I’ve been thinking a lot this week about the ideal bike for Cumberland. Not so much the ideal bike for me, but the ideal bike for the aggregate rider who wants to pedal most everything. I mean, clearly, the consensus among those with money to spend on bikes is that it’s either a High Pivot & Idler (HP+I) design or a carbon Santa Cruz.
In terms of the Santa Cruz rigs, I couldn’t say definitively which models are the most popular. They don’t exactly lend themselves to visual differentiation. But the forks are all Fox 36 & 38 or RockShox Lyrik & Zeb, so I think it’s safe to say we’re talking Bronson, Hightower, Nomad, and Megatower as opposed to the Tallboy and 5010.
The HP+I bikes are mostly of the Forbidden Druid and Dreadnaught variety. It’s nice to see folks supporting a Comox Valley company. I’ve also noticed a few examples of the Norco Range around and I believe a Deviate on the back of a truck. They are everywhere compared to on the Shore, though the square-edged hits that the suspension design is legendary for taming are significantly less present.
More interesting though is that I’ve overheard riders talking about new HP+I trail bikes from Norco and Trek. From what I can gather passing through shops are already making orders and I haven’t seen a production photo of either yet. I’m thinking I’ll start referring to high-pivot trail bikes at Cumberland Specials.
It’s bizarre to me that the fact I’m on a single-speed is bizarre to so many people. I sort of get it on the North Shore, where riding a one-speed is often sort of stupid, but this is positively the greatest place I’ve ever pedaled a #1FG setup. It’s amazing. Now, to be fair, in over a decade I’ve never actually ridden a multi-speed hardtail here, never mind a full-suspension bike, so it could be that it’s me who is really missing out on something.
In addition to Vik’s Sirius, I did also see a blue Surly on the back of a car the other day. It even had a rigid fork. But there are a few of us morons on the Shore too so the fact that we’ve seen a couple million dollars in mountain bikes on the trails this week and other than youth camps Vik had the only hardtail other than the ones we brung.
I could certainly live happily in Cumby without access to a full-suspension bike, but the rigid fork is another matter. I had intended actually to leave it at home and come with a 120mm fork mounted to the front of the Enigma. But in the end, I ran out of time deciding between mounting a smaller tire that would fit The Magic Toothpick or lowering the Mattoc Pro to 120mm, and then it was go-time.
Counter-intuitive though it may sound, I think it’s actually easier to ride a rigid fork on the slower, steeper, jankier trails that I love on the North Shore than it is here. Shorter distances, less higher speed vibrations to manage. Claire has noticed that she’s not using anywhere near the amount of fork travel as she does at home, but the trails generally aren’t as steep and relentless so we aren’t hitting things already at 50% sag.
Next time I’m coming to ride back-to-back-to-back-to-back-to-back days I think I’ll be mounting a suspension fork on the one-speed. Or, at least bring one along. I’m tired. But aside from a few drops and gaps that most folks, myself included, seem to be riding around I’d still argue, perhaps from a position of ignorance, that a #1FG hardtail makes at least as much sense as a HP+I sag-wagon.
Clearly, the vast majority of local folks feel the opposite.