DH bike really just need more chainring protection like below (Myriam Nicole's bike). I used to do similar on my DH bikes- ran the OG Evil...
DH bike really just need more chainring protection like below (Myriam Nicole's bike). I used to do similar on my DH bikes- ran the OG Evil full bashring on the outside of the chainring and a taco style guard on the inside.
Or this- DIY bike:
This thing is just a loop of steel tube welded to the DT/BB. Would probably support the weight of a car.
Guessing 75% of the chain issues we see are due to riders smashing the chain into rocks...
Shop guys pretty regularly see just about any frame on earth broken, and it really doesn't often turn any of us off a brand. The forces...
Shop guys pretty regularly see just about any frame on earth broken, and it really doesn't often turn any of us off a brand. The forces bikes see are both pretty dynamic and pretty crazy at times, especially considering how much we expect this premium stuff to weigh. Seeing a broken V-10 doesn't make me want to avoid them, it makes me curious how fuckin' hard the rider was going.
The general public does not always understand that stuff does just break. We get people in daily who tell us we couldn't pay them to ride carbon, then we grab a frame from the back with the BB cut out and say "go ahead and try to break this" and almost always have a believer in 20 seconds. We have a Blur front triangle with the BB cut out. I've put the TT on a stand, held the DT, and can literally suspend my 150lb ass. Probably been full force slammed against hard concrete corners a hundred times. That's still a frame that broke at the end of the day, so imagining the forces it saw to crack is pretty insane.
I think people should be a lot less wary. You're not a WC athlete, you aren't pushing a bike that hard, and the vast majority of broken items we see are due to rider error or mechanical neglect.
I don't disagree with anything you've said, but the number of snapped Phoenix frames floating around online should raise anyone's eyebrows.
It's not a carbon vs. aluminum issue. It just seems like Pivot may have gone too light on the frame.
I actually thought people overreacted to BK's snapped Hardline frame a while back. But the more I've seen fail under other circumstances, the more you have to wonder.
Shop guys pretty regularly see just about any frame on earth broken, and it really doesn't often turn any of us off a brand. The forces...
Shop guys pretty regularly see just about any frame on earth broken, and it really doesn't often turn any of us off a brand. The forces bikes see are both pretty dynamic and pretty crazy at times, especially considering how much we expect this premium stuff to weigh. Seeing a broken V-10 doesn't make me want to avoid them, it makes me curious how fuckin' hard the rider was going.
The general public does not always understand that stuff does just break. We get people in daily who tell us we couldn't pay them to ride carbon, then we grab a frame from the back with the BB cut out and say "go ahead and try to break this" and almost always have a believer in 20 seconds. We have a Blur front triangle with the BB cut out. I've put the TT on a stand, held the DT, and can literally suspend my 150lb ass. Probably been full force slammed against hard concrete corners a hundred times. That's still a frame that broke at the end of the day, so imagining the forces it saw to crack is pretty insane.
I think people should be a lot less wary. You're not a WC athlete, you aren't pushing a bike that hard, and the vast majority of broken items we see are due to rider error or mechanical neglect.
I don't disagree with anything you've said, but the number of snapped Phoenix frames floating around online should raise anyone's eyebrows.It's not a carbon vs. aluminum...
I don't disagree with anything you've said, but the number of snapped Phoenix frames floating around online should raise anyone's eyebrows.
It's not a carbon vs. aluminum issue. It just seems like Pivot may have gone too light on the frame.
I actually thought people overreacted to BK's snapped Hardline frame a while back. But the more I've seen fail under other circumstances, the more you have to wonder.
You do see a good amount of them, but have you been to many DH races recently? There are a so many people on the new Phoenix, most races I've been too in the last few years there are more Pivots than v10s, at least in Colorado and Utah. The more bikes out there getting races, the more broken frames there are going to be.
