Is it really Friday? Again!? This week pedaled by quickly with lots of exciting stuff going on and another Pro-D Fromme Friday ride featuring The Clairebarian (this time, actually on Fromme). It was an all steel hardtail affair. Two Chromag small batch beauties, Larry Talker’s Kona Unit, and my Waltworks V2. 

There’s something about the North Shore at this time of year that just softly says “hardtails.” Yes, even more than usual. Stand up and deliver some steep climbs, thunk down some greasy rock armouring and massage your way through aggressively grabbing root tendrils. I can’t explain it, but it’s when the simple-steel-is-spiritual crowd suddenly starts to strangely make sense even for those of us who are generally more materials agnostic. 

I want to jump in with a quick aside. SBTISAOAF is late this week for a good reason. Quite a wide power outage in North Vancouver due to a substation issue. Claire and I went for a walk to kill the time and when we walked past Tequila Cantina on Lonsdale, Mariachi Los Dorados were still playing for an appreciative audience. Most of the other restaurants had closed, unsurprisingly, but a cold beer and warm music was keeping the party going at TC. 

Yes, attitude is everything. But it requires everyone to step up – the patrons, the performers, and the premises. 

Dumpster Bear Recommended

Okay, so, your company is certified 1% for the B-Corp LEED Organic rated with 4.8/5 stars on seventy three different bot-infested internet review sites, but is it Dumpster Bear Recommended!? I didn’t think so. 

You can’t buy your way into a Dumpster Bear Recommendation, and it would be beyond gauche to ask. Either you’re DBR or you’re not and to be honest, I don’t know the formulation for the exact witches brew of knowledge, caring, and genuine friendliness that is required to get the tap on your shoulder. 

Anywho, congratulations to Chilliwack’s own Vedder Mountain Bike Co. in achieving this illustrious recognition. It takes years of investment! Yep, despite what you may have heard it’s definitely, absolutely, is not a made up award that’s as simple as printing off a sticker. As the bard said, “I am whatever you say I am. If I wasn’t, then why would I say I am?” 

{HAHAHA. It’s always amazing to me when I see something from MEATengines manifested in the real world. And it seems extra fitting that this originated from SBTISAOAF. Thank you so much for the big smile, Nic.}

Ever More Rigid One-Speeds

In my inbox and on the trails, it’s inescapable that more folks are disregarding the latest and greatest and choosing to ride hardtails, single-speeds, and even rigid mountain bikes. The coolest thing, to me, is the number of folks I’ve ridden with for the first time who have brought rigid bikes along. Not for any themed ride, but because that’s their bike so they rode it. 

Sometimes this might come down to a budgetary choice, and even an expensive rigid rig is going to amortize out to less when I factor in service and replacement parts, but, still, a lot of the time these are beautiful boutique machines. Case in point is Jay’s raddest-red Surface Voyager. The neatest detail is probably the extended crown race and 505mm axle-to-crown fork combining to keep the geometry awesome. I have to say also that Chromag did a beautiful job with their sliding dropouts. 

Steel This Trek

How’s this for a ‘PipeDream,’ North American made bicycle frames from North American made materials. There was a time when Trek Bicycles was welding steel frames in the USA using USA-made True Temper steel tubing, and, while I very much doubt it will be a reality, one of the ideas behind tariffs on everything from everyone is to energize domestic manufacturing. 

{How American tariffs on everything from everyone will affect Canadian manufacturing TBD.}

At some point or another, Trek actually made the frames they sell – carbon, aluminum, and steel – in their own factories in North America. And, looking at their ‘PipeDream’ project it’s easy to imagine that it could be the case again. And, I think, that conversation is much more interesting than a stand-alone steel Fuel frame. 

Although… has Trek ever considered selling crate rear ends to small builders?

Now, you’re absolutely correct that there are already a handful of smaller brands and custom builders putting out locally made USA frames. And, of course, Devinci up here in the Canuckistan is turning out high quality aluminum frames in batches. But I’m curious what the future will bring. 

