I drive to work over the challenging Highway 17 and it's a 45 minute commute to work. My commute takes me over the Santa Cruz Mountains which separates the Central Coast from the Bay Area radio markets. I listen to NPR a lot and it has always been frustrating that I cannot listen to the same program for my entire commute. This changed when I got an iPod which has allowed me to listen to podcasts. It has been enriching and enlightening my commute ever since.Most of the time I listen to the same old NPR and Tech podcasts. But a couple of months ago I sought out some mountain biking specific podcasts. There are a number of mtb specific podcasts listed on iTunes. Most of them are dead.
MTBCast
This one is from the South East. It's hosted by Joe Polk who is affiliated with the Southern Off-Road Bicycle Association. Joe seems like he has a lot of experience with broadcasting and knows how to put together a good show. This is a really good podcast that contains racing and product news. There is definitely a focus on local (south east) news and events. It seems like the South East and SORBA have a really healthy mountain bike scene down there.
The enhanced version has pictures that change during the broadcast. For example, in Episode 37. He talks about Broadie's new bikes. As he talks about the entire line of bikes, the picture changes to show the model. When he talks about Chris Kings new pink anodized components we see a picture. When I listen to this show through iTunes, I pop up the album art/video viewer.
Crooked Cog
This is a very good podcast hosted by Tim Grahl. Very slick and professional - a quite commercial. Tim is quite good and well informed. I listened to the Marla Streb episode and he keeps it moving and interesting. His Interbike 2006 coverage was top notch. He seems to edit out the pauses and perhaps he compresses the time on the audio since it seems to move quite well. Lots of information in short time.
This podcast is also "enhanced" for video/photo podcasts. For example, when he plugs his sponsors we see the banner, during the Marla Streb interview, we see Marla's picture. I really like these enhanced podcasts!
YourMTB.com
This originates from the mind of Walker Thompson from Colorado. This one is more of a vanity project and Walker tends to talk about his experiences and perspective and tends to ramble a bit. I definitely get the sense that Walker is passionate about the sport. I really liked the episode in which he talks to Mark Eller from IMBA but it's clear that he doesn't have the level of broadcast experience as Joe Polk from mtbcast.com or as comprehensive and slick as Crooked Cog.
Walker is the "Enthusiast in Chief" and is building a community of mountain bikers at yourmtb.com. The web site is pretty slick (uses Drupal) and is backed by the Enthusiast Group which is a network of blogs/media which is focused on outdoor sports and recreation.
After a while, I stopped subscribing to this one.
There are a few others out there you may want to check out. I don't subscribe to them all but I'll check out an episode or two. Specialized has a podcast and I downloaded the interview with Ariande Scott. It was dead for a while and the server was pretty slow but I just checked it out again and they just updated it (with a faster server). Maybe I'll re-subscibe to this one.
MTBcast is a great example of a grassroots regional podcast. I wish we had a forum like that for Northern California. Crooked Cog is a great all around podcast for mountain biking info. Great interviews and great coverage of the mountain bike industry. If you are going to subscribe to a single mountain biking podcast then I would recommend the Crooked Cog.
