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
This!!! At this point I'm waiting more to the next gen of Fox38/Zeb than the demo/enduro itself. If it wasn't for the new suspensions coming up, I'd pull the trigger on a raaw madona.
Not a rumor. They bought MI, dumped a bunch of capital into helping them develop V2 and then pulled the plug a year ago as a cost saving measure. It was a whole.... thing.
There are deeply discounted Tallboys all over the internet today. Anyone know anything about a potential Tallboy V6 showing up soon?
Most likely just current economy problem. Santa Cruz rarely discounts old models just because a new one rolls in, mostly because the changes are minimal.
Mike's Bikes (owned by SC parent Pon Holdings) is heavily discounting Bullits; smaller discounts on other models: https://mikesbikes.com/collections/clearance-and-sale-bikes?filter.p.ve…
^that's the old model?
Yep the old Bullit and Heckler. They had dropper post insertion issues due to the shock tunnel + motor, so they're a no-go unless you have long-ish legs for your size. Carcinization due to dropper insertion length.
You can get a decent amount of drop with a bike yoke post 👍
Unsolicited opinion but worst thing about it is the kinematic, If you ride anything remotely rocky or techy it feels like a hard tail under braking even with minimal rear brake.
There’s a frame design issue too, the gap between the rear triangle and shock tunnel is wedge shaped when looking from the top, any rocks that flick up and fall in that area get crushed when the suspension cycles, my frame was badly scarred within 250km of riding.
It seems like ARI is also working on a new Enduro, or it is one frame that fits DH and Enduro together...
I still think it’s really funny they are covering something which I can almost guarantee is a shock layout like the old Diamondback Knucklebox or a Propain.
There is only so much you could package in there and whatever it is, it’s been done before and isn’t something that needs hiding.
Hiding is creating hype
I’d argue that might’ve worked effectively the first dozen times the bike industry did it, but not anymore. Unless what you’re hiding is truly unique, it actually does the opposite.
People either see through it as a gimmick immediately, or are disappointed when the cover comes off and what is underneath is generic copied homework thus having the opposite effect just when the bike is actually about to go on sale.
it’s that magic underwear
yeah but not for an Ari lol
Can't wait for the astro-turfing 😛
Maybe these bike companies are looking for an outside sponsor from Huggies or pampers.
Ari with no diaper
Well at least it's not just a diaper hiding a standard horst link setup.
Can't quite figure out how the rocker link drives the shock.
Ari is by far the least cool brand right now.
Like a ~2010 Diamondback.
Not sure how that's going to work. I broke a lot of those old knucklebox Diamondbacks (almost every single one) because all of the shock force is channeled through the center of the downtube at a 90 degree angle where the link mounts. Tubes are great in tension and a little bit less great in axial compression (along their length), but really really bad when you put a welded stress riser in the middle of a tube and push perpendicular to it.
They rode great though, because they had a nice rampy leverage curve at a time when most trail bike leverage curves were flat like Florida [editor's note: or really weirdly shaped like a hammock].
Bottom of the new Lyrik
If what I'm seeing is a valve that would mean dual chamber airspring or just a piggy?
Ari new slogan: “ARI sure this will work?”
breeden's get a grip bar ends are for sale - https://www.axessunltd.com/product-page/get-a-grip-bar-ends - full or half circle.
When Fezzari/Ari first showed up at Sea Otter, they were hyping their new DH bike that basically had XC geometry. Kinda like that one batch of SWDs. And this was back before the great slackening.
I'm actually super curious about those. I've heard and observed that most of your grip strength while riding actually comes from your pinky finger at the outside of the grip. If these bar ends allow your pinky to hold on while using less grip strength, it seems like that would be super beneficial for not only fatigue, but also being able to ride loose and smooth.
Counterpoint: no one else in the World Cup seems to be rushing out to use them, or in Moto where hand and arm fatigue is even more brutal.
I was thinking about the moto comparison too. Maybe it could help in that arena but hasn't been tried yet? One challenge that comes to mind is how the bar end would play with a twist throttle. Seems like it'd rub the heck out of your throttle hand and/or create a pinch point that could cause the throttle tube to stick (scary AF).
For moto, there are some bar end finger protectors out there. I suppose these aren't all that much different than Breeden's creation:
https://www.bendz.ca/shop-1/z8xknn8s4wsay3hui61bc5s304n5gr
https://beduro.com/products/hooked-bar-end-caps
I'm curious as well since I've always struggled with hand/arm fatigue. Even if they do look a little crude/goofy (IMO), I'd still like to know if they actually help. I also think it'd be interesting to see if they do allow you to weight the bike more precisely in turns/off cambers.
Not to take away from their launch today, but I was just looking at posts from Charlie Murray, and he's using Loam Lab Counterpunch bar ends (I think a few other enduro riders were using them this season). The goal is more for pinky protection, but it kinda looks like they'd offer some of the benefits to what Joe has created by keeping your hand from sliding off the bar, and giving you a little bumper to lean against.
the grand parents of ergon and bar ends - oakley 3