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Yeah super weird launch and weird bike too. Not exactly sure how a 190mm E-Park shredder fits in their lineup or in a bikepark.
At 28kg Mavens would have been be a good choice when already going for sram brakes.
That would be an XC racer's dream. Lighter, tighter gear ratios. Most don't need that 52T which is why we see those crazy 38-40T chain rings in the world cup.
This got me thinking if SRAM will have some form of backward compatibility by releasing a 13 speed firmware for MTB transmission derailleurs. That way they can go bonkers and have a 10-60 cassette. Now that we don't have a b gap adjuster to worry about they can keep going bigger.
This. I feel as though people will open their wallet 10 times to every 1 time trying to adjust for it physiologically.
Riding your bike depends quite a bit on your hands, the muscles connected to them need to have the strength and flexibility to deal with it.
Question - you don't seem to have comments that most would generally disagree with yet you get disliked to the depths. Is there an inside joke or something I am missing?
These will just be from last year before the release, all the pre production Mavens teams received last season were full black, with only a few exceptions on the red caliper
My favorite set up has been the GX AXS (non transmission) derailleur paired with a Shimano chain and cassette. Best of both worlds
One interesting thing is that they use the super large chainrings so that they spend more time in the middle of the cassette and specifically lean more towards the larger cogs because they are more efficient than the small. (because of chain articulation) Nino and the boys want to avoid the 10T at all costs (unless in a sprint) and even the 11t because it's less efficient. So the big chainrings are choses so they spend most of the race in the middle of the cassette. The 52 is more efficient than the 10T, and so on.
That said 13 speed would be great. The jumps on MTB are manageable with 12 speed, but for gravel and road especially, 13 (really 14) is really needed to have small jumps and enough range to really make 1x 100% way to go.
For MTB short track, the riders can use the SRAM 10-42 12speed XPLR cassette from the gravel lineup for tighter jumps. But what they'd really want is a 11-42 13speed.
I guess their ad translates to its a downhill shuttle bike and that makes sense. Why not have long travel if you have assist? Mine is 180f/165r and its my dh/xc/shuttle/bp/gravel/commuter because its still quicker than any category non assist bike. Boring flatter chundery xc trails are now fun as well
Bet against Primoz you lose. I should have trusted my instincts over my pride.
I now feel about myself how my Asian dad must have felt when I brought home that b+ in Calc1
Ive been super happy with XO1 derailleur with XT chain and cassette.
Fast + shifts under load
Indeed, the frictional losses are highest in the small cogs, but the middle is the most efficient because of the straighter chainline:
https://www.cyclingabout.com/drivetrain-efficiency-difference-speed-bet…
I love big jumps between shifts on a mountain bike, my ideal would be if we had Shimano Hyperglide (or whatever its called) on a 10-50 nine speed cassette, like what Box was trying to do with their Prime 9 but never released.
However, on a road bike, I need tight gearing. When you're fighting a headwind or trying to not get dropped when you need to stay tucked behind your faster mate, having the precisely correct gear is essential. I still think dual rings for road is King, as this goal is easier to reach (plus the efficiency of the straight chain line, as seen above). I have a 9-46 11 speed on my gravel bike, and I wish I had more road-like, tighter gaps here too.
Ok. Now do gearboxes.
2025 Geometron G1 is official.
https://blisterreview.com/gear-reviews/2025-nicolai-geometron-g1
I read the split clamp article about fork crowns and there aren't any benefits for mountain bikes other than easier torquing of the clamps. The main advantage is bushing binding or less of it that isn't applicable for MTB forks as the bushing does not travel through the clamp (like it does with MX forks).
An older (32mm) Boxxer had this issue where the air spring piston traveled past the clamp and often bound there but there was a revision that followed quickly to change the design by moving the piston lower overall where it would top out below the clamp.
The issue with this "just get fitter" theory is, not every person complaining about hand pain is referring to the same issue, some of them can be fixed through strengthening/stretching etc, some cannot. Long term exposure to vibrations is very unhealthy and we are doing it for fun. Even if you are the lucky one who doesn't feel the hand pain after few days of bikepark riding, that doesn't mean you are not causing damage to the neurovascular structures that one day will start to hurt. Every MTB rider would benefit from making smart and informed decisions in this area. Few years ago there was pretty shocking (to some people at least) study about damage caused by vibrations in MTB. I think it was even posted on pink bike or here. It's a good read.
Edit: for those interested
https://www.napier.ac.uk/-/media/worktribe/output-1822898/elite-mountai…
I fucked up the tendons in my lower arm and/or wrist by tightly strapping down a nylon band equipped fitness tracker watch... So much so I swapped arms to cure it.
"It was concluded that no acute effects on nerve function in the dominant hand were measured after mountain bike cycling on the trail, despite high vibration doses through the handlebars."
Am I missing something or does this imply there's nothing to worry about?
Suspension in civil cars and MTB generates similar velocities, however extremes like 6 m/s and above is usuall thing for MTB but rare for a car. Shocks of a car obvoiusly cope with It but that's not a case of other components like wheels.
Koni's fsd system is a benchmark of frequency sensitive valve because It can provide huge yet graduate damping force reduction with frequency increase with impressive, completely convex force-displacement graphs. Its also recovers pretty well.
