Some Bicycle Things I’m Stoked About On A Friday, September 5th, 2025.
“Bicycles are the manifestation of elegant simplicity.” It’s a Lennard Zinn quote, and in a book action-packed with interesting and/or useful information, it’s, for me, the key takeaway. Road, mountain, ATB, etc., the bicycle is humankind’s most beautiful invention. A human-machine hybrid created for enhanced speed and experience. The original cyborg.
I had a whole train of thought about self-healing, self-upgrading, symbiosis to go here, but to cut through the poetic waxing, if you don’t work on your own bike, you should. I’m not saying you have to do everything – I certainly don’t. But even just wiping it down and oiling your chain, checking your brake pads, and refilling your tubeless sealant. The more of your own maintenance and upgrading that you do, the more in tune you’ll be with how your mechanized other-half functions. Not to mention the advantages of prior experience when it comes to trailside troubleshooting.
{Above Photo: Steve & Meg @Hardtail.Life}
I doubt any of the above is controversial, but today I find myself thinking about degrees of elegance. All colourways being equal, it’s clear to me that the fewer moving parts a bicycle has, the more elegant it will be.
All the biggest bike companies agree with me. Flat-mount brakes, through the headset/stem/bar cable routing, 1x drivetrains, is it really all about aerodynamics, or is every road brand chasing a track bike aesthetic? Can Scott justify the massive pain in the ass of insulating the rear shocks on their sag-wagons for any reason other than chasing a simpler looking form? The Trek Supercaliber looks more like a classic hardtail than plenty of hardtails.
Disc brakes, dropper posts, none of my rigid single-speed mountain bicycles have had the elegance of a steel fixie with a Nitto flat bar. Or, even of Steve’s Ruined Talbot (The SRT), for that matter. But as a screwdriver is to a hammer, they are all epically more elegant in appearance and practice than any sag wagon I’ve ridden.
And so, while I’ve been riding my over-forked ArctuHawk Voyager a lot lately and the {semi} stock mountain bicycle I’d be most curious to throw a leg over has both wheels suspended, I wanted to take a quick moment to celebrate the one place where a rigid single speed is superior to any other mountain bike. Simplicity and, therefore, elegance.
The Vic AKA Moto Story
As I noted in my [Aside][/Aside] on Tuesday, Vic Gioia, local trail building legend and two-wheeled ripper, passed away this week. I’ve been thinking about Vic a bunch. His trails. Which I’ve enjoyed since I was a teenager. The simple fact that he was always in the forest. And I wanted to share my favourite Vic riding story as part of SBTISAOAF.
This is a reprint from a piece I wrote in 2020 called “Thrive On Your Group Ride Pt.1” for which, apparently, I have partial sequels started?!
[Reprint]
For most folks, The Vic is going to require some practice in front of the mirror, but the natural storyteller can probably wing it. You have to find your own ‘moto story’ somewhere in your past because authenticity is everything when you are trying to draw in the group. And the more the merrier if you want the maximum effect.
Location, location, location. The Vic always takes place at the bottom of a steep, straight, and preferably loose climb. The group is quietly reassembling, catching their breath, grabbing a quick snack when the story starts:
“When I used to race motorcycles, the trick was to get the holeshot and be the first up the steep pitches. Up near the top, I would slow down almost to a stop to bunch everyone up behind me, and then just before my motor cut out, I would punch it and half the group would stall and be left behind.“
At this point, if you are doing a solid job of The Vic, you will have at least a portion of everyone’s attention, and it is time to switch gears.
“Anyways, enough standing around! Let’s get going!“
As you zip forward at the front of the group, no one will have time to consider why you have suddenly reorganized the ride order from the mid-pack position you have been pedaling in. Your sudden urgency sucks them in, and even those that were truly gassed a minute ago are firing. Up the climb. Up the climb. Up. The. Climb.
No one notices you dumping all your gears. Head down, the second rider pulls right up to your rear wheel without even noticing you track-standing at the apex of the hill. Hang on! You hear someone unclip, you hear someone fall over, you hear someone curse, the rider behind you sighs, and now it is time to flick a pedal and power your bike forward, leaving the whole pack walking up in way too hard of a ratio. Be sure to laugh loudly.
[/Reprint]
Fall Days Cometh
It was a hot, sweaty, dry, dusty, marbly, bright August, and I didn’t complain at all because it was so nice not riding in smoke from forest fires this year. Until this week. Massive shout-out to all the fire crews in BC, doing their best to bring the burning to heel. Like all of you, at this point, I cannot wait for rain.
The Clairebarian and I need to replace at least one of our aging Trek {Bontrager-branded, actually, it’s from 2018} Ion Pro lights just down to degraded run times, but aside from a bit of an equipment refresh, we’re all-in and ready to night ride. Hopefully, we’re dragging out a few kids around her age for their first night-riding experiences as well.
This week, I had a couple of longer rides planned that I ended up canceling due to the air quality. I still have to pedal to work, so I figure that’s already heaps of crap being hoovered up into my lungs. I simply cannot wait for it to be dark early, light late, and to hear folks grumble, groan, and grate about the precipitation.
