Off The Cuff: Josh Carlson on Training, Crashing, and the Evolution of Enduro 5

Josh Carlson popped onto the world enduro scene unknown, but he left his mark early on. Always ready to go for it, Josh had some big tumbles and serious injuries before figuring out how to channel his inner sender and develop the kind of consistency required to feature on page one of the results sheet. We had the opportunity to meet Josh at the recent launch of the new Giant Reign, and we sat down with the affable Aussie for an informal but very informative chat about all things enduro. Hit play and join the party!

Table of Contents

• 0:00 - Introduction and Early Days
• 2:35 - Getting Into Enduro
• 5:10 - Crashing a Lot
• 8:30 - Almost Winning
• 9:30 - Hitting the Deck Again
• 11:00 - Training for the EWS
• 12:30 - Dieting
• 13:40 - Evolution of Bikes, Designing the New Reign
• 15:55 - Long, Longer, Longest
• 17:10 - Evolution of the EWS
• 19:00 - Looking Ahead
• 21:00 - The End

So I was like, I got this, and then all of a sudden I hit the deck doing 70 down the side of a volcano.

Josh rides a 2018 Giant Reign Advanced in size XL, with the standard Giant Factory Offroad team component package: SRAM, RockShox, Schwalbe, MRP, and HT pedals. For extra that extra gnar factor, he runs his Lyric fork at 180mm of travel, up 20mm from the stock build.

photos and interview by Johan Hjord