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Maybe my example was too anecdotal. There’s always been asshole riders in my area, regardless of the bike they’re on. New people getting into the sport that mailorder their bikes, and don’t learn the rules of the trail like the good old days. Anyone remember how the shops, magazines and IMBA used to preach “the rules of the trail” to new riders? Who’s doing it now?
When I’m on my Ebike, I always try to say hello to the people I pass and make conversation. I’ve always been that way. After getting one, I’ve seen the staring and subjectively bad vibes coming my direction for no other reason besides the bike I’m on. It’s no different than some of the angst XC riders used to give me when I started riding a downhill bike 25 years ago.
OK, I’m done talking about Ebikers. Promise. I guess the point I’m making is that maybe crappy Ebiker etiquette is a result of poor (lack of) education. That’s all.
A couple very subtle and easy tweaks to that helmet (e.g., visor shape, outer pad fabric) and a better paint job could make it look so much better.
All of that would’ve essentially been free during development. How do you miss the aesthetic mark that bad?!
Imagine showing 2013 Charlie this post.
CUBE High pivot enduro sighted on the german news site
I’m sure this conversation happened at Kali HQ and was silenced in the name of Brand Identity
I was listening to a road biking podcast recently. One of the guests on the podcast is currently a DS for a bigger team and used to be a world tour rider.
One of the things that came up in discussion is how absolutely insane the new generation of riders are. They are SO fast. They are SO good in their training. They are SO dialed in their nutrition and recovery. The guest made a point to bring up an interesting-to-me factoid:
They can't let the younger riders anywhere near the big-name riders during team training rides.
None of them know how to ride in a peloton. They don't know to not overlap wheels. They don't know how to ride predictably. They don't know how to brake smoothly. They don't know how to pull through. They don't know how to ride a sweeping corner. They don't know how to set up for a tight corner. They don't know how to behave in critical moments and they don't know how to behave in the less intense stretches of racing.
They're a liability.
They're a liability due to the combination of easy access to speed and lack of experience. These are riders who have been in structured training and competitive riding with teams since they were 14 years old and at 20-22 are still dangerous to have around.
Eventually - when they can prove repeatedly that they're reliable and safe - they're allowed to ride with the riders capable of winning.
I'm not sure that this has anything to do with ebikes and people having access to more speed than their skills have prepared them for...but something in this thread reminded of this podcast conversation.
Anyone know what this shock is? Looks familiar but I can’t place it… Unno team bike.
Looks like Formula is working on something new
They run Suntour suspension don't they? So maybe new proto shock?
Nathan Pontvianne looks to have gotten his hands on the same unreleased fork stanctions (steel?) that the Specialized team have been running for a while. You can see them better in the latest Vital RAW.
I'm going for 100 days in the park this summer.
Obviously, we've got an Unbreakable vs Mr. Glass situation going on here 😂
Hoping the vital pit bits is Spec doing proto hillbilly radial. That and the cannibal in radial would rip, but radial hillbilly is first on my wish list.
Imagine looking through your gear bag and choosing white pants for a day like that.
More importantly, it would be super interesting if the Specialized team riders were using steel stanchions, but I feel like there's no way that can be correct. Even if they didn't care about weight, they would either be a) enormously stiffer than alloy stanchions, in a bad way, or b) require paper thin stanchion walls, new top caps and hardware, and couldn't use any of the same internal seal sizes (although I don't know if the Ohlins DH38 uses any seals that interface with the inside of the stanchion.
That’s it, new Mod. Thx!
There are no words for how disappointed younger me would have been with older me. Empathy and that whole "prefrontal cortex" thing have both been pretty wild.
It will be available to the general public pretty soon afaik. They were talking about it at sea otter this year, was told it will be available through certain authorized service partners. It’s still aluminum.
Gotta be a different surface coating on standard aluminum, my wild speculation is WS2/tungsten disulphide based coating.
Probably time to kill yourself…
❤️
I'm thinking Cat 5 Crit at pro speed and it's terrifying.
Thanks for the reminder ❤️
Domi M4. Mineral oil all but confirmed?
Something similar has been happening for years - new up and comers are picked on their stats rather than their racecraft/ability.
Here's the tech tie in - every man and his dog can get a power meter, heart rate monitor for essentially nothing, log every metric of every ride. Your head unit can guide the average amateur through individually tailored workouts that would have been unthinkable and unmeasureable a couple of decades ago. Fairly minor effort and outlay can get you a VO2 max test and more.
Hell didn't someone get a (low level) pro contract based purely on their Zwift racing?
back in the day - and this probably is only as far back as the older current active pros - this wasnt available and you showed you were good at racing... by being good at racing.
You want to feel sick to your stomach? USAC asks xc/cx/road juniors to give them access to their Training Peaks accounts so that some ai-obsessed vulture of a coach can identify riders for development programs based on training metrics.. because there are so few opportunities for young athletes to compete in the United States.
“Performance Oriented” national governing body philosophy was pushed on us by the Walton family when they took over USAC. We used to operate on a “developmental” model that you know… prioritized local, regional and national racing experience. Now we are sending kids with decent w/kg straight into the fray, whether or not they can drive a bike or read a race.
Until USAC is reformed, America buke racing will continue to suffer on a local, regional and national level… Unless you are born in Durango, then you’re gonna be fine.
At the risk.of a massive tangent it's not just the USA and it's not just cycling. Youth sport is in a mess almost everywhere.
Yeah but bike racing is the best sport and the only one that bike racers compete in. Unlike most sports, bicycle racing is a Life Sport. There’s formal competition from 7 expert in bmx into the 80+ field in pretty much every discipline of bike racing.
Unlike most sports it’s possible to continue riding bikes post-racing, by yourself in whatever free time you can find.
A governing body that is based at least as much about supporting the sport of cycling in the country it governs as winning international medals is vital.
I’m not the only person in their 40’s that is still riding bikes they got for free as juniors in the 90’s. Without a stronger domestic racing scene “devo” certainly doesn’t mean what it used to….
back to tech - what are we looking at here? I've not seen an insert that looks like this. Or have I been living under a rock?
www.pinkbike.com/photo/29853833/
Almost looks like a million blue zip-ties in there?
Agreed all across the board.
The whole reason I brought it up was in the end bit you left off: "I'm not sure that this has anything to do with ebikes and people having access to more speed than their skills have prepared them for..."
Which is literally the biggest complaint people have about ebike riders; the lack of skills and etiquette to make for easy coexistence with other users on trails.
That creation of tension, friction, then fracture is what gets mtb access revoked.
Not 100% certain, but it might be a Tubolight Diamana insert?
Perhaps this stuff, although it is marketed for XC use ?
https://www.technomousse.com/en/bike/blue-vertigo/
Edit: Tubolight posted above does seem more likely !
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