This is the bike I wanted to build a couple years ago, but ended up buying the Astrix instead. Last spring though, I got my hands on a Rock Shox DHO, and I had an idea for a new project.
This is my Santa Cruz Heckler. It has 100mm of travel from a Rock Shox Super Deluxe coil shock and it's rim brake only. It's a medium, which is typically smaller than I'd ride, but I had a Superlight way back when in a medium, and it was fine with a longer seatpost. It's designed to run anything from an XC racing 63mm fork, to freeride style 100mm forks.
This is the bike I wanted to build a couple years ago, but ended up buying the Astrix instead. Last spring though, I got my hands on a Rock Shox DHO, and I had an idea for a new project.
0 Comments
The IPA is an incredible beer in many ways. I don't know if you can assign a date to the start of the microbrew revolution we're currently living through, but it's amazing that the IPA is still driving it. Especially when you consider that chasing the very newest of the new also drives the revolution.
It's also incredible how divisive the IPA can be. Here in 2019 there are still people who lose their minds over other people liking this style. If you think drinking an IPA is like licking a rusty tin can, that's fine, but please, for Pete's sake, me liking IPAs is not a personal attack on you. But, that's modern life, which Blur correctly said - 23 years ago! - is rubbish. Anyway, we have some sub-styles here to consider. The S&O, Breakside, Yellow Dog, and Driftwood are all from the NorthWestern school. The Superflux / Gigantic collaboration is a New England style IPA - these are the 'hazy' and 'juicy' IPAs you may have heard of. The Vice & Virtue is a Brut IPA - an attempt to make an IPA into champaign. And, as a sub-sub-style, the Driftwood Sartori Harvest is also a 'fresh-hop' IPA. With a fresh hop beer, the hops are harvested a the farm, and immediately delivered to the brewery and tossed in the boil. They usually come out in September, so I was wary of finding this beer in December as IPAs generally don't age. Ironic considering the 'India' part of IPA refers to British brewers dumping hops into beer they shipped to India for the war effort to keep the beer from going bad. It had a best before date of March, and I've wanted to try it for years, so it was worth a roll of the dice I figured. it was awesome. Steel & Oak Parkade (New Westminster) - Vice & Virtue Brute (Kelowna) - Breakside IPA (Portland) Superflux + Gigantic Pretty Much Yeah (Vancouver + Portland) - Yellow Dog Play Dead (Port Moody) - Driftwood Sartori Harvest (Victoria) In this gallery we have some of the more creative trays. Parkside's nifty park bench, BNA's map of Kelowna, and Wild Ambition's oil and vinegar salad rack. At least that's what it reminds me of. I don't know if restaurants do this anymore, but you could order a salad with oil and vinegar as your dressing option, and you'd get a tray with oil, vinegar, salt and pepper to doctor up your salad as you pleased.
Also here, is maybe the best tray I've ever seen; Sooke Oceanside's metal Vancouver Island. That's some serious attention to detail. Omen (Edmonton) - Chapman (Orange) - Parkside (Port Moody) Sooke Oceanside (Sooke) - BNA (Kelowna) - Wild Ambition (Kelowna) Look at the different beers! Lots of good stuff here - the metal tray at riip, the bones at Yellow Dog, and that beefy handle on to the tray at Red Bird.
Beer definitely goes with sunshine too. Don't the ones from riip and Bad Dog look enticing? But then the moody dark lighting at Analog is super cool. Analog (Edmonton) - riip (Huntington Beach) - Bad Dog (Sooke) Yellow Dog (Port Moody) - Cannery (Penticton) - Red Bird (Kelowna) It's always exciting - to me anyway - to see how a brewery puts a flight together. The glasses, the tray, how do they identify the beers, the glasses - each brewery is just a little different.
