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Mondraker Factory Racing went from riding Shimano brakes/drivetrain in 2024, to SRAM brakes/drivetrain in 2025. In the latest B Practice Podcast we asked Dak Norton about how it's been going from Shimano XTR/Saint to SRAM Mavens. It's interesting to hear how even a rider of his caliber has still had to adjust to the power/modulation of Mavens. ** Hope I'm not disrupting the conversation above too much

I am a really big fan of MTX pads, I gave the reds a shot about a year ago. Compared to Shimano resin/metallic and TRP resin/semi metallic: -Bedded in so quickly and easily it was comical. -Never seemed to fade or falter regardless of heat/moisture -Bike sat for over 3 months during the winter, first ride out they felt like when parked (Have had issues with Shimano pads). They are just now at 1mm remaining with over 1,750km's/55,000m of descending on them. There might be more powerful pads available but they just work so damn well I am hard pressed...

Good test! What i also would like to see, is how rough does a trail need to be to make a bigger bike faster/better. Say you have bikes with about 120mm, 140mm and 160mm travel, and 3-4 trails thats are smooth to really rough. And then you time each bike in each trail to see when the bikes reach their limit, and the difference between bikes on different terrain.

Good feedback everyone. I do agree that DD's feel nice, but the sidewall support is more or less the same as EXO+. I'm relieved to find out I'm not crazy. I'm going to continue trying out the DD's with inserts for my ebike, and see if I can get through the year on the reserve AL/HD hoop that I have on it without murdering it. I typically murder 1 ex511/reserve AL-HD per year, so that wouldn't be pretty standard. I think it's time to bite the bullet and just go to DH casing rear tires for my enduro bike and...

watch the video. it's literally explained in detail.

Xynotal Enduro casing > Aggressor DD. The Xynotal continues to blow me away with how versatile a pretty good rolling tire can be. I've done a 40mi XCM race on a DH casing one and even ridden it in the snow with good results. Only thing that could pry it from my rim is a radial Hans Dampf.

@AndehM & @FaahkEet answers to your question in the brake thread. https://www.vitalmtb.com/forums/hub/nerding-out-brakes-shall-we-not-ano…

Appears to be some sort of belted purse.

Tuned mass damper discussion exists here for deeper dives - https://www.vitalmtb.com/forums/hub/tuned-mass-dampers-and-mountain-bik…

It's possible to use them wrong. If you follow the procedure that makes the most of them they're great, quite an improvement over the standard process. If you don't, and take the same kind of approach you would with a brake that doesn't have them then they kinda just get in the way. - Back out crosshair screws - Push on caliper to move it inboard so outer pad is fully in contact with rotor - Tighten down caliper bolts until you just can't move the caliper by hand (not until play is gone, i mean until you are unable...

Can we please keep it to " MTB Tech Rumors and Innovation" please

It's blatantly obvious that Lewis just straight up copies prestigious products with the objective of selling them to people who love the looks/bling factor of the absolute high-end stuff but don't want to pay for it. The structural integrity of the design has nothing to do with it.

can we please stay rumors in here?! i get that these discussions are fun, but also annoying to most who just want to read about new tech/rumors and don‘t want to scroll through pages of off-topic discussions regarding chainstay length/right amount of travel/dropper post insertion/ etc. thx guys!

Quick, someone go check on Canfield...