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Let me give my best anti-science pitch and anyone can decide the merits for themselves. You raise excellent questions and I like the example of the serious article based on rigorous experimentation, so I'll use your idea. If we want to tell a story that is true to the best of our knowledge about bike weight (how much, where on the bike-rider system, rotating or not, etc., with respect to performance), and it's gotta be probably true and useful to most of our audience, then what we learn from the test has to be generalizeable, and that's why we need...

5 real reasons dh will not be the next f1/supercross 1). Riding bikes in the woods is for nerds and hicks 2). F1/supercross was broadcast on tv world wide before a production mtb was ever sold. Main thing that introduces a kid to something is their parents or their friend’s parents by proxy. 3). Not head 2 head racing. But speaking part of the reason dh is so god damn fun is because you race the clock/track instead of your opponent I very much hope that never changes. But head 2 head is so much viewer friendly than watching 20...

Yeah man idk about this one. Headset routing is terrible for a lot of reasons but I’d eat my bike if you could actually prove that it lets in enough junk through the headset to make the shock dirty. Maybe if sink your bike in a mud puddle for a few hours or ride muddy park all year and never clean your bike.

I'll once again do my semi annual dad voice "this thread is for fun" posts. This isn't the 2025 team facts thread so let people have fun with it and don't be a dick. If someone wants to allude and drop bread crumbs through the season, let them and have fun with it. Pry, guess, whatever. Just don't call them out like they hurt you when they're trying to participate and haven't done anything wrong.

In 2020 Santa Cruz told me running a bash guard on my megatower voided my warranty. The warranty rep said iscg stands for chain guide (cg) not bash guard (bg). Was pretty baffled by that and explained that the bike had come from their factory with the bash guard already mounted to the frame out of the box. They then warrantied my frame and send a new triangle about 2 months later. I was pretty shocked by their initial response, but I have absolutely nothing to complain about in the end and got a great outcome.

it's here- @TEAMROBOT's ochain vs no chain feature is live. please discuss it on that review page instead of clogging up tech rumors. charlie rules! https://www.vitalmtb.com/features/can-pedal-kickback-denier-see-light charlie's alternative seinfeld-inspired thumbnail

The constant whinging that tech rumours is getting derailed is kind of annoying and derailing in itself. In my opinion its OK to discuss the tech rumour or current happenings for at least a page or two, and then they generally dissipate or move to other threads. If a legitimate large rumour or release happens it naturally takes over the thread anyway, they're discussing damping and leverage because there isn't a lot happening right now. Plus, Primoz, Teamrobot and Cascade make up some of the best and most knowledge members and are creating a valid discussion. For better or worse...

Same pad compound and wear level, bleed state, rotor size/type and wear level, hose length, lever setup? …. And bike would make a difference too Comparison is not really that clean otherwise.

Regular bikes have been subsidizing the insertion of ebikes for a long time now. This is just another step to make Joeys say "you kidding me? I can get a free motor and a battery for the same money?" and choose the ebike.

As a person who took far too long to begin acting like an adult, shedding my pedantry has been huge. We use words to communicate ideas and if you get what a person is saying, that’s enough. I used to be such an asshole when it came to spelling and word choice. Waste of time, energy, and possibility. And sometimes the word’ll change meanings on you, like it looks like may be happening here. That’s what did it for me*. Let go, let dampen. *it was the word “enormity” for me. Somewhere along the line I’d learned that the word...

You're not wrong, but every single car on the road today has a battery (and has since the 1920s), and 99+% of bicycles don't. It's going to be a while before the average person considers (non-e) bikes with electronics and batteries to be more "normal" than their purely mechanical counterparts. Until then, there's going to be major pushback from cyclists who think it's ridiculous that they can't buy the bike they want without being forced to spend extra on electronic shifting. Then of course there's e-bikes, but if they continue rising in popularity among regular people (which should incentivize development...

I'm with you in hopefulness, but I think the critical difference between Propain and SC is the former is still a relatively small company, latter is owned by PON Holdings and being managed as a profitable investment rather than a core mtb brand. I'm imagining an intern at SC looking at this forum, agreeing with everything, escalating the feedback to their manager, and that feedback being thrown into a black hole

Do we know that the high end of the market is still healthy? Brands are still discounting high end builds quite aggressively.

A few years back I switched to an open-source alternative to the Microsoft Office suite of products (Excel, Word, etc). Microsoft was moving to a subscription-only model, adding complexity and network connection requirements that didn't improve the actual user experience. Now, the more I hear about bullshit AI integration in future versions of Windows, the more I consider abandoning Microsoft altogether and taking the leap to a Linux-powered computer that does what I need and no more. I bring this up because I think there's a possible parallel to the mountain bike industry. We're seeing the major companies push features...

what irks me with this is the frames are getting simpler and cheaper to produce for them without laminating tubes into the frame but prices will rise nonetheless. the industry is gonna try to milk us until MTB is back to being a niche sport.

The whole wireless only thing is really representative of what bothers me about the bike industry. Changing things for the sole reason to sell us something more expensive. Why would they not put a small hole in the head tube and in the chain stay, can fit little plugs in it if they arent needed. Its different than say 1x drivetrains or dropper posts where there is a clear and undeniable benefit. What is better about a wireless drivetrain vs a properly tuned cable one? We get rid of a $3 cable and cable housing and add a battery?

The lack of cable ports on future carbon frames is bumming me out. Wireless-only sucks for people who like to optimize for on-trail performance. I prefer carbon frames due to better alignment, fatigue life, and saving 2 lbs without decrease in durability, so going to alum isn't the right compromise. Our cohort has always prioritized spending $$ on top tier suspension, brakes, and wheels, while almost universally selecting "good enough" drivetrain at the XT/GX level. I realize that showroom shopping squids prefer fancy looking gadgets to performance. This sucks and bums me out. I'm counting on the mid-sized brands to...

Why does everyone in the industry feel a need to make drastic new advancements every 6 months, spend tons of money on R&D which drives up the cost on new products that we didn't really need in the first place so then they have to hopefully force the consumer into having to buy these new products. For example wireless only frames. Just keep producing the same drivetrains that worked and consumers will by replacement cassettes, mechs and chains as needed the tooling is already paid for and the profit margins are higher the longer they are still available to sell...

Drop in the bucket. Trek commissioned did a study a number of years ago and it found for high end (4000 USD and above) mountain bikes, SC blew everybody out of the water in terms of sales - including Trek and Specialized. That study kind of made its way around the inside of the industry and speculatively is why a number of companies shifted to copy SC in a number of ways. Anyway, the point is SC, being the king of high end MTB sales, sells so many bikes to absolute schmuck riders who'd struggle ride out of wet paper...

All analogy is suspect but 😉 A laptop computer communicating with a wireless access point is smart. Communicating with a wireless mouse is a mostly harmless gimmick with some legitimate convenience added in some cases. Communicating internally wirelessly, like motherboard to daughter to storage etc, is kind of ridiculous. It’s a job wires are especially well suited to. I’m willing to take the word of the people who swap their wireless dropper post from bike to bike. That’s the mouse in this analogy. I think the wireless derailleur fits the third example best.