Branch plants? Could Devinci open a factory south of the border making bikes for the American market? Could there one day be Canadian-made and American-made Chromag frames with the latter made down South to their spec. Who are the Chris Dekerf and Mike Truelove of the American frame building? 

There are lots of potentially scary economic impacts that could arise over the next four plus years living on this side of the world’s longest undefended border (nearly 9000 kilometers!) and I’m certainly not trying to apply a silver lining to any storm clouds. But, it will be interesting, from a bike-nerd perspective, to see if any/how many companies that used to make their own shit start doing it again. 

Anywho, almost every mountain bicycle site had a write up on the ferrous-Fuel, so for more about the bike a quick internet search will deliver you to multiple takes on concept itself. 

{Ferrous Fuel‘s Day Off? The marketing creates itself!}

Answering Unasked Questions

If the ferrous-Fuel looks like a production steel Trek full suspension bike, then Manitou’s FS II is a clearly conceptual project celebrating a thirty year old experiment in full suspension engineering. It’s a modern re-imagining of the original Doug Bradbury design that uses machined members and a Pinion gearbox. Yes, I would also love to throw a leg over it. 

I’m not saying using a fork for rear suspension is going to make a comeback. If anything I think it’s more likely that linkage forks will get another kick at the can. But this was obviously a very fun project and last time I checked that’s the reason most of us ride bikes! Definitely into bicycle companies having and exploring their imagination, even if they can only justify it as a marketing expense. Dream a little. 

All the following photos, and more, at HBG. 

The Previous Purgatory

In the world of bikes, refreshingly, newer hasn’t always meant better for some years now. A great example of this is Specialized’s latest very beefed-down Butcher-lookin’ Purgatory trail tire vs. the older version of the same. While the new Purgatory is available in a softer T9 compound that’s strictly for 29″ wheeled customers, for smaller hoops it’s T7 only. 

So, in this case, we’re pitting the current T7 compound 27″ Purg. against the past version that’s essentially same compound wise. Though, at the time, the compounds hadn’t been split into firmer T7 and stickier T9 options. 

I’m far from a Specialized fanboy when it comes to their bikes or equipment, but I really appreciate the quality and performance of their tires relative to the price and that’s extra true with the generous sale pricing they’ve been listing on some models. And if the current stock is on sale, what’s a previous generation Purgatory even worth then?

Good ‘n cheap. Cheap ’n good!

The old Purgatory has, in my opinion, better climbing traction on steep & loose sections of climbs compared to the new model and the mechanical grip descending isn’t that far removed from a DHRII. Plus it rolls faster. For the right rider, this tire promises to be an excellent rear option. And, again, with the new-new being generously on sale, the last generation rubber is all but or-best-offer. 

I also like that the older version is available in a hardtail friendlier 2.6″ which has quite a bit more air volume over the current 2.4″ rubber. Claire has the Purgatory 2.6″ out back paired with a 2.6″ Butcher in their stickiest T9 compound up front. Both tires together cost me less than the single MaxxGrip DHF I was thinking of buying. 

Maverick Vacuum Treadles 

I am beyond stoked that in the next few weeks I’ll be able to start publishing my thoughts about a couple interesting, top quality, products that I’ve been riding for months. I’m not on the production guts yet and I still love them (biased review incoming). In addition to being a creative take on a long ‘perfected’ product there are notable differences in riding them. 

I can’t say more, except that the soft launch is out there in internet land if you want to oscillate around and check out the chasm. 

{Above photo: Hardtail.Life}

And that’s six bicycles things I’m stoked about on a Friday. There’s a lot of hockey happening this weekend but there are also a couple more pieces in the queue that I expect will escape by Monday evening, so if you’re killing time and fancy reading about some offroad velocipedes be sure to check back in. 

Oh, and yeah, no used hardtail of the week this week. Nothing really caught me eye. As always, if you see something as you peruse the various places bicycle are legitimately available second hand, that you think would fit this this series, please feel encouraged to fire me a link. 

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