Well, hello everyone and welcome to the Slow Twitch podcast.
My name is Kevin McKinnon.
I'm here with Eric Nguyen from Slow Twitch and we have a very special guest today from Poland Bartosz Kasprzycz.
I have, I'm sure I butchered that last name, but Bartosz is such a nice guy.
He just goes with everything and just keeps saying, yeah, you got it, Kevin, got it.
Bartosz, it's so nice to have you with us.
Thank you for inviting me here.
It's an honor to be here with the Slowtwitch Society, which I know a bit because I used your forum.
years ago and I found it very very interesting and helpful so it's a very high pleasure for me to be here when I thought about the invitation I thought it's a situation for me if
I would be a movie fan and I can compare it to the situation when Robert De Niro and Al Pacino will invite me for a podcast this is this kind of pleasure for me
good grief.
Eric, are you Robert De Niro or Al Pacino?
I guess I take whichever one you don't pick.
Um, we should have had Dan Enfield on the podcast.
That would have been, that would have been a true comparison since he was the one that started the whole thing.
There you go.
So Bartos, I know you and Eric met at a recent media event, um riding bikes and all that kind of stuff, but for um those who aren't familiar with all you do, maybe you could just
give us a little intro of what you do, who you are, and um what inspired Eric to bring you on our podcast today.
Okay, so um first of all, all the cycling stuff that I take care about is my side hustle.
My main job is to be a sales manager for Swedish company Atlas Copco, which is a worldwide leader in compressor.
And after the eight hours of working for Atlas Copco, I take care about my bike related stuff like...
I own a YouTube channel which has close to 25,000 followers and 8 million views.
I review bike stuff, give some advice related to bike sizing, bike fitting and so on.
I am also a director of Predator Gravel Series here in Poland.
Together with my colleagues, we created gravel series races five years ago.
and we continue to develop it with the support of Acer Company, which is the main sponsor here.
I run also a bikeselection.pl service where I help people to determine which bike they need on an online meeting, what kind of bike, which kind of bike, which exactly, which
brand, which size first and foremost.
And that's my online service, which I also take care about.
So, and of course, I'm the boss of the cycling team Road Racing.pl, which is a team in which there are really strong riders.
Few of them push well above five watts per kilogram.
We have a champion of Poland in TT in our squad.
So, so these are really keen people.
And just as an introduction, I would say that we organize those races, those Predator Gravel Series races.
to earn the money that we can run our cycling club.
So we don't want to have any donation to relate from people, from whoever.
We want to earn the money and have the money to spend them on cycling team on roadracing.pl.
And so what do you do the rest of the time?
It doesn't sound like you're busy at all.
uh The rest of my time, of course, I have a family.
m But I'm pretty busy, frankly speaking.
So as you have heard, it's a lot of things to do.
But with a good time management and with a general manager uh abilities that I own, I can cope with this really.
It is possible.
uh So maybe you could tell us a little bit about the Predator Gravel series, know, and, you know, because gravel is taking off and I'm guessing as popular in Poland as it seems
to be all over the rest of the world.
Yeah, so the story looks like this.
We were initially organizing road races, really huge road races.
There were events for even 500 people.
But it became tougher and tougher to make all the legal documents, all the allowance from police, from local authorities.
It became more and more difficult in Poland.
And then five years ago, I decided, okay, guys, we switch to gravel.
Yeah, it's much easier.
We have only one partner, the owner of the wood, let's say so.
And we will start doing gravel.
It would be much easier, much safer for us as a for organization.
then we started Predator Gravel Series.
Of course, my inspiration were American races.
So I tend to organize something which is close to the roots of the discipline of dirty Kansa.
So not a technical gravel, not a gravel in mountains, a typical fire roads, high pace, very well constructed roots.
And that's what we do.
uh I have nine colleagues with which I work on the subject.
And we do this with pleasure.
We do three races a year.
On the third race, on the final race, are also making a Championships of Poland of content creators, which is a very nice event because we can meet with each other, we can chat with
each other.
They are also making a kind of content from this event, so it is spread very well across the Poland.
And that's our idea.
To give you an idea of is the level of this competition, the winner of the male competition last year had an average speed of 39 km per hour.
Whoa, okay.
Yeah, so people aren't playing around.
And do you have, what's the, what does the participation look like uh in terms of, you know, the numbers, but also the gender?
Are women participating in these events?
What sort of numbers do you have on that front?
Yeah, the thing is we are in a southwest corner of Poland.
We are not in the middle of Poland, somewhere in the middle.
It's also important.
our participants is around 200, 220 racers and the split between genders is, I would say, 85 % are male riders, 15 % female.
But the female competition is treated here very seriously and I want it to be fair.
to not draft behind men.
It's illegal.
It's disqualification when you do it.
And therefore I start the women's race five minutes after the last male group is going ahead.
So I want that the females have also fun from the riding and to compete with each other.
Got it.
Yeah.
What do they think about that?
They fully agree.
They love it.
Girls like to want to race with each other.
They don't want such a situation that, in example, some boyfriend is waiting for some girl, giving her a wheel.
And because of the drafting, she wins a competition.
We have also pretty attractive awards in this races.
So we need to be sure that everything goes according to the rules that I set in this racing series.
So just to confirm, you start the women five minutes after the very last wave of men go.
Okay.
And how many waves of men do you usually send off?
We have also MTB riders, not only the gravel riders, because there are people who still own MTB bikes and everybody has uh bought a gravel bike.
So I would say four waves of men racing, the long gravel, short gravel, long MTB, short MTB, and then women all together, because they are usually 20, 25 girls and they are uh
racing as the last wave.
