All

Location matters. I have an xc hardtail in the midwest at my MIL's house... that bike has a 170mm dropper and it is more then enough. Out west where I live, I do not ride anything less then 210mm drop because it makes a difference. The riding is completely different however... one is gaining and losing elevation at 20-50-100' at a time, and the other is climbing for 1-2 hours straight and descending for 10-15 minutes straight down the steepest terrain possible. Both setups work great for their intended purpose for my 6'3" frame.

Considering it only has a spot for one water bottle it makes total sense for it to have internal storage. I don't do a single ride without 750ml of water in my frame storage. It's literally the ideal spot to add that type of weight for the bike's handling. It's very freeing to do a 3hr ride with no pack. Most other XC/DC bikes have a spot for a 2nd bottle so the weight is already there (in a worse spot) if you're on a big ride. It's wild to me how many people have gaslighted themselves into believing that...

I'm here to defend (good) trail associations. I was the first Executive Director of Evergreen MTB Alliance in WA State in the early 00's and then on the exec committee of the board for another 10 years. We (both paid crews and volunteers) built tons of tech trails, and yeah a lot of flow trails and jump lines for the masses. I think a good balance between the styles. Behind the scenes we fought HARD to keep open the unsanctioned areas - areas I rode and may or may not have spent countless hours digging at That fight wasn't...

Re: IMBA (and other trail associations) besides them building almost exclusively flow trails, I find the biggest drawback is the mob mentality of people that take part. -Come in and gaslight local government into letting them be the judge jury and executioner regarding how the entire trail system will be built and managed moving forward. -Build exclusively flow. (Requires excavators) -Gaslight local government into requiring parking permits to support excavator trails people didn’t ask for. Parking used to free. -Extended and unnecessary trail closures whenever it even slightly rains. “It’ll ruin the flow berms bro, be a good trail steward...

I disagree. The effects you cite are second order at best and debatable in comparison to wheel size rollover when explicitly considering XC racing. Most of the womens xc field already looks to be at the fit limit with 29”. But honestly, I don’t personally care about competitive XC beyond occasionally watching the racing.

I will put it plainly. Big people on little wheels -> frames can accommodate their size => no practical advantage Little people on big wheels -> frames cannot accommodate their size => practical disadvantage There is a fundamental physical advantage for bigger wheels relative to smaller ones in mildly bumpy terrain (XC like). Smaller riders cannot practically access this advantage. There is no disadvantage to small wheels if everyone is on the same wheel size. This is the issue. UCI has regulated road bikes (and others) for decades, sometimes just to keep the classic bicycle aesthetic. It’s funny that they...

Don't make @sspomer come yell at us again... Do we have a list of everything expected at Sea Otter this year?

People most likely move to electric moppeds before they move to bikes. I am still puzzled why electric scooters and Surrons are not more of a commuter thing in the US. I think in China they are.

9 months? But I thought the Supreme Leader said there was nothing left to target and he could end it any time he wanted. Maybe he's getting rich out of the higher oil prices? 🤔

The Chinese play dirty? Have we not come to the point where we realize all money guys play dirty? It’s called “being good at business,” unfortunately. I know we were taught differently but dude. Singling out The Chinese is bonkers! Ten years ago I was asked, in writing, to go on Amazon to pump up positive reviews when I was at the bike company. I couldn’t believe it but nobody around really thought it was anything untoward. Luckily my slimeball director was also a total coward so I was allowed to just laugh at the sales group who’d brought it...

Guy with "middle eastern" background here, lets go back to mtb rumors...

I finally got the mavens mounted and went for a ride today. Figured I'd share my experience as everyone here's been pretty helpful. I got a pair of the older Maven Silver on Pinkbike Holy shit these things are amazing! I've been a bit on the fence but finally decided to pull the. Been using Hayes dominions for the last 1-2 years and they're great but the Mavens just feel like a completely other level of control and power. In the past I've also used TRP dhr and before that code rsc. I'm only one ride in on these but...

This is probably more relevant for the main tech rumors thread, which has evolved into pretty much just the stream of consciousness for us vitalers regardless of topic, but what if we had a bot that counted comments, and once a specific topic gets more than 5 comments in a 24 hour period it auot-comments and suggests a new topic for it?

My hands started bleeding just looking at these pictures

Could for sure. But generally speaking, if a manufacturer is outsourcing a portion of the process it's not because it's going to add costs.

Again, coming from the manufacturer's perspective. You mention that "outsourcing a step will add a ton to the price". In reality, it's often outsourcing a step that saves considerable time and money. One specific example I'll share would be our shock shafts. We used to machine our steel shafts, complete with in-machine diamond burnishing process to the critical outside surface. The burnishing process was slow and required constant monitoring of the coolant ratio used for cooling and lubricating this process. Now, we outsource this step using an OD grinding operation to achieve the same results at a much lower cost...

Clear and Black anodize are extremely consistent and have a low scrap rate. It's only when you get into the red/blue/green/etc colors that matching becomes more challenging. We use automated polishing systems here at our facility, so it's very rare to have a QC problem related to that part of the operation. Darren

Our fork crowns and axle lugs are sandblasted prior to Cerakote. We also polish tens of thousands of aluminum parts per month here at our facility that are then sent to an outside vendor for anodizing. I was just providing my experience as a manufacturer. I wouldn't be able to comment on what a supplier might charge. As a component manufacturer, polishing and anodize comes at a lower cost. Darren

Fixed

I've been riding them for a few seasons. Pretty great. I treat them like garbage and have not had any problems.