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Not that I know of, but the Madrone Jab is manufactured in the US and looks like a quality product with a lot of the same benefits.
I think derailleur lifetime really depends on where and how you ride, what the condtions are like and even the impurities in the water from your hose pipe. For me Shimano 12 speed derailleurs (Deore, SLX or XT) were terrible with clutches and jockey wheels seizing after a few months and b-bolt and parallelogram pivot play ruining shifting in far less than a year. I find that the most robust 12 speed mechanical derailleur from Shimano or SRAM is the X01 Eagle, but they still only last about 2 years including new b-bolts and aftermarket jockey wheels and cost about the same as the Ratio or Madrone options.
Also I like to support products that are adaptable and rebuildable instead of disposable and so don't mind paying a bit extra for this, even if it doesn't pay back in the long run.
Vision Velo has a video on their Instagram showing where they're at with a prototype Podium Mudguard. So far it's looking good but not great:
https://www.instagram.com/p/DRP1Nt3DK9G/
FWIW I have a couple of their other mudguards and they're bomber; best ones I've used (my previous top picks were RRP and Mudhugger).
lol. That was a fun bike to build but was def not the favorite of those three prototypes for anyone. Def know the crew learned a bunch from that.
I really enjoyed that toolbox too….
The problem with that prototype was that it didn't use enough aluminum.
That would have caused an aluminum shortage if it had gone into production...
Curious what trail were you on? Near Golden?
I was at Apex Park in Golden, that’s the park where they ride most, home of the famous “Lunch Ride.”
I stumbled across another firmware update in the Sram app today for transmission rear derailleurs. It is another step faster now through the gears, and their 2nd improvement in shift speed this year.
Interesting. I never would have thought mountain bike tech would evolve around your derailleur collecting data, then your phone sending it to sram to then create a firmware update to better optimize it.
I saw this scrolling on Instagram, a friend in the USA, proto of which brand? Trek?
Going by the dropouts I would say yes, who else uses split pivot? Salsa, Devinci, who else did I miss?
A few pages ago, people were hypothesizing this was a new Wilson. Pictures were taken at Highland bike park, which is near eastern Canada… sort of. There’s also an engineering group near there that designs bikes for other brands, so the jury is still out.
I would love it if this were a new Wilson. The last carbon model they made in 27.5 was the best cornering downhill bike I’ve ever ridden IMO.
Not a high pivot looking at the chain... So, I would eliminate Trek..
The chainstay of the guy your girlfriend tells you not to worry about. My lord that is a long one.
Orbea also uses a concentric pivot at the rear axle, but considering they've already released their Rallon EN/DH in carbon, it would be surprising to see them testing another alloy prototype so soon. Devinci seems more plausible to me.
This was the trek proto they were testing a year ago. It’s close but most likely not Trek.
Im not sure about wilson just cause i havnt seen devinci put the chainstay on the outside of the seatstay like that. Could be but also that angle on the side of the seat stay doesnt look very much like and devinci ive seen. Almost more like a canyon but they just came out with a dh bike recently too. The split pivot is very similar to orbea but they just came out with their dh bike. Trek on fox and trp seems weird too.
I take back what i said about devinci not putting the chainstay on the outside. Looking at the troy alloy and the chainsaw they definitely do with the alloy bikes. The angles on the seatstay still look off for a devinci to me but could be.
The inside part is the one with the brake caliper mounted to it. On the Wilson that's the chainstay as it has the layout flipped to other models. In this case it's the seatstay so it's mounted there.
The same part mounting the caliper also has the pivot bolt mounted solidly with the bearing on the outer part - you get more space to mount it that way. You need to do it that way because if you had the bearing in the caliper mounting member, under a locked wheel situation, the axle would rotate inside the hub. You don't want that, you need everything fixed. So it makes sense to have the caliper carrying member inside, put the bolt through it and lock it in place and have the (wide-ish) bearing on the outside of it rotating freely.
The "old" Devinci HP Proto
Well that's a plot twist to my above rumbling...
Caliper location is definitely important to the prototype speculation. Wilson‘s of the past have had the caliper mounted to the chainstay, which is what is actually driving the shock.
Don’t quote me here, but I think one of the key parts of Split Pivot design is caliper location relative to shock linkage. The Wilson has always had the caliper mounted to the chainstay that actuates the lower linkage. “Crab” designs consequently are mounted to the seatstays…
Not neccessarily - the HP Range (ironically a bike of the day yesterday) and the Horst link Forbiddens have it mounted to the chainstay. If you have a true 4-bar layout, you need to mount the caliper to the axle mounting member/link - the seatstays of a normal horst link, the rear triangle for a dual short link bike or the chainstay for any inverted horst link design (high pivot inverted designs).
With split pivot (and active braking pivot) it's a gray area as these designs are single pivot when it comes to pedalling performance (axle mounted to the front triangle with what is basically a swingarm), but are actually 4-bars when it comes to braking performance. This is precisely because the caliper is mounted to the seatstays in the case of all(?) Treks and in the case of most Devincis, but to hte chainstays of the Wilson. Because the Wilson is, as inverted high pivot horst links, actually an inverted design.
If the Wilson had the caliper mounted to the seatstays, it would be a single pivot through and through. A single pivot with a 'complicated' layout (you have to jump through hoops to make the pivot concentric), but a single pivot nontheless. If you have this freedom of choice, obviously you go for the higher performing option (4-bar).
Orbea, and now Canyon on the HP Sender,
Ideally, you want the caliper mount on the floating link to reduce the effect of braking forces on the suspension, lower the anti rise. If it's an inverted system, so that the main pivot is connected to the seat stay and the chainstay is the floating link, then having the brake mount on the seat stay defeats the purpose of having the axle pivot. It's just a LD single pivot with an obnoxious bearing location at that point. Unless they want high anti rise, which is possible. But in regard to the first picture, it doesn't look like a High Pivot, so the brake being mounted to the seat stay is the lower anti rise position.
None of the previous Wilson’s were high pivot. They have all had the brake mounted to the chainstay and not the seatstay. Even the prototype HP models were designed this way.
I actually have an HP Range. Brilliant bike.
I’m just pointing out that the previous design language of the Wilson is opposite of this prototype.