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I got so sick of breaking rear hubs I switched all my bikes to dt Swiss 350s and 240s. I assume they are as durable as Chris Kings but at a lower price point.

Yup those SC bikes do some weird stuff, the rocker is super rigid & the leverage is pretty high so any slight misalignment or buckling gets transferred straight to the shock itself. Normally traditional eyelets at both ends is super reliable but those seem to be an outlier. The yoke destroying shocks thing is not even slightly overblown! Its just buckling forces on a slender part.....the longer you make it the more it wants to buckle when compressed. I have piles of broken shocks from nearly every brand that has been wrecked by shock extenders. Coil and air, fox, rockshox...

Not all of the shocks end up going through warranty replacement. Ask suspension shops how many air shocks they get with gouged/damaged air cans and/or broken shafts due to Stumpjumpers or yoke driven linkages. This goes back years across other bikes, the common factor for all of them is the yoke. Whether it's an issue for you specifically likely comes down to numerous factors including rider weight and terrain, but that doesn't mean there isn't an engineering flaw associated with them. Even if it's a small number, it's an issue that doesn't effect most other linkage designs, so why continue...

I have a lot of respect for Dave. He cracked open up this can of worms and shouldn't have been surprised to get pushback on that statement. Very much to his credit, the Super Deluxe Air is regarded as an excellent product and possibly the most durable shock on the market. I trust it, it's what I run. " What I find even more interesting are all the internet trends getting driven by a small vocal group of people, sometimes with merit, other times as snake oil. The power of placebo is a helluva drug, and we certainly tend to...

I love the internet. I won't speak for David, but I do think its worth pointing out you've probably ridden stuff he's engineered (he's ex-SRAM/Rockshox, specifically a rear shock engineer). One thing I find really interesting as I get older is just how much harder it is to ascribe real correlation to an event, despite what may seem obvious. Turns out, there are often many variables to consider, and anecdotes by themselves don't hold as much water as we humans wish. In your case, I'd wager heavier/smashier riders go through shocks at a higher rate regardless of application. How much...

Steel wins. Recyclable and easily repair, with a lower initial carbon footprint.

In a podcast it almost sounded like Neko just couldn't get the idea of an improved steel frame out of his head so he made the changes he wanted (stiffer and lighter) for Version 2 of the steel front triangle.

Let's be honest, people are downvoting comments on Lewis brakes because their marketing/brand HQ is in China, unlike every other brake company that has its marketing/brand HQ located in the West but has its products manufactured in China.

I didn't read everything but have been around the sport long enough to have seen "this sort of thing" before. Few observations. 1) Our opinion really doesn't matter. 2) The riders are going to do what the riders want to do. 3) From a sponsor/event perspective, this works. Look how many comments this has drummed up between instagram, YouTube, Vital, PB etc. If awareness is the goal, they already won. 4) I think Evil Knievel stunts take away from the coolest part of the actual sport, but again, I'm a couch QB. Not the person out there riding. I think...

Waaa waaa waaa don’t watch it then. Your two cents and mine don’t mean shit.

I feel like this statement is pretty whack. “i'm bummed this kind of spectacle is necessary to draw attention to DH racing”. You and all the old people saying rampage is to smooth hardline has to much scaffolding…. it’s not like it was in 2001… People are pushing limits. 90’ jumps are the norm for a pro… it’s not called puffy soft cloud line. It is hardline. It should have wild and weird features. I bet the boys there are stoked on getting to send some wild once in a lifetime stuff. I get it your a magazine editor, but...

Meh, 5 -15 minutes extra per category to get full runs on TV for last 5-10 riders per category is probably a good gamble, even with Gen Z attention spans.

That's cool. Nice insight, really helpful. Thanks

person with most downvotes gets a week-long visit by bizutch (who is not eligible b/c he def wins).

teamrobot set a record for forum thumbs up, so here's a preview of what's to come (unlisted, only for the special people in this forum topic) regarding taking out pawls and testing ochain.

afaik, domestic races with high enough UCI classification award UCI points to successful finishers an opportunity to race a world cup, so the "feeder" system exists in some way already. it would *seem* that points don't get you into a WC in '25, only being on a select team. (the domestic/regional race promoter has to agree to pay for the UCI classification to award points and not many do that these days)

Live narration/promotion/mental stimulation is at it's worst. Dude literally VERBATIM would repeat any sentence Gwin got out of his mouth. So many times. He has ZERO value added benefit to the race, entertainment value or educationally. Gwin has technical knowledge but "free firty free" guy is NOT a DH color commentator...at ALL!!! He's a very uncomfortable middle ground. Perfect voice for a EWS recap video. That's it.

So much this, the repeating thing drives me mental!. It's not as Constant as last year, but it's still alot. I enjoyed his EWS stuff - much more than Josh I...

To add to the thrread derailment, i recently got an Ochain and it definitely does something. The rear of the bike is almost completely silent now (even with stfubike there was still some slapping around) and all the little tugging on the pedals that you get accustomed to is gone, which you only really notice when it’s not there anymore. Did ochain solve world hunger, pedal kickback and chainslap all in one? No but it made my bike quieter and smoother, so it was worth the money in my books. on a raaw madonna with 36t DT 350 hubs

Would y'all want to see a 15-minute VitalMTB video with back-to-back testing on a section of brutal rocky chunder with different pedal kickback theories to see if the Ochain really works as advertised?

get to work.