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What a depressing set of comments today.
Biking is a hobby, people can enjoy it as they wish. Get over yourselves and let people be happy.
Complaints about other peoples opinions are not tech rumors.
28h built well with an assymmetric rim will be pretty damn close to the same strength as a 32h with a symmetric rim. a 4mm offset in the spoke location evens out the spoke tension drastically and makes for a MUCH stronger wheels. That and the increase in quality products over the years, there is less and less reason to need to run 32h wheels.
These are rated for "Trail/All-Mountain" use, so yeah, literally aimed at the trailbike market.
I had to replace all spokes in my front 29" xm1501 wheelset after two seasons, which hasn't happened with a 32 J spoke wheelset and hasn't happened on 27,5" wheels. The braking loaded spokes simply started failing. The only similar situation was an older xm1501 27,5" wheelset where the rears were starting to go under pedalling load after threeish seasons of riding.
Carbon wheelsets probably handle 28 spokes because of rim stiffness but it's also a problem for the loading of the spokes themselves. It's the spokes that can start failing...
And I've found straight pull spokes are a pain to true 😂
But as i said, Asymetric rims. the xm1501 is built with a symmetric rim bed, so you are not getting that added strength. there i would say 32h would be the way to go. The Era wheel is a 4mm asymmetric rim bed which makes a MUCH stronger wheel (remember the whole idea of goign 150mm hubs back in teh day for DH to build an even spoke tension etc? that is what you are doing with the offset to a smaller degree).
as for spokes failing. that can be a combo of not keeping up on even spoke tension, retension after break in, etc. granted shit happens too even with perfect maintenance.
just coming from a guy who has built hundres of DH wheels at both 28 and 32h and also is a very big boy riding enduro and DH on 28h rims.
Spokes are cyclically loaded. Which fatigues them. Spokes starting to fail one by one means it's time to change them all. Regardless of how finely tensioned they are, it's very likely it will happen sooner or later.
Not sure if changing the side angle will have much of an influence on how the spoke is loaded under braking or pedalling (ideally you'd have it in plane with the spoke holes as it will twist the rim the least), but a 32h wheel has 14 % more spokes (8 vs. 7) to handle the load compared to a 28h wheel when it comes to either braking or pedalling loads.
It's a very limited experience, but I was VERY surprised when the spokes started failing one by one, on the non-drive side being loaded by braking, going into the third season of riding on the wheelset. After dealing with a broken spoke mid-Trans Madeira, I replaced them all before the summer trips started and haven't had a problem since (in part because I built up a 32h wheel within a year).
I don't want to stray too far from your point about loading forces as they are certainly a factor, but my factory built Bontranger Line Carbon 30 wheels were 28 J spoke and went just north of a season before they started breaking. I broke four spokes on the rear while pedaling and decided to rebuild both wheels with sapim race and brass nipples. The rebuilt wheels are now on their 3rd season post rebuild without issue and I believe it has more to do with the spoke and nipple choice than the spoke count.
I agree, SRAM did some research and came up with spoke count not making a big difference above a 24 spoke wheel, which they built and put on the market. Not sure how reliable they ended up being though. I think the downside to lower spoke count is you can't break as many and expect to ride out. OTOH, spokes aren't that heavy, 28 vs 32 spokes just doesn't matter on any bike I own in terms of weight.
I've definitely had wheels where the spokes fatigue, in general if a spoke breaks JRA and not due to some incident, then they will continue to break, they are all fatigued. Other wheels last many seasons with no issues at all. It could be the spoke, how it's built, or an issue with the spokes detensioning.
I've definitely had the best wheel reliability using stout carbon rims. I've had a set of WR1 Unions and CX-Rays for several seasons now, I think I've made some very slight adjustments to the rear spokes once.
I do think changing the side angle makes a difference in so far as equalizing tension on both sides, the closer the tension is to equal the more evenly the spokes will be loaded.
I have a set on my enduro bike right now, but have only gotten one ride in before getting a seriously nasty bug that has kept me in bed for almost a week. That one ride was promising, very comfortable and a light feel. Will report back if they explode on me, but I am an average-at-best rider so I think it would take a big mistake on my part to destroy these. Really liking the compliance features and the engagement of the Vault hubs!
I have a set of AM30s with I9 1/1 hubs on my trail bike and Reserve HD30s on I9 Hydra's with inserts on this bike, I will likely use this wheelset for light, casual riding then swap back out to my Reserves when bike park season starts in a couple of months.
Finally, yes, I am fully aware that my bike looks like a circus attraction. Couldn't handle it anymore and grabbed some black Maven calipers.
The world needs to know whats behind the red tape...
Obviously fox something from the fender... I promise I wont tell anyone if you show me
I smell an ERA bar and stem, and new Fox.
RS Boxxer with a 3.2 damper. Couldn't tell from the red lowers?
