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Vorsprung shock

RAAW retrofit kit to upgrade Jib and Madonna to make there bikes compatible with the new standard. I like this about RAAW, not making you buy a new bike to upgrade to a new standard but just selling the part to be able to upgrade it if you want, I think this is a good way to develop brand loyalty. https://raawmtb.com/en-ca/collections/parts/products/seatstay-udh

Whenever I see something like this bike, it gives me horrible Proflex flashbacks. Leave it to some motorcycle engineer to come up with this because his bro with a E bike asked him to do it. Nobody’s even mentioning how the geometry of this thing is completely buggered now. Remember when 29er forks all sucked because they had the trail measurement/crown offset completely wrong? Also, dual shocks?

If they re-vamped the titan, it would be very high on my next bike list

Thats an interesting one, but Keith has been pretty open about the brand and surely has an account here as well (he answers customer questions on some other forums, not sure if mtbr or nsmb, but one of those) and always said they keep everything pretty minimum and optimised and there are like 5 people empoyed by Banshee in total. And IIRC they operate in batches so they dont order a lot of bikes to be kept in storage which reduces the risk. They have been around for a long time too so they must have been through thick and...

I would be curious about Banshee and their survival. Nice bikes but no marketing, not so often refreshed collection, a few dealers and mostly the same fan base can be a hard place to be at this time.

That's the new Instinct, which keeps the same layout as the current one but dropping the shared frame of the Altitude should drop it a few pounds. I've got a new Altitude on the way and its rad AF

Bump for some (not so good but) foreshadowed news. https://www.bicycleretailer.com/industry-news/2023/10/17/signa-sports-u… Looks like Nukeproof and Vitus having some difficulties.

Yes. With all the usual promises of respecting the brand's legacy, expanding on its strengths, etc. "Kent’s investment will enable Kona to invest more meaningfully behind these goals to better serve our independent retailers, team members, and consumers worldwide." (https://www.bicycleretailer.com/industry-news/2022/01/19/kona-bicycles-…) They left independent retailers out in the cold and undercut them on pricing on existing inventory, fired their team members, and as for consumers... well, you can be the judge. EDIT: more details available here - https://www.bicycleretailer.com/retail-news/2023/06/26/retailers-unimpr…

Same company who increased IBD pre-season orders by 50-70%, could'nt give delivery dates and would'nt let you cancel anything. Same company that increased RRP's by 25% in 9 months and refused to honour orders that were placed at the original price. Same company that constantly pushed their POS system (not fit for purpose), accounting package,finance products onto retailers whilst undermining them constantly with DTC offers and retail outlets. Retail director for a large european market was franchise manager for fast food company previously. They visited every company owned outlet at the height of the pandemic to delivery christmas presents.......3 shops...

I think that’s a little over critical. Sure those people are everywhere but bikes are hard to do at all - let alone well. Besides, bikes really don’t pay as well for a given skill set so you don’t stay in bikes unless you love bikes.

Having stock is great, unless you can't move it. I think Trek has a lot of "dusty" inventory, and as they keep releasing new models, the old stuff has to be sold at a reduced margin. If Evil sold through all of their product, there is probably enough demand that they can easily sell new stuff when it arrives.

I guess I should've put a caveat in there that Sales and Marketing folks don't count. They live in a different reality. I once visited a friend who worked for a large bike company that starts with 'T'. He invited us to ride their trails and had us meet him at the HQ so we could get a quick tour. Ready for the ride, I was wearing my clipless shoes and was click-clacking my way into the front door - when he saw that my shoes had a big red 'S' on it he actually told me I had to...

Another part of all this that I feel goes underreported was just how WILD the demand was. If you weren't ordering a shit-ton of product retailers/consumers would all but send you death threats. To some extent it didn't even matter if you thought the Covid-Bike-Boom was real - it was real to everyone else so you had to at least try to keep up. It also doesn't help that bike industry pay isn't that great. It's not that there aren't good people - you don't get into bikes if you're not passionate about them - it's just that there are...

were there ever any signs of Intense pulling out of DH? I'd imagine there would be indicators on IFR / Gwin's socials if that were the case. Dak also said in the last B practice pod that he's on the same program for next year. Idk just reading between the lines here

Hopefully that maybe is soon

Good spot. Helmetgate just got another layer to it - interested to see how this plays out... Also, my goodness is Reece good to watch ride a bike.

Proto Burgtec pedals with centre pins?

Alternate perspective: Maybe it's best he didn't race after breaking two helmets a week apart?