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Gesundheit.

Ugh, SC using the term "pedal bike" as if cyclists weren't bad enough at naming things with things like "clipless pedals".

Seriously, the transparent marketing just hurts. SC makes nice bikes, VPP is nice, long link four bars are nice, but the cognitive dissonance in marketing messages is fatiguing.

"We know our e-bike customers don't care or even know what VPP is so here's a bike that says SANTA CRUZ on it." (Am I too cynical?)

Everyone -"SC are just so boring and generic these days" Santa Cruz-"Hold my protein meal replacement shake"

I'll just leave it here.

Well, I think it makes more sense on a road/gravel bike IMO I've had heaps of road punctures etc - can store wind jacket etc in the frame. Vs MTB... big rides are usally at the point of hip pack anyway or shuttle'd For reference i've used alot of bikes with storage, Stumpy evo, slash.... marin etc i've used it once, to put my wind jacket away on the EVO... and that was on a local ride. Never used it otherwise... id rather my tube be on the frame if i ever needed it(which i dont)... as most internal storage...

High end prices keep climbing, but the mid range has never been stronger. Shed a few bells and whistles and you can get a lot of bike for the money. Take the New Bronson for example. You can save $3100 off the price of the top end build by getting the S build. You get mechanical GX Eagle which is totally serviceable. You get a Performance shock that can be upgraded to performance elite with a $30 part. You get a performance fork that you could drop a damper upgrade in. And you get aluminum wheels with a lifetime warranty...

Stop this now. You are using logic and facts to explain pricing. They won’t like it. But seriously this - look at that stumpy - s-works and full top end Fox - that is always going to equal big bucks. But guess what - Specialized aren’t forcing you to buy it - there are cheaper versions of the Stumpjumer you can buy…. 🤦🏻‍♂️ I’ve come to the conclusion that humans just like to complain regardless of facts.

Go look at inflation, high end bikes have always been expensive. In 2004, an SWorks Enduro was $4800. (Around $8500 today). In 2009, an SWorks Epic was $8800. (Approximately $13,000 today) I don’t understand why everyone suddenly thinks the sky is falling. Next everyone will be complaining that $250,000 for a Huraćan is insane because a Countach used to be $100,000. It’s not like you were going to buy one anyway.

It works as advertised for the most part. There are still scenarios where pedal kickback can be encountered, but they should be pretty rare. Let's consider the current generation Nomad for an example. The suspension has to compress about 80mm to get 18 degrees of pedal kickback. Because you are always guaranteed the same amount of slack in the hub, on any compression smaller than this it does make pedal kickback impossible to encounter. If you are compressing your suspension more than 80mm, it then becomes a question of how fast is the shock moving when you hit the 80mm...

There should be a law that once a product is EOL and is not supported anymore, the specs for the spare parts should be freely published. Including, for example, the dimensions of frame parts to be able to either weld up cracked parts to correct dimensions or have someone be able to recreate things. Right to repair really can't come quickly enough.

I'll bite. I don't feel we're really seeing bikes eek up in travel but we are sometimes seeing more product offerings and certain models gain more travel which may make it feel this way. Put another way, I'm not riding a longer travel bike now than I was 6-7 (10?) years ago as my daily driver, and I bet if we dug into the Vital Rider Survey data or similar we'd find the mix of what people ride hasn't changed much either. A bike models name is just the name. That's it. You buy the bike based of what it...

I like the ski analogy. I feel like there was a golden age for powder skis around 2012-2014. The Bent Chetlers from that era remain one of my favorite skis ever. Since then, powder skis have walked back a bit in terms of how purpose driven they are. I think largely because it didn’t make sense to have so many skis made for conditions few were accessing. I wonder if we will see something similar with bike design where what’s considered a big bike gets a little smaller since most trails aren’t akin to bike park laps. That said, I’m...

I always felt that the suspension-creep happened for two reasons (and I'm happy to be proven otherwise): 1. Refined kinematics allowing for better pedalling performance allowing greater suspension travel without as many drawbacks 2. Better long-travel single-crown forks allowing for 170-180mm front travel without flexy noodles. These two combined resulting in models like the Megatower creeping up in travel, and then the Hightower creeps up behind to maintain the gaps in travel from before. So rather than the mid-travel models getting longer legs, its the long-travel models getting longer and the mid-travel growing to fill the gap. As was definitely...

Every Enduro mag review......needs dh tyres and 220mm rotors.

I believe.......... it is a bicycle. (Sorry)

Transmission, it's weaknesses, and "solutions" for those weaknesses all seem kind of insane to me. Hey we have this little uvula looking thing on the back of frames which the derailleur attaches to. Usually, derailleurs aren't that expensive these days but just in case, it's meant to bend instead of allowing the derailleur to break. Because our frame is made of steel, we can usually just bend it back for free! How nice! Since we moved on to alloy/carbon, we had to make the hanger its own item. We went with aluminum alloy so it's stiff and light, but if...

Don’t get me started.

The real hack is to pickup the linear XL can for the new SDU. Did that on my 160mm enduro bike and added significantly better sensitivity whilst not having to run a comically large shock. I'm only 165 lb's suited up but I ride fairly aggressively and even over full park runs I haven't been able overheat the thing. Rode an X2 prior to that and have been able to briefly ride a couple Vivids, would buy for a DH rig but don't think it's worth the $$$/weight on anything meant to go uphill.