It’s Fri…satur…day September the-day-just-after-the-13th, so the perfect time to launch this week’s SBTISAOAF. I didn’t ride as much as I would have liked to this week, but with my body getting used to turning wrenches again and The Clairebarian having hockey evaluations, things felt jam-packed as they were.
It’s slow typing this morning (afternoon?) as I did a proper rigid ride yesterday and even with the lightest-action Dominion brakes and a real focus on line choice and posture my hands were cramping at the end. The thigh of my trailing foot was cramping too and is ‘toight’ today. So, you know, a proper ride.
Fromme Fridays
My schedule has changed a great deal this school year and I’ve had to say goodbye to Tuesday morning rides. No more hiking up Pipeline, to ride down Pipeline, every week. (Although I’m certain there will be many Pipeline rides regardless). My new routine is Fromme Fridays, a no-drop but come prepared to pedal ride. If you’re North Vancouver adjacent, or in town for a visit, and want to come along be sure to reach out. We hit the trails after school drop-off and we’re off the mountain by 1pm at the latest.
This week Hardtail-Steve and I pedaled up No Quarter, rode 7th Secret, Leppard, Crinkum Crankum, and then climbed back up and hit Executioner and Dreamweaver. It was a solid lap. We were both on single-speeds, but despite my being a gatekeeping, elitist, snob, these are hardtail-positive, #1FG-positive, rides but not hardtail or single-speed exclusive.
Fair warning though, if the rear derailleur battery dies on your extra-carbon super-cycle you will be mocked without mercy. I do carry a fully charged spare AXS battery – despite not running a wireless drivetrain myself – but there’s a price to pay if you want to borrow it.
CUES Criminy
I love seeing new bike models, like Giant’s impressive new Fathom 2, showing up with CUES U6000. The shifting quality is amazing. Period. Never mind the price. But I can’t help but laugh at some of the bicycle spec crimes this is creating. Take the $500 jump up to the Fathom 1 which sports a sub-par SRAM SX drivetrain for more money.
Certainly, the Fathom 1’s Shimano MT420 brakes are an upgrade but I could roll out of the shop on a Fathom 2 with a fantastic Magura MT Trail Sport braking setup for the same price as the higher-end bike while experiencing the significantly better shifting and durability of the CUES system.
The Fathom 2 even uses a CUES U6000 crankset, with a Shimano external bottom bracket, as opposed to the POWERSPLINE (ugh), not even DUB, SRAM SX crankset on the Fathom 1.
CUES U6000 is going to turn values on their heads all over the bicycle industry in 2025 but I have not yet seen a single company taking true advantage of this groupset’s shifting strengths with a proper min-max build.
I can only imagine what Giant could have done with their purchasing power to make a CUES U6000 Fathom 1. Maybe an upgrade to one of their high-value lighter-weight and faster-engaging wheel systems coupled with the MT420 brake upgrade
I can’t wait for more product managers to get time on U6000 and start playing with min-max options. I can foresee some really neat sleeper bikes with Select+ suspension, great rubber, Deore (or MT5, or Code RS, etc.) four-piston brakes, PNW dropper posts, and high-engagement hubs. Delicious.
In the meantime, I arrived here on a happy note as I’ve been recommending folks check out the Fathom 2 as a potential top-value new-in-the-box mountain bicycle. I think Giant did a killer job for sub 2K. CUES U6000 is that good.
Metropolis Bar
Nothing is written in stone when it comes to the bikes in our little slice of North Vancouver but, however temporary, that does not stop me from enjoying the little victories. For the first time in many years, the Parr-Major household is flagged 100% drop-bar free. I very successfully ruined Steve’s ’81 Talbot with a -16° SQlab 30X. I’m running the -20° Soma Dream Low Down bar on my V1 ATB commuter/gravel bike. I significantly cut down the -16° 30X that was on V1 and The Clairebarian is commuting on that on Project Blue ’92.
Nina was the last holdout and I didn’t play fair. Her Surly Straggler (did I mention it has the worst dropouts in the history of bicycles? I did? Oh, okay, moving on) was running SRAM Rival brifters and first BB7 and then TRP cable-actuated disc brakes with a suitably narrow drop bar. That’s been ditched in favour of an FSA Metropolis commuter bar (with more usable hand positions, but I didn’t stop there.
