Some Bicycle Things I’m Stoked About On A Friday, April 24th, 2026
As of this morning, the original working title for today’s SBTISAOAF was ‘Beady & The Jeht’, a little stokage on two of the more interesting UK-built sag-wagons. In the case of Starling’s BLE, they’re taking deposits on the next batch with orders open until May 30th. Eventually, one of my old-but-bold #1FG friends is going to build one of these in my size so that I can pedal it around. And, also, so they can enjoy it.
The Jeht of course refers to version numéro trois of Cotic’s long-running trail platform, which was just released today. Fully built in the UK, the 150mm-travel J3 is on trend, adding a UDH, featuring a mullet-only wheel setup, and replacing not one, but two models. There’s quite a bit of marketing copy with the release, but I think the best tagline is “Gravity angles and authority, but still alive through the pedals.“* It’s a wicked-looking rig.
Anyway, shoutout to Devinci’s Made-in-Canada tag, so you can see clearly what models, including the kids’ EWOC, are welded here, but I feel like we need a few smaller production outfits making weird-good cancon squishies. A Balfa for the late twenty-twenties. A made-in-BC Knolly rebirth. Maybe Revelstoked’s rad Jackalope hits production-level numbers!?!
*{Yes, I added a comma in there. I thought British folks loved commas?}
{Photos: Cotic Bikes}
Anywho, rather than spinning my cranks down that road in a gear meant for grinding up single track, I’m switching course and this Friday’s stokeage is a little more MEATengines-inspired. How did I get here? Where is that large potato salad? This is not the beautiful forest? This is not my beautiful bike! No, I mean inspired by MEATengines pieces past. This happily happens every year around this time when a couple of new folks join the tens of other regular readers and I either see or am sent links to past things I’ve written {thankfully, usually not the truly cringe-worthy stuff} or receive an e-mail from something in the archives.
It means spring has sprung {yes, this still counts if you ride a double-hardtail} and a lot of folks who haven’t committed to pedaling year-round, or who live somewhere that’s not possible, even with a fat bike, are blossoming back into bicycles. The trailheads are busy, a lot of folks haven’t figured out that, really, courtesy always has the right of way. And, well, for what it’s worth, a small selection of those folks are finding their way to MEATengines one way or another. Welcome.
{Photo: Starling Cycles / Davis if you see this drop me a haiku, please!}
{Photo: Jackalope Bikes}
An Asshole Guide To…
It’s funny how an old MEATy piece will surface every once in a while, and in this case, with so many new forks hitting the market, from RockShox adding industry-first in-fork-storage* to Cane Creek going inverted on a larger scale, it makes sense that folks are trying to take advantage of a significant oversupply to navigate buying a used model. Even me, I’m waiting for Fox to drop an inverted dual crown so I can low-ball all my friends suddenly trying to move their Fox 40 Factory forks. I mean, how old-shore-awesome would an orange & Kashima 40 look on the front of my ArctuHawk Voyager?! Yes, I’m mostly kidding.
Anywho, I’m stoked that my 2020 piece, An ‘Asshole’ Guide To Buying A Used Fork has been receiving a bit of play so I figured I’d share it here along with the reminder that when you factor in a full service {100hr etc. or yearly} most every used fork on the market is overpriced. Negotiate accordingly. I was asked if I’d add anything to that piece today and I will say that I always tell folks, here in BC, to set their Pinkbike Buy-&-Sell filter to Alberta. The riding season is shorter and, at least compared to the Shore-to-Sky, way less brutal on fork seals. Comparing a random, underserviced, unseen, 2021 fork from North Van to the same item from Calgary there’s an 85% chance the Cowtown version is less roached.
*{Jokes aside, I have it on good authority from both biased and less-biased folks that the new ‘Linear XL’ RockShox air springs are a legitimately rad upgrade. “Must try” even. Sounds superb. I’m keen. Plus, that should chop hundreds of dollars off of NOS (new old stock) RS forks without the feature and have buddy giving you a six-pack for taking his old Yari RC off his hands.}
{Photo: MEATengines}
Your Bar Height
Some of the world’s fastest DH racers hinge flat and low over their bars. Some look like they’re standing straight up, perpendicularly pounding down the terrain. Others still are more off the back of their bikes running stacks of stem spacers or massive riser bars on top of their dual-crown forks. If there’s not truly a best practice for how all these unique super-humans setup their sponsors’ bikes for set race tracks, then there is certainly not a best practice for how you or I are doing it. Shorter Reach with a wider bar? Longer Reach with a higher bar? We do us.
In a land of 70mm, 80mm, 100mm! riser bars on mountain bikers a Chromag FU50 doesn’t even seem tall anymore. No matter how you measure rise, my relatively-high-for-38mm Stooge Moto Bar is practically low rise in a day of long Reach numbers and short Stack numbers. Then there are folks debating the least ugly massively negative rise stem for their fresh 32″ wheeled dream build.
