Straw profile

I lived in Whistler in 2004 and did minor work at a shop, so saw a couple Cromags around, Tyler Morland had one and Chris Dewar.  Can't remember the model now - TRL or Samurai.  Didn't know at the time that Ian was running the show out of his living room and the company was less than a year old then, and only five or six bikes were made per year.

To be honest I thought my made in Canada Balfa Minuteman was just as good, but it was really hard to pedal as a tall guy.

Is the Saumrai of Singletrack still a thing?

That's a Pit Viper ad I think.  I liked the 2004 call-outs though, like that RM9 I think. Might even be the Wade Simmons model.  But I didn't watch the whole video after I saw 30 Pit Viper placements in the first 30 seconds.

Let's get REP back up and going.  If you have good rep, you can access articles for free.  Poor rep will result in a paywall.  Just don't let the RepGangGANG in, they'll ruin the system.

Arughh. I think I should have posted a Wolftooth-like note indicating that I meant nothing ill toward Sheldon, his legacy, or the information that I've valued and used on his pages.  

Or, I could argue that if I'm mentioning Sheldon Brown here on this site, commenting about a gear article, I know the value of its contents?  And that a qualifying note isn't necessary, since you should understand that?

You've proven here that the Wolftooth note is worthwhile.

My point is if you're looking for gear information as a newbie, and you stumble on Sheldon Brown, you're going to get lost pretty quickly.  As a manufacturer it's better to risk the wrath of the ivory tower and post a one-liner regarding compatibility.

Perhaps the buyer finds it convenient that they can research right there on the product page whether it will fit their gadget.  Beats going to SheldonBrown and wading through pages and pages of bicycling minutia.

Haha, nice.  I enjoyed the read.  The Patch sounded like it was a kind of utopia.

Thanks for the piece.  I remember reading Mountain Bike Action in 1996ish and all their gear reviews, and they made me feel bad about not being able to afford new gear.  So I stopped reading that magazine (at the time it seemed more gear-heavy, others like Bike iirc were less) and my relationship with new gear improved.  I'm sure the marketing web is spun way tighter and is much more sticky these days, and much harder to escape!

They got rid of the GLC drop?  That's too bad.  I remember in 2004 being proud of going in with lots of heat, prejumping on a little pre-lip that was there, and making it feel smooth enough.  I don't think I've been back since 2010.

HI Cam, enjoyed the read. I remember a similar article you wrote probably a number of years ago now. In it, you admitted that NSMB didn't always send off your riders properly either, and you used Michelle Dumaresq as an example. Maybe worthwhile to mention it again?

I think I saw an article about this in Bike, and then asked the guy at Cove about it when I came to visit from Ontario in 2000, looking at universities (I ended up at UVic).  He said there's always more trails. 

While the content is unfortunate, I like these memories.  I don't even have a working bike anymore, but there was a time when I was on this site multiple times daily.

I like Bieksa's view of the no goal call, saying he tried to mask kicking it in and got caught.  I don't agree with his assessment thought that if you end up losing a skate (on the ice) you try to keep your legs together so you don't rip your groin apart.   Haven't played hockey in awhile, but that was never something I thought about.

Huh, I thought Jordan Peterson was a pretty solid guy, and I don't subscribe to any of Shoguns ideas typically. But that comment, Sorry Not Beautiful, is off-brand and just mean.  And makes him look like the tosser.

Posted by: syncro

Posted by: Vikb

Her article was about why the same women's riders were always featured. She told the complainers to stop complaining and work harder and market themselves better. The problems the CBC article pointed out are embedded within the biases/assumptions present in the original article. My criticism stands. If you don't agree that's fine.

Yes, Selig's article took a look at why it's "always the same 10 women at freeride events", but she lays out some pretty reasonable reasons why that might be and how to change it. Her article was directly about athletes being at the top of the sport and getting a chance to compete at events.

The CBC article went out into left field with with the whole "white wealthy" thing, which is a part of the inequity in many sports, but that's not what Selig's article was addressing. So when you talk about diversity, what are you referring to exactly? Ethnic diversity as highlighted in the CBC article or a less innocuous meaning of diversity that refers to more than those typical 10 riders getting invited to a comp? Those are two very different things and is a huge problem in the CBC article as it misrepresents the Selig article.

