- So you're choosing a mountain bike,
there are tons of options.
You can get an enduro bike, cross country bike, trail bike.
Wouldn't it be nice before you spend thousands of dollars
if you could take it for a test drive
like you do with a car?
Well, actually as it turns out,
I can go over here to this bike festival
and take out as many bikes as I want for free.
And what makes me eligible is not the fact
that I have a YouTube channel,
it's because I have a credit card and a pulse.
(upbeat music)
And now, I have this Tyee, it's probably a $6,500 bike.
I can take it out on any of these trails.
I can see the tent from here.
That's how close the trails are to the festival.
So a lot of you're saying,
"Seth this is not some amazing discovery.
These are bike demos.
Everybody knows about bike demos."
Not everybody knows you can demo bikes for free.
And now, some of you are also saying,
"Seth, that's not free.
You have to pay admission to the festival.
You have to get a bike demo pass."
Not at Bentonville Bike Fest.
It's completely free.
And this would be a great time to tell you
that my trip was sponsored by Visit Bentonville.
And I say that proudly.
This place makes you feel so welcome
as a mountain biker, there's single track everywhere.
If you can somehow ride all the stuff that they have here,
come back a few months later and there'll be something new.
And now I have this Tyee, I wanna take it for a rip,
but they got my credit card and this isn't my bike.
I better be careful.
(energetic music)
So what I meant to do was exactly the same thing,
except jump off the end skillfully.
Now they're probably gonna charge me for that,
but the truth is that most things
you're not gonna get whacked for, a flat tire,
a little scrape somewhere, they're not even gonna notice.
But most people are not doing what I just did.
In fact, it's actually very rare
that a demo bike comes back with any damage whatsoever.
- I think the worst that we've seen so far
is a broken spoke.
- We had someone blow out a rear tire
in the rim and we had to like replace all that.
- Someone cracked a frame a couple weeks ago,
so that's not the worst thing that could happen.
- We did have a guy earlier today that had a gnarly shiner
and kind of got blood everywhere.
- Bike fell off the rack and he drug it
most of the way back.
- That's been a biohazard that we've been dealing with.
- The kids didn't wanna pedal back off the hill
so he grabbed onto his homie's car
and he lost control and he got the bike ran over.
- Lo and behold, they swapped our brakes.
- All right, he cracked the frame, he taco-ed both wheels.
- We just accept that it's gonna come with demos.
- Benefit of the doubt, I guess most of the time, so.
- We had to charge him and the guy ended up buying the parts
and took the broken parts home with him.
- Well, it does happen sometimes,
but it's a calculated risk, it's a calculated loss.
The more people that get on these bikes and try 'em out,
the more people buy 'em and the more people hear about 'em.
(mellow music)
- Feet on the pedals, bounce.
Nice and sturdy.
- So I'm here at the YT booth,
I'm about to demo this four core Jeffsy.
Never ridden one before
and actually it's gonna be set up just for me.
Every rider has their own weight, their own riding style.
They want you to know how it's gonna feel
when it's set up for you.
So seeing as the last demo did not go so smoothly,
I gotta be a little bit more careful with this Jeffsy,
and so let's try something with a little bit more cushion.
(funky music)
I can't say I've ever hit a lip that big
on a 29er, but the bike felt good.
I got my pedals back.
Let's go demo something else.
- [Announcer] Olympic gold medalist, Dylan Stark
starting off, big 360 down.
One of the biggest 360s in the game.
(playful music)
- [Seth] So where do I turn it on?
Right here? - Yep, just that button.
So you're on right now.
- [Seth] I'll be real careful with it.
(spirited music)
Hey, hey.
Is that a coffee shop?
I'll make fun of e-bikers
and then I'll go to a lift access downhill park.
And so that makes me a hypocrite.
This is pretty awesome.
(spirited music)
(lively music)
It's been way too long since I've been here.
- You hate the hammer?
- [Seth] Not on this thing.
- Just got rebuilt yesterday, smooth as butter.
- [Seth] These guys are telling me
I should ride it on an e-bike I've never ridden before.
It's a 12 foot drop followed by some step-ups and stuff.
Oh, super smooth.
(relaxing music)
So smooth.
I don't ride e-bikes very often
and I forget that if you put a bunch of torque on it
while you're shifting, it snaps the chain.
- I got a OneUp tool.
- [Seth] Oh, that's exactly what we need.
Thank you. - Yes, sir.
- [Seth] Oh, I see.
Oh, this is awesome.
All right, we gotta get back to the festival.
But while I'm here, Bentonville Bike Fest,
there are a lot of other things to do besides demo bikes.
There are races here.
They have an entire slope style course over there.
As you saw, they have an airbag.
And they have a trials course over there.
This stuff is just bananas.
(soft music)
So we shuttled a little ways from the festival.
I am really excited to ride this bike.
It is a 29 inch Revel Rail.
I have the 27.5 inch version.
And the trail we're about to ride is really special
because it's named after my backyard.
(cheery music)
If you've been following my channel for a while,
you know that before Berm Peak, my backyard was Berm Creek.
I got a text message from Bentonville.
They said, "Hey, we want to name this trail
after your backyard."
Of course you can do that, I'd be honored.
So just like actual Berm Creek,
the trail starts out with a drop.
There's a really tight berm
and then there are a couple little features and it ends.
It's a super, super short trail, just like my backyard.
This is sick.
Look at this vegetation on either side.
There's berms all around the creek.
(cheery music)
And in riding Berm Creek,
I was able to test out the Rail 29 a little bit.
I forgot it's got transmission on it, it's RAM transmission.
So let's test that.
You stand on the derailleur.
- [Camera Man] Don't actually stand on it.
- [Seth] All right, let's see if it shifts.
Wow.
Yeah, they weren't lying.
- Dude.
- [Seth] Dude, Scott
If you don't remember Scott,
he was in my dirt diaries video.
We go way back, grew up riding BMX together on Long Island.
If you were wondering if Scott stuck with mountain biking,
he sure did.
So you've gone to a bike festival,
you've demoed a bunch of bikes,
and you've found a bike that you've fallen in love with.
Now what?
Can you just take it home?
Well, no, demo bikes are almost always part of a demo fleet.
They run those for the entire season,
replace parts on 'em, cannibalize them.
You do have to either buy the bike
at a shop or consumer direct.
Nobody buys an automobile without test driving it.
Although some people do.
Bikes are no different.
And so if you've never demoed a bike before,
it's really that easy.
Credit card, pulse,
give them some information and you're good to go.
Hey, I'm really sorry about scratching up your bike.
- Dude, absolutely don't worry about it.
- [Seth] I'll be real careful with it.
- Oh, beat it up.
I want you to have a good time.
- Thank you Bentonville for sponsoring this video.
This is a place I truly love.
I had a ton of fun here today.
That's definitely the most amount of demo bikes
that I have damaged
or broken parts of in the span of several hours.
But now, I'm gonna go and enjoy this festival on my own.
Thanks for riding with me today, and I'll see you next time.
(fun music)
- We had gotten our bike back
and I go take it for a test ride, you know?
And lo and behold, they swapped our brakes.
Moto styled.
I grabbed a fist full
of what I thought to be the rear brake.
Yep.
- [Seth] E-bikers are just the same as real mountain bikers.
All right, that was a low blow.
I'll make fun of e-bikers
and then I'll go to a lift access downhill park.
And so that makes me a hypocrite.