2022 Knolly Chilcotin
The Knolly Chilcotin is designed to ride the North Shore – where I spend
most of my time riding! It’s a big travel bike that climbs well and can handle a lot of abuse. I’m not sure what type of rider I am exactly, but I do love bike parks and shuttling and every now and then I’ll try and send it.
TR37
TR37 rims are super tough and have handled everything I’ve thrown at them. Specs: 32H, 29″ TR37s laced with Sapim Race spokes and alloy Sapim nipples.
Onyx Classic
I wanted to make my bike as quiet as possible for videos and so the Onyx Classic hubs were an obvious choice. Specs: 157×12 super boost rear, 110×15 boost front, 6-Bolt, SRAM XD.
Its Never Too Late To Start
Nic’s start to biking came through the world of BMX in his teenage years. It wasn’t until he moved to Vancouver three years ago that he got hooked on mountain bikes. This passion led to creating the YouTube channel ‘Van Can’ which is focused on creating high quality relatable MTB content. When he’s not Youtubing, he’s studying as a graduate student in the Department of Engineering Science at Simon Fraser University. His focus is on functional brain imaging through a technique known as Magnetoencephalography. So essentially, he works on the hardware of brain imaging machines. Is your mind blown yet? If you want to learn more check out his three-minute thesis explanation.

Q & A with Nic
What are you passionate about, outside of the cycling realm?
What have been the challenges and successes with your YouTube channel?
Consistent creativity can get tricky, along with motivation. Running a YouTube channel is probably more work than people expect and editing 5 to 10 hours a week can be a bit exhausting. That being said, making something that people enjoy is very rewarding. I don’t fully understand why Van Can has seen the success it has, but it’s pretty surreal knowing hundreds of thousands of people are watching me every month.
What tunes do you play while working on your bike in the garage?
Where is your favorite trail? Why?
“We could all do a bit more to help new-comers to the sport. It can be really intimidating to roll up to a trail network. I’ll still get nervous when I run into a fully kitted group even though I’m at a point where I can at least tag-along with most groups. I don’t have a solution for this and I’m probably guilty too with my blacked-out kit and fancy bike, but it’s worth thinking about so we don’t scare anyone away from the sport.”