<![CDATA[T E A M C O W

<![CDATA[T E A M C O W - Blog]]>Sat, 12 Sep 2026 00:27:05 -0700Weebly<![CDATA[magura raceline]]>Thu, 10 Sep 2026 21:00:00 GMThttps://www.teamcow.ca/blog/magura-raceline

If you are not watching Dylan Tremblay on Youtube, you should be. He has a ton of bikes, one of which being a '95 Rocky Mountain Edge t.o. - just like mine.

Except not because mine's silver. I've never seen another silver one.

He ran a bunch of pics of Rocky Mountain racers on their Edges back in the day and I was pretty happy to see they were all running Rock Shox Judy DH forks - just like mine. However, they also had Magura Raceline hydraulic brakes. Turns out, I have a set, so get comfy, this is going to take a while...

I had never owned Maguras, but back in March of this year, I picked up two bikes in two weeks with RaceLines and HS33s. I was going to sell them, but I realized that this was the perfect bike for the RaceLines.

I had heard that setting them up can be a real battle - this was what Ali Clarkson says anyway. You should be watching him on YouTube as well. But, he never really said why, and in fact, I can't find anyone who says why, so, here's my guide explaining why it's a battle to set them up.

I was lulled into a false sense of security by the RaceLines, because I put them on my Rocky Experience, and it was a piece of cake. But we had many issues on the Edge, the first being that the rear wheel was dished poorly. You can see this in Plate 2. It was easy enough to shift it over though, and you can see in Plate 3, we now have even spacing for the pads on both sides.

But I've jumped way ahead here, as dishing the wheel was a secondary issue.

The bolts you attach them with are in Plate 1. The left side uses a pretty normal 5mm bolt, the right though, is more of a post with a groove on the end of it. This allows for the quick release aspect of these brakes. There's a lever on the right side, visible in Plate 2, with a cam on the end of it. You flip this lever down to remove the entire brake assembly from the brake boss, so that you can remove the wheel. Without this, you'd have to deflate the tire.

You can start with putting the left side on, tightening the 5mm bolt, and setting the height of the pad relative to the rim. Then, visible in Plate 4, you loosen the 4mm bolt above the pad, and put a 13mm wrench on the weird post that sticks out behind the brake. You can see this clearly in Plate 6. This post can be adjusted with the wrench to help set the distance from the pad to the rim. I think it also helps secure the brake against the frame so that it doesn't just push the body of the brake away from the rim rather than the pad into the rim.

This is now where we discover just what's so difficult about these brakes; you more or less need to adjust the height of the pad relative to the rim, the angle of the pad relative to the rim, and the distance of the pad from the rim all at the same time.

You can see in Plate 7 below, the black clamp that holds the 'caliper' in place, is split, so when you loosen it, you can move the caliper around inside the clamp. You also need to loosen the 4mm at the top of the clamp to do this, and that allow the entire brake to slide down, and the post to move around - and you end up having to set three vital parameters all at once.

You can survive this, because you can tighten something 75% of the way and that will hold it enough to let you make other adjustments. It's tough but not impossible.

So - we're all done now?

No. No we are not. We have to do the front, and there is a major problem. In Plate 6 you can see the entirety of the post that sticks out behind the brake is on the brake arch of the Judy, so you can't adjust it away from the rim enough. But that's where the spacers with the flat side and the set screw from Plate 1 come in. It occurred to me that they can go behind the brake, pushing it out enough to clear the arch.

As it happens, I watched a video on a vintage show in the UK that confirmed this. You can clearly see the spacer in Plate 7. So with the spacers in place, you can see in Plates 8 and 9, there is plenty of clearance for that post, allowing for the body of the brake to be moved away from the rim, and now we are done.

Except no we are not.

See that post in Plate 8? The one with the groove on the end that the flip lever bites into to lock the brake in place? Yeah, it's now sitting way too far in for the cam in the lever to grab. I found that a locking for a presta valve stem is a great match, except it sticks out too far and doesn't fit inside the brake. So I could try to file it down.

What I did is probably not all that good, but it seems to work so far. I backed out that post so that the cam does hit it and flipped the lever shut. Then I tightened that post until everything was snugged down.

It's dodgy because I know it's not designed for that, but, I'm not DH racing it. I'll probably barely ride it all. I think I'll probably be ok.

One of your brakes suddenly being torn off the bike can't be that bad right? I bet it'll jam up in the spokes, and therefore still be doing what it was meant for.

HAHAHA.

]]><![CDATA[all blizzards ranked - 2]]>Tue, 08 Sep 2026 21:00:00 GMThttps://www.teamcow.ca/blog/all-blizzards-ranked-2

All Blizzards ranked - numbers 20 through 16 - let's get it.

