Some Bicycle Things I’m Stoked About On A Friday, June 26th, 2026.
I open today’s SBTISAOF piece with a thank-you and an apology-slash-warning. Thank you to everyone who reached out via e-mail, reddit, text, the ‘gram, etc., to let me know that MEATengines wasn’t loading, or wasn’t loading properly, the myriad of times the site was being craptastic. I really appreciate it when some of the tens of folks who read the site let me know it’s not up.
I apologize that the site hasn’t been running properly up to and including today. Apparently, it’s fixed now. Fingers crossed. And look, I don’t know my toes from my tonsils when it comes to anything technological, but it’s clear to me every time I open the backend that my CMS provider, GoDaddy, which previously offered a simple, reliable, low-cost product, is deeply mired in the endless A.I. enshitification process. Their software would love to auto-generate {auto-genericize?} blog posts for me, but all I want is the basic system – with built-in commenting – for which I originally signed up.
On that note, from my posts, to reader submissions, to r/MEATengines reddit entries, to photos and artwork, to the very rare amounts of brand-created copy I may riff off of, in case it wasn’t clear, the goal here in 50,000:1 Clublandia is to create content that reflects the bikes we ride in how we write about them. It’s human powered all the way. If you see something anywhere related to MEATengines that you’re concerned may be A.I. or BOT ‘created’ I’d appreciate a heads up.
{Unless noted, all photos are by MEATengines}
Endings
It’s been an emotional week of endings. But they’re not always a bad thing. Last night Claire and I helped out at the final NSMBA Fiver* Race for the season. The racers and vollies were all in fine friendly form, lovely, and from our little hard-breaking u-turn corner stage start line there was some phenomenal riding happening {next year we need an NSMBA Fiver Corner Cam!}, on top of the fact everyone was out for a great time with the local cycling community. With it not being a school night, we rolled to the après at Lynn Valley Bikes. Thanks to Ken & the crew for burgers and beers.
[Aside]On top of volunteering, Claire is interested to try racing a couple of them next year, so we’ll see you out there maybe?[/Aside]
So, yeah, School is out for the summer. I’ve started finishing a bunch of MEATengines posts, all at once, totally inefficient. Today, Claire pedaled with me to one of the last days of SuspensionWerx, as we prepare for Pope Jimmy to fire up the SWerxmobile {think NASA launching the shuttle, but hopefully with more sangria} and roll off towards his next adventure and the folks from S4 open their third location inside his space at 1631 Welch St.
Lastly, if you’ve been thinking about firing in an About a Single Speed entry, the well is running pretty dry, and the MEATengines community would love to check it out.
*{They’re $10 including the après, so I prefer the name Double-Fiver or Fiver-Fois-Deux.}
CBC to Dale’s
The text came from my friend Mark on Saturday night. He was planning to shuttle CBC with Gordan, his son-in-law, and would Claire and I like to come along? I actually can’t remember the last time I shuttled anything, and for Claire, this would be a first. Also her first time riding CBC which, shout out to Jeremy & Lester, has long been a rock-armoured North Shore classic. CBC is within Claire’s max pedaling range but it would be a pretty epic day for her to ride up there and have the jam to ride the technical trails down. Maybe an end of summer goal?
Anywho, would you believe I didn’t snap a single photo? Okay, one, climbing between techy downhill sections. Claire rode so well and cleaned most of the trail sight unseen, and we were just having so much fun I forgot. I know, I know, did it really happen if no one took photographs?!
We rode Dale’s and Forever After as well. Claire’s second time on the former and she cleaned some significant sections she walked the first time. Forever After has long been one of her favourite trails and she would like everyone to know that she cleaned the main climb, on her single speed, and her dad dabbed. Only once, but it’s important that he knows that one dab or a hundred there’s cleaned and then there’s not cleaned.
Of course, I couldn’t shuttle without a bunch of folks I know witnessing it, so, yes, that was my Will’s Arcturian Voyager and Claire’s Samurai Voyager that you saw in the back of a truck driving up Mt. Seymour. We’ll make up for it with a pile of trail work and hitting some big climbs on our single-speeds. Promise.
Danielle Baker’s Mattmo Piece
Oof. With a warning to follow, If you read one thing about bicycles this week check out Danielle Baker’s fantastic Freehub Mag piece on the new Gnarnaimo trail tribute, Mattmo. It’s a wonderfully captured cycling community story that doesn’t shy away from the raw emotion in every shovelful of dirt.
I will mention that everyone deals with emotional stress differently, and this is the story of a trail built by parents in living memory of the young son they lost. If you’re not in the place mentally at a moment for that kind of tale, I’m sorry about that and wish you all the best. Definitely put this one aside for now because it’ll still be there down the trail.
{Photo: Freehub.com}
Creaking – SOLVED!
In last week’s SBTISAOAF I shared my current experience with sneaky-squeaky-creaky season and the unsolvable banshee death wail my bike was making with every standing pedal stroke. Which is a lot of them on a single speed. Even after confirming my bottom bracket was spinning smoothly, and that my direct mount chainring was toight, and putting a thin film of grease on everything surface, it was even worse the next ride.
