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I don't remember which vid it was, but in one of Cathro's "Learn to Bike" episodes he says something like "ok, so today we're going to move away from the fundamental stuff and talk about the secret skills that get you to the World Cup level ... (psst... there are no secrets... World Cup riders are just REALLY good at the fundamentals...) "

JasBushey, I'm gonna push back a little on the "cone drills or ladders aren't worth my money" thing. The one-on-one Fluidride clinic I attended with Simon that drastically improved my pro downhill racing skills (I'd already attended one or two world cup races at this point) was largely cones on a gravel road. I don't want to give away too much of Simon's secret recipe here, but I distinctly remember thinking "this is the dumbest thing ever" at the start of the clinic and then being totally humbled within 5 minutes. And again, we were at Duthie Hill which has...

I paid a decent chunk of change on an “advanced” riders skill course. I was 1000% disappointed. This was a group setting and we spent most of the day doing beginner skill drills because almost all of the riders in this group were beginners who “thought” they were advanced. It was a total DISAPPOINTMENT. If you’re looking for serious coaching don’t go with Ninja Skills or whatever their name is. Big waste of money

I decided to invest in weed and earthed videos, seems to work for me.

This is where the coaching / student dynamic gets interesting. There are some incredible teachers / coaches out there, and there are also lots of lousy ones. I think most would agree with that. What I've noticed most people don't recognize - and I'm not suggesting at all that this is you, Remymac - is that there are both incredible AND lousy students. I don't mean they aren't good at whatever they're trying to improve on. I mean they are literally bad at being a student. Even the best coaches won't make much progress on bad students. But a mediocre...

I haven't actually tried the 612 brakes, I was very close but ultimately decided I there just wasn't enough info out there. I listened to some podcasts and interviews with the founder/owner of 612, I got the feeling they are basically a re-sculpted Maxima. He aimed for the same leverage, piston sizes, and mc sizes as the Maxima and ran with that on the 612s. They are obviously aesthetically very different and I'm sure they are functionally a bit different, but I gather not by much. I could be wrong. You can select hose types/material, they use Hope pads, mineral...

I'm not sure this is something to be proud about.........

Agree, and (at least in my memory) every separation from a brand has been, if not not acrimonious, very sudden-seeming and w/out any of the "thanks for the support, time for new things" acknowledgments that usually accompany them. Might just be a personal style thing (and I'm happy to be corrected if I'm wrong) but people notice stuff that like that.

All the best to Zink, but doesn't that post sound like he's just throwing shade at all the brands he's worked with in the past? As if they were not "what he was looking for". Or am I reading into this too much? Someone like Gwin would thank the brand they last worked with and move on...

Here are my non-scientific results! Frozen Tire Durometer Test Details: Used IRC Tanken treated with hot laps tire treatment(Applied months ago) Used durometer hardness tester Type “A” Temperatures taken with infrared digital thermometer Tire Temp: 58f in garage Durometer rating: 56-61 Put tire in sun for 1 hour; Tire Temp: 110f in sun Durometer rating: 55-58 Put tire in freezer for 5hours; Tire Temp: 13f Durometer rating: 65 Tire after frozen but at room temp; Tire Temp: 68f (room temp indoors) Durometer rating: 58-60 In Garage after frozen Tire Temp: 59f Durometer rating: 58-60 Other ratings for comparison (Temp 58f-60f)...

Those are all very good points and I mostly agree, especially on the proliferation of bro-science from a lot of places. However I would still prefer to see more people at least attempting to continue testing products in a more scientific way so I don't really want to discourage that! The reason I do agree with you though is that science is boring as hell for most people. You will need to repeat the test over and over again and still not have an outcome. You spend hours, days, weeks on something and be completely wrong. You will discover that...

I wonder if I'm not a nerd, because I find myself for the most part pushing back against mtb culture's urge to create content or distinguish brands by quantifying whatever interested parties can get their little calipers on. But in the hope of providing something constructive, my "I work in a lab but unfortunately not a tire-testing lab" perspective starts with this. 1) Has someone already tackled the hardest problems (deciding just what to measure, figuring out how to do it)? It's enough work adapting a well-designed test from one context to another without losing what makes it valid; starting...

I've been using the newer Specialized Cannibals as front tires for the past year or so. Actually really impressed with the Cannibal as it has unreal grip in most situations and generally seems to wear pretty slowly when compared to a Maxxis max grip. The casing of that tire is way stiffer than their other tires or even Maxxis DH casing. I started with a butcher T9 gravity out back and moved to a dissector max grip DH when that wore out. Currently on a Conti Xynotal soft DH paired with the Cannibal up front and seems to work pretty...

Someone with a durometer should: 1) buy some MaxxGrips 2) test hardness 3) throw in freezer/fridge 4) remove/bring to room temperature 5) test hardness The only thing my wife would love more than storing tires in the freezer would be keeping my bike in the living room.

That's the kind of thing I'm working on slowly when I get free time (actually working on the code for reading load cells right now!). Currently thinking of something like towing a fixture behind my car on a dirt road that's just a wheel with a weight on it. A load cell to measure the drag force and probably speed & braking sensors too. Vary the speed, weight and tyre pressure and see how it goes! Maybe accelerometers to measure vibration losses too. Like with that DT rolling resistance test - low pressures roll fast because there isn't energy lost...

Don't know if y'all remember, but Spomer did a quasiscientific-ish lab test of rolling resistance with Maxxis tires, and found that the compound made the biggest difference, but wheel size and casing also impacted rolling speed. Tire test starts at 8:28 and for the love of all that's holy please don't try to explain all the ways this test isn't scientific. Trust me, we ALL know already: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=je1UyJRYhIg

I used to do advertising for one of the major automobile tire companies. Our most aggressive (softest) racing tread compound not only didn't work well when cold but we were told by the engineers that the tires had to be kept above a certain temperature when in storage because if they got too cold they would forever be altered and lose some of their grip.

Basicly every soft/supersoft etc. becomes rock hard in proper winter conditions and start to crack. Been running butcher T9 trail front, butcher T9 gravity rear and now that temperatures are dropping, -10c atm and dropping for next days, its time to change my studded tires on as those specialized tires are losing all their qualities. Happens with all manufacturers, but yeah they are not really made for this weather so its expected.

yep, that's the stuff. We used to use straight MEK (Methyl Ethyl Ketone) and there was a science to it, leave it in too long you have no tyre left, also no fingerprints or brain cells.... that stuff was nasty. I'm embarrassingly into RC Crawling competitions, I've made my own concoction that works well and doesn't give you cancer.

Take a look at RC tyre prep stuff. its called 'tyre sauce' think your Maxxgrip are grippy now... just you wait...