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Dampening https://merch.vitalmedianet.com/products/dampening-all-wet-t-shirt

The VitalForum Law: Given sufficient length all threads descend into tech talk...regardless of the orignal purpose of the thread.

Atherton's aluminum bikes.

Commencal

And Giant. Not (usually) in a raw finish, but their trail & enduro lines are pretty much always available in both carbon & aluminum.

I call it aluminium too but I don't feel like I need to "correct" people about it. It started out as Alumium but then was later named Aluminum by the guy that first worked on isolating the element, and the name was based on "Alumina" which had been in use for a long time to describe the naturally occuring aluminium salts. Aluminium came after, made up by some random british people, and is pronounced completely differently to the root word. Remind me again which one is more correct...?

Racers have crashed on short stems because they haven't used them with long chainstays. If you feel more comfortable on a 42,5mm stem then stick with that. I've tested -10, 10, 17 and 20mm in the last decade and I've settled on 20mm. My bike has 474mm chainstays and I have loads of front end grip.

dammit i hate when someone else gets the last word in the Big Thread 😩

I don't want to upset the vital overloards and post the direct link but its from the interview of spec moving their MTB Product team to Auburn.

Havnt watched 4x in a while, that shit is rapid fire! Crankworks could take a note, I dont need rider bios or how much air Bas is putting in his minion ss tires. Just show me racing!

Clip-ons direct to the stanchions! Side note - Is this the future of elite DH 🎮🎮🎮?

Amazing how there are so many people who come to a tech and innovation thread to complain that bikes have changed in 15 years. “WHAT? ANOTHER INNOVATION? HELL NO NOT ON MY WATCH, BROTHER.” “WHAT THE HECK? BIEKS ARE GETTIN EVEN MORE CAPABLE AND FUN TO RIDE? I NEED TO POST MY OPPOSITION TO THIS MALARKEY.” Edit to add: it’s also a really wild take to say that bikes peaked in 2012. I personally think it’s a wild take to say that bikes are peak right now. They just keep getting better!

Those frames were made of paper, that's why that bike weighed 30lbs, I've seen more of those frames cracked on the downtube at the BB junction than any other frame ever, Yeti was good with the warranty but that was by far from a "burly" bike. My 2014 slash weights 30lbs, thankfully its carbon, as its been repaired more times than I would like to admit. That Talas fork was a boat anchor, with the tapered steerer it weighed 2.9kg, my 180mm RFX38m.2 weights 2.3kg, lighter than the straight steerer 36 talas which was 2.45kg. Bikes from that era either...

Your onto something, but I just refuse to believe that someone wearing an all white kit, googles and half shelf, with a hip pack, on a DH bikes, knows much of fuck all. Jokes and fashion aside, Rulezman is a knowledgeable dude, and I appreciate what he brings to the sport, but this is just totally unnecessary. The absolute best way to measure sag, is to use a telemetry system like BYB and look at dynamic ride height. Second to that, seated on level ground, cos its free and repeatable, and tune from there.

A lot of good thoughts here, but just to play devil's advocate, have we considered the possibility that he's right and we're all stupid and everyone in the bike industry has collectively been doing it wrong for 30-40 years and he alone can tell us the answer and it requires buying this expensive new product from his webstore? I mean at least consider it, is what I'm saying.

No, we haven’t been measuring sag wrong. Any method of measuring sag that is repeatable is an acceptable way to measure sag. As it is something that must be tuned as opposed to setting to a specific percentage, being able to repeatably measure sag is the most important thing. You can do this seated and measuring at the shock just fine. If someone wants to measure it with a whole bunch of kit that’s fine, but telling everyone they are wrong and do it wrong is silly. It is definitely worth noting that on more progressive bikes you shouldn’t be...

There are most definitely more issues. There is a change in LAW and regulation moving forward of the EU using Eitas system more accurately tracking visitors days. (no more hoping the border agent gives up counting all your days with the multitude of entry/exit stamps in your passport. There is a change with having more World Cups in this calendar year. There is a change this year in scheduling in having more "inconvenient" (from a travel logistics perspective) one week gaps. There is a change in the level of professionalism and pressure in results from the top World Series teams...

So it's the same for Europeans who come to the US, except there's very few world series races in the US so that point has zero relevance? And nothing has changed except for more races in Europe which require people to be there longer and now have to deal with this time limit? Got it.

Not true, I've got a murmur and it climbs great. Progressive not regressive.

Specialized and Canyon have added a connecting rod or horst joint, call it what you want but they are copying Ancillotti's PullShock system. And it seems to work considering the results