It's most often used to work on rebound. Influence on compression is just side effect.
Its worth noting that there is small difference between frequency sensitive damping and amplitude sensitive damping.
With all my experience, I bet we probably won't see anything competitive with fsd in MTB.
The title “Mountain bike cycling” invalidates that entire article if you ask me…
Sorry, wrong study, but acute damage is not what's worrying anyways, you typically can still function after long day of riding right? This is the right study and I will repost the right link in the first post too.https://www.napier.ac.uk/-/media/worktribe/output-1822898/elite-mountai…
I just backed out of a post in the arm pump thread saying pretty much: until you can pulverize a potato in your hand, don’t worry about a degree of back sweep in your handlebars…but that’s just my personal experience, and it felt dumb to say it to dudes getting surgeries and shit…I will assume that anyone resorting to getting cut open or dealing with an existential bike crisis has indeed got their grip strength to mega levels first…
but for me, it’s all grip strength. Very strong correlation betweeN how much I’ve been riding / gripping and whether I can ride / grip. Glad for that. Simple.
As for harmful vibrations encountered in mtb, I’ll continue to focus on the big ones. Trees, rocks, the ground…
Why do you think ohlins did a split clamp for Bruni then? Not being argumentative but surely there’s a reason other than counting grams.
Thanks but being one of the people cut open twice for it, I won't be offended. As was said earlier, this is unique to everyone and not consistent in how it presents itself. I'm envious of people who it comes down to fitness and flexibility, and am glad for them there is a simpler solution. It's different for everyone and fitness can play a huge role for some people.
For grip strength, I spent a sum total of years in physical therapy trying to resolve this issue with different PTs over the last 7 or so years. I also work out in the gym a fair bit and did a lot of exercises to improve my core, shoulder, arm, grip, etc strength and while it helped, it didn't solve the root of the issue which was related to compression of nerves in both of my arms. The left was worse than the right. These activities/people/etc didn't hurt and definitely helped in a lot of ways, but the root of the problem was still there and it continually got worse until I sought surgery. It got much more severe in the span of six months in 2023 than in the 7 or so years prior, so it can escalate quickly.
It's also a cascading problem. Weakness from nerve damage in one side tends to force you to be more dominant in the other and you get a strength imbalance. If you saw me lifting weights even now, you'd see my left is completely different than my right (insert joke about search engine history here). If I do pushups or other things, it's easy to feel where I'm trying to put more weight on my right side. It's balanced a lot since I started working out in the gym a lot more and trying to resolve it, but it's still there. This is decade+ long at this point so it's going to take a while, but the root of the issue is from the nerves in my arm.
Like I said earlier, this won't apply to everyone, but if you have persistent problems after riding then you should consider seeing a hand surgeon or doctor. They will probably refer you to PT and I suspect that will solve most issues, but it didn't for me and I did try. It started for me after spending 3 days at a bike park 7-8 years or so ago and I noticed I had lost strength in one hand, over the years later it progressed to the point I couldn't do a 4 mile ride without being in persistent pain for a month or more after. There's a difference between "my hands are sore from riding a lot" and "I'm having persistent pain/weakness for weeks and months". If you have constant, consistent hand pain then that is not normal.
After having surgery, it felt like someone had cut a rubber band between my elbow and my pinky. Within a week I had regained dexterity in my hand I didn't know I had lost and I was sleeping better because the pain was gone. Sadly, it still hurts when I ride, but nerves also heal very very slowly so I'm giving it time and hoping it heals to the point I can ride normally again.
No idea. Maybe there is a reason, maybe they just followed MX stuff and gave it an old try...
The bending of the fork will be more smooth, maybe the local tension will be lowered, but forks aren't really breaking left and right, so I don't see a benefit in that. Maybe they have a piston traveling past the lower clamp. Maybe whatever. As far as I'm aware, most pistons nowadays don't travel past the clamp... Maybe I'm mistaken on that part.
The MX post specifically found multiple reasons why split clamps are better because there is less binding because they have a 'traveling' bushing (a bushing on the end of the stanchion moving inside the outer leg) that moves past the tree. And having split clamps lessens the edge when bending (less binding of the bushing) and the more equal torque achieved with split clamps causes less binding for the bushing.
In moto, the primary reason is the offset change in the clamps. You are right, the floating bushing is marginally free'd up but the selling point is the offset adjustment which makes a noticeable difference. For MTB, I'm struggling to find anything other than bling and lighter than a conventional clamp perhaps.
The split clamp could let them run a lower torque on each bolt. Maybe this gives a different feel?
Could have been something to just test and try, maybe no advantage or disadvantage at this point.
The stock Ohlins air shaft is a sealed unit that the air piston slides in, doesn’t touch the stanctions. Could Loic be on a different air spring, possibly?
Or it could be because they look cool and moto and everyone is now discussing them and leads to sales?
Devils advocate I know. But often they change product just to have something new to sell, not because it results in tangible performance benefits.
The sliver level Mavens on my dreadnought v2 ended up being all black.
They are the exact same frames. Cannondale pulled them out of a closet in Connecticut and painted them. At least they have a paint shop in America…
Wonder when the 13speed mtb groupset is released.