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Recently purchased Ion Arcon pads for enduro riding (thanks Vital for the benchmark video) but haven’t tested them so far (still brand new and waiting in the closet before landing near the christmas tree). Ion recommends me M size but I was near L size. Another French rider in the same situation told that he bought M and L sizes, then returned the M one. So I purchased L size too.

I have the slightly older Fox Launch D30 Pro knees and elbows with the hard plastic cap. They have been 100% protective, completely indestructible, and even don't suck that bad to pedal in. They're very easy to wear on the ankles if you have a fire road slog to do. My vote is anything with a small hard cap, especially for racing or DH. I've crashed on the thinner trail sleeve style D30 pads many times before and sometimes you walk away more hurt than expected.

Fresh review alert: we've tested the new HEL Advocate brakes, here are our thoughts: https://www.vitalmtb.com/product/guide/hydraulic-disc-brakes/hel-perfor… . TLDR: go read the review, don't be lazy! 😃

Cat 4 is we call this a gravity mtb but we will deny your warranty for riding it.

Finally something to yap about

My experience was similar, it took a buddy to help me and pretty much any progress we made we had to zip tie the tire to the rim so we weren't constantly losing our progress. I figured we would screw up the bead before it made it on there but somehow we did it. The bontrager tires that came with it weren't too hard so I assumed it was maybe maxxis but it sounds like the bontrager wheels are actually the issue.

Been trying to figure out which one I like more lol

Been running the same AliEx maxima copy levers with (first DB8'S) and now magura MT7 calipers with Tektro mineral oil. No issues whatsoever. No noise. No fade. No wandering bite point. Just budget friendly, strong brakes.

I will never not downvote AI slop

In honor of the 1000th page, we should vote on the best meme of 2025: 👍🏻 for “Crab” 👎🏻 for “6-7” edit: Carcinization is the antithesis of innovation. Maybe we should keep crab talk on the crab talk forum and keep this thread focused on MTB tech rumors and/or innovation.

I'd argue that seat tube/top tube juncture and the elbow where the chainstay meets the bb is entirely consistent with Yeti's design language, just reconceptualized around a different suspension design. The rocker link and seat stay bridge don't stray far from the current DH bike. It's been out a few years now so no secret anymore, but I saw an aluminum test mule for their ebike platform way back in 2017 that looked a lot like this. Given that pic is from 2023 it's anyone's guess if it's something they pursued any further after refining the DH bike. The fact...