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Conventional wisdom up until a week ago would have said this setup is unrideable and has no place at a World Cup. The fact that they were even in touch with these bikes demonstrates that there are still lots of places to go and things to explore re: bike geometry/fit

I think the "it needs a special frame" part of the equation is, observationally at least correct. Hattie is the smallest on the team and her setup, to my eye looks proportionally the most correct and is also the first time I've seen the RR stem on a bike, including the various test mules on instagram and thought; "Oh, I see what they're actually trying to achieve here". Both of the male riders look like they're riding a Segway with their hands in their armpits.

Absolutely going to feel that if you're not "buying a bike for it". So for me that was highly exaggerated. For Brian it's a bit more interesting because I believe he ran it on a proper bike (along with trying the custom mule). Along with being a much better rider, I expected him to basically utilize it more but also struggle when trying to push. Which makes sense as a mere mortal, it's not like Brian makes 0 mistakes on a normal bike, as well as I'm not sure how long he's committed a specific time period to the stem...

There is merit in it to me. I came from Moto. I would set up my enduro dirtbikes bike with sky high bars and lowered footpegs to give a upright/strong riding position for long days. Coming to mtb I always struggled with the low stack heights. My current bike has relatively high stack, 40mm bars, 30mm spacers under the stem and a 462mm chainstay. I'm as close to riding a dirtbike as I've ever been. I feel "in" the bike now rather than on top of it. That security of been centered between the wheels is confidence inspiring. You utilize...

Not enough data points yet to determine if this is good setup or not. Reece's 2025 WC finishes: 6 missed finals and 22nd place average for the 3 finals he made. His best result came from Lake Placid, a new track that all riders had to puzzle over. What we could infer, is that Reece is a quick learner and can dissect new tracks better than many racers but that, eventually when all the racers catch up and learn the track, his avg race speed is still slower than the top 20. I'm stoked to see the puzzling on the...

"Fashion has taken over mtb, if a bike doesn't look right it's not going to sell." Cycling has been in the fashion business for a long time. Image over substance. Marketing over engineering. Features over benefits. Trendy picks and subjective opinions of a few tastemakers (product managers) setting the course 24-36 months out. Where it has gone in the last 8-10+ years is more "fast fashion," unfortunately. Guess on the trend due to poor data (color, style, etc), over-produce, flood the channels, dump the remaining inventory, rinse and repeat in time for the next season. Artisanal lugged steel, Colnago C-whatever-number-they're-up-to...

First generation Avinox bikes were already a foot-throttle compared to everything else on the market. 1000w+ of output with less than 150w of input is no longer a mountain bike in any meaningful way. Doing a sustained 32km/hr up the Blackcomb access road shouldn't be possible without pro-Tour legs and lungs on you. These bikes are going to be an absolute menace on shared climb trails.