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Dang, beat me to it!
whoa
devinci coder for real! what’s your monthly budget for pushpins and red yarn? I think it’s more likely 99 just looks cool and if young Finnley is the series leader then he can be like “99 + 1 = 💯 flame flame flame emoji fr” on his instagram
I actually can't imagine a better, potentially-reachable goal, than getting rid of a rear derailleur. It's been discussed for ages, but seeing it tested consistently for the last few years, makes me wonder if they aren't "getting closer"? Not having a potential race-ending derailleur break, or chain break is a very significant advantage if all other things are equal. Being able to bash through any course with extended rock gardens would mean seconds of advantage in a 3 minute run.
I'd put flat tire elimination at the top of the list, but that's just me...
Couldn't agree more.
Frame silhouette looks a lot like the Allied BC40. Allied + SRAM would make sense, given that Allied already supports a number of US-based privateers and Kate has been with SRAM for a long time.
I am slightly surprised to see Kate on a self-organized program. That would not have been my prediction.
I love the belt drive & Pinion innovation but.... How many UCI DH race runs were lost last year to a broken mech or broken chain? I can't recall a single one.
Fair, but on the other hand, how many runs were lost by less than a couple seconds that could have been made up if the bike had a lower center of gravity and less unsprung mass to get hung up on square edge hits.
For me, the best trait of the Pinion gearbox is shifting gears without pedaling, or in the air.
Imagine a jump or a hard braking zone into a tight corner. Click - click - click while you focus on braking and dropping your heels, and out in the perfect gear you go.
I had the luck of testing the smartshift on a car park for a few minutes and became instantly in love with it.
Also, removing all that unsprung mass from the rear wheel should make it track better, and get out of the way faster (less flats)
Edit: sorry I thought I was posting in the bike-tech thread, remove if necessary @sspomer
And how many races were won due to a rider's sprinting ability that would have been eaten up by gear box efficiency?
Color me suspect, but I don't think gearboxes are the biking panacea people claim they are.
With Trek's announcement today, it looks like #2 "Gwin back to Trek" fantasies have come to an end. Perhaps being a part owner of another bike company was a deal breaker.
All eyes on you Dan Atherton.
About that gearbox thread….
Think you'd be surprised how many riders have issues but riders don't want to name and shame sponsors.
Is the Dan Atherton World Cup comeback and win this year the new Leicester City winning the premier league title from a few years back?
I’ll take a fiver at 5000/1 or whatever the odds were back then!
Does anyone have insight on additional financial support for all these teams switching to belt drives? It doesn't seem like the low (and further decreasing) probability of winning a mere $100,000 would move the needle any meaningful amount. The most plausible reasons would be additional sponsorship funds from the belt associated brands or hoping to take advantage of the seemingly disproportionate publicity about the $100,000 prize. Additional sponsorship seems most likely, wondering if that's documented anywhere.
As I have said, no way do the financials add up: to produce a fleet of bikes for a team is more than 100k. Something else is going on. Plus, half these teams realize they will not win it.
Yeah. I’d bet this would probably fall under some of those nebulous selection criteria for teams 16-20. The one about sponsors. It’s getting icky!
As others have said, maybe because they actually think its going to make the difference in winning races and competing? Free shifting, weight distribution, unsprung mass.
If one of these teams wins, it doesn't just get them 100k, it buys the team/brand credibility. If gearbox bikes come out of this year with a 2 wins and a few podiums, your not interested? Crazy how much skepticism something new and progressive is getting.
Commencal Muc-Off leaving Fox suspension.
If that happens, a good chunk of the major teams will be on a gearbox bike before the end of the season. trendchasing gets "ignore all other logic they're beating us!!!" in WCDH real quick.
Loris to commencal official video
in the case of ms / zerode, those are already production frames (incl the belt drive).
Okay , so what is still unknow? Cami situation with yeti ? and pivot team? Something else ?
Since my post was previously deleted… I’m sure Pivot team management are on the lookout for the brightest, most eager young stars to bring into the family 🙏
Anything on Cube Factory Racing? Max Hartenstern and Jess Blewitt are the only names i remember.
If there was a performance increase I would expect more teams to have switched over prior to this $100,000 prize. I haven't heard of some simultaneous major technology improvement. Hopefully there is! Just seems like they would talk about it a bit more in addition to the $100,000 prize.
AON team composition, New addition to mondraker ?, to continental atherton ? Maples stays at muc off or not ? Someone talked about a forbidden team in the top 15 ?
Yes, something else is happening. All of the following is a guess, but I think a pretty good one.
Gates, a company already well known for Motorcycle belts and that according to google, has $830m in revenue but has only dabbled in cycling in the fringes for years is saying LFG. They likely want in on the E-bike market as mixed motors/drivetrains evolve and full power E-bikes ditch derailleurs because lets be honest, traditional drivetrains just don't hold up as well under an e-bike mashing, and they know DH is going to test the to the limits. This is going to be their entry point and they likely know E-bikes will switch over to a more inside motor based drivetrain in the next few years as the designs improve.
Pinion already has units that can do it, and I bet Bosch, Brose (Spesh/Sram) and others will have matching stuff soon. Gates wants to drive the acceptance of belts as a standard, that they are built to last, and are just as good as chains without the hassle. Like anything else, best examples right now being electric cars or private space flight, it'll start out crude and with lots of room for improvement, but with people using them, suddenly have lots of investment to drive R&D, and as they get better, that's when you'll start to see wider acceptance and better performance.
This is the only thing that really makes sense with the project, as lighter weight bikes using gear boxes doesn't make a ton of sense unless they can get the weight down to current DT weights and prices, but E-bikes using a complete motor drivetrain with a belt absolutely makes sense and they're willing to put up cash not only to these teams, but sponsor them as well, I'm betting footing a pretty big bill for each if they were doing a whole press release with all the teams they had on their roster. IFR was on the ropes and now they have new and bigger name riders, AON coming out of no where with likely a stacked team, Atherton coming back in from everything thinking they weren't even going to be a team next year and MS doesn't really mess around with trying to get the best deals, or he wouldn't have had a top team thats been around for almost 20 years. It kind of starts to make sense that they switched to a company as small as Zerode if Gates wanted a 4th manufacturer to sponsor with a top team after Intense built that bike for them and there's one sitting there, ready to go.
It's Gates-gate...
The new Leicester winning the prem is Forest winning the prem lol. Btw, COYR!
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