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As many of you know, I had been working on a Strava alternative that I planned to launch this spring. Unfortunately, I had to put it on pause. It’s still something I want to build, but after digging in further, I became less convinced it could pay my bills anytime soon. And realistically, raising outside capital for a non-AI consumer product with Strava as the entrenched incumbent felt close to impossible. The good news is that the amount of capital required is probably far lower now than it would have been even a year ago. Frontier models have made product...

This is something I deal with and think about constantly. In many cases, demand forecasting is still based on little more than last year’s performance plus vibes. And yet, getting it right can be the difference between success and failure, sometimes even bankruptcy. I’ve long thought about trying to bootstrap a feedback loop by surveying hundreds (ideally, thousands) of bike shops anonymously to better understand what is happening at the consumer level. I probably don’t need to say this, but as powerful as that could be, it comes with a lot of near-term pitfalls. Getting broad shop buy-in is hard...

The "multiplier effect" is an economic fallacy. "Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed."

One bubble counter argument to the multiplier effect, defense spending makes stable manufacturing companies that have some free time on the machines that can then be used to make bike components by the enthusiasts working there (5DEV) 😁

The point about defence spending having a positive affect on the rest of the economy- in my lectures this was talked about using the concept of the multiplier effect. This is the idea that if someone, ie the state, spends £1 on something then it increases national GDP by some amount because that’s been spent at a local supplier, who then pays wages, their employees go to the local butcher, who buys from the local farmer, etc etc. The issue with defence spending is it has a comparatively poor multiplier effect vs other forms of government spending. If I spend...

A properly supported Angel on a winning bike is someone who has been able cross the line in the green in the past. Angels had some rough luck over the years with weird team dynamics, teams folding, and injury. I'd love to see 2-3 seasons of that guy healthy and supported.

We first met Pau at Sea Otter in 2025, where he showed us the early prototype of the Rockintor protective vest. We're stoked to see him push through and make his vision a reality today: https://www.vitalmtb.com/news/press-release/introducing-rockintor-airvo….

I've been riding XT Di2 for the past 5 months and that hasn't been my experience. Zero dropped chains and I just run an upper guide (always have). Shifts flawlessly. As far as chain slap noise it seems to be heavily dependent on the bike and what kind of chainstay protection it has, my HD6 is fine. Even the most vocal critics (Pinkbike tech editors) have noted that it varies from bike to bike. Not trying to convince anyone that they need to buy it, just relating my personal experience.

Yesterday I spoke with a guy who rode a couple of EDRs and would always ride xtr mech since forever but he was on a sram. He said not only the chain slap was unbearable on the new di2 xtr but he would also drop chains pretty much daily, to the extend the top of his crank which cought the chain became all scratched... The shifting was absolutely amazing but the reliability is horrible and he also noticed shimano sponsored enduro pros would run full dh chain tensioners or STFUs just to keep the chain on, which is mindboggling how...

As someone who, for 20+ years, got at least 1 new bike every year, I haven’t purchased a new bike in almost 3 years. I feel like 90% of bikes in the last 5 or so years have been great. So much so, that I’m actually considering buying the last gen Norco Optic as my next trail bike. Coming into 2026 I was convinced I would get a “New” full suspension frame this year. While I’m sure I’d be happy with the new Tallboy, Reya, or Ranger, it’s hard to justify the $$$$ for a new frame when I can...

I think it was discussed earlier; iirc it was due to already thin margins being squeezed further by tariffs, crowded market segment, the contraction in the bike industry and a desire to get back to their core business...

Does anyone know why spesh got out of soft goods? They were great value and very popular and I wish they kept at it.Even if selling tech apparel is not sunshine, rainbows and 80% margins, they had to be making some money while keeping me happy.

In my business making ski trail grooming equipment we have to comply with an act called the Buy American Act because we sell to the Forest Service a lot. It's like the Berry Amendment but it details purchasing guidelines for federal agencies or organizations using federal money that aren't the military. Congress has a challenge to write a laws that are broad enough to have impact while being specific enough to influence business practices. At the same time my business is strongly influenced by the Buy American Act when the verbiage of the law seems focused on larger projects like...

I have a friend who works high up at one of the big five Defense firms and he said his firm is under increasing pressure from the DOD for all of their products, components, required maintenance parts and supplies, and the rest of the supply chain to come from within the US, so as not to be dependent on or beholden to foreign manufacturing, especially in regards to potential geopolitical adversaries. To be clear, they aren't able to meet 100% of their needs entirely within the US, but the planes he was talking about featured a shockingly high proportion of...

RE: Magnets - something I broadly agree with you on. (china owns the market) As to the future, I know the American Dynamism team at a16z, along with other VCs, has been circling this general problem: rebuilding domestic capacity around critical minerals, magnets, motors, defense supply chains, and industrial manufacturing. A16z wrote directly about the critical minerals side last year in It’s Time to Mine (linked below), and you’re also seeing magnet-specific startups going after the downstream bottleneck. Vulcan Elements, for example, announced a $1B rare earth magnet facility in North Carolina, partly backed by the Pentagon. I know y'all...

"Is the state of manufacturing in the US really that bad that a company, backed by the most important VC firm achieving 30 million motors per year is an achievement?" I'm not in a great position to comment on the annual global production of drone motors, but I can tell you that yes, the state of manufacturing in the US is pretty bleak. By one measure, China's manufacturing sector accounts for roughly 26% of their GDP, Japan is at 25%, Germany is 18%, but in the US that share is only 9% of GDP and continuing to trend downward annually...

I've always maintained that if you had to pay for your Gopro, I don't want to see your shit.

Here's a crazy stat: now that Luca's won a race, there are at least 20 active senior men's racers (editor's note: 21) who've won at least one World Cup DH round. Could me more, so please let me know if I missed anyone. That's a pretty competitive field. In no particular order: Andreas Kolb Benoit Coulanges Troy Brosnan (3) Aaron Gwin (20) Luca Shaw Amaury Pierron (13) Asa Vermette Loic Bruni (12) Danny Hart (4) Loris Vergier (7?) Lucas Meier-Smith Finn Iles Jordan Williams Martin Maes Thibaut Daprela (2) Jordan Goldstone (7) Remi Thirion Reece Wilson Oisin O’Callaghan Matt Walker...

The Pope reads Vitalmtb forums confirmed

I meet lots of younger folk thru work. I think most older folk would be astounded by the number of kids who see far less media (social and otherwise) than your average millennial/ gen xer