Revolutions as opposed to revolutions: I apologize here and now, but I can‘t be stoked about anything bicycle-related this Friday until I get something off my chest. Yep, politics on a bicycle website, ugh. The worst, right? How dare I? To be fair, I am not trying to tell you what to think. I’m sure I don’t need to ask you to take some time every day to just sit and think. But I need to own my perplexity. 

So here’s the deal. If you’re just here for the bike stuff speed scroll from [Political Crap] to [/Political Crap] and you’ll find yourself smack in the middle of some [Actual Bike Review Shit]. Cheers!

[Political Crap]

I know it basically makes me a Marxist to suggest that some functions of society – {education, healthcare, emergency services, a full-map town-and-village nation-uniting postal & package service, basic nutritional needs, etc.} –  shouldn’t be run with any sort of profit motive, but that’s not even the biggest hill I’m riding up at the moment. What I am perplexedly peddling today is the related idea that anti-social profiteering-motivated cross-class-chasm violence shouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone living in our society. 

US news sources are dancing a graphene-thin line not to directly declare that the recent CEO killing in New York was a result of health insurers’ delay-deny-dead practices in the two-tiered* USA healthcare system. But it seems simple sense that you can’t grow health insurance profits from US$12 billion in 2021 to US$16 billion in 2023 without doing some odious things to some unwell people and either those folks or their survivors are going to be rightly pissed. 

*{Tier 1 – get insurance. Tier 2 – get insurance to pay for medically necessary care.}

I’ll note this is not a critique of the US healthcare system (though I do use it as a personal reminder that for all our complaining the Canadian model serves my ilk pretty well). Rather, not unlike our grocery stores, the profit-driven system seems to do a great job of returning value to shareholders as intended. No surprises there. 

What does come as a significant shock is that any person making their millions off of a rash of other folks falling and failing financially or physically would ever be bold enough to be out and about on their own. I just assumed that profiteering operators of mass providers of necessities (food, shelter, healthcare, etc.) would never go for a walk anywhere without private security? Yes, I am aware that it’s not 1793. Yet. 

Anywho, completely related, Canadian doctors are currently being warned to watch for scurvy. Scurvy! Scurvy? Yes, scurvy. In Canada, 33% of foodbank users are children, and from 2019 to 2024 foodbank visits have nearly doubled. If I were a grocery store CEO who will have pocketed more than my average employee’s yearly wages for all of 2025 by the end of January 2nd, or a health insurance CEO profiting immensely off folks’ suffering, I would be paying a team of folks to watch my six anytime I was going outside whatever kind of compound $10-million a year buys. 

And yes, I know I’m talking about people’s lives but how am I supposed to humanize folks who are stockpiling more treasure than they can ever even enjoy (at some point it’s just collecting money for the sake of seeing a number increase) by dehumanizing millions of others? 

Anyway, I’m going for a ride and then we’ll get back to life behind (handle)bars. 

[/Political Crap]

Project Kleversack

I’m more than a little stoked about this project and the first proper hit will not be out until January, so here’s a taster. I’m trying so farting hard not to get all fired up and rambly here so after a half-dozen re-starts I’m just giving you the skeleton:

• The MEC Klettersack backpack first arrived on the scene in 1978-79 and there were a couple of decades when they were a ubiquitous component in many Canadian’s traveling or camping experiences.
• Along with the re-release of a retro-style Klettersack, MEC has launched this nifty 6L hip pack called the Kleversack with a ton of external mounting points and a high degree of weather-proofiness. 
• The Clairebarian, the only person I know who has used it so far, says that by far the coolest feature is the magnetic roll-top of the main pocket (under the flap). With the ever-changing weather, she also loves that it’s easy to take off and transport her wet jacket without soaking the rest of her stuff. 
• Project Kleversack is going to be a many-rider review where I collect various folks’ impressions of the product in one place along with our long-term assessment. It’s a proof of concept for a different way of doing (some) product reviews that I would like to extend to other products in the future. 
• I have a couple handful of friends lined up to help with this already, but if you’re one of the North Vancouver adjacent folks who has been threatening to come on a Fromme Friday ride, and you’re interested in joining the project, well, you know how to reach me. 

SBW 

We have ShiRAMano University this, and RockFox certified that, but the only bicycle mechanicing credential I ever want to actually earn is SBW – Shit Bike Wizard. The art of making the unrideable rideable and turning the unsafe into “yep, I’d ride that.” 

