My friend Alex made a comment this week that has been dancing in my brain since. It regards a new small-batch mountain bike frame he’s considering to replace his belly button bike (b³). It’s a beautiful, full-tech sag wagon with a steel front and aluminum rear end that’s built in BC.
Price-wise, it’s well within the premium solar system that many mainstream brands are rocketing around for frames and completes. It will weigh more than his current, fantastic-plastic, rig, but he’s strong enough that a boost in frame weight is irrelevant. In terms of after-sales support, they’ll have to work to be as good. His b³ comes from a brand with a fairly legendary rep for looking after their patrons.
Anywho, in the ‘pro’ column, is an intangible that’s not a selling feature to everyone but has an outsized emotional pull on some of us pedalheads. It’s that feeling of supporting someone’s personal project. Seeing that direct string between them and their passion. Riding a production mule {on purpose vs. buying a first gen product from a major manufacturer}.
I was still thinking about it at Fromme Friday today when my friend BEE showed up with his custom T4* hardtail. In a day and age when there really aren’t many examples of ‘bad’ bikes at any price range, the best bike is still the one that stokes your fire.
*{Twin Tiny Top Tubes}
Fresh Helmet Pads
I’m probably too excited about fresh helmet pads but they’re here and they feel fresh, so fresh and so clean. Even with regular rinsing, the ones they replaced had me sweat-blind on big uphill efforts and anytime it properly rained. Plus, the forehead padding was disintegrating.
I could have absolutely just replaced the liner pads and continued to rinse out my cheek pads, but I like that they match. Another note is that Kali has changed the pad configuration inside. I instantly preferred the setup, a closer match to my Kali Invader DH, but I would like to see Kali include a card of fresh stick-on Velcro dots in their pad sets to ease the swap.
I’ll also note that for the highest wear/highest sweat forehead pad the kit actually includes 2x. One with bug netting and one without but given that pad could easily be replaced 2:1 compared to the cheek pads and rear pad I think it’s a bonus value.
My helmet is in good condition, hasn’t been obviously crashed, and I’m confident riding in it so just replacing pads is a serious value booster. The cheek pad kit sells for CA$22 and the liner set is CA$26.
The min-max win for folks who don’t already own an Invader 2.0 would be to grab an extra liner set when they buy their lid. For the rest of us in the TNSAF, I remain hopeful that the brand will add a Canadian warehouse and expand its dealer network.
The Invader 2.0 may not be for everyone, but it’s a lid that I wish every mountain biker had a chance to try on.
{Above photo: Hardtail.Life}
Garden Art
Between Crash Test Kevin, myself, and The Clairebarian there were more than a few too-bent rotors to go around. Then add worn-out, or simply out-of-date chain rings that hadn’t been recycled yet. Well, put simply, when mom asked for some round bicycle bits for a garden art project it wasn’t hard to come up with the raw material.
Of course, now I have it on my project list to make one of my own. Right after I finish {read: start} by Kona longtail clock project, cleaning up, significantly downsizing my workspace, and whatever else comes up.
Anywho, I think this is a pretty sweet bit of upcycling to inspire us to put some of those bits in the metal bin to good use.
Garbaruk Cogs
When Claire announced she was keen to try single-speeding how could I say no? Even if the bike-to-rider weight ratio for a ten-year-old riding an adult-small steel hardtail makes some low-low gearing needs.
Peter kindly sent us a BB-mount single-speed tensioner and then it came down to figuring out how we were going to achieve the right gearing requirements for the Clairebarian to command her Chromag up and down steep Shore-to-sky trails.
These Garbaruk narrow-wide single-speed cogs in 26t and 28t are the answer and this week they touched down after I special ordered* both. Why both? If I’d made a bet on one of them it would have been the wrong choice. Claire’s going to start with the 28-tooth option and see how that goes.
These are not currently stocked in Canada, but I have it on the best authority that if there’s some dealer demand that will change. So if you have a future need for a massive** #1FG option ask your local shop to put one on order now, save the shipping on a single cog, and potentially make it faster and easier for a fellow member of Team #JerryWillowsHatesMyBike to sort out a future project. Who knows, it could be Ryan!
