movements about balance. So there’s stuff you’re supposed to be making your bike do and then positions to move your body into and things you’re doing with your brakes and your eyes and all this happening all at once. It’s a very complex skill with a lot of variety, right? Like, there’s high speed corners, low corners, tight, broad, steep, shallow. It’s kind of this whole loose dirt, tacky dirt. Like, you can just get this whole variety, everything in between, every combination thereof. So with that kind of variety comes a lot of mystery. And if you don’t know the technique sorry, I kind of derailed there how I was answering your question, but yeah, there’s this a writer might come to me because they’re having this inconsistency, so sometimes I feel like I rail a corner, and other times I eat it. So I’m able to kind of watch their technique and make some refinements or have them totally erase what they know about cornering and start over again to build up proper technique. And then they’re finding that success in corners makes them more confident carrying speed, which makes those jumps easier, et cetera. So it all kind of builds like that.

Scott Cowan [01:22:28]:

Do you use video? Do you record?

Angi Weston [01:22:32]:

So you’re using yeah, I’ve got this really cool app. I don’t know if they’re still around, but it’s called Coach’s Eye. I think it was developed for like, baseball and golf swings, baseball bat and golf techniques. And so, yeah, I have this really cool app. I can film a rider switch spots with them. They film me. Then we can watch in slow mo. I can draw lines and circles over the screen to point out, like, oh, you see, all your shoulders are here. And then we can compare videos. You’re like, oh, when I’m hitting the jump, my shoulders are there and yours are here. So let’s see if we can move yours more into this position. So they’re getting visual. Yeah. The thing with teaching people anything is that there’s a variety of learning styles. So, yeah, finding ways to explain these complex moves and reach a variety of learning styles is kind of an art form and it’s something I really dig into and nerd out over. So I want people to see it, I want to explain it to them. I’m going to show them. I’m going to have them try it. I’m going to video them. They’re going to watch videos of themselves. They’re going to watch videos of b. We’re going to make edits redo. It static holds. Yeah, there’s just a ton of ways to go about it. So I try to really hone in on what the student needs and then take it from there. I like to say, and this is one of the thing I teach my coaches, too, is that our number one job as an instructor is to find out what our students know already and then proceed accordingly. So you’re not boring someone with information they already have, but you’re also not throwing information at them they’re not ready for. So it is a lot of assessment and one on one. So I think I was joking with you earlier about how I learned how to hula hoop on YouTube videos, right? Like YouTube taught me a lot of great little fun hula hooping skills. My life and limb is not risked necessarily when I’m hula hooping. Sure, I might bonk my forehead or something silly, but probably not going to seriously injure myself with a hula hoop. Knock on wood, anything’s possible. But with mountain biking, yeah, I mean, you’ll watch a YouTube video on how to hit a drop. So a drop would be like a takeoff ramp where you fly through the air and then land both wheels together. And if things go wrong, it could definitely turn itself into OTB, a foosh, et cetera. So you can watch the video and get pointers. And then when you go out and try it, if you have no one watching you and stopping you, let’s say you have this really bad habit that’s just getting worse as you add speed or whatever, your timing is off, et cetera, and you just keep trying it over and over and over again because no one’s there correcting you. You really could end up getting hurt. So there’s a lot to be learned in books and online and through these YouTube videos. Certainly they serve a great purpose in educating people on the techniques, but actually having a coach one on one watch you or video you and so you can see it is kind of the next level of keeping it safe and adding that progression in a way that’s less frustrating too, right? Like you’re getting that direct feedback. You can ask questions with a coach. It really lends itself well to being specific to helping you and not just kind of being like generic information to help just anybody. Does that make sense?

Scott Cowan [01:25:34]:

Okay, it does. So when you’re not in the saddle or coaching, what do you like to do for fun?

Angi Weston [01:25:46]:

Running a business takes a lot of my time, so if I’m not on my bike, I’m actually sitting right here in my office on my laptop.

Scott Cowan [01:25:56]:

For fun.

Angi Weston [01:25:57]:

I you do invoice people?

Scott Cowan [01:26:00]:

Oh, yay.

Angi Weston [01:26:03]:

No, I’m really into I love doing yoga and Pilates. Those are some activities I do off the bike that help keep my body tuned up and able to take impacts and injury or prevent injury from happening. And I just really love spending time doing that. I love hanging out with my family. I love cooking just little at home meals that I make. I have a pet box turtle that I’ve had for 26 years. So weirdly. Find a lot of enjoyment spending time with him.

Scott Cowan [01:26:36]:

Okay.

