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We're excited to hear what the Robot overlords think. Back to back testing with wheel swaps is certainly the way to go. To comment on the single pawl on the pusher and concerns with torque/loading: that pawl never actually carries any drivetrain loads, it only acts to engage the 3 traditional pawls on the freehub, so those are actually the items carrying the drive loads.

Right, my Hellbents remain the greatest ski ever made as far as I'm concerned. And I still pull them out for fun 1-2 days a year. Skiing was just going full retard back in 2012 but in the best possible way. I will admit a 110 ski is good in the PNW "powder" 99.99% of the time. If I lived in JH I'd consider a 120mm but anything beyond that is basically not worth it anymore. It is a lot easier justifying having 3-4 pairs of different width skis tho, they are like 1/4 the price of a bike. end...

You're living in 2026. We got more reach, we got steeper seat tubes, now stays are getting longer and occasionally proportional across sizes and stack heights are growing. Next step is to figure out that the crazy front centers slack head tubes, long forks and long reaches make weighting the front wheel really hard any time you're not pointed down something steep... moderate head angles let you ride a longer reach and have room to be dynamic on the bike without it turning into a bus. Geometron is already there on their latest bike, though it's still a pretty extreme...

Are some of you even fans…? Dude’s in his 40s and podiumed arguably the gnarliest race of the year. Thought he retired a few years ago?!?

I like the vertical scroll format way more than the slide show! Way easier to browse on mobile.

Still unsure how I feel about you picking this photo for the thumbnail 😂

If you're wanting to buy a new XC or downcountry bike, definitely do it. You'll have a blast. But first, do me a favor and borrow someone's XC or downcountry wheels with tires mounted and swap your rotors over so you can try your Nomad with faster rolling tires and your rear shock locked out. It'll blow your mind how much more fun those now-boring trails are. I just have the one long travel bike (SC Megatower, like you) and with two wheelsets I'm able to have fun anywhere. Obviously I'd rather have a dedicated short travel bike but I'm...

Spy shots of the new alloy stumpy, that has cable ports, on an ad for a wireless dropper.

"Sorry guys, can't ride, I forgot to charge the battery for my shock fan on my new Gambler."

Warning: pile of text incoming. Ah yes! The trusty compressor! Unfortunately compressors can only look at the amount of voltage (in the analog days and the digital equivalent of voltage in these digital days) to determine when to act and how much action to do. That doesn't take into consideration how anything actually sounds, though. For example, a low frequency noise and a high frequency noise at the same "voltage" are perceived by a listener as wildly different volumes because humans are more sensitive to higher frequencies AND it takes more voltage to reproduce a lower frequency at the same...

E13 Sidekick rear hub and OChain... floatin. Charlie (practical an old soul by today's MTB standards now) summed it the best in his last sentence: it’s a great time to ride mountain bikes. So good to be alive and getting on any bike these days (compared to when we had to deal with elastomers, front deraileurs and cantilever brakes when I came into the scene...and URT as my first ever FS bike..sheesh)

My problem with OChain is that its not expensive enough. It needs an electronic lockout that connects to my ANT+ power meter to know when I'm pedalling and when I'm coasting. Or maybe a built in accelerometer so it knows if I'm pointed uphill or downhill. Whatever makes it more expensive.

VitalMTB's The Inside Brine podcast, coming soon.

I don't disagree with this at all. Few more thoughts (I really should just make this a podcast or something lol) 1) Its really hard to decouple the emotion from the business and be pragmatic when shutting something down, especially when there is still a little money left in the bank. 2) The levers those in power pull on have huge lag times. IE, what the Fed does with respect to interest rates is akin to trying to turn left and then the car does so like 10 miles down the road. Slowly. We are finally feeling the real effects...

Neko (junior) and Logan Bingelli (elite) at Beech Mountain in 2012. Lots of drama. Lots of intrigue. Lots of USAC bungling. Seems USAC did a much better job of knowing the rules this time around, which is nice. Shoutout to Matilda Melton, Aletha Ostgaard, and Lucas Dedora who also had incredible runs in juniors, with times that would put them on an elite podium. The future is looking bright! Wearing my Vital "USDH" shirt with pride today. And sadness, too

This will be controversial, but I'd like to have a fully integrated dropper similar to ghost or syntace that is one length only (or as few as possible), where the travel can be reduced as needed and that has a standard interface that many manufacturers can use. why do we still have the stupid seatclamp for droppers and double seat tubes where dirt and water can get in between? I do not care about the diameter as long it allows to build reliable droppers with up to 220 mm travel.

When I was at Canfield Bikes, we had a customer/shop owner who had like 4 or 5 different models personally. He had one dropper post he took between the different bikes. From hardtail to DH bike he took his AXS post between them all. While maybe an extra step to go ride, it allows for a dropper on any bike. I would like to see some additional features on them before I snag one. But it for sure is a good option on a DH bike that has to be pedaled between trails and doesnt have internal post routing.

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