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I heard a rumour we were gonna crowd fund Vital’s World Cup Media fee for 2026!!! Also heard a rumour Vital was gonna get a private jet so Lawlor & jackiericecakes could do it up right!!!

for us it was $500/round since we only covered 6 rounds.

fwiw, last year was the first year we ever had to pay to get lawlor his creds at a world cup. $3k for the races we attended. it's not a budget killer for us, but $3k goes along way on other projects for us.

RAAW just dropped updates to the Madonna and the Jibb LT with interchangeable dropouts for more adjustability: https://www.vitalmtb.com/news/press-release/raaw-updates-jibb-lt-and-ma… .

Anyone else notice the "XX" link to the XX SL website under the last picture of Myriam Nicole? Let's hope they aren't trying to push $700 derailleurs, $700 cassettes and $600 cranks as the only DH option going forward...

Comparison of bars with rise modeled in. Both have a similar max load. 35 mm bar is on top and 31.8 mm bar is on bottom. Bending moment is at its maximum on the inboard end and zero at the free end so I think it makes sense that the stiffness of the innermost section of bar is quite influential in terms of deflection. It's worth noting that, while the approximate 0.05" difference in deflection is a little more than 10%, we're still only talking about 0.05" difference. Thin vs. thick grips would easily take up that difference. Ultimately you...

They should take design cues from the logo as well and rebrand again.

if i did that, i know for sure, i'd go OTB and be broken, needing my HSA, within 15 feet of riding my new bike.

Hill to Frameworks

New shock, and new stanchion treatment by the looks of it. Could be the Ti-Nitride stuff they do on the moto stuff...which doesn't play well with alloy stanchions, so either it's not Ti-Nitride OR the stanchions are not alloy.

We did a fun experiment years ago (2019), a DIY setup to measure bar deflection under a given load. It starts at 7 minutes: https://www.vitalmtb.com/features/35mm-Carbon-Handlebars-Flex-Tested-am….

New Ohlins

Redbull did the same when they had the rights to broadcast the World Cups. Nothing particular new. I believe the bike industry being in turmoil (Canyon overnight reduced their office work force by 20%) and limited team / marketing budgets has more to do with videographers loosing their contracts (like the Fox Racing Shox Dialed video series being concluded after the 2023 season) is more relevant.

To jump on this having dealt with spec'ing and getting bars to market, the 35 is stiffer than you will get out of a 31.8. Strength, at max strength 35 may be stronger, but trust me, we aren't getting near failure for either, at the end of the day, weight and flex are bigger issues for the industry than brute strength. The combo does play in. but with the increased need for better ride quality across the industry, 31.8 is very much a viable standard and what most of my riders actually want out of a bar. This includes many...

If designed to the same max load, a 35 mm bar is approximately 10% stiffer. The required cross sectional area of the 35 mm bar is also smaller, so it would be lighter. Below is an example where the bar is evaluated as a basic cantilevered beam where the length is 400 mm and the load is 450 N. r1 and r2 correspond to the 35 mm bar and r3 and r4 correspond to the 31.8 mm bar.

Imagine choosing a standard that results in a heavier and weaker handlebar... 🤦 35mm handlebars are stronger and lighter than 31.8 for the same stiffness. The first 35mm bars in like 2012 may have been overly stiff but minus a couple of outliers that hasn't been the case for the better part of a decade now.

Have you, like, listened to the lyrics of that song at all…?

i dont know how things play out for Ed... But if this means no WynTV and no Ed Bull Media House next year... as well as a limited Vital Raw schedule again? we're up a certain creek without a particular paddle ideal scenario would be wyn and ed teaming up, figuratively and literally, and being able to cover the races with each other. wyn more on interviews and ed more on riding. i dunno... a man can dream