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This is a step backwards. They should’ve made a full power, long travel, up and downhill beast as light as possible. Preferably with a gearbox motor and belt drive with the option for a big or small battery.

Lmao never thought I'd hear about that again, Can't Pay We'll Take it Away! Season 5 Episode 10 for anyone interested. Back to rumours tho, hearing the Athertons shifting to Gates is one of the more interesting things I've heard recently. Still have a hard time understanding how they function as a business/raceteam given the relatively low volume of products they move at what I would assume to be a low margin. Honestly, I have yet to see one in person or even hear about any Atherton models in BC (Okanagan/Island). Could this be a hail Mary to justify keeping...

I knew this was coming with Anna 's season last year. Mixed feelings- really stoked for Anna, sad that one more privateer team is going away. All the best to Anna and Abby next year!

I could care less. But dating a girl who was 17 when she joined your team shortly after she becomes legal, while she still is a part of the team, is pretty questionable and wouldn’t fly in a lot of businesses. Hell plenty of companies would not let you date an employee as a manager if they were 10 years older than you. The age gap just increases the power imbalance. Ultimately if they are happy and stay happy good for them. But there are a lot of young women who get used by irresponsible men making false promises who...

Is Bernard Kerr the UK version of our P Diddy, looks like it. Is his new nickname going to be B Kiddy??

What is Jakob too old for him now?

Hans Rey can finally retire though

No, no, no. It's not your fault. Don't beat yourself up over it. It's your daughter's fault. Blame her!

instead of gossiping about some riders relationships here are some actual team news: team 31 (jenny rissved‘s squad) is off ibis cycles.

TBF, even back pre C19 Kona's CS/TS was, how you say, 'interesting' in its professionalism. Forgot the guy's name but he was far less than accommodating. A couple interactions was all it took to decide I'd rather waste time hunting parts down on their poorly designed and referenced website than ask for him to do his job.

Aren’t we already there? How many more bikes with a 64 degree head tube angle, 76 degree seat tube angle and 435mm chainstays do we really need that all fall within the same 5% of leverage and progression rate?

If I were tasked with saving Kona, I wouldn’t pay to send anyone to Sea Otter either. If I had normal job at Kona though, I’d definitely be trying to get down there to find a new gig!

I think the thing that really killed off Pole was their bikes are really ugly, if you are in business to sell things its best to give the consumer what they want. If I'm going to spend that much money on a boutique and unique bike it can't look like someones science project from the 90s. Kona is sad to see. It seemed they had a lack of capital that lead to a lack of reinvestment in design and updates after the push to develop the Process line. I would argue the Process 111 is one of the most influential...

Kona is owned by Kent Outdoors, which is presumably (I haven't looked) well capitalized. They purchased Kona at the peak of the Covid boom, which is an LOL to Kent and a good-on-ya to the former owners of Kona. I doubt this is bankruptcy, but it could be the end or a major change to the Kona brand. Maybe Kent punts on this recent purchase and sells Kona? Close down Kona? Gravel and casual bikes only? This feels eerily similar to what another Washington state brand wend through. Raleigh USA included Diamondback and really went through the grist mill. It...

My 2cents. Pole had a huge issue with their first run of bonded bikes and effectively had to replace or refund most of them to my knowledge, I don't think a company that size can recover from that unless they are seeing huge growth/success/margins. Also, despite Pole being a very niche and out there manufacturer, their sales prices were way under many boutique brands, so their margins probably were not even that high. For Kona, they had huge success ten-ish years ago with the process line, the 111 was the media darling, but we saw loads of the trail and...

It must have been difficult for Pole recently since they only really sell big 'enduro' bikes. I don't know actual sales numbers but the big brands usually talk about their 'trail' bike like a Stumpjumper being the primary sales model for MTB. As for Kona, did they not just release a new carbon gravel bike? Given the scale of their 'meeting' I assume something big is happening, but maybe it's just scaling down travel/marketing as opposed to a full on bankruptcy situation. It just seems weird to drop a new product and potentially leave the market a few days later.

To me, it sounds more like the current owners just sold the brand in a quick deal and the whole thing with the Sea Otter was just a part of the bad timing. I have my fingers crossed that if there is a new owner, he will put them back onto the map in a proper way.

This sucks. Such an iconic brand who did so much for the sport. Especially Freeride