Edit: the more I re-read the CBC article the worse it gets in how it misrepresents what Selig was speaking to. While the CBC article does touch on an important topic, the manner in which it does it is closer to defamatory click-bait trash than good journalism. If they want to address the issue of racial inequity in outdoor sports that's great, but doing it off the back of someone who wasn't even speaking to that issue is disingenuous and troublesome.

Edit #2 : Naidu even lies when she says this; "The article refutes all systemic barriers that centuries of colonialism have established, suggesting that the reason we don't see women of colour in upper echelons of outdoor sports is due to their own poor choices and a lack of hard work or work ethic." Selig doesn't bring colour into the argument at all and Naidu fabricates reasons that simply did not exist in Selig's article. That type of thing harms social justice, it doesn't help it.

Upvote, if I could.  You analyze this well and make it easy to understand why the articles seemed off to me.  Thanks, I couldn't get my mind quite all the way around why things seemed fishy.

Yea, I didn't see anything about race in there originally either, although I only skimmed the article. 

I wonder if it would be like saying "It's been raining a lot lately, sure could go for some sun around here" and someone says "You aren't considering those that live in the desert and don't have the privilege or opportunity of regular rain!"  

And then a news outlet has been looking for articles with a new spin on rain, so decides to report on it.

One woman wrote on a Whistler Womens blog on Feb 11th, some thoughts about women making it in the sport (sponsors, events, etc):

"In short, stop complaining and start riding. A lot."

https://web.archive.org/web/20220222190937/https://www.wfmbike.com/stories/2022/2/11/hf0t4s96s22u50yqwazx4g5ul73sbd?fbclid=IwAR1CSws147QaturNuVwaXzSAjkQ6-ml3CgCB3-tSbsoc85LKsN6Se50mOzg

A couple months later, April 7, CBC reports that another Whistler woman takes issue with it.

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/diversity-in-mountain-biking-marketing-blog-post-1.6405749

Any thoughts from the community here?

"The article refutes all systemic barriers that centuries of colonialism have established, suggesting that the reason we don't see women of colour in upper echelons of outdoor sports is due to their own poor choices and a lack of hard work or work ethic," said Naidu, the first professional downhill mountain biker of Indian descent and an ambassador for MEC.

"In a world where Eurocentric features remain the most sought after, white privilege is advising that racialized women would be included if they just made themselves more marketable."

Last time I got gas it was limited to $30 on Dunbar and 41st or wherever that Shell is.  Pump was slow but no line but all pumps full.

It got cheap all of a sudden today too, everyone concerned about COVID again. I'm going to try to not get as stressed out this time.  Sure there are Omricon ? cases, but they're at home, not in the hospital, not dying.   So perhaps it's more of the same, which we're all pretty good at handling by now.

Thanks for all these comments. 

I've lived in Victoria for university, then Whistler (4 years), then Vancouver (10 years?) for work.  We now have a couple kids and want to buy a house and get a new job. 

I'd been looking at Campbell River pre-pandemic and 3-bedroom ranchers were $350K.  We could have moved the family there and afforded that easily but didn't. Now those same places are much more expensive, and finding anything that doesn't need work costs more than $500k. Something nice seems to be 600K+.

I may be stuck in Vancouver for awhile now. 

I wonder if prices will ever tank.  That's what I need to get into the market in this province now.  But if that happens, it probably means much worse things for the economy as a whole and then what would the job market look like? 

I have an admin job at UBC that has good good benefits and vacation etc but sure would love to live the Island life you're all talking about.

Posted by: Couch_Surfer

Does it just not exist on NSMB anymore?

I remember when Brian Park was douching up the board and some mod made it so that they could post, but no one would see it. I miss those good old days.

A couple of Hazen Colbert's alter egos need a time out in the corner until he can learn to play with the other kids.

I always wondered, is that the same Brian Park who now in 2021 works for Pinkbike in a Sr position?

I just went over there to see what the forum was saying about the acquisition and man, their forum is huge. I didn't even know where to look.  I haven't been there since I defected to NSMB in 2003 or 2004 or something.

I remember someone complaining back then saying the forums were getting too many users. Someone said something like "It used to be like a rec room and you'd know everyone in there. Now there are so many people".

Re: mtb being a fringe sport. I remember reading a Bike piece from the 90s that said "You used to know who was out riding by the tire tread patterns you'd see on the trail". I don't know if that was ever the case for me, but I remember reading it. Was probably in The Grimey Handshake column or something. Or maybe something Zapata Espinoza wrote. Who knows.

Oh yea, and get off my lawn!