All

is it just the repetition of the venue/event and over-saturation of insta reels and vlogs? mountain bikers know how incredibly bonkers finals day is and will most likely tune in, but a week of buffing old lines with nearly all the content looking the same as it tells the same story of the last 5-10 years isn't very compelling. vital's insta feed (the one the insta algorithm pushes, not what we post), is nothing but visually similar rampage posts from a massive number of riders, diggers, photographers. the lead-up is so diluted now, and therefore devalued as a result. i...

I hope Dak is not on gwin racing purely from a pay standpoint. Can’t imagine Aaron is in a position to offer our boy what he deserves

Some notes and numbers from Vali Höll’s quietly remarkable World Cup year. With one race left in the season, Vali has already clinched another overall championship despite winning “only” one World Cup race. She, Nina Hoffmann, and Loic Bruni are the only racers to successfully qualify in Q1 for every race this season. Qualifying: 2.4 - average qualifying position 7 - lowest qualifying position 5 - number of times fastest qualifier Finals: 8 - podiums 5 - lowest finish 1 - wins 2.6 - avg. finish Points 233.8 - average points per race (no other rider - male or female...

There are many scenarios possible. Loic has a 72-point lead, and there are 250 points on the table for the winner (there are no points given for qualifying in the final round of the World Cup, per UCI rules). The points are awarded as follows, from the winner down through the ranks: 250-210-180-160-140-125-110-95-80-75-and it keeps dropping down to the 30th place. If Jackson wins and Loic is third, Loic still takes the overall by 2 points. If Loic doesn't get ANY points at all, Jackson only needs 10th place or better. Let's say Jackson is third, he then needs Loic...

This morning Jackson, Amaury, Loic, Lachie, Bernie, and Benoit, and all the other fast guys are all doing the gap that Breeden pioneered. Richie cased it and went OTB. He’s been talking to medical for the past 5 mins. Also unrelated, trek is running blacked out maxxis, and Richie is running transmission.

In 1999 Jurgen Beneke said if we want the average US citizen to watch downhill we need to give them what they understand. Speed, big air and crashes. I hope there are no gnarly crashes but this track has high speed, big air and enough tech to keep it interesting. Should be a great race. My money is on Asa for the win.

This is where I'm at as well. I mean... it's his team. But if I were to start dating a subordinate at my job (regardless of age difference), one of us would end up having to resign... and most likely, as the person in the position of authority, it would be me. That's pretty prevalent in company policy around the US, espcially if the person is a direct report of the person in authority (which Jenna would be to Bernard). That being said, PFR is Bernard's "company," and he can do with it as he wishes. Of course, his sponsors...

a cult brand is something positive in the german language

Vali’s post race interview was very negative. Even caught Gwin and the host lady by surprise. She said the summer break could not have gone worse and mentioned the team situation. Their truck was not in Les Gets. Clearly a lot more going on than we see, and none of it good.

I'm sure Marc is vastly more intelligent than myself, but he's also a malignant narcissist whose vision of the of the future is terrifying if you dig into it. He doesn't explicitly state it in his manifesto, but he's clearly all in on accelerationism and the Neo-Reactionary (NRX) movement AKA the "Dark Enlightenment". Tech billionaires are attempting to trying to destroy America and rebuild what they are calling "Network States", which are essentially corporate fiefdoms. This is part of the reason why they are trying to sell off public lands. They need land (and farm land) to accomplish this. https://thenetworkstate.com/...

I can't reply to this without derailing the thread into something I don’t intend. I also don’t care to 'defend' all Marc’s ideas, implied, explicit, or otherwise. Giant waste of time, even if I do feel you are painting him in a light that isn't totally accurate. The point I was making is that I’m not going to do mental gymnastics to ensure every author, economist, professor, VC, CEO, or personality passes some arbitrary moral or ethical purity test to be worth including here. At its best, this is a thread of ideas with application to the economics of the...

A few notes on the Men's US Open seeding runs: Troy Brosnan had the fastest time through the first 3 (of 5) sectors, up more than a second over Asa. He also had the fastest 1st split time. I mention that because in tomorrow's final the racer with the fastest 1st split gets a $500 Hole Shot prize (prizes for both women and men). Fourteen-year old Canadian prospect Mack Manietta finished a very respectable 25th in the Men's Pro division, within 1 second of WC racers Tyler Waite (22nd) and Tegan Cruz (23rd). Greg Minnaar was last to drop and...

Hasn't that been happening for ages?

Pretty sure it's a device that bolts in place of a blown motor on an e-bike, that makes it just a bike with a BB.

Wild that they chucked the cables in the headset AGAIN

AI is good for some things I guess! From the AI-generated summary that sourced the Ursa Bikes patent app: https://patents.google.com/patent/CA3155940A1/en

I am the biggest Rampage fan. I attended my first one in person in 2003 and even helped dig Shandro’s second place line a little. I’ve been to multiple others since. I generally even think the judging has been correct every single year. I also don’t care that the lines are highly manicured now or that tricks (if done up high and off a substantial feature) score really well. Overall, I have very very few issues or bones to pick with Rampage. That said, they NEED to find a fresh brand new venue! Recycling old sites that have been used...

I will never forget the poor 20 year old lifty at Panorama trying to explain why the 80lb folding fat E-bikes with a 12 stack of black and chrome spacers could not go on the lift while the couple who owned them screamed at them until he allowed them to try. I later saw them riding up the hill with no helmets at what must have been 45km an hour at full throttle.

Thought I might leave this here. I made some longer levers for XT/Saint brakes. 25% longer than stock. So in theory there is about 25% more power at the same lever force or the same power at 25% less lever force. I am running the lever with a magura caliper and 220 front rotor. The power is pretty insane. I have a buddy running this lever on a saint, and he also is enjoying the extra power. I mainly made this because I ride significantly better when my hands are fresh and I know I can slow down. *Ignore the...

also worth noting: every single anti-proportional cs person talks incessantly about tight corners, as if thats the best part of mountain biking. "how will you steer your bike through 180° switchbacks?!?" dude i don't look forward to those types of turns on any length cs or wheelbase. when we are talking about suspension performance we hear the same thing about pedaling efficiency, as if pedaling uphill is this incredible experience that we are all looking forward to. Why are we designing bikes around moments that at best are bearable on a bike rather than optimizing our bikes for absolutely sick...