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I don’t even know if that will happen! But if I had to make a rumor, it would be that Cascade is going to make a 170 mm Tallboy link. *this may have happened at one point due to a CAD software glitch

Text says: „ Race Pro brake lever Finally, it is here: the aluminium brake lever and master cylinder.“ So finally a metal lever and mc, that‘s a first in a long time. A pity they couldn‘t make it less ugly

That's an awfully confident statement from someone with little or no experience operating a company with large scale outsourced production, overseas or domestic. Care to share a factual example? Also what and who is a 'marketing type brand?' Last I checked the bike industry is collection of honest brands, riders, and designers trying their best to make products of value or improve the experience and enjoyment of other cyclists. Of course they also have to market and advertise if they want to stay in business, but both realities can coexist. You're the NZ distributer for Hayes/Manitou and operate a suspension...

The soft undercurrent of a few of these post seems to imply anything made in Asia or engineered by Asians is somehow of lower quality. Engineering really has nothing to do with nationality or ethnicity. You can find high and low quality products everywhere in the world. Quality is a reflection of the decisions made by the brand not the the citizenship or location of the engineers. If you are manufacturing at scale at some point you'll need to work with a factory and their engineers. And you'd have a hard time finding a greater concentration of institutional knowledge and...

Whistler parking lot 1 reporting in - I just saw @Jason_Schroeder roll past on a very production looking norco DH race bike 🤘

I certainly wouldn’t consider them catalog. But if I remember right in an early Frameworks video Neko talked about using that strategy for their carbon seat stay. Basically design a part, find a factory, have that factory build a mold and design the laminate, then have finished parts delivered. The bulk of composites manufacturing knowledge in the bike industry “lives” in Asia where things are being built. I personally have no problem with that, or companies that outsource their engineering either domestically or overseas. Having worked with foreign and domestic suppliers across a few industries the strategy is always “Trust...

If Transition is a catalogue brand then almost every brand is aside from hand-made projects would be by your estimates then. Since when does it matter ultimately if engineering is in house, us based contractors or Taiwanese contractors? Catalogue implies picking a frame from a pre-designed catalog. Not having a bespoken frame made and engineered for you. Particularly frames like the Spur, which catalogue did they pick that from?

Saying a company isn’t core because Is doesn’t employ a specialist engineer that they’d only need maybe 20% of a FTE role is like Fugazi wasn’t core because they didn’t have a sound tech.

is frameworks a catalog brand then? engineering consultation is the norm in nearly every industry when it comes to manufacturing something you can’t just buy off the shelf. And the majority of the assembly lines for products on those shelves were designed by engineering consultants. maybe they are using Taiwan factory engineers these days, but at least at one point transitions carbon engineering consultants were stateside if lift talk is to be believed.

That seems like a wild leap to make - are you assuming because a designer lives in asia they don't ride mountain bikes? It probably helps for the lead designer to be living right near the factory they are made so I don't see what you're getting at there?

What would an advantage be for a company to have a composite engineer? Im going to make a guess that Giant (given their size and manufacturing ability) has one and that may be why some of their frames are really light given the trend of most companies getting considerably heavier?

How many composites engineers do you think are there in the whole industry? And how many stress analysists? FWIW, from what I've heard (obviously could be wrong or could be old info) apparently Yeti's process was quite similar. Engineering firm doing the suspension (Switch link was done by Sotto Design Group for example, not sure what the situation is like for Switch Infinity or Sixfinity) and an industrial design firm doing the surface modelling of the frame (the 'looks') and an overseas firm doing molds, carbon layup based on their experience, testing, if it breaks, strengthen the breaking point, once...

You might want to double check the built part.

Maybe most of them know that would be inappropriate and choose not to be weirdos

More than 10% chance that them AI brakes are capable of wiping the human race out.

32" gravel is so out of date, we're doing 36ers now That's an XXL 29" Sentinel and it looks tiny... https://www.reddit.com/r/32inchbikes/comments/1wa3zpt/heres_my_new_36er…

As the first glimmer of the 32” era dawns, the Industry’s evil plan for 27.5 comes to light: the leftover 27.5 rims are to be stamped and converted into 120t rear sprockets for the new dominant Big Wheelers.

Yeah, it's been hard to get used to seeing negative rise stems on xc bikes. It's only been over a decade...