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No one needs any of these bikes, but if they make riding more interesting or fun I'm all for it. The Checkout isn't for me (at least right now) but for folks who are doing really long bikepacking trips/races it's probably awesome.
It's noteworthy to me that a lot of the objections being posted mirror those from when suspension was first introduced to MTBs...
https://www.instagram.com/p/DPEZeysjEki/?img_index=1&igsh=NHd4ZXU1ZWNsamRl
No longer a rumor, YT is officially done
I was like „why is he skeptical about suspension on gravel bikes and has an enduro fork on it at the same time“ then it clicked
Gravelcross?
Roadgravel?
Graveltrials?
FWIW I am amazed at how uncomfortable the ride is anytime I sit on a MTB hardtail. After racing xc on a hardtail for 6 years 20 years ago. Maybe a full suss gravel bike would make sense for someone used to a trail/enduro bike and the comfort it brings.
I feel you, but some hardtails are legitimately comfortable (when reframed as gravel bikes…) speci Fuse is stiff and sucks, epic hardtail is compliant and feels so good to ride.
im telling you guys, the majority of the gravel segment has never tried a mtb (thinks they don’t need one, overbiked, etc.) or doesn’t even need a “gravel bike” (just needs a road bike with 38s and lower gearing.) the gravel category exists because people think road bikes can’t have 45c tires and also that mountain bikes are silly and unnecessary for singletrack. What we see in practice though is that every year the tires on the gravel bikes get wider and more and more suspension is brought out.
This is all from experience. I worked at speci for years and thought mtb was dumb, so I bought a crux cyclocross bike and tried to ride that on singletrack. It works and it’s fun and I was “ahead of the curve” but in reality I was just the smartest idiot. Mark my words, the tide is shifting massively right now as people realize they actually love riding light hardtails, not gravel bikes.
Un(g)ravel
I don't disagree, however have found that if I want to be comfortable on my HT, I need to be much more active on the bike (more intentional with line choice, unweighting/raising the front/rear wheels over stuff, etc). "Plowing" either downhill or up is not a great time. Turns out I can't ride my 130mm, SS steel hardtail in the same manner as my RAAW Madonna. Lol
Not really. Read the actual story
https://enduro-mtb.com/en/bad-news-yt-shuts-its-doors/?utm_campaign=fee…
I meant more along the lines of you feel every seam of tarmac compared to a full suss MTB. Wasn't talking about singletracks, far from it.
I don't think 4.23mm chainstays are possible..
thats average bro..... right?
All ball bearings have an amount of slip. You can't rotate a sphere in a u shaped track without slip unless you have an infinitely small contact. I.e. have an infinitely stiff material. By making the balls and races really hard you minimise the contact patch and slip. The sliding friction is minimised by including a lubricant.
I hope so...
Only have one day on the new 36, seems to meet the hype from what I can tell.
Gravel bikes and endurance road bikes are what I used to recommend to a lot of people. Although, now both of those fall into what some are calling the "all-road" bike as gravel bikes are becoming more like early 29er hardtails.. IMO, these all-road bikes are perfect for people who aren't fully committed roadies and want a bike that gives more options on where they can ride. Perfect for dealing with crap roads and even worse drivers where I live..
You mentioned previously working at Specialized.. It was a trip to Morgan Hill for SBCU that let me try a Crux and realize that those bikes were more capable off road than I would have ever expected.. Won't replace a mountain bike, but just another type of fun.
I'm hoping they use the same Internal Diameter and stuff so I can upgrade to it from my current 38
Not sure if this has been posted but got a picture of the bottom of the Brosnan's Boxxer at the US Open. I assume this is what's on the Zebb too.
Now that's a proper spy shot.
Adjustable positive air chamber volume? Adjustable negative volume? Both? Seems very "Secus."
I know a few forks have negative air volume spacer but most of the time they are not meant to be switched around (ohlins, Fox 34SC) so this would the first fork to have adjustable negative air spring volume spacer ? And it would make sense that only the Zeb and Boxxer get this as their overall air spring volume is much bigger than the Sid/Pike/Lyrik.
Interesting, its different to the new Zeb spy shots that have a distinct twistable nut on the bottom side of the air leg, that we assumed was for the new elastomer based bottom out bumper the filed the patent for at the start of the month (spy shots match the patent diagram).
Very curious! Doesn't seem large enough to have a huge air volume, but its possibly hollow to increase lower leg volume? They already have the tube-in-a-tube design to help with that, but maybe you can change the size of it for fine tuning? Tapping in to the air spring from there would be tricky unless they have ditched the buttercups
Doesn't look to me like a negative or positive volume spacer, I'd bet its lower leg volume adjustment. Air pressure does build up quite a bit more in the air side leg than the damper as there's less volume to begin with, Fox made an effort to remedy this on the last gen 36 (and likely other models I forgot about) by making the air side stanchion and lower leg longer. I'd be curious to see some numbers on how much pressure actually builds up, and even more how much you can meaningly change those numbers with a volume spacer like that. Clearly Rockshox thinks it's useful.
It would be a pretty good feat of engineering to get that attached to the air spring while still allowing for full travel and easy servicing. All for the name of what, 1 cubic inch of air volume? The secus is a good bit larger than that.
I’d bet my 2 cents on it being some sort of essentially atmospheric vent, think compressing the fork with the spring side bleeder valve open. Could potentially close it off for a progressive version, allow max airflow out of the lower for the “linear xl” version.
Potentially not needed on damper side because of more air volume, typically the damper side will be open from the bottom of the lower to the topcap, spring side is only open to the bottom of the stanchion.
I don't think it's a 'vent'. Would mist the rotor with oil!
Possibly additional volume that you can tune by swapping out those 'things'. Looks like two bolts to remove it.
Aren't the current 38 stanchions internally tappered?
it‘s not a new rumor, but still a rumor IMO… is the new pivot phoenix dangerous? i‘ve never seen so many frames brake during normal usage:
https://www.instagram.com/reel/DPJQ_vCjHts/?igsh=MTJnYjZ6d2NxZjczcw==
that‘s a 15y old girl on it!
yikes