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Thanks for all the pre race and post race content. Along with Wyn TV it adds and extra layer of entertainment to the race week

Sam Hill Columbia inside line

This isn't a hill I'm going to die on, but one argument against a time penalty or DQ'ed riders getting points is that having to push back up to enter where you left makes it somewhat self-policing - If a rider knows they went off track and they want points then they have to push back up (I agree this part is lame). I think it does help the optics on the rider when they do miss a pole - if they blow past it people assume they didn't realize it, which is probably the case given the incentives, instead...

I agree that a flat 10 second penalty is the safest bet and easiest thing to administer. You could go down the road of a 5 second for minor and 10 second for major, but that complicates things and adds a layer of subjective to the whole thing. The easier thing to do is 10 seconds for something minor where it's an obvious accidents and that leaves disqualification as the heavy hammer for intentional or egregious course cutting.

agreed. I am never a fan of subjective rulings. I think the 10s per pole would work nicely. Its punitive but not absurd. 10 seconds would have placed Lachie in ~18th. Still gets some points for a great run but penalizes the mistake.

Well that’s gonna end well. UCI- we’ve given rider x a 6.7 sec penalty Rider- no way was that 6.7sec, it was only 0.5 Another rider who gets bumped up- more like 15 My point being how do you allocate a time to each individual case. Maybe if you make the final you’re guaranteed 30th or 15th spot points, and if you or more than one get the current DQ then they just finish joint 30/15. Or, you know, just stay in the poles

This. @sspomer - Bring back Sven's slideshows, that was a real loss.

I’m also enthusiastically waving my hand in the air.

How they are positioned on a piece of paper only impacts the end result if you create the summed vector by tracing a line from the first tail to the last tip. But I’m not tracing lines so it doesn’t matter. There are only four numbers to plug in. It doesn’t necessitate a spread sheet. I’ve thrown countless numbers into it that I’ve listed here before. I can come up with weight distributions and friction values that will give pretty much any weight shift imaginable. There’s no point. This was all to show that with a rearward weight bias it’s...

Now if I put in an initial distribution of 0.78, CG height of 650, wheelbase of 1299, and coefficient of friction of 0.5 I get 0.53… there are four variables. I’m pretty sure we don’t ride around fixed to our bikes in one position. You can get even higher if you go with something actually slippery for friction like 0.2.

I'm so glad I left engineering. Lol. This reminds me of discussions with my old boss who loved analysis and wouldn't leave us alone when we had anything vaguely interesting on the go. Trails have bumps. Bumps give momentary grip. the momentary grip results in a momentary braking force. The momentary braking force results in a momentary decrease in the effective spring rate if you have high AR. So the bike feels softer in the rear which is exactly what you want in the moment when your rear tire hits a bump riding down steep shit. Trails have corners. Even...

On really steep trails I am usually using the middle brake. Common for BMX riders, this brake works will but it wears out shoes not pads.

I'm a big believer in climate change, but the main climate impact of the World Cup circuit isn't plastic course tape. And how many rolls of course tape does it even take to tape off the track? Ten, maybe? Definitely less than 20, even if you're taping all the B-zones, too. There's more petroleum in the tires that get used in a weekend. Getting rid of course tape feels like a charade to make it look like someone in the organization is thinking about the climate, but its obvious that the climate hasn't factored into any other part of the...

It has little to do with engine braking. Everything to do with grip. Tldr: Front slows you down with large bursts of power, rear keeps your speed in check with longer duration braking events. Don't need data acquisition to try going 20km/h on just about any surface,then using each brake individually and see how fast can you stop. Or ride down in'n'out burger with front only vs rear only. Pretty sure only one of those options is viable. I imagine the reasoning behind big rotor in the back is heat dissipation, as you'll do a lot more braking in the...

Darn, in the middle of arguably, his best competitive season. Bummer. I'm guessing that the summer "break", for a WC pro, is basically 4 weeks of watching your very talented non-racer friends have fun at Whistler while you make sure not to injure yourself. 👆 ...which is obviously, not easy to do.

Continental has extended its grippiest compounds—Soft and SuperSoft—to its gravity tire line. This includes the Argotal, Kryptotal Front, Kryptotal Rear, and Xynotal models in 27.5- and 29-inch. Many riders have long requested softer rubber options for Continental’s trail and enduro casings. They’ve introduced a few options over the years, but this latest change should give you every casing/compound combo you could want. Pricing: Enduro SuperSoft RRP: €86.95 / £74.99 / USD $104.95 Trail Soft RRP: €73.95 / £63.99 / USD $88.95 N ew tire options: Xynotal 27.5” Xynotal Enduro SuperSoft 29” Xynotal Enduro SuperSoft 27.5” Xynotal Trail Soft 29” Xynotal...

Cannondale’s Bad Habit is one of those bikes that sells the do-everything experience. It’s an enduro race bike. It’s an all-mountain adventure vessel. It's playful enough to rip a bike park. It’s ready to go for an all-day pedal. I generally appreciate bikes like this because if you can afford only one bike to serve most use cases, it’s often money well spent. However, striving to maximize versatility can lead to mediocrity. That’s the line bikes like the Bad Habit walk. When the bike launched , it caught my attention because it was spec'd like an enduro bike (minus...

One thing missing here is the fact that with the proliferation of composite know how, there are more people around able to safely repair a wider range of issues. Rather than pretending we are recycling carbon bikes I’d love to see more frames designed in ways that facilitate repair. Repair is verifiable in a way that recycling is not, it is cost effective for everyone concerned, and it is as close as you’ll get to good for the environment. It probably flows on to other design decisions to ensure repair is viable (like bearing placement, etc etc), but designing bikes...