Mike Ferrentino Part 2 - From Bike Mag to Downcountry?

The NSMB Podcast: Obsessed with Mountain Biking

For our first Podcast with Mike Ferrentino, he was home on the acreage where he lives, inland from the coast up the Carmel Valley. Mike lives in a barn filled with bikes and motorcycles, the latter in various stages of decomposition. He's a decent distance from civilization, and from the internet. Mike's connectivity relies on tethering to his phone's sketchy data signal so while we were talking the first time I would lose his picture, and sometimes his voice, for long stretches. There was also a delay I was unaware of, that caused me to walk over Mike's words quite regularly. This time around Mike had a better solution. He jumped into his Ford Transit,(which he got in trade for the Sprinter he mentions in the podcast) found a spot that was quiet and set up his mic. I lost him a couple of times, and once we got disconnected completely, but overall it was like going from hieroglyphics to Morse Code.

We dug a little deeper into Mike's time at bike magazine, particularly the glory days before corporate takeovers, talked about his six years working for Santa Cruz Bikes at the old cannery location, and even discussed mountain biking's newest marketing designation; Downcountry! We also talked about "shaping the destiny of mountain biking," about spectating, working for 'the man,' and being "strapped into a rocket car without a steering wheel."

And this made me realize all the things we didn't cover. But those will have to wait until next time.

Please enjoy our second podcast with the incomparable Mike Ferrentino.