MEATengines

N.A.T. Teen Roll

Claire, Penny, and myself were stood just above the pre-Mushroom Trail climb. Watching a steady stream of teen-powered, number-plated bikes being pushed up the loose chunky climb on their way to one of the stages in the high school racing Enduro series. We easily saw over fifty young rippers ourselves, and I’d guess many times that were on the mountain, so it’s safe to say the event was well attended. 

As with riding in and around any cycling event – but especially a high school race – we experienced the best and the worst of the future mountain bike community. 

  • We had a nice chat with some young women from Pemberton who were stomping up Penny Lane and the Good Sir Martin Climb. 
  • Claire had to run herself off the trail in a single-track climb to avoid being smoked a group of numbskulls who never learned {which isn’t to say they weren’t taught} about courtesy and/or right-of-way. 
  • We heard snippets of many exciting trail tales.
  • We dodged multiple parent volunteers riding their bikes down the clearly marked climbing trail. 

Anyway, that sort of stuff. Some of it is frustrating in the moment (mostly because it seems like right-of-way and not riding down climbing trails are fairly straightforward fixes), but in general, the vibe was excellent, and Claire was very excited about the team kits. Nina and I have mentioned the opportunity to join a team in high school off and on, but on the way home, her eyes were sparkling as she asked me a stream of questions.

We pivoted away from our original plans, to avoid a crowd, and instead Penny joined us to ride Claire’s current favourite trail. Ned’s.

[Aside]

If your teen is racing, teach them how to properly lube a chain and then arm them with a bottle of Boeshield T-9 in their kit and send them out to make new mountain bike friends. Not only will every sensitive bicycle lover such as myself massively appreciate the effort {THE SQUEAKING! AHHHHHH!} but it’s step one in learning to do some of their own maintenance.

It also introduces your progeny to one of the facts of mountain bike life. If you don’t want to listen to someone else doing Deliverance to their drivetrain, you’re going to have to intervene. 

[/Aside]

One-speeded or many-speeded, Claire's Chromag Samurai is sweet and I'm not saying otherwise. But, if she does make the decision to race in high school it seems like, since we can, we should give her the option of choosing a sag-wagon?!
One-speeded or many-speeded, Claire’s Chromag Samurai is sweet and I’m not saying otherwise. But, if she does make the decision to race in high school it seems like, since we can, we should give her the option of choosing a sag-wagon?!

We noted teams from the North Shore, Squamish, and Pemberton, and I can’t remember the last time I saw that many carbon super-bikes in one place. Oh, certainly, there were more than a few older rigs {including a very sweet-looking 2013-14 Santa Cruz Blur TR1.1c that has to be the sveltest-looking trail ripper they’ve ever built} but the number of current carbon shred machines screamed dentist-bike memes, not teen trail trashing. 

And yes, I know, Claire has a sweet rig – bought used or otherwise – but she also noted the complete {just nearly complete as it turned out} lack of hardtails. I have long said that Claire’s first full suspension bike will come around when she starts buying bikes for herself, but I’m already softening on that. 

Let’s not tell Nina yet. She’s still riding a hardtail full-time, and, currently, the three of us don’t have a single sag wagon to speak of. And hey, the Clairebarian may decide she wants to be that kid. The next generation hardtail holdout. 

The one-speed has already made Claire better at managing momentum. Excited to see how that translates to her multi-speed drivetrain next week.
The one-speed has already made Claire better at managing momentum. Excited to see how that translates to her multi-speed drivetrain next week.

Yeah, so. We’re standing watching, and here comes a smiling teen powering uphill on an aluminum hardtail. I think it was a Norco Torrent {hence, Norco Aluminum Torrent – N.A.T.} but with a common grey colour and similar frame profile to other brands, I can live with being wrong. He rode up a section that most folks pushed their carbon super bike up, and then led the charge down to the trailhead with a laugh and a big smile. 

I clearly don’t know his story. And, full disclosure, what I do know fits nicely into my narrative. But brand new, that bike didn’t cost a heck of a lot more than many of the suspension forks rolling around today. And, however he came to be there, the example he was setting by charging around stoked on what most of us would consider the entry-level to North Shore fun & friendly mountain bicycling was what I needed on the trails today. 

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