Guests: Lynette Toepfer; Zapata “Zap” Espinoza
We’ve been talking a lot about the plight of the bike industry – lack of product, backed up service departments, and the need for new protocols due to the pandemic.
To help explain how all of this is affecting our US manufacturing, I contacted White Industries in Petaluma, California. White Industries is a family owned business manufacturing hubs, cranks, bottom brackets, headsets, and more .
Since no titles are used at White, I’ll just say that I spoke with Lynnette Toepfer to find out how COVID-19 has affected the company, how their supply chain is doing, and what they are forecasting for 2021. Oh, and then there are the California fires.
Then, as promised TWO weeks ago, Zapata Espinoza, editor-in-chief of Road Bike Action and mountain bike hall of famer – yes, those seem diametrically opposed and they are not – joins me for a terrific conversation.
If you’re entry into bicycling came at a young age – say 8 or 9 – and you loved your BMX bike, then you graduated to either motocross or mountain biking, you know what Zapata Espinoza means when he says he’s “that” kind of guy – the one who loves the thrill of the competition on two wheels.
What Zap didn’t know was how the mountain bike craze would change his life – from a law degree that never materialized to editor-in-chief of several bike magazines.
Today, he’s the editor in chief of Road Bike Action and a member of the mountain bike hall of fame.