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While I agree with the wheel availability issue, the reality is, 15mm thru axles should have never been a thing in first place. What did we gain ? 10gr over the from axle ? An additional, weaker standard that doesn't allow us to use our spare wheels on our DH and Enduro bikes. Same goes for 148x12 instead of 150x12 ...

Nice KHS!

It's different.

could be the picture but the angle of the shock looks different. Definitely a different brake mount going on there. And the motor does look smaller. Also, the little knock block under the head tube isn’t there.

UDH Enduro is up on their website since this morning and I'm surprised that Specialized packed a very good value in the two builds & S-Works frameset. Even the entry level Comp build is solid, just need to slap a Charger 3.1 damper in the ZEB Select and you're all set.

AS and AR can be tuned with a single pivot, either use a split pivot like Trek, or use an idler pulley and a floating brake mount. Using those you can achieve pretty much any AR and AS levels and curves. Now this is a hot take but I feel like we are nearing the end of the low AR BS trend as people will realise that it actually doesn't do anything positive for 98% of the riders out there, while high AR make a bike calmer in sketchy situations. If/When this happen, single pivot will definitely get a second...

'Lots of smart people out there' is a great point. Bikes are generally great these days but excel in slightly different use cases, or feel slightly different but the knowledge base seems to have exploded over the past few years and engineers are making the most out of the available platforms. Since bikes are getting so good at what they're designed for, I think demos/testing to develop and understand your subjective preference is becoming more relevant. I've recently rented/demoed a good chunk of modern trail and enduro bikes and it was sick to see what I got along with or...

I prefer the Crab Link. It’s the future obviously. DW spins up designs all the time, and to me they all come across as a good marketing campaign to sell more design. Everything DW is always “better”, and DW is dogmatic that every new product is better than the Crab Link (Horst). Yawn. I like to believe that we’ve finally hit an era in biking where a good design isn’t limited to the patent you hold or the design you licensed. Lots of smart people out there.

Will they still have the terrible customer service and poor parts availability that we grew to love back in their first foray? Time will tell!

yes, although that is new colors, udh and the integrated trunnion spacers in the linkage, so, still same bike. i'd love to see what's next, i feel they could tweak the geo a tad to make it more fresh, cause the bikes ride like nothing else already!

Relating to WAO : back in the day when Evil bikes started making a chainguide and other components, they created the e.thirteen brand to separate that business from their bike line. Probably to mitigate the aftermarket issue WAO is dealing with.

Bold New Graphics

$400 million seems kinda cheap when you consider Rad Power is reportedly worth $1.4 billion.

They said last year in @sspomer 's excellent podcast with the WAO crew, that they were getting out of the frame game because they didn't make much on them once they finished making sure it was perfect. Dustin loved making it and they learned a lot but it wasn't worth continuing and they were doubling down on components.

I think one of the things that's most difficult for consumers, and even inside the bike industry pro-sumers to understand is how difficult and expensive the tolerances are for mountain biking products. This is likely the other big factor in the cost gap and perception gap between moto parts and full vehicle costs (other than the other large one that is economics of scale). Any time you are specifying a tolerances that is tighter then +/- 1mm, things start costing way more, and the amount of suppliers that are capable/willing of taking that on plummet. Beyond that, the amount of...