Belated Squid Completion Post!

It’s been a minute since we got onboard with Squid, but there’s been plenty of activity since then! It’s cross season and it’s also the first month of school, so Riley’s had limited time for bikes right now. But it’s done! It’s dialed! It rips! Riley likes a really responsive and flickable bike, and the Squidcross is just that: turn hard and sharp, pedal the back end around. The bike communicates what’s going on with grip better than anything we’ve tried.

Riley stands by the fade+splatter fork being the best thing he’s ever done, and it’d be hard to argue. The only disappointment is that you don’t see the inside of the fork that often… It’s the design that started PDJ’s Summer 2018 splatter obsession—there are still one or two splatter caps left at the shop, and we’re taking preorders for 1x chainring paint that will fulfill in December.

We love, love, love Astral wheels—handbuilt to order, serialized, White Industries hubs? Yes, please! But Riley wanted to have something a little zestier, so he did a custom build with gold W.I. CLD hubs and Wanderlust rims. It’s the same amazing wheel, just more gold-er this time.

Taking care of grip and mounted tubeless (because why the hell wouldn’t you?!) are a pair of the Wet tread Vittoria Terrenos. Victoria’s cross races were mud fests from round one, and the awesome Dry and Mix treads might not be needed this year. Although the 40mm Dry was the perfect choice for the couple gravel grinders outside of Victoria, and this bike is a great gravel weapon too!

Shifting is taken care of by a Shimano Ultegra R8000 drivetrain and RS685 shifters. Brakes are Shimano Zee freeride calipers because if you have four pistons that’s cool, right? Right? Thru-axles are the purple Paragon Machine Works specials!

The cockpit is our increasingly ubiquitous choice: Nitto UI-25 and Soma Highway One bars. It’s just so classy. A nice blue/purple/red finish tape matches the paint fade.

And if you’ve forgotten… it’s a Squid.