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Pretty sure he's not getting sponsored by Title.

The chainstay of the guy your girlfriend tells you not to worry about. My lord that is a long one.

Just do a custom Vital Crab World Racing jersey. I'd spend 50$ on one of those

In honor of the 1000th page, we should vote on the best meme of 2025: 👍🏻 for “Crab” 👎🏻 for “6-7” edit: Carcinization is the antithesis of innovation. Maybe we should keep crab talk on the crab talk forum and keep this thread focused on MTB tech rumors and/or innovation.

We can only hope that a new crab link bike is dropped today so it takes its rightful place as the centrepiece of page 1000

Imagine if page 1000 is just arguing about this proto lol

https://www.vitalmtb.com/forums/hub/bikeconomics-megathread?page=118

after texi's retirement from racing the money has to come from somewhere... so why not from being a YT-shill ?! 🙄 how do people live without a backbone? at least now we know who's the only MOB-rider who got paid 😉

As a (retired ish) bike mechanic, I'd say it can be quite the hassle. Really depends on how well is the frame made more than most. There are brands I'd maybe turn away if they had 20 bearings needing replacement. Now we don't all replace bearings all the time, but things add up and then you're servicing suspension, tensioning wheels, keeping up with consumables and next thing you know you need a massive job at the bike shop to get some bearings in, some may be seized in their slots.. It's obviously about balance, and maybe less of an issue...

Vital MTB: "I have friends everywhere."

I'm not sure how many of you have met Tippie, but he is just an absolute force. When he's around, he commands the entire space. The first time I met him was at Aggy's Reunion in... like 2015 or 16 maybe? It was one of the first fest series events and the rider stable there was huge. But if Tippie was anywhere in a 100m of you, you knew it and he was the only one anyone cared about for the most part. 10 years on, he seemingly hasn't lost any of that energy when you run into him at...

Maybe YT (Young Talent) returns in 2026 under new ownership and a vowel change? OT Bikes would be cool (Old Talent) Legends like Tippie, Hans Rey and I'm sure loads of other OT's are looking for rides 🤣

isn't there an e-bike thread?

Something that holds our industry back is that we think that bike skills = bike design skills. They don’t. It helps to have bike skills and experience to inform bike design, but we have some amazing riders designing some absolute turds. Once we accept some of the mediocre riders might actually have deep insights into bike design we will see some huge improvements overall.

Post your roots and rain page, sir.

I re-read this post and couldn't understand what you were trying to say. Not to mention your response seems filled with unnecessary vitriol over someone just mentioning a persons name. Judging by your response I can only assume that you're harboring some deep seeded PTSD from him crushing you at the local beer league endubro. Which I do personally feel like that might be worth seeking some help for as it's never good to cary such such a burden mentally. All that besides, I'm glad you feel like Evil's 435 rear center is what you want in a size XL...

Aston and Cahal have their quirks but calling them mediocre riders is complete BS. Both of those guys rip. Also 435 chainstay on a modern XL mtb is a joke IMO. Especially for a frame that costs $4k.

Racing and an ambassador like Tippie both come out of the marketing budgets for most companies. Which one is going to potentially sell more bikes? The guy racing or the guy at races and other events stoking other riders as well as hyping up your brand? I might be biased since I know Brett, but he brings a lot to the table and maybe for less than a WC racer.. That article really sums up Brett quite nicely.

Tippie isn’t competitive, and you’re not really hiring him to ride. He's basically a marketing ambassador. You aren’t paying him to even ride, really. He has a skill set that’s beyond riding and something that most people, regardless of their riding ability, don’t have. He’s not really a “modern” influencer, because social media isn’t his medium, but a brand would basically “sponsor” him in the same way as an influencer, not as a racer/freerider. You’re paying for the personality and story, not the talent.