Monday Musings (30) – #1FG, Sag Wagons, You, & Me

Buy the bike you already own! Does the future have fewer gears? You should try a rigid fork. Beauty’s in the eye of the bike owner. The sad state of the ‘Because I Can‘ mountain bike. Ugh, go on. Write some more. In a world of sleeper bikes, super bikes, snoozer bikes, and pedal what you like, it’s the last one that really interests me. 

I endlessly circle back to that Keith Bontrager quote. No, not the Strong-Light-Cheap one that probably originated with civilization itself in Bronze Age Sumer*, the other one: “If you are a pro, you ride the fastest thing you can get. If you aren’t, then you can ride anything that suits you.” 

If you’re counted among the handful of folks who read MEATengines, then it’s likely you know a thing or two about your bicycle. Whether you love it or loathe it, consider it a work of art or a tool, and if it’s totally stock, upgraded, or a frame-up build, I’m interested. Specifically, interested in your take on your bike. But, at the same time, I don’t have any personally vested interest in what you ride. It’s your bike.

*{“Adad, this bronze sickle sword snapped the first time I used it!” // “Malah, it was in the factory-seconds discount bin and weighs nothing, I told you: strong, light, cheap, pick any two!”}

{A linked discussion: If Mountain Bikes Had Never Existed, Would You Still Be a Cyclist?}

There’s some disconnection that’s been popping up with uncomfortable regularity in my life. In person and sometimes not. Words, ideas, attributions, remembrances, credit, and blame. 

It generally starts with someone I used to ride bikes with semi-frequently, life² having worked in such a way that it’s been a while. Maybe we used to single-speed together a bunch, but they’ve parked the #1FG rig in favour of T-Typing twelve ratios. They were massive steel-is-real hardtail evangelists, but now their mountain bike diet is strictly high fiber HP+I rigs with rear shocks that cost as much as two Honzo frames. Priorities changed, and they went from trying to loudly keep the e-gate closed to trying to close it behind them.

I understand, riding for me has changed a lot, too. I mean, same as it ever was, I still love slowly making my way down janky old-school trails on my rigid one-speed, but this seems much more disconnected from the average mountain bike experience than it did in the past. 

It’s been working in the other direction, as well. I love single-speeding, and some of the folks I know who have tried it through a connection with me love it too. Or loved it. Or loved the idea of it. Or hated the whole experience. Or never bought into the concept, but it’s fun to tease/be teased about it anyway. You know, #JerryWillowsHatesMyBike {and he could hate yours too} or Is North Shore Rigid Single-Speeding For You?

Always happy to help someone on their journey to the 50,000:1 club. But if you do hit me up for bike advice, or gearing thoughts, and then buy a colourful cog, a suspension-corrected rigid fork, or a fresh Kona Unit, I don’t want any credit, or blame. Don’t hear me wrong, I’m interested in your take on the experience. I have a running score board keeping track of rigid converts who love and hate Ned’s {it’s either or}. You have a rigid one-speed and a sag wagon? Which do you ride more and why/where/when?

But if your defense to mountain biking’s court of public opinion for single cogs or fixed-forking is “Andrew Major made me do it,” I’m not thrilled about that. You want to figure out how to ISCG chain-guide single-speed your Stylus, Enigma, Torrent, etc.? Happy to help. If anyone asks, “WTF WHY?” you did it, you’re going to have to own that decision yourself. I mean, why did you do it? Single speeding ruins everything. 

Still, acknowledged, I’ve often opined that every hardtail frame should have sliding dropouts. ISCG tabs are an okay second option. But the beauty of a sliding system is that multi-speed riders benefit from the adjustable wheelbase as well. Or, actually, most of them probably leave their dropouts wherever the shop sets them, but what an awesome opportunity to play with bicycle geometry, even aside from tensioning a one-speed setup. 

And yet, when we had Nina’s Waltworks built, the dropouts were fixed in place. Weight savings? A certain aesthetic? No, my wife was beyond clear that she had zero interest in one-speeding, and we knew where we wanted the rear-centre to be, so it just worked out. This is the difference between a bike made for everyone and a bike made for one person’s use case. 

Yes, I think every production hardtail mountain bike should come with sliders. Like the Kona Honzo, Unit, Explosif, or the Pipedream Moxie, or the RSD Middlechild, and so on. The additional cost as part of the production run is minimal, and the future-proofing opportunities in terms of adjustment and being able to easily swap dropouts are extensive. 

But I’m not saying, at all, that you shouldn’t buy a hardtail without sliders. Say that Rocky Mountain Growler, Marin SQ, or otherwise saucy modern front-shocked shred machine calls your name. I’m simply presenting ideas, and if you come around to single-speeding in the future, there are a few ways to arrive there without sliding the stay length. 

{Above photo: Knolly Bikes}

Contrary to what I’ve heard, I don’t ‘hate’ full suspension bikes. Or, multi-speed drivetrains. Or Super Boost 157×12 spacing for that matter. Even if I do generally choose to ride single-speed hardtails. I’d love to throw a leg over the newest Devinci Troy*, Chromag Lowdown, a Transition Smuggler, Norco’s next XC-Trail bike, etc. The last one’s even plastico-fantastico. 

And I wonder, as we see most mountain bikes move to 55mm chain lines, if we won’t also see a move towards, instead of away, from 157mm rear hubs to try and improve the chain angle for the low gears, especially when 13-speed drivetrains from ShiRAMano start shipping. Maybe we are still slowly being boiled into Super Boost, it’s just taking a lot longer than I thought. 

