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Hey biz thread subscribers, I met with Jeff about a month ago for an Inside Line to discuss the current state of things. It was a rad discussion. The podcast and its copy are below. Enjoy! I know I did. Thanks to Maxxis Tires | FOX | Jenson USA for supporting The Inside Line Today we're joined by Jeff Brines, a long-time mountain biker, Litter Mag and Vital MTB fan. He's also educated and versed in finance. He kicked off a forum thread on Vital MTB that asked " Will more companies be shutting down in the next 12-24 months?"...

Million dollar idea: every frame comes with three headtubes welded in a neat row to the front of it. Users can play around with reach to their heart's content, then use an angle grinder to cut off whichever ones they don't end up using. Or save them all for resale value. Choose your own adventure.

HOLY. CRAP. ISTED.

😅 We stubbornly wanted to make the sliding bushing work so bad, probably delayed the whole project by a year. At the end of the day in blind A/B testing, riders couldn't tell a difference so it was ease of service and manufacturing consistency that pushed us to fixed bushings. Mountain bikes are similar to motos in many ways but also different, so not every moto concept is a good fit for us. Sure, putting sliding bushings as a feature on our spec sheet would look cool, but if it isn't actually better we're not interested. And yes, it is...

I love to complain and I'm a robot.

I don't think the in-frame storage helps on this one

Competitive Pokemon was not on my Vital bingo card for today lol

Hold up… You carry a spare derailleur when you ride?!? Are your trails on Mount Doom or something?

The thing I've learned from all this broken derailleur talk is that I don't ride hard enough.

They are kiwis in OTB podcast and andi kolb is Austrian couldn't be further apart lol.

Transmission, it's weaknesses, and "solutions" for those weaknesses all seem kind of insane to me. Hey we have this little uvula looking thing on the back of frames which the derailleur attaches to. Usually, derailleurs aren't that expensive these days but just in case, it's meant to bend instead of allowing the derailleur to break. Because our frame is made of steel, we can usually just bend it back for free! How nice! Since we moved on to alloy/carbon, we had to make the hanger its own item. We went with aluminum alloy so it's stiff and light, but if...

When I read this (welcomed) derailment I wonder if I even know bikes, I thought it was as simple as this; bike has two wheels, is funner with gravity, unless gravity is opposing direction of movement. Buttt it appears they are a little more complex than that.

Another great race well deserved wins all round. WBD decision to show Tahnee's reactions during Finn's run showed a real lack of class. Whether they are dating or not has no relevance, it's not a soap opera. They weren't interested in Gaetan's reaction when Myriam was on a winning run. Scraping the barrel, gossip magazine shit.

Prize for round 2 was just delivered! Thanks Vital 🤩

I don't contest that people have had bad experiences with a Zeb, or any of the forks in this test. Shoot, I compared two bikes a few years ago that both had FOX Factory 36's, 150mm w/ Grip2, and the difference in stiction, air pressure, and damper settings was wild. However, I'll put my foot down and say that we don't give a sh*t about marketing hype. We like to know what a brand has done and why so that we can substantiate their claims on the trail. But we (Vital editorial crew) care way more about trying to give...

Opinions are like assholes. Neither one belongs in tech rumors.

Still unsure how I feel about you picking this photo for the thumbnail 😂

Damn, Angel's full kit with gold helmet and goggles is sick!