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I’m with MXecutioner !!
Probably missed this discussion, but is there a reason we went from 29 to 32? What about 30 or 31? Or 30.5 (just like 27.5 is between 26 and 29). Curious: Was 32 just an arbitrary choice, or is there some reasoning?
You can only have so many incremental steps before The Industry™ goes full penny farthing.
Something to do with unicycles
Likely just an easy number to move towards. It's not too big (36) but enough of a jump in size to make people think its better. Pure marketing. 29" kind of made sense, it was already the same rim and tire diameter as road bikes, so making that jump for manufactures of wheels and tires, well all they really needed to do was make there 26" wheels and tires on machines they kind of already had. Remember, this was when MTB rims were huge if they were 25mm wide. And when that kind of stalled, they introduced 27.5 as an in-between size and worked out the geo issues until most people finally moved up to 29, or at least mullet after 2019. Now that bikes have kind of hit a slow spot for development, they're literally just moving on to the next most likely thing, even if its not better for most people. Tech-dudes will run for it thinking it will make them suck less and not have to cut roots out, sales numbers will jump for 3-4 years as people try it out and in 2032, trying to find a 32" tire will be like trying to find 27.5+ tires now.
Don't get me wrong, 32", will have the same magic carpet effect 29 had compared to 26 but honestly, 32 is going to make people under 6'3" feel like someone on 29's under 5'5". I'm 5'8", a very solid size medium and on a full 29 enduro bike, my rear tire was getting very up-close and personal when wheel travel got scarce or really steep stuff. While I don't see 32" moving beyond trail bike territory, I think over half of people who ride would end up being made to feel awful uncomfortable when riding on much more than easy rolling terrain. And looking at the bikes, that things not making it around a tight switch back designed 10 years ago for 26" wheels any day of the week.
650b, 700cc, so that means 750ddd right?
Funny screen grab… oops…
But more production ready frames… more brembos, and different Ohlins stanchions..
I think frame and brakes are soon! Let’s hope. I want the brakes.
Not sure on Ohlins but will be interesting to see that direction
Odd that they would brand a new/proto fork with the old (superior, seriously, I didn't see a single positive comment on the whole internet) branding...
Old branding to try and hide the prototype? Use the new branding when they release the new fork? Wild guess on my part..
It’s wild to have your cranks disappear into the frame at a spot different from your chainring. Kinda really totally have to ride one of these…
I never noticed that until you just pointed it out, even though I've seen this bike so many times. It's at the top of the list of bikes I actually want to ride, alongside the Rallon (in both DH and enduro capacity).
la chaine doit être super longue
I think its the same coating Loic had earlier but just in the full sun looks a little different.
Definitely! I think it is a way they can further distinguish themselves and get away from black stanchions like the others have. Will be curious their marketing take on performance improvements.
Also the blue crowns are sexy!
random: i spotted what i'm pretty sure was another one of these on the shore yesterday. (same profile, cover, swingarm config, etc). his buddy was on what looked like a proto mule (raw alu) single crown thing. no indication of company affiliation on bikes nor clothing. entirely non-useful info, sorry.
There was more than enough room for a spy camera in that beard. Food for thought.
Also saw it on the back of a car shuttling past me as I was pedaling up the road so no time to grab a sneaky pic but thought it might have been this bike! Looked much like it!
brace yourself...
at the end of the year, we're going to lock this thread.
while it's been amazing (thank you all!) and fun that we hit 1000 pages and over 7.5m views, this thread is a logistical and technical resource hog. it's also not easy to access older information. while there are a lot of upsides to the ease and convenience of posting to this thread, the downsides are outweighing the ups with it being so massive.
please start a NEW thread to the hub for anything that has potential for legitimate discussion. good posts will be homepaged and the discussions will be a lot more targeted. they'll also be shareable and easier to find in the future.
we've discussed this internally for a few months now and we feel this is the best long-term decision, even if it means some habits have to be adjusted. i await your thumbs downs 🤐 and again, thanks to everyone for making this such fun place to ultimately talk about chainstay lengths 🤣
Ill be the first thumbs down since you said you're waiting for them lol
At the same time it will make alot of stuff easier to find as well but this thread will be missed. As long as you dont end entire forum like the surfer forum just did it isnt too bad of a change.
Following a single thread was very convenient. Probably why this thread was so successful.
Can we just start a single new thread - tech rumors 2025 or whatever?
Here's a new one
https://www.vitalmtb.com/forums/hub/mtb-tech-rumors-and-innovation-v2
Well to credit you all, this thread was Pinkbikes greatest research resource lol
I’m crying in the club rn. This thread has so much interesting stuff to look back on. I vote we just start v2
I just fell to my knees in my LBS
Every great messageboard’s downfall began like this.
RIP vital forums…
That's one way to get a discount bro....slurp
Agreed. Surfer forum gone cause of the cost of running it and storage. That had been around for 21 years and deleted to save some money