MTB Tech Rumors and Innovation

Scott's pretty good at going backwards. A few years ago they were making mostly-reasonable bikes that I could almost imagine buying, and their full-suspension XC bike was one of the most copied designs on the market. Now... well, you know.

And then there's this bike from AliExpress...

Anyone heard/seen anything about an update to the Rocky Instinct? Hoping for MX-mount compatibility (among other things)

From a statement from Merida on the other site about headset cable routing: (confirms the upcoming Code brake lever design and possibly others)

Yeah, saw that and got concerned.

I like to run by dropper and shifter further inbound from my brakes.  Long thumbs.  Really worried it won't be possible with these new brakes.  If there is still room under them, then I think they might actually be a good idea!  They tuck brake body out of the way.  I've had crashes where the brake body gets mangled from sticking right into the dirt...

We've talked about this. Looks like it'll be a pain to mix and match (running Shimano drivetrain for example). If you're on a full Sram program, you're fine, just run matchmakers and you're all good. And like I've mentioned, run them left to right. Check out my bike check to see how I have it set up.

Let's take the way back machine to the mid 2000's. Shimano has just released Low normal and STI MTB shifters. They were touted as the next big thing and the way the industry was going. The way it turned out was Shimano fucked up hard. It was terrible and no one wanted it or bought it. It literally allowed SRAM to become what it is today.

Shimano was pretty salty about it that they stopped providing front derailleurs to bike company's who weren't ordering full groups, SRAMs shitty front derailleurs weren't cutting it, but people likely their shifters better. 

Let bad choices hurt the company's that make them with your purchases. 

I remember talking to someone at crankworx Whistler about a code brake that was closer to the bars was on someones bike.

 

This looks like it will be a pain to route hoses on normal bikes and make it look half good... 

@WheelBased posits that it could be for internal hose routing: https://wheelbased.com/2022/06/17/hydraulic-brake-control-device-with-h…

Oh that part is clear. But I'm staying away from internal (frame) routing if possible, you can bet I'm staying away from through headset routing. So in that case this design is nothing but a nuisance for me. 

Great point. I spent years on sram because the shifters felt better even though the derailleurs sucked. I always thought low normal was a brilliant idea and the problem was they didn’t create a shifter to match. Everyone had to relearn to shift. If they’d made a shifter to match, I suspect we’d all be using low normal. 
 

PB article with company interviews about why they chose headset routing had zero valid reasons for it. One of the explanations was to save 60 grams and make the layup easier. Easier layup doesn’t seem to come with cost reduction, and only someone who has someone else paying to do their mechanical work would care about 60 grams.  I think the big benefit we will see to through headset routing is it’ll help drive sales toward small companies

The easier layup reasoning reminds me of the argument for press fit BB's.  Easier for the manufacturers, crappier for the consumers.  

The press fit BB eventually became such an annoyance, new frames actually advertise "threaded bottom bracket" as a feature.  In a couple years will we see new bikes with "No Headset Routing" as a feature in the press release?  

I'm still ready to go to battle to defend press fit BBs at every chance I get. The caveat with them is that the frame is manufactured _CORRECTLY_. Then it's a good idea, better than threaded, not just cheaper. But that's not possible with this industry.

As for low normal, if your cable breaks, your derailleur will be pulled towards the wheel. I prefer it out of the way if there's an issue. And the argument of 'at least you can pedal uphill in the 'default' gear' was somewhat valid in the days of 3x/2x front chainrings (when you had SOME speed while in the 32T rear sprocket by shifting to the middle or big chainring at the front, today you're SOL with 1x drivetrains. And you usually have to quickly drop a lot of gear coming into a climb, so wildly clicking away with a low normal derailleur will take longer than with a multiple shift shifter we have today. Granted, with 1x drivetrains and wide range cassettes it's usually hard to do multiple shifts when going to the larger sprockets as the jockey hits the cassette (the chain being 2 sprockets behind the chosen gear is effectively too long). And setting up the derailleur with no chain on it, it will be pulled into the cassette (as derailleurs move more or less horizontally today, not diagonally and the cage follows the cassette).

I actually used a low normal derailleur back in the day on one of my XC race bikes, but it was in conjuction with dual control. Being a kid with no clue about things I didn't really mind it, but having it the way we have it now makes a lot more sense to me to be honest...

I've got 3 sets of brifters at the shop new in boxes! And I guess low normal wasn't terrible, but I was more taking aim at the MTB brifters as a standard that people ran from and allowed SRAM to really find it's feet after the gripshift years. 

On the topic of Scott, took a look at these things the other day. We have some Sparks in our local shop, and here are the headset spacers and cup. The headset cups are plastic! 

We talked about this today on the ride. At least you don't need to bleed the brakes & stuff to raise or lower the stem on the steerer tube...

Also, Scott is not the only company going plastic for these parts. A Corratec I had the 'pleasure' of getting my hands on the other day had through headset routed everything, plastic everything as well, including the top cap. Had to take the top cap to where there wasn't any more space in it as the original plastic top cap just gave way before putting any axial tension on the bearings...

Shout out the bear creek?

Ashland Oregon! 

IIRC canyon headset spacers are plastic too. from spectral CF

He mentioned that the actual headset cup though, not just the spacers. I remember Ghost using these on a bunch of trail bikes a few years ago from Acros. They creaked like crazy, and a few failed in the first season. One person had their upper bearing pull through, stick sideways and jam up their steerer. I haven't seen them on a bike since so pretty sad to see it pop back up. 

Interestingly, we’ve already noticed some really loose headsets with these things. Reaching out to our reps and the company, we were told there haven’t been any issues. (of course…)

I can't count how many times I've heard "Well you must really be a hard rider, you're the first person to have that issue."

I can't remember which company had plastic press fit bottom bracket sleeves. It might even be Sram Dub? I'm sure those never fail.

Well they also had the chain rubbing in the smallest gear on their e-bikes, so I think Canyon is becoming the case study of oversight lately...

The Canyon Spacers and cover/cap on the spectral has been a subject of annoyance for all spectral cf owners since the new model came out late 2020.

the Headset is an is52, so nobody makes them.... as visible in the photo they have plastic cover and spacers, canyon then decided to use a big Thick alloy compression ring(which is fine) but it requires more torque to pull everything together so if you didnt torque it you had a lose headset - when you torqued it, it would deform the thin plastic cover and cause the headset to go loose everytime the fork was compressed and it creaked a hell of a creak.

Canyons answer was: "we've had no issues, use more grease"  Ok : 30mins into a ride... it starts creaking and continues creaking... Every single person with a spectral CF has experienced this rubbish. 2 years on and canyon have still not remedied this.
IF you let it creak for to long the compression ring literally starts to grind away at the Steerer tube rendering it useless.

The owners group on FB/reddit came up with using Cane creak zs49 headset cover and alloy spacers, Dead silent, no issues. 
Again canyon owners let down by the brand.

Canyon's spectral is a whirlwind of Problems, the initial batch of late 2020 early 21 frames were fine however when the mullet got released they had a serious drama with the Bonding agent between the threaded insert and the Carbon for the BSA insert(bb)
This includes every single spectral, 125, 150 and mullet framesets made during/end of 2021 which seen them continue to sell them untill only a few months ago.
Canyon have said its a non issue - again, however every single spectral frame that has been checked has had the crack and loosening of the BB insert. How does this brand keep going?

sorry rant over haha