All

Sounds like factory teams in Le Mans over the years. Manufacturers come in after a rule change, spend big bucks (yearly budgets were passing 200 million a year for Audi and Porsche around 2016), sooner or later someone starts dominating and the rest pull the plug. Only to be left with one factory team vs. a bunch of privateers. And then the cycle repeats. Private teams are the backbone of racing overall as their sole business is racing, it's not just a marketing expense at the whim of boards of directors, budget cuts and overall financial outlook of the world.

Seeing the new Gambler out in the open made me contemplate company strategies; Curious that they don’t put it to the test at the World Cup first. It’s definitely been a trend lately to have your prototyping done at the highest level. Norco/Specialized/Intense for example. Other companies do their prototyping and testing in the off-season. I don’t get pumped on spy photos like I used to (building hype) but I wonder what strategy is better for their bottom line/sales?

So they had a gravel trap on the test track for this very reason, I was able to test on paved road and gravel, worked equally well in both situations. I had to do a few runs on the gravel as I didn't trust the ABS, once I had the confidence to brake really hard it was faultless. Obviously flat ground is not representative of real world trail use, so would be keen to use it in anger on some proper trails.

Sure, anything is possible. If you read between the lines, what I'm saying is we are entering into (or have entered into) a different era as is reflected by the development over the last 4-5 years, the trends and what is currently being released. IE - I'd be more inclined to say bikes are going to follow more of a line of dirt bikes, skis and golf clubs than they will the B200 vs H100. I'm just about to post a long blog post (cringe) on this exact topic where I delineate Moore's Law from the rest of technology. In...

I have a lot of respect for Dave. He cracked open up this can of worms and shouldn't have been surprised to get pushback on that statement. Very much to his credit, the Super Deluxe Air is regarded as an excellent product and possibly the most durable shock on the market. I trust it, it's what I run. " What I find even more interesting are all the internet trends getting driven by a small vocal group of people, sometimes with merit, other times as snake oil. The power of placebo is a helluva drug, and we certainly tend to...

If you are new, Just ride the thing first.

Italian suspension specialist EXT has been on a roll recently, introducing new products and updating existing models regularly. The Storia (enduro) and Arma (DH) coil shocks have now been given a complete overhaul, with plenty of new features added and further construction improvements implemented. We’ve had the Storia V4 on a test bike for a few weeks now, keep reading to learn all about the changes and find out what we think of it on the trail. EXT Storia V4 Highlights PSR (Position Sensitive Rebound) - hydraulic top-out system that eliminates harsh top out and improves sensitivity High and...