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here is the brake-specific forum thread to put useful information about current brakes into a place where it can be read by people looking for advice on brake setup. it has over 2900 replies about brakes.

First round of Avinox M2 e-bikes out Thursday. Amflow, Forbidden, Atherton, Mondraker, Propain, Crestline, Pivot and a few more have already soft launched but the drive system(s) will be officially revealed. Head to the ebike thread for more.

ducks for cover

Might have been discussed already but Druid CorE with updated Avinox 4/9/26?

Hes fucking crazy and I am here for it.

Reece Wilson testing what looks like a new Dominion (From his IG stories) Plus the complete bike

In an Instagram Q&A, Sram has stated that there will be no LTD brakes this year

Found it..... "The reason facts don't change most people's opinions is because most people don't use facts to form their opinions. They use their opinions to form their 'facts'." — Wayne Gretzky probably

You know aside from the carbon, the shock layout, the yoke, the tube diameter, the paint work, the branding, the build, it's pretty much a knolly.

I run which ever works best. In my opinion I do not think there’s one brand with the best fork and shock on the market. Different brands that make the best shock and best fork.

Different brands do have different suspension feels but that’s really getting off into the weeds and most riders won’t be able to tell or care. You can sometimes run into some weird combos but thats pretty rare.

I think it's just a "the bike came like this and I have no reason to change it" thing in most cases. However I'd guess if you're in the market for new suspension, any reasons you might choose Brand XYZ for the fork probably apply to the shock too, or vice-versa. One of my bikes has a RS SDU Coil in place of a blown-up Fox X2, but there was no reason to replace the Fox fork. They both contain Vorsprung parts, though, so maybe I still have matched suspension.

Huge cushcore fan and user here. Absolutely must have a Cushcore pro in rear wheels otherwise I will destroy them. The tire support for cornering is a nice benefit. I think I like the damped feel too, but that's definitely not the main reason I run them. I used to go through multiple rear wheels a year before Cushcore, which got really old. As others have mentioned, when I take a used Cushcore Pro insert out of my rear tire, it's completely knackered, covered in knife slits from the rim, which leads me to believe it's really doing it's job...

Last year, for one of my engineering classes I did a simulation in Ansys titled “The influence of the axle diameter on the torsional stiffness in an USD bicycle fork”. It was an exercise more focused on Ansys, not on being scientific, but still the results were interesting. Here’s a link to the presentation . TLDR: 20mm was only 4% stiffer

This is spot on. I have probably 5000 miles on Megatower V1 and 2000 miles on V2. The SC lower link VPP bike have a "simple" but effective kinematic that can highlight differences in shock characteristics and performance. Shorter travel bikes seem to typically be optimized around a single shock and base tune, when you deviate from that it's uncharted waters. You might end up with something really good or something bad. From a philosophical standpoint I think more MTB journalism outlets need to dial in on this. Testing different shocks on different frames with different riders is a huge...

@sethimus @Evil96 @CascadeComponents I love, like love-love, that someone with an engineering background (and seemingly a degree) and a wealth of manufacturing experience provided factual mathematical evidence, and it has been refuted by "I believe the manufacturer of this shiny new thing I bought", like conformation bias doesnt exist or something.... There's a quote about facts and opinions that I'm trying to remember here...... it'll come to me....

But we all have a suspicion that 148 will be deemed too narrow and 157 is too wide, thus big hub will create new boost ultra 152.5 or some nonsense.

Really missed the opportunity for an orange Fox fork to make the Orange orange-r.

Shiny new tech stored in the filing cabinet! https://orangebikes.com/pages/phase-avinox-model (Still love my Stage 6, regardless of what the internetz tell me about it 😄)

Well, opinions are like (you get the drift...) so take mine with a grain of salt. I think longer travel bikes are a better platform for comparing shock performance then shorter travel in general. As far as the nomad goes, the frame construction is well sorted to ensure no side loading of the shock and it does not change feel with a difference in shock construction (ie 10mm shock shaft vs 15-18mm, think previous gen to current gen dhx2). It has a middle of the road (moderate) amount of frame progressivity (linear progressive) and a rather middle of the road...