Okay, sorry, go ahead.
Oh, and then um do I'm sure the women still catch up with some of them in.
Yeah, but those men who they catch up are not powerful enough to give them any kind of advantage because they are in the back of the pack.
yeah.
They're passing like me.
Yeah, exactly.
Yeah, that's also that's the way it goes.
It's fair.
They accept it.
It was a kind of a new rules here in Poland because majority of the race organizers mixed the groups.
In my opinion, it's unfair.
The power of the average male is higher than the power of the average female.
So you got to respect it.
If you want to have a true winner of the women's competition, you need to split them.
Yeah, we're dealing with that a lot in the United States, just with gravel in general, particularly in the pro rankings where, um, you know, we're trying to figure out, I say,
we, the, the, the race directors and the pro women, they're trying to figure out how to get the most fair race as possible.
Um, and we, and we did that in the triathlon as well.
Um, and so usually the, the, the challenge that we have with the pros, the elites here is.
They start after the pro men, but after them come the elite, not the pros, but the fast age group men.
And they usually catch up to some of the pros and then they're riding together.
And so...
It doesn't make sense in my opinion.
Yeah, it would be the, I think the hard part with why, let me, let me rephrase this.
What you have going for you is, you know, unfortunately your, your race isn't that big.
And so if you were to have a couple thousand people doing the race, you might have to reevaluate how that would work.
Cause yeah, because then the women would have to go through, you know, a couple hundred people instead of just maybe 10 or 15, but yeah.
Yeah.
these are not big races, 220 people.
a solution that everyone seems to be happy with because we have yet to find a solution that everyone is happy with.
Well, em I respect lot all the women's racing.
I like when they came to our races.
It's always a very nice thing.
But I want to know which one of them was the best.
Not which one was the best in drafting, but which one was the best in general.
What's more, the last race where the content creators are racing also, in last year in Poland,
Two first ladies were a week after in nationals, in Polish nationals, they were the winner and the second place.
So the level of the competition is really high on our races and therefore we really need to secure that it goes really...
Because these are unnecessary emotions after the finish line.
You were cheating, you were riding on somebody's wheel.
Sorry, I don't want events like this.
I understand fully.
that my race is relatively small, 220 people is not a lot, it's not 5,000, it's not unbound, so to say.
But on this scale, we are able to provide this kind of solution.
And so you guys put on these gravel races, you have a road team.
Do you put on road events as well?
No, actually not, because it's getting more and more difficult in Poland to organize road races.
We started from this, as I said, but now we do only gravel.
and majority of the people racing in gravel are road racers.
Okay.
And so, can you tell us a little bit about your road team then?
You know, obviously you've got some, you know, masters time trial champions, so you've got some top people in your club.
Where else does the club race and how does that all work?
We race all over Poland.
Of course, the main races are close to our home, so in Lower Silesia, but we travel also a bit to race in other parts of Poland.
And the competition here is pretty uh big.
I must say that Polish Masters, we might say they were very, very successful in Australia in World Championships.
the UCI Grand Fondo Championships.
Our colleagues from VALBET team in Poland, they scored three podium spots.
So one of them was third in the category from 35 to 39.
And the first guy was also from Poland.
The other was third and two in the category 19 up to 34, second and third place.
So these were all guys from Poland.
small country in Europe, but they traveled to Australia and pushed really hard.
Yeah, what is it about Polish cycling?
You've got this incredible record of, you know, success and I guess popularity.
Why is the sport so popular?
I think that when it comes to road cycling, road racing, it all exploded after Michał Kwiatkowski's spectacular World Championship in Pomerania.
I recorded a video for my channel, a golden generation, golden decade, sorry, from 2010 to 2020.
And we had racers like Michał Kwiatkowski who won World Championships, Amstel Gold Race, Strade Bianche, Milan Sanremo.
Everybody knows him.
He's a super intelligent rider, super skilled also, great descender.
We have Rafał Majka.
He already finished his career, but he was winning stages at Tour de France.
We had Maciej Bodnar, who won the TT on Tour de France.
I know him personally.
He was an ambassador of our gravel race.
He's now close to specialized.
He was an ambassador for our race.
We had Przemek Niemiec, he won the stage at Vuelta.
Why is it so popular?
Because I don't know why it's so popular in Poland, but it is really huge here.
I might say that in Calpe, in Spain, in winter, the most frequent language is Polish.
Yeah Well and but and I think it goes back to like, you know for me anyway, I'm thinking of Eddie B Eddie worse savage I have no idea if I'm pronouncing that right but you know,
he was the the site, you know the guy who was the brought brought American cycling to a higher level in the 70s and 80s and you know, he was from Poland and here in Canada we had
a bunch of famous Polish athletes who came over as well and and seemed to
you know, raise the level.
So yeah, you guys have a really long history.
Yeah.
what's important, we have here in Lower Silesia uh a group of people, uh racers.
They were amateur racers in time of communism, in 70s and 60s, but they are still active.
They still race, although they are 70 or 75 years old.
And they were really a big and popular stars in Poland at these days.
And they still have a continuation.
So the younger people are coming.
and they have some career, they want to be a trainer, their young kids see that the sport is popular.
I think that the social media thing also is helping in a way because we also, have to mention here also about our great women's like Kasia Niewiadoma, Tour de Femme winner, and
many other women's who are pro athletes, rising for best teams in the world.
And I think it's really huge and all the young people now see that cycling can be a very nice sport to practice but also visually appealing.
What is important for people these days?
And how is the industry going, the cycling industry going in Poland right now?
