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az2au Added a reply to Front DH Tyres Accurately Timed: Kryptotal vs Assegai vs Magic Mary vs Vigilante vs Plus+
1/28/2025 7:39am I think this conclusion is both fascinating and so logical that it annoys me that I hadn't at least considered it. I know I have a set of Krypototals that feel so fast but the times don't align with the feel. I hadn't considered that it feels like I'm cornering faster because I was already going slower coming into the...
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RoJo1 Liked a reply to forum topic Front DH Tyres Accurately Timed: Kryptotal vs Assegai vs Magic Mary vs Vigilante vs Plus+
1/28/2025 7:35am
I think the other tyres are more draggy, but can't make up this time loss through the corners. I guess if you are losing time on every straight the emphasis is on the rider to make this up in the corners, which seems to be asking too much as the Vigilante corners great as well. Assegai feels epic because you approach the corner slower (more drag) which makes everything easier, but this feeling is misleading.
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RoJo1 Liked a reply to forum topic Front DH Tyres Accurately Timed: Kryptotal vs Assegai vs Magic Mary vs Vigilante vs Plus+
1/28/2025 7:35am
I did A-B-A testing on each day aiming to get in 5 quality laps before swapping tyre, then 5 laps, swapping back again and another 5 laps. Timing was done by picking the exact GoPro frame where I crossed a specific feature on the trail, e.g. tree, rock, post etc so that I could get accurate timing to 1/60th sec and construct a perfect lap taking the best from each sector. The results often surprised me and I think "feel" can be misleading. The Assegai for example felt epic, but in the data it is slower in every sector.
This forum topic has 19 replies.
az2au Added a reply to High vs. Low Tire Pressures: Which Is Faster?
1/24/2025 6:50am Absolutely excellent post. Obviously you're correct in that it isn't statistically valid across all variables but I do think it is thorough enough to draw a valid conclusion given the outside testing and holistic work that likely led to the an initial hypothesis of slower being faster as a general rule (because the lack of learning/repeated runs needs to allow...
Between The Tape Liked a forum topic High vs. Low Tire Pressures: Which Is Faster?
1/24/2025 6:41am
We all know the theory: lower tire pressures mean more grip, and higher pressures roll faster. But when it comes to real-world speed, which one really wins? I set out to answer this with 30 timed runs down the same track. ◾ The Experiment Two sets of tire pressures were chosen for my 88kg (194lbs) weight: 25/28 psi (front/rear) for the higher pressures and 18/20 psi (front/rear) for the lower pressures. These pressures maintain a consistent 0.9 front-to-rear ratio, with the high pressures aligning with recommendations such as those from E13 . After three warm-up laps, each tire pressure setup...
This forum topic has 34 replies.
jeff.brines Liked a reply to forum topic The Bikeconomics (Mega)Thread
1/9/2025 8:17am
Just to put a fork in this one, I did hear from a reputable unnamed source that AB is doing just fine. So, lets chalk that up to the first "L" of the year for me! I feel my big miss here was twofold, besides the fact the flat out make a killer bike. Equity Sale: They raised at least $4M, which is a chunk. Plus, its equity so you aren't on the clock to pay it back. This is plenty of capital to put infrastructure in place without financing terms you'd usually have to be subjected to. Hence, if...
This forum topic has 5088 replies.
az2au Added a reply to The Bikeconomics (Mega)Thread
1/8/2025 2:04pm In theory yes and I considered doing it but it definitely would have cost me more to do that way. I wouldn't have bothered with the Walmart bike part of it though. There is no tracing for stuff like that. I'm usually in Europe several times/year for work or vacation but it wouldn't be worth it for me to do...
az2au Added a reply to The Bikeconomics (Mega)Thread
1/7/2025 1:46pm I think he might be referring to import duties instead of conversion as the price of the bike is known from the beginning. My A.170 was delivered the second week of December so I can give you a pretty accurate breakdown of current costs: I have the Fox spec'ed version and the price when I bought it was $9608.33. This...
az2au Added a reply to The Bikeconomics (Mega)Thread
1/6/2025 11:24pm Isn't there one other factor for Atherton though? I could've sworn that they also get a significant amount of help from the Welsh government. A quick look says yes but that may have already been fully accounted for and now all of the above applies post Welsh support. I'm honestly not sure. Either way, very interesting analysis and well explained.
az2au Added a reply to The Bikeconomics (Mega)Thread
1/6/2025 8:50am I know that when I ordered my A.170 they wanted to have a conversation first because of the myriad of options that they have. I normally would be super annoyed by this because I know exactly what I want and am quite capable of figuring out my own sizing but I'll give them credit in saying it was a worthwhile...
jeff.brines Liked a reply to forum topic The Bikeconomics (Mega)Thread
12/30/2024 12:39pm
Thanks for the kind words. Sincerely appreciated. I also wanted to thank everyone who has taken time to particpate in this thread. In a world full of internet dumpster fires, trolling, dunking and devolving online discussions, at minimum I've found the willingness of the collective to have a meaningful, fun, civil discussion to be worthwhile in and of itself, regardless of how right or wrong we all may be. I don't know much, but I know the more this happens, the better off it appears we all are. HNY everyone! Cheers and thanks!
This forum topic has 5088 replies.
DServy Liked a reply to forum topic Shock servicing at home
12/26/2024 7:57pm
Actually, my time spent on a Telum is kinda what prompted this whole can of worms in my life, and I think to Vorsprungs credit, they pretty much nail it. here comes complete speculation, I could be probably way off As far as I've been able to understand, when it comes to a shim stack, pretty much every shim past the main face shim is to help control the flex of the face shim, basically customizing the flex property of that shim to respond in set ways during load. So in that respect, any sort of of system that directly...
This forum topic has 91 replies.
Jason_Schroeder Liked a reply to forum topic MTB Tech Rumors and Innovation
12/20/2024 3:50pm
Yeah, I would. There are enough ways to manipulate the way it feels that'd it be cool to ride it on different designs. I had a Genie shock show up this week (*was not in a bottle). If/when I have other test bikes that the shock fits I'll toss it on to see what it's like.
This forum topic has 30444 replies.
anotherbikerguy Liked a reply to forum topic Shock servicing at home
12/9/2024 3:58pm
I don't know that this counts as a tool, exactly, but in my experience learning to service suspension the most important resource wasn't a tech doc or a specific tool but a more experienced technician. Someone with the practical experience to be able to say, "Yep, keep turning," or ""You need to clamp that tighter," or "Hold on, that's not how that usually looks." Some things are easy to specify, like torque or PSI. Some things are a bit more subtle. Having someone else looking over my shoulder when I was first diving into damper services probably saved me from...
This forum topic has 91 replies.
TheSuspensionLabNZ Liked a reply to forum topic Shock servicing at home
12/9/2024 3:58pm
Yes a heat gun is essential many things won't come undone cleanly without it! And adding to the guidance from an experienced tech I would suggest a couple of things - a) if you have any old shocks that aren't useful or can aquire some dead ones, have a crack at taking those apart without fear of breaking things. It can go both ways in that you don't know how hard to force something and you might hesitate on a part that you can go actually go wild on, or force something thats actually pretty delicate. Which leads in to...
This forum topic has 91 replies.
az2au Added a reply to Shock servicing at home
12/9/2024 3:57pm I have a Laba7 hand electronic dyno and " Daily Shock Bleeder". Did I need these tools to do the job? No. Does the bleeder make the job like 1000% easier? Yes. One thing I highly recommend is working on a shock that you care a little less about when you are first learning how to do it. I never...
Brian_Peterson Liked a reply to forum topic The Bikeconomics (Mega)Thread
11/16/2024 3:08pm
I love when the response is "But, I can buy 3 of the cheaper (insert item here) for that price.." Do you want 3 more failures on the trail? Do you want to damage parts on your bike when the cheap option doesn't work? I'm not saying you have to buy the most expensive option, usually I would steer people away from that since stepping down a level or 2 will get you pretty damn close on performance with a little weight added, but spending a few extra dollars will almost always save time, money, and frustration down the road...
This forum topic has 5088 replies.
az2au Added a reply to The Bikeconomics (Mega)Thread
11/4/2024 10:35am The Escape Collective posted above goes over why the original PE model saddled them with debt vs the model they have now. Not saying it will work better but it isn't just doing the same thing that matters. How it is financed matters quite a bit.
TEAMROBOT Liked a reply to forum topic The Bikeconomics (Mega)Thread
11/4/2024 5:51am
That's cool... whatever you do for business, are they hiring?
This forum topic has 5088 replies.
az2au Added a reply to The Bikeconomics (Mega)Thread
11/3/2024 8:50pm Yeah, I didn't look it up but I can just tell you what it was like on the ground and also what it was like getting a ticket. If that's correct number wise (and I have no reason to doubt that it is) then Elancourt Hill was not even close to full. Kinda makes sense as the XC tickets were...