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This is all super interesting and very good goss for a saturday. Doubt it's financial but one never knows, and I agree that darkfest is the best covered or most content-ed of the series. It's a shame they called Sam out by name and made this post with little attempt to disguise the pettiness. There are just waaaaay better ways of parting ways than the holier-than-thou route, especially among former homies. That said I might as well be the paparazzi because I would also like to know more details lol.

The only thing that I can think of is Sam's build videos on his YouTube channel. Are they concerned that he's making too much off of those? Frankly, I'm often disappointed with the coverage of other Fest Series events. They show up out of nowhere, give a lackluster amount of coverage and then are gone.

Getting big r/gatekeeping vibes from this...

It makes me think about some reading I've done recently about old MX bikes vs newers ones. Basically older bikes were higher up with a higher CG which allowed the bikes to be super maneuverable and easy to initiate turns with since a higher CG will be more likely to tip over which is basically how you make a 2 wheeled vehicle turn. Now I would think that aside from pure CG height, the relation between BB height and wheel axle is pretty important, maybe more so that CG height actually. Since you can take a BMX and a Cruiser...

Pole is funny example of anything geometry related as the only reason for the change is them fitting 230mm metric shock into frame designed for 216mm imperial one (for obvious shortage of supplies) and they are marketing it as "update" (while having to fit angleset to them to correct for the things this causes to the geometry, well at least small part of it). Hybrids steer better for more reasons, one is that front and rear wheel naturally describe different dia. arcs, rear wheel always does the inside line compared to the front one and smaller rear wheel is better...

So you come in and put in your opinion whilst saying we shouldn't have ours. LOL

I’m not talking about a mom having to stay home... I’m not that old. But if you count her rehab with the heel injury, a 9 month pregnancy, giving birth, the time she’ll need for herself after giving birth, training again, building up muscle for world cups, and most importantly the mental side of knowing you have a newborn you have to go back to after you race I honestly doubt she’ll go back to racing. But hey you never know

Not necessarily an end (nobody wants it on this forum I guess !), but at last a pause. Just cause, you know, a man doesn't carry a fragile future human in his belly

Has there ever been a World Cup winning mom before? If anyone can do it it’ll be rach

The most surreal 72 hours in any team rumors thread yet. OT, definitely, but surreal nonetheless. It was once said that "let him who is without sin cast the first stone". The dude that said that definitely never heard of the internet. Hope Zink gets forgiveness + peace and hope we get back on-topic.

I love this thread.

Almost everyone was rumored to be going to the Syndicate at some point in this thread.. I think I'm about the only person who wasn't rumored as going to the Syndicate..

Syndicate was my obvious guess (especially with the departure of Loris), [edit: plus with her longevity on YT, it would make sense, it seems like Syndicate is looking for riders for longer term commitments] Nukeproof / CRC runs SRAM & RS so it couldn't be them (her comment about staying with SRAM leads me to assume that team she's alluding to a team without them as a sponsor)

Always think it's so cool they don't have a tyre sponsor. Gives them so much more freedom, for arguably the part of the bike which can have an enormous impact on performance depending on the different conditions. Remember he ran Michelin's blacked out at some point too. A race team that's single-mindedly focussed on winning. And yes, I did buy a Demo to be like Loic. Such a sucker for marketing.

Looks like a downduro Specialized Stumpjumper, which looks like an Orbea.... But hey, at least it doesn't look like a Session.

That looks like a Pole, maybe they have something under development...But as someone said earlier they had some issues with their frames. I remember the review from the other site and they cracked the frame after their first ride...And that fail was really catastrophic. If they want to build a strong reputation they need to prove that these frames and technique that is used is reliable. I mean look at those Atherton bikes, Gee took some heavy crashes for the ridge line edit and the bike was ok on the other side when PB took the Pole out for a...

Sounds as likely as Gwins old cranks that got out in his bike by mistake that snapped! Someone’s covering it up and no matter how much you try make excuses we all know what the real story is haha

KHS is where careers go to die.......... Change my mind.