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BK will be devastated he can't tow anyone into it. How will he survive?
Wait is he still helping people since others don’t share their lines with him?
They may have to cancel Hardline if BK can't help tow everyone over all the jumps..
Good behind the scenes of Val di Sole. GMBN follows Peaty.
It's been such a summer of bad news here in the US. This was some very welcom, excellent, dramatic reporting. Laurie's struggle to find form, Nina's evolving, ebullient approach to the bike, Jackson's other-worldly riding and stoke. That was a welcome watch--best of luck to the team I've been watching since the early 2000's. Currently riding my 6th Santa Cruz bike (5010, at the moment). The camera still loves Steve Peat! Really, really great piece.
Completely off topic, but here is what seems to be a pretty final Whiteface WC track map:
Where did you find this?
Instagram:
I traced this one in Caltopo now too (available here labeled as "Announced by GASS"). It seems more complete than the one from the fall, and even the one posted recently by Whiteface themselves. The corners are more detailed, and the overall path is a mix of the two previously released tracks.
any idea of that slope compares with other WC tracks?
I dm'ed Chris Kilmurray to send him the Caltopo, and commented on how rocky I think it will be (he uses Caltopo for track gradient too). He said "average gradient is pretty shallow. Snowshoe style... More good variety in the tracks and terrain we are racing this year. It's been a pretty "complete" series so far. definitely need some rocks though. Not had many rocks this year yet"
I think it's probably shaping up to be a more modern version of a Snoeshoe style track, although the dirt in the 'dacks is more loamy and sandy than the clay rich "peanut butter" soil of the NC/WV area.
It looks like an atherton bike has completely failed during British champs, was sat at the finnish and the bikes rear end snapped after landing to flat.
According to people during Hardline Tazmania, that only happens to Pivots.
Does that mean that - just perhaps - bikes that get ridden hard sometimes break?
100% correct but if you watch the Scottish downhill Associations video he books it out of there even though he’s just won. Although he landed to flat he still didn’t land any harder than other racers
I'm definitely not coming at you or being snarky about the bike.
I'm saying that sometimes things happen to bikes and I remember when a similar thing happened to a Pivot and the mtb internet went into a tizzy about it. I'll be curious to see if this gets much attention.
Just to clarify.
They Streisand'd the whole scenario. It's not like BK has the best reputation regardless (gestures vaguely at recent events) but he asked for the clip to be removed from MoiMoi's youtube video and generally tried to hide the event within the media and sweep it under the rug.
Plus it came after his devastating live crash at Crankworx. Plus it had the added context of people going 'well its just a proto with an unfortunate proto flaw' for the first one, and then that happened.
He got perfect storm'd... By some factors outside of his control and some within his control.
That's the reality. We don't care when an Atherton breaks because we don't have issues with the Athertons... This is like a microcosm of a bigger discussion around what your behavior begets you in return. (And some people never learn...)
Could it be a weakness with lugged bikes in general? The straight carbon tubes being the weakness with strong titanium lugs? I don’t think teams do themselves many favours by hiding the bikes or trying to dismiss that it’s happened.
I have attached a much clearer photo
Well, no I don't think we can say that. Because a you can ALWAYS over-engineer something to make it stronger and make a miserably heavy bike or whatever. If the question is, can a lugged bike be made strong enough while being in the same weight range of 'normal' DH frames? That's above my pay grade. Would love to know.
And also BK's second famous snappage was on the production, as in non-lugged, frame so... It just is what it is. Bikes break. I think pros have the benefit of swapping frames out fairly regularly, because brands want to avoid this scenario.
What's the rider in question here? Amateur/youngster who has been beating the life out of one frame for over a year? Would like to know.
Would like that info SHARED with the community... Much in the way all race lines need to be shared with BK (but don't share any videos of his production pivot snappin).
😂
So you're telling me people have a hard time maintaining perspective? Guy who was hired to help bike company test bikes because he rides hard enough break bikes actually goes out and rides hard enough to break bikes? Guy who rides hard when cameras aren't rolling also rides hard when cameras are rolling?
"...he asked for the clip to be removed from MoiMoi's youtube video..." I guess I didn't know realize you know the inner workings of the Pivot marketing department. Did BK tell you he asked Jack to take it out or did Jack tell you BK asked for it to come out? Which of those two conversations did you have to give you the 100% certainty that you can say that?
The bike industry seems to work a lot like the industry I'm in. When negative things happen publicly in my industry, folks tend to not create the ill will of broadcasting the negative things. If an artist comes into my studio and can't play a part so I have to edit it or play it for them, I don't put them on blast as incapable when they release a song with a difficult part. In fact, I pull down anything that might imply they didn't play it whether I meant to imply that or not. An artist has never asked for me to take something down but I've definitely taken things down in an effort to protect their reputation. It's called Professional Courtesy.
