- By now, you've probably seen our bike shop prank video
where we walked into Squatch Bikes
with this fine specimen here
and a bag full of completely ridiculous parts.
- Can you install this shifter?
- Now, we edited that video down
and there's a lot missing about the process
and just what happened that day.
So today, we're gonna give you a behind the scenes look
at the bike shop prank.
Welcome back to Berm Peak.
I'm Seth, and today,
we're gonna be doing something a little bit different,
but kind of the same.
(upbeat jazz music)
So let's start with the bike.
As I did say in the video, we got this bike for $60.
It was actually the people at Wheels Manufacturing
that found this bike,
and we chose it because it's really old, it's outdated,
and none of these parts would fit on it.
And that was the whole point.
We wanted to go into a bike shop
and have the mechanic legitimately confused.
- Um?
- [Seth] And then find out
that they actually have all the parts that get it done.
- (laughing) It's totally gonna fit.
- So when I kind of thought of this idea,
I sent out an email to my friends at Wheels Manufacturing,
and I said, "Hey, I'm looking for the parts to do this.
I know they don't really exist, but do you have a way?"
So to my surprise,
they came back and they were like,
"This sounds hilarious.
We really want to help you do it."
We'll get the bike, we'll make all the parts,
and then you'll execute the prank
and send the bike back to us.
They're actually gonna take this bike to trade shows,
put it on display.
It kind of showcases what they do best,
which is create problem solver items
like little bearing presses
that only work in a certain size of frame
or derailer hangers.
They are the guys that do that,
and so Wheels was all over it.
(upbeat funky music)
Now, the parts we put on the bike
consists of a SRAM GX wireless derailer.
It's called SRAM Axs.
And these are really sought after and really expensive.
The main benefit you get with SRAM Axs
is really precise shifting and no cables.
This is still excessive to people that have high end bikes.
And so to spend $60 on a bike
and then like another $700 on drive train parts,
terrible use of funds.
Now, as I said, these parts wouldn't even fit on this bike.
You would be able to screw in the derailer,
but it's made for a 12-speed SRAM cassette.
And so we had to have a custom wheel built
with what's called an XD hub.
This is a fairly new development in mountain biking
as compared to this bike.
Now, some of you are going to point out
that maybe we could have used a Shimano 12-speed cassette
and made it a little easier,
but that wasn't the point.
The point wasn't to make it easy.
The point was to make it ridiculous.
And we used a SRAM Eagle cassette.
Now, another reason we chose these parts to put on the bike
is because they're so sought after
and cutting edge.
I mean, they were just jumbled up in a shopping bag.
We knew that when a mechanic looked in the shopping bag,
he was gonna say, this is freaking SRAM Axs Eagle,
and he's just gonna blow a circuit basically at that point.
- I see what you're intending to do here.
- [Seth] And just to add another little layer of humor,
we use the highest end chain that they have,
which is like $95.
- He's got a $90 chain on a $90 bicycle.
All right, man.
Whatever, dude.
- Now, also, he walked in with a bike
with nuts that hold on the wheels.
And it goes all the way through the bike and threads in.
Impossible to put a through axle on this bike,
and so Wheels manufacturing invented an adapter
that nobody would ever use.
It's basically a big fat axle
that fits inside the through axle hub,
and then gives you little threads on the end
to screw nuts onto.
Now, what's hilarious about that
is that the kickstand on this bike
actually fit onto the threads.
And so when Pat was doing the installation,
he realized that the kickstand wouldn't fit back on.
- The kickstand is going away, that's for sure.
- Oh, but I want the kickstand.
- So they had to break the news to the customer
that the kickstand wouldn't fit.
- [Pat] We had to remove the kickstand.
- Oh man.
We can talk about that when I get there.
- [Pat] Sounds good, man.
We'll see you in a bit.
- All righty.
- You gotta raise a big sting about the kickstand.
I really need a kickstand.
- I really love that kick stand.
- Any bike is already equipped kind of with a kickstand.
If you lean the back wheel up against anything,
it just won't fall over.
- [Customer] Man, I'm gonna miss that though.
I'm gonna miss it.
- [Pat] You don't want that on there.
- So another cool thing that we did for the first time here
was actually hire an actor for the video.
Now, I found Christian through Brevard College
and I needed somebody who was good at improv.
- It's an interesting upgrade.
- Well, this is my brother's old bike.
It means a lot to me.
- Yeah, sure, we can do it.
- If you've worked in any service industry,
you've had that kind of weird insane customer who's likable
and not rude,
but they have completely insane requests.
And I don't think we could have chosen somebody better.
Now, I knew that Christian didn't know anything about bikes,
and that was perfect.
And what's this part?
- Gears, spokes?
- Fine.
And what's this part?
- Oh, I don't know.
- What would you call it?
- More gears and spokes.
- That'll work.
Because only somebody who doesn't know anything about bikes
would come into a shop with this request.
And so we were really surprised when Pat took the bait,
just like no resistance whatsoever.
Pat was pretty much like, okay, yeah,
let me book this customer.
He's got the most ridiculous request
I've ever seen my entire career.
Just put this bike over here.
See you later.
- I'll see if I can fit that wheel on there
physically today,
and if I can, I'll make it work.
Take care.
- Thanks.
- We were hoping for him to put up
a little bit more resistance,
but he's just that professional,
and he's seen a lot of stuff.