Well, we have the Polish manufacturers of the bikes, pretty big companies, but they are producing, I would say, mid and low tier bikes.
And we have the representation of the whole world here.
You can buy anything you want.
So if you ask which brands are strong, I would say that Trek is strong.
There's also a thing that many people don't know, maybe in USA even.
But the biggest shop of Trek is in Poland, in the world.
Yeah, it's in Częstochowa, it's Fabryka Rowerów.
So there you can see a bicycle of Rens Armstrong, of George Hinckapie.
It's a fantastic place.
I would say also specialized this strong, specialized I would put them uh half shelf above Trek.
The Italian brands are here present.
On my channel, I cooperate with a shop from Jedlicze.
who sells Pinarello, Velier and Orbea bikes.
The Orbea is strong here also.
I would say we have all the brands that are top in the world are also present in Poland.
So you can choose, it only depends on your budget, what do you want to buy and no problem with that at all.
The shops.
ride?
What?
I have several bikes.
Tarmac S works.
Okay.
All right.
So that's sorry just said just it or go ahead
one thing about Tarmac S-Works is not that it's the best bike in the world, but when I was a younger guy, I was 33, let's say so, I bought myself with a huge effort at these days
S-Works Stumpjumper frame and I built a bike on it.
And we were together on 35 MTB marathons without any success because I'm not talented at cyclists.
My father was heavyweight lifter, representative of Poland.
So I'm rather a strong guy than an endurance athlete.
But I love to ride a bike and we had great adventures for many years.
And that's how my sympathy for specialized brands raised over the years.
that's why it's my...
I also have both now Pinarello Dogma F.
I own some gravel bikes, Velier Rave SLR.
em And I own also electric bikes which are popular here in my family.
My wife likes electric bikes, MTB electric bikes and my kit as well.
So this is how it looks like.
Awesome.
And just to round out the state of the nation or state of Poland in terms of cycling.
So the economy and people, if there's that much availability of bikes and that much support for all the bike stores, people must be out there buying bikes and everything.
And you must have an active population in terms of that and people buying stuff.
Yeah, people generally buy stuff, but the Polish people are looking for good deals.
Here in Europe, you do not have to buy it in Poland.
They look also for some other countries, Spain, Italy.
So they buy it also online.
I'm against buying bikes online.
I prefer the local shop method that you can go there, try on to have a good service, somebody who you can rely on.
There are a variety of possibilities and from different budgets you can buy generally any bike you want.
What's the, what are the shops like in Poland?
Cause in, in an ideal world, I tend to agree with you that, you know, somebody being able to go into a bike shop, get the service, get, somebody that can answer their questions.
Um, but like in the United States, like a lot of bike shops have become super lazy and you don't get good service anymore.
And because of that, there's been a, a big opportunity for direct to consumer.
sales that at sometimes is better off than going into your local shop.
Yeah, I understand it.
But uh in Poland, I would say so.
be a US, United States like lazy thing too, where we're just not, you know, we're just not proud of what we do.
I never been to United States so I cannot comment on it.
I never experienced this kind of things.
But in Poland it generally look like this.
If the owner is young, he is 25, 30 years old, generally he is engaged, he is helpful, he is doing all the good things that he needs to do to give you a great service.
Marching from Rowery.pl in Jedlicze.
The guy with whom I cooperate is 25 years old.
He's 25 years old.
His father run a bike shop in 90s.
Now he do this and he's very, very customer friendly.
He's in good contact.
He's answering his calls.
He's making all in example when you want something superior.
Yeah.
Your dream is to have Pinarello with SRM power, uh power meter and lightweight wheels.
You will have it by him.
He will arrange it for you.
But this is the bright side.
And to be honest, there is also the dark side.
The dark side are the shop owners who started their career at 90s, let's say so.
Now they are around 60 or older.
And of course, they are not so super energetic.
They are maybe not so helpful.
But these are the two categories.
Yeah.
And there is also a third category, huge shops.
When you can try on inside the bike.
Inside the shop when there is a circle where you can ride on the bike.
It's it's all it's called Centrum Rover over It's a corporation.
It's a rich company that is able to open large shops in large cities and there is the Third approach so depends where you go and but generally you can find people who are
engaged Who are passionate about this what they do and they want just to earn money and so they know how the business goes
If you give your customer a good service, he will advise you to his relatives or some people that he knows.
So I think that generally Polish people, when they work, they are very engaged.
We are famous from this in Europe, I think.
Yeah.
All right.
So you have better shops.
Well, but but but Eric don't you think that the shops that are now being successful in the states are doing exactly what Bartosz is talking about like because otherwise you're gonna
get killed with online stuff right like unless you're providing that service and
I think they've started to there.
There was definitely a, um, you know, a transition period where, um, you know, shops were irritated and direct to consumer and things like that.
And so, you know, you would buy, let's just say a Katana roux, right?
Direct to consumer.
And then you would, you would need it, you would need it fixed, right?
And so you'd go into the shop to get it fixed and they wouldn't even fix it because they're like, you didn't buy that bike here.
And there was enough time of.
You know, people just not going to bike shops where they, they started to figure out that they needed, you know, no matter what a consumer, you know, needed, it was, it was their
job to try to service the customer.
so, you know, running shops, um, you know, and, and, and cycling shops that have, have adhered to that and taken that approach of we're in business to service a customer.
no matter what the customer needs, like there's an opportunity there to make that customer happy and make money at the process.
Those are the ones that have definitely like thrived.
uh And there's been a lot of shops that have closed down in the last, you know, five, 10 years because they chose not to do that.
So.