I would much prefer to see one rear hub standard for mountain bikes. Right now, 148×12 has significantly more market share and momentum, and bad chain lines don’t affect our fleet chez MEAT, and, with all that in mind, I’ll take the extra trail clearance of the narrower rear end. But if the whole market moves to 157×12 next year, I couldn’t be upset. Wait, can you stack Boostinator kits on Boostinator kits? Growing from 142 to 157? Hahahaha. 

*{Yes, linked for irony.}

I’m not generally one for buying complete bikes, although I’ve been known to do it to strip-and-flip the parts if I cannot pick up a frameset. To be clear, in line with this piece, that’s not saying I don’t recommend buying off-the-rack. It’s simply a matter of building value by moving forward with top-end components bought to last, sticking to old parts I prefer {11-speed shifting, for example}, and the mix-matching and min-maxing of our family’s collection of two-wheeled fun. 

With all due blame, and I suppose credit, to our friends Penny & JacVenture, The Clairebarian and I decided to pick up a sag wagon for Nina to ride with the general feeling that outside our hardtail bubble, there may be an opportunity for more fun to be found, for her, on our family rides specifically and in the mountains in general. 

There are a lot of great reasons to ride a hardtail. Single speeding. Sag-wagoned out and needing a change. Budget, up front. Budget, yearly maintenance. Because you want to. Because your dad thinks it’s the superior choice for groms learning to love to climb. I mean, I’m certain I’m only scratching the surface here. 

But bike-to-bike, on the trails, in the same performance category, a full suspension rig is going to be smoother, faster, more efficient, more comfortable, and so on. Facts. That’s coming from someone who spends most of their ride time with a rigid rear end. 

There are plenty of fantastic bikes on the market, though with 29’er and MX bikes ruling the roost, maybe fewer that are short-rider-technical-trail friendly than one would think. Still, I broke down our criteria into must-have and nice-to-have, and here’s where we ended up. Keeping in mind Nina is right around 5′ tall.

Must-Haves:

1. Sufficient insertion depth and a short enough seat tube with sufficient tire clearance to run the same (~ as short as they come) WTC Resolve 160mm dropper post. 
2. Dual 27″ wheel compatible {yes, technically every MX bike can be 27″^2 with a longer travel fork and smaller front wheel}.
3. Modern geometry without being too-too steep (STA) or slack (HTA) or low (BB). Reach about 410-420mm, chainstays around 425-430mm. 
4. High-quality aluminum frame with preference to a threaded bottom bracket and press-in headset cups. 
5. Room for a water bottle inside the main triangle.

Preferences:

1. External cable routing. Especially rear brake. 
2. Horst-link suspension. 
3. Boost 148×12 rear spacing (Boostinating a 142×12 Chris King hub).
4. 140/150mm travel.
5. Good green colour. 
6. 31.6mm or 34.9mm (to shim) seat post. 
7. IS rear brake mounting. 

The first logical option, which I’ve recommended to plenty of shorter riders, is the latest Knolly Endorphin. Since day dot for the BC brand, Noel has included provisions for slammed saddles and short riders, and the XS Endo checked every must-have box with the added axle-to-crown of bumping the Mattoc Pro bumped up to 150mm travel. Frame quality – materials and manufacturing – is lovely. 

Internal cable routing, meh. Knolly used to have some of the nicest external routing in the business. I understand. Market pressures. The new one-piece shock linkage is much more Trunnion-friendly, and the frames use well-shielded bearings throughout. Headtubes have also grown in recent generations, and the geometry on any size of Endorphin is on lock. I even know the bikes pedal well with the smaller chainrings that make skipping the 50/51/52t pizza-cog and extra-long derailleur cages possible. Plus, I’ve built & rebuilt a ton of them from the frame-up.

The hang-up was the rear hub, but I sort of had the sorted by Boostinating the 27″ 148×12 wheel off my Freeride BMX, at least for the time being. I know the spoke lengths are fine as I’d previously dished-and-spaced it to fit a Devinci Chainsaw. 

Yeah, so. Here’s one written journey from my love of rigid single-speeds to my love of Nina’s new sag-wagon with a side of wait-that-is-not-the-full-suspension-bike-you-usually-recommend-for-the-less-vertically-endowed. As I parsed our options one more time, my attention fell on a bike that I’ll, in the future, argue should come in at least one more larger size. Two, if they’re going to be MX rigs. 

The Chromag Minor Threat, with its healthy dropper insertion and 420mm Reach, is a beautifully balanced bike. No perfect green option, but all three colours are solid, and the frame quality is obvious. An easy-to-set-up, easy-to-ride Horst-link suspension system delivers 140mm of rear travel, and there’s plenty of room for a water bottle. Heck, the cable routing is even external. 

{Above photo: Steve&Meg @Hardtail.Life}

It’s built-to-last is a nice way of saying I’ve experienced lighter-weight 140mm aluminum frames, but the complete bike’s not a pile heavier than Nina’s steel hardtail, and she can lift it on and off our North Shore Rack. 

Bicycle brands are always a bit optimistic when it comes to the height range of riders that a given rig will serve. Certainly, at 5’3″ I’d be trying ‘adult’ small bikes to contrast against the XS Endorphin or this youth-focused Chromag. 

But if you’re about 5′ tall, not interested in a hardtail, or maybe a rigid one-speed? Sorry, so, if you’re about 5′ tall and buying a new sag wagon, I figured that, even though I ‘hate’ anything with multiple-gears and I’m constantly trying to ride you over to my rigid one-speeding agenda, that I’d share the two bikes on the market that we considered. 

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