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I think it's a modification to be able to run a 27,5 wheel in a 29er rear triangle. As the wheel is smaller, the axle needs to be lower to keep the geometry of the bike. Thus this thingamadood to lower the axle position. I guess it's two aluminium blocks anchored in the (elongated on the V10) dropout hole to prevent rotation and bolted together as much as possible.

I wouldn't be surprised if a 32" rear wheeled bike would need an ochain (or an idler enabled "high pivot" design) at much lower travel numbers than what we are used to. Antisquat is a function of pivot height vs. rear axle and chain growth. The more AS you get from the pivot height, the less you need from the chain itself. As we moved from 26" wheels towards 29" wheels, the effective pivot height was dropping as the main pivot still needs to be in the vicinity of the BB for everything to work more or less normally. The...

Why would a thicker rotor reduce lever travel? That is not how brake calipers work.

I'm 6'2" and voted too short I don't want either of these.

Quoting measurements to 0.01mm on an aluminium mountain bike frame; they are very very over confident in the manufacturing capability of the factory.

Most of you probably won't like hearing this. I certainly didn't. Earlier this week I had a chat with a guy who works in a product management role for Ralf Bohle GmbH, which is the owner of the Schwalbe tire brand. Mainly I asked a bunch of XC racing related questions, about compounds, casings, radial ply, rolling resistance testing, wheter we'll ever see the speediest XC casing with a black sidewall and why they felt they needed to change their naming scheme for casings and compounds. The gist of it is that they are hard at work behind the scenes...

Specialized Production Demo Hiding in plain sight was presumably the production version of the new Demo. It was placed directly next to a prototype frame, and while no specific details were provided, it can be assumed that the bike will be going to market very soon. Some things that stood out from staring at the bike for 5 minutes: Head tube fits different cups, likely to change head angle and/or reach There is a flip chip in the lower shock mount, and the forward-most pivot The bottom of the bike is going to be left completely open like the bike...

Damn. I don't know what it is about those Hope bikes but they always look so sick. Even the previous gen short travel bike (HB 130) with the swoopy top tube...I just think their stuff seems awesome. Plus, I'm always down to support a brand that supports Joe Barnes!

The tread pattern on the Delrium Versatile looks like one of the better 2:2:2s out there. Wow. (Appears to be great land:sea ratio and knob size).

The Shredline Eden. Full details coming next week. I'll try to answer questions each evening as I'm at the show and have zero service there. If you are at the show stop by EXT, Spank or Gates to see one or find us walking around. This variant is set up at 164mm rear (170 front) using a 230x60 stroke. The Eden can be set up in six different travel modes, two wheel sizes and high/low settings.

I thought that Frameworks bike was some whacky trail bike at first. Then i zoomed in and got stink face.

Michelin still make the Wild Enduro rear that is pretty close to being a semi-slick in a tough casing.