Yeah, the...
Yeah, go, go.
I was just gonna say, Bartosz, you are also involved in that whole process yourself because you, I think you mentioned you have a bike fitting service yourself, right?
uh And can you tell us a little bit about that side of the many things?
I finally met somebody who I think has more jobs than I do, which I didn't think was possible.
Yeah, I have to say that in Poland the habit of working in two places is very old.
Nobody is afraid of doing this and you have acceptance from your relatives, from your friends.
It's obvious.
It's not that I'm somebody special here.
So what about the service?
Service is called bike selection.
I always take care about the proper name of my activities like road racing.
It's worldwide understood.
What do we do?
Then bike selection is also worldwide understood.
It's not a bike fitting service.
It's a bike sizing service rather and to help and to help how to help people to choose the right bike because they are very, very confused.
They do not know what is the difference between endurance bike and travel bike.
When do they need this?
When do they need that?
What's the difference?
What does that old story which is so important here for Slowtwitch community with that stack and reach?
What is it all about?
This is very confusing.
These are some numbers, some data, but are not clear for average customer.
And that customer is lost.
And there is the most important thing that I want to say here in case of bike selection.
85 % of the...
buying decision of a potential buyer nowadays is made prior to visit in the shop.
85 % of that decision.
Why?
Because the people a little bit want to be ahead of the shop advisory.
They want to know on their own what is good, what is not good, what is that for, what is that for?
And this is the part of the story.
the bike selection, I am the part of the story.
First, these are some marketing materials made by YouTubers, made by journalists like you.
Then people read about it.
They get some idea about what they want to buy.
And finally, they already have some idea what it's all about.
Then they came to me.
We made a 45-minute session on Teams.
And after that...
This person is clear what she wants, what she needs, what kind of bike, which brand.
And I try as good as I can to determine the frame size because the frame size determination is the basic of the bike sizing.
The stem length, the handlebar reach, it's just a regulation.
First and foremost, you need to have the right frame size.
My close colleague, my friend is Bartek Czerwiński.
He's a physiotherapist at Red Bull Bora Hansgrohe.
And we made together some recordings about these kinds of things.
And he also mentioned that very frequently people have two big bikes.
And he's honest in this what he does.
He's also highly professional.
And I asked him, what would you do in this case?
He's a bike fitter also, not only physiotherapist, he's also a bike fitter.
He has a bike fitting studio here when he's not with Red Bull somewhere in the world.
And he says then when the bike is too big I drink a coffee with my customer and I say that's it for today.
I will not fit this bike
So he's really honest.
I think it's a good way because fitting someone on too large frame is just, it's not a good service in my opinion.
Yeah, it sets everybody up for failure, right?
Like, because bikes aren't cheap either.
And so, you know, somebody's really excited about, you know, this new adventure that they're going to have on these bikes.
And then if they're not fit properly, then, then their experience is just a, it's just a bad experience all around because they don't feel good on the bike.
And then they just spent a bunch of money on the bike and then they don't ride the bike and then they end up selling the bike and then they don't want to go back because they
just assumed that bike riding sucks.
When the reality of it is, is they were just on the wrong frame and or the wrong saddle, you know, and so on the, you know, or with the wrong tilt, like very small little things
that easily can be fixed sometimes don't ever.
um and it's
You know, mean, that's one of the reasons why, you know, Dan was so, you know, anal retenant, I guess you could say about stack and reach and fit and, running fit academies
and all of those things was because that was the starting point on someone's journey when it came to them being successful with the, you know, their experience out on the road on,
on bicycles.
so.
Awareness when it comes to bike fitting in Poland is really big.
People in many big shops offer bike fitting in price of the bicycle.
Yeah.
See, so in the, in the States right now, it's starting to drop off a little bit.
People are, are starting to, to, to forget about the importance of a bike fit and, and, know, and so we've got to kind of start to resurrect that a little bit and get, you know,
proper trained fitters in shops with
proper tools so that when somebody comes in to buy the bike and I think that that's going to start to change because obviously the bike business is tough right now in selling bikes
and so I think that will naturally be an occurring thing but I did have a question where do you have a studio in your house where do you do all of your fits?
I do not feed people.
I just meet with them online and we speak about which bike to bike and I help them after their precise measurements to determine the frame size.
And that's all what I do.
I don't do bike fitting.
Okay.
So how do you, so talk to us a little bit about the process of, of how you would go about that.
Like what measurements are you getting from them online?
I take from them.
There is a bikeselection.pl website.
You have there several measurements, but the crucial measurements for myself are your height, your in-sync, your torso length and your arm length.
Because those measurements determine the proportion of these measurements, determine what kind of bike can you actually ride.
There are tools that can determine you that by this height, this inseam is above average, under average, on average.
So then you can slightly move into direction, but you can determine whether this guy needs something like an endurance bike, which has shorter reach and higher stack, or is he able
to reach the handlebar with a bike that is more sporty?
Of course, we consider also the flexibility of this guy.
I make an interview about it with him.
I made 250 of these kind of services in Poland.
People are generally very satisfied.
I am conservative.
don't.
I think that the worst issue that can happen on the bike, there are two issues, too long bike and too high saddle.
Yeah.
Those two mistakes affect your position really badly.
So I try to.
At the end, why did I say that I prefer a local bikes?
If I already am at the end of my service and I would say, example, Giant TCR size ML stem 100, what I recommend them, go to the shop please and try on this bike.
em As precisely as I can, I try to figure that for them out, what do they should to feel?
