cerealkilla_ profile

Perhaps a new upcharge service at Fluid Function?

I read that the Panzers are only supposed to be used with their own brand of sealant, and don't play well with any amount of ammonia . Can you comment on the sealant that you used, or clarify any requirements for specific sealant?

Curious about the charging port protection. Is there anything specific that could be done to better protect this area, in terms of waterproofing, simple shielding or packing, or tieback of cable routing?

I had a similar bash guard vulnerability on a bike of mine. I added some thick carbon-looking armor tape (probably no real carbon). It provided a second layer that I figured protected the bash guard .

Anyone considering buying a Canyon, should first try to talk with people that have had any type of problem with the brand. Fact is that you're not buying a bike....you're buying a box of parts from a company in Europe, and hoping that the pieces will amount to a functional bike. If you are one of the unlucky that receives a botched frame or broken component you may be waiting months for support (if at all). An adept mechanic or industry insider may be able to navigate the path of fixing major problems, but the average consumer is entirely at the mercy of a fallible quality-control system some 8000km removed from caring with layers of taxes, duties, and brokerage fees standing between you and a replacement part you have pretty much already paid for.

Gaaaahhhh. Checked the Wickflow site - no shipping options for Canada. Can you indicate were you were able to pick these up? I've tried the Halo headbands which worked great, but were too tight, and ended up functioning like one of those stunts where people put a bazillion elastics around a watermelon.

Good review. Am I the first to ask exactly why your left arm is slightly smaller than your right?

Need a few more valve pictures please

Yup, plus one on the Counterpunch. I really took the time to set up my controls perfectly, and haven't looked back. No more hand wandering on the bar searching for the right spot, just slide the pinky up against the nubbin.  The really good part has been the grip itself. I had struggled to find one I liked, but this one seems to have rubber in all the right places. That tubilito is appealing as a spare to back up my tubless. Instantly saves 150gms off my cheap crappy tube.  That's about 3g per $1. Way cheaper than adding carbon bits for those that count.

Epi pens usually have expiry printed on them. Their lifespan can be reduced through exposure to extreme temps, particularly heat. That being said, there is little risk of harm from using an outdated epi, just risk of reduced effectiveness.  With benadryl, liquid caps work a bit faster, but degrade faster. Hard tabs can remain close to full potency well after expiry. 

One trick for avoiding wasps (you likely know)...second rider gets stung. Another reason to be first in the singletrack. Thankfully, this year doesn't seem too bad for wasps, and this heavy rain will likely put a damper on their vigor. Have a great race!

Fender!!! I did the BCBR about ten years ago during a REALLY wet year. It was pretty much a mud-fest for the first four days. I think I was pretty much the only person with a decent front fender. It  made life more tolerable day-to-day, and shortened my clean-up time at the end of each stage. I ditched it when things turned sunny in Gibsons.

Hey, if anyone is still interested in 5.10s, I just found another sale at Live to Play. https://shop.livetoplaysports.com/

Decent selection plus some climbing shoes if you prefer to cling to a rock instead of ride your bike.

I can reel it in. I appreciate you may be speaking to the general, but when you quote me in your post, it seems kind of specific.

I totally agree, the baseless generalized ebike shaming is idiotic, and will do absolutely nothing to make things better for either group of riders. My point was explicitly clear that there are de-gens in every group of riders, and we need more leadership from within the ebike circles to address the things (again among a small group) that are problematic. But this doesn't mean that any critique or articulation of a problem with ebikes is "ebike bashing". Directional riding, wet weather riding, passing uphill. Not bashing anyone or any group. Just saying these are issues that merit discussion....if happy integration is the goal.

I have no more patience for de-gens on mountain bikes that litter, strip their riding clothes in front of trailside residents, short-cut switchbacks, fail to slow down around horses, or other crap behaviors.  Not bashing mountain bikers when I call these things out. Just addressing crap behavior that ruins it for everyone.

I can reel it in. I appreciate you may be speaking to the general, but when you quote me in your post, it seems kind of specific. 

I totally agree, the baseless generalized ebike shaming is idiotic, and will do absolutely nothing to make things better for either group of riders.

I can reel it in. I appreciate you may be speaking to the general, but when you quote me in your post, it seems kind of specific. 

I totally agree, the baseless generalized ebike shaming is idiotic, and will do absolutely nothing to make things better for either group of riders.

