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Long time lurker, first time poster here. For some background I’m an aerospace composites engineer and spent several years in Advanced Product Development with an emphasis on environmentally friendly materials. There’s so much to get into on this topic and if folks are interested I’d love to start a dedicated thread on materials and environmental impacts. The TLDR is, carbon fiber as a green product on its own is a fallacy. The raw fiber production may result in a certain level of carbon sequestering, but the process is still so energy intensive I wouldn’t call it an environmental positive. As...

Every one of us is dumb to someone else at least once a year Can we just keep rumoring and innovationing now? Please. Thanks 🙂

sounds like 5 underutilized support resources to me

Honestly, the Reya is the first XC bike that I really, really want to try as a 6'3" individual. I feel like that jack nichelson nodding meme as I work my way down the geo chart on the XL. Edit: Can we also agree that peak bike industrial design is a straight top tube that aligns directly with the seat tube... connecting the top of the head tube to the rear axle with an un-interrupted straight line?

What he said.

A true radial tire (bike or otherwise) just refers to the support filaments direction. In a true radial these filaments run arranged 'radially' from bead to bead, and this means that the filaments don't touch each other and are only in contact through much softer rubber. A bias ply tire has these filaments at angles and as such they contact each other a lot, sort of like how if you touch one part of a spider web the entire spider web is interconnected and all of it moves. As a result, a radial tire when it comes in contact with...

Hot take: put Davos on your list. When my wife and I rode bikes in Switzerland we both enjoyed Davos the most. Town is chill in the summer and the riding is world class. I’ve been itching to go back for years!

Sounds like you'd enjoy a "Known facts with dates, names, and proof" thread

Appreciate the kind words 🙏 that genuinely means a lot. We try. We keep trying. And yeah, when I say we, I really do mean me. Still just one bloke doing everything: product, riders, logistics, emails at stupid o’clock, the lot. No staff, no big safety net. Just belief and stubbornness. The industry doesn’t make it easy for small independents. The big dogs have deeper pockets and louder voices, but that was always kind of the point. Do cool shit, build something authentic, and if it ruffles a few feathers along the way, so be it. I’m proud that Viris...

Eargate

That's actually one of my favourite parts. I love the "open" part of Crankworx racing. Pros vs Joes For example, I can say I once beat Cedric Gracia in the Garbo DH back in the day. He had a front flat in the first minute of his run and continued to the bottom on it instead of getting a DNF. I beat him (by less than a minute). Truly the pinnacle of my otherwise inauspicious racing career.

tech rumors forum update - you've spoken and have been heard we'll lock out this thread at the end of the year (no matter what, it's just too darn big now), and will carry on with yearly tech rumors threads that will be stickied for easy participation. the 2026 thread is already underway here (not yet stickied) i just want to thank everyone for their feedback and insight on what this piece of the vital community means.

Greenland to Frameworks?

Thanks for all the love Vital! My goal is to continue a career that allows me to contribute to another 1000 pages of the tech rumour thread.

Yeah this was going to be by next point - heavier wheels can make the tyre stick to the ground better (to a point) so isn't guaranteed to be a negative thing. Plus like you say, heavier wheels normally bring more performance gain realative to the weight change. I've always felt most people could easily "sacrifice" a kg or 2 over the whole bike and gain a MASSIVE amount of performance and/or reliability with zero drawbacks but its hard to convince riders of that..... Neko Mullaly did a video exactly on this a few years ago, I believe it was...

Can I be honest, if I can't just click on one thread and read the entire conversation, I probably won't read the forum at all. I find this thread pulls me in and then when I have more time or I'm curious, I check out other threads. But without this main one, I wouldn't bother visiting vital. Wish it were different but I hope I'm at least helping by giving voice to some other people out there. I enjoy catching up on 6 pages of inane comments to find a nugget of cool rumors. Others might be different.

Prince andrew to pivot?

He does, but he also talks a lot of shit, and is famously a massive nit-picker at race venues and complains a lot. So what goes around comes around really. People in scene aren't vindictive, but you can only tolerate a whinging pom so much, ya know? Still waiting for the Hardline BC announcement to come, wonder when that will be and what teams will be going