It’s a grey day today. Overcast. Still too bright, even in the forest, to call it dank, dark, or dreary, but damp enough to imagine that we’ll have some peak North Shore riding conditions sooner than later. I’m shivering with excitement, or, actually, that could just be the moist, chilled, air gnawing at my bones. I’ve also yawned four times just writing this opening paragraph, so I could definitely use a nap.

I remember reading this piece in The Guardian half a decade back, suggesting that research could show that, at least some, early humans would hibernate in the winter. It’s easy to imagine some kind of torpor state to preserve calories and despite a lifetime under electric lights my body has wanted more shut eye in the winter as far back as I can remember. That’s both in higher-burn wet-winter-riding days and slow-burn, sit around and drink coffee days.

Yeah, so. If this week’s SBTISAOAF seems a bit on the short side it’s only because I did as much head bobbing as key punching in the creation of this entry. There’s a fair bit of fresh MEAT on the horizon, including some first look product testing stuff. I’ve also had folks follow up for both About a Single Speed and Bicycle Valentine content; if you’ve been considering putting together an entry our community certainly would enjoy it.

Bar Height & Other Free Bracketing

“The best things in life are free / but you can give them to the birds & bees / I want money / That’s what I want…” – The Flying Lizards {Covering Berry Gordy and Janie Bradford}

I’ve been playing around a lot lately with the free, and entirely reversible, adjustments on my Chromag Arcturian. Tire pressure, saddle fore-aft & tilt, brake lever reach, dropper lever throw and position, fork sag & settings, and most notably, bar height.

I don’t have to go back that far, a little over a decade, to when I was one of those folks who all but slammed my handlebar on every bike. Yes, I tended to run shorter frames and wider bars back then, but that’s also where a learned, personal, preference lead me.

Forward into years of playing around with bars as tall as the 76mm ProTaper, and even borrowing Vik’s massive steel-Stooge. I’ve taken the time to find ‘too high’ on all my mountain bicycles, but it dawned on me that it’s been years since I’ve played around with finding too low. That is, a bar height lower than what I can adapt to.

There are advantages of a lower handlebar with the trade off, for me, being a bit more input and confidence needed in the steepest steeps. I was never running my bar high enough to truly compromise front end grip, but I find the lower setup does increase, to a point, front end grip.

The most noticeable improvement though, and what I was chasing, is removing some descending pressure off of my feet, legs, and lower back and more into my core, which has me feeling less beat up on sustained janky sections. As of today, I’m running my bar some 40mm lower than last week and I do plan to try a bit more yet before walking it back up and declaring my new optimum bar height, for that moment in time.

Anywho, is there’s one theme we’re {I’m} always beaten on around here it’s to take some time to play with your setup and then, once you have it dialed, take some time to play with it again.

Hope Duo Brake Lever

“The design is derived from the proven Tech 3 Master Cylinder with the finger reach and bite point adjustments on each lever, you can be sure the levers will feel comfortable and suit your riding style.” – Hope Tech

“Fair to say that it is not a huge market that Hope are looking to tap into here.” – Hope Tech

The inspiration for this week’s SBTISAOAF is Hope’s Duo, dual, Brake Lever assembly. A product of which they will likely make tens of units, earning hundreds of dollars, provided they just write-off the design time and stock-keeping costs to goodwill. It’s a product that absolutely needs to exist but only does so because Hope Tech has the genuine decency to make it so.

The Hope Duo uses a flip-flop design, making it usable for left or right, and allows riders independently modulate both their front and rear brakes using only one hand. And, if you’re looking at tes deux mains and wondering why you’d ever need that, well, imagine if you only had fingers on one hand.

The second niftiest part of this story is that Hope didn’t just make the brake assembly, they actually refined it with feedback from someone who needs the product. Also, they sell it with a range of brake calipers {X2, E4, & V4} so a rider can get the stopping power-to-weight ratio to match their needs.

But I’m most stoked that in a world where every bike brand seems to be mainstreaming their bikes and product options {see tires} to sell what every single other brand is selling, Hope isn’t just eating the cost of supporting their legacy products with ready supplies of small parts, but they’re also supporting riders with unique solutions that certainly aren’t driving profit centres, or whatever terminology I’m looking for.

“Hope are giving something back to the sport for people who want to get involved.” – Dan

Check out Dan’s Duo story.