Single crown Boxxer, sick!
3.2!?
New Fox 38 on Lukasick bike
so, when is it getting released?
i see nothing new
If 10mm is a decent different in reach, 10mm in stem length is MASSIVE. That drastically changes the steering feel of the bike
OK folks. This is a tech rumor thread so......
I totally agree, I have a set of WAO Unions that are still perfectly straight after 2 seasons of riding, and I prefer the steeper tech trails. Also just ordered a set of the convergence wheels w/hydra hubs for $1263 out the door with their march madness sale. The Raceface wheels looks nice but don't see any reasons to move from WAO especially for the price difference. I would imagine most people buying these wheels are probably buying them for their strength/lifetime warranty moreso than trying to shave grams off their bike build.
Anybody spot on the wind rock race video what looks like flight attendants for a boxer on Lucas canyon?
I want those Mavens!!!
I wouldn’t doubt it. Flight attendant would make a certain amount of sense on a DH course.
So incredibly true. I’m all for the excitement of tinkering and bracketing to find out what works best for me but there is definitely a point where focusing on being a better rider will make you way faster than focusing on the mm’s of a frame or what new incremental changes are coming to X part.
What sucks is when the opinions of people who have never ridden the thing they have an opinion on drive trends. Just look at the Pinkbike comments or even this forum to find self proclaimed engineers who apparently know what’s best vs the company that invested thousands of R&D to make the final product that you’re immediately sh*tting on the day it’s released. Click on their profile of these “experts” and you’ll find that they’re most often 35-50 yr old dads who think that the bike is holding them back.
Puzzling is cool but people need to get outside more.
I’m pretty far from an anal rider. I usually check my tire pressure with my thumbs. Check shock pressure every two weeks. Always a bit behind on suspension maintenance. But geo is not something I can get around. I found my Hightower seriouslu holding me back cause the reach was too short and the stand over was too high. I paid stupid money for short cranks so I could comfortably ride my spire in the low setting since it was massively better for me though it’s realistically a few millimeters of difference. I have drastically different reach/chainstay numbers on my hardtail, trailbike, and dh bike because I know how I want to ride them. I am far from a talented bike rider but I know how to build a bike to comfortably push my limits and know how to build trails that work for/challenge all skill levels.
tldr. I’m only decent bike rider and my bikes aren’t mint condition but I’m perfectly capable of discerning between millimeters of geometry and how it effects my riding.
Does anyone know what Yeti plans to do with switch infinity link? Do they evolve on it in an even more unique fashion? I hope so personally.
Also speaking of unique things, what ever came about Cannondale testing the 2 rear shock downhill bike?
So Yeti is a DW (suspension link designed by Dave Weagle) historical DW bikes don’t really change such as Ibis, Yeti, Evil. But recent years that hasn’t been 100% true. With Pivot changing their whole line up to a new platform with some of the same DW attributes. Or Devinci changing all their bikes to all 4 bar horst link.
TL;DR: maybe, but I wouldn’t count on it. I definitely wouldn’t count on it being anything other than a DWish platform.
The DH bike is a 6 bar. So that's something new at least.
And they're XC bike is a flex pivot.
So maybe they're not as tied to switch infinity as we once thought
Yeti is not and never has been DW. They did all sorts of different things (single pivots, rails, etc.) then went for the bearing executed Switch suspension, developed further to Switch Infinity which uses links. The e-bike and the DH bike use a 6-bar design that is not dissimilar to Switch Infinity in characteristics, called Sixfinity. The XC bike is a single pivot flex stay, as is normal for XC bikes these days... Looks like the suspension system is not worth as much as less weight is.
Devinci is Split Pivot (not Horst) like it has been for... How long now? Since Split Pivot has been made public by Dawe I guess.
Speaking of Sixfinity, this is what Yeti has at the bottom of the page:
"A TRUE SIX-BAR DESIGN. FRACTIONS OF A MILLIMETER DIFFERENCE IN THE LINKAGE LENGTHS AND PIVOT PLACEMENT IMPACTS ANTI-SQUAT AND ANTI-RISE CHARACTERISTICS. IT’S INCREDIBLY COMPLEX. IT TOOK A HALF DECADE TO REFINE THE SYSTEM. UNLIKE MANY OTHER “SIX-BAR DESIGNS” SIXFINITY USES ALL SIX LINKAGES TO CONTROL THE WHEEL PATH."
I fully believe fractions of a millimeter make a difference, but... I do wonder if companies with such sensitive suspension systems map out the behaviour through the tolerance range prescribed with the parts drawings. If a fraction of a millimeter influences characteristics, realistically with a (for example) +/-0,1 mm tolerance on centre to centre distances within a link or a frame you could have two completely different bikes in feel sitting next to each other in the shop painted and equipped to be 'the same bike'.