10 Things I Loved in 2023: Seb Stott
Kids Ride Shotgun Pro Seat
I've been riding with my daughter since she turned 2 but now that she's 3 she's really enjoying the Shotgun seat. Being able to share with her what I've been up to every time I've disappeared off for a bike ride has been wonderful. But the enjoyment she gets out of it, especially when zooming around berms or over lumps and rollers is the real appeal.
Shotgun sent me the Pro seat, which attaches to the seat post and a special slotted headset spacer - I bought a spare of these so I can easily swap it between bikes. This design means it doesn't contact the frame, which reduces the risk of damage and makes it compatible with e-bikes. There is a little friction between the headset spacer and the steerer tube which you can feel in the steering at slow speeds, but this can be mitigated with a little grease or a fresh spacer. I'd also prefer a more secure way to strap my kid's feet to the foot pegs to stop them from bouncing out (I use the velcro shoe straps to wrap around the Shotgun seat's footpeg strap).
But overall, it's a fantastic product that opens up a new way to enjoy riding.
Price: $ 275 USD
More information: kidsrideshotgun.com
TLD Resist pants
These have been doing a sterling job of keeping me dry this winter (and this summer) without becoming a sweaty, baggy mess. The fit is reasonably svelt without being restrictive, the material keeps water out pretty well and the thigh vents add a little ventilation for when you get too clammy.
Despite what many manufacturers imply, no fabric can expel moisture from within while keeping water out at the same time, because it has to be less humid outside for the fabric to breathe. So, in my view, the best way to make a waterproof garment less sweaty is to add physical vents.
The pockets are well-sized, the waist closure is secure and easy to use and the fit is nice and snug at the ankle. They just work.
Price: $159.99
More information: troyleedesigns.com
Comrie Croft MTB Trails
I spent a few days glamping and riding at Comrie Croft this spring and thoroughly enjoyed it. The trails are not the most well-known but there's a good mix with some technical rocky sections, jumps and interesting singletrack climbs which are so often missing from UK trail networks. While the trails aren't the most extensive or spectacular in Scotland, it's a lovely place to be, with nice views, camping, and a great cafe and shop. It's well worth a visit.
Price: Depends
More information: comriecroftbikes.co.uk
Hope 155 mm cranks
Hope aren't the first to offer short cranks, but they're one of the best-known brands to do so recently, which pushes the idea towards the mainstream. The 155 mm cranks opened my eyes to the fact that there isn't a good reason we've all been riding 170 or 175 mm crank arms on our mountain bikes for decades. The 155 mm arms had no discernable downsides for me (and I'm not exactly short) but offered noticeably more ground clearance and less fatigue on long descents.
Price: £290 / €360 / $365
More information: HERE
TruTune
Understanding how this product works is complicated, but what it does is simple: it makes your fork less progressive. Yes, less progressive than no volume spacers at all.
Not everyone needs this - in fact, it's a pretty niche product - but there are some forks, like the 2023 RockShox Zeb in 180 or 190 mm travel, that are very progressive even with zero volume spacers installed. With a 190 mm RockShox Zeb set with reasonable sag, it's very hard to get past 170 mm travel. In cases like these, TruTune can allow access to more travel, reducing harshness and fatigue on big, repeated hits.
Price: £120 GBP
More information: REVIEW
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Vittoria Air Liner Light
Vittoria made big claims about their 50-gram XC tire insert. They said it could expand in the event of a puncture to fill the tire and provide a run-flat feature. My testing didn't support that particular claim, but the insert provides a useful boost to tire/rim protection for such a slim weight penalty. There's a subtle change to the tire performance, with a slightly more damped feel but no added harshness.
While it's marketed at the XC crowd, I've used it in EXO and EXO+ tires for rides where a DoubleDown would be more appropriate and been impressed by the added tire security. As I found in another test, it's not the weight but the rolling resistance that makes stiffer tires slower when climbing, so this combination makes sense for someone who priorities climbing speed but needs some protection.
It fills a gap in the market for an ultralight but still effective tire insert.
Price: €59.95 (per wheel, inc. valve & lever)
More information: REVIEW
Croozer Vaaya 2 trailer
Bike trailers are super useful. I bought this trailer second hand because it's big enough to carry two kids plus a load of shopping and nappies in the back. It's not much good off-road (it's the old version without suspension and it's pretty wide) but for riding to the shops, nursery or even to the trailhead, it's just the job.
Croozer offers bespoke axles for different bikes that hitch directly to the trailer, but since I need it to work with multiple different bikes, that would be an expensive solution. Instead, I used the adapters that came with the trailer and are meant for quick-release skewers but drilled them out so a 12 mm axle would fit through. Then I bought a few oversized axles (12x148 mm to fit 12x142 mm gravel bikes and 12x157 mm to fit 12x148 mm mountain bikes). This left enough space on the axle to fit the adapter plus a few spacers to clamp between it and the frame. This makes it quick and cheap to fit the trailer to almost any bike.
The kids love going in the trailer (which also doubles as a stroller) and without the kids, I've used it to pick up a big load of grocery shopping no bother. It almost acts like a second car for local journeys.