Check out more about the Hope Tech 3 Duo.

Whistler World Cup DH Fever

A bunch of folks I know have a little DH-race fever following the wet & wild World Cup at Whistler last weekend, which led to a bit of an exchange with one of my friends who generally doesn’t tip aside good-and-better service at restaurants.

There are a bunch of reasons that brands go DH racing, a huge expense for a questionable marketing return for many, most, maybe all of them. Marketing their brand is an easy generalization, selling DH bikes by proving them on the track, maybe. But, I mean, how many DH bikes do even the biggest brands sell vs. the expense of development, never mind support a traveling race squad.

Okay, certainly, historically, there’s some tech trickledown, but from geo to componentry, except for maybe some MTeeB carryover, I don’t see a ton of cases where DH race-proven ideas are showing up in the regular mountain bicycle lineup.

So, all that said, if you love DH racing, even if you’re not planning to buy a DH rig, ride park, or race yourself, when it comes time to buying bikes and gear consider adding that as a factor in purchasing decisions and then letting brands know that’s the case.

Even the most ardently let’s-go-racing brands are going to be reviewing their spend in light of the current economic challenges, and if their support of DH racing has any effect on your purchasing decisions, especially if it’s a proven not theoretical effect, taking the time to let them know that will keep the series stronger.

Tall George’s Tall Bike

Tall George is a really nice dude I’ve met a couple or few times, and while his Tall Bike certainly wasn’t free, it’s a great example of the whole being more than a sum of its parts. Upcycled from four frames {AlpineStars Cro-Mega, Scott Sawtooth, Roadmaster step-through, Kids 24″} and packed full of take-off parts, the Powell River based boat builder’s big-rig is ride ready!

Bikepacking.com put together a nice feature on George’s self-built bike, that’s definitely worth checking out, even if, no, especially if you think that tall-bikes are silly. I’ve included a couple of shots here but I promise it’s worth the deeper dive into some of the technical details.

Freeride Ain’t Free

The first I heard of the Tourism Kamloops Freeride Fund was a mention that artist Nigel Quarless of Shore-trail-builder-supporting Ride Ritual and many other projects, was involved.

The Freeride Fund was launched a few years back with $50,000 in seed money and sells merch and collects donations to fun trail building projects and protect those forboding classic freeride zones that have appeared in so many rad movies.

Here’s there pitch, and, of course, for more information journey through the TKFF link above:

“Kamloops is known around the world as the birthplace of freeride mountain biking, where wide-open terrain, pioneering riders, and iconic lines helped shape a new way of riding. From legendary film segments and trail builds to generations of riders pushing what’s possible on two wheels, freeride is part of Kamloops’ mountain biking story. The Freeride Fund helps carry that legacy forward by putting support back into the trails, builders, and riding community that continue to make Kamloops a place where freeride lives.“

Climbmax

My riding highlight of the week was watching Claire overcome a long hardened fear of the wooden ladder on Seymour’s John Deer trail. It’s understandable, she’s been riding this trail since the days of her rigid 20″ Early Rider but sometimes through skill and/or equipment a feature arrives in our wheelhouse. In truth, she’s been riding much harder features for a while but that’s mountain bicycling for you.

Anywho, with Marin, Penny, & Co., having rebuilt the exit some, some fresh rain making for perfect dirt, and Claire riding super smoothly, it ended up being the day that she looked at the ladder and decided she was going to do it. And she did. And it was a total non-event. Anti-climbmaxtic, even.

Larry Talker Tunes: By Andrew

If there’s a worst band name ever from the perspective of marketability it has to be !!!, aka Chk Chk Chk, the long time ‘dance punk’ band. I mean even knowing the band they can be a PIA to search for on the web.

‘Everyone’s’ favourite !!! album is 2007’s Myth Takes, featuring their they-could-have-been-one-hit-wonder Must Be The Moon.

Personally, and yes, this is breaking the LTT rules by a year, my favourite is their least critically appreciated {accepted?} “occasionally formulaic” disc: As If. I guess I just like the simple things?

Anywho, As If, my list of tracks to hit for a taste include Freedom! ’15, Til The Money Runs Out, and All You Writers, but I’d bet that everyone who listens to, and enjoys this album will have different favourites.

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