All

Ya ya obviously there are lesser known gems across the alps, but if you're a downhill mountain bike rider, PDS is probably as close to heaven as you can get. When I was there in June, lines were non-existent (except on passports day) & the trails were empty and immaculate

I have an enduro Rallon coming, with an extra DH link. I have an extra shock already. Now I can have a pedal able bike with 180mm front and 200mm rear. If I really like that direction and want more oomph, I might look for a dual crown. But mainly, it’s nice to have a bike that is heavily adjustable more so than two completely different bikes. And if it keeps our favourite bike brands in business, or passes on cost savings to us, we all win.

A point I rarely see addressed in regards to modular bikes is that you also have the "inbetween" option now. Take the Rallon for example. Lots of us want big bikes but have no intention on racing them, so a Rallon with a dual crown, a 10-44 cassette on an xplr derailleur, paired with some less burly rims, a water bottle cage, and a full sized dropper. Not a DH race sled, not an enduro epic, but something dedicated to having fun at the park. The modularity is cool, the ability to build a one off dedicated purpose built bike...

I'm pretty sure he is just pre-embargo reviewing; I'm sure Dario at PB has one too. Like them or not, YouTubers have a decent audience, and getting your bike out there with them prob helps sales. Mo tends to be positive about everything, or find something to celebrate with every bike, which probably keeps bike companies happy and sending more bikes. I think it kind of feels like participation awards...

All this effort to simulate a coil, why not just run a coil

I think if someone isn’t capable of opening a top cap to change a spring, then I am going to assume that that same person isn’t capable of opening a top cap to adjust volume tokens. And then I am going to assume that someone who is not interested enough or capable of swapping tokens, is most likely not even interested in achieving optimal performance from either air or coil. Hard for me to believe that person will even be able to set proper air pressure or service an air spring. So in the end, I think that same person...

Primoz, my guy… I think you are WAY over exaggerating what it takes to swap coils inside a fork. You can do it in a parking lot with a few tools and a few minutes. Just because it can be done in a sterile laboratory with fancy tools doesn’t mean that’s how it has to be done every time.

Depends on where you live, so I cannot say how much it will cost you, but I would bet it would cost you less than typical fork service you need to get done with any air spring once or twice a year. With coil spring, you get it right once and you are good to go unless you are on of those guys with +-10kg weight fluctuations. And me personally can do the heatshrink application in about 10minutes, coil change in less than a minute if I have the tools and spring ready. If this much hassle is all it...

Ballast Bro?

New Ohlins

Doesn’t that comparison assume uniform cross section/stiffness across the whole length and neglect the fact that both taper to the same diameter fairly quickly? The flex will be distributed across the whole bar, not just at the stem interface. I would imagine that taper profile might actually be more important than just clamp diameter. I remember my old 31.8 Boobars had a weird profile and didn’t really taper until right at the controls. Most of my 35mm bars seem to taper pretty quickly. It would be interesting to model a few bars and do some analysis on them.

If designed to the same max load, a 35 mm bar is approximately 10% stiffer. The required cross sectional area of the 35 mm bar is also smaller, so it would be lighter. Below is an example where the bar is evaluated as a basic cantilevered beam where the length is 400 mm and the load is 450 N. r1 and r2 correspond to the 35 mm bar and r3 and r4 correspond to the 31.8 mm bar.

Imagine choosing a standard that results in a heavier and weaker handlebar... 🤦 35mm handlebars are stronger and lighter than 31.8 for the same stiffness. The first 35mm bars in like 2012 may have been overly stiff but minus a couple of outliers that hasn't been the case for the better part of a decade now.

The ultimate brake set up?

My local trails are fairly steep, often wet or at least damp made of sandy loose loam, with lots of evil root nests. I find Assegai doesn't cut into soft surfaces enough to brake hard and I personally feel the compound, while it's really soft feels like silicone bath sealant and doesn't key into wet roots. The Argotal is a total cheater tyre on loose surfaces. However the tall knobs and less grippy compound just feel sketchy on cold wet roots - I could believe it'll be great in dry and loose. Which just means I run an US Mary...

Cool to see that I am not so stupid in the end. I ride Argotal year round (well, almost, I put Dirty Dan or Shredda Front for deeper snow) and recently someone was laughing at me on a messenger group. Trails where I ride could not be more mixed: roots, small stones, big stones, clay, loam occasional mud pots and greasy steeps. Compared to something like Assegai there is less grips on hard things and quite poor grip on wet roots but those are things you can spot and prepare. What you cannot see is some slimy or loose bits...

Hour and a half start to where they are at. I have to straighten out some brush strokeage and add decals and 2-3 coats of ceramic sauce.