There‘s a simple joy in the simple bicycle but more than that I’m a romantic for folks who love their bicycle, even if a new one might be better or even cheaper to sort out. Under years of neglect, there could be something I think is rad like a 1984 Trek 720 touring being ridden regularly instead of existing as someone’s museum piece. Or, something that makes me scratch my head like a 2008 Brodie Cretin being ridden an hour a day as a commuter. 

It’s nice to leave work knowing you made something better for someone and the more beaten down someone’s rig is the more room for improvement there is, right?!

One of my favourite conversions is pulling off a roached 3x drivetrain with a half-seized front derailleur, chainring and cog teeth sharpened to tiny daggers, sloppy rear derailleurs with toothless pulley wheels, and a randomly engaging shifter and then swapping out for a narrow-wide ring and CUES U4000 drivetrain. 

Install some SKS full fenders – there’s always p-clips if there are no mount points, re-shoe it with a pair of Schwalbe Marathon tires, refresh the grips, make sure the saddle isn’t an asshatchet, and add a bit of rise to the bar. Add fresh cable and housing and some enthusiasm and a lot of the time a beautiful riding bike rolls out of the shop. 

And sometimes, a shit bike comes in for a dust & twiddle and still leaves a shit bike. That being the case, I would still prefer to safety-check a 1995 CCM Ice and re-cable its knock-off GripShift shifters than plug in another eeb.

The Bontrager XR4 (3”)

Tire traction comes and goes from a combination of rubber compound, casing conformity and air pressure, suspension, body position, braking, etc. And when it goes, well it sometimes isn’t nice. Last year on my non-rigid bike I spent a lot of hours on the insanely sticky Schwalbe Magic Mary 2.6″ Ultra Soft. It was like riding on a bed of previously licked gummy bears. My brain was having an impossible time reconciling appearance vs. reality with the roots and rocks I was getting traction on and the poor semi-knobby on the back of my Marinster truck might as well have been a road slick by comparison. 

This year, both of my rigs, the Arcturian and Truculent V2, are running Bontrager XR4 29×3″ tires up front. (I still have the Mary rolled up and ready to rock if I do end up reviewing any appropriate mountain bicycles). The Chromag runs the same rubber in the rear, just with the stiffer SE4 casing, and the Waltworks runs a 3″ Specialized Ground Control. 

The XR4’s dual compound 61A/50A rubber is a few degrees harder than Schwalbe’s Ultra Soft or Soft compounds. Sticking with Schwalbe, I’d compare it favourably with SpeedGrip of Specialized’s T7. For a most common comparison point, when the North Shore trails get greasy I’d say that the Bontrager rubber matches Maxxis’ MaxxTerra – sometimes affectionately called MaxxTerrifying at this time of year. 

There’s no combination of CushCore, air pressure, and hope that brings the XR4’s bite close to the Ultra Soft Mary. The harder rubber is harder. But I have the DVO Onyx SL on my Chromag dialed in so perfectly that with 14psi in the tires and a pair of Dominion brakes, I’m crawling down trails with a shocking amount of traction for how quickly these roll along. I’m not trying to jinx myself here, but I’m not missing the softer rubber at all, especially when I’m going uphill. 

And yeah, I know, I’ve written a ton about these tires and watching the best Plus rubber slowly go extinct. I have a decent hoard – as well as an almost new 2.8″ WTB Vigilante in their High Grip compound, Ooo La La – but I remain less than stoked that just as more folks are really getting into rigid mountain bikes the best tire options for these rigs are drying up. 

Anywho, Trektrager still has some XR4 29×3″ tires left so if you love Plus rubber and your future includes buying a Stooge, a Unit, etc., or you already own a Stache, or Krampus, or other 29+ rig, I’d would highly recommend picking one up so you can see for yourself how well they work. 

I’m running, and loving, both of my setups with 3″ XR4 tires, i30 rims, and CushCore inserts, so the barrier to entrance is buying a tire and, if you’re running a suspension fork, taking some measurements to see if it will clear (rigid forks will be no problem). 

*{Drewitors note: Photo above is a follow-up from SBTISAOAF November 1st which included the Bikeyoke Splits Clamp.} 

Basic Flare

I think for a lot of folks I see, the more generic their bike is the more they want to change some parts of it to make it unique for them. I certainly carry that sentimentality deep in my psyche. And of course, the cost of these touches can range from some interesting stickers to a fancy boutique anodized headset, some fancy small-batch suspension products, etc. 

