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I’ve never met Markus. All I know of him is what anyone can see online, an Instagram account, a few YouTube clips, and the ripple effects of his decisions. Still, there’s a recognizable pattern here, one as old as business itself, fueled by ego, greed, selfishness, and (yeah) incompetence. There’s real research showing a correlation between traits in the "dark triad" and founder/CEO personalities. Add in that around five percent of the population shows sociopathic or psychopathic tendencies, and that building any company requires a certain level of delusion, and well...you see what I'm trying to say. From 30,000 feet...

Linkage forks will never work. They look stupid and can’t be made cheap or light. I’ve been drinking come at me haha

Dylan Maples to Pivot, seen testing bike at Morzine..

yeah it's funny how as we age our interest change too. My whole youth was racing DH, Supercross and motocross. Golf and Baseball were far from interesting. Now I've had a couple of kids, a massive mortgage and half a head of grey hair my interest have shifted to the old man stuff, lawn care, golf, watching sport and drinking beer alone lol. Riding bikes will always remain, it's more the social aspect of it now. My appreciation for what people enjoy is broadened. My tolerance for dickheads and fake people has decreased. I am officially old.

how do you have time for pickleball with 19 bikes? :D

The American Continental series seems to fall pretty flat this year, it's just too spread out and kind of a joke. To really compete, you'd have to travel to south, central and north America over 9 months. That's a big chunk of travel to move though. I'm sure there are enough venues and races to have a few feeder series races in all 3 parts and then that can make riders from those areas shine. It's already difficult and expensive enough for US, Mexican and Canadian riders to do a mixed series in North America given its size without having...

fwiw, adam (the "money guy backer") was at the venue every day moving lumber, signs, cords, spray paint, dirt, tools, boxes etc. he was covered in dirt like all the crew, in addition to hosting riders for meals and gatherings at his home. he was anything but hands-off.

Not sure what thread to post this in , so it's going here 😅. Before the Vital Raw budget is decided for 2026 can I petition @sspomer , Lawlor and the corporate powers that be? I'd love to see this year's fast junior men all in one raw edit, maybe if they are all in NZ this winter? Alran Bros. , Vermette, Waite, Clarke, Williamson etc .. ? Thanks in advance

Hey look what I found in the parts bin: This was one of the last things I worked on at RS before I left... goal was to control big hits by weakening or slowing down the return of the air spring. I run my setup with a lot of spring and no damping, so getting bucked on big hits is part of the deal. This thing 'gulps' all the air in the positive chamber on compression and lets it out with a tiny delay (since it all has to go through the tiny hole to get out). No delay on...

I have fought off having superboost rear wheels in my fleet for many years. My wife fell in love with a pivot recently and got herself one. It has ruined the zen status of all wheels/hubs fitting all bikes in my garage. It is as bad, if not worse then the dystopian axle future I imagined that had me avoiding pivot bikes for nearly a decade now. superboost sucks... after having a superboost bike forced on me, I can safely say, I will never own a superboost bike.

Start by finding the moment due to rider weight about the chainstay pivot on the front triangle. Since this is static, the sum of the moments about that point must be zero. This will allow you to find the reaction force at the seat stay. Remember since everything is pinned, the force can only be along the axis of that member. Similarly, you can then do a sum of moments about the upper link pivot on the front triangle to find the reaction force at the shock.

More pics and info about Kayaba fork. Coil + air spring (like in old Marzocchi?) 20mm axle, weight 2900g, price ~1650$ https://mds.co.jp/news/2025/07/18/24687/

Easily mistaken for the real thing.

enough product talk in team rumors.

Liked racing with my friends. Didn't like getting stabbed in the back or have butt hurt happen you don't know about and a shuttle/lift be awkward. I'd rather race on another team & still do laps with friends. But boy it would be so easy to hop on the production version you both helped develop & just go ride. Someone mentioned Dak needing a certain bike layout that's unique to just him. I don't hear that when he talks. I hear him saying he wants to be ON whatever his bike for World Cups is as early as possible in...

Mondraker was and is a strange brand. Especially in the US. Literally the only thing that that got me looking at them was Dak. I need a new racebike coming up and depending on when/if they dropped a new one I was going to take a look. They have a high high bar to cross to get me to commit to a purchase and doing Dak a dirty would make the bar just a little higher.

a little too early to start drinking eh