Some Bicycle Things I’m Stoked About On A Friday, July 17th, 2026
{Cover Photos: RivBike.}
If I had to choose just one thing that irks me about the ‘safe’ cycling infrastructure on the North Shore of Vancouver, it wouldn’t be the way that so many bike lanes just dump riders into busy traffic corridors, pedaling a tightrope between parked cars and ones moving near highway speeds. I mean, part of me loves how the big, bright, bold ‘Bike Lane Ends‘ signs really wrap the unhappy endings up like no-shit-Sherlock sandwiches.
It also wouldn’t be that some of the said bike lanes are so poorly designed that it’s beyond apparent that they’re the product of folks who don’t ride bikes, or, worse, folks who know better who were tasked with balancing too many priorities in their designs. Of course, with safe and expedient cycling being at the bottom. Sure, it kills me a bit when someone who never rides says ~ “That bike lane was such a waste of money!” and I’m in full agreement. I love the idea of safe cycling infrastructure wide enough to double as emergency lanes for fire and ambulance to bypass traffic {easy enough for bikes to get out of the way to let them through}, but loathe the fact, at least in North Vancouver, that as soon as you make it wide enough for a fire truck there’s going to all sorts of cars parked in it.
No, the most irksome, irritable, irrational pseudo-inference, perhaps the fault of poor municipal marketing, is the ‘What are you doing for the drivers?’ crowd’s belief that bike lanes aren’t for them. As an investment, stop telling drivers that bike lanes are to improve cyclist safety, in the abstract no one en route has that much empathy. What bike lanes are is the absolute cheapest infrastructure investment in reducing traffic*. Bus lanes and ground-level-rapid-transit require massive amounts of space that could be used as part of the rolling parking lot moving from one bottleneck to the next {there’s always a next bottleneck} but put some plastic bollards next to a sidewalk width patch of asphalt and every cyclist is one less car or at least one less person demanding improvements to the transit network.
And, if I had to choose one bicycle thing to be stoked about this week, one theme to trumpet, it would be that I think I managed to sell a couple of folks who haven’t turned pedals in fifty years on exactly that. The bike lanes aren’t for me, the cyclist, I’ll ride on the road and fight you for my metre. The bike lanes are there to keep bikes out of the way of cars so drivers – including me more than I like – can enjoy the motors-only bumper-to-bumper experience. Don’t use bike lanes and never plan to? Those lanes are absolutely for you just as much, sorry, more than anyone pedaling two wheels. Be stoked to sell cycling infrastructure as traffic reduction over safety improvement.
*{I mean, you don’t even need to attach the ‘safe cycling’ infrastructure sections, just have an opaque plan to attach them in the future.}
{Photo: Hardtail.Life.}
This week’s SBTISAOAF is amongst the shorter editions for a few reasons, chief amongst them being the amount of time I spent elbows deep in, other people’s, fork oil. I still haven’t built Claire’s front wheel or finished the MEATy Manifesto part deux, so things are action packed right now. I’ve been riding bicycles a fair bit, though less mountain biking than I would have expected in July. Some SRT, some Arcturian, but almost daily Omnium miles on top of that.
Constrained by the P321 G2 #1FG hub that I reused, I’m still running my 6-speed 11-26t cassette matted to a 34/28t manual shift front setup. I have the parts to put together a fresh, recycled*, cassette with an 11-28t setup so I’ll have a 1:1 ratio for my low gear, but I’ve been managing fine with my current setup and mainly just suck it up, standing in the larger ring, when things are steep. I have some longer ATB-Long/Cargo-Mini-Max rides coming up so it’ll be interesting to see how far I can take that. Buying everything new, I’d probably be on a wide-range 1×10 CUES drivetrain with a friction thumb shifter, but I’m happy for now.
*{I’ve collected some used cassettes that just had the 2-4 lowest gears worn out but are otherwise fresh.}
{All Photos: Andrew unless noted.}
Headtube Philosophy
I love headtube badges. Especially headtubes badges that are model specific or evolve overtime. Model years are dumb, but following the evolution of headtube badges is fun. Here, as always with this topic, I’ll shoutout Jen Greene, and her beautiful work, but what actually set me on about badges this week was a few photos of Rivendell’s “all-’rounder” Atlantis.
There’s something poetic about the tall-ship and bike name that combines to suggest the rig will take you where the wind blows, even if your destination is unknown. With largely established geometries and, despite sporting some, or all, of the modern mountain bicycle mandatories, I think self-powered offroad brands small, and, well, small, could do well to fully embrace that ‘It’s about the journey not the destination’ philosophy. Ribbons of single-track through the trees, steep wooden ladder rolls off of glacial erratic, perfect pump tracks, spring-boarded old-growth stumps.
*{Hydraulic disc brakes, suspension, wide-range 1x indexed shifting, dropper posts, etc.}
{Photos: Jen Greene}
Canti-Brake Beauty
I’ll keep my superb Hayes Dominion stoppers on my mountain bicycle, thanks, and running the beastly Magura Gus’toppers on my Omnium is a treat, especially fully loaded down the roads of North Vancouver, but I’m still a fan of rim-brakes for many applications. First and foremost, budget friendlier bicycles where the simpler home service – brake pad replacement – and lower upfront cost can open up a bunch of value.
Kid’s rigs, even for offroad use, I’d much rather see rim brakes than basic cable-actuated disc brakes that are harder to activate and don’t self adjust for pad-wear like hydraulic discs. For fair-weather road bikes, caliper brakes will save weight and complexity and make it much easier to engineer a great riding frame, with brake forces at the fork crown and upper-seat stay assembly, compared to designing around the forces of disc brakes at the fork and frame dropouts.