Of all the little details on Claire’s mountain bike, the one that gets the most nerds commenting, both with her 24″ Marin San Quentin and now carried forward to her 27″ Samurai, are the anodized-orange M6 washers on her brake caliper bolts. I originally bought these for my 2014 Kona Honzo, so I can’t tell you what they cost at this point. A quick internet search tells me, not a ton of scratch and it seems to me they’ll last forever. 

Anywho, I just wanted to quickly say that you don’t have to dump a big pile of cash on questionable performance gains to upgrade the you-ness of your bicycle. If some unique flare is in order start with some colourful washers and then work from there.

The Last Few Bottles

I’m down to the last few MEATengines water bottles with no plans to make any more. So, if you’ve been holding off for the Single Speed Sunday sale, sorry, it’s not coming. If you are one of the folks who wanted one now is the time to follow up. 

Back in September, I made the Harvest Project donation as promised. It was $300 and also reflected the bottles that hadn’t sold yet. 

In the future, I’m not planning to do another bottle run (minimums) but we are talking about doing some sticker packs under the same model. That is, MEATengines breaks even (or doesn’t lose much money) and the ‘profit’ on the packs all goes to food banks. We’ll include some Cy Whitling-drawn MEATengines logos, a #JerryWillowsHatesMyBike sticker or two, a Dumpster Bear maybe. Maybe a to-be-created logo from the bike shop I’m never going to open called ‘Two Tired Andrews*.’

*{There’s no shortage of Andrews in the bicycle industry so lots of potential partners.}

Stocking Stuff 

Okay, look at yourself in the mirror. Stare straight into those beautiful [insert colour] eyes and think, can my mental and/or physical state handle any downtime from my mountain bicycle this summer? Now look at your bike, is that the same rig you’ll be pedaling through 2025, 2026, 2027? 

Worst case scenario, you end up with some spare parts, bought on sale, that you will use anyway. In the best-case scenario, you save yourself from some significant downtime. Shops and suppliers remain massively overstocked in some categories of bicycle parts and it’s drought season already for others. 

This is just me preaching what I’m practicing. We have a small cache of wear-items ready to go chez MEATengines – brake pads for everyone’s bikes, a couple spare rotors in each size we used, chains (all our rigs run 11-speed chains, including the #1FG bikes, so that’s easy), tires, grips, and etc. 

We don’t own any full-suspension bikes at this time, but if we did I’d have a spare bearing kit as well. Even if you’re relying on a shop to install them it’s a great idea to have the bearings on hand. You know, in case every Rocky Mountain owner for the last five years suddenly realizes they’re overdue to replace their 6902 Max main pivot bearings and the supply chain hadn’t expected it. 

Bonus Feature: Talker Tunes

“I’m Clyde, Brenda’s Bonnie. You may drink like a fish but a fish drinks like Donnie!!!” 

I was fully prepared to stretch (to the point of breaking) the rules myself this week and send Larry Talker down the path of Newfoundland’s answer to Gordon Lightfoot, Mr. Donnie Dumphy, and his 2009 album I Love Doin’ Wheelies. Don’t just drop into the album though, start with Cry Tunes (Cold Beer) and Broke In Half to capture the true artistry. 

Anywho, ignore my submission because Model-T has jumped into the fray for the second week in a row. It’s almost like he thinks that if he submits something he’ll get out of doing his homework? Nice try Terry Walker. Here’s what he has for you:

“In the interest of sticking with the ten-year rule, I was forced during last week’s pick to look through old dusty CDs. Of course, I stopped buying this medium years ago, Vinyl is de rigueur now so record purchases since have been very selective, meaning classic rock. 

However, there is a long playlist of “saved” music on today’s many platforms. The bonus? All my favourites to date are listed complete with crazy statistics on play time!

This week’s choice was easy – Patient Number 9 (Ozzy Osbourne). Two years after its release, the album has a lot of airtime according to my platform feedback. Apparently, the album is the final run for the man, and dare I say Osbourne has pulled it off – satisfyingly familiar (early 70s Sabbath) yet surprisingly original. Dare I say timeless? Packed with all-star cameos of several of the world’s best musicians. Give it a spin.“

And, just like that, it’s another SBTISAOAF in the bag. On a Friday no less! Plenty is going on this week(end) but definitely drop in for a couple more MEATengines hits between tonight and next Friday. I promise to try for less politics and more Drew predicts. 

Cheerios,

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Welcome to MEATengines, I hope you enjoyed this piece. If you did, please consider buying me a coffee. Any questions, concerns, or comments – or to order a MEATengines water bottle – feel encouraged to drop me an e-mail, or join us at r/MEATengines.