Price: €999 (new version with suspension)
More information: croozer.com
OneUp V2 240 mm post
A longer dropper post is one of those things that you don't realize how good it is until you lose it. The field testers got some flack in the comments for coming down hard on bikes that came equipped with "short" dropper posts, but if you've ridden a post with north of 200 mm of travel, you won't want to go back. While I'm happy enough with 200 mm, OneUp's industry-leading 240 mm travel V2 post offers that bit more freedom to move around the bike when things get hectic. I feel less like a passenger and more in control.
I've been riding it for almost a year now and it's had no issues. It's nice to know there's a user-replaceable cartridge and a 2-year warranty. Plus, it's far from the most expensive dropper despite having the most drop.
Price: $229.50 USD w/o remote (currently $184.99)
More information: oneupcomponents.com
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The EX Enduro
Racing is an occasional affair for me these days, but I thoroughly enjoyed returning to the EX Enduro for the fourth time this year. It's a deceptively low-key event, both in terms of the number of riders and the jovial atmosphere in the pits, but with twenty-something stages and almost 5,000 m of descending over three days, it's no walk in the park. The trails include loads of natural singletrack, and while they aren't always the most technical, there are plenty of spicy moments thrown in for a blind race. Some biblical rain on day three added to the challenge, but there was a great sense of camaraderie and some good laughs with the other racers and journalists at the event.
I entered a few of the early EWS events, but the less serious grass-roots races are usually more fun for me and certainly more my level. It's not clear whether The EX will return in 2024, and if it does, rumours suggest it will be an e-bike-only event. That's probably a sign of the times. But given that the race has been partially uplifted in the past to help make the most of Exmoor's extensive trail network, doing away with the vans makes sense for the organisers and for those who have an e-bike to race. Personally, as I'm lucky enough to have access to both, I'd be happy to race it again with a battery or not.
Price: TBC
More information: the-ex.co.uk
Book: What We Owe The Future by Will MacAskill
I came across Will MacAskill after hearing him speak on Sam Harris's podcast, and after reading his first book, Doing Good Better, he became my favourite author. It's rare to find someone who cares so deeply about doing good for others and who is also hyperrational, critical and fiercely intelligent. I admire Macaskill for his unique ability to combine the head and the heart.
His first book opened my eyes to the power we all have to make a huge positive difference in the world if we use evidence to make the right choices, so much so that I took the Giving What We Can Pledge last year. His new book, What We Owe The Future, extends this thinking from what we can do for people in the present, to what impact we could have on the future.
Here's a book review from someone who actually knows how to review books.
Key to this is the dizzying idea that we could be very near the beginning of humanity, or very near the end. If things go well, there is potential for many trillions of future humans, plus the potential for living standards to improve dramatically, so a lot rides on getting it right. MacAskill argues that now is a pivotal time for the long-term future, as so much is in flux and we face several existential risks including climate change, engineered pandemics, AI and nuclear war.
But while exploring these risks can be scary, the message of the book is optimistic. By using evidence and reason and focusing on these under-resourced areas, we as individuals can have an outsized impact on the probability of helping the future go well.
Macaskill lays out a thought experiment that sticks with me. Imagine a European king in 1700 postulating that in 300 years the living standards of the average person would be as high as his own. He would have been laughed at. But that would have been a severe underestimate of the progress we've made. Even a king in 1700 wouldn't have had access to anaesthetic, vaccinations, antibiotics; transport that was faster than a horse, or knowledge that wasn't in his own library. If he had kids there was a good chance most would die young. If he was gay he couldn't love openly, and if he followed an unfashionable religion he couldn't believe freely. Thinking about how far we've come gives a sense of how good the future could be if we get things right.
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Hands down one of the best MTB purchases of my life.
Of course we’ll discuss when they decide to “help” with steering another time. . .
We've come a long way from when I used to fall asleep on the gas tank of my dad's motorbike!
The MacRide is really good, I've used both. My little guy has preferred the KRS (more bike-ish and he is solid enough to move around etc.) but both are great. My main wishes for both are that they could be simpler and use nicer hardware for the price.
We at the Robert Axle Project absolutely love your technical articles here on Pinkbike. We hope you will amend this article and keep up the great work.
With a nearly empty trailer and in a surprisingly short time, both axles failed. Factory bike axles just aren’t built like this.
Robert Axles fixed it once and properly. Can confirm this testing in real life.
Get a Follow-Me trailer as soon as a kid can somewhat ride a bike. It allows you to connect the bike when needed (tired kid, busy traffic etc) and let them ride on their own when they can. Not sure whether it works with 12mm axles, I only used the supplied axle nuts on a Nexus hub. It may already work on those flow trails and feels safer to me in situation where a washout (so that you have to bail) is more than a tiny bit likely than having my kid in front of me. Obviously having the kid in front of you is still great fun and builds a nicer bond than traveling with your kid on the backseat.
Curiously neither loosened though I could totally imagine that too.
Zero issues with the Robert Axle - it uses a totally different axle end.
