Hello Vital MTB Visitor,
We’re conducting a survey and would appreciate your input. Your answers will help Vital and the MTB industry better understand what riders like you want. Survey results will be used to recognize top brands. Make your voice heard!
Five lucky people will be selected at random to win a Vital MTB t-shirt.
Thanks in advance,
The Vital MTB Crew
Oooh sweet Leone!
What’s the latest on next gen shimano? I know we’ve seen a few shots of XTR and a couple of prototype saint derailleurs at world cups but apart from that information seems pretty thin.
Funnily enough, Pinkbike just posted this and then very quickly deleted it again. Only a handful of people had time to share their thoughts and the comments rightly weren't complimentary.
Id rather read through 20 pages of brake derailment in this forum than watch that whole video at full volume.
FFS. You know how there's those grumpy commenters on the other site that call every E-Bike a motorbike or moped? This is that, and I hate it. The fun of an E-Bike is that it takes a lot of the effort out of pedalling, but it still feels like youre riding a mountain bike. This is a literal motorbike conversion, but with MTB geo. Gross.
thats why i wanted to share it here. there is a lot of confusion about ebikes being motorcycles and its like, guys, when they have throttles youll be wishing for the days when class 3 was a controversy. its all about perspective and understanding that assisted pedaling is nothing to cry about. its this pit bike whining up the trails that we should be pissed about.
i have no skin in this game, I am analog only, but I am really curious to see how the wider mtb world deals with these bikes. people are up in arms about 1000w pedal bikes and Bonnell is literally wide-open-throttling past all of them. what will pinkbikes stance be? can mtb outlets ignore at least talking about the fact that sam hill is piloting one up bike park trails???
I comment on the other site, but I draw the line at pedal assist. Once you're introducing a throttle it stops being an E-MTB and starts being a motorbike with MTB geo.
Heavy rumours the new Capra will get an 'extension' apparently the new large will basically be in the middle of current large/XL size wise.
Probably was the only thing holding me back from buying a YT, either to big or to small.
Did the rumour mention anything about the Thirstmaster?
I'd imagine tooling cost rather than feasibility is the main hurdle, no?
I don’t know anything about sizing or the thirstmaster. But obviously it’s time to bring an update. Texi is on a prototype, and I’m very certain their product development guy, Erick Irmsch is one riding too if I’m not mistaken.
I don’t think there will be a flip chip for mullet conversion, it’ll still be a different frame (I really hope I’m wrong on this one, or that they change their mind if I’m right). The seat stay is different on the mullet versions (mullet Jeffsy and Capra). There will be some feature in the head tube, that thing is big.
What’s most impressive though, Moir just raced the current version to #4 in Finale. The Capra is still a fast bike - and obviously Jack is an animal. Unfortunately Texi had a big mechanical on the first stage. With that being said, the new Capra won’t be slower.
IIRC corrosion resistance and plating were expensive challenges that stopped production of the steel SweetWings. The steel cranks were over 150g heavier than ti.
So, if labor costs are similar, with an increased cost for plating, and a saving for the steel material vs titanium, perhaps a steel version would cost almost the same as Ti eeWings but weight more than SLX.
I imagine much if not all of the tooling for Ti could be used in fabricating steel.
There are a few photos from the Enduro World Cup of people (e.g. Alex Rudeau) riding what looks like the new 36. Is that actually a new 38 with 36 stickers on it?
I imagine it is the 36. I feel we would have seen a new 38 when they were launching everything else.
Initial impressions of the Wheeltop mech from Dave Rome of Escape Collective
That's kinda what I was getting at, but you said it better than I did.
I'd gather the labor and tooling costs would be the same, just whatever difference in cost of materials, which means they might be a bit cheaper - but not enough for people to buy them over ti. It seems like a cool idea in theory, but in practice you are narrowing an already narrow market for expensive cranks down to a point where the price savings isn't enough to appeal to a wider audience and people would rather pay for the higher end, ligher version because the cost is so close. If they cost $900 vs the $1200 for titanium, I'm not sure many people would buy them, in other words.
Those Cyber Crank ORs posted above are sweet though. I wish I could run eeWings but my BLE (only bike atm) is limited to a 24mm spindle, so they are out and I had to sell the ones I had. It's easy (and reasonable IMO) to scoff at the price - but I bought all mine on sale for like 600-700 USD, which is about as much as I paid for a set of SRAM cranks that lasted a month and they refused to warranty when the threads failed. The Cyber Cranks look sweet, but they have a weight and riding use limit (XC only, no DH), which gives me some hesitation. They'd look sweet on the BLE and match the aesthetic, but the Middleburns on there do too...Either way, I'd love steel cranks like those but it doesn't seem effective in large quantities for a brand like CC
A lot of bikes suffer from this, another one that comes to mind is the Cannondale Jekyll, reach on a L is 475 and XL is 510, I'm just under 6'2" and had an XL V1 Sentinel that was 500mm and that felt too long for me. Currently on a S3 Privateer 161 that is 490 and get along very well with that length, while my L REEB SST is 480 and definitely wouldn't want to go any shorter than that.
YT needing those frame enlargement pills.
Also doing the bike check Friday on the 38 USD but racing with the 36. 🤔
Talked to a Shimano Rep this weekend--he made vague promises about new electric XT and XTR. He said it would be a 2026 product. He mentioned "new to the market features," implying that it would excite me.
I have no guesses at the previously unimagined features. I do suspect that we will see a formal announcement this summer, and some bikes with OEM e-XT and e-XTR (or whatever they call it) announced in the fall when people start rolling out the 2026 kits. There was no mention of SLX.
Pembree dropper on the way?
Gunna guess bars.

From their website:
I will call this, the Tyee that should've been, no cable tourism bullshit, no caliper inside the seatstay bullshit, bravo Propain, seriously considering this one as my next bike unless Evil drops something better ( for me )
Elena Conolly on what appears to be a new Habit. In Frame Storage and probably a bit more Travel 160f/150r i guess
Haibike hinting at their next bike. The silhouette implies it's a Pinion MGU.
One 5 second Google later save waiting 20 hours