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I’m not going to get into a nerd fight on what design this is called. From what I’ve seen from pictures and video of the prototype bike they’ve been racing, this is just a more refined version of it. They built off the Range design. The Range has a huge bottom bracket rocker that gets pulled on by the chainstay to compress the shock. They’ve effectively eliminated it pivoting around the bottom bracket and made a short link (18) that moves and compresses the upper shock link. (20) Range blueprint for comparison; I have a Range. Man does it have...

And it looks like a squishy boing-boing to me... Can we please NOT have another nerd-fight about suspension layout names...?

thanks! in 2024 news, can i just say that i can't wait to see amaury on the track again? assuming he's healthy, he's going to mix up everything 2023 was about : )

I guess this depends on where you are on the world. Down here in NZ the usage has increased big time. Trail and park numbers are up substantially and that’s maintained since the boom, but you’re right that it brought sales forward and these riders aren’t buying consumables (including clothing, protection, etc.) at the same rate the core users were before. it wasn’t just the finance teams that got it wrong, it was EVERY part of the supply chain, retailers back to part makers, and now it’s the factories in Asia who are wearing the worst of the wests mistakes...

trash them. Happens in lots of industries. The only issue is that the brands incredibly foolishly sunk too much into inventory. Normally you just absorb the loss of a bad year from profit of the good years (21 & 22) but the issue is the losses from 23 eclipse any profit from 21 and 22 combined. The finance teams just totally cocked it up, and nobody questioned the fact that MTB (and bikes overall) hasn't actually exploded in terms of usage, people just bought new bikes, but they aren't going to buy new bikes every 2 years lol.

It's not sustainable, and not just for the small brands. The discounting will stop when the industry as a whole works through their oversupply, and as we're discussing here, many won't survive. The bazillion small companies in the space don't help, but the real problem is the discounting that the big players are doing. The whales drive the market and the minnows respond.

Some companies started lowering MSRPs last year... guessing we'll see more of this. https://www.pinkbike.com/news/we-are-one-reduces-the-price-of-convergen… https://www.pinkbike.com/news/scor-announces-significant-price-decrease… (Sorry, couldn't quickly find Vital links)

Don't really know, started following DH a couple of years ago. I was responding to a few forum members worried about Dak signing for Mondraker bikes cuz Brook wasn't happy about the proto. Since Bulldog's dip in performance coincided with an horrific back injury there's a good chance physical and psychological factors played a big part in his downgraded performance - and perhaps his troubles with the bike's design were just an externalisation of said problems. DH is a high risk sport, riders are threading a very fine line between speed and danger, therefore confidence plays a big role in...

From a mates mum who knows the friend of the uncle that served coffee to ollie back in march. NO ONE GIVES OUT SOURCES.

Huh. Weird. Something must have happened during the 2019 WC season for Brook.

I dont know anything about Dak, but Ryan has gotten his fastest times ever on the bike on runs he knows very well and can make good comparisons. Mondraker is keen to make the bike fast and and is making that a priority. So I think whomever is on the bike will do well.

Dylan to Commencal was leaked yesterday in this thread. Dharco and Thredbo bike park posted it.

To be fair, Trummer was out after back surgery for most of the 23 season, Jacob was out with concussion until the last couple of rounds and got a top 20 in MSA, and Tuhoto had 6 top 25 results as well as King of Crankworx. It'll be interesting to see what the new bike brings and who the fastest Intense team is though.

New B practice episode has been recorded where Dak announces his new old sponsors Also, Dak may or may not have gotten a haircut... (we'll see if Jason got the video to work this time, but no promises lol)

I didn’t even realize that what I wrote didn’t work lol. I was thinking it could be a switchblade because I think that’s the last bike that’s been updated in a long time I was really hopeful that the downhill bike was coming out but I think you’re right

new things about norco comming soon

Will be interesting to see how things go when these guys swap bikes. Trummer and Tahuto didn’t seem to have their best years on that mondraker, and brook didn’t like it. Mondraker has some heavy hitters now, will be interesting to see what they do on it.

And on Fox Clothing. At least he can now oficially wear the fox/red bull helmet :D

MS Intense is a reality. David Trummer (AUT), Eleonora Farina (ITA), Jacob Dickson (IRL) and Tuhoto Ariki Pene (NZ). So, the team is real, but no Dak. Waiting on his Mondraker announcement...