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Madrone Cycles was named after the Madrone trees that grow in the Oregon region that the company calls home. It was founded in 2023 by Aaron Bland, who had become disenchanted with the lack of good rebuild and repair options for rear derailleurs. After initially launching a series of replacement parts for SRAM derailleurs, Aaron realized that Madrone could easily make a whole derailleur by themselves. The Jab was launched in 2025, and it sports a number of unique features that made us want to test it – after several months on the trail, this is our report! Madrone...

Sweet location. I’m going to go watch Earthed 2 since I haven’t watched it in a while. IYKYK

Dude Spomer and I watched Earthed 2 after filming this and it's unfathomable how fast those dudes are riding Stairsteps and Telonics on their tiny little 26" bikes with no compression damping. Very humbling. https://youtu.be/aDoAoYrhhQw?t=187

Someone please go find Kidwoo. 😉

The only thing that matters is the customers get their bikes/refunds. YT as a company can head to the history books as far as I'm concerned. Markus and his Money Mates will have caused so many employees/racers/customers so much stress, I think they are the ones that need to dissapear in to oblivion with YT.

Ok, finally got through this thing. Here are my questions, which probably are not answerable but here goes: I wonder how much of the ride feel is due to that larger axle. I was wrong lower down, it was 2017 that fox released a 20mm 36. I got one and it made a huge difference to how my bike rode. It mirrored a lot about what you were talking about with the front tire just going where you told it vs deflecting. Are there any RSU forks out there right now offering a 20mm axle? It would be rad to...

Fox famously dabbled with an inverted DH fork in 2011, and quickly scrapped the project due to negative rider feedback, including excessive weight and torsional flex. 15 years later, they’re bringing back the inverted idea, but upping the difficulty by moving to a single crown platform. The new fork is heavy, unconventional, expensive, and risky, but FOX thinks it’s going to blow your mind. In fact, they’ve already secured spec for the Podium on bikes from at least nine different brands for 2026, which includes a mix of e-bikes and normal bikes. You can hear more about why FOX...

My concern was still ultimately about the marketing element. It's pretty clear brands are starting to use this to sell helmets. Which is sensible. But the narrative around it is still concerning. Again. Not to discredit VAtech. But it's a single group doing these tests. To my knowledge no 3rd party verification. And it's still limited in scope. Not having a full face/frontal test yet and more so measuring energy absorption and less the impossible intricacies of rotation on impact. Love the tests. Love my Specalized lid. But not a fan of brands marketing the results from a fairly limited...

You can absolutely adjust stiffness through layup, and companies do it all the time, but the gains are marginal. Tube stiffness is still primarily determined by the cross-section of the tube. While layup can influence the bending properties of a tube, there are limits to what it can achieve. Beyond a certain point, you either end up with a tube that is very strong in one direction and weak in another, or it becomes too thick and heavy. MTB tubes aren't that large so you can quickly get too heavy by adding just another layer of directional carbon which means...

Alleged, not charged and no conviction Roque Racing, small team and I assume a small budget. Maybe his “baggage” priced him into a smaller lesser known team. Antonio Brown of the NFL was convicted of assault charges on his wife and the NFL still let the guy play. Not alleged, convicted. Give TD a chance until he’s charged and convicted. Too much bashing of riders on the forum based on speculation and not facts. Leaning into slander in some cases imo

May it RIP in peace 🙏 No worries! Was thinking about how to do this on my bike as well though bike season is now over as I just got my first ski day in (warning: humble brag). I have 17mm aluminum axles for the main pivot and link pivot of my trail bike. I could replace them with a steel bolt that's ~10mm in diameter and 3d print some TPU bushings to take up the space between the parts and that would be a fairly quick way to try this idea on. It'll probably fall apart quickly but should...

I wouldn't say it's doing weird things here, but it does look weird. It's "just" flexing. But it does look a bit hectic. It's a perfect illustration as to why frame compliance and wheel flex is important. The way I think about it is this (could be totally wrong), he's pushed aggressively hard into the corner, the front is tracking perfectly as it has an axle to pivot on (the fork) and thus flex isn't really an issue up front. The rear wheel of a bike/motorbike will always understeer in a corner, which is an issue in berms, as it...

I have nothing of value to contribute but keep it coming nerds, this is so interesting to read

So there’s evidence people have been looking at, thinking about, measuring and comparing bike component compliance for years. And there’s evidence that some component and system (for example, a wheel) makers have been doing the same. But instead of helping to create basic language and tools riders could use to compare compliance as one more factor to consider alongside all the other bike fit and performance details, every company is mining the compliance boom in the same way. Our new gen widget is more compliant (but not too compliant!) than our previous gen widget. Start tuning your ride today! Marketing...

I realised I didn't have any picture of my bike (after 2 seasons lol) so I took some this morning. The bike has heen welded by Egerie in France, based on a linkage file I made. The idea here is to have the chainstay length based on a front to rear center ratio. I checked that ratio at SAG on bikes I found to have good cornering characteristics. In terms of number it is 63HA, 80SA, 490mm reach, 470CS, 643stack, 15mm BB drop. The bike is full 29, 180mm front and 192mm back. The frame is atypical for a single...

This sounds cheezy so bear with me but I just wanted to say thank you for the great conversations here so far. I’ve already learned some new things and it’s got me pumped. If even one person learns something new from this, then this whole article was worth the effort. With discussions like this, we can spark great ideas and figure out how to make bikes better for everyone, faster. There are so many smart people here and I don’t see any reason why we can’t collaborate to figure out the next big steps for mountain biking progress. 🤘 And...

Yeah the above trail was Teleonics from the upper dirt road before the "ski jump" to the parking lot. Bike set up: Steel front end(modeled after 23' Trek Session), stock aluminum rear end, Ochain, Dorado fork, DT 471 front rim 1.6 spokes, Crank bros DH carbon rear rim 1.5 spokes, CounterShox mounted on fork 800g and behind BB 600g, Conti Kryp tires 24/26psi. I only got a few runs in this day, then had a little get-off that stopped my riding for the day. So I didn't really test anything here, just trying to get some more baselines and data...

Here is some data from riding my steel Trek in Southern California. Approx 2 minute run in Laguna. The rear axle showed 67% more lateral accelerations than the bb. (Negative is to riders left and positive is to riders right.) The rear axle showed that it twisted torsionally 35% more than the lower frame/bb. What does all this mean? Hahha, nothing really until I gather more data on the same trail, in the same conditions. But I’m starting to gather a baseline with a few frames. The problem is dirt conditions and trail style play a big load(literally) on what...

Yes it is all give/take. Exactly like suspension setup. This bike (The Homer) gets pedalled as an Enduro bike, Whistler laps and then Prevost shuttle laps. For enduro and Whistler laps, I think the compliance is perfect. It eats rough and softens the harsh Whistler laps. Even with the firm suspension setup I run. Prevost is another beast though. It's perfect 85% of the time but there's some hefty hits and corners on that hill. And hitting those fast, you want to be fully comfortable that you know how the bike will handle. Those scenarios are like racing, so I...