2026 MTB Tech Rumors and Innovation - Longer and Slacker

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17 hours ago

How’s her mechanic think about it ? 

Obviously, he wants to find a way to get one. 🤣

If you can get him to order an extra s5 I’ll split it with you between Oregon and the Rockies 

I first thought , fuck that pricing. 
But after sleeping on it, I’ve decided: 

I need to ride this bike all year !!!

Or half the year if you’re down 

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17 hours ago
Evwan wrote:
Buying a Santa Cruz usually costs a bit more, but there are some legitimate reasons other than VPP to buy one. Kinematics / ride dynamics are well...

Buying a Santa Cruz usually costs a bit more, but there are some legitimate reasons other than VPP to buy one. 

  • Kinematics / ride dynamics are well engineered regardless of linkage used
  • SC geo is usually solid, nothing weird
  • Build quality 
  • Ability to purchase replacement parts for many years (try buying parts for a 5 year old frame from any other bike company)
  • Lifetime warranty (one that you can actually count on). 
Having ridden bikes from several major brands, my SC Megatower has easily been the best I’ve owned when it comes to product support, parts availability, and...

Having ridden bikes from several major brands, my SC Megatower has easily been the best I’ve owned when it comes to product support, parts availability, and clear, reliable customer service. I used to make fun of people who had an SC, but after dealing with repeated warranty issues on other bikes, I get it now. The Mega is a sick bike, the VPP suspension rides great, but honestly, it’s the overall ownership experience that really sets Santa Cruz apart. I'm in the market for a shorter travel ripper, and SC is at the top of the list, even if it's just for customer service support. 

Santa Cruz owners of 25 plus years all knodding their heads in agreement …. As they’ve put the grandkids down for a nap and can go to the garage and stroke their expensive anodized metal bike collection (still have good bearings !!) 

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1
jones007
Posts
21
Joined
12/9/2025
Location
SEASIDE, CA US
17 hours ago
Eae903 wrote:
I think the confusion comes from the idea that anolog is the opposite of electronic. The extra stupid thing is that PWM (assuming pulse width modulation)...

I think the confusion comes from the idea that anolog is the opposite of electronic. The extra stupid thing is that PWM (assuming pulse width modulation) is digitally controlling and analog output. So yeah, the motor is an analog output, but it's still an electric motor controlled by a digital signal sent by a computer, and not the same thing as a non-motorized bike. 

Calling bikes without a motor "analog" is dumb. Calling PWM "analog" is just incorrect. PWM is a digital signal. 

Just trying to catch up after being away for 4 days. This whole discussion of PWM (pulse width modulation) is pretty stupid. PWM signals are, as the "width" part of the name indicates, a voltage that is either low or high (the digital aspect of the problem), but the actually data is encoded in the width of the pulse, and that is analog. Clocks on the sending and receiving end of the signal are needed to determine the actual value of the signal. Since clocks vary, some calibration procedure is needed so that both ends can agree on what 0 and 100% look like. The racing drone market ditched PWM for an actual digital signal nearly a decade ago. The brushless speed controls for the motors typically also use PWM, but in a more digital way, to control duty-cycle to control motor output. 

While the term "analog" for pedal-only bikes may seem a little odd, I think everyone in the community knows what you're talking about when you use the term these days. If we can deal with SPD pedals being called "clipless" for the past 34 years, analog seems fine to me.

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17 hours ago
jones007 wrote:
Just trying to catch up after being away for 4 days. This whole discussion of PWM (pulse width modulation) is pretty stupid. PWM signals are, as...

Just trying to catch up after being away for 4 days. This whole discussion of PWM (pulse width modulation) is pretty stupid. PWM signals are, as the "width" part of the name indicates, a voltage that is either low or high (the digital aspect of the problem), but the actually data is encoded in the width of the pulse, and that is analog. Clocks on the sending and receiving end of the signal are needed to determine the actual value of the signal. Since clocks vary, some calibration procedure is needed so that both ends can agree on what 0 and 100% look like. The racing drone market ditched PWM for an actual digital signal nearly a decade ago. The brushless speed controls for the motors typically also use PWM, but in a more digital way, to control duty-cycle to control motor output. 

While the term "analog" for pedal-only bikes may seem a little odd, I think everyone in the community knows what you're talking about when you use the term these days. If we can deal with SPD pedals being called "clipless" for the past 34 years, analog seems fine to me.

You could use this same logic to say that a DAC is an analog component. PWM is a digital signal. 

2
jones007
Posts
21
Joined
12/9/2025
Location
SEASIDE, CA US
16 hours ago
jones007 wrote:
Just trying to catch up after being away for 4 days. This whole discussion of PWM (pulse width modulation) is pretty stupid. PWM signals are, as...

Just trying to catch up after being away for 4 days. This whole discussion of PWM (pulse width modulation) is pretty stupid. PWM signals are, as the "width" part of the name indicates, a voltage that is either low or high (the digital aspect of the problem), but the actually data is encoded in the width of the pulse, and that is analog. Clocks on the sending and receiving end of the signal are needed to determine the actual value of the signal. Since clocks vary, some calibration procedure is needed so that both ends can agree on what 0 and 100% look like. The racing drone market ditched PWM for an actual digital signal nearly a decade ago. The brushless speed controls for the motors typically also use PWM, but in a more digital way, to control duty-cycle to control motor output. 

