MTB Tech Rumors and Innovation

Honestly the best format was the yearly. I think the single thread is ideal for rumors to start the discussion, then have it break out to individual. The BIG thread got bad, but the yearly thread was dialed. Just like race talk and team rumors.

I get the web resource thing, so swapping it every year works. 

Also great for a recap every year/5/10 to see how bikes have developed.

So my vote is yearly generic thread for discussion to break out to other subjects.

This is the way. Rename the v2 Tech Rumors thread to 2026 Tech Rumors, pin it, close it on Dec 31, 2026. Rinse and repeat.  

Kinda similar on the MTBR NorCal forum that I also inhabit, there is a monthly thread dedicated to ride reports (and all their tangents and side conversations). Works really well and is easy to navigate/manage. 

Let's face it this thread was the ebike of forum threads (easy, doesn't take any actual effort to follow). 

I welcome the individual threads 😎

This. And in light of this, a different suggestion. 

One thread to follow for us email notification addicts. In said thread we, the people, post links to other interesting (tech related) threads. A notification thread basically.

So we can be reliably notified about notifications for interesting threads to check out and subscribe to to get notifications directly to them later. 

Now the question is how many chainstay length debate can we fit here before the end of the year? 

I think the real question is "What's the next geometry number to be debated? " I think they have all been covered at this point..  Maybe we can debate the 1.8 ratio?

Not much to debate. 1.8ish works pretty well. 

This might be an unpopular opinion but I like the idea of individual threads for different topics. In the current format I have to sift through posts about crab links and knock off brakes when what I'm really looking for is info about the new 1.21 gigawatt e-bike. 

The counterpoint to this, is that having giant threads declutters the forum. I like the balance of the "The Hub" showing the ten(ish) large but active threads and then the rest being smaller ephemeral topics that are based on news or more specific topics. For example the tire nerd thread is split between real tire discussion and then posts from people asking "which tire should I use for X bike in Y location?" - if those turn into individual threads I certainly won't be reading & engaging in them. I like that I can open Vital, get to the threads that I care about via notifications and then take a peek at the rest of the forum (if I want) and know that the threads are generally high value discussions. There's definitely value (for me, but probably not in # of clicks) that the vital forum is not a facsimile of reddit where 98% of the threads are irrelevant after 48 hours. There's a healthy amount of self-enforced gatekeeping where users here generally don't start new topics or even post in threads unless there's actually something that can be contributed.

Agree with others, closing the thread with no alternative is hard to wrap my head around. 

Alternatively, and I'm fully ready to get downvoted for this, but the "Crab" thing was getting really overplayed, I'm ready for that to chill out. Funny joke while it lasted, doesn't need to be repeated every day in response to every topic. 

Quick question @sspomer not that I want to delve into vitalmtb's business here... but is thread qty important to vitals business/website and a contributing factor to this?  I think all of us would agree that this website/community is important to us... so if there are things that need to change or things we're doing that are impacting the site's success, we would want to play by a rule set that facilitates that.  

Otherwise, if there is a way to have annual, or monthly tech rumors threads and that cuts down on resource consumption, and still achieves the business goals/metrics for the site, sounds like that would be a good happy medium.  

I just don't want to have the masses off to the races on solutions, if those do not solve the problem you are trying to solve.  Said another way, we're invested and we want you to be successful.  That being said, let's call a spade a spade here.  The seasoned mtb community has always proven to be lone wolfs that don't color inside the lines well and historically, have had issues with authority figures of any kind. 

100% agreement.

Vital is awesome and anything we can all be doing to make the whole service more viable - especially things that don't fundamentally change the site's usefulness - is something I (and I'm sure most others) would be on-board with.

Yes, I think annual threads is the format I would also prefer.

As others have pointed out, this thread specifically thrives on a healthy mix of actual tech rumors and lighthearted banter / memes. But for that, the conversation needs some sort of continuity. To get that continuity, but also not eat up too many resources on the Vital servers, I think yearly servers would be the best solution.

This is what is done in the Netweather forums. They make a monthly storm thread during thunderstorm season and then a monthly snow thread during winter. Sometimes we get thundersnow which confuses things.

Who's going to adapt this technology? 

As someone who does’t have the time or desire to wade through a dumpster fire thread of random discussion and only the occasional interesting tidbit, though I find myself doing it anyway…Good decision, Spomer et al. 

Go a week without looking at this thread and suddenly there’s 4 pages of bullshit and random comments to go through. You’ll cry about the loss of this thread and after 6 weeks realize the powers that be chose well for you. 

Magnetic balls smashers?

Except the magnets are repelling each other..

If it's not Pole I'm gonna be disappointed.

For now...

I'm a refugee from a UK based site where the site performance became unworkable so I am very sympathetic to how tough it must be to keep the lights on in the current climate.

Without diving to much into the business of vital it could be that multiple threads and the associated clicks are advantageous from a revenue perspective.

So whilst I'd prefer one big thread I can appreciate the complications.

Just here to cast another vote for annual tech threads.

Hey.. The annual team rumors thread launch is always highly anticipated..

I could live with annual tech threads

Here's another 2 cents. I love Vital (and its forums) and I love Pinkbike (and its comments). I've followed both for as long as I can remember. I started mountain biking when I was 12 in the year 2000. I've been around. Both sites are great. Both offer different resources. Both serve the sport we love. But I don't understand why so many Vital readers hate Pinkbike. Like, really really dislike a site that has been so important in building a positive image for mountain biking. I've seen more anti-Pinkbike/anti-that-other-site/anti-rhymes with StinkBike comments on Vital than I can remember. Conversely, I can't recall ever seeing an anti-Vital comment on Pinkbike. Maybe someone can explain where this hate comes from, but I don't get it.

We can’t.  Secrets make friends. 😂

On one of the Pink Bike podcasts not to long ago, Kaz and crew laughed at the tribalism between the users of both sites.. I'm willing to bet that a majority of us are on both sites.. A little different vibe between the two, but at the end of the day, it's just more mountain bike stuff for me to read and potentially some bike related discussions to participate in..

I don't hate pinkbike, I just don't visit it. The comments are mostly a shit show over there. Here you can have a normal discussion. We're talking about having a topic so big that it might break the forum. Not all of it was perfect, but damn was it fun while it lasted. 

On Pinkbike, my experience is that it's some puns that get a lot of upvotes, but if you try to have a meaningful conversation, you're more likely to be downvoted than upvoted.

That’s only in the front page comments.  The forums are adult like in their nature.  I rarely read the comments just because it is not worth my time.