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There's actually a proper Shimano one (See MSA Pit Bits):
I guess there's not enough of them so they just slapped a sticker on the production Praxis cranks.
i guess the promo pics for the bike release are at least months older then MSA, so those saint cranks might be pretty new.
I would say another brand releasing an SL version of their preexisting trail bike is inherently not interesting except I am interested to see what the SL system is going to look like coming out of Quebec.
I remember seeing Race Face Atlas cranks with Saint sticker. I guess they used what ever they had their hands on until the actual new Saint crank came. I forgot which bike, but probably saw it in this thread.
At first I didn't find it at first. But found it here: The crank seems to be Race Face Atlas but with a sticker, you can see it's a sticker if you pixel peep.
https://www.pinkbike.com/news/chris-cocalis-chats-about-pivots-prototype-dh-bike.html
I recall Shimano was not stoked on this and had a crankset made soon after for the end of last season. Seems they didn't have them available for the photoshoot back in July as they were still racing on the proto bikes up until last weekend.
Greenland was running hope cranks!
Here we are thinking that Shimano is releasing the new Saint cranks soon. But what they are actually going to sell us is a “Saint” sticker to slap on a crank of our choice for $300. Modern Problems. Modern Solutions.
IIRC that was because he wanted 155mm (or maybe 150s?) and Shimano didn't have anything that short...
As a short crank guy who likes affordable shimano cranks i hope the new saint has some shorter options.
I hope they get short down to at least Deore level. There is a need for good quality, afordable, short cranks. Sram has listed his SX chainset in 155mm but Im yet to find it for sale anywhere
Yes, well-known decal work out there. Just jokes buddy!
I'm curious as to what the actual global demand is for sub-165mm cranks outside of E-bikes and dh bikes. It looks like none of the biggest players are really going that route and it's more of a boutique thing. Quite an investment to do at the scale that Shimano, SRAM, TRP work at.
I wouldn't hold my breath waiting for Shimano to produce a Saint crank for the new Phoenix though. They'd sell hundreds at best? Not really worth the investment. Prove me wrong Shimano!
I predict the crank market will eventually land on 150 - 165 as the accepted range. I say this as a 6'2" guy (with shitty hips) happily running 165 trailduro cranks and 160's on DH and eeb. Even the roadies are heading this direction.
Skeptical? Go try and sell some used cranks in the longer lengths. Not much interest out there.
I still like the feel of my 175s on my road and gravel bikes over something shorter, I might do 172.5s since it's not much different and it would reduce my hip impingement, but I can't imagine doing anything shorter than that for road and gravel/cyclocross. 170mm on mtb is great for me, enough pedal clearance to reduce strikes and enough leverage to make me feel like I'm actually using the power I put out, but I'm willing to try 165s. (6'1, 78cm bb to saddle height)
Maybe you could call yourself the winner of Giro d'Italia, Tour de France, the world championsips and a bunch more races if you ran shorter cranks
(Pogačar runs 165 mm cranks.)
Built up my V10 for this season with 155 Hope cranks to try them out and man i love them! Even thinking about putting some on my enduro bike (I am 6', but ride smaller bikes as well)
Short cranks, high bars, mullet bike and shorter reach feels like I can just slam into every corner on any track and steer more with my feet. (sorry not tech rumors, but this thread, and Laurie and Jacksons cranks made me do it!)
I’ve been super interested to see the reach and stack on Bruni’s proto demo. I don’t know if it’s his unique style but to me it always looked shorter and perhaps maybe a bit taller than the rest of the similarly sized field.
Was asking myself the same question, it does look like a smaller bike than other riders his size are using.
On another interesting thing regarding these bikes (at least to me
), they are running this proto 2+ years with the shock covered.
Isn't it enough time to get the bike right and maybe push the shock tech on there for sale ? seems kind of pointless just using them as proto bikes for so long.
Accidentally I've noticed a photo in this article where Dario Lillo is appararently racing on a prototype Fox 34 (?) fork with completely new lowers. Pinkbike article: https://www.pinkbike.com/news/xco-photo-epic-mont-sainte-anne-xc-world-cup-2024.html
...after some research, turned out, BrujulaBike guys also noticed it and posted some more close-up photos - the crown is very likely also new:
Source: https://en.brujulabike.com/new-fox-fork-spotted-xco-world-cup-lake-placid-2024/
I tried to find some more close-up pics for spotting e.g. a Serial Number (which, in case of Fox could tell us hell a lot of more info
) but haven't found anything yet. (Sorry, if this has been already posted, tried to double-check but I haven't found any info which were posted earlier here)
I would not be surprised if it never made public release - yes its supposed to, but what if its perpetually in prototype phase with their excuse being we're still developing it and its not ready yet?
It is actually a 36. A much lighter 36.
i will put my Saint stickers on a crab.
I tried 165 but they were too spinny for me and I didn't like how high and tippy seated pedaling felt. Ended up on 170 and found that to be the Goldilocks length for me. Cadence feels natural, seat height feels dialed, and ground clearance is good.
"36 SL" a-la SID being a 'lightweight' Pike (vs. a 32 mm SID)?
Doesnt even look like there is any of that stepcast nonsense anymore right?
35-36mm forks are probably a pretty sweet spot for "downcountry". I got a 35mm sid and would not want to go back to something more noodly.
There's nothing wrong with 34mm, stanchion diameter isn't everything when building a stiff fork.
Feels like we're in a bit of an arms race to use bigger and bigger stanchions. I'm guilty of it... Went from a 36 to a 38 when my favourite fork chassis is a 35mm lyrik... And my gravel/xc bike has a 35mm pike lol.
Look at the Mattoc down there at 34mm that is as stiff as a 36 and plenty burly enough for more than just down country.
You know Ive always been curious about this. Unsure how it could be tested in a controlled way, but Ive always wondered how much stiffer are forks by increasing stanchion size? Or is it placebo? Going for a well built 34mm to a 35mm to a 36. Should the focus be on the stanchion size or the actual construction of the lowers to make the most difference?
The bending stiffness of a tube increases to the fourth power with respect to diameter... Ie bigger tubes are way fucking stiffer than smaller tubes.
But steerers are flexy, crowns are flexy, and axle interfaces are flexy. If you put some effort into locking the two tubes together then they work together and will flex together, and this also massively increases stiffness. The keyed axle of the Mattoc or a 20mm axle with four pinchbolts like the old 36, the bulky crown like a lyrik, all help to make the most of their tube stiffness. The flexy modern 36 with its slim crown and arch and shitty little axle make for a comparative noodle.
It would be cool to see tests. Both for bending stiffness and torsional stiffness. Torsional stiffness affects the feel the most in my opinion, and that's where you get the most advantage from the crown/axle/arch rather than the stanchions.
Been talked about before but now almost available to buy
https://road.cc/content/tech-news/wheels-self-inflating-deflating-tyre-system-available-pre-order-3200-310669
From the world of gravel…
Can add 14psi in a km (deflation much quicker) into a gravel tyre, would be slower for an xc tyre.
At that rate, probably only plausible for xc marathon/stage racing which can have sustained road or fire road sections interspersed with difficult-for-an-xc-bike singletrack.
I read all of that and came to conclusion that the Lefty SuperMax is the superior fork.
That was sarcasm…. Sort of…