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
I got $50USD toward that…
Way I see it, I pay $20 a month to watch racing. Raw makes the races more fun to watch - it gives you a sense of the track and how the weekend is going. I’m willing to pay Warner bros. Why wouldn’t I be willing to pay vital for Raw?
Count me in.
It was and not really screenshot able as it was a video him talking
I'd put $50 towards Vital Raws rather than spending $50 on freaking valves being advertised here.
@sspomer
Looks like we got something going here.
Capital Campaign to make sure we have access to the best.
I’m in $50 for Lawlor
That makes 10% of the $3000 VitalRawlor annual budget promised in 14hours. Hey @sspomer maybe everyone who contributes can get a VHS copy of AllTheRaws2026?
I know nothing about this, but couldn’t you guys set up a patreon with proceeds going towards race coverage? There seems like there would be a reasonable amount of support, or sell merch, make it expensive but all profits go towards race coverage.
Someone should make a new thread about ways to fund vitals World Cup expenses.
Holy crap. I wished for Sam on an Iron Horse painted Empire. Instead he pops up on an actual Iron Horse !!!
https://www.instagram.com/reel/DT-7VljD416/?igsh=MzRlODBiNWFlZA==
Mondraker?
Another teaser reel from Brage. Any idea what it could be? Something metal, not carbon, so Santa Cruz or Cannondale (ruling out PON options) and not Forbidden. Based on the headtube junction and tube shapes, I don’t think it’s a Trek, Devinci or Mondraker. No shock mount on the downtube, so I think that rules out Spec and Zink.
Really similar shape to an Airdrop Edit (kinda leaning that way, if I was guessing) except the brake mount is a different shape.
He does follow Airdrop on IG. The only other brands he follows are the larger more premium brands that you'd expect as an industry member.
looking at the top tube, cage bolts, and rear dropouts, it could be a transition patrol or spire. I’m not convinced that it is though.
Strike that, the headtube area looks different than the patrol/spire, and even the bottle rocket isn’t quite right.
Not a DH frame? I can see the screws for the water bottle cage.
That's why I said the Airdrop Edit, which is their trail bike:
Claw's bike he had at Rampage (or some other brand thats not actually paying him)
Ari.
Looks a little like it could be a Norco Shore.
Some of the shadows in the images might hide some of the tube profiles.
I don't think it's high pivot and the rear axle/pivot/drop out is the wrong shape.
The shock is mounted on the down tube on all of Ari's bikes.
I don't think its an Ari for other reasons, but that alone shouldn't rule it out, a recent-ish dh prototype has a vertical layout of some sort. To my eye, the only production bike it closely resembles is an Airdrop Slacker (with bottle cage bosses for some reason). My contribution, based on nothing, is the possibility of a Santa Cruz mule
Unless they've changed their frames, the lack of any cable guides on the downtube rule out Airdrop and Ari for me. I kinda hope I'm wrong though, seeing Brage on an Airdrop would be epic.
Chunky welds, cable port location and CS pivot looks a lot like the Haro Greer. But heard they were struggling recently so not sure Brage would sign on for more of that...
re: Paul Couderc on full SRAM/RS, makes me think about Fox Factory and how big of idiots they look like for going full racer elitist and banishing all their non-racer riders to Marz
like I get boosting the Marz roster to help with the brand revival was a necessary move, but now they just look like assholes for not giving riders the ability to adjust anything besides compression as if there's literally no benefit to being able to consider other suspension variables. sure many freeride/DJ applications don't need the full racing engineer capabilities that a DH WC rider utilizes, but even my neanderthal ass can tell the difference a few clicks on HSC, LSC, HSR, LSR, etc. makes on my daily ride. the new super Z feels like fox is saying "okay here's a few more clicks to mess around with but still fuck off and deal with it peon"
I don't want it to be Ari. But there are some signs. Also they have money. Desire to expand to Europe and UK. Like Freeride. Understand social media. No UCI teams for any sport tying up millions for Road, Gravel, XC or DH. They make prototypes all the time.
Now that I’ve looked at the new bottle rocket a bit more, it could be that. The brake mount looks right, the placement of the bottle cage matches, the shape of the top and downtubes are very similar, I’m pretty sure it’s a straight 1.5 headtube, and unlike other transition bikes I don’t think there are external brake lines. The one thing that’s getting me is the rear dropouts- they look sharper than transitions, though it may be the longer dropout option. They look closer to the haro Greer, but I don’t think that has a 1.5 straight headtube.
Please, someone argue against this.
Where are they getting the money? I’ve never seen an Ari in the flesh here in New England. Maybe they sell a ton in SoCal? Investors? I don’t get it.
ya know how Walter White bought a carwash?
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