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I think one of the largest "We're not in Kansas anymore" moments I had when I began working for a component manufacturer after years in bikes shops was when I had the insignificance of aftermarket sales explained to me. Don't get me wrong, every brand worth their salt is going to support aftermarket product bc why leave money on the table, but OE sales are king in the bike industry and ultimately OE sales drives every design decision. SRAM gets to push the convenience of full SRAM spec by limiting cross compatibility. For brands like Canyon, Specialized, etc., who are...

lawlor just sent this over. kolb's V10 27.5-inch wheel dropout on his XL. (sorry, had it backwards)

Quick scroll thoughts: Does the e2e on the Gamux shock look wildly long?? AON Racing = Team I-Beam Racing Bruni on ODI grips after running DEITY the past season or two Looks like Jordan Williams has the previous gen AXS shifter, not a POD. The Maven lever on the Commencal looks short, no? Bar ends are so freaking in On Tahnee’s bike, it looks like there is a screw head recessed in the spindle. Maybe it’s more weight? Anyone know what chainring Trek is running with an Ochain? Doesn't look like the new XX chainring. New Shimano rotors look cheap...

I'll just say this (for now); off the record I've heard from many sources both Bosch and DJI are exploring gear box alternatives. DJI (Avinox) all but said it on the record. If I were a betting man I'd bet Sea Otter 2027 is focused around this one topic.

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

I got ~30 minutes each with Avinox and Bosch and am still figuring out what to do with the content (podcast or writing). Unsurprisingly, Bosch is a bit "disappointed" (I'm paraphrasing) in the direction Avinox is pushing the industry. They leaned heavily into trail access and stewardship, and suggested the current crop of high-output motors doesn't jive with the effort they've put into balancing stakeholders and leading the powertrain side responsibly. For fun, I looked back to see if Bosch has ever pushed power or torque limits on their own accord, and from what I can tell the answer is...

People said the same about Poland, but it really cut up and turned into a great track. This will probably shape up to be one of the most interesting races in modern DH. A new country, with a level playing field in terms of pit setup, on a track with more flat corners and tight tree line choice will mean we could see some dark horses really shine here. An unexpected good result at the first race of the season could really jumpstart the rest of their season and a career. That's what we all want, a cool story. Loic...

That's why they are releasing this now: "Hey boss, can we start teasing the new goods? Not yet, gotta wait until thegromit orders the current version...."

Most of you probably won't like hearing this. I certainly didn't. Earlier this week I had a chat with a guy who works in a product management role for Ralf Bohle GmbH, which is the owner of the Schwalbe tire brand. Mainly I asked a bunch of XC racing related questions, about compounds, casings, radial ply, rolling resistance testing, wheter we'll ever see the speediest XC casing with a black sidewall and why they felt they needed to change their naming scheme for casings and compounds. The gist of it is that they are hard at work behind the scenes...

Got to take a look at Alyana Van Horn‘s race bike for this season…

Engineers at Scott must be going insane after finding out Specialized has beaten them at making the most complicated MTB to service, the next Gambler will have 32 pivots in retaliation

I think this is as close to a „for racing purposes only“ bike we’ll get from specialized. Who is the realistic target group for this? A few age groupers, the occasional dentist and maybe some kids sponsored by their rich parents. The ones who want it will buy it anyways, other than that I see it as an engineering exercise and podium representation at the World Cup for spesh. Low production numbers, complex molds and layup, high structural requirements and engineering costs, it was never gonna be price competitive and i don’t think specialized will care about the hardtail dad...

While I’ll never own one, I have to give credit to specialized for creating this. It’s giving me nostalgia vibes from the late 90’s/early 00’s when there was a lot of weird and wacky experimentation in DH. The fact that after 3+ years of development, this is an actual production frame (regardless of cost) is pretty cool.

Back in my day we used to tie onions to our belts, it was the style at the time.

Every one of us is dumb to someone else at least once a year Can we just keep rumoring and innovationing now? Please. Thanks 🙂

As a data point of one, our house in rural CA is almost completely off grid. We just upgraded to new solar panels, single LiIon battery, and inverter, mostly from Midnite Solar. We can run the house for 2-3 days on a single day of sun, without much in the way of conservation. With two or three batteries that would be even more. With California utility rates, I expect the cost of the system to break even in less than 4 years. Plus, no outages. That said, we just bought our first ever new car and went with a hybrid...

Bosch is a genuine giant, comparable in scale to Caterpillar or Goldman Sachs. DJI, by contrast, is roughly 10-15% of Bosch's size on a revenue basis. The real difference, however, is breadth. DJI is narrowly focused to a degree that's hard to fully appreciate until you start poking around at what Bosch actually does: automotive systems, power tools, home appliances, factory automation, HVAC, security systems. It's a company that has to be everything to everyone, all at once. Profitability compounds the contrast. DJI reportedly operates around 40% net margins, which if accurate is a truly remarkable number for any company...