2002

20. 2002. The '02 was the end of the road for the Blizzard as a complete bike. After this, only three special models were sold as complete bikes. We will definitely get to those later. This was a very nice bike though. I bet there are still some sitting in garages just waiting for their owners to finally get rid of that old mountain bike taking up space in the garage, as if it's some crummy old TREK or Specialized. Hopefully there's still some out there.

2001

19. 2001. I'm putting the '01 model above the '02 model only because of that Marzocchi fork. I'll take the Bomber over a Manitou Axel all day long. I actually prefer the silver RaceFace cranks on the '02, but that fork is sexy brother.

2000

18. 2000. This pick might be a little controversial. This is the only Blizzard from 1999 onwards to not have the iconic Blizzard paintjob; the maple leaf fade. I don't know what it is, but the red on white for this bike is just kinda perfect.

1998

17. 1998. The '98 gets the nod at 17 because it's the last year for my favourite decal style, and it's the last year for Syncros stuff. You can argue RaceFace v. Syncros till the cows come home - I've made my feelings known already - but this was the end of an era.

1995

16. 1995. Somehow the '95 just feels like unrealized potential. Like a prospect that tears up junior, but just can't find the back of the net in the NHL with the same regularity. But maybe it's a little unfair to rate it that way, as it's surrounded by two heavy hitters as you will see. There's some RaceFace (cranks, BB, and bar), and I think a Syncros post - although the catalog says it's a Bontrager - but it's just kinda plain overall. Also I preferred the Manitous to the RockShox for this era, but Rocky rarely went with Manitous - the '02 is a pretty rare bike in that aspect.

]]><![CDATA[1992 rocky mountain experience]]>Thu, 03 Sep 2026 21:00:00 GMThttps://www.teamcow.ca/blog/1992-rocky-mountain-experience

You're looking at a '92 Rocky Mountain Experience, a fine example from the golden age of elevated chainstay bikes. Let's dig in...

The Experience is the less flashy version of the Cirrus - which had Shimano XT and Syncros - rolling with DX and Rocky-branded parts, but the same 7000 series aluminum frame and standard Rocky Mountain aluminium finish of the time, which was no finish. They just put a clear coat over the raw alloy for the Cirrus, Experience, Stratos, and Nimbus.

Now, it actually wasn't the same frame - the geometry was quite different. Rocky claimed the Experience was a 'mountain trails' bike, and the '91 catalog claimed it had a high clearance bottom bracket, steeper angles, and a short wheelbase. Here's how it differed from the Cirrus of that year;

Head tube - 0.5 degrees steeper
Seat tube - 1 degree slacker
Bottom bracket - 0.7 cm taller
Top tube - 1.2 cm longer
Chain stay - 2.2 cm shorter

There's no wheelbase number in the geometry chart, but certainly the chainstays being nearly an inch shorter would contribute to a shorter wheelbase. "Steeper angles" is a stretch I'd say - the seat tube is slacker even. The BB is definitely taller, and what really surprises me is the top tube is nearly a half inch longer. This certainly explains why it's so enjoyable to ride.

I've taken all of these numbers from the 1991 catalog, as I've discovered the numbers in the '92 catalog are seemingly wrong. The numbers for the Cirrus and Experience are nearly identical, as if they changed the Experience to be more like the Cirrus. And when I measure mine, the numbers don't line up. The catalog says 16.5" chainstays, which is 42cm - mine measures 40cm. Not sure what's going on there.

Anyway, that's enough nerding out over geometry - let's talk about the bike. There are some excellent details on the frame. I love that little arch on the chainstays, and I never realized that the chainstays are asymmetrical, with a little clearance added for the chain when you're in the taller gears.

It's very close to original - the seat, brake/shift levers, and tires are the only things that are different. It actually didn't have a seat when I bought it, which is too bad because those 'shoulder holder' Rocky-branded seats were pretty cool. It came with GripShift too, which I bet were even swapped out by the dealer before it went out the door. XT Rapidfire is an improvement for sure.

But, by far the best thing about this 34 year old bike is that it's not cracked. So many aluminium bikes of this era broke, I think because welding aluminium was still a pretty new thing at the time. I brought this bike to the Show 'n Shine at Main Street Brewing, and the first question was 'where is it cracked?'

We are on a major aluminium run here everybody - and we're just getting started.

]]><![CDATA[all blizzards ranked - 1]]>Tue, 01 Sep 2026 21:00:00 GMThttps://www.teamcow.ca/blog/all-blizzards-ranked-1

The other day I was reminded that I had come up with a Top Five Rocky Mountain Blizzards a la Nick Hornby. I had forgotten about that, and I realized pretty quickly that what I needed to do, was rank all 28 Rocky Mountain Blizzard models. So, that's what we're doing...

