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The master cylinder piston for Shimano has been, for almost 15 years at least, 10mm. The ultimate leverage ratio of the XTR is not that different from a servowave equipped lever. The XTR saint combo has been run by Shimano athletes in dh for a long time. You get a stiffer lever and a less aggressive bite point. I used to setup our bikes with that combo back in 2014-2016 when I was wrenching for a trek/shimano jr dev enduro race team. It’s been a great setup for a long time.

Me: Can we stop and get a 6-bar suspension from Yeti? Mom: We've got 6-bar suspension at home: For older Amflows, but I suppose the new ones might be supported as well: https://www.mklinkage.net/

Those 6 bar yeti bikes had reviewers gushing. I’ve had absolutely zero desire to try a switch infinity bike. If they follow through with 6bar non e-bikes I’ll be really trying to give them a shot.

In VPP no less.

“Why do these new grips feel like crap?” weeks pass “Why does my right grip have a big L on the end? … Oohhhhh” I also found myself the other day mistaking the ft-lb scale on my new torque wrench for the Nm scale so now I’m wondering what bolts on my bike are fighting for their lives rn.

I'm really enjoying the Instinct to be honest, I wanted something lighter and more efficient uphill than the Altitude, but that can still handle some proper rougher stuff. It's setup 150/160, and I've swapped out the rear shock for a Float X2 since day one. I'm also debating on swapping out the 36 for a 160mm 38 to fully go into mini-enduro territory. As for the Element, I've ridden the latest one a handful of times and it's really a fun bike. Definitely on the lighter side of trail, but way more capable than a race-oriented XC bike. It's punching...

Thanks! When I was writing it up it kind of hit me that I definitely got to ride a lot of fun bikes haha. As for your question regarding the difference in travel between the C99 and the other models, it's simply a change in shock stroke, no special link or chips involved. All of the 2024-2025 Instinct models can be bumped up to 150mm of travel by removing the spacer and increasing the stroke from 52.5 to 55mm. 2026 all come with the extra 10mm of travel out of the box.

Have not noticed any significant drag on my OneUp hubs but keeping that in the back pocket as an excuse the next time I'm last up the climb on a group ride.

I think the issue is not being able to establish what the problem is because your riding isn’t consistent enough and therefore you don’t actually know what you are trying to fix. No one wants to try to problem solve a problem that they can’t even read. You shooting in the dark, unsure about the validity of potential solutions, and potentially don’t understand the complicated relationship between all the systems so you might actually end up fucking something up terribly. It’s not surprise many people don’t want to tinker.

Could be! The Instinct Manual says 52.5mm but I didn't see it mention the C99 spec.

Waaaaaaay less. Way way way less. I think that’s less to do with weight distribution and more to do with body position. You don’t need to drape yourself over the front wheel to keep it down, you can just stand up and keep a pretty neutral body position.

If you change nothing else you'll have less weight on the rear so you're more likely to spin out. However, longer chainstays can allow for higher bars, shorter stems and you don't have to focus as much on keeping the front down. So my real world experience going to 465 mm chainstays is that I haven't noticed an increase in spinning my rear tire on steep climbs. If anything it's probably better since I'm in a more natural position on the bike.

Size M frame rider here. I’ve had numerous bikes from 438-450 mm chain stays. Short chainstays (Firebird) makes it easy to loop out backwards but when standing and pedalling you get good traction. 443 chainstays on a high pivot (Range) was an absolute machine climbing. Traction for days in all situations. 450 chainstays (Rallon) tends to spin out, loose traction in extreme situations more easily. Obv there are numerous factors but it seems night and day to me. The best position so far seems to be seated with an upright body position but then you have to be careful when...

A higher stack is going to be better than a lower stack, everything else being equal, but it’s not a full solution. With a higher stack, it’s harder to get your weight forward and actually weight the front wheel on techy climbs and into turns. It’s more comfortable because you’re not forced either into a deep squat or a pike plank position as much. But it’s not going to change the basic fact that a standing rider will always have the overwhelming majority of their weight supported via their feet and thus distributed between the two contact patches according to...