Your bike would like you to know that your bar height is your bar height and it’s going to be bike dependent and, if you’re anything like me, a compromise depending on whether trails are super steep or have a plethora of flat corners. Experiment. Hit up your alt-bar loving geo-geek to borrow something weird from their collection. Sit on a few wildly different setups from friends who have similar proportions. If your headset spacers are setup so your bar is as high or as low as it can go wouldn’t you love to see if higher or lower yet works better for you?
But most importantly, don’t let me or anyone else tell you your optimum bar height, or width, or sweep. This setup stuff is largely personal and the best way to determine what works best for you is try things with an open mind. Personally, I’m stoked how many folks I know who are doing just that this season. Always happy to answer questions if it might help save you a buck-or-two-hundred.
{Photo: MEATengines}
Sag Totally Rules Everything Around Me – S.T.R.E.A.M
The air pressure chart on your fork, or in your owners manual, may be more harmful than helpful, but the good news is twofold. First, you own a tape measure. Second, there’s an o-ring on your stanchion* that tells you the max travel you use in the worst of the worst super-Gumby moments. Sag is right but you’re not close to hitting full travel? Time to remove a volume spacer. Bottoming out regularly? It might be time to add a volume spacer. It might be time to add air pressure. It might be time for a fork service so it initializes smoothly.
The fact is that, as per bar height, and affected by bar height, there are a number of factors that affect sag, and air pressure, aside from poor maintenance. Lower your bar, lengthen your stem, ride over the front of your bicycle? You’re going to need more air pressure, more low speed compression (LSC), and potentially more volume spacers. Raise your bar, shorten your stem, ride more off the back of your bicycle? You’re going to need less air pressure, less low speed compression (LSC), and potentially fewer volume spacers. Two riders with similar physical characteristics can end up rightly running radically different setups.
I’ve been on a bar raising journey on my Chromag Arcturian {AKA ArctuHawk Voyager} along with the corresponding change in descending position, and at the same time I’ve slowly dropped 5psi to maintain my ~20% sag, I’ve sped up the rebound damping to keep the wheel tracking, and I’ve dropped from 3x volume spacers to 0x. I wouldn’t say any of that, including the bar height, is settled but no fit journey is happening in a vacuum. On a dual-squish this process would involve stiffening up the backend at the same time.
I’ve met many folks over the years running the recommended settings for their fork, including a rebound setting too slow or too fast for their trails, and I can’t emphasize enough how bracketing settings on your freshly serviced fork is worth every moment of your time. If you do decide to start from scratch, record your current settings so you have somewhere to go back to, and, if you do come upon a massive suspension revelation drop me an e-mail, I’d love to hear about it.
*{Keep in mind, many forks show more stanchion by up to +1cm than their actual travel. If in doubt, let the air out and find full bottom out.}
{Photo: MEATengines}
{Almost} Everyone Can Single-Speed
Pedaling home on the road last night The Clairebarian was surge-and-spinning her rig like a boss. B.O.S.S. That is bored-oscillating-single-speeder. Sure there’s being in the wrong gear ‘all’ the time but when the wrong gear is really wrong or even really, really wrong, like pedaling up a super-steep hill on Steve’s Ruined Talbot or road-riding on my Honzo-BMXC bike, oof.
But that’s the negative of #1FG and this is SBTISAOAF so let’s talk about the positives. Which, are honestly mostly intangible. It’s sort of weird how folks who love to single-speed love to single-speed but no amount of articulation can sell it to someone who, on some microcellular level, isn’t already sold. Sure, you never, ever, have to think about shifting. There’s something primaeval about the process. Just pedal until you can’t and then push until you can. Sitting, standing, and walking – three modes to mountain bicycle {or bicycle} victory.
I’ve had the “Yeah, but” conversation a lot of times with folks who are #1FG curious but don’t think they can physically do it. With all respect to the fact that there are folks who aren’t physically able to ride a mountain bike, never mind a one speed mountain bike, for the majority of us the act requires two ingredients.
- Where there’s a will, there’s a way.
- Being patient with yourself.
It’s a blend of quack-the-duck-up-and-pedal and choosing the correct starting point and I think Claire’s a great example. After some experimenting we started her one speed journey, using a BB-mount tensioner, at 24x26t. Now she’s pushing at 1:1 ratio, 28x28t and there’s a 28x26t in her future sooner than later. Or, if I can convince the rad folks at NSBillet that the world needs a {just one} option for a 26t Shimano direct-mount narrow-wide ring, maybe a 26x25t. Within reason, more ground clearance is always more better and I’d be happy to run a 26t on my one speed rigs as well.
To make a long nerdy story slightly less long, if you want to try single-speeding as badly as my grom wanted to try single-speeding there’s some gearing compromise, because it’s always a compromise, that will work for you. And on the trails, she rips along just fine 1:1, so if you’re thinking that’s the starting point, well, I can say from watching her it’s a great opportunity to build up those pumping and cornering momentum skills.
