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Damn.. That Forbidden just found a spot on my wish list..
I’ve been dying for a light bike with long chain stays. I hate that my enduro bike climbs better than my tiny bike from a geo perspective (obvi not from weight or kinematics). Not wheelie-ing out on technical climbs on a 28lb bike is my dream.
Really hope they can keep the weight down and not make it too DH focused by trying to slack it out too much or have a low BB. Could be a real winner!
I have a Giant Trance that I want to rebuild.. 440 on the CS..SA is a bit slacker than current bikes, but i can live with that.. I didn't realize what I liked so much about until I started to go full nerd mode on the numbers..
The Druid has 466 mm CS in xl, which should increase when sagged. I love the long chainstays on my Madonna but thats absurd for a trailbike.
I've got 462mm on a XL 180mm e-mtb and it's too long lol
I have to plan my next bunnyhop yesterday
Top fuel is close with a better suspension feel (stock). Angles are not quite as aggressive as the Optic.
Rumor is, still only one size of these exist at the moment but here’s more of the DH bikes floating around outside the WC team so that’s always exciting to see!
Also interested to see what this new Burgtec bar is being made for Frameworks team. I am assuming less backsweep like Renthals have always had. we shall see
Totally. I’m hoping for a CS length of around 450 in whatever largest size they have. 450 stays paired with a 66 degree HTA on a 28ish lb bike could be pretty fun…
You just need to buy that new seat post adjustment thingy that helps steepen the SA.
I slid the seat on the rails.. I would have loved to have gotten my hands on the last version of the Trance.. That frame in the high setting would have been pretty much everything i want..
Transition Smuggler? Loved mine
that thing is soooo sexy😍 would be a shame if yeti would never sell it.
It's still January, don't make me post the link, chainstay boys.
I wonder how the Forbidden rides with an o-chain
Why put an O-Chain on a snappy, light, responsive bike like the Forbidden down country? Makes more sense on a short travel all mountain bike like the Druid or 5010 to me. Love my O-Chain on my park bike.
Looks good does that. Although bucking the trend of no frame storage like its peers (Stumpy/Epic Evo, TopFuel, Tallboy)
Be interesting to see what numbers theyve come up with.
Because Forbidden is the high pivot brand, they forgot an idler on that bike so you need to add some isolation back!
Beautiful bike, but surprising to see forbidden come out with a non high pivot crab design.
Probably has 455mm chainstays or something wild to set it apart?
My YouTube game is weak these days, so I'm a bit late (the video is 4 months old), but I don't think this has been discussed:
The relevant part begins at 2:24 - aero in DH.
This is off the back of Peak Torque's previous video where he did an analysis on Leadville 100 race (a gravel-ish race where some riders ran full suss XC bikes with drop bars and there was one case of a makeshift fork fairing) and the benefits a fork fairing plus drop bars would give you over a 'stock' XC bike (no fairings and flat bars). For DH, 2025 Leogang was analysed and based on his modelling, adding aero fairings to a Fox 40 Jackson Goldstone, the winner by around 5 hundreds of a second, could gain up to 1,8 seconds due to lower drag and the resulting higher speed.
Obviously this is assuming Jackson COULD run said higher speed, i.e. wouldn't need to brake more, but still. Aero in DH when?
One can only hope but in this case on a size large that sounds about right. I'll sell my Epic Evo 8 and buy that crab in a minute.
I wonder if the new Boxxer with it's "fairing" for negative chamber or whatever it is will have a nice side benefit adding some aero?
I thought that's what the leotards are for
Aero will come. There is so much aero to be gained on a DH bike. Crying foul over the Fox speed suits is pretty silly, seeing how tight kits have gotten over the years. They just did it better than everyone else. Someone will probably think body armour is creating poor aero profiles under tight jerseys and start sculpting those too. I'm waiting for someone to find a way around the moto visor rule or try to reshape one in order to find some aero gain that is surely there. Style before tenths of a second!
It's such a shame that more photos of the old Mammoth Mountain Reekok Eliminator/Kamikaze aren't online. Someone with a collection of MBA's and other magazines of the era, please scan and upload them!
The old Mammoth Mountain Eliminator was wild! Going 50, even 60mph down fireroad. 50T+ chainrings, fairings, discs, deep profile rims, speed skiing aero fairings and helmets. Someone needs to find the photos of the Yeti's with handlebar fairings. I remember seeing 2 liter soda bottles being cut up into fairings too!
So... showing up to a DH race in a speed skiing suit would actually be a return to the sport's roots?
No. More details on what the fairing should look like to work properly is shared in the previous episode:
Tldr, even what was used in Leadville is barely an improvement, it was too blunt both front and back. The updated Boxxer and Zeb are nowhere near to the Leadville fairing, so nowhere close to being reasonably effective.
Exactly!!!
Even Palmer wore a skinsuit and visor free helmet. Palmer.
On tech, I'm excited to learn more about the Forbizzo. It might be the motivation I need to go down-country.
And just to poke the bear, I'm assuming the new Demo release should be in March, along with Sram and Brembo. Bikes are supposed to be available here around then.
What am I crying foul over?
Break away visor. Easy enough to find a spot to knock it off with your bars or whatever.
You could just put little firecrackers in the visor attachment. Light the fuses at the 10-second warning.
Drop in; tiny explosions jettison the visor up and away; maximum aero achieved!
I've said this many times in these forums. DH has not really scratched the surface with aero, and those who do will reap major rewards given how close times have gotten. I think it is overlooked that (I think it was) Neko who said in an interview that his teammembers had to train in their Speedsuits because it was that much faster than normal kit. Their braking points would get all messed up if they trained all sessions in normal kit, then put on the Speedsuit for race day.
Jackson is without a doubt one of the most skilled on a bike on the World Cup, however, he's not heavy and doesn't benefit from mass going downhill. There's a good chance he doesn't get a couple of his victories last year if he's a baggy kit.
The fairings on the front brake rotor will become more common as well because it smooths the air in that area.
The first rider to not wear a peak on his helmet will benefit as well (unless that's outlawed by UCI?)
When races are won/lost by <1sec aero is a HUGE factor.
Anyone who spends time on a road bike will understand aero than your average MTBer.
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