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My 2017 Kona Operator came with SRAM Guide R brakes. Codes were amazing in comparison to those.

Excuse my French, but could we fucking please stop calling bikes "analog", "acoustic", or -the worst I've heard- "bio"? Bikes are bikes. Ebikes are something else. Now get off my fucking lawn you punks!

Pit Bits might be my favorite part of the Work Cup coverage. Seeing all the trick custom parts is so cool.

I’m sure this conversation happened at Kali HQ and was silenced in the name of Brand Identity

The etiquette piece might be my single biggest grievance from the ebike crowd. I'm a big guy and climbing is not my strength, so I have PLENTY of experience with being passed on the uptrails by both regular and ebike riders. The ebike riders are exponentially worse at saying excuse me, on your left, or simply making some noise to let you know they're behind you. I've even seen groups of ebike riders talking and laughing about how fast they're cruising past other riders at the top of the climb. These aren't new riders. At the end of the day...

Guys, I know you don't want to hear this... but the racks on that new Levo 4 X monstrosity are really cool. Those ugly Levo X racks move all of the cargo on the bike from unsprung mass to sprung mass. As forum dwellers, we should all be able to appreciate why that's going to ride better, even if the XX cranks, the paint job, and the S-works price point are all serious headscratchers. If you don't believe me, check out this writeup from Travis Engel at the Radavist on a similar front rack design that he bodged together on...

I can feel the downvotes coming, but I'm reminded of a comment I made back in February comparing e-bikes to GLP-1 drugs... Maybe I'm a purist, but isn't part of mountain biking the physical effort and reward? I understand capitalism, but when I see brands cutting analog models while e-bikes continue to dominate sales, it feels like another example of a broader trend: we're pouring investment into technologies that make difficult things easier. Is it possible that because analog bikes have essentially plateaued, so people who already have a sick bike are rounding out their quiver with an e-bike? Also...

It’s a vertical shock alignment similar to the old Diamondback Knucklebox design (mentioned above) or a Propain. Nothing to patent. It’s just a Utah County based company thinking it needs overdo marketing as they’re prone to do. Utah is the land of perceived aesthetics.

Not trying to be argumentative but I do completely disagree with that first point. Quake... MAYBE, but anybody wanting to race I think will look elsewhere. The bottlerocket is blatantly marketed as not a race bike. I guess the status DH isn't talked about but I think its a sleeper sick bike. Maybe because there's one at my LBS that's for sale for 3k out the door. The industry needs as many cheap aluminum double crown bikes as it can handle. Bike park laps on these types of bikes is in my opinion the purest form of the sport. Just...

Wow that’s a weird brake/shifter angle. Cool looking bike, though it’s not clear to me why anyone needs a bike to make trails even easier than they already are in this era of shitty flow trails.

The local brand manager showed us some release schedule along with some model data here at the product launch, earlier this year. Fluid will be the budget Al model line, Optic will return to be the higher tier one, with a slightly higher main pivot (Fluids are optimized for a 30t chainring, Gen 4 Optics will be for a 32t IIRC), but no idler. As someone else said, it'll be a return to the Gen 2 ways. I run my Fluid the way most Norco employees do, with a 210x55 shock (~143mm of rear travel) and a 150mm fork. You...

I want long chainstays on all bikes except BMX and Dirt jump bikes or trials bikes. For mtb it's better at climbing and keeps the bike more balanced.

I’m dying of thirst over here

https://www.vitalmtb.com/forums/hub/kinematics

To bring it back to tech stuff, the new Scott Spark we saw at Korea will have a shock cover to seal the frame, but currently the flight attendant shocks don't fit in one.

I am not seeing how the last 4 pages of this thread have anything to do with rumors or innovation.

Maybe Im missing something but how in the right mind is a company like Santa Cruz releasing a bike with very little travel, high price point, and the rear shock comes stock with all of its tokens in use? If you needed more resistance youre just up shit creek until Cascade makes something? Im genuinely so confused how they go from a well done VPP to a simple 4 bar and screwed that up when every other company can do it. Like who signed off on this?

Lots of talk about how it's 300g lighter, but in nearly the same XT di2 build, the intense spider is .2 lbs lighter than the Tallboy and 1400 dollars cheaper.

I’ll be the 4th person to join in and say I love my 5010 v4. But… my only controversial opinion is that the 50to1 crew did it more harm than good. Many people in real life and online have enquired about how my bike (or rather me, sat on it) holds up to trail riding or extended pedalling sessions because Rat, Loose and friends rode them 2 sizes too small with bmx saddles and so everyone thinks it’s a ‘jib bike’ or ‘dirt jumper’s mountain bike’. It’s a superb trail machine. I’ve ridden bike parks, I’ve done xc races, I’ve...