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00:00You're gonna make me talk to this puppet right now on camera, huh?
00:03Yeah.
00:04Okay, bro.
00:05If you're getting on a team, you just need to chill.
00:08Just enjoy the ride.
00:10When you do things yourself,
00:13and you win at it,
00:14it's winner-takes-all.
00:19I'm okay to take on those responsibilities,
00:22and sometimes it goes good.
00:24Absolutely tearing the tide apart!
00:26Sometimes it doesn't.
00:29I've made eight frames so far,
00:31and I've cracked all of them.
00:33Be content with the effort.
00:49I've been running the Intense Factory Racing team now for,
00:52I believe this is my fourth year.
00:54I wasn't afraid of the extra work,
00:56which it definitely is.
00:58I think you can't manage a team
01:00and not compromise your racing.
01:02There's no way you could win a World Cup Series
01:05and do that.
01:06No chance.
01:08Hey!
01:09Don't bruise my banana!
01:11I'm gonna eat that!
01:12I rode for other factory teams,
01:14like some of the very best elite teams in my career.
01:18I gotta make it, I just, I just gotta make it.
01:20Aaron Gwynn, the man who made mountain bike in his own
01:23in the last decade.
01:25I've always been more involved in the business stuff
01:28than most racers would be,
01:29but it was important that I could have the people around me
01:32that could take that weight and that responsibility
01:35when it's time to go racing.
01:37Last final check, a little test ride.
01:40I've watched Aaron go from being a factory rider
01:43on a factory level program where he doesn't have to worry
01:45about anything but training, showing up, racing and winning.
01:50And through that process of taking ownership of his own program,
01:54I think he's able to, you know, have a hand in
01:56and a say in your own happiness
01:58and being able to provide yourself what you want out of life
02:01and what you want out of a career.
02:05How are you feeling?
02:07Terrible!
02:09Lens are eyed.
02:10Dakota had his best qualifier ever and qualified second.
02:13And, you know, I'm sure when he saw his teammate
02:15dealing with those nerves, Aaron himself being in that position
02:18many times, has a ton of experience.
02:21This is like a whole new level of nerves!
02:26I went out of the track!
02:28Where are we going now?
02:30I want to see some...
02:32I'm just going to keep it just...
02:35Cruising.
02:36Get up the hill.
02:37Just one step in the tunnel.
02:38Don't think so far ahead.
02:40Dakota, being on my team, like, I'll share every line,
02:43every bike setup thing, everything.
02:46Like, I'm a full open book.
02:47Go again, buddy.
02:48Seriously.
02:49Lay it down.
02:49You too.
02:50I think now being a team owner,
02:52like, you really want your guys to succeed.
02:55Welcome to round four
02:56of this year's Mercedes-Benz UCI Downhill World Cup.
03:00You know, you have somebody on your team
03:02that you know has the capability,
03:04you hired him because you believed in him,
03:06is just as exciting for us and for Aaron.
03:10Each guy wants to win, there's no taking that away.
03:14So, all you've got to do is just get on your bike
03:16and do your job.
03:17For the winner of this series at five times,
03:20this man, Aaron Gwinn then.
03:22And he's green then, look at this, by .19.
03:29251 here in Lentzaheider though.
03:32251 all day.
03:33Hi.
03:35The speed is returning.
03:37Everything's starting to click again for the Californian.
03:43I feel definitely more invested
03:45on the rest of the riders' results.
03:47The Kohlenor next to drop in there.
03:50And he's fast!
03:52Oh!
03:52Yes!
03:53And he goes down!
03:54.
03:55It was going so well.
03:57So, a slight slip cost him everything.
04:02.
04:03You're kind of all in it a little bit more together
04:06than you would riding for a different team.
04:09Thanks, man.
04:10Yes.
04:11Have a good day.
04:12Smooth.
04:13But you need more than smooth.
04:16Wearing all these hats as a team owner rider,
04:20I think there is got to be some compromise somewhere.
04:24He's learning as he goes along the responsibilities
04:26and that's why he brought me on board.
04:29You're riding so good.
04:31Again, don't take this moment now
04:32and think about all that you did right up to this point.
04:35There's just that one zip, that's it.
04:36And it wasn't even reckless.
04:38I wouldn't change anything at what you're doing right now.
04:43And then seeing Niko spread his wings
04:45and do his own thing like Aaron's doing.
04:47Niko and Aaron are really good friends.
04:50Ride Rock Creek with the man himself.
04:52Niko Molalb.
04:54Niko's always been the ultimate do-it-yourself guy,
04:58for better or for worse.
04:59He's basically built an entire bike park.
05:02He wanted a good race series in America,
05:04so he started the Downhill Southeast Race Series.
05:07Now he's like running basically his team and a frame company.
05:13Niko, I guess, has always been interested in how everything works.
05:19There's no real surprise, I guess, that he's tried to assess how the bikes work.
05:22Like, he's basically doing an engineering degree,
05:24like, while he's at the racetrack.
05:30Racing for the various teams that I've ridden for over the years,
05:33we've developed race bikes,
05:34but we're always constrained by some parameters that we had to stick in.
05:39This year, making my own bike,
05:40I could make exactly what I wanted without having to sell any of them.
05:45I've never broken one.
05:47They've all just had stress cracks,
05:48and it takes 150 to 200 runs on a woke-up downhill track
05:53to develop these cracks.
05:55And it's getting to the point where it's not the fun stuff anymore.
05:58Putting the pivots where you want to make it ride a certain way is fun.
06:01Making it durable, having quality control across multiple frames,
06:06is the fine details.
06:09It will get me to a really good spot.
06:11If the bike can last a full season of racing, testing, and training,
06:15I think I'll have a good bike.
