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The Vital MTB Crew
I can't imagine what toe overlap would be like for a 32" gravel bike. My giant revolt with 48c tires is already precarious enough. Come to think of it, do you end up with toe overlap on a 32" xc bike with a 68 degree hta with reaches under 450-470?
The bike industry is its own worst enemy. Nothing wrong with 32" wheels, however it should recognized as a niche offering. Any tire, rim, fork maker, etc should get a contract in place before designing and opening tooling for a 32" project with a frame brand.
If the niche for 32" wheels is people over 6'6" tall, it's hard to make a business case for making them.
If the niche for 26" wheels is people under 5'6" tall, that's much easier to justify because not only are there grown adults under 5'6" tall, every adult who is over 5'6", was at some time under 5'6".
32" is clearly too large. 29", on the other hand, might not be large enough. So obviously the future is going to be 30.5" wheels.
I hope they have discounts this side of the pond as well.
I originally looked at getting a Trek like 18 months ago. But was told there was NO WAY I was getting a discount, and delivery times were 3-4 months. Went to the other side of town to a specialized shop, got a smoking deal on top of an already discounted msrp, and had the bike the next week. So not a huge fan of Trek here.
You joke, but mfers talking bout this...
“Im sorry did you say niche? Im (big bike company name here) and I see this as a perfect opportunity to convince you, that you need 32” wheels or you suck at riding. Im going to milk this cow till its dead. You say it works best for 6’ 5” tall people? Im sorry but, wrong, it is the next best thing for 5’ 6” tall people. Tell me otherwise and our lawyers will be at your doorstep with a bat. Keep the rubber side down or some shit.” - Scott Bikes probably.
you of all people should know to never say never.
(edited with a non-ripped photo...and here's a link to that story! -gordo)
https://www.vitalmtb.com/photos/features/BCDs-Carbon-29er-Downhill-Bike…
HA! i'll never cross that line!
until 2026 maybe
I see your size-specific chainstay lengths and raise you – size-specific wheelsizes! 24" XS, 26" S, 27.5" M, 29" L, and 32" XL.
Tell us what you know…?! 👀😆
Bring 27.5 back for the 1SD around the mean.
The clear solution is that we all need inverted forks with swappable crowns. That way you can use the same, noodly, 6 pound fork for for DownCountry, Trail, All Mountain, Enduro, Super Enduro, Freeride (its not dead!), and DH racing! As well as anything from 24" to 32" front wheel sizing!
Pair it to that new Vampire bikes that has a 50mm+ swing in different travel lengths!
I see no downsides, certainly not in weight, tuned stiffness, nor geometry.
The fact trek has not aggressively discounted their stock at any point has been an interesting business decision. When the new slash was released I went to trek to see if there was a deal on the old one and at the time they were still asking full price. I think the largest discount I’ve seen on their bikes has been around 25 percent on really old models. Compared to their number one competitor (spec) who seemed to at one point have anything that wasn’t axs on a near 50 percent discount. Meanwhile there are rumors of huge numbers of trek bikes just sitting in warehouses.
Now I could understand tld or fox being pretty protective of their perceived value even at the risk of losing revenue in the short term. But when it comes to bikes isn’t the hardest thing to accomplish is to get a customer to actually get on one? And if there are just way better deals available how do you expect to do that?
I really enjoyed the trek I owned. The lbs I bought it from was great. The bike was good. It’s the only bike I regret selling. But hell the only reason I got it was because it was on a discount.
The lbs (diffirent one I’ve moved) I support is a trek dealer. I really like every experience I’ve had on a trek bike. But I’m not going to rush to replace my perfectly good bike with slightly better trek when there are way better priced options available. And short of another pandemic I don’t see how trek expects the market to recover where they can ask good money for an old model.
Liteville did this, around 2015.
Let's hope thats the only thing it has in common with that POS.
For those that never leave this thread.....
Hoping this wasn't bitten from Wheelbased, apologies, and I'll pull it if it was
Weren't there some who were adamant that there couldn't/wouldn't be a mechanical transmission, anywho
https://bikerumor.com/patent-patrol-sram-mechanical-transmissions-are-coming-soon-with-both-nx-and-sx-transmission-derailleurs/
https://bikerumor.com/shimano-patents-point-to-all-new-xtr-di2-xt-di2-d…
Perhaps I'm naive (or just spend too much time here) but not having an X0-level mechanical Transmission ofering seems like a miss; existing NX/SX bits are such poor quality that I feel like it'll turn people off (and misses the market segment that wants high-quality mechanical shifting, or pushes them to Shimano).
Amazing,
Everytime I feel a little concerned about the price I pay for a mtb widget of some sort, I go check out things in the road world.....
https://bikerumor.com/kogel-speed-kolossos-oversized-cage-upgrade-reshaped-for-more-stiffness-less-drag/
It starts at $500, and goes up from there.......I love this
it'll come, They needed to get the high end consumer to early adopt, and buy into the world of 1's and 0's, cause that would cover the investment costs.
Then the GX beepboop came out to gather up the rest of the money.
I'd wager we see an XO lvl mechanical transmission groupset come out in early 26
Seems like they're focused on huge market of low price OE offerings, not stuff for us.
Most roadies think those are hilarious too...
Also
Norco's 2025 "Shore Series" Optic C2 MX comes with an interesting drive train spec. A week or so ago it was listed as SRAM 1000 (I friggin dig this bike!)
https://www.norco.com/bikes/mountain/trail/optic/25-optic-C2-mx/
https://www.norco.com/bikes/mountain/all-mountain/sight/25-sight-C1-MX-150/ (note the GX der, but different crank)
thats fair,
but when you peruse the prices of even mid/high range road bikes, I feel way better about what I'm getting.....
This ones not great news, but honestly, not a lot of great news coming from our friends just South of here...
https://www.bicycleretailer.com/industry-news/2025/02/13/trump-plans-im…
https://www.sram.com/en/sram/models/rd-s1000-e-a1
There you go, entry level beepboops on a $9k CAD bike, spectacular
The thing about 29ers is frame designers are still dealing with fitment issues, 20 years on. This is why we've seen all these various chainline, axle, hub standards proliferate, not mention endless conversations around geometry. Paul Aston seems to be fine with 475mm rear centers but any good (technical) trail that I've ridden around the world plain doesn't work with titanic sized wheelbases.
Last but not least, and understandably this the same argument some have with ebikes and we can see how many of those are on the trails now, I don't need bigger wheels to make things easier. The pendulum swung far enough with 29x3 and we all saw how that worked out for MTB (Desert touring setups disregard this comment).
this, just did a sanity check
What stem length are you running on the Giant?