Before I properly get started, I have to say that finding pics of all 31 Blizzard models was much harder than ranking them. Reason being that all Blizzards from 2003 through 2010 (save one model) were sold as frames only. So when you search for '2006 Rocky Mountain Blizzard' you're at the mercy of what year sellers of Blizzards think their bike is - they're often out by a year or two.

I certainly don't blame them as there isn't a lot of difference year to year.

I haven't had much luck finding catalogs, so it's been hard to verify what's what. But, nose to the grindstone and all that - we figured it out.

Anyway, let's get right to it, shall we?

23. 2006 / 2007 / 2008 / 2009 and 2010. You might claim it's a cop-out to throw these all together at the bottom, but, all of these models were sold as frames only, and all of them were Reynolds 853. So apart from different variations on the iconic maple leaf fade, we're talking about five identical models. And even though somebody has to be last, these are still incredible bikes. Nobody else was selling high quality steel hardtails during these years.

Hell, nobody was selling any steel bikes during these years.

22. 2003 / 2004. It's a razor-thin margin that these two get the nod over the log jam at the bottom, and it's only because they have v-brake bosses. And this is a great example of how hard it is to find pics. There are some images of the '03 Rocky catalog online, but nothing of the Blizzard. That pic I have there is a best guess to be honest. It has v-brake bosses, isn't the same colour as the '04, or any other Blizzard with v-brakes, so by process of elimination....

1999

21. 1999. Here you go, the 'worst' complete Blizzard Rocky ever sold. I hated the decals on the '99s back in 1999, and while I have come around a bit, they're still the worst. So even though this bike has a colour-matched RaceFace cranks and stem - and a genuine SYStem at that - it's still at the bottom. Mind you, it's still a Reynolds 853 steel frame - a rare and awesome thing in 1999.

That's your bottom three, and we'll get into the top 20 next time.

]]><![CDATA[what's good - $125 edition]]>Thu, 20 Aug 2026 21:00:00 GMThttps://www.teamcow.ca/blog/whats-good-125-edition

I see a lot of posts on IG about scoring old mountain bikes for US$200, or 200 pounds sterling - I don't know how to get a pound symbol here - and I think, 'Are you made of gold?!' Those are insane prices. Decent bikes are available here for peanuts...

1. That's a Gary Fisher HiFi, from near the end of the run for Fisher. It sounds like the fork could be in trouble based on the ad, but I've found pretty often that the average rider doesn't know the minutiae of 'modern' suspension forks. I once bought a bike with a Rock Shox SID and was told it was toast. I emptied the main and negative chambers, refilled them to spec, and it was fine. I guarantee the seller didn't know there was a negative chamber and I think that it was empty and messing with the fork's proper operation. Anyway, $125 for this seems like a giveaway.

2. It's a Cannondale Super V. Is this a good bike? A polarizing one I think. I think that's a Mag20 on there, and for sure someone has swapped in headset spacers allowing regular 1 1/8" forks to be used rather than a Headshok. I have a Cannondale Moto freeride fork that might fit this, so I just might go pick it up.

3. Yessir that is a damn Ritchey for $125. It's not one that Tom himself welded or brazed, but it's got his name on it. And I read once that even the overseas made ones had some braze-on work done by Tom. No idea if that's true though. I also read that Tom just took tubes to a muffler shop in the morning and came back in the afternoon to pick up the completed frames.

We've just having fun.

]]><![CDATA[what's good - rocky mountain edition]]>Thu, 09 Jul 2026 21:00:00 GMThttps://www.teamcow.ca/blog/whats-good-rocky-mountain-edition

Not long ago I complained that there was nothing out there. Things have changed drastically almost overnight.

That's a very nice Fusion there, seemingly original apart from a nice hi-rise bar and a comfy seat. For $100, it's insane this has been for sale for 10 weeks. It's even a '96, so when you roll up to your hipster ride after putting an 800mm klunker bar on it, everyone can marvel at the special 15th anniversary decals.

And another Fusion there, with custom paint and fresh decals for only $150. Hard to say from one picture, but it seems to be quality work.

Finally, the big score, that I can't believe is still for sale, a 1993 Metro for only $100. 1993 was a special year because every bike in the lineup had a custom font for the model name.

30 year old bikes that I guarantee will work better than anything you buy at Walmart at twice the price.

]]><![CDATA[what's good - those are not bicycles edition]]>Thu, 02 Jul 2026 22:00:00 GMThttps://www.teamcow.ca/blog/whats-good-those-are-not-bicycles-edition

So what the hell man - these are not bicycles.

