mthomaslee profile

Also perfect for us retrogrouches still running a 26" wheeled bike. Chromag rims for my Chromag Aperture? Yes please!

Someone please hide this comment from the engineers at Cannondale...

Ho boy, there's lots to unpack here! Lets start with the easy: Apple didn't invent the tablet, but they popularized it, and ultimately forced others to compete on their level. Kind of like how Xerox invented the GUI, but it was Apple that pushed it into the mainstream. But I digress.

Bikes are a lot like boats, or horses; giant pits that you shovel money into. I'd never be under the illusion that a bike is an investment like an RRSP, or an ETF. That being said, I'd hope that if I spent $8K+ on a bike, I'd get more than 36 months before things were out of date. Not everyone that buys a top-end bike has access to deals, and a number of people I know have sunk serious coin into a bike with the expectation that it'll be *the* bike for a while. Imagine you bought a top-of-the-line bike in 2014, only to have Boost come along. I for one would be choked. 

That brings me to the incrementalism. Sure a MY19 bike is a big improvement over something from 2012, and yards ahead of anything circa 2008, but how much of a jump is it over something from 2016? Or MY17? Does something a touch longer and slacker justify a whole new bike? For some people it sure does, but I'm not so convinced. I'm also not convinced that consumers need to be beta testers for engineers and their ideas; it smacks of the gaming industry's trend towards selling "early access" to games that often times are never completed. I understand that innovation needs to happen, and I'd much rather ride a modern bike than one from when I first started riding, but the plateauing of advances gives me some pause.

Finally with regards to the end-of-life, I know that my effort to keep existing product running is but a drop in the ocean, but when I pull back and see shortening product life cycles in more than just the bike industry, I wonder where we're going to continue finding all the raw materials to feed this cycle, and what happens to stuff once it's done. We all may be doing our own tiny steps, but it all adds up.

Hey Eric!

I'm running a 2010 Rock Shox Revelation RLT Ti. I initially got it for a 2006 Norco Bigfoot that I had built, and has since made its way over to the Chromag. It's rather long in the tooth, but I'm sure glad you can still get seals and o-rings for it.

Oh I know I can run a tapered steer in that particular bike, but being the curmudgeon I am, there other frames I have kicking around that are a 1-1/8 straight.

Is SuperCo still making bikes? Their 24" Satellite was definitely an object of lust for 17-year-old me.

Clearly I can't read a map, and got it fixed pronto. Sorry about that (and I'll be sure to duck any incoming pints headed my way)

Living on Vancouver Island, it isn't really a choice. I myself was somewhat Shanghaied into racing CX this year, only to discover I actually enjoyed it.

To be clear, I never meant to diminish Jed's achievement of being the first person to complete a quad backflip. Having been around the block a few times, I know how much goes into pulling something like that, and the end result (4 perfect rotations and rolling away smoothly) while certainly not "effortless" in the beginning certainly looks like it to someone who doesn't know the backstory.

Probably the best socks out there.

Just a reminder that the gear swap will be in exactly 1 week! Plenty of enduro-specific deals to be had.

Having ridden both back to back in the same conditions, definitely the Pike. There's less fiddling around with it, the fork doesn't pack up as much under braking, and it just plain feels stiffer.

I'm in if Morgan can get Emily Batty to go.

I second this motion. Morgan, make it happen.

Had the chance to ride both (albeit aluminum versions) two seasons ago. What I remember most about the V10 was that it seemed to always want to way faster than I was comfortable with, while the Wilson begged to be ridden hard through the rough stuff.

Both were excellent bikes, but if I had to choose, it'd likely be the Wilson.

Just spent 5 months aboard the slightly shorter-legged Banshee Spitfire, and if that's anything to go by, the Rune would be a perfect do it all bike. Not once did I have to touch the pivot hardware despite having a total absence of routine maintenance, and the sheer strength of the bike really impressed me. Did everything from short Shore laps to days in the park, and no big damage to report.

He's obviously talking about rear visibility lights folks, and given that it's getting darker earlier now, I wholeheartedly agree.

some good rain this morning

anyone know where i can see the amount of precip over the last 24 hrs or so?

Environment Canada stores all that data somewhere, you may just have to go digging around on their site to find it.

Was up there today around 5:30, and was hoping it was just some police work going on. Hearts and thoughts with the rider's family. RIP.

Having just flown my bike across the country using the EVOC bag, I'm willing to stand up and say it is pretty kickass.

I've used the old cardboard box method in the past, but trying to get the damn thing through the airport (particularly Pearson, where they charge you for a luggage cart) can be a pain in the butt.

This time however, it was wheels all the way to the Skytrain, then on to my place. Absolutely brilliant.

Someone actually pedalling UP trail on the hollowed Shore????????

OMG this cannot be happen.

The gods of Huck Bike Heaven are going to start killing kittens if the evil lycra freaks take over the Shore and continue this pedalling up trails nonsense.

Everyone should know there place. That place is pushing their huck monster up Mountain Hwy.

Heaven help us all the day that more people ride up the hill than shuttle it. For the gods of the Huck will smite all those climbers down with a mighty axe forged from the most holy of dual crown forks and 150mm rear hubs.

But seriously though, yield to the climbers on the way up, unless they're hike a biking, in which case, they should be the ones to shuffle over.