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Saint drivetrain with 12sp chain and no clutch, now a competing UDH standard. (incoming 13sp MTB drivetrain? *eyeroll *) Can Shimano come out with a single new product without a braindead decision? Maybe the new brake rotors but come on that's not interesting or innovative. Also does anyone give a f about Shimano's new brakes? I've yet to see them in the wild, and have seen exactly ONE wireless Shimano drivetrain. Very sad to me because I've always been a Shimano fanboy because they made simple, sensible products. I woke up one day and all of my bikes have been...

My Italian is a little rusty, but it seems this was made using a servo from the RC world, connected to some kind of stroke measuring device on the brake lever blade. The idea being to change the compression settings of the shock under different types of braking events.

System with it apparently available in europe on the Astars site, available in the US by end of year. And the article says downloadable via the app. 'Il sistema Tech-Air® MX con l’algoritmo MTB Downhill è disponibile in Europa sul sito ufficiale Alpinestars e presso i rivenditori autorizzati, con debutto previsto negli Stati Uniti entro la fine dell’anno.' Alpinestars presenta l'algoritmo dedicato al Downhill per il sistema airbag Tech-Air MX | MTB Mag

Shock set up plays a huge roll there. Higher initial leverage ratio doesn't inherently mean it uses travel easier. It might, but it also might not be that different. But yes, if your suspension is less supportive at a given point in travel it will feel softer on a whole with anti-rise forces added in. That's driven by a combination of leverage curve and shock setup.

photo PIT BITS from World Champs https://www.vitalmtb.com/features/pit-bits-2026-world-championships-val…

What do you mean amplify. Weight transfer gives you more grip. It only makes sense to have more braking power (i.e. bigger rotor) in the front. QED: literally every car on the road. If it has a rear weight bias (Porsche for example) or a near 50 50 split, the difference front to rear is smaller, but still present.

Jordan’s bike also has the Push-looking knob, although with damper side on the left like a normal Ohlins fork https://youtu.be/6stLc-C4xik?t=706&is=ELN4aWITAHkqKePl Also at 3:21 in the same video (Pit Bits rules) there is a shot of Troy’s bike with what looks like a 180mm? rotor on the back, with the pads only contacting half the rotor? Is it a meaningless during-the-build shot or something more? Try to verify in the Canyon photos above and the dude is just chilling in front of his back wheel 😂

One big tech not and one small tech note from World Champs pit bits- As y'all mentioned, Schwalbe now makes a 32" Radial Gravity Pro Magic Mary, which is a big deal because that makes it the first truly heavy duty 32" tire from any brand. Previously Neko was running an EXO+ Dissector up front on his 32" Frameworks DH bike at Mountain Creek. He said the EXO+ front tire felt fine and didn't bug him, which is nuts, and makes me suspect that the 32" front wheel could actually feel really really good with a proper DH tread, casing...

While I would love a USD boxxer, its probably a hand dyno for the shock service guys

More likely that he's running the air and damper legs reversed for whatever reason, so the damper is on the right rather than on the left like most stock Ohlins forks. He's run the air and damper legs in the same reversed arrangement pretty much from the beginning, long before they started testing the electronic damper. That interface would be for the servo motor to connect to the damper much like on RS flight attendant. Here's a screenshot from Vital video from 2024: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7XYzOFN2M4Y

Romy 2.5 trail soft looks good. Not that big. Not any taller than an Albert, thats for sure. Excited to try this out in the rear paired with a Tacky Chan trail ultra soft in front. Tacky Chan works great in the rear also, but seemed to wear out a bit quick. I think dual Tacky Chans really is a "race" setup like Schwalbe says.

My two cents on anti-rise... First and foremost, it depends on the trails you are riding. There isn't a universal value that's best on everything. Low angle trails, especially one's where you're trailing the brakes to maintain speed, favor low anti-rise. On the other hand, steep trails and/or trails where you're hard on the brakes favor higher anti-rise. Sure low anti-rise can make for more active suspension, but it's impossible for your suspension to be active at all when it's fully extended. Having the rear go to full extension also really messes up geo usually when you're in a scenario...

This is the topcap of a Charger 3.1 Flight attendant........ Not saying its got RS internals, but the layout is extremely similar

I believe we're looking into the Push Sub-Chamber in that fork. The knob at the top of the Sub-Chamber closes a valve that either shuts off or opens up that air chamber, which results in more or less air spring ramp from the ambient air inside the coil-sprung stanchion. I never took my Sub-Chamber apart while I had the Nine One here (it's back at Push right now for a top secret tune up), but that image looks a lot like Darren's description of how the Sub-Chamber works. Also worth mentioning that it works exactly as promised. It was a...

Having come from riding bikes for the last 5 years with AR values in the 50-55% range, I really, really like that my Vessel out of the box with a floating brake arm, linkage driven single pivot, sits at 70ish AR, and is adjustable in both directions. I don’t know the exact numbers but have been adjusting the link to increase AR, as I feel that there’s a balance to strike depending on the rider and I personally prefer a higher 75-90% AR to settle the bike down. In really steep stuff my Madonna is a little nose heavy, the...

Did somebody already notice Martin Maes' floating brake arm on his Rallon? Don't remember seeing that mentioned, but it caught my eye in the Lawlor G-out video that Spomer just posted. Seen at one minute 15 seconds in. If Martin's on flat pedals, I wonder if that has anything to do with his thinking around anti-rise. The Rallon DH is around 60-65% AR, which is really really low, so if anything this brake arm would likely be designed to give it more anti-rise to make it squat on the brakes. I don't know if high or low AR is better...

Given the talent, the talent in opposition to Hattie, and the hard yards she's done, it's pretty bloody well earned!