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went to check in w/ Chris Canfield at Vampire last week. super interesting stuff. showed his steel and new titanium bike and discussed it all. detail pics here https://www.vitalmtb.com/features/vampire-bikes-basement-chris-canfield

I'm sure y'all have seen the ti printed prototype of the Pivot DH bike (as opposed to the machined aluminum proto that Kerr busted). Chris C estimates that the cost to bring this to the market would still be 2-2.5 times the price of the current all carbon model. Is this because of the custom carbon tubes I wonder? Or is Atherton just running with significantly higher unit costs? It can't be purely from scaling costs since Pivot isn't going to sell more than a thousand DH frames total for this model. I ask because ever since Starling Bikes started...

Union farewell video. It's been an honor to work with them the last few years. The last great World Cup DH race team.

More team news from Privateer/Hunt, busy start to the year for them: ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Welcome to the Squad – Owen Robinson Joins Privateer Bikes Some riders are fast, some are fearless, and then there’s Owen Robinson—a rider who redefines both. Known for his raw speed, relentless style, and uncanny ability to make the impossible look easy, Owen embodies everything that Privateer Bikes is about. And now, we’re stoked to welcome him to the team. Privateer Bikes has always been about cutting through the fluff with no-nonsense, race-ready enduro and trail bikes that are built to go full gas and still get...

Fuck your seals. Sincerely, Fox

OneUp releasing a revised contact plate for their new Clip Pedal. On the one hand, good on them for addressing an issue quickly. On the other hand... really seems like something that should have been caught before the product launch.

I first thought trickstuff as well, machining looks very nice, and the color of the pads looks like trickstuff power. But, there is a snapshot when he leans the bike over to the other side, and you can clearly see whatever Hope does when you can remove the pistons. And the banjo fitting on the caliper is the same as Hope uses, different from trickstuff. Also there are some adjustor screws on the levers which looks like what Hope usually does So im betting its some new updated hope version

Let’s see if this gets deleted as well

Not a rumor but interesting: On the Downtime Podcast Dan Booker said he's on a 2-year contract w/ Santa Cruz that includes all the EDR rounds.

That bike is rad. Teeny L-beam seatstays and pocketed (but larger) chainstays. Looks practical to machine and keeps the chainstay stiffer than the seatstay for more roll and less wag. Good pedal stiffness but also good compliance. It will always be heavier than a tube for the same stiffness but (turns out) it's hard to machine a tube so this is a great solution and will be stiff enough for its weight. and it's cooler than a tube. It's neat that they can machine all these parts and still make money per bike... that's a lot of machine time. Funny...

norco's dh bike has a similar structure too (i know there's a better photo out there, but this was all i could find...look closely, you'll see it...seatstay sidecuts and chainstay bottom cuts)

Yeah not sure they got that right in the text. Clearly looks like its two separate halfs joined by the linkage and a "tube" kind of

This will not end well...

Atherton S.200 aluminum DH bike now for sale - https://www.athertonbikes.com/bike/s200-downhill.html - 3 builds £6,299, £5,650 and £4,165 (according to their website on this particular day) - 12 standard sizes and the combination of Atherton’s “perfect-fit" sizing - mixed wheel configuration - 200 mm travel front and rear. - DW4 suspension platform - single-piece CNC'd rear triangle S.200.1 build below

But can you stand on it?

Enough with the chainstay and transmission discussion - We have something else to scold Sram for. Some really clear pics from ESMTB of the electric dropper we discussed about a few pages back. I see why they did it, but it still looks terrible. But having the battery be a part of the collar, probably greatly decreases the stack height of the whole dropper, which is positive at least. https://esmtb.com/asi-es-la-canyon-lux-world-cup-cfr-de-jenny-rissveds-…

New Specialized DH prototype on the Pinkbikes homepage https://www.pinkbike.com/news/spotted-specialized-downhill-bike-with-tw…