How do they should to look like on the bike that they have
to have the slightly bent elbows naturally pointed down the torso and this is the way I work and it is really really helpful because I take a look at every small detail I'll take
a look what is the handlebar reach what is the brake levers reach that the strut levers are one centimeter longer than Shimano levers I take into consideration all of these kind
of things so this is the way I work
So do you ever tell somebody, you shouldn't get this brand, you need to get a different brand?
Yeah, because brands are different sizes.
Yeah, exactly.
And then,
goes about the geometry.
Geometry is the base.
Sure, yeah.
And then do you work with the shops at all on the back end?
Like do you ever call a shop and say, hey, I've got so and so that's coming into your shop.
This is what they're looking for.
If you could help them out.
they will, if they will, I do not have this kind of method of working, but I would say I have to fit you on Pinarello because I have money from this.
Yes.
I will fit you on the bike that you need.
Sometimes it's cube, sometimes it's, it's vile, sometimes it's specialized or track.
With some of these brands, I have a kind of relations like this, but this is
This is not all over Poland.
It's impossible to have a general relations with trekking Poland.
They are too big for that.
But with some shops, I can help people to buy it a little bit cheaper.
How many do you do a week?
uh Generally, I try to do five a week once in the evening because it's exhausting.
It's very intense.
have to remember I'm after eight hours of working by Atlas Copco.
I set it around and then I go for a bike.
Sorry, sorry, sorry.
Very important thing.
After four p.m.
I make um a power nap.
Half an hour.
Yeah.
Yeah, it is refreshing me.
It is making me able to work in the evening like today.
Of course, I did it today as well.
I practiced since I was, I don't know, a very young guy.
the thing is that I try to do it five times a week, but sometimes I need to do more because the waiting list is really long.
Now it's three weeks.
People are waiting three weeks for the service.
and they are very, very satisfied.
They are recommending me to other people.
Of course, for example, my customers are pretty frequently ladies.
Those ladies usually attend this service with her husband because the husband is involved usually in the buying process.
And very frequently, these are ladies that are not too high, that are 1.60 example, 1.55
And then you got to know which brand is offering special bikes for that height.
Yeah.
Okay.
One of the brand is LEAVE.
Yeah, they are great at it.
We know the brand.
The other is Pinarello, in example.
They also have very wide range of sizes.
So those women, what they very frequently repeat is that I bought a bike in a shop.
It was too big.
It was very uncomfortable.
eh But I want to ride comfortably for long distances, please help me.
That's the case.
Yeah.
Now this is probably a good way to segment into the next thing that we want to talk about because, know, obviously you, you know, you're, you're what we call it, um, a, an
influencer when it, when it comes to people buying bikes, right?
So you're, I would classify you as a, as an online bike fitter in the United States.
That's what, that's what it sounds like you do, which is, which is amazing.
And we need more of you doing those types of things.
And so.
Now you're, we're going to talk about how you've, you've got this really big YouTube channel and you, do all these product reviews and stuff.
so I would imagine that probably helps you a ton with your bike selective service because you physically have put hands on a lot of these products.
And so how did, what, what started, what, what clicked with you where you're like, you know what, like
I'm going to start making YouTube channels videos about all of this stuff.
Yeah.
So the story was like this.
I have a website, roadracing.pl.
I started writing some articles, some reviews of the things that I bought that I want to share with the people.
The first big success was a review of Continental GP4000 S2, which was the most visited review of these tires in Poland, according to Google.
But then I said that my dynamic as a person
my ability to speak uh in concentration because I have that ability.
When I record a video about a product, I switch off for 12 minutes and I speak exactly what I want to say without repeating, without second recording.
I take care of myself, of being able to be efficient and that's how it works.
And then I asked a bike producer
Rose company to send me some bike for review and for the first time I recorded the review but it was totally amateur yeah I had I don't know iPhone 6 without a microphone I just
went around the bike and said something for three minutes I put it on YouTube and after three months I see oh three thousand views not that bad so maybe I should repeat it
Then I started to record videos about every bicycle of my colleague.
Every.
eh I was asking, can you lend me this bike for a while?
Yes.
So I will just describe it, not to make a review, just describe it.
How is it built?
Yes.
Then some other companies started to approach me, giant send me some bike for reviews.
And then I thought I need a better gear.
Yes.
I want to be professional.
So I bought myself a Sony camera.
I recorded some video about bike fitting which was a huge success.
It gave me 1000 followers one video and I decided to buy a microphone to buy all these gears.
Now I have several equipment.
I'm really focused on high quality of recording and my dynamic and being honest with people because my main goal is to describe the bike as good as I can then when somebody
buys it he will feel the same.
That's my goal.
I'm never in any kind of relation with the bike manufacturers that they will tell me what to say.
It's impossible.
That's the way that's the reason why I do not cooperate with Chinese direct to consumer brands because they usually demand a preview of your video.
I don't accept it.
The big brands, big Western brands like Specialized, like Trek, like Villier, like Pinarello, they don't require this at all.
They believe in their products.
So I cooperate with them because that's my I'm honest from from the from the very beginning.
And then I when the channel starts to develop, it is not a huge development.
It was not very spectacular or super fast.
I'm also not that kind of guy like with the mindset like like AI chat GPT that I will please you in my reviews.
No, I just will tell you what it is in my opinion.
I'm not looking forward to anticipate this what you want to hear.
I try to be as independent as I can in my thoughts and that's the way I do it.
Now it's 25,000 close of followers.
uh They are similar to me, I think, because I have met them many times in many races because I also do a races shoot.
When I go with my colleagues, when they race, I make some videos, I make interviews at the end of oh the race.
This is very popular and I always ask some technical questions.