Also gotta wonder how many of those snapped frames are posted to the internet because of Bk’s frame scandals. While ultimately completely unrelated to anything anyone will ride that prototype failure at crankworx was spectacular and the hardline frame coverup turned a normal aspect of dh racing into a silly internet conspiracy. I tend to doubt it would really effect buying interest for most people but it probably will effect if you decide to post your broken bike on the internet or if anybody notices that you did.
You do see a good amount of them, but have you been to many DH races recently? There are a so many people on the new...
You do see a good amount of them, but have you been to many DH races recently? There are a so many people on the new Phoenix, most races I've been too in the last few years there are more Pivots than v10s, at least in Colorado and Utah. The more bikes out there getting races, the more broken frames there are going to be.
I can confirm, pretty certain I saw more Phoenix's than v10's at the US Open. If not definitely more phoenix + demo 11 than v10.
Is pivot pretty generous with support? Can confirm those DH frames are seemingly everywhere in large #’s. Pivot is pretty gnarly with their pricing so I’m thinking there has to be something going on.
Weight weenieism is alive and well in my group of riding buddies. We bought up all the remaining mechanical XX1 Eagle gear as T-type was taking...
Weight weenieism is alive and well in my group of riding buddies. We bought up all the remaining mechanical XX1 Eagle gear as T-type was taking over. All on Blurs that are under 22lbs. One with a sub 16lb Mondraker Podium. I'm sure this varies by local and riding style, but I think the move by SRAM and Shimano to heavy electronic parts has been a boost to the boutique component market, like Madrone, Garbaruk, Darimo, etc.
I don’t think it’s gone anywhere, but naturally the industry will cater to the highest mileage riders. That group used to be the weight weenies and...
I don’t think it’s gone anywhere, but naturally the industry will cater to the highest mileage riders. That group used to be the weight weenies and now it’s the ebikers
Minor edit - not necessarily the highest mileage users, but rather the ones to burns through the most gear. People here have mentioned having to swap out chains at 500 miles on their ebbs. I get between 2000 and 2500 on my pedal bikes. I'm assuming they blow through cassettes and chainrings at a comparable rate. One of my race buddies now has over 18k miles on an XX1 cassette that he got on a Blur 3.
The solution I'm hoping for is that the e-bikes, other than low-power SL models, will start getting ebike-specific parts, and pedal bikes can get back to what we were doing before ebikes were a thing. The biggest sticky point is probably whether or not the pedal-bike crowd still holds enough market power to force anyone's hand. If they keep buying the ebike-compatible stuff that Sram and Shimano feed us, then I suspect Sram and Shimano will just carry on doing what they're doing. Vote with your dollars I suppose. Honestly, I probably own enough Eagle hardware to last me the rest of my riding days, so perhaps I'm no longer a voter.
That 500 miles for an ebike chain number seems really low. Chains these days are really, really durable. I've owned a few ebikes, typically flipping them after 1,000 miles and their chains have all been fine at that point. The first ebike chain (XX) I killed is on my current one, which has 2,400 miles on it according to Garmin. Its XX cassette still looked barely used but I rotated it onto my enduro bike because they climb in different gears. The worst wear I get on my cassettes these days is on the descending gear (typically gears 8-10) from the chain flapping around.
That 500 miles for an ebike chain number seems really low. Chains these days are really, really durable. I've owned a few ebikes, typically flipping them...
That 500 miles for an ebike chain number seems really low. Chains these days are really, really durable. I've owned a few ebikes, typically flipping them after 1,000 miles and their chains have all been fine at that point. The first ebike chain (XX) I killed is on my current one, which has 2,400 miles on it according to Garmin. Its XX cassette still looked barely used but I rotated it onto my enduro bike because they climb in different gears. The worst wear I get on my cassettes these days is on the descending gear (typically gears 8-10) from the chain flapping around.
