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I see Zink talk pop up every two years or so and I always hold my tongue, but this time I just want to put my experience with him out there because I’d bet I’ve interacted with him more than 90% of the people on here. I second your experience. I grew up outside of Reno and have bought 3 frames from Zink and ridden/dug at the local trails a few times with him. He is a great guy. I’ve had in depth discussions with him about previous frame sponsors (first bike I bought from him was in 2011 and...

I agree. If you're new, I would recommend a "replace it when you destroy it" mentality for upgrades instead of a "upgrade now for performance gains" mentality. New riders are typically hard on equipment and in the process of riding your first modern mountain bike you'll learn a lot about which sort of parts you like, want, or need. There are a dizzying amount of options for any MTB part, and the longer you ride before you buy something, the more you'll know. As others have said, either of those bikes should be great for you right out of the...

I should have been a bit more clear- I think the new stumpy that’s coming out is going to be fine if it has a yoke. The new shocks are tougher too- all brands. Older designs (bikes and shocks) are more fragile for sure. Monarchs were/are super fragile and had a high warranty rate. I think that is fairly well known. Keep complaining- some companies read this stuff!

If your on a budget dont worry about upgrading anything right away on these 2 bikes. Think of each part having a health bar, vital test rider will rapidly delete bar, you riding prob wont move it. This a very dumbed down reply. I have my own strong opinions people may or may not agree on hub,casing,stack,bb height, brakes etc.etc. But it can be a bit much, thats why just get out and ride is usually the best answer. My 2021 Marin wheelset with vee tires has been great, with some love from a cheap spoke wrench 11spd,27.5, Tubed, wirebead...

It is super cool that you can literally retrofit 80% of the new tech into the 23-24 stuff!

I’ve always understood less damping = more tire traction at the cost of chassis control, bottoming out etc. always within reason of course- a pogo stick will bounce off the ground and lose traction. The race tech suspension bible had some good graphic representation of that.

I really like the current AXS post head setup. When I service my AXS seatposts, I know that when I put the saddle back on, they will be at exactly the same angle that they were at before I removed the saddle.

You're right. I ended up DMing one of their sponsored riders and they confirmed it's a new one on the way. About time too.

the rat boy rip is so good! and have the roots always looked this gross?? holy cow!

Doesn’t seem like it killed his spirit one bit, that’s a pretty mature way to handle it for such a young guy.

Commentary was a treat this round. Having Gwin is such a godsend because he understands that Finn's epic split means EVERY rider (even Loic) is 'losing time in that section'. And it's not really an indicator of each rider 'slowing down'. Finn just had an amazing split so no need to freak out every single run after. Ric would have been gain popping the mic every rider afterwards at the same split...

sven just confirmed same and added "he was running a gopro, so we'll see on footage what happened." this could very easily be the loss of an overall win. asa wouldn't have won the race, but would have easily earned some points if he finished his run at that pace he was at during the red flag.

I dunno,still looks like a SRAM mechanical shifter to me.