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That 5010 frame doesn't last 20 years because of one rock flipped up off your front tire into the DT. It's a plastic bike, designed to be light and disposable. And, if a point impact scenario doesn't (likely) kill it, it will be unable to be updated because of "standards" or SC will no longer have a front or rear triangle to match and you will have to start over. Ask me how I know. I wish SC continued with their metal version bikes.

Probably with an element of "why would I buy this Horst link PON bike when that Horst link PON bike is much cheaper?"

you can see why GT had to go, there would be no real point having two brands making near identical designs.

That’s why you don’t buy transitions and buy Santa Cruz lol

Well, I guess I’d love to ride the new Tallboy and then decide, how the move to a new system tastes. The best feature imho of the VPP with a solid rear triangle was that all bearings were located in the rocker. Changing them was a breeze and there was no risk of damaging the carbon frame in the process. I tend to ride my bikes as long as possible, since they became so great. (swapped annually when I used to work in a bike shop, industry deals etc, and geometry was still shitty and new bikes sometimes brought revelatory...

Where are we at with the GT frames conspiracy for some of the SC bikes? I like that one. Tallboy providing some more material for the believers.

Whichever bike has the best damper tune specced probably wins at that point. I'm pretty sure that's a big deciding factor between bikes with different linkage designs also though. You would need control wheels, and tires at a minimum, and probably drivetrain also to get any useful data about which frame works better.

Loooks like a prooooocess eh

I’d love to see a shoot out of trail bikes using the same linkage designs. It would really interesting to start to dig a bit deeper as to what sets them apart - quality control, kinematics, maintenance, etc etc.

Remember the good old days when we talked about bikes on here?

Who's going to run Frog Wake brakes on their Guard Dog 2? C'mon, you know you want to! https://www.vitalmtb.com/features/shanghai-bike-show-2026.

Where can I buy these frames? Many of them look fantastic.

Wouldnt that weigh an obscene amount and make the wheel weird on any speeds? My moneys on lightweight stem protection I mean, it just looks like it's a cushcore or similar foamy stuff just wedged between the spokes to protect the valve stem:

Yes. Twice this summer. Easy peasy I chose to then have mine built in shop as I was on a long trip during both and needed help(didn’t utilize credit as I have custom wheelsets) Reserve is easy and great to deal with

I sent Santa Cruz a pic of a damaged rim and Santa Cruz sent me a new rim. Yes.

I think Daks been on the YOSHIMURA prototypes all season