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The last gen Shimano 2x front mtb derailleurs were actually ridiculously good IMO. The horizontal swing rather than vertical made set up ridiculously easy once you got over your 20+ years of front derailleurs operating in the same general fashion knowledge, Simplex be damned. Getting rid of that vertical swing seemed to have nixxed a lot of opp for the chain to get derailed poorly.

Three gears in the front and seven in the back could be the perfect ratio for mountain biking! It's almost like it would give you three different gear "ranges" using the front shifter- one for climbing, one for descending, and one for everything in between. And the chain alignment could be so much straighter without having to pack all your gears onto one super wide cassette. I wonder why no one's thought of that yet? I can't think of any downsides.

What if we tried putting a small derailleur on the front cogs, may be just like 2-3 gears, then a 5-7 speed cassette on the rear with another smaller derailleur? Same ratios but better weight distribution?

What reviews have been done haven't been particularly positive. It's an interesting concept, but as noted shifting is slow on the system due to the increased chainwrap on the cassette. Then for suspension design you're pretty limited in your ability to design it into different suspension platforms. As my boss is kinda over apt to say, the juice may not be worth the squeeze.

There are racers on the WC DH running internally geared hubs or single speeds?! Let's not forget that Gates is a HUGE company. The bike industry connection is certainly their smallest division. Their automotive and auto adjacent business revenues are likely 1000X what they see in the bike industry. Gates isn't going anywhere and we will be seeing further adoption of their products as they expand into more aspects of cycling. Had a few beers, years ago with a major tire manufacturer sales rep. He talked of how the bicycle division was their highest margin division, but their gross sales...

The Extraterrestrial is more important to the team's recent success than the bike or Loic being gone.

Dutech Holding LTD. is in the process of buying the accell group. It is currently under anti trust investigation. https://www.finanznachrichten.de/nachrichten-2026-06/68899320-laufende-…

I could give this a go, would back to back race sim laps be enough to provide accurate results? At least in a way that it is consistently one way or the other?

DHF sucks. Always wash out unless you really commit to the lean and never ride berms

It wont this year. They made the mistake of designing it without a gearbox. Scrapping the whole lower half of the bike.

Normally I wouldn’t point out grammar/spelling errors and I am doing so here in good faith and with intended humor. Not trying to be a dick in any way. 😘 But spelling undulating as ‘ungelating’ is diabolical. It reads like a problem where one can’t get their jello to set properly. Haha

Make a weekend trip to Vermont. Kingdom Trails might just be what you are looking for.

Sterling Foest State Park and Ringwood State Park are both about an hour from the George Washington Bridge and offer the most contiguous singletrack in the immediate area. https://www.palisadesmtb.org/ is the local advocacy group for Sterling and just opened a fantastic new trail this month. Our hills top out at about 1200' but there is still plenty climbing and descending. If your willing to drive 3 hours for more elevation there is some great but somewhat limited riding in the Catskills. Roundtop and Elm Ridge are fun and there is some even better stuff in the western Catskills that isn't...

It's possible they locked the production bike at a certain point and the world cup team is still fiddling extracting more performance. You don't need to produce what the team is riding, there could be differences to make the bike more palatable to the general public...

Sponsored riders were using spider less saints for the past two seasons. Nothing new here.

All this drivetrain efficiency/Gearbox discussion is making me think about the joy I get from riding my singlespeed.

Gearboxes, the “fusion energy” of MTB.

Probably just means they haven’t spent much time dialing them in and maybe only recently got to ride production frames.

I am going to be completely transparent here in that I work for FSA, but I will say I worked really hard on making the 31.8 40mm Gradient alloy bar one of the most compliant on the market. and here is the proof: (chart from PB article)