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Buying a Santa Cruz usually costs a bit more, but there are some legitimate reasons other than VPP to buy one. Kinematics / ride dynamics are well engineered regardless of linkage used SC geo is usually solid, nothing weird Build quality Ability to purchase replacement parts for many years (try buying parts for a 5 year old frame from any other bike company) Lifetime warranty (one that you can actually count on).

Pure conjecture, but I get the impression that VPP works best on long travel bikes. The Tallboy is kinda marketed as a “downhiller’s trail bike” so I wonder if they’re taking what they learned from the e-bikes for suspension design and prioritizing dropper insertion because at that travel bracket geometry matters more than suspension performance.

It may not be a "whole separate sport", but there sure is a "whole separate text thread" for the e-bike riders in my friend circle. Now we rarely have big group rides as the crew is split in two and it's a pain to ride laps with both bike types together. So I'd say its a "whole different discipline" of pedaling a rolling thing with your feet.

This is cool detail and makes my interaction with Specialized last year even more aggravating. The Status frame is only advertised as ASTM Cat 4 (i.e., no dual crown), yet they sell a complete version of the bike with a dual crown while advertising its ability to jump and ‘Freeride’. I called them on multiple occasions to try and figure out where the discrepancy came from (maybe they tested it to Cat 5 or internal testing to verify the dual crown but didn’t want to advertise it?) and nobody could give me even a semblance of a true answer. One...

I think history has proven to never buy a first gen e13 anything

Looks like mechanical cable routing is back - if that is a CC frame. (Fingers crossed)

Looks like the new Nomad is coming Tuesday!

I highly doubt that any self-respecting bike brand would equip their bikes with S500 or S200 over Transmission. Even bike shops will have to explain to their customers why they can't just replace worn parts with the same new ones. IMO this is just a sales push towards Transmission, period, probably needed because the ole good Eagle works a bit too well.

Crap, I changed my mind. I’m thinking now about the majority of their business being b2b and thinking about what comes specced on bikes, and what new bike customers are looking for in a bike. That GX/XO1 mashup customer just doesn’t exist in bike shops, it’s all forum nerds. People tended to fall into “let me buy the cheapest bike” or “let me get the nicest bike.” The riders in the middle don’t really seem to sweat drivetrain, they were moreso just looking for better suspension/brakes I guess? Kind of just like the upgrade bike without having all of their...

Modern Bussiness lecture: Just do nothing and wait for the competition to do everything wrong. Exactly the game where Shimano would excel

It's wild that my 2018 Lyrik RC2 has been on 6 different bikes and every travel config between 150-180. Still going strong 8 years later with no creaks in the CSU. Best fork of all time. (yes it's red)

I'm equal parts bummed and intrigued by the new/revamped eagle lineup. On one hand, SX/NX can die in a fire, and their death is just as exciting to me as new product is in certain ways. On the other, X01 eagle was probably the best all around drivetrain as a package over any other I've ever used. Each component of that drivetrain was stellar; cassette, chain, derailleur and shifter. That being said, while I still have a bike in the garage with that setup... I wouldn't be selecting it as a new build. I guess in that case, it makes...

Stocking up on XX1 chains. Really unhappy with the new SRAM offerings. Next bike might be Shimano. Edit: shoot - are people unhappy with me because I'm not wild about the latest SRAM drivetrain components replacing Eagle, or because I suggested moving from one "S" company to the other?

i am personally feeling like sram is making some serious strategic errors. shimano was against the ropes but they have some really awesome offerings in the the low and mid tier mechanical gruppos. maybe sram doesn't want to play in the mud but a LOT of riders just want solid mid-tier components that work. for people better in the know: where are the the two brands at for high end wireless?

could you make out some details of the bikes? colors, multiple cable ports to run cable shifting? hope yeti isn't as dumb as specialized and santa cruz.

tech rumors forum update - you've spoken and have been heard we'll lock out this thread at the end of the year (no matter what, it's just too darn big now), and will carry on with yearly tech rumors threads that will be stickied for easy participation. the 2026 thread is already underway here (not yet stickied) i just want to thank everyone for their feedback and insight on what this piece of the vital community means.

Next one: Frameworks is rumored to shift production to one of Taiwans premium aluminum manufacturers for better manufacturing quality and consistency.

Can I be honest, if I can't just click on one thread and read the entire conversation, I probably won't read the forum at all. I find this thread pulls me in and then when I have more time or I'm curious, I check out other threads. But without this main one, I wouldn't bother visiting vital. Wish it were different but I hope I'm at least helping by giving voice to some other people out there. I enjoy catching up on 6 pages of inane comments to find a nugget of cool rumors. Others might be different.

I think derailleur lifetime really depends on where and how you ride, what the condtions are like and even the impurities in the water from your hose pipe. For me Shimano 12 speed derailleurs (Deore, SLX or XT) were terrible with clutches and jockey wheels seizing after a few months and b-bolt and parallelogram pivot play ruining shifting in far less than a year. I find that the most robust 12 speed mechanical derailleur from Shimano or SRAM is the X01 Eagle, but they still only last about 2 years including new b-bolts and aftermarket jockey wheels and cost about...