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Yup, the shifter uses a MatchMaker mounting style. TRP sells a bunch of different shifter-to-brake adaptors as well - https://trpcycling.com/products/integrated-mtb-shifter-adapters

Starts here (English subs): https://youtu.be/lbbAcLERne8?t=847

You sound as if Maxxis tires are all the sudden unrideable. I'm glad Maxxis has competition now but calling them "the dogs breakfast" is fried. You don't ride like Moimoi - you'll be fine on exo+... (or if you actually know how to ride, doubledown).

Thanks for the video. Brings sooo many good memories! Damn I was always scared and excited to run this track. It was always a highlight of Morzine trips.

Dannys track preview. Looks insane. Its the steepest track I've ever ridden (one of those that any camera will never do justice), with this wide taping its literally going straight down the mountain, lines looks crazy. Amazing job Ben!

As a person who HATES marketing but had to work in it for a while as an advertising filmmaker (I made commercials and short form video; I loved telling stories) and currently does not work anywhere near the marketing world: Cutting marketing budget during a slowdown is very often a bad choice. Marketing doesn't have to be commercials. It's whatever your company does with the intention of making your target market feel more favorable about your brand. So much of selling a product is about being the brand/offering a product that is recognized and trusted by your potential customers as...

Ya they all ride in jeans with no helmets and handle bar speakers blaring nickleback while chuffing darts too!!

oh noes, how will you ever cope?

Does a change in leverage rate have effects on damper behaviour outside of the tune, or is it possible to set up functionally identically performing tunes regardless? Possibly related question: Are the valve stacks used in dampers all made of the same material, or are there different grades of steel (or even other alloys) to accommodate the requirements of these different tunes?

That is a really good question. In theory you can get identical reactions at the wheel, however it’s one of the scenarios where theory and reality don’t really meet. To get truly identical performance you also have to tune the shaft speed at which the shock transitions from LSC to HSC. Without doing that, the bike with the longer shock (assuming equal progression and all) will be out of LSC sooner. With the adjusters you’ve got on a typical shock there isn’t really control over that transition specifically. Whether being out of LSC sooner or later is preferable is debatable...

Not to be a downer (and many are already aware), but a cat 1 30-39 category rider passed away as a result of injuries sustained during his race run. This caused a 2-hour delay on start times and quite a few riders DNS'd on their race runs out of respect/sorrow. We had already left since we weren't doing Downhill and needed to get home, but communicated (as well as you an communicate with people in the data vaccuum of Ride Rock Creek) with folks on the ground. Pretty sad and somber situation.

Well, when Specialized bought the UK shop(s) I used to work at Scott; Giant; Cannondale; GT; SantaCruz all cancelled orders. Any customers that had a backorder were offered something else at a better deal. Very few turned that option down. Several years ago I ordered a Yeti SB66 from Stif and the UK supplier sold the frame to another dealer, so Stif let me have a carbon Nomad for the same price. Winner. Never considered a Yeti again after that but shopped with Stif again. I’ve noticed more than any other brand people love to hate Specialized, regardless of actually...

Also this, which was apparently Sinyard's decision: https://www.northbaybusinessjournal.com/article/industrynews/dutch-comp… tl;dr Spesh and Pon both wanted to buy Mike's, Mike's decided to sell to Pon and Sinyard had a hissy and cancelled a ton of bike orders that had been on the books for up to a year (this was during the Covid bike bom).

I definitely dislike them on principal. Their legal team is deplorable. They once threatened to sue a bike shop called “ Café Roubaix” because reasons…

It is always morally acceptable to dunk on Specialized.

I'll also argue that there's a meaningful distinction between word use in in casual vs professional settings. If your job is marketing/comms/similar I will absolutely mock you for making errors like that (and I'll be extra-petty about Spesh for personal reasons).

Most of the 31.6mm and 34.9mm droppers are just a 30.9mm dropper with a thicker lower tube. The internals and the upper tube (parts that slides upy downy) are unchanged. The world would be just fine with only a 30.9mm dropper. Light enough for XC/gravel/road and yet still strong and stiff enough for trail/enduro/ebike.