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These segmentation activities are just what the bike industry needed after emerging from post-covid inventory challenges and begin to enter supply chain pressures caused by the gulf war.

is 750d gonna be fast and comfortable but not fun ? That would match the bmw 7 series of the same name !

Don't know if the new enduro its just a pipe dream at this point, but if they repeat what they did with the last one and borrowed the tech/suspension design from the demo and distilled it down to a pedal bike, that would be sweet.

While I’ll never own one, I have to give credit to specialized for creating this. It’s giving me nostalgia vibes from the late 90’s/early 00’s when there was a lot of weird and wacky experimentation in DH. The fact that after 3+ years of development, this is an actual production frame (regardless of cost) is pretty cool.

Hahah! My local Spesh dealer said they aren’t doing a new enduro as there is no market for it anymore. Yet Henry from Quarter HP said in the stumpy video that it’s a well known secret its being in development for some time. Can’t help but feel Charlie Murray wants something longer travel for the chunky EWS tracks

If only someone made a linkage that allowed a longer shock to to be run on the Levo and it yielded 170 mm of travel. That would be wild.

I'll preface this by saying, I've never owned/ridden a bike with a dropper longer than 175mm. I've had 2 AXS reverb in rotation on various bikes for the last few years, Evil Offering, Specialized Enduro, Epic Evo, Neuhaus Hummingbird, Specialized Stumpjumper, and Transition Spur. And I have ridden fairly gnarly trails with those posts, Pisgah, Kingdom Trails, Phoenix, Sedona, and Iceland. I cannot recall a single time when I had my seatpost completely dropped and thought, "man, I wish this were a little lower." Similarly, I've never had a crash or close call where I thought the seat's height was...

could nike be aiming for a comeback in MTB with their new push of their ACG brand?

I found the m2 without the spacer to generally be more comfortable, but it lost a lot of it's mid stroke support. I imagine the reduced lower leg volume of the m3 helps with that.

+1 appreciating Dario here. He may not be right all the time, but he’s not taking it TOO seriously either. He is not polished and seems more relatable than your average presenter. Plus he IS younger than many, which gives him an opportunity (that he apparently uses) to think less of money/career and more of staying true to the current state of himself. Again, even if he is wrong from others POV.

Spoken like a boomer core lord. That’s what the viral forums seem to have become though. Dario is actually a breath of fresh air in mountain bike media, same as Jason. His perspective is a welcome change from the usual safe, generic industry takes the rest of the media recycles time and time again.

Have had both. Druid v1 quality was sub par compared to the sj15. The Druid v2 is put together better and many of the tweaks made to frame, layout are huge long term improvements. The finish on the forbidden frames is top notch. Can’t say the sj15 is a sexy bike, it’s my current bike and I do t particularly like the look, the large downtube is dumb. The hardware however is the best I’ve worked on.

I don’t think the SJ15 is a dud but it’s not a very sexy bike. Compare it to a Druid or something with a little more ‘tude and you’ll see where detractors might be coming from. If you’ve work in a shop you’ll get where this Levo R came from: there are tons of customers who want to ride a sick ebike even if they don’t have the skills. It’s like people who drive jeeps…

1) they see themselves as a technology/consumer electronics company now. When they brought in a Dyson guy to the c-level I knew we were going to see a different speci. 2) they’re way more conservative. Sinyard is older, economic pressures intensified, and the types of people who work there are dramatically different than 10 years ago. This is all mostly for the better but eventually you start to feel a lack of life from the bikes. I used to really want speci to become a more relevant and saavy company, but now that they are I realized how much funky...

Some serious stoner thoughts here lol. They are sideways because they have to be. With the eyelet in the orientation you are talking about, it would effectively have a hinge in the middle of the shock, and it would "buckle" or rotate between the yoke and shock under compression. Just set your bike on the ground and install the clevis end first. With the suspension compressed you should have easier access to the shock bolt. At least that's the case on my Ibis bikes.

What's wrong with good ole tube patches? They work just as well on tires, good for fixing pinch flats near the bead, too. I never had one fail on me (Rema Tip Top).

I wouldn't put much weight in the enduro mag test findings - the results don't make any sense. I see a few issues: 1. Shimano XTR, XT, and SLX all have the same mechanical and hydraulic power output, but the test results show them as being wildly different. 2. They also show TRP DHR evo as dramatically underperforming XTR. Having used both, this is just incorrect... 3. And lastly, XTR being next to Maven in terms of test results in laughable. XTR is a cross country brake compared to maven stopping power. Based on the wild discrepancy between mechanically equal...

So, to preface what I'm about to say is that I am not anti-e-bike and that I'm ready for the downvotes. I don’t disagree that adding a motor is a huge innovation; my point is more about where the innovation energy is going and how uneven it feels right now. When I say “analog bikes lack innovation,” I don’t mean there’s none. Things like improved materials, better tolerances, frame designs, wireless shifting, etc. are all real advancements. But compared to the explosive pace of e-bike development, it feels like the entire industry’s R&D gravity has shifted dramatically toward electrification and...

I'm honestly kind of bummed about all this e-bike tech and innovation and the lack thereof with analog bikes. E-bike tech and GLP-1 tech both seem to be getting popular at the same time, and I wonder why...