Welcome to Episode 26 of the Steed Cycles podcast! Tony 'Toe Strap' Brisindi has been working at Steed Cycles as a mechanic for over 6 years now and most of our regular customers will know Tony pretty well, having worked on their bikes, given them advice or maybe having been riding with them. Tony is a mainstay at the shop and we're happy to have him and his experience and knowledge in the shop.
Tony has been in and around the bike industry since 1995 - that's 27 years now and in that time the industry has changed a hell of a lot. Tony has worked in a bunch of different bike shops around North America as well as Specialized HQ, so he has seen a lot of different technologies come and go as things improved (or not), and somehow has retained much of that knowledge in that brain of his. Some things Tony knows are probably not worth knowing, however it is interesting picking his brains and going back into the annals of bicycle history trivia. Tony is a total tech nerd and likes to try all the new interesting parts like Shimano Airlines and linkage forks, but he also is a little old school in some regards. Currently Tony only owns steel bikes with only front or zero suspension, though each bike is definitely pretty weird and uniquely his.
In his time in the cycling industry Tony has tried riding all the different types of bikes. Back in the 90s and early 2000s were his downhill riding and racing days and rode some legendary bikes like the Specialized Demo 9. Moving on he spent some time riding fat bikes when they first came out and racing cross country, and he obviously decided to mix the two and was one of the first people to ride a fat bike in the Leadville 100, because why not? Tony wanted to be the first person ever to finish the race on a fat bike, but unfortunately one of his race buddies beat him by about a minute, making him the second guy. More recently Tony have gravitated toward bikepacking and when he can't camp out, he simply goes for the biggest rides he can, something like gravel riding, something like mountain biking, Tony simply likes riding his bike.
We could listen to Tony's random stories all day, but unfortunately we should probably get back to work. Either way, we hope you enjoy listening to this podcast as much as we enjoyed recording it. Cheers!
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