The big thing with longevity is maintenance. I've seen chains last thousands of miles and some last 500 or fewer. Nothing broken, just totatally worn out. The short lived ones are always on people bikes where they literally haven't lubed their chain since getting it, and 12 speed chains show their wear worse. Not that they're not as strong, especially in the directions they are stressed the most, but the tighter tolerances between chains and cogs lead to degraded shift performance faster if the chains aren't maintained, sram and Shimano included. It's also why I would never run a kmc 12 speed chain on Shimano or sram systems, but they work pretty well on 11 speed or lower.
I never understood athletes or people saying "No photos" to a frame that sheared in half while riding. Things break in this sport. It happens. But...
I never understood athletes or people saying "No photos" to a frame that sheared in half while riding. Things break in this sport. It happens. But you trying to silence the part where their frame catastrophically failed is not cool if you're representing the company in any form.
"Things break in this sport"It's easy to earn a bad reputation when people see your frames snapping in half. Especially when it's two frames in one...
"Things break in this sport"
It's easy to earn a bad reputation when people see your frames snapping in half. Especially when it's two frames in one weekend from the same company.
When was the last time you saw a Trek / Santa Cruz / Specialized / Canyon / Mondraker DH bike snap in half? It doesn't happen to everyone, and people are right to be wary when they see catastrophic DH frame failures.
Shop guys pretty regularly see just about any frame on earth broken, and it really doesn't often turn any of us off a brand. The forces...
Shop guys pretty regularly see just about any frame on earth broken, and it really doesn't often turn any of us off a brand. The forces bikes see are both pretty dynamic and pretty crazy at times, especially considering how much we expect this premium stuff to weigh. Seeing a broken V-10 doesn't make me want to avoid them, it makes me curious how fuckin' hard the rider was going.
The general public does not always understand that stuff does just break. We get people in daily who tell us we couldn't pay them to ride carbon, then we grab a frame from the back with the BB cut out and say "go ahead and try to break this" and almost always have a believer in 20 seconds. We have a Blur front triangle with the BB cut out. I've put the TT on a stand, held the DT, and can literally suspend my 150lb ass. Probably been full force slammed against hard concrete corners a hundred times. That's still a frame that broke at the end of the day, so imagining the forces it saw to crack is pretty insane.
I think people should be a lot less wary. You're not a WC athlete, you aren't pushing a bike that hard, and the vast majority of broken items we see are due to rider error or mechanical neglect.
As a professional mechanic I'm surprised at how bad the quality control is in general in mtb. From bad alignment, poor parts spec, lack of proper covers on bearings to shit geo, etc.
When clients ask what bikes I'd recommend I'm left scratching my head lol.
It feels like the marketing guys decide most stuff, the product managers don't ever ride and/or the engineers are terrible.
How is it that ebikes are still specced with EXO tyres, 35mm forks and 12 speed non ebike specific cassettes??? Why does DT Swiss still make straight pull spoke and aluminium nipple wheels???
I can't believe some reviewers out there keep stating "there aren't any bad bikes anymore" or "modern geo is pretty good already"...
As a professional mechanic I'm surprised at how bad the quality control is in general in mtb. From bad alignment, poor parts spec, lack of proper...
As a professional mechanic I'm surprised at how bad the quality control is in general in mtb. From bad alignment, poor parts spec, lack of proper covers on bearings to shit geo, etc.
When clients ask what bikes I'd recommend I'm left scratching my head lol.
It feels like the marketing guys decide most stuff, the product managers don't ever ride and/or the engineers are terrible.
How is it that ebikes are still specced with EXO tyres, 35mm forks and 12 speed non ebike specific cassettes??? Why does DT Swiss still make straight pull spoke and aluminium nipple wheels???
I can't believe some reviewers out there keep stating "there aren't any bad bikes anymore" or "modern geo is pretty good already"...
DT Swiss only doing Aluminium nipples is an absolute felony.
"Things break in this sport"It's easy to earn a bad reputation when people see your frames snapping in half. Especially when it's two frames in one...