While the term "analog" for pedal-only bikes may seem a little odd, I think everyone in the community knows what you're talking about when you use the term these days. If we can deal with SPD pedals being called "clipless" for the past 34 years, analog seems fine to me.

You could use this same logic to say that a DAC is an analog component. PWM is a digital signal. 

Yes - in the sense that the voltage is high or low, but no - in the sense that the width of the pulse can be continuously variable, not confined to discrete values. You might sample the signal to produce a digital signal (a DAC), but that's not required. Old RC gear used a pot on one end to produce an analog voltage proportional to the gimbal displacement. This was used to generate a PWM signal with analog width proportional to the analog voltage from the pot. The servo on the receiving end used another analog pot to provide a feedback signal to drive the servo to its analog position. The only digital aspect of that whole thing was the fact that a threshold voltage was used to determine if the signal was high or low at any given moment. The actual data carried through the signal is the width of the pulse, which in this case is very much analog. Semantics I suppose.

This discussion has little to do with bikes, electric or otherwise, and is not a rumor or innovation, so I probably should have let this die 4 or 5 pages ago. Wink

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2
storm.racing
Posts
299
Joined
2/15/2022
Location
Silverton, CO US
15 hours ago
husker411 wrote:

Where is this from? I heard they were close to releasing a new sixfinity regular bike.

pinkbike. I guess I started following them back on there during the frequent season videos with Blenki, Gwin, and Leov. Occasionally you get the oddball notification...

pinkbike. I guess I started following them back on there during the frequent season videos with Blenki, Gwin, and Leov. Occasionally you get the oddball notification like such

chriskief wrote:

yeah, just saw that. stoked to see further support for him!!

1
Kusa
Posts
277
Joined
6/25/2010
Location
CH
13 hours ago
7
overbiked
Posts
53
Joined
10/23/2024
Location
Park City, UT US
12 hours ago

Looks like Chris Canfield has something else cooking, based on his patent applications I think he’s got some shorter travel bikes planned. 
IMG 4072 0

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jasbushey
Posts
131
Joined
10/6/2015
Location
Durango, CO US
9 hours ago
overbiked wrote:
Looks like Chris Canfield has something else cooking, based on his patent applications I think he’s got some shorter travel bikes planned. 

Looks like Chris Canfield has something else cooking, based on his patent applications I think he’s got some shorter travel bikes planned. 
IMG 4072 0

This is the titanium version trail bike, still lots of travel. It initially was posted but hasn’t released to production.  

https://www.vitalmtb.com/features/vampire-bikes-basement-chris-canfield

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Znarf
Posts
22
Joined
4/30/2013
Location
DE
7 hours ago
Kusa wrote:

The rocker looks different. Much lighter Smile

Raaw XC bike? Madonna SL?

 

IMG 0086
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6 hours ago
IMG 0984.png?VersionId=9Lf3taK5
Melamed back on the ‘prototype’
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FullSend
Posts
186
Joined
7/14/2021
Location
DE
1 hour ago

Most of you probably won't like hearing this. I certainly didn't.

Earlier this week I had a chat with a guy who works in a product management role for Ralf Bohle GmbH, which is the owner of the Schwalbe tire brand. Mainly I asked a bunch of XC racing related questions, about compounds, casings, radial ply, rolling resistance testing, wheter we'll ever see the speediest XC casing with a black sidewall and why they felt they needed to change their naming scheme for casings and compounds.

The gist of it is that they are hard at work behind the scenes, because they are about to completely re-do their entire line-up of XC- and most of their gravel tires for 2027. For XC, basically, everything will change. Different casings, different compounds, different treads. Apparently this will also include XC tires with radial casings. 

We also talked at length about the various advantages and disadvantages of 32" wheels for XC racing, as compared to 29" wheels. Long story short, the rep agreed that 32" won't be universally benefitial, but Schwalbe sees a lot of potential for tall riders and select courses.

I also asked wheter we'll see any 32" production tires soon, because the Rick XC Pro models that were on a bunch of 32" bikes at Sea Otter looked ready. To which he answered something to the effect of that they might soft launch the 32" Rick XC as an OEM-option to selected bike brands this year, but they are generally planning to launch the 32" XC models some time in 2027. 

Now for the juiciest bit of information: The Schwalbe rep also mentioned that so far, outside of their XC product-line, their 32" and 30.5" tires are effectively still in prototyping stage as Schwalbe (and most bike brands) are trying to figure out the best use case for these new sizes (- plural!) and that specifications might still change according to demand. He refused to go into further detail when asked about 30.5" wheels.

So, yeah, 30.5" wheels are apparently a thing and one of the biggest tire manufacturers in the cycling industry anticipates them existing on production bikes in the not too distant future.

Prepare to have not one, but two new wheel sizes shoved down your throat, I guess.

5
Sir HC
Posts
169
Joined
7/5/2014
Location
GB
30 minutes ago

Pbike rumouring size specific wheel size, seems very anti profit margin and a disaster for multiple skus and an aftermarket disaster

23 minutes ago

Anyone have more info on this conversion for v10.8? Apparantly dropout part and frame were drilled to 20mm to make the mech fit?

IMG 4943

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