In example, what's the pressure in your tire?
What tire do you ride?
What's the width of your bar?
So in this case, it's more interesting and engaging.
And my community, my channel community, I think these are, as far as I see in the stats, these are males usually.
from 35 up to 55 and taking a look at the comments they are really very nice, educated and generally positive towards what's more I am not super fit yes I am not the type of
influencer that I'm you know former pro or something like this I'm an average 47 years old guy yeah and this helps the people they they take a look at me
He's just like me.
I can do it as well.
I can ride a road bicycle.
I can ride a gravel bicycle.
And that's what has my colleague from Specialized Artur noticed.
That probably the people uh think that you are similar to them in a way.
You are just an average cycling enthusiast.
Not a pro, not a former pro, just an average guy.
So how much time a week do you spend doing all of that stuff?
Yeah, my plan is to shoot four long videos, so the horizontal videos and if it's possible on daily basis some shorts.
When I shoot a video I cooperate with the video guy.
He's doing this for me because I need the highest quality.
I'm very demanding in that aspect.
And when I shoot vertical videos or such a simple um spoken videos, when I stay near by my bike and speak about something, then I shoot it on my own.
I shoot also many videos with the of browser recording and commenting something.
And how much time, I would say, oh in hours?
You want it in hours?
uh A week, okay.
And so do you, you said four videos, you do four videos, two videos a week, okay.
So you're doing eight a month.
Yeah, so do you, um how many times do you post to YouTube a week?
Is it twice, is it once?
How?
No, I post it almost every day because I post some shorts videos every day.
But normally I post on Thursday and on Sunday.
Long form video.
So your long form is repetitive twice a week, and then you're doing shorts every day.
yeah, I try to be regular because the YouTube algorithm likes it.
Nowadays, just for your information, I have 280,000 views at 28 days.
Yeah, no, you have a lot of views.
was, I was going through your YouTube video um after Nice and, and then just last week where, um yeah, you, you've got a, you've got a very bustling channel.
It's, it's impressive.
Yeah, and I try to work...
Well, if it would be a pleasant thing, if it wouldn't be a pleasant thing for me, I will not do this.
I like it.
No.
And so I, I probably should have started the podcast with this, but, uh, we actually met at the giant, uh, media camp, uh, last month and these, and, we, we spent three days
together, um, you know, looking at the new propel and talking about, you know, K-dex wheels and tires and all of that stuff.
And, and, and I just found you very refreshing.
Um, every conversation, uh, you had me, you know, laughing and, ah you, were just really good sport about everything because you, you know, you were so blunt with your opinion and
you were very non-apologetic with things.
Um, and, sometimes those opinions were completely opposite of anything that was at the table.
Uh, but, but no one cared because you were so like just full of life that, uh, you know, it was just.
They're like, okay, cool.
That's, what this guy thinks.
Nobody was offended by, by any of it.
And, uh, yeah.
offend someone.
As you know, we spent some evenings together by the table, but I think that discussion is lively when people have different opinions about something.
Yeah, then...
Yeah.
And and it led to really good conversations because of that.
So, yeah.
So go ahead, Kevin.
I was just going to say, do you think that's the key to your success, Bartosz, has been that it isn't your main gig, that you're able to do it just purely as a passion?
Because you're not worried about, well, if Giant doesn't like me because I don't like their Spike, it doesn't matter.
I still have my other jobs.
I still have my stuff that I do.
Yeah, it's a very good point, very good question.
Financial independence gives you the freedom in life.
Yeah, I'm very responsible when it goes about financial things.
I live a good life.
uh I can handle this really great.
am working.
uh I came from a family where my mother owns a natural apothec shop.
Yeah.
And when I was 13 years old, I was working with her.
When I was really young, started to work during my studies.
So I worked, we might say, all of my life.
But I also am financially independent.
um I live a good life.
And that's the thing that I do not depend on these brands.
Whether Giant will say that they like me or not, will change nothing in my life.
So people understand it in Poland.
People see it and people value it.
this kind of approach because if you are becoming immediately ambassador of each brand that you review, sorry, it doesn't make any sense.
What's more, this is dangerous because people can take financial decisions on buying something from a person who doing these kinds of things.
So it's highly unfair in my approach.
m And I'm not afraid when I make a review of specialized bikes, some SL7 Expert Charmant, and the handlebar looked cheap.
I said it looks cheap.
That's it.
This is specialized.
Okay, this is like Holy Grail of the cycling industry, but this handlebar looks cheap.
And that's it.
If you are not able to be honest with your audience, you are not building an audience.
It's only a matter of time because the thing about which the content creators forget very frequently is that your audience is intelligent.
These are intelligent people.
These are people just like you.
They can sense that something is going not in the right direction because at the end they can do something.
They can buy this stuff and then they will reach you when there will be a total misleading opinion pushed to them.
In example, I bought these headphones after listening of a guy that I trust.
These are Bowers and Wilkins, high-fi, very good quality headphones.
But I know that this guy is very careful in each word that he says.
He doesn't have a huge channel.
He has maybe 30,000 followers, but he's careful in every word that he says.
And I trust this kind of people because I I try to be as much as I can this kind of man.
If the Pirelli PZero Race RS, we have three flats with this tire, I said it at the final review of the tires.
And I think it's positive.
I did not said that this tire is a trap.
I said this tire is awesome, but we have three flats.
Yeah, what do you do when you...
you know, when you're reviewing something and there's really nothing negative to say about it because I agree with you and, you know, slow Twitch agrees with you a lot.
Like integrity is the biggest thing that you have.