The presentation of the flight is the final detail demonstrating a brewery's commitment to getting everything right. Golden's Whitetooth and Kelowna's Rustic Reel are prime examples. Whitetooth has beautiful glasses and the shellacked plank of wood tray. Rustic Reel's tray is a perfect compliment to the feel of the brewery, and I don't think I've ever seen flight tray come with snacks. On the other hand, you could argue that the plain tray from Kelowna's Boundary Brewing demonstrates that they're too busy making great beer to spend time on the tray. And their beer is great, so this is plausible. Whitetooth (Golden) - Streetcar (North Van) - House of Funk (North Van) Bad Tattoo (Penticton) - Rustic Reel (Kelowna) - Boundary (Kelowna) This is a TREK 9000 from 1992. It is an important bike in that it is the first dip of a toe into the pool of full suspension by a company that would become one of the largest bike manufacturers in the world. However, important does not equal good. And as a former "proud" owner of a TREK SUSPENSION TRACK bike, I can tell you that it is not a good bike.
This is a 2004 Specialized FSR XC Pro. It's a direct descendant of the FSR XC of 1999, which was touted as the anti-freeride bike. Freeride was the name given to the heavy DH-ish bikes that were being made to ride down mountains. The FSR XCs though were also supposed to work well going up mountains.
Hard to believe that only five or so years of full suspension bikes in the marketplace, they needed a major correction, but, that's what we got. This FSR really wasn't anything special, but I bought one three years ago for cheap, and it became I think anyway, an interesting story. It's Friday night dammit - let's talk beer! I've fallen so far behind now it's laughable. I do have a lot to talk about though. Specifically the Phillips Brewing Space Case. In years past Phillips put out an advent calendar of beers called the Snowcase. 24 beers in a box, a lot that hadn't been made bu Phillips in years. They haven't made this in five years now I think, which is really unfortunate because it was a ton of fun. Still no Snowcase this year, but instead, the Space Case - a dozen bomber bottles of new brews. I didn't set any kind of schedule for this, I just went ahead and opened them as I saw fit. And I'm just going to rate them on a "would I buy it again" yes-or-no basis.
Part one of the Space Case, and not a bad beer in the bunch. At least three real standouts too.
Important to note that the Space Case was a screaming good deal! With taxes it was roughly $5 a bottle. Which is why I bought a second case! HAHA! Let's have another! It's Friday night dammit - let's talk beer! Maybe I need to make posts more often than just on Friday afternoon - I can't keep up. We're checking out a smorgasboard of BC beers this time - I love tall can singles!
Four more great beers from BC - yawn.
Kidding of course - it's incredible how good the scene is here. And it's not just Vancouver either. Fernie, Nanaimo, Penticton, Kelowna, and Victoria are all home to terrific breweries. Even if you live in a remote area here, fresh beer is never far away. Let's have another. It's Friday dammit - let's talk beer! We moved from Edmonton to Osoyoos this summer, and essentially had an extended vacation there. I enjoyed some very good BC beers that were not so common in Edmonton - however - beers from Phillips were pretty hard to come by. Fast forward to fall, we're in Kelowna now, and I'm catching up on all the stuff Phillips put out in the summer.
If you gave me a choice between a NW-style IPA and a NE-style, I'm going to take the NW every time. Unless the NE-style you're offering me is from The Alchemist or Tree House. I've never had a NE-style IPA from one of OG brewers - I'm told they're very good. Apart from that, I prefer the bright and clear IPA stylings of the Northwest.
But, even though I keep saying the NE-style is not my thing, I keep buying them because my desire to try something new overrides my lack of enthusiasm for the style. And it's what brewers brew these days, so you just have to roll with it. I should talk to a brewer about the style though, because I've had some that have left a nasty burning sensation in my mouth. I've found this in at least three different beers, so it's not a bad batch - I really don't know what it is. I've never gotten a sensation like that from a NW-style IPA though - just sweet sweet hops. Let's have another. |
AuthorI'm 80. I wrench more than I ride and I like it that way. Archives
June 2023
Categories
All
|