Angi Weston [01:26:37]:

Yeah, I stand up paddle board in the summer. That’s a really fun way to get out and explore in a different way than mountain biking. But yeah, kind of my number one bikes and water. I’m on my bike a lot because of my career, but just having yesterday, I just went for a solo bike ride and it felt like such a rare treat to just go in the woods by myself. And I just stopped and picked berries whenever I wanted to and ran across this buck in the woods, and I stopped and filmed him for a minute because he was cool. So, yeah, honestly, one of my favorite pastimes is riding my bike, and I have a hard time finding enough time for it, so I squeeze that in whenever I can.

Scott Cowan [01:27:22]:

Okay. Yeah, tell me a couple of okay. So when we talked earlier, I always ask about coffee. So Bellingham and coffee, what do you got to share with me?

Angi Weston [01:27:33]:

Bellingham and coffee. The coffee scene is strong in Bellingham. We were talking about black. Drop. R-I-P black drop. We really missed that coffee shop. And I make cold brew lattes at home for myself a lot. And so I don’t go out to coffee quite as much as I used to because I’ve kind of got my perfect little recipe that I like here. But I really do enjoy Banter. They were anomaly for a while, but now they’re called Banter. They have delicious coffee and really good breakfast burritos. Shout out to Emil. That’s his restaurant, and it’s so good, his cafe. And he opened a restaurant recently, too. It’s banter after hours. And so those are two really, like, Banter after hours for the cocktails and dinner and then Banter for coffee and breakfast burritos. As a longtime Bellingham resident, I have frequented Leonard Street coffee house quite a bit. They’re a great little coffee shop in the Leonard Streets neighborhood, and they’ve been around as long as I can remember. I feel like as long as I’ve been a Bellingham resident, leonard Street Coffee House has existed. And they nail it. They’ve got the right atmosphere. That’s probably one of the closer vibes to Blackdrop that I can think of, where it’s real down to earth. You’ll walk in and you’ll see all kinds of folks in there on their laptops and sipping coffee and socializing, and it used to be walking distance from my house before I moved. So really? Like, Lettered Street Coffee house.

Scott Cowan [01:29:02]:

You’re cold brew. We’re going to rewind the cold brew for a second, though. So what coffee roasters do you use for stuff?

Angi Weston [01:29:12]:

Coffee roasters? Yeah, they have this blend. I want to say it’s like the Viking blend or something. I’ll see exactly what it is. But they have, like, this their coffee is delicious, and I make a little cold. I basically just, like, put grind coffee beans in my French press in the fridge overnight, make my cold brew that way. And then yeah, I love oat milk in it, like ice oat milk, sometimes a little chocolate oat milk. Just a dab.

Scott Cowan [01:29:48]:

Okay. Does Bellingham have good tacos?

Angi Weston [01:29:52]:

Yeah. Oh, it’s Raptor Ridge. That’s the roast from Bellingham Coffee roaster.

Scott Cowan [01:29:56]:

Raptor Ridge.

Angi Weston [01:29:57]:

Yeah. And Raptor Ridge is a trail. I’m sure it’s other things, but it’s a trail off of the chuck and nuts. And it’s a really great mountain bike trail, too.

Scott Cowan [01:30:05]:

All right, well, I see some synergy there. Okay.

Angi Weston [01:30:09]:

Sorry, what did you ask me? Oh, tacos.

Scott Cowan [01:30:11]:

Tacos? Tacos.

Angi Weston [01:30:14]:

Yeah. So one of my favorite food trucks is Sammy’s vegan food truck. I’m not vegan, but I actually really love vegan food, and I’ll eat it when I get the opportunity if it’s good, because I love animals, so why not Sammy? She does tacos, but she has these really great vegan sandwiches that are so delightful. I’m also a really big fan of Cafe Rumba, which is a Peruvian joint here in town that makes incredible sandwiches and desserts and drinks. Oh, yeah, they’re delicious. Tacos.

Scott Cowan [01:30:54]:

It’s not every town can. And if you say Taco Bell, we’re just going to end the conversation.

Angi Weston [01:30:59]:

By the way, Super Mario’s is El Salvadorian. Their tacos are so good because they put, like, the cilantro and the onions on it so delicious. And they’re a food truck, but also have a brick and mortar off of Northwest Street. And then I’m a big fan of Nettos burritos. Nettos. N-E-T-O-S. Apostrophe s. It’s out in the Birchwood neighborhood, and it’s actually kind of like a Hispanic food convenience store. And they whip up really good tacos and burritos hot tip a little off the menu. They do a California burrito that’s got French fries in it. That is so freaking good. And they’re pastries. Like, they bake a bunch of pastries. So you got churros and all kinds of cakes and all kinds of stuff in their little pastry pantry. So I go there for the burritos, but stay for the pastries.

Scott Cowan [01:31:51]:

Okay. All right, so we have three last things to hear. Number one, where can people find out more about what you’re doing?

