All

I don't find the Mary and Assegai to be similar tires. Mary is far better in the soft/loose but squirmy on hardpack corners or off-camber rock. Assegai is the opposite - good when it's dry or firm but lacks bite when it's really soft and it clogs up. For mixed conditions Schwalbe tire I prefer the Tacky Chan, but it has strong cornering bite which is pretty different from the Assegai and not everyone will like it. If you want fast-ish rolling rear, the Nobby Nic is excellent, I just wish I could get it in Super Gravity for riding...

My guess

Ancillotti did bushings as well, even on the main pivot. I believe they still do. A buddy of mine had one. He needed to break the bushings in, so I believe they come quite tight from the factory and then kind of grind themselves to the right tolerances. He was (is) rather sloppy with bike care, but the bike never creaked or so. Anecdotal, I know, but could hint that with the right execution bushings could work... Edit: just got called out: a) by first friend not approving being called sloppy, b) by second friend wondering how I could have...

77designz just released their new bar after parting ways with WeAreOne. Looks like they are using the same principle as before with a thinner 33mm bar and a thicker 35mm stem clamping area. Instead of a alloy sleeve it is just thicker layup. Their previous bar was 258g and this new one is 220g. Also much cheaper at 163.85 € compared to 279.95 € before https://www.77designz.com/barlerina

What's old is new.

I’m at the 155mm crank party exclusively for the dh benefits and think 165 pedals up better at my 5’9” height. When Greenland and Dak were shown to have gone to 155 from 165 and knowing how much better 165 are for dh and low bb enduro bikes than 170-175 lengths it is not a big gamble to go short. Flat pedal rider( they stick out farther leaning the bike over in a turn) with no ragrets

The Curnutt shock had multiple grooves of different length on the inside of the damper tube. This worked very much like an external bypass. The grooves in the shock body allowed some of the damping fluid to "bypass" the main piston. As the shock moved deeper into it's travel it would pass the shorter grooves pushing more and more fluid through the piston and allowing less to bypass. Eventually there were no grooves and all the oil was going through the piston. I tried for about an hour to find a picture (I remember one from back in the day)...

Exactly this, the position variation on the marking will easily be a couple of mm or more.

*if the markings were acurate. You‘d be surprised how big the tolerance actually is.

My concerns around shocks like this are more about exactly what @Blatant described - the average rider is going to struggle to get proper support for these, as has been the trend for every proprietary shock in history. I checked in with the NZ distributor and I also cannot get dedicated parts or tools for these, so will yet again need to explain to people why I can't help with their shock when they were led to believe by specialized that servicing would be straighforward.

I have owned a MT2 and HT2, currently have a nomad 6. Imo, there is no point to short stroking the MT2... just put 1-2 size larger volume reducer in it, and run 28% sag (instead of 30-32%) and voilla, you have essentially the same setup. I personally wouldn't under fork it, mostly because SC bb's are pretty dang low already(one of the main reasons I like them so much, so I don't think this is a bad thing). So I'd do something similar with the fork, either put a 10mm shorter fork on it, and use a 10mm lower...

Although I totally agree that Mavens and TRP's are awesome, I would highly recommend the Hope T4 V4's if you're looking for an amazing brake with loads of spares available. If you can get your hands on a Vivid coil, I would pick that over the DHX2 as the Hbo and touchdown is amazing

Can't wait to spend another $1000 in tools just because they decided to change a bolt pattern or a diameter somewhere for no reason.