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I have two sets of Reserve wheels with DEG DF hubs. One carbon frysauce and one AL SL. One is on my 180/170 Madonna with the 20 degree setting and one is on my 160/140 Trek Fuel EX in 10 degree setting. I have also had OChain on the Madonna so I can compare the two. Climbing: DF in 20 degree setting has a LOT of free play and it very odd when trying to rachet pedals especially in bigger cassette gears. The free play has no resistance and can be compared to having one of their 18T rachets with...

@sprungmass pretty much nailed it. I have 2 bikes in my rotation that have ochains and just recently tried a deg-df kit in the only deg dt350 hub I have in my families fleet of bikes. The degdf kit is 90% as good imo. I prefer the ochain over the degdf, but the ochain is a pain, maintenance heavy, physically heavy, has chainring limitations etc etc. As is noted, the deg-df will bottom out with a hard clank in certain situations. In practice, this only happens rarely and 9/10, it happens because the user is pedaling squares like a muppet...

Other than the engagement feel, really can't a difference between both when it comes to descending. They both mitigate pedal kickback and let your suspension work more freely. If you have a DEG hub then get the DF kit. If you are in the market for a new wheelset with DEG DF then Reserve wheels is a killer cost effective option. If you already have a solid wheelset then get OChain. Also if you like to run a smaller <30T chain ring on a big heavy enduro bike then DT/e13 sidekick are really the only options. Lastly, servicing OChain is...

Since it is my 40th birthday today, I may just order the that frame if it’s available tomorrow.

More Reya pics if anyone is interested. I reckon vital editors have them too, but they can’t post them. Source

You're an amateur. I carry a ton of tools, but every other year or so something goes so horribly wrong I STILL have to walk back to the car. Bikes are pretty good though. My proudest trailside repair was actually roadside...blew a shifter cable 40 miles from home on a cold February day on my gravel bike. I had an extra cable in my little revelate gas tank bag. Fixed it, rode home.

Hot take but I hope the Forbidden bike doesn’t have internal storage. I’ve never owned a bike with internal storage. Also never carry ANY tools with me (I don’t really go on huge rides) I probably have to walk back to the car once every couple of years. Bikes are pretty good these days. Im biased but I don’t get too turned on by internal storage. Anyways, would a XC/DC bike be the perfect candidate for internal storage or nah? The whole point is to be light. Seems like skipping it would mean a lighter bike, easier to manufacture, less...

Winner is whoever has the least amount of loctite on the main pivot bolt.

I hope Vital is doing a no holds barred Cascadia downcountry grudge match between the Spur v2 and Reya.

Hey man, Charlie and company were selling IMBA SUCKS stickers and captioning videos of people smoothing concrete driveways and building slabs with smarmy comments like "IMBA trail crew building another sanctioned tech trail" like 12-15 years ago, which predates groad bikes and eebs by a solid 8 years or so. Core riders have been complaining about the proliferation of blue flow trails for at least 15 years now, but I guess the boogeyman has changed from IMBA to.... gravel bikes and 32 inch wheeled mountain bikes? If anything I can see the adoption of 32 inch bikes leading to another...

thank you for posting this. I did my 3 of my 4 weeks of testing the 9.1 with a dt350 front hub and standard end caps. The last week, I used a i9 1/1 hub and standard end caps. The 1/1 hub was noticeably better in terms of front end accuracy, specifically in situations where I was doing very large rock rolls into fully loaded 90 degree catch berms. I have to admit, after riding the podium for a month I really want to re-visit the 9.1 with a chris king front hub or a i9 hydra with torque caps...

Flame me if you’d like, but 32” wheels is one of the few things that has me excited for a new bike. There are so many amazing full suspension bikes now ,and geometry, for whatever discipline, have pretty much leveled out. As someone that rides my Singlespeed as much or more than my FS, I’m excited to build up a rigid Singlespeed 32er. My local trails are fairly mellow and as I get older I appreciate momentum and keeping a higher average pace over “shredding the gnar!”

It is refreshing to see a short travel bike without flex stays. This would be top of my list of I was looking for a full suspension down country bike.

My 2020 Norco Optic looking great still with all these new short travel bikes...

This is probably more relevant for the main tech rumors thread, which has evolved into pretty much just the stream of consciousness for us vitalers regardless of topic, but what if we had a bot that counted comments, and once a specific topic gets more than 5 comments in a 24 hour period it auot-comments and suggests a new topic for it?

The first prototypes were very exciting, but definitely didn't look like something that could command much money! The first pic is an example of one of the early prototypes that didn't look very good, and didn't work well either! The second pic is a later-generation prototype where I definitely started to say out loud, "Damn, this thing looks sick!". Even at this stage, we didn't have a full understanding of the costs, as we were still trying to get a certain level of performance out of it and weren't there yet.

Stay tuned for updates to the TC. It works better on the front of the bike now.

The Shredda's can definitely be seen as overkill, but so are coil shocks on trail bikes. It dosen't mean there aren't benefits to such upgrades. We are in a era where some riders obsess over weight, and some care very little about an extra 200g if it means they have more grip/confidence on the downs. Good thing there are options for both user groups! My personal experience on Druid V2: Shredda Rear on the front (Tacky Chan rear) is a insanely fun combo especailly on Black Natural Trails. With summer coming, I will be changing to something faster rolling on...

Completely agree. I have ridden and raced the eddy current front quite a bit in 2.6 and 2.4. I found much better loose over hard performance and more predictable behavior than the magic mary in corners. Way better wet rock and root performance too with the large center blocks. I think in my experience I would put it somewhere between the assegai and the DHF in terms of feel. Which is a good thing. That being said the radial version of the magic mary has grown on me and somewhat replaced the eddy current as my preference for PNW winter...