I know, but they're still cool. That's a Honda CB350 Four, the first motorcycle I ever rode. I think anyway. The one my dad had, had a sissy bar on it that I never liked, so this one looks way better, but sadly doesn't have the excellent 4-into-4 stock exhaust it came with. Would be super fun to get around town on that. $2300 is maybe a little pricey compared to other motos currently out there, but it's a little rare, so, you know; 'I know what I got.'

Next is an Isuzu Impulse Wagonback, and I bet you do not know what's he's got. You don't see these much at all anymore, and certainly not the Kammback / shooting brake version. It's got a sporty little 1.6L 16V four cylinder and suspension tuning from Lotus. $5500 and it's just what you need to get some attention at your local Cars and Coffee meets.

And finally, for $250 we have a Radio Shack TRS-80 hard drive. It has a laughable - by today's standards - 15 megabytes of storage. That's mega, not giga. I've got PDFs bigger than that. But, pretty damn rare I expect, and it sounds like it works.

]]><![CDATA[what's good - nothing edition]]>Thu, 25 Jun 2026 21:30:00 GMThttps://www.teamcow.ca/blog/whats-good-nothing-edition

We're fully into summer now, is there anything good for sale out there?

Well, it's not looking great, but there is a nifty Lemond steel/carbon - I think called Versailles? It's unfortunately one of the TREK ones, but is still available at the giveaway price of $450. True Temper OX Platinum and TREK's OCLV carbon makes this - I'd assume anyway - a nice superlight bike.

Then there's a Giant AC2 at $325. I used to have one of these when I worked at a Giant dealer. First thing I did was swap out the heavy Michelin DH tires on it, which was by far the hardest tire to remove that I've ever had the misfortune of dealing with.

And then we have a Cannondale Jekyll for $200 - a giveaway price. I've always wanted to ride a Lefty to see if I could ride with no hands. I've heard people who owned them say they couldn't, but didn't know if it had something to do with the fork design, or of it just in their head somehow.

]]><![CDATA[rocky mountain edge t.o.]]>Tue, 23 Jun 2026 22:30:00 GMThttps://www.teamcow.ca/blog/rocky-mountain-edge-to

You are looking at a 1995 (probably) Rocky Mountain Edge t.o. and it is yet another mystery bike that has found me.

The Edge debuted in 1993 with a steel front triangle and an AMP rear end, was then switched over to aluminium in 1994, and in 1995 had a reworked rear end with a Risse damper instead of the AMP unit. The Edge t.o. however, I'm not sure about, as it's not in the catalog. There is a mention of the Vertex t.o. and Altitude t.o. but no The Edge t.o. We can see in the picture that it has slightly different drop-outs and a bolt-on TWP brace on the seat stays, so it was certainly more than just different paint and decals.

What's odd is that it seems to have a full complement of factory decals, but they're mounted incorrectly compared to other '95 Rocky models. In 1995, the drop shadow was swapped, and went towards the front of the bike. They did this again in 1996, before reverting to the long-standing style of the drop shadow going towards the rear.

The only 'correct' decal is the edge t.o. one on the non-drive side, and it's comically crooked.

Because this bike is so special, I needed all of my most special parts. And that meant poaching some of them off my other bikes. The XTR shifters, brakes, and wheels (Mavic rims on Hugi Compact hubs) all came off my Blizzard. The Easton Monkeylite bar came off my S-Works Carbon. The polished Race face stem off my old Pipeline. And the Race face cranks and headset are both Rocky OEM items; the crank from the '94 Vertex, and headset from the '94 Altitude. That's a little bit of guesswork though as I'm not super good with colours, and it's hard to tell from the catalog scans.

I think I might switch it up though, as I've since acquired a set of Magura Race Line hydraulic brakes. The ever excellent Dylan Tremblay has one of these, because of course he does, and when he discussed his frame he ran a bunch of pics of Rocky DH racers on Edge t.o.s - all of them had Maguras. I'll keep you up to date of course.

]]><![CDATA[what's good - ritchey edition]]>Tue, 31 Mar 2026 21:00:00 GMThttps://www.teamcow.ca/blog/whats-good-ritchey-edition

Spring is coming, so is there anything good for sale out there?

How about a murdered-out Ritchey SwissCross? Do they kids still say 'murdered-out?' I guess if I'm asking, that's my answer. Anyway, this bike is hot - you better believe I've considered selling everything so I can grab this at $1800.

Or maybe a P-650b with Fox forks and tanwall tires for $1299? This is also hot. If I didn't already have a Chromag I'd be after this one.

And finally this barely used P-23 circa 1993. It still has the little sticker on the lower jockey wheel of the rear derailleur. It's very nice and the seller is asking $5000, so do with that what you like.

]]>