All

A couple very subtle and easy tweaks to that helmet (e.g., visor shape, outer pad fabric) and a better paint job could make it look so much better. All of that would’ve essentially been free during development. How do you miss the aesthetic mark that bad?!

I’m sure this conversation happened at Kali HQ and was silenced in the name of Brand Identity

The conventional wisdom about Shimano used to be that they moved slowly with product development but (with a few exceptions) released stuff that just worked. But the dual-spring clutchless derailleurs don't seem like they fall into that category of "just works." (Caveat: I have not ridden one myself. I'm basing this on other people's reviews.) Will be very interesting to see if Shimano sticks to their guns on this design, or if they backtrack in a year or two.

My 2017 Kona Operator came with SRAM Guide R brakes. Codes were amazing in comparison to those.

As a mostly analogue rider who also has an ebike, I was surprised at how rude, even nasty, a lot of guys on regular bikes are—even when you're as polite as possible trying to pass them on an ebike. Before I had an ebike, my buddies and I would kind of snicker at ebikers after they passed, but never to their face. I figured I'd see some of this once I got one, but I was surprised at how rude some "analogue" riders are for no reason, and how often it happens. It's pretty much an every-other-ride occurrence, which is...

That's also because Codes were god awful and the sram riders were so happy to get on an actual brake. I recently felt some older codes on some bikes I was dealing with and they were shockingly worse than I remembered. Say what you will about Shimano brakes, but they've been consistently good for a while.

A properly supported Angel on a winning bike is someone who has been able cross the line in the green in the past. Angels had some rough luck over the years with weird team dynamics, teams folding, and injury. I'd love to see 2-3 seasons of that guy healthy and supported.

Angel gets a paycheck, gets to keep racing, and I would imagine helps with developing the next Aventon ebike. What's the problem?

Sure, there are bikes that it is well implemented on and the geometry is preserved between the two settings - The current Ibis Ripley/Ripmo and G3 Kona Process 134/153 and Process X are all bikes that do it well.

I tend to fine myself on the other end flip chip theory. I tend to be more anti flip chip as it always tends to make thing more complicated and doesn't really add to the ride feel of the bike. There's also something to be said with a bike manufacture creating a bike with one specific geo and running it like that. Although, I am currently on a Forbidden Dreadnought V2 with drop out adjustments. I think this is one of useful adjustments as it makes a noticeable change without complications or compromises. Along with that I think that the...

Wow that’s a weird brake/shifter angle. Cool looking bike, though it’s not clear to me why anyone needs a bike to make trails even easier than they already are in this era of shitty flow trails.

counterpoint - $600 is easily the cost of an ER visit for many people 🤷‍♂️

When I was watching supercross I saw a few of these go off. Its impressive how much they puff up. Also I assume quite a few dudes were running them all season and no one had it go off while just riding. Its a bummer because we all could probably benefit from one of these when riding park, but I imagine its a 1 and done thing when it goes off. And 600$+ is just too much.

My 1st Luca memory: He & Walker as little kids doing full sprint laps on the Hendersonville BMX track chasing Christopher Herndon. Walker was older & bigger but Luca was ferocious pedaling every single lap latched onto them & relentless. I was putting on races with buddies just to have races & we were so excited to have kids committed to DH suddenly. I’ve enjoyed watching the Shaw Brothers progress from little BMX groms to National Champs & now a World Cup winning family.

From the downtime podcast, apparently when Loic crashed he was wearing an alpinestars airbag system. The tech MX system is on the market already (Barcia was wearing it during is insane supercross crash ealier this year), but it would be fantastic to see mtb-focused versions as well.

Torrent is clean. Bottle rocket is adjustable freeride. Quake is a capable race geo. (Iirc) Different bikes for different folks . I freeride and park my race bikes - and xc ride my enduro bike. But the world does seem to want FUN 27.5 park bikes and the racers do seem to want FAST DH WEAPONS. Why can’t we have both? The marketing isn’t even for us. There are literally armies of 15 year old boys AND GIRLS! Getting really into modern freeride, just riding down shit and off shit and being park rats in jnco jeans where I live...

Man I’m shocked at the discussion this thing is generating. This bike looks GREAT

External cable routing! heck yeah

I'll tell you one thing it is, way cheaper to buy in Canada! $2800 CAD vs. $2999 USD, that's close to $1000 difference!