{Above photo: JacAttack}
V3 News
Some choices will seem archaic, some choices will seem ‘fashionable,’ and some choices will be questionable. But, from the head tube standard through the head tube angle (HTA), V3 will be a combination of evolution and devolution that will be all mine.
I get asked about it now and then, and yes, it’s absolutely happening. It might even be rideable in 2025. Currently, we’re waiting on Reynolds to restock some tubes, and I’m stoked to say that should be this fall sometime.
What am I prepared to say at this point? It’ll be a bit steeper and shorter than V2, a bit longer and slacker than V1, and bunch of inspiration pulled from my first single-speed {as opposed to single-speeded} mountain bicycle, a 2001 Redline Monocog. The wheelset will be a mullet setup with clearance for 3″ rubber front and back. It’ll have a 52mm chain line. That’s about it.
Right now, the biggest decision I have to make is whether to lace the wheels with silver or black spokes.
I’m in no rush, being very well set up for mountain bikes at the moment. In addition to my over-forked & GeoShifted Arcturian, I also have my Banshee Freeride BMX. When the time comes, that frame will take a rest again with my Hayes Dominion T4 brakes, Stooge Moto Bar, and BikeYoke 180mm Revive dropper & Sagma saddle, all making the move to V3.
In the meantime, running the Waltworks fork off my V2, it’s a hoot giving the Banshee the boots. It is an Enigma in how much I enjoy that bike despite the super-short stays, and I am looking forward to the longer, but not close to V2-long, rear center on V3.
Honzo
I want to say something quick about the Kona Honzo, as my friend Brian McCurdy once remarked, “Honzo, it’s a name and a battle cry,” and in a ‘chapeau’ to the marketing department of the day, I don’t know if the bike would have had the same impact if it weren’t named after a chain-smoking chimpanzee.
I write a lot about the Honzo, even though I haven’t owned one for quite a few years now. Even though for all my friends riding ST and ESD frames, they’re much less represented amongst the folks I pedal with.
Just about every year, I put together a New Year, New Unit piece, but, as much as I love the Unit, it’s the Honzo that will always be tied directly to my heartstrings. It’s the bike that changed mountain bicycling {what could enjoyably be ridden on a hardtail} and single-speeding {anti one-speed weight-weenieism} for me, for all times.
Yeah, so. I still wish that the Honzo ESD – SRAM or Shimano build – was shipping with an HG rear hub for cheaper and easier one-speeding, but for the CA$2650 price tag, I’m still not sure if there’s an option on the market with the potential to deliver more smiles per dollar. Especially considering both upfront cost and longer-term maintenance.
There are MS and XD one-speed kits from both WheelsMFG and Problem Solvers, but budget allowing, I say add in a second rear wheel for quick swaps, and let’s go. Even with pulling her cranks to remove the bottom bracket, to remove her tensioner, it’s a ten-minute job to jump between Claire’s multi-speed and single-speed setups, so someone with two wheels, a spare chain with a quick link, and some motivation should be able to swap drivetrain options on the Honzo in five.
Whatever generation, and whether it’s standard, over-forked, anglesetted, etc., I love the Honzo and that’s why I write about it even though it’s been years since I’ve ridden one {I actually almost bought a red ESD in large before Will’s Arcturian}. Model-T’s son Sean is rocking a one-speed ESD these days, so hopefully we’ll plug some trail photos of that into a future SBTISAOAF.
Anywho, if you have a single-speeded Honzo you’d be keen to share it’s been a few years since I updated 2020’s Green Eggs & Honzo, but I’m keen. Drop me an e-mail.
Bonus Talbot Content
I personally know two riders with Vancouver-made Talbots from the ’80s. Mine originally belonged to Steve and Terry Walker’s originally belonged to, well, Terry Walker. The Clairebarian and I happened to bump into Model-T and his beautifully Chris-Dekerf-re-painted Vancouver-special outside United Strangers one morning this week, and I cellphone-snapped a couple of photos to share. You’re welcome.
And that’s a wrap on SBTISAOAF for the first week(ish) of September. The radio says rain on Sunday, so that could certainly be a preview of what I’m going to be stoked about for next week.
That and, thanks to some hoarding by Nice Guy Geoff, I finally have everything together to build up NJP’s WZRD-reworked Chromag Sakura. I know it’s going to be a work in progress fit-wise, but it’s going to be so freakin’ rad from day one.
Larry Talker Tunes / Model-T says:
As the saying goes, “People like Heavy Metal, they just don’t know it!” However, I’ve always had a love of “roots/rock” music, more so as the decades slide by. Andrew knows this, of course. So, before I dive into this week’s pick, last week’s Major pick, “Songs from the Gang”, is indeed a most enjoyable listen.
A Skydiggers fan, I’ll keep the Roots/Rock genre going for another week with one of their two latest releases for 2025:
{Drewitors note: Although ‘Dreams & Second Chances’ is solid. We all know that Terry Walker was listening to the album Restless from 1992, and sharing this most recent Skydiggers album is a clever ploy to roll us back there…}
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