Most people think of the Three Stooges when they hear the name Stooge Cycles, I imagine. Well, there must be something to it, because I have now had three Stooges and feel like I’m where I need to be. My first was the Speedbomb – I was enamoured by the blue-green colour in particular, but the geometry was a close match to the Esker Japhy it was replacing despite being a one-size-fits-all model.
What I didn’t appreciate was that hardtail geometry and rigid MTB geometry should be different – the rigid should be shorter so you can get over the rear wheel more readily. So I made my way to a Scrambler, which came in two sizes, the smaller of which being where I needed to be in terms of top tube length. In between these two I had a Tracker for a period of time, which I’d got in a trade deal as a stop-gap solution until the Scrambler became available.
I received the frame on Aug 26, 2024. I built it up over the next few days and my very first ride on it was Sept 2, 2024 with my friends Taylor and Cat – on a rather epic ride from home to the summit of Grouse Mountain via Fromme. It was a 1000m climb and the ride was over 50km door to door. A pretty massive shake-down ride!
The parts spec was all pretty much carry-over from my previous Stooge, which was carry-over from my Esker Japhy. The only change I needed to make was down-sizing my rear tire from a 2.6 to a 2.4 due to the frame clearance. I ran a WTB Macro, a fast XC tire, which paired nicely with the more aggressive Teravail Kessel to balance grip and speed.
As soon as the frame had arrived, I measured it up for a custom HMPL frame bag in waxed canvas. It took a few weeks to be ready, during which I used my little Lilac frame bag seen above for a few rides. The moment it was ready I bee-lined it to HMPL HQ and fitted it to the frame. I took the bike on a social ride around town shortly after and it was a blast, even though it was a pavement ride.
About six months later, in Jan/Feb of 2025, I had the White Industries hubs re-laced to 27.5″ Dually rims because Andy of Stooge was pretty clear that his preference was 27.5+ for the Scrambler. And I trusted his vision. I started my 27.5+ journey with Surly Dirt Wizard 3″ tires which I bought second-hand for a bargain.
The DW’s were perfect in the snow, but once the snow thawed I realized how incredibly slow they were on anything except mud and snow. My pal Taylor hooked me up with a variety of 27.5+ tires including WTB Rangers and Bridgers. As of Oct 2025, I am running a Bridger up front and a Ranger out back, both of the 3″ variety, and have been since spring – it’s a good setup for this bike.
In Sept 2025, I finally took the Stooge on a camping trip. I had hoped to do a ~330km rugged bikepacking route around the southern half of Vancouver Island this year, but that plan never quite came together – a goal for 2026 now.
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