All

Arguing about surrons and surron demographics on the MTB tech rumors thread. Sick. I wonder if SRAM considered 6 pistons when working on the Mavens. Maybe after the 1000th piston massage, some SRAM tech was like maybe we should just add 2 more pistons.

Don’t hate the tool. Hate the “tool.” Utilized in the proper context, they are loads of fun. It’s unfortunately too easy to act the fool on one.

You'd be surprised. The Surrons around here are decked out in Fox factory, EXT, etc suspension, anodized MTB parts, TRP DHRs, etc. The overlap in customers is significant.

I can assure you that the momentum of your lever has nothing to do with it.

This is exactly how I feel about Mavens. Hayes felt like they had too much throw in the lever for me. Even after a fresh bleed. And not quite the same power as mavens. But to be fair they are excellent brakes and if I had to run them I’d be completely happy. Just don’t think they quite match maven power, feel or build quality.

I always interpreted that as a Trojan horse for headset cable routing

32" Wheels also look shit. Banning skinsuits was done primarily to keep DH racing looking "Cool" (although these new one piece kits take the piss and look garbage if you look me) so I wouldn't be mad if part of their reasoning was to maintain the desired look for the sport. That stuff matters. While I am shouting at the clouds can we get the UCI to ban under the jersey body armour and long pants. Sam Hill 2005 is the desired aesthetic.

This is wild and speaks to different people’s experiences. I dislike the DHF because I don’t think it offers any improved cornering grip and the grip that is there is vague and hard to tell when you’re near the limit. The Assegai on the other hand has better grip overall and I can tell better where I am at relative to its break free point. The only downfall to me about an Assegai is its rolling speed.

Didn’t they move to 55mm chainline years ago? Even before transmission?

New Mallet DH on Party Marty's bike?

Mavens take massive shit on Saints, in terms of braking power.

Do you have a way of articulating how to use these? I know that seems like a silly question, but I have major hand issues and I have a pair sitting here. The main reason I haven't put them on yet is because I'm not really sure what the actual way to use them looks like. I was going to experiment later this week. Are you pressing the edge of your hand against the bar end actively or is it more of a loosen your grip, let your hand float, and use the bar end for security?

Code haters are just exhausting people. Codes are fine, always will be. Just because a maven exists. Remember, at one point WC downhillers had guides on their bikes. And guides suddenly became the worst brakes of all time the same day codes got released… time is a flat circle

Power of thiccness is a wild marketing line

Downtime mentioned how widespread the breeden bar ends are becoming, with people like Bruni, Pierron and many many others using them. Owning a pair, having recovered from 2 broken hands (left then right) in 3 years, I've found they definitely live up to the hype and really helped with arm pump and security of my weak hands on the bars. The bar ends are a much more interesting innovation than I originally expected, because they significantly change the biomechanics of the upper-body while riding. Stopped by the Orbea pits this weekend and they've cut grips down (pretty sure it was...

Excuse my French, but could we fucking please stop calling bikes "analog", "acoustic", or -the worst I've heard- "bio"? Bikes are bikes. Ebikes are something else. Now get off my fucking lawn you punks!

Tech Rumors and innovation

Name a more annoying sound than an American complaining about ebikes. Honestly, we've all heard your opinions before. We know you have them. I don't really like or want an ebike either but there are 12,000,000 whingy comments online about how you're too pure or too dedicated or too fit or too angry at unskilled riders and you're mad about it. We don't need any more. Talk about the market or discontinuation of normal bikes, sure, but complaining about being passed on a climb track or peoples ass cracks is tiring af at this point. You've been yelling about it...

Since we're off topic enough,I might as well invest my 2¢... I have enough experience on all sorts of bikes and their electric lookalikes. To me a downhill bike is the purest form of mountain biking. And this is my subjective understanding of the sport. I also really enjoy pedaling my Enduro bike. But I think most of us agree that the descent is what we call the "fun part". A downhill bike doesn't make compromises, and focuses solely on the fun part. You could try to argue that an ebike is about getting more of that fun part, but...

Guys, I know you don't want to hear this... but the racks on that new Levo 4 X monstrosity are really cool. Those ugly Levo X racks move all of the cargo on the bike from unsprung mass to sprung mass. As forum dwellers, we should all be able to appreciate why that's going to ride better, even if the XX cranks, the paint job, and the S-works price point are all serious headscratchers. If you don't believe me, check out this writeup from Travis Engel at the Radavist on a similar front rack design that he bodged together on...