MTB Tech Rumors and Innovation

almost no pics are showing for me on the whole vital site, doesn‘t matter if i‘m on iphone, mac or PC.

maybe those balloons north americans are shooting down last couple days…

/JK

Even without picture I can say no, he is on dmrs and most likely always will be.

I had some back and forth with a steel bike manufacturer in England, it states on their website not to hang bikes over a tailgate, as it can dent the down tube.  They noted they hadn’t come across this issue until they started selling bikes in Canada, where shuttling on terrible roads, with bikes on tailgate pads is pretty common.  I was pretty shocked when they told me what the wall thickness was.  Still want one, I’m not a shuttle pad guy, but some of my friends are.

thin walled tubes can be strong in the direction they are designed for, but can dent easily, which then becomes a real issue.

https://instagram.com/stories/angelsuarezdh/3037273771689986020?utm_source=ig_story_item_share&igshid=YmMyMTA2M2Y=

You are right! Just thought so because they where unbranded. 

The image server has lost it's SSL certificate it seems. I opened an image in a new tab, and told chrome that I want to proceed even though it's unsafe, and refreshed the page and i'm all good.

thanks for the patience w/ image stuff, we're working on it. in the meantime here's a secret spy shot no one is allowed to see.

Aw I love you too.

https://www.dmrbikes.com/Catalogue/Components/Cranks/Axe-Crank-LE

Just while we are on the subject of broken cranks... The only ever cranks I've had issues with were the pedal inserts coming out of Race Face carbon cranks (2 sets of SixC) and this catastrophic failure on some XX1s... luckily the step down this happened on was pretty tiny.

Vital just posted a picture on Instagram with a 230 X 65 and Enduro 29. Any clues? New SpecializedEnduro on the way? 

usually the new demo comes first, but maybe it‘s the other way around this time.

honestly the only thing they have to improve in the enduro is the reliability, geo is still up to date, maybe they will ad some more geo adjustments.

Some interesting patents from FOX on bike rumor, I would say good luck with those bushings but we will see I guess.https://bikerumor.com/will-future-fox-forks-have-massive-diameter-lower…

The ball bearing bushings require steel stanchions, aluminium is too soft to work. I think it's patent trolling. 

If you ever tried a Lefty, you will definitely appreciate the friction-"less" feeling with bearings, even under sideload. I had a Lefty Max carbon coil, and it was so sensitive!

I haven't, but I have heard about it. It makes sense. But the lefty has a steel stanchion that has 3 (or 4 in the past) flat faces ground on it. That makes it quite a bit more expensive and heavy than what we have now (leftys saving grace weight wise is the single stanchion). 

Nobody is doubting that roller bearings works great, everybody is doubting their (fox) ability to do anything even remotely close to that system. Even without it, with well known design/QC issues their forks cost up to 1500euro(40s actually even more than that) lol. Doing anything like this at the scale they are operating at is...Let's say highly unlikely, (even with all massive design challenges aside).

The main difference between bushings and linear bearings is bearings have significantly lower static friction particularly under side loading. The kinetic friction of bushings and bearings are roughly comparable. So a linear bearing takes less force to initiate travel (making it more sensitive) than a bushing, but once moving they're about the same (this ignores the friction from the seals). Another big benefit of bearings is under a side load or moment, the friction (both kinetic and static) of both bushings and bearings increases as the side load is increased, but the bearing increases at a lower rate than the bushing (assuming both are within their load limits of course). One downside of linear bearings is that for a given shaft size the load limit is far lower, and the OD of the bearing is of course much greater. In the article they show a 2" shaft with 3" bearing od (=~50mm and ~76mm), I'm not going to do the math, but that sounds about right, maybe even on the small side. Obviously needle bearings on flats like thelefty is better and smaller. Bushings are far more resistant to damage from shock loads than bearings (Shock loads in the engineering sense: i.e. overloading caused from unexpected impacts outside normal operation). And like Primoz said, the shaft would need to be steel. Each ball bearing point loads the shaft so it needs to be hardened, ground, and polished steel just like the races of a rotary bearing. At my old job I designed factory automation stuff and used both types, also used a lot of rail type linear bearings. Bearings were nicer and smoother when there was enough space to fit them. For a lot of reasons I'd be pretty surprised if this patent went anywhere. Even for motorcycles seems very unlikely.

Agreed, reliability/durability is the aspect where that bike needs the most improvement.

Also would be nice to see some more meaningful adjustability, like on the Canyon Strive which has built-in reach adjust.

Geo adjustments from kenovo and a steeper sta would be enough, maybe a taller stack aswell

230x65 instead of trunnion (trash) 205x65 would be a big improvement for shock reliability.

More likely new Fox than new Specialized.

Maybe the updated X2 platform.

it's rumored to last 4 weeks vs. the usual 2. 

The way it looks bulky at the top with the dials to adjust damping characteristics and what looks like not much there lower down in the pic, I'd say it kinda looks like a Float X (so the 'standard' air shock layout as opposed to the X2/Vivid/etc. style). That's what I see from a glimpse at the story.

Meh those are definitely push 11-6 shocks

red spring bushing

blue and silver knobs

Meh, good point actually. Twin compression dials and perpendicular reservoir. Good eye.

Just a screen grab on the potential patent parts…

"The patent gives us some insight into how Fox’s long-travel mountain bike forks such as the 36, 38, and 40 may evolve in the future, with the inventions described working to reduce binding at ever-slacker head angles, while also continuously lubricating the wiper seals during use."

Might aswell make a upside down fork at that point?

Binding is still an issue. But it wouldn't be that much different even with a rolling element bushing to be honest, the load paths are just wonky when you go really slack - at 60° HA 85 % of the vertical force goes into moving the system along the axis of travel with 50 % of the vertical force going into sideloading either the bushing or the rolling elements. It will be better, but still not great (let's not go into the topic of if it makes sense going to or past 60° HA).

Sooner or later slackening the head angle you start moving into the territory where a linkage fork will simply work better. But we've seen how well that turned out.

Was already mentioned and discussed on the previous page. Including the cost implications of doing what Cannondale does with the Lefty.