At the end of the day, it was simply further proof that single speeding ruins everything. The culprit ended up being the pinch bolts on my non-drive side Shimano XT crankarm. Fresh pinch bolts; stunning silence. I actually remembered having to do a similar replacement years ago on my Honzo, for a similar noise, under the advice of my friend and mechanicing maestro Craig Sabourin, so thank you twice, Craig.
{Photo: Clairebarian}
My Omnium Kickstand {ugh}
I don’t want to like my Omnium kickstand. It’s of the rock solid, two legged, steadily supports a loaded cargo-bike varietal, and it’s even surprisingly quiet and never comes down on its own even chunking down light trails. Normally I only use it as a portable bike stand for quick cargo-bike service stuff and the rest of the time it sits in a box whilst the Mini-Max remains sleek, ready to lean, and stand free.
But, with the kickstand installed I have to admit the Omnium makes a great portable bike rack for my family’s other rigs when we’re on the go. No, it’s not as secure as locking the bikes to a rack hard mounted to terra firma, but still, multiple bikes locked together remains an impressive, entirely portable, deterrent. And lately it has been more kickstand than not, even with it only being a two minute job to find a tool and swap it.
Other than added weight, carried down low where DH racers like it, and the odd noise at the far bumpy end of cargo biking chunkiness, I don’t have any great, logical, reason to dislike the kickstand on principal. I mean, other than a historical aversion to kickstands in general that covers plenty of reasons and scenarios. Plus, they look unnatural.
Yeah, so. I’m not posting any pictures of my reverse-mullet ATB-long rig with the stand installed, but I’m willing to admit the Omnium Cargo Kickstand is one of the better ones I’ve used and as long as I don’t look down while I’m riding it only rarely makes itself known when I’m pedaling.
{Photo: Omnium}
The Ever Evolving Litany of ‘Favourite’ Trails
It’s fairly well documented, by me, that my favourite trail is Pipeline on Fromme. I have plenty of other trails I love {1b, 1c, 1d, etc.} but it would take a lot to knock that one out of the top spot. In a way, calcified as my preferences are, it’s quite refreshing to ride with someone whose favourite trails are ever evolving. I mean, Claire still loves Thirsty Beaver, maybe above all others, but as she progresses on our local terrain there’s a tipping point where she’s riding enough of a trail, but on the cusp of riding more, where it rolls into the hot seat as the current go-to.
Not that variety isn’t the spice of life, we ride quite a few different trails, but right now if she had to choose one trail from the local selection it would be Team Pangor on most days. It’s a great after school lap that can be a relatively quick if instead of the climbing trail we bolt up the Old Buck climb, and she’s still checking off at least one new feature every time we ride it. On Monday’s lap she managed to string together a couple rocky corners on Lower Pangor that only weeks ago she would have given me ‘the look’ if I’d even suggested she’d ride them this year.
It’s a good reminder that, like trails, skill and fitness progression can come in spurts. Be patient with yourself and ride for fun. It’ll come with time and suffering. Oops, I mean time and effort. Ha. Haha.
Climbmax
At the Fiver après, we were talking to Ben who, along with Claire, is also doing some ride leading for JacAttack. It’s note worthy because, after busting his derailleur for the umpteenth time, Ben has decided to try #1FG life. I didn’t have the heart, in the moment, to tell him it won’t actually save him any treasure in the long run. After all, say it with me, single speeding ruins everything. Not to mention that eventually everyone ends up with at least a small collection of cogs separated by 1-tooth intervals. And a couple of chain rings to make in-between gear ratios, or maximize ground clearance. Oh, but those chain rings fit your old crankset because even though none of your multi-speeding friends have had an issue with the same-same yours cracked, or fell off, or etc. Good luck out there. Bring cash.
Of course, as always, if you are thinking about the one-gear to rule them all and have any questions about the single life, hit me up. Happy to talk ways to tension the chain or determining gear ratios.
Cheerios,
Andrew
{Photo: Penny Deck}
Larry Talker Tunes: By Andrew
Okay, okay. So at the Fiver, Claire and I were playing some Rum Ragged. About the Canadianaest of CanCon possible. And, some of the racers were into it, or being polite, but maybe the old time maritime folk vibes weren’t exactly the pump-’em-up corner crushing crunchiness that best suited the situation. I mean, metal is clearly the way to go? What better way to calm one’s nerves before dropping in than by having the whole body vibrating as one unit?
Thus, maintaining the Mandatory Beaver factor, for today’s LTT I’m fully balancing things out. No middle ground, we’re going all the way to Balkan’s hard-as three song 2024 release ‘Not All Prisons Have Bars.‘ I mean, they aren’t wrong, some of them have tight janky turns with a crowd watching. It’s all in your head. If going from ‘Torture Anxiety’ straight to pushing pedals doesn’t have you setting a personal best down the gnarliest trail you ride, well, I’m not sure I believe you.
Youtube link is above; Bandcamp Link is here.
{Photo: Balkan}
Welcome to MEATengines, I hope you enjoyed this piece. If you did, please consider buying me a Coffee. Any questions, concerns, or comments; feel encouraged to drop me an e-mail, or join us at r/MEATengines.