grambo profile

Check with Kinetik in Coquitlam? I pre-ordered my new Patrol in June and got it mid August. When I had my bike in for some work in mid September they had a bunch of Patrols and Spires on the shop floor. North Shore Bikes had some stock as well, not sure if it's sold through yet though.

My kids are still young (3 and 4 months) but reading stuff like this makes me think of potential fun times in the future, well written.

As a Shimano/Fox guy, the XT spec is just bang on... was one of the things that convinced me to put a deposit on a Patrol XT :).

I should clarify my first comment in that I fully agree we need a better approach to addiction, mental illness and systemic poverty in Vancouver/BC/Canada. We need a holistic approach to give people a real chance to improve their lives including access to housing, medical, counseling etc. services and that a lot of people dealing with these issues have had a shit life with no hope.

At the same time the status quo of shrugging shoulders are property crime and having no consequences cannot continue. There was a video on Vancouver reddit the other day of a dude with a baseball bat going after a homeless looking guy who just stole something of his. We are going to see more vigilante justice like this and it isn't good.

Career/professional criminals stealing high end bikes is another issue, those guys need serious consequences when caught given value of bikes these days which is what I interpreted this situation as (is it really a DTES addict hiding in the bushes at Parkgate to steal a new Altitude? Doubt it).

I follow Jono on instagram and was super stoked when he got his bike back... but the part of the whole ordeal that sticks with me is the VPD basically saying "don't bother" pressing charges against people who stole a ~$10k bike. Something needs to change in our judicial process, theft of high end bikes needs to result in years of jail time.

This. Enthusiasts looking at spy shots already know if the bike company is running 2/3/4 year product cycles and when an update is likely due. The people walking into bike shops to buy from the floor inventory and use the advice/expertise of shop staff are probably not looking at spy shots or anticipating new models (and because bikes are so good, they probably don't care much if a revision comes out next year, too busy enjoying their sweet ride).

The reaction is overblown here. I still don't understand why they don't do testing at a more low key riding area on weekday mornings? If they want to do shuttle runs could just go to Cypress on a Tuesday morning or out to Vedder, unlikely anyone will be taking pics then.

Also that Norco has had full pro high res shots from races going back to Psychosis, NZ DH series etc.

Any bigger guys have experience on the Sight? I'm about 225lbs geared up to ride and have read about problems with getting the X2 setup properly. Is a DHX2 an option?

Been using an Osprey Talon 6L fanny pack for two years now, the Savu wasn't out yet or I would've gotten it. Love it so much more than a backpack. Has held up great as you would expect (I also have an Osprey backcountry skiing pack that shows minimal wear after hundreds of days). 

I like to drink a lot of water in the summer especially on 4+ hour rides, so having 2 bottles on pack plus 1 in the frame is awesome. I've only used my hydration backpack when riding in the California desert heat.

The athletes with the RAD 38's and the new RAD air/coil shocks won't talk about them if you ask :)

Pant design looks good, have not worn riding pants before for some of the reasons outlined above (fit mostly, stubby/big legs here). Have been thinking about checking out NF and knowing the company story I am more motivated now... factory is 7 min from my house in Mount Pleasant so I'll drop by some time!

I move my bottle of Squirt into the house in the fall/winter/spring when the garage is going down to single digits, makes it easier to apply... still only using it on the road bike and Muc-off dry on the MTB.

Definitely status bro. I've mostly been riding weekday WFH lunch rides, but happened to be at Seymour at 4:30pm last Friday (sunny, before massive rain forecast, which turned out not to be so massive) and the scene was ridiculous compared to a few years ago.

Running Muc-off Dry on my mountain bike all year round (shore). I find the wet stuff is too messy and not necessary as I don't ride if it's a downpour. The dry stuff lasts for a couple hours of wet conditions (or light drizzle) which is plenty for me. Been using Squirt on road bike this season and loving it, so much cleaner than Muc-off... I clean my mountain bike often enough that I don't mind the oil based lube there, whereas road I don't want to be cleaning my bike weekly and I ride it a lot.

Posted by: taprider

Where do you go to get a bike frame painted now?

Toxic Harold still in open?

I heard he had to retire due to health problems? Fresh Paints in Whistler seem to be the go to guys now.

Grouse thing seems to be out of the bag, posters recruiting staff, looks like James from RibeBC is building? Cool, he builds great stuff. Also this means lift access to top of Fromme when you are done your last lap in the park, although getting back to your car will require some suffering if riding back to the Grouse parking lot from bottom of Fromme.

What's the word on Squamish gondola? Who is building and where are the trails? Also will be interesting in how they control bikes up there given there are other trails around, presumably outside the gondola's CRA.

It's the Icelandia intersection I was talking about, need to walk around there and see what's happening. Looks like Cambodia will be a few months away when we get rain: https://nsmba.ca/cambodia-trail-update-temporary-closure/ so 10+ years in the making eh, wow, respect to those involved getting it done, lot better than things getting shut down, although I think land managers realize shutting down natural trails without crazy woodwork will become a hostile game of whack-a-mole. Hopefuly status quo persists.

I know people that have bought sale items from the Over the Bars sale and orders are being fulfilled outside of Quebec. Odd, because Biciletta has (had?) a warehouse off Kent in south Vancouver.

Tangent, is there any word on Dream Wizards building something new in the Cambodia zone (not Cambodia or Neds)? Possibly a climb trail?

Re: CBC, yep it's road only. Have noticed a lot more mountain bikers pedaling up the road in the past couple years as well. I do it myself once a week or so, definitely prefer to shuttle but it isn't a bad climb, car traffic is way lower than Cypress (at least in the summer when the ski resort is closed).

Posted by: Endur-Bro

Posted by: grambo

Curious for some reviews of the new Creekside trails once they open this weekend. Especially the new double black tech one and also the Lemon Drop trail off top of Garbo.

I linked up some Garbo Tech to Creekside trails. ~7km descent with 10m elevation gained.  I'm liking the mix of trails in that area

My jomp skillz have been sus so I haven't ridden Insomnia yet

I'm going to assume the next expansion for WBP is bikes up Red Chair? It would get bikes to the Roundhouse/Peak Chair and out of Gondola for the Sightseeing/Hiking money makers.

#Creeksidemakesmyholeweakside

They had bike carriers on Red a number of years ago, like 2017-18ish, for at least one season. Was a nice way to get up to the Roundhouse via Creekside.

Posted by: Vikb

I wanted to see how bad things were looking. Here is CMHC mortgage default % data up until Q1 2023. It's running about 0.15%. The average over the period shown is ~0.29%. So if defaults doubled due to continued rate hikes we'd just get to the historical average for this period. Note that big dip above corresponds to the last Gov't mortgage stress test increase.

Canadians will do whatever it takes to avoid default (generally), i.e. rice and beans for years if necessary. The challenge right now is the number of VRM that are renewing in 2024/25 which are in negative amortization. Can those borrowers actually qualify on the new principal amount (with the interest rolled in, since Liberals basically forced banks to allow negative amortization in the last budget, kicking the housing can down the road)? Or will they try to amend Bank Act to allow >25/30y amort periods on mortgages to kick the can even further down the road? The only good news for these mortgage holders it that they don't have to go through the stress test to renew, assuming they stay with their existing lender. Obviously everyone is hoping for rates to drop before then, they probably will but not back to the 1.5-2.5% VRM range those buyers qualified at.