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He said they should be out pretty soon, full builds available from them but no info on pricing.
I personally really love having DH bikes floating around, they're great fun even if I don't own one. Renting or borrowing one for a day is great.
Norco's idea for making one frame with multiple linkages and whatnot to convert from superenduro (remember that category?) into DH makes so much sense for producer AND consumer. Hope to see it more
I am speaking out of my butt here, haven't thrown around any actual numbers (based on experience designing frames), but even without the recyclability and sustainability factor and the rock strikes and the like (a major consideration with MTBs) carbon just seems wrong to me.
Due to the shapes and all the aero it does make sense for road bikes, but yeah, I'll stick to aluminium with my MTB.
Hire a guy from a competitor, where he says they do X in a Y fashion? Do the same thing! Why? Clearly it works for them!
There's a reason Unnos cost 5000 € per frame and only come in one size. Because they are properly engineered. That also makes them kinda unsustainable.
And the shock is not "upside down". It is right side up. The piggy is not on the air can side as on Float X or Super Deluxe. They are mounted the same way regardless.
Wonder if they will release the DH linkage and drop-outs... but I guess you'd likely need a longer stroke shock as well. Lots of stuff to buy to swap over, worth it for a trip but bit of a pain to do day to day.
Well, Specialized handling their carbon, what about the shitstorm that is the current Enduro?
Not sure about Scott (I think they do quite a bit of composite work in Switzerland too), Trek does certain frames in the US, there's Unno (which is properly anal composite engineering, Cesar did say he'd never do it again if he knew how hard it would be), Santa Cruz has a strong composite lab in the US AND owns the asian factory where their frames are manufactured, etc.
Maybe another wrench in the spokes of carbon bikes, I was told (a friend of a friend kind thing, where the guy works as an aerospace composite engineer with one of the big ones for commercial airplanes) that the carbon used for consumer and automotive stuff is anything but top grade. As in he'd never ride anything 5+ years old, be it a mountain bike, a road bike, carbon rims or an old racecar. I was told the resins used in these kinds of products aren't as good (expensive, of course) as they are in aerospace products and that inserts corroding is also a big issue. These comments came off a facebook video of a guy riding over a bump with his old road bike and the (carbon) wheel basically exploding. And the insert part was directed at for example engine mount inserts in the monocoques of old F1 cars, that are still ran in anger (Ferrari even has a Corse Clienti program where, with enough money, you can buy and run an ex-Schumacher car in their events, setup around the world).
Yeah, I know, Aluminium is not forever, as it doesn't have a fatigue limit (same goes for composites though...), so for a forever kind of bike, go Ti or steel.
Is this offtopic?
I do remember that supposedly the 27,5" Phoenix required an air shock to add stiffness to the bike, supposedly a coil shock would fail much too quickly on that bike or something along those lines.