My favourite bicycle shop philosophy, life philosophy even, graced the front page of the Mighty Rider’s website years ago: “We consider it an embarrassment to be defeated by bits of metal, plastic, and rubber, so we work hard to solve whatever problem you’ve got with your bike.“

With that in mind and patient friends willing to let me mine their experiences, I’ve limped along a lot of appliances over the years, cars included, roughed in some workable home repairs, and, also, ruined any number of things as part of paying ‘the price of an education.’ And sure, if it’s already broken why not take it apart? But I’ll admit I’ve had a fair few of those “Oh,” moments where I realized there was an easier way, or occasionally a way, to do something.

Maybe I’m growing wiser as I grey, maybe it’s the fact that I’d already cut my hand twice, perhaps the doubts I’d seeded were growing in the way my grom was looking at me. It was like I’d just signed up to captain the Pequod and she was visibly trying not to judge me. But, actually, not trying very hard.

In any event, I put away my stubby meat hooks and my T-rex arms, and sought some professional help. And now, in my self-directed absolution, I’m channeling Red Green. You know, “Quando omni flunkus, moritati.” Or, okay, I just wanted to include that one, maybe a different Red Green saying is more applicable in this case: “I’m a man, but I can change, if I have to, I guess.“

Yeah, so. Whatever projects, bicycle or otherwise, you’re tackling this season, bon chance. My white whale is apparently seat covers?!

NW Seat Covers

I love a great customer service story and that’s doubly true when I’m the person at the receiving end of the great customer service.

I’ve now owned a couple of sets of seat covers from the nice folks at Northwest. They have a production facility here in Vancouver, and they make fairly priced products from top quality materials with surprisingly short turnarounds. To some extent, fitment wise, seat covers are seat covers, but these are as close as I’ve seen to something that looks in place. For me they serve the dual purpose of covering up already damaged seats and preventing damage.

My first set was a straightforward install and Claire and I accomplished it in maybe thirty minutes with an end result looking significantly better than the tired perches the covers are protecting. Seat covers number two, different vehicle, proved to be an exhausting failure on our part with an uncooperative pass-through for the straps.

As it turns out, in my experience, their excellent reviews and reputation are well earned. Seats change structurally, if not formally, from one model year to the next, and that was the case with mine. The folks at NWSC were keen to have a look in person and sort out the installation for no additional charge on top of the cost of the covers.

{I admit, guiltily, to taking a bit of solace in the fact that my particular seat was a pain in the digits for the professionals as well.}

Yeah, so. Stoked on the product; stoked on the experience; will definitely buy again in the future. If you need to protect some seats or cover up some seats that could have done with some protection I’ll highly recommend the people and product.

Gerard & Cove Bikes & Thank You & PSA

Extending my technical tour-de-Thank-You, it wasn’t just my seat covers that had the better of me this week. I also stopped in at {North Shore institution} Cove Bikes to see my friend Gerard* for a MEATengines-related mechanical lift. Whether it’s eebs, MTeeBs, ATBs, or Mountain Bicycles, common place or esoteric, he’s been known as one of the best wrenches in Vancouver for longer than most folks I know have been riding. Thank you for your help, Gerard.

I recognize that MEATengines’ solid mechanical reputation is built on the good will, tools, and time of some properly experienced and knowledgeable wrenches. James ‘Pope Jimmy’ Downing of SuspensionWerx, Jeff Bryson of Bikeroom, Nice Guy Geoff at Essential Cycles, Uncle Lou at Obsession: Bikes, Brixton-Jim, S.B.W., who you’ll now find in the interior at Sun Country Cycles, Dave McInnes at BicycleHub, and I’ve probably forgotten a few names along the way {sorry}. More of those folks/businesses are gone from the North Shore than not.

This winter feels very tight in the local & global industry. And I know that it’s tight for a lot of folks outside of bicycles as well. But if you’ve been sitting on some maintenance or service work, maybe waiting until Spring, and you’re whole, and you have a favourite shop/mechanic that you’re stoked to support, maybe consider dropping some work on them this offseason.

*{I’ve known Gerard for over twenty years. He built my first pair of 29″ wheels and the 29″ front wheel for my first mullet, a 29/26 rigid hardtail with a magic gear single speed setup. We worked together after the once locally infamous ‘Hire Me!’ fiasco; he’s secretly a bicycle philosopher, and he introduced me to “…the greatest piece about mountain biking ever written. It’s called ‘The Leveler.’”}

BikeYoke Geo-Nerdificator

Okay, full stop, I’m more of a close your eyes, cut your bar, pick a height, ride your bike, and bracket-baby-bracket type. I’ve found some bicycles prefer a wider bar and some prefer a longer stem, and whether that geo-chart shows sagged or un-sagged numbers, or is Evilly aspirational rather than rooted in anything mathable {like published bike weights}, trying to match setups between bikes, even sag-wagon doppleframers with nearly identical numbers, isn’t always helpful.

