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Copying the 5Dev cranks tells you everything you need to know about a company. All they care about is looks. The originals are a horrible engineering design. They should have copied Came Creek EEwings. But that would require some skilled welders and not just feeding a CNC machine. Innovation would be using ultra high strength steel from the automotive industry and make a tubular crank that uses the same axles as RF, Cannondale , FSA and all the others that use that same axle.

And to keep the news rolling in, here's part 2 of our China Cycle 2025 coverage: https://www.vitalmtb.com/photos/members/china-cycle-2025-shanghai-part-2.

I spent more time than I would like to admit trying to fix my shifting. It would shift fine for some of the cassette but some gears I couldn't get to work right no matter how i adjusted. i even replaced a derailleur hanger. Turns out i routed the cable of my shimano derailleur backwards.

i'll drop some official announcements soon with prizes etc , but like last year, the actual games don't turn on until the official start lists for the race are available. we build the games from only riders that are competing. so that usually means the weds afternoon or thursday morning of the race weekend (May 14 or 15 in the case of Poland). games always stay open until after qualifying, so there's plenty of time to set up your picks. stoked!

I’ve been in Finale this past week on vacation, and it’s rained everyday. Not a ton, but enough to make some trails slippery, while others were tacky and perfect. The weather has changed every day (currently it’s sprinkling and cloudy), but it looks like it will warm up over the weekend and be drier. It doesn’t take too much sun to dry up a lot of trails, but there always seems to be some slick turns and puddles when you least expect it. The trails that are being raced on above Pietra have been closed all week. But I know...

Crazy shakedown, front flips and all.

Wouldn't it be possible to give each rider a top notch action camera and hook it up to a system like they use for the drones at downhill and what not, and just broadcast it. Riders unlikely to finish in 15th place or worse can just get an extra weight attached to the bike. No need for a commentator, just put Josh Carlsson on an E-bike and have him cruise around and chat with the riders between stages. I'd watch that.

Here's the entry list for this weekend's race: https://chronorace.blob.core.windows.net/webresources/20250509_mtb/entr… There are many more racers in almost every category compared to last year and riders seem genuinely excited for the comeback of two-day racing.

This video is definitely a bit of a storm in a teacup, it has to be said. First of all, there is no air exchange between the main positive air spring and the ramp up chamber (they are separated by a piston), so even if you were to get things completely wrong, you could just pump up the ramp up chamber again and be back to square one. If you run the ramp up chamber super low you just end up with a very linear fork - similar to running no tokens in a classic set-up. Second, there is typically...

Last minute mountain creek entry…

Lol I cant wait for the comments of wealthy 200lb beginners say the USD Fox is not stiff enough for their riding when there is a 200lb pro racer taking golds on the fork.

ENDURO LIVES https://misspentsummers.com/new-enduro-world-cup-documentary-series-for…

https://ucimtbworldseries.com/news/warner-bros-discovery-sports-present… So enduro gets it's own "Drive To Survive" this year. Could be brilliant, could be cringe. For the love of enduro, please let this be good.

Are there any elite riders / coaches / engineers lurking here who can explain current or changing schools of thought on optimal body positioning? Do you start with body position & balance, then build/adapt the bike from there? I remember Minnaar talking about trying to adapt to the more upright modern position you see from riders like Jackson, Asa, Loris, etc but at a certain point over-elongated wheelbases and additional drag might prevent setups from scaling accordingly for large riders (ex Coulanges/Kolb are more hunched-over). I'm imagining that many many riders (including myself) are very poorly fit into our cockpits...

i followed dante, neko and luca around at windrock to see how their bike settings changed throughout the weekend.

Mitch Ropelato on ohlins, Brembo brakes and blacked out frameworks frame?

Oh for sure. Closed section has its issues when you're actually designing a real product, but unlike something like the 5dev or its many knock offs, it isn't just all downsides with zero advantages. Hence why a GX crankset is lighter, stronger, stiffer, and cheaper than that 5dev bullshit.

Fuck those cranks. There's SUCH a good structural reason why holes in cranks are a bad idea, with the exception of the sram cranks. The reason that all those 5dev cranks break despite not being very lightweight is 100 level shit, and I hate that the mtb industry is stupid enough to entertain it. A 2 dimensional truss structure is fucking terrible in torsion, and most of the crank arm sees a LOT of torsion. Then you've got all the stress concentrations with all the internal corners, and that multiplies your max stresses by a lot again. The reason why...