And that's one thing that we've prided ourselves in is being honest with reviews and things like that.
But, you know, there's a lot of times that I'll review something and I don't have anything negative to say.
Yeah.
about it.
Like, I mean, it's like, yeah, it's, it's super expensive, but it's really well built, or, you know, and then there's a lot of times where I refuse to review something that I look
at, because I'm like, in my head, I'm like, you don't want me to review that, because it's crap.
And so I don't, I want to spend my time reviewing it.
And I don't want to write about it, because it's crap.
So I'm just not going to review it because I have better things to do and, and, and
You know, so yeah, but yeah, so like, what do you, do you ever, do you ever worry about, you know, doing a review and not have anything negative to say about a product?
Cause you honestly don't have anything negative to say about it.
had an experience of this kind of review which was not pleasant for me.
The device was top.
It was a Garmin 1050.
Garmin Poland sent me this computer for testing.
I made awesome video.
Awesome.
Brilliant.
Great light.
Everything spot on.
I am a Garmin user since 12 or 13 years.
I know the environment, know the system, I know the software, I know everything about it.
I use it personally.
And I was positive.
I was highly positive in this video.
You know what some of the minority, but some of the commenters said, you just received a very nice gear from German.
I didn't receive anything.
I just borrowed this for test and give it back.
And you were so very nice here.
So sometimes...
people expect from you to looking for some downsides.
When I cannot find it, so what can I say?
It's simply good.
Yeah.
But I do find, don't you find that that is rare?
Like there's like, you know, I hear exactly what both of you guys are saying, but I almost always find something either, you know, Eric, to me, the price is a big thing, right?
Like, you know, sometimes stuff is, yeah, this is amazing, but like, it's not worth.
18 grand or 20 grand or whatever right or the other thing too is that
it may not be worth that, but to somebody else, it may.
mean, look at,
compared to like wetsuits, Like, you know, there were many times that I reviewed a wetsuit and said, this is an amazing wetsuit.
I've got nothing negative to say about it, but I can't in any good conscience tell you that you need this over one that costs half the amount.
Like I can't, I could not justify to you to go out and do that.
um You know, and I won't name the brands that.
Mm-hmm.
price is always, you know, it's, it's always so subjective to me because like, would I, would I spend, you know, personally $15,000 on a bike?
No, never.
Like I just wouldn't do it.
But at the same time, there's a lot of people that would and, and can and have no problem.
And so, you know, you, you look at a product and you're like, okay, this is $15,000.
Is the product developed well enough to actually justify the cost of that?
Right.
And I think that's where I go back to, you know, on like, don't think Pinarello is worth a $15,000 price tag, but I think some of the Cervellos are, I think some of the giants are,
I think some of the specialized are, I think Pinarello personally is like, they just, they're a small boutique brand, they're super sexy.
And they're just like, here you go.
Here's the price.
Right.
ah
But to somebody that wants a Pinarello, they're like, I want exclusivity.
It's like Ferrari, right?
Like I would never go buy a Ferrari in my life.
But yeah.
I totally hear what you're saying, Eric.
I have many, many clients that will come to me and ask for a bike and I'll say, well, here's what, if you need to be the person who arrives with the coolest, newest, lightest,
fastest looking stuff, here's what you need to get.
And if that's what you need, that's great.
But you're not going to lose a race because you're on this, right?
not a matter of losing or winning because it's all in your legs, in my opinion.
But I agree here with Eric that there are brands that bring incredible value in the technique that they put into the frame, into frame manufacturing.
there are brands like this.
In example, the Giant is a brand like this.
But the perception of Giant on the market
is not a perception of ultra premium brands.
They don't want to be perceived like this.
And I had a customer, I had a customer from Warsaw.
This is a very specific city in Poland.
It's our capital.
uh We call it cash city because there are plenty of wealthy people there.
And he asked me a question on bike selection.
I will remember this for a long time.
He asked me, please tell me with which bike
I will impress my colleague the most.
Price doesn't matter.
Where'd you tell him?
what did I tell him?
I said, if you want a good bike, but reasonably priced, Merida or Giant.
But if you want to impress people, first and foremost S-Works, but it's popular, definitely.
But if you want to impress people that are really not keen at cycling technique, buy yourself a Factor or maybe something like this.
Because I do not position Factor really high.
Yeah.
mean, giant is a hundred percent the way that you, you, you describe them.
Um, and I don't, you know, I could be completely talking out of my ass here, but I don't, you know, there's, there's definitely like this thing where the, because they manufacture
so many of those big bikes for them.
And so I, I don't know if they really can be out there, right?
There's like this weird.
thing where there's like a handshake deal of like, I'm not going to sell this in this market and stuff like that.
But they've been able to kind of become the premium through KDEX.
And because I think KDEX makes, I think they make the best wheels out there.
Like their line of wheels, like Envy's coming up pretty close ever since they've started to reinvest in what they're doing.
But like,
If I were to give a public opinion on like who has the nicest wheels out there from like a mass scale perspective, it's 100 % KDAX.
Like their carbon is like the best carbon I've ever seen.
Consistent.
We rode on the new model of KDEX in Nice.
It was stunning.
It was totally stunning.
Those wheels have no downsides.
They accelerate so quickly and they are still comfortable because the trap in the cycling industry and in many other industries is shifting between the borders.
You make something ultra stiff
But you don't need to do this.
Giant is always spot on.
They know exactly where to place the stiffness, the compliance, how to assemble all of this.
Then you have the experience like with no other wheels in the market.
I personally own a DT Swiss ARC 1100 and Vision Metron RS with carbon spokes.
