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I am very aware of my breathing while riding (I have severe asthma). My advice is to exhale as hard and as long as you can whenever you are getting into a stressfully situation. You are less likely to subconsciously hold your breath after an exhale. Similar goes for catching your breath after sprints or during xc rides. Exhale forcefully and inhale deeply. This will help lower your HR faster also.

Yes, going to the gym helps. As someone who has been going to the gym to lift up heavy things for a while now I can firmly say: Bar roll and brake position absolutely matter. Bio-mechanical efficiency is the name of the game during sustained moments of exertion. With that, I'd be curious if anyone has tried improving their breathing during descents. I know I personally tend to have a problem of not breathing when I get into techy and challenging sections, and that overall tension causes arm fatigue for sure. It's been interesting listening to the breathing cadence of...

My personal opinion, based on my personal experience, is that the most comfortable lever angle depends on terrain, body position/riding style, and probably also individual strength/flexibility/proportions/etc. As an example: I was on a long-ish cross-country ride on my cross-country hardtail last fall, with my brake levers set to an angle similar to what I use on my mid-travel trail bike. Same grips, comparable lever reach, etc. That style of XC ride often involves a lot of riding out of the saddle on flat or relatively mellow slopes, where I tend to be farther over the front of the bike than...

I have major nerve problems in both of my arms. I had Ulnar transposition surgery on both arms to release the nerve in my elbow where conduction studies showed damage, the surgeon said the nerve was badly compressed. It was to the point I was losing dexterity and control over my left hand and probably soon would on the right. I've spent probably 7 years and a lot of money trying just about everything on the market to help and the last year scrambling to find a solution to the latent issues I have, because not doing so would (and...

I struggled with arm pump for years racing motocross but have never suffered actual arm pump on a mountain bike. Arm pump where you cannot pull the clutch lever enough to shift gears. Coming down the hill at Glen Helen moto 2 at 4pm is a come to Jesus moment when you have real arm pump. As I got older I paid more attention to my body position, technique, and strength training rather than just pinning it everywhere trying to beat the kid that had the nicer motorhome so my dad wouldn't hit me with the pit broom lol. Bar...

Hang from overhead bar as long as possible. Do it as a training regime. You all can thank me later.

Looks like the new E13 rear hub should be out next week. The speculation is that the paws disengage when the wheel is spinning to free up the chain tension and pedal kick.

I'm very glad they were able to produce a bike with some cable ports and it weighs an extra 3 pounds. Seriously, I hope that trend goes back the other way and all bikes have AT LEAST a stick on cable mount package sold with the frame or make some holes in the frame with some high quality plugs and ditch the tube in tube that is probably expensive to get right. I hope enough people vote with their money (and don't buy these bikes) and this trend for no cable driven drivetrains dies fast. Yea, I'm old. No, I...

One person says we don't need 5-10mm longer C's 20mm longer reach and 64.5 ha mid travel bikes and another says it's exactly what we need. The great thing about having soo many choices is that you should be able to find exactly what you want so long as you aren't locked into a specific brand. Don't get upset because the brand you want doesn't make your ideal geo, very high chances are someone else does make it. Give me long chainstays, long wheelbase, linear travel, and slack. One in mid travel and one in burly long travel.

Even as elite teams, we don't have the calendar either !

Top 15 teams already know, wildcard teams will be informed of events 6 weeks in advance as that's plenty of time for them to get everything in place if they're invited to attend. 🤣

Wide-open's last paragraph says it all: As a pre-calendar, this is all likely subject to change and has perhaps changed already Never a truer word said

I like the ski analogy. I feel like there was a golden age for powder skis around 2012-2014. The Bent Chetlers from that era remain one of my favorite skis ever. Since then, powder skis have walked back a bit in terms of how purpose driven they are. I think largely because it didn’t make sense to have so many skis made for conditions few were accessing. I wonder if we will see something similar with bike design where what’s considered a big bike gets a little smaller since most trails aren’t akin to bike park laps. That said, I’m...

I always felt that the suspension-creep happened for two reasons (and I'm happy to be proven otherwise): 1. Refined kinematics allowing for better pedalling performance allowing greater suspension travel without as many drawbacks 2. Better long-travel single-crown forks allowing for 170-180mm front travel without flexy noodles. These two combined resulting in models like the Megatower creeping up in travel, and then the Hightower creeps up behind to maintain the gaps in travel from before. So rather than the mid-travel models getting longer legs, its the long-travel models getting longer and the mid-travel growing to fill the gap. As was definitely...

I don't think the in-frame storage helps on this one

We get it- you like a progressive bike 😅 I’d think you’d be stoked on this because you get to make another link 🙂

What I find confusing about the new Stumpjumpers is they offer it in a coil version with a 27.5 wheel and they've corrected geo for the smaller wheel using the upper link just like with the previous Stumpjumper, which significantly reduces progression. So the most linear bike in the entire lineup comes with a coil.

I had a concussion earlier this year and I love the idea of a bike that's so linear they had to make a special air shock being sold with a coil in the top spec.

The latest Stumpjumper rustled most people's feathers when it launched without routing for mechanical drivetrains. But did you really think that Specialized was that bold? As most suspected (or have seen leaked in this forum), an aluminum Stumpjumper has arrived with holes to stuff a cable. It also has their Genie shock, the same frame layout/kinematics, and geometry package/adjustments. I didn't see much else about the alloy variant that stood out. The coolest thing is that if you are a suspecting buyer, you can now get on the new Stumpjumper for just $3,000, which is $2,500 cheaper than the cheapest...

Full press release on Hightower for reference - https://www.vitalmtb.com/news/press-release/santa-cruz-releases-hightow…