But, that doesn’t mean I didn’t spend way too much time nerding out with BikeYoke’s new bar-focused geometry tool, the 3D Cockpit Calculator. I wish, on a selfish level, that it also had a mullet calculator especially as swapping in a 27″ rear wheel or 29″ front wheel {and fork} affects ‘Overall Reach’ number. Just for comparison sake.

Either way, if you end up spending some rabbit hole time on the BikeYoke page this week then you’re welcome and I’m sorry. Hahahaha.

T.E.M.P.O. V2

[Aside] Apparently T.E.M.P.O. isn’t actually an acronym but rather uses punctuation for strictly stylistic reasons?! To my taste buds that has a similar flavour to dropping the vowels so my solution is just to invent my own elaboration. Thus, T.E.M.P.O. is Takes Exothermic Meat-Power Only. Let me know if you have a better one.[/Aside]

Anywho, Commencal just released the T.E.M.P.O. V2 and, whilst I haven’t ridden the original I’m stoked about it for two reasons. First of all, everyone I know who’s ridden the original T.E.M.P.O. as a trail bike says that it’s not just truly capable, up & down, but also one of the most fun machines they’ve ever ridden. And some of those folks have pedaled a lot of bikes.

Secondly, the original T.E.M.P.O. was an automatic miss for me with it’s rampant cable tourism. Adventurism even. But Commencal has clearly listened and ditched the through-the-headset cable routing. Appreciated. There’s some cynical comedic material in there about the next generation using fully external routing and an I.S. rear brake mount, but I’d be happy enough with where they’ve ended up.

In my experience, the key to loving your Commencal is to never let it anywhere near a scale and to always lift it on-and-off bike racks by yourself. Comparison is the thief of joy, and weight doesn’t matter this side of full-on XC racing and grom-bikes. Nothing Commencal makes is particularly lightweight, but all of their bikes are fun, and their 125mm frame is likewise, unapologetically, much more Darco than Element or Optic.

I’m also stoked that the Commencal T.E.M.P.O. is readily available as a frame-only option. It’s certainly the sort of bike that I can see no two nerds building up exactly the same way.

Casual Conversation Compliments

I know that I’m a hacktastic plunker on a mountain bicycle, but that realistic recognition doesn’t mean I won’t cherish a compliment on my riding when its offered. Especially when it’s the nicest compliment I’ve received.

To set the scene: this morning, Jac and I made it into the woods for a quick pedal-and-prattle* and managed to put in a few miles and a little hike-a-bike to boot. Near the end of our loop I was following her wheel down a fairly fast track whilst we chatted about this-and-that. We pumped into one of the tighter sections where two hikers and their dog were standing off to the side and, as we cruised by, I heard one say to the other, with just a touch of disbelief, ~ “They’re having a casual conversation while they’re riding this‽“

I was still smiling a couple of hours later

*{You know a jank-and-jabber, a grind-and-grouse, bike-and-blather, descend-and-discourse, climb-and-confab, what you call it.}

Climbmax

This week’s final thoughts for SBTISAOAF are a bit of a brain dump. Sorry. Here’s a friendly reminder to folks who’ve said they’re onboard to write an About a Single Speed and/or Bicycle Valentines piece that we’d love to see them. I want to say so long and congratulations on the incredible life & career to Patrick Stewart. Engage.

It’s greasy out there in the Sea-to-Shore Corridor and the temperature is just right, so for the localish folks go and grab some of the best riding conditions of the year. For all our fat-biking-friends, love to see some photos. I received a couple of ‘thank you’ messages this month from folks who’ve started almost-always mountain bicycling in a full face helmets. I feel like I’m seeing less of them out on the trails {surprising with the ever-rising number of pedal-assisted bikes} but it’s nice to have some effect on normalizing the decision for folks who are more comfortable crashing with a chin bar.

Also, I almost {almost} had this ready for actual Friday, but here we are on second-Friday {AKA, Saturday}. I suppose there’s always next week?!

Happy Trails,

Andrew

Larry Talker Tunes: By Andrew

Between the teacher and the tween, the weekend theme song these days Chez MEAT is undoubtably ‘Sleeping In’ by The Postal Service. And, actually, whether it’s wrenching on bikes, or finishing SBTISAOAF, or any work that requires the perfect background track, their 2020 release of live songs, Everything Will Change, is a perfect set of pieces.

Model-T, I know you’re going to spin the album top-to-bottom so my only advice for you is to be doing something whilst it plays. For those who want to sample, start with our household favourite, Sleeping In, then listen to the TPS standards We Will Become Silhouettes and Such Great Heights. At that point I’m certain you’ll be hooked.

Ask A Bear Mechanic

---

If you’re interested in supporting the MEATengines community there are multiple ways to help out. You can submit an About a Single Speed or Bicycle Valentines piece, or fire me an e-mail if there’s some other ATB or mountain bicycling topic you’re passionate to write about. I’m interested. You can engage with a comment below, join the crew at r/MEATengines, or, if you have a couple spare bucks {ha!}, you can always buy me a coffee. Thank you.