{Photos: MEATengines}
Stickers {Yes, Just Generally}
Forty-some-odd-teen-year-old me walked away from Sensual Cycles {haha} with a fresh shiny & spectacular sticker this week. I forgot to grab a picture, so I’ll update this tomorrow. It’s a ‘Tom Waits for President’ decal, courtesy Nice Guy Geoff, and I’m stoked to find a home for it on one of my tool boxes.
This is going to sound a bit corny, maybe, but when I was a grom and visited bike shops quite a few of them sold stickers. Under glass at the cash, or in a photo album, and it was one thing I could afford. Support sweet shops, support cycling culture. And yeah, stickers aren’t profit center but if I were a local shop I’d e-mail Nigel and ask him to draw up a stack of Gnomies rocking my kit with all proceeds going back to the trails. Can you win more than that with a <$5 sticker that folks actually want to put on their bike or coffee mug?!
Tangents aside, the difference between your bike and a belly-button-bike could just be a couple of carefully curated stickers. Why risk it?! Ha. I mean, I tease, but also, do I? The line between a sleeper and a snoozer is sometimes a bit vague but some rad stickers can carry it over the line.
{Photos: MEATengines}
Saddle Up
The saddle library is dead. Long live the saddle library. I appreciate how many folks have messaged over the last month asking about trying a saddle. It’s roughly the same number as I heard from in the entire time the library existed. Bad marketing? Asking too much in terms of a food-band donation in exchange for access to a pile of excellent saddles to try? Who knows.
Despite my failure, I would love to see a bike shop take this on. A true many-saddle, low barrier, demo program. And yes, a lot of folks are the kind of, well, people who would try a bunch of saddles for next-to-nothing and then buy the one they like online to save $20, but, also, lots of folks would happily pay a few more bucks to a shop that’s making such a valuable program happen.
I am no longer running a saddle library, thanks to my friends at Essential Cycles for helping make that happen, but if anyone out there on the bikernet has something awesome going on then please, drop me an e-mail, I’d love to hear about it.
{Photos: MEATengines}
Larry Talker Tunes: By Andrew
First off, some housekeeping. Yes, if you follow LTT and have a solid musical suggestion for Mr. Terry Walker himself, I would love to hear from you. The rules are simple, it has to be an album release from the last decade and you have to have some level of certainty that Model T will love it. As with Bicycle Valentines and About a Single Speed, drop me an e-mail if you have any questions.
This week, the last many weeks, I’ve been listening to a ton of Pokey Lafarge on shuffle. I’m not saying that Pokey has surmounted Leonard Cohen, Nina Simone, Hawksley Workman, Gregory Porter, Joel Plaskett, Johnny Cash, or even Kris Kristofferson as my favourite artist, but wow, do I love his music.
Anyway, Pokey Lafarge’s newest album, 2024’s Rhumba Country, doesn’t have any of my favourite-favourite songs, but it is an awesome swinging listen. A pick me up on a rainy day and the perfect sound track for having a glass of pink wine in the sunshine.
Check out One You, One Me, for something soft, So Long Chicago for the quintessential Pokey Lafarge energy {“Who’s the man with the farmers tan / hotel slippers / margarita in his hand / lots of juice / lots of spice / me and Montezuma going to roll the dice“}, and For A Night is a great jam too.
Pretty awesome, right? Now jump back an album to 2021’s ‘In The Blossom Of Their Shade’ and hit Fine To Me {Lafarge’s best song ever?} and Killing Time. At that point I’d recommend another ten or so songs but if you’re hooked it’s time to just hit the whole catalogue!
{Photo: Pokey Lafarge}
Climbmax
We have a lot going on this coming week, so other than A.a.S.S {thank you for your submissions to the MEATengines haikuniverse, apologies if I’m delayed in replying}. I’m going to avoid making content claims. But I’m certain I’ll manage to finish at least a couple of things I have started. Maybe my min-to-the-max, max-to-the-min SUNringlé/Reynolds alloy wheel review? Claire owes us a Bicycle Valentine in addition to I don’t even know how many half-formed ideas. Welcome to writing about bikes.
I’m feeling a bit nostalgic this week. Emotional even. So, I’ll leave it at thank you for reading and being part of this community. Bicycles, humankinds most beautiful invention. Mountain bicycles in the forest, humankinds most wonderful toy. When in doubt, look to the folks on two wheels powering themselves through life.
Cheers,
Andrew
Welcome to MEATengines! Whichever way you rolled here, I hope you enjoyed this piece. If you did, buying me a coffee or a PayPal donation to the site are always appreciated but never expected. Any questions, concerns, or comments; feel encouraged to drop me an e-mail, or join us at r/MEATengines.