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Yeah man idk about this one. Headset routing is terrible for a lot of reasons but I’d eat my bike if you could actually prove that it lets in enough junk through the headset to make the shock dirty. Maybe if sink your bike in a mud puddle for a few hours or ride muddy park all year and never clean your bike.

while i agree that many riders often have "more" bike than they need for a given trail, i'm not sure if this comes from a desire to be "overbiked" or just that many riders have one bike. they need it to cover many different kinds of terrains and difficulty levels - which results on inherently being overbiked on some trails.

The damper is pretty consistent. Damper fluid is designed to have consistent viscosity across a wide range of temperatures… that is the whole reason to have a special oil. Plus the fact that shim valves aren’t terribly sensitive to viscosity in the first place. I’ve run these experiments on a dyno FYI- small % changes at most. Air springs on the other hand gain noticeable pressure when hot. I’m always a bit skeptical when someone complains about their coil shock becoming a pogo stick due to heat. More than likely it’s you and your (weak, non-world cup) legs getting fatigued...

Hmm has anyone ever done a proper test/analysis of shock performance to temperature change? As the biggest suspension geek I can think of @TheSuspensionLabNZ have you ever run across any detailed tests rather than just the usual online forum subjective reckons?

The specialised demo prototype is really good point that I didn't consider. I doubt Scott are making money of the DH frame though, unless there are some bike parks I haven't seen using a Scott rental fleet (the madmen), most manufacturers struggle to sell 500 DH bikes, which barely covers the costs of the moulds, let alone profit for a business as large as Scott's.

The shock will get hotter, that is not a question. And they do get hotter during use, that is clear if you run your bike in the mud - it's all dried up on the shock and brakes. My point was, if the shock warming up was such an issue, shocks would have cooling fins on them already. And bikes would have air deflectors to improve cooling and the like. It currently doesn't seem to be a big enough problem to deal with or maybe not a performance gain big enough to deal with. That WC PROs suffer from this...

That’s funny. Seriously though, they’ve never really done the remote lockout thing on their freeride and downhill bikes. To my knowledge anyway. The cable tourism on the Genius models I’ve worked on is literally out of control. 7 cables coming off the handlebars, and five of them go through the headset. 🤪

You've got it wrong. This is Scott, if you remember. High/low speed compression and rebound will be easily accessible externally, via handlebar mounted, cable actuated remote.

I may be no enginologist, but I'm pretty sure that damping is the act of turning kinetic energy into thermal energy. That heat has to go somewhere and stuffing the shock into an enclosed space will limit both convection and radiation. Is cooling reduced enough to matter? Open question, but shocks for sure get hotter in this configuration. Do we think this configuration was cooked up in the quest of performance, or in order to make MTBs look more like road bikes?

Regarding the Scott hidden shock designs, my concern would be over-cooking the thing on long descents or other heat-related impacts on reliability. It's basically stuffed inside a big thermos with none of that sweet, sweet airflow working its cooling magic.

Left field innovation question. Any chance of a review on the WRC Centrehub or Zero Drag DT internals? Looking forward to the E13 Sidekick hub review.

22k for a prototype frame isn't insane when you consider what production carbon frame molds cost.

Alternate ending: Rider shrugs and heads back up for more laps. Rather than endlessly fiddling with shock settings, they just get used to how the bike rides. They get faster, more confident, more faster, more confident. Lap times tumble, the confidence is there. Come finals the heavens open while they’re waiting to drop. Other riders scramble, calling Jordie asking for wet settings, stressing out. Our rider looks down at the frame, their fate sealed just as the shock below them. Shrugs. They couldn’t do anything even if they wanted to. They drop. The confidence. Bike and rider as one they...

If the cover works similar to the Genius models I’ve worked on, it snaps on and off quickly. The design is secure enough that I’m pretty sure it wouldn’t fall off in a crash, or just riding down the trail. Your skit is amusing. I would wager there’s a coil under there. Again, if the orientation of the shock is like the genius; it allows access to all the piggyback adjustments. Getting that rebound adjustment that’s usually on the other end? That’s probably going to be a stretch. I’ve always had this vibe that Scott engineers are in some sort...

I'm keen to see how the down tube connector snaps on and off for shock access. Or what happens when you chainring the f out of one, seeing as the frame must just have an enormous slot in it. I've got this skit in my head of a Scott rider rolling into the Fox pits saying he needs a bit more support during the big compressions and it feels like the bike is riding high, Jordi is all hmm, "yeah we can put a couple clicks on it, what psi where you running again?", both look at the bike where...

I guess the Yoke's on us......

Downtube failures, seat tube failures, seatstay failures... I'm on OG Evil guy, I miss my Imperial, and have enjoyed my Chamois Hagar, but based on the failure rate of folks I know and the steady stream of dead frames I see online... I am in no hurry to buy another evil mountain bike. No one is out there posting 'my frame didn't break today' on Facebook, but I'm a big nerd and on groups for a lot of brands I like, and the pace of broken frame posts is alarming - I think they're just built too light, Evil is...

my guess is if yeti really wanted to go away from the switch-infinity link they would change to their already existing sixfinity system from the ebike and DH-proto. seems to work really well and doesn‘t need a fox branded part.

AI really is taking over - a robot just put together the most interesting test of the year!

I like the idea of it being an Evil, just because I feel like they haven't done anything interesting in ages. They could use a bit of a shake up.