In the hunt for a better way to carry bear spray on his bike (or even carry it at all) Pat Valade found the Kermode Bearspray holder from Ghost Rider Equipment. An adaptable, light, and elegantly simple way to lash a can of bear spray to almost anywhere on your bike. And it’s designed and manufactured in British Columbia. Continue reading below for Pat’s thoughts following a few recent trips using the Kermode.

Let’s talk about bears. Not the Chicago Bears, not Smoky Bear, not the bear from various fairy tales, but the root scrounging, berry eating, claw abiding, salmon slapping, and very wide roaming Ursa.

According to some very loose internet sleuthing, there are about 800,000 black bears in North America and around 55,000 brown bears (including grizzlies). Chances are you may have seen a black bear out in the forests and mountains around your home, if you live in the areas where traditional populations exist. Most of the time, bears are more scared of people than we are of them, but of course, that’s not always the case. In many places, humans exist as intruders to bears homes’ and, thus, encounters do happen. Bear spray is the most readily available, and least harmful, tool to deal with these chance meetings.

We all carry a lot of things on the bike, and I have been guilty of leaving the bear spray behind on occasion, usually at the behest of some tasty snacks. Is this a good idea? No, but I have flaws.

Ghost Rider Equipment was started by Pat Simpson, a maker and tinkerer based in the beautiful corner of Fernie, BC. He has worked as a professional mechanical engineer in heavy industry, is an avid cyclist, and outdoors person. He started a side hustle back in 2019, combining wood, leather, ceramic and traditional CNC practices to build custom products for the local market. When COVID came knocking, he switched to fulfilling what was most in demand for first responders: Faceshields, protective screens for businesses and so on.

Once the pandemic wound down, Pat started Ghostrider Equipment. Combining his love with hands on design, local-manufacturing and problem solving. With a plethora of ideas when it came to what products he could potentially make, Pat connected with another designer, Cam Shute, a 20-year industry design veteran and a simple phrase gave Pat some clarity. “Find What Sucks”. Using 3D CAD and 3D printing, Pat can refine, and tweak, without being tied to a $20,000 injection mold.

Let’s talk about the Kermode Bear Spray holder – the long and short is that I love it. Simple, effective tools make me happy. I’ve been using it on several gravel rides around Squamish, as well as a few multi-day rides we have been able to squeeze in so far this summer. I’ve ridden all manner of terrain, from large chunky gravel, fast, bumpy descents, to blue mountain bike trails, and my bear spray has been held firm the whole time.

Pros

• At just 45g, it’s extremely light weight.
• The carbon-filled thermoplastic constriction is every durable and impact resistant.
• It’s great to support local, it’s designed, prototyped and fabricated in Fernie, BC.
• Anti-scratch pads for the universal mount, and it is silent! No rattling.
• Easy to remove and replace bear spray while riding.
• Threaded insert mount, for use on bottle cage mounts, and cargo cage mounts on forks, etc.
• Universal mount that ships with 2x Voile straps, that you can literally almost put anywhere.

Cons

These aren’t really cons, rather observations

• If I were doing a very long ride, on really rough terrain, or Mountain biking, I may be inclined to throw an extra voile strap around the bottle, but it doesn’t really seem necessary, I’m just a bit paranoid.
• I rode with mine on the top tube, but because I have short legs, it got in the way of my stand-over height a bit. I could easily run it on my fork, and also mounted it to my rear triangle.

Pricing

The universal mount is $60 CAD
The threaded mount is $45 CAD

See more at Ghost Rider Equipment