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Damn.. That Pinkbike comment section is really on fire on the YT story..

From a commenter on PB: “ Everyone needs the hear the facts. Markus flossman is an egotistical freak and scammer. After insolvency there was a handshake deal for YT USA to purchase exclusive brand rights and be independently operated. Truth is Markus couldn’t stand the idea of US branch not being under his control. Continued to shoot over shitty deals, 1 year contracts, and insane royalty payments. We as a staff chose not to sign up for a shitty deal that would ultimately kill us anyways. Everyone thinks private equity killed this brand. That’s wrong. Markus single handedly killed YT...

nope, not april

Apologies if this has already been brought up, but Forge + Bond is now a pickleball paddle company. Quite the pivot.

My uncle is a retired 3 star and former ceo of one of the big defense contractors. Still is on the board of directors for a few of them. I’m not going to bother him for his opinion. But this lucky dude seems extremely young and out spoken to be much of a player in that industry. The majority of guys making decisions are in their 50s and 60s, spent a lot of time in the pentagon either in a military or civilian role and have zero inclination to step into the limelight. I’m sure their are outliers but going...

We will see about the dropper post but their prototype dropper lever had a really cool design and how it integrated the cable tension adjustment.

Cornelius from Intend “confirmed“ that they are going to release the dropperpost called elevator in the video if the new monocoque hover shock. Right at the end… Can’t be long for the official release

Currency Exchange Rumors and Innovation

My guess is that NOBL isn't footing the billl. Evil is getting the rims (maybe at a discount) to replace the loopholes as needed. NOBL gets good press at helping to support the wheels, Evil has a partner to help support, and long term NOBL I am guessing becomes an OE partner for EVIL as well. Really doubt that NOBL is warrantying rims without being reimbursed in some way.

@jeff.brines for the next podcast or discussion here (unless I'm forgetting and its been covered before)... So the big guys (Specialized, Trek) went vertical a few years back and bought a lot of retail shops. They moved out most of the competitor inventory so customers are limited to in-house P&A brands or heading to another shop. How has that worked out for all involved?

Strava has voluntarily dropped their lawsuit against Garmin. https://www.dcrainmaker.com/2025/10/strava-drops-voluntarily-lawsuit-ag…

I have fought off having superboost rear wheels in my fleet for many years. My wife fell in love with a pivot recently and got herself one. It has ruined the zen status of all wheels/hubs fitting all bikes in my garage. It is as bad, if not worse then the dystopian axle future I imagined that had me avoiding pivot bikes for nearly a decade now. superboost sucks... after having a superboost bike forced on me, I can safely say, I will never own a superboost bike.

I'm locking this thread for a day or two. Not trying to be rude, I'd actually love to jump in myself, but we've gone way off the rails. None of this ties back to the bike or outdoor industry directly. If you want to continue the AI discussion, please start a new thread, take it to X/Twitter, or head over to LinkedIn. Those platforms are built for this kind of speculation (and overflowing with this sort of banter). I want to keep this space focused on industry-specific topics. Nothing personal,I genuinely enjoy these conversations, this is just a "thread hygiene"...

idk if this has been spotted elsewhere already and I missed it, but it looks like Kona has a new dh bike? From the new Caleb Holonko edit, thought it might just be a process 153 but the seattube here definitely isn't anything on their site. Looks sick with the og kona logo

new all-carbon polygon collusus t8 from $2999 to $4999 https://www.vitalmtb.com/features/first-ride-polygon-collosus-t8-budget…

Maybe a bit of gossip, but as an example of how wide ranging the YT fallout is, I was watching Brian Cahal's recap of Rampage and when discussing the YT frame failure he mentioned that YT still owes him a travel invoice which probably comes from when he was invited to test the new decoy at their press camp.

Thanks! And yes, meant PE. I wrote VC because I was reading a different article moments earlier, edited to PE but probably not before you saw it. I didn't realize Whyte is the first acquisition in a while. I guess we've just been talking more about the results of those deals recently, and as in most "news" the negatives are discussed more than the positives.

Couple things... I think the acquisition of Whyte by Causeway Capital is the first PE deal we've seen in years. Again, someone check me if I'm wrong, but maybe the ice has thawed. @PisgahGnar - to your question... First, PE and VC are not the same. I know I keep beating this drum, but VC aims at backing startups in high growth industries with the goal they will IPO or get bought for billions of dollars (I'm generalizing) . PE invests in private companies that are generally mature with the goal of selling them in a relatively short amount of...

“I keep spending revenue from my existing companies to buy more companies, and I can’t figure out why my existing companies aren’t profitable yet.” 🤔 tough question. Maybe another round of editor and content creator layoffs will help Outside mag finally realize its hidden potential.