Some Bicycle Things I’m Stoked About On A Friday, June 19th, 2026
It’s Friday. Fairly warm. Trails are dry. Very dry. So very dry in parts. There’s been a nice sea breeze blowing on-&-off, so it’s not too stagnant in the woods. Beyond that, I don’t have much to say this week. I’ve had a few good rides. Claire and I attended a ‘Work Wednesday’ trail day put on by our local trail association, the NSMBA. Good digging was done. I went to work. End of an era. As June concludes, after nearly two decades, Pope Jimmy is heading off on new adventures, SuspensionWerx is closing, and the nice folks at S4 Suspension will be expanding their organization into his space at 1631 Welch St.
My bike is making a heck of a noise under standing pedaling loads. Probably the bottom bracket. Although it still spins nicely. Step one, I need to pull everything and add a light film of grease. It is sneaky-squeaky-creaky season after all. I do have to say, stoked, that Shimano XTR PF92 bottom brackets are amazing. The only PF92 bottom brackets that I recommend without further comment. It’s shocking how long they last despite our grainy winters and the brutality of single speeding, which, as noted, ruins everything. Plus, the softer Delrin bodies are less likely to distend a pressfit shell with repeated pressings.
{All Photos: MEATengines unless noted}
As usual, I owe a plethora of email and other responses both related to MEATengines and real life. Of course, since bikes serve as my fixation, recreation, and occupation most of those unfinished drafts are related to life on two wheels. It’s a touch bizarre. My MEATengines correspondence mostly mirrors this site. 50,000:1 club stuff about one-speed gearing, hardtail over-forking, and About a Single Speed submissions. On the other hand, my Mean-Guy-Mandrew-mail correspondence, at least as it relates to riding, is reflective of the shift in my shop experiences over the last few years. Most of it, from friends and family, relates to purchasing into the pedal-assisted experience, or a panicked who-do-you-know {no one} when seeking a days-not-weeks turnaround on after sale support.
I am going somewhere with all that. Being less-employed, and less busy, come July I’m stoked to invest time in completing at least some of the half-finished pieces in my MEATengines drafts. Yep, it’s not just half-written e-mails I’m sitting on. So, for this week’s SBTISAOAF, here’s a rather a brief look into a selection of shit from the mountain of MEAT I’m working on. Some of it will eventually be entries on the site, other bits, well, this acknowledge is probably sufficient. Either way, stoked to put it out there.
Loam, Loam, & the Range Part Deux
It’s not the case, but Claire has asked me so many times to bump up the travel on her Loam 2 post that it sometimes feels like I’ve opened the collar to quickly increase the drop by 5mm every ride. Her Loam 2 experience continues to be faultless and I purchased a second one, in black, for our second Claire-sized rig, a Marin SQ27. From action-weight to return speed it’s a dialed product at the premium end of budget-friendlier and we have a lot to say.
For today the main feature I want to highlight is its silverness. As many brands, including PNW, have figured out, durable clear anodizing is a pain in the ass to do properly. Properly as in, lasting as long as black ano and, properly as with raw frames, where no cosmetic imperfections are hidden beneath the finish. We’ve been asked numerous times if PNW will be doing another run of silver Loam 2 posts and the short answer is, yes.
When? Soonish. How many? Super limited. You want one? Subscribe to their e-mail list. Based on the reported eagerness, chances are the posts will sell out very quickly when they drop. Pun intended.
Trust 2.0
Sailing down the trail after school today, Claire tore into a corner plop faster than usual and pumped her front wheel into the air. Trails change all the time, and the catch rock she was expecting to meet her tire must have taken a vacation or found a new gig. For a brief moment, someone with better eyes probably could have read the serial number off her Samurai Voyager’s bb shell but she held on strong and rode it out like nothing had happened. I came through the same line and I can readily admit her example was much smoother.
When Claire was wee she crashed every ride. Many times a ride. Usually just awkward offs that required some papa-crane intervention to untangle grom and bicycle. Rarely were there tears and even then typically they were easily overcome tears of fear or frustration, not actual ouchies.
Now, Claire almost never crashed on rides. When she does, it’s either a funny off on a climb {we all have those} or it’s real {I suppose we all have those too}. Riding behind her down trails, watching the rear tire of her hardtail bounce around in its pursuit of the front, as rear tires on hardtails will do, I often have to remind myself that if it was anyone else I would trust them to know their limit and ride within it.
Trust 2.0 is a follow up to Trust, from July 2025.
{Photo: Crash Test Kevin}
A MEATengines Manifesto in Three Parts
Three brief excerpts from my future novella ‘How to Lose Friends and Alienate People’ my three part manifesto will mark the true democratizer of mountain biking, the modern hardtail, then journey down a trail of min-maxing, and finally ask the questions that only a two-wheeled gatekeeping, elitist, snob will be able to answer fully. Mountain biking isn’t the marketing of mountain biking.
Coming in June & July. Salt to taste.
{Artwork: Cy Whitling}
But, Would You Buy It?