That said, when it does come to bolting arms to bosses, I fully agree with Rivendell’s stance on the two options: “Cantilever or V brakes. Get V-brakes.” Comparing products at the same price point, the V-brake system is going to have a lighter, much nicer, lever throw, it will be significantly simpler to setup, and it will have notably more power. Compared to V-brakes, all canti brakes suck.
Performance aside, I mean, I’m not a total heathen. I can recognize art when I see it. I’m willing to agree that disc or rim, there’s no braking setup with more potential pizzazz than a Paul Comp cantilever creation. Bicycle-rider Andrew isn’t interested in giving that juice a squeeze, but bicycle-nerd Andrew thinks they’re beautiful. Stoked on this art by whoever assembled this Ron’s rig:
{Photos: Ron’s Bikes.}
Shifting Expectations
In my couple-or-few years writing for NSMB.com and my very brief stint as a courtier during Cy Whitling’s reign over BikeMag {“If it lives only for a while, Tiberias, it still has lived.“} I’ve scribbled a small pile of product reviews. And from all those reviews, I’ve received constructive correspondence about complaints, concerns, and questions maybe a two handfuls of times from maybe one handful of companies. Notably, even if we concluded with some agree-to-disagree action in the moment, from brands who I continue appreciate and support with my own earnings.
Whether it came publicly in the comments* or privately, more than once it resulted in an update on my part and more than once it resulted in an update on their part but the real value, for me, was always the interaction. Folks who are truly passionate about their products are also, always, truly passionate about finding ways, tiny or towering, to improve upon them.
Anywho, Claire maybe doesn’t appreciate it to the same degree, but she received some feedback from Chromag on her Shift armour thoughts that I figured I’d share. Namely on the balance between pads that stay put in all conditions, assuming they’re the right fit for you to begin with, versus the ease of removal of said pads, the folks at Chromag suggest folding down the tall upper cuffs of the pads so that the printed silicon grip isn’t contacting skin, and then they slide off much easier. Anywho, I think it’s cool**.
*{Note the massive difference between almost anonymous Astroturfing bullshit by staff, friends, sponsored riders, etc., and brands or representatives openly stepping in to discuss their product.}
**{No, they’re not yet offering FU-Funny -16° OSX 31.8mm Alt-Bars, but that doesn’t mean we should stop asking!}
Bar Height and Us! Continued. Forever.
We were chatting at work about the wild myriad of bike setups on any World Cup DH podium these days. One would need a rack of bars and stems to follow the trends from one hot seat showing to the next. Ignoring frame reach vs. stem length, and bar rise vs. bar height from the ground, even just looking at pictures or video of the folks racing, even considering that descending a mountain bike is a active experience, there is a wild difference in winning body positions. Longer and lower, higher and shorter, and everything other option.
Heck, the only person I’ve even seen roll their bar backwards as far as Crash Test Kevin is Oisin O’Callaghan. Sure, only one of those two is a blistering fast fully-sponsored super shredder but the crazy thing is you don’t have to win sh*t to close your eyes and roll/chop your bars to the right spot for you. Okay, plenty of folks have given CTK the side eye who wouldn’t be questioning OOC but my point stands. And, I’m stoked in the future when a mutual acquaintance invariably asks about Kev’s “weird” bar setup I can just send them that PB article.
[Aside] And if you’re thinking, maybe rolling his bar back that far maybe he should be an alt-bar with more backsweep? No, he’s quite happy, thank you.[/Aside]
Anywho, A-side, B-side, it’s all the same song on the same record here at MEATengines. Even if you have a hard preference from yesterday or yesteryear, don’t be afraid to experiment with your bar setup overtime. Even if it is as simple as closing your eyes and rolling it forward and back to exactly were it is now. Lately, I’ve been running a bit less fork sag and my bar a centimetre or so lower and I’ve been really like it, but that doesn’t mean that a slightly longer stem & taller bar setup isn’t in my future next week. Bicycle Lego is the best.
Climbmax
Alright, alright, okay, here we go. Stoked to have had a few entries for About a Single Speed. Between those and Cumberlandworx we’re probably settled for July but if you’re keen to participate please keep them coming. Everyone who has sent one in should hear from me by Sunday night. Sorry, as always, for the delayed correspondence. Also, gentle reminder to folks who’ve asked about writing a Bicycle Valentine, if you’re still stoked then I’m still stoked. I’m going to leave it there for this week and we’ll see you with some Min-Max-Manifesto action on Sunday or Monday.
Oh, also, it rained today. More Please! So stoked for rain.
Happy Trails,
Andrew
Larry Talker Tunes: By Terry Walker
Model-T and I are experiencing some information sharing difficulties {contrary to popular belief he does not deliver hand-written LTT entries to me} so I know today’s tunes but not how we’ve arrived here. I thought about posing as Terry Walker for the intro: “As you all know, every piece of music worth listening too was written by someone who started performing between 1962 and 1972, no exceptions…” but to be far {To. Be. Fair.} he did introduce me to Surf Hat {SBTISAOAF, Jan 30th, ’26} and NJP & Claire saw them perform today and said they’re even better live {always a good sign}.
Anywho, the Stones just released their 25th or 27th studio album {depending on what side of the Atlantic you’re on}, Foreign Tongues, and it’s this week’s LTT chart chopper. I’m going to guess his favourite song is Mr. Charm. I have to say, it’s a wicked Rolling Stones track on solid album. You Know I’m No Good is classic Stones too.
{Photo: Rolling Stones}
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