"Things break in this sport"
It's easy to earn a bad reputation when people see your frames snapping in half. Especially when it's two frames in one weekend from the same company.
When was the last time you saw a Trek / Santa Cruz / Specialized / Canyon / Mondraker DH bike snap in half? It doesn't happen to everyone, and people are right to be wary when they see catastrophic DH frame failures.
Shop guys pretty regularly see just about any frame on earth broken, and it really doesn't often turn any of us off a brand. The forces...
Shop guys pretty regularly see just about any frame on earth broken, and it really doesn't often turn any of us off a brand. The forces bikes see are both pretty dynamic and pretty crazy at times, especially considering how much we expect this premium stuff to weigh. Seeing a broken V-10 doesn't make me want to avoid them, it makes me curious how fuckin' hard the rider was going.
The general public does not always understand that stuff does just break. We get people in daily who tell us we couldn't pay them to ride carbon, then we grab a frame from the back with the BB cut out and say "go ahead and try to break this" and almost always have a believer in 20 seconds. We have a Blur front triangle with the BB cut out. I've put the TT on a stand, held the DT, and can literally suspend my 150lb ass. Probably been full force slammed against hard concrete corners a hundred times. That's still a frame that broke at the end of the day, so imagining the forces it saw to crack is pretty insane.
I think people should be a lot less wary. You're not a WC athlete, you aren't pushing a bike that hard, and the vast majority of broken items we see are due to rider error or mechanical neglect.
As a professional mechanic I'm surprised at how bad the quality control is in general in mtb. From bad alignment, poor parts spec, lack of proper...
As a professional mechanic I'm surprised at how bad the quality control is in general in mtb. From bad alignment, poor parts spec, lack of proper covers on bearings to shit geo, etc.
When clients ask what bikes I'd recommend I'm left scratching my head lol.
It feels like the marketing guys decide most stuff, the product managers don't ever ride and/or the engineers are terrible.
How is it that ebikes are still specced with EXO tyres, 35mm forks and 12 speed non ebike specific cassettes??? Why does DT Swiss still make straight pull spoke and aluminium nipple wheels???
I can't believe some reviewers out there keep stating "there aren't any bad bikes anymore" or "modern geo is pretty good already"...
There are definitely some questionable things out there in terms of product manager decisions and some questionable false economy choices (aluminum nipples is a good example). There is also a mild amount of QA/QC and general quality issues still present in this industry...
But if I can offer perspective on the journalist comment. "I can't believe some reviewers out there keep stating "there aren't any bad bikes anymore" or "modern geo is pretty good already"..." That's being said because it's pretty much true. 16 years ago, there was a large majority of bikes that were complete shit. Nearly every dropper post on the market was shit and would barely function. The majority of bikes you would buy from a bike shop had either serious design issues baked into the frame or some of the components. There used to be brakes that you were scared to bleed as a mechanic (avid elixers) because you knew that if there was a set in front of you that worked, doing anything to them could mean they no longer work.
Let's not forget that we are less then 25 years away from road bicycle based geometry, with bikes being called "full suspension" that were URTs and forks that would literally explode while riding them causing catastrophic crashes. In the lens of where we were just 15 years ago... there are no bad bikes out there and modern geo is pretty good already.
You do see a good amount of them, but have you been to many DH races recently? There are a so many people on the new...
You do see a good amount of them, but have you been to many DH races recently? There are a so many people on the new Phoenix, most races I've been too in the last few years there are more Pivots than v10s, at least in Colorado and Utah. The more bikes out there getting races, the more broken frames there are going to be.
"Things break in this sport"It's easy to earn a bad reputation when people see your frames snapping in half. Especially when it's two frames in one...
"Things break in this sport"
It's easy to earn a bad reputation when people see your frames snapping in half. Especially when it's two frames in one weekend from the same company.