I'm not exactly a huge fan of BK but you're definitely stating some things that can't really be definitively stated if you maintain a good faith perspective.
Or maybe it was just one off accident? How many years have Atherton been making dh bikes racing WC and Hardline, crazy Gee lines, etc and this is the first one to break like that?
lol peak vital forum vibes
ok lets change the scenario to pivot asked people to remove it, not BK (who is a team manager btw, and we dont need to go into how he manages things)
so its a bad look on... Pivot. and Pivot looks bad. you can cut it various ways it doesnt make the pizza bigger or smaller. you reach the same scenario, regardless. I can merge them into 'Pivot-BK' as a single entity, as they represent and reflect on each other.
seems i have a bias one direction and you have a bias the other. i'd love to hear what other people think about bikes breaking and how Pivot/BK (BpivotK) have handled it compared to others.
I'm pretty sure it was a big deal with the Pivot/BK thing because:
A) the initial catastrophic failure of the prototype at Crankworx, WITH a subsequent video and bunch of articles going through the failure and how they were fixing things. And then no acknowledgement that the new frame actually broke. After the transparancy from the first failure, this one felt more cover-up-ish.
b) it was the brand new (non-lugged) bike with a major claim to being one of (if not) THE lightest DH bike out there and had literally just been released for Hardline. Does having the lightest bike hold up to that riding?
C) I could be remembering wrong, I'm pretty sure at some point Jack had mentioned being asked to take down or re-edit the video with the failure?
The rider in question is George Madley Athertons junior rider. The part I am now finding interesting is that the original instagram video has now disappeared off the face of the planet. Also he did run off with the bike after winning British champs by 6 seconds on said bike.
And the clock starts ticking. Let's see if anyone gets asked to take down their version of it from Atherton/Madley.
I mean the Scottish cycling post is defo gone even from my dms with friends. Not found any other covering it yet.
Not about to condemn the actions of a kid fresh on a factory ride whose bike breaks during/after a winning run. I'm sure I'd be full panic mode right then if I were him.
I agree the pivot thing is a bigger deal because of the "coverup". Reality is bikes break, it's about how you deal with it. Likewise when a bike breaks in a review and they get the marketing team on some "pre production" BS story, it's a little hollow. If your warranty numbers are good, just tell us that. Shit happens.
That's wank. I still don't understand the point of hiding it, particularly when in doing so you typically bring more attention to the event.
Though maybe they assume their customers are more likely busy people who don't spend all day on social media, so if they can just get ahead of it quick enough the MTB whales out there will be none the wiser.
It's not like Minnaar holding 2 pieces of a V10 that one time keeps me from buying a Santa Cruz. And furthermore, I'd LOVE to have a Pivot Shadowcat. I'm not BK and nobodys ridin Hardline on a Shadowcat so... I'd love to own one. But I'm iffy on buying from brands that hide failures as well as make excuses a la the post before me.
Even the classic Rocky Mountain crash out recently on PB left a weird taste in my mouth. And I absolutely love the old dual 27 Slayers and Altitudes. And held RM in high regard. But how you handle things speaks a lot, and the people who represent you have to be... Held accountable I suppose. imo a 'less is more' approach is a gold standard for these scenarios. Didn't RM have that Slayer failure on PB a while ago, and handled it fine just taking accountability. That's all you need to do.People are gracious just for a response of 'we will look into it as that is well below our personal standards of performance'. Sometimes 'PR talk' is ok.
What am I missing here... Asking a channel to remove a video of a frame snapping is smart business. It could be a sponsored rider trying to protect their employer or the company itself. Either way, anyone representing the company has a duty to try and protect it. I would hope that a rider would ask for the video to be removed. I respect that.
Now, if BK threatened the channel with fake legal action that would be bad. But I haven't heard anything along those lines happening.
Just want to put fire to the flame here.
I was the only one standing at a rather straight forward 90 degree turn at DH Nationals this year when a guy on a 2 week old Pivot had his frame "POP". I said "Did he just snap a swingarm?"
A distinct pop in a hard turn. Rider didn't notice. Irony is he was in the turn before the 2 miserable flat drops Neko built to test his prototypes originally. Guy hits both drops then hucks down to the next turn and hear another snap.
I posted the pic somewhere on here but can't find it. I'm the only guy who saw how mundane that first snap was. It was his top tube. Second snap was his downtube.
The important thing about that frame snapping is it never should have. Production bike after BK & crew spent over a year doing stuff nobody at Rock is doing on it. And for a hot off the presses, thoroughly blistered concept to slide under a Junior X or Cat 1 rider & just "POP" in a 90...that's a major design flaw. Not something trivial. Not "things break".
That thing straight grenaded in front of my eyes for no reason.
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