Hello Vital MTB Visitor,
We’re conducting a survey and would appreciate your input. Your answers will help Vital and the MTB industry better understand what riders like you want. Survey results will be used to recognize top brands. Make your voice heard!
Five lucky people will be selected at random to win a Vital MTB t-shirt.
Thanks in advance,
The Vital MTB Crew
He definitely not a young guy... I follow him on IG.. I think he enjoys welding and doing projects of sorts, but doing full on production runs may not be his thing now..
Frameworks Newsletter
Thank you for following along with Frameworks! We have our 2026 DH and Enduro Frames coming into stock soon and wanted to give you a quick update on what to expect.
DH Frames will be shipping in February, and Enduro Frames will be shipping in March. We prioritized the DH Frames so that our racers who will be starting their season in March would have them in time to build before season.
New for 2026: DH frames will be available in 4 sizes: S,M,L,XL. More details coming soon in our next newsletter. In short, we’ve added an S and XL to our existing size line up.
What's not new is the ride quality and reliability that you'd expect out of a FW bike. The same race winning, stable geometry, and predictable kinematics that we’ve built our brand on, in a package that’s easy to live with.
If you are a Frameworks customer, chances are you are going racing. We are too! Our staff, teams, and athletes will be at the following race series:
Downhill Southeast, Monster Energy Pro Downhill, and UCI World Cup DH.
If you have a warranty/crash replacement issue at a race, come see us at our pit space. We are committed to honoring warranty/crash replacement claims on-site and helping with Frameworks specific small parts needs whenever possible to keep you running in the unlikely event you have a problem. Perhaps at some races we can do more, but at the very least you can count on us being there in person with FW specific spares. Fine print to come, but it's simple: we are committed to the highest level of after purchase support.
Keep an eye out for our 2026 Frameworks Racing team roster. We have some new athletes on our World Cup Downhill team for next season and we can’t wait to share the news.
We hope you consider a Frameworks for your 2026 race bike. We’ve done the homework on bike set-up for you, It's developed to go fast, and it's easy to maintain.
Thanks!
Neko
I believe they already had the small atleast for the enduro. The xl is new though i think. I'm 5'9" and was on the medium. With how long the chainstays are and my terrain i probably could have sized down to the small. Its a burly bike that wants to go fast but felt pretty big on flow trails.
So as the year and this thread draws to a close, what were 2025's most significant innovations? What could get nominated for the Innovation Of The Year Awards?
32" wheels? That seems like nominating a shoe size.
Fox's Glidecore air piston? That seems awfully similar to what Formula and perhaps others have used already.
Some aspect of Shimano Di2? Maybe the wiggly shifter buttons or the angled brake levers?
I really hope the greatest innovation isn't founders coming out of retirement in hope of saving their foundlings from extinction.
We've had this discussion amongst the Vital staff as well, which basically resulted in our "Best Of 2025" Gear Show a couple of weeks ago: https://www.vitalmtb.com/videos/member/best-new-mtb-products-2025-vital-mtb-gear-show.
We'd be super interested in hearing the answers from the greater community to this question as well - what stood out to you guys in "Team Green" at large :-) ? We felt like it was a year of incremental advancement and refinement, as opposed to new innovations that stood above the others in a more significant way.
The single most newsworthy innovation is widely available USD forks.
Regarding other things that stick out to me from this last year:
-Chain Slap / Anti-kick back devices: E13 sidekick hub, DT Swiss DGDF
-Drivetrain items: Shimano Wireless, Sram c70/c90 mechanical transmission
-Misc suspension: MRP Lift Damper, Fox DHX/X2 lineup, Push Sv8/vtx, More Bomber/DHX aftermarket tuning options
-Brakes: Hope's new lineup, Maven Base, Shimano's new brakes, Lewis Xerox Machine, thicker rotors, rotor shrouds
-Ebike: Bosch cx gen 5, DJI avinox, specialized fast charger for levo 4
-Apparel/Accessories: Battery tire inflation pump madness, Canyon's new breakaway helmet design, The return of shoulder strap packs (many), the return of shorts in downhill racing, garmin inreach 4?
-Tires: Schwalbe Radial tires, 120tpi tire options (more), Maxxis HR3 and dissector 2
I'm sure there are more that I am forgetting... at least I hope there are.
I'm going to preface this with "I absolutely zero interest in electronic shifting", but I think it's hard to argue against Shimano actually producing a wireless groupset being one of the biggest tech stories of the year. It might not be groundbreaking in the same way AXS was, but I appreciate SRAM doesn't have a monopoly on wireless anymore.