When was the last time you saw a Trek / Santa Cruz / Specialized / Canyon / Mondraker DH bike snap in half? It doesn't happen to everyone, and people are right to be wary when they see catastrophic DH frame failures.
Shop guys pretty regularly see just about any frame on earth broken, and it really doesn't often turn any of us off a brand. The forces...
Shop guys pretty regularly see just about any frame on earth broken, and it really doesn't often turn any of us off a brand. The forces bikes see are both pretty dynamic and pretty crazy at times, especially considering how much we expect this premium stuff to weigh. Seeing a broken V-10 doesn't make me want to avoid them, it makes me curious how fuckin' hard the rider was going.
The general public does not always understand that stuff does just break. We get people in daily who tell us we couldn't pay them to ride carbon, then we grab a frame from the back with the BB cut out and say "go ahead and try to break this" and almost always have a believer in 20 seconds. We have a Blur front triangle with the BB cut out. I've put the TT on a stand, held the DT, and can literally suspend my 150lb ass. Probably been full force slammed against hard concrete corners a hundred times. That's still a frame that broke at the end of the day, so imagining the forces it saw to crack is pretty insane.
I think people should be a lot less wary. You're not a WC athlete, you aren't pushing a bike that hard, and the vast majority of broken items we see are due to rider error or mechanical neglect.
As a professional mechanic I'm surprised at how bad the quality control is in general in mtb. From bad alignment, poor parts spec, lack of proper...
As a professional mechanic I'm surprised at how bad the quality control is in general in mtb. From bad alignment, poor parts spec, lack of proper covers on bearings to shit geo, etc.
When clients ask what bikes I'd recommend I'm left scratching my head lol.
It feels like the marketing guys decide most stuff, the product managers don't ever ride and/or the engineers are terrible.
How is it that ebikes are still specced with EXO tyres, 35mm forks and 12 speed non ebike specific cassettes??? Why does DT Swiss still make straight pull spoke and aluminium nipple wheels???
I can't believe some reviewers out there keep stating "there aren't any bad bikes anymore" or "modern geo is pretty good already"...
I’d say it is a mixed bag in 2026.
We currently have a Raaw, an Ibis, two Santa Cruz bikes, a Specialized and a Riese Müller in our household and in general these have been astonishingly reliable. I selected these specifically (among other things) for reliability and ease of maintenance, because we ride them for years. (because bikes got so good)
There still are brands out there, where reasonable pivot/bearing maintenance doesn’t seem to be a feature for the designers.
That said, I agree that QC IS still an issue. I’ve had a 2026 Fox X2 (the new monotube one) weep oil at the rebound adjuster after four weeks, got quick turn-around on warranty service, BUT after two rides it slurps, squishes and needs a rebuild again. When it works, it feels great though.
I’ve had a new Oneup V3 post which wasn’t assembled correctly (two bolts were not properly torqued, loads of rattle when lowered)
Last year I had two Vivids which developed knocking noises and a “stuck down”.
In general though, compared to twenty or fifteen years ago, when I sold and wrenched bikes, quality has come up by a lot, with a ding during and after covid. I too have Elixir nightmares, from all those Specialized Comp models. They sat in the store for two weeks and the rear brakes would lock up on the shop floor.
The high-end stuff with loads of things and features to go wrong seems spotty still.
Looks to be just a custom painted (stickered?) Sentinel for worlds, don't see anything official regarding the US selections, but I know Richie Rude has said he's going as well. New Transition stuff in the Spring from what I have been told.
DH bike really just need more chainring protection like below (Myriam Nicole's bike). I used to do similar on my DH bikes- ran the OG Evil...
DH bike really just need more chainring protection like below (Myriam Nicole's bike). I used to do similar on my DH bikes- ran the OG Evil full bashring on the outside of the chainring and a taco style guard on the inside.
Or this- DIY bike:
This thing is just a loop of steel tube welded to the DT/BB. Would probably support the weight of a car.
