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Really need to give huge kudos to Dak for the season he's having, he's no spring chicken, coming back from huge injury and he's sending it. I don't usually pull for a rider but I'm rooting for a big result from him, therefor I have deleted him from my fantasy team.
Hasn't been a good year for Danny.
But I guess it's still been better than the year his team mate Erice has had!
“I’m obsessed with chasing backsides” was my personal highlight
Didn’t go to Placid, but we were at Snowshoe ‘22/‘23
B Practice, Dak was hinting that the crowds seemed down at Placid. For sure the 30 rider final is a TV thing, and does the person that bought a spectator pass no real favors.
Last race, in placid in found these near the trash next to the mondraker tent. Thought was relèvent because of how ronans run went today.
Vali went through with it and raced in shorts.
She is great!
Congrats to Jacko, Vali and all the Riders for a wonderful World Cup. I dont know if the powers that be ever read Vital - i do hope so, but in any case I'm gonna leave It out there: WBD and the UCI have to come up with some sort of symbol or sign for the Overall Winners to wear It on the sleeve, chest or elsdwhere
A graphic of the World Cup trophy could work i guess
#1 plate in gold font
Ronan Dunne never disappoints. That checkers / wreckers attitude is bonkers, but it makes for amazing spectating.
Don't think anyone who saw Meier Smith (even before he signed at Giant) didn't think he'd win a World Cup.
Hindsight being 20/20, there was an edit of him hitting a park in Australia few years back I immediately thought he would win World Cups.
There is something about his combo of power & reaction time that is unmistakable. Think he'd won sooner, but like so many others, he took a few monster injuries that "delayed" his 1st win.
Also...let's shout out to our Vital member @Sugarbrad on his World Cup winning mechanic skills! Not often the forums have a WC winner posting other than Stik.
Holy hell, what a season! So stoked for Jackson to deliver under immense pressure and for Marine to quietly continue kicking ass. Amazing to see Dak at the very pointy end of things and Americans taking 3 of the top 5 spots at MSA!!!
It's been the best season for Maxxis that I can remember during my decade and a half with the brand. We had 13 Elite wins out of a possible 20 available and 4 World Champs medals including a podium sweep of the Elite Men's category. Start adding in Junior results and those from enduro and it gets even sillier.
Can't wait to share what we've been cooking up...
I don't know what they need to do to keep air in his rear tyre, but if they could figure that out, he would have been way up in the rankings! And this is despite a major pre-season injury which I am pretty sure was downplayed considerably...
Getting rid of e13 is always a solid choice in my experience
It's sad reading nonsense like this.
The same wheels won him a World Cup a few weeks ago.
Mondraker on the same wheels got 4th & 5th in this race.
Mondraker runs the same tires as all 3 of the men's overall podium.
Look up 10 or so posts from here on this page. Could be that Ronan, Dak or whoever just F’d up or…. A team openly throwing stuff in the trash? That’s not a good look for anyone involved.
It was a cracked rim, not sure what do you want them to do with that
Shoutout to the dumpster diving tech detectives!
Considering his issues Ronan should consider inserts. Easier to get used to riding with them than avoiding flats in race runs.
Since you don't understand this, I'll explain.
World Cup teams annihilate wheels all week long. Most of the wheels can make it back to the pits. A new wheel goes on for the next run.
No one says a word & it gets rebuilt.
One team...1 rider this weekend....annihilated SIX wheels before Finals.
Their teammate nuked only ONE wheel a week after smashing multiple wheels.
That plays out w/ every team & you aren't privy to it. Pros don't melt over wheels.
It's been that way since the beginning.
Every pit, every rider is cracking or splitting wheels.
They just don't run up the hill & get Jack or Lawlor to film it.
For once I have to agree wholeheartedly with Bizutch. Wheels are disposable for a team at this level. At certain races as a mechanic I built 15 wheels in a weekend for racers. Sometimes they were 1 run wheels, sometimes they lasted two days. But not one person on my team at a WC raced on the same wheels they practiced on...especially at MSA.
Wheels are disposable goods at a WC level. dead wheels at a race mean absolutely nothing.
I also agree with both of you. I've seen first hand how many wheels you go through in a race weekend.
Having said that, Ronan either needs stronger wheels (you will still put them in the bin after the run) or to tone down the Nathan Rennie vibes.
Both MSA and Loudenville were rider error though. MSA he was offline and was to the right of the slot and landed on a square edge. Loudenville he missed the gap and cased mega hard to wreck that one.
What was his other race run wheels failure?
I never said wheels aren’t disposable. I said e13 is junk and I said it’s not normal to throw your broken sponsored parts in the trash for any dude to find walking by. Usually it ends up in the race trailer and disposed of a little more discretely or sent back to the supplier if it’s a prototype or whatever. I’m wondering if Mondraker is not using them next season and nobody cares anymore.
Given the current race structure, racers that break a lot of parts and don’t win races, are going to have a tough time getting their next contract. Just about anyone at the World Cup level can show up, break a bunch of wheels/frames and not qualify for half the races or less. Might as well sign the ones that don’t break much and still qualify for half the races or less, it’s cheaper for the teams/sponsors and less stressful for everyone involved.
i9 would be a great sponsor for Ronan. And Cushcore.
let's say ronan had "stronger" rims or ran cushcore. would they allow him to ride like he does or would they ping-pong-ball off of every rock resulting in considerably slower results or blown lines? would cushcore be heavier and slower resulting in a different riding style and slower time? racing, especially now, is a battle of compromises. sometimes they pay off, sometimes they don't.
4 riders...I stopped counting at 13. LMS only did 5 all week, but I've got some secret sauce to keep air in the wombat's tires😉. Point being that it's the nature of the track.
Curious if you can share how you decide to retire a rim, and how different that might be for the rider's home practice bike vs. their race bike. How bad does a rim (or wheel) have to get before it's replaced? There's a lot of talk about riders "breaking" wheels but I'm not sure if that means cracking/splitting rims, snapping spokes, denting/flat-spotting aluminum rims, or any of the above. I'm sure it varies from team to team but would appreciate your perspective.
Inserts can harm rims, I don’t really get how, but I’ve dented rims while the tire is unscathed.
E13 carbon rims are especially bad, I have like 6 destroyed ones in my basement. But they keep warranting them, so can’t be bothered to change. Most the times when break them, I don’t even notice till I find the crack because I didn’t even feel the ring ding.
Thanks for the question. Long story short if the rim is unsafe to ride, it's immediately retired and the hub is re-laced to a new rim. I also have to consider the massive loss of time if I send my rider up on a rim I'm not 100% confident in. Not only do we lose a practice run, but it takes me 40-50 min for one wheel build(including taping and insert/tire mounting). I could easily be halfway through a fresh wheel build in the time it takes my rider to do one practice run so if I have any doubt I rebuild. For training a ding is ok if all the spokes measure within deflection range of what my rider prefers. For home training departure I always send my rider with a brand new fresh wheelset. Qualy/Race wheels have to be 100% perfect, plus there is a much longer prep time to make them as indestructible and roll as fast as possible. My definition of a "broken" rim is either cracked, or deformed to the point where it's unsafe and/or not able to hold air. MSA eats wheels for sure, but the most epic failures I have personally seen were at Val Di Sole.
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