Nic Cotton's Comments

Its lighter than the equivalent DHX2 (the non-ebike version at least)

Love the idea and video, but PLEASE wear eye protection when cutting metal! I work with eyes and the amount of young guys who end up blind or partially sighted because they didn't wear eye protection when cutting or hammering metal is higher than you'd think.

Looking forward to the next installment!

The EXT storia V3 has easily made the most notable positive improvement to the bike I currently ride, and I would go as far to say of any upgrade I can remember making. The bike (Rallon R5) has it issues with rear suspension/blowing through its travel. The storia manages to be both plusher than the DHX2 it replaced whilst also giving much more mid and end stroke support. The control it has over varying terrain is brilliant. Its lighter too, if thats your thing. Admittedly it may not make such an obvious improvement on other bikes, and I can't comment on how it would compare to a custom tuned DHX2, but I would be loathed to go back now. In the UK at least, they are distributed via Chris at MOJO. I was sent a V2 to trial some different tunes and spring rates before the V3 was ordered. Probably the closest to feeling like pro-level treatment that I'll ever get

Agreed. I have run both the magi-X and gum-x compounds. The wear rate is worse than the equivalent maxxis/schwalbe and although the grip is on par, its not a whole load better. Add in the fact that the side wall/bead interface is weak and prone to punctures that are difficult to fix (and in general a thinner side wall that punctures more frequently than other tyres I have run) and you get a tyre doesn't match it's competitors in the long run.

Seems to be about $100 cheaper than the new X2 factory level shock too.

I mean, it even says "average user rating" before each of the star ratings. I'm not sure how much more obvious vital could have made it really. If you want to take anything away from this, its that we (as users, not vital staff) need to make the ratings reflect our criticisms of the product and until then, maybe ignore the ratings and look at the comments which I always find more informative anyway.

Having ridden 12 speed Gx for the past few months, I'd personally not be in any rush to upgrade if I was on 11-speed. It is a bit easier on really steep climbs in that lowest gear, admittedly. However the shifting is not as smooth and the rear derailleur cage has a design flaw that causes it to shit itself after a few months of use. The rear cage is incredibly thin where the screw comes through to attach the upper jockey wheel in place. Mine, and I think every other person I know who owns Eagle, have all found that this junction snaps, at best leaving you without a derailleur and and worst sending it into your wheel to mash that up too. I'd be pretty cautious about buying anything eagle until they get that sorted. I'd be interested to hear if anyone else has had similar problems.

But the tyre mounting has no correlation to brake rub? The two are separate entities. The brake is a hub or brake caliper alignment issue.

As an owner
1) Tape helps. I wrapped mine from new with road bike bar tape and black electrical tape and its silent.
2) I have pretty inwardly turned knees when I ride and don't feel like its an issue. I was worried I would be hitting my knees off the shock, but I've yet to experience any issues. Mind you, my pads don't have straps so that's maybe why I don't get any snagging either.

In regards to other people's comments on shock choice, mine has the coil but I can't say I have had bottom out issues and finesse isn't a word I would use to describe my riding style. I mean, it does bottom out at times but I have never really noticed it. I would love to try it with the float X2 mind you! Its certainly not a problem as it stands, and this is me coming from a Capra with a float X2, which would be very progressive in nature. (Whilst we are on the subject, the biggest difference I noticed when swapping bikes was the climbing ability. I find the rallon to out climb the capra by miles. The Slash must be insane uphill if the rallon was described as mediocre!)

But all brakes are shit if you get a bad set? I'd go as far to say that the sram (not avid) guides that I have currently are probably the best brakes I've ever used and as far as bike set up goes, I'm definitely most anal about my brakes. Not to say everyone has the same result, nor does it mean that a well set up guide will suit every person in terms of brake feel.

I have also had terrible experience with shimano saints and zees. Very inconsistent, poor lever feel and were known to almost fail completely during some runs. I think all manufactures have had issues at some point. Doesn't mean their newer stuff shouldn't be reviewed. And also doesn't mean we should never consider stuff from these brands despite one person saying they're shit, otherwise we would never have any reviews of anything.

(And also, its not like vitalmtb have a gun against your head and are forcing you to only use sram. Maybe just don't buy them and accept that other people like them and want to read reviews about them?)

Certainly! It will be interesting to see how it plays out, both with the review and potential future uses. I think I'm just a little cynical, especially when there are pro athletes putting stickers on their frames to dampen vibrations and wearing magnetic bracelets that are meant to do something magical to your insides.

I appreciate what you are trying to do, but its risky to draw any conclusions from this. If there is an improvement in measured outcomes, you say that "Halo Sport was the independent variable that has made the difference in our dependent variables". However, you're not controlling for a whole host of variables, and the amount of bias introduced into the way you are testing these means that your results cannot be attributed to the Halo Sport alone.

So conclusions will be it didnt work but we might have used it wrong, or it did work but who knows if thats the Halo Sport or just that you've had 2 cups more coffee.

And don't get me started on the fact that this stimulates the "motor cortex" (sure you positioned the headphones correctly over the motor cortex and not the sensory cortex that lies right next to it?). Your neural network is immensely complex and definitely involves a whole host of other areas to control movement other than just that one "motor cortex" that sounds good to put in the video.

"How about on these reviews, that the average consumer [...] just wants to know if this bike fits them"

Surely a bike review that is based on whether or not a rider is the correct height for a given size of bike would be a terrible way to review any bike? I realise that you probably don't mean that in the most literal sense, but the whole point of a review is to test the strengths and weaknesses of a design against a variety of factors - different riding styles and riding preferences are just one aspect of that. So what if the lightest rider wanted more bottom out control? Maybe she just rides harder than you do?

As for testing stock bikes without altering them, surely you can appreciate that mentioning aspects of the bike that may need to be changed or tuned in the future can only be a positive thing. Sure, you may not need it, but doubtless someone will find that bit of information useful in deciding whether they want to test the bike for themselves. The more in depth the review, the better.

And anyway, how is adding/removing bottom out tokens/bands drastically changing a bike from stock? If you are spending thousands of dollars on a push bike, then it makes sense to tune the bike to your riding style, be that altering brake lever position, tyre pressure, or bottom out resistance of your forks etc. Just because it is "stock", doesn't mean you shouldn't fettle with it. Hell, it should be encouraged, racing or not! You don't know how good your bike could be unless you try different set ups.

End of rant. Go ride your bike. But put some more bottomless tokens in before you do.

You get points for both qualifying and final runs, so thats where the variation comes in. Your overall score for each race is an accumulation of points for both runs, I think it was introduced to stop riders from purposefully qualifying badly so that they could come down earlier under better race conditions/weather.

Aaron Gwin: 3:03.13
Rachel Atherton: 3:34.73

1: Semenuk
2: Agassiz
3: Rheeder
4: Zinc
5: Strait

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