Guessing 75% of the chain issues we see are due to riders smashing the chain into rocks...
It seems wild to me that people would run a DH bike with zero bash protection! It's as if the preventative measures work so well, that people forget why they were developed in the first place and get complacent.....
Is this a pun that went over everyone's heads or what does it mean?
I don't disagree with anything you've said, but the number of snapped Phoenix frames floating around online should raise anyone's eyebrows.
It's not a carbon vs. aluminum issue. It just seems like Pivot may have gone too light on the frame.
I actually thought people overreacted to BK's snapped Hardline frame a while back. But the more I've seen fail under other circumstances, the more you have to wonder.
You do see a good amount of them, but have you been to many DH races recently? There are a so many people on the new Phoenix, most races I've been too in the last few years there are more Pivots than v10s, at least in Colorado and Utah. The more bikes out there getting races, the more broken frames there are going to be.
Also gotta wonder how many of those snapped frames are posted to the internet because of Bk’s frame scandals. While ultimately completely unrelated to anything anyone will ride that prototype failure at crankworx was spectacular and the hardline frame coverup turned a normal aspect of dh racing into a silly internet conspiracy.
I tend to doubt it would really effect buying interest for most people but it probably will effect if you decide to post your broken bike on the internet or if anybody notices that you did.
I can confirm, pretty certain I saw more Phoenix's than v10's at the US Open. If not definitely more phoenix + demo 11 than v10.
Is pivot pretty generous with support? Can confirm those DH frames are seemingly everywhere in large #’s. Pivot is pretty gnarly with their pricing so I’m thinking there has to be something going on.
Minor edit - not necessarily the highest mileage users, but rather the ones to burns through the most gear. People here have mentioned having to swap out chains at 500 miles on their ebbs. I get between 2000 and 2500 on my pedal bikes. I'm assuming they blow through cassettes and chainrings at a comparable rate. One of my race buddies now has over 18k miles on an XX1 cassette that he got on a Blur 3.
The solution I'm hoping for is that the e-bikes, other than low-power SL models, will start getting ebike-specific parts, and pedal bikes can get back to what we were doing before ebikes were a thing. The biggest sticky point is probably whether or not the pedal-bike crowd still holds enough market power to force anyone's hand. If they keep buying the ebike-compatible stuff that Sram and Shimano feed us, then I suspect Sram and Shimano will just carry on doing what they're doing. Vote with your dollars I suppose. Honestly, I probably own enough Eagle hardware to last me the rest of my riding days, so perhaps I'm no longer a voter.
That 500 miles for an ebike chain number seems really low. Chains these days are really, really durable. I've owned a few ebikes, typically flipping them after 1,000 miles and their chains have all been fine at that point. The first ebike chain (XX) I killed is on my current one, which has 2,400 miles on it according to Garmin. Its XX cassette still looked barely used but I rotated it onto my enduro bike because they climb in different gears. The worst wear I get on my cassettes these days is on the descending gear (typically gears 8-10) from the chain flapping around.
The big thing with longevity is maintenance. I've seen chains last thousands of miles and some last 500 or fewer. Nothing broken, just totatally worn out. The short lived ones are always on people bikes where they literally haven't lubed their chain since getting it, and 12 speed chains show their wear worse. Not that they're not as strong, especially in the directions they are stressed the most, but the tighter tolerances between chains and cogs lead to degraded shift performance faster if the chains aren't maintained, sram and Shimano included. It's also why I would never run a kmc 12 speed chain on Shimano or sram systems, but they work pretty well on 11 speed or lower.
As a professional mechanic I'm surprised at how bad the quality control is in general in mtb. From bad alignment, poor parts spec, lack of proper covers on bearings to shit geo, etc.
When clients ask what bikes I'd recommend I'm left scratching my head lol.
It feels like the marketing guys decide most stuff, the product managers don't ever ride and/or the engineers are terrible.