These both wheel sets are good, but in comparison to KDEX,
Each of them have some downsides.
Yeah.
And everyone thinks I'm just like bought and paid for by Kdex, but at the end of the day, it's like, no, like their wheels are awesome.
Like they're awesome wheels.
oh So what, what is the one thing that you would want our users to understand about you as a, as a human being in the sport?
Like, what are you the most passionate thing about?
Is it, is it, is it your road gravel series that you put on?
Is it your road team?
Is it your
your bike fit, is it your content creation?
Like, what are you the most passionate about?
em It's hard to distinguish which is the most important thing for me.
It all circles around me as a founder, as a guy who has the energy, as a guy who is highly respected by his colleagues and friends.
Highly respected.
I don't speak, I'm not talkative.
We've been together in France.
You may confirm it, I think.
I do not steal the show.
I prefer to listen to discuss with somebody, but I will not force my opinion over other heads or over the feelings of other persons.
And that's appreciated by my friends.
I would say that if you want to go into content creation in general, or you want to do something and it does not bring you pleasure or your main motivation or money, leave it.
Leave it.
Money will come.
That's obvious.
But if your main motivation is money, leave it.
I love cycling since I was a kid.
When I had an MTB bike and I was 14 years old in the 90s in Poland, there were no law restrictions.
You can do on your MTB bike, wherever you want it.
I traveled with a bus to the mountains, 50 kilometers south from my home.
I jumped out of the bus.
I climbed to the highest mountain, went back and go back home.
I love it.
All the memories that I have with cycling.
are very pleasant moment, very pleasant people, very positive people because athletes are generally positive due to many things.
They are not so stressed.
They are really uh very nice persons in general.
if you if why did I build that the race cycle also?
What was one of the reasons to meet with my colleagues regularly on dinners?
Why?
Because it's so pleasant to be amongst the people that you like, that like you, that accept you, that you share your passion, that you do something together, that you plan
something together.
With the road racing, I'm also involving our wives and girls that are your friends, yes, when you are younger, not a wife yet.
Why?
Because they have to approve this what we do.
So twice a year, we meet in a large group, 50 people or more.
in a hotel, we invite our wives, then they see, okay, your friends are very valuable.
This one is a lawyer, this one is an architect, they all cycle.
It's super, it's super cool.
You can go with them wherever you want.
And this is my strategy.
Yeah.
And this is my strategy.
My wife, yeah, a kind of a strategy because if your wife will struggle with your passion, it will not be a good deal.
Yeah.
yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Happy wife, happy life.
Yeah.
I heard this for the first time when I was in Prague and by Atlas Copco some kind of training led by American trainer.
Then he said happy life, happy wife, happy life.
such a true statement though.
Like anytime, if my wife likes, if my wife knows the person and likes the person that I am spending time with, then it's, it's usually not a problem.
Like even if it's like a phone call at like nine o'clock at night, I'll be like, Oh, it's Kevin.
got to answer this.
And she'll be like, that's fine.
But if it's somebody else and she doesn't like him, she's like, why are you answering the phone?
So it's yeah.
Yeah.
So it's very true.
And yeah.
that you cannot pull to the people some wrong energy.
If you are spreading good energy, you will also take it back.
okay, I simply like to do this.
I'm good at also at time management, at people management.
I know how to handle all this and we are successful in a way.
And I'm responsible also for all of this because this is the downside, but you are responsible as a leader.
But I enjoy it a lot.
I have lots of pleasure also with meeting with my viewers all over the world.
Even when I'm at the airport in Tenerife, some guys come to me from Poland, of course.
Hi Bartosz, how are you?
Can I take a photo with you?
It's a pleasure for me.
I will never run away from my viewers.
because I'm still a normal dude, which I think is also beneficial for myself because I don't want to change myself.
I like working hard.
I like working a lot, but I also would like to see the effects of my work.
Yeah.
Well, Bartosz, I really appreciate you taking the time.
think this has just been an amazing, amazing hour in a bit to just get to know you and share your passion um and keep up the great work.
And we'll look forward to seeing you at some point, I'm sure, either at media events or road racing events around the world and keep up the great work.
Yeah, I even thought what I can do for you because this meeting for me was so as I told you at the early beginning that it's like I am a movie fan and one once upon a time Robert
De Niro and Al Pacino are inviting me for a podcast.
You even don't know how important this moment is in my life.
I appreciate you a lot as a group of people.
A slow Twitch forum.
All these things are very positive.
and I even thought what I can do for you here in Poland maybe I can do some video and transfer it to you for your channel from some Iron Man uh event then you will see how does
this look in Poland we can think about it you will have a reporter in Poland uh
Yeah.
Be careful.
Be careful what you what you say to Eric.
You might be finding yourself doing doing coverage at an Iron Man event sometime.
be editing Polish English in written language.
Now we have, I was recording a video with Tudor pro cycling athletes and we were speaking partly in English, partly in Polish.
Now these are all these AI tools, it's a few seconds and you have the translation.
So it's not an issue, any kind of issue these days.
But the triathlon in Poland, just as a last word, is really huge.
Those events are highly professional.
They are much bigger than cycling keyboards, I must admit.
Yeah, yeah, no, it's a lot lots of stuff going on in Poland and obviously lots going on in that cycling world.
Thanks to you Bartosz.
So This has been our slow twitch podcast.
He's Eric when I'm Kevin McKinnon and we've had a wonderful chat with Bartosz Kasprich I have no idea if I'm even close on that one.
But anyway, he's been a wonderful person to chat with and we will look forward to catching up with you again here at slow twitch very soon
with pleasure.