And so as he went through the installation
and started giving us phone calls,
and we went to pick up the bike,
we started getting riskier and riskier.
- [Customer] One thing though,
could you rethread these onto the back one?
And then-- - What are we talking about?
- [Customer] These.
Could you rethread the spokes?
- What's the point?
- [Customer] I just want 'em back there, you know?
Switch 'em out.
- They're the same spokes.
- Yeah.
It would look better, in my opinion.
- They're both silver.
Yeah, to unbuild this wheel and then put it on the back,
that's a no go.
Plus, that's a 36 hole rim and that's a 32,
so that definitely wouldn't fly.
- [Customer] Damn.
- [Seth] And Pat knew immediately when he saw me
that he had been bamboozled.
- I knew it!
- Now, the other thing about Christian
is that he's a rock climber.
So Pat wouldn't think anything
of Christian walking into the shop with a backpack on,
with a GoPro mounted right here.
That's how we were able to get that first person footage
as Christian went into the shop.
And it looked like it was off.
We shut off the front screen,
we shut off the LEDs
so that it would just look like he was a guy in Brevard
about to do something outdoorsy.
And sure enough, Pat said he didn't think anything of it.
- We have like three or four customers
that are just about like your age
looking that just walk in with GoPros on their head,
so it's not that weird.
- That's what we accustomed for.
- Now, while Christian was in the shop,
he was on a phone call with me.
So his phone was in his pocket, and my phone was muted,
and I could hear everything that was going on.
And that's how we had our kind of control room footage
in the car.
He's killing it!
Now, the cameras in the shop,
we placed there early in the morning before Pat came in.
Super bright light over here.
So you put this here and you're looking at the light.
Hopefully, nobody's gonna see it.
That's our thoughts.
James is into photography.
All we have to do is just sit a GoPro on the bench
and it's a totally normal thing.
It's just out there.
James, the owner of Squatch,
was totally in on the whole thing.
- And I don't have to do anything.
- James kept this all a secret for about two months
while we were casting an actor
and having the bike prepared and all that.
Now, every camera we used in the shop for this prank
was a GoPro HERO10 black.
The reason we chose those cameras
is they have a scheduled recording feature.
We knew exactly
when we were gonna send Christian into the shop,
so one minute before he walked in the door,
all the cameras woke up automatically and started recording.
That's a really, really cool feature that newer GoPros have.
So those really made it possible for us
to execute a hidden camera prank.
Now, of course, you know how this ends.
Pat installs everything on the bike and it works perfectly.
- [Customer] Ah!
- Now, I would love to take this bike
for a rip around Berm Peak,
but it is a little big for me.
In order to drop the seat low enough,
I'd have to basically crash it into the suspension.
So let's see if I have a seat post
that's short enough for this.
That might fit.
Okay, now, we've got all the travel we need.
I'm actually excited to see how this bike performs
over some real bumps
because it probably wasn't the worst suspension fork
for its time.
Rear suspension was notoriously like not that good
back in those days,
but yeah, we might be surprised.
Oh man, the geometry is so outdated.
The bars are super narrow
and this bike is too big for me,
but it's practically in perfect condition.
And with the addition of this drive train,
it's really quiet and smooth,
like remarkably smooth.
This thing was as quiet as a modern bike.
Now, this was not a department store bike when it was new.
This is a real bike,
but it certainly wasn't high end,
not even for its time.
And I still don't think this was a smart upgrade.
For the same money, you could get a much better bike
that's more capable and you could do more on.
But this is a really nice running,
mechanically sound bike.
So that prank video was really fun for us to do.
We tried to prepare for everything,
but we had never done anything like that
and didn't know what to expect.
If we do a prank again,
we're gonna be a little better prepared for it,
but I had a lot of fun doing that video.
We learned a lot.
I hope you did.
And if not, I hope you were at least entertained.
And I hope this video answers some of the questions
you might have had about that prank video
or gives you an interesting look behind the scenes.
Thanks for riding with me today and I'll see you next time.
- Did you know about this?
- I don't know anything.
- You wanna see where all the cameras are?
- I saw GoPros all over.
- Are you sure?
- There's one up there.
There's one to the right of that sign.
- Thanks a lot, you guys.
Just in early at work today, huh?
- Yeah.
There's more.
- I know, okay, all right,
let me see if I can find the rest of them.
I saw this one here.
I thought I was gonna mention something about it,
but I didn't.
- You will never find the other ones
because you gotta stare straight into a light to see it.
- Is it right over my stand?
You were good. - It's right there.
- I don't know how you could have kept a straight face
through any of that.
- [James] It was so hard to not say anything.
- I can't believe you.
I didn't have any idea.
I can't believe--
- [James] So at this point--
- Now, I'm even more happy that I got it to work.
- I was just, I was just recording.
I wasn't taking pictures.
- I got so got.
- I knew that you would pretty much know
by looking at that pile of parts.
Like, this looks like it might be possible.
And someone,
like you bring me this! - A paper bag.
- A liquor store bag with Axs in it.
It's like, okay,
someone's already monkeyed around with this and tried.
- Well, yeah, and that's what we made it look like.
- Are you already a bike rider?
You played the part perfectly
of just a normal weirdo bike shop customer.
- Dude, look at this bike.
It actually looks pretty freaking cool back there.
- Can I have a beer?
(laughing)