Angi Weston [01:31:58]:

Www.radicalrootsmtb.com. You can also follow Radicalrootsmtb on Instagram. That’s where I post a lot of our upcoming classes and events. If you follow Transition Bikes on Instagram or social media, you’ll get updates on us there as well.

Scott Cowan [01:32:17]:

Okay. What? Didn’t I ask you that? I should have asked you.

Angi Weston [01:32:23]:

I think you were going to ask me what’s cool in Bellingham or, like, what’s happening here? Was that still a question to come up, or do you care?

Scott Cowan [01:32:29]:

Yeah, let’s go. Yeah. No, I care. Absolutely.

Angi Weston [01:32:33]:

Transition Bikes has launched this new thing we’re doing once a month. It’s called a barrier breaking ride. And the idea here is that we try to break as many barriers to entry into mountain biking as possible. So we have demo bikes. If you come an hour before the ride, you can get set up on a free demo bike. So you don’t need to have a mountain bike. We’ve got helmets and shoes and knee pads and gloves and stuff to loan out. So if you don’t have any of the equipment, you can come get equipment. And then a lot of us who are work at Transition or Ride for Transition, we’re coaches and mentors and ride leaders. We patient and empathetic, and we take riders out on Gallbrith. And it’s called a no drop ride, which means you won’t be getting dropped, as in there’s going to be somebody making sure you get off the mountain safely, because there’s a lot of twists and turns and intersections and trails. I like to describe Galbrith Mountain as a spaghetti bowl of trails. If you look at a map, it’s just chaos. There’s so much to pick from. And you could certainly end up as an inexperienced rider. Even experienced riders have done this, where they end up descending the wrong side of the mountain, and they’re miles from where they parked or where their house is or where town is so you could get back, but it’s like, wouldn’t be the best end to a ride. So we do these no drop rides where you just basically have folks who are familiar with the sport and with the trails guiding you so they don’t get lost. We’ve all got first aid kits in case anyone gets hurt. We got multi tools and spare tubes and things like that if there’s a mechanical. So we sort of just try to create this environment that’s super welcoming. It gives you all the things that you need. If you are curious about mountain biking and you want to try it, but you don’t know where to start. The barrier breaking rise at Transition outpost. That’s the bike shop at Transition. So our next one is September 1, so it’s coming up this week and you can find out more about that on Transition’s website or their Instagram. Basically we meet at the Outpost. If you want a bike, come around 04:00, get set up on a bike and the ride heads out at five. And then we have a little shindig party at the outpost afterwards to keep the mingling and fun times going. So I feel like that’s really cool. We’ve got our Radical Ripper program for youth, so if anyone’s listening to this and is looking for something for their ten to 18 year old daughter to get into, the Radical Rippers is a great way to start. If they’re even younger than that, the Flying Squirrels is a great way to get them. I know.

Scott Cowan [01:34:58]:

You should see the t shirt.

Angi Weston [01:34:59]:

The Flying Squirrel T shirt is my favorite. And then check out the WBC. The Waco Mountain Bike Coalition. They’ve got an organization called the Joy Riders, which is a group of women volunteers who take women out on trails. So, same idea, no drop rides. And those are all levels of ability and interest. They break into groups and go out. The biggest fundraiser of the year for the WBC, which is a nonprofit here in town, is called Shoot the Trails, and this is a photo and video contest. I feel like even if you’re not into mountain biking, you could attend Shoot the Trails and be fully entertained and really get a glimpse at what the sport is about. But it’s all these amateur photographers and videographers that put their submissions in to be judged by all of us in the community. So we get together, there’s raffle prizes, there’s a big auction for prizes, and we watch all the videos and then vote. The community votes on their favorite and then they get prizes and then all the photos are on display for you to do like a silent voting on your favorite photos. And so it’s the biggest fundraiser for WNBC. So it all goes back to the trails, which is awesome, but then it highlights our local artists and writers in a really cool way. I love the videos that the youth come up with. Like, some of my favorite videos and shoot the trails are always from kids that’s coming up in I think I want to say that’s in September. Tickets are going on sale soon for that. I mentioned transition women’s weekend. That’s happening in October. Registration is open now on my website. Radicalgrootsmtb.com. If you just Google, I think mountain biking in Bellingham. I should be one of the first sites that pops up.

Scott Cowan [01:36:38]:

We’ll put links in the show notes, too.