*{Orange Sport Supply is the Canadian Distributor and has accounts with the vast majority of bike shops.}
**{They make 26t, 28t, & 30t – essentially chainrings with HG fitment instead of one of the direct mount standards.}
My plan is to mount the cog on my spare mullet wheel – with the CushCore insert removed – and with the derailleur routing being external I’m hoping to push the swap time back and forth with the multi-speed setup to under ten minutes. Five minutes would be perfect though some rotor shimming might be required to not have to adjust the brake every swap.
Claire’s goal is not all-single-speeding-all-the-time but to have it as an option to maximize the different experiences with the same bike in the same way the XC fork for my V2 will double as the perfect axle-to-crown for a Samurai mullet conversion when she’s taller.
I’m stoked that the cogs have arrived. The plan is to convert the bike this weekend and for Claire to give it a go for the first time on Monday. If all goes according to plan I’ll have a bit of a write-up for Wednesday next week.
Ned’s Atomic Big Grin
Both Claire and I had forgotten how much she loves Ned’s until we rode it for the first time in months on Monday. By the bottom, she was already talking about riding it on Friday and the following Monday. What was the highlight? Actually, for Claire, it was cleaning the heinous bit of chunky loose climb up to the power lines {I’m calling it the pre-Mushroom climb}.
The rest of the highlight was the whole trail. It has chunky bits, fast bits, challenging bits, and a couple of sections she’s still working up her courage to conquer. Big smiles the whole way down. Now, I know a few folks who, for whatever reasons, don’t like Ned’s but they always remind me of my favourite Endless Bike Co sticker – ‘There Are No Boring Trails, Just Boring People.’
Fromme Friday
It was all hardtails for this week’s Fromme Friday. Naked Nick was there with his Formula-forked titanium wonder rig. BEE had his shed-build 2019 “backup bike,” complete with thumb shifters actuating the gears and dropper. As usual for Friday, I was riding the Walt(x)WZRD V2. The trails were fantastic, as was the company. Excited to do it again next week.
Today, I also had three more folks threaten to show up “sometime,” two of whom recently became (part-time?) hardtail converts. Cool! A quick bit of housekeeping though. I Fromme-Friday ALMOST every Friday with the most notable exceptions being Easter and Cumberlandworx. But, there are exceptions. So if you are thinking of coming out specifically to ride with some other folks feel encouraged to drop me an e-mail.
Just a reminder it is a no-drop ride but not barrier-free. It’s a self-powered (no eebs) outing and folks attending should be able to make it to the top of the No Quarter Climb under their own steam.
And yes, I know, Fromme Friday features regularly in SBTISAOAF, but it’s Friday and I’m stoked about it so what can I do?
Yeah, so. That’s a wrap for this week. I have a little no-brainer new-product-prediction that will go live this weekend, Monday Musing #17 will be up on Monday, and then check back Wednesday {or more likely Thursday AM} for a little write-up on Claire’s first single-speed experience.
Larry Talker Tunes for the Week
Earworm of the week. I’ve had The Burning Hell’s “Fuck The Government, I Love You” stuck in my head all week except for a brief period where I spent three hours mumble-singing “It Happens In Florida.”
IHIF is from 2008, so in terms of hitting Model-T with some take-home tunes, here’s their April 1st, 2016 album Public Library.
“Pass the wine, fuck the government, I love you
Three statements overheard at once in the crowded room
But I could not be sure which one had come from you
So, I passed you the wine and said, “Yes, fuck the government, I love you too”
Oh, about the band. They’re based in PEI, Canada and every song is as interesting as the folks making them.
“The Burning Hell is the ongoing musical project of songwriter Mathias Kom and multi-instrumentalist Ariel Sharratt, often including additional comrades and collaborators.”
Welcome to MEATengines, I hope you enjoyed this piece. If you did, please consider buying me a coffee. Any questions, concerns, or comments; feel encouraged to drop me an e-mail, or join us at r/MEATengines.