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mericanradness Added a reply to Nerding out on Brakes shall we? Not another tech deraliment
3/6/2025 5:13pm Got these in the mail the other day from the UK. Heard some rumblings about the looks on here, they do look decidedly old school but I’m excited to see another player in the game. Will report back once I finally get them mounted.
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mericanradness Added a reply to Nerding out on Brakes shall we? Not another tech deraliment
2/1/2025 3:43pm It’s the TechTech New Hope 4v. Totally different from the Hope Tech V4. You silly American.
mericanradness Added a reply to The Bikeconomics (Mega)Thread
1/29/2025 11:00am It seems to me their facing the same issues as the bicycle industry only on a scale that is orders of magnitude bigger. Ramp up production during Covid time, average Joe who’s had his eye on a moto finally gets the ok from the Mrs to buy one, guys that didn’t get one during that time were either not on...
mericanradness Added a reply to The Bikeconomics (Mega)Thread
1/28/2025 10:35pm Not entirely bicycle related but… it seems KTM is in dire straits, it’s been discussed here before but $2.3bn!? I’m no financial wiz but uh, I don’t know how they dig out from this hole. https://www.rideapart.com/news/748489/ktm-insolvency-creditors-2-billio…
jeff.brines Liked a reply to forum topic The Bikeconomics (Mega)Thread
1/22/2025 12:18pm
You’re likely correct that the current slowdown has impacted R&D efforts. That said, as a former bike reviewer, I was already observing a noticeable plateau in performance as far back as 2020. While there are still gains to be made, those gains are increasingly incremental and require significantly higher capital expenditures to achieve. This makes them less attractive to management teams. It’s a classic example of the Pareto Principle in action—anyone who has tried to optimize something to near perfection knows that extracting the final 5% of performance is exponentially harder (and costlier) than achieving the initial 80%. Every industry...
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mericanradness Added a reply to The Bikeconomics (Mega)Thread
1/19/2025 11:07am ^ I came here to post that, pretty good article. Another thing I was thinking about today is what affect this dive in sales has had in technology overall. If your company is struggling a good business minded owner is gonna batten the hatches and try to weather the storm with smaller inventory numbers and low outlay on r&d and...
theycallme007 Liked a reply to forum topic The Bikeconomics (Mega)Thread
1/16/2025 4:14pm
Don’t think kevin has been involved in a long time.
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Dave Waugh Liked a reply to forum topic The Bikeconomics (Mega)Thread
1/16/2025 4:14pm
Dunno, but if you're cutting costs, the marketing cost of social media hype is really cheap compared to most of the more traditional forms of marketing.
This forum topic has 4781 replies.
mericanradness Added a reply to The Bikeconomics (Mega)Thread
1/16/2025 12:46am From an outside perspective (with absolutely no clue of internal finances) it would seem to me that YT is probably up there with Trek and Specialized as far as brands I would imagine will weather the current environment just fine. But that’s entirely speculative. They seem to be pretty smart as far as bike releases go, run a frame for...
jeff.brines Liked a reply to forum topic The Bikeconomics (Mega)Thread
1/7/2025 5:54pm
Since we're all beating this dead horse, I'll close with a few thoughts. Assumption on Capex: You all are right, AB could be outsourcing all of their additive manufacturing and CNC work. However, if this is true, its going to make scaling the business harder than it already is and per unit costs higher. Not saying its impossible, but you are either caught carrying all sorts of inventory in the form of lugs and links, or you are somehow ridiculously tight with the vendors that are doing all this work for you, and risk long lead times and lost sales...
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mericanradness Added a reply to The Bikeconomics (Mega)Thread
1/7/2025 2:07pm Definitely talking above my pay grade on this one, wasn’t totally sure on the lugs as far as which process they’re using. Your last sentance is what I was really getting at, they know exactly how many bikes a year they can produce and the only way to scale that is purchasing more cnc machines/ 3d printing witchcraft which is...
mericanradness Added a reply to The Bikeconomics (Mega)Thread
1/7/2025 12:52pm One of the aspects of the Atherton bikes in particular that I haven’t seen anyone mention yet is the fixed overhead cost for doing a lugged frame, electricity consumption in particular comes to mind. And then there’s the raw material, and yield costs. The raw high quality titanium(?) is expensive in the sizes required to mill one of their lugs...
mericanradness Added a reply to Nerding out on Brakes shall we? Not another tech deraliment
1/6/2025 8:29pm My dumb ass did that thing where I drink tequila and go online shopping… anyhow I bought a pair of these before thoroughly reading (and being thoroughly unimpressed with) the specs. I guess I’ll decide if they finally arrive whether they’re worth running or not. Currently on Hayes Dominions and they’ve been my favorite brakes as of late, Magura MT7s...
mericanradness Added a reply to The Bikeconomics (Mega)Thread
1/6/2025 3:49pm Kevin has gone through the mud for that brand, the Revolt fiasco should’ve been the nail in the coffin but he soldiered on, would be sad to see them close up shop now. I saw a little while ago that they let go of a bunch of people from hq. Not sure if it was only retail/ wrench type employees...
sspomer Liked a comment about Feature Mountain Biking and Head Injuries - The Inside Line Podcast
7/15/2021 10:30am
thanks for the comments everyone. i'm so thankful for jeff's, matt's and stik's input and candor on this subject!
This feature has 11 comments.
mericanradness Added a comment about feature Mountain Biking and Head Injuries - The Inside Line Podcast
7/15/2021 12:12am
I’ve got to admit, head injuries have shaken me. It’s forced me to look at the sport through a different lens, I ate slept and breathed riding my bike for years until a string of concussions forced me to re evaluate. I still love the sport but find myself unable to throw a leg over the saddle without pushing it at least a little. It’s sad to admit but it forced me onto the sidelines. I ride a handful of times a year now but have never been able to mentally get over it. I love you mountain biking but...
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mericanradness Added a comment about bike check Evil Offering V2- Wasabi Shadow
6/15/2021 3:15pm
“More than you can afford PAL.” Would be my only response when anyone asked me any question about this bike.
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This bike check has 10 comments.
mericanradness Added a comment about bike check Zerode Taniwha Enduro - Custom Build
5/28/2021 8:36pm
Quiet as a mouse pissing on cotton.?
This bike check has 10 comments.
mericanradness Added a comment about bike check Mondraker Foxy XR (For sale)
1/3/2021 7:58pm
Awesome.
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This bike check has 2 comments.
mericanradness Added a reply to Bike Magazine Shut Down?
10/5/2020 7:51pm I was a Powder subscriber for years, a couple years ago it was available in almost every grocery store near me, the last year or so you didn’t see it anywhere. Then last year they switched from 8 issues a year to 4. Quality went up but they delivered it like it was Us Weekly, (most of the solid magazines...