Angi Weston [01:36:41]:

And then there’s this for people who maybe just want to see and be a spectator to the sport, whether you ride or not. There’s this really amazing event that happens in town. A local hometown hero, Hannah Bergman, puts it on. It’s called Hang time. It’s transition and Red Bull sponsored event. And there’s this set of jumps on Galbris called Blue Steel, and they’re the largest public jumps in, I don’t know, the state, maybe the country, but they’re enormous jumps. Like, I’m not hitting these jumps. These are for professional, like, slope, self free ride athletes. And Hang Time is an event that brings all female identifying riders from all over the world together to hit these jumps and showcase their skills. They’re throwing tricks and backflips and doing all this really cool stuff. I’m on the mic. I’m seeing it because I’m the Hype girl. So that event is the first weekend of October. I don’t know if Hannah’s formally announced it yet. Sorry if I spilled the beans on that, but it happened for the first time ever last summer, and it was a huge hit, and it’s really cool. If you live in Bellingham, just a short hike up, Galbrith can get you at the base of this course, and your mind will be blown at the level of athleticism and showmanship on display here. And even some of our radical rippers, some of the junior girls are hitting and tricking these jumps. And it’s so inspiring and so cool. So if you’re around and you want to check out the sport in a way, like, just spectating it, you should definitely check out Hang Time.

Scott Cowan [01:38:14]:

Okay, so used to be I’d ask the question at the end, like, what? Didn’t I ask you that? Used to be how we close the show, but we’re trying out a new closing now. All right, so not sure how this is going to go, but we’re going to try. All right, listen to the question carefully. Cake or pie? And why pie?

Angi Weston [01:38:36]:

Because Mike would kill me if I said cake. No kidding. He wouldn’t kill me if I said cake.

Scott Cowan [01:38:44]:

Okay.

Angi Weston [01:38:44]:

Pie is definitely a favorite in our household. I mean, a really good pie crust is just such a delight. And I’m a really big fan of berries, right? Like, part of why I love living here in Bellingham and in Washington State is because our abundance of delicious berries so anything you can fill with berries, which I’d actually just had from Pure Bliss. I had the berry shortcake, and that was phenomenal. So I do like pie when it can be filled with or excuse me, I do like cake when it can be filled with berries. But pie. Yeah, apple. Love apples. Another Washington state thing. Apple pie, berry pie with ice cream on it, whipped cream, whatever. Like, big fan of buttery crusty pie.

Scott Cowan [01:39:29]:

All right. Perfectly. Either answer is completely acceptable. It’s funny, I’ve asked that question two or three times, and I haven’t given it as much thought. And it may be because you just hyped it up, but I’m probably going to go pie. But here’s something that somebody threw at me, and so let me throw this at you. Cheesecake. When I think of cake, I think of, like, sheet cake or red velvet cake and things like that. I didn’t think of, and I love cheesecake, but I’ll probably go pie. And I’ll probably go, I really like strawberry pie. I really do like strawberry. So that’s probably my answer, but I do think it was influenced by your hype. Yeah. Had you hyped up red velvet cake or something. I might be seeing cake, to be honest. So you’ll just have to listen to future episodes and see if I waffle.

Angi Weston [01:40:37]:

Also another yeah, I might just waffle. Waffles. Now, those are legit.

Scott Cowan [01:40:42]:

See, I’m not a waffle fan. Not a waffle fan.

Angi Weston [01:40:45]:

They help. Just have so many little buckets for syrup and butter. Really? All those little pockets.

Scott Cowan [01:40:50]:

I don’t like maple syrup.

Angi Weston [01:40:52]:

Okay.

Scott Cowan [01:40:53]:

I don’t like it. And so pancakes and waffles.

Angi Weston [01:40:58]:

Another plug for pie is you can also make savory pies that are delicious. Like, I love a good chicken pot pie or like a curry vegetable pie. So I feel like the flexibility that pie offers also makes it very attractive.

Scott Cowan [01:41:11]:

Yeah, I don’t think chicken pot cake would be very good. Yeah. Okay, on that note. All right. Well, Andrew, thank you so much for doing this. This is a lot of fun for me, considering I know next to nothing about what you’re the sport, and so it was informative. I’ve enjoyed it. I’ve learned. Let me know if you want to.

Angi Weston [01:41:28]:

Try it out, Scott. You’d be in good hands. We got you.

Scott Cowan [01:41:33]:

I have troubles walking. I don’t know, you put me on a two wheel device and ask me to pedal and steer at the same time, and then you might as well ask me to walk and chew gum. It’s just not going to go.

Angi Weston [01:41:42]:

Believe it or not. I’m better on a bike than on my feet, too. I’m a little bit of a clutch.

Scott Cowan [01:41:46]:

In real life, but the thing is, I’m old and bones don’t heal. A broken collarbone would sit back.

Angi Weston [01:41:53]:

I know.

Scott Cowan [01:41:53]:

Nobody wants to break bone would just be awful. Right. Okay.

Angi Weston [01:41:57]:

Well, thanks, Scott. I really appreciate this, and I love what you’ve got going on here and thanks for highlighting the cool things that our state has to offer for it because it’s just awesome. I really appreciate it. Thank you.