As with every other site, my ‘worx content is already a day behind. Probably for all the same reasons too. I went for a really long bike ride, I ate delicious ice cream, I had a lot of heavy food, and I drank one too many beers. Then I fell asleep with a big smile on my face. And, now I’m struggling to make some content out of the four photos I took yesterday and the coolest products I saw.
I didn’t take any photos of the coolest products, but I might go back and do that today. The folks at Dodge City Cycle have an original Roach AND an original CoreRat stem pad in the shop. And you’re thinking something like “stem pads, Drew-Bob, stem pads aren’t interesting” but I challenge you to dig through any other ‘worx coverage and find something better.
Beautiful vistas, plenty of sweet high-budget bicycles, all of the variations of camperized 4×4 Sprinter Vans you can imagine, and a toad migration. Yes indeed, Cumberlandworx packs in a lot of the excitement of the coinciding event in Whistler, BC.
There’s no (organized) racing going on. But, I also only saw two BroPeds all day. In my books, that’s an awesome trade-off. Plus, it was a little bit enjoyable watching the man on his full-noise blender bike attempting to commiserate with the Clairebarian over the difficulty of the Sobo no Michi climbing trail as he whirred by us, without sweating, at Mach 2.
Speaking of commiserating, I almost can’t wait to get back to North Vancouver so I can chat with my friend JacVenture, organizer of many Cumberland trips, about how today was by far the least whinging I’ve ever heard in a decade riding uphill in Cumby. I’m proposing that a new standard for those lucky enough to get an Easter invite should be climbing to the top of Above & Beyond with zero complaints.
Not everything is open at the moment because it’s not because of riders dragging their brakes through berms or visitors who can’t seem to leave their jobs – fighting turf wars over drug territories – at home for a nice week away with the family.
In fact, today I learned from, the infamous, Sean & Larry Talker that a toad migration is another thing that the Whistler and Cumberland ‘worx editions share in common. We saw a few toadlets today and they’re, of course, tiny and cute and they’re also clearly motivated.
It would actually be quite interesting to see if UROC has any stats on compliance from the ridership but we didn’t see anyone being toad-deaf to the very clear signage or hear anyone Grousing and Grinding about how their favourite trail is closed for a couple of weeks. So that was nice!
The Clairebarian loved the new higher blue trails, Blueprint (thanks for the recommendation Chris R) and New Vanilla, and of course, Lower Crafty Butcher is (almost) everyone’s perennial favourite. But, Space Nuggets still ranks number one on her list. Apparently, it will be the end of every ride we do here again this year.
For expanded coverage, I’ll approach some random strangers about taking pictures of their bikes. There’s a large mix of bikes here – new, old, budget, flash – and it is sort of neat that a large percentage of the super-bikes we’ve seen are locally-based Forbidden bikes. If you think there’s a significant proportion of High Pivot + Idler (HP+I) bikes showing up on the Shore, well, comparatively there’s not.
As I sit here finishing Day 2’s first cup of very, very black coffee and thinking earnestly about having a proper stretch before I start getting bikes ready it occurs to me that you actually get more funny looks riding a rigid mountain bike with a full-face helmet in Cumberland than you do in North Vancouver. But I’ve seen a couple-or-few rigid bikes rolling around already so I’ll assume it’s the lid.
More coverage coming from #Cumberlandworx.