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Jeff, Yes, I know multiple shops that opened new accounts with new brands to try to get themselves some Avinox stock while the hype was boiling… Say someone wanted to open up a Pivot account(they had a couple Avinox bikes that were briefly in stock a month or so ago)…. that intial buy-in is a lot of cash. So say you bought your 3 bikes to open your account and only one of them is Avinox powered and saleable immediately for full-price… you are stuck with two bikes that were very expensive, and on paper, less-good” than the bike with...

Anecdotally, I have noticed multiple shops this summer that are down on stock of things like helmets, stems, pedals, gloves etc. because they frantically tied up their free cash pre-ordering Avinox equipped bikes... that still aren’t on the floor… in that brief period before all the Eeb-talk went Gobao and E-cvt shaped. This is all pretty much exactly what Richard Cunningham predicted when he resigned from Pinkbike a few years ago. A horsepower-driven race to the bottom.

Looks pretty solid but I already have Rocky Mountain Element with Float X/grip X at home.

Megatower + Spur = Fun on any trail

If you are going to ride the bike park and the option for a DH bike exists whether it is renting it or bringing your own, go with the DH bike. Even if you've never ridden a DH bike and think "oh, I don't know if I need a DH bike, maybe I'm not fast enough for a DH bike, maybe I won't be able to handle a DH bike, maybe it's too much bike for me." Shut up. You don't need that kind of negative talk in your life. Get the DH bike.

There is nothing safe about captain safety. Truer words have never been spoken!

Siiiiiiiick! TotW is a literal life goal. I'm not sure I'll be able to make it work out but I appreciate the info about it. Thanks for documenting and writing about the whole thing!

If they move those bars any lower, we're gonna have to start worrying about bar <-> tire clearance at full compression

Buzzwords. They should just use “light/mid/heavy” for casing options across all brands.

It will be a long time, if ever, before the DHF truly goes away. The DHF is available in 20, 24, 26, 27.5, and 29” diameters, a couple width options, and endless spec permutations between compound and casing. It would take years, literally, to move all those specs over to the DHX tread.

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My two (mountain) bike quiver is a Raaw Madonna and a Transition Spur, i.e. Enduro and aggressive XC. I’m a (former) enduro racer and live near a rowdy bike park, so a big bike that I can ride hard in rough terrain is a must. Built the Madonna about as burly as it can be built and I love it, even when my descents are all pedal-accessed. The XC bike has been harder to nail down; I picked up an Epic Evo last year that I really didn’t get along with, such that I thought I was just a big-bike...

I do all manors of cycling on dirt and mixed surfaces pretty much equally so I know how you feel about the two bike optimization question. In your case, already having a smuggler I feel pretty confident about the path forward. The easy answer becomes to build your smuggler back down to a 130/140 lite weight build and partner it with a orbea rallon enduro/dh. Since the Rallon DH and the Rallon enduro are the same frame, you can easily build that bike into two bikes with a spare shock, fork and wheelset. From a quick look, it appears that...

A 170 with burly everything and a 120 or 130mm true trail bike with medium-weight everything. If I can have one more, it's a dirt jumper, and if I get four I'm adding a DH bike. But medium is as light as I can go. I can't have light things because I break them.

Never. Heavy, commodity parts are what I need.

I'd argue the Pike is still relevant in order for RS to compete with the 36 SL.

Yeah man idk. At the cost of sounding like an old man yelling at clouds, I remember riding a process with a 160mm like for the first time thinking oh my god this is awesome. I still firmly believe a 140mm lyrik is just overkill.

In all seriousness, I’d like to see what/how good a 2026 2x8 drivetrain would be if sram or shimano put some serious resources into development.

What if all the gears were in a container in the middle of the bike by your feet?

What if we tried putting a small derailleur on the front cogs, may be just like 2-3 gears, then a 5-7 speed cassette on the rear with another smaller derailleur? Same ratios but better weight distribution?