MTB Legend, Dog Poo and The Singletrack Wisecracker Bottle Opener.

Charlie’s merch is appraised by MTB legend Joe Murray.

One of the remarkable things about running the Singletrack Merch store is how it reaches parts of the mountainbike world, that other stores can’t reach. Can you imagine what it is like to wake up in the morning, check Facebook and find that one of the true pioneers of mountainbike design thinks your product is dumb?

This is exactly what happened recently. We have had a short production run of “Wisecrackers” made up for us. These are (in my opinion) a neat little headset spacer that also opens beer bottles. In a world of integrated bike tech, you know shifters and brakes levers in one unit, suspension that can be controlled from your Iphone… you know stuff like that. Well this Wisecracker is multi-tasking like hell, seamlessly blending bikes and beer, in one awesome pocket money priced package.

Who is Joe Murray?

Are you familiar with Joe Murray? He was not only the designer for Kona back in the rigid days, but also developed the “Future Shock”, one of the first suspension forks.

Joe also designed tyres, bikes, and headsets. Basically, it seemed like everything that was progressive and pretty much worked brilliantly came from this guy (I never rode the fork). Where would we be without sloping top tubes? And let’s throw in that Joe can really hustle on a bike, he was the USA national MTB champ several times from 1984 onwards. And one more thing, he was the first guy to make a titanium mountainbike. That all adds up to confirm this chap is a well respected legend.

So what did Joe think of the Wisecracker?

So Joe commented on our Wisecracker headset spacer bottle opener gadget. Joe the legend passed judgment. My groovy little widget was appraised, assessed, and shot down:

“…this thing sticking out of  your headset just to open beer bottles is dumb.”

Well, I will stand up and defend the Wisecracker in the face of overwhelming design genius advantage. You know it’s fun, it flys a flag that lets folk know you ain’t taking things too seriously, and it opens beer. Joe also added that an SPD pedal opens beer bottles. Hell, I guess he has less dog turd in his neighbourhood or has immunity to a germ called Campylobacter jejuni which can be found in dog poo and causes diarrhoea, vomiting, and fever.

If I was asked to make one big all encompassing claim about the Singletrack Wisecracker headset spacer bottle opener, it would be:

“it’s better than eating shit”.

Charlie Hobbs

Merch & Marketing Manager at Singletrack

Grumpy, happy, hairy, overweight and awesome. I started riding offroad in 1978, and never stopped. I was once Charlie The Bikemonger, I invented orienBEERing, the Clunker Classic, and the Dorset Gravel Dash. I own the Bum Butter brand and I'm a co-owner of Dirt Dash Events. I also work at Singletrack, I have the self-appointed job title of "Overlord of the leftovers" and look after the merch shop, and marketing. Other interests include skateboards, surfboards, motorbikes, and cooking (I invented the Beefer Reefer).

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