First I purchased some luxurious (read, pain in the ass to wrap) 5mm thick Wolf Tooth bar tape in her preferred orange colour. It actually feels like your tires are underinflated the first time you ride it. Then I swapped to a well-used, abused, and still awesome 11-speed Shimano XT drivetrain for a more positive shifting experience that matches her Waltworks. Finally, I ditched the cable brakes for my old pair of Magura MT Trail brakes with carbon fiber lever blades. Oh, and I had an amazing ano-brown 90mm Chromag stem, that I ran on my 2013 Kona Unit, that found its way onto this build too.
Welcome to cold weather heaven for your digits! Massive, consistent, stopping power even when those Ortlieb panniers are double-over-stuffed! A perfectly tuned clutch! And it looks RAD to boot. I may not win the war* against curly bars in our house, but I think I can rightly claim to have won this battle.
*{CONFLICT! Hahahahaha. Please don’t take this seriously. I love that you love whatever flare of loops is your liking. But for the record, I can tell from your bar tape how many of those hand positions you actually use.}
A One-Click Predilection
Shifting preference is shifting preference. Heck, my heart is still fully invested in friction thumb-shifting. Shimanophile, SRAMentalist, choosing to fight the duopoly? Whatever works for you, I am happy. But aside from brands, The Clairebarian and I have been performing and, I think, interesting experiment.
I have both the ‘e-bike’ and standard version of SRAM’s X0 11-speed shifters and Claire has ridden both types now. Coming from the option to multi-shift into lower gears I assumed that’s what she would prefer but the single-click ‘e-bike’ shifter is by far and away the preference. She finds that she can move through gears faster and with more precision.
Now, this isn’t in any way suggesting that someone who loves multi-shift and double-release is doing multi-speed mountain bicycles wrong. My sole takeaway is that it is really neat to watch my grom develop her own equipment preferences rather than simply parroting my own (for example, push-on grips).
Tire Patch Prince/sses
That said, I did have a special mini-me moment this week when we were talking about new tires for Claire’s bike for the winter. Sadly Specialized is only making their new Purgatory tire in their stickiest T9 compound in a 29″ size. What about the short folks Specialized?
So, I was thinking about a T7 Purgatory for the rear with a Minion DHF MaxxGrip tire up front. A setup biased both for Claire’s love of big pedaling efforts and also for the more technical trails she’s riding now. The new Purgatory promises to roll fast and find traction uphill and downhill in a light but tough package. The 2.5″ EXO DHF is a classic min-max mix of grip and rolling resistance.
Anyway, I mentioned that it was the tire combination I was considering but then the brand patches wouldn’t match. Keeping in mind I’m usually mixing Bontrager, WTB, Specialized, Maxxis, and Schwalbe tires on my own bikes, The Clairebarian says, “Yeah, so?” I tell her most folks we know would never mix tire brands on their bicycle. “Why?” It is just not how it’s done. “Like who?”
Anyway, friends who are tire-patch-prince/sses, you know who you are and I threw the lot of you under the bus. So if you’re on a ride with Claire and she gives you side-eye you know why.
MEATengines Bottles
We’ve almost sold out of MEATengines bottles. A lot of things would have to change for us to order more – the minimum order is not small, and we raised a few hundred bucks for The Harvest Project, which is rad, but it was a (planned) net loss – so I guess I am saying if you really wanted one reach out.
It’s been great to receive photos of the bottles in action and of course to bump into them in the wild. Okay, I use the term “bump into” loosely as any MEAT bottles I see are always on bikes belonging to someone I know. Even if it is a new bike I hadn’t seen before.
A fair few folks have bugged me about MEATengines cogs in partnership with Kick Ass Cogs, Wolf Tooth, or North Shore Billet (we need to convince them to make cogs first). I may take a page from Vik’s book and do a preorder at some point but for now, we’re talking about doing some sticker packs. More information in the future.
Happy Fri…satur…day.
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