This could have been the second SBTISAOAF ‘New Bike Edition’ in two weeks but I’ve already teased some content about Project Blue ’92 and Claire will write something more about it when she has more hours on the bike. So far we’ve just ridden it huckleberry hunting but that was enough to earn it two thumbs up, so everyone is happy.
Along with her Samurai, which has the proper front wheel now, Steve’s Talbot, which I am in the process of ruining, and the Secondhand Postilions Spire that I am riding/writing for BikeMag, the ‘fresh’ bikes in my life have been all used, all the time lately. My favourite part about all those rigs is that they come with a story, or more accurately we are continuing their story.
Anyway-who-how, I spent all of last week writing about used bikes so here are six OTHER bicycle things I’m stoked about on a Friday.
1) Enough
I do not much care for the hot days we have been having nor the moon-dusty dryness of a lot of the trails, but in seeking out the positives I do love sitting outside in the evening when things cool down and plugging away at the keys. I gave our tired little table a quick buff-and-oil and I think it is looking just the right amount rustic.
I had a nice coffee chat with my cousin this week, who I have not seen in a pile of years, more years, in fact, than I was prepared to admit to at first. All the usual catching up and then she and I chatted a lot about the concept of ‘enough.’ Enough was an underlying theme of everything I wrote this week from To Rigid, Too Rigid to my piece on the new PNW Range Dropper Post package.
I am feeling right now when it comes to mountain biking, that I have reached enough. I am pedaling enough. My equipment is enough. I am challenging myself enough. It’s a really nice feeling.
{Above Photo: Hardtail.Life}
I want to clarify from my place of privilege, sitting outside in my little deck area listening to city sounds carried on a cooling breeze, that I am not that person claiming I know what ‘enough’ is or telling you that you have achieved it. I am not saying you have enough bike (or enough bikes), enough house, enough car, enough job, enough credit, enough savings, or enough etc. That is a decision for you and yours to make.
{Unless Jeff is reading this… Beezus, buddy, you won capitalism. If you are looking for suggestions on weening your fortune back down to ‘enough,’ why not start by buying school lunches for every kid in North America for the next couple hundred years?}
But I do think that when you set out having some idea of what ‘enough’ is could be a good idea. And maybe that goal posts shifts or maybe it doesn’t but at least at some point in time there is something solid to work towards or from.
2) Not Another Empty Platitude: Shop Local
I do not pretend to understand art, but I assume Cy is playing with us here. Teasing out raw emotions long held back or forcing us to draw uncomfortable conclusions. After all, the Ibis Bow-Ti frames are/were titanium, so they do not rust (colour). These days they are massively overpriced almost unrideable collectable noodles so no one is hanging one outside as a sign even if they are cracked six ways to Friday. And the penalty for painting titanium (colour) unironically does vary from place to place but you really, really do not want to take that risk – stickers, etching, anodizing, sure. No paint.
I mean, he even captured the shape of the Ibis Rosie Bar-Ends and took the time to draw an IRD linkage fork! I mean, it even has the correct spider orientation and first-of-the-four-bolt spec ’98 XTR crankset. Sorry, Cy, everyone’s a critic but for a nice brightly painted period-correct Ibis frame, I would have gone with a Szazbo. Actually, I would have gone with either a 1996 Rocky Mountain Speed or a Brodie Libido of the same vintage.
More importantly, I am really stoked to read this new series about different folks’ local bike shops. In general, shopping locally has so many benefits in terms of building vibrant communities and cycling money back into them, but more than that I love reading about different unique bike shops I will probably never get to visit.
I have had a couple folks ask if I will be contributing to the series and that is not something I can answer. Especially in SBTISAOAF. But it is always nice to know folks are thinking about me.
If you are interested, check out the introduction to Not Another Empty Platitude: Shop Local. And if you have a uniquely favourite local shop you support, wherever local is for you, there’s an option to submit it for consideration for a highlight.
{Above Artwork: Cy Whitling)
3) Ride From Home or Ride From Somewhere
My favourite of the NSMB pieces I wrote is a very short hit from October 2018 called If You Can’t Ride From Home, Ride From Somewhere. I get that not everyone is privileged enough to live within a reasonable riding distance of their local trails but, especially when parking near access points on public streets, when you have a bike why not roll up from a few blocks, or a few minutes away? Warm up the legs. Spread out the traffic.
My straight-up-from-home-to-Fromme ride takes a bit more than 20 minutes on the one-speed and under thirty on the Spire but it is not a level of traffic I would be comfortable riding in with Claire and that should probably inform my decision-making when solo.
The much more pleasant through route consists mainly of gravel parks & powerline trails interspersed with quiet streets and only a couple terrifying busy, higher-speed multi-lane road crossings. I haven’t timed myself and Claire and I took a couple snack breaks but it’s still under an hour with her in tow and I’ll make a point of timing myself in the future.
Claire and I have ridden home from the trails a few times but now she can say she’s ridden from home to the trails, gone mountain biking, and ridden home as well and the smiling sense of accomplishment when she talks about it is rad. It was not easy, and she slept damn well that night, so I mean, mission accomplished all the way around.
4) Huckleberry Season
It is prime Huckleberry time and what a great motivator for the above. And not just for getting the grom pedaling to and from the trails, I am more than happy to stop for a solo feast. I have eaten so many salmon berries and huckleberries this year I am surprised that I haven’t received a notarized letter from the local black bears to f*ck off back to my refrigerator.
Claire and I have become such connoisseurs (that’s a synonym for glutton right?) that we have taken to trying to distinguish the flavour profiles from one huckleberry shrub to another. Anyway, if you’re North Vancouver adjacent and thinking of riding to your Fromme ride I am willing to spill the goods on where nature is hiding the bountiful bushes of sour spheres.
Wait, you don’t say, berry goodness has already made it into SBTISAOAF? No one said no repeats.
5) Cardboard Packaging
Would not packaging or less packaging be better? Uh-huh. Am I going to let that get in the way of being excited about how little plastic I have had to deal with lately? Nuh-uh. I am going to use a recent PNW photo because I didn’t have to look through my appallingly organized photo library, but from SRAM to Shimano, Wolf Tooth to PNW, and companies in between, it is rad how quickly the bike industry has moved to ditch plastic.
The little bits and bops come in tiny paper envelopes and I am sure more than a few have been tossed out as folks get used to the opaque processing, but I am excited to see the focus. Next, it will be interesting to see how they shrink the amount of it.
6) Cumberlandworx
We’re already getting excited about #Cumberlandworx this year. It doesn’t overlap with Crankworx anymore, but we’re okay with that. Claire is promising to take on some of the reporting duties but we’ll see how that fits with all the distractions that the Comox Valley offers. She may end up doing a reflection on the aftermath. Apparently, we are going to ride a lot of Upper & Lower Thirsty Beaver. Definitely, we are going to eat a ton of Love’s Ice Cream.
Brixton Jim gifted me a RAD miniature messenger bag (AKA purse with an extra side strap for stability) and I am currently working on sorting out a strap for it. If I can get it running comfortably I am thinking of wearing that instead of my full-on backpack. Otherwise, it’ll be business as usual with my WZRD’ed Waltworks V2 and my Kali Invader full face.
I have only ever ridden Queso Grande at Easter time so I am planning to rectify that this year. Probably one afternoon with properly dead multi-day legs after a morning ride with Nina and Claire. But other than that, I do not currently have any grand plans.
We always seem to over-commit, but if you are in the area and fancy getting out for a ride drop me an e-mail!
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