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I had one of the my ‘26 enduro frames in my hands a couple weeks ago. If literally hundreds of FTW built frames hadn’t passed through my hands over the last 25 years, I would be hard pressed to tell the difference, the start-stop marks on the welds were even in the same place Frank does them. Neko and Logan need margin and scalability to build a sustainable brand. That takes working with a more vertically integrated supplier- and there really isn’t anyone domestically that has the manufacturing firepower to match the amazing product and marketing firepower the Mullaly boys...

Here's another 2 cents. I love Vital (and its forums) and I love Pinkbike (and its comments). I've followed both for as long as I can remember. I started mountain biking when I was 12 in the year 2000. I've been around. Both sites are great. Both offer different resources. Both serve the sport we love. But I don't understand why so many Vital readers hate Pinkbike. Like, really really dislike a site that has been so important in building a positive image for mountain biking. I've seen more anti-Pinkbike/anti-that-other-site/anti-rhymes with StinkBike comments on Vital than I can remember. Conversely...

Finally something to yap about

Honestly the best format was the yearly. I think the single thread is ideal for rumors to start the discussion, then have it break out to individual. The BIG thread got bad, but the yearly thread was dialed. Just like race talk and team rumors. I get the web resource thing, so swapping it every year works. Also great for a recap every year/5/10 to see how bikes have developed. So my vote is yearly generic thread for discussion to break out to other subjects.

This is the way. Rename the v2 Tech Rumors thread to 2026 Tech Rumors, pin it, close it on Dec 31, 2026. Rinse and repeat. Kinda similar on the MTBR NorCal forum that I also inhabit, there is a monthly thread dedicated to ride reports (and all their tangents and side conversations). Works really well and is easy to navigate/manage.

brace yourself... at the end of the year, we're going to lock this thread. while it's been amazing (thank you all!) and fun that we hit 1000 pages and over 7.5m views, this thread is a logistical and technical resource hog. it's also not easy to access older information. while there are a lot of upsides to the ease and convenience of posting to this thread, the downsides are outweighing the ups with it being so massive. please start a NEW thread to the hub for anything that has potential for legitimate discussion. good posts will be homepaged and the...

Orbea also uses a concentric pivot at the rear axle, but considering they've already released their Rallon EN/DH in carbon, it would be surprising to see them testing another alloy prototype so soon. Devinci seems more plausible to me.

It relates to 6-bar and 7-bar link suspensions, sixfinity and sevenfinity for example.

Figured it out

That proto frame goes way back. I shot this photo of it in the early fall of 2023. Sorry for poor quality. The obvious heel rub and linkage swap-out (on your more current photo) shows it's seen a lot of hours. The guy riding it started working for a different bike company, so he may have offloaded this one to another industry friend. At the time, I was thinking it was maybe a Diamondback prototype that got canceled/never saw the light of day. He was fairly open with it; it was spotted at local Seattle area watering hole(s), etc.

Yeti human powered bikes going to sixfinity👀

Greeting people with "what's up assholes?" in videos is not poor attitudes. Leave Unc alone, he's honest and he works hard to spread the good word of long rear centres.

I re-read this post and couldn't understand what you were trying to say. Not to mention your response seems filled with unnecessary vitriol over someone just mentioning a persons name. Judging by your response I can only assume that you're harboring some deep seeded PTSD from him crushing you at the local beer league endubro. Which I do personally feel like that might be worth seeking some help for as it's never good to cary such such a burden mentally. All that besides, I'm glad you feel like Evil's 435 rear center is what you want in a size XL...

Aston and Cahal have their quirks but calling them mediocre riders is complete BS. Both of those guys rip. Also 435 chainstay on a modern XL mtb is a joke IMO. Especially for a frame that costs $4k.

435 chainstay across the board... Brian Cahal has left the chat

why do you think everyone should have the same length rear center but a size specific front center and do you believe every size rides exactly the same?

I suppose we can't be everyone's cup of tea - our goal is to make the best bikes we possibly can & yes, that price is competitive. Thanks!

I'd love to try one... in a field of crab links, faux crab links and imitation crab link look alikes, this does stand out as different and interesting. As a 6'3" ish rider, I'm interested in the design/validation process that lead to a fixed chainstay size. I'm a longer chainstay type of guy, but I can admit when I jump on a pivot, I'm not thinking of how short the chainstays are the whole time. I feel like there is a riding style that is central to evil bikes that jives with slapping the back end in and out of...

allied bike that was posted about a few pages back. This was from ed masters most recent vid.