Jotegir profile

Damn, baited again. Well played, Mr. Major.

The future has fewer gears, but we might add back the missing cogs through various idlers and guides.

I use clear spray paint sans wire in the dry interior and it works a treat. The alcohol still comes out when it's time to take the grips off, however!

"Please won't you see my Vest"

- Andrew Major

It's an appropriate term for when you take a primp and proper 120mm trail bike or a razor's edge enduro weapon and do... well, the things we do to bikes to those proper bikes. Drag those knuckles a bit.

On the topic of the 9point8 fall line, I'd love to see an officially supported* forward offset option on the full meal deal post rather than the lighter, shorter R model. I actually don't know if I can get used to less than 170mm drop again, particularly if that post is more forward. 9point8 is the forward offset KINGS, It'd be sweet to see them expand the option to the full-line. As someone on the taller end of things who loves to experiment with goon bikes (bigger forks, offset bushings, anglesets, etc), sometimes it would be nice to be able to claw some of the lost STA back, at least closer to stock. 

*rumour has it some non-invasive grinding can have the forward offset head work just fine on the fall line non-R.

This is a somewhat unfounded opinion as my sample size is exactly one, but I think there's value in the single pivot designs for intermediate riders trying to improve. I never really worked on my "race braking" versus schmuck braking until I got on a bike that was like "oh hey, you shouldn't be braking here". I honestly think riding bikes that isolated those forces particularly well allowed me to lean on the crutch that was the suspension design and had little need to develop and improve on brake skills. Now I can go back to those old designs and my good habits stick with me.

It wasn't immediate, it was... one hour.

There's something special about a steel bike being ridden fast by a dude who looks like he could be on stage with a Swedish death metal band.

Sure,  but Husqvarna "makes bikes" so maybe they'd be less interested?

In all seriousness, there's more parents than ever who ride and get nice gear for kids that ride. The shop sold out of Reapers and Fluid FS 2.4s every year, despite ordering at least a dozen of each, not to mention nicer kids hardtails, so that says says something. 

But in Kamloops there's always going to be a solid amount of ranch kids who are stoked on riding and have parents who don't ride, don't have the money, don't get it, or any combination of the above. Those kids are the classic 'clapped bike ranch kid' who I think will never go away completely.

I prefer the Kamloops brand of raising groms to the 4k-full-suspension-on-the-shore brand: leave them at the bottom of bike ranch with a dirt jumper or a clapped fully for a day (or entire summer) of tenuously supervised fun. Repeat until the end of highschool, bum around for the summer, and then get a job at We Are One til they go to post-secondary.  Raised on dust and dirt jumps.

"Thank you to Chris & Scott from Marin Bikes for believing in my brand of crazy (well, maybe not Scott)"

HA, take that, Scott!

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It's interesting, Bird seems to be getting into the collective NSMB consiousness more and more these days. Which is good, I really like what they are doing, on paper at least. Maybe some of us will need to put our money where our mouth is? Their big bike is on my list of enduro frames if I decide to race more than the annual Sun Peaks race in 2024. In large rather than XL, mind you - my first 'large' frame since 2015, if I pull the trigger!

Damn, I wish your most recent article came out a few years ago. There's a lot of people out there with a just incredible amount of money and I live about four blocks from the store. I am certain a few people would have taken me up on the "50 dollar after hour service" over the pandemic. A missed opportunity!

"And somewhere, sometime soon, some bike mechanic (hopefully not me, but I'm far from perfect) is going to be a proper jerk to someone. And it's not because they're mean, or caustic, or disrespectful (though that's my favourite thing I've been called), or rude, or ill tempered, or in the wrong line of work, or whatever. Bikes and people can be a properly frustrating combination..."

I enjoy this. Bike mechanics have funny relationships with some people in the spring, don't they. The people who really need something from the mechanic, really want the mechanic to give them what they need, are the sole barrier to getting them what they want. But my God does that get some people's hackles up. Its a weird duality, where they're ready to pick a fight with you and also really need you more than ever. And sometimes these same people are totally sane the rest of the year. 

Buddy, it's not that complicated. We take bribes.

Its always bugged me that the prices of a nice, basic kids bike with altus, rim brakes, and a rigid fork are usually within striking distance of a basic adult bike with a suspension fork, a slightly more complex drivetrain, proper cranks, and hydraulic (or better yet, mechanical in this price bracket) disc brakes. Sure, around here we'd take the rigid fork over the crappy "suspension" fork any day of the week, and the failure rate out of those brakes is also not zero, but come on, all that adds costs that aren't there on the kids bike - it feels like it should add up to more than a 70-100 CAD price bump. 

Economies of scale are a harsh mistress.

Posted by: Blofeld

Shimano Wandering/Wondering

In anticipation of this article I had been asking ChatGPT questions about the WBP.

Now see what it has to say about the Whistler Bike Park.

FWIW, I don't care about shimano wandering bite point. It doesn't bother me enough to care. On 2 pairs of saints and a set of XT 4 piston. So... we're out there! I get why it bugs other people a ton though. I am quite heavy and very much NOT a finesse rider, and the suspension designs of the bikes I like to ride really reward the BRAKE OR DONT approach to riding. If I was dealing with wet slabs like you guys? I might have other ideas, but the steep and deep dust of the interior summer? On, middle,  or off is fine for me, thanks.

Posted by: Cydwhit

A week late, but as a lover of absurd bumper stickers ("Choose Sin" "Frack the Tetons" "Rue Paul is an Oil Tycoon" "My Other Ride is My Sexy Wife" etc) our household has to have an ongoing conversation that boils down to "how will you explain this sticker to the Sprockids and their parents?" which results in a box full of great stickers that I'll never get to stick anywhere.

"'Frack the Tetons"?? You can't really believe that, can you??"

"Gotta Frack somethin'"

One of my favourite bumper stickers of all time relates to a local Kamloops issue, where you had two sets of bumper stickers that say either "Say No To Ajax" or similar or "I support Ajax", regarding a proposed mine to be built within city limits. A friend of mine did a small run of "What is Ajax" stickers in the exact font of the "I support Ajax" ones. It was great - I had a few people who did not read it close enough say "Hey I'm really surprised, YOU support AJAX? It's right on some primo trials you ride all the time!" and I'd have to instruct them to look a little closer.

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Oh, and velocipedestrian, your Marin is f-ing disgusting. Love it!

I'll admit to stripping out one of the first MS lockrings I worked on. Fortunately it was mine and was due to some late night wrenching and not a customer's ride at the shop - after hundreds, if not thousands of combined XD and HG installs. 

The sad thing was there were no replacements available until YEARS later (seriously, I think they're still backordered). Fortunately, I turned to my unfortunatley growing source of weird odds and ends for cheap - aliexpress. sorted in a couple weeks for about 6 CAD including shipping.

See, now I'm thankful for that Tacoma driver's dumb bumper sticker because it gave us such a charming 'slice of life' post.

Posted by: joseph-crabtree

Last year I had a'22 SC Blur and the down tube/BB junction is really bulky looking. So many people asked me if it was an E-bike that I had to get rid of it.

MEATengines forever!

They probably just asked because you were absolutely crushing the ups and they wanted to preserve their egos.