06:18He's doing all the logistics.
06:20He's booking the travel.
06:21He's working with the sponsors.
06:22He's the marketing person.
06:24He's got his finger in a lot of pies,
06:25and I don't really know quite how he does it.
06:30When you do something yourself,
06:32first of all, that's more fun.
06:34And second of all, it's way more admirable,
06:36and people notice.
06:41I was going too slow.
06:43Eh, scary.
06:45I'm a mountain bike YouTuber,
06:47and so I make YouTube videos that are either based on mountain biking
06:51or loosely based on mountain biking.
06:54Welcome back to Burm Peak.
06:55I'm Seth, and today we're going to be doing something a little different.
06:58But kind of the same.
07:01Trail building, repair.
07:05Sometimes it can be as much as 20 million views per month,
07:08and sometimes it can be as low as, you know, 12 million views per month.
07:12But it's a lot.
07:24There was a moment when I had to take a leap from being a freelance web developer to do that
07:30full time.
07:30So after a storm, a big elm tree fell over here, and...
07:36So after a storm, a big elm tree fell here, and we cut off...
07:39I wanted to make some YouTube videos in my spare time,
07:43but one does not make YouTube videos in their spare time.
07:48I didn't have a family, and so I could just work seven days a week and make it happen.
07:54We have two bikes here today that we're going to butcher.
07:58When I started doing YouTube, there was no place I could go for knowledge.
08:04Always wanted to build a tall bike, and I always wanted to do it myself.
08:09You have to try something and hope it was the right thing to try, because it might not be.
08:16It's the most brutal way to learn, but it's really the best way to learn.
08:22Everything we've done here, there's no instruction manual for.
08:27Everything that Nico's doing, there's no instruction manual for.
08:31You have to be prepared to take risks and trust your gut.
08:38Instead of having the experience in manufacturing to lean on what we've been doing for many years,
08:43I'm doing it trial and error.
08:44I'm making something that I think is going to work, and taking it out on the racetrack and proving it.
08:51Nico Mulally now.
08:52It was easier than I thought to make a frame 90%.
08:57Fast down there, it did look quick.
09:00Every percentage after that is so much harder.
09:03The laddie comes down to the line just over two seconds back.
09:08It's like racing, it's the same way.
09:09You can get in and be 90% of the win pretty quick, but to get 100%, it takes way
09:15more effort.
09:16When you're doing something that you've never done before, you better be prepared to make mistakes, and you better not
09:22be afraid to.
09:26That's what's going to happen, and that's how you're going to learn, and sometimes it's painful.
09:33Whether I'm making my bikes or organizing my team structure, I'm going to do everything from scratch, so I'm learning
09:39it all myself, which there's an expense to that.
09:43You add it up in your head to do eight races and how much you think it will cost to
09:47get all the infrastructure you need to go and the people that you need to come with you.
09:51I didn't think it would be as expensive as it was.
09:56No!
09:58No!
09:59No!
10:02It's costing us around $160,000 to do the full World Cup Series.
10:07But with that, there's a lot of freedom to do it the way you want.
10:12Aaron shoulders a lot of burden that nobody sees.
10:16There's sponsorship dollars and making sure you're going to have enough money to go racing and to pay everybody.
10:23Just like, hey, what do you want her to aim at? And she won't make a final decision before you
10:27yes or no it.
10:29My only thing is a little bit...
10:31Don't film this, look.
10:35I try to take the load off of the riders and the staff as much as I can.
10:39To me, it's no question if it's going to make life easier on somebody and we can afford it, it's
10:43always pretty much a green light for me.
10:46We both agreed on our approach, which is happy team, happy performance.
10:51We have a good time, kind of all the time, and when we focus, we focus.
11:00I'm just hoping for the pieces to fall together and for us to kind of start getting back up there
11:04consistently.
11:28I always tell Dakota, I want to win, so I want to beat him and everybody else.
11:33But if somebody has to beat me, I genuinely hope that it's him.
11:38Aaron Gwynn leads for intense factory racing.
11:42On top of the moment as we go to his teammate.
11:45Dakota Nor next to drop in then.
12:11It is a little bit more fulfilling to be able to accomplish things where you really had a bigger role
12:16in it.
12:17It's nice to see him back.
12:19It's a lack of business.
12:20Good job, boys.
12:21Thank you, bro.
12:23Being able to get a top ten at the World Cup and run your own team is a massive feat.
12:27And like, yeah, fair play.
12:30Hard work.
12:33We often talk about success these days, and his whole view now is that it's not just the grind.
12:42Success is a different thing than it was for him six or eight years ago.
12:47My bike's not far off a few percentage, and I think the second year is always going to be easier
12:54than the first.
12:55Having figured out logistics in Europe and have a solid plan going into next season,
13:00I'll be able to put more time into my training and preparation.
13:04I want to be behind the camera.
13:06I want to get my hands dirty, because if I lose that, I'm going to lose what brought me here
13:11in the first place,
13:12and it'll probably all go to .
13:17You're going to look back on you and say, like, I did that, rather than I was a part of
13:21that.
13:23Even though it might be a little bit harder, may not be as big, but, man, it's going to be
13:27yours,
13:27and it's going to be what you did, and nobody can take that away from you,
13:31and that's what makes it the best.
13:36Coming up on Race Tights.
13:39I'm in a state of my career where I really want to focus on races where I enjoy.
13:44In the South African terrain, anything could happen.
13:49I love pushing the boundaries and seeing how far I can ride.
13:52You need to learn to handle the pain.
13:54It's pretty tough.
14:00You need to learn to handle the pain.
14:01You need to get my hands dirty, and you need to go over the pain.
14:01I'm going to realize my hole.
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