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Camera phones can be handy eh?
If the cover works similar to the Genius models I’ve worked on, it snaps on and off quickly. The design is secure enough that I’m pretty sure it wouldn’t fall off in a crash, or just riding down the trail.
Your skit is amusing. I would wager there’s a coil under there. Again, if the orientation of the shock is like the genius; it allows access to all the piggyback adjustments. Getting that rebound adjustment that’s usually on the other end? That’s probably going to be a stretch.
I’ve always had this vibe that Scott engineers are in some sort of echo chamber where they don’t ride other bikes on the market, or really pay much attention to them. They do certain standards and wheel size trends, but that’s about it.
i'd love to hear a podcast with an explanation behind every stupid solution they adopted on their bikes, especially with an interviewer that tries to talk some sense into them
Alternate ending:
Rider shrugs and heads back up for more laps. Rather than endlessly fiddling with shock settings, they just get used to how the bike rides.
They get faster, more confident, more faster, more confident.
Lap times tumble, the confidence is there.
Come finals the heavens open while they’re waiting to drop. Other riders scramble, calling Jordie asking for wet settings, stressing out. Our rider looks down at the frame, their fate sealed just as the shock below them. Shrugs. They couldn’t do anything even if they wanted to.
They drop. The confidence. Bike and rider as one they dance over roots and rock, for conditions they care not. Crosses the line. Green.
Our rider looks down once more…
“Man this thing is ugly, I wonder if Ol’ Max is looking for a new rider?”
22k for a prototype frame isn't insane when you consider what production carbon frame molds cost.
When formula started to work with MOJO, they made series of vids, in one of them Chris Porter described pretty well what CTS valves do and what are the differences at play.
Left field innovation question. Any chance of a review on the WRC Centrehub or Zero Drag DT internals? Looking forward to the E13 Sidekick hub review.
Would really like to see that as the hub witchcraft going on rn is much more interesting than anything happening in drivetrains. I had a current gen Shimano XT hub with a similar system to the Zero Drag internals and had to warranty it. It’s been sitting in my garage for a while since it’s laced up to an E13 LG1 in its inevitable form. Also really interested in wtf happened to Shimano’s full silent hub. Played with one in a work stand and it would be a game changer if it was brought down to SLX level prices.
Re: the Shimano hub design--I believe they found that they couldn't profitably manufacture it in large quantities while still maintaining the necessary tolerances for the design to work reliably. Or at least that's what I recall hearing. Seemed like a cool concept at the time.
Shimano's design stepped onto someone elses' patent. The original author threatened with a demand and Shimano simply retreated.
Ah, I see. Guess I remembered incorrectly.
Regarding the Scott hidden shock designs, my concern would be over-cooking the thing on long descents or other heat-related impacts on reliability. It's basically stuffed inside a big thermos with none of that sweet, sweet airflow working its cooling magic.
Is that really the case? You have to either have very deep pockets, or be a large company, for Shimano to care about violating your patents. This isn’t just a Shimano thing, all the big players in the market do the same thing. People forget that patents don’t really matter unless you have the money to pay an army of lawyers to actually enforce them.
Probably not much of an issue in the long run... Shocks aren't really cooled that much by using fins and the like, so it's likely not much of a problem being stuffed inside a frame.
Link or the gist of the video?
Can confirm that the coil shock inside of my Ransom gets unbelievably hot and stays hot for a while after a long lap. Ive noticed some slight fading on the Ohlins shock I had in there but the Rockshox Vivid coil seems to do a bit better.
Debating getting a second cover to dremel some vents into to see if it helps at all.
I may be no enginologist, but I'm pretty sure that damping is the act of turning kinetic energy into thermal energy. That heat has to go somewhere and stuffing the shock into an enclosed space will limit both convection and radiation. Is cooling reduced enough to matter? Open question, but shocks for sure get hotter in this configuration. Do we think this configuration was cooked up in the quest of performance, or in order to make MTBs look more like road bikes?
My XT hub sucked—I would look elsewhere when hub shopping. They just aren’t durable.
You've got it wrong. This is Scott, if you remember.
High/low speed compression and rebound will be easily accessible externally, via handlebar mounted, cable actuated remote.
Two grip shifts on each side, left hand for high-speed and low-speed compression, and right hand for high-speed and low-speed rebound.
Moi Moi mentioned the shock performance degrading very quickly on the wrapped tues he was riding at Thredbo. Said something along the lines of it turning into a pogo stick in a run.
We’ve known for a long time that air shocks get hot during longer periods of use without being suffocated by a bag or box. I expect to see some cooling gadgets on the Scott during next seasons racing. Unless that’s already a no-go in the rule books?
I agree for regular Joe's, a 3-4m downhill run at normal speeds the shock will get hot and cool slowly during a shuttle or liaison to the next trail.
I disagree for racing use. Shocks get extremely hot and damping profiles definitely change from heat, and definitely at WC speeds.
Short of getting a frame though how much difference it makes is anyone's guess. But for a single run, I would prefer my shock to get dirty than to have 0 airflow around it.
That’s funny. Seriously though, they’ve never really done the remote lockout thing on their freeride and downhill bikes. To my knowledge anyway.
The cable tourism on the Genius models I’ve worked on is literally out of control. 7 cables coming off the handlebars, and five of them go through the headset. 🤪
The shock will get hotter, that is not a question. And they do get hotter during use, that is clear if you run your bike in the mud - it's all dried up on the shock and brakes.
My point was, if the shock warming up was such an issue, shocks would have cooling fins on them already. And bikes would have air deflectors to improve cooling and the like. It currently doesn't seem to be a big enough problem to deal with or maybe not a performance gain big enough to deal with.
That WC PROs suffer from this issue more shouldn't be surprising, but on the other hand... Specialized and the Demo proto being run covered anyone? I would bet they would do something until now if enclosing the shock was that much of an issue.
For the regular Joe who can't even set up the shock properly the sleek looks of the Scott will be beneficial over shock performance. And the sales will be beneficial to Scott's bottom line.
As for why do it on the Gambler, they are following a design language across bikes to sell bikes. DH bikes are designed to sell, not to race in the world cup (except for the few race developed prototypes).
Shocks on Scotts don't stay clean as all the crap enters the headset thanks to the smart routing and finds its way down the frame, i've opened 2 only and both were full of crap
The specialised demo prototype is really good point that I didn't consider.
I doubt Scott are making money of the DH frame though, unless there are some bike parks I haven't seen using a Scott rental fleet (the madmen), most manufacturers struggle to sell 500 DH bikes, which barely covers the costs of the moulds, let alone profit for a business as large as Scott's.
Idk since when it's been there but a blank e13 Sidekick page is present on their website
https://www.ethirteen.com/collections/sidekick
Hold my beer: Cooling Fins
https://patents.google.com/patent/WO2024107631A1/en?assignee=Hive+Global+Inc&sort=new