Posted by: syncro

Posted by: cerealkilla_

• Hard to "dislike" the increase of riders. It's not a behavior - it's a function of our society. I am far more concerned how any segment of that growing population may behave, particularly in terms of wrecking things for everyone else.
• Etiquette - there is lots of peer pressure and club-based education focused on this. Trailforks has helped with their wet-weather friendly trails filter. However, there has been a total and absolute black hole of conversation in terms of e-bike specific etiquette. The loudest voices promoting ebikes have had ZERO to offer in terms of how to manage this great new technology appropriately. The sellers and pushers have left it to everyone else to make the common sense suggestions such as polite heads up when passing uphill in boost mode. While ebike fans have made loud demands to be treated like mountain bikes, a group of them have simultaneously refused to actually behave like mountain bikes as they ride UP popular downhill routes. Pretty simple that if you want to be treated as a mountain bike, you should follow the established traffic patterns set by existing riders.  But nope! Still have issues with those that think they can re-arrange the flow, and throttle up the blue trails and easy blacks. Etiquette is cancelled out by entitlement among a small group. Still, the vast majority of people riding ebikes conduct themselves as politely as most other riders. There will always be a small part of every group that makes the rest look bad. Might just be up to the rest of us to shame the d-bags to keep their number in check.
• Can't imagine limiting ebikes to any specific trails. That would take Section 56 rules, which Ministry is reluctant to make, and is almost certainly unlikely to make for ebikes. Probably more important to keep them riding with the flow and properly integrated with other traffic, than trying to separate them.

• An increase of riders is a behaviour - it's people choosing to participate in an activity. An increase of riders adds to trail erosion. I've brought this issue up before and it's strange that in the context of ebikes people see no problem with the ever increasing numbers of riders on the trails but yet on a sunny day on the weekend people will definitely make a point of talking about how busy the trails were, hard to find parking, etc. From a trail erosion standpoint the increase in riders over the past 10yrs has been detrimental to the overall health of the trail network, so I find that hard to like.
• Etiquette is a huge thing, and the best way to improve that is to be welcoming and get people involved. Constantly beating a drum that ebikers are some evil spawn is not going to do that. Negatively stereotyping a group is not going to motivate them to get involved with trail orgs and learning about proper trail etiquette.
• If it's more important to keep ebikers riding with the flow and porperly integrated with other traffic then how is maligning them going to encourage that?

No, an increase in riders is NOT a behavior in the sense of a specific act. It is the growth of a group. Within that group there are specific behaviors. Most of them good. A small part of them bad.

Where exactly is someone beating a drum about ebikers in general? Stop trying to mispresent other people's points. It is explicitly clear I am referring to a small group (as exists in all groups), and pointing out how the technology introduces  distinct considerations to etiquette. Your choice to ignore that point, and try to gloss over, misrepresent, and confuse the issue is just plain weird. Not sure what you are trying to defend here. It's almost as if you choose to ignore other people's points, claim they said they something they did not, and start an argument. THAT is poor etiquette.

Again, misrepresenting and twisting other people words. Again, THAT is a lack of etiquette. If we want to integrate ebikes, very frigging simple...have them follow the same norms and habits as other riders. Surely if you can tie your shoes you can understand that. Or maybe you're a velcro guy. Who knows?

And the same crickets, silently pretending there are no issues, while making inappropriate comparisons to other activities like jetskiing instead of offering ideas to solve the issue at hand.

There are and can be specific restrictions where there issues such as wildlife --- in Sproat, the main concern is limiting the amount of traffic into busy Grizzly habitat. That area gets closed each year on bear issues the way it is. But it is really unlikely that Provincial, Municipal, or District levels of government are going to spend much time and resources on separating out different types of bikes on existing trail networks. The onus is on the public to get along and be considerate. Again, there are DBs on mountain bikes and ebikes and even on foot. The issue at stake is that DBs on ebikes introduce a different set of issues because of their distinct capabilities. Leadership on best behavior really needs to come from within that user group, and not from everyone else. 

But still, mostly crickets. The main ebike aficionados continue to be all yeah more for me, more laps, more faster, look at me go up the dh trail! Yeaah more more more!  

My concern is not people on ebikes in general. The majority of them are like the majority of people on bikes. My concern is the lack of ownership and initiative within that user group and people advancing the ebike cause to address the issues at stake that create issues for all riders (I.E. directional riding ..up the downs, courtesy passing uphill, riding in crap weather).  Within the mountain bike community we have extensive guidance on good conduct on the trails. There just needs to be a bit of acceptance in the ebike circles and some maturation to address the outstanding issues and promote responsibility and etiquette.

Posted by: syncro

Couple thoughts on the recent posts.

Re trail wear, what factor does increased ridership play? For anyone that's been riding for at least the past 10, and worse going back 20 or 30 years, the number of people out riding has absolutely exploded in the past 5 years, especially the last 2-3. How many new trails have appeared in that time, particularly sanctioned trails where a lot of the newer riders may be heading? Is there as much dislike for the huge increase in new riders as there is for ebikes?

