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it's almost as much as your megatower.

Next thing you know people will jump out of airplanes and trust their lives to some strings

I'm overdue to write that Telum review, but in short it's phenomenal. If the damper is anywhere near as good as the shock, it will be unreal. I couldn't believe how much better my fork felt with the MRP Lift damper, so I'm totally down for a Vorsprung fork damper.

I put a switchgrade on all of my bikes. My climbs are fire roads and then straight down descents. I use 240 droppers and this usually. I can tolerate 210 with one of these on hikes with bad insertion. I’m in the desert for a few months and I’ve changed it to be flat, tilted for dh, and tilted for lots of dh. It’s not for everyone and every trail, but I’ve never regretted the purchase and find it useful nearly everywhere

It's very useful if you ride steep both up and down. More efficient uphill position so you don't have to fight to not slip back on the saddle. On the way down it provides extra clearance so it's like having a longer dropper.

To me it’s like a dropper post, it’s almost always up or down.

@jeff.brines the Sam Nichols podcast was absolutely awesome. Really great insight to not only the situation YT was in, but also how bike oems handle their business, as well as an anecdotal case study of how PE/VC actually happens. It's nice being able to digest that paradigm with a case study that is relevant to my interests... makes what is otherwise a pretty dry subject if you're not in the thick of it and makes it palatable. Thanks Jeff, great work!

@jeff.brines' interview with Sam Nicols, YT CEO from 2021 to 2024. some really interesting insights about the inner workings of a brand like YT. i found the bike ordering, building and assembly process fascinating. 00:00 Introduction to Sam Nicols and YT Industries 01:49 Sam's Background and Career Path 09:28 Challenges of Stepping into YT During the Pandemic 11:35 Navigating Supply Chain Issues and Customer Care 16:01 The Private Equity Interest and Acquisition Process 23:45 Aligning Goals with Private Equity 30:15 Understanding the Risks of Private Equity 34:11 The Impact of Market Conditions on YT's Valuation 37:05 Transitioning to In-House Assembly...

I hear you, understanding consumer precarity matters, and I agree that headline metrics like GDP don’t capture the lived reality for many households. Consumers absolutely can’t participate in discretionary categories like cycling if they feel unstable. Where I diverge a bit is in the framing of “overwhelming suffering and lack of opportunities.” I don’t want to minimize anyone’s challenges, consumer stress is real, and unevenly distributed, but relative to almost any point in history, opportunity, access, and quality of life are still comparatively high. That context matters. If we overcorrect the narrative, we risk drawing conclusions or building models that...

You're very entitled to your own opinion, but I didn't hear the same contradictions you did. I've re-listened multiple times this morning and I still can't hear it the way you have. I heard Markus say they knew they were facing tough times but weren't expecting the PE firm to get to a point where they aren't willing to inject cash. The Fire Sale was an effort to get through that specific period without having to ask for more cash. That failed and then they were told 'no more'. As for your previous point, it's not exactly clear to me...

I tried to make this clear in my follow-up audio note, but I’m really not trying to throw shade at @Downtime Podcast or Chris. Two things can be true: Chris is one of the best hosts in the MTB world, and the Markus episode missed the mark for some of us. No podcast hits a home run every time. Every show I listen to has episodes where I think, “not for me” or “this one whiffed.” That’s normal. And the same is obviously true for my own content. In a way, Chris let Markus make his own bed. Anyone who...

jeff is famous now: https://www.mtb-news.de/news/markus-flossmann-interview-yt-rueckkauf/

F1 (and other highly aero dependent motorsports cars) are not a great example of suspension kinematics that will directly apply. This is especially true in the current ground effect aero era of F1 as a lot of the performance aspects of the car are in order to maintain a floor/diffusor distance to the pavement. That is so incredibly impactful of the performance of the current cars within the rule set, that it becomes the primary thing you optimize for, over and above mechanical grip. You'd see slightly more similarities with motorsports engineering with lower power cars without significant aero that...

This is the best meme I have seen on this site since I joined. Currently have 10 bikes and 3 project frames in the house that I'll get to at some point in the next 15 years of which 9 are mountain bikes, and two of the ones that aren't are technically mountain bikes.

I'm locking this thread for a day or two. Not trying to be rude, I'd actually love to jump in myself, but we've gone way off the rails. None of this ties back to the bike or outdoor industry directly. If you want to continue the AI discussion, please start a new thread, take it to X/Twitter, or head over to LinkedIn. Those platforms are built for this kind of speculation (and overflowing with this sort of banter). I want to keep this space focused on industry-specific topics. Nothing personal,I genuinely enjoy these conversations, this is just a "thread hygiene"...

Sneaky name change caught me out...... Loved the pod cast.