I also think full production ready looking Specialized Demo dh bike being shown to the world is pretty huge after years and years of different prototypes.
Shimano has been on the “me too” cycle with mountain bike products for at least the last 10 years. It’s all just been reactions to what SRAM and others have been doing. Nominating them for any kind of award is just a hard no in my opinion.
https://www.transitionbikes.com/Bikes/Spire
The innovation we see the most this year. Bold new graphics. This is the new Trek Project One Spire
noticed on the press release for the new limited editionYT tues, looks like a 20mm variant of industry nine's 1/1. No 20mm options on i9's configurator currently, I believe the bearings they already run have space for a 20mm axle, i9 just hasn't ever made the endcaps. Maybe YT got them to spin up a batch for these builds, maybe there's a 1/1 2 coming down the pipe. just caught my eye
The V10.8 I bought in 2024 has a set of 1/1 hubs with 20mm end caps...
Yeah reserves have been coming with 20mm 1/1s for a few years now
I assumed production had been moved elsewhere some time ago because the website doesn't make any noise about them being made in the USA
Right, I think Shimano's focus on innovation is probably in the manufacturing side of the business.
Isn't Trump trying to make America great again ?
I’m 90% sure the front triangles are still welded by frank the welder, it was on ig last year. The rocker is also machined in the US, but the rear triangle is molded in Taiwan.
what was not newsworthy (because nobody buys ads or sends free product for "review"): how a small company from freiburg, germany with a few employees beats the big companies in fork and brake performance and quality craftmanship
In the words of Ruben, from Raaw:
...(and yes, there’s a lot to plan and coordinate for 2026 😉)...
There were some hints for a new dropout sistem for the trailbikes. what more they will have under their sleeves? I'm kinda looking forward for that company to release an E-Madonna...
I had one of the my ‘26 enduro frames in my hands a couple weeks ago.
If literally hundreds of FTW built frames hadn’t passed through my hands over the last 25 years, I would be hard pressed to tell the difference, the start-stop marks on the welds were even in the same place Frank does them.
Neko and Logan need margin and scalability to build a sustainable brand. That takes working with a more vertically integrated supplier- and there really isn’t anyone domestically that has the manufacturing firepower to match the amazing product and marketing firepower the Mullaly boys have created.
That last thing I want to see is an e-bike from Raaw. With so much turbulence in the industry they're better off just sticking to their core lineup and continuing to refine it.
Plenty of other brands to choose from if you're so set on an e-bike.
I don’t have data on this but it feels every smaller company when they release an ebike goes under shortly after, especially if it was carbon. Revel and Deviate that was the case. Maybe it’s the cost of the R&D is so much it strains the company, I don’t know.
Not particularly set on an ebike myself, never owned one,the way I look at it, most of them go from shitty to "good" but poor value with nothing in the middle. Thats why I think that the realibility, serviceability, life expectancy, and quality of life features that Raaw puts at the forefront of the bikes they design will make for a compelling proposition if they decide to enter in the ebike market. Who knows, we will see.
Another quote from that same email:
...Julian shapes the RAAW universe – whether it’s owner’s manuals or logos for a new bike...
But then again, judging by that criterium, literally nothing that happened in cycling in the last 12 months could be nominated for any sort of innovation award. It’s all just been very small incremental refinement - which I’m honestly totally fine with, because don’t fix what’s not broken (and also for that same reason: 32“ wheels can go do one).
Outlier Pendulums are definitely different and innovative. They may not be for everyone, but I love mine.
Innovation award to sram for app updates and the quicker derailleur shifting speeds
Unovation? I vote for the SRAM 70/90 mechanical derailleurs. The average rider has no idea that their bent derailleur hanger is ruining their shifting. In terms of performance improvement for the masses, this is one of the best advances ever.
Unfortunately about half of those are from 2024.
Note that even though they use the same bearings, the 20mm is apparently a different shell than the 15mm. This means you can convert the 20mm >> 15mm with just different axle/endcaps (same bearings), but not the other way around afaik.
Here is the response I got from Thomas @ i9 when I inquired about converting my 20mm:
"Those 20mm 1/1 fronts are based on an entirely different hubshell than the standard 15mm boost ones. To convert that down to a 15x110, you would actually use Hydra parts: HAX2600 axle and HKMA03 endcaps. The bearing spec would remain the same between the two."
the 20mm 1-1 hubs are OEM only.
Yep, same.
I9 1/1 with Reserve 30 AL