How is it that ebikes are still specced with EXO tyres, 35mm forks and 12 speed non ebike specific cassettes???
Why does DT Swiss still make straight pull spoke and aluminium nipple wheels???
I can't believe some reviewers out there keep stating "there aren't any bad bikes anymore" or "modern geo is pretty good already"...
DT Swiss only doing Aluminium nipples is an absolute felony.
There are definitely some questionable things out there in terms of product manager decisions and some questionable false economy choices (aluminum nipples is a good example). There is also a mild amount of QA/QC and general quality issues still present in this industry...
But if I can offer perspective on the journalist comment. "I can't believe some reviewers out there keep stating "there aren't any bad bikes anymore" or "modern geo is pretty good already"..." That's being said because it's pretty much true. 16 years ago, there was a large majority of bikes that were complete shit. Nearly every dropper post on the market was shit and would barely function. The majority of bikes you would buy from a bike shop had either serious design issues baked into the frame or some of the components. There used to be brakes that you were scared to bleed as a mechanic (avid elixers) because you knew that if there was a set in front of you that worked, doing anything to them could mean they no longer work.
Let's not forget that we are less then 25 years away from road bicycle based geometry, with bikes being called "full suspension" that were URTs and forks that would literally explode while riding them causing catastrophic crashes. In the lens of where we were just 15 years ago... there are no bad bikes out there and modern geo is pretty good already.
https://www.instagram.com/reel/Dd9QhH5Rvzr/?stkn=MW9vcXZsc3lmeWdmeg==
Dude we got algorithm'd at the same time lol
I got this one
https://www.instagram.com/reel/DeHVxIyRtkC/?stkn=MWlmOWZ4cDhzMmt2bA==
I would pay attention to who paid for what out of their own pocket
I’d say it is a mixed bag in 2026.
We currently have a Raaw, an Ibis, two Santa Cruz bikes, a Specialized and a Riese Müller in our household and in general these have been astonishingly reliable. I selected these specifically (among other things) for reliability and ease of maintenance, because we ride them for years. (because bikes got so good)
There still are brands out there, where reasonable pivot/bearing maintenance doesn’t seem to be a feature for the designers.
That said, I agree that QC IS still an issue. I’ve had a 2026 Fox X2 (the new monotube one) weep oil at the rebound adjuster after four weeks, got quick turn-around on warranty service, BUT after two rides it slurps, squishes and needs a rebuild again. When it works, it feels great though.
I’ve had a new Oneup V3 post which wasn’t assembled correctly (two bolts were not properly torqued, loads of rattle when lowered)
Last year I had two Vivids which developed knocking noises and a “stuck down”.
In general though, compared to twenty or fifteen years ago, when I sold and wrenched bikes, quality has come up by a lot, with a ding during and after covid. I too have Elixir nightmares, from all those Specialized Comp models. They sat in the store for two weeks and the rear brakes would lock up on the shop floor.
The high-end stuff with loads of things and features to go wrong seems spotty still.
@Between The Tape with a really thorough handlebar flex / comfort test
https://www.vitalmtb.com/features/does-handlebar-compliance-actually-improve-comfort-mtb-handlebar-shootout
The fact they didn’t use a 780 Era bar and cut an 800 sucks to see. Would have liked to see the data on that
Marco hiding something new here from Transition
Looks to be just a custom painted (stickered?) Sentinel for worlds, don't see anything official regarding the US selections, but I know Richie Rude has said he's going as well. New Transition stuff in the Spring from what I have been told.
It seems wild to me that people would run a DH bike with zero bash protection! It's as if the preventative measures work so well, that people forget why they were developed in the first place and get complacent.....
And weird that they sent a 40mm bar and not a 55 when they were asked to send as close to 50 as possible.
Post a reply to: 2026 MTB Tech Rumors and Innovation - Longer and Slacker