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I wrote this on Pinkbike but will crosspost here to as I firmly believe ABS should not be involved in WCDH. I'm all for innovation in DH and I am absolutely fine with electronics in suspension but I strongly believe that ABS has no place in competitive DH. Braking ability and threshold braking are massively important skill that do separate riders. Having a system that would theoretically allow a rider to just full pull brake but not lock the wheels would be a huge advantage on most tracks and certainly would for low grip tracks or conditions. Formula One as...

Hmm. Do I get to decide when it’s a sustained steep or recovery is necessary? Cuz I spent like an hour yesterday desperately clicking my gravel bike’s shifter in search of an even lower gear. I’m old, been drinking too much beer and eating Trader Joe’s peanut butter cups, and now I gotta deal with the knowledge that I have suboptimal gearing? Eff it

Being realistic about your terrain and fitness and biasing your gear usage to the middle of your cassette is going to be better for your drivetrain long term. If you wanna be a hero and only climb in first and second gear you’re gonna roast your cassette real fast.

I get confused why Surrons are even a topic in a mountain bike forum. More of a vital MX topic. It’s a motorcycle

From the latest Downtime podcast w/ Dustin Adams it sounded like a (bombproof) Hydra V3 hub is near. Also I'd assume a 32" "system" wheel is in the pipeline.

I'm not sure if this is an indication it's close to release, but Norco just posted pics of the dh bike ahead of Korea and it's got "Team DH" printed on the top tube. Would be cool (and make sense) if they went back to the Team DH name for the race bike.

There are already those issues with the wired in version of AXS and Di2 derailleurs on ebikes, it's actually obnoxious to work on them because of it. An interesting rhetorical question about CVTs and MGUs coming into this space is when do these "bicycles" stop being "bicycles"? Automatic shifting and the removal of manual control seem to me like the point where bicycles are no longer bicycles. We as a community and as an industry should probably draw those lines before we get too much further from where we are now. I'll stop my pseudo-philosophical ramblings here

If you're not from the US and you haven't seen this yet, I can't recommend it enough. It explains a lot:

i recently learned that a 2x2 lumber is not in fact 2" in size. americans are just completely crazy when it comes to sizing stuff.

From Pinkbike. Also, the reach and stack a bit longer than the Epic 8. No mention of an Evo version. I’m thinking the new bike is a mix of the best attributes of the current Epic 8 and the discontinued Epic WC.

2026 Global League has been created. Join to be eligible for prizes - https://www.vitalmtb.com/fantasy/leagues We're running the same program in 2026 Game opens after receiving the official qualifying start list and add rider values (should be sometime Weds next week for South Korea) - will announce when live here and the countdown clock will show up when game is live, too. Game closes a couple hours before Junior DH finals start time (which is 11:30am local time in South Korea), so those who want to keep tabs on who makes the show, can make stronger predictions. No season overall prizes...

Any chance we can take this ebike power rules chat to a new thread? A few pages ago it was fascinating reading about Alta's struggle and DJI's structure vs old school German power.

Props for the Sheldon Brown reference.

it's almost as much as your megatower.

"10 Years Raaw" sounds more like a special edition paint job than a new bike, but fingers crossed for an XXL downcountry bike.