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btw, first day back at work and had an old geezer already that was interested in the levo 4 rack, but for his gen3 levo. those things will sell…

the ski runs must be natural occurring fields…..

Whiteface is a large resort, and I’m pretty sure all the oils and waxes from winter sports every winter does a lot more damage then cutting 32 trees. I just can’t understand how a tree is worth 50k, just because it is on state land. Next you are in placid or the near area, look how many massive houses are being built, clearing at least an acre of land of trees just a house that will only be used for maybe 2 months out of the year, but I guess it’s on private property, so it doesn’t matter.

RE: USAC Enduro Champs. Great to see Colton on the top step. Dude's had a hell of a ride over the last year or so dealing with health issues. From his post on Instagram: It’s been a really rough year of this injury. I don’t even know how to explain how hard it’s been. Lost about all my sponsors besides @fasthouse_bike cause they’re the best. I started to work full time with the worst migraines. Couldn’t do anything I loved to do anymore. Anyway, about a few weeks ago @marco0sborne92 told me about his doctor he’s been going to and...

30+ years ago bullet bros was trying to solve the same problems.

I've been riding XT Di2 for the past 5 months and that hasn't been my experience. Zero dropped chains and I just run an upper guide (always have). Shifts flawlessly. As far as chain slap noise it seems to be heavily dependent on the bike and what kind of chainstay protection it has, my HD6 is fine. Even the most vocal critics (Pinkbike tech editors) have noted that it varies from bike to bike. Not trying to convince anyone that they need to buy it, just relating my personal experience.

Yesterday I spoke with a guy who rode a couple of EDRs and would always ride xtr mech since forever but he was on a sram. He said not only the chain slap was unbearable on the new di2 xtr but he would also drop chains pretty much daily, to the extend the top of his crank which cought the chain became all scratched... The shifting was absolutely amazing but the reliability is horrible and he also noticed shimano sponsored enduro pros would run full dh chain tensioners or STFUs just to keep the chain on, which is mindboggling how...

Just mount em up and shred the shit out of them, they’ll be fine.

Domestic manufacturing/sourcing has been been a requirement (for some products, at least) in DoD procurement since the Berry Amendment of 1941.

I have a friend who works high up at one of the big five Defense firms and he said his firm is under increasing pressure from the DOD for all of their products, components, required maintenance parts and supplies, and the rest of the supply chain to come from within the US, so as not to be dependent on or beholden to foreign manufacturing, especially in regards to potential geopolitical adversaries. To be clear, they aren't able to meet 100% of their needs entirely within the US, but the planes he was talking about featured a shockingly high proportion of...

RE: Magnets - something I broadly agree with you on. (china owns the market) As to the future, I know the American Dynamism team at a16z, along with other VCs, has been circling this general problem: rebuilding domestic capacity around critical minerals, magnets, motors, defense supply chains, and industrial manufacturing. A16z wrote directly about the critical minerals side last year in It’s Time to Mine (linked below), and you’re also seeing magnet-specific startups going after the downstream bottleneck. Vulcan Elements, for example, announced a $1B rare earth magnet facility in North Carolina, partly backed by the Pentagon. I know y'all...

I feel like I can hear the derailleur just by looking at it 🙊

The local brand manager showed us some release schedule along with some model data here at the product launch, earlier this year. Fluid will be the budget Al model line, Optic will return to be the higher tier one, with a slightly higher main pivot (Fluids are optimized for a 30t chainring, Gen 4 Optics will be for a 32t IIRC), but no idler. As someone else said, it'll be a return to the Gen 2 ways. I run my Fluid the way most Norco employees do, with a 210x55 shock (~143mm of rear travel) and a 150mm fork. You...

The Pope reads Vitalmtb forums confirmed

So freaking pumped for Luca! Jordan Williams sure caused some ulcers there for a bit!

Transition has the dank taco truck thing going on Everyone in Bellingham works for transition or evil or Kona Santa Cruz marketing was absolutely tempting transition to post that photo on purpose Becasue the embargo was like a week away and the bike was ready to ship We got them all looking for ways to sneak the obvious and make it look sneaky or obvious Nobody got fired and many Tallboys have been sold Smugglers still heavier and spur geo Is conservative compared to tb Tacos. It’s all about tacos.

I envy your optimism.

Maybe the pendulum will swing so far that the next 10 years, the coolest thing is to not film/document anything?

I bet there's a link between the GoPro's decline and the soul crushing boredom of all the videos that our buddies made us watch.