Second, how are or how should the issues of trail etiquette be handled? So things like riding sensitive trails in the rain/wet, riding technique to avoid dragging brakes and causing ruts?

Third, how are people getting involved to lobby land managers to consider expanding trail networks, and what types of trails are built? Should there be a bunch of new machine built trails constructed to hopefully help take pressure off old school single track jank? If governmental authorities are ok with plowing a hillside forest for housing, roads and parking lots then should they not be okay with digging up maybe 1-2% of the forest floor in a certain area in order to create more trails, including machine built trails?

My feeling is that if the mtb community doesn't start having some serious discussions on these things then there probably will be problems down the road if mtb ebikes take over as the preferred bike of choice on trails as some think might happen.

EDIT: Oh, and what about uphill travel? How do people feel about the idea of restricting uphill travel of ebikes to roads or gravel paths like Old Buck and banning them from climbing routes?

• Hard to "dislike" the increase of riders. It's not a behavior - it's a function of our society. I am far more concerned how any segment of that growing population may behave, particularly in terms of wrecking things for everyone else.
• Etiquette - there is lots of peer pressure and club-based education focused on this. Trailforks has helped with their wet-weather friendly trails filter. However, there has been a total and absolute black hole of conversation in terms of e-bike specific etiquette. The loudest voices promoting ebikes have had ZERO to offer in terms of how to manage this great new technology appropriately. The sellers and pushers have left it to everyone else to make the common sense suggestions such as polite heads up when passing uphill in boost mode. While ebike fans have made loud demands to be treated like mountain bikes, a group of them have simultaneously refused to actually behave like mountain bikes as they ride UP popular downhill routes. Pretty simple that if you want to be treated as a mountain bike, you should follow the established traffic patterns set by existing riders.  But nope! Still have issues with those that think they can re-arrange the flow, and throttle up the blue trails and easy blacks. Etiquette is cancelled out by entitlement among a small group. Still, the vast majority of people riding ebikes conduct themselves as politely as most other riders. There will always be a small part of every group that makes the rest look bad. Might just be up to the rest of us to shame the d-bags to keep their number in check.
• Can't imagine limiting ebikes to any specific trails. That would take Section 56 rules, which Ministry is reluctant to make, and is almost certainly unlikely to make for ebikes. Probably more important to keep them riding with the flow and properly integrated with other traffic, than trying to separate them.

I will go out on a limb here and argue that ebikes will contribute to increased destruction of trails. The key issue is not that people will do more laps. I think that is beyond question, with some people doing triple and quadruple laps of trails that they could normally only ride once. This is most impactful on non-shuttle-able trails where big bikes would normally never wander. But that's not my main concern.

I think the greatest impact comes from WHEN people will ride ebikes. I've already seen many avid riders and pros talk about ebikes as their choice for winter riding and bad weather days.

Yeah, great.  You want to slap on big fenders and rain jackets and easily blast up in the snow and rain? Ebike can help you do that. Freeze-thaw and knee-deep puddles be damned.  Who cares about the mud when you can throttle through it? Why worry about your 4 pounds of gortex and big mudflaps, because you only have to break a sweat if you want to. Scotty, give me boost power now!  

Ebikes allow people to ride comfortably when the trails are at their worst, and at times they may normally just not ride.  Don't worry though. The endless army of trail builders will just armor everything with rocks when the dirt has been all stripped away.  Loamers in winter, loamers in spring! One season of riding and all the trails end up as another atomic dustbin. 

Of course lots of people ride mountain bikes in bad weather, not just ebikes. This just makes it a LOT easier.

Trials and MTB have gotten along fine in Squamish. The occasional screw up by one party or another (from both groups)  usually gets smoothed pretty quick. In Valleycliffe ,most bikers know to expect trials riders. It's also really easy to hear them coming and make space.

The thing is that ultimately both groups have pretty clear boundaries, and when someone steps out of line, they get corrected by their OWN peers pretty quick. I've seen Trials riders call their own out for tearing up trails near Alice Lake and MTBs call out their own for expecting priority on Valleycliffe slabs or lumping trials in with motos. For the most part, each have their own preferred lines, and interactions are rare.

Now if only the people pushing ebikes the hardest and loudest spoke up with a bit of common sense etiquette guidelines, that would be great. But nope...just more look at me! I can climb Credit Line! Yeaaahhhhh me!! 

The vast majority of people I've met on ebikes have been great - just like the vast majority on MTB or Trials. The difference is that there is a vacuum of leadership for ebike users, and a few crappy over-exposed examples giving people stupid ideas.