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Shoot - beat me to it. Now just to find a printer with that sort of build volume
Have sidekick on my dh rig and onyx in my trail bike. Sidekick is very quiet. You can hear it on a stand but not on a trail. Same ride experience sound wise imo.
New sidekick pro is quite a bit lighter than the onyx vesper. Think it might be time to make the switch in the trail bike. They also roll even faster than the onyx.
Cascade makes a link for Orange?
That makes a lot of sense, I appreciate that. I have been doing this so long I forget sometimes, honestly. I guerrilla marketed One Ghost Industries for the better part of 10 years and never got any flack for it. Different times now and I know I am a bit out of touch. I also don't have a lot of free time to spend in the forums, which sucks all the way around. Two jobs and a family with two younger kids each with an autoimmune disease (on top of my own health issues) makes it difficult.
I also haven't been able to share too much about this project as we have ben wanting to keep it under wraps until Sea Otter. I wanted to try to leave some breadcrumbs here on Vital about it and get someone to hit me up on our Discord where I would probably spill the beans about it all. We were supposed to drop on April 1 and play into the fools jokes but when the second came 'round we were still there. Then we ended up having delay after delay with our CNC shop, machines breaking, needing to fix tools and make different stuff... so we got pushed back. Now I'll drop the full PR on April 20 🙃 just 'cause.
We will have four bikes at SOC, three are our enduro bike, the Eden (one of these three will be raced pro DS as well) and our gravel bike the spRocket. All our bikes use the Pinion SmartShift gearboxes and Gate's belts. The MTBs are all CNC aluminum (machined in Minnesota) and carbon tubes, all bonded and assembled (currently) in Vermont, but eventually, Vermont, Austin and Tacoma, once we all get our shops set up. I've always been a cottage industry type and this venture is no different.
We are planning to scale to mass production this year and are working on that plan now. We are hoping to work with Stinner Frameworks to assembly-line the frames for us and we will probably get all CNC work done overseas, now that the tariff issues are mostly under control. This will help us get costs down.
We did each of the pivot axles as a mirror image to keep SKUs and costs down, allow anyone to work on them and for the general ease of not needing to guess which is right and left. We made these bits as user friendly as possible. We knew they will be intimidating as they are gearbox bikes with a lot (like 80%) CNC billet as well as a different suspension than what is out there in the mainstream (there're a few copies and others that are their own variant). all external routed cables too.
Makes sense, homie. I replied to @Jofish about it too, but in more detail.
Can’t remember the frame I was working on, but it had aluminum pivot axles with a thru-bolt. The bolt broke, and then it was really hard to get the aluminum pivots out because it was just a round hole where the bolt was. They would’ve been much easier to rotate out of the frame with a hex like you implemented…
Any open-house days in Vermont?
I'm sure we can work that out. That is where our engineer works from and I'm sure he'd be keen to.
There is specific testing in ASTM standards to meet Cat 5 for torsional forces that a DC fork puts on a head tube.
Read that... Definitely Interesting stuff that really deserves some details.. Especially with Swamp Donkey, I mean Sea Otter, coming up.. Get the name out there now so people are looking for you guys there.. If it wasn't for LinkedIn, I wouldn't have a name to put with those images and what to look for if I was able to go...
Looks like a mechanical version of the XT 12 speed is coming on the Clash Fox bulid
Drumroll…there won’t be a clutch no more. Just the double spring bs.
Isn’t that only Di2? Thought I read mechanical retains the clutch.
I will be stocking up of clutched shimano's if they ever try to do something stupid like removing the proven shimano clutch.
Because it wasn't updated at all. This looks like it's getting an update though.
@noideamtber you mean proven to grenade and lock itself preventing the spring to return the cage and tension the chain?
Why not get a Madrone instead of a bunch derailleurs that require a lot of maintainance and not even working that well spending the same if not more for something much weaker, soft
New TLD Stage Stunt seems to be ready. Better build quality, hopefully the Stage 2 will be like that. Stage Stunt
Thoughts on the latest Forbidden clip? Also, interesting that Canyon have removed the Strive from the website entirely. No enduro bike currently advertised.
Hopefully they retcon that move on the bronson and Hightower CC frames. The C frames have cable access so in theory the moulds already exist 🤷🏼♂️
That’s awesome to hear. I know the 1st gen sidekick had a few reliability issues. I’ll probably wait to see a few real world reviews of the 2nd gen before pulling the trigger.
Im assuming youre wearing a downhill helmet during these "tests"? I know my helmet makes my hub nearly silent. But when I have a halfy on I can definitely hear it.
Dreadnought E is the rumour.
New Mezzer (finally)?
https://www.instagram.com/p/DW3f5x0DFww/?img_index=4
More from them- plus seems to be released now
All MTB derailleurs will switch to the dual spring system as soon as they get the update. Road and Gravel idk but I also don’t care…
We built this one! It's a Mattoc Expert 🙃
I think history has proven to never buy a first gen e13 anything
Across the multiple forums I follow I haven't heard one peep of issues with the sidekick nor have I had any myself after a years use. I echo the same e13 concerns you have but the sidekick has been flawless. Could be they over built it to avoid repeating history and then realized where they could save weight on V2, rather than the other way around.
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