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Same. Might need to swap out my Smuggler for one of these!
ANd I really hope they did something different than the "window" to route hoses into the rear triangle...
And empty it.............
Pretty sweet looking bike. If I didn't already open up my wallet for a Megatower this would be in the running. Stays are a bit on the long side, but I'm loving everything else.
rocky instinct powerplay SL - https://www.vitalmtb.com/news/press-release/rocky-mountain-releases-2025-instinct-powerplay-sl-e-mtb
cotic steel ebike - https://www.vitalmtb.com/news/press-release/cotic-introduces-first-ever-e-mtb-meet-rocket
sentinel first ride review - https://www.vitalmtb.com/features/first-ride-transitions-sentinel-v3
The 10-45 12 speed is commonly available.
However, the 10-45 11 speed that was announced, and even listed incoming on websites, never made mass production.
That said, I bought one from a bike shop that had 3 of them and it's on my Smuggler as we speak, and it's perfect gearing and shifting with an absolutely awesome weight. I mean, the entire set up is .5# lighter than a Transmission right off the rear wheel.
Does creak like a mofo however like all XTR Shimano multipiece cassettes unless you disassemble and grease between the gears, which I don't.
The 11 speed is really just the 10-51 12 speed, with the 1st gear removed.
I really dislike that 95% of size L's have a 475mm Reach and XLs have a 500m reach.
The bikes need to offer 10mm of reach adjust for those of us in between.
That said, the new Sentinel looks like an ideal AM rig to my eyes.
Had this realization at northstar on closing day. Finally realized that on some drops my ankles were getting blasted by PK and that I needed to let my feet rotate on impact.
I don’t view this as a positive, though. Trying to absorb impacts while rotating my feet backwards is not enjoyable or efficient or very effective. If riders have adapted to this behavior that’s fine for them but I would much rather be on a bike that is designed to avoid that phenomenon.
My biggest issue is that this has to be putting more weight in our hands/force into our upper body. I want to ride through my feet not my hands, ESPECIALLY in rough sections and in moments of impact. I’m stoked for the innovation happening around PK because it’s going to unlock a style of riding that a lot of us didn’t even know we needed
Re: upcoming Shimano updates—I’ll be very curious to see whether they follow SRAM’s lead on pushing the cassette outboard for a 55mm chainline.
I wish SRAM hadn’t done it to begin with, but now that the toothpaste is out of the tube, everyone else kind of needs to do it too, no?
I really hope that's not the case. The angles created are just not ideal in any way. Why would Shimano need to do it?
Chainring clearance on the frame right? Frame manufacturers are wanting to make stays wider at the frame or main pivot, so the Chainring has to move out.
Pretty much all the frame manufacturers moved to a 55mm chainline ahead of transmission’s release. SRAM pushed their cassette outboard, so it pretty much all comes out in the wash. But it fucked things for older components.
Newer frames, for the most part, are requiring a crankset based around the 55 chainline, so now if the cassette isn’t pushed outboard on the new shimano groupsets, chainline will be awful.
Saw this EXT Vaia at Sundance loam pass event on an Ari, talked to the ext guys for a bit about it. He said it’s internally adjustable from 170-200, meant for heavy enduro and dh. He said they’ll start selling hopefully in November for around 2k USD
That’s why any new bike not running a 56/56 headset standard to allow for reach adjust with no drawbacks is blowing it
Every bike should be 56/56
Is the scout dead? It isn't even on the Transition website.
I would be sad, but also wouldn't blame them for killing it. I was a scout fanboy. I went with a Norco sight in 2020 because of reasons, but one of them was because they also had a dedicated 27.5 bike. I was still a hold out, but the next bike I buy will be 100% be a mullet. It still makes me sad and slightly nostalgic though. I remember when 27.5 felt like big monster truck awesome size.
The memo to bike biz went out over a year ago. Dual 27.5 is dead except on XS or sm frames. But don't say anything till u get rid of your inventory.
One of the millions of companies selling billet pedals and stems should start selling spacers for 29er forks that optimize geo for 27.5 front wheels. I've heard of many pro riders using these, but I'm not aware of any company currently selling them.
Unless you’re running a straight steerer fork, even if you’ve got a 56/56 head tube, I think you’d need to run an external lower cup for a reach adj headset? I think that eliminates a lot of the benefits.
What are you talking about? The zero stack 56 headset all allows for the largest room of any headset that’s available. You should be able to do 8 mm front and back with a straight. Fork and five mill front and back with a standard tapered fork The only thing that offers more is that stupid ZS66 that a few companies use for E bikes for some reason.
I don't know if you can get them aftermarket, but Rocky Mountain sold the 2019 (?) Pipeline/Instinct with a ~10mm crown spacer so you could switch front wheels and get the same geo. It sat under the crown race I think. I feel like it would be relatively easy to make one, but I am no engineer.
You right. Got my facts twisted.
That was actually a ZS and EC cup set that you would swap out, pretty easy to do with a new lower cup if you can get the right ones. But that was also for a 29/27.5+ wheel mix which are close to the same size, so you might need a bit more to get something from it.
Who makes a tapered steerer compatible reach adjust ZS56/56? Work components only offers a ZS56 top, EC56 bottom for 1.125x1.5 tapered. They have reach adjusts for ZS56/66 and a ZS56/56 for 1.125 steerers.
You cannot adjust the lower bearing position fore-aft in a tapered 1.5, ZS56 cup. There is 0 room for that.
You can adjust the reach by a total of 10mm in a ZS66 cup.
You mean something like this? Not sure why you'd want to make a 29" fork even taller for a 27.5" front wheel, as it's already 20mm taller than an equivalent 27.5" fork. But if you did, Reverse Components has you covered: https://reverse-components-usa.com/collections/headsets/products/reverse-angle-spacer
[EDIT: Wolf Tooth used to make one too that pressed into the lower headtube, but it's discontinued now. Probably because it's pretty sketchy. Specialized famously shipped their first gen 650b Stumpjumper with an extended lower headset cup as well, because it was a repurposed 29" front triangle).
To keep the ground to headset distance the same, to keep the geometry of the bike the same.
A 29 fork is taller, but so is the axle compared to the ground. Putting a 27" wheel in a 29er fork will still drop the front end.
A standardized (blasphemy!) oval'ish headset standard would be awesome that give +-10mm reach/lots of angle adjust
As if bikes aren't expensive enough already, with those pesky round interference holes in place. Sounds like a good idea but I suppose it would be very dificult to implement, because of distortion/alignement issues. We can't afford the quality needed for that, with bikes costing 10k already, as shitly made as most of them are.