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To answer your question about swapping wheelsets... yes it's far better then you think it would be. I keep all of the bikes in my families fleet on 200mm sram hs2 rotors and sram metallic pads. There are 7 wheelsets between 6 bikes and of those 7 wheelsets, 6 are dt350 hubs, 1 is i9 hubs, 4/6 of the bikes utilize transmission cassettes and 2 utilize eagle cassettes. I had to shim the brake rotor on the i9 hub with .5mm shims so that I can swap wheels without touching brake calipers. All of the bikes shift fine and no...

I do all manors of cycling on dirt and mixed surfaces pretty much equally so I know how you feel about the two bike optimization question. In your case, already having a smuggler I feel pretty confident about the path forward. The easy answer becomes to build your smuggler back down to a 130/140 lite weight build and partner it with a orbea rallon enduro/dh. Since the Rallon DH and the Rallon enduro are the same frame, you can easily build that bike into two bikes with a spare shock, fork and wheelset. From a quick look, it appears that...

A 170 with burly everything and a 120 or 130mm true trail bike with medium-weight everything. If I can have one more, it's a dirt jumper, and if I get four I'm adding a DH bike. But medium is as light as I can go. I can't have light things because I break them.

Any questions about the DHX or updated DH casing let me know, both were my projects. In general the DHX does everything our current dry tires do, but has more capability for high load high speed conditions. I designed it to excel in the bike park oriented World Cup tracks but still not give up performance in soft or natural sections compared to current dry tires. Ideally I wanted to simply the racers’ tire choice: if it’s dry and fast- DHX, if it’s soft or mixed- HR3, if it’s wet- mud spike. The updated DH casing is pretty well explained...

Things are looking Blur-ry

Here's the Kali helmet so people don't need to search and ruin their algorithm

I've had countless bikes, still chasing the dragon of my Ex Dean Lucas world champs wilsons rear suspension performance. There was so much trick stuff on that bike, coil converted world cup, proto 27.5 rear linkage. Dumbest move I ever made selling that bike

All i can confirm here is that it does not look like someone took a chainsaw to it, but they have not taken a spartan approch to the design. I think it's going to create a big bang when it drops.

Agree. If you have spent any real time on the SID you'll know it's no Pike when it comes to damping quality. The chassis is fine but the damper gets a bit overwhelmed when in proper chunk. I have a SID equipped bike and it's awesome in the right terrain but it'll let you know when it's not happy. There is still a place for the Pike, especially with the weight gain of the latest Lyric.

I'd argue the Pike is still relevant in order for RS to compete with the 36 SL.

this was what i was looking for, thx!

It's a shame there is no way to adjust the height of your handlebars.If you bike's stack is 10mm lower than you'd like you just have to put up with it.It's really unfortunate.

Shimano dropped its latest rendition of Di2 drivetrains last year. Available in Deore, XT , and XTR , each strikes a different budget range, with variations in features, materials, and bling factor. We have covered and ridden the XTR and XT tiers, both of which are competitive options in the world of wireless shifting. What remained was the bottom of the totem pole. You don’t have to splurge on an entire groupset to ride Di2. Shimano conveniently sells upgrade kits to convert to wireless. The Deore upgrade kit retails for $675, and we spent the past six months hammering...

Yeah, AI shits the bed once again.

I would dare to guess that people who struggle with derailleur damage are riding right foot forward. I ride with left foot forward and right foot is effectively protecting the mech, it also makes me more aware of potential obstacles that could hit it, because I don't want to hit the rear pedal with it either.

Personally I'd rather have this thread be quieter than be completely overtaken by ebike tech.