Off the record, I have a few industry friends who admit that for their money they’d happily pedal a nice aluminum frame, RockShox Select+, or Fox Performance, or similar suspension, and a nice but not niche cable-actuated drivetrain like Shimano XT or Eagle 90. Good tires a must. Deore 4-pots or the most budget Maven’s perfectly handling the braking needs. Depending on the rider, their rims might still be carbon.
Without begrudging anyone chasing the spear tip of performance or aesthetic awesomeness, who’s wealth or fanaticsm is such that fancy bicycle stuff is a blip, or who’s decided that charging all the batteries is now part of riding, my question for anyone reviewing anything is now “But, would you buy it?” Okay, not even using your own money. But if I had a suitcase containing the CA20K, keep the change, that the bleeding edge of production e-MTBs commands, or say CA4K+ for the fanciest fork and shock package, would the shop employee, or owner, or magazine editor lighting that boutique buy purchase it, personally, or would they buy a similar experience for significantly less and pocket the difference?
Maybe the answer, as it relates to gear reviews, is “Yes.” And, that’s great. But the same way I’ve often heard real feedback that hasn’t made it into print, I’m suspicious that a lot of the Gucci gear being five-starred wouldn’t rate if we were talking about value questions and real money. I know, it’s very nice to ride very nice bikes. But maybe part of what’s driving the impression that mountain biking is uber expensive is the media normalization of everyone on Koenigseggs with little attention given to KIAs?
Anyway, I’m always stoked to hear supported riders and editors talking about what their min-max builds would look like if they were buying everything hanging from their frames.
{Photo: Mr. Lungtastic}
Dumpster Bear Does Sea Otter
Yes, yes, Sea Otter was ages ago and I did write some words about the stuff I didn’t see there but I also planned a whole comic series about this year’s Sea Otter that was tied into my ongoing MSPaint efforts – Dumpster Bear Says. As awful as they are, I’m stoked about these artistic endeavours and they do take a bit of time to complete. Time, time, time. So, instead the piece will be called ‘Dumpster Bear Does The New Shit’ and it will feature a bunch of ’26 releases. Live this summer.
The 321 on Good Better Best Hubs
I love Project 321 hubs. Not just the easy service and wicked-low-drag magnetic action, and not just the the quick-through-quicker engagement setups, and not just that they’re now made in Canada. Wait, what’s left? The customer service is next level as well and they do some awesome colours.
Anywho, I do hate spending other folks money, so the GBB on P321 hubs is that I love them and of the high-priced hubs on the market they’re the one I would buy for my use case. But, there are also plenty of budget friendlier options and this piece will make a recommendation for the hubs I’m stoked on at multiple price points.
Ruining Steve’s Talbot Part 3
I have very much enjoyed ruining Steve’s Talbot – the SRT – and I’m long overdue for an update on my brutal and rewarding pedaling passion. I’m so stoked every time I ride this bike, even if I’ve had to walk some of the {paved} hills I’ve attacked lately with my 45×18 gearing. This piece is on hold because I really want to try the bike with a {GASP} drop bar. Sort of, I love the Surly Corner Bar on Nina’s Sakura so I ordered a wider one to give it a go on the Talbot. The good news is my Nitto stem has a super long neck. How long? It’s currently slammed. So I have plenty of range to adjust for riding in the {dirt} drops.
How To Mountain Bike
From an ill fortuned afternoon with my friend Angry Josh, his Supercycle Sag Wagon, and a pack of cigarettes to Claire’s disappointment at the first {“That’s not mountain biking!“} trail I took her own when she asked to try mountain biking, I’m stoked to be able to share some of the craters and root balls I’ve rolled through in my experiences introducing folks to life on two wheels.
Climbmax
Wow, a whole MEATengines piece about being stoked on MEATengines vapour content. For the record, I have no steez, so if I just jumped the shark at best it was an accidental, and unrecoverable, no hander or tail-whip-esque motion that ended with carnage. I’ll try to do better next week {at SBTISAOAF, the shark jumping moves… sorry}. Oh, if you’ve had a custom rigid fork make that’s longer than 510mm axle-to-crown I’m interested in the details and the ride, fire me an e-mail if you have a moment.
Happy Trails,
Andrew
Larry Talker Tunes: By Terry Walker
Heading down a rocking-blues road this week, with another album I surprisingly missed two years ago:
Slash Orgy of the Damned (2024)
With this covers album, Slash has selected some of the best rock/blues tunes recorded. He also pulled together a group of established vocalists and musicians that really makes for a refreshing update on these popular songs.
Top tunes: The Pusher featuring Chris Robinson, Hoochie Coochie Man featuring Billy Gibbons,
Born Under A Bad Sign featuring Paul Rodgers, Killing Floor featuring Brian Johnson (digging deep with his best ‘Bluesy vocal”), a wonderful rendition of Living For The City featuring Tash Neal, and strong performance from Chris Stapleton on Oh Well. Wrapping the album is Slash’s own instrumental Metal Chestnut.
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