Too many people think like you, that’s why humanity is in such dire straits.
Think about it over the holidays, maybe you too can become a better human.
I realize I'm on a mountain bike website, but industrialization and neoliberalism are not purely good things and are not proof of "how far we've come".
Also that "giving what we can" pledge is incredibly flawed reasoning. Sure, give to charity if you want to, but elective charity cannot and should not replace state sponsored programs and is not a way to affect social/economic change.
Then I can go to the doctor who can use a device to see inside my body in real time to figure out what’s wrong with me, and not only give me magic potions to help me feel better, but provide me with vaccines so I never get sick to begin with.
Then I can hop aboard a magic flying machine and go to a tropical island in hours without risk of shipwreck, scurvy, or piracy. In the way, I can read literally any book currently known to man on a screen that provides its own light and weighs as much as a banana, not that our king has ever seen a banana.
I’ll take that over battling consumption while huddled by the fire in a drafty-ass palace while I try to read the latest news from my far-flung colonies, written four months ago.
I’m deeply skeptical of the crypto-bro effective altruism ecosystem, and not everyone is as privileged as me, but I have to disagree with you on this particular point.
there is ton's of data that says this techbro is wrong.
Obviously there are positives to all of this, the argument is just incredibly simplistic and starts on a false premise.
In 2022 the WHO estimated 1.3M people died of consumption and 10.6M fell ill with an active infection. Not good mortality statistics.
According to Jean Marc Jancovici, an engineer who's at the forefront of all those energy questions in France, each of us has the energetic equivalent of 400 slaves. Look for his conference on youtube, some are translated in english.
Holidays, feminism was made possible thanks to cheap energy, end of slavery as well (machines and robots (or overseas cheap labour) became more efficient than slaves).
If energy price gets through the roof, all those social progress would quickly disappear...
Also what bugs me in what Seb Stott wrote, though I don't know the content of the book, is that this progress was mostly possible due to fossile energies, with oil having an initial EROI of +100 now down to 8, and coal that had an EROI of 80 initially.
This growth and progress was only possible because of this and with EROI of about 1-10 now, I'm sceptical we can progress as much.
We may soon have barely enough left to keep the fundamentals working, and with climate going south...
This is only in the US. Maybe your personal (anecdotal) experience isn't the same as everyone else on the planet, eh?
As Sfarnum said, even the lower class have TV, trucks, electricity, etc.
Just a 1400W vaccum cleaner is equivalent to 7 slaves pedalling on exercise bikes.
With the exception of good beer. I do buy good beer, but enjoy in moderation.
I think you missed the point of my post, which was to point out that most Americans lead more comfortable lives than the nobility in centuries past.
Everybody in the Northern hemisphere is born a king these days - still they will tell you how bad their lives actually are. And that they can never do anything good, because they need every penny and every minute for themselves to just barely get by… and if they ever have a minute to spare, they will spend it on a Mountainbike website to complain about 10k$ bikes, because theirs cost only a reasonable 5k.
What we the readers need to ask these "moralists" is not what they think we should do, but what is their foundation for that belief. By what standard do they hold to those ideas, and do they hold up, with consistency, in their own moral economic system. I would argue that most, in fact, do not.
The regreasing is more regular than I’d like, but it’s 10 minute job max. For the price, weight, stack height and serviceability, it’sa great package
It's accounted for countless good times from trail riding and building ( little kids love getting dirty) , to grocery runs and school pickup / drop-offs.
If you are a parent that loves to ride I can't say enough good things about these kid bike seats.
His skills also leap frogged way ahead. No training wheels and comfort at speed right away when he's on his own bikes.
Krsg is a ripoff!
anybody want a free jogger stroller?
Shot gun, if I'm not mistaken, started out with a top-tube mount and a handlebar mount, and now it it looks like they 'stole' Mac-Ride's seat-tube/steertube mount. That's the main thing that makes Mac-Ride better!
Mac-Ride for the win!
Yup.
Climbing steep mountains that we have just enough gearing to make is probably all of us.
Can't recall last time saw someone locally running a too big chainring that had room to drop a couple of chainring sizes.
I started riding short cranks long before it was a thing; 125-150 mm cranks on mountain unicycles, so my experience with short cranks is deeply ingrained.
On mountain bikes, I typically ride 155-165, depending on what is available, on my Zerode Pinion I run 160mm, Lenz Fatillac GX 165, NS Evo 155.
Spend some money on yourself this holidays, $150 for GX 165’s or $200 for Canfield 155-165.
Ask yourself why motorcycles can run higher RPM’s and are quicker than a car.
Do you wanna be a truck or would you prefer to be a sport bike ?
So even if you make less torque, if you're rpm goes up enough you will accelerate faster.
Ultimately you can compensate by going down a chainring size and running higher cadence, but many bikes have very limited chainring range. My Rallon can only go down to 30t, so 165mm cranks about as short as I can go unless I run it mullet full time.
There is also a top speed limit as well if you are using smaller chainring.
www.scientificamerican.com/article/confirmed-we-live-in-a-simulation