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Fox Factory Q2 Results - My analysis. // Blog // Substack I know @sspomer may post this in it's entirty seperately (or here) which I'm (obviously) cool with. Also, this graphic is relevent so I'm posting it as a stand alone.

Leatt sales jump 61% in Q2 South African protective gear brand Leatt reported a 61% year-on-year increase in its second quarter revenue, totalling US$16.2 million. This marks the company’s fourth consecutive quarter of growth. The company's helmet sales increased 117%, while parts and accessories saw 65% growth in the last three months. Leatt's direct-to-consumer sales rose 35%, while US dealer-direct revenue for MTB and motocross products also increased 45% in the same time period. Source: https://escapecollective.com/dailynews/#leatt-sales-jump-61-in-q2

That Float X2 debacle escalated quickly... Holy moly. Canyon bikes also suffering: According to GBL's half-year report, Canyon recorded a turnover of 398 million euros in the first half of 2025, which corresponds to a decline of around 5% compared to the previous year. The company also reported a loss of €5 million, compared to a loss of €0.4 million in the previous year. GBL, the owner of 49,9% of Canyon only has €261m of the originally invested €400m still on its books, which corresponds to a depreciation of 35%.

This looks like a rockshox Genie

It’s time people accept that we ask 140mm frames to ride the same trails and features that used to be exclusive to downhill bikes. The big difference is the trail bike has to do it with a dropper post and 12 speed cassette

Does the new Trek frame vindicate Privateer? Top tube hump ✅ Ugly Rocker link ✅ Heavier than previous model ✅

It was news to me, so maybe it will be news to others, but there are two Canadian Open DH races this year at Crankworx. The first is happening this weekend (qualifying today, race tomorrow) and it's called the 'OG Canadian Open.' It follows mostly the same path as the classic course that was raced for years. The second is the 'RockShox Canadian Open' happening next Friday on the 1199 track. Rain two days ago has made for some epic conditions and they tuned up the OG track a good amount. Looks all-time -

Meh. Remy is about where he was on Giant, not better or worse. Griffith too injured and too new to elites to judge. Jenna isn't too different from previous years, despite the heart break of being on the bubble again and again. BK also too injured to judge but 5th at Hardline just behind Ronan and Tuhoto is more than fine. (Oh and 4th in Tazzy, just behind Brosnan.) It's more so a signing strategy issue, PLUS horrid injury luck. I can't suppose Remy would suddenly be a finals threat just by being on a different bike, dunno. But... Ya...

My big theory, Pivot relied heavily on BK's feedback for the most recent bike development and the geo does not support going as fast as one needs to go these days. So the guy that developed the bike gets hurt and now others are trying to go fast on a bike that maybe doesn't suit their style or a younger riding style. Mix that with a few mis steps in talent development and recruitment and all of a sudden you are in a real shitty spot. Right now I think there are more DH bike manufactures with World Cup teams...

I wouldn't be surprised if they basically end up with three key frames: Next Gen Top Fuel for Cross Country/Downcountry/Trail Fuel for Trail/All-Mountain/Enduro Then the Next Gen Slash/Session for Enduro/Downhill. Similar to the latest Orbea Rallon. I actually saw this on the Slash FB page the other day, apparently it’s a custom 190/190mm travel Gen 6 Slash with custom rocker/lower linkages and dual crown fork. I imagine a Slashession would be extremely popular since it can be pretty hard to justify a downhill bike for a lot of people, but something that could do both without too many compromises would...

From the consumer side it definitely looks more complex, but from the manufacturing side even with all these options they have still reduced their SKU's, what was previously three bikes has now been wrapped into one frame, the only parts that change are the Rocker links and lower shock mounts which are pretty small and easy to manufacture. Before they had three bikes, the Remedy, Gen 5 Slash and Fuel, each with their own corresponding parts, e.g different rocker links, different chainstays, different seatstays, different frames, etc. Now with the new model, you have one frame, one set of seatstays/chainstays...

That paint is sick but the black bit of the front triangle looks like a repair job where they couldn't be arsed matching the paint.

No surprise that the giant hole in the downtube requires thicker tubing and more weight. And the return of late 80s/early 90s paint schemes!

I want to hate The trek but it looks really good - The amount of options and adjustability I think is a win for the consumer, especially those who want a shortish travel bike but dont want a DH/super enduro when they decide to do the odd park day. and in NZ it's cheaper than gen 6.

This website is absolute abysmal garbage, but, I think it goes without saying, bad actors are going to start using AI to scam people, and as AI improves and gets more easy to use, these websites are going to pop up more and more. We need to be aware of stuff like this. My favourite bit is this AI generated "testimonial" from a totally real buyer, talking about a downhill bike that hasn't been made in half a decade as if it is a current model e bike.

People will feel a lot of things if you prime them before they try them. EDIT: I have a friend who, whenever we're testing something new and he is the first to test, always says "you'll try it out yourself" when I ask him what it's like and when you get your turn, he asks what did you feel or think, not "did you feel x". Because he wants an unbiased feedback. Anywho, all this talk about kinematics is all well and good, but the first thing I though when I saw the bikes was "even if it works, who...

Stif Cycles (a UK retailer with a reasonable sized online business and even produced their own frames for a while) are having a closing down sale.

Among other things being discussed here, I can even try to sharpen Occam's Razor even further and say... None of the platforms I know of that get great views spend time and effort trying to prove and promote to you that they are getting great views. (kinda like the 'nice guys never need to tell anyone that they are nice' concept) Another thing is, I dunno what youtube formats are like in other countries, but if they were smart they'd just use youtube as their paid platform... BUT that can't happen because they actually just bought it as a gateway/sampler...

These guys just pulled juniors from YouTube. Possibly because it was out performing or getting very similar numbers to elites and some exec at wbd doesn’t like to share.

"... the live timing feature on race weekends has continued to be one of the largest drivers of traffic throughout the season..." Translation: "In fact, now that that's the primary source of fan engagement for things like Timed Training, Qualifying for both Elite and Juniors, and Juniors Finals, we're seeing record numbers across all demos, especially among the sought-after affluent 60+ age group who vividly recall the glory days of the Radio Era when they no longer needed to wait for tomorrow's newspaper for up-to-the-minute news!"