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I'm not the biggest or the fastest, but I think I'm a decent helping of both. I'm certainly hard on products. Haven't ridden a Chris King rear wheel in a while, but when I did, I the rear hub would develop a small amount of play once or twice a year. Never had front hub play. [You probably know this, but] part of the reason King hubs develop play over time is that they're designed to. King hubs run a hybrid cartridge/loose ball angular contact bearing design, and a slightly softer and more durable material on the cups and cones...

My 2020 Norco Optic looking great still with all these new short travel bikes...

Guy with "middle eastern" background here, lets go back to mtb rumors...

Sometimes I get nevegal vibes riding Assegai. Call me crazy, I still buy DHF’s ….

Yeah, safely walkable and bikeable cities sound like great places to live to me. Regarding the backlash against the 15min cities, I think a big part of it had to do with the implication that people's ability to travel outside of that 15min radius would be restricted. Sort of a, "I'm sorry Comrade, but you have not earned sufficient social credits to receive a travel waiver" vibe. I have never dug into the topic deeply enough to see if that was a total fabrication, or if it had some basis in fact that was then overblown by opponents. From seeing...

In those specific instances as people have said, polishing and anodizing multiple colors vs. bead blasted black. More steps=more money. It can also come down to steps you can't even see. 3d vs. 2d forging. full CNC, just adding a machining pass pre or post ano, etc. Laser graphics vs. decal. All these little steps add up on the price of anything. They can be integral to getting what you want out a product, and are never actually seen. Plays into that damper discussion as well. Bars are another thing where unseen tech can play into the price of a...

Fixed

Fixed it for you

I love my Santa Cruz Bullit ebike, but under California law, specialized is now making mopeds, not ebikes. I agree with Hans. It's disappoint to see Specialized disregard existing ebike laws and try to compete with DJI for the highest power boomer scooter. 750w is a reasonable limit for ebikes. Let's let ebike be ebikes, not mopeds or emotos.

from Hans Rey about ebike development Link: https://hansrey.com/blog/ An Open Letter to the Bicycle Industry By Hans Rey To the leaders, builders, advocates, and riders who shape our industry, I’m writing because I care deeply about where bicycles—and electric bicycles—are headed. We are at a crossroads. The decisions we make about language, power limits, and definitions will determine whether Class 1 e-bikes remain accepted as bicycles—or get grouped with much more powerful machines that don’t belong in the same category. It’s time to define our language and it’s time to draw a line in the sand of when e-bikes become...

Here's a rough idea. I'm sure there are some details missing, and despite my best efforts, this rabbit hole has some twists. So you have Mark Hancock, co-founder of PACS Group, owner of 323 skilled nursing facilities in 17 states. Current net worth estimated at $2.4 billion. PACS went public on the NYSE in 2024 at $21/share, currently at ~$36.50, and Hancock reportedly still holds 35%. The chart, since IPO had some wild moments, but seems to be back on track. Obviously, a very successful entrepreneur at this stage. In April of 2024, Hancock's own PV3 Investments (later PV3 Enterprises)...

And that's the issue with being a bike nerd in western canada. I value descending performance over most other metrics, and like a bit of character to my bikes. Couldn't care less about road or gravel bikes. Specialized "specializes" in bikes that appeal to the weekend warrior that will be dropping the kids off at soccer first. So darn vanilla that you'll fall asleep reading the geo/spec chart. And I'm not talking about the advertising, I'm talking about the bikes. Ride a forbidden druid v2 and a sj15 back to back. The difference is stark. The levo 4 was a...

Wait a sec… tariffs are taxes paid by US importers and will eventually be passed on to the end consumer in the form of higher prices? Get outta here with that nonsense!

So something to note on pricing that is coming through. and this is not meant to be a political post. but the new steel tariffs HIGHLY affect bike prices. ESPECIALLY e-bikes. basically all the bike companies have to figure out the percentage of steel in a bike (HS, bearings, cassette, motors) and then that times the pricing of the bike etc. And these are not cheap... like some bikes increasing close to $1k just on tariff prices.... (cross posted to bike economics thread)

We'll see how the dust settles, but currently the situation is worse. Trump responded by doubling down and increasing baseline global tariffs from 10-15% and re-introduced even more confusion and uncertainty where this will all land.

Looks like a product that disappeared 20-ish years ago, and now it’s back.

I don't really understand the arms race in wattage. Current battery energy density limits me to riding in trail mode in order to obtain any reasonable range on my rides. It doesn't do me any good to have 1000w available if I'm only ever riding in the 500w mode to conserve battery life. To me, this just increases the threat of ebike bans where relationships are already strained on many trail networks. It's somewhat expected to see DJI not giving a